Damn millennials.
Was any of this supported by text in the books? It’s been a while since I read them, but only remember bran interacting with hodor.
I just read the buzzfeed article, and it seems incredibly tortured logic. The one part that makes sense is
Here’s a last bit of proof for you: George R.R. Martin apparently told Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor that Dany and Jon converging was the whole point of the series.
No shit.
It seemed to me that Bran’s attempt to warg into Hodor was a singular event, pretty much like the birth of the dragons (with Daenerys), and that the circumstances were unique. He was practically at two places at the same time. We have no proof that Bran can repeat that intentionally.
I think (in the books anyway) that Bran wargs into Hodor many many times. When he’s traveling around in time? Not so much.
Yes, I am talking about the incident while Bran was absorbing all the memories of Three-eyed Raven. He was sleeping in the cave and his soul was in Winterfell from the past. Hodor was also at both places.
He warged into Hodor a couple of times on the show too. He did it in the tower when the wildlings were outside and below, he did it at Craster’s Keep, and he did it in The Door. The final time was unique because he was warging into him while observing him through time, which fried Hodor’s brain back in his youth.
Well there is also the fact that a fried brain is fried. We don’t know that were his brain already not scrambled that warging into him at current day would have left him unharmed. Potentially it could do the same with any forceful and repeated command.
But with his mind already shorted out, further damage from current expeditions could go unnoticed.
Paradox alert. SIRENS
The “Bran is somehow also the Night King” theory is a stretch, but it could lead to an interesting climax to the series in which either Jon, Sansa or Arya is forced to kill Bran to stop the Night King. Going on the evidence that killing a White Walker shatters all the creatures it has reanimated, if Bran was connected to the Night King, killing Bran could shatter the Night King, in turn shattering all the White Walkers, the dragon and all the human and animal zombies they’ve reanimated, all at once. A climatic battle could instantly go from hopeless to victory with one stroke of a Valarian steel sword…or dagger.
They did seem to focus an awful lot on the whole “Dany needs an heir and Dany is barren” thing this episode. My guess is that this is leading up to her and Jon finally having their moment. Jon goes off to lead his forces against the Night King, Dany does her thing with her dragons, and at some point leading up to the final climactic battle Dany discovers she is pregnant (surprise!) and then Jon gets himself killed heroically taking out the Night King. Everyone mourns, and the Targaryen line of succession is extended with the child of Dany and Jon.
I mean, yeah, technically she’s his aunt and all, but hey, she is a total MoDILF (Mother of Dragons…).
Which leads a very boring series if Jaime (or the assassin after him) had been successful in book one.
Winter is…oh, I guess winter isn’t coming…break out the tiki drinks.
There are some theories out there with fairly good basis, since Martin embedded a number of clues in the text and the show has referenced them. There are also a lot of theories that are, to be honest, bananas, based either on wild speculation unsupported by the text, or based on the parts of the text that are not reliable. This latter issue is something many of the speculators ignore, but Martin has said several times, and the books bear this out, that a lot of the info passed by word of mouth, rumors of the crowd and so on, are not reliable.
So honestly, the whole Tyrion as secret Targaryeon theory, and especially this Bran is the Night King theory, are pretty much wild speculation and I give them short shrift.
On top of all that, Martin intentionally made some of the clues ambiguous like with the “prince” (or maybe “princess”?) that was promised, etc.
The one thing that was pretty clearly revealed by Martin, primarily in the Ned memories of the Tower of Joy in Book I, was Jon’s true origin. And Martin has said since then that he was too obvious with those clues and made things intentionally more ambiguous.
So I don’t buy the Bran is the Night King thing; it just seems like pure internet Teh Crazy to me. YMMV.
There is one prophecy I think is sufficiently detailed to be a road map to Martin’s intentions as of the first 3 books, but I’ll discuss that in the book thread.
I think there’s a lot of textual support hinting at Tyrion being the Mad King’s.
–his hair color
–GRRM describing his shadow standing as tall as a king at the end of his first chapter (this could be meaningless by itself, but it could also be GRRM hinting)
–Aerys had the hots for Joanna
–Aerys acted inappropriately during the bedding ritual, demonstrating he was willing to act on his infatuation
–GRRM went out of his way to crush teh counter-theory that it’s actually the twins who’re Aerys’ as a result of raping Joanna in his world book
–Jon and Dany are of Targaryen blood, and they along with Tyrion are the 3 main characters
–all 3 killed their mothers coming into the world, which is hardly a coincidence
–GRRM established Tyrion’s infatuation with dragons, reading all he could about them as a young man (no other character has been described as doing this)
–Tywin’s last words to him were, “You are no son of mine,” which strengthens the theory that Tywin knew the truth and it, rather than Tyrion’s dwarfism, fueled his hate toward him (that and causing the death of Joanna)
But it all hinges on how the dragons act around Tyrion once he meets one face-to-face.
It also explains why Tywin never treated Tyrion as a son, only defending him or giving his status because of his Lannister surname or a very begrudging acceptance that he is intelligent. Although this can also be just as readily explained by an aversion to a dwarf and the fact his mother died birthing him.
My counter-view is that although the Jon Snow as a Targaryeon was in the books and then echoed by the show, none of the textual bits about Tyrion are in the show. If the show is going to reveal Tyrion as a Targ at this late point it will be a huge jarring jump (although it’s not like that will phase the show-runners.) Also, on an emotional and storytelling level, I think Tywin despising Tyrion, his son, for being born a dwarf has much greater impact than Tyrion despising Tyrion as the bastard son of Aerys.
My money is on the Tyrion-Targ theory being incorrect.
Oh, I agree, the show is going to pass on that entirely.
I disagree on the Tywin thing though, mainly because of the book 4 convo between Jaime and their aunt. Her comment that Tyrion is the one to fear because he’s most like Tywin is pretty delicious irony if he is the Mad King’s offspring. And I think Joanna’s death was definitely the catalyst of Tywin’s hatred regardless of dwarfism or paternity.
Edit: Heh, I keep going textual and need to stop in this thread.
He actually dropped the hammer when he saw how ineffective it was. He went to dragonglass daggers.
My thoughts exactly,
Gendry ends up on the throne.
Nearly all the main characters die in the final climatic battle. We think Dany is dead, having gone down in flames with Drogon. But at the very end, as a handful of surviving characters are gathered around the Iron Throne, Dany staggers in, battered but alive, and climbs the steps to sit the Iron Throne. She reaches up and…
…peels off the Dany face to reveal Arya Stark!
“Who’s Queen of Westeros now, bitches?!”
Fade to Black…Credits.
… into a nearby 150ft deep river.