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bran stark - shield that guards the realms of men (king of the gods, bringer of summer)

I ended up posting some things separately without editing them because, well, I’m bad at planning things and didn’t think I’d actually sit down and type all this out or work out in a somewhat coherent manner. These are just theories that I’ve had regarding the books and where they may end up and I’ve just jotted them down. I see, as the fandom sees, a lot of inspiration in asoiaf in Norse and Greek mythology, so it’s kind of fun to hold it up to the light and pick out what picture is on the other side.

In a previous meta, I said I believe that Bran’s ending will be with him as a king, but I don’t believe it will necessarily be to the same throne we saw in the show.

#bran stark #bran as king of the gods #bran the protector of the realm #asoiaf spec #bran meta

Sansa and Bran

I thought I’d take the time to discuss my favourite Stark sibling relationship. While the two of them weren’t as close as Arya and Jon or Jon and Robb, they have a positive relationship despite having different interests. Out of all the Stark children, Sansa and Bran are noted to have enjoyed songs though Bran did not like the romantic ones Sansa enjoyed.

Lord Wyman's musicians played bravely and well, but harp and fiddle and horn were soon drowned beneath a tide of talk and laughter, the clash of cup and plate, and the snarling of hounds fighting for table scraps. The singer sang good songs, "Iron Lances" and "The Burning of the Ships" and "The Bear and the Maiden Fair," but only Hodor seemed to be listening. He stood beside the piper, hopping from one foot to the other.

In fact songs and stories play an important role in Bran’s story especially when he meets the Children. Bran wanted to become a knight just as much as Sansa wanted to attend tourneys.

Bran was going to be a knight himself someday, one of the Kingsguard. Old Nan said they were the finest swords in all the realm. There were only seven of them, and they wore white armor and had no wives or children, but lived only to serve the king. Bran knew all the stories. Their names were like music to him. Serwyn of the Mirror Shield. Ser Ryam Redwyne. Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. The twins Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk, who had died on one another's swords hundreds of years ago, when brother fought sister in the war the singers called the Dance of the Dragons. The White Bull, Gerold Hightower. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. Barristan the Bold.

She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother's queen.

"Prince Aemon the Dragonknight cried the day Princess Naerys wed his brother Aegon," Sansa Stark said, "and the twins Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk died with tears on their cheeks after each had given the other a mortal wound."

Like Sansa, Bran was excited to go South.

For days, Bran could scarcely wait to be off. He was going to ride the kingsroad on a horse of his own, not a pony but a real horse. His father would be the Hand of the King, and they were going to live in the red castle at King's Landing, the castle the Dragonlords had built. Old Nan said there were ghosts there, and dungeons where terrible things had been done, and dragon heads on the walls. It gave Bran a shiver just to think of it, but he was not afraid. How could he be afraid? His father would be with him, and the king with all his knights and sworn swords.

An opinion that Sansa no doubt shared. Unfortunately Bran was almost killed and he had to remain in the North. We know Bran’s fall devastated Sansa

She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran.

and we know Lady’s death hurt Bran.

Bran felt all cold inside. "She lost her wolf," he said, weakly, remembering the day when four of his father's guardsmen had returned from the south with Lady's bones. Summer and Grey Wind and Shaggydog had begun to howl before they crossed the drawbridge, in voices drawn and desolate. Beneath the shadow of the First Keep was an ancient lichyard, its headstones spotted with pale lichen, where the old Kings of Winter had laid their faithful servants. It was there they buried Lady, while her brothers stalked between the graves like restless shadows. She had gone south, and only her bones had returned.

It was the only time that anyone shows any pain on Sansa’s behalf after Lady dies (with the exception of Ned’s anger whenever he remembered killing Lady). That’s what I love most about the relationship, they can’t see each other but they feel for the other as much as possible. I think this is the most uncomplicated relationship that Sansa has. She likes being a lady and that involves a lot of time in doors but besides the remark about kissing songs, Bran has no problem with what Sansa enjoys. He even remembered the feast they held in Robert’s in honor in which he noted how Sansa was listening intently to the singers without making a disparaging remark, something other characters find difficult. Sansa and Bran’s arcs contain a lot of trauma, something uncomplicated as their love for one another is sweet and will probably go a long way in healing them when they meet again.

#Sansa Stark #bran stark #song of ice and fire #sansa meta #bran meta #long post

The reason I think Bran will become King in the North by the end of the series is that not only is he Ned’s trueborn son, he has also never left the North, he was lord of Winterfell before its destruction, his powers are tied to the North and he’s being groomed to save it from an ancient enemy. Not to mention he was named after Brandon the Builder. I’m a huge Sansa fan but GRRM has King Bran as the endgame. Hell his first ever chapter he was learning from Ned on how to carry about the king’s justice. He is the only Stark who receives lessons from Ned in the present. That means something.

#bran stark #song of ice and fire #bran meta

It’s well known that D & D hold little love for Bran Stark. From omitting him from appearing a whole season to making him him an emotionless” three eyed raven”, it’s clear that they can’t understand or don’t care enough to understand this young boy’s arc (also, it’s really obvious how ableist they are but that’s a topic for another day I guess).

Unlike those two, Martin has made clear that Bran is a really important part of the story. And since I’m tired of fans dismissing Bran’s relevance because he gets in the way of their favourites achieving everything or because they base his characterization on D & D’s nonsense, I decided to collect a couple of quotes about him from the author himself.

First of all, Martin has admitted that due to Bran’s young age and his involvement with magic he is the hardest character to write (x). Despite that difficulty, Bran has his own chapters in all the books (save from AFFC where half the cast doesn’t appear, either). One may wonder why Martin bother to write for such a young character since it’s not easy for him. Well,I think that the answer lies to the fact that Bran was always an essential part of the asoiaf, even before the story had taken its final form. The famous 1993 letter is proof of it:

Five central characters will make it through all three volumes, however, growing from children to adults and changing the world and themselves in the process. In a sense my trilogy is almost a generational sage, telling the life stories of these five characters, three men and two women. The five key players are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and three of the children of Winterfell, Arya, Bran, and the bastard Jon Snow. All of them are introduced at some length in the chapters you have to hand.

(x)

Actually it goes even before that. Martin has admitted that the first scene he imagined about asoiaf was Bran’s first chapter - and it was always meant to be Bran’s point of view.

You've talked before about the original glimpse of the story you had for what became A Song of Ice and Fire: a spontaneous vision in your mind of a boy witnessing a beheading, then finding direwolves in the snow. That's an interesting genesis. It was the summer of 1991. I was still involved in Hollywood. My agent was trying to get me meetings to pitch my ideas, but I didn't have anything to do in May and June. It had been years since I wrote a novel. I had an idea for a science-fiction novel called Avalon. I started work on it and it was going pretty good, when suddenly it just came to me, this scene, from what would ultimately be the first chapter of A Game of Thrones. It's from Bran's viewpoint; they see a man beheaded and they find some direwolf pups in the snow. It just came to me so strongly and vividly that I knew I had to write it. I sat down to write, and in, like, three days it just came right out of me, almost in the form you've read.

(x)

So, next time you try to dismiss Bran as unimportant to the overall story consider this: he was an essential part from the start. Probably, even before the creation of your favourites.

#bran stark #bran meta #george rr martin #anti d&d #asoiaf meta #got meta

Bran as King in the North/Lord of Winterfell.

In most fandom’s conversations about which Stark will be the one to inherit Winterfell, Bran’s name is rarely even mentioned. Maybe that’s because fans tend to ignore Bran altogether or because they wish their favourites to rule Winterfell, like the castle is some kind of gift that the best/most deserving character should get.

In any case, I believe that Bran has actually the most chances to be Winterfell’s Lord in the end. After all, he’s the character who is more linked to Winterfell and the one who actually spends more time than any other point of view Stark in their home. Furthermore, he’s currently the heir to Winterfell and if he survives the series - something I believe that will happen - I see no reason why he should be denied his inheritance.

In order to further prove my point, I gathered some interesting quotes that possibly foreshadow Bran’s endgame as Lord of Winterfell.

When Ned and Arya were discussing Bran’s fate, Ned told his daughter that his son could no longer become a knight like he wished. According to Ned, Bran could become a lord and even raise castles like Brandon the Builder.

He was going to be a knight,” Arya was saying now. “A knight of the Kingsguard. Can he still be a knight?” “No,” Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. “Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king’s council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother’s Faith and become the High Septon."

It’s interesting that Ned linked his son to this legendary man who is said that built both Winterfell and the Wall. After the battle of Winterfell in ACOK, the castle is burned by the Boltons and it’s currently occupied by them while being in a half ruined state. The Stark who will reclaim it, will need to rebuild it,too. And who would make a better choice than the boy who was linked to the legendary Brandon the Builder and who not only shares his name but his nickname,too (Bran)?

Continuing with the hints that Bran will rebuild Winterfell, this passage also seems to contain hints about the future:

[...]The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I’m not dead either.

Before departing from Winterfell, Bran turns to have a final look to the castle that had been all his life. While he looks at it, he takes notice that the stone remains and that the roots of the trees go deep underground where the Kings of Winter still sit on their thrones.

He proceeds to compare the castle to his own disability calling it “broken” but still refusing to declare it “dead”. Because he hasn’t given up on himself and he refuses to give up on Winterfell,too. After all, this castle has always been an important part of who he is. And just like Bran will one day return to Westeros and in Winterfell after gaining knowledge from Bloodraven, his home will be raised from its ashes again. Bran will make sure of it.

After all, Bran is the character that has the stronger links to Winterfell. He says so in one of his first point of view chapters:

When he got out from under it and scrambled up near the sky, Bran could see all of Winterfell in a glance. He liked the way it looked, spread out beneath him, only birds wheeling over his head while all the life of the castle went on below. Bran could perch for hours among the shapeless, rain-worn gargoyles that brooded over the First Keep, watching it all: the men drilling with wood and steel in the yard, the cooks tending their vegetables in the glass garden, restless dogs running back and forth in the kennels, the silence of the godswood, the girls gossiping beside the washing well. It made him feel like he was lord of the castle, in a way even Robb would never know.

In the above passage, Bran confesses that he feels like the lord of the castle because he’s tied to Winterfell in a way that not even Robb (the current heir at that time) knew.

I personally consider it foreshadowing of the future, since we already know that Robb died and can no longer be Winterfell’s lord, while Bran, who as himself says knows Winterfell the best, is the current heir.

A similar foreshadowing comes from the mouths of Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik, who both are loyal and respectable followers of his father.

"Your notion about the bastard may have merit, Bran," Maester Luwin said after. "One day you will be a good lord for Winterfell, I think." "No I won't." Bran knew he would never be a lord, no more than he could be a knight. "Robb's to marry some Frey girl, you told me so yourself, and the Walders say the same. He'll have sons, and they'll be the lords of Winterfell after him, not me." "It may be so, Bran," Ser Rodrik said, "but I was wed three times and my wives gave me daughters. Now only Beth remains to me. My brother Martyn fathered four strong sons, yet only Jory lived to be a man. When he was slain, Martyn's line died with him. When we speak of the morrow nothing is ever certain."

Maester Luwin praises Bran for his solution to the Lady Hornwood’s problem and considers that the boy will make a good lord of Winterfell one day. And while Bran protests that Robb will be the one to inherit their home, Ser Rodrik notes that nothing is set on stone and that future is always uncertain.

While those two have no means to see the future, they are actually right because Robb died in the Red Wedding and therefore it is impossible for him to be the lord of Winterfell any longer. I suspect that it is the author, who unlike Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrick knows what will happen in the future of his story, who put that presage via the characters’ mouth.

Finally, I want to note that unlike the rest of his siblings (at least the ones with POV), Bran identifies as a prince.

“Bran,” he said sullenly. Bran the Broken. “Brandon Stark.” The cripple boy. “The Prince of Winterfell.”

What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins.

Bran is the one who is called the prince of Winterfell, just like it’s Bran the one who is the rightful heir.

#bran stark #house stark #asoiaf meta #asoiaf #bran meta #(there must always be a Brandon in Winterfell)

Bran Stark Week:Day 6: Name Foreshadowing

When I was first reading the series I was wondering why didn’t Ned named his firstborn son after his dead brother instead of his second one. Robb was born around a year after his brother died and Ned was deep down feeling that Winterfell should be Brandon’s. Wouldn’t naming his heir after the same brother somehow make up for it? After all, Winterfell will be one day inherited by a “Brandon” as Ned was feeling that it should be.

Then I read about the red wedding and I realized that this wasn’t meant to be poor Robb Stark’s fate, just like it was never meant to be his uncle’s fate,either. History repeats itself and just like Ned once became the Lord of Winterfell despite being the second son of his House, now his second son is the current heir of Winterfell. Only that son is named Brandon (Bran). And the circle is complete with Winterfell belonging once again to a Brandon:

That brought a bitter twist to Ned's mouth. "Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon. You, Winterfell, everything. He was born to be a King's Hand and a father to queens. I never asked for this cup to pass to me."

In a poetic way, Bran is not only his father’s heir but his uncle’s too. He’s the Brandon that will be able to do what the previous one couldn’t because of his sudden death. An interesting detail is that Brandon currently has his uncle’s sword in his possession.

[...]Brandon took his namesake's, the sword made for the uncle he had never known. He knew he would not be much use in a fight, but even so the blade felt good in his hand.

However, Bran doesn’t only share the same name with the uncle he never knew. The legendary founder of the House Stark was also named Brandon Stark. Interestingly enough, he was also known as Bran the Builder, as he’s the one who built Winterfell and the Wall. When Arya and Ned discuss about Bran’s fate, the latter tells his daughter that Bran could possible one day become like Brandon the Builder and raise castles,too.

"He was going to be a knight," Arya was saying now. "A knight of the Kingsguard. Can he still be a knight?" "No," Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. "Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon."

Currently Winterfell is in ruins. Bran has even linked it to his own disability calling it “broken” like him yet avoiding to call it “dead” ; because a part of him doesn’t want to give it up and it will never given up hope for Winterfell’s rebirth.

At the edge of the wolfswood, Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. Wisps of smoke still rose into the grey sky, but no more than might have risen from Winterfell's chimneys on a cold autumn afternoon. Soot stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing merlon could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance. Beyond, the tops of the keeps and towers still stood as they had for hundreds of years, and it was hard to tell that the castle had been sacked and burned at all. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either.

Now who would be the a better choice to rebuild Winterfell, that Bran Stark the heir to Winterfell and also namesake of Brandon the Builder? I feel like Martin has put small hints in all the books that foreshadows that Bran’s endgame will be his return to Winterfell and the castle rising from the ashes thanks to him.

After all, the name “Brandon” is inextricably linked to Winterfell. One look to Winterfell’s history can confirm that. Or Bran’s chapters when he’s in the Crypts and so many statues of former Stark Kings and Lords are named Brandon.I’ll end up my analysis with one quote about how Old Nan has fused together all the Brandons in her head. Maybe our Bran Stark is meant to inherit all the virtues of the previous Brandons of Winterfell.

Thousands and thousands of years ago, Brandon the Builder had raised Winterfell, and some said the Wall. Bran knew the story, but it had never been his favorite. Maybe one of the other Brandons had liked that story. Sometimes Nan would talk to him as if he were her Brandon, the baby she had nursed all those years ago, and sometimes she confused him with his uncle Brandon, who was killed by the Mad King before Bran was even born. She had lived so long, Mother had told him once, that all the Brandon Starks had become one person in her head.

#bran stark #branpositivityweek #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #bran meta #mymeta #(there must always be a Brandon in Winterfell)

Bran Stark Week: Favourite Book: A Clash of Kings

For the largest part of the first book, Bran is observing how his older brother is faring in ruling at Winterfell. However, on the next book (ACOK) this role falls on Bran’s shoulders, as his brother leaves their home to go to war. It’s interesting to see the youngest point of view character to be the first one who comes in a position of power (other pov characters become rulers at the end of the third book). For a boy of his age, Bran is handling extremely good the responsibilities of a ruler.

Bran quickly adjusts to the role of the ruler, and while at moments he complains that he dislikes his new role (which is to be expected from such a young child) he doesn’t show that disfavor in front of others except from his trusted advisers. I cite below two examples of Bran being a good lord. In both passages someone praises Bran’s lord skills. And not just “someone” but Maester Luwin and Rodrick Cassel who both were his father’s loyal and trusted men.

Howling lost its savor once Bran was alone. After a time he quieted. I did welcome them, he told himself, resentful. I was the lord in Winterfell, a true lord, he can't say I wasn't. When the Walders had arrived from the Twins, it had been Rickon who wanted them gone. A baby of four, he had screamed that he wanted Mother and Father and Robb, not these strangers. It had been up to Bran to soothe him and bid the Freys welcome. He had offered them meat and mead and a seat by the fire, and even Maester Luwin had said afterward that he'd done well.

Lord Wyman Manderly had arrived from White Harbor two days past, traveling by barge and litter, as he was too fat to sit a horse. With him had come a long tail of retainers: knights, squires, lesser lords and ladies, heralds, musicians, even a juggler, all aglitter with banners and surcoats in what seemed half a hundred colors. Bran had welcomed them to Winterfell from his father's high stone seat with the direwolves carved into the arms, and afterward Ser Rodrik had said he'd done well. If that had been the end of it, he would not have minded. But it was only the beginning.

Aside from knowing how to behave in front of important guests, Bran is quick to pick other skills,too. After observing how Master Luwin handles various issues, Bran is able to act diplomatically when the situation calls it.

[...]Beren is near ten, a likely lad, and her own nephew. He would cheer her, I am certain, and perhaps he would even take the name Hornwood . . ." "If he were named heir?" suggested Maester Luwin. ". . . so the House might continue," finished Leobald. Bran knew what to say. "Thank you for the notion, my lord," he blurted out before Ser Rodrik could speak. "We will bring the matter to my brother Robb. Oh, and Lady Hornwood."

Nobody expected Bran to offer solutions in the Lords’ problems, not even his advisers. In fact, Maester Luwin told him that during the meeting with the Lords he shouldn’t speak unless he was spoken to. Still, when the problem of the House Hornwood succession is presented it is Bran who suggests the title and the castle to be given to late Lord Hornwood’s illegitimate son. His solution is a good one and had Laurence Snow inherited his father’s castle then Lady Hornwood would be spared the terrible fate she met in Ramsay Bolton’s hands.

"Your notion about the bastard may have merit, Bran," Maester Luwin said after. "One day you will be a good lord for Winterfell, I think."

According to Maester Luwin “a good lord comforts and protects the weak and the helpless”. And that’s exactly what Bran does when Little Walder insults Hodor. He won’t let anyone mock him.

Little Walder cast his splintered lance aside, spied Bran, and reined up. "Now there's an ugly horse," he said of Hodor. "Hodor's no horse," Bran said.

Also, when Theon captures Winterfell, Bran shallows his pride and submits to him so all his subjects will be spared the fate of death.

A good lord protects his people, he reminded himself. "I've yielded Winterfell to Theon."

There must be a reason why Martin decided all the ACOK chapters of Bran to focus on him ruling at Winterfell. In my opinion the answer lies in this particular excerpt of one interview of Martin’s:

[...] And there is always this presumption that if you are a good man, you will be a good king. [Like] Tolkien — in Return of the King, Aragorn comes back and becomes king, and then “he ruled wisely for three hundred years.” Okay, fine. It is easy to write that sentence, “He ruled wisely”.

What does that mean, “He ruled wisely?” What were his tax policies? What did he do when two lords were making war on each other? Or barbarians were coming in from the North? What was his immigration policy? What about equal rights for Orcs? I mean did he just pursue a genocidal policy, “Let’s kill all these fucking Orcs who are still left over”? Or did he try to redeem them? You never actually see the nitty-gritty of ruling.

It seems that Martin doesn’t want to follow Tolkien’s route of a “and then ruled wisely” sort of ending for his characters. Instead, as himself says he wants to describe how the rulers fare at their jobs. Which makes me suspect impossible for characters with no ruling experience to achieve a ruling position at the end of the books (because that would lead to the “and then ruled wisely” trope he wants to avoid), and thus only people who were tried and true at ruling will be placed in ruling positions.

In truth, in this interview Martin specifically mentions Jon and Daenerys and their ruling arcs of ADWD but couldn’t the same be applied to Bran? Maybe we spend a book reading about Bran ruling at Winterfell because that will be his endgame. After all, not only he is the true heir but also the only one among his true born siblings that have an experience at ruling.

#bran stark #branpositivityweek #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #bran meta #got meta #mymeta

Bran Stark Week: Day 2: Magic

One of the best magic skills of Bran Stark is his ability to warg into his wolf, Summer. Bran demonstrates a better ability of skinchanging than Jon or Arya (the other two Stark kids who can enter the mind of their wolves). My favourite scene where Bran enters Summer’s mind is on ASOS when he does so in order to save his older brother, Jon:

The lightning flash left Jon night-blind, but he glimpsed the hurtling shadow half a heartbeat before he heard the shriek. The first Thenn died as the old man had, blood gushing from his torn throat. Then the light was gone and the shape was spinning away, snarling, and another man went down in the dark. There were curses, shouts, howls of pain. Jon saw Big Boil stumble backward and knock down three men behind him. Ghost, he thought for one mad instant. Ghost leapt the Wall. Then the lightning turned the night to day, and he saw the wolf standing on Del's chest, blood running black from his jaws. Grey. He's grey.

(The scene is described by Jon’s point of view).

Jon first mistakes the wolf for being Ghost and later on he thinks it was Grey Wind the one who saved him. However the readers, unlike Jon, know that it’s Summer with Bran within his mind.

I like this scene for various reasons. First of all, it’s one of the rare scenes where we see one stark kid saving another. But more importantly, I love it because it shows how powerful Bran is. This little boy who is young and calls himself “broken” is able to save his older brother, who is able-bodied and experienced at sword. This scene proves wrong all Bran’s haters who say that he’s “useless” and doubt how he can help on the final battle against the others.

Because when the time comes to face the Others Bran will not only have more knowledge than all the other characters combined but also the ability to warg on any animal and participate in the battle himself. Who says that he can’t warg inside Summer once again or even inside a dragon?

Mark my words, Bran is going to be an unstoppable force.

#bran stark #branpositivityweek #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #bran meta #bran and summer #summer #direwolves #bran and jon #got #got meta #mymeta