[TWOW Spoilers] Blood sacrifices, Tinfoil Hats, Green Seers and Talking Trees.

[Babeldygob]

As we learn from Bran's journey we learn that there were blood sacrifices in the olden days. What they were for, we cannot know for certain.

Let's recap to Bran's very last chapter(I don't have the book with me, so I'm writing this from the audiobook):

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the Hearttree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a sickle in her hand. "No", said Brain,"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 around 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 in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

This is the last we see of Bran. Now some things about this sacrifice:

-Bran says "No" and it's emphasised they cannot hear him;

-After that they kill him.

-Bran can only watch. It's again emphasised.

-Then there's the 'But as his life...'

-Bran can suddenly taste things instead of only seeing them.

As we know all Hearttrees have eyes and a mouth. What we see in this part is that the moment the blood touches the tree, he can taste it. It seems to me to be an actually functional sacrifice. They offer blood to give the Hearttree the ability to talk for some time. Why else would they have a mouth? We know why they have eyes. What if all the different shapes of mouths are not because they are carved different but that's just the position a greenseer left them in. The sacrifices may only work in the present or they may work in the past, but I don't think Bran can change history. If Bran is able to talk to people in the past, then I think that whatever he says just leads to whatever situation the world is in now. As if he's required to say it to still have the same world. Physics still hasn't figured out why we go from the past to the future(the Arrow of Time) problem, so everything may well be connected. I'm getting off-topic though.

The chapter ends the moment he tastes the blood and we don't get anymore of Brand after that. He's obviously learned too much for us to know at this point. What if GRRM cut off there because if he had to write more, we'd know the trees can actually talk before we see one talk.

I think we're going to see it when Stannis kills Theon at the Hearttree, I don't think he's going to burn him, because Asha makes a good argument.

What do you think?

[aryagonnakill]

interesting theory. I agree that there must be something to his tasting blood, and probably something to the trees having mouths. It does seem strange that blood raven told bran he would never be able to talk through the trees when bran has already done it to some degree, saying theon. I wonder if this means that bran is even more powerful than blood raven, or if he was just suppose to figure things out on his own.

[Dolorous Ali]

Good theory, I like it too. Might be the past is just a memory, I mean that whatever Bran does would be in his head, like talking to someone in your memory, there would be no effect. The present though, I don't know. Maybe he could connect with people in present to change their decisions/actions or just talk to them. But I think you might be right. In his POV there was a man (his father?) praying to the heart tree and Bran calling him and the man looked up as if he'd heard someone there, but ignored it bait later and kept on praying. This is exactly like the impact that you said. Though I believe that greenseers would have some uses other than just seeing, why else would people pray to them?

[Whitering]

Well, if Rickon is revealed in time, I guess Theon may still be executed for taking over Winterfell, but if it turns out he didn't kill Bran and Rickon, the North may not be as hot for his blood. Stannis, if he can connect the dots must know that Theon still killed two innocent kids though, so who knows.

[Nine of Spades]

Remember bran is seeing through the tree. The mans blood would seep into the soil, and may enter the root system of the tree. At which point he would "taste" the mans blood.

[Sweet Summer Child]

My guess is that Bran can talk to people in the present and affect the course of the future, but only see things in the past.

[Babeldygob]

Remember bran is seeing through the tree. The mans blood would seep into the soil, and may enter the root system of the tree. At which point he would "taste" the mans blood.

Obviously, but why does his taste awaken right then though? You may think this as stupid, but why wouldn't he remark that he's tasted earth and shit and piss and water when some wolf pisses against the tree? Would George miss such a thing instead of signifying that the blood is instead awakening the tree? Why would George write those words as last words of his last Bran chapter if they do not bear any more significance?

[Onion Ring Knight]

Along with this not-quite-crackpot theory, there's this passage I just noted on my latest re-read . . .

When the Night's Watch is out on Mormont's big ranging, they pass through the village of White Tree. Mormont is musing and sort of talking aloud. He says something interesting:

"The children of the forest could speak with the dead, it's said. But I can't."

ACoK, p. 186 (Kindle Edition location 3730).

I think you're onto something with the idea that Bran will be able to use the mouths in the trees to speak to the past, in some fashion.

[Babeldygob]

I've only now started to really pay attention to the faces of the trees. There's this chapter where Sam returns form Craster with Gilly. He thinks he is at Whitetree, but he isn't sure. The tree seemed smaller to him and the face was different. Could it be that it was Whitetree, but the face changed?

I feel as if the faces bear some kind of significance other than emotions and that they change sometimes. I'm going to reread after this reread and I'm going to pay very close attention to the faces. Most of the time we don't see the faces more than once. Or we see them multiple times over a short period of time.

I'm also pretty sure that when a tree is 'weeping blood from its eyes' as in sap coming out of its eyes it's in the process of being warged by a Green Seer.

[CrypticWeirwood]

Has anyone noticed that sometimes the trees actually move under a greenseer’s efforts? Bloodraven dumped a pile of snow from a tree when Bran and company were first making for the cave entrance.

There are other echos of this sort of thing in the book, too. At first I thought those tale were nothing but a call out to the famous “Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane”, or more recently, to when Fangorn Forest was come to Helm’s Deep. But the Brynden/Brandon rescue actually happened. So maybe there will be more of that sort of thing.

I can’t see the weirwood tripping up Stannis’s horse just for Theon Turncloak’s sake, though.