Can Bran influence the future when he enters the past?

[FingerlittleGood]

The show said the Ink has dried with the past but Bran being able to sort of communicate with the past such as his father hearing his voice at the TOJ do any of you think he will be able to change future events with what he does in the past? I might be over thinking on this or again maybe him entering the past is just a way to tell the secrets of past events

[Ser Hyle]

No, he can't. "The ink is dry." Any future events that have been changed by travelling into the past have already been changed. 

[Khal Pod]

hidden content has to do with Jon's 7th chapter in A Clash of Kings, I've copied and pasted the synopsis from the wiki as a refresher or to bring those of you who don't care about spoilers up to speed. I also mention some content from A Dance with Dragons. Ye be warned

Jon tells Qhorin Halfhand what Ygritte said to him about Mance Rayder accepting him if he ran off. Qhorin confirms this. He knew Mance when he was a black brother, and the ranger tells Jon that Mance loved songs and wildling women, and that he was a wildling captured as a child by the Watch. He was the best ranger they had, but he returned to his roots, some say to gain a crown. Qhorin suspects that Jon let Ygritte go, and Jon confirms that he did, however Qhorin understands that the girl was not a threat, and if he had wanted her dead he would have had Ebben do it, or have done it himself. Qhorin tells Jon that he now knows him better than he did before, and that it is important for a commander to know his men.

They travel at night and rest during the day. That morning, Jon dreams of five direwolves, when there should have been six. Seeing through the eyes of Ghost, he finds himself in a forest and senses a voice calling his name from a nearby weirwood with a face resembling his brother's, except it has three eyes. His brother explains to him how to open his eyes, and the tree reaches down and touches him, and he finds himself back in the mountains. He is atop a cliff, and oversees thousands of men training for combat. He also sees mammoths with giants riding them. Suddenly, an eagle soars out of the sky coming straight for him. Jon awakens shouting Ghost’s name. The others hear his shout, and he tells them what he saw. Qhorin calls it a wolf dream, and Ebben calls Jon a skinchanger. Qhorin, however, does not balk at the thought of wargs and giants during a time when the dead walk and the trees have eyes again. They set out just before dusk, and spot an eagle watching them, well out of bowshot.

Soon after, they find Ghost wounded and dress the direwolf's wounds. Qhorin tells them they must head back to the Fist, for they have been seen by the eagle which they fear is a skinchanger as well. They begin the journey back through the Skirling Pass without lighting any fires despite the cold. But their lead on the enemy is shortening, and when they come upon the place where the wildlings were killed, Squire Dalbridge remains behind with all their arrows, sacrificing himself to give the others an advantage.

so that's the synopsis, the emboldened part is what I want  to talk about. At this point in the book series, Bran is still in the crypts of Winterfell, and as far as I can tell, doesn't have the ability to skinchange into weirwoods. Which makes me wonder, can Bran affect the past? Does he at some point in the future skinchange into that specific weirwood tree, and see it's entire life as he did the heart tree in Winterfell? During which, he would see Ghost pass by and reach out to him. I'm kind of just spit-balling at this point, but I think this should be considered when trying to determine whether Bran can affect the past.

[Forlong the Fat]

12 minutes ago, Khal Pod said:

hidden content has to do with Jon's 7th chapter in A Clash of Kings, I've copied and pasted the synopsis from the wiki as a refresher or to bring those of you who don't care about spoilers up to speed. I also mention some content from A Dance with Dragons. Ye be warned

 

  Hide contents

Jon tells Qhorin Halfhand what Ygritte said to him about Mance Rayder accepting him if he ran off. Qhorin confirms this. He knew Mance when he was a black brother, and the ranger tells Jon that Mance loved songs and wildling women, and that he was a wildling captured as a child by the Watch. He was the best ranger they had, but he returned to his roots, some say to gain a crown. Qhorin suspects that Jon let Ygritte go, and Jon confirms that he did, however Qhorin understands that the girl was not a threat, and if he had wanted her dead he would have had Ebben do it, or have done it himself. Qhorin tells Jon that he now knows him better than he did before, and that it is important for a commander to know his men.

They travel at night and rest during the day. That morning, Jon dreams of five direwolves, when there should have been six. Seeing through the eyes of Ghost, he finds himself in a forest and senses a voice calling his name from a nearby weirwood with a face resembling his brother's, except it has three eyes. His brother explains to him how to open his eyes, and the tree reaches down and touches him, and he finds himself back in the mountains. He is atop a cliff, and oversees thousands of men training for combat. He also sees mammoths with giants riding them. Suddenly, an eagle soars out of the sky coming straight for him. Jon awakens shouting Ghost’s name. The others hear his shout, and he tells them what he saw. Qhorin calls it a wolf dream, and Ebben calls Jon a skinchanger. Qhorin, however, does not balk at the thought of wargs and giants during a time when the dead walk and the trees have eyes again. They set out just before dusk, and spot an eagle watching them, well out of bowshot.

Soon after, they find Ghost wounded and dress the direwolf's wounds. Qhorin tells them they must head back to the Fist, for they have been seen by the eagle which they fear is a skinchanger as well. They begin the journey back through the Skirling Pass without lighting any fires despite the cold. But their lead on the enemy is shortening, and when they come upon the place where the wildlings were killed, Squire Dalbridge remains behind with all their arrows, sacrificing himself to give the others an advantage.

so that's the synopsis, the emboldened part is what I want  to talk about. At this point in the book series, Bran is still in the crypts of Winterfell, and as far as I can tell, doesn't have the ability to skinchange into weirwoods. Which makes me wonder, can Bran affect the past? Does he at some point in the future skinchange into that specific weirwood tree, and see it's entire life as he did the heart tree in Winterfell? During which, he would see Ghost pass by and reach out to him. I'm kind of just spit-balling at this point, but I think this should be considered when trying to determine whether Bran can affect the past.

 

What you quote there is certainly consistent with Bran interacting with the past.  But what the Hodor episode seems to tell us is that acting in the past won't change Bran's present, as the effects of those actions will have already occurred.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

6 hours ago, FingerlittleGood said:

The show said the Ink has dried with the past but Bran being able to sort of communicate with the past such as his father hearing his voice at the TOJ do any of you think he will be able to change future events with what he does in the past? I might be over thinking on this or again maybe him entering the past is just a way to tell the secrets of past events

He can't change the past through his interactions with it.  In his future he already has effected events in the past.

Stated another way, past events can't be altered.  What remains to be seen is how his interaction with those events shaped them.  Hodor is a perfect example.

[Byfort of Corfe]

One of the conundrums in "Time Travel" as a plot device is creating the new time line and destroying the old.  Perhaps Hodor was, in an alternate time line, perfectly normal (or normal for a big strong stable boy) and that reality existed until the moment that Bran intervened in the past creating the time line that we "know" to be correct.  The instant that the change is made the new timeline supplants the old.  In some works of fiction the person travelling in time is somehow protected (more precisely his memory of events is protected) and he "remembers the original, now extinct, timeline as well as the changes he caused.  So to put it in context "Hodor" could have been a perfectly normal person, helping Bran as Osha was helping Rickon, but when Bran "time traveled" and warged into him in the past he created the Hodor that we came to know and love, Bran might know both the old and new realities but, since he had seen Hodor in his earlier form talking the likelihood is that Bran would only "know" what we "know".  So Bran might be ale to affect the past but as soon as he does it becomes the new reality.  I'm just putting this out there as a possibility.

[FingerlittleGood]

3 hours ago, Ser Hyle said:

 

Yea I guess what I'm trying to say is the scene were his father heard him speak and stopped... He can some-what communicate with the past so  in Hodor case his destiny/future was set when he was brain fried by Bran in the present at that moment in his past. So is the future basically already written  since Bran had to fry his brain for him to become Hodor in the past. Will Bran be able to do something to change the future from future A to Future B with something he does in the past... I might be thinking to much into it and Bran going into the past is nothing more than telling the secrets of the past

[Gertrude]

The future is (sort of) unwritten. I know it gets complicated, but this is my simplistic way of looking at it.

There is a critical piece of information Jon needs to know to beat the White Walkers. He can talk to him through the greendreams/wierwood at a point in the past where he will be receptive to it. That will change the future events. He could also send him a letter with the same information right now and that would change future events. Of course, going the mystical route might actually be quicker or more reliable, but it has the same effect as Jon getting that letter at the right moment.

Basically I think Bran can change the future as much as any person can change the future. I tell you there's a traffic jam on the highway, so you take a different route to work - I changed a possible future outcome (you being late). We do that everyday, but we never think of it in terms of changing the future. It's just cause and effect.

Yeah, it gets muddied, but basically all Bran is doing is transmitting information and people are acting on that information. When and how he does so isn't as important as the fact that he does.