About Bran (Spoilers)

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Delran Stark

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In this thread, as the name suggests will be spoilers, so for those of you who have not read AFFC, BEWARE and PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.




Ever since The Red Wedding, I have been wondering about the fate of Bran and The North, and their role in Westeros, if Dany takes The Iron Throne.

Since Rob died, the heir of Winterfell is now Bran. We know that he wanted to become a knight, but will he stand up to Dany for the independece of the North and become King in the North or will he rule the North as his father, as one of Dany's lords?

Share your thoughts please.
 
Delran, God bless you. Don't take TK's post the wrong way. I know it looks like he's raining on your parade, but he's not. He's facilitating discussion and disseminating information.

I swear I feel like a moron when TK does his thing. He's either got a photographic memory or else he's got some super duper search engine that's not available to the rest of us.

My thoughts regarding Bran are few. Eddard claimed Bran was now impotent, thus he'll be excluded from the line of inheritance of House Stark. Since House Stark is now under Royal Attainder (basically... all Starks have been declared traitors to the Crown and all their lands and titles have been stripped, i.e. they can be legally killed on sight), this might be a positive for Bran... he might actually survive. Bran might become the new Aemon. Aemon was passed over in the line of succession and while bound to an oath, he watched the destruction of his family until only he remained with his memories. Bran's parents and brother have already been murdered as traitors and Winterfell has been burned... Will Bran live out his days on the Wall or in the Citadel?

Sure Bran has some part to play in the battle with The Other, but I dunno what it is. Will he be the seer for the good guys? Will he be the one to find the ultimate weapon?

Bran's okay... but since he has little bearing upon the Game of Thrones, I don't pay him much mind.
 
Boaz said:
Delran, God bless you. Don't take TK's post the wrong way. I know it looks like he's raining on your parade, but he's not. He's facilitating discussion and disseminating information.

I swear I feel like a moron when TK does his thing. He's either got a photographic memory or else he's got some super duper search engine that's not available to the rest of us.

My thoughts regarding Bran are few. Eddard claimed Bran was now impotent, thus he'll be excluded from the line of inheritance of House Stark. Since House Stark is now under Royal Attainder (basically... all Starks have been declared traitors to the Crown and all their lands and titles have been stripped, i.e. they can be legally killed on sight), this might be a positive for Bran... he might actually survive. Bran might become the new Aemon. Aemon was passed over in the line of succession and while bound to an oath, he watched the destruction of his family until only he remained with his memories. Bran's parents and brother have already been murdered as traitors and Winterfell has been burned... Will Bran live out his days on the Wall or in the Citadel?

Sure Bran has some part to play in the battle with The Other, but I dunno what it is. Will he be the seer for the good guys? Will he be the one to find the ultimate weapon?

Bran's okay... but since he has little bearing upon the Game of Thrones, I don't pay him much mind.
Click to expand...

insightful, as always, but I need to disagree on a couple of points. First, i don't think the Red Wedding happened beucase the Starks were 'traitors, but rather, becuase the old ******* wanted them dead and this was his way of getting it 'legally' done. The second is about Bran not having a part to play in The game. While i don't see him as becoming king one day, I do think that his abilities will be crucial in reuniting the remaining STark wolf children (those who have wolves0 including Arya. I think he will have a much more powerful role than that of 'seer'. Remember his wolf's name :)
 
Nice one Imp! Go Summer. One question though, Who the hell is the old *******?

And Boaz, I do not recall Ned claiming that Bran would be impotent.
 
If The Imp doesn't mind me speaking for him, I feel confident asserting that 'the old *******' is Walder Frey (probably number one on my ASoIaF dead pool list).

As for Bran's place in the succession, Ned (or maybe Cat) did indeed indicate that Bran would not father any children. So it looks like the Stark's rule, presuming that it continues (which I think I think we all do, Jojen's green dreams are never wrong), runs through Rickon. It really makes me sad that he won't get old enough in this series to become an ass kicking force of destruction. It's too bad.

I do wonder though, where does John fit into all of this. Or, more specifically, what was in that letter Robb sent from Riverrun before The Red Wedding, the one we kept Cat from seeing. The implication is certainly that he's going to make John his heir (and, God knows, GRRM wouldn't dream of misleading us by implication)... but that just opens up a whole new can of worms.

John's in the Night's Watch and has sworn to father no children. But you don't have to look hard around here to find folks who think he's going to end up marrying Dany...Does that fold the Stark and Targs into one awesome house (of ice and fire)?

I guess if I had to guess, I'd bet on John helping continue the Targs while the Stark line continues through Sansa...
 
I also believe Bran will be a major player, maybe not in the game of thrones, but certainly in the great war with the Other. He'll be the one to reunite the old alliances between the children of the forest and men. That or, he'll at least bring back the knowledge of the children back to the world of men.

The role of the Starks and Winterfell will be the first defense (or second if you include the Wall) against the inevitable advance of the Others. The old golds are clearly working through the Starks, supplying them with the wolves to help guide/protect them on their way, and sending the green dreams to Jojen in order to guide Bran to the Children. Unfortunately chaos as torn the Starks and their lands apart.

Bran will never be a maester, they will poison his porridge the first chance they get. Likely he'll form his own new order of druidic followers to pass on the lost knowledge of the Children.

I doubt he has much care for who sits the Iron Throne, his focus is to the north and not the south. However he will see the great advantage of Dany's dragons and will naturally become allies with her I would think. Imagine him warging with a dragon!
 
bran is going to use his warg powers or whatever and control both summer and HODOR and become the only warrior powerful enough to kill franken-gregor.
 
Dooley-

You don't think the Qyborg's fate lies with Sandor, or, far less likely to my mind, Sansa? Why do you think it'll be Bran who who finally finishes The Mountain Who Rides? There's just so much pointing to a final confrontation between the two brothers. Sandor finally found peace with Gregor's death and I think he'll lose when he hears his brother has been unleashed upon the world again.

Given the little bit we know about warging, and considering what we can learn from the Varamyr spoiler prologue, I think it's fair to assume that taking over another human being is bad news and isn't something we should be looking forward to Bran doing with any regularity. Maybe in great need, but I rather doubt it's going to be a regular thing.
 
The Imp said:
i don't think the Red Wedding happened beucase the Starks were 'traitors, but rather, becuase the old ******* wanted them dead and this was his way of getting it 'legally' done.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I'll belabour this, just to show we're arguing semantics. The Starks are good and honorable. The Lannisters (and Freys) are evil, avaricious, self-serving, murderous, manipulative, and power mad @^#*$&'s. But the fact remains the attainder against the Starks was legal. Mayhaps all the steps taken by the Lannisters to retain power were not legal, but GRRM has shown us time and time again that, in Westeros, might makes right.

Woody, I agree that Bran is not... well, umm, sexy (for lack of a better word).
 
Might makes right in Westeros but I think Old Walder may have miscalculated a bit with the red wedding. Boaz, I know you're firmly on the side of the no divine justice in the seven kingdoms but I was sruck on my last reread how closely the red wedding is followed by Bran's story of the Rat Cook, a story who's moral seems to be that there are dire consequences for those who break the rules of hospitality. I'm out of town so I don't have my books with me, but I think the Bran chapter almost directly follows the red wedding. It struck me this time almost as though Martin were reassuring us that the Frey's would pay for their crimes. I also wonder if the Late Lord Frey's constant boasting about his multitude of brats isn't the kind of thing that just screams 'it's ironic that they'll all be dead in a few years.'

I wonder if there's some sort of thematic connection (and this is the first I've thought of it... I haven't really worked it out in my mind and may well be crazy. by all means, let me know if i am) between Craster and Walder Frey. Both old men, prodigously virile, ruling their respective keeps well into their dottage. They're both shrewd politicians known for keeping their options open as long as they can. They both have done some pretty awful things to to maintain their posistion. Craster died in an outburst of violence, no longer able to keep the various hostile forces surrounding him at bay and balanced against one another. Could Old Walder be in for a similar fate. (I'm on record thinking The Others will make it to the Trident, I don't think they'll be very interested in playing Lord of the Crossing with The Late Lord Frey)
 
IlliferThePenniless said:
John's in the Night's Watch and has sworn to father no children. But you don't have to look hard around here to find folks who think he's going to end up marrying Dany...Does that fold the Stark and Targs into one awesome house (of ice and fire)?

I guess if I had to guess, I'd bet on John helping continue the Targs while the Stark line continues through Sansa...
Click to expand...

If you adhere to the R+L=J theory, then Jon already encapsulates houses of both ice and fire...

I'd agree though that I reckon Sansa will return House Stark to greatness (or at least some degree of power). I'm still waiting for her dormant Stark 'kickass-gene' to activate.

Sorry, I digress... as for Bran, I think he will be pivotal in the War against the fall of night. I don't see him joining any pre-existing faction/organisation like the Maesters etc. (except perhaps the crannogmen - who are clearly descended from the Children :) ) but rather think he will be a force in his own right; the Knight of Summer.

I'm still in two minds as to whether he will be a Head of the Dragon or not. I'd agree that it would definitely be cool if he were to warg with one of Dany's dragons. Very cool indeed.

I think the North will be decimated when the Others get past the Wall; the Knight of Summer will face off against the Great Other in a climactic showdown which will be the end of both of them*.

*yeah, you heard me right :). I bet you thought it'd be Jon, eh?
 
I'm with Boaz on this one. I like Bran but his story has always felt very seperate from the intrigue, war and action the other PoVs give us. His role will become much more important towards the end of the series I am sure but every time I get to one of his chapters I feel like that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where they all shout "Get on with it!" to the narrator. :)
 
I agree that his story does seem a little out of place at times, I would attribute it mostly to the "mysticism" that seems to be a major focal point to his character. The rest of the books seem to be a lot more "down to earth" so to speak, whilst the sections about bran are a little of with the fairies. I don't really see him becoming very interesting though, definitely important to the story but not interesting unfortunately for me.
 
As a character POV, I find Sam's far more predictable and dull than Bran's. I think green dreams and warging are cool. Admittedly, Sam has been in a couple of more exciting situations, but I find the whole 'Oh, I'm such a coward' thing incredibly repetitive and uninteresting.
 
OK, fine! Ignore the previous threads.

But, at least consider the following:

1) If Jeyne Westerling is indeed pregnant and gives birth to a son, he will be the rightful heir to Winterfell.

2) What is the value of Robb's decree that Jon become his successor?

3) Go back and reread Bran's third chapter in AGOT. The one with the 3-eyed crow. It is a crucial one.

4) Who is Coldhands? Will he meet Benjen Stark? Will he wake the Children of the Forest?

5) Will he lead the Wildlings? Will he resettle the Gift? Will he seek the defeat the Others?

6) Will he connect with Arya and Rickon (and possibly Jon) through warging?

Who is Coldhands?

Benjen Stark-Coldhand's

Benjen as the Three Eyed Crow?

Horn of Winter or a horn of the Children of the Forest?

Children of the forest

Children of the Forest Question
 
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