Notes:

This chapter is mostly set during 8x05. I am tweaking canon only a little here and there, keeping with many of the main events, even though a lot of it didn't make sense to me. More on that below the chapter.

Thanks for the reviews!


King's Landing

"Any last words?" Cersei asked Missandei.

Missandei knew there was no way out of this for her. She wouldn't live to see another day. Even if Daenerys jumped on Drogon, she would be dead before Drogon would make it off the ground. She looked out towards where Daenerys and Grey Worm were standing. The thing she regretted most was that Grey Worm would have to watch her die like this. Missandei looked at the chains around her wrists. Would she really die in chains, as a slave, powerless, like she had spent most of her life? Losing her head like a criminal? No. If her life was to end here and now she would not let anyone else decide over her death. Missandei would give no one that satisfaction. She would determine when and how. So she jumped. "Dracarys!"


Dragonstone

After Daenerys had Varys killed by dragon fire, Jon left Dragonstone without telling anyone. He was a little bit nervous. Rhaegal was dead so he would have to ride on Drogon. He found the dragon lying on the stones near the beach, curled into a ball.

"Wake up, Drogon. I need your help. I need you to fly me to Winterfell." He had no idea if the dragon even understood the common tongue. Jon realized he was only talking to him to calm his own nerves.

Drogon uncurled and regarded Jon curiously.

"I need to help Daenerys. We need to help her."


Winterfell

Jon stormed into Sansa's room. "Why did you do it?" he yelled at her.

"Jon? What are you doing here? I thought you-"

"Why did you tell Tyrion?"

"What are you talking-"

"You told Tyrion about my real father and Tyrion told Varys."

Sansa sighed, her mind still slightly muddled from sleep. "Yes, I did."

"Varys is dead."

"What?"

"Daenerys executed him."

"She what?" Sansa looked at Jon with horror. "How could you want somebody like that on the Iron Throne?"

"Varys wanted me to take the throne. I declined. He committed treason, Sansa. We kill people who commit treason. People are killed for less. What did you think would happen when you told Tyrion?"

"That he would tell Varys," Sansa admitted.

"And then?"

She stayed silent.

"And then what? Did you think any further than that?"

"You should rule."

"I don't want to rule. It's a bloody business. You of all people should know that."

"Which is why someone like you should sit on the Iron Throne."

"The last people sitting on that throne met with a very brutal end."

"Because they were bad people," Sansa said.

"Robert wasn't a bad person. Tommen wasn't a bad person."

"Robert was weak and Tommen would have done what Cersei or Margaery wanted him to do."

"Did you tell anyone else besides Tyrion?"

"No, I didn't."

"You can't tell anybody else. Promise me you will tell no one else, Sansa. Promise me."

"Fine."

"I need to get back to Dragonstone," Jon said and turned to leave.

"You just came all this way to tell me that?"

"No. I also came here to take Ser Jorah back with me. How is he?"

"He left together with Jamie Lannister when they heard about Rhaegal and Missandei."

"Damn." He walked towards the door.

"Jon!"

"I don't have time for this."

"Jon, I only did what I thought-"

He turned around. "You swore to me, Sansa. You swore!" He looked at her long and hard. "I know you despise Cersei, but maybe you have learned more from her and Littlefinger than you want to admit."

"I am just doing what is best for our family."

"That sounds like something Cersei might say."

Sansa looked at him appalled. "I just want to protect you, Arya and Bran."

"Why keep it secret from us if it was meant to be in our best interest?"

"Because you wouldn't have approved."

"Exactly. I asked you not to tell anyone and you did it anyway. How is that supposed to help me? Your actions caught me completely off guard. Daenerys questioned my loyalty. She already questioned your loyalty before this because you couldn't help but make her feel unwelcome in Winterfell. That's not particularly clever."

"You are blind to who she really is because you love her."

"And what is your judgement based on? Why do you hate her so much?"

"She's a Targaryen."

"So am I," Jon said exasperatedly.

"But you are also a Stark."

"So? There is no guarantee that I won't turn mad later on, like my grandfather did."

"You wouldn't. I know you, Jon."

"Do you? I don't think you do. I killed countless of people."

"Because they deserved it."

"Did they? And what did Daenerys do differently that makes you mistrust her so much?"

"She burned Sam's father and brother alive."

"Yes, she did. They refused to bend the knee. Daenerys gave them a choice. If Jamie Lannister and the Tarlys had won that battle, do you think Cersei would have given Daenerys and Tyrion that same choice? No, Cersei would have killed both of them right away."

Sansa kept quiet.

"You had Littlefinger killed, after he saved all our lives."

"He killed aunt Lysa. He had a hand in getting our father killed."

"Yes, he did. But it was the Lannisters who killed father. And without Littlefinger neither you nor I would be alive and Winterfell would still be in the hands of Ramsey Bolton."

"Are you saying I did wrong in having him executed?"

"No. All I am saying is you shouldn't hold Daenerys to higher standards than we hold ourselves. We killed thousands taking back Winterfell."

"We were taking back our home," Sansa protested.

"That's what Daenerys is trying to do."

"She left Westeros as a baby. Westeros isn't her home."

"It's the only home she knows. Everybody needs a home. And it's not like you offered to let her make a home here at Winterfell."

"Yes, fine, we all have our faults. But you are the most honest and honorable person I know."

"I am just as fallible as everybody else."

"She has dragons, Jon. If she turns mad, she has the power to kill thousands."

"So you mistrust her because she has dragons?"

"No one would stand a chance against her. No one should have so much power."

"Is it better to have thousands die fighting against each other with swords?"

"Maybe."

Jon shook his head in frustration. "I have to leave. Let's hope that there aren't any more repercussions to what you did. Promise me you won't pursue this. I don't want the Iron Throne. I don't want the Seven Kingdoms. Does it not matter to you at all what I want?"

Sansa stayed quiet.

"Promise me, Sansa. It ends here."

"I promise."

Jon looked at her doubtfully. She had promised before and broken that promise. "Telling anyone that there is a second heir would most likely plunge the Seven Kingdoms into another terrible war. People rallying behind Daenerys and people rallying behind me. With neither Daenerys nor me wanting any of this. Haven't we seen enough death?"

"Jon-"

"If you make it public, I will abdicate in favor of Daenerys, in front of all of King's Landing. I will proclaim her Queen of Westeros. I will do it, Sansa. Your promise might be worth nothing, but mine is. I promise you, I will do anything in my power to put Daenerys on the throne."

Sansa watched him in disbelief. He was really serious.

"No, you know what, come with me," Jon said. He grabbed her robe and threw it at her. "Put it on."

"Jon, what-"

"Put it on, Sansa!"

She did as she was told and then Jon grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room. Sansa had no idea where they were going.


"Sam, wake up!"

"Jon? What's wrong? What are you doing here?" Sam asked, sitting up in bed.

"Where's the book?"

"What book?"

"The book."

"Ah, that book. I keep it under the mattress." Sam got up and pulled it out. He then handed it to Jon.

Jon held the book up to Sansa. "This is the only proof that I am the rightful heir, that my mother actually married Rhaegar and that my father's marriage to Elia Martell was annulled." Jon threw the book into the fire. "And now I am just Rhaegar's bastard son."

Sansa and Sam looked on in horror as the fire started to eat up the paper.

Jon smiled for the first time in ages. He watched the flames turn the paper into ash. He felt so relieved. He should have thought of this a long time ago.


Dragonstone

"I will avenge her death. I promise you," Daenerys said to Grey Worm.

What would Jorah tell her now? Don't get impatient. Don't get manipulated. Don't underestimate her. It was always don't do this, don't do that with Jorah and Tyrion. Don't burn the city. Don't use your dragons. Don't attack yet. But suddenly another voice made itself heard in her head. I ignored them. You're a dragon. Be a dragon.

"Enough with the clever scheming," Daenerys said. "We will end this now. I will end this."

"What are you planning to do?" Tyrion asked alarmed.

"I will burn the Red Keep. At night. With Cersei in it." Cersei didn't play fair, why should she? And she couldn't risk losing Drogon as well. "And in the morning, my armies will take the city. With Cersei gone the Golden Company will have nothing to protect anymore."

"Don't use your dragon," Tyrion pleaded. "It's too much a reminder of your father."

"Drogon is the most effective weapon I have. And I don't want to lose any more of my Unsullied or Dothraki. Cersei is forcing my hand. I gave Cersei the chance to surrender like you wanted me to."

"Continue the siege."

"Cersei will never surrender. She won't care. She will just wait it out."

"The people will rise up."

"Before or after they starve to death? With what weapons? Against the Lannister army and the Golden Company? They don't stand a chance." She looked at Grey Worm, who nodded, thinking the same thing. This wasn't Yunkai.

Tyrion had no more reply to that.

"I should have done this a long time ago," Daenerys said.


Jorah and Jamie arrived at King's Landing after everything was already over. When they came closer they saw that the Red Keep was no more, smoke and dust were still rising from where it once stood.

It was the second time Jamie came home and found a distinctive landmark turned into rubble. "The Sept is gone, blown up by one queen. And now the Red Keep has been burnt to the ground by another."

Jorah sighed in relief when he saw that the Unsullied were guarding the gates. They all knew Jorah well, so they had no trouble entering the city. The Unsullied informed him that Daenerys had gone back to Dragonstone. Therefore, Jorah didn't stay long but continued on. Jamie stayed in King's Landing, hoping beyond hope that he would find his sister, even if it was just her dead body.

What neither of them knew – what no one knew – was that Cersei was indeed lying dead deep beneath the rubble. But she hadn't died from the Keep crashing down on her. She had died from a slit throat. Slit by Arya only a few hours before the Red Keep had fallen in on itself.

Arya had snuck into the city days ago, carefully working her way deeper and deeper into the Keep, closer and closer to Cersei, patiently observing where and when to kill her. And when Arya had been sure she could go through with her plan without being discovered, she had killed Cersei as soon as she had gone to bed. Her mission completed, Arya had left just as quietly as she had come.


Notes:

Here are some thoughts on Season 8 (rather long, feel free to skip) and why I chose to write this chapter as I did.

If Daenerys turned mad, why didn't she attack right after Missandei's death? After seeing Missandei getting killed in front of her eyes, with Cersei in sight and Drogon nearby, Daenerys has the restraint to go back to Dragonstone. But when Jon rejects her (not for the first time), she decides fear (which strangely equals torching innocents) is the solution to her problems. Going back to Dragonstone was done to buy time so Jamie could get captured, talk to Tyrion and die together with Cersei.

Jorah's death kinda made sense. Rhaegal's and Missandei's didn't. Those deaths were such an obvious set-up to get Daenerys where they wanted her to be to have King's Landing finally being burned to the ground. Missandei's death is the biggest error in reasoning. Let's assume Euron actually remembered Missandei from the Dragonpit and assumed correctly that she meant something to Daenerys. (I doubt he's that observant.) Why would Cersei kill her? It's outright stupid on Cersei's part. Cersei's goal was survival at that point. If she had kept Missandei alive and close by, it's unlikely Daenerys would have attacked and risked killing Missandei. Cersei killed Missandei for no real reason and thus provoked Daenerys unnecessarily. And what Missandei should have done was just throw Cersei off that makeshift scaffolding. It would have been so easy.

I also think that painting Daenerys as mad is lazy. She suddenly became more evil than Cersei, Tywin or her father and it's supposed to make sense because her madness genes were suddenly switched on. And why is there only one type of madness in Westeros (the kind where people want to kill other people)? It could have been interesting though to see her struggling with the madness, trying to fight it and failing, even more so with Missandei and Jorah still around. And if the message was supposed to be "power corrupts" I am not sure throwing madness in there as well is helpful.

The many times the "coin flip" suddenly resurfaced felt more like an alibi than foreshadowing. Or foreshadowing with a sledgehammer. And foreshadowing and character development are two very different things. To say one should have seen it coming is cherry-picking. Yes, it was shown that Daenerys could be ruthless (Mirri Maz Duur, Slaver's Bay, the Tarlys). But it was also shown that she cared about people. She hated the fighting pits. She didn't want to execute the former slave on her council who took matters into his own hands and killed a Son of the Harpy in Meereen. But she did it anyway and risked antagonizing the freed slaves. She was devastated by the little girl burnt to death by Drogon. And she abandoned her pursuit for the Iron Throne to fight in the North. Also, there were plenty of hints and foreshadowing that didn't lead anywhere. How many people thought Daenerys would get pregnant after Jon pointed out that a witch wasn't a reliable source of information? Focusing on some of the hints in hindsight and saying those were the valid ones and forgetting about the rest is cherry-picking.

I get where all of this was going and that they were running out of time. With six episodes instead of ten and with all the visual effects (battle scenes, dragon scenes, burning of King's Landing) they were left with about four episodes to get the story to the finish line. Even skipping the pointless Bronn storyline wouldn't have bought them enough time to pull it off. Bronn is a great character, but that was a total waste of time. It didn't make any sense to begin with. If nothing else, it should have reminded the Lannister brothers that Cersei wanted them dead badly, which it didn't. It felt like: Let's write something for Bronn because he has great chemistry with Tyrion and Jamie. There was no time for something like that.

Another thing that made no sense: Jamie left Winterfell after Arya, getting further delayed by his capture, but they arrive in King's Landing at the same time. If Arya hadn't dawdled on the road, she could have saved King's Landing. Also, why not tell Jon what she was up to? Did neither Sansa nor Jon wonder where Arya had run off to? At least Sansa should have been able to guess and told Jon, so he wouldn't risk his life (and their men) unnecessarily. But it seems the pack separated without sharing any of their respective battle plans. How ironic after all the "family" and "the pack survives" talk.

And the ending? I thought it was too neat for Game of Thrones. And what about the other kingdoms? The council looks almost exactly like when Robert was king (Robert was off whoring, Bran will be off warging). And no seat on the council for the Iron Islands or Dorne? Seems unfair and imprudent. Bran would have been the perfect Master of Whisperers though. He knows every secret anyway and there would have been no more need for child labor. ;-)