The Bittersweet Bran Theory

Published July 28, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey, guys! First of all, I’d like to commend you on a great job! I’m long time listener (since Westworld) and have often listened to your podcast entirely before even watching the shows being discussed. Keep up the great job!

With that said, in your deep dive for episode 1 of GoT (Dragonstone) Big D ridiculed Rog for not knowing what term ‘warging’ means. Somewhat ironically, Big D doesn’t actually seem to know either. To ‘warg’ means to go into another beings mind, usually an animal, and control him. This is done by, you guessed it, wargs. However, wargs can not see visions of the past, present, or future (green dreams). People with this ability are different and are called ‘greenseers’. According to ASOIAF only one person out of 1000 is born a warg, but only 1 out of 1000 wargs is born a greenseer. So a greenseer can be a warg, but a warg is rarely a greenseer.

Now the reason I stress to point this out is that it ties in nicely into my theory on how the show will end. Bran Stark, one of the central characters to have survived since season 1, is both a greenseer and a warg. Not only that, but he is able to warg into the mind of a human, something we have not seen anyone else being able to do. Arguably this makes Bran one of the most powerful characters in the Game of Thrones and I assume that we have only gotten a taste of his abilities. I believe he will play a central part in the shows ending and in the world of GoT in general.

It’s pretty safe to assume that by the end of season 7 the Wall will crumble and the White Walkers will invade Westeros. Taking into consideration everything we have seen so far, the people of Westeros really have no chance. They’ve been burying the dead for centuries (evidenced by the Barrows in the Barrowlands with graves dating back to the first men). If all of the dead come back to fight for the Night King, Westeros is doomed.

The only way to stop the dead from living again is to burn them.

I believe that after losing the war with the dead, in the last effort Bran attempts to pass on a message into the past to save the future. Unfortunately due to the Walkers meddling the context is lost along the way and a grown man is driven insane by the voices telling him to “burn them all”, eventually leading to the Mad King.

We’ve seen something similar happen before with Hodor and “hold the door”. In the end, Bran will be to blame for the events that lead to the death of his oldest uncle and grandfather as well as Robert’s Rebellion. Just as George said this would be quite the ‘bittersweet’ ending.

– Stan from Kiev

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