Brans' skin is changing... what now?

[The Fattest Leech]

First: I am admitting upfront that I am making some rather bold statements in the post below which may or may not be true, but we should speculate the hell out of them anyway

George has done an excellent job of breadcrumbing the story with historic hints and clues from the past that we can use to help predict the future of the story. And we fans have written a bazillion threads trying to pick up all of those breadcrumbs in attempt to put the loaf back together just to see how it slices up after. And AFFC/ADWD left off with every main POV balancing on a fence of which they could fall one way or another.

But something odd is happening to Bran that does not seem to get much attention. I have mentioned this every so often along the way in other threads, most recently my Pinocchio thread, but I would like to get more "general" input here. My apologies of this has already been talked about ad nauseam before.

• Bran is already turning in to a tree! 
• Is it too late for him to pull back??? 
• HOW???

 

From the Pinocchio thread, also linked to at the bottom if you want to see how that chat progressed:

Remember this from the Land of Toys in Pinocchio? And the Land of Toys is a cover for a slave trade.

Located in the fictional land of Cocagne, Pleasure Island serves as a haven for wayward boys and girls, allowing them to act as they please without recrimination. However, the truer and more sinister purpose of Pleasure Island is eventually revealed as it begins to physically transform the boys and girls into donkeys, apparently by means of a curse.

Oddly enough I also think Bran may have to kill Bloodraven. Maybe not quite like this, but maybe more to save his own life. To me, it seems like Bran is already to turn into a tree, starting with his face,  after he ate the weirwood paste (Jojen paste) and he started to have stronger visions he comes back to now and has this little experience. This could be like Pinocchio turning into a donkey in the story. However, Pinocchio does end up escaping. Will Bran?

A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

First we have this:

Something in his voice sent icy fingers running up Bran's back. "Time for what?"

"For the next step. For you to go beyond skinchanging and learn what it means to be a greenseer."

"The trees will teach him," said Leaf. She beckoned, and another of the singers padded forward, the white-haired one that Meera had named Snowylocks. She had a weirwood bowl in her hands, carved with a dozen faces, like the ones the heart trees wore. Inside was a white paste, thick and heavy, with dark red veins running through it. "You must eat of this," said Leaf. She handed Bran a wooden spoon.

 

~~~and then~~~

 

Bran's throat was very dry. He swallowed. "Winterfell. I was back in Winterfell. I saw my father. He's not dead, he's not, I saw him, he's back at Winterfell, he's still alive."

"No," said Leaf. "He is gone, boy. Do not seek to call him back from death."

"I saw him." Bran could feel rough wood pressing against one cheek. "He was cleaning Ice." (<<<mind you, Bran is back in real time here and he feels wood on his face)

"You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw."

"A man must know how to look before he can hope to see," said Lord Brynden. "Those were shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood. Time is different for a tree than for a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak. And the weirwood … a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood, and through such gates you and I may gaze into the past."

 

~~~and then this closes out that chapter, which is Bran's final scene in ADWD, which means new growth in TWOW?~~~

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand.

"No," said Bran, "no, don't," but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth … but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

[End scene and Bran chapters]

 

So, if weirwood sap is like blood, and Bran could taste the blood, is this Bran turning into a tree on the inside as well??? Yes, speculation, but drawn from the book speculation.

 

How Bran describes his new world and Bloodraven:

• The roots were everywhere, twisting through earth and stone, closing off some passages and holding up the roofs of others. All the color is gone, Bran realized suddenly. The world was black soil and white wood.
• A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow.
• 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.

ADDING: Could this be in some small, twisted way related to what Melisandre sees in her ADWD chapter? Could we readers be misinterpreting what we think Mel sees just as poorly as Mel interprets her visions herself? Mel does ask IF this is the enemy. She does not say it is for sure, but she does have a curious physical reaction after her vision.

• ADWD/ Bran III: A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow. A little skin remained, stretched across his face, tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying, and here and there the brown and yellow bone beneath was poking through.
• ADWD/Mel: A face took shape within the hearth. Stannis? she thought, for just a moment … but no, these were not his features. A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled.

The red priestess shuddered. Blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. The fire was inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, transforming her. Shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin, insistent as a lover's hand. Strange voices called to her from days long past. "Melony," she heard a woman cry. A man's voice called, "Lot Seven." She was weeping, and her tears were flame. And still she drank it in.

• And it seems as though you do not have to be Brynden Bloodraven RIvers to have a thousand eyes.
  ADWD/Bran III:  [Bran]"I thought the greenseers were the wizards of the children," Bran said. "The singers, I mean."
  [BR] "In a sense. Those you call the children of the forest have eyes as golden as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or green as the moss on a tree in the heart of the forest. By these signs do the gods mark those they have chosen to receive the gift. The chosen ones are not robust, and their quick years upon the earth are few, for every song must have its balance. But once inside the wood they linger long indeed. A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. Greenseers."

When I started that Pinocchio thread last year, I was not being totally serious in thinking that it would point to any long-term plot development... but I may have been wrong. Remember, George will never use a story straight one to one. He will twist the end to make it his and butter it up to fit into his world. Also, Bran is my favorite Stark, but George is writing his own story, not one tailored for a mere reader.

Bran likes it in the dark, as he told Jon. Bran likes to trick the others he is with and ride Hodor, even though Hodor does not care for it. Bran tries to reach out and slip into Meera, but he can't quite do that yet. He was told several times not to climb at WInterfell, and yet he did repeatedly. He was told not to stay too long in Summer, yet he did. Now Bran seems to have already begun his skin change into a tree, like the boys in to donkeys when they ate and drank and partied too much in the folktale.

George is not shy about doing some unexpected things to his main protagonists (even killing them), both in ASOIAF and throughout his entire career as a prophet, so this could get tricksy.

 

P.S.

This IS NOT a Bran hate/is evil thread. Please keep to the subject at hand.

[The Fattest Leech]

@TyrionTLannister Here is the thread I promised.

[Tom Cruise]

How can Bran ride a dragon if he is a tree????  Kinda joking, but I always felt that the special saddle design Tyrion made for Bran would eventually be used to saddle him to a dragon.  See if there were more than 3 dragons we could imagine all kinds of new dragon riders.  

 

Is there any text that describes Bran's features as changing to tree like?

[The Fattest Leech]

12 minutes ago, Tom Cruise said:

How can Bran ride a dragon if he is a tree????  Kinda joking, but I always felt that the special saddle design Tyrion made for Bran would eventually be used to saddle him to a dragon.  See if there were more than 3 dragons we could imagine all kinds of new dragon riders.  

 

Is there any text that describes Bran's features as changing to tree like?

Yes, there is text, the Dance/Bran III quote above. 

I always figured that the saddle Tyrion concocted was to show he would one day ride a dragon. Bran got his saddle already for his "Dancer", now Tyrion needs one for his "dance... of dragons".

[Tom Cruise]

Just now, The Fattest Leech said:

Yes, there is text, the Dance/Bran III quote above. 

I always figured that the saddle Tyrion concocted was to show he would one day ride a dragon. Bran got his saddle already for his "Dancer", now Tyrion needs one for his "dance... of dragons".

Wow, totally went by me that Bran's horse was named Dancer.  It's the little details that keep giving back...

 

None of the text above describes Bran as starting to look like a tree....  Am I missing something? 

[The Fattest Leech]

28 minutes ago, Tom Cruise said:

Wow, totally went by me that Bran's horse was named Dancer.  It's the little details that keep giving back...

 

None of the text above describes Bran as starting to look like a tree....  Am I missing something? 

It's that little detail that when Bran gets back from seeing through the tree, he has the wood pressing against his face. And possibly the first description of his throat was very dry, kinda like a plant that has not been watered in ages.

[Curled Finger]

Ah more great minds thinking alike, @The Fattest Leech!  I started a Bran thread only last night.   Now then, I read your OP with great interest because Bran is on my mind...and you do tend to really think things out before posting a topic, so you're on my "really interesting" list of posters.    I see where you've made connections and understand your conclusion.   I am thinking the greenseers are required to both take pieces of the things they skinchange as well as leave pieces of themselves.  I'm sort of digging the idea that Bran will consciously take on the memories of the trees.  But this is more symbolic than you are suggesting.  Did Mel's vision of the tree and boy and wolf have any influence on you in picking this idea up?   

[zandru]

Seriously? I've always interpreted Bran "feeling rough wood pressing against his face" as meaning he was leaning against the weirwood roots or other structure down in the cave. If wood were "pressing against" him, it would by definition be SEPARATE from him. If his face were becoming wood, it would cause his face to feel a numbness.

Now, we know that the 3EyeCrow has sat in his weirroot throne for so long, the roots have grown up through him. But HE hasn't "turned to wood" or turned into a tree or anything in over 50 years. Bran has been there a matter of days, maybe weeks. What could explain such a different effect? Moreover, if Bran were a tree, he wouldn't "like the dark" - trees live by photosynthesis. They're not mushrooms.

Sure, when looking through the eyes of a weirwood, Bran can taste the blood soaking into the earth. When he's in Summer's body, he can also taste the flesh that Summer eats. Does this mean Bran's regular human body is growing fur and developing four (working) legs? Hardly.

I think you're reading too much into this.

[The Fattest Leech]

13 minutes ago, Curled Finger said:

Ah more great minds thinking alike, @The Fattest Leech!  I started a Bran thread only last night.   Now then, I read your OP with great interest because Bran is on my mind...and you do tend to really think things out before posting a topic, so you're on my "really interesting" list of posters.    

Aww, shucks. Thanks

Quote

 

I see where you've made connections and understand your conclusion.   I am thinking the greenseers are required to both take pieces of the things they skinchange as well as leave pieces of themselves.  I'm sort of digging the idea that Bran will consciously take on the memories of the trees.  But this is more symbolic than you are suggesting.  Did Mel's vision of the tree and boy and wolf have any influence on you in picking this idea up?   

I am replying real quickly at the moment because I have to go feed the two and four legged animals here right about now, but, I actually did not even get to the Mel wooden face thing yet. Thanks!!!! That seems to add to it. I just picked up on it during an "accidental" re-listen in the car the other day.

I will look into that and add it to the main post.

(I meant to start the chapter before this one, but accidentally selected this one and just went with it. The line about the wood on the face just stood out to me like it never had before)

THIS Mel quote:

A face took shape within the hearth. Stannis? she thought, for just a moment … but no, these were not his features. A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled.

[Curled Finger]

Feed the masses and I will wait here patiently for more conversation.  Upon your return I would like to see the text quote and your take on it in relation to this.   It's an interesting (as usual) idea, Leech.  

I'm relistening to American Gods these days.   My phone is a touchy Samsung.   I swear you hit a pothole and skip 2 chapters.   Listeners have different ideas about out story.   Knowing you are among the listeners only doubles the anticipation.   

[The Fattest Leech]

6 minutes ago, zandru said:

Seriously? I've always interpreted Bran "feeling rough wood pressing against his face" as meaning he was leaning against the weirwood roots or other structure down in the cave. If wood were "pressing against" him, it would by definition be SEPARATE from him. If his face were becoming wood, it would cause his face to feel a numbness.

Now, we know that the 3EyeCrow has sat in his weirroot throne for so long, the roots have grown up through him. But HE hasn't "turned to wood" or turned into a tree or anything in over 50 years. Bran has been there a matter of days, maybe weeks. What could explain such a different effect? Moreover, if Bran were a tree, he wouldn't "like the dark" - trees live by photosynthesis. They're not mushrooms.

Sure, when looking through the eyes of a weirwood, Bran can taste the blood soaking into the earth. When he's in Summer's body, he can also taste the flesh that Summer eats. Does this mean Bran's regular human body is growing fur and developing four (working) legs? Hardly.

I think you're reading too much into this.

Remember, Bran is in many ways more gifted than Bloodraven. Bran is doing things both before he gets to the cave and during that BR says take a long time to achieve.

And this actually fits entirely with George's repeated themes both in and out of ASOIAF that religion consumes- both mentally and physically. The fire consumes, the water consumes, etc... and the wood consumes. Feed the tree.

[The Fattest Leech]

24 minutes ago, zandru said:

Seriously? I've always interpreted Bran "feeling rough wood pressing against his face" as meaning he was leaning against the weirwood roots or other structure down in the cave. If wood were "pressing against" him, it would by definition be SEPARATE from him. If his face were becoming wood, it would cause his face to feel a numbness.

Now, we know that the 3EyeCrow has sat in his weirroot throne for so long, the roots have grown up through him. But HE hasn't "turned to wood" or turned into a tree or anything in over 50 years. Bran has been there a matter of days, maybe weeks. What could explain such a different effect? Moreover, if Bran were a tree, he wouldn't "like the dark" - trees live by photosynthesis. They're not mushrooms.

Sure, when looking through the eyes of a weirwood, Bran can taste the blood soaking into the earth. When he's in Summer's body, he can also taste the flesh that Summer eats. Does this mean Bran's regular human body is growing fur and developing four (working) legs? Hardly.

I think you're reading too much into this.

Also, I am not so sure that Bloodraven, any previous greenseer, and now Bran did not also start growing as the tree themselves. The thrones are made for them from cut(dead) bits and pieces of tree on top of roots, but as with trees in real life, that is also (roughly) how two trees are bound together to make a new tree.

And BR is described as having a wooden face by Mel, if that vision was not of Bran.

Where do the roots and new growth come from if the throne is built?

[Meera of Tarth]

2 hours ago, The Fattest Leech said:

George has done an excellent job of breadcrumbing the story with historic hints and clues from the past that we can use to help predict the future of the story. And we fans have written a bazillion threads trying to pick up all of those breadcrumbs in attempt to put the loaf back together just to see how it slices up after. And AFFC/ADWD left off with every main POV balancing on a fence of which they could fall one way or another.

But something odd is happening to Bran that does not seem to get much attention. I have mentioned this every so often along the way in other threads, most recently my Pinocchio thread, but I would like to get more "general" input here. My apologies of this has already been talked about ad nauseam before.

• Bran is already turning in to a tree! 
• Is it too late for him to pull back??? 
• HOW???

 

From the Pinocchio thread, also linked to at the bottom if you want to see how that chat progressed:

Remember this from the Land of Toys in Pinocchio? And the Land of Toys is a cover for a slave trade.

Located in the fictional land of Cocagne, Pleasure Island serves as a haven for wayward boys and girls, allowing them to act as they please without recrimination. However, the truer and more sinister purpose of Pleasure Island is eventually revealed as it begins to physically transform the boys and girls into donkeys, apparently by means of a curse.

Oddly enough I also think Bran may have to kill Bloodraven. Maybe not quite like this, but maybe more to save his own life. To me, it seems like Bran is already to turn into a tree, starting with his face,  after he ate the weirwood paste (Jojen paste) and he started to have stronger visions he comes back to now and has this little experience. This could be like Pinocchio turning into a donkey in the story. However, Pinocchio does end up escaping. Will Bran?

A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

First we have this:

Something in his voice sent icy fingers running up Bran's back. "Time for what?"

"For the next step. For you to go beyond skinchanging and learn what it means to be a greenseer."

"The trees will teach him," said Leaf. She beckoned, and another of the singers padded forward, the white-haired one that Meera had named Snowylocks. She had a weirwood bowl in her hands, carved with a dozen faces, like the ones the heart trees wore. Inside was a white paste, thick and heavy, with dark red veins running through it. "You must eat of this," said Leaf. She handed Bran a wooden spoon.

 

~~~and then~~~

 

Bran's throat was very dry. He swallowed. "Winterfell. I was back in Winterfell. I saw my father. He's not dead, he's not, I saw him, he's back at Winterfell, he's still alive."

"No," said Leaf. "He is gone, boy. Do not seek to call him back from death."

"I saw him." Bran could feel rough wood pressing against one cheek. "He was cleaning Ice." (<<<mind you, Bran is back in real time here and he feels wood on his face)

"You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw."

"A man must know how to look before he can hope to see," said Lord Brynden. "Those were shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood. Time is different for a tree than for a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak. And the weirwood … a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood, and through such gates you and I may gaze into the past."

 

~~~and then this closes out that chapter, which is Bran's final scene in ADWD~~~

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand.

"No," said Bran, "no, don't," but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth … but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

 

 

When I started that Pinocchio thread last year, I was not being totally serious in thinking that it would point to any long-term plot development... but I may have been wrong. Remember, George will never use a story straight one to one. He will twist the end to make it his and butter it up to fit into his world. Also, Bran is my favorite Stark, but George is writing his own story, not one tailored for a mere reader.

Bran likes it in the dark, as he told Jon. Bran likes to trick the others he is with and ride Hodor, even though Hodor does not care for it. Bran tries to reach out and slip into Meera, but he can't quite do that yet. He was told several times not to climb at WInterfell, and yet he did repeatedly. He was told not to stay too long in Summer, yet he did. Now Bran seems to have already begun his skin change into a tree, like the boys in to donkeys when they ate and drank and partied too much in the folktale.

George is not shy about doing some unexpected things to his main protagonists (even killing them), both in ASOIAF and throughout his entire career as a prophet, so this could get tricksy.

 

P.S.

This IS NOT a Bran hate/is evil thread. Please keep to the subject at hand.

mmm personally I can't discard the fact that he might me "turning into something" but that would be a first stage of a greenseer, not a greenseer as a tree. I think the process takes years, as the training, although we know Bran is specially talented.

As for if he will escape this destiny, I'm totally sure, to a certain extent. If he knows he is turning into a tree, he'll try not to be totally transformed.

In Bran III we have this paragraph:

Quote

 

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.

What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins. He had thought the three-eyed crow would be a sorcerer, a wise old wizard who could fix his legs, but that was some stupid child's dream, he realized now. I am too old for such fancies, he told himself. A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. That was as good as being a knight. Almost as good, anyway.

 

He expresses his discomfort to this by by lying to himself that this life is as almost as good as his dreams, but it's very clear he doesn't want that at all. Then, when he skinchanges Hodor in order to be come near to Meera end explore the caves, that is another sympton of him regretting his forced present of becoming a greenseer like BloodRaven.

So, I think there are a lot of chances of him actually not fulfilling it, even if there are bad consequences.

 

 

[The Fattest Leech]

30 minutes ago, zandru said:

Seriously? I've always interpreted Bran "feeling rough wood pressing against his face" as meaning he was leaning against the weirwood roots or other structure down in the cave. If wood were "pressing against" him, it would by definition be SEPARATE from him. If his face were becoming wood, it would cause his face to feel a numbness.

Now, we know that the 3EyeCrow has sat in his weirroot throne for so long, the roots have grown up through him. But HE hasn't "turned to wood" or turned into a tree or anything in over 50 years. Bran has been there a matter of days, maybe weeks. What could explain such a different effect? Moreover, if Bran were a tree, he wouldn't "like the dark" - trees live by photosynthesis. They're not mushrooms.

Sure, when looking through the eyes of a weirwood, Bran can taste the blood soaking into the earth. When he's in Summer's body, he can also taste the flesh that Summer eats. Does this mean Bran's regular human body is growing fur and developing four (working) legs? Hardly.

I think you're reading too much into this.

Sorry, not trying to bombard you with separate responses. My time is just broken up right now.

As to the bold about what light trees prefer, it probably does not matter much what real life trees are like because Bran and Bloodraven are not typical trees, and also Bloodraven tells us this, which is interesting the the reader because it does go against the "norms", and what does that mean for the end game?:

There he sat, listening to the hoarse whispers of his teacher. "Never fear the darkness, Bran." The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong."

And we get this from Bran way earlier:

He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.

Don't be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

And suddenly he was back in the mountains, his paws sunk deep in a drift of snow as he stood upon the edge of a great precipice. Before him the Skirling Pass opened up into airy emptiness, and a long vee-shaped valley lay spread beneath him like a quilt, awash in all the colors of an autumn afternoon.

[The Fattest Leech]

3 minutes ago, Meera of Tarth said:

mmm personally I can't discard the fact that he might me "turning into something" but that would be a first stage of a greenseer, not a greenseer as a tree. I think the process takes years, as the training, although we know Bran is specially talented.

As for if he will escape this destiny, I'm totally sure, to a certain extent. If he knows he is turning into a tree, he'll try not to be totally transformed.

In Bran III we have this paragraph:

He expresses his discomfort to this by by lying to himself that this life is as almost as good as his dreams, but it's very clear he doesn't want that at all. Then, when he skinchanges Hodor in order to be come near to Meera end explore the caves, that is another sympton of him regretting his forced present of becoming a greenseer like BloodRaven.

So, I think there are a lot of chances of him actually not fulfilling it, even if there are bad consequences.

 

 

Hey Meera! Thanks for joining in.

To the bold, this is actually what I am most curious about, HOW he comes to this realization and HOW he escapes. Can he peel the wood off?

I totally agree that Bran is specially talented, and advanced even. Something Bloodraven may not like???

[Meera of Tarth]

14 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Hey Meera! Thanks for joining in.

To the bold, this is actually what I am most curious about, HOW he comes to this realization and HOW he escapes. Can he peel the wood off?

I totally agree that Bran is specially talented, and advanced even. Something Bloodraven may not like???

I have mixed feelings about Bloodraven. The way it is presented in the books, he seems like a good-hearted man but with a life that changed so much that now all he  cares about is finding a new greenseer (it  looks like his life as greenseer is coming to an end-I am not sure if actually dying, maybe just becoming a total tree) so he needs Bran desperately for that.....

If you try to think like Bloodraven does, his life as a tree is much longer than his life as a total human. He might not have liked his destiny, but accepted it reluctantly. He might want to make this transition into Bran the less painful as possible for Bran (and thus saying the life of a greenseer is so "cool", etc) but he will not accept that his legacy and the destiny of greenseers becomes extinct, so he definitely would not like it.

If we take into account that it is very possible that BR knows that Bran has to become a greenseer for other reasons that concern the future of humanity then, more of the same, he would not like Bran's decision to leave the process.

But Bran doesn't want to be married to a tree, although he tells himself nobody would want to marry him; so he won't realise what he wants (or better said, do something against this destiny) soon. It will take some time.

[Dorian Martell's son]

2 hours ago, The Fattest Leech said:

 

P.S.

This IS NOT a Bran hate/is evil thread. Please keep to the subject at hand.

I do not think bran will ever leave the cave. He is being wedded to a tree, like Bloodraven. His powers will be immense, and he will need them to fight the Others. I think bran never leaving the tree is part of the bittersweet ending george promised. I also don't think Bran will kill bloodraven. Brynden is something like 125 years old, far beyond a human lifetime. It seems Brynden wants to go into the tree for good

Now, Bran was the first main character we see in the books. I reason he will be the last POV as well. Much like how Brynden watched Rickard, Ned and Bran be born and grow, Bran, from his tree, will be able to see everyone he loves, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Rickon, Meera and a few others live, maybe find love, maybe grow old and eventually die without seeing them in person ever again while he waits for the next greenseer to be born so they may be trained and eventually replace Bran.  

[Lord Varys]

I like the idea of Bran being forever stuck in that cave. Magic and power come with a price, and Bran seems to be getting quite a lot of power, and the very nature of the power he gets allows him to remain a legless cripple in a cave in the middle of nowhere and he still can explore the entire world and do whatever the hell he wants (sex included, which would certainly be unable to explore in the time the books are going to cover). In addition he would also get an extraordinary long life.

I know what I'd take if I was living in Westeros and had suffered Bran's fate. The physical Bran will always be a hindrance and a liability in the wars to come.

The idea that he can contribute anything to the story outside that cave is a pretty stretch. Unless his body is cared for, protected against the cold, tended by physicians, fed and cleaned he would not survive winter. The Children are doing all that.

Bloodraven does not really have a wooden face. That is just the symbolic/metaphorical shape the man had in Mel's vision. Bran also does not have a literal wolf's head. Bloodraven has a root growing out of his empty eye socket but he is not literally a tree, and never will become one if the skeletal remains of the other greenseers are any indication. Skin, flesh, and organs rot away but the essence of a greenseer goes into the trees.

I don't think Bran will become a literal tree, either. That is just the short version of 'He is going to permanently form a connection with the trees by having one of the roots grow through/into his body'. That might not often be done by greenseers this early in life but considering the stakes are pretty high right now - and Bran has literally no chance to ever get back south again while winter reigns - they might have no other choice.

And who knows? Perhaps such a connection can be severed once the war against the Others is over? I don't think it should, I think Bran should pay a price for the power he gets.

[The Fattest Leech]

6 minutes ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

I do not think bran will ever leave the cave. He is being wedded to a tree, like Bloodraven. His powers will be immense, and he will need them to fight the Others. I think bran never leaving the tree is part of the bittersweet ending george promised. I also don't think Bran will kill bloodraven. Brynden is something like 125 years old, far beyond a human lifetime. It seems Brynden wants to go into the tree for good

I definitely agree here. And I guess, maybe, since it appears that this event could be some time away (a few weeks, a few months?) Bran will have to make a decision soon IF her were to leave.

But IF Bran leaves, who replaces him???

6 minutes ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Now, Bran was the first main character we see in the books. I reason he will be the last POV as well. Much like how Brynden watched Rickard, Ned and Bran be born and grow, Bran, from his tree, will be able to see everyone he loves, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Rickon, Meera and a few others live, maybe find love, maybe grow old and eventually die without seeing them in person ever again while he waits for the next greenseer to be born so they may be trained and eventually replace Bran.  

I have the same inkling that Bran will be our last POV as well.

Trust me, this question is always at the back of my mind when it comes to Bran and Bloodraven and the next in line thing. Just as the question of who came before Bloodraven (and that backstory) is always there.

[Meera of Tarth]

14 minutes ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

I do not think bran will ever leave the cave. He is being wedded to a tree, like Bloodraven. His powers will be immense, and he will need them to fight the Others. I think bran never leaving the tree is part of the bittersweet ending george promised. I also don't think Bran will kill bloodraven. Brynden is something like 125 years old, far beyond a human lifetime. It seems Brynden wants to go into the tree for good

Now, Bran was the first main character we see in the books. I reason he will be the last POV as well. Much like how Brynden watched Rickard, Ned and Bran be born and grow, Bran, from his tree, will be able to see everyone he loves, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Rickon, Meera and a few others live, maybe find love, maybe grow old and eventually die without seeing them in person ever again while he waits for the next greenseer to be born so they may be trained and eventually replace Bran.  

It could be, but that's more bitter than bittersweet......