After All the Major Deaths in Season 8, Game of Thrones Reveals the New Leaders of Westeros

The final season of Game of Thrones has finally arrived, but after all of the murder and mayhem that has plagued Westeros, does it really matter who sits on the Iron Throne when it’s all said and done? The series finale attempted to address that conundrum, presenting a new series of rulers for the continent after most of the major figureheads in the Seven Kingdoms were all murdered for myriad reasons.

We’ve seen the leaders of Dorne, High Garden, the Iron Islands, the Vale, and Casterly Rock perish over the last few seasons of the series, leaving inexperienced heirs or no heirs at all to their domains. But the final episode of the series introduced a new gathering of leaders, a “council” of sorts, that has unified in the wake of the chaos spread by Cersei Lannister, the Night King, and Daenerys Targaryen.

Bronn of the Blackwater is given domain over Highgarden, Yara Greyjoy assumes rightful command over the Iron Islands, and Robyn Arryn is recognized as the head of the Vale. Storm’s End also gets appointed a key leader with Gendry Baratheon being recognized as a rightful heir instead of being a bastard.

This council is the closest thing to democratic rule as Westeros is going to get, as even these lords and ladies still don’t think ruling decisions should be left to the public. But it also shows that the Seven Kingdoms are working together for a greater good with the confidence of each other to back them up. Everyone other than Robyn has been shown to be level headed, so we look forward to the eventual Arryn’s Rebellion in a spinoff that has yet to be approved by HBO executives — but they’d be stupid to leave this on the table.

The series also established a new king moving forward, and it’s hard to think of anyone better than Bran Stark leading the way. The man is basically omniscient and has eyes everywhere; who needs Varys when you can just Warg into any damn creature you need to?

It’s an insane ending to Game of Thrones, but it’s the ending the citizens of Westeros deserve after putting up with so much nonsense since the Targaryens started ruling.

The final episode of Game of Thrones just aired on HBO. What did you think of the finale? Let us know in the comments!