Bran

[redriver]

Here's a passage about the door in the House of B&W in Braavos when Arya first sees it. To me, it certainly sounds like Bran could be able to see through them.

At the top she found a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high. The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought.

Also, another VERY relevant passage about Bran seeing further than the trees and perhaps not even needing the door previously mentioned:

"The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use … but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves.”

"When?” Bran wanted to know.

“In a year, or three, or ten. That I have not glimpsed. It will come in time, I promise you."

So in a nutshell, he only needs the carved eyes when he's still a rookie greenseer. Soon he won't need them any more. Will he even need weirwood or will he be basically an all-seeing god?

Yes,that's my impression.And the indcation is that Bran may be more powerful than Bloodraven,given that BR said it was impossible to communicate via weirwoods but Bran did seem to get through to Ned and Theon.

It said in GOT that greenseers got together and smashed the landbridge between Westeros and Essos after the invasion of the First Men using magic.

So potentially a hell of a lot of power in Bran's hands.But the Varimyr prologue,for me foreshadows that there is a dark side to greenseeing and warging abilities.

Bran is young and naiive.Will he be tempted to the dark side?.Knowing GRRM he probably will,but hopefully he will do the right thing in the end. :drunk:

[Michael Jon Snow]

I would love to see the Stannis/Theon confrontation scene in front of the wierwood tree from Bran's perspective. It would answer a ton of questions about Bran and BR's motivations, their abilities and their limitations. It would allow the mystery of what happens between Stannis and Bolton to linger a little longer. As a reader we would understand more of what Bran sees than Bran does. It would give entirely different insight into the bigger picture.

[Westerirei]

"It said in GOT that greenseers got together and smashed the landbridge between Westeros and Essos after the invasion of the First Men using magic."

Do you remember maybe who have said it? I'd like to search for this in the book

[redriver]

"It said in GOT that greenseers got together and smashed the landbridge between Westeros and Essos after the invasion of the First Men using magic."

Do you remember maybe who have said it? I'd like to search for this in the book

It was Maester Luwin in the last Bran chapter of AGOT.

[Valar Flaturis]

Westerirei - in the seventh Bran chapter in AGOT, Mr. Luwin tells Bran about the children of the forests and says that when the First Men started cutting down weirwoods, the children fought back. "Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door." According to Google books, it's on page 617.

Also, earlier someone mentioned whether it would be possible for Bran to warg into someone as strong-willed as Asha without resistance. I don't think so. In the Varamyr prologue he tried to warg into the fishwife and she put up a hell of a fight. Yeah, Varamyr was distracted by dying at the time, but still, he's a very experienced warg. I think that easy warging of the "Welcome to my body, if you need me I'll be wimpering in a dark corner of my soul" is possible only with someone very simple-minded like Hodor who can't muster up the will power to resist.

[redriver]

Westerirei - in the seventh Bran chapter in AGOT, Mr. Luwin tells Bran about the children of the forests and says that when the First Men started cutting down weirwoods, the children fought back. "Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door." According to Google books, it's on page 617.

Also, earlier someone mentioned whether it would be possible for Bran to warg into someone as strong-willed as Asha without resistance. I don't think so. In the Varamyr prologue he tried to warg into the fishwife and she put up a hell of a fight. Yeah, Varamyr was distracted by dying at the time, but still, he's a very experienced warg. I think that easy warging of the "Welcome to my body, if you need me I'll be wimpering in a dark corner of my soul" is possible only with someone very simple-minded like Hodor who can't muster up the will power to resist.

The thought occurred to me when reading the Varamyr prologue was perhaps the fishwife was objecting to an absolute c*** like him warging her whilst someone decent and powerful ,like Bran might be able to bring it off for the right reasons?

Though it's accepted that human warging seems the most difficult.

[chrisdaw]

Wait, wait, before we get too excited. If I have grasped the whole concept correctly, Bran can witness what the weirwood did, and only at that spot before the face cut in the bark. Unless there was a weirwood in Lyanna's bedchamber, there is no way he can find out via weirwood.

HOWEVER: now that magic is back and powers grow, could Bran see through other kinds oftrees with faces? Because, as Jon brings supplies to the Wildlings in the Mole Town, it is mentioned that they have cut faces into a couple of trees along the road.

Ned talked to the weirwoods, sought their guidance, wouldn't be a stretch to assume he spoke to the weirwoods about Jon regardless of his real lineage. And if Lyanna was complicit in the enlopement and wanted marriage, then a Northern marriage would be most likely, provided there was a weirwood about.

[Winterfail]

The thought occurred to me when reading the Varamyr prologue was perhaps the fishwife was objecting to an absolute c*** like him warging her whilst someone decent and powerful ,like Bran might be able to bring it off for the right reasons?

Though it's accepted that human warging seems the most difficult.

Speaking only for myself, I don't care how decent you are; get the hell out of me and take your right reasons with you! I can't imagine that Asha would be like, "Oh, you're a good little boy with a pressing need? That's alright, then. Make yourself at home."

[Arland]

That's alright, then. Make yourself at home.

Warging Asha seems fun... Look down. Jump. Repeat.

Anyhow I am not sure Asha had to be warged to suggest offing Theon near Werewood tree. Being offed by a sword is much better than burned alive, which was the other very much possible alternative.

Now, it is really interesting what Bran in planning, and what would Staniss do, in view of sudden Old gods power display in front of all his troops. Another questions is , does Theon now consider himself to be an believer in old gods as opposed to drowned god? And what about Asha?

[Valar Flaturis]

Earlier someone said that we're probably not going to see another Bran POV because now that's he's connected to the weirwood wiki he knows too much. I believe we're going to see a lot more Bran POVs, and this is why: this chapter proved just how powerful Bran already is; as people mentioned earlier, he can wreak havoc by messing with the raven communications alone, not to mention warging, advising various characters, influencing events, etc.

For that reason I think GRRM has to find some way to mitigate Bran's power, because otherwise Westeros is going to quickly become the Bran Show and people will start saying "Well why doesn't Bran just do this or that." Something's going to have to happen to Bran to distract him, or freak him out, or somehow give him pause, and there's no other way to tell that story other than through Bran's POV. Not sure what'll happen: maybe Bloodraven will go against him, or he'll see something in the past that'll throw him for a loop, or he'll hodor-bang Meera and feel so bad about it he won't warg anymore. But something has to limit him, and soon.

[chrisdaw]

The great military powers of the realm are all too preoccupied with fighting for the throne and their survival. Just as with the Night's Watch he'll struggle for attention with the big players. I expect he'll be manipulating events and characters he has an affinity with in preparation for the Others arrival.

Bran I think is the benevolent force in the series, and his character arc will lead him to both forgive Jamie and make a large sacrifice (most likely Jon) all for the sake of the realm of men.

[WillWork4NinjaPowers]

I always thought Robb accidentally warged Cat before he died and it's why she starts clawing at her face like the wildling.

[coalstrawbean]

Bran is definitely in position to be an impact player in this story. He can relay to us key events of the past and seemingly communicate with characters thousands of miles away. The northern storyline is definitely the most interesting to me right now. I hope he gets more chapters than he had in ADWD.

[King Rickon and his Dawg]

After reading the Theon sample chapter, I definitely got the sense that GRRM was intentionally holding out on us in ADwD, in terms of Bran chapters. The fact that all three of his chapters occur at the beginning, while we see him possibly communicating with Theon twice at the end (I'm counting the new chapter as the end of Dance, because let's be real here, that's really where it should be), suggests to me that Bran is indeed going to be a major player in Theon's arc in TWoW. It feels similar to how we get Areo Hotah's POV instead of Doran because he "knows too much" and would spoil the story, or how we didn't get Davos' POV at the end of Storm because that would spoil Stannis' big entrance at the Wall. I think that, whatever Bran is up to, it's something very significant that we can't know about just yet.

On an unrelated note, I have similar suspicions as to why we don't have a single Tyrell POV. Those devious bastards are up to something, I can feel it...

[ShadowRaven]

Bran is in so few pov's that I was skimming through pages to find another one of his. Always horrified that the lapse was 100 pages.....

All hail Bran!

True King of the North and the Old God's Warrior!

[Ladywhiskers]

The great military powers of the realm are all too preoccupied with fighting for the throne and their survival. Just as with the Night's Watch he'll struggle for attention with the big players. I expect he'll be manipulating events and characters he has an affinity with in preparation for the Others arrival. Bran I think is the benevolent force in the series, and his character arc will lead him to both forgive Jamie and make a large sacrifice (most likely Jon) all for the sake of the realm of men.

I am all for forgiving Jaime under the right circumstances, but sacrificing Jon to do it is going way too far.

[David C. Hunter]

I am all for forgiving Jaime under the right circumstances, but sacrificing Jon to do it is going way too far.

agreed. If Jon dies he will sacrifice himself for the realm, but Starks will stand united. Bran isnt going to kill him for any reason.....i hope

[chrisdaw]

I am all for forgiving Jaime under the right circumstances, but sacrificing Jon to do it is going way too far.

I personally wouldn't forgive Jamie under any circumstances, and I love the chracter, but that I think may be the whole point of Bran, where Lady Stoneheart will not forgive, for the sake of the realm of men Bran will, and where Jon could not sacrifice (Arya), for the sake of the realm of men Bran will.

[rise of the small folk]

Regarding who if any will tell Bran about R+L=J, I'm of the opinion that Meera and her brother greenseer knows. Back when they are travelling to the wall, she tells Bran about a tournament with characters that I believe where Howland Reed and Lyanna, amongst others. She asks Bran if he is sure that his father had not told him the story. So she knows, and also knows that Ned did not want to tell Bran for some reason.

So when the time is right, the children of Howland Reed can also tell Bran (and us!).

[Stark@heart]

Hodor-bang

My new favorite word.