Broken and Sullied

So Game of Thrones finished its TV run last night and now we have the complete story arc from beginning to end. Some thoughts have been floating around my head since. I don't want to get into critiquing the execution or providing any real critical commentary, just thematic ponderings and vague ideas. One way some of the story's lessons might be interpreted.

One of the more famous lines to emerge from the story is, "I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things." Spoken by Tyrion (who has dwarfism), it shows up early in both the books and the show, and the last part is the title of show episode four. One might also say, with hindsight, that it is the proper motto for the story and the featured Stark family.

Using in-world terminology/biases, you might describe our bloody and beaten survivors as inheriting ruins. A time of greatness is over. The dragons have died or fled; the supernatural terror from the north is destroyed, the legendary wall is broken, and magic is largely gone. The great warriors, heroes, and legends are dead. Mountains no longer ride as men. The exotic foreign armies have returned across the sea. What is left instead? A cripple on the throne. A misshapen dwarf as Hand. The Small Council includes a famous coward, a thieving highwayman, a smuggler, and a woman. A bastard sits in Storm's End; the Eyrie has a simpleton, and Highgarden a base crook. The rightful king has abdicated his responsibilities for a life in the wild. All we have now are the broken and sullied--both rulers and ruled. These are the dregs.

The story begins centered on Neddard Stark and family as apparent protagonists and heroes. Then he dies and they splinter. The show finally concludes with his remaining children front and center. That arc was in doubt right up until the conclusion, but now we know: this is the heart the of the Stark family story, that they are the rightful rulers of cripples, bastards, and broken things.

That's what I take away from it, anyway, which leaves me with one big question. Is that message the story's point because it wants us to believe:

A. That is what all stories are in the moment and only grow into mythical status as memory fades; or

B. That is what the Starks are and all they are fit to rule; or

C. That is what the breaking of the wheel of tyranny looks like and things have settled closer to its rightful place, with these characters the most fit to oversee a better world?

Thoughts?