Game of Thrones: who should have sat atop the Iron Throne

Game of Thrones has now finished. After revealing that Bran would be the new King of Westeros, fans of the show couldn't help but voice their disappointment. With such great characters with different back stories, The National writers have rounded up choices for who we think should have sat atop the Iron Throne. Sansa Stark - can I just leave it at that? Okay, I'll elaborate. Sansa has throughout the show been subjected to horrific actions by others (Joffrey, Cersei, Little Finger and Ramsay Bolton to name a few), and she has always drawn the raw end of the stick. Bran is so meh, Arya had her moment when she slayed the Night King, so if the Starks are going to be the chosen ones, the obvious choice should've been Sansa. In the beginning of this season, she showed up, owned her title, she bit back and spoke up when it came to the 'mad queen,' formerly known as Dany. I do feel like the development of Sansa's character was somewhat neglected in the latter part of the season though. In my opinion, she was the most graceful and deserving character to sit on the throne. She seemed to agree - she loved her brother, but simply could not accept him as her king, so her actions thereafter are palatable, but still. Bran, really? Also, Sophie Turner is boss, even if she gave a lot away on Monday mornings on her Instagram account. Jason Von Berg, Mobile App Editor I'm not going to lie to you. I was utterly underwhelmed by the ending of Game of Thrones . After investing more than 73 hours of my life watching this show I had really hoped for more. Bran the Broken as king? No thank you. He has all the personality of a sheet of cardboard. And the fact that he announces he knew he would be king all along ("why do you think I came all this way?") frankly irritates me even more. Thanks so much for sharing, Bran. You could have done the decent thing and saved a few hundred thousand lives, but no, you had to keep it to yourself all these seasons and reveal it in your usual creepy way. So who does that leave? Agreed, Daenerys was too sadistic. But I wouldn't have been happy with Jon Snow either – he was too much of a wet blanket. I liked Arya, but she was too wild, while Sansa was a little too hard for my liking. There was however one character that was truly deserving of the role: Tyrion. Wise, genuine and always striving to do the right thing, it should have been him. Gillian Duncan, news reporter There’s only one character who should have ended up on the Iron Throne, and that is Jon Snow. He is the rightful heir and it would be the natural conclusion to his story arc. He defended the realm of men from the existential threat of the white walkers (let’s not get into the terrible way the show got rid of them) and sacrificed his personal happiness for the sake of the kingdom by killing his lover (spoiler, it’s Daenerys). Instead, someone who has no business ruling anything except an eye-rolling contest sentences him to exile. Still, at least his arc ended slightly better than Jaime Lannister’s. Michael Coetzee, sub editor ________________________ A look at the Game of Thrones main characters over the years: ________________________ Drogon should have been made the king. Yes, the dragon. And why not? Dragons don’t have political aspirations or dreams of colonisation. They’re big and scary as it is. We know that the king’s council runs the kingdoms anyways so having a dragon as a king is the ultimate power symbol. The throne was the main cause behind all the power plays and infighting the show has witnessed, and now with it completely melted down, the best choice would have to pick the thing that melted it down. Arise (or don’t, it’s up to you) King Drogon. Faisal Salah, social media journalist Basically, Arya just saved the whole of humanity when her – admittedly improbable – leap of faith saw her kill off the Night King and his undead hordes. Nobody else was going to do it – not brave Jon Snow, or redeemed Theon or goldfinger Jaime Lannister. Without her heroism, there’d be no one left to sit on the Iron Throne. Plus, since the actual true heir to the throne doesn’t want the job, at least we’d be keeping it in the family, even if it’s not quite the way we thought. She has at least a tenuous blood connection, which is a big deal in Westeros. So it would have been nice to see her sit her on the throne, and if you didn't like it, chances are she could have slit your throat in the dead of night before you could have even complained about it. Chris Newbould, Arts&Lifestyle writer Maybe I’m taking the easy way out but with all this death and destruction – isn’t it obvious that the best person for the Iron Throne is, well, no one. I'll go one step past having a dragon as king and say that having a ruler just isn't necessary. I think Drogon was closest to explaining it with that heartbreaking scene in which he witnesses Daenerys dead body and decides the only rightful thing to do is melt and destroy the Iron Throne. After all, with such great power, how can Westeros really be safe from instability and conflict if everyone is fighting over who should sit in the chair to begin with? If needed, call upon the king's council to come together for decisions but there’s no need to have it be through the Iron Throne. Evelyn Lau, assistant features editor ___________________ Read more: ___________________

Game of Thrones: who should have sat atop the Iron Throne

Whether it was Sansa or Jon Snow, there were plenty of suitable choices to sit on the Iron Throne