Game Of Thrones Season 8 Breakdown: What The Ending REALLY Means

5. Bastards And Broken Things

If you're angry about Bran sitting on the throne at the end of the show, you haven't been paying attention at all. Not properly.

This entire show has been a celebration of bastards and broken things - George RR Martin's favoured characters - and while his books may not end in entirely the same way as Weiss and Benioff's ending, they will share fundamental similarities in the way they deal with underdogs.

Bran was the right candidate for the throne because he didn't want it, because he was a living library of the memories of all of mankind and the Seven Kingdoms and because of the strength of his story, as Tyrion said. Because of his perseverance and how he would come across to the people of the realm, he deserved to fly as his prophecy suggested.

It's important, at this juncture, to also mention the Fisher King, who in Arthurian legend was also known as the Wounded King or Maimed King and was the last in a long line charged of protectors of the Holy Grail. He was a figure derived from Brân the Blessed and in the legend he was said to preside over a cursed, impotent land (as a reflection of his own maiming).

That would seem to put a slight down-note on Bran's ending, but it would appear that the show is seeking to subvert the image of the Fisher King by having him not be a genealogical cul-de-sac and instead having his successor chosen by a council of the most powerful figures in the Seven Kingdoms. Perhaps the allusion exists to reaffirm why Bran was always the correct candidate? Because his condition directly mirrored that of the kingdoms?