The only story that matters
I am a simple man, mostly content to take whatever life hands me and adapt. It’s not that I lack ambition altogether, it’s just that I’ve learned to expect little of my surroundings; and remain flexible to whatever they offer in return. Having said that, there is one thing I want above all others to come to pass; one wish that I would ask the Lord of Light and whatever the seven gods are named to grant. For the love of all things that are sacred, I want Game of Thrones to end with Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister going on adventures through Westeros together, assisted by their friends Podrick Payne and Ser Bronn.
I don’t care if Jon Snow is Azor Ahai incarnate; if Daenerys goes mad with power; if Tyrion Lannister is actually a Targaryen; if Cersei ends up dead by the hand of Jaime; or if all of Dorne is enveloped by the sea. None of it matters to me. All I want is for my four favourite characters to end up traipsing through George R.R. Martin’s fictional world a little bit longer, running into old friends, helping strangers out of jams and avoiding enemies from their collective pasts. They could be like the A-Team of Westeros; mercenaries for hire, sellswords for good (or at least, not bad).
It would be great if this could be the premise of one of the promised spinoffs, but I’ll be perfectly satisfied if it’s merely implied that Brienne, Jaime, Podrick and Bronn live out their years as soldiers of fortune. Just imagine the possibilities; the potential for conflict between Brienne’s overwhelming sense of duty, Jaime’s privileged upbringing, Bronn’s avarice and Podrick’s unskilled heroism. Fiction is at its best when following the exploits of outsiders either cast out by society or interlopers by their own choosing. Their ongoing adventures would be like a medieval Burn Notice; a fantastical version of The Fugitive (only four times better); The Littlest Hobo meets J.R.R. Tolkien; or like Renegade, but with Gwendoline Christie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jerome Flynn and Daniel Portman instead of Lorenzo Lamas.
It would be the best television series, ever – even if it airs only in my mind (and occasionally as a telescript on the pages of FanFiction.net). So, please, powers that be and Game of Thrones writers and producers, make this happen for me. And while I’ve got your attention, it would be really cool if Ghost, Jon Snow’s direwolf, doesn’t meet an untimely end.