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[Spoiler]Do you all hate Bran?


ShadowRaven

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Always been a big Bran fan.

I'll admit, in the middle of the series, some of his chapters dig drag a bit. I think that's mostly because I was constantly wondering, "where is this going!?"

The pay off in ADWD was well worth it though, in my opinion. His weirwood visions were one of my favorite parts of the entire series.

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I don't know why people dislike Bran, his story arc is one of the more classic fantasy story arcs there is. Apart from him being cripple. But it has everything else, from wondering around the countryside on a quest to fighting supernatural creatures and the undead, to sorcery. Only thing missing is a dragon but that too can be sorted out.

Apart from warging Hodor, unlike other characters Bran hasn't done any morally questionable actions either, at least not wittingly.

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That's actually the reason why some people dislike Bran. The classic fantasy story arc is just boring to some people, including me.

...rather odd don't you think? ASOFAI was always meant as a fantasy novel not a political drama it turned out to be. I still find it amusing when people say the story isn't revolving around the Wall and Dany's dragons. It really says so in the title of the series. Martin got way too caught up in the Game and downplayed the dragon/witch/sorceror part but to me, ASOFAI is still a fantasy novel at its core.

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...rather odd don't you think? ASOFAI was always meant as a fantasy novel not a political drama it turned out to be. I still find it amusing when people say the story isn't revolving around the Wall and Dany's dragons. It really says so in the title of the series. Martin got way too caught up in the Game and downplayed the dragon/witch/sorceror part but to me, ASOFAI is still a fantasy novel at its core.

You said it yourself. It turned out to be a political drama, even if it was intended to be fantasy. A Game of Thrones had barely any fantasy in it, oddly enough, and it attracted the attention of a wider audience. So far it's had just enough fantasy for my liking, but Bran's chapters get a lot more of it than most. I don't know, dragons and the like just kinda bore me. Bran the character is fine, and plenty of his chapters are interesting and well written, but the political drama is just more interesting to me.

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IMO Bran's story is the antithesis of all that the series embodied in the beginning. Other than the dragons (which GRRM said he was originally not going to include), he created a fantasy world that was light on the fantasy and strong on the Medieval society and political maneuverings. While I have grown to love even the fantasy elements of the story, it is still my least favorite parts. If I wanted to read Tolken, I would read Tolken. GRRM's books were so different because it was not all elves and dwarfs and magical people. You could idenitfy with the characters and everything seemed to have a slight base in reality. It was reality based fantasy.

Now, we have Bran becoming a tree with the magical people of the forest who have cat's eyes? We have zombies to keep alive characters that should be dead (Lady Stoneheart). Ok, I can deal with this to a certain extent, but Bran's story being so tied to the magical side of fantasy, its just not my favorite part. That being said, I would like to see whatelse he can see through the trees. Maybe his character is just a way to give another third party perspective of other events occuring in the book. Bran is a literary device rather than an actual important character at this point.

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So you are saying he has become (3rd person) omniscient?

Almost, but not exactly. Think about it, he now can view things wherever there is a Wierwood. So he can give additional perspective of events that occur by a Wierwood. Think about it, even when he was Summer and saved John from the wildlings, it really was a way for GRRM to give another perspective of a scene without making it from John's POV. Otherwise why have the cross-over scene? Anyway, its just my least favorite part of the story. Keep the magic to a minimum (not saying not at all, just less) and give us more character development.

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Almost, but not exactly.

I hate having to explain jokes... and maybe its not necessary here, but; Mine was a play on the literary device known as 3rd person omniscient and Bran's new found... well omniscience. ASOIAF is written in 3rd person limited, for example.

But to the topic - I agree with what you are saying, though I think Bran will be used to give us glimpses of Westerosi history more than current events that could be told through someone else's POV. However, he will still be able to play an active part in events by warging things/people/animals. I would hate to see him become completely inert story wise.

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  • 1 month later...

I hate having to explain jokes... and maybe its not necessary here, but; Mine was a play on the literary device known as 3rd person omniscient and Bran's new found... well omniscience. ASOIAF is written in 3rd person limited, for example.

But to the topic - I agree with what you are saying, though I think Bran will be used to give us glimpses of Westerosi history more than current events that could be told through someone else's POV. However, he will still be able to play an active part in events by warging things/people/animals. I would hate to see him become completely inert story wise.

Relax, GRRm wont let that happen. Grrm made god as part , a character, of the story. I explained in one thread named Bran the weirwood wiki, as to How Bran wont come across as Omniscient Being.

He still will have his own POV while viewing events and gaining knowledge, and will also be bound by Time in his activities. So, he may access to important information, yet he will be able to collect information one at a time while the time will pass ,causing The Story to alter its course :)

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I'm a fan of Bran, Jojen, Meera, and (of course) Hodor. I don't think that his chapters are nearly as dull as people make them out to be. I think that his story has taken one of the least-predictable directions. At the start of the series I expected Bran to become central to the main plot, and I think it's pretty cool that he is on an almost entirely different plane of existence from the rest of Westeros.

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