Bran Stark is one of the most known characters and maybe the key to a lot of theories about Game of Thrones!
So le’ts find out some trivia and facts about him and his journeyso far!
- Brandon Stark, typically called Bran, is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin
- And its television adaptation Game of Thrones
- Introduced in 1996’s A Game of Thrones, Bran is the second son and fourth child of Eddard Stark
- The honorable lord of Winterfell
- An ancient fortress in the North of the fictional kingdom of Westeros
- He subsequently appeared in Martin’s A Clash of Kings (1998) and A Storm of Swords (2000)
- Bran was one of a few prominent characters that were not included in 2005’s A Feast for Crows
- But returned in the next novel A Dance with Dragons (2011)
- Martin told Rolling Stone in 2014 that Bran’s chapter with Jaime and Cersei Lannister is what “hooked” many readers early in the first novel
- Bran is portrayed by English actor Isaac Hempstead Wright in the HBO television adaptation
- He was named after his deceased uncle, Brandon
- Bran receives one of a litter of recovered direwolves given to the Stark children and names him Summer
- During the King’s visit to Winterfell, Bran accidentally interrupts the Queen, Cersei, having sex with her brother, Jaime
- Who shoves him from the window
- While he is unconscious and recovering from his injuries, Summer kills an assassin sent to murder Bran
- When he awakens Bran cannot recall the events before his fall
- And finds that he is crippled from the waist down
- Forced to be carried everywhere by the stableboy Hodor
- Slowly, he realizes that he has gained the ability to assume Summer’s consciousness
- Making him a warg or a skinchanger
- After his older brother, Robb, is crowned King in the North
- Bran becomes Robb’s heir and the Lord of Winterfell
- After Theon Greyjoy captures Winterfell
- Osha helps Bran and his younger brother Rickon go into hiding
- To cement his claim on Winterfell, Theon has two orphan boys killed and their bodies burned
- And passes their charred bodies corpses off as Bran and Rickon
- After Theon’s men betray him and Winterfell is sacked
- Bran, Rickon, Hodor, Osha and their direwolves head north to find his older brother Jon Snow for safety
- Bran and his group encounter Jojen and Meera Reed
- Two siblings who aid them in their quest
- Jojen shares Bran’s “greensight” and tutors him in his prophetic visions
- After coming close to the Wall, Osha departs with Rickon for Last Hearth
- While Bran insists on following his visions beyond the Wall
- Bran and his group encounter Sam and Gilly
- Who try to persuade Bran not to venture beyond the Wall
- But Bran claims it is his destiny and leaves through the gate with Hodor and the Reeds
- During their travels beyond the Wall, Bran and his group stumble across Craster’s Keep
- There they are captured and held hostage by the Night’s Watch mutineers led by Karl Tanner
- Night’s Watch rangers led by Jon eventually attack Craster’s Keep to kill the mutineers
- But Locke, a new recruit and secret spy for Roose Bolton, attempts to take Bran away and kill him elsewhere
- Bran wargs into Hodor and kills Locke by snapping his neck
- And Bran and his group are forced to continue on their journey without alerting Jon
- Who Jojen claims would stop them
- Bran’s group eventually reaches the heart tree but are set upon by wights outside the entrance
- Jojen is killed in the attack
- But the Children of the Forest destroy the wights
- They lead Bran and his company into the cave to meet the Three-Eyed Raven
- The Three-Eyed Raven declares that Bran will not walk again but will fly, instead
- As part of his training, Bran is shown several visions of the past
- Including Ned Stark and Howland Reed confronting Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Gerold Hightower at the Tower of Joy
- And sees how the Children of the Forest injected one of the First Men with dragonglass in a ritual to create the Night King
- As a defense against the other First Men
- However, the Three-Eyed Raven is always quick to withdraw Bran from the visions
- Warning that he may become trapped in them if he stays too long
- Growing bored with his slow progress, Bran enters a vision on his own and witnesses the Night King in the present day
- Who sees Bran and marks him
- Making the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave vulnerable to the White Walkers’ magic
- The Three-Eyed Raven enters Bran into another vision of Winterfell’s past to impart all his knowledge
- But before the transfer is completed the White Walkers attack the cave, killing the Three-Eyed Raven, Summer, and the Children of the Forest
- Bran, still caught in the vision, wargs into Hodor through the latter’s younger self
- And he and Meera flee as Hodor carries Bran’s unconscious body out of the cave
- Meera carries Bran into the forest
- While Hodor gives his life to hold back the cave door against the army of wights until they overwhelm him
- Bran witnesses how his warging accidentally linked Hodor’s past and present mind
- Inducing a brain damaging seizure in young Wylis and causing him to repeat Meera’s command to “hold the door” over and over
- Until he can only slur the word “Hodor”
- After the wight army catches up to them again, Bran and Meera are rescued by Bran’s uncle Benjen Stark
- Who had been killed by the White Walkers several years prior
- But was revived by the Children
- Benjen whisks the duo to safety and advises that Bran is now the Three-Eyed Raven
- And must learn to control his powers before the Night King attacks the Seven Kingdoms
- Benjen leaves Bran and Meera at the weirwood in the Haunted Forest
- As the Wall’s magic prevents the dead from passing it
- Bran touches the weirwood and witnesses the rest of the vision of Ned Stark at the Tower of Joy
- He discovers that Lyanna Stark died giving birth to Rhaegar Targaryen’s son Aegon
- Whom Ned found and raised as Jon Snow at Lyanna’s dying request
- Bran returns to Winterfell, which has been rebuilt and reoccupied by the remaining Starks
- Jon Snow has traveled to Dragonstone to meet with Daenerys Targaryen
- After which he is finally reunited at Winterfell with Sansa and Arya
- Who are both concerned by Bran’s knowledge about their tribulations following Ned’s execution
- Meera leaves Winterfell to return to Greywater Watch
- Bran’s indifference to her departure makes her realize that Bran “died” in the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave
- For that reason, Bran remains aloof to his siblings as well
- He uses his greenseeing abilities to discover Littlefinger’s betrayal of Ned
- When Sansa confronts Littlefinger about his treason towards House Stark
- Bran corroborates the accusations leveled against him
- And Arya executes Littlefinger at Sansa’s command
- Samwell Tarly arrives in Winterfell and comes to visit Bran
- Bran tells Sam his discovery that Jon is the bastard son of Rhaegar and Lyanna
- But Sam mentions a former High Septon’s record of annulling Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia Martell so that he could marry Lyanna
- Bran uses greenseeing to confirm that the marriage took place
- And then revisits the vision of the Tower of Joy
- Discovering that’s Jon’s real name is Aegon Targaryen
- Bran declares that Jon is therefore the heir to the Iron Throne
Got anything to add?