[Spoiler] "Burn them all"

[med1]

Hey guys, given the revelations we discovered last night and how the bleeding effect can, quite literally, program an individual (in a sense) do any of you think that the Mad King dealt with a similar issue? By all accounts wasn't the Mad King a decent King who was sane and respectful in his younger years? Point being, for him to go from that to "burn them all" over and over makes me wonder if he once had a similar run in from a greenseer be it on accident or not. 

[Aerys Blackfyre]

maybe bran will try to warn him about the white walkers: burn them all!

[House Cambodia]

It seems far fetched, but given what we've just learned, how about Bran tries to warn Aerys about something quite sensible and rational, but Aery only hears part of the sentence, those 3 key words out of context.

I hope not, I dislike this time travel plot cop out, but I wouldn't rule it out now.

[TheRevanchist]

1 hour ago, House Cambodia said:

It seems far fetched, but given what we've just learned, how about Bran tries to warn Aerys about something quite sensible and rational, but Aery only hears part of the sentence, those 3 key words out of context.

I hope not, I dislike this time travel plot cop out, but I wouldn't rule it out now.

I dislike time travel, but I think that it was done well here. It is a closed loop, so the past cannot ever be changed.

Bran will whisper to the mad king about the Others invasion and that he should prepare to burn them all, but the Mad King will hear only whispers and 'burn them all' effectively making him the mad king and setting the events of the Robert's rebellion.

[Lordsteve666]

It's an interesting idea isn't it. 

Last episode introduced Ned's father so could it be we'll be treated to a vision of what happened in Kings Landing to start the whole rebellion off?

If that vision coincided with Bran getting attacked in the future we could see a similar bleeding effect. 

But I think really this whole thing was a way of showing us how Bran's abilities have unintended consequences, which he clearly isn't prepared for. We saw how upset Bran looked once he realised what he'd done. It shows how he's not fully in control of his powers yet. He heard Meera shouting for the door and told Hodor to hold it by warging him, forgetting he was in the past at the same time and so accidentally screwed up the poor guy when he was a child. 

[Gala]

2 hours ago, Lordsteve666 said:

It's an interesting idea isn't it. 

Last episode introduced Ned's father so could it be we'll be treated to a vision of what happened in Kings Landing to start the whole rebellion off?

If that vision coincided with Bran getting attacked in the future we could see a similar bleeding effect. 

But I think really this whole thing was a way of showing us how Bran's abilities have unintended consequences, which he clearly isn't prepared for. We saw how upset Bran looked once he realised what he'd done. It shows how he's not fully in control of his powers yet. He heard Meera shouting for the door and told Hodor to hold it by warging him, forgetting he was in the past at the same time and so accidentally screwed up the poor guy when he was a child. 

I agree.

But both Walder and Hodor had normal eyes, not when he is warged, I mean. (if I am not mistaken, as I can be, because I am still in shock)

[mattnj81]

I would say no. Targs were well known for their incestuous behavior and the mental issues that came with it. Remember Cercei's line "Every time a Targ is born the god's roll the dice" - I may not have that quote exactly right but that was the point. But who knows, maybe they show will go that way and not the books, or vice versa.

[AryaNymeriaVisenya]

Some people are mentally unstable, some people are mentally damaged, its not all magic.

[ricardoromell]

38 minutes ago, AryaNymeriaVisenya said:

Some people are mentally unstable, some people are mentally damaged, its not all magic.

Exactly see Aerion Targaryen, died drinking Wildfire, thinking it would make him a dragon. There is a bit lunacy in the lineage and incest doesnot help the gene-pool. Also imagine Bran having to live with the blood of his uncle and father on his hands in the event of the whispers going wrong. 

[The Imp slap]

It could be the 3eR learning his craft, trying to reason with his great great great great great nephew after he killed Rickard and Brandon and realizing that he, too, wouldn't be able to change the past by becoming the reason it all happened. 

[Lord Lannister]

45 minutes ago, ricardoromell said:

Also imagine Bran having to live with the blood of his uncle and father on his hands in the event of the whispers going wrong. 

He already cost Hodor his life in every measurable sense. I don't think a possible plot course will be decided against simply because it would cause said character mental trauma. It's not like Bran hasn't been subject to a lot of mindscrews already. We still haven't seen HIS reaction to the hold the door revelation.

7 hours ago, House Cambodia said:

It seems far fetched, but given what we've just learned, how about Bran tries to warn Aerys about something quite sensible and rational, but Aery only hears part of the sentence, those 3 key words out of context.

I hope not, I dislike this time travel plot cop out, but I wouldn't rule it out now.

Well I wouldn't call it a cop out. Brynden told Bran that time is set in stone, the ink is dry. What he's going to do has already been done in that sense. Hodor had been hodoring longer than Bran had been alive. I don't think we're going to see any, Bran does this and everything else is changed. I'd agree that would be a cop out.

As to Aerys, I could see it possible. The best argument against it I can think of is the notion that Bran would chose Aerys II out of all the people across time to try and get to combat the White Walkers. It's a bit fuzzy, and maybe the books will clarify this one day, but I think also Bran would need access to the person in the present as well as in the past to make any changes, perhaps a bridge as it were. That's why young Ned only heard a whisper in the wind. So that would limit his options beyond the mad king as well.

[GeorgeIAF]

27 minutes ago, The Imp slap said:

It could be the 3eR learning his craft, trying to reason with his great great great great great nephew after he killed Rickard and Brandon and realizing that he, too, wouldn't be able to change the past by becoming the reason it all happened. 

This. If the Mad King went mad because of someone warging him/hearing someone who said those words (i really don't believe this), it is more likely that it was BR who went in the past to warn him. 

I think he simply went mad, he isn't the first Targaryen to endure this fate and exhibit this behaviour. I think this is a result of incest being a rather common tradition in their family. 

[Jon Snow Bengal]

Maybe some Targaryens are easily warged and those are the ones who go mad?

 

Well.... pretty far fetched but could happen... and I'll throw in some flying ice pigs while I'm at it

 

[The Imp slap]

8 minutes ago, GeorgeIAF said:

This. If the Mad King went mad because of someone warging him/hearing someone who said those words (i really don't believe this), it is more likely that it was BR who went in the past to warn him. 

I think he simply went mad, he isn't the first Targaryen to endure this fate and exhibit this behaviour. I think this is a result of incest being a rather common tradition in their family. 

Agreed. It seems far-fetched, a little redundant if it were the 3eR and too much if it were Bran who would probably decide to kill himself at this point. 

[Masha]

4 hours ago, Gala said:

I agree.

But both Walder and Hodor had normal eyes, not when he is warged, I mean. (if I am not mistaken, as I can be, because I am still in shock)

Actually they did have warg eyes. First Hodor, when he is just sitting there in trees rocking back and forth, Meera screams at Bran to do something and Hodor eyes go white and he gets up into action. 

Then THAT scene, Wyllis looks away then his eyes go white and he turns and sees Bran and collapses.

Its just their eyes don't stay white (I think) they go blink - white, blink-normal again. 

That means that Bran somehow established conduit between Wyllis and Hodor and then didn't even had to maintain the warg state is was unbroken.

 

re: Aerys, I can see similar scene in the present as Bran is attacked by WW and there is screaming going on "burn them all", Aerys starts repeating it and then freaked out young Jaime stabs him.

[ShadowKitteh]

6 hours ago, AryaNymeriaVisenya said:

Some people are mentally unstable, some people are mentally damaged, its not all magic.

[Ice Spider]

11 hours ago, ricardoromell said:

Exactly see Aerion Targaryen, died drinking Wildfire, thinking it would make him a dragon. There is a bit lunacy in the lineage and incest doesnot help the gene-pool. Also imagine Bran having to live with the blood of his uncle and father on his hands in the event of the whispers going wrong. 

Technically that's not possible, as then bran would disappear, having never been born. That's the problem with this whole can or worms they just opened up. Being able to see the past is one thing, but to interact with it quite another.

[Ice Spider]

Why would Bran Warg Aerion? Makes no sense, the timing is wrong. Aerion died before the WW's became a threat. Seems he would pick a current character like Dany?

[LadyTTargaryen]

I kinda like this theory, but I see it in a different way. I think it was the 3ER who influenced Aerys, but not to "alert" about the WWs, the purpose was pretty much terrible.

I think Aerys was really mentally unstable and the 3ER increased this with the whispers. Anyway, the fact is "burn them all" was the exact quote he used continuously until Jaime got tired of this sh** and killed him.

Then Jaime became the kingslayer, the knight who broke his vows, a man without honor. Even he began to think like that, we know how Ned's thought hit him, and he really embraced it. 

3ER needed a remorseless man, he couldn't be ordinary, had to be one that was in the right place at the right time. So why Jaime?

Bran needed to find Summer first for obvious reasons and there wasn't enough time between it and the arrival of the crown in Winterfell. The time to strike was now before Bran leaves the north with his father and sisters. Thus, the 3ER built and brought a man without honor to make his dirty job, causing a crippled kid, preventing Bran to go south and opening his third eye.

The 3ER knew that time would probably find a way to kill Aerys, make Robert the new king and Ned be chose as the hand anyway, so he just used it in his favor... 

I know it seems too much, but come on! He did the same game with Jojen and  Hodor "for the great good" as we assume.

 

Ps.: this is just my second comment here, sorry about my bad english. I'm trying...  

[Blade of Sunlight]

I don't think so, from the world book we know that from a young age Aerys was always very proud and megalomaniac, none of his grand projects (which he never followed up on) were related to the WW as far as we know (they may be tangentially related I suppose).

His madness appears to be present in since his birth, but it started to develop more when he started to distrust Tywin, this could be Bran whispering in his heart, but it seems far more likely to stem from Aerys own insecurities when compared to a man everyone saw as an excellent ruler. This was exacerbated further when rumours that the smallfolk though Tywin ruled the real in all but name, which prompted the proud Aerys to slight and oppose his friend as often as he could, reaching his climax in the defiance of duskendale.

After his captivity and torture it's seems only natural that this borderline personality would snap, becoming the mad king we know and hate.