One Slight S6 Change Would've Made Game of Thrones So Much Better
Game of Thrones season 6 finale was absolutely grand, there's no doubt about that; however, were it to play out differently, we would've got a way more interesting follow-up in the following seasons.
In season 6, we saw Cersei Lannister utterly humiliated: she lost her political power almost completely as the High Sparrow and the Tyrells overtook everything she thought was hers.
But Cersei was not the kind of enemy anyone would want to make, and she proved it with one ruthless strike at her enemies.
Having basically trapped everyone who stood in her way in one place — the Great Sept of Baelor — she ordered a spectacular and terrifying execution.
The Great Sept was blown up with wildfire, and Cersei had her sweet moment of triumph watching the green flames from the balcony.
We know how it plays out next: her beloved youngest child, King Tommen, kills himself after losing his sweetheart to wildfire, and Cersei claims the Iron Throne.
But what if Cersei never blew up the Great Sept?
We would've got to see Tommen and Margaery handle the wight situation: most likely, they wouldn't have ignored this threat and tried to do something about it.
We would've got a much deeper Daenerys arc, too.
In the show, her enemy was a Marvel-style, almost cartoonish villain — that's what the writers turned late-season Cersei into.
But having young King Tommen as her enemy, Dany would've been up against someone innocent and naive which would've allowed to reveal her dark side and lust for power without having her randomly commit an unhinged terrorist act.
As Dany's desire to go against a literal pure child would've become obvious, Tyrion and Varis' betrayal would've made much more sense, too.
Tyrion would've never wanted to hurt Tommen, and his schemes to prevent Daenerys from doing so would've been interesting to watch.
The same goes for Varis who was one of the very few people actually concerned about the greater good for once.
The High Sparrow arc could've ended with a simple assassination or a coordinated mercenary attack on the Sparrows, and the Tyrells…
Their rivalry with the Lannisters was really good in terms of the plot and their interactions, so we think they should've stayed for a while even though Cersei would've totally set up an "accident" for Margaery anyways.
But the main issue with the Sept explosion was just how many well-established characters were lost never to be replaced.
This was a tremendous loss in terms of storytelling: when Ned Stark died, his children kept going; after the Red Wedding, the Tyrells, Renly, Loras, and Brienne stepped in; after the Sept explosion, no new characters of proper significance were introduced.
Fixing this would've made the next seasons better, too, if the writers still just really wanted that sick shot of the wildfire explosion.