Absolutely loving the deep theories, and explanations... its easy to follow, and easy to digest!! Great job, great content 👏

The issue of Free Will in ASOIAF is different than in our universe. Namely, ASOIAF is a a deterministic universe all controlled by George RR Martin. But from his perspective, the story is most interesting if he views his own characters as having free will and making their own decisions. He has talked about this in terms of Catelyn, who was supposed to stay in Winterfell under George Martin’s plan, but George decided that Cat the character with free will wouldn’t do that so she went to King’s Landing to see Ned as an act of character free will separate from Martin’s plan. This is the free will issue Martin is struggling with and exploring: He has a story he wants to tell with many key twists and a basic arc and ending but he is trying to give his own characters as he sees them free will to make decisions within his own story which keeps complicating the story but also making it more interesting for George. The series is a meta narrative that explores the challenges of being a writer and related issues such as being a parent and crafting narratives for yourself to explain your own life and decisions to yourself,

Bran's Falling/Flying dream chapter is one of my favorites in the entire story, and I've always wanted to know what the "terrible knowledge" was that the 3rd eye of the Raven was full of. In fact, there's so much of that chapter that's crazy on re reads, including how far into the future Bran is actually seeing when he sees the Zombie Mountain and Jon at the Wall..etc.

I still don't understand why (future)Bran would go back in time to make sure events that have already occurred still happen. I can't really imagine a future scene in the books where Bran realizes what he has to do and says "ok, I have to be Bran the Builder by noon, incept a couple of Dragondreams at 2, hire old Nan at 2:30, pretend to be R'hllor until 3:45, find time to create of bunch of prophecies..." and then realizes, "oh wait! all that stuff already happened, nice work, me, I guess I can clock off early for the day". Free will is still an issue. Just because the new system (one we will never see in the books) will be free from deterministic control of the old system, doesn't change that everything we read still took place under that system. The only one left with free will would be Bran himself. Time travel plots are a sword without a hilt, there's really no safe way to grasp it without things either making no sense or becoming 100% deterministic. I actually think you have a pretty good chance on being right about all of this, a lot of this is foreshadowed in the text, but man, I just feel like it would profoundly cheapen the story and lore it ends up being this weird time loop where every legend, half remembered prophecy, mad Targaryen, every cool dream that's important for some character's arc was actually just King Bran playing Crusader Kings on his Weirwood PC while all the characters and lore we loved were just puppets on his strings and cogs in a machine, even if Bran is rigging that machine to self destruct. Not to be too negative, I do love your theories on the Wall and the Old Ways, time travel plots just never sit right with me.

Ghost of High Heart is the daughter of Bloodraven and Leaf. She looks exactly like Bloodraven but in a Children of the Forest version, pale skin, white hair and red eyes.

I have heard a lovely theory about how the three heads are Jon (Ice) Dany (Fire) and Bran (Earth, the balance restorer), Company of the Cat, I think. The old ways are likely to be preserved in some ways, this will be another long holding TRUCE. Bran won't die by the end of the books, he will be set up to rule as this composite entity for a LONG time. Duneishly. Maybe centuries later he'll end his control and it will fall to no one and everyone - again, Duneishly.

The moon cycle imagery is like dark poetry in that chapter!

It would be interesting if Bran's prophecies were just him revealing the future at that point in time, so instances where they do not come to true are evidence of Bran's meddling changing the future. It would also track that Bran planted the prophecies, because it means that a prophecy in ASOIAF is just whatever is needed at that moment for events to play out to Bran's satisfaction. It's less so divine guidance, and leaning more towards the Bene Gesserit in Dune.

Hey I just want to say what a nice non toxic you tube page. There's like 3 others I visit who are great too. It's nice to talk differing options & having my mind changed.

It makes sense that the trees would be sending a "dream" to Viserys to have a son, to kick off the Dance. How else to destroy all those dragons?

This is so dope ! Nuf said

I found your training montage song: Five Magics by Megadeth. Starts off like this "Bestow upon me knowledge, Wizard - all knowing all wise!"

It usually gets overlooked, but when Bran falls and is in a coma, apparently Hodor starts acting weird enough that it's remarked upon.. Which is saying something when someone that can only say "Hodor" begins to act weird enough that it gets pointed out. I think that's the very first hint at Bran fooling around with the past bc it isn't coma Bran that's messing with Hodor's head..

When you hear "time traveling Bran" and realize you have lots of other stuff you could be doing.

I have seen your videos about Elden Ring and its connection to ASOIAF. In that story, I believe the main character is General Radhan. Here, I believe the hero is not Jon Snow, it's actually Bran. Also, I totally agree with you on the cycle of rebirth. I think for Westeros to become a natural world, all Targaryens need to be gone, including Jon Snow. The sacrifice necessary to eliminate the trees is going to be bitter (I am not sure if it's gonna be Daenerys or someone else, but I am sure it requires blood) and the aftermath is going to be sweet for the rest of the world.

Another banger 🎉

Warging the world tree

I feel like one of the main themes of this story is the various interpretations of prophecies and events by different people. Everyone has a different idea of what the comet means, how magic works, ect. Nothing is ever clear at the time, only in hindsight. I think having Bran as a person for whom sending dreams/prophecies works perfectly all the time goes against that. I feel he has to do something in the past, but I don't think he's going to be responsible for every important dream in the series. He's going to get it wrong sometimes, and then what does he do? I don't think he can keep going back to the same event over and over until he finally gets the result he wants. Multiple dreamers with varying goals and beliefs seems more in tune. Sometimes it's Bran, sometimes it's other greenseers or glass candle users or dragon dreamers.. It's a muddle and no one ever has the 'correct' idea about anything. Prophecy isn't a positive thing in the series, and for me, anything that makes it effectively used breaks that.

Sacrifice to the Weirwood algorithm :) great video by the way!

Timey-wimey is the slipperiest of slippery slopes. If Bran can "control" anything then there is no Free Will, but if there is Free Will, then they can't be controlled. You can't be "kinda Free". You either are, or you are not. Even a "benevolent timelord dictator", is still a dictator. Bran isn't so "pure" as to refuse near infinite power simply for the "greater good". How could he? He's just a kid. Not even Frodo could let go of the One Ring, in the end. It was only Gollum's greed that saved the world. There's also no way to calculate all the possible outcomes of making even very slight changes (Butterfly Effect), and if there are not side-effects, then there are no consequences for failure. If he does "just the right thing", at "just the right time", with so little experience and while so young, that seems a little too convenient from a story telling perspective. He then becomes Leplace's Demon, which may then lead to him becoming Roko's Basilisk, as it were. He might be well intentioned, but so is the road to Hell. "Absolute Power corrupts absolutely." GRRM will have to very precisely define what the limits of timey-wimey will be, or Bran can "just do" anything at "any time". If it "fails", he can just go back 30 sec. earlier and try again, and again, and again..... We shall see. Cheers!

No way this vid pops up right as I have a 40 minute care ride shoutout Michael talks about stuff

what is this 'too much' Football Manager you mention?

I just imagine bran eating the wierwood paste while the south park montage theme plays That's called a montage (Montage) Even Rocky had a montage (Montage)

10:05 I can see the GoHH being half Child of the Forest and half human

If Bran was a "time traveler" he never would have climbed that tower. "The things we do for love".

Oh how Hilarious I quoted your own theory to you 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Well it's a good and interesting theory!!!! 🌛🌜 So theres a theory going around that Old Nan is "Leaf"... Had pretty good arguments.

"Well, there's a kid strapped to a time-travelling tree---" lmao I love your various different turns of phrase

The past is already written, the ink is dry.

15:00 I think that a lot of your struggles are resolved by accepting that Hodor just has "beast level" intelligence.

I'm unclear on this. The Weirwood Trees have their own consciousness and motivations, goals which differ from those of the Children of the Forest's or are they uniformly aligned? Side note: there are remaining male Children of the Forest still out there, or perhaps more accurately, somewhere down in there, as the case may be?

I think Jon is the prince that was promised. Promised to be kept a secret

What if Bran is the Green Man!!!! Dun dun duuuuuuuuhhhhhhh

Bloodraven says altering the past can't be done. At least he can't. Bran MIGHT be able to at some point -- more magic ambient in the world after the dragons hatch, you know.

Jaime has a dream of his dead mother talking to him when he rested his head on a weirwood trunk.

Thank you

So, basically its kinda the plot of Attack on titan.... Bran Yeager

So it’s the Sirens of Titan plot

The wierwood net is a hive mind Bran will soon join. Like Blood raven before him, when Bran joins with the tree fully it's a complete giving. Once those roots are in Bran, there is no more distinct Bran as there is no distinct Bloodraven. The experiences of all the children and greenseers merge together into one being like his story A song for Lya The hive mind did it.

Essentially.

So are you proposing that ALL the dreams are coming Bran/ Bloodraven/ The Singers/ The Trees? Even the significant dreams of the Targs? Like Aegon's prophecy? *No way that that is always true* - for instance the House of the Undying dreams/ vision/ Dany experiences she sees even before she meets the warlocks happen in part because she is clearly tripping ovaries....perhaps also true after she eats the berries as she wanders down the creek looking for the Skahaza..... (river going through Mereen!).

Maybe the Bran and Hodor situation is because Bran was young and naive. And as Bran got older, he started testing his powers more and overstepped, forcing people to do things. Those people figured out it was the weirwoods forcing them and/or their loved ones to do these things and so they started cutting down the weirwoods. As Bran became older, wiser, and more experienced, he realized it was better to cajole people into doing what he wants than forcing them. Pure speculation on my part.

Why does Bran allow his own disablement then? Like if he can change everything, why lose the ability to walk/being one of the greatest climbers ever?

2:01 it actually is a training montage, complete with music. The text even says he's listening to Whispers in the Dark by Skillet!

We are never getting the Dream of Spring, we'll maybe have Winds of Winter, but Dream of Spring won't ever come out

At least in the show, the only people who die are given the choice to stop fighting and they continue. Freewill is having that choice and still continuing to fight. By the end everyone who would continue fighting is dead, and those alive simply don't want to fight anymore.

I may be way off base but i feel bran is becoming the villain not the hero

new channel name : Michael Tangents seriously love the content, your channel is very underrated, you should have at least 100k!

34:00 The famed GRRM LOTR connection. Who would choose to destroy the One Ring when you could MASTER IT?!

Bran 3 ADWD is easily my favorite Bran chapter.

Do you have any theories on Quaithe?

I can't believe Bran is going to rip off Eren...

if this ends up being true, George was lying about not liking God Emperor of Dune

I feel like too much here is being put on to "time travelling Bran" - it's like you're turning him into some kind of God lmao

Have my babies

I love your content! Your theories are so fun, and even when you seem like you're going off on a bit of a tangent, the line of thinking is still sound and your reasoning just makes sense lol. I always get so excited when I see a new video from you!

😶

Don't forget the like button folks

Will Bran become a man like Isildur, or a halfling like Frodo? Will he destroy the “ring”, or seek to control it?

So in other words. From beginning to end all the books will just be a giant dream in the end... 👍that would make for an awesome ending. Nothing is real. Bran is just in a comma after his fall having a killer dream... then it all begins again with a real story and a ton of books on a different timeline..

If Bran is already hooked up to the trees, then why would he have to set his own table to get hooked up to the trees? He clearly already had everything he needed or he wouldn't have been able to do tree communication.

Tyrions words to Bran in the show about the greatest story actually has weight to it now...

Damn, so Bran and Eren Yeager gave the same fate

So, there is New Moon... Full Moon... Waxing/Waning Crescent Moon Phases... But where are the 1st Quarter/Last Quarter Half Moon and the Waxing/Waning Gibbos Moon Phases...? Is something preventing these phases from appearing... Strange?

Every time he talks people look up so idk i feel some communication is definitely getting through. In the enders game series the pigs become father trees and the pigs beat the trees with sticks as the trees alter their inner holes and hollows to make a kind of language. First of all why are talking trees such a repeated theme in fantasy but also why do I like it so much?😂

Isn't Hodor the important example (and self-moral lesson) that Bran is capable of projecting his will in to the past? Both that he can affect the past and also that he can forcefully affect people - the trauma of realising this violence is what reinforces the value of free will to Bran before he needs that lesson to shape how he changes the world/has changed the world/is changing the world. With his inhabiting Hodor he is privy to the cost of this violence as both the victim and user (both of which are harmed) and is uniquely able to reconcile these things - he is the living Dialectic. I wonder to what degree GRRM is influenced by an experience of Westernised Zen Buddism from his formative years, a la Alan Watts.

Hodor could either be a cautionary tale of how too many shenanigans can break a person OR how little Bran/3Eyed Raven actually cares about mankind... like not at all. Still not seeing Bran as the Good Guy Hero. I see this entire story through the eyes of Syrio Ferrell (aka SEE FOR REAL). Blood Raven/3 Eyed Raven's cave is NOT a Good place it is littered with human bones; "The BROKEN BOY, sat upon a weirwood throne, listening to whispers in the dark as raven walked up and down his arms." This is NOT a good place this is NOT how you make a hero. "You will never walk again, but you will fly." I've always thought he would become "The Stallion that Mounts the World." I absolutely agree that Bran/BloodRaven/3EyedRaven/Bran the Builder is setting up for the return of his reincarnated self; There must always be a Stark in Winterfell so that a Bran could be born. 23:22 I agree. A melennia or more of micro manipulations to get to this point. It was the mother of all chess games. But to play you must have an equal competitor. At this very moment is where “Bran” got played by the Night King… who isn’t “dead” BTW. What is dead may never die!!! If Bran has been micro managing for milennia so has the Night King. In brief here is what I think happened. The Children accidentally made the Night King immortal because of his kinSblood. So for the past whatever years Bran the Builder who made a pact with the Children of the Forest has been living consecutive 2nd lives in the bodies of Green Seer children who are lined up in the cave like the kings in the crypts of Winterfell. Remember that the only part Bran the builder built of Winterfell was the crypts and the old keep. He somehow calculated how many levels were necessary and buried the kings to keep something INSIDE. The lowest levels are now caved in. Here I think Bran the Builder entombed his half brother that was immortal, for hundreds of years. Until he escaped via the tunnels and came out in Hardhome. The explosion that flattened the town. The men on the wall could see the flames and said it looked like the SUN/SON rising. This meant that Bran the Builder had hundreds of years to slander the Night King unopposed. I believe the whole Azor Ahai is a lie, made up so that people will behave certain way when confronted with the Night King. The HBO series admittedly ended badly but there were still some juicy bits I believe will make it in the next books. The fact that young Bran and Bran the Builder are lame and that Jon and the Night King are both “non dead” makes be think the Young Bran and Jon are the reincarnation of the originals. The paintings in the cave showed that something spectacular was to happen at the eclipse. I think that is when Bran the Builder and the Night King can become fully reborn in their “new bodies”. In the show, Jon says to Bran “You’re a man now” and Bran replies “No Yet” so the transition is not complete. In a simplistic manner the 3 Eyed Raven rules the living and the Night King rules the dead. The 3 eyed raven can skin change into the living and the Night King can skin change into the dead. The 3 eyed raven can see EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE!!! So how does one HIDE from him? You can’t. BUT you can make sure that he doesn’t want look for you. The night king outplayed the 3 Eyed Raven. He made sure that Arya was trained by the dead his allies to kill him. He also made sure to protect Jon and made sure that it was NOT Jon to “kill” him. At one point Jon was playing peek a boo with the dead dragon, it wouldn’t let him pass. The problem with the non dead is that their eyes turn bright BLUE. In that episode there was one character whose blue eyes were pointed out several times. In fact he was almost attacked because his mates saw his blue eyes. Then there was this weird camera shot with the boy nailed to the wall opening his eyes and they were the same color blue as the character in the foreground: Tormund Giantsbane. I think that the Night king skin changed into the a Tormund and no one noticed because his eyes were already bright blue. Also, the Night King shattered into a million pieces right below the Winterfell weirwood. I think he now becomes a virus in the network. Like I said I think he outplayed the 3 Eyed Raven and the Children. So the real battle has not taken place. The Night King has to merge with Jon. Looking thru Syrio’s eyes it is obvious who is the “good guy” and who is the real villain. For all intents and purposes Bran is cruel. He is cruel to Hodor and Myra and he eats Jojen. He is also cruel to Sansa bring up her wedding night when she was graped. He nudges Sam to tell Jon “his origin story” that leads directly to Jon killing Dany. He puts the worst people on his small council not caring about the small folk. THIS IS NOT A HERO Where as Jon brings opposing people together . Fights with honor looks out for the downtrodden and bullied. Sounds like a hero to me. Gives up power for the greater good . Now if Bran and Jon are the reincarnation of the originals that means Bran is not the here Jon is.

I am starting to think george got upset that atack on titan did it before him. That what you get when you take 30 years to write your books

Good vid, interesting ideas. But I think there's a possibility GRRM is not setting up Bran to be a good King, but to be an adversary like Leto the Second in Dune. After all, he has Bran breaking all the ethical rules of warging, and while Bloodraven is teaching him all about the powers he will have, he's not really instilling in him any great wisdom, the way Merlin did with Arthur.

Im cool with that, I just dont want him to turn into a turnip, no personality who is sinister, who was now not Bran & the WW net but "the three eyed raven" who doesnt exist in the books. Bloodraven was the "3 Eyed Crow" but its not a weird non existent character....

Transformation is key throughout George's story. Chaos is not a ladder but a split causing transformation. Bran just went through his & Jon is in middle of his.Same thing 4 tha trees George shows this through ancient stories.Like Bloodstone/Garth & Amethyst/NQ. Original Trinity is Bloodstone Amethyst and there child.Once you notice this parallels all through tha story.Trinity is important I love your theories. I have a different take but you have got me on another rabbit hole.Thnx my man. 💯

i just hope grrm doesnt go to the multiverse shit shenanigans

I think Bran is going to find out that his meddling is the problem and he needed to have died when he was pushed from the tower.

Whose to say there aren't multiple competing interests through magical forces. Isn't it stated that there are no weirwoods in the south? So what if when the red comment arrived and the dragons were born magic entered the world again.

Brand time travel stuff sounds almost like a copy and paste of attack on titans Eren yager haha

There lies the error in this thinking - that Bran is aligned with the element of Ice. No my friend, he is Earth - his wolf is SUMMER - he will bring the seasons into balance again. But he won't be fighting his Ice element, he'll be channeling his Earth element. Ice in excess (Jon) will clash with/ cancel out/ merge with Fire in excess (Dany) and Earth (Bran) will be the force that restarts everything after the destruction. We know George loves that Frost poem. Read it again. The poet prefers fire, and maybe GRRM does too, see how a super attractive woman is the Fire - Dany, Mel or both! But it is still destrucion.

Meh

I do not think we will see the Winds of Winter. I think the series killed a lot on interest in the books in both the public and George too. D and D really did kill Game of thrones.