[ADWD Spoilers] Bran

[Slick Mongoose]

His warging into Hodor has become a regularity, which is sad. I wonder if it'll come back and bite him?

Also, how powerful can Bran become? Will Bloodraven be teaching him tricks other than warging and greenseeing?

[The Faceless She-Wolf]

Perhaps it will not turn out out to be a disaster because Hodor does not have a strong personality and submits meekly instead of fighting him (as opposed to the woman Varamyr tried to take).

Although you can't help but wonder if is murmuring "Hodor,Hodor,Hodor" in a mournful voice when he retreats inside :worried:

I suppose you can go a long way by warging and greenseeing by glimpsing the future and,say, controlling a dragon(not a spoiler but I wonder what will become of a certain black one lost to Dany :unsure: ).

Interestingly he seem to have a new way to find out about Jon's parentage(seeing the past via a weirdwood's "eyes") besides Howland Reed.

[olennaredyne]

God, I really don't want him to stay there forever and turn into a tree.

[Todd Sand bastard of AZ]

God, I really don't want him to stay there forever and turn into a tree.

Would you rather he turn into a jet? Like a boss?

[Whitering]

He seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he will be connected to the tree. We have later evidence from other PoVs that he is hooked up to the Weirwood system and is in training.

His life will become virtual reality. Cared for by the root system and the Children he will live a couple hundred years judging by Bloodraven.

[Jeejee]

A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled.

Melisandre sees this in her flames. Sounds like Bran, with the wooden face being that of a heart tree. We know from the first book that greenseers could see through the eyes of the trees, so I imagine Bran ends up looking through trees other than the one at Winterfell. These are pretty scary powers. Bran will have the ability to know a great deal about the past - and I wonder if he could even locate his missing siblings.

Does anyone remember a scene at the end of ACoK where Arya prays in a godswood at Harrenhal? She imagines she hears her father speaking to her. Do you think it might have been Bran speaking instead (from the future, as silly as it sounds)? Could he learn to communicate through the trees? Theon was able to hear him.

[Wolves of Winter]

He seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he will be connected to the tree. We have later evidence from other PoVs that he is hooked up to the Weirwood system and is in training.

His life will become virtual reality. Cared for by the root system and the Children he will live a couple hundred years judging by Bloodraven.

Certainly not a bad thing, and we've known since he started the journey that "Bran will be needed," according to the Reed green-seer. There is much work for a young weir-warg in the new North. Rickon is still out there, somewhere, with Osha. Jon and Ghost will certainly need Bran before the end, and there is the pack that Summer has just taken charge of beyond the Wall.

And let's not forget Nymeria in the south with her pack of Riverlands wolves,

And who's to know what will become of them as Arya's training with the Faceless Men continues (we assume it's successful so far based on what GRRM's has allowed us to see in Dances) -- and as the training becomes closer and closer to her being assigned on a mission, whether it be on Dany's behalf, the Bank of Bravos or whatever that may be, her adventures with Nymeria may cease, and Nymeria may be left to her own devices. (I find it highly unlikely that the Faceless Men would assign her to take out the Boltons or some other Stark-involved mission).

.

So what will become of Nymeria and her pack? One can see two armies of Wolves, with Summer and Nymeria leading them. That makes Bran not only busy, very busy, but potentially the most powerful being in Westeros (looking ahead).

I do wish GRRM had spent more time with Bran and the Reeds and Hodor. Was it three POV's in DWD? Not enough. It's one he could have drawn out more for us.

[corbaekin]

Does anyone remember a scene at the end of ACoK where Arya prays in a godswood at Harrenhal? She imagines she hears her father speaking to her. Do you think it might have been Bran speaking instead (from the future, as silly as it sounds)? Could he learn to communicate through the trees? Theon was able to hear him.

Oooh, that is a really good catch! Not silly at all, either, if what they're saying about the way time works is valid. It's interesting, too, because they insist on telling Bran that he can't change anything, but in fact, his whispering Theon's name reminds Theon of who he is and thus causes him to be willing to use Jeyne to escape and to help her do so. If not, it's possible that sequence might not have gone down the way it did.

I know it would play merry hell with the books, but for an intellectual exercise, do we think that Bran has that ability?

[Basileus777]

Oooh, that is a really good catch! Not silly at all, either, if what they're saying about the way time works is valid. It's interesting, too, because they insist on telling Bran that he can't change anything, but in fact, his whispering Theon's name reminds Theon of who he is and thus causes him to be willing to use Jeyne to escape and to help her do so. If not, it's possible that sequence might not have gone down the way it did.

I was under the impression that Blood Raven meant Bran couldn't change anything in the past. The Theon scene was in the present. I'll have to reread that scene.

[Prince Bran]

Yeah, I understood Bloodraven to be saying that Bran can't interfere with the past. Since the Theon stuff is real time, it looks like he's able to reach out a bit. Also, I assumed that Bran was controlling Jon/the Old Bear's Raven in some of his chapters, especially when it becomes more verbose. Could be wrong though, or it might be Bloodraven.

[Alsace]

He seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he will be connected to the tree. We have later evidence from other PoVs that he is hooked up to the Weirwood system and is in training.

His life will become virtual reality. Cared for by the root system and the Children he will live a couple hundred years judging by Bloodraven.

A couple hundred years? No. As long as the weirwoods do, it looks more like- and the weirwoods live indefinitely. Do you remember the hall of Greenseers on their thrones? They looked at him and I believe one tried to speak. They seem to desiccate, not die. Creepy as hell.

[Emerson]

Any thoughts on the nature of the events he was seeing in the past? Obviously there was Ned, and then most likely Lyanna fighting with Brandon. But any thoughts on what the other visions were of? I haven't finished the book yet but I know there are no more Bran chapters, and I'm sure others could puzzle these out better than I.

[TMWNN]

His warging into Hodor has become a regularity, which is sad.

Yes. It seems somewhat addicting, which is both understandable for a quadraplegic and still terrible for his unwilling subject, Hodor. And there's no way to avoid saying it: Hodor is unwilling, but as Martin writes has been beaten down like a whipped dog.

Speaking of Hodor, the Bran chapters also contain brief mentions of two things that have been speculated on: 1) He is in love with Meera (aww), and 2) fantasizes about, uh, expressing his love in some fashion while in Hodor's body (ugh).

[Eaglewood]

I loved the Bloodraven reveal and Bran's chapters in the book.

I'm especially interested that Mel saw Bloodraven and Bran as her enemies in the flames, especially with Bryden's lines about becoming one with the darkness. We realllllllllllllly need the rest of that dude's story ASAP.

I hope Bran doesn't end up stuck to a tree for the rest of his life. And I hope the Reed kids will be okay. They were not happy campers in that cave.

[Mark Antony]

Brans Chapters were by far my favorite.

did not know where else to post this

[skins7778]

I loved the Bran chapters, his and Reek/Theon were the best in the book to me. I would have loved to have more of them to really show the training from Bloodraven, maybe at the expense of some of the meaningless Dany and Tyrion chapters. I don't know if its just me or did it seem like GRRM kind of forgot about Bran in the second half of the book? I maybe wrong but I don't remember any of them.

[Whitering]

I loved the Bloodraven reveal and Bran's chapters in the book.

I'm especially interested that Mel saw Bloodraven and Bran as her enemies in the flames, especially with Bryden's lines about becoming one with the darkness. We realllllllllllllly need the rest of that dude's story ASAP.

I hope Bran doesn't end up stuck to a tree for the rest of his life. And I hope the Reed kids will be okay. They were not happy campers in that cave.

Mel has been wrong all over the place.

[cutters10c]

I hope Bran doesn't end up stuck to a tree for the rest of his life. And I hope the Reed kids will be okay. They were not happy campers in that cave.

I know, as a big fan of Bran that is a pretty depressing thought.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

He's a cripple who's never going to walk again, I think being stuck to a tree is pretty much all he can do anyway.

[Eaglewood]

Mel has been wrong all over the place.

We've seen the evidence that the flames don't lie though. Faulty human interpretation does. They must be important to come up during her prayers though. I personally don't think they are evil, but it's an interesting contrast nevertheless.