Power of Stories- What did Game of Thrones Want to Say with ‘Bran the Broken’?

Bran Stark or The Three-Eyed Raven becoming King of Six Kingdoms was probably the most surprising moment in the last season of Game of Thrones. And even book readers were shocked when they heard that this is how George R.R. Martin plans to end his book series. But why Bran? What did the story want to say with it?

If I’m allowed to talk about my personal experience with the story, I must say that I thought that the endgame ruler would be predictable. Either Jon or Daenerys, maybe Sansa or even no one. And when I say no one I don’t mean Arya Stark, but no ruler at all, but separated kingdoms. Over the years there were many memes how Hodor or Hot Pie will end up on the Iron Throne. Game of Thrones was unpredictable show by its nature so it was normal that some people thought that even endgame ruler will be unpredictable, yet I wasn’t one of those people. There are not so many feasible characters for the role right? So you can imagine my shock when I heard leaks that Bran Stark will be the first elected king of Westeros. Wait, what? How? Why? But once I started thinking about it after the final episode, it all made perfect sense and now I can’t imagine any other person in his position that would fit themes and messages of the story this well.

A lot of popular and mainstream fantasy stories glorify the idea of birthright. Rightful heir coming to take the throne is a trope we saw in many stories, from The Lion King to Lord of the Rings. In Game of Thrones we also had right of conquest, so the fans endlessly argued for years and decades what is more important. Is Dany still the rightful heir or Robert’s right of conquest is more important and we established a new continuity with Baratheons? So that means that Stannis is the one true king, but can Renly use right of conquest against his own brother? And if the right of conquest is more important does that mean that the Boltons are now the legitimate rulers in the North? Or Jon should be king of them all because he is Rhaeger’s son? It’s a mess. But a very intentional mess. It’s there to show the flaws of this whole…