I was overall satisfied, but the show's apparent disinterest in exploring the scope of Bran's powers and the implications thereof is perhaps its biggest remaining weakness now that it's all wrapped up. It's HEAVILY implied that he is capable of seeing the future, which means that free will is an illusion and all events are predestined to happen. That's an incredibly heavy and important issue to just shrug off. We've seen him literally affecting past events from the present; are the Tower of Joy and the creation of Hodor the only two times that has ever or will ever happen, or are there countless moments throughout their history that he had a (witting or unwitting) hand in? Does he actually care in any way about doing good, helping people, ruling justly, etc., or is he just seeing to it that events play out the way they're meant to play out? These are earth-shatteringly huge questions in the context of the overarching story, and the show seemed content to just kind of say, "Don't worry about it."
This may be a disappointment, but I think we're supposed to understand that Hodor and Tower of Joy are the only times Bran has influenced the past. He was a novice and being rushed through training. Now as the actual Three-Eyed Raven, I'm sure he's a lot more careful. You're right that it would have been nice to dive deeper into all of that. How would it actually fit into the narrative of Season 8, though, unless Bran is using time travel to ensure that everything plays out correctly? I don't think we want that, because it would rob our characters of agency in the final stretch. We do get a hint about Bran's philosophy of free will when he tells Jon "it's your choice."
Since my last post I learned that Vanity Fair was told by a show source that Bran is in fact able to see the future to some extent. Which is kind of nuts. And if that is true, they would need a whole other season to explore it. I don't think that's something you can just dip your toes into. You either leave it mysterious and unsaid or go fully off the rails.
With Bran, the writers knew the implications but didn't have the balls to strongly state this about their potentially immortal, omniscient, 'ends justify the means', mind-controlling, time-warping demon god. Or they simply didn't give this enough thought. Like Martin told them but they didn't really get it and just went with it because this plot point is the answer to series-long 'who gets the throne' question.
"Demon god" is a bit strong; I think we are really supposed to read him as benevolent. I do hope GRRM has more time to explore Bran's powers, though.
It's funny that the extent of Bran's powers is not interrogated in that meeting; it's probably in the Starks' interest to not say "FYI we might be ruling for a thousand years."
I get that Yara had good reason to be loyal but I couldn't take Yara's impassioned vengeance seriously after she meekly submitted to Stark rule after Tyrion's rambling about stories. She had been granted independence earlier in the series by Dany and now she submits to the Starks instead of angrily walking out and claiming independence like Sansa. Not to mention, she should look around the city and see what freeing the city of from Cersei resulted in. Statements about freeing people from tyrants are a bit silly considering Dany's actions. But this may simply be the result of Ironborn stupidity.
I don't see any reason at all to believe Yara's deal for independence is not being honored by Bran.
I viewed Yara as ambivalent in that scene. On one hand, she is upset about her queen being assassinated, and she wasn't there to see what happened in the battle. On the other hand, she probably understands that Daenerys went too far. That reasonably adds up to ambivalence. I guess ambivalence reads as dispassion, because she's not given much time to express her feelings in the scene.
And that the other leaders so easily accepted him is a bit surprising.
I count 16 people at the meeting, and 10 of them are either Starks or loyal to the Starks. (This is even assuming that all the people we can’t identify or get a read on are NOT loyal to the Starks.) So it seems abundantly clear that a Stark is going to end up on the throne.
Bran is a fantastic choice not just for the reasons Tyrion lays out, but because there just aren't any obvious candidates present (as Edmure demonstrates), and because Bran has a claim to Winterfell that he hasn't exercised, i.e. clearly has some place in the political system if he will accept it.
This is actually a breathtaking power grab by the Starks. They pretty much rule the continent from north to south.
