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Will bran leave the cave?


King17

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I tend to be on team forever-in-the-cave, although I admit that I haven't given it as much thought as some people have.  I've always gotten the impression that both the Children and Bloodraven intend for Bran to take the latter's place, and I'm inclined to believe that he'll eventually accept.  He'll never walk, but he'll fly; he'll never rule Winterfell or physically reunite with his family, but he'll transcend the regular human experience and become something close to a god.

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I want to say yes but the more I think about it the more I wonder, what's the point? If he can go into 'Tree mode' in a warded cave then he already has more power and freedom than anyone else we know. At least, that's the way it seems. On the journey up, he was constantly being reminded how useless his body had become and wanted to remain in Summer (iIrc). 

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I don't see him leaving. 

He choose to become the winged wolf and gave up being Bran the crippled boy.  He is set to become an Old God and assist everyone from a distance.  If we do continue to get chapters from him they will likely be info-dumps, revealing the mysteries of the world's past.  Though at this point we could technically stop getting his point of view and just see him when he choses to interact with one of the other PoV characters like what we say in Theon's chapters in ADWD.

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While all indications, hints, and inference do lead to the obvious endpoint of Bran remaining in the cave, grown into a weirwood tree, that does end his story for the most part.  A bit player in everyone else's tale, but his has ended, in effect.  He's become little more than the occational info-dump to the reader, maybe use bloodline link to the Starks, BranVisions, bring the family together, coordinate the fight against the Other..... and that is the point of his tale?  What was the point of his arc?  Kinda unsatisfying to me, as a reader.

Now, if the the process of his training, Bran begins to guess at or understand the true purpose of Bloodraven, the CotF, or both combined, and the boy finds that purpose doesn't appeal to him, what next?  Being a boy, my guess is he'd rebel against authority and attempt to escape the influence of BR and/or the CotF.  Now we have an interesting continuation of Bran's tale, as he and companions work to return home and tell what he'd learned to those whom can take action.  Or at least, BranVision folk into taking that action.

He chased a dream, found a horror, and attempts to escape and return home, while being pursued by CotF and Other/White Walkers.  But now he's got the powers of the last greenseer, so the fight would be somewhat even.  Moreso if a certain valerian blade is found in the caves also.

It makes for an interesting thought experiment.

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No, he ate the weirwood paste to start his merger with the tree. He will be able to see the outside via Hodor but that will be it 

Just one bowl!  You think one bowl is enough to bond him permanently to the tree?

Nope, he won't get out.

As lots of the Stark children, he has taken a very dark path.

It looks that way.  That makes Bloodraven a dark/bad guy.

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I really hope he gets out of the cave. As some one else stated its more from a human experience standpoint than any plot reason. I mean sheesh is he even 12 yet? Hasn't even hit puberty & he's going to be stuck in a tree for the rest of life, which may be hundreds of years if Bloodraven's age is any indication. At least Bloodraven got to live his life before he was relegated to a tree. From a plot standpoint I don't really see how he has a choice but to stay in the cave. At some point it's going to be too difficult to carry him back & forth from the cave if that's where he's needs to be to access all his powers. Maybe it's possible that he doesn't need to stay in the tree to have full access to his powers, but just needs to be there to learn from Bloodraven. Maybe he can still have access to all these powers from the gods wood in Winterfell. Idk. Just trying to think of a way where this poor kid isn't stuck tied to a tree for the rest of his life.

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In mind? yes. In body? Never. He will grow into the tree and become the new "god" watching over Winterfell for a thousand years.

Sadly this does seem like the case. 

Seated on his throne of roots in the great cavern, half-corpse and half-tree, Lord Brynden seemed less a man than some ghastly statue made of twisted wood, old bone, and rotted wool. The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire, surrounded by twisted roots and tatters of leathery white skin hanging off a yellowed skull.

The sight of him still frightened Bran--the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been. 

...

One day I will be like him. The thought filled Bran with dread. Bad enough that he was broken, with his useless legs. Was he doomed to lose the rest too, to spend all of his years with a weirwood growing in him and through him? Lord Brynden drew his life from the tree, Leaf told them. He did not eat, he did not drink. He slept, he dreamed, he watched. I was going to be a knight, Bran remembered. I used to run and climb and fight. It seemed a thousand years ago.

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While all indications, hints, and inference do lead to the obvious endpoint of Bran remaining in the cave, grown into a weirwood tree, that does end his story for the most part.  A bit player in everyone else's tale, but his has ended, in effect.  He's become little more than the occational info-dump to the reader, maybe use bloodline link to the Starks, BranVisions, bring the family together, coordinate the fight against the Other..... and that is the point of his tale?  What was the point of his arc?  Kinda unsatisfying to me, as a reader.

Now, if the the process of his training, Bran begins to guess at or understand the true purpose of Bloodraven, the CotF, or both combined, and the boy finds that purpose doesn't appeal to him, what next?  Being a boy, my guess is he'd rebel against authority and attempt to escape the influence of BR and/or the CotF.  Now we have an interesting continuation of Bran's tale, as he and companions work to return home and tell what he'd learned to those whom can take action.  Or at least, BranVision folk into taking that action.

He chased a dream, found a horror, and attempts to escape and return home, while being pursued by CotF and Other/White Walkers.  But now he's got the powers of the last greenseer, so the fight would be somewhat even.  Moreso if a certain valerian blade is found in the caves also.

It makes for an interesting thought experiment.

I think something like this is much more likely than simply staying in the cave.  For all practical purposes, the cave is a dead end in terms of character development, so I can't really see him staying.  I think he learns something useful, maybe about greenseeing, and then rejoins the main plot.  I predict he will be at Winterfell before the end of the series, maybe even before the end of TWOW.  I think the chances of staying in the cave through the series are roughly zero.

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Sorry, can't quote outside the statement.   That bowl of weirwood paste was only supposed to bring Bran's abilities to the front and allow him to make his journey through time.   It's not gluing him to the tree.   We've got Bran as our 1st chapter there is no way this most powerful greenseeing warg will be left in a cave.  He's got adventures to have.   He's more powerful than even BR suspects and BR is pretty powerful in his own right.   I will venture to state that Bran is The Main Character in this story.   He didn't spend 3 books getting to the cave to just stay there fixed.    We have this excellent and spooky story about Gorne's Way and a missing ancestral Targ sword for crying out loud.   As to having all his adventures in Hodor, no way.   Bran's already got dangerously close if not into Meera's head.  Without trying even.   He's got a special saddle.  Perhaps not on him at the moment, but it is possible for him to travel without occupying Hodor.   I'm looking forward to traveling Gorne's way with Bran. 

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Physically? I'm leaning towards no. I think his goal has always been to reach the cave to fulfill his greenseer destiny. He'll leave the cave by warging animals and people but I don't believe he'll be carried out of there. It took too long to get him in the cave in the first place.

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