Brandon the Builder is the Night King, and has the same lineage and Bran was named after him.
The night king looks like Bran.
The three eyed raven said Bran would fly. The Night King has a flying dragon.
It is all pretty tenuous. But the Night King REALLY looks like Bran now, and Bran can warg into people past, present and future (maybe?)
Maybe Bran knows he has to destroy most of Westeros to “break the wheel for good” and a good apocalypse is the only way to free the people of their self destructive ways?
I am going to make a big bold prediction that Bran is playing his part in destroying most of Westeros as the Ice, and either Jon or Dany will be the Fire. And one (or both) will emerge to rule over a new Westeros and found the continent in new traditions, thus breaking the wheel for eternity.
And Jon is going to kill Bran and or Bran will kill Jon, because Jon can’t do it, and Dany will rule as queen.
Again, all crazy theorizing, but at least book readers can now speculate freely with the show-watchers.
It was more about proving to the citizens I thought (through Cersei). Once the general populace knew the threat was real, nobody would stand for Cersei standing in the way of the safety Dany could provide
He also said he’d never walk. At worst the Night King could be under some Bran compulsion, but I doubt the story will go that way. The Night King is the Night King…
But this is all theorizing, and Bran the builder might not be the night king, but according to a lot of hints likely the Night King is a stark ancestor of some kind, and the timelines match up supposedly. One of the first commanders of the watch, Bran the Builder built the wall… etc.
Who knows.
We barely have any more fun theories anymore, so this is what we got.
I think the above conflates a lot of the book and the TV show. In the book, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible for Bran (the Builder) to be the Night King, since Bran built the Wall and created the Night’s Watch, with the Night King being one of the earlier commanders. At best, the Night King would be one of Bran’s earlier descendants (assuming he’s a Stark, which I don’t recall).
In the TV show, the Night King is literally the first Walker, created by the Children to fight the First Men. The Night King being the first “Other” is a big departure from the book that makes it even more impossible for Bran the Builder to be the Night King. Bran can’t be the Night King, since he built the Wall to combat the Walkers/Others.
The theory seems extremely speculative to me, without much behind it other than “humanoids look a like”.
I sure can’t tell where it’s going now. I assume Dany will name Jon her heir, before finding out about his lineage (which I guess may not come until next season now?).
I also assume Cersei or Euron will kill the other not-Drogon dragon so that the final battle vs Night King will be Drogon vs Wight Dragon, so the two can kill each other and leave the world again dragonless at the end.
As for Arya and Sansa, I’ve no idea. While watching the episode, my wife despaired at the cuts back to Winterfell. She said it was like watching an awesome medieval zombie movie and then accidentally changing the channel to one of the CW period emo dramas.
Honestly in this episode I thought the Night King looked slightly different, but not that he looked anything like Bran. Seemed to me he’s looking more like actor Peter Jacobson.
Blunt weapons are better against the undead, obvs.
I read something on reddit or one of the stackexchanges that stated that the Night King was a greenseer. The reason the army is moving so slowly is that they were waiting for this battle. “Evidence” was how Bloodraven treated the NK in their visions, how the NK could interact with Bran (and how “bad” that was), the fact that the NK turned up with 3, previously unseen, ice javelins at this island siege, and importantly that they’d already prepared giant chains to get the dragons out.
(I’ve also seen fan claims about Bran helping out the NK etc)
I don’t understand what the big furor is over travel times, helmet wearing etc. There are little girls ripping faces off people and dragons flying about. Fantasy requires a whole lot of suspension of disbelief. As long as it serves the story it’s all good. That’s my opinion anyway…
I was so tense during the latest episode my palms were sweating :)
It’s not being true to the rules it established. “But dragons exist, anything can happen!” isn’t an explanation for why distances that earlier in the show were obstacles to communication and travel are now barely acknowledged.
And the hats thing is obviously just a concession to TV production, but that has nothing to do with the plot. Just a visual decision.
The real theory behind Bran is the Night King is that Bran warged into him while he was being transformed, therefore setting him on the path he’s on now. Just like how he warged into Hodor and broke his mind giving him instructions for the future, and supposedly he warged into the Mad King and drove him mad, but I don’t remember that from the show.
Basically, everything is Bran’s fault for carelessly using his magic.
