I imagine you're not here right now if you haven't seen it yourself. But just in case, this is where my thoughts stop being spoiler-free.
I will concede that as with several elements this season, the plot developments were good ones, even if the moves to get there weren't as skillful as some might have hoped. I think the biggest example of this was the rise of Bran to lead the remaining Six Kingdoms. It seems like a reasonable choice at like a reader/viewer level, but Tyrion's speech was hardly the most persuasive argument for it. If it's just about who had the best, most transformative "story," then any one of the surviving Starks would easily compete. (And not coincidentally, nearly all of them ended up ruling somewhere.)
No, I think the most compelling arguments for Bran would be that he's demonstrated himself the least bloodthirsty of the surviving characters. After a catastrophe like the destruction of King's Landing, that would seem to be the most compelling criterion. The fact that he could "research" any crisis throughout all of history to see how it (or anything similar) was handled? Also fairly compelling. Assuming you trust his judgment, anyway.
And that's the area where I wish a little more connective tissue could have been laid in for us. I could see why Tyrion and Samwell might support Bran for King. But there really isn't any established relationship with any of the other characters on that dias with him. I mean, weeks did pass after Dany's murder, so maybe Bran went around after arriving in King's Landing, giving his creeper stare to everyone and making believers of them. But we have to imagine how this all came to pass, adding facts not really in evidence. And that's especially a bummer given the fact that Bran's own sister was unwilling to support him as her ruler. In any plausible political reality, that feels like all the excuse someone ambitious would need to pitch a fit and sow discord.
Still, Bran felt like a decent choice, even if it wasn't perfectly depicted. Certainly, it's good that he served a purpose in the narrative beyond being bait for the Night King. It felt right for Sansa to get her own throne as Queen in the North, and for Jon to become, essentially, King Beyond the Wall. It also felt right for Arya not to end up in charge of anyone or anything -- sure, she recently steered away from vengeance, but it wasn't that long ago she was poisoning a whole room full of people. If Daenerys isn't fit to lead, neither is she. (I was less persuaded that Arya had expressed any past wanderlust that set up her ending, but a friend convinced me that it was more present in the books.)
The element that I think most needed space did get it: the death of Daenerys. The hour led off with Jon and Tyrion's horrified reaction to the destruction, and then we got a solid one-on-one scene between them where Tyrion made argument after argument as Jon still tried to parry them away. But just enough got through Jon's thick head so that in his scene with Dany, he could be pushed that last step. Emilia Clarke made the best of a truly tough monologue, speaking as though everything she was saying was perfectly rational. Perhaps the most subtle and skillful line of the episode was when Jon alluded to all the other people who think they're doing the right thing: an accusation of Dany not quite phrased as one. I think they earned Jon's reaction in their two key scenes. (Grey Worm's comparitive non-reaction to Dany's death? Maybe not so much. But, again narratively speaking, no one really needed another big battle at this point, did they?)
Otherwise, the episode was filled with nice symbolism and some good moments. Samwell naively pitching the idea of democracy and getting laughed down by the nobles was gold, a great acknowledgement of one of the fan theories that had been making the rounds. The destruction of the Iron Throne: on the nose, but necessary. Jon holding Daenerys as he once held Ygritte (and being far more personally culpable in the death): a nice dramatic echo. Drogon riding off with Daenerys' body: a fitting final image for her. Tyrion being chosen as Hand after so many blunders made me shrug at first... until I considered that Bran really doesn't need advisors, he just needs middle managers. Tyrion's fate is arguably more a punishment than anything else, and a cleverly subtle one at that.
Bottom line? We got an ending. And I'll offer this one more Game of Thrones theory: I doubt George R.R. Martin will ever finish A Song of Ice and Fire himself. So I'm extra happy we got this. And yes, far less down on the final season than most corners of the internet seem to be. My grade for the finale: a B. Yes, it could have been better. It could also have been much, much worse.
Like I said at the beginning: right now, I'm mostly satisfied.
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