Bloodraven- mystery?

[lavthelonewolf]

Okay iv been reading A world of ice and fire for the 3rd or 4th time now. And apart from the targ kings, there are multiple other characters that intrigue me,Bloodraven being one of them. 

But im still am not able to fully understand what sort of character he is. 

Is he really the misunderstood guy he would make us believe,was he really the selfless loving brother who did what he did for the stability of the realm, or did he have a much more sinister motive? 

And what is his motive really? Why is he seeking out bran? What does he wish to achieve? What is his role in the future of the series?

Is he seeking out bran so that he can train him for the war against the others OR is he waging a war against mankind itself? 

I read a blog post long back on how ASOIF is inspired from Ragnarok-the norse mythology.. the author likens bloodraven to loki who is a notorious character credited to starting the events that lead to battle between gods and the man and leading to ragnarok itself. Can that be true? 

I would love to hear your thoughts on him. He is really an interesting character for me. 

[Lady Barbrey]

26 minutes ago, lavthelonewolf said:

Okay iv been reading A world of ice and fire for the 3rd or 4th time now. And apart from the targ kings, there are multiple other characters that intrigue me,Bloodraven being one of them. 

But im still am not able to fully understand what sort of character he is. 

Is he really the misunderstood guy he would make us believe,was he really the selfless loving brother who did what he did for the stability of the realm, or did he have a much more sinister motive? 

And what is his motive really? Why is he seeking out bran? What does he wish to achieve? What is his role in the future of the series?

Is he seeking out bran so that he can train him for the war against the others OR is he waging a war against mankind itself? 

I read a blog post long back on how ASOIF is inspired from Ragnarok-the norse mythology.. the author likens bloodraven to loki who is a notorious character credited to starting the events that lead to battle between gods and the man and leading to ragnarok itself. Can that be true? 

I would love to hear your thoughts on him. He is really an interesting character for me. 

Lots of people think him more sinister than I do.  Re Norse myth, he's much more similar to Odin, who hung from the World Tree in order to gain knowledge, is missing an eye, and wants to prevent Ragnarok. Odin too took blood sacrifice at certain sites, that was part of religious ritual.  

So I see him as someone who would like to prevent the end of the World but is not necessarily on the side of humans.  He's on the side of the natural world and the Children and he'll be inducting Bran into that side too.

[Euron III Greyjoy]

I think I can say for certain that he isn't a selfless hero, but he also didn't seem all that bad from reading 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.' People hated him because he was a bastard, a "sorcerer", and just looked different in general. 

As to what his plan is for Bran, I think my favourite theory is that he wants to skinchange into Bran's body, because his body is so old that its shutting down. 

[Alexis-something-Rose]

7 minutes ago, King Aegon I Targaryen said:

As to what his plan is for Bran, I think my favourite theory is that he wants to skinchange into Bran's body, because his body is so old that its shutting down. 

I've never seen this speculation, but there's something that has bothered me whenever I've read the Bran chapters, when he starts skinchanging Hodor. Meera and Jojen may not know what Bran is up to, but I think Bloodraven and Leaf do. Yet, they don't say anything to him on the subject at all.

I don't know that Bloodraven is necessarily a villain. I do think he is ruthless, though, and that he will stop at nothing to see the endgame through.

[Euron III Greyjoy]

4 minutes ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

I've never seen this speculation, but there's something that has bothered me whenever I've read the Bran chapters, when he starts skinchanging Hodor. Meera and Jojen may not know what Bran is up to, but I think Bloodraven and Leaf do. Yet, they don't say anything to him on the subject at all.

Yeah I only thought about it after putting on my tinfoil hat and thinking, would it be possible for Jon to skinchange into Gilly's baby after getting stabbed in ADwD, and living a full second life. After that I started looking it up and found out about the Bloodraven skinchanging into Bran theory. 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

10 hours ago, Lady Barbrey said:

Odin wants to prevent Ragnarok.

Odin knows Ragnarok is inevitable, knows there is no way to prevent it, but still must fight it anyway.  The Odin characters in ASOIAF are associated with the weirwood, Beric, Bloodraven, Mance, and Jaqen.  Odin's bird is the raven, but Loki's bird is the crow, who is tricksy and cannot be trusted.

Bloodraven is very similar to Elric of Melnibone, who attempts to save his kingdom from decline with his soul-drinking magical sword Stormbringer, "In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well."  Stormbringer is the weirwood, Bloodraven attempts to save his kingdom by joining the weirwood, and only succeeds in losing his soul to the weirwood--he got duped.

[Megorova]

28 minutes ago, By Odin's Beard said:

Odin knows Ragnarok is inevitable, knows there is no way to prevent it, but still must fight it anyway.  The Odin characters in ASOIAF are associated with the weirwood, Beric, Bloodraven, and Jaqen.  Odin's bird is the raven, but Loki's bird is the crow, who is tricksy and cannot be trusted.

Bloodraven is very similar to Elric of Melnibone, who attempts to save his kingdom from decline with his soul-drinking magical sword Stormbringer, "In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well."  Stormbringer is the weirwood, Bloodraven attempts to save his kingdom by joining the weirwood, and only succeeds in losing his soul to the weirwood--he got duped.

Bloodraven is a parallel to Odin, but also to wizard Merlin from Arthurian cycle, and his bird is raven. Which means, that the crow is not his bird. I think, that The Three-eyed Crow is Shiera Seastar, who is also a shadowbinder Quaithe, and she is GRRM's parallel to northern god Loki, and to Merlin's lovers, Morgana le Fay, and The Lady of the Lake, Nimue/Viviane.

In Arthurian cycle there's a story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I think, that it's a basis for Bran's journey beyond The Wall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight#Synopsis

In this case Bran is Sir Gawain, Jojen Reed is the Green Knight/Lord Bertilak, Meera Reed is Lady Bertilak, and the one, who has orchestrated all those events, and caused Bran/Gawain to go on his journey, is Shiera Seastar, The Three-eyed Crow, and Bloodraven's half-sister / Morgana le Fay, wizard Merlin's lover and his sister.

Same as Odin, Merlin knew, what will happen to him, but he still let his lover, The Lady of the Lake, to bewitch him, and bind him to a tree. There's even parallel between them on how they "died" - Bloodraven and Merlin both were binded to a tree, and Odin was speared on a tree, also "binded" to it. And all three of them knew, that the end was inevitable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake#In_medieval_literature

"She refuses to give him her love until he has taught her all his secrets, after which she uses her power to trap him forever, originally either in the trunk of a hawthorn tree or beneath a stone.^[6]Though Merlin, through his power of foresight knows beforehand that this will happen, he is unable to counteract Viviane because of the "truth" this ability of foresight holds. He decides to do nothing for his situation other than to continue to teach her his secrets until she takes the opportunity to entrap and entomb him (in a tree, a stone, a cave, or an invisible tower, depending on the story and author)."

[Curled Finger]

The thing not written in the OP is the fact that Bloodraven killed a nephew in cold blood after promising him safe passage to attend the council to review claims to the throne.   Could totally be that BR was simply stacking odds in favor of his candidate, but I tend to believe he did exactly as he said, sacrificed his honor.   He really hated the whole Blackfyre Rebellion.    It bugged him to no end.   He was a legitimized bastard himself and it no doubt offended him that his half brother sought to take the crown from his other half brother who was (allegedly) a full Targ in rightful succession.   He was nothing if not completely loyal to the Targs.   

It's interesting that despite being given Dark Sister and legitimacy that BR never established a house of his own, ie, Blackfyre or even as he could have, Targaryen.   I'm not saying he was proud of being a bastard, but his loyalty to his brother Daeron is unquestionable.   I think the parallels drawn between Dameon and Brynden are beautiful in the separate paths they took under very similar circumstances.   It's a mystery that despite the situational similarities and motivational disparities between Daemon and Brynden, specifically the swords, that BR took DS to the Wall rather than leave it in Aegon V's care.    One has to ponder why.   Daemon felt Blackfyre represented his claim.   What could Brynden have felt about his own identity to take Dark Sister from the royals?  

I suspect much of the answer lies in prophecy.   All of Aegon 4's children would have had the same educational opportunities, which includes access to whatever books and scrolls Bloodraven had.  Perhaps the only real difference here is in Bloodraven's magical blood of the Warg Kings in his Blackwood heritage.   It's clear that at least the Dustins, Boltons and Reeds has some great power during the reigns of the various kings of the 1st Men.   Yes, I am supposing that the Blackwoods are the Warg Kings with nothing really substantive beyond Bloodraven himself to base it on.   Still, the idea fits and shapes my understanding of this character.   

Was Ned a bad guy in not believing Gared and beheading him?  Probably not.   Short sighted sure, but not bad.   That is the only really good comparative action any similar type of character has taken that I can cite.    With this in mind I suspect that Bloodraven is a good guy who is willing to do very nasty things in order to save the world or whatever the hell it is he is actually doing.   

 

[The Mother of The Others]

 Isn't everyone Loki in this story?  Jeoffrey.  Theon.   Varys.   Ramsay & Roose.   Cercei.   Petyr.  Renley.  Brave Companions.   It's like Loki's body was sliced up and served to the whole kingdom and they all became agents of chaos, and now their blood feeds the trees.

3 hours ago, Megorova said:

Bloodraven is a parallel to Odin, but also to wizard Merlin from Arthurian cycle, and his bird is raven. Which means, that the crow is not his bird. I think, that The Three-eyed Crow is Shiera Seastar, who is also a shadowbinder Quaithe, and she is GRRM's parallel to northern god Loki...She refuses to give him her love until he has taught her all his secrets, after which she uses her power to trap him forever, 

Hasn't George smoothed out the icky vibe in that Merlin / Morgana relationship, though?  In Westeros, he's added a wonderful reason why Bloodraven would want to be tree bound.   It's an extension of his vows to protect the realm, and there's upside to joining with the weir.   If Quaithe is Sheira (Morgana), don't we see more teamwork than opposition coming from her?   Bloodraven is a Targ loyalist, and Sheira is doing her best to usher a Targ across the sea for him.  In what way do you see them being darkly at odds with each other?

(Unless you think her goal is to "help" with too much shadowy half truth, to where Danny sees betrayal everywhere and strikes her own chances down via paranoia?   Eh.  That's not proof of Quaithe's false friendship to Danny as much as proof that everyone reacts to prophecy in their own way.  Plus, Danny seems to be handling it okay.  So I don' t see that as even something Quaithe and Bloodraven would argue about.  He'd tell her, "Thanks for taking care of the Essos side of things, like we agreed.")

What I'm saying is this inevitable loss during Ragnarok may not be part of what carries over into Ice&Fire.   Ragnarok may represent the end of the gods (Targ and Stark bloodlines, and the Children & weirnet) but Bloodraven could still make it count by clearing a path to Spring and a magical rebalancing of the planet.  Pulling a victory out of Ragnarok and doing his duty for the realm and the wider world no matter the losses incurred.

[Dorian Martell's son]

15 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

Okay iv been reading A world of ice and fire for the 3rd or 4th time now. And apart from the targ kings, there are multiple other characters that intrigue me,Bloodraven being one of them. 

But im still am not able to fully understand what sort of character he is. 

In a kung fu film, he would be the master. His backstory is not terribly important save one bit. The important part is that he is confirmation that you need to come from a house that kept the old gods to become a greenseer. Like Bran, the blackwoods keep the old faith. 

15 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

Is he really the misunderstood guy he would make us believe,was he really the selfless loving brother who did what he did for the stability of the realm, or did he have a much more sinister motive? 

He isn't misunderstood. I don't know where you got the selfless bit. He was always focused on house targ and thus "the realm." In reality, he cared far more about the usurper branch of his family than westeros as is noted by his refusal to put down the Ironborn. 

15 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

And what is his motive really? 

After he went north, and after he became LC, or maybe even before, he probably started having green dreams and like bran was contacted by what was then the last greenseer. After he went full green, he was able to use the weirnet to look back to the long night and see what is threatening westeros. He now is working to fight the others, but he is old and about to die 

16 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

Why is he seeking out bran?

Because Bran has the potential to become extremely powerful and be successful in the wars to come. 

16 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

What does he wish to achieve?

He hopes to help defeat the threat to all life in westeros. 

16 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

What is his role in the future of the series?

None. He is only alive due to the weirwood. He will probably die in winds and then Bran will be the last greenseer. 

16 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

Is he seeking out bran so that he can train him for the war against the others OR is he waging a war against mankind itself? 

Well, he is training someone to fight the others, so I guess he can pull a last minute switch-o/change-o and be all "haha fools, i was working for hydra all along," but there is literally nothing to hint at that. 

16 hours ago, lavthelonewolf said:

I read a blog post long back on how ASOIF is inspired from Ragnarok-the norse mythology.. the author likens bloodraven to loki who is a notorious character credited to starting the events that lead to battle between gods and the man and leading to ragnarok itself. Can that be true? 

No. Not at all. 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

1 hour ago, The Mother of The Others said:

What I'm saying is this inevitable loss during Ragnarok may not be part of what carries over into Ice&Fire.   Ragnarok may represent the end of the gods (Targ and Stark bloodlines, and the Children & weirnet) but Bloodraven could still make it count by clearing a path to Spring and a magical rebalancing of the planet.  Pulling a victory out of Ragnarok and doing his duty for the realm and the wider world no matter the losses incurred.

The death and rebirth of civilization is central to Norse mythology and Ragnarok, time is cyclical, the current age becomes decadent, brother fights brother, incest is common, etc.  Then everyone gets killed and civilization is reborn and refreshed.

[kissdbyfire]

Just now, Alexis-something-Rose said:

I've never seen this speculation,

I have, time and time again. IMO there's absolutely nothing to it. Same goes for all the :BR is the puppet master, and he is manipulating time and events yadda yadda yadda. 

Just now, Alexis-something-Rose said:

but there's something that has bothered me whenever I've read the Bran chapters, when he starts skinchanging Hodor. Meera and Jojen may not know what Bran is up to, but I think Bloodraven and Leaf do. Yet, they don't say anything to him on the subject at all.

Because they understand that, as horrific as it is, it is a necessary step for Bran. Again, as horrible as it is, Hodor is Bran's training wheels -  irt skinchanging into human beings. 

 

[AlaskanSandman]

Fun things i've noticed.

 

Like the last Hero, BR went North to seek the children's aid presumably. Cold hands i possible evidence that he took 12 of his Raven's teeth with him. Likely he had a sword too, and who knows, maybe even a wolf. Perhaps the mother to Jon's and company.

Bran goes on to tell us about the Night's King who was 13th L.C. for 13 years before being caught sacrificing children to the Others. He also had a bride with pale skin and bright blue eyes. 

Br had a woman, Shiera SeaStar who likely had pale skin and blue eyes. Br also served as L.C. for 13 years and also sacrificed Bran, Meera and Jojen through the Black Gate. 

Bloodraven and Shiera Seastar, herald the coming of Azor Ahai, Mel. Reborn in Ashaii under salt and smoke as Melisandre. Chozen (by visions) to fight the Others.

[Lord Varys]

The vibe one gets from Bloodraven when one assumes he is Ser Maynard and ignores mythical symbolism one uses to predict things one would like to believe, is that he did what he thought was right to defend his king and the sons and successors of that king.

He also did very cruel things, and he likely followed his baser instincts more than once in all that - especially if one takes Shiera into the mix - but in the end there is little reason to assume this omniscient living corpse in that cave is still motivated by crap like that.

If one believes that, one could just as well run around and assume Bran is going to use his newfound powers to see to it that all bones in Jaime's body are broken while he watches as all his friends and family are cruelly killed. That is not very likely, because in a 'realistic fantasy setting' like ASoIaF the author is actually going to deal with the implications and consequences of becoming the kind of creature Bloodraven and Bran have become/are going to become. And obsession with petty mundane things is not likely something such a person would be interested in.

In that sense - no the chances that Bloodraven actually is *an evil guy* with *evil plans* are astronomically low. That doesn't mean he and Bran won't do cruel and bad things - but they will do them because they think they are necessary to save mankind, not because they have some nefarious agenda.

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

3 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Well, he is training someone to fight the others, so I guess he can pull a last minute switch-o/change-o and be all "haha fools, i was working for hydra all along," but there is literally nothing to hint at that. 

I think Bloodraven is in part based on/inspired by the character of Henry Akeley from Lovecraft's Whisperer in Darkness.  In that story Mr Akeley has discovered the truth about a race of aliens who live in caves underground  and worship the Black Goat of the Woods--(this is the story where Bran is mentioned as an Old God, alongside Cthulhu, the Toad God, the Black Goat, Leng, and "He who cannot be named").  He has correspondence with the main character Wilmarth and gets him to come to his house in the country to prove the existence of the aliens and to show him one of their black stone artifacts that he found (it looks like a glass candle).  But it turns out the aliens have killed Mr Akeley and put his brain in a jar, forged the letters that lured Wilmarth, and have made a very accurate mechanical simulacrum of Mr Akeley in order to interact with Wilmarth and keep him busy while the aliens plot to kill him and put his brain in a jar as well, but he escapes.

So, in that story the Bloodraven animated corpse guy was working for hydra, and it was a trap to steal the main character's brain and put it in a jar.  Wilmarth narrowly escaped that fate, and I think Bran will escape as well.

When the Undying tried to assimilate Dany it was depicted as a horrible experience, that they wanted to trick her into staying in the cave because they literally wanted to eat her and steal her life force, also everyone warned her against going there but she went anyway and almost got eaten by them--and her destroying what was essentially a weirwood cave and those who inhabit it is depicted as a victorious event, that she did the whole world a favor by burning those creeps.  Why do people think it is any different for Bran and Bloodraven's cave?  And in George's other stories, joining the hive mind means annihilation of the self.

 

 

 

[The Mother of The Others]

Quote

Why do people think it is any different for Bran in Bloodraven's cave?  [Compared to House of Undying]

Because Maester Luwin only puked at the end, after Ramsay revealed himself.  Until then, he was hopeful the world would show him something better.  Same here.  Why are you guys so eager to see all those Bran travel chapters produce rotten fruit?  That's an investment I don't want to see go bust. Did you have a bad sensei experience at your afterschool kung fu class that left you distrustful of weird authority figures?   Plus, of course the Essos undying tree people were pervs- - the humans are running the tree show over there, and humans are the worst.   But on this side we've got inhuman park rangers, so the tree hotels in Westeros instantly get a couple more stars on Yelp.   

[lavthelonewolf]

On 11/3/2018 at 10:43 AM, Lady Barbrey said:

Lots of people think him more sinister than I do.  Re Norse myth, he's much more similar to Odin, who hung from the World Tree in order to gain knowledge, is missing an eye, and wants to prevent Ragnarok. Odin too took blood sacrifice at certain sites, that was part of religious ritual.  

So I see him as someone who would like to prevent the end of the World but is not necessarily on the side of humans.  He's on the side of the natural world and the Children and he'll be inducting Bran into that side too.

he reminds me of varys too. varys is not necessarily evil. he does things for what he considers will be good for the realm. i kinda agree with what you said. i often keep forgetting this is a GRRM novel. there is no clear cut demarcation between good and evil

[lavthelonewolf]

On 11/3/2018 at 9:41 PM, Curled Finger said:

The thing not written in the OP is the fact that Bloodraven killed a nephew in cold blood after promising him safe passage to attend the council to review claims to the throne.   Could totally be that BR was simply stacking odds in favor of his candidate, but I tend to believe he did exactly as he said, sacrificed his honor.   He really hated the whole Blackfyre Rebellion.    It bugged him to no end.   He was a legitimized bastard himself and it no doubt offended him that his half brother sought to take the crown from his other half brother who was (allegedly) a full Targ in rightful succession.   He was nothing if not completely loyal to the Targs.   

 

 

bloodraven was absolutely sick of the rebellion and he wanted to put an end to it once and for all. indeed sacrifised his own honor in the process. and having said that i don't blame egg for for his actions too. he was indeed right in arresting BR. the word of the iron throne should never be seen as worthless was his thought and rightfully so.

[Curled Finger]

19 minutes ago, lavthelonewolf said:

bloodraven was absolutely sick of the rebellion and he wanted to put an end to it once and for all. indeed sacrifised his own honor in the process. and having said that i don't blame egg for for his actions too. he was indeed right in arresting BR. the word of the iron throne should never be seen as worthless was his thought and rightfully so.

Agreed and I wonder if Aegon 5 wasn't eager to get rid of all his ancestral swords in light of all the suffering Blackfyre caused.   Ah, those wonderful and mysterious magic swords!  

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

2 hours ago, The Mother of The Others said:

Why are you guys so eager to see all those Bran travel chapters produce rotten fruit?  That's an investment I don't want to see go bust.

Well, because the weirwoods are demonic and they feed on human blood, and I don't want Bran to spend the rest of his life in that cave, and neither does he.

"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?"

And Bran's first mention of weirwoods was to point out how creepy and unnatural they are:

" The heart tree had always frightened him; trees ought not have eyes, Bran thought, or leaves that looked like hands. "

 

" the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh"

 

" 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."

"his blood soaking into the ground to feed the heart tree "

" Even in the wolfswood, you never found more than two or three of the white trees growing together; a grove of nine was unheard of. The forest floor was carpeted with fallen leaves, bloodred on top, black rot beneath."

"It's said they hung their entrails in the branches of the heart tree, as an offering to the gods.

"The old ones." When Ser Bartimus grinned, he looked just like a skull. "Me and mine were here before the Manderlys. Like as not, my own forebears strung those entrails through the tree."

"I never knew that northmen made blood sacrifice to their heart trees."

"It is claimed that they still offer human sacrifice to their weirwoods, lure passing ships to destruction with false lights, and feed upon the flesh of men during winter."

" and grisly sacrifice (a thousand captive men were fed to the weirwood, one version of the tale goes, whilst another claims the children used the blood of their own young). "

" the conquerors looked upon the old gods of the First Men and the children of the forest as little more than demons, and fell upon the weirwood groves sacred to them with steel and fire, destroying the great white trees wherever they found them and hacking out their carved faces."

 

"what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?"

"Everything," said Davos, softly.

 

Davos, the moral authority of the books, says that human sacrifice is not acceptable under any circumstances.

 

 

 

"the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been. He liked it better when the torches were put out. In the dark he could pretend that it was the three-eyed crow who whispered to him and not some grisly talking corpse. "

"Bloodraven is the root of all our woes, the white worm gnawing at the heart of the realm."

"No," Pyat screeched. "No, to me, come to me, to meeeeeee." His face crumbled inward, changing to something pale and wormlike."

" The priest lowered his cowl. Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket."

 

Pyat Pree, the Kindly Man, and Bloodraven all have the white worm.

In George's story In the House of the Worm, the White Worm represented death, decay, and entropy.  And the people who worshiped it were nihilists who worshiped death. 

"It was taught to the worm-children that the White Worm comes for all in the end, but he crawls most slowly, and in the long decay there is fine feasting and the bright sickly colors of rot."

“The White Worm has many names,” he said, unmoving, “and the children of men have cursed them all in the centuries behind us. But we are the worm-children, and we do not curse them. He cannot be fought. His is the final power in the universe, and the wise man accepts his coming, to dance and feast in what time there is left.
“So praise the White Worm, whose name is Yaggalla. And grieve not, though our lights burn dim and die.
“So praise the White Worm, whose name is Decay. And grieve not, though our energy fades and fails:
“So praise the White Worm, whose name is Death. And grieve not, though life's circle tightens and all things perish.
“So praise the White Worm, whose name is Entropy. And grieve not, though the sun goes out.
“An ending comes. Feast. The ships are gone. Drink. The struggling times are over. Dance. And praise, praise, to the White Worm.” "How foolish it was to prolong things. The struggling times were over."

 

The weirwood is the white worm, him of many names, him of many faces, the god of death.  And Bloodraven joined the death cult.  But Bran, and George's other protagonists, rage against the dying of the light.

" In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us."   She seemed sad when she said it, and that made Bran sad as well. It was only later that he thought, "Men would not be sad. Men would be wroth. Men would hate and swear a bloody vengeance. The singers sing sad songs, where men would fight and kill."

 

ETA, forgot one:

"You know how the worms come out after a hard rain? I hear they do the same after a big battle if enough blood soaks into the ground. That's the Stranger coming, Penny. The Black Goat, the Pale Child, Him of Many Faces, call him what you will. That's death."

Weirwood roots soak up blood from battles.  Weirwood have an incentive to cause war because it feeds them.