Who will end up on the Iron Throne? (Game of Thrones)

[Mr. Morden]

No one will, and it's not clear to me that Westeros will have a single ruler.

[Mr. Morden]

No one will, and it's not clear to me that Westeros will have a single ruler.

But a show of the theme is how they're stronger united.

It even goes back to that Robert-Cersei conversation in Season 1. Robert asks Cersei if Five Armies or One Army is stronger. Cersei says Five. Robert shows his 5 fingers, says "five armies," then makes a fist and says "one army." Jon is all about uniting people against the true threat, and being willing to bend the knee.

For me, the show is more about how destructive the power struggle is.  The most fitting end for the story, IMHO, is that Westeros is placed under some kind of rule by committee, rather than a single monarch.

[Mr. Morden]

Dany ending up as ruler of Westeros is the dumbest possible ending.  The Iron Throne is something that she's hoped to gain for for most of the series, so the ending is that she does indeed get it?  Boring.  What is her character arc then?  She learns how to be a better ruler?  Again, boring.  Somewhat better would be her having to make a choice between gaining the throne and something more important (e.g., the survival of the human race).

I guess Jon ending up on the throne would be a little better, but still not my preferred outcome.  If anyone's going to end up as a monarch at the end (and I still think it's possible that no one will), my preference would actually be Sansa.  Her arc would be that she got what she wanted from the beginning (to be queen), but not under the circumstances that she wanted, and only after all of her fantasies about the royal life have been shattered.

Yes, I just said that a similar arc would be dumb for Dany, but that's because Dany has already been a Queen for half the series, so I don't think it works the same for her.  It would work better for Sansa, if they're going to go that route with anyone.

[Mr. Morden]

Dany ending up as ruler of Westeros is the dumbest possible ending.  The Iron Throne is something that she's hoped to gain for for most of the series, so the ending is that she does indeed get it?  Boring.  What is her character arc then?  She learns how to be a better ruler?  Again, boring.  Somewhat better would be her having to make a choice between gaining the throne and something more important (e.g., the survival of the human race).

I guess Jon ending up on the throne would be a little better, but still not my preferred outcome.  If anyone's going to end up as a monarch at the end (and I still think it's possible that no one will), my preference would actually be Sansa.  Her arc would be that she got what she wanted from the beginning (to be queen), but not under the circumstances that she wanted, and only after all of her fantasies about the royal life have been shattered.

Yes, I just said that a similar arc would be dumb for Dany, but that's because Dany has already been a Queen for half the series, so I don't think it works the same for her.  It would work better for Sansa, if they're going to go that route with anyone.

Before we talk about character arcs, let me remind you that one of the show-runners (David Benioff) is a man who has been quoted as saying "Themes are for eighth grade book reports."

Yes, but Martin told them about how he's ending the series, so unless Martin is a liar and Benioff and Weiss are both liars, they have a thumbnail sketch of Martin's intended ending.  Thus, it's very possible that at least for things like which main characters live or die and who rules Westeros at the end of the story, the show will take cues from Martin's version of the story.

[Mr. Morden]

It's weird, but the thing I found more offensive out of all the illogical stuff was precisely making Bran king. There's just so many reasons as to why that is A. a terrible idea, B. makes no narrative sense, and C. there's no way the Lords of Westeros would willingly go along with it that it's really hard to believe that's the choice for king in the end.

Particularly coming from a story which actually tries - at least in the books - to address political consequences, which alone would make King Bran a nonstarter. 

The selection was so weird that it got me hoping that there'd be a last minute reveal that he used some kind of enhanced warging / mind control powers to convince them to pick him, and that this was some final Revenge of the Children of the Forest, where they had incepted their master plan into his brain to control humanity through him.