Now that the "Bran is the Night King" theory is pretty much dead, there was a new one popping up that actually makes a lot of sense to me. Warning, kind of long theory talk.
Bran is actually R'hllor, the Lord of Light. Sounds pretty crazy, right? Well it actually makes some sense.
The Night King, at least to the Red Priests, is considered the embodiment of the "Great Other", who is the anti-thesis of the Lord of Light. Everything that Melisandre was doing was said to be at the behest of the Lord of Light, and was done to stop the Night King, as she before most knew of his coming and that her ultimate purpose was to help stop him. The Night King showed how much power he held in line with the "Great Other" as he was able to raise the dead to be dark thralls (much like the Lord of Light brings the dead back to life) and has power over frost and storms.
How does this tie in with Bran? For one, the Night King did seems awfully obsessed with hunting Bran down. If the Night King is the embodiment of the "Great Other" then Bran may be the embodiment of the Lord of Light (GRR said that if one has a physical embodiment, then likely the other one does too), and thus by the nature of their existence they have to fight each other. Bran has shown that he can see through and even INFLUENCE time. Ned Stark heard his voice back at the Tower of Joy, and later on him appearing before Hodor allowed Hodor to see the vision of his death, which lead to his mind being broken.
Why is that important? Well, the Red Priests, including Melisandre, get their visions by supposedly staring into the flames. However, is the flame itself what gives them the visions of the future, or could it be Bran choosing a "safer" way to show others the future so that they may do things he desires? The Lord of Light did heavily misdirect Melisandre when it came to Stannis and his overarching importance, but what if all of that was just Bran making sure that Stannis filled his role? He needed him to carry out some important moments, and he likely wouldn't have done that without Melisandre there to keep him locked onto some great prophecy. In other words R'hllor lied to her, to serve a greater purpose she didn't understand at the time.
It does seem a bit odd in hindsight that a low-key assassin would be using a very rare metal for his dagger when he attempted to kill Bran in season one. Arya then goes off to become a master assassin with small weapons. Bran give her the same dagger as she returns home. Later, both Beric and Melisandre turn out to be very important to keeping Arya alive, and then finally she uses the same dagger to kill the Night King while Bran uses himself as bait. Everything lead up to that moment.
The only final thing to question, is what about all that fire magic? Raising the dead from far away and through time and space? How would Bran be doing all that? We do see the Children of the Forest using fire magic, but we don't know specifics on if that falls under his domain. Remember though, that Bran as of this moment can see outside of time, past, present, and future. For all we know later on, something gives him these powers as he full matures into it, and he knows it, and can use it in the past, but as of his present self, he does not have them, but as he will have them someday we still see his machinations play out all the same. His present self is only just now finally syncing up with his future self, and that is why he is losing his humanity more and more each episode as he ultimately accends to become like a god.
The Night King, at least to the Red Priests, is considered the embodiment of the "Great Other", who is the anti-thesis of the Lord of Light. Everything that Melisandre was doing was said to be at the behest of the Lord of Light, and was done to stop the Night King, as she before most knew of his coming and that her ultimate purpose was to help stop him. The Night King showed how much power he held in line with the "Great Other" as he was able to raise the dead to be dark thralls (much like the Lord of Light brings the dead back to life) and has power over frost and storms.
How does this tie in with Bran? For one, the Night King did seems awfully obsessed with hunting Bran down. If the Night King is the embodiment of the "Great Other" then Bran may be the embodiment of the Lord of Light (GRR said that if one has a physical embodiment, then likely the other one does too), and thus by the nature of their existence they have to fight each other. Bran has shown that he can see through and even INFLUENCE time. Ned Stark heard his voice back at the Tower of Joy, and later on him appearing before Hodor allowed Hodor to see the vision of his death, which lead to his mind being broken.
Why is that important? Well, the Red Priests, including Melisandre, get their visions by supposedly staring into the flames. However, is the flame itself what gives them the visions of the future, or could it be Bran choosing a "safer" way to show others the future so that they may do things he desires? The Lord of Light did heavily misdirect Melisandre when it came to Stannis and his overarching importance, but what if all of that was just Bran making sure that Stannis filled his role? He needed him to carry out some important moments, and he likely wouldn't have done that without Melisandre there to keep him locked onto some great prophecy. In other words R'hllor lied to her, to serve a greater purpose she didn't understand at the time.
It does seem a bit odd in hindsight that a low-key assassin would be using a very rare metal for his dagger when he attempted to kill Bran in season one. Arya then goes off to become a master assassin with small weapons. Bran give her the same dagger as she returns home. Later, both Beric and Melisandre turn out to be very important to keeping Arya alive, and then finally she uses the same dagger to kill the Night King while Bran uses himself as bait. Everything lead up to that moment.
The only final thing to question, is what about all that fire magic? Raising the dead from far away and through time and space? How would Bran be doing all that? We do see the Children of the Forest using fire magic, but we don't know specifics on if that falls under his domain. Remember though, that Bran as of this moment can see outside of time, past, present, and future. For all we know later on, something gives him these powers as he full matures into it, and he knows it, and can use it in the past, but as of his present self, he does not have them, but as he will have them someday we still see his machinations play out all the same. His present self is only just now finally syncing up with his future self, and that is why he is losing his humanity more and more each episode as he ultimately accends to become like a god.
Jaime and Brieanne were defending Winterfell together with the two halves of Ned's Ice.
I'd hate to imagine the cardio regime the heroes have been through to be able to swing their swords for hours at a time.
No wonder she really wanted those elephants.
Highlights:
Lowlights
The feels, y'all. The feels.
It was nice to see some people have a good time for once.
Heartbroken tormund is all of us at one point in our lives.
It was nice to see some people have a good time for once.
Heartbroken tormund is all of us at one point in our lives.
Lowlights
Ok, how hard is it to just....see a ship? It was daylight this time and everything!
Send a little scout ship ahead and see what's up.
Have Bran be a few crows
Did she really not prepare for the possibility of 1) yet another ambush
2) that someone might have moved into dragonstone while she was gone?
I get Bronn cares more about climbing the ranks and being alive than potential friendships with Tyrion and Jamie. But still, that scene felt....weird. Like how is Tyrion not including that his counter offer of Highgarden includes "also you have to betray Cercie at an opportunistic moment"
Also, back to Dany, I get she wants to get the ball rolling and that the war in the north hit her hard. Being so adamant about the north having to immediately rally behind her and brushing off Dorne like they ain't shit is insane. Even if Sansa is trying to reneg on the deal, which is also insane, playing nice and saying that everyone gets a week or two of R&R just makes an amount of sense.
Also, Dorne has sworn to fight for Dany? And we're going to ignore the only region with a completely fresh army that has sat out the entire war so far and could probably steamroll what's left of Cercie and her army, Golden Company included?
*Sigh*
Cercie wins, doesn't she? Like the infighting and subverting of tropes just means that Cercie wins. GG no re.
Send a little scout ship ahead and see what's up.
Have Bran be a few crows
Did she really not prepare for the possibility of 1) yet another ambush
2) that someone might have moved into dragonstone while she was gone?
I get Bronn cares more about climbing the ranks and being alive than potential friendships with Tyrion and Jamie. But still, that scene felt....weird. Like how is Tyrion not including that his counter offer of Highgarden includes "also you have to betray Cercie at an opportunistic moment"
Also, back to Dany, I get she wants to get the ball rolling and that the war in the north hit her hard. Being so adamant about the north having to immediately rally behind her and brushing off Dorne like they ain't shit is insane. Even if Sansa is trying to reneg on the deal, which is also insane, playing nice and saying that everyone gets a week or two of R&R just makes an amount of sense.
Also, Dorne has sworn to fight for Dany? And we're going to ignore the only region with a completely fresh army that has sat out the entire war so far and could probably steamroll what's left of Cercie and her army, Golden Company included?
*Sigh*
Cercie wins, doesn't she? Like the infighting and subverting of tropes just means that Cercie wins. GG no re.
Dave
Staff member
Here's my view:
Dany is going to win. Even one dragon will be enough to destroy that fleet. "Fire > wooden ships" every time. But she's going to do some stuff that makes her a tyrant. and they are going to have to kill her or she's going to die. Arya is going to try and kill the queen and fail. Her purpose is done - she killed the Night King. Now she's playing on house money and will find out that she's still just a young woman who is biting off more than she can chew. Jaime will come south and kill Cercei as predicted. We will get the Clegaine Bowl as fan service, but this isn't a happy ending show. I can see the Hound winning but dying in the process or being killed after by guards. But he's never been allowed to be happy.
So in my view, who gets to sit on the Iron Throne? I'm hoping it ends up being Sansa & Tyrion. I really don't see it being Jon Snow, but I've been wrong before. The only people with claims are: Jon, Tyrion, Gedry, Sansa, Bran, & Arya. Jon doesn't want it, the people would never accept Tyrion, GEDRY makes complete sense, Sansa would be good, Bran would be a foolish choice and I think it would be the "Maggie shot Mr. Burns" ending, Arya would make a terrible ruler.
So I'm hoping either Sansa/Tyrion or Gedry. Now watch it'll end up being Grey Worm or some stupid shit.
So in my view, who gets to sit on the Iron Throne? I'm hoping it ends up being Sansa & Tyrion. I really don't see it being Jon Snow, but I've been wrong before. The only people with claims are: Jon, Tyrion, Gedry, Sansa, Bran, & Arya. Jon doesn't want it, the people would never accept Tyrion, GEDRY makes complete sense, Sansa would be good, Bran would be a foolish choice and I think it would be the "Maggie shot Mr. Burns" ending, Arya would make a terrible ruler.
So I'm hoping either Sansa/Tyrion or Gedry. Now watch it'll end up being Grey Worm or some stupid shit.
I agree with most of what you said. I just wanted to add that I’m 95% certain Grey Worm dies defending Dany. He’ll be so filled with rage and vengeance after his girlfriend got killed that he’ll just go with whatever tyrannical shit Dany asks of him, and he’ll be like a mini-boss before they get to Dany. So there’s no way he’ll be on the Iron Throne (I know you weren’t serious about that anyway).
Greyworm always advocates for the most brutal option. He's really bad for her decision making process.
From: Yay! the Brienne and Jaime ship has sailed!
To: Whelp, the Brienne and Jaime ship has sailed...
To: Whelp, the Brienne and Jaime ship has sailed...
They hand wave the passing of time way too much. There's no way Euron can believe he's the father of Cersei's baby, but then again, show Euron != book Euron at all.
Oh and the first three shots perfectly hitting Rhaegal, but every shot completely missing Daenarys when she was literally standing (hovering) still in a froth of range two feet in front of them is complete hilarity. :|
Oh and the first three shots perfectly hitting Rhaegal, but every shot completely missing Daenarys when she was literally standing (hovering) still in a froth of range two feet in front of them is complete hilarity. :|
John would rather spend the rest of his life with the Wildlings than rule. He just has too much Ned Stark in him to lie to people about his lineage.
I took it more as him doing the noble dumb thing, like he always does. And then he's going to end up causing people to turn again Dany, and want him on the throne even though he genuinely doesn't want it. And it's literally going to cause a war between himself and Dany.
Okay, seriously, why the fuck is everyone watching this if all you do is complain? So far from reading this thread all I can see people hate the characters, the story, and time mechanics, and more. I actually enjoy it, but it seems like half of you just watch it to bitch.
Because we had high expectations that were shattered and now we're basically hate fucking it.
Dave
Staff member
Because since they've surpassed the books the story has jumped around a lot, the plot armor characters now have are something that the show originally had done away with, and the writing has been lazy at times and cliche at most times.
So we love the show but complain because we've seen what they've done with it. We're invested. It's like a friend we grew up with that's a bit of an asshole now.
Because as Robb didn't learn from what happened to Ned, Jon can't learn from what happened to both of them. Quite frankly, I am shocked that the Stark line didn't already die out generations ago.
During the first half of the episode:
During the second half:
During the second half:
I'm mad at the writers for making so many people survive just so I can HATE most of them the next week. The most aggravating part was most of the poor choices were characters making the SAME poor choices they've made, some of which were very recent. No one learned from their mistakes? Really? Except maybe the true Starks, who continue to be the only ones with some sense. (Yeah, that means not you, Jon.)
And not that Danerys has always made great choices, but I hate how they're setting up Jon to fail upward into the throne. Yes, he is a good guy, probably one of a handful left in Westeros, but he makes bad decisions as a commander and in his personal life all the damn time.
And not that Danerys has always made great choices, but I hate how they're setting up Jon to fail upward into the throne. Yes, he is a good guy, probably one of a handful left in Westeros, but he makes bad decisions as a commander and in his personal life all the damn time.
This is the rest of the internet, too. I don't think I've seen anyone actually praise the show, but everyone seems to be watching it anyway.
I stopped watching when I stopped liking it. I can't understand people watching hours of a thing they no longer like.
(Even after explanations in this thread. There's so little time in each day.)