This is a really cool idea when you assume ASoIaF was written by George as a social commentary on his contemporary world, an allegory for our society -- trying to build a culture based off of "fear of the Other" is inherently violent and internally destructive, and the only way to move forward as a progressive society is to define culture on "shared stories" and social mores and norms, rather than trying to make a xenophobic exclusive societal culture work (eg, the feudal monarchy CANNOT be a stable source of political identity, as we see with literally EVERY second-most-powerful house betraying the most-powerful house in every major realm of Westeros)

You basically just described the difference between screen writers and literature writers, and why new books are fun and feel new, but new shows are the same thing reskinned. 😂😅

Funny how all the parts the show cut out (at least as displayed in the graph) are in fact the backbone of Elden Ring’s narrative

Can't wait to see you on Lightbringer's...😁

Great video! I think you’re right about the dynamics and differences between the books and the show in that the show simplifies or leaves out a lot of important themes, elements, complexities, possibilities, and content, such as the consciousness magic. I think we should keep this in mind when interpreting the show’s take on “Bran sitting the throne” and saving humanity in Westeros. I think we should also keep this in mind when interpreting House of the Dragon’s take on the prophecy they call “a song of ice and fire.” I think House of the Dragon is also leaving out many complexities and possibilities. While in the books we are told of several Targaryens throughout the generations being given various dreams by the tree consciousness or other sources, this all is simplified and conflated into a single prophecy inscribed on a dagger and passed down verbally among generations of Targaryens.

Huzzah! More content! 🎉🎉

Love your theory videos! Keep up the great work dude!

I thought it was them trying to redeem themselves and say “well its about our story thats the most important thing who has the best story which is us”

George seeing this channel going back to see if he can change anything

Bran also has the memory of all the wrong turnings.

You have me nibbling on this hook. Bran as a sort of Arc or liferaft for the combined knowledge the passing tree wants to leave behind. I think it works with an argument I make about who the God on Earth was in the Empire of the Dawn. You can really get a feel for everything gathered around the fire in the dark waiting for the light, Bran telling everyone what they'll need to do to rebuild when it does. I hesitate to embarrass such absolutes, but from a certain point of view they make sense. There is an underlying question about what a Stark actually is and what they were that I think might serve your theory well. Why would a Stark need to do it?

Another banger of a theory video 🙌🏼🙌🏼 This particular theory has me thinking if the Others are either: Ice humanoids that were once Green Men or Children of the Forest First Men turned Others Or if the Others always existed in the Lands of Always Winter, and either Children or First Men turned to them for aid by offering sacrifices and things got out of hand

I wonder if in the books Jon will, as Azor Ahai reborn, end up sacrificing Bran at a weirwood like the children do to the man in the flashback in the show. like as a way to implant the hivemind back into a new weirwood network (possibly on the isle of faces). it would explain the repetition in the Last Hero/Azor Ahai stories if it was so similar due to them being different occurrences of the same cycle. every few thousand years the wierwoods go all dark and need to be rebooted, a greenseer needs to download the hivemind database (like a human flash drive), take it to a fresh network and install it (via ritual sacrifice) then the old trees need to be burned so new ones can grow.

Thanks!

Another banger 👍

Bran knows/ can download/ time travel/ learn /understand that the Others are the common enemy and or the balancing force to keep human excesses in check. If society falls apart he will have to reconfigure it, which he will, as a super long lived king. Duneishly.

I don't get the idea that there is going to be a "download" of all the weir information into Bran. Why would he be able to do that? He can remember some of it, yes, but all? And, the information he does get doesn't mean facts. He gets the memories of people with all the opinions and misinformation that goes with it.

honestly i coulld have accepted it more if it was basically anyone but bran. But bran first of all was annoying. basically didnt do a whole lot through the entire show.

If the world tree system is to start anew in a better way, Bran has got to be more than a new body for B-raven / 3ECrow - he has retain enough Bran - ness to become Bran Plus Hive Mind, with the knowledge to institute controlof and balance with the Others.

I think you make a good point that things that are tossed in out of the blue were directions from GRRM. It’s sad that they made such a dogs meal of the books. Imagine they thought they could tell a better story than GRRM. One thing I did pick up in season eight is the death of the Night King. I swear that was foreshadowed in Season 1 Episode 1 when Arya popped out of nowhere and hit the bullseye. Another thing that I have spotted that must be in the books because there was no reason to put it unless GRRM told them to, was the way the Night King “died”. He shattered in ice exactly how Blood Raven shattered in smoke. But we know that Blood Raven actually didn’t die he just skin changed into Bran. I believe that the Noght King also did not die but skin changed into a dead person.Someone who already had bright blue eyes that wouldn’t be noticed or questioned. Tormund. The other clue from GRRM in the eight season was that the “final” battle was mid-season . Because I believe that the final battle hasn’t even begun. What we have seen is just the Night King setting up the board in his favor. It is impossible to fight someone like Bran/3-Eyed Raven who can see all. I think the entire series we’ve only seen half and that these 8 season was the Night King setting up his chess board. As is he knows he can’t win so he orchestrates his own “death”. Literally right in front of Bran/3-Eyed Raven and also under the Winterfell Heart tree. This ensured that he was “officially” dead and that the entity who can see all Bran-3Eyed Raven will no longer look for him. Also, it was not lost on me that his shattered body melted into the earth under the Winterfell heart tree. This is the ultimate blood?ice sacrifice. I think that that Night King had just entered the Matrix. So yes, season 8 was horrible but I found so many clues because they were so clumsy putting them in.

"unite under stories" xd I'm having a great time to this in the water closet

I like all of your ideas about the endgame, exept that you forgot one thing: George has already told us that the end will be bittersweet. So all of that stuff about the world tree and a cycle of rebirth may not go so right as you think

Strange that she adds "before you too."

Uh, Tyrion says that bran is their memory because he knows all of history. Right? This is….. something

Call me Old Fashioned, but I've found the tried and true "Oderint dum metuant." approach to running an Empire has always worked best, and seems to be popular with Others.

The thing that really bothered me about season 8 is they call them selfs the 7 kingdoms when theres 8 or 9

This video confirms my suspicions. The way Bran says, “I cannot be Lord of anything”, seems like a something a woman in GOT would say. Perhaps Shay. “You were right right where you were supposed to be”, sounds like Bran said that as Lyana Stark, Ned Stark, the measter of the Night’s Watch or even Rhygar Targeryian would. “Why do you think I came all this way”, sounds like that was Blood Raven or better yet, Vyseris. Coming from Vyseris, that’d be a nod to his banter with Tyrion. I have not read the books, yet.

It’s so incredibly refreshing to have someone who doesn’t feel the need to endlessly bash the show, but instead uses their intellect to deduce what was really going on and come to an understanding and acceptance of it all. Fact is if any random person that had no idea of story/book versions of the story or anything watched season 8 they would say it was the most crazy and amazing show ever. But since we all have/had certain expectations and prior/differing knowledge of things we noticed the oddities and shortcomings. The show as a whole deserves a lot more respect than most people try and give it nowadays. That being said PLEASE GIVE US WINDS OF WINTER GEORGE WE ARE DESSSSPPPERRRAAATTTEE! Lol

Interesting theory. I appreciate the D&D in a nutshell version, where there's plenty of ambiguity. Mostly think the magic needs to stay hidden within the final chapters of the books. A lot of people who watched the show don't even care about Bran, the magic, or dragons. They just wanted politics and dialogue. So I agree with D&D's version, with just letting the audience figure it out for themselves.

The first line of the first book thing is just grasping at straws. It is the literary equivalent to number theory or scientology. Sure it seems like it, but there isn't any evidence that the first line has anything to do with the ending of the story. The first line is just setting the scene by invoking a person's belief that they've been somewhere for too long. It then goes on to further describe the scene as being dark and cold. It has nothing to do with society or feudal fear and shouldn't be connected to that cause it isn't.

So?