In Regards to Bran and the Last Hero

[Shireen Purratheon]

Last night after the episode, I was thinking about the story of the Last Hero as told by Old Nan in the books. Now, we don't in the slightest know what exactly he did that made him so heroic, but we do know that he traveled north with a dozen companions, his sword, his horse, and his dog. One by one, they all perished except for him, at which point, the Others were finally right at his heels.

I'm not invested in saying any particular character is Azor Ahai Reborn, the Prince That Was Promised, the Last Hero, Hyrkoon the Hero, Yin Tar, the Stallion That Mounts the World, or anything else, be it Jon, Daenerys, Bran, or Dolorous Edd. The parallels of any character to any one of these are interesting. That said, let's look at what we do know about the Last Hero and Bran.

• Bran and his companions ventured north in search of the the Three Eyed Raven, from whom Bran was to learn magic. The Last Hero sought the Children of the Forest for their magic.
• It is a time in which the Others and their armies of the dead have come upon men and slaughtered them.

And the losses sustained by the Last Hero:

• The Dog: Summer
• The Horse: Dancer

The fallen companions in no particular order:

1. Maester Luwin
2. Osha
3. Jojen Reed
4. Hodor
5. Bloodraven
6. Leaf
7. Ser Rodrik Cassel

You can stretch that number to a dozen if you wanted to include the two farmboys killed by Theon (8,9), Robb (10), Catelyn (11), and Ned (12). But that gets really sketchy.

And of course, Meera Reed is still very much alive, and one of my watching partners suggested Benjen is going to come to their aid the next time we see them, but that part is pure conjecture. Is Meera definitely going to die? Are there any more parallels between Bran and the Last Hero? Do these parallels mean anything?

[SacredOrderOfGreenMen]

Totally agree. I think we can construct a strong enough affinity and connection between the Last Hero and the Builder to conclude they were the same person, and that Bran's story is reliving of both stories:

http://the-isle-of-faces.tumblr.com/post/116825108076/an-analysis-of-winterfell-as-camelot-avalon-and

http://the-isle-of-faces.tumblr.com/post/128035636118/few-of-the-original-great-houses-of-westeros-got