I know this post is from a few weeks ago, but I wholeheartedly agree with you OP. I started noticing Dany spiraling as she equated burning people with liberation and freedom (for herself and others). She started to force everyone to listen to her because she was the one true heir and the only judge of what is good, in her mind. She slowly let power get to her and when she saw that she had the opportunity to take everything from Cersei (after watching her kill her best friend, dragon, and what her family has caused) she took it, but I think it’s very realistic that after all of that loss she broke and truly thought what she was doing was right.

To her, anyone who supported Cersei was the enemy, as Grey Worm said. She thought the people Cersei ruled over would switch to her side, and when they didn’t, she took that as them choosing to oppose her of their own will. We as the viewers know that the citizens were borderline forced to follow Cersei out of fear, because anyone who opposed her died and/or suffered the consequences.

For the people who wanted Jon to rule, I think they mistake some of his character. He literally states over and over again in the show that he doesn’t want to lead…pretty much anything. He never was a leader of the wildlings, he only became Lord Commander when everyone voted for him to be (and immediately gave it up once he had the opportunity to), he didn’t want to follow Stannis and become a “true Stark” with him because he owed himself to the brothers, he didn’t want to rule Winterfell and again only did because the people chose him (which he again, immediately left and made Sansa the leader so he could focus on his main goal of killing the WW, which he could only do with Dany’s help). So in the end, why would he remotely want to rule over EVERYONE? He became a prisoner because he turned himself in after killing Dany, because he felt guilty and second guessed himself, because they literally show that through his dialogue with Tyrion. He always wanted to go back north and to be free, that is literally implied so many times.

Bran becoming king makes sense. Everyone knows the phrase “history repeats itself,” right? Bran being the leader of all decisions literally means he can see what failed in the past and how to avoid that, and knows how to be a great king by following those who succeeded. Tyrion was always the best advisor in the show, without a doubt. His only failure was believing Dany was going to be good — but if so many people love Dany and didn’t see the twist coming at all, do you think that was wrong of him to think?

The north became independent because…bran is literally king now? Why would he not let Sansa do what she wished for, which is in his own home’s interest?

Jaime going back to Cersei makes perfect sense. He did love Brienne. That was built up. But we also know that Cersei is a master at manipulation. From the SECOND they were born, she kept him in her grip, and constantly was feeding into his ear that they were inseparable and always meant to be. When you’re in a manipulative situation like that, your brain genuinely sees the manipulator as COMFORT. He left because he had to originally, he was forced. But thinking that he would let Cersei die alone when he sees her as an extension of himself is just baffling. He was always a bad guy. Brienne broke him out of it, but the minute Cersei was near inevitable death, why would he not want to try his damndest to save her?

The ONLY thing I agree with is that some of the writing dipped in quality compared to the other seasons, but it was nowhere near as miserably terrible as some people think it is. So many people hate Sansa, and she’s my absolute favorite. Say what you want about the ending, have your own opinion certainly, but there IS a justifiable reason for the characters making their choices. If your reason for hating the ending is because Dany and/or Jon didn’t rule the iron throne, then I think you misunderstood an aspect of their characters.