Slate makes a pretty good point about Game of Thrones – the humans probably shouldn’t win, but they will. This happens in a lot of movies, of course. The bad guys are so bad that the good guys have no plausible chance, and then there is some deus ex machina that makes it all work out. Like all you have to do is throw a bucket of water on the previously invulnerable witch, and she melts. The Death Star has some ridiculous vulnerable point that can be taken out with one shot. The alien ship’s force field can be deactivated because it just happens to use Windows 95 as its operating system (Independence Day). It can be a little annoying if you feel like the authors/screenwriters were just lazy. But in the end, you can either suspend your disbelief and enjoy the story, or go watch a documentary or read a non-fiction book if you are such as deadly serious person you can’t do that.

Viewers have known from the beginning that humanity is facing an existential threat from the army of undead known as the White Walkers, but the show’s characters have discovered the looming crisis only gradually, and they’ve been slow to reckon with the little they do know. Now, with the Night King’s masses marching south from the sundered Wall, there’s no doubt that the threat is real. And yet, with only five episodes of Game of Thrones remaining, the human race is resolutely failing to rise to the occasion. Jon Snow’s attempt to form an alliance with Daenerys Targaryen has created dissension instead of unity, with some northern houses deserting the cause and others, like poor little Lord Umber’s, left unprepared and undersupplied. Despite having pledged her troops, Cersei is merely lying in wait, hoping that the rival armies weaken each other enough for her to conquer whatever remains.

So there you have it. I don’t really think Game of Thrones is primarily a climate change allegory. It mashes together a lot of different things as good authors (especially fantasy and science fiction authors) tend to do. Early on, I thought it was a realistic depiction of social conditions in a medieval, feudal society, examining what it was like for various groups to live there, with just enough fantasy and soft porn thrown in to keep people hooked. Mythologically, there are definitely some King Arthur ties. Zoroastrians have a seven-fold god and fire temples, and the Celts have tree spirits. Most religions have some sort of apocalypse scenario, and in many it is part of a cycle that repeats.

What do I think is going to happen? We may never find out what George R.R. Martin originally had in mind, any more than Disney’s Star Wars ending is likely to match whatever George Lucas had in mind. This is not a particularly bold prediction, but I predict the Deus Ex Machina is going to involve dragons and fire in some way. The humans will have all but lost, and then the fire god will step in and cleanse the land in some way so the cycle can begin again.