Game of Thrones - I finished it!

[McStabbington]

You know, I didn't consider that, but they could have done a lot with King Tommen.

Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor, story goes about the same up until that point.

Then, instead of killing himself, King Tommen grows a bit of a spine and has his mother arrested instead. Tearfully, probably, but he does. He now has the Faith Militant on his side, as well as the Lannisters. Probably not the Tyrells, but they aren't even that relevant anymore.

Then, perhaps let some time pass at this point to have him grow up. He's actually a pretty good, if weak king, but perhaps what the realm needs after war. He starts focusing on the population, taking Margaery's lessons to heart. Feeds people. Considers rebuilding the Sept of Baelor for the Sparrows, perhaps less grand. Makes diplomatic overtures to the North, Dorne and the Iron Isles. Dorne doesn't care and continues playing the long game, the North spits in his face as a damn Lannister. The Iron Isles send Euron Greyjoy. They do not get along, but perhaps they can be useful to each other.

There. Now you have almost the same situation as before, except with a King that the people of King's Landing actually wouldn't just surrender to the scary foreign dragon lady.

And if you want to keep Cersei around (and why wouldn't you, Lena Heady is one of the best actresses on the show), you can still have her scheming in house arrest against her own son. Perhaps trying to seduce Euron Greyjoy, that shouldn't be hard.

I've said before that I regard the blowing up of the Sept of Baelor to be the point of no return for the show. It's the moment when they cast their lot with spectacle over stuff making any sense whatsoever, and in retrospect now that I've seen Season 7 and read the reviews for 8 (I actually didn't watch Season 8, because, well, I watched Season 7 and knew exactly where it was headed), it was the moment when the car crash of the last season became inevitable.

Because you're absolutely right: the thing that they should have done, if they wanted to earn their reputation as a show where anyone can die and anything can happen, is to play that scene out exactly as it should have played out. Cersei's hail mary fails. Her indestructible minion gets swarmed, or she can't find six more people when the Westerosi Pope demands a Trial by Seven. And then she gets beheaded on the steps of the Sept of Baelor, exactly as Ned Stark died in Season One. And then the Tyrells, with Tommen as nominal leader take over.

They forgot that the show earned its stripes for shock by not saving the top-billed actor at the last moment. He went down, admittedly for stupid reasons (thanks Joffrey), but those reasons were understandable given the characters involved, and nobody stepped in to save him. They had the template right there. And while it wouldn't have been Book-Cersei's end, it would have been thematically and narratively coherent, it would have made sense given the circumstances, and it would have shocked the audience a whole heck of a lot more than "Arya becomes a long jumper". And at the end of it, you have Margaery slotted neatly into the same kind of role as Aegon in the books.

They didn't do that partly because they really liked Lena Headey, partly because they had royally enraged Natalie Dormer (Dormer only came back for S6 because she had been written out of the show, according to most behind-the-scenes reporting), and partly because they just didn't know what to do with the Tyrells or the High Sparrow. It's a pity.

[Thomas Cardew]

Part of the problem is aging up of the actors. Queen Regent works for a 5{?} year old kid, but not show Tommen. So Tommen had to go. I don't quite think it was the point of no return. Honestly, it could have laid a lot of the necessary groundwork for the Dany heel/face turn. Reorder the events a little, have Dany en route to Westoros with all her armies in tow. Have Cersei plant convincing evidence that the Dany was behind it, fake witnesses, confessions tortured out of some unlucky mainlander, the works.

Now the people of King's Landing have a tangible reason to fear Dany. She's the godless heretic ( I hear she ate a horse's heart to summon a demon who killed her first husband!) who tried to blow up the entire royal family and nobility of the realm by blowing up the central religious location of the entire continent. Now you have believable reasons for people like Sam's dad to oppose her.

The crash was correctable at that point. It was just in Season 7 they did everything wrong and flipped into the ditch.

[factotum]

Cersei commits a series of extraordinarily stupid blunders, any one of which should have cost her the throne, and only survives to the end because they need Dany to kill her.

To be fair, Cersei doing stupid things that later bite her on the butt is pretty much her entire schtick in both books and TV, so I call that one just about OK.

[Eldan]

They didn't do that partly because they really liked Lena Headey, partly because they had royally enraged Natalie Dormer (Dormer only came back for S6 because she had been written out of the show, according to most behind-the-scenes reporting), and partly because they just didn't know what to do with the Tyrells or the High Sparrow. It's a pity.

Really? Hadn't heard about that one, what happened?

[Lethologica]

Really? Hadn't heard about that one, what happened?

I am also mildly curious, because it doesn't jibe with what I can find.

[mindstalk]

You know, I didn't consider that, but they could have done a lot with King Tommen.

Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor, story goes about the same up until that point.

Then, instead of killing himself, King Tommen grows a bit of a spine and has his mother arrested instead. Tearfully, probably, but he does. He now has the Faith Militant on his side, as well as the Lannisters. Probably not the Tyrells, but they aren't even that relevant anymore.

Then, perhaps let some time pass at this point to have him grow up. He's actually a pretty good, if weak king, but perhaps what the realm needs after war. He starts focusing on the population, taking Margaery's lessons to heart. Feeds people. Considers rebuilding the Sept of Baelor for the Sparrows, perhaps less grand. Makes diplomatic overtures to the North, Dorne and the Iron Isles. Dorne doesn't care and continues playing the long game, the North spits in his face as a damn Lannister. The Iron Isles send Euron Greyjoy. They do not get along, but perhaps they can be useful to each other.

There. Now you have almost the same situation as before, except with a King that the people of King's Landing actually wouldn't just surrender to the scary foreign dragon lady.

And if you want to keep Cersei around (and why wouldn't you, Lena Heady is one of the best actresses on the show), you can still have her scheming in house arrest against her own son. Perhaps trying to seduce Euron Greyjoy, that shouldn't be hard.

That's pretty cool. And if you need Dark Dany, you can have her burn him logically; he's on "her" Throne, and now the audience sees her killing someone they like. Shows the dark side of her ambition without being insane or out of the blue.

[McStabbington]

I am also mildly curious, because it doesn't jibe with what I can find.

How do you figure? Because I believe that source confirms everything I just said. She wanted out of the show; they wrote her out of the show.

The only discrepancy is that bit of Hollywoodese. Unless you think that someone would honestly say "Oh, look at me, what a flibbertigibbit! Here I was, signing on for a million projects all at the same time, just not understanding even in my early 30's that there are but 24 hours in a day!"

No, that's what an actor says when they expect to be on a project, have contracted to be on a project, but are screwed out of a project by producers who are exercising clauses that were never expected to be exercised because they could. Which is pretty much what I said: Benioff/Weiss really screwed over Dormer, and as a result, she asked to be released from her contract because she didn't want to work with them. This is just further confirmation of the poisonous relationship that existed between them, as well as who had the power.

[Lethologica]

Or you're projecting a specific alternative narrative that suits your preconceptions onto a single slightly vague answer in a promotional interview. It only looks like confirmation if you had already made up your mind about what happened.

[hungrycrow]

That's pretty cool. And if you need Dark Dany, you can have her burn him logically; he's on "her" Throne, and now the audience sees her killing someone they like. Shows the dark side of her ambition without being insane or out of the blue.

It would still be kind of out of character for Dany to leap straight to murdering a teenager for the throne. Tommen wouldnt exactly fit the 'punish the wicked' theme she had going on. More likely she would try to get him to surrender first. And he would probably accept; he doesn't want to be king and isn't up to fighting dragons.

[Eldan]

Even that could be spun into a story. So, Tommen offers to step down in semi-private meeting of the two parties with their advisors. Tyrion can play intermediary.

Except... Tommen is backed by the Faith Militant, the Tyrells, Euron Greyjoy and other parties (Tarlys?) who won't let Tommen step down, because they all have various reasons not to let the bloodthirsty dragon queen take the throne. He's still mostly a puppet king.
Have them diplomatize at each other for half a season, until Dany gets frustrated and some of her advisors begin to urge "drastic action". Have fanatic believers oppose her in the streets, maybe, insult her heritage, and she loses her temper. Have her burn down Tommen's rebuilt Sept of Tommen to show what she thinks of the Faith, perhaps, in an ironic echo of what Cersei did. Instead of the whole city.

[BlacKnight]

It would still be kind of out of character for Dany to leap straight to murdering a teenager for the throne. Tommen wouldnt exactly fit the 'punish the wicked' theme she had going on. More likely she would try to get him to surrender first. And he would probably accept; he doesn't want to be king and isn't up to fighting dragons.

Make it an accident.
Tommen agrees to surrender and Daenerys enter KL with her army and dragons.
But somebody (Cersei?) wants to ruin everything and prepares a trap. Poison, ballistas, whatever. A dragon is wounded/killed and Daenerys snaps, burning the red keep and everybody inside it.
Unfortunately the fire sets off the wildfire under the city, which causes a lot of innocent deaths.

Now Dany has to rule a kingdom that has legitimate reasons to fear her, and compares her to the Mad King.
But Jon Snow arrives asking for help against the Others, which gives her a chance of redemption.
In the ending she could survive or die, but anyway saving her kingdom.

[McStabbington]

Or you're projecting a specific alternative narrative that suits your preconceptions onto a single slightly vague answer in a promotional interview. It only looks like confirmation if you had already made up your mind about what happened.

Er, of course I've made up my mind about what happened. Why would I confidently assert something as true when I don't have a rational account to back up why I believe it to be true?

Look, if you want to believe that I am trying to convince you of the lie that Natalie Dormer was in a major tiff with the producers of Game of Thrones as part of some diabolical, 10,000-step plan to conquer the universe, that's fine. As I do not have such a plan, and am just spitballing on a random site on the internet, it's really no skin off my nose what you believe, or whether or not I have persuaded you. But you asked for an account for why I believed what I believed, and I gave it. That account corresponded with your own citations. If you just don't want to be persuaded no matter what the evidence, please don't blame me or anyone else for that turn of events. That's not fair.

[factotum]

Have them diplomatize at each other for half a season

Half a season? That's mad talk! Like D&D had any time to spare to actually build up their Dany face-heel turn for half a season...or half an episode, even.

[Lethologica]

If you just don't want to be persuaded no matter what the evidence, please don't blame me or anyone else for that turn of events. That's not fair.

You presented Dormer's rage as something that had been reported on as the basis for events. The reporting does not show that. Those are the facts. When the facts change, I will change my mind. That's entirely fair.