[Spoilers MAIN] The ending that should be

Where to start...

Maybe to cut to it immediately? Alright.

Daenerys takes the throne and then melts it and moves to live on Dragonstone. Reestablishes house Targaryen as just a house. Grows more Dragons. Magic returns to the world permanently. Jon, if he survives, joins her but not as a lover. As family. Tyrion is there too. She doesnt forget the slaves and the cities she saw and conquered in Essos.

Seven kingdoms become separate independent kingdoms.

Others break the wall down and overrun the North and the Iron Islands. The Long Night really comes. They are not so much defeated but eventually stopped and the original issues involving them and the Children are revealed and solved. Some kind of truce is achieved. Most of North is given to Others and or the Children.

Sansa rules in the castle in the snow. Winterfell becomes a sort of human outpost in the North, in permanent or much more regular winter. Brienne is with her. As is no one. And probably Rickon if he is alive. Sansa gets a new direwolf pup from Nymerias brood. They all like to talk to the Weirwood trees much more.

Ironborn are largely obliterated. Victarion is destroyed by the Mother of Dragons, Euron gets whats coming to him and takes most of loyal Ironborn with him. The islands get overrun by Others and the Ice. Asha takes over the survivors and leads them somewhere else. Probably weds Willas and takes over Highgarden, or something completely different that nobody expects!

Sam doesnt become a new Grand Maester but learns under Grand Maester Marwyin and helps build a new order after the old is destroyed and their ancient plots are discovered.

The rest depends on which characters survive but i hope to see Jaime being punished to become King of the West and the Rock. The bastard deserves it.

Some people dont die, some occasionally come back...

Because things have Changed.

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There is a tonne of posts and ideas about how the series will end. I didnt see one like mine and i just want to add it to the general awareness. Im not sure why im still even interested, maybe im just trying to lie to myself, maybe the strength of the first four books still has some hold on me.

I think most of theories that basically only argue who will sit on the throne are all mistaking the tree for the forest. And i have nothing but despise for the tv show version or any that may be similar to it regardless of how well it is explained and prolonged. So even if Martin would write six more novels explaining how Daenerys went crazy and or bad it wouldn't matter. That also just gets you back to the issue of who will take the throne after her. And who takes it after that king dies. And who takes it then, and who takes it next, and so on...

Which is completely wrong.

Because, see, the Song of Ice and Fire is not about who will take the throne. Its about a fundamental change of the whole world.

The infighting in Westeros, the "game of thrones" is just a part of the greater plot. Not the actual plot of the Song. If we learned anything about what such fighting really creates its that it destroys everyone. Even without Others on the brink of invasion and Long Winter finally coming. Which really should happen in the actual story, instead of being swept away by some cheap last minute twist.

The War in Seven Kingdoms destroys everyone. The game of thrones destroys everyone. It destroys the Starks and Lannisters both, the Tyrells and the Ironborn. It kills Robb, takes Jaimes hand, drives Cersei insane, kills great scary Tywin Lannister on the toilet, smashes the viper, poisons the Mountain, tricks the tricksters and maegi, kills assassins, breaks prophecies and outplays the masters of the coins and the game (you can fill in the rest). It rains down on the noble and the low, the powerful and the weak, the just and the unjust, good and evil, innocent and guilty, heroes and monsters. The show and the showrunners. The fans, the sycopanths, the free folk, the hedge knights and the exiles.

There isnt anyone thats spared although it may superficially seem so in the moment because we still didnt get the next books in line. Everyone suffers and everyone looses, one way or another. The destruction brought by war to the houses of the Seven kingdoms, to the land itself and to the individual characters is drastic, the damage is permanent, the wounds cannot be healed. And the worst is yet to come on a scale that beggars the mere wars for the Throne.

I would say that the Long Winter will come, that the Others will crush the wall and invade and overrun most of the North. Probably all the way to the Neck, which seems like a naturally fitting position where that tide could be stopped if it is stopped anywhere.

And that of course takes us to Daenerys... "learning to rule" in Mereen. Seemingly regressing as a character and learning nothing. She doesnt find a solution for the issues of ruling there for the first time in her character arc. The best she does is pathetically getting married to some "guy" who is supposed to then handle the problems instead of her. Now, either George has completely lost it and will end up as little bit better writer than Dumb and Dumber, or... maybe its just a low every character goes through and things are not that simple or cheap as they look in ADwD.

What if, ... "learning to rule" is not a superficial character regression twist into madness and aggression? What if Daenerys learns that there is no "ruling" like in fairy tales and fantasies? Isnt that what she has been actually slowly learning from the start of her story? Culminating now when she actually took over a country, a huge city and several others by force and cunning, while still being benevolent and lifting the oppressed out of suffering. So now she could for the first time experience what it actually means to have an established rule with best possible allies and Dragons. Only to see it fall apart, from inside and outside.

And she still has to learn that her Father was not a good and just king and why and how the rebellion actually went. This has been nonsensically postponed through several books for no logical reason but we all know it must and will happen.

So... being a character that she actually is, instead of a brain failure, she will naturally try to help stop the Others. And knowing who she is and what she is actually like i would think it is far more reasonable, logical and in line with her character and history of her life that she will learn that coveting the Iron throne is the problem and understand that is what destroyed her family and the Seven Kingdoms - is the reason the kingdom cannot defend against the Long Winter and the others - while her experience in actual ruling taught her its all a fools errand. A self defeating trap that only creates and prolongs the suffering. Regardless of how nice, good, smart or not any single ruler is.

The Westeros as a united kingdom doesnt exist for a long time now anyway. The Robert rebellion was the first big crack, the War of the five kings finished it and then the Others and the Long winter came. The world has fundamentally changed. The Dragons and the magic are back, and the ancient forces as Others and the Children and all the legendary beings and powers have returned. Permanently.

I dont see any way how it all could go back to simple lording over or from the Iron throne. That would be the most pointless ending of all. Because it would mean that nothing is solved and nothing has changed.