The Power of Stories: How Bran the Broken was always the ending

Ned thought all his kids "he who passes the sentence should swing the sword" - it's not something special only for Bran.
In the first scene, Bran experiences death for the first time. "Don't look away!" - that is why that scene was important.
Bran's journey suddenly changed after Theon takes Winterfell. That meant the wars between men were not for Bran. He had another purpose.
He is (supposed to be) the key in the "winter is coming" / life vs death battle. That is the whole 3 eyed raven's storyline purpose, including the magic to protect him from the white walkers and his position beyond the wall.
I also think that many revelations were kept for the books. They must have been. Although now everyone knows Jon will be resurrected, how Hodor became... Hodor and that Jon will kill Dany.
The one I mostly expect is the POV of Dany during and after the burning of KL on witch we only know: "that was necessary". In the show we had Jon's POV.
I expect Dany's POV in the books to reveal that she sacrificed herself (just like Rhaegar tried to) to break the wheel, to break the quest for power - represented by the throne.
Having now in the show the entire power still in one place (Bran) changes nothing. Humans not happy with the election result, or with the decisions taken, will still lust for it.

The ending was the logic conclusion, it starts the move away from the feudal system of government similar to the Magna Carta.

The only thing i like about Bran the King is that he would be harder to kill than any man alive. If you can kill a King - he is a bad King. If you can't kill a King - he is a good King. That is the whole point of the King - being on top of the food chain.

Bran the "Broken" was a huge ass pull, nothing will change that.

Agreed!

To be honest, I can't stand Bran king 😐😐

I was rly hoping for this channel. Guess its dead

Thinking of Tyrion's ending and what the show failed to get across.

Thinking of Tyrion's endgame and King Bran, I think Tyrion losing his villainous/vengeful edge, really hurt the endgame(for Tyrion) that the series was trying to get across, that being restorative justice. Not punishment or reprisal, but a chance to make up and atone, and reconcile with those the offender has wronged. Basically the core purpose of community service as a sentence.



Tyrion's actions in season 7 and part of season 8 come down to stupidity, and failure, not outright malice and hate. In the books, as has been said before, Tyrion will be a devil on Dany's shoulder, not an angel. And the things he does and pushes her to do will come from malice, spite and hate.



Bran being a king who transforms the narrative and the system offering a new way to deal with offenders will give mercy, when a lot of people will like greyworm in the show be demanding the Imp's head. Thus Tyrion's "punishment" as it were, will be to rebuild Westeros, a Westeros he was instrumental in helping burn.



So the idea of Tyrion being hand or in service to Bran in a ruling or advisory capacity-as penance, makes some sense, but since the show didn't make Tyrion a vengeful spiteful man trying to kill people(namely the opposite), it instead comes across as incompetence being rewarded or overlooked.



Tyrion may not be "redeemed" per se within the framework of the series, but the implication will be, he will work to atone for the things he has done, and in helping heal Westeros will himself find healing, and an opportunity to be a better man than he was.

Thus I think the show was trying to get across, the idea of Bran being a king who doesn't punish but restores offenders. But in whitewashing Tyrion so heavily and failing to develop certain themes and plots, it comes across as Tyrion's stupidity being overlooked, rather than penance offered.

Do you think Bran the Broken was termed by GRRM? I have never been more ready for books my entire life. We were given no answers or reasonable explanation for anything by the show. 😔

Just got back to civilization and watched the last two episodes and I gotta say, sir, , my thoughts are totally in line w your own. Apt analysis. This is a real chill bro right here. Lol and yeah you totally called this ahead of time, your prediction was one of the last things I had heard before going on a massive digital detox.

Bran was my favorite character from the very first episode. He saw Cersei and Jamie screwing and had his legs broken which i assumed would be a death sentence.
But nothing really came of it and out of every character i feel he got the least screen time by far, which is probably why nobody gives a damn about him.
Never thought he would kind of win the game.

No commenting on "Forgiving Gaming Game of Thrones"? I thought it was worth giving true fans something to think about. After all, that's what all these sceriomovies are all about, right?

Personally, without trying to sound like a condescending prick, I think today's audience's may not be sophisticated to pick up on what happened. I think your interpretation is more than most fans can't handle. Years from now I hope people will be about to see some of the "risks they took" as a little more ground breakinging.

Well done effort, man!

Bran's characters and story arc should have been more fleshed out in the show, but instead D&D focused on the characters they liked and relegated characters like Bran to non-characters. Such a pity, Bran is one of the best characters in the Books.

Didn't expect to like this video. Glad I watched it.

bran being king is stupid regardless if d&d writes it or GRRM.

Three-eyed raven is not Lord of light. Three-eyed raven is north magic while the lord of light (that I think most likely doesn't exist it is just fire magic) is southern magic - fire. Basically, if writing involves some higher all-knowing power it is not interesting. If Martins books go toward that then I guess they don't worth my time. I see magic as the science that is not understood yet. Like Ford in Westworld said "Everything in this world is magic except for the magician" There is a power of ice and cold and trees and 3-eyed raven, and there is a power of fire. You can understand that and become a magician. It doesn't make you a good king because nobody will give people justice until they make one. People are moving forward through mistakes and learn. Tyrion is a selfish villain. Maybe he deserves community service cleaning the streets but definitely not another opportunity to rule. Also, there is no endgame in real life. Any decision produce conflict. So if Martin really wanted to create realistic fantasy the only end game is "and everyone died and the planet is destroyed in a fire " or no fire and the night king on the throne. Otherwise, any ending is creating a new conflict for the next generations. Even Poetic Edda realized it. Ragnarok was a conflict that Gods (Odin included) cause by unfair dealing with giants. Actually, I loved old Scandinavian sagas and I though that ice and fire is a reference to that. In Scandinavian mythology earth and everything was created by Ice and Fire. Anyway, life is dynamical, it is never stable, it created by conflict and if you will resolve conflict it dies. Live is motion, if you stop it it will die. That how I see the conflict in Faust. The temptation to stop the moment that you see as perfect means the temptation of death.
P.S. I don't see that Bran's decision about punishment has that meaning it is a clever way to save your criminal associate's ass. I don't mind Bran on the throne but he should be a villain that caused the next conflict.

All hail Bran the Broke Dick.

Thanks for this video. I’m one of the few people who liked how the show ended - though I agree that it wasn’t well written and we were left to extrapolate far too much. I was always pretty certain that it was Bran who helped put things right between Sansa and Arya in S7 when Littlefinger was stirring trouble. Bran was one of my top three favourite characters, especially in the books - partly because he was so disappointed in himself. He himself thought he’d be better off dead. He was still dreaming of becoming a knight in Bloodraven’s cave and was falling in love with Meera, even though neither was possible. I felt he had the Stark honour combined with the godhood of being the three eyed raven. I’d have liked the show to explore him more.
Anyway I’m really enjoying your videos. Thank you so much for not running with the crowd. All hail Bran the Broken!💚🐺

Unlike a lot of people, I really liked the ending-
I think that Daenerys death was a good thing , and that
Bran deserved to be the king.
But anyway that's my opinion-

Lame

Bran can see future but didn't warn anyone to keep her in check so that many innocent won't die, he knew the fate of KL and war as well why the hell he didn't just told they don't need dany jon can come back.

Well looks like little finger was right "chaos is a ladder" and it leads to iron Throne.

Is Sam even eligible to become a maestr, bronn doesn't even know how loan works, Wtf is this.

Who has a better story than bran the broken? Litteraly everyone???

I think that the choice with the most sense would be for Jon Snow to be the king

Reaching... Bran is
And forever will be trash.

I said from the beginning that this was Brans story and we got snippets of what was going on with the world around him. The story was about cripples bastards and broken things. Everyone was broken

I disagree with you if the three I’d raven was so important why did Brendan and have to go be on the wall to why is everything magical be on the wall the Giants mammoths white walkers children of the forest there is a reason why don’t these things are not in Westeros in my personal opinion is so we don’t have Brendan people using magic and manipulating things to their benefits I personally think that when the not a king touch brand A bit of him is in brand similar to Harry Potter a bit of Lord Voldemort lived inside of Harry Potter just like Brett because he absolutely did not want to help anyone wanna come to the long night

The main source of conflict has always shown up for me as the weaponization of truth and honor. Bran is maimed to hide truth, Cersei exploits Ned's honorably confronting her with truth to hide that truth, Littlefinger twists the perception of truth to separate the Stark sisters, and Danerys is mad at Jon because of his truth. The Three-Eyed Raven was always the right choice. A Three-Eyed Raven would have known Jon Snow wasn't a bastard, that Lyanna wasn't abducted, and what a danger the Lannisters were. Even though those injustices were necessary to win against the White Walkers (2 remaining Targaryens to ride the surviving dragons, Ned dying to scattter the children and train a King Beyond the Wall, a Queen in the North, an assassin, and the Three-Eyed Raven, even Theon learning the hard way what loyalty and honor mean), they would have had the perspective of truth when the stories were told. Robert's Rebellion is a shining example of how truth is the only way to justice, as he waged war on a lie. Bran's kingdom, run by the people who live in it and have been disenfranchised by the old system, isn't susceptible to that problem.

This man's analysis has redeemed the final season for me. I never saw that Bran's Small Council were all now misfits, rejects, and outcasts of the old world, but exactly the right people for the New World Daenerys dreamed of. But Daenerys was the epitome of the old world: a person born expecting privileges through their name.
In the New World, there are no birthrights, only hard work, acclaim based on merit and an understanding of personal suffering because each of the New World's leaders know of deprivation and loss of personal power, wealth, and identity and had to create and accept their own.

I’m starting to think I’m the only one that actually liked the ending

A Marxist idealism to this ending. An impartial ruler who holds the realm together with wisdom and wants nothing for himself... Yet throughout history, this has never existed or succeeded for very long. The show did a deplorable job of writing these final fan fiction seasons; production did a great job but the writing is phoned in. It will be interesting to see how George RR Martin unfolds this puzzle. Bran has always been my least favorite chapters in the books because they feel distant and dopey (owed to that GRRM has stated that he needed to POV from the mind of a child, and it was the hardest character for him to write and essentially dumb down). “I could never be lord of Winterfell. I could never be the lord of anything. I’m the three eyed raven” - Bran... Bran as the GRAND MAESTER would make the most sense.

The show was truly about cripples bastards and broken things rising to become something more

So King Bran could be a mass murderer that set up the deaths of untold people but he is really empowering people to fix things??!! Also wasn't King beyond the wall a temporary position made only in a crisis? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that 2nd point but as positive as this video tries to be it really doesn't make season 8 better and has its own holes.

Like what did Tyrion do wrong? Should he have encouraged Daenerys to attack King's Landing right away when concern about harm to civilians was what encouraged him to discourage that idea? Does that mean concern about civilians is wrong somehow?

Should Tyrion have realized Bran was manipulating things and may get his own brother killed? Would it be right for Tyrion to push Bran the Broken down some stairs if he realizes that?

Thank you so much!

You almost touch on something I think is important and haven’t seen anywhere. “The Realm” and it’s population as a group are one of the major characters in the story. I’ve only heard it talked about as a backdrop.

I think Bran will rule from Winterfell, not King’s Landing or Harrenhall.

Always think Bran was the main character, and rewatching the first seasons makes sense. The problem is that the writers didn't have much more material for him...He might have started with the visions in season 5

I've supported King Bran since i first saw it and have had a extremely hard time convincing other people of why it's the perfect ending for Bran and the Seven Kingdoms. Everyone is still on Jon which just would have been generic af.

No you should NEVER join the chorus of (juvenile) fanboy rage bcos clearly you're way more wiser and sophisticated than all those brainless hateful trolls, considering you've been able to figure out so much of what the show has offered. Though I personally believe Benioff & Weiss are genuinely good writers.

Please make more videos I need that

That was convincing to me

I loved GOT season 8.

There is a version of this story that involves Bran becoming King but the execution will be far better, Bran becomes the Three Eyed Raven, does nothing for 2 seasons, and then just gets elected King because "he has a good story" and he's allowed to rule over all 7 Kingdoms despite severwl of them expressing interest in breaking away like Yara, which they even set a precidence for with Sansa. What the North just gets special treatment because they're related to the king? That doesn't make sense since as the Three Eyed Raven Bran would not be biased towards his family since they aren't really his family anymore.

Bran should have been the one leading the war against the Nightking, not literally of course but he should have been the one in charge of the war effort, as his abilities make him uniquely qualified to do so. That would have justified him being king better than, him doing nothing and being given it because "gOoD sToRy". Which was just a really gross way for the writers to aggrandize themselves.

This is the best critique of the last season of GOT I’ve heard. It makes logical sense and explains Bran’s larger role in the series!

Sounds like Game of Thrones is My Little Pony Friendship is Magic in reverse. That cartoons started with restorative justice, but got sloppy and ended with restributive justice. And to me, looked like a good society turning bad by a series of crisis in a short span of 9 years. Here, it seems a bad society goes good by seeing what 303 years of retributive justice brings... the apocalypse. And they survived it and had even fewer chances of defeating the White Walkers then the Windegoes. In MLP, a child is given a fate worse then death and it's written as justice. Olly's death however, is written for sympathy and Jon comes to regret doing it. I guess one could argue his exile is his penance for that.

The night king failed to kill bran...

Nah during the entire show Bran was the one character who had nothing to do with any if the political intrigue not to mention he basically did nothing to earn the throne. Suffering is not enough there are a bunch of characters who have suffered way worse than Bran its not about who deserves the thrones its about whose worthy. Not to mention that Bran isn't even Bran anymore he's some weird eldrich abomination that can see into the past and future and yet did nothing to prevent any of the attrocities that happened deapite being able to melt peoples brains.

Also having Drogon destroy the throne then giving the throne to Bran just completely undercuts the theme of destroying the throne. Its like if at the Lord of the Rings after they destroyed the One Ring then decided to give Frodo another one.

Bran became king for the same reason Arya killed the Night King because subverting expectations was more important than good storytelling.

I understand you want everyone to know what a special snowflake you are but defending blatantly bad writing is just sad and Game of Thrones writing hadn't been good since season 4.

Would have been nice to get to know his motivations or see him do something
But hey, at least they forshadowed him being king a couple so who am I