Bran Planned It All

Published May 20, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Shat-on hosts:

I just listened to your insta-take. This is the first of (what will most likely be) a trail of letters over the next day or two as I process the info.

First, not only do I believe Bran knew the whole time that he would become King, I believe he clued Sansa, Arya, and Tyrion in on it also. He had already hand-picked (pun intended) Tyrion as Hand of the King back in episode 2 when they have their “talk” alone. In that episode, Tyrion even looks around and tells a room full of people “I think we will make it”. Guess what? Every single person in that room survived that battle.

Bran needed someone to “get his foot in the door” for him and nominate him as king. Bran knows he cannot connect to people on a personal level at this point in his life. He’s basically a robot. He needed a mouthpiece, someone to tell the Lords of Westeros how amazing he would be as king. (Again, I believe Bran told him he would have to make this speech during their “chat”. As a reward for his ability to sway the crowd, Tyrion basically becomes the Ruler of Westeros for day-to-day things. Tyrion may not have known specifics, such as his brother and sister dying, but he knew enough. He also knew he had to convince Jon to kill Daenerys. Otherwise, in order to just have her die, he could have picked up a knife from any of the corpses laying in the city and killed her as he approached her during the speech. No, he knew he had to survive…a sort of predetermined fate.

Sansa may have been in on this also. Bran could have easily told her how things would turn out and conspired with her to see them through in exchange for the freedom of the North.

Regarding Jon: EVERYONE in the election meeting may have agreed to evict Jon from Westeros, even his siblings. Jon has a bad habit of not knowing what he wants or even what’s best. He’s kinda dense. If he stays in the public eye, there will always be people attempting to push him into power, regardless if he wants it or not. Also, it absolves him of the responsibility that he hates so much. I believe that is why they don’t show us the verdict regarding Jon. We are lead to believe Sansa and Arya wanted him freed, but really they just knew what was best for him was to disappear.

More notes about that “Gathering of Lords”…

They knew there was no Night’s Watch. They also knew that the Unsullied/Dothraki would be clueless about that. Apparently, Jon was also. They may have sent 2 Northman rando’s dressed in black garb to escort him to the wall, knowing he would figure it out when he got there (or, as a last resort, have Tormund explain it to him using an elaborate puppet show).

Also speaking about the Lords, I find it funny that the people involved in that meeting, who happen to now be the rulers of the most powerful houses in Westeros, are also (most likely) the only people who would either vote for Bran automatically or could be swayed by Tyrion to do so. All of the elder members of their houses were either killed off systematically throughout the series or died in battle. Either way, it was by Bran’s design that those specific people were the ones voting, and the vote was unanimous.

In short, through 3 eyed Raven powers and greenlight, Bran made it so those Lords and ladies were the ones deciding the fate of the Kingdom…but he couldn’t talk them into electing him king because he has no social skills (and may have wanted it to sound as if he wasn’t interested in the position). He needed Tyrion to do the nominating, the talking, and the swaying. It all worked. How I interpret the small council scene shows that Tyrion will tackle all the day to day duties, the politics, the “game”, while Bran will not delve into that area much and instead take care of the larger “celestial” hazards, such as dragons, White Walkers, and other threats that 99% of the people don’t realize exist to begin with. I will finish this email with set of dialogue from the movie Men in Black:

K : We do not discharge our weapons in view of the public!

J : Man, we ain’t got time for this cover-up bullshit! I don’t know whether or not you’ve forgotten, but there’s an Arquillian Battle Cruiser that’s about to…

K : There’s always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!

Derek English, Pittsburgh

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