【2010 Archives】

Remember how riveting it was to watch Bran hang out in a tree for pretty much all of Season 6010 Archives Remember how that was somehow moreinteresting than his interminable journey into Nowhere, Westeros for about two entire seasons before that?

Well true to form, Bran might have found the most boring way possible to move forward a critical piece of Game of Thrones' plot.

It is known that Bran is not the first Bran Stark to have been at the center of major historical events in Westeros. But some Game of Thronesfans are speculating that the events ourBran Stark is about to set in motion after finally arriving at the Wall will be a lot less popular than those of his fabled predecessor, Bran the Builder.

Legend has it that, eons ago, the illustrious Brandon the Builder of the First Men not only built the Wall and Winterfell, but also founded House Stark (and that's just his greatest hits). But a Reddit thread appropriately entitled "BRAN, YOU STUPID FUCK!!" recently resurfaced a popular theory started last season that could very well bring all his work crashing down—literally.

Before the White Walkers can transform from a far-off abstract threat into an immediate, flesh-eating threat, they'll need to find a way over the Wall. And Sunday's episode only gave more credence to the theory that we'll have Brandon the Dull to thank for helping them do it.

SEE ALSO: Bran from 'Game of Thrones' says Stark family reunion will be 'disappointing'

You'll recall that, last season, Bran made the executive decision to notlisten to the omniscient Three-Eye's Raven's foreboding warnings. While Bran was gallivanting around his Greenseer visions unsupervised, the Night King promptly grabbed and "marked" him, which broke the barrier the Children of the Forest put in place to protect their Weirwood cave from White Walkers.

The full consequences of this permanent White Walker mark remain unknown, but it clearly freaked the hell out of the not-so-easily spooked Three-Eyed Raven. The question now is whether the reverberations of that act will continue to have greater consequences for the plot. The short answer is: It certainly seems like it.

Which means Bran will effectively go from putting you to sleep, to causing the death of one of your most beloved characters, to then stillnot doing his one goddamn job(AKA foreseeing the future.)

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

According to The World of Ice & Firecompanion book, legends say that Bran the Builder didn't build the massive wall of ice himself. The giants supposedly helped on the labor front, while the Children of the Forest lent their magic—magic that kept the Others from crossing over into the land of Men (you know, as an apology for creating the undead weapons of mass destruction in the first place). The same kind of magic that Bran's mark totally negated in the cave.

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So basically, at some point the White Walkers could walk right past the Wall and everyone will realize that Bran screwed us in less than 90 seconds of screen time in Episode 1.

Last Sunday's episode left several subtle clues that his arrival at the Wall will prove disastrous. For one, that ominous shot of the undead army marching South is revealed to be one of Bran's visions—which he conveniently wakes up from right as the gates to the Wall crank open.

Then there's the Hound's vision in the flames. "Ice, a wall of ice. The Wall..." he says, describing an unseen horror. "The dead are marching past, thousands of them." He even mentions a castle that sounds a lot like the one Jon recently sent Tormund and the Free Folk to hold.

Then there's the hubris of both Jon Snow and the Archmaester in the Citadel waving away everyone's concerns about the White Walkers because, "Every winterthat ever came has ended." Until the one that doesn't.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

As if all of that wasn't chilling enough, this Redditor pointed out that this would make for a perfect narrative circle, too, since Bran is a descendent of the Wall's creator:

Bran the builder built the wall. Now with that mark Bran is going to pass beyond the wall and nullify the magic of it tearing the wall down.

Bran the Breaker.

Some are even speculating that the Night King intentionally let Bran get away, and/or that Benjen is a half-White Walker spy sent to herd Bran over to the Wall. Benjen's arrival after the escape from the Weirwood cave was exceptionally convenient, even by TV writing standards.

Things seem even more suspicious when you realize the Children of the Forest never once mentioned to Bran that they saved Benjen (his beloved uncle) during all their downtime in that cave together. So the only version of the story we have is Benjen's.

Something smells fishy here. And it's likely the rotting corpses of thousands upon thousands of walkers waltzing right past the last barrier keeping Westeros from total annihilation.

Even if Bran doesn't bring down the Wall, there are several other ways it can happen. Book readers never stopped wondering about the Horn of Winter, which legend says can destroy the Wall, that Mance Rayder claimed to have and threatened to use if the Night's Watch didn't let the Free Folk pass.

In the show, you might've even caught the Horn of Winter all the way back in Season 1, when Samwell Tarly stumbled onto a cache of Dragonglass that included an inexplicable horn with strange markings on it.

So RIP to whoever's left of the Night's Watch—including poor, poor Edd, who didn't ask for the awful job of being Lord Commander during a war with the undead.

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