5 things nobody wants to admit about Game of Thrones

Bran Stark was the right choice to end up king

An oft-derided part of Game of Thrones season 8 is that Bran Stark, the boy who survived a fall that left him paralyzed from the waist down and went on to become an omnisicent being called the Three-Eyed Raven, was selected to become the next king of Westeros. This all comes together pretty quickly during the season finale, where a council of lords and ladies from the remaining great houses chooses who will become their next ruler.

Having already put the pieces together in his head, Tyrion Lannisters puts in for Brandon Stark. And so, Westeros enters into a new era of prosperity with Bran on the throne. No more terrible heirs or familial drama; Bran hardly even wants to hang out with normal mortal people anyway. He's above all that! Thus, the perfect ruler.

Now, look. I don't disagree with the fact that Bran's selection to become king happened too fast, mainly spurred on by a speech Tyrion gives which serves a meta stand-in for the show's writers to reflect on the power of good stories. Given everything we've seen of Westeros, it would have been great to get a bit more time seeing these houses quarrel and come to terms with this decision. After all, it's a huge ask, and most of the people in the Dragonpit aren't familiar enough with Bran to know that he's basically a living demigod. For the audience to be convinced, we really needed to see the characters raise objections and be won over in a realistic manner as well.

But disagreeing with the idea that Bran becomes king in general? That I don't jive with. From the first time I read A Game of Thrones, I always wondered why Bran Stark was the very first point-of-view character we meet in the story after the prologue. A Song of Ice and Fire is a huge, ensemble tale, and George R.R. Martin is the kind of author who doesn't make choices like that without very specific reasons. What significance would Bran hold for the larger saga?

Having him end up becoming the king is both a fulfilling end to Bran's arc — here's a boy who grew up dreaming about being a knight and hero, now bearing a responsibility that few others could handle — as well as a logical resolution to the conflict in Westeros. Bran is above worldly concerns, and we saw countless times on Game of Thrones that petty, worldly concerns were the undoing of the great houses. That even when they had the literal end of the world approaching, some of them couldn't set aside their differences face it. Electing a ruler like Bran in the wake of all that bloodshed makes sense.

Adding to all this is the fact that George R.R. Martin revealed three huge twists to Benioff and Weiss. The third and final of those twists was something "at the very end." It's entirely possible that Bran was a part of that final twist, and his eventual rise is something Martin has had planned for his series for years.

Then again, there's another big twist at the end that had people outraged as well...but we'll talk about that shortly. First, we need to take a trip back down memory lane to the early seasons of Thrones, and one of its most reviled characters: