Yeah, the Bran stuff is the major only conclusion I have a problem with. Not the fact that he's king, but more how it comes about. You could say I liked the idea but didn't like the execution.
He's not human and is therefore unable to be corrupted as man would be, so him being chosen as ruler makes sense. I also like the idea of his powers remaining ambiguous because it's the right sort of thing to leave open to interpretation -- I'm not sure there's any way to explain them and have it be satisfying. As far as I've managed to work out from things he both did and didn't say after becoming the Three-Eyed-Raven, he can see everything in the past and present ("I can see things that happened in the past. I can see things happening now all over the world"), but only fractions of the future ("It's all pieces, fragments"). That's enough for me to go away happy.So, with that in mind, why did they have him say "Why do you think I came all this way?" I can explain it for myself by saying it's just Bran accepting his obligation, but unless you're like me and willing to put background work in (re-watching, reading scripts, etc.), it implies that he foresaw Dany's downfall and allowed it to happen. I'm not sure that was their intention at all because the mood of his coronation is generally optimistic. If they'd intended to make him more sinister they'd have gone for a different musical cue instead of a celebratory variation on the Stark theme. There's a scene they cut out of the series finale where Bran allows a bug to crawl over his hand and away to safety, mirroring Tyrion's story about his cousin remorselessly smashing beetles, and it perfectly explains the kind of king he'll be, but having him suggest that he somehow foresaw his coronation leaves a question mark where there just doesn't need to be one.
Also, I think, on a re-watch, I found the tonal shift between Dany's death and the election scene to be really jarring. Within the space of a single scene they went from completing the tragic downfall of a main character, condemning the corruption, pain, and impulses that took her to her grave, to suddenly welcoming a bright and lovely vision for the future. I didn't think the pacing in season 8 affected whether the plot made sense to me, but it definitely prevented the characters from being able to properly ruminate on things in the moment. After 'The Long Night' I'd have really appreciated some time to reflect with the characters about the major battle they'd just survived, but the next episode kinda forces you towards King's Landing in a hurry. The same thing happens in the last episode -- I wanted to feel upset about Dany's death for a second, not be whisked into the future before I was ready.
That's not to say I didn't feel anything. I still think the last 4/5 episodes were bold and risky and I get quite a lot of poignant and honest feelings out of them (and I appreciate that D&D are very much "show don't tell" storytellers). But still, even making the last season be eight episodes long would have made a nice difference for me in that regard. I don't think Dany's downfall would have been easier to stomach because genocide is genocide and there's no way to rationalise it no matter how much time you spend on it, but splitting 'The Last of the Starks' and 'The Iron Throne' into two episodes each would have just felt less like they were travelling at speed. The clues are all there in the dialogue and everything makes sense, but the lack of time we get to reflect on the story's major beats is what stopped it from being a genuinely brilliant experience.
I feel like there's a perception of me on here that I think the last season was perfect but, like, it wasn't, it was pretty good and I was happy with that. Pretty good is still pretty good.
When I talk about D&D "cutting corners" I meant less about the mysteries and theories they left unexplained and more about the storylines they hoovered up just before the end so they could narrow the focus of the story. Second-tier houses like the Freys, Martells & Tyrells were wiped out in single strokes; Essos, the Vale & the Iron Islands were left behind after season 6; characters had their stories combined; we were asked to presume that people were too frightened of Cersei to revolt after the Sept explosion etc. The fact D&D finished their story while George struggles to open his third act suggests such corner cutting was a necessary evil. Some of my satisfaction from the final season comes from being convinced that there was no way to end a story this big, with so many variables and possibilities. Unbelievably, it made sense to me and I thought it actually had something to say. I think that's something worth commending, so I do.
I hope when they were brought into the Disney meeting room before being told to bugger off they were given bread and salt.