Who sits on the Iron Throne? Game of Thrones fans hate the season 8 ending

20 May 2019, 12:58

By Sam Prance

Bran won the Iron Throne in the controversial Game of Thrones season 8 finale...

It's official. Bran Stark won the Iron Throne in the Game of Thrones season 8 finale and viewers are NOT feeling it at all.

Who died in Game of Thrones? Every death in season 8

Ever since Game of Thrones first debuted on HBO in 2011, fans have been desperate to find out who would eventually sit on the Iron Throne. Would Daenerys take the throne she had dedicated her life to winning? Would Cersei stop her in her tracks? Would Jon Snow intervene as the heir to the throne by birth? At the start of season 8 all of these endings seemed possible, there were even theories that the Night King would kill everyone... and yet Bran ultimately came out on top.

How did Bran win the Iron Throne in Game of Thrones season 8?

Game of Thrones: Who sits on the Iron Throne in the season 8 finale?
Game of Thrones: Who sits on the Iron Throne in the season 8 finale? Picture: HBO

At the start of episode 6, Daenerys imprisons Tyrion for committing treason by freeing Jaime. Jon then visits Tyrion in his cell and Tyrion asks him to kill Daenerys to protect the seven kingdoms. Tyrion believes that Daenerys is no longer fit to rule the seven kingdoms because she committed genocide and burnt the citizens of King's Landings. Jon is reluctant to agree and calls Daenerys his queen.

However, after mulling it over, Jon decides to stab Daenerys. Drogon finds out, burns the Iron Throne and flies away with his dead mother in his claw. The episode then cuts to a meeting weeks later at the Dragonpit in which Greyworm brings Tyrion to Sansa, Bran, Arya, Yara, Brienne, Ser Davos, Gendry, Samwell, Yohn, Robin and Edmure to decide his fate and who should rule the kingdoms.

There's various disagreement as to who should rule and then Davos asks Tyrion who he thinks. Tyrion says that stories unite people. He states: "And who has a better story that Bran the Broken? A boy, pushed from the tower, who couldn't walk but learnt to fly; the crippled boy who crossed the wall and became the Three Eyed Raven. He's all our memory. Who better to lead us to the future?".

Sansa initially objects saying that Bran won't be able to father an heir but Tyrion reasons that it's better if a leader is chosen by committee and not by blood. Tyrion asks if Bran will except and he says: "Why do you think I came all this way?" Each of the other leaders then agrees, except for Sansa who says that the North will exist as an independent kingdom... and, ultimately, that is it.

Bran takes Tyrion on as his advisor and the leaders send Jon to live his life with the Night's Watch but the drama over who rules rules the seven (now, six because of Sansa) kingdoms ends. Between there not being an actual Iron Throne (Drogon snapped) to the ease with which Bran was chosen, it's easy to see why people are upset with the ending. Here's how fans are reacting.

Some people are annoyed with the lack of work Bran put in.

Ffsssss.

Others think that Tyrion's reasoning doesn't add up.

Literally anyone.

This all feels a little too familiar.

Help.

Character wise this doesn't make sense.

I see no lies.

Justice for Meera.

Bran literally would be dead if it weren't for Meera.

Shout out to Sansa.

Didn't they tell you she was a savage?

Bran really had some nerve.

Seriously?

In conclusion...

...the cheek of it all.

What did you think of Bran taking the Iron Throne?