BRAN’S GROWING POWERS AFTER his FINAL POV in ADwD

[Meera of Tarth]

On 1 d’abril de 2016 at 7:43 PM, evita mgfs said:

WELCOME!  I am delighted that you found your way to this thread as you have a good handle on time-traveling, an expertise in which I have limited insight.

 

I will share with you some of my observations about the passage you have shared, and I apologize that my essay is so long.  However, I have read through your brilliant, prolific, and voluminous posts, so maybe you will enjoy reading mine as well.

 

We invite you to keep visiting our thread. 

 

Can a Howl be Silent?

 

Neither Jon nor Ghost display “surprise” or amazement when Ghost exercises his voice for the first time.  The confusion of the dream platform may be a reason for the lack of reaction from boy and wolf.  Several other possibilities for Martin omitting what seems to be important include:

 

1.)  Ghost issues a “phantom” howl which Jon dreams of hearing, in a way similar to Bran’s speech registering with Jon.

 

2.)  Jon hears the wind in the rocky passages while he is in a dream state, and he mistakes it for Ghost’s keening.

 

3.)  Ghost’s howl is a “non-event” in comparison to the other meritorious happenings in Jon’s wolf dream.

 

4.)  Jon hears sounds in his wolf dream that he heard while awake, specifically wolves howling:  “A sound rose out of darkness, faint and distant, but unmistakable: the howling of wolves.  Their voices rise and fell in a chilly song, and lonely” [ACoK  515].

 

Before Analysis

 

Before analyzing Jon’s wolf dream, it is important to keep in mind the source of Jon’s mystical experiences.  Bran inspires Jon with his greenseeing powers that have advanced beyond Bran looking through the carved eyes in the heart trees, visual aids left by the singers to awaken the magic of new greenseers [ADwD].

 

Since Martin vigorously describes the limited vegetation among the rock layers defining the Skirling Pass, the author establishes that a heart tree is not in the vicinity of the rangers’ camp where Jon dreams.  Instead of accessing the trees, Bran accesses Jon’s wolf dream. Moreover, the singers and their greenseers have endowed the ringfort built by the First Men atop the Skirling Pass  with powerful magic that assists in making Bran’s return to a past event a possibility.

 

Bran may open his third eye in the Winterfell crypts as of his last POV in ACoK, but he has not yet sat his weirwood throne to learn how to see as the gods see and to know what the trees know.  Therefore, Bran returns to Jon’s wolf dream after he masters aspects of his magic so that he can inspire Jon to embrace his warg nature, to open his third eye, and not to fear death and darkness.

 

Bloodraven cautions Bran that “the past remains the past.  We can learn from it, but we cannot change it” [ADwD 458].  Then the Last Greenseer draws from his personal experiences to convince Bran that his lord father Eddard Stark cannot and does not hear him. “You cannot speak to him, try as you might.  I know.  I have my own ghosts, Bran.  A brother I loved, a brother I hated, a woman I desired.  Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them” [ADwD 458]. 

 

Bran tests for himself the perimeters of the rules of greensight imposed upon him by Bloodraven and Leaf, and Bloodraven suspects and Leaf knows that he will.  After all, Bran ignores warnings of his mother, father, and maester about climbing.  Bran challenges rules and authority, and when he knowingly decides to break rules, he may indeed garner some enlightenment, but often this is won at great cost and loss by way of dire consequences.  By far Bran’s biggest lesson is in determining whether the risks justify the means.  A boy already broken may feel he has nothing more to lose when he dares to tempt fate.

 

Unlike Bloodraven’s efforts to speak with his ghosts through the trees, Bran reaches Jon through Ghost and through Jon’s wolf dream, and Bran uses mental telepathy, not speech, to establish communication.

 

 

 

Bran manages to gift Jon a glimpse of his future, drawing from the shadows on Jon’s soul, hidden in the recesses of Jon’s mind. By accessing events from Jon’s “waking world”, Bran emphasizes his lessons in a dream.  For instance, Bran “inspires” – or facilitates - Jon’s first “warg” experience, employing his greenpowers to oversee a smooth transition for his bastard brother into the skin of his direwolf via the dream venue.  Martin implies that Bran’s powers are compelling and still in their infancy if readers measure acquisition of knowledge to physical growth.  Moreover, Bran communicates telepathically and empathetically with Jon via Ghost “from a future time” past the novel A Dance with Dragons. 

 

                                                 

 

Jon’s Dream of Direwolves

 

“When he [Jon] closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves” [ACoK 515].

 

·        Since dreams are lessons, and vise-versa, Bran opts for the realm of dreams to reach his siblings, specifically his half-brother Jon Snow: “Dreams became lessons, lessons became dreams, things happened all at once or not at all” [ADwD 451].  Through Jon’s direwolf Ghost and within Jon’s wolf-dream, Bran makes his presence known.  Bran takes his older brother to school with lessons disguised as dreams and with dreams that rouse raw and instinctive emotions. 

 

·        The period is the “end mark” that concludes the above sentence [“When he [Jon] closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves”] which announces the beginning of Jon’s wolf dream, a sequence of pivotal events that continue until Jon wakes calling for Ghost. 

 

·        Martin sets this one sentence apart in a paragraph of its own to separate it from the paragraph that precedes it and that follows it in order to establish and sustain ambiguity in pronominal references especially in writing the dream narrative that will follow. 

 

·        The preceding paragraph includes the following sentence, “He [Ghost] wants to hunt, Jon thought”, which is the last time Martin identifies in printed text the name “Jon” until after the dream. Within the wolf dream narrative, Martin does not distinguish either Jon or Ghost as an antecedent for the masculine pronouns he uses.  Hence, grammatically speaking, the masculine pronouns are referents to Jon since he is the last noun clearly stated.  That simply doesn’t work for the following reason:

 

·        Many of Martin’s descriptors and action words are decisively canine-oriented.  By persistently not distinguishing either Jon or Ghost as an actor in the dream segments, Martin blurs the singular identities of boy and wolf, which is very likely his intention.

 

·        The clause “he dreamed of direwolves” showcases the alliteration of the consonant “D” which emphasizes a hard sound that Martin repeats in his frequent use of the words “darkness” and “death”.

 

·        Martin affirms that Jon is the dreamer, not his direwolf Ghost even though the narrative may confuse the thoughts of Ghost with Jon’s and vice versa.

 

·        It is Jon Snow who closes his eyes, it is Jon Snow who dreams of direwolves, but it is Martin who shifts perspectives.

 

The Dream Begins

 

Below, the initial wolf dream passage from ACoK describes Ghost’s instinctive connection with his pack whose scent he has lost.  Martin’s word choices are repeated when Bran’s wargs with Summer in his first POV in the novel A Storm of Swords.  It is worth considering that these feelings Bran and Summer experience at a later date on the timeline farther from Jon’s wolf dream are inspiration for Bran the greenseer when he returns to Jon’s dream, a profound way to unify the warg and wolf by evocating the shared emotions indicative to the direwolves and their wargs.

 

 

 

The matching words and their meanings are color coded for easier consideration:

 

“There were five of them [direwolf pups] when there should have been six, and they [direwolf pups]  were scattered, each [pup] apart from the others [direwolf pups].  He [Ghost/Warg] felt a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness. The forest was vast and cold, and they [wolf pups] were so small, so lost. His [Ghost’s] brothers [wolf pups/warg siblings] were out there somewhere [in the world], and his [Ghost’s] sister, but he [Ghost] had lost their [wolf pups’] scent.  He [Ghost] sat on his haunches and lifted his [Ghost’s] head to the darkening sky, and his [Ghost’s] cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound. As it died away, he pricked up his [Ghost’s] ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow” [ACoK].

Compare the language and meaning in Bran’s wolf dream, which occurs after Jon’s wolf dream.

 

“He [Bran in Summer] had a pack as well, once.  Five they had been, and a sixth who stood aside . . . He remembered their scents, his brothers and his sisters.  They had smelled alike, had smelled of pack, but each was different too . . . The others were scattered, like leaves blown by the wild wind” [ASoS 123].

 

The similarities between the dreams are marked, as both warg Bran and warg Ghost count living siblings, noting the pup who dies; both note the scent of pack; and both see the pack mates as “scattered”.  Bran experiences his dream far from Jon’s, in the next novel, and these are emotions Bran chooses to share with wolf and warg when he returns to revisit Jon’s wolf dream.

 

·        The dream setting is the forest, which is unlike the “wind-carved arch of grey stone [that] marked the highest point of the Skirling Pass” [ACoK  517] where Qhorin orders his rangers to rest until “shadows began to grow again” [ACoK  763].

 

·        Ghost’s location among the trees brings to mind the location where Ghost digs furiously from “behind a fallen tree” at the base of the hill that the “wildlings called . . . the Fist of the First Men” [ACoK  507].

 

·        Ghost leads Jon to a recently dug grave where “there was no smell, no sign of graveworms”, a contrast to what Ghost sniffs near the weirwood sapling.

 

·        Jon unearths the obsidian tucked within “the black cloak of a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch” [ACoK 518].

 

·        This signature outerwear designates a visual uniformity among the black brothers. 

 

·        The black cloak symbolizes the “skin”, or the outer covering that protects men.  Jon metaphorically slips his skin when he wargs Ghost in his wolf dream

 

·        The unclaimed black cloak also signifies Jon turning cloak to wear a wildling’s guise, but only to obey the orders of Qhorin Halfhand.  Nevertheless, Jon feigns a shift in loyalties to infiltrate the enemy where he hopes to learn their secrets.

 

·        The first part of Jon’s wolf dream limits the third-person point of view narration to Ghost’s perspective as perceived by the dreamer Jon Snow and inspired by the greenseer Bran.

 

·        Ghost telepathically and empathetically connects with his pack, those littermates with whom he at one time shared a womb.  They also share a past, and even though the pups are separated from each other by great distances, Ghost still feels his brother’ and sister’s collective presence even if he has lost their scent.

 

·        Only Ghost owns five littermates at this juncture on the timeline, and the sixth wolf that Ghost cannot account for is Sansa’s Lady, the direwolf who meets an early demise. 

 

·        Bran is at Winterfell when Lady’s corpse is returned for burial in the lichyard; therefore, if Bran inspires Jon’s wolf dream, he may also divulge this information to warg and wolf. 

 

·        On the other hand, Ghost’s telepathic and instinctive connection to his pack enables him to sense that one wolf from the six born in the litter is now dead.  Through meeting minds with Ghost, Jon learns of Ghost losing a sister.

 

·        Jon experiences Ghost’s “deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness”.  Likewise, Jon misses his siblings, which is evident on several occasions when Jon thinks of his siblings individually or collectively.  For example, when Jon climbs the Skirling Pass with the rangers, he remembers “cold nights long ago at Winterfell when he shared a bed with his brothers” [ACoK].

 

·        Martin’s language depicts the behaviors of Ghost, yet there is much that relates to Jon and his warg pack:  Jon’s siblings are “scattered, each apart from the others”, and Jon’s brothers “were out there somewhere”.

 

·        Ghost’s cry is a “long lonely mournful sound” which is similar to the mournful keening attributed to the Skirling Pass.  Perhaps this is the sound Jon hears in his wolf dream.  More likely, the wind causes the skirling, and Bran, as part of the godhood, has powers of communication related to the wind.

 

·        Ghost listens for an answer, one that takes a human voice that speaks after “the sigh of blowing snow” [ACoK].  Instead of a littermate’s wolf-song, another brother makes contact.

 

Who Calls Jon?

 

“Jon?

 

“The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only...

 

“A weirwood”.

 

·        Martin does not enclose Jon in quotation marks, yet he distinguishes Jon with italics, which separates dialogue from a character’s inner thoughts and feelings.  Bran sends his call for Jon to the minds of both Jon and Ghost. 

 

·        Bran’s green magic appoints him as a telepathist who communicates directly from his mind to another’s, an extrasensory exercise Bran achieves by utilizing Ghost as the conduit and a dream as the platform to meet and to share with his brother Jon as a warg.

 

·        Martin selects words with care, employing singular masculine pronouns as references that have no clearly printed antecedents separating wolf from boy. Martin demonstrates that wolf and warg are truly of one mind, one spirit, instinct and intellect married by a shared past with mystical influences at work.  Together they endure both emotional and physical pain.

 

“The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent?”

 

·        Ghost responds to the call name for Jon? as if the call name is his own, which is Ghost.   Regardless of hearing “Jon”, Ghost expects to see his own grey brother, as in his grey direwolf brother, even though Ghost surely knows that any one of his pack does not speak with words, does not call out names, does not whisper secrets, and does not shout into the silence. 

 

·        Martin pens a brilliant moment of suspense as a transition that provokes anticipation among Ghost, the warg Jon, and the readers who literally and/or figuratively “turn” with or AS Ghost, eagerly awaiting a lean grey direwolf. 

 

·        Alas, for a heartbeat, Martin fools those in the moment with shared disappointment that he colors with unflattering commentary:  “nothing” and “only” are not winning words by way of an introduction to the greenseer behind the weirwood. 

 

“Can a shout be silent?”

 

·        The silent shout emphasizes Bran’s telepathy. 

 

·        Martin does not mention that the tree has a mouth, and through omission, the author makes clear that Bran does not need a carved mouth to speak words when he can use thoughts; therefore, Jon and Ghost hear Bran’s voice not with their ears.

 

The Weirwood

 

“It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother’s face. Had his brother always had three eyes?”  [ACoK  766].

 

·        When Bran first meaningfully connects with Jon, he inhabits a weirwood sapling.

 

·        Jon observes the tree maturing rapidly, a visual metaphor of Bran’s accelerated “intake” of greenseeing knowledge compared to the physical growth of a weirwood from a sapling and beyond.  The expanding tree limbs that extend toward the sky are the greenseer’s arms spreading wide and shooting upward as if stretching far beyond other trees to grasp the greatest enlightenment.

 

·        The visibly growing weirwood Jon sees resembles the rapidly moving visions that Bran experiences through the eyes of Winterfell’s heart tree.  Bran watches trees dwindle and vanish through the “mists of centuries” [ADwD 460].

 

·        Bran’s learning takes place on a field of time according to a weirwood:  “a thousand human years” equal “a moment to a weirwood”’ [ADwD 458].

 

·        Bran’s red weirwood eyes mirror Ghost’s, “When the direwolf raised his head, his eyes glowed red and baleful, and water streamed from his jaws like slaver.  There was something fierce and terrible about him” [ACoK 516].

 

·        Their ferocity is symptomatic of visionaries, prophets, priests, and priestesses.  And, after experiencing visions, these mystics may have a loss of consciousness, physical weakness, intense thirst, temporary confusion, memory loss, and difficulty speaking.

 

·        Martin gives readers a glimpse of how a weirwood ages from the surface of Planetos, but Martin mentions very little as to the labyrinthine roots that embrace Bran in his weirwood throne.

 

·        The weirwood, at varying stages of growth, is and will be the symbolic representation of Bran the greenseer when he visits the dreams of his siblings through their direwolves.  Lord Brynden reaches Bran through dreams during which he wears the skin of a three-eyed crow, the bird that commands Bran to choose:  fly or die! The crow wakes Bran, kissing his forehead with a peck – a “dream” pain that Bran feels still upon waking.  The Three-Eyed Crow wants Bran to open his third eye, and an intense moment of physical discomfort in a dream may serve as a waking memory later.

 

·        The parallels between Bran’s first three-eyed crow dream and Jon’s wolf-dream are many, but both tree and crow impress the importance of opening the third eye.

 

Bran Answers What Jon Thinks

 

Had his [Jon’s] brother [Bran] always had three eyes?

 

“’Not always’, came the silent shout.  ‘Not before the crow’” [ACoK  766].

 

Martin demonstrates Bran’s telepathic powers because after Jon Snow thinks:  “Had his brother always had three eyes?”  Bran answers, “’Not always’, came the silent shout.  ‘Not before the crow’”.  For the second time, Martin refers to the silent shout pertaining to Bran’s thoughts, which Martin conveniently italicizes.

 

The Smell of Death and Darkness

 

 “He  [Ghost] 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” [ACoK  766].

 

“Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark” [ACoK 766].

 

Ghost alerts to the smell of death when he sniffs the weirwood sapling, a scent that appears to originate with Bran and his residence either in the Winterfell crypts or in the Cave of Skulls.  Death surrounds Bran, literally and figuratively.

 

1.)  Beneath the snow and earth concealing the entrance to the Cave of Skulls, Bran sits his own weirwood throne, his Uncle Brandon Stark’s iron sword at hand and  his direwolf Summer nearby.  Bran’s posture is   like those dead Stark lords and Kings of Winter in Winterfell’s crypts who sit upon their own rock-carved thrones, their iron swords across their laps and stone direwolves at their feet.  The Cave of Skulls represents a symbolic crypt for Bran.  Moreover, the stone Starks frozen on their stone thrones are as crippled as Bran the broken whose useless legs take him nowhere.

 

2.)  Bran the “crippled boy” travels with a simple-minded giant and two crannogmen far from the Neck, a suspicious crew who are deliberately perpetuating the myth that the Prince of Winterfell is dead.  Jojen says, “So long as Bran remains dead, he is safe.  Alive, he becomes prey for those who want him dead for good and true” [ASoS 129].

 

3.)  Bran thinks of himself as dead because he is broken.  When Jojen dreams Bran dead , Bran thinks:  “he dreamed me dead, and I’m not.  Only he was, in a way . . .” [ASoS 129].

 

4.)  Bran’s teacher is a talking corpse and not the three-eyed crow from his dreams.

 

5.)  The interior of the cave features assorted skulls, and they rest upon the floor and line the walls.

 

6.)  Outside the cave the dead with black hands walk but cannot enter.

 

·        Ghost instinctively recoils from death, displaying very physical, canine-inspired reactions that include sniffing, cringing, bristling, and snarling.  Martin discloses that Ghost associates death with “something terrible”, from another occasion:  “When the dead came walking, Ghost knew.  He woke me, warned me” [ACoK 515]. So, Bran comforts Jon’s direwolf Ghost with “Don’t be afraid”, words to assure the unsettled Ghost.

 

·        Ghost smells “wolf and tree and boy” before he senses “something else, something terrible.  Death, he knew”.

 

·        Ghost recaptures the scent of his pack when he smells wolf. Upon recognizing the encroaching smell of death, Ghost reacts protectively:  “He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs”. 

 

·        Furthermore, Ghost’s signature reaction is baring his fangs because he has no voice to signal a warning, to express fear, or even to attract Jon’s attention.

 

·        In these words are prophesy well-hidden.  Bran hopes to assure Jon that he has nothing to fear from death and darkness when Jon encounters both at some point in the future.  Moreover, Bran insinuates that he will be there when the time comes to ease Jon’s transition to the netherworld.

 

·        Jojen hints at Bran’s potential for wizardry in A Storm of Swords when he says: “To me the gods gave greendreams, and to you . . . you could be more than me, Bran.  You are the winged wolf, and there is no saying how far and how high you might fly . . .  if you had someone to teach you” [ASoS 131].

 

·        Jon as warg shares sensory experiences with Ghost while wearing his skin. Not only may Jon share what Ghost smells, he identifies the smell as if he is a wolf himself.

 

·        On the other hand, Jon Snow recognizes death’s smell.  While at the Fist of the First Men, Hake says, “There’s no smell to cold”.  Jon silently disagrees, recalling his own experience with this smell: “There is, thought Jon remembering the night in the Lord Commander’s chambers.  It smells like death” [514].

 

“[You] Don’t be afraid” of WHAT? Unclear.

 

Analyzing the grammatical elements of the sentence offers little clarity. 

 

The full sentence reads “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark”. 

 

·        The nominative case pronoun “You” is an implied “subject” of the predicate “do not be afraid”.  The implied subject “You”  may refer to either Jon or to Ghost since the pronoun’s spelling “Y – o – u”  remains the same in the plural form, nominative case. 

 

·        A comma joins these two short, simple sentences, and it is a weak punctuation choice for this occasion.  Although a period is the “preferred” end mark to conclude and to separate two complete thoughts linked without a coordinating conjunction or a conjunctive adverb, there are several options for revision to clarify meaning.  Quick editorial fixes are  1.) employ a coordinator:  “Don’t be afraid, and I like it in the dark”;  2.)  replace the comma with a semicolon “Don’t be afraid; I like it in the dark”; 3.) use a subordinator with an optional comma:  “Don’t be afraid because I like it in the dark”, or “Don’t be afraid, because I like it in the dark”. 

 

·        Each clause has its own subject and its own verb, and Martin presents each clause from a different point-of-view:  “[You] Don’t be afraid” is second person, but “I like it in the dark” is first person.

 

·        These grammatical inconsistencies are an exercise in determining Martin’s deliberate language choices.  In Bran’s telecommunications, Martin seemingly wants his readers to confuse Ghost with Jon and vice versa because the warg bond between boy and wolf is strong.  They think and feel as one.

 

·        Furthermore, these word groupings disclose that Bran perceives the fears of “both” Jon and Ghost, which makes him an empath as well as a telepathist,  and both warg and wolf share fears of the smell of death.

 

·        Or, Bran’s words may inform to the “general”, as in “Don’t be afraid of the smells, or of the weirwood and the boy inside it, or of anything you may see or hear as a warg in this wolf-dream”.

 

·        Detracting from these happy conclusions is “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark”. Bran is a child who has had great responsibility placed upon him, and his words are childlike with childlike logic:  “Don’t be afraid of the dark because I like it in the dark”.  That is, if Martin wishes for the readers to find meaning in skewed logic.

 

·        Perhaps Martin unveils the mystery shrouded in ambiguity upon Jon’s waking when Jon himself considers the manner of the fear: “and what about the weirwood with his brother’s face that smelled of death and darkness?” [ACoK  768].

 

·        Actually, the words are as weighty as they are few.  Bran prophesizes that Jon need not fear the smell of death or the smell of the darkness in the times “to come”.

 

·        Bran asserts, “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark”, words that are part of Lord Brynden’s lessons to Bran in ADwD, when the Last Greenseer lectures “Never fear the darkness” [ADwD  450].

 

·        In the novel A Clash of Kings, Arya’s POVs parallel Jon’s and Bran’s lessons.  Note in the following sentences how Syrio’s instruction mirrors Bloodraven’s:  “Syrio had told her [Arya] once that darkness could be her friend, and he was right” (ACoK  684). 

 

Martin has made clear Jon’s fear of darkness and death as evidenced in Jon’s dream of Winterfell’s crypts.  Even though Ghost dislikes the smell of death, Ghost has never behaved in a manner that demonstrates that he fears darkness.

 

“No one can see you, but you can see them”.

 

·        The above words are as potent as their forbearers:

 

·        These words are imperative in arguing that Bran reaches Jon Snow from a point in the future, after Bran learns to “see” and to “hear” others who cannot see him nor hear him from the heart tree – and more.

 

For example, Bran revisits his lord father through Winterfell’s heart tree, only on this occasion, Bran does not sit his weirwood throne and he does not have an eager audience curious about his visions.  Alone in his bedchamber, Bran fails again: “He [Eddard] cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing.  He wanted to reach out and touch him, but all he could do was watch and listen.  I am in the tree.  I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red eyes, but the weirwood cannot talk, so I can’t” [ADwD 459]. 

 

What follows is a breakdown of Bran’s thoughts professing his failed attempts to reach his father.  After each segment, textual evidence is presented that proves Bran achieves all that he fails to do by the end of his last POV in ADwD.

 

“He [Eddard] cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing . . . but all he could do was watch and listen”.

 

Bran  watches unseen and unheard by his father. Bran’s frustrations and despair are replaced with a gleeful revelation of his talents to Jon,  “No one can see you, but you can see them”. 

 

In Jon’s wolf dream and in Theon’s godswood interactions, Bran moves beyond these restrictions.  Bran’s sorcery allows him ways to let those he blesses recognize him with visual, tactile, olfactory, and/or auditory cues.

 

“I am in the tree.  I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red  eyes”,

 

Bran transforms the expression on Winterfell’s heart tree to resemble his own and endows the weirwood sapling with his likeness.  Consequently, Bran’s sorcery is so convincing that Jon, Theon, and Ghost recognize Bran’s visage in the white bark marked with red sap.

 

 

 

Theon reveals, “And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad.  Bran’s ghost, he thought, but that was madness” [ADwD 616].

 

 

 

“He wanted to reach out and touch him”

 

Even though Bran has no means to reach out and touch his dead father, Bran meets with success when he leans over to touch Ghost between the eyes in Jon’s wolf dream.  Furthermore, Bran touches Theon’s forehead using a red, five-fingered weirwood leaf. 

 

Both with Jon and with Theon, Bran’s greenseeing powers move beyond their limitations in his last POV in ADwD.  The symbolic gesture of touch is Bran’s attempts  to awaken Jon and Theon’s third-eyes.  He wants them to see beyond the “darkness” and look to enlightenment.

 

Theon reveals, “A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool.  It floated on the water, red,  five-fingered, like a bloody hand” [ADwD 616]. 

 

“but the weirwood cannot talk, so I can’t”

 

Bran communicates with Jon telepathically and empathetically, as he does with Theon in lesser degrees.  Bran speaks to Theon with rustling leaves as well as the weirwood’s mouth.

 

Theon reveals, “The night was windless, the snow drifting . . . yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name, ‘Theon,’ they seemed to whisper, ‘Theon’.

 

“The old gods, he thought.  They know me.  They know my name.  I was Theon of House Greyjoy.  I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children” [ADwD 616].

 

 ‘. . . Bran,’ the tree murmured”.

 

“They know.  The gods know.  They saw what I did” [ADwD 616].

 

 

·        After Bran’s final POV in A Dance with Dragons, Bran secures a mental bond with Theon that evolves into a mystical, even spiritual, communion with the heart tree in Winterfell’s godswood.  With Bran wearing the guise of an ancient weirwood thousands of years old, Bran relates to the Turncloak in the present time of the novel’s action. 

 

·        Evidently, the rules for engaging another in the past and for engaging another in the present time are different, each with its own restrictions and limitations, for humans and for greenseers. Each sees in time through eyes uniquely his own:  Jon is trapped in the river of time, Bran has the weirwood’s eyes: “seasons pass in the flutter of a moth’s wing, and past, present, and future are one” [ADwD 458].

 

·        Bran gains Jon’s attention in Jon’s wolf dream, which Bran likely revisits from a point in the future. 

 

Bran Opens Jon’s Third Eye

 

 

“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”.

 

·        Because Bran influences and inspires Jon’s wolf dream, the greenseer in the tree leans over to touch Ghost between the eyes, a symbolic gesture that compels the warg to open his third eye, after which the forest setting suddenly vanishes.

 

Bran deftly executes opening Jon’s third-eye in a wolf dream, which is unlike Bran’s own painful experience when the three-eyed crow forces open Bran’s third-eye in a dream, ordering Bran again to “Fly or die!” [ACoK 260].

 

After Bran prays to the Old Gods to send him dreamless sleep, Bran receives an answer by way of a “nightmare” not a dream, and Bran thinks, “they [the Old Gods] mocked his hopes, for the nightmare they sent was worse than any wolf dream” [260].  The pitiless three-eyed crow attacks a pleading Bran with his “terrible sharp beak,” blinding both Bran’s eyes.  Then, the three-eyed crow pecks at Bran’s brow”, finally wrenching out “slimy . . . bits of bone and brain” [260].  This sorcery allows Bran to see again, through all his eyes. 

 

What materializes in the vision  is pure terror: Bran relives his crippling fall, and even more frightening than a wolf dream.  Bran sees “the golden man” who saves Bran, then pushes him, excusing his murderous act with these words: “The things I do for love” [260].

 

In actuality, Bran’s nightmare has inspiration from real events that he experienced recently in his daily life, and what Bran “hears” has such an impact on Bran that he becomes physically ill, unable to breathe, his blood roaring in is ears

 

Visiting guests Cley Cerwin and his knights are joking about Stannis making his claim to the throne based upon Joffrey’s bastardy.

 

Several key sentences bandied about by the bannermen evocate a visible reaction from Bran:

 

1.     “Queen Cersei bedded her brother” [259].

 

2.    “Small wonder he’s [Joffrey] faithless, with the Kingslayer for a Father” [259].

 

3.    “the gods hate incest.  Look how they brought down the Targaryens” [260].

 

Sadly, in three lines, Martin sums up what Bran witnesses from outside the window of the gargoyle guarded tower:  Bran’s vision, sent via the wizardry of the three-eyed crow deliberately after Cley and his knights jolt Bran’s waking memory, is evidence of incest, proof that the Queen and the Kingslayer are guilty as charged, but more importantly, the three-eyed crow imparts to Bran undeniable verification of the identity of the golden knight who causes Bran to fall.

 

A greenseer must learn to see and to acknowledge what is true, no matter how painful the truth may be.  Bran buries his most unpleasant memory deep in his subconscious, disguising it in darkness, choosing not to acknowledge to himself what he now knows for sure to be true. 

 

Even after the agony of his nightmare,  Bran is not keen on acceptance; however, Bran denies many truths about himself, something that Jojen Reed learns while educating a reluctant Bran on his powers.  Bran gets angry at Jojen’s talk of Bran as a warg in Summer, and he doesn’t understand how to open his third-eye.  Nor does he share with the Reeds, or anyone else, that the Kingslayer caused his fall.

 

That has been an amazing read, as usual @evita mgfs. Bran from the future helping Jon and the simmilarities between both povs concerning the pups and the scents....

My next reading will be your analysis on the Mercy Chapter

[evita mgfs]

1 minute ago, Meera of Tarth said:

That has been an amazing read, as usual @evita mgfs. Bran from the future helping Jon and the simmilarities between both povs concerning the pups and the scents....

My next reading will be your analysis on the Mercy Chapter

Thanks so much!  I have been stewing on this recently - do you think that maybe BR uses Bran's image/voice to reach Jon?

[Meera of Tarth]

5 minutes ago, evita mgfs said:

Thanks so much!  I have been stewing on this recently - do you think that maybe BR uses Bran's image/voice to reach Jon?

If Jon is the only one capable of saving the world" and BR has good intentions, could be. He is living with tCotF, so maybe they are trying to reach him.

However, it seems that Bran's reactions are deliberate, and that BR is not guiding him...I don't know but I think is doing all these connections with the past on his own.

And, if that is the case, I don't think that BR already knew that Bran would do these things as an act of rebelliousness and thus reaching Jon, that's too much thinking even for BR....

[evita mgfs]

Just now, Meera of Tarth said:

If Jon is the only one capable of saving the world" and BR has good intentions, could be. He is living with tCotF, so maybe they are trying to reach him.

However, it seems that Bran's reactions are deliberate, and that BR is not guiding him...i don't know but i think is doing all these connections to the past on his own.

And, if that is the case, I don't think that BR already knew that Bran would do these things as an act of rebelliousness and thus reaching Jon, that's too much thinking even for BR....

Right - the voice of reason has spoken.  I like the idea that Bran reaches out to Jon from some future time anyway.

[Meera of Tarth]

Yeah but at the same time, BR says he has known Bran since he was born, isn't it? so probably he knew he liked to climb despite of the fact his mother warned him not to......mmmmm maybe it's crackpot thinking but what if you are right and BR knows exactly that Bran will try to communicate with his family or Theon? You know, the past is the past and he has been warning him like Cat did...

//sorry for my spelling, I'm using a tablet

[Wizz-The-Smith]

Hey, cool chat people.  I still see a time travelling Bran for what's it's worth.  There is loads of BR right from the prologue of AGOT imo, and then I see Bran in the wind in Jon VII ADWD straight after his last chapter.  So perhaps all these textual clues we are finding for BR leading up to that chapter are fair game for Bran moving forward as well?  Ghostly fingers - whispering through trees etc.........

There may be a textual clue to identify Bran like the 'Ravening Wolf' description of the wind that encounters Theon, or the bird imagery and 'push' off the wall that surrounds the text when Jon and Edd are atop the wall in Jon VII which I posted about previously etc......  But can we link the BR text to Bran moving forward? 

The BR/old gods clues are prevalent prior to Bran III ADWD [withstanding a time travelling Bran] so are we now looking for a teacher/student type thing, or indeed Bran mastering his abilities away from his teacher in some form?   These are difficult questions to answer I suppose.

More soon [Evita]  Thanks for your thoughts Meera, always welcome!     Right, ZZZZZzzzzzz 

[Meera of Tarth]

43 minutes ago, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Hey, cool chat people.  I still see a time travelling Bran for what's it's worth.  There is loads of BR right from the prologue of AGOT imo, and then I see Bran in the wind in Jon VII ADWD straight after his last chapter.  So perhaps all these textual clues we are finding for BR leading up to that chapter are fair game for Bran moving forward as well?  Ghostly fingers - whispering through trees etc.........

There may be a textual clue to identify Bran like the 'Ravening Wolf' description of the wind that encounters Theon, or the bird imagery and 'push' off the wall that surrounds the text when Jon and Edd are atop the wall in Jon VII which I posted about previously etc......  But can we link the BR text to Bran moving forward? 

The BR/old gods clues are prevalent prior to Bran III ADWD [withstanding a time travelling Bran] so are we now looking for a teacher/student type thing, or indeed Bran mastering his abilities away from his teacher in some form?   These are difficult questions to answer I suppose.

More soon [Evita]  Thanks for your thoughts Meera, always welcome!     Right, ZZZZZzzzzzz 

I've have to read that post! I missed that

What if it's both of them? A bit crackpot, but maybe BR, as @evita mgfs suggests, wants to go to Jon and he already knows he will try to contact him in some way the minute he says the past is the past. But there are a great number of examples in this thread in which Bran is trying to be subversive; does BR control all of them?

Is Bran aware of those "possible" BR's intentions on him, letting him flow to actually make this connection to Jon and awake Jon? If he is, has Bran a secret plan? By secret plan I mean, not letting him be controlled by BR if he suspects anything. 

It's very late now where I live, and possibly me being an absolute fan of Bran is making me saying delirious words.......so forgive me.

By the way, I know it's off-topic and I shouldn't be talking about this here, but I will only make one comment: I must say I'm very concerned about Bran's future after having seen the S6 trailer that aired today. I just can't stand that maybe he will merge with the roots and never leave the cave. I've always thought he would be more important than a mere tree. (if we have to take the show into consideration). I would never forgive me if this thread was closed because of my fault talking about other things; but I wanted to share my opinion with you, who are big fans of Bran like me, so if you are concerned like me and want to talk about that you can PM me.

 

//EDIT: By awakening Jon I mean awakening his insticnts, all that was discussed, not awakening him from the death....

[evita mgfs]

1 hour ago, Meera of Tarth said:

Yeah but at the same time, BR says he has known Bran since he was born, isn't it? so probably he knew he liked to climb despite of the fact his mother warned him not to......mmmmm maybe it's crackpot thinking but what if you are right and BR knows exactly that Bran will try to communicate with his family or Theon? You know, the past is the past and he has been warning him like Cat did...

//sorry for my spelling, I'm using a tablet

Hey, I found this last night and wrote it up quickly:

In Ned’s 12 POV in A Game of Thrones, he dreams of Rhaegar’s children:

“Lord Tyrwin had laid the bodies beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of his house guard.  That was clever of him; the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth.  The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown, and the boy . . .  the boy . . .

“Ned could not let that happen again . . . He must find some way to save the children” [483].

Ned’s dream surely seems divinely inspired, a gentle warning for Ned to look to the health and well-being of his own children.  Sadly, Ned puts the children of Cersei first as he fears Robert’s reaction upon learning that his offspring are indeed fathered by the Kingslayer.  “He will kill them all, Ned realized.”

To prevent this, Ned arranges a meeting with Cersei in the godswood of King’s Landing, wherein an oak tree replaces the heart tree of Winterfell’s godswood.  Regardless, “Ned Stark felt the presence of his gods.  His leg seemed not to hurt so much” [485].

The old gods appear to be in attendance as the leaves are “rustling in a gentle wind”, and Ned’s leg pain diminishes noticeably.  When Cersei arrives, “the clouds reddened above the walls and towers”.

When the Queen asks “Why here?”  Ned answers:  “So the gods can see” [485].  Ned believes that a man, or woman, cannot lie in the presence of a heart tree because the old gods will know.  Amazingly, Cersei is brutally honest with Ned, openly admitting that her twin brother Jaime is father to Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen.  Cersei does not dissemble, issuing hurtful truths about her loveless marriage.

When Ned advises her to leave with her children, Cersei is defiant, her intentions clear.  She warns Ned, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die” [488].

Despite Cersei’s ominous words, Ned remains inactive, just as blind to the dangers Cersei is capable of dishing out as he was to the paternity of the Queen’s golden haired bastards.

“How could they all have been so blind?  The truth was there in front of them all the time, written on the children’s faces” [486].

Ned misreads the portents and signs:  he is blind.  The dream he has speaks to him minding his own children, Arya and Sansa, and making sure they are safely escorted from King’s Landing BEFORE he ever meets with Cersei to advise her to save her own children.

Bloodraven visits Ned’s dream as a warning, but the receiver of portentous dreams must needs to interpret them correctly.  Ned does not, and the upshot of his metaphoric blindness will be his own death and much suffering for his own children when left to the whims of the Lannisters.

[evita mgfs]

14 minutes ago, Meera of Tarth said:

I've have to read that post! I missed that

What if it's both of them? A bit crackpot, but maybe BR, as @evita mgfs suggests, wants to go to Jon and he already knows he will try to contact him in some way the minute he says the past is the past. But there are a great number of examples in this thread in which Bran is trying to be subversive; does BR control all of them?

Is Bran aware of those "possible" BR's intentions on him, letting him flow to actually make this connection to Jon and awake Jon? If he is, has Bran a secret plan? By secret plan I mean, not letting him be controlled by BR if he suspects anything. 

It's very late now where I live, and possibly me being an absolute fan of Bran is making me saying delirious words.......so forgive me.

By the way, I know it's off-topic and I shouldn't be talking about this here, but I will only make one comment: I must say I'm very concerned about Bran's future after having seen the S6 trailer that aired today. I just can't stand that maybe he will merge with the roots and never leave the cave. I've always thought he would be more important than a mere tree. (if we have to take the show into consideration). I would never forgive me if this thread was closed because of my fault talking about other things; but I wanted to share my opinion with you, that are big fans of Bran like me, so if you are concerned like me and want to talk about that you could PM me.

NOOOOOO.  I have not seen the trailer.  I have to watch it now - I will be back!  NOOOOOOO!

[The Fattest Leech]

30 minutes ago, Meera of Tarth said:

~snipped for length~

 

By the way, I know it's off-topic and I shouldn't be talking about this here, but I will only make one comment: I must say I'm very concerned about Bran's future after having seen the S6 trailer that aired today. I just can't stand that maybe he will merge with the roots and never leave the cave. I've always thought he would be more important than a mere tree. (if we have to take the show into consideration). I would never forgive me if this thread was closed because of my fault talking about other things; but I wanted to share my opinion with you, who are big fans of Bran like me, so if you are concerned like me and want to talk about that you can PM me.

 

//EDIT: By awakening Jon I mean awakening his insticnts, all that was discussed, not awakening him from the death....

I learned to not even worry about the trite trash that is the show. Seriously. I don't even go to the tv forums anymore because I feel that I gave up my right to rant about that shit-show. Both the Double D's and GRRM have made numerous comments about how the two mediums are now different stories and will continue to divide. One story is A Song of Ice and FIre and one is A Game of Bewbs and Blood. There are several who are alive in the books that are not in the show. And how the show cuts the return of Quaithe just to bring in another red priestess that is nothing but a Melisansbra Jr? Nope. Just nope.

And that is my one comment, too

I love this thread. Even though I don't comment much, I follow and read as much as I can.

[evita mgfs]

8 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

I learned to not even worry about the trite trash that is the show. Seriously. I don't even go to the tv forums anymore because I feel that I gave up my right to rant about that shit-show. Both the Double D's and GRRM have made numerous comments about how the two mediums are now different stories and will continue to divide. One story is A Song of Ice and FIre and one is A Game of Bewbs and Blood. There are several who are alive in the books that are not in the show. And how the show cuts the return of Quaithe just to bring in another red priestess that is nothing but a Melisansbra Jr? Nope. Just nope.

And that is my one comment, too

I love this thread. Even though I don't comment much, I follow and read as much as I can.

You are right.  But I can't find Bran in the trailer at all?

Do you still watch the show?  Are we allowed to talk about the show here in our thread, since we are looking for Bran and Bloodraven.

My friend Kissed by Fire is not happy with the show direction  She calls it fanfiction, which GRRM hates.

I am still excited - and Ghost is alive and kicking.  I found him - but I can't find Bran?  Where is Bran?

[The Fattest Leech]

Just now, evita mgfs said:

You are right.  But I can't find Bran in the trailer at all?

Do you still watch the show?  Are we allowed to talk about the show here in our thread, since we are looking for Bran and Bloodraven.

My friend Kissed by Fire is not happy with the show direction  She calls it fanfiction, which GRRM hates.

I am still excited - and Ghost is alive and kicking.  I found him - but I can't find Bran?  Where is Bran?

I will answer privately just in case

[evita mgfs]

HELP EVERYONE!  Should I open a thread in GOT TV for us to talk about Bran’s Growing Powers?

[evita mgfs]

9 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

I will answer privately just in case

I am trying to reply with big type face because several of us older folks have poor vision - and I kind of asked everyone to do so as a nicety for those of us who are nearly BLIND!

Tee-Hee!

I think we can discuss the show as long as we tie it into the novels.  They will not shut us down - maybe warn us if we are misbehaving!

[The Fattest Leech]

Just now, evita mgfs said:

I am trying to reply with big type face because several of us older folks have poor vision - and I kind of asked everyone to do so as a nicety for those of us who are nearly BLIND!

Tee-Hee!

I think we can discuss the show as long as we tie it into the novels.  They will not shut us down - maybe warn us if we are misbehaving!

I just sent a message, but I see what you are saying about the quirks!

[evita mgfs]

4 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

I just sent a message, but I see what you are saying about the quirks!

I sent you a message as well - filled with errors, but I guess everyone is discussing the trailer - the GOT subforum is impossible.

Last time, a poster put in the screen caps, which was a big help - but I do not know how to do that.

I am so very happy you are here on our thread - we are the PACK - AND WE SURVIVE.

We all love Bran, and I did write a reply to your thread on Dancer - I just never posted it because of my crying jag - and then I took a few days to regroup.

A few of us here are emotional, and I received so many, many wonderful PMs from kind users here.  Including you.  It was overwhelming.  With friends like that, I could never leave without doing more damage to my well-being.  I do love discussing so many things about the books.

One of the things I mentioned in my post was that "Bran" is actuallyin "Branches".  I will look up my file and try to get it posted.  I feel so bad that I did not follow through as I promised.  I do try to keep up - but sometimes life gets in theway, if you know what I mean.

[The Fattest Leech]

4 minutes ago, evita mgfs said:

~snipped~

One of the things I mentioned in my post was that "Bran" is actuallyin "Branches".  I will look up my file and try to get it posted.  I feel so bad that I did not follow through as I promised.  I do try to keep up - but sometimes life gets in theway, if you know what I mean.

Yay! Bran as part of the Wood Dancers

[ravenous reader]

3 hours ago, The Fattest Leech said:

just to bring in another red priestess that is nothing but a Melisansbra Jr?

'Melisansbra'..?! ha ha

I agree, it's all very oxymoronic, daahrling!

'one-but-over-nippled'...

[Meera of Tarth]

18 hours ago, evita mgfs said:

Hey, I found this last night and wrote it up quickly:

In Ned’s 12 POV in A Game of Thrones, he dreams of Rhaegar’s children:

 

“Lord Tyrwin had laid the bodies beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of his house guard.  That was clever of him; the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth.  The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown, and the boy . . .  the boy . . .

 

“Ned could not let that happen again . . . He must find some way to save the children” [483].

 

Ned’s dream surely seems divinely inspired, a gentle warning for Ned to look to the health and well-being of his own children.  Sadly, Ned puts the children of Cersei first as he fears Robert’s reaction upon learning that his offspring are indeed fathered by the Kingslayer.  “He will kill them all, Ned realized.”

 

To prevent this, Ned arranges a meeting with Cersei in the godswood of King’s Landing, wherein an oak tree replaces the heart tree of Winterfell’s godswood.  Regardless, “Ned Stark felt the presence of his gods.  His leg seemed not to hurt so much” [485].

 

The old gods appear to be in attendance as the leaves are “rustling in a gentle wind”, and Ned’s leg pain diminishes noticeably.  When Cersei arrives, “the clouds reddened above the walls and towers”.

 

When the Queen asks “Why here?”  Ned answers:  “So the gods can see” [485].  Ned believes that a man, or woman, cannot lie in the presence of a heart tree because the old gods will know.  Amazingly, Cersei is brutally honest with Ned, openly admitting that her twin brother Jaime is father to Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen.  Cersei does not dissemble, issuing hurtful truths about her loveless marriage.

 

When Ned advises her to leave with her children, Cersei is defiant, her intentions clear.  She warns Ned, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die” [488].

 

Despite Cersei’s ominous words, Ned remains inactive, just as blind to the dangers Cersei is capable of dishing out as he was to the paternity of the Queen’s golden haired bastards.

 

“How could they all have been so blind?  The truth was there in front of them all the time, written on the children’s faces” [486].

 

Ned misreads the portents and signs:  he is blind.  The dream he has speaks to him minding his own children, Arya and Sansa, and making sure they are safely escorted from King’s Landing BEFORE he ever meets with Cersei to advise her to save her own children.

 

Bloodraven visits Ned’s dream as a warning, but the receiver of portentous dreams must needs to interpret them correctly.  Ned does not, and the upshot of his metaphoric blindness will be his own death and much suffering for his own children when left to the whims of the Lannisters.

 

Interesting, another detail!!!!! Cersei and Ned next to an oak tree and she is honest....hadn't seen it before!

Why do you think BR visited Ned in a dream? I mean, can be, but why would BR do it? Because he is watching everyone? But should not him be neutral? I know and we know Ned was a good man but there are many other people in Westeros that don't have warning dreams. Does BR favour the Starks?

[evita mgfs]

1 hour ago, Meera of Tarth said:

Interesting, another detail!!!!! Cersei and Ned next to an oak tree and she is honest....hadn't seen it before!

Why do you think BR visited Ned in a dream? I mean, can be, but why would BR do it? Because he is watching everyone? But should not him be neutral? I know and we know Ned was a good man but there are many other people in Westeros that don't have warning dreams. Does BR favour the Starks?

Well, as always, you are the voice of reason.  However, in my rampant theorizing, which very likely is just that – theorizing – not yet proven, I see that the Starks have some unique connection with the forces that are the old gods.

The direwolf pups are gifts from the gods, yet even though each receives a gift, this does not mean that they abide the warnings of their wolves.  Robb, Jon, and Bran ignore their wolves on occasions that prove to be detrimental to their well-being, sadly.

The gods work in mysterious ways – and what is fated cannot account for what is “free will” on the part of mortals.

So, I do think the Starks are “special” because they have important roles to play in the future.  This is why the “trees have eyes” again:  the dead are walking.

Bran is a greenseer – all the others are wargs.  Arya is a skinchanger with some connection to water forces: half wolf / half fish.  Sansa has an affinity to birds, air, wind, and sky.  Jon may possess ice and fire, the blood of the First Men and the blood of the dragon.

But these are merely my musings.  I can certainly see your point about the inequity of favoritism.  Regardless, the Starks suffer great sorrows.  So being blessed is not always a good thing.