Bran Stark: Broken, Yet Better (In Some Ways)

[Anothermi]

I know Bran's story is going glacially slow (pun intended) but I think of it as one less character to fear the death of.  They wouldn't kill him off before he actually DOES something - would they?

 

Anyway, I decided to start this thread because it occurred to me that Bran appears to be an Omni-Warg.  He's warged animals, people (well, only Hodor so far, but Jojen seems to think that means humans in general, so who am I to argue?) and... the Weirwood tree.  So, Flora as well as Fauna and Hodor.  (Great title for a sit-com - Flora, Fauna & Hodor too!)

 

Maybe I'm going too far (with my lack of expertise in Warg-ary) in perceiving him have a tree talk to him by putting his hand on it as "warging it", but I don't know what else to call it.  Communing I suppose, but that doesn't seem to be strong enough a word for what he did. 

 

What ever it was, it was a new skill and he knew he could use it.  We haven't seen him do that before.  It's got me wondering what else he'll be able to do.  Perhaps that is his journey for the rest of this season.  Gathering and Applying new magical skills on their way to the north-most GodsWood (Weirwood) Tree.  Somebody described it somewhere as a Quest-type journey and so far that's exactly what it's turning out to be.

 

Sorry if the title seems a bit obscure, but I had a brain wave that between Jojen and Bran - both broken in some way and in need of help - that perhaps these kind of magical gifts blossom and grow particularly strong in the physically weak?

[abelard]

I was just wondering in another threat what Bran's "other" power was besides (omni-)warging, b/c Jojen keeps seeming to imply that there's something else Bran can do.  Perhaps you've got it, Anothermi: communing?  Communing with nature, maybe?  And maybe as you imply there is a pigsh*t-ton else that he can do, he just hasn't discovered it yet!  

 

I will always remember that in S1, when Jon told Sam, "I always wanted to be a Ranger," Sam said, "I always wanted to be a wizard."  That line told me that there will be wizards in this world.  We know now that there are witches (Red Woman), warlocks (Qarth), and sorcerers (in a box).  So...what's a wizard?  Whatever that means in this world, maybe Bran is one?  But I admit, I'd love it if Sam were one.  Because he always wanted to be one! 

[RadiantAerynSun]

Didn't he say Bran had "the sight" too? In addition to being a warg? That was I assume why he was able to "see" Jojen in his dreams

[gingerella]

I decided to start this thread because it occurred to me that Bran appears to be an Omni-Warg.  He's warged animals, people (well, only Hodor so far, but Jojen seems to think that means humans in general, so who am I to argue?) and... the Weirwood tree.  So, Flora as well as Fauna and Hodor.  (Great title for a sit-com - Flora, Fauna & Hodor too!)

Awww, I forgot we had a Bran thread because it was stuck over on page two!

 

Anyolhoo, Bran...let's chat about Bran, shall we? I find it so intriguing that so far Bran has warged animals (his own direwolf, and did he warg the three-eyed raven as well? Any other animals?), Hodor (the only person/being we've seen yet in this world who can warg another person), and he appears to be able to channel the past, present and future both by going into a trance on his own, and/or when he communes directly with a Weirwood tree. He has had what appears to be interactions with JoJo in his dreams, yet IIRC, JoJo is also participating and remembers those dreams, at least that's how I'm remembering that bit but I could be misremembering.

 

So what IS up with Bran Stark, named after his preferred baby daddy, yet not of his seed...speaking of which, it's a little weird to name your son after your dead betrothed, when said son is the product of your dead betrothed's brother...just sayin'...Anyway, I'm not so sure if Bran would have had this "gift" if it hadn't been for his near-death-by-falling experience. I feel like his "abilities" are a direct result of one part of his physical being having been suddenly shut off, and another part opening up slowly during his apparently extended bedrest where he seemed to drift in and out of consciousness. It's the ol "when one door closes, another door opens" conundrum. At least to me. IIRC, the first time we saw something of a warging/seeing nature, it was when Bran woke up at the exact moment that Lady was killed, wasn't it? It's like that moment was akin to Mance's "light the biggest fire" moment. His internal horn blasted three times and he was UP!  Suddenly Bran was alive, awake, aware. It was as if his coma allowed these "gifts" to spring forth to the surface and were just on a simmer until the right event signaled it was time for Bran to wake up and meet his new abilities.

 

I feel like Bran - as the youngest son of Eddard Stark -  would have been nothing amazeballs, maybe a mediocre fighter at best, probably more of a mediator since he seemed to be a rather weak, skinny child in many ways when first we met him. He wasn't particularly adept at swinging a sword and IIRC, his little sister, Arya, kicked his ass when it came to the art of swordsmanship. So what was Bran going to be good at if he'd not been injured so permanently?  In some ways, his accident and subsequent paralysis has redefined him into a key player, perhaps the most important player to date, though we wont know until we see what "IT" is that he needs to see or do at the end of this journey he is on.

 

Do you all remember how divided and creeped out most of us Unsullied were when we first met JoJo and his badass sis? Some of us were sure they were baddies out to kill or deliver Bran to some nefarious waiting dark lord.  I think JoJo and Company have done a pretty good job of ferrying a non-walking almost full grown young man now on a long and arduous journey and I hope we get a glimpse tonight of where they are in that journey. I'm getting a little tired of it being a journey without end though. It'd be nice to see some sort of resolution tonight, where we at least can make some more spitballs as to where he is now, why, and what's next for the Scooby Doo Gang.