The Dagger hired to kill Bran

[Kikajon]

My first post!

I saw the South Park parody of Game of Thrones in late December and was intrigued, so I binge watched the first 3 seasons online, then was so addicted that I bought all the books for Kindle and have read all five in the last four months. Binge reading! What an amazing and captivating world that George R. R. Martin has created, eh?

OK, to the point of this specific thread:

1. I think I think the identity of whomever sponsored the Catspaw will be a another shocker in book 6 or 7.

2. I think that the motive will be a shocker, and will have nothing to do with Jamie and Cersei in the tower.

3. I think we will learn that the assassination on Bran had already been ordered and planned, and that it was just a useful (for storytelling and misdirection) coincidence to have had Bran see the Lannister incest and be pushed to his near-death by Jamie.

Now that I have established myself as both a newb AND a nutjob :drool: , let me explain...

Remember how Aegon was dead at Gregor's hands for several books, like definitively dead-- until he ended up aboard a ship with Tyrion in A Dance with Dragons? That is how Bran's assassination has been written IMHO. First we were told it was Tyrion's knife, won from Littlefinger in Joffrey's name-day tournament, but this seems to have just been a lie by Littlefinger to further his own ends. Later Tyrion SPECULATED that Joffrey stole the extremely unique dagger from Robert's collection and gave it to the assassin to kill Bran... but this doesn't hold much water. For one thing, would Joffrey be that stupid, to give such a highly recognizable blade from Robert's collection to some lowlife-for-hire? He would surely know that if the assassin was caught with it (as did happen!), it would lead back to him/Robert/King's Landing. And if such a unique knife was from Robert's collection, wouldn't his armorer (Ser Aron Santagar) have recognized it from Ser Rodrik Cassel's description in King's Landing? (Recall that Vary's 'little birds' heard this discussion between Rodrik and Aron.) Apparently Ser Aron did not recognize it, since the GoT narrative pursued Littlefinger's lie for a book or so... No, this whole "Joffrey took it from Robert and gave it to the assassin" is tissue-thin, and I will be shocked if it isn't overturned by GRRM as just another misdirection.

So what then? Well, while Bran's importance to the story has evolved slowly, he is poised to be a most central character to the conclusion of the series. Is it an accident that the very first chapter of the whole series (apart from the prologue), the chapter that started the whole GoT universe, is attributed to Bran? I think that's intentional to indicate the importance Bran would have as the story evolved. Otherwise that first chapter could have just as easily been attributed to Robb or Jon or Eddard.

Also critical about Bran-- he is slated to be the next greenseer, perhaps the only greenseer. Only one in a million people (a thousand thousand) is born to be a greenseer. If some other characters or forces in the book had come to know that Bran was slated to be the next greenseer, its conceivable they would want to kill him. For example, if Melisandre had looked in the fires and seen Bran's future as a greenseer, wouldn't she see that as an affront to R'hllor and a possible threat to Stannis' rule in the name of the Lord of Light? Perhaps the Catspaw was a servant of the Lord of Light, making his choice to distract Winterfell by setting a fire not just an arbitrary choice...

And before you dismiss my speculation of "some entity" seeing Bran's future and taking action, remember the other omen from the very first chapter of the very first book-- the direwolf pups, 3 males, 2 females... and one oddity albino... for the 3 males, 2 females, and 1 bastard of the House of Stark. Who sent those? These were themselves sent by "some entity" that foresaw trouble coming for the Stark children and took action to help them. So it is plausible that Bran's "one in a million" role would have been foreseen by others, perhaps Others, and that they would have moved to kill him...

Food for thought. Now I have to go prepare for the evening. You know what I mean-- the night is dark, and full of terrors and all, ha ha...

I agree, there must be something bigger behind it, I can't figure it out but surely it makes no sense to me the Jeoffrey theory.

First of all a valyrian steel dagger is not something just precious, it is something UNIQUE, it's the only one we have even heard of and in the whole of Westeros there are only a few baldes of valeryan steel left, you can't find one that easily.

So I think there was a dagger lost by LF to Robert during the tournament, but it wasn't a valeryan steel dagger, otherwise eveyone would have talked of that unique super preciouos dagger that was lost on a bet.

And Robert wouldn't ever notce the loss of his valeryan steel dagger and never mention it?

So it makes sense Varys not recognizing it. It was another dagger won by Robert in the tournament.

Second: even for Jeoffrey it would be too much to shine in this way to his father eyes:

"Hey dad, I stole your extra precious dagger, hired a sellsword and handed it to him to relieve Bran's suffering : are you proud of me?"

Third: Bran for sure is the central characters with extra powers and I feel we'll discover how crucial he his in the following books. Who could have known that and tryed to kill him?

Not many people, this and the box with lenses point to the Citadel to me.

One theory might be that Bran had to be killed with something special like Valyrian steel, otherwise he could warg himself or live again in another form, maybe the only way to get rid of him is with a Valyrian steel blade. Otherwise it makes no sense that a killer-not-so-skilled attemped at his life with a valyrian steel blade...

Still there are hints that don't fit in in any theory: Catelyn was not supposed to be there..why? some other plot gone astray?

If the target was Bran since the start, why not killing him outright? Even before Robert's arrival I mean. Or shortly afterwards if the scope was to mix in the confusion, like Mance did for instance.

I would be disappointed if the story was left uravelled or the blame left on Jeoffrey, though I know life is not a song and I will learn it to my sorrow in the next books...

[Ser Shaanoh the Swift]

Thanks for all the members for such a spirited and intellectual inputs to confuse me in concluding that it was joff.. lol..

Phew!!! This particular plot takes so much thoughts and inputs. Even GRRM would be surprised to read it and find so many thinking put behind this particular event.

However, I consider this a very important which triggered all the events to take place from GOT - DOD till date... Would be surprised if this point is pressed again in the book 6 and Book 6.

Thanks again guys!!!

[dehenry2]

What if Baelish is fomenting war because he is working as an agent of the Others, ala Zurg in The Fifth Element?

[Danzelot]

what about Mance Ryder and the wildlings?

did Mance just came to winterfell to play the lute?

when they found the direwolf at the beginning of the books, it was killed with a antler; a sign. and maybe when the catspaw didn`t fail, he left the dagger in brans head; and this dagger would refers to robert.

mance wants to enter the south, while ned stark thinks about riding against mance and finish him. killing bran would be also an act of mercy in the eyes of a wilding; just like Val prefer to kill Shireen because of her greyscale.

[Ladyknight the Butch]

I'm curious as to why everyone is writing Cersei out of this as a possibility. She had the most to gain by killing Bran. She would have wanted to make extra certain that Bran never woke up to say anything about her and Jaime doing nasty things in that tower.

[Ser Shaanoh the Swift]

Certainly not cersei. In SOS, Cersei denies this to tyrion and AFC she denies the same to Jaime. As far as my knoweldge goes its not cersei.

And with regards to Mance doing this it will add another dimension to this plot. :D

[Hier]

As much as I love the books, it feels like GRRM either significantly changed the direction where he was going from Book 1, or simply did not plan out everything from the beginning. Both, Bran's and Jon's assassin revelation twists seemed kind of forced. In Bran's case it ended up being completely inconsequential, and in Jon's case it rendered the lengthy hunt for "what secret did Jon discover that cost him his life?" moot.