Because every fan blogger has to have an opinion on this.
The Game of Thrones finale. There must be something wrong-and it cannot just be bad writing.
It might not come as a surprise to anyone who is a part of the Song of Ice and Fire fandom that I have watched the finale of the show -and I got issues with it. Even a year later I still do. The internet is full of opinions and critique regarding the ending of the show, and the miserable implications that it carries for the books that might yet be released someday, and with this entry it’s even fuller.
While there are many things to be said about those final seasons I won’t bother with most of them. In my humble opinion there are two issues I cannot rationalize away with bad writing or budget and timeline problems. What the hell is up with that creepy King Bran and where is the bittersweet ending we were promised–because try as I might I can only interpret it as a bitterokay ending. The latter however is very subjective so I will not discuss it here and just focus on Bran.
What the hell is going on with Bran??
There is so much that feels wrong about this King Bran that I don’t even know where to begin, so let’s start with his election and how it does not fit with most of the world building done in the books.
While I believe that a peaceful election of a new king at the end of the series was the most realistic part of the finale (the background lore is already there) this Great council that they have given us is definitely the low budget version. There should be hundreds of lordlings, all of whom would want to have an input. This council is not only small, but it is also has an unusually large number of Starks. Who the hell gave three votes to the north, but only one to Dorne and the Iron Islands. Maybe this is meant to imply that the north will be in a powerful position at the end of ADoS, but it is still weird.
And what exactly is Davos Seaworth even the lord of. I remember book Stannis giving him some important title, but I’m also pretty sure some other lord (enemy of Stannis) was still sitting on that spot. He doesn’t seem to be powerful enough to belong to that small and eclectic selection of nobles.
Who the hell named Sam Tarly as Grand Maester. Two episodes ago he was a citadel drop out stuck in the north. Did Jon Snow just sit a decade in that dungeon waiting for his trial? Oh, nevermind, it is Sam Tarly…He probably just stole the Bossmaester’s robes so he could help his friend with his difficult trial. The real Grand Maester is now out there somewhere naked trying to get home.
We also have to consider that Bran Stark will probably still be a minor by the end of the series (under 16 years old) especially when we take int account the aborted five-year gap. And yes – we have had several underaged rulers in this series, so it is not impossible, but I should think that after years of war the present nobles may not want another untested youth in a position of power.
Great achievements or great Charisma could overcome the obstacle of Bran’s youth and the lack thereof is my point. Bran sits in his chair all day and talks to no one. His own family is put off by his strange and ominous comments (I may have to list them one day, but I would have to rewatch the show to do that). His only friend Meera Reed has ditched him because she thought he wasn’t himself anymore. Clearly he is the epitome of a charismatic and inspiring leader (not). If Bran were to inherit a title, this wouldn’t matter so much but for him to achieve a majority vote in an election…his social skills are vital (or at least they should be).
And as for his achievements -well who is this three eyed raven exactly and why should anyone care. It is important to note that most Westerosi nobles have been raised by their Maesters to be rational and critical thinkers and therefor will not believe in the existence of the others until they are beheaded by them. And as most southron armies have not contributed in the battles against the undead, most southron Lords will not believe that there ever was a threat. They would likely consider it political propaganda or believe the night king to have been an especially fearsome wildling chieftain.
As for his supposed supernatural powers, that is an even worse argument. You may remember that the faith of the seven is very strong in the south. While the show has somehow killed the entire religious uprising in one explosion, I doubt it will be that simple in the books. Many of the more pious citizens really don’t like any hint of sorcery or any other strange power. As a consequence of this, Tyrion’s entire speech would have turned many nobles against Bran.
Brand achieved nothing that could in any way be observed by anyone…so why on earth would anyone believe it.
Tyrion himself is the next issue. Like him or not, he is one of the most infamous characters in all of Westeros and widely considered to be untrustworthy. His vote of confidence for Bran should not be helpful at all. Choosing him as Hand of the King is also political suicide. (Though Tyrion still wants it very much, just like Bran obviously wants/plans to be King. They are both liars.)
It is also very questionable how many Lords would answer the summons to Great Council issued by foreign invaders who only recently had a kill all prisoners policy. Those few Lords present in that scene may well be the only ones willing to come, and most of them have strong connections to either Jon or Dany. If so, any ruler elected here would widely remain unacknowledged. And no matter how funny it may seem, Edmure Tully is a much better candidate than Bran. He is not too young and very mellow and kind. In conclusion, any election of Brandon Stark would have to include a lot of shady behind-the-scenes deals and some political strong-arming by his northern supporters. And once the north gains independence, he’d lose most of his support.
My next point is of course Bran’s overall suspicious demeanor and dialogue. Even if the showrunners had given him a wheelchair bumper that reads Bad guy Rollz, a mustache to twirl and random surges of cackling laughter- they really couldn’t give the audience any more hints that this is not supposed to be a good guy or even a halfway decent one. This might even imply a Sauron wins scenario for the series. There is something very shady going on with that character, and the showrunners refuse to spell it out to us. And if that’s the case here, where would that lead us.
For most of the story, it was always our own characters and their failures and mistakes that drove the entire plot. First there’s child-defenestrator-Jaime, that is followed by war-catalyst-Catelyn, then the-righteous-ruler-must-rule-regardless-of-consequences-for-the-stability-of-the-realm-or-safety-of-family-Ned. And that’s just the first book. As readers or viewers, we might be inclined to perceive the characters as villains and hero’s, depending on how much we like them or emphasize with them. We are biased. It is however also possible that they are meant to be flawed characters with conflicted hearts who are at the heart of the conflict because they create that very conflict. (That sentence took longer than it should).
With that thought in mind it makes sense for Dany to be revealed as some type of a tragic, destructive antagonist (though it wasn’t that much of a revelation but I won’t go into that here) who in some form symbolizes the fire (desire) in ice and fire. We do have a problem though because if one of our main characters so obviously represents the destructive nature of humanity with a whole lot of fire it means that another must represent the destruction through ice. Balance and equal representation and all that. Regardless of his name Jon Snow is not a good candidate for destruction through ice as he’s not been shown to be particularly hateful or coldly calculating and hasn’t done anything that looks like large scale destruction/horror/evil (though he has his share of screw-ups too). Also, the entire point of his secret heritage is that he’s fire and ice both. And that probably leads us to Bran. How could the noble King Bran Stark be an enormously flawed and large scale destructive figure in this story? Well lets gather the facts.
1. The show has revealed to us that the others were created by the children of the forest, likely as a weapon of mass destruction against humanity. This information is never mentioned again and leads nowhere. This is either very bad writing or a very suspicious omission.
2. If the children of the forest created something as dangerous as the others, they should logically have the means to control them.
3. The children of the forest are notorious for their skinchangeing abilities. Skinchangeing/warging is essentially mind control. Would they also be able to control magical or dead things this way -that is unknown.
4. In a series that is defined by complicated characters with complicated motives, the others seem to have neither of these things. If they were only ever meant to be a weapon or tool controlled by another faction, this would make sense.
5. Bran Stark might be the most powerful warg ever.
6. The show has shown that Bran can control another body even if it exists at another point in time. Poor Hodor. Timey-whimeyness has therefore been confirmed in Asoiaf (like it or not). Once more the show does nothing with this ability though the implications of Bran controlling any body at any point in history could be massive.
7. Bran Stark is willing and able to take control over the body of another person. He is not limited to his own broken body. He will rationalize and justify it to himself as borrowing.
8. Bran Stark is a sad and bitter child, who likely has the power to watch his family die across the continent and timeline. No clear consequences to that have ever been shown. And there should definitely be consequences to that.
9. At least in the books Bran Stark is still a child that believes in fairytales and has a limited understanding of adult thought processes and politics. Considering the timeline of Asoiaf without the five-year gap and the fact that Bran is in a cave far away from most normal human interactions, this may never change, at least not within the timeframe of the series.
10. Bran Stark always wanted to be a knight and the hero of a story. His chapters in the books show him to be very aware of his own social status. There are some clear indications in the last episode that reveal him as someone who desires wordly power no matter how distant he seems to be.
If Brans story was truly designed to mislead the audience, then the divergence must have already begun as far back as the Hodor moment. No—I don’t mean door holding and the timey-whimey-warg-thing—those parts can stay. It’s the conflict that makes little sense within the context of my theory.
– If the others are warg-directed-tools with no agency of their own, they obviously would not be attacking Bran or the children of the forest.
-If any version of Bran, at any point in time, was controlling the others, at this point in time, he’d never harm Summer or Hodor. That makes no sense.
-Alternatively, the others, or at least their leader, may have gained or regained some form of independence or free will and are now pursuing those who controlled them, once. The situation would then resemble a slave revolt. Of course, they would seek to destroy the remnants of the children of the forest and all those who aid them, especially if it is a warg. Though this begs the question of why now. Why would they have been inactive for such a long time? Maybe they react to increased activity of the children of the forest. Or maybe they know that Bran is powerful enough to re-enslave them. That does not explain why they would hound the wildlings, or why they are building a massive army, though. It’s possible they’d try to grab some land of their own, but then again -why now.
– If neither option applies, then it is possible that the others are being controlled by the children or Bloodraven, but why would they attack Hodor. Well, first we’d have to know why the children would want Bran, or Bloodraven for that matter, to come to them. I may have some ideas:
1. The children of the forest are a dying species. Because of humanity.
2.The creation of the others was a desperate last attempt to defeat mankind. Without the others, they would not stand a chance.
3. Wargs are rare, powerful wargs are rarer. Even amongst the CotF.
4. If the overall population of CotF is small, the likelihood of them being a powerful warg is also small.
5.Wargs may be necessary to control the others. They may either need to be very powerful or very numerous to do so.
6.The reason why no invasions of the others have occurred for such a long time could be the Children’s inability to control their armies. Or at least to control a large enough army. In this case the pact between the first men and the children was broken a long time ago, and the Children of the forest would have been planning humanity’s destruction the whole time.
7. If they don’t have their own Wargs anymore, their only chance would be to find a willing—or unwilling—warg, elsewhere. They may have lured Bloodraven in and then bound him to that weird maybe-hive-mind-network-treething in order to gain some control over him. This would explain why the Others have only been noted to be active for some decades before the story. They plan to do the same with Bran, who is probably a much more powerful Warg and therefor capable of controlling a much larger army.
8. If this is the case, Bran may figure out what is going on and try some kind of escape plan. As his plans would likely involve Hodor and his other friends the Children may kill them to trap Bran. Alternatively, Bran may also gain control over, or form a pact of some kind with the Others. If the children notice what Bran has done, they may come after him and his friends.
9. Overall, Bran’s chances of ever leaving that cave physically alive in his own body would be almost zero in any scenario where the children of the forest are his true enemies.
There are so many hints of falseness and impossibility especially in the final episode. Brans comments, the logic defying election, Tyrion not being in a book about the war of five Kings. I believe this goes beyond bad writing. The show is giving us hints that there is something very wrong and deceptive going on behind the scenes.
And what could that be. Well, I came up with three possible conclusions.
Possibility 1: This was my initial thought when I first beheld the show finale. The show replaced King Doran Martell with King Bran Stark. Because one generally spaced-out wheelchair guy is totally interchangeable with another. This seems like such a show thing to do. The showrunners outright tell us that the wheelchair is of Dornish design. Doran Martell makes sense from an election via council point of view, too. He’s an experienced ruler and notoriously passive and peaceful. That would be very appealing for the Lords of a war-torn Westeros. He’s also not the youngest or healthiest, so the more ambitious Lords could hope to replace him soon with the next election. And then there might be a point to the entire Dornish plotline, because Queen Arianne the Great is probably not not it.
Possibility 2: If Bran becomes King it does not have to occur while he is in his own body. His body is young, frail and broken and he is stuck in a cave in the middle of nowhere. Survival and escape will not be easy…so Bran Stark may truly never leave that cave. And yet his power, his despair and his great ambition may grant him another way. There are several characters who he could temporarily or entirely possess. As GRRM is infamous for putting his characters and his readers through hell this would likely happen to someone we care about, such as:
-Meera Reed. She is in Bran’s direct vicinity and for some reason the show wanted her to look like Jon Snow. Maybe because she was meant to be the host of his brother..? There is also that Varamir Sixskins chapter where he tries to skinchange into the woman who cared for him while he was in need. That could very well be foreshadowing.
-Davos Seaworth. He is in the north. As potential guardian/caretaker for Rickon he may wield considerable political influence in the north, at least for a time, and could therefor be useful to Bran. He’s also done nothing much useful in these final seasons. It must also be noted that GRRM once told Liam Cunningham that he’d sit on the Iron Throne in the end. Nothing has come of that. So King Bravos Maybe.
-Theon Greyjoy. He is also in the north and in Winterfell. His confused, weakened state may make him easier to possess, and Bran wouldn’t feel too bad about that. Theon’s broken state and bad reputation would reduce his usefulness, though.
-Benjen Stark: He also exists somewhere for some reason, and as a member of house Stark he may have a claim to Lordship. If he plays his cards right.
-Jon Snow. There is this currently unused corpse lying around. Very convenient. He may also have powerful claims and innate warg powers. What happens when a dying warg moves into the body of another warg? Potential immortality. According to some sources, GRRMs early drafts included a bitter rift between Jon Snow and Bran Stark and this could very well be it. When you take Brans abilities into account, it is likely that he has been watching Jon Snow for a while (the raven)- and in his point of view he might have seen how Jon continually fails to help his family while having the adventures and martial success that Bran himself desired. And that could very well dampen his affections for Jon Snow. It also means that the very first Stark scene of the show showing Jon teaching Bran would be the most bitter to re-watch. So very possible.
Possibility 3: The final episode had a very surreal fairytale-like feel to it. And as dreams and visions are a vital part of the series that could actually be true. If this is the case we have seen into Bran’s mind, seen his plans, his hopes and his interpretation of whatever visions he’s seen. Remember, Bran is a little kid who believes in fairytales and who does not always understand the adults around him. If we are seeing history – or some vision of history filtered by Bran’s hopes and perceptions, it would explain why everyone is such an idiot. Because everyone in Westeros has to be an idiot in order for Bran to become King. And if this episode is based on a vision, it could also turn out to be very wrong. Prophecies and visions are notoriously misleading and hard to interpret in ASoIaF.
If this is the case, we may have seen some metaphorical version of the true ending. So Jon shanking Dany could imply a political or military betrayal rather than him murdering her while the ashes rain and a single sigh escapes her lips. The entire tone of that scene does not really fit with the gritty realism that GoT generally goes for. It could belong into a dream/vision sequence though.
As most visions and prophecies in the books are vague and open to interpretation, so is this ending. It was all just a bad dream is also the most hopeful opinion I can offer on that finale.
So now you know how much I have to analyze and reinterpret the ending in order to be somewhat okay with it. Have fun with that.