I have been saying this a bunch this week, but I think that GRRM was trying to deconstruct or at least critique the entire fantasy genre with ASOIAF. As I wrote about on Monday, I think the point is that, in his universe, nothing (not Dragons, magic, prophesies, or giants) can make a bad leader into a successful leader.

Benioff and Weiss have not always come close to following GRRM’s vision or the internal logic of his carefully designed character arcs (something that has reportedly sparked a cold war between the two camps) but I suspect they will end in the same place and follow what seems to be a realist rebuke cloaked in many of the same tropes typical of the fantasy genre.

Whoever wins this Game of Thrones will likely also possess elements of “the prophecy” but also be a competent and strategic leader (not the same as being a ‘loved’ leader). Prophecies, in this sense, are much like Confucius sayings in that they always apply if you think hard enough around the corners.