There are two seasons of Game of Thrones left, and given the title of the show, it leads one to believe that by the end someone will win the great game. Presumably, either Jon or Daenerys (or both) will be ruling the Seven Kingdoms and be declared the ultimate victors in this long power play. Here's the thing though, I'm convinced it doesn't matter who wins this game of thrones. I don't even think there will be a throne to win by the end of the series, and, in my humble opinion, that's how it was always meant to be.
Since the opening shot of Season 1, the series has made viewers, if not the characters, aware there's a threat coming to their very way of life that is larger than any one person. Ned Stark was right. Winter was always coming, and divided people cannot survive the Night's King and his army.
By the end, the Throne should be an afterthought. It doesn't matter who holds power in King's Landing. What matters is the remaining characters are wise enough to come together and fight an enemy great than each other. That will be their ultimate test, and likely the deciding factor in who lives or dies.
Throughout the series Jon, Arya, Daenerys, and the rest of the characters have had to learn the hard way that they cannot follow in the footsteps of their parents if they want to survive. Honor is often rewarded with death, true knights look more like Brienne than Jaime, and even a young man with no last name can become King of the North.
Game of Thrones is a story of revolution. Those who cling to the traditional ideas of power never last long, and with the White Walkers heading to Westeros, the old ways are unlikely to last through the winter. By the time spring comes, the Seven Kingdoms will be forced to face a new reality.
By that same reasoning, the characters who survive will shape the new order together. Having a single seat of power hasn't benefited the small folk for a long time, and if they come together to defeat the White Walkers, there is an excellent chance they will be unwilling to hand control over to a single person in King's Landing again.
The Iron Throne and all that it represents has plagued every character on the show. It robbed Daenerys of her childhood and her family, it has completely laid waste to the Lannister House, it nearly ended the Baratheon line in its entirety, and the fight for its control has taken the innocence of the Stark children. As a result, characters like Bran, Arya, and Jon have seen firsthand how vast their world is and how much more there is to fight for than a king or queen.
In the end, who wins the great game won't matter half as much as the journeys the characters have been on, or the battle for survival that lies ahead. That's actually good news for fans, because no matter who "wins," you are sure to be satisfied by the story as a whole. The pack survives, as Ned once said, and Game of Thrones has always been larger than any singular character or the throne that has loomed large over the series for so long.
