You know what Game of Thrones scene I think about the most is? It’s not the Red Wedding, or Ned Stark’s execution, it’s not Dany burning King’s Landing, or Tommen jumping from the tower, it’s not Jamie getting his hand cut off or telling Brienne about the Mad King, it’s not any of that. It’s not even Bran saying he came all this way just to be King, right at the very end. It’s the scene directly before that, when Tyrion Lannister tells the Lords and Ladies of Westeros to choose their new ruler and Samwell Tarly pipes up that maybe they should let everyone have a say in who rules them, aka the smallfolk and everyone… laughs and looks at him like he’s insane. Lord Royce of Runestone makes jokes about asking the opinion of his dogs and his horse, as if they are equivalent. Robin Arryn is laughing right along with and even Sansa and Arya have something of a patronizing look on their faces that is honestly just so disappointing, because I adore those girls. Chalk it up to the GOT ending being bad in general, but I think this goes deeper and shows something really real about how little the smallfolk actually mattered to the main characters in the grand scheme. By the end, almost none of them are left. Varys spent his life serving them and only them, trying to make sure the right ruler ended up on the Iron Throne to serve the People’s best interest. Beric Dondarrion was a Lord, but the Brotherhood Without Banners had no allegiances to any of the great houses, they fought for the weak and the innocent and dolled out justice to those who had always escaped it in the past. They are dead, so they don’t get to see their life’s work mocked so openly. What’s funny is two former peasants are present in this scene and they make no reaction, despite having a history of being critical of their overlords and that’s Davos and Gendry. Sure, Ser Davos has had a longer time of being the Onion Knight and knows what the nobles and like and mostly roles with it, but Gendry had been Lord of the Stormlands for all of… what? A month? And yet it’s Sam, Sam who was born to a powerful and wealthy house in the Reach, who until he was cast out by his father grew up expecting to inherit a Valyrian Steel sword and rule over Hornhill. Sam who stood up for a Wildling girl when no one else would, who saved her baby and raised him completely as his own and is now going on to have his own trueborn child with her, but that doesn’t make Little Sam any less his child. Samwell Tarly, often treated as a joke, despite all he has done for the Realm is treated as a joke, yet again, one final time and thus, we now have Bran the Broken. Sure, he can’t have children so we don’t have to worry about him spawning a Joffrey when he dies, but how long do Three-Eyed Ravens live? That may be stopping the wheel, but it is by no means breaking it. (Let’s be clear, Daenerys had no intention of breaking it, either. Clearly.) They are stuck with Bran for who knows how many centuries and for the time being, that’s fine, but while we can argue all day long about how Bran may be ‘the true villain’ of the series, you can’t argue that he is, very admittedly, not Brandon Stark and is simply inhabiting his body. Meera was right. He died in that cave. Yes, it may have been necessary for… the plot or whatever. (I think it may have been better just to sacrifice Bran and burn his body, depriving the Night King of his powers, but that’s a different convo). Whatever he is now is something very removed from humanity and that in and of itself is dangerous. As ridiculous as it may have been with the North being the only independent kingdom, Sansa had to right idea wanting no part of it. Anyway, I am getting off topic, the point is that for all that happened, they really didn’t learn anything, in the end, because the wheel is still there and always will be and the smallfolk will always be the ones being crushed by it, while getting no say in their own lives. Most will live and die as normal, sure, but then there are those like Hodor whose entire existence is erased in service of the glory of Bran.