This is a remake of a video I released over 5 years ago before Game of Thrones ended. I still think there are some great ideas in the original video, but I hate the way it was produced. I can't help but cringe whenever I go back and listen to some of my old videos, for various reasons, and I wanted to make some slight changes to the overall theory. Most of the "evidence" is the same, but I wanted to give it a different ending. Just to clarify, I don't think Bran will turn into an ice zombie like we saw in the show. I think he will still look exactly the same, more or less, but it will be his mind that is corrupted. Let me know what you think if you make it all the way through. Thanks for watching!

I have many times thought that Martin made a trap to Benioff and Weis telling them that Bran will become the king, but in reality Bran will become the Night King.

this is exactly what crossed my mind when I watched GOT for the second time and noticed how different Bran becomes when he comes back beyond the wall and Meera is upset with him and leaves as if she knew he was dead and gone. Also, Bran knew he was going to become King, and accepted the Kingship as if it was his plan the entire time! The 3 eyed raven won the Game of Thrones without anyone noticing.

The children of the forest and the blood raven is one of those mystical elements im not sure George has fully thought out yet

This one of the best videos and theories I've seen in a while.

This is exactly why I think D&D were the wrong people for the job. They seriously did not understand the source material, nor did they seem to care.

As someone who has never read the books i wish they used this material. It explained so much and would have been awesome to see on screen

This changes EVERYTHING. (even the miracle of making the TV show's ending better) THANK YOU for still being doing this.

D&D not just ruined some plot lines but each and every one of them .. but the best part is they lost the star wars show for which they rushed and ruined GoT

Such a genius theory! Thanks for sharing!! Love your ASOIAF/GoT content, looking forward for more - til then, I’ll be awaiting more corn 🌽

This could set things for the “ SNOW” show. That the night king is now the king of Westeros 😮

The way Bran changed by his return to Winterfell, I assumed the Children had control of him. Their ultimate victory would be having Bran, their puppet, king of Westeros

When reading the books this has always seemed like the logical direction and progression given the history we’re given and the cryptic way the children of the forest talk. Good points, great video

Bran was so off, I hadn’t thought the 3ER had taken him but that the Night King had. I also just realised and can’t believe I never saw it before. The stones around the tree with the COTF have the same pattern the Others make with the limbs at Last Hearth. I agree too the CTOF and the Others are either in alliance or different breeds perhaps of one enemy. At one time, Bran is asked what the Others want, and he said 'Me.' If that was 3ER responding, why does NK want him? And who ends up on The Iron Throne then? Bran? or 3ER? or NK? And if the CTOF still live, can they not make another Other? I just struggle to accept they were defeated but there are many things I struggle to accept about the show's endings.

Great video. I still think your alternate version of the last season, and a next one were way better than ending we got.

Love this ❤ I’m glad I’m not the only one who can’t move on from Brynden Rivers’ and children of the forest clear involvement in what happened😂

If you read previous George Martin writing like And Seven Times Never Kill Man! (which has bachalon the pale child which we have in ice and fire, and the golden core which are bunch of genticists , Planetos is probably located in 1000 worlds) and current one like Elden ring which is literally about a tree collecting souls. The theme always is about a supernatural system that kind of takes over a group of species, eventually dumping them for new ones. Kind of like the bank of Bravos quote, you can take a stone out of the bank temple but the temple keeps its form. The Weirwood network installed itself amongst different species like the children of the forest and now with Bran it will take over the humans since the children are dying out. The others probably want to destroy it because its trying to take control of them

This is an interesting theory and would make for a great spinoff sequel. Daenyrs could come back to stop the children of the forrest and zombie Bran. And maybe they could explain the fall of Old Valyria in the process.

Great video! I was always so upset they didn't give us more backstory to the children of the forest in the final season. Of course we got nothing on the White Walkers and the Night King either as far as backstory and/or motivations

Awesome I hope this would happen keep em coming TT

The Snow show should retcon or redo season 8. If not, we need the white walkers / wights to still be around. Also we need to see the isle of faces, the green men and House Reed.

Plz more long content like this. Luv your vids

Brilliant analysis!

The only way the show makes sense is if a later show tells us Bran/Bloodraven is the true villain of the show representing humanity’s greed that will one day destroy the world and the White Walkers were created to keep him from destruction

Awesome! Maybe you mentioned, but the First Men broke the green pact by making peace with the Andal's. So, that's further motivation for their actions in this theory!

Best content hands down

I think you're pretty spot on, given what evidence we *do* have of the lore surrounding the Children of the Forest and Blood Raven specifically. I think Bran was taken over by Blood Raven, who was basically forced to do so via the Children of the Forest, in an attempt to get their lands back via playing the Game of Thrones. Bran became King. They are now the ruling force (be it tiny in reality) now. I hope Bran isn't truly dead, and manages to resurface at some point; like he's trapped in his own mind and has to battle Blood Raven for control, just cause that would be really neat to see. The theories are really neat, but I think this one is def one of the more plausible ones :)

I always thought it was Bran's destiny to fall...but I love the clues you put together and makes this way more interesting than the slip shod method D&D dealt with this very important point.

The way I always looked at it is the 3 Eyed Raven got tired of being a tree and decided to be the ruler of Westeros instead. So he guided Bran to his cave, supplanted Bran's consciousness with his own (hijacked his body basically by transferring his consciousness into Bran somehow) and took the actions and lack of action needed for him to end up as King. He needed someone who was nobility because hijacking the body of a "childen of the forest" wouldn't do - imagine a nobody coming to King's Landing and claiming the throne, he would be rejected if not thrown in a dungeon instantly. No legitimacy.

Talking thrones, you see how when you're crafting a theory or story, you consistently reference the books? That's the type of energy we need for all the game of thrones shows. After season 4 they should have hired you to take it from there.

Well, I do think that the Children of The forest had a non aggression pact with the White Walkers...but all of that ended, the moment Bloodraven was luring Bran to his domain, to take over his body. The Night King saw this as a threat to his existence because he knew that Bloodraven in Bran's body would eventually unite the lords of the south against him. As for serving the Great Other, I see both the Night King and Bloodraven(with the Children) as serving the same master and that their rivalry is compared to two servants feuding over the love and attention of their Master, the Great Other.

Have to be honest, i liked your story and idea what might happen, like it sounds possible, I have looked at many ideas and this is definitely the best

Your channel keeps my love for ASOIF burning, have you thought about doing This for other book series as well? Such as king killer chronicles or stormlight archive?

Lets take a moment to appreciate Leaf.

This is seriously one of the better fan theories I've heard.

This would be a much more satisfying ending than the dross we got served up in season 8

the sacred "swirl" is the Fibonacci sequence. the 6 and the 9 twining. good vs evil, blue vs red.

I reckon they missed a big story with the children. This is a side of the story a lot of folk wanted to see more of. There's still hope yet to deep dive into this part of the story. Hope to god they do so 👌

I believe that "A Dream of Spring" alludes to them being the main danger in the last book, no longer hidden, rather than just looking toward the end of winter. The idea of Dark Bran, or whatever might control/use him, being crowned King of the seven kingdoms is a much bleaker proposition than in the show.

Is there a chance the night king is a good guy or not a bad guy and is just controlled by the children of the forest

Great theory!! I’ve always thought bloodraven had to have some bigger role in this story/show! I didn’t know how to put it into words like you did but I’m all in on this one🙌🏼 hopefully if we ever get the “SNOW” sequel maybe they use some lore from this!

As I had just finished the series ...again... For the 5th time in full. There was soooooooo much left unanswered and unfulfilled

Great vid. I do think it's totally within the theme of the show to have bloodraven ward into bran while bran use the weirwood to warg into bloodraven. A not so dark twist would be for in this moment Bran discover bloodraven's evil secret plan but be able to escape, with the help of mera, and it might be blood raven that gets trapped inside hodor in the hold the door moment, while he is trying to run away from the NK in a different body. But only time will tell.

So with this same logic. Rickon will be the one who takes Bran down. Leaf said the dire wolfs will out last us all. Old Nan said the brother of the man who stopped him( the wording here was kinda strange) and besides Jon and Bran who still has a wolf? Rickon, who is away with the unicorns.....

I've read the books a couple of times. I'm glad i glad i watched this. It made me want to reread them. Thanks.

9:42 Why does this character remind me of the White Walker child that was nailed to the tree in the opening scene of the first episode??

I’d like a GoT prequel of the children of the forest and why they created the white walkers with it ending with the wall getting built. I haven’t read the books though I thought maybe the CotF created the white walkers to get people to leave Westeros and never come back after that the night king somehow gets killed by the CotF and for a long time Westeros happily belongs to the CotF again before this sort of thing happens all over again.

Think your spot on with this :)

They could/should have mad more episodes of bran learning and becoming blood raven and the children of the forest background. Amd another 2-3seasons to slow down seasons 6-8. So sad what it turned into. A rushed mess instead of the masterpiece it started off as. It atleast should have been 12 seasons

In the novels, the Children of the Forest are the Ravens. They didn't die off like was thought. A few of them survived, but most went into the crows

I thought the lore said Night’s King was thought to be a Bolton. Or am I remembering it wrong?

really cool theory

🤦🏾‍♀️ Sidebar: Can we be honest about “House of the Dragon”. It’s just OK. It could be better if they slowed down the timeline. I hope S2 is good.

Trying to tie show and Book together a bit (and having only read a few select chapters from the books) Could the act of Arya killing The Night King actually release him to also enter Bran? Like Being John Malchovich, all these different personalities living in Bran's head vying for control?

Its interesting in the last small council meeting bran or Bloodraven says after asking about drogon "perhaps i can find him" lol If bran is now bloodraven, then you have an all powerful targaryen tree wizard looking for maybe the last dragon in the world. Sounds pretty ominous...

This is great, I wish this was canon, well there’s still hope it will be

Well I can see that. We will have to see what George does.🤷🏼‍♀️👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

very interesting and love your videos!

Yeah the day I saw the final episode I said bran was the villain there. Only way anything about him made sense after leaving the north

Can someone please tell me what the music is in the background, in this video?

Bran is the Knight King....We hope the GOT has a sequel one day

we need to have a tv series about the children of the forest

also season 3 episode 8 when sam kills the walker, before it shows up there’s like a noise of a hundred ravens outside and they go silent the moment it appears. like the ravens brought it there and it’s also just in underwear with no armor on and probably the only reason sam was able to stab it in the back.

Are you from Philly or around that area?

I honestly thought at one point Abram was the night king but he had used greensight to travel to the past and has taken over the mind of the night king so the one who set the whole plot of song of ice and fire was Bran. I love the idea of Bran the building being our Bran but alas, the show disappointed and I don’t know how Martin will finish his story. I do agree that Bran died in the caves or at least his mind is trapped somewhere. I believe the night king is the three eyes raven and took over Brand body. I don’t know exactly why it’s happened but I love this theory the most out of all the theories on ASOIAF. It just makes the most sense.

This is a fun theory, but to me it lacks the moral complexity that Martin frequently espouses, and so somehow rings untrue. Martin has long said the books will have a bittersweet ending. Suppose Bran is an effective ruler who ultimately does a world of good for the realms of men , but that he has been effectively “consumed” by his ascension to the mantle of the three eyed raven, lost in the overwhelming volume of thousands of years of collective experience from the children and the weirwood net, as is heavily implied by the show. That is so deliciously bittersweet that it’s hard to argue against: the good guys essentially won by sacrificing a pure, innocent, brave child to dark ritual magics. Suppose also that Bloodraven knew Jojen would have to die to get Bran to the great heart tree, but did it anyways because he deemed it a worthy sacrifice of an otherwise inconsequential pawn. This is messed up, but make no mistake: Bloodraven pulled that kind of stuff ALL the time, even before he went north of the wall and became the three eyed raven. He made lots of morally abhorrent sacrifices to work towards what he saw as the greater good (e.g. executing unarmed prisoners to quash chances for the Blackfire rebellion to resurge, manipulating Egg into causing the Summerhall incident in order to bring dragons back into the world).

This would mean that Jon Snow is being influenced as well. Just think about everything Mormont's crow has been saying to Jon.

WTH do ppl still believe in the ‘jojen paste’ theory??? Nowhere in the chapters of that book do they ever mention his disappearance or death just that he’s been somewhat depressed. It was Weir wood paste. However, I’ve always wondered the true intentions of the COTF and the different factions of them.

Excellent video and intriguing theory. My one point of contention is your assertion that the Children created the White Walkers. I'm aware that the show went that way but I don't believe there's sufficient evidence in the books to indicate that the origin of the Others will be the same. Too many stories link the Others with the Long Night. Even with the subpar historians of Westeros, there's no reason to believe the Long Night coincided with the invasion of the First Men or the Andals.

Havent you said in an older video as well Brendan Rivers was a Targaryen bastard? Would also explain why Bran wants to know the location of Drogon at the end of GoT. If he is now actually Brendan Rivers and of Targaryen blood line. He could do alot of damage if he gets a hold of Drogon. Neat to think about.

Powerful Greenseers either have blood red or moss green eyes, Bran had Tully blue eyes.

In the books, there is evidence that the Children of the Forest are the malevolent force controlling the others. The Order of the Green Hand channel produced some amazing videos presenting this evidence. It is a very compelling theory.

If the 3 Eyed Raven allowed the Children Of The Forest to be exterminated - why did the 3 Eyed Raven become Ruler of Westeros as Bran "I'm Not Really" Stark?

Interesting idea, but without the books being finished for another go for the series with a better team they are only hopes for the fans.

Just as a point of fact, a good number of characters have disappeared and believed dead and then turned alive. So, Jojin could still be alive. His fate has not been revealed as of yet. Also, Brenden Rivers has the one red eye now. Who else has a single red eye? Bran and The Crow's Eye are both agents of the great other. The difference is Bran doesn't know it yet.

I really love this video and theory. I hope when GRRM finishes the last book, we see history repeating itself. Jon has to kill Bran. It would be so cool.

Blood Raven will snatch his body right before he dies? I'm confused - you hypothesized that Blood Raven went into Bran already when the Night King killed him - and Bran was not dead. So how is he going to go into Bran when he dies, when he is already inside him like you were saying? Maybe I am just not getting what your trying to say here - but I thought Bran already "died" in that cave when Blood Raven entered him, but his physical body never died - so if Blood Raven is already inside him, why would he have to wait until Bran's body dies to take him over?

"Why do you think I came all this way?"

blood raven sounds like an evi name for sure in this series. working for evil and always meant to help the blood queen danny. Danny was born through a blood ritual. human sacrifice. thats why she has glowing purple eyes. representing blue aka good on the outside, but she's really red underneath, aka evil. which gives you purple when combined. the 3rd eye raven was evil and using Bran. turning a stark against blue aka good side.

I fully believe that the Starks arent the heros they are made out to be, and instead is a part of the "bad guys"

Reach...

How did the blood raven know that Bran would become a cripple from the fall and not die? Or avoid permanent damage?

yup. Bran died in the cave. so new bran winning is the enemy winning. just in case danny failed it would ensure evil wins.

This is interesting, but something in me doesn’t want to learn anything else about the original story since they completely botched the last season

Better THIS outcome, than the crap we actually got in the show. Bran becoming the eventual King of Westeros was the final loogie hawked in all of our faces, at the end of the show, which Dan & Dave had orchestrated in spite.

Wouldn't bloodraven say " now i become you"?

That last snippet you show... Says more proof. Stark of winterfell and joramun... Not King of winterfell ( i guess it's queen sansa now) and john??? Attack and end the night king once bran turns darker??

Or maybe the age-old saying ~ EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON~is true?

maybe the children of the forest are attached to the land spiritually and cant leave it. just food for thought

Does anyone else think that the White Walker leaders look very similar to Targaryens? The yellow hair and all?

All plots are off the table. All ideas have been used. Jon may die. Daenerys may live. The next two books will not only disappoint, but bring us to the conclusion that the books should have never hit the screen.

not to lead the white walkers but to lead the antichrist aka Danny to victory. which is exactly what happened. I'm curious to see what screenplays you have written sir. I'm willing to give it a read.

Well shoot; I missed the live. And judging by the title, seems like maybe I shouldn’t ‘t have! Ah! Jane Eyre is my favorite! What, no Jane Austen??? Explosion of emotion… I wonder why we can’t stay connected with that feeling? I’ve never understood why we don’t really allow ourselves to really feel our emotions. It’s why we don’t love ourselves, I think… we don’t trust our own emotions. My own mother would often infer that my feelings, be they joyful, or sadness, were invalid. She didn’t mean to be cruel, she just wanted me to survive in a world that is tough to survive in. Very late in her life she apologized for that. I have always worn my heart on my sleeve, tho it’s a faded, muted version of it. I feel deeply, and it’s taken me this many years to even begin let the bright colors show. And I’VE been lucky! Despite my mother’s suppression of my emotional reality, she actually was loving, generous, sometimes playful… and my dad… well let’s just say that I got a LOT of gifts from both of my parents. They were flawed, imperfect, beautiful human beings. But so many don’t have what I had, so the suppression of emotions, (which is society wide) doesn’t get the counter-balance on the other side. I sometimes get a wild streak and send emails, make phone calls, text, or whatever some of my friends and just let my emotions spill. Ok, I think I will stop now because I’m thinking this may be the foundation for my next YT post. :) Tommy, I love you, I love what you do, and I pray you keep doing it… this world needs more Tommy, (and Reese, too)!

I'm still hoping it turns out Brandon the Builder is the Great Other, inhabiting the weirwood network.

Even if Bran never led the NK to the 3 eyed Raven, the NK was coming south, I mean if he gets rid of men then the 3eyed Raven is useless his knowledge is passed to no one.

TT!!!!!!!

They did make the WW so i don't understand how this is even relevant. The Children made WW to combat humans but made the raven to understand the past .... I'm sure if the raven was of no use or help to the children they would be just fine since after Bran got his powers no other white walkers continued the assault on the tree...

I don’t think blood raven uses crows. He doesn’t like or trust crows.

This seems too far fetched to me. How could the Blood Raven be sure that Bran wouldn’t just die after falling? Or maybe never wake up from the coma?

so bloodraven had jaimie bang cersi or did he have jon aryan killed,did he tell robert to name ned hand? ??????????pretty sure darth jar jar is involved 😂😂😂😂😂