So Hodor has Brocca's aphasia

[The Arthur Smith]

55 minutes ago, Ser Maverick said:

In Norse mythology, "Hodur" is the god of winter and darkness.

Hodor is the Great Other confirmed?

[Maryalice0919]

i thought i read somewhere that younger willis went down into thestark crypts normal and something happened, he came back and only said hodor afterwards

 

[Ninerings]

3 hours ago, Daendrew said:

"Wachu talkin bout Willis?"

I'M what Willis was talkin' 'bout!

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

49 minutes ago, Maryalice0919 said:

i thought i read somewhere that younger willis went down into thestark crypts normal and something happened, he came back and only said hodor afterwards

 

Maybe Hodor is Westeros code for "I saw some shit man!"

[Lady Winter Rose]

As far as I know, Hodor is Wyllis. At lest according to Croatian subtitles of this episode.

 

On the topic, people with this brain injury usually say something that occurred during the injury. Hodor is not great Other, no way.

[SevasTra82]

I've always believed that there was more to Hodor then we realize. I don't think he's the "Great Other" or anything like that, but there is definitely some sort of connection with him with the overall plot line of ASOIAF.  

[weirwood woman]

I've always thought that 'Hodor" is a key word/name that will come into play at some point. The very fact that Wyllas keeps saying it keeps it from being lost to time. How he got to be keeper of that word/name ... yet to find out!

[Gertrude]

I've always wanted Hodor to have some significance too. I like the theory that it's from one of Old Nan's stories and is relevant to the Long Night, Others, etc.

I think that in the books it's clear that he's a half-wit, but don't ask me to point out where right now. I think in the show they've been playing that up as well and decided to change it for the flashback when they decided to go that route. Hodor walking up to Osha and Bran naked at the hot springs, his general reactions to situations, Hodor freaking out about the lightning in the tower like an animal would. I think this is just a case of the show retconning as it goes along. It's not a big sin, but I don't think we can draw any conclusions from it.

[ummester]

After Old Nan walked him away, she had her wicked way with him and Willis could no longer reconcile life meaningfully - from this point he made a choice to become dim witted and only utter a single word, he found a feeling of comfort and safety in turning half his brain off and fully repressing the memory of Old Nan's nakedness.

[RadSam]

9 minutes ago, ummester said:

After Old Nan walked him away, she had her wicked way with him and Willis could no longer reconcile life meaningfully - from this point he made a choice to become dim witted and only utter a single word, he found a feeling of comfort and safety in turning half his brain off and fully repressing the memory of Old Nan's nakedness.

Oh my..

[Fredwin]

On a side note, was great to see Hodor again. The show is sorely missing interesting characters.

[Mish Windage]

Maybe he was in the crypts with the other kids and they all ran out for some reason and were closing the door to the crypts and he was shouting for them to hold the door and they unknowingly smacked him in the head with it while closing it and he was stuck in the dark just repeating hold the door hodor...

or not.

[Nerevanin]

I always thought that Hodor isn't retarded but he is somehow cursed, maybe by the Night Kings? This seems to partly confirm my theory

[Quiet Sister]

'Hodor lifted Bran as easy as if he were a bale of hay, and cradled him against his massive chest. He always smelled faintly of horses, but it was not a bad smell. His arms were thick with muscle and matted with brown hair. “Hodor,” he said again. Theon Greyjoy had once commented that Hodor did not know much, but no one could doubt that he knew his name. Old Nan had cackled like a hen when Bran told her that, and confessed that Hodor’s real name was Walder. No one knew where “Hodor” had come from, she said, but when he started saying it, they started calling him by it. It was the only word he had.' From GoT, Bran's POV. Hodor is usually called 'simple' or 'simpleminded' in Bran's chapters. Cannot get more quotes now; my Kindle app is rebelling.

[Quiet Sister]

 

Double

[Bluesnow]

Hodor is an odd thing to say, but it doesn't have to have meaning.

I used to visit a retirement home and one very nice woman retired there had a seizure years earlier, and ended up with some brain damage---the only thing she was capable of saying was "Weeeee."
She could understand us perfectly though and was still smart, but she would try to respond and it would just be "Wee we weee we wewe." 
To her though she wasn't saying weeeee..... she understood herself perfectly in her head and would enunciate the wees as if they were different words with different feelings. 

I always think of her when I see Hodor. 
Not that it made sense that he had a seizure necessarily..... although Jojen Reed was more or less having seizures in the show... maybe Wyllis was a green dreamer as well and went too far?
I think its more likely that Hodor got injured though. 
For all we know a horse kicked him since watching over the horses was his job >.>

[Quiet Sister]

'“Hodor won’t go down into the crypts.” The maester had only been half listening, Bran could tell. He lifted his eye from the tube, blinking. “Hodor won’t …?”“Go down into the crypts. When I woke, I told him to take me down, to see if Father was truly there. At first he didn’t know what I was saying, but I got him to the steps by telling him to go here and go there, only then he wouldn’t go down. He just stood on the top step and said ‘Hodor,’ like he was scared of the dark, but I had a torch. It made me so mad I almost gave him a swat in the head, like Old Nan is always doing.” He saw the way the maester was frowning and hurriedly added, “I didn’t, though.”“Good. Hodor is a man, not a mule to be beaten.”'

[Pies are coming]

8 hours ago, Gertrude said:

I think that in the books it's clear that he's a half-wit, but don't ask me to point out where right now. I think in the show they've been playing that up as well and decided to change it for the flashback when they decided to go that route. Hodor walking up to Osha and Bran naked at the hot springs, his general reactions to situations, Hodor freaking out about the lightning in the tower like an animal would. I think this is just a case of the show retconning as it goes along. It's not a big sin, but I don't think we can draw any conclusions from it.

The Starks think he's a half-wit, but what do they know about mental health anyway? OTOH, shouldn't brain injuries be relatively common during wartime and even training/tournaments.

It may be a retcon. Him showing up naked could simply be explained by Hodor being a bit of a pervert. The tower, though, is harder to explain if we assume Hodor's intelligence is average.

If Hodor isn't retarded, it also  means Bran's powers are even stronger: he isn't taking control of a mentally weak human, he's warging into a fully able man who happens to express himself

2 hours ago, Quiet Sister said:

'Hodor lifted Bran as easy as if he were a bale of hay, and cradled him against his massive chest. He always smelled faintly of horses, but it was not a bad smell. His arms were thick with muscle and matted with brown hair. “Hodor,” he said again. Theon Greyjoy had once commented that Hodor did not know much, but no one could doubt that he knew his name. Old Nan had cackled like a hen when Bran told her that, and confessed that Hodor’s real name was Walder. No one knew where “Hodor” had come from, she said, but when he started saying it, they started calling him by it. It was the only word he had.' From GoT, Bran's POV. Hodor is usually called 'simple' or 'simpleminded' in Bran's chapters. Cannot get more quotes now; my Kindle app is rebelling.

Yeah, but what do the Starks know about brain damage?

1 hour ago, Quiet Sister said:

'“Hodor won’t go down into the crypts.” The maester had only been half listening, Bran could tell. He lifted his eye from the tube, blinking. “Hodor won’t …?”“Go down into the crypts. When I woke, I told him to take me down, to see if Father was truly there. At first he didn’t know what I was saying, but I got him to the steps by telling him to go here and go there, only then he wouldn’t go down. He just stood on the top step and said ‘Hodor,’ like he was scared of the dark, but I had a torch. It made me so mad I almost gave him a swat in the head, like Old Nan is always doing.” He saw the way the maester was frowning and hurriedly added, “I didn’t, though.”“Good. Hodor is a man, not a mule to be beaten.”'

That interesting

[dooog]

There could be more to Hodor than meets the eye.

 

Just as with Patchface who's also considered a halfwit by most of the characters he encounters.

[AemonRa]

I am mostly curious why Bloodraven stopped the vision when Bran was focused on Hodor.  I mean, that is either really lazy of the showrunners, or there is some significance to what Bran almost saw.  The "you can drown if you envision too long" argument seems thin...