The first thing I will talk about is something that is a major stain on Season 7: the so called relationship between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen.
Now before I continue any further on this topic I'm bringing up two points:
The first things is that if you adore Jon/Daenerys then stop reading now. All you'll end up doing is raising your blood pressure and your mental health isn't worth it for this post. If you think you can stand the heat continue reading. But don't blame me if you start to get pissed off.
The second thing is that incest will not be mentioned as a reason I don't like this pairing. I do not mind incest at all if it is in a movie, book, tv. ect. This is because it's not affecting real people. So if you're preparing to comment about how I dislike this ship because of incest, just stop now. If you also don't like this pairing, be aware I make no moral judgement on this incest as it's fictional.
I kept up with news about the final two seasons and so I knew this season would be sped up. Unlike previous seasons it would have 7 episodes instead of the usual 10. This gave the show less time on plots than it normally would have. I was well aware whatever happened would be sped up and I would judge the season knowing that.
I was prepared to judge Jon/Daenerys knowing that it would be sped up. It would be hard to make a relationship work with less time and I expected their relationship to be started with a political marriage. A political marriage framework would fit in with Daenerys' needs to rule the Seven Kingdoms and Jon being afraid to father another bastard. Well that and the hole Ygritte left in his heart are the two main reasons he wouldn't be quick to fall for someone again. Especially not sexually/romantically.
But I knew a lot of people couldn't wait for Jon and Daenerys to meet so that they could fall in love. I didn't understand the ship but knew people wanted that. I also felt that a romance between the two would probably happen no matter how I felt about it.
I ship so many ships that I have an array of different armadas. I ship ships that conflict with other ships while shipping them all with the same intensity, except a few rare ones that get extra attention from me. So just because Daenerys would end up with a different guy doesn't mean I'll be against the ship.
Besides me being a multi-shipper, I'm always prepared for my ships to never sail. Just like I'm always prepared for my favorites to die even in works of fiction where they would be safe. Yep, I have that kind of luck. So if Jorah/Daenerys never becomes canon I wouldn't be surprised. Sad, yes, but not surprised.
What I was looking for in the Jon/Daenerys relationship was a well told story. A story where I felt it wasn't wasting my time. So I waited for Season 7 to come and see what the writers had in store.
As I stated before, I knew that pacing was going to be sped up. I was more than aware that there wouldn't be as much time available as in most seasons. I knew all of this and yet the pacing still annoyed me.
There was no point where Jon and Daenerys had a conversation where they opened up to each other. There was no conversation where we could see them lowering their defenses and talk about things they wouldn't tell most people. Jon didn't even tell Daenerys about how he was killed and brought back to life. All we can do is assume she realized the truth by the end of the season. But putting that headcanon as canon is doing the writing for the show and giving too much credit to the writers.
If there is something important in your story that you want the audience to know, you show them the important piece of information. In some forms of fiction that doesn't hold true but in a show like Game of Thrones it does.
So instead of anything meaningful being shown between the two on screen, we kept getting the fact that they loved each other shoved in our faces. They gave each other puppy eyes, gave each other blank stares, gave each other touches, and then had sex. Never mind the showrunners telling us that they loved each other.
We never got to see the relationship actually evolve in a realistic manner.
Jon could have talked about how he got Ghost, his direwolf. This could lead to him mentioning his adoptive father Lord Eddard 'Ned' Stark. He could also talk about Ygritte which would have a few key benefits. This could be a subtle way to show Jon is thinking about Daenerys sexually and also telling why he is nervous about getting into another relationship. It would build up a barrier that both him and Daenerys would need to overcome.
Another benefit would be this could lead Daenerys to talking about Khal Drogo. She could open up about how Drogo raped her and yet they had loved each other. How her relationship with him was complicated but that didn't make her love him less. That he gave her strength once she came out unburnt from the pyre.
Both Jon and Daenerys have similar storylines but they don't know it. This conversation could lead to both them opening up and questioning whether they're destined for each other. Then, of course, the question of should they get together because they're destined to or because they love each other.
Nope, we don't get anything like that and instead get the fact they're starting to love each other told to us instead of shown.
To that I'd like to point out the Dragonpit scene. After they have given their show to Cersei Lannister, they talk. It is then revealed that Daenerys never told him about how her child died and why she believes she can't have another child ever again. The dialogue was worded so you knew that this was the first time the two had had this discussion.
This is one of the few, if only, times we can see what conversation the pair didn't have offscreen. If Daenerys wouldn't tell Jon all about why she couldn't have a child after she made a big deal of Viserion's death, why would anyone assume they had any emotional conversations with each other? Why would you assume Jon talked about being brought back to life?
There is a lack of trust between the two which doesn't fare well for the two as a couple. If you have a partner that's supposed to be someone you love, you tell that person sensitive things. You open your heart knowing it could be crushed but trusting the other person to keep it safe.
Jon and Daenerys doesn't have that kind of trust with each other.
With Jon/Daenerys the chemistry was very lacking. There seemed to be a possible friendship between the two, at most, but nothing equating to love. This made the forced relationship so much worse as there was nothing to buy into. Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington used to be a couple in real life, but that didn't help with the chemistry between their characters.
The brief scenes when Jorah Mormont shared screen time with Daenerys Targaryen there was so much more chemistry between the two. You could tell that the bonds that pair had were deep and unbreakable. When Jon and Daenerys had sex there was not that kind of chemistry shown. And that's supposed to be the most intimate part of a relationship!
One common arguments that Jon/Daenerys shippers use for their ship is that the relationship was always supposed to happen. That how dare people talk about how poorly it was done on the show and so wish that the pairing never happened. How dare people suggest changing an ending. This opinion is based on the books and so makes it seem as if the show has to go in a certain direction because the books will.
Ending up in the same place in the end is one thing, but every subplot being the same is something different. The show has already shown it will go off in different directions than the books. Such as a character like Stannis Baratheon being alive in the books and not the show. Also the Faegon subplot being left out of the show altogether. Plus characters being different in looks and personalities than their book counterparts. Plus some characters left out of the show altogether.
Also, it seems the word 'converge' was used when talking about Jon and Daenerys. This doesn't mean the characters' private parts have to converge, people.
But the truth is the meaning behind A Song of Ice and Fire is heavily debated. Jon Snow himself could be 'a song of ice and fire' with him having both Targaryen and Stark blood. The title could also refer to the war against the dead and the living.
So using one interpretation of the meaning behind the title just doesn't fly. Maybe the true meaning could be the relationship between Jon and Daenerys just that it isn't romantic in nature. It could be about their alliance and not their love. So...yeah...I just roll my eyes whenever someone throws up this defense of Jon/Daenerys.
That's only a rough draft but point is that there was a better way to do Jon/Daenerys in Season 7.
I could spend time mentioning corrections like these but I won't. This is because the easiest way to correct the Jon'Daenerys mess would be to remove the romance between Jon and Daenerys since the pacing is what killed it. The pacing is what could kill all of the other fixes us fans could find. The showrunners should've been more than aware that pacing would be more than important when writing Jon/Daenerys.
To give an example of what we could be in for if Jon/Daenerys is allowed to continue for the fans, I'll show you the series finale of How I Met Your Mother.
The showrunners of that show had an idea for an ending and even filmed the scenes with the children way beforehand. They had an ending and stuck with it. They did not change their original ending. Sounds great, right? Sounds like the story of hope you Jon/Daenerys shippers are hoping that Game of Thrones does too, right?
Except this story doesn't have a happy ending. The problem with the ending of How I Met Your Mother is that with the show lasting longer than it was supposed to, the ending now was a mess. The relationship between Barney and Robin was a lot stronger in the final version of the show so that them breaking up seemed like what the heck. Especially as the final season was all about their wedding. The mother died in the space of a few lines and the show ended with Ted getting back with Robin. The finale of How I Met Your Mother ruined the series. That isn't just me saying it but a good majority of fans. We were robbed.
So while getting rid of Jon/Daenerys may feel wrong because it changes the original plan, the change could save the show. Or at least Jon/Daenerys won't be the reason why the final season sucks.
As GRRM likes his historical connections, Daenerys remaining single would make a lot of sense. In history I know of at least one instance where a queen remaining single helped her rule. At the beginning of Season 7 it was heavily assumed that she could never get pregnant and only at the end of Season 7 was the death of Viserion assumed to be the price for Daenerys to get pregnant again. So...her remaining single would help hide the fact that she could never bear a child again. This information would be important to remain secret as political marriages are made with the promise of children.
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| Picture from HERE |
The first up is my One True Pairing (OTP) of the series, a man Daenerys Targaryen has known since the beginning. Someone who has enough history that you could write essays about them. That man is, of course, Ser Jorah Mormont. Someone who deserves a lot more respect from the fandom than he gets.
An important thing about a long term relationship is the ability to disagree and yet end up not hating each other by the end. I adore my fiance and yet we will fight. Sometimes about important things and sometimes about really stupid things. I mean you could hear us argue and wonder what was wrong with each of us. Daenerys found out about Jorah's betrayal and sent him away. Yet they found that their paths crossed and they are friends again.
This would have been the easiest to do because of Daenerys and Jorah's history together. Plus Iain Glen (Jorah) and Emilia Clarke's (Daenerys) chemistry onscreen is amazing. It probably has something to do with the fact that they have been working with each other on the show for so long.
So I'm not just saying Jorah/Daenerys should've been canon because it's my OTP, but because it's easiest to rush without seeming rushed. More than easy for them to go to the next stage without a lot of buildup being needed. That means more time for other stuff in the show like what the heck happened with Edmure Tully? Will Bronn ever get his castle?
It would also be a neat fit story wise as he's a Lannister aka one of the main Houses she hates. The whole reason Jorah kidnapped the imp was because Daenerys doesn't like House Lannister. This due to the fact that Jaime Lannister killed her father and helped bring an end to the Targaryen reign over Westeros.
Peter Dinklage, the actor who plays Tyrion, said in an interview that his character loves Daenerys. I don't like this just because I don't want everyone falling in love with Daenerys and prefer a more platonic relationship between the two. But the fact remains that there is some point to be made that there could be a relationship between the two due to Dinklage's interview.
Since Tyrion is Daenerys' Hand they would be having many private moments together. Moments that could lead to romance and a sex scene.
I would suggest more suitors but...only Tyrion and Jorah really seem to meet the criteria I'm looking for. It's not like Cersei Lannister and Daenerys will ever get together. Ah, my poor multi-shipper heart...the dream of two mad queens...anyways...back to the post at hand.
Like Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen was shoved down our throats, so too was the fact that she'll become pregnant again. If she doesn't have Jon's child in her belly in Game of Thrones Season 8 it will be the biggest twist of the series. But I'm going with my gut instinct, that has totally never been wrong before, and say that Daenerys will have a baby in the final season. Well...become pregnant at least.
What foreshadowing am I referring to? When Jon went beyond the Wall he talked with Jorah. At the point the Mormont refused his ancestral sword he talked about Jon's children. Jorah knew full well that Daenerys would be with Jon so we can guess that the exiled knight thinks his queen can have children.
About Jorah's feelings towards Jon and Daenerys...there was no real love triangle with Jorah, Daenerys, and Jon. The showrunners didn't spend enough time exploring the connections between them for me to consider that love triangle to be canonical. Yeah...I can get picky on what I consider canon.
Also more foreshadowing was in the Dragonpit when Jon brought up the fact to Daenerys that the witch shouldn't be trusted.
Plus the fact that all of a sudden everyone is interested in whether or not Daenerys can have children.
Jon won't want to abandon his child. He was against having sex due to not wanting a child to suffer being a bastard. He'll also think of how he was brought up. He never knew his mother and might not want a similar outcome for his own flesh and blood.
But...incest will be icky to him. Even though he has Targaryen blood coursing through his veins, he was raised as a Stark and considers the North his home. He won't feel good about having sex with his aunt.
So this dilemma will trouble Jon and there are many ways that he could decide to do things. He could stay with Daenerys for the child's sake. He won't be intimate with his aunt any longer but won't have his disgust of incest affect how much he loves his child.
The worst part of this is if he survives he will always wonder if he made the right choice. Was the honorable thing to do to stay with Daenerys for the child's sake or did he make the honorable choice? But he'll know that he would make the same decision again because of his disgust with incest.
I like to imagine that if the breakup occurs that Daenerys will go into the arms of Jorah Mormont. She'll do so because she realizes the feelings she has for him. I talk about her feelings for Jorah in detail on THIS post. I won't be going into such detail here as it would take up too much time.
If she knows she's pregnant at the time this happens then Jorah will have to decide how to treat the child. Of course he'll raise it as his own. It will be a part of Daenerys and the Mormont is more than dedicated to his queen. I saw the pain on his face when Viserion died and it was like he lost a child of his own. And that child wasn't exactly human.
It will be a question that won't be answered either and Jorah won't mind. It will still be a part of Daenerys and he'll consider it his own. It is my opinion he thought of Daenerys' dragons as his children and they weren't human.
Now all the scenarios I've pointed out I've made assuming that the showrunners stay true to the characters I've followed over the course of seven seasons. I don't know if the showrunners will do that as, well, Season 7 was a big deviation from the writing quality of previous seasons. I know others will point out that it hasn't been as high of quality as before for one or two seasons at least. But I didn't see a big drop in quality like this latest season of Game of Thrones before.
I point this out as the showrunners may go for a happy ending with Jon/Daenerys. They may decide to ignore how Jon would really react as they already did that so he would more easily get with Daenerys. They could do a huge disservice to Jon's character by having him being fine with having sex with his aunt. They might even use his Targaryen heritage to justify this. When Jon gave his 'you're a Stark and a Greyjoy' speech to Theon I became seriously worried that it would become a lazy justification for Jon/Daenerys in Season 8.
One reason that Jon/Daenerys doesn't work is that both characters' romantic histories aren't touched on. It is almost as if the show wanted to go with the whole 'they had loved no one else but each other' thing. Which I don't agree with. As someone who is engaged: just because I found the love of my life doesn't discredit my previous relationships.
Anyways...Daenerys Targaryen does bring up Khal Drogo to Jon Snow in their first meeting. Now remember that she loved Drogo. It wasn't a perfect romance nor some fairy tale thing, but it was real. It had its problems but the love the two felt for each other was strong. It was because Daenerys loved Drogo so that she didn't think clearly about who she was asking help from. It was because of Drogo's death that Daenerys tried to become consumed by the flames.
So how does she refer to Drogo to Jon?
Daenerys refers to Khal Drogo as merely someone who raped her. She doesn't mention that he helped her. Not just in getting rid of Viserys but by giving her the strength to become a conqueror. It was with the Dothraki and their ways that Daenerys managed to do what she did. She also had help from Jorah Mormont, Barristan Selmy, and a few others. But the Dothraki are the cornerstone of her army.
It's almost as if the show wants to discard her relationship with Khal Drogo so that her relationship with Jon Snow will be even more romantic.
For those seeking to be in a relationship: if you have a disagreement with your significant other, don't air each other's dirty laundry in public.
He arrives on Dragonstone and Daenerys is extremely happy to see him. During that scene she is the happiest that she has been in a long time. Seeing him again has made her briefly forget all her worries. The energy between those two...wow!
Anyways...Daenerys says she would be honored to have Jorah serve her again and then nothing important between the two happens. There is no scene of just the two. The scene I wanted didn't have to be romantic but I wanted to know where the two stood with each other. The fandom likes to say that there is a love triangle but Jorah isn't given enough attention for me to consider that canon. Yeah, I am extremely picky on what I consider canon.
Jorah, Daenerys, and Jon appear in a few scenes but the relations between the three aren't discussed. There is no point where Daenerys stresses over which man she would rather have. I hate love triangles and glad not to see one on the show yet...it's also really maddening that they didn't do it at the same time.
Back to not having a one on one scene between Jorah and Daenerys: we don't know where they stand. He could've encouraged her to get with Jon for some reason. Maybe political maneuvering. Maybe Jorah and Daenerys are having a secret affair. Maybe it's none of those and he's extremely jealous of Jon and not afraid to tell Daenerys. We don't know because the show doesn't care enough to focus on him!
Once Ygritte died Jon was celibate. He already didn't like having sex as he didn't want to create a bastard. He knew how hard being a bastard was and didn't want to put that burden on anyone else. Those were obstacles a well written would have Jon overcome to get with Daenerys Targaryen.
Yet Season 7 shows no sign of Ygritte being talked about. Jon could've told Davos he wasn't considering Daenerys as a partner due to his longing for Ygritte. It could've been one line and replaced the 'good heart' line. I would've preferred her to be more heavily talked about especially when Jon decided to get intimate with Daenerys on the boat.
The following headcanon I choose to believe because it makes me feel happy. It makes me able to enjoy forced Jon/Daenerys scenes. It makes me able to not yell out at my computer when a dumb shipping moment happens.
Suffice it to say I don't expect this to be proven true. I do not write this headcanon down to show you what I think is really going on but so if you're a fellow Jorah/Daenerys shipper that you can feel some hope. That you can pretend that something is going on behind the scenes.
If this is proven true I will be more than happy and jump up in joy. My faith in humanity will be restored.
The Lone Ranger is a horrible movie. There are some good moments but then you have the rest of the movie. To help deal with the poor movie I have a headcanon to help combat my brain trying to leave my head. I choose to believe that the movie is about a man dealing with extreme PTSD. It is about a man who refuses to confront what he actually did.
The reason the movie makes no sense is because it is told from the point of view of someone who has lost their mind. Things don't add up or are lazily justified because it is a broken man trying to put reality together. But he can't do that because his ability to tell what is real is gone.
The Fifty Shades of Grey headcanon deals with the books as I haven't watched the movies. Reading the books was enough torture for me.
While I was reading the third book in the series, I couldn't deal with it anymore. I couldn't stand reading even one more word yet I did. I wouldn't let the Fifty Shades books beat me. So I came up with a headcanon which allowed me to continue reading. The headcanon turned the series into Christian's former submissives deciding to finally kill their former tormentor. They decide to get Anastasia in on the plan and she agrees.
This headcanon can't hold up by the end of the series as not even my crazed mind could find a way.
Jorah was a big part of Daenerys' storyline and to think that that relationship was not used for the plot is insane. He was there since the beginning. He had been there to advise and protect his Khaleesi. He had always shown the utmost loyalty to her...minus the spying thing. But once that was done his heart and soul belonged only to Daenerys Targaryen.
So Jorah comes into the service of Daenerys yet again and nothing happens between them? No conversations about times long gone? She doesn't turn to him for advice anymore? Can Tyrion really replace Jorah as Daenerys' most trusted advisor?
I say bull and shit to that, good sir.
Besides the fact that dropping him from playing any real part in Daenerys' storyline makes no sense, Jorah/Daenerys is my OTP of the series. I have an OTP for every fandom I'm in as I ship so much. But back to Jorah/Daenerys: I am not about to declare my ship sunk until things are one hundred percent confirmed in canon.
With how little Jorah was onscreen with Daenerys, there's not enough proof in my opinion.
Against all odds Jorah returns and Daenerys is more than happy. When he arrives back at her side it's the happiest she's been in a long time. For a few minutes she is able to not feel the burden of being a queen and getting her birthright. For a few minutes she is merely a person reuniting with an old friend.
Some time after the initial meeting, Daenerys admits her feelings to Jorah. She tells him that she loves him. She is more than ready to become intimate with him as it's been far overdue for it to happen.
Jorah knows that by marrying Jon, Daenerys wouldn't harm Jon's title of King and connect Westeros once again. Even if Jon bends the knee before Daenerys proposes to him, the bonds through marriage will help secure the alliance with Jon.
Daenerys does agree to this idea and so Jorah and her begin their secret affair.
This headcanon is helped by the fact that Jorah and Daenerys have no scenes when they are alone together. This means that it is left to the viewer's imagination to what is going on. If the showrunners had given us a scene (or scenes) where Jorah and Daenerys were alone this headcanon might not be possible. As is, there is more than enough not shown for this headcanon not to work.
If deleted scenes come out contradicting this I'm not counting them as that information should've been in the episodes that aired. Besides that, sometimes the canon of deleted scenes can be debated.
This headcanon does give much needed nuance to certain scenes. More than one scene was improved with this headcanon and made my viewing experience so much better.
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Game of Thrones Season 7 Review Table of Contents
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