George R.R. Martin told she was killed by a hearbroken Jon Snow (Kit Harington) who knew that she isn't the kind of ruler the country needs. With that all resolved, the remainder of the show devoted its time to rebuilding, which included choosing a new ruler.
As the powers of Westeros convene to discuss what lies ahead for the country following two bloody wars, their first order of business is decide on their leader. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) made a good case on why Bran is the best choice for the job being the Three-Eyed Raven, and surprisingly, he didn't get much push back from others, except for Sansa (Sophie Turner), who maintained that met with varying reactions from the Game of Thrones fandom, most of them putting the blame on Benioff and Weiss. But apparently, this narrative turn came from Martin himself.
Sitting down with HBO's Making Game of Thrones, Hempstead Wright recalls how he found out that his character will become the king of Westeros as the show ends. He's understandably excited but at the same time skeptical about it. And it didn't sink in until Benioff and Weiss revealed to him that Martin has long planned this for Bran.
I had to physically get up and walk around my flat. I said, “What?! You’re joking.” It was the very last thing I expected to happen. I was convinced they had sent a script to everyone in which they become king or queen, so I still didn’t believe it until the read-through.
But I think he is a great character to take on that role. You never thought of him in that way, but what more could you ask for in a king than to have no personal attachments, no agenda, but have a calm understanding of the entire universe? He’s the ideal person to be in charge.
[Creators] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] told me there were two things [author] George R.R. Martin had planned for Bran, and that was the Hodor revelation, and that he would be king. So that’s pretty special to be directly involved in something that is part of George’s vision. It was a really nice way to wrap it up.
A sizeable chunk of the avid viewers of Game of Thrones were floored when Tryion made the claim that not only does Bran has the best narrative, and that he's also deserving to be king because of his life experiences. And since the finale, fans have been looking forward more to the release of the remaining two novels in the series to see if his ending variation is more acceptable for them. Martin teased that he'll be able to finish The Winds of Winter before summer of next year, further fueling clamor for it. Martin did say that his books will end somewhat similar, but still different to how HBO did it on the small screen.
This isn't promising for those who might be turning their attention to the books to get a satisfying send-off for their personal preference. If Bran being on the Iron Throne came from the author himself, it's safe to assume that his novels won't veer too far away from what the show did, at least in of this particular plot point. This doesn't mean that the books won't be able to provide them then type of storytelling that they wanted from Game of Thrones. With no time and page limit, Martin can better flesh out the characters' journeys to make sure that their respective narrative endgames feel earned.
Source: HBO