Radio Westeros E97 - Bran Stark, part 3

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 היי, שואל בשביל חבר, נניח ויש לחבר סחום גדול השקיע,

spk_0 ונניח שהוא רוצה לגוף את שמאי לחלוטין,

spk_0 שהנושאי החלטה בעברת ביטוח,

spk_0 כי זה חשוב לחבר שהאינטרסים שלא בהדיפות הראשונה.

spk_0 ומה הם הוא רוצה לבואי ממומכים פיננסים ואו ביקטיביות,

spk_0 הוא שקיפות מלאה?

spk_0 אז אני הייתי מבליצו על קבוצת קלי.

spk_0 קלי מובילה את חומי השקעות,

spk_0 הפן סיבה ביטוח כבר חמישים וכמשנה,

spk_0 באופן עצמאי הוא ולתית עלוי.

spk_0 בקיצור, תמליצו להחבר לחפש את קבוצת קלי.

spk_0 או, להתקשר, כוכבית, תשימי ואחת, ארבעים וכמש.

spk_0 ו sekarang, זה שתיים להתקשרת את הפתרנטים של נוראים ולרימפים.

spk_0 שקיפות עלין, עוקסה, אמרתי האדם, בלד,

spk_0 ארץ-מסטרקופי, קבוצת קלצי, דיין, דולרס-פרד,

spk_0 מלורד-סוסה, ון הפתיל, חיים-קמנים, דיידן,

spk_0 גיל, גייהם, הרבה-וסטרוס, זה מיסקטונק-מסטר,

spk_0 לדי-סילרוווינג, מרק, שורתסתה בלק,

spk_0 סאטוריין, סללי, דווייה סורטה את העבדים,

spk_0 ולדי-טיילס, כסלנקי, תיאלפה פטרין,

spk_0 אז, ולדיידן, דיידן, דיידן, דיידן, דיידן,

spk_0 היי, שואל בשביל חבר,

spk_0 נניח ויש לךבר סחום גדול השקיע,

spk_0 ונניח שהוא רוצה לגוף את שמעיל החלוטין,

spk_0 שאינו שייך לאף חברת ביטוח,

spk_0 כי זה חשוב להחבר,

spk_0 שהאינטרסים שלא בהדיפות הראשונה.

spk_0 ומה הם הוא רוצה לבואי ממומכים פיננסיים

spk_0 ואו ביקטיביות הוא שקיפות מלאה?

spk_0 אז אני הייתי מבליצל על קבוצת קלי.

spk_0 קלי מובילה את חומי השקעות,

spk_0 את הפן סלווה ביטוח כבר חמישים וחמש שנה,

spk_0 באופן עצמאי הוא ולתית עלוי.

spk_0 בקיצור, תמליצולה החבר לחפש את קבוצת קלי.

spk_0 או, להתקשר, כוכבית, תשאים ואחת,

spk_0 ארבעים וחמש.

spk_0 Whereas early in the journey,

spk_0 Branard looked forward to arriving at the wall

spk_0 and finding out what lay on the other side,

spk_0 he now finds himself full of fears.

spk_0 And while a lot of what he fears has roots in old nan's stories,

spk_0 as we'll see,

spk_0 we also see that Bran is assailed by doubt.

spk_0 He knows that all the ways through the wall

spk_0 at the so-called ghost castles are sealed by ice and stone.

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spk_0 ‫כcze אתoline getir

spk_0 ‫לבח contrad with his sequence, ‫כי לא יודעת ש plus, ‫כן רוצה יפה בגacaktם

spk_0 ‫זאת שרחוקת את ייפושי ‫ juntoושי סינט עולת של ההביר high painted in from

spk_0 ‫ perfection- 친복 עוד, רצה של fix

spk_0 חקב refund alternative and his secret hope that the mysterious dream visitor would

spk_0 help him to walk again it would never come true.

spk_0 But there's another fear gnawuring at him that he can't bring himself to share and

spk_0 this companions.

spk_0 Sometime in the week following the events at switched crown brand had a dream.

spk_0 He thinks that maybe it was actually summer's dream and Akk peachback mut על

spk_0 הדרמנה pak 에בלו הס deleting אתה הקדו дополнון שהיה להנדבחר女 היה

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spk_0 ועושה את תשובה.

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spk_0 לא לה 대통령 את לא רק אצלו לטנbur את רגע.

spk_0 אני חודらש אניłecי לכם.

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spk_0 קראתי, שאני אנבת伸 בהעל Admiral Blown,

spk_0 זה שאותד ברורruktur גמל וננה ההיא ון רגיד, מתךピקמישית בטkem fair וזה והעתיים להצאתה,

spk_0 למחפה מב

spk_0 ‫הלב得 יורה עם פגטים הוקוהה ‫או ההבן ארבע twins

spk_0 אפטליה טלופ?

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spk_0 אני מאשבי את זה חיור פあの על nước תלסה הכננה

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spk_0 ‫הared, או לא종 Purd מחינים בו, ‫כן אני לא הולך להDCים שעש,

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spk_0 עמוד שגיר, פסקה ותמשלוental אך שני ממש across

spk_0 ואחרי חיים ליện отправ לא׵יית הלוון big成יכו

spk_0 על פסת מנוורי הוא כתיד ע Lehati

spk_0 וכי לקחי שדהיara ישי אמות SD

spk_0 זה ועשי שמכ emocograph אני באותו על אבחני

spk_0 אחרי מוורי את ארבעilda של��ים

spk_0 איי שכחתי לאחריでしょう

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spk_0 מס tendon בלבחו השני או חיה Smasher,

spk_0 מתוחד מההתיו והקשלטו было כבר Cocoa חתב hiding עם מהטועה

spk_0 שאתה לחיות מסבחתו הייתו בחלטו

spk_0 וכן שכאגתב חוקדים ברורים הזכוד עבודה לאה

spk_0 ואيدכי אזרו של altre ובעוד או דרחαν,

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spk_0 דבבית,asghuntainairstינס женותพחטוביות הייבר MU Sh lawn cop,

spk_0 המספר Youtumenosokun사스를скוונה וחקג זו שקמצא בן סודביים הלסייםผ director

spk_0 דנימ�� הושל וזה חמה גונופת אהו בן really square my

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spk_0 ‫פרקון כלום מזייקה על אדם ‫ wrapped למשחילות להשאלתי.

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spk_0 ‫ work with Willy Trance.

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spk_0 ‫קויברנו שהן סייסי ג przypadku זאת לדantry ‫ Dus

spk_0 שולי enough to give pause to any visitors,

spk_0 though jojun as usual seems unfazed.

spk_0 and so the trio continue their explorations

spk_0 with summer at their side.

spk_0 they find a bell tower, a library, a bathhouse,

spk_0 the dungeons and the forge,

spk_0 harmory and practice yard.

spk_0 the main impressions are of immense size and emptiness.

spk_0 the watch had taken anything of use

spk_0 and left anything they couldn't move to the rats

spk_0 who were now the castle's principal inhabitants.

spk_0 after hours of exploration,

spk_0 Bran concludes,

spk_0 maybe it is only a ruined empty castle,

spk_0 and then Mira returns as the sun sinks below the western hills.

spk_0 she reports on what she saw from the top of the wall.

spk_0 the haunted forest hills rising wild as far as the eye can see

spk_0 covered with trees that no axe has ever touched.

spk_0 I saw the sunlight glinting off a lake

spk_0 and clouds sweeping in from the west.

spk_0 I saw patches of old snow and icicles long as pikes.

spk_0 I even saw an eagle circling.

spk_0 I think he saw me too.

spk_0 I waived at him.

spk_0 that's an interesting tidbit because while the first impulse

spk_0 is to suppose that the eagle might have been varomia six skins,

spk_0 riding an orale's eagle

spk_0 and to gain intelligence about the wall,

spk_0 just as John Snow will see him doing during the battle at Castle Black,

spk_0 we suggest another option.

spk_0 It strongly suggested to readers over the course of the novels

spk_0 that the last green seer,

spk_0 once known as Bloodraven or Brindon Rivers,

spk_0 is able to slip into the skins of many animals

spk_0 from his were withdrawn in the far north,

spk_0 including but not limited to a crow at Castle Black,

spk_0 a cat at Harrenhal,

spk_0 a cat in King's Landing,

spk_0 and other crows both north and south of the wall.

spk_0 And we suggest that it was Bloodraven and the eagle

spk_0 that Mira waived to,

spk_0 and that he was seeking confirmation that Brind

spk_0 and his companions had arrived at the wall

spk_0 in order to ensure the success of a stratagem

spk_0 that would play out at the nightfought that very evening.

spk_0 As Mira reports,

spk_0 it's rufally that impressive as the views

spk_0 from the top of the wall had been,

spk_0 she had found no way down or through,

spk_0 she wonders if her brother could have been mistaken in his dream.

spk_0 Once again, Jojen expresses complete confidence

spk_0 that they are at the right place

spk_0 and that there was a gate here through which they would pass.

spk_0 The green seer had clearly sent this dream to Jojen

spk_0 and perhaps through the eyes of an eagle

spk_0 had confirmed that it had the desired effect

spk_0 to bring Brandon Stark to the nightfought

spk_0 on this particular day.

spk_0 While Jojen's insistence once again frustrates Brann,

spk_0 was more certain than never

spk_0 than after their afternoon exploration

spk_0 that the only gate was the one they had seen filled

spk_0 with stone and ice,

spk_0 the group resigned themselves to staying the night

spk_0 at the haunted castle.

spk_0 Brann's thoughts turn to the legend of the Night's King.

spk_0 He recalls Old Nan's tales about the Sinister 13th

spk_0 Lord Commander of the Night's Watch,

spk_0 which would always end with her suggestion

spk_0 that he had been a Stark and perhaps had once lived

spk_0 in Brann's very room.

spk_0 Brann doubted that very much,

spk_0 but here at the nightfall,

spk_0 he was hard to gain any distance from the nightmare.

spk_0 This was where he had lived

spk_0 and ruled with his corpse queen at his side.

spk_0 And as the night draws in,

spk_0 Brann Stark thinks Night's King was only a man by light of day,

spk_0 Old Nan would always say,

spk_0 but the night was his to rule,

spk_0 and it's getting dark.

spk_0 So George is leaning into classic horror tropes here

spk_0 at the dark and ancient nightfall,

spk_0 even to the point of naming one of its horrors

spk_0 the thing that came in the night.

spk_0 While Brann is a convenient viewpoint character

spk_0 for this part of the story,

spk_0 it seems to us that the actual scary stories

spk_0 have much more to do with world building

spk_0 through the advancement of in-world lore

spk_0 and perhaps more importantly,

spk_0 establishing this particular location

spk_0 as a future setting for something much more dark and horrific

spk_0 than whenever Brann experiences while there.

spk_0 When we one day return to the nightfall

spk_0 with another viewpoint character,

spk_0 we'll arrive with full knowledge of its dark past

spk_0 and a prevailing mood of dread

spk_0 will be easily established with the reader

spk_0 by virtue of this very chapter.

spk_0 And the day new one of the horror vibe,

spk_0 George builds at the nightfall,

spk_0 would come in the castle kitchens,

spk_0 where a broken domed roof offered more shelter

spk_0 from the elements than any other part of the place.

spk_0 Brann decides that the strangely elongated weirwood tree

spk_0 that is broken through the floor near the kitchens,

spk_0 huge central well,

spk_0 makes him feel like here at least

spk_0 the old gods could watch over him

spk_0 in spite of the tree having no face.

spk_0 And this of course puts his mind of blood raven,

spk_0 once again, perhaps finding a way

spk_0 to ensure that the little group

spk_0 were exactly where he needed them to be

spk_0 for what would come next.

spk_0 The kitchen with its huge brick ovens

spk_0 and blood stained butchers block

spk_0 made Brann think of the rat cook

spk_0 and his imagination once again started to revisit stories

spk_0 of the past horrors of the place.

spk_0 The story of the rat cook is a foundational story

spk_0 in the north,

spk_0 and it asserts one of the key principles

spk_0 of northern culture that a man has a right to vengeance,

spk_0 but breaking guest right by killing a guest

spk_0 beneath your own roof

spk_0 is an unforgivable offense against the gods.

spk_0 We've discussed this concept often

spk_0 and in many contexts, as most readers know,

spk_0 it comes up many times in northern storylines.

spk_0 Here, just a few short chapters

spk_0 after the red wedding chapters,

spk_0 we're given both the background

spk_0 and an unequivocal statement

spk_0 about the importance of guest right in the north.

spk_0 Even the first time reader likely begins to wonder

spk_0 what divine retribution might be in store

spk_0 for the architects of the single largest

spk_0 violation of guest right in known history.

spk_0 Brann, of course, knows nothing of this

spk_0 in spite of his dream about Robin Gray Wind.

spk_0 What he does know is that he does not like

spk_0 the well in the center of the room,

spk_0 12 feet across with stone steps built into its damp walls,

spk_0 the well sinks into a darkness that seems bottomless.

spk_0 When Brann and Mira can't see the bottom,

spk_0 it's Hodor who takes the exploration to another level.

spk_0 He starts by Hodoring into the shaft

spk_0 and his first startled, then amused by the echoes that reply.

spk_0 Such as his delight in the echoes,

spk_0 they unexpectedly tosses a broken stone into the void,

spk_0 no doubt hoping to hear another echo returning to him.

spk_0 And now the scene in the night for it

spk_0 takes on the distinct notes of another homage

spk_0 to George's favorite fantasy writer, J.R. R. Tolkien.

spk_0 In the fellowship of the ring,

spk_0 when the fellowship seeks shelter in

spk_0 and passage through the abandoned

spk_0 and seemingly haunted minds of Moria,

spk_0 they come across a room with an open

spk_0 and seemingly bottomless well at its center.

spk_0 Much like Brann and his friends,

spk_0 it's the room the group has chosen to spend the night in.

spk_0 And of course, there's one member of their party

spk_0 who, like Hodor, is strangely attracted to the mysterious well.

spk_0 In fellowship, we see the scene play out

spk_0 from Pippin' Tuk's viewpoint.

spk_0 It says, moved by a sudden impulse,

spk_0 he groped for a loose stone and let it drop.

spk_0 And then came the sound of the stone reaching the bottom.

spk_0 Quote, far below, as if the stone had fallen into deep water

spk_0 in some Calvinous place, they came a plunk, very distant,

spk_0 but magnified and repeated in the hollow shaft.

spk_0 Compare this with what George wrote, far, far below,

spk_0 they heard the sound as the stone found water.

spk_0 It wasn't a splash, not truly.

spk_0 It was more of a gulp,

spk_0 as if whatever was below had opened

spk_0 a quivering, jellied mouth to swallow Hodor's stone.

spk_0 Fane echoes, traveled up the well,

spk_0 and for a moment Brann thought he heard something moving,

spk_0 thrashing a bount in the water.

spk_0 And so George leans more heavily into the horror

spk_0 with his imagery while Gandalf and the fellowship

spk_0 seem at first relieved to know that the sound they heard

spk_0 had an explanation.

spk_0 Of course, the two scenes diverge again

spk_0 in opposite directions when the outcome of Pippin's tossed stone

spk_0 turns out to be the disconcerting sound

spk_0 of knocking from the deep,

spk_0 which readers of Lord of the Rings know

spk_0 presages something much more disturbing than shadows and echoes.

spk_0 In Brann's case, the echoes also die away,

spk_0 but we shouldn't forget the something

spk_0 that Brann thought he heard coming from the depths.

spk_0 Still, the group enjoy a meal by the fire,

spk_0 Jojen lights before settling down to get some rest

spk_0 with Jojen hoping to be sent another dream

spk_0 to illuminate their next move.

spk_0 Brann wakes from his almost sleep when he hears a noise.

spk_0 As he comes to his senses, he realizes

spk_0 that the noisy he is is not from outside

spk_0 or even from elsewhere in the castle.

spk_0 The noise is coming from inside the very room he is in.

spk_0 And soon it resolves itself into distinct footsteps.

spk_0 Realising its footsteps, Brann begins to catalogue

spk_0 all of Old Nan's stories looking for a supernatural explanation.

spk_0 It says,

spk_0 it wasn't the sentinels he knew.

spk_0 The sentinels never left the wall,

spk_0 but there might be other ghosts in the night for.

spk_0 One's even more terrible.

spk_0 He remembered what Old Nan had said of Mad Axe,

spk_0 how he took his boots off

spk_0 and proud the castle holds barefoot in the dark

spk_0 with never a sound to tell you where he was

spk_0 except for the drops of blood that fell from his axe

spk_0 and his elbows and the end of his wet red beard.

spk_0 Or maybe it wasn't Mad Axe at all,

spk_0 maybe it was the thing that came in the night.

spk_0 And then he realizes that the sound is coming from the well.

spk_0 He's wide awake now, but so terrified

spk_0 he can't even call out.

spk_0 He thinks of Holdor and his stupid stone

spk_0 and realizes that summer isn't nearby to help

spk_0 and the sounds are getting closer by the second.

spk_0 He's able to clearly identify heavy footsteps,

spk_0 labored breathing and a strange whimpering sound.

spk_0 In spite of an urge to hide his head beneath his blanket,

spk_0 Brann manages to wake Mira.

spk_0 She understands and is ready to face whatever is in the well

spk_0 in an instant,

spk_0 but Brann can't bear to let her fight alone.

spk_0 With summer away exploring,

spk_0 Brann resorts to the only option he has.

spk_0 Whereas the first time he slipped into Holdor's skin,

spk_0 it was clearly inadvertent.

spk_0 This time it's fully intentional.

spk_0 It says he slipped his skin and reached for Holdor.

spk_0 It was not like sliding into summer.

spk_0 That was so easy now that Brann hardly thought about it.

spk_0 This was harder like trying to pull a left boot

spk_0 onto your right foot.

spk_0 It fits all wrong and the boot was scared too.

spk_0 The boot didn't know what was happening.

spk_0 The boot was pushing the foot away.

spk_0 And so we see Brann for the first time intentionally perpetrating

spk_0 what Varamere Sixkins mentor Hagon called

spk_0 the worst abomination of all.

spk_0 Holdor's fear and discomfort at the violation

spk_0 is no less this time than it was the first time

spk_0 when Brann entered his mind by accident.

spk_0 And while Brann might be excused

spk_0 for not having any formal training and skin changing

spk_0 and perhaps even for doing something

spk_0 out of what he felt was necessity in this instance,

spk_0 we should pay close attention to Holdor's experience

spk_0 and Brann's awareness of it.

spk_0 For a moment in control of Holdor's body,

spk_0 Brann has the experience of standing and walking.

spk_0 It lasts just long enough for him to recognize the feeling,

spk_0 apparently taking a momentary pleasure in the experience

spk_0 before a wailing noise erupts from the thing in the well.

spk_0 Very close to the top now,

spk_0 that terrifies the real sideline Holdor so much

spk_0 that Brann is flung back into his own body

spk_0 while Holdor begins yelling,

spk_0 Holdor, Holdor, Holdor.

spk_0 Exactly as he had done during the lightning storm

spk_0 at Queen's Crown.

spk_0 Everything happens very quickly after that.

spk_0 Brann sees a huge black shape come from the well,

spk_0 screaming as mirror reading cases it in her net.

spk_0 As the thing rides on the ground,

spk_0 mirror poking at it with her fish spear,

spk_0 Holdor shouting continues,

spk_0 as does the strange wailing from the well,

spk_0 now accompanied by the black thing crying,

spk_0 no, no, don't, please, don't.

spk_0 And so the first time reader experiences a moment

spk_0 of pure terror along with Brann

spk_0 before the wretched begging of the thing

spk_0 encased in the net causes a moment of doubt,

spk_0 which is followed immediately by its response

spk_0 to mirror's stern demand to know its identity.

spk_0 I'm Sam, the black thing, Sobs.

spk_0 Sam, Sam, I'm Sam.

spk_0 Let me, how you stabbed me.

spk_0 Readers lasso Samwell Tali 10 chapters previously

spk_0 when in his flight from the debacle at Crestus

spk_0 with Gilly and a newborn baby,

spk_0 they took shelter in a village that may have been white tree

spk_0 and were saved from a pack of ravaging whites

spk_0 by a flock of ravens and a mysterious man

spk_0 in black riding an elk,

spk_0 who addressed Sam as brother.

spk_0 Now, weeks later, we see Sam

spk_0 rising from an underground passage at the night for it

spk_0 with Gilly and the baby,

spk_0 the source of the strange whaling noise

spk_0 Brann and the others heard in tow.

spk_0 It soon becomes clear that the man in black

spk_0 who Sam and Gilly have nicknamed called hands

spk_0 had an agenda from the start.

spk_0 After introducing herself,

spk_0 Gilly asks Jojen if he is the one

spk_0 in response to his question, she explains,

spk_0 he said that Sam wasn't the one.

spk_0 There was someone else, he said,

spk_0 the one he was sent to find.

spk_0 Now nearly freed of mirrors net,

spk_0 Sam adds to this, asserting,

spk_0 he said there would be people,

spk_0 people in the castle.

spk_0 I didn't know you'd be right on top of the steps though.

spk_0 I didn't know you'd throw a net on me

spk_0 or stab me in the stomach.

spk_0 And so the idea that Bloodraven had been

spk_0 in the eagle mirror sore from a top the wall

spk_0 gained some credence here,

spk_0 since it becomes increasingly obvious

spk_0 that cold hands from Brann's viewpoint

spk_0 still a mysterious character of unknown provenance

spk_0 knew exactly where and when

spk_0 to find the little party in the nightfall,

spk_0 just as he knew where and when

spk_0 to find Sam and Gilly at White Tree.

spk_0 We can set aside for now the interesting question

spk_0 of why cold hands rescued Sam and Gilly,

spk_0 whether it had to do specifically with Sam

spk_0 or with Gilly's baby

spk_0 or whether any man of the watch would have been acceptable.

spk_0 We can also table a discussion

spk_0 about how cold hands differs from whites,

spk_0 which Brann and his friends have yet to hear

spk_0 described much less experience in person.

spk_0 Instead, let's focus on the observations that cold hands,

spk_0 a name made up by Sam and Gilly for their nameless savior

spk_0 due to his extremely cold hands,

spk_0 was wearing night swatch blacks

spk_0 and that he had been sent to find someone,

spk_0 someone that he in fact expected

spk_0 to be waiting at the nightport.

spk_0 From Sam's descriptions,

spk_0 it becomes clear that there is a secret gate

spk_0 below the castle, a gate which will only open

spk_0 from man of the watch.

spk_0 Cold hands calls it the black gate

spk_0 and he himself, it's unable to pass through it.

spk_0 Sam explains this by telling the startled group

spk_0 matter of factly, the wall is more than just ice and stone,

spk_0 he said, there are spells woven into it,

spk_0 old ones and strong, he cannot pass beyond the wall.

spk_0 Brann's group silently digest this information for a moment,

spk_0 no doubt wondering about the references to whites

spk_0 and the type of creature that is unable to cross

spk_0 the powerful ancient magic of the wall

spk_0 with Brann recalling old Nanz' words.

spk_0 Beyond the gates, the monsters live

spk_0 and the giants and the ghouls,

spk_0 but they cannot pass so long as the wall stands strong.

spk_0 There's some initial comic confusion

spk_0 when Sam refers to Cold Hands' elk,

spk_0 which leads Brann to wonder if this cold hands

spk_0 is one of the green men, Sam denies seeing

spk_0 any sign of green skin or antlers.

spk_0 And there's further confusion when Jojen tells Sam

spk_0 that he's not the one Cold Hands was seeking,

spk_0 which in turn brings Brann to Sam's attention.

spk_0 Sam quickly makes the connection between Brann

spk_0 and John's little brother, but Jojen sternly insists

spk_0 that boy is dead.

spk_0 Still confused, Sam promises to keep the secret

spk_0 of this meeting and Gilly swears as well.

spk_0 By way of explaining that he's trustworthy,

spk_0 Sam tells Brann, John was my brother too.

spk_0 He's the best friend I ever had,

spk_0 but he went off with Koran half-hand

spk_0 to scout the frost fangs.

spk_0 It never came back.

spk_0 We were waiting for him on the fist when...

spk_0 When...

spk_0 While Sam never does get around to explaining

spk_0 what happened at the fist,

spk_0 all crasters, all white tree to Brann and his friends,

spk_0 it's clear that he seems to think John was lost

spk_0 beyond the wall.

spk_0 And so Brann starts to explain that Summer saw him

spk_0 at Queen's Crown, which is the cue for Summer

spk_0 to literally jump into the scene from a hole

spk_0 in the roof above.

spk_0 Though initially terrified, the presence of the wolf,

spk_0 so like John's own is enough to convince Sam

spk_0 and Summer's acceptance of Sam is enough to, in turn,

spk_0 convince Brann that they will go with Sam to the gate,

spk_0 and then to wherever it is,

spk_0 from which this cold hands had been sent.

spk_0 And so the group gather their things

spk_0 and prepare to follow Sam well tally into the well.

spk_0 As they set out, Sam comments on the number of steps

spk_0 they must descend to get to the gate.

spk_0 And Brann's observations support this.

spk_0 It was a long way down.

spk_0 The top of the well was bathed in moonlight,

spk_0 but it grew smaller and dimmer every time they went around.

spk_0 Their footsteps echoed off the damp stones

spk_0 and the water sounds grew louder.

spk_0 But eventually, they come to a place where Sam stops

spk_0 and, as he had promised, the gate was visible

spk_0 in the darkness.

spk_0 Brann's first observation after realizing

spk_0 that he could see in spite of the bloom

spk_0 is that it wasn't black at all, in spite of its name.

spk_0 Here's the description.

spk_0 It was white weirwood and there was a face on it.

spk_0 A glow came from the wood like milken moonlight.

spk_0 So faint it scarcely seemed to touch anything

spk_0 beyond the door itself, not even Sam standing right before it.

spk_0 The face was old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken.

spk_0 It looks dead, its mouth was closed and its eyes,

spk_0 its cheeks were sunken, its brow withered,

spk_0 its chin sagging.

spk_0 If a man could live for a thousand years

spk_0 and never die but just grow older,

spk_0 his face might come to look like that.

spk_0 Before the group can even wonder

spk_0 about the strangeness of this door,

spk_0 so far below the surface, it says,

spk_0 the door opened its eyes.

spk_0 And then it spoke, asking who approached.

spk_0 This was Sam's cue to recite

spk_0 what is likely the most ancient part

spk_0 of the night's watch vows.

spk_0 I am the sword and the darkness.

spk_0 I am the watcher on the walls.

spk_0 I am the fire that burns against the cold,

spk_0 the light that brings the dawn,

spk_0 the horn that wakes the sleepers.

spk_0 I am the shield that guards the realms of men.

spk_0 Having heard what seems to amount to a secret incantation

spk_0 or a spell of passage, the door speaks again, then pass.

spk_0 And then it says, it's lips opened.

spk_0 Wide and wider and wider still

spk_0 until nothing at all remained,

spk_0 but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles.

spk_0 And so Jojans, summer hodor-carrying brand,

spk_0 a lastly mirror, pass through the black gate,

spk_0 placing themselves completely in the care of cold hands

spk_0 who awaits them on the other side.

spk_0 All the group know is that their guide is a creature

spk_0 who is unable to cross the wall himself,

spk_0 but who has purportedly been sent for the express purpose

spk_0 of accompanying Bran somewhere.

spk_0 But on the strength of Sam's story,

spk_0 combined with Jojans dreams,

spk_0 the group must trust that this is the passage

spk_0 the three-eyed crow had promised them,

spk_0 and that somewhere in the north he awaits them.

spk_0 So ends Bran's estorm of sorts arc

spk_0 and readers will not see him again

spk_0 until it ends with dragons,

spk_0 with no brand chapters appearing in a feast for crows.

spk_0 Up next, we'll catch up with Bran

spk_0 in the fourth chapter of a dance with dragons,

spk_0 set many weeks later in the haunted forest,

spk_0 in the midst of what has become a nightmare journey

spk_0 through unending cold and snow.

spk_0 Are we there yet?

spk_0 Bran never said the words aloud,

spk_0 but they were often on his lips

spk_0 as their ragged company trudged through groves of ancient oaks

spk_0 and towering gray green sentinels,

spk_0 past gloomy soldier pines

spk_0 and bare brown chestnut trees.

spk_0 Are we near?

spk_0 The boy would wonder,

spk_0 as Hodor clambered up a stony slope

spk_0 would ascend it into some dark crevice

spk_0 where drifts of dirty snow

spk_0 cracked beneath his feet.

spk_0 How much farther he would think

spk_0 as the great elks splashed across a half-frozen stream.

spk_0 How much longer it's so cold,

spk_0 where is the three-eyed crow?

spk_0 Bran's first chapter in a dance with dragons

spk_0 opens with the group north of the wall

spk_0 traveling through the haunted forest with their new guide.

spk_0 It's been weeks since the crossing at the night for

spk_0 and from Bran's description it seems like their routine

spk_0 has become one of silent and solemn endurance

spk_0 with Bran thinking there was a stillness to this wood

spk_0 like nothing he had ever known before.

spk_0 It also says that Bran has been spending a lot of time in summer's skin.

spk_0 Mostly out of boredom,

spk_0 a summer had a better perspective on the surroundings

spk_0 than the boy in the basket on Hodor's back.

spk_0 And speaking of Hodor,

spk_0 we're also told that when he was tired of being a wolf,

spk_0 Bran would sometimes slip into Hodor's skin.

spk_0 Bran would feel him whimper and resist

spk_0 and occasionally taste the fear in his mouth.

spk_0 Nonetheless, Bran justifies his actions by telling himself

spk_0 he knows it's me, he's used to me by now.

spk_0 It's clear from the phrasing that George uses

spk_0 that Bran is aware that he's causing his faithful servant.

spk_0 No small amount of distress and notably,

spk_0 he continues to do it out of boredom.

spk_0 Where in previous incidents that we've discussed,

spk_0 he slipped into Hodor's skin by accident at Queen's Crown

spk_0 or out of what he saw as necessity,

spk_0 protecting his friends at the night port.

spk_0 Now he's forcing his way into Hodor's mind,

spk_0 simply because he's tired of the alternative.

spk_0 And while the change in circumstances

spk_0 combined with the author's tone is likely enough on its own

spk_0 to make the reader uncomfortable with this development,

spk_0 we should also note that a dance with dragons

spk_0 is the volume where we get the skin-changer perspective

spk_0 in the varamioprolog and learn that taking the skin of a man

spk_0 is the greatest taboo of skin-changers.

spk_0 So there's some clear messaging here that

spk_0 innocent child though he may be,

spk_0 Bran is straying into dark territory

spk_0 which serves to underscore the desperate need for him

spk_0 to reach someone who can teach him to use his gift properly.

spk_0 At the same time, we see that Bran has become ever more comfortable

spk_0 with his connection with Summer, thinking,

spk_0 I am him and he is me.

spk_0 He feels what I feel.

spk_0 And perhaps it's this connection that leads him

spk_0 to instinctively understand the connection that exists between their guide,

spk_0 called hands, and the ravens that are the only other living creatures

spk_0 the little bands see in the forest.

spk_0 Bran still hasn't figured out what cold hands is,

spk_0 noting that he was grim and silent,

spk_0 and that Summer did not like the way he smelled.

spk_0 Dead meat, dry blood, a faint whiff of rot,

spk_0 and cold, cold all over.

spk_0 And it seems clear that he could understand the ravens

spk_0 that were his constant companions.

spk_0 Now riding on the elks, antlers, now flying off,

spk_0 and then returning to quark and squirk their news of

spk_0 dangers ahead and behind,

spk_0 as they do in this moment when we see cold hands jump off the elk,

spk_0 saying there were foe behind them.

spk_0 Bran is aware that there are wolves nearby,

spk_0 but cold hands insists that this danger is not from wolves,

spk_0 but from men, and that he will deal with it.

spk_0 In spite of mirrors offered to accompany him,

spk_0 cold hands insists that the foe must continue ahead

spk_0 with Summer and the elk,

spk_0 and gives them explicit directions to a fishing village

spk_0 on a lake to their north.

spk_0 When Jojen speaks up an agreement,

spk_0 cold hands slips away with several ravens and attendants,

spk_0 and the little group continues on.

spk_0 This part of the journey seems to mark the first time

spk_0 that Bran and the reeds have been able to discuss cold hands

spk_0 outside of his hearing.

spk_0 Mira expresses her strong reservations about his guidance and his identity.

spk_0 She points out that in addition to his unnerving black hands,

spk_0 he persists in hiding his face, never eats and never sleeps.

spk_0 She's worried about what he is, and what his intentions are,

spk_0 and is likely having major second thoughts

spk_0 about putting their trust in this being,

spk_0 whose only recommendation seems to have come from someone they also don't know,

spk_0 Sam Talley, and doing any case,

spk_0 Belly knew anything about cold hands himself,

spk_0 save that he was seeking Bran and needed Sam's assistance

spk_0 to get him through the wall.

spk_0 And when Bran realizes he's never seen cold hands breath,

spk_0 and anomaly in this place where it's always cold,

spk_0 and the breath of others puffs out in front of their faces,

spk_0 and freezes on their beards and scarves,

spk_0 he thinks uncomfortably about old man's stories about the lands they were traveling through.

spk_0 Beyond the wall, the monsters live, the giants and the ghouls,

spk_0 the stalking shadows and the dead that walk.

spk_0 She would say, tucking him in beneath his scratchy woolen blanket,

spk_0 but they cannot pass so long as the wall stands strong,

spk_0 and the men of the night's watch are true.

spk_0 So go to sleep, my little Brandon, my baby boy,

spk_0 and dream sweet dreams, there are no monsters here.

spk_0 Here, of course, was Winterfell, and there were now many weeks and many long leagues from there.

spk_0 Nonetheless, their anxieties, though they had merits,

spk_0 could not be allowed to control their destiny.

spk_0 As Jojen says weekly when assisted demands to know how long they must blindly follow this

spk_0 ranger until we get there.

spk_0 So they continue to follow his directions,

spk_0 and when it starts to look like they might not find the village before dusk settles in,

spk_0 Brandon slips into summer's skin to do a bit of scouting.

spk_0 Summer's assistance proves invaluable, and they do find the place the ranger had directed them to.

spk_0 Once they get undercover inside a snow-buried long haul,

spk_0 and sensing his hunger, Brandon releases summer to hunt.

spk_0 The humans are starving, though, and haven't eaten in days,

spk_0 with nothing but acorns and melted ice for his own supper.

spk_0 Brandon tries to sleep, but soon finds himself inside summer.

spk_0 His first observation is the night was rank with the smell of blood,

spk_0 and immediately after a kill, not far, the flesh would still be warm.

spk_0 Slava ran between his teeth as the hunger woke inside him, not elk, not deer, not this.

spk_0 So the diowulf, or perhaps the boy inside him,

spk_0 sent is something wrong with the smell that's tempting this hunger.

spk_0 We get a handful of clues when summer tries to follow the scent,

spk_0 loses it, and then locates it again.

spk_0 It says, soon enough the scent of blood was back,

spk_0 but now there were other smells.

spk_0 Piss and dead skins, bird's shit, feathers, and wolf, wolf, wolf.

spk_0 Piss and dead skins indicate men, and frightened men at that.

spk_0 Bird's shit and feathers are like clear clue that cold hands his ravens are nearby,

spk_0 but the distinct smells of the three wolves take center stage.

spk_0 As summer realizes, he's going to have to fight for his supper.

spk_0 His first sight of the three wolves immediately confirms for the reader what summer had been smelling,

spk_0 as it says, the female was chewing on a leather boot that still had half a leg in it,

spk_0 but let it fall at his approach.

spk_0 But we barely have time to register that before the other two wolves are described.

spk_0 In addition to the female, summer sees the leader of the pack,

spk_0 an old male with the grizzled white muzzle and a blind eye, and a younger male.

spk_0 And the reader swiftly realizes that this is varimere six skins pack, one eye, the oldest of his three,

spk_0 the biggest, the fiercest, stalker, leaner, quicker, younger, sly, more cunning.

spk_0 And if there was any doubt before we get to that moment that actually confirms this,

spk_0 we can connect the first line of this scene.

spk_0 The night was rank with the smell of blood, with the first line of the varimere chapter.

spk_0 The night was rank with the smell of man.

spk_0 And remember that since there are only three chapters between the varimere prologue and

spk_0 brand one in dance, a connection in the reader's mind is almost certain.

spk_0 The rest of the scene plays out very quickly and with two major reveals within it.

spk_0 First is that the dead are men and that there had been five of them.

spk_0 And we'll get back to the clues to their identity shortly.

spk_0 The second reveal is that yes, this is varimere's pack, and when summer, with brand inside him,

spk_0 faces off with the leader one eye, the remnants of the human skin changer within the old wolf,

spk_0 recognizes the dire wolf for what he is.

spk_0 Warg.

spk_0 In spite of one eye's lack of fear, being twice as size, summer is able to best the old wolf

spk_0 easily after which the female and the second male submit to him, leaving summer to eat his

spk_0 fill of the dead before the others could eat. Summer thinks they were his now, they were

spk_0 pack. But from inside, brand reminded him, no, we have another pack, ladies dead and maybe gray

spk_0 too. But somewhere there's still shaggy dog, a nineria and ghost. Remember ghost?

spk_0 Slingling out ghost is interesting, since he's the one that was for some time at least,

spk_0 on the same side of the wall as summer, in whom summer could likely sense until he rejoined

spk_0 John at Castle Black mere days before this chapter takes place. We never get anything other than

spk_0 this hint that summer had sensed ghost, but since we know that he was always aware of the pack

spk_0 previously, it seems highly likely that even if the wall was blocking his senses of his siblings

spk_0 that remained south of the wall, he would sense ghost when they were both to the north.

spk_0 Getting back to the wrongness, brand had sensed when summer first became aware of the dead

spk_0 and the wolves. We have to assume it was the fact that these were men that led into think

spk_0 not this. And while Varomis sixkins had shown himself to be perfectly willing to eat of the

spk_0 flesh of men while in his wolf skin, he did so in explicit violation of his mentor's

spk_0 rules of skin changing. To eat a human meat was abomination, to mate as wolf with wolf was

spk_0 abomination, and to seize the body of another man was the worst abomination of all.

spk_0 We've mentioned this a few times now in relation to brand slipping into hodos skin,

spk_0 but here we see brand in summer violating another of Haggons' rules. Varomis himself

spk_0 almost gleefully violated every one of these taboos as soon as his mentor was dead,

spk_0 and in spite of the fact that we see brand crossing the line unknowingly, we have to wonder

spk_0 where this parallel is taking us. Regardless of any taboo, either known or unknown,

spk_0 summer eight of the prey he had won, and through his observation of the men, we're able to draw

spk_0 some conclusions of our own. Brand has already realized that the men were knights watch,

spk_0 and from the condition of the corpses, not to mention the smells of birchet and feathers

spk_0 that he notices. It becomes clear that the ravens who sat watching in the trees above

spk_0 had almost certainly played a role in their deaths. As for their identity, one detail about one

spk_0 of the victims places the identities of these men in the category of something the reader knows,

spk_0 but brand is not. He was, quote, a faceless thing who clutched black iron in one hand,

spk_0 his other hand was missing, severed at the wrist, the stump bound up in leather.

spk_0 The dead man is none other than Olo Lockhand, one of the knights watched deserters who was last

spk_0 seen during the mutiny at Craster's keep. In fact, it was Olo who killed Lord Commander Mormont

spk_0 with a knife to the belly after Dirk had murdered Craster. Although numerous mutineers had remained

spk_0 at Craster's when Sam and others fled for the wall, we shouldn't forget what Gilles' mother

spk_0 told Sam before they left, about the others. They'll be here soon. And so we assume that this

spk_0 group of five were surviving mutineers who fled the keep when the others and their undead servants

spk_0 arrived looking for Gilles' son. And of course, it was that search that led to Sam and Gilles

spk_0 being rescued from a group of whites by cold hands and in turn brought Bran and his friends

spk_0 together with the eerie ranger. Speaking of whom, even as summer devours the dead watchman,

spk_0 Bran is brought back to the long haul leaks to the north by a feeling of warmth and the smell of

spk_0 roasting meat. Rousing himself, he finds Mira Reed turning a piece of rob meat over a fire.

spk_0 She tells him, you almost slept through supper, the ranger found a sow.

spk_0 Well, it's not clear that Bran makes the connection because as we'll see, he's

spk_0 immediately confrontational with cold hands. We can point to one more detail from Sam's viewpoint

spk_0 chapter on the mutinear Crasters that makes it clear to the reader at least that Bran and his

spk_0 companions are unwittingly violating one of the oldest taboos in human society. In the

spk_0 storm of swords chapter, when the rangers burn their dead brother banan at Crasters, it says,

spk_0 his burning brother smells so much like roast pork that Sam's mouth began to water.

spk_0 Of course, Dolores Ed is on hand to make a joke of the situation, with the point is made,

spk_0 roasting human flesh smells like pork. And if you think the likelihood of cold hands

spk_0 finding a stray sow is far less than the much more likely scenario of cold hands taking a

spk_0 piece of one of the five former rangers back to his starving charges in the deserted village,

spk_0 you're in very good company. That's right. We have every reason to believe that Bran and his

spk_0 companions are unknowingly eating human flesh not seen, though the horror of that reality

spk_0 isn't allowed to sink in with the reader because Bran confronts cold hands about the identity of

spk_0 the dead rangers. You killed them. You in the ravens, their faces were all torn and their

spk_0 eyes were gone. They were your brothers. I saw the wolves had ripped their clothes up, but I could

spk_0 still tell their cloaked were black like your hands. Who are you? Why are your hands black?

spk_0 Cold hands response to Bran's accusation is both matter effect and horror inducing.

spk_0 Once the heart has ceased to beat, a man's blood runs down into his extremities where it thickens

spk_0 and congeals. His hands and feet swell up and turn as black as pudding. The rest of him becomes

spk_0 as white as milk. When mirror challenges him to show them his face, cold hands doesn't react

spk_0 and Bran makes another accusation. He's dead. Mirror, he's some dead thing. The monsters cannot

spk_0 pass so long as the wall stands and the men of the night's watch stay true. That's what old

spk_0 man used to say. He came to meet us at the wall, but he could not pass. He sent Sam instead

spk_0 with that wildling girl. Bran is putting the pieces together, but it's mirror who asks the question

spk_0 that really matters. Who sent you? Cold hands response gives the three-eyed crow a new identity.

spk_0 A friend, dreamer, wizard, call him what you will. It's the last green seer.

spk_0 It's Bran who names cold hands monster, but it says cold hands quote,

spk_0 looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist before responding. Your monster, Brandon Stark.

spk_0 It's a tense moment and the description of Raven's crying yours yours yours from cold hands shoulder

spk_0 and their purchase in the tree outside the hall door is both chilling and makes clear that wherever

spk_0 he is, the three-eyed crow, the last green seer is watching them. When mirror demands that

spk_0 Jojen tell them what to do, since it's his dreams, they have led them this far,

spk_0 her exhausted and weakened brother can only say, we have come too far to turn back now,

spk_0 mirror. We would never make it back to the wall alive. We go with Bran's monster or we die.

spk_0 And so they must do, though time will tell that they still have many weeks left in their

spk_0 frigid northward journey. When we pick their story up in Bran 2, we'll see that Bran's monster,

spk_0 the starvation that has stalked them for weeks, the frigid, unending cold and even the wolf pack that

spk_0 has stayed on their trail are the least of the dangers in the haunted forest, as Bran and his

spk_0 companions arrive at their destination, only to finally discover firsthand the foe that so far

spk_0 has only been hinted to them.

spk_0 When Sam Tarley and Giley came through the Black Gate at the nightboard, they tried to

spk_0 describe their guide to Bran and his friends. After referring to him as cold hands, Giley explained,

spk_0 that wasn't his true name. We only called him that Sam and me. His hands were cold his ice,

spk_0 but he saved us from the dead men, him and his ravens and he brought us here on his elk. Of

spk_0 course, the mention of the elk reminded Bran of the stories about the green men from the Isle of

spk_0 Green. He wore blacks like a brother of the watch, but he was pale as a white, with hands so cold

spk_0 that at first I was afraid the whites have blue eyes, though, and they don't have tongues,

spk_0 or they've forgotten how to use them.

spk_0 The very interesting thing there is that Sam and Giley both mentioned dead men and whites,

spk_0 with Sam even adding the detail about the blue eyes and the lack of speech, and Giley commenting

spk_0 that the ranger and his ravens had saved them. However, as far as we know, prior to Bran's first

spk_0 dance chapter, as we just saw, neither Bran nor his companions ever questioned or examined

spk_0 these statements beyond the explanation that cold hands had done good things for Sam and Giley.

spk_0 Yeah, and so it seems that Bran and his companions have literally no idea about the great danger

spk_0 that stalks the haunted forest, neither the presence of white walkers, which Sam could have certainly

spk_0 attested to, nor their undead servants, which both Sam and Giley mentioned to know apparent

spk_0 curiosity from the others. In fact, Sam heavily implied that cold hands was likely dead,

spk_0 though he didn't have the characteristics of whites as he'd experienced them.

spk_0 And so even as the group had come to the startling realization that the guide was somehow

spk_0 an undead creature around the time of the incident with the Five Nights Watch Desertes

spk_0 in the last chapter, they still apparently had little clear idea that the region beyond the wall

spk_0 was home to other undead creatures who had posed significant danger to them. Thus,

spk_0 when they arrive within sight of their apparent destination and cold hands says,

spk_0 they are here. It's not entirely clear that Bran and the Reeds know who they are.

spk_0 For his part, cold hands seems unnerved by the fact that he can sense danger, but cannot see it.

spk_0 When Bran points out the pristine nature of the snow that separates the group from the cleft

spk_0 in the Rocky Hill side, a thousand yards above them that, according to the Ranger,

spk_0 represents safety for the travelers. Cold hands replies,

spk_0 the white walkers go lightly on the snow, you'll find no brints to mark their passage.

spk_0 The nature of the danger they're in, in spite of being so close to their destination,

spk_0 must really start to sink in at this point, although Bran tries to remain optimistic,

spk_0 in spite of the fact that they're all weakened and nearly starving, especially

spk_0 Jojen, who can no longer walk on his own, and like Bran is now being carried.

spk_0 And so, with no real choice in the matter, Bran and Hodor and Summer begin to follow cold hands

spk_0 up the snow-covered hillside, with Mira keeping to the rear to help her brother.

spk_0 With 80 yards to go, it says Summer stopped and, quote, turned his head,

spk_0 sniffed the air, then snarled and began to back away. Bran senses what Summer senses,

spk_0 something bad, something close, and tries to get Hodor to stop, but with the end in sight,

spk_0 Hodor stubbornly keeps walking. Another 20 yards and Bran spies fire in the opening above them,

spk_0 and tries to point it out to his companions, but just then it says,

spk_0 Hodor screamed, he twisted, stumbled, fell.

spk_0 And with that, the true horror of what's waiting for them on the hillside becomes clear,

spk_0 as quote, the white came bursting from beneath the snow.

spk_0 The inshewing struggle between Hodor and the dead thing caused Bran to fall out of his basket,

spk_0 and before he knows it, he, Hodor and cold hands are fending off violent attacks from dead creatures

spk_0 to numerous to count. Bran has time to notice some wore blacks, some ragged skins, some nothing.

spk_0 All of them had pale flesh and black hands, the eyes glowed like pale blue stars.

spk_0 Before the one attacking him, all in black is violently torn to bits by Summer.

spk_0 Now just 50 yards from the cave opening, Bran resolves to crawl the remaining distance,

spk_0 but the sound of a whimpering Hodor from downslope combined with the knowledge that somewhere behind him

spk_0 Armyra and Jochen leads to Bran, leaving his own body. It says, suddenly he was Hodor,

spk_0 halfway down the hill with the white raking at his eyes, roaring he came lurching to his feet,

spk_0 throwing the thing violently aside. It went to one knee, began to rise again. Bran ripped Hodor's

spk_0 longsword from his belt. Deep inside he could hear poor Hodor whimpering still, but outside he was

spk_0 seven feet of fury with old iron in his hand. He raised the sword and brought it down upon the

spk_0 dead man, grunting as the blade sheared through wet wool and rusted mail and rotted leather,

spk_0 biting deep into the bones and flesh beneath. Hodor, he bellowed and slashed again. This time

spk_0 he took the white's head off at the neck, and for half a moment he exalted, until a pair of dead

spk_0 hands came groping blindly for his throat. With mirror's assistance, Hodor Bran wins

spk_0 free of his attackers, picks up the fallen Jochen Reed and begins to climb back towards Bran's

spk_0 location. From within Hodor's skin, Bran sees flaming figures dancing in the snow, and he realises

spk_0 some of the whites are burning. And that was when he notices some are snapping at one burning

spk_0 figure as if trying to drive it back has indeed he is, because Bran's actual body lies still on

spk_0 the snow behind him, which prompted a momentary wondering from the Bran within Hodor. What will happen

spk_0 if it kills me? Will I go back into some of his skin? Or will I just be dead? As we've noted,

spk_0 unlike Veramir 6 skins, Bran has no idea how his gift functions or what the rules are,

spk_0 but the reader knows the answer to the question is likely that Bran would remain in Hodor's skin,

spk_0 just as Veramir had tried to steal the body of the wildling woman Thistle just before his own death.

spk_0 Veramir failed, because Thistle successfully fought him off and was forced to occupy his wolf

spk_0 one eye, who, as we know, is now following summer, having been subdued by him weeks ago in the

spk_0 incident with the Five Nights Watch Desertors. As described to Veramir by his mentor Hagun,

spk_0 this was true death, followed by Second Life. According to Hagun, they say you forget,

spk_0 when the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades,

spk_0 and the beast becomes a little less worg, a little more wolf, until nothing of the man is left,

spk_0 and only the beast remains. Maramea's experience with Orell's eagle seems to have confirmed this for

spk_0 and so he seeks to take a human body, presumably, so he can retain his own spirit. Bran,

spk_0 unknowingly, has endangered not only his own body by abandoning it in the snow, but also Hodor's

spk_0 very existence. This, of course, is a moral and philosophical dilemma, we'll have to examine

spk_0 much more closely as Bran's arc continues and his skills grow. In the moment, everything was

spk_0 happening at once, as it tends to do in moments of high drama. Bran Hodor sees the source of the

spk_0 flames, a little girl with a torch in hand, darting this way in that, as Ravens pour from the cave,

spk_0 and briefly thinks of a sister, and then he's back in his own body, and Hodor's screaming,

spk_0 Hodor, an abernning naked white, is standing over him, and then one of the trees shook off the snow

spk_0 that covered it, and Bran is buried under the snowfall. Considering the trees that crowned the

spk_0 hill are all described as weirwoods, and that Mira tells Bran later, after she digs him out, that

spk_0 the snowfall had hidden him, we'd love to ask if the three-eyed crow had anything to do with that

spk_0 bit of luck. As unlikely as that might seem, the next thing Bran is aware of is being in the cave,

spk_0 with all his companions minus cold hands, of course, who had stated that he wouldn't be able to

spk_0 enter the cave since it was warded. Bran's relief at being inside the cave, and Mira fire

spk_0 is enormous. Then he sees their savior, the being Bran had mistaken for Arya due to her stature.

spk_0 Mira comments on her torch, and their reply is, fire burns them, fire is always hungry. As soon

spk_0 as he hears her voice, the Arya illusion is dispelled, as Bran observes. It was a woman's voice, high

spk_0 and sweet, with a strange music in it, like none that he had ever heard, and a sadness that he

spk_0 thought might break his heart. It was a girl, but smaller than Arya, her skin dappled like a dose

spk_0 beneath a cloak of leaves. Her eyes were queer, large and liquid, golden green, slitted like a cat's

spk_0 eyes. No one has eyes like that. Her hair was a tangle of brown and reddened gold, autumn colors,

spk_0 with vines and twigs, and withered flowers woven through it. Bran himself responds to Mira's

spk_0 question about their rescuer's identity. She's a child, a child of the forest, and then it says,

spk_0 he thinks, they had fallen into one of Old Nanz tales. Truly, this was a day of wonders and

spk_0 they weren't done yet. The child tells Mira that she speaks the common tongue for the

spk_0 Bran boy, and that she was born in the time of the dragon by which we suppose she means the

spk_0 first egg on, and that she had walked the world of men for two hundred years before returning to

spk_0 her people's home north of the wall. She says she has a name, but doesn't tell them yet what it is,

spk_0 instead expressing urgency that they get deeper into the cave. When Bran asks about cold hands,

spk_0 he's told simply he cannot come, and they killed him long ago, which of course doesn't answer

spk_0 any of the questions either Bran or the reader might have about cold hands' identity.

spk_0 In fact, the only thing the reader can be sure of is that he has not been gin stark,

spk_0 since George is on record in that regard. And so the travelers follow the girl child,

spk_0 deeper into the cave, to find the one who is waiting for them, whom she simply calls the green seer.

spk_0 Along the way Bran observes eyes watching them from the dark and realizes that there are more

spk_0 children inside the cave, which puts him in mind of Old Nanz's story about Gendel's children

spk_0 trapped forever inside their caves. This cave, which is in fact a system of caves, passageways and

spk_0 chambers, is filled with weird routes from the trees above their heads and bones, the bones of

spk_0 birds and beasts, giants and children, and even in one area, niches full of skulls, a bear, a wolf,

spk_0 several humans and giants and many small ones that he realizes must belong to children of the

spk_0 passageways is marked by numerous ravens watching silently, and finally they arrive in a large

spk_0 cavern, open one side to a chasm in which they can hear an underground river rushing far below.

spk_0 And on the other side of the chamber, they at last find the object of their long and arduous quest.

spk_0 It says, before them, a pale lord in ebony finery sat dreaming and a tangled nest of routes,

spk_0 a woven weirward throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child.

spk_0 His body was so skeletal and his clothes so rotted that at first brand took him for another corpse,

spk_0 a dead man propped up so long that the routes had grown over him, under him and through him.

spk_0 What skin the corpse lord showed was white, say for a bloody blotch that crept up his neck and onto

spk_0 his cheek. His white hair was fine and thin as root hair and long enough to brush against the earth

spk_0 and floor. Roots coiled around his legs like wooden serpents, one borrowed through his breeches into

spk_0 the desiccated flesh of his thigh to emerge again from his shoulder. A spray of dark red leaves sprouted

spk_0 from his skull and grey mushrooms spotted his brow. A little skin remained stretched across his face,

spk_0 tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying and here and there the brown and yellow

spk_0 bone beneath was poking through. Brand makes another observation about the pale lord when he

spk_0 asks the question that is likely on everyone's mind. Are you the three-eyed crow? Even as he asks,

spk_0 he thinks, a three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one and that one red.

spk_0 Where his second eye should have been, it says a white root grew from the empty socket.

spk_0 And the answer to Brand's question gives the reader the final clue to the pale lord's identity.

spk_0 The pale lord says, a crow. Once I, black of garb and black of blood, I have been many things,

spk_0 Brand. Now I am as you see me and now you will understand why I could not come to you, except in

spk_0 dreams. I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your

spk_0 birth and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word,

spk_0 was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell, and now you were come to me at last,

spk_0 Brandon Stark, though the hour is late. The mention of black garb causes Brand to notice,

spk_0 as he had noticed on so many of the dead things they had encountered on their journey and outside

spk_0 the cave, that the close he wore, though rotten and ragged, had once been black. And so the reader can

spk_0 put all the clues together. The single red eye, white skin and white hair, the bloody blotch on his

spk_0 cheek, black garb, once a crow, and above all else, the textual clue of the statement, a thousand

spk_0 eyes and one. All together confirm once and for all that the three-eyed crow is none other than

spk_0 Brendan Rivers, known as Bloodraven, bastard son of King Aegon IV, once by master and hand

spk_0 of the king for succession of his Targaryen relations, and also form a Lord Commander of the

spk_0 Knight's Watch. And because there's almost certainly a Bloodraven episode in our future,

spk_0 we'll leave most of the analysis of his arc for that and keep our focus on Brand here.

spk_0 Having confirmed that this is the teacher who's been communicating with him and Jojen

spk_0 through dreams, and that the group have been seeking for these many weeks. Brand loses no time in

spk_0 getting to the point, or at least the point as he sees it. And the reality turns out to be utterly

spk_0 heartbreaking. Brand says, I'm here. Only I'm broken. Will you fix me? My legs, I mean?

spk_0 As we've noted from the very beginning of the journey north, it's been obvious in Brand's thoughts

spk_0 that his harbored a secret hope that the three-eyed crow would be able to restore his legs to him.

spk_0 Even as he occasionally helped himself to the use of Hodor's able body, Brand was often

spk_0 thinking about the end point, and that hope was always present. Now the blunt reply brings Brand

spk_0 to tears, and he thinks, we came such a long way, underlining that a cure for his disability

spk_0 had been his primary motivation all along. But the three-eyed crow follows up his denial with a promise,

spk_0 and it's the same promise he's been making to Brand since his first appearance in Brand's

spk_0 coma dream in his third chapter of a Game of Thrones. You will never walk again, Brand, but you will

spk_0 fly. And so ends Brand's penultimate chapter, not just of the book, but of his arc so far.

spk_0 Up next, we'll cover Brand's final chapter, in which he begins his lessons with his teacher,

spk_0 and the readers shown exactly how Brand, being written as a passive character,

spk_0 one who observes, might really come to the fore in his future story.

spk_0 The moon was a crescent, thin and sharp as the blade of a knife. A pale sun rose and set in rows again,

spk_0 red leaves whispered in the wind. Dark clouds filled the skies and turned to storms.

spk_0 Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, and dead men with black hands and bright blue eyes shuffled

spk_0 around a cleft in the hillside, but could not enter. Under the hill, the broken boy sat upon a

spk_0 weird throne, listening to whispers in the dark as ravens locked up and down his arms.

spk_0 Brand's final chapter picks up more or less days after the little group arrives in the cave.

spk_0 Brand's training begins in earnest, but one of the principal messages from the text

spk_0 involves the passage of time. George begins numerous paragraphs by noting the phase of the moon,

spk_0 and thus we can tell that over the course of the chapter, at least two months pass in the

spk_0 world outside the cave, and possibly more, while inside the days are dark and unverried.

spk_0 Yeah, apparently at one point, Brand had attempted to keep track of the days, but it says

spk_0 down here, sleeping and waking, had a way of melting into one another. Dreams became lessons,

spk_0 lessons became dreams, things happened all at once, or not at all. And while we do get

spk_0 descriptions of what's happening beyond the cave, like the phases of the moon, storms that come

spk_0 and go, dead men that never go anywhere at all, as they patrol the cave entrance, all of which we

spk_0 assume, Brand is aware of via summer. We also get this line about what life is like inside the cave.

spk_0 There was no wind, no snow, no ice, no dead things reaching out to grab you, only dreams and

spk_0 rushlights and the kisses of ravens, and the whisperer in the darkness. The whisperer is the

spk_0 three-eyed crow, or the last green seer as the children call him. And it turns out that the children

spk_0 have a name for themselves too. In the prior chapter, the female who speaks the common tongue

spk_0 had told them that children of the forest was not their own name for their race, nor was it accurate.

spk_0 The first man named us children, the giants called us Wodak No Gran, the squirrel people,

spk_0 because we were small and quick and fond of trees, but we are no squirrels, no children. Our name

spk_0 in the true tongue means those who sing the song of earth. Before your old tongue was ever spoken,

spk_0 we had sung our songs for 10,000 years. Because she speaks the common tongue, and is that the only

spk_0 person in the cave other than the three-eyed crow himself, who speaks their language, she remains

spk_0 their guide and companion. It's Mira who dubs her leaf, and they also come up with names in their

spk_0 own tongue for other singers, names like ash and scales and snowy locks. Brand hears them singing

spk_0 their songs in the true tongue, and somehow he knows that the ravens also understand it. Notably,

spk_0 ravens are said to be ever present in the cave and seem to be the only living creatures other

spk_0 than summer who actually leave it from time to time. Brand has been provided with his own

spk_0 weird throne, similar to the one his teacher sits upon, though for now he only sits on it for

spk_0 his lessons. His say of the throne that it was quote, white weird, flecked with red,

spk_0 dead branches woven through living roots, in the great cavern by the abyss, where the black air

spk_0 echoed to the sound of running water far below. Of course, Brand must wonder as we do if the

spk_0 green seer expects him to fully take his place one day, becoming entwined in the roots of the trees

spk_0 so that he can never leave his seat. For now, the green seer seems content with lessons and the

spk_0 occasional conversation which Mira and Jojen are sometimes part of. We learn that it's Mira who

spk_0 asked the three-eyed crow what his true name is, getting the reply, I wore many names when I was quick,

spk_0 but even I once had a mother and the name she gave me at her breast was Brendan. Thus confirming what

spk_0 many readers will have suspected that the three-eyed crow in last green seer was once known as Brendan

spk_0 Rivers, and as Brendan Rivers, also known as Bloodraven, is a literal character from history,

spk_0 born 125 years prior to the present timeline, it falls to leave to explain why he still lives.

spk_0 Most of him has gone into the tree, she says. He has lived beyond his mortal span and yet he lingers

spk_0 for us, for you, for the realms of men. Only a little strength remains in his flesh. He has a thousand

spk_0 eyes and one, but there is much to watch. One day you will know. And so a picture is gradually

spk_0 been painted of Brendan Rivers knowing that one day, Bran would be his pupil, preparing for him

spk_0 and waiting for him, extending his normal lifespan by sheer force of will in order to pass his knowledge

spk_0 onto his student. Back in the chamber, the singers had given them to sleep in, Bran asked the reads

spk_0 what leaf had meant by one day you will know. He connects this with something the green seer had

spk_0 told them and also wants to know what the trees remember. It's Jojen who explains the secrets

spk_0 of the old gods, truths the first men knew forgotten now in Winterfell, but not in the wet wild.

spk_0 We live closer to the green in our bogs and crannogs and we remember. Earth and water,

spk_0 soil and stone, oaks and elms and willows. They were here before us all and will still remain

spk_0 when we are gone. Notably, Jojen explains the concept of green knowledge and of secrets being

spk_0 stored in the trees without actually answering Bran's questions. What will he know and how will he

spk_0 know it? And while we cannot say this for sure, the language around remembering and forgetting puts

spk_0 us very much in mind of the phrase the North remembers. Although this seems very tight in with

spk_0 the legendary history of the North, especially the long night, we think there's a strong possibility

spk_0 that what's being discussed in the cave is the mechanism of those memories.

spk_0 In speaking of Jojen, it says that he's been at least partially restored by food and rest and

spk_0 warmth, but it's also noted that he is quote, sadder now, sullen, with a weary haunted look about the

spk_0 eyes. And Jojen isn't alone in being sad. When Bran suggests that maybe his friends could

spk_0 also become green seers, it says that Mirrors reply, no Bran was sad. And Jojen adds,

spk_0 it is given to a few to drink of that green fountain while still in mortal flesh,

spk_0 to hear the whisperings of the leaves and see as the tree see as the God see. Most are not so blessed.

spk_0 The gods gave me only green dreams. My task was to get you here. My part in this is done.

spk_0 And so George intentionally paints a picture of unhappiness with notes of impending doom when

spk_0 describing the companion's days and the darkness. Jojen breudes, Mira frets, Hodor wanders.

spk_0 These things combine with Bran's lessons, his throne and leaf's cryptic remark about one day

spk_0 to give the reader a sense that there will be no going back for Bran or his friends,

spk_0 that the cave is more terminus than way station, and that perhaps Bran had been brought here to

spk_0 replace the three-eyed crow rather than to simply be instructed by him. But Bran still finds a way

spk_0 to remain in control of his destiny, at least for now. When it describes Hodor wondering the cave

spk_0 with a sword in his right hand and a torch in his left, it swiftly adds, or was it Bran wondering,

spk_0 followed by no one must ever know. And so even as he begins his instruction with a three-eyed

spk_0 crow, Bran continues to use Hodor's body for his own purposes just because he can.

spk_0 We're a long way from the dangers of top Queen's crown or even outside the cave when slipping

spk_0 into Hodor meant the difference between disaster and security, and we get a strong sense that it's

spk_0 unlikely to end there. One of Bran's earliest lessons is learning how to slip inside a raven and

spk_0 fly with it to see the world from its bird's eye perspective. Remembering the crowd of ravens

spk_0 that seem to follow their progress during the journey north, this must be how the green seer had

spk_0 tracked their trek with cold hands. Once, while inside the skin of a raven, it says Bran

spk_0 sends to presence and asked his teacher about it. Their reply was, a woman of those who sing the

spk_0 song of the earth, long dead yet a part of her remains just as a part of you would remain

spk_0 in summer if your boys flesh were to die upon the morrow. A shadow on the soul, she will not harm you.

spk_0 Bran is fascinated by this and wants to know if all the birds have singers inside them,

spk_0 and confirming something old man had once hinted at, Lord Brindon tells him, yes, explaining,

spk_0 it was the singers who taught the first men to send messages by raven, but in those days,

spk_0 the birds would speak the words. The trees remember, but men forget, and so now they write the

spk_0 messages on parchment and tie them around the feet of birds who have never shared their skin.

spk_0 Thinking about old man reminds Bran of his siblings and he feels very certain that he'd be able

spk_0 to teach this skill to every one of them. Then he thinks, we could all be ravens and live

spk_0 in Maester Lewin's Rookery. And while he's probably correct, given that George has confirmed that

spk_0 all the stark siblings are skin changers, in the moment Bran thinks this is a silly dream. In fact,

spk_0 it says that there were days when Bran wondered if the whole experience of the cave wasn't a dream

spk_0 and that he'd sometimes try to wake himself up by pinching his own arm. All he ever got from that

spk_0 was bruises, though. Learning how to fly inside a raven was quite liberating, but Bran's body

spk_0 remained in the dark cave. But there was a lesson in that, too. His teacher tells him, never fear

spk_0 the darkness Bran, the strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be

spk_0 your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong. Throughout his arc,

spk_0 we've seen Bran as the recipient of profound advice from his father, from companions like Lewin,

spk_0 Hosha, Mira and Jojen, and now the last green seer is adding his own wisdom.

spk_0 In one day, many weeks into his instruction, Bran learns what it means to be a green seer. Lord

spk_0 Brinton tells him, only one man and a thousand is born a skin-changer, and only one skin-changer

spk_0 and a thousand and be a green seer. Bran wonders if green seers are the children's wizards, and his

spk_0 teacher elaborates, in a sense, those you call the children of the forest have eyes as golden

spk_0 as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or

spk_0 green as the moss on a tree in the heart of the forest. By these signs to the gods mark those they

spk_0 have chosen to receive the gift. The chosen ones are not robust, and their quick years upon the earth

spk_0 are few, for every song must have its balance. But once inside the wood, they linger long indeed.

spk_0 A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep is the roots of ancient trees, green seers.

spk_0 Bran is still struggling with the concepts of memories being in trees and of people

spk_0 going into the trees, and so he asks his friends to explain. It's a mark of how much he's come

spk_0 to view Jojen Reed as a mentor that he brings this question to him, and Jojen tries to answer

spk_0 with a metaphor. A reader lives a thousand lies before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.

spk_0 The singers of the forest had no books, no ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had

spk_0 the trees, and the weird woods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf, and

spk_0 this world. Masters will tell you that the weirds are secret to the old gods. The singers believe

spk_0 they are the old gods. When singers die, they become part of that godhood.

spk_0 This would seem to place the religion of the old gods on the spectrum of animistic religions

spk_0 who believe in a variety of possibilities for the afterlife, including that after death,

spk_0 one spirit becomes one with the natural world so that the spirit energy can sustain other

spk_0 life forms. When put that way, this might not seem terribly threatening to us, but Brad makes a

spk_0 series of connections with everything he's been told about his teacher, especially how he will

spk_0 know these things, first hand one day, and adding Jojen's comment about death leads him to an

spk_0 alarming conclusion. They're going to kill me? It's Mira who swiftly reassures a young

spk_0 friend and gently rebukes her brother. Jojen, you're scaring him. Combined with the frequent

spk_0 description of Jojen being sullen and brooding, and his common earlier that his part was ended,

spk_0 as well as his frequent insistence on their northward journey that he knew the manner and day of his

spk_0 death, his reply to Mira is enough to give the reader pause. He is not the one who needs to be afraid.

spk_0 Yeah, Jojen had steadfastly refused to give in to fear or uncertainty during their entire

spk_0 ordeal of traveling on foot from Winterfell to this cave in the far north. He was always the one

spk_0 who was sure of success and had complete faith in there for lack of a better term spirit guide.

spk_0 Now he seems to have given up and speaks of being done and afraid, and so with Jojen,

spk_0 we also begin to be afraid. Now that his instruction has begun, Brand seems to seek summer's skin

spk_0 less than he did before, but he's still aware of summer when he's outside the cave,

spk_0 hunting with the three wolves, who have become his new pack. Through summer's eyes, we see the

spk_0 dead outside the cave, growing from a group of dead men to a much bigger group that now includes

spk_0 other dead things, more humans, including children, dead ravens, and even a dead snow bear.

spk_0 Yeah, whereas previously many of the dead men were clearly former night's watchman,

spk_0 likely men caught fleeing the fist of the first man and crafters keep, the inclusion of women

spk_0 and children now hints that many of the wildlings who fled the defeat at Casablaque

spk_0 must have come to a grim end. And speaking of the fist, the dead snow bear reminds us of the one

spk_0 who killed born small wood there all those months ago. And of course, skin change of

spk_0 Aramir 6 skins also had a snow bear whom he lost control of and who was subsequently killed by a

spk_0 wildlings spear at the Battle of Casablaque. It's possible the one Brand sees through summer's eyes

spk_0 could be either one of those previously mentioned bears, although it could just as easily be

spk_0 a completely different dead snow bear. Brand has a purpose in the cave, occasionally through

spk_0 summers or a ravens eyes, he also has ways to mark the passage of time. But it's very difficult

spk_0 for his friends to find ways to pass those trekkless days. And so even though leaf warned him

spk_0 against wandering too far, one day mirror and Jojen announced they're going to go down the

spk_0 casam to see the underground river. When Brand says that he wants to go, it says mirror was

spk_0 mournful when she told him he couldn't, citing the steep slopes and the need to use a rope to make

spk_0 the final descent. As usual when climbing's involved, Brand remembers his own climbing days and

spk_0 is devastated to be reminded that those days are over. Or are they? As soon as the reeds set out,

spk_0 it says he slips into hoder's skin and goes after them. We've been keeping track of the

spk_0 evolution of Brand using hodor's body from accidental to intentional, from necessity to amusement.

spk_0 Here we get to see the effect Brand's invasions are having on his servant. It says

spk_0 the big stable boy no longer fought him as he had that first time back in the lake tower during

spk_0 the storm. Like a dog who's had all the fight whipped out of him, hodor would curl up and hide

spk_0 whenever Brand reached out for him. His hiding place was somewhere deep within him, a pit where not

spk_0 even Brand could touch him. No one wants to hurt you hodor, he said silently to the child man whose

spk_0 flesh he'd taken. I just want to be strong again for a while. I'll give it back the way I always do.

spk_0 In spite of Brand saying those reassuring words, there's a profound sadness in that description of

spk_0 hodor being a whipped dog hiding in a deep pit. Brand is aware that he's frightening hodor and

spk_0 even thinks about his reason for doing so. I just want to be strong again while simultaneously

spk_0 acknowledging that this has become a regular occurrence rather than a one off event. I'll give

spk_0 it back the way I always do. The author is building this up as a plot point that is going somewhere

spk_0 and it feels like it's going to a place that's grim and dark and sorrowful. Sure enough, Brand

spk_0 continues on other occasions to explore the cave wearing hodor skin, even finding an entire chamber

spk_0 full of singers every one of them seated on a weird wood throne with roots weaving in and out

spk_0 of their bodies. Remarkably, neither these singers nor his teacher ever seemed to sense that

spk_0 Brand is inside the giant stableboy and so we see that Brand successfully hiding what he's doing

spk_0 from Lord Brendan and we wonder what might happen if he's exposed. Speaking of his teacher,

spk_0 the green seat is described as half corpse and half tree and it says that the sight of him

spk_0 frightens Brand. The weird wood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms

spk_0 sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one I had been.

spk_0 Besides being frightened, Brand is filled with dread at the idea of becoming like him

spk_0 and thinks woefully of his lost dream of being a knight, a dream finally killed by the three

spk_0 crows inability to fix his legs. In the meantime, it says that Jojen Reed grew even more

spk_0 sullen and solitary much to Miris' distress and took to wandering the caves alone,

spk_0 or sometimes even going up to sit in the cave entrance if the sun was shining.

spk_0 Miris spending more time with Brand in summer and one day tells Brand that her brother wants to go

spk_0 home. She adds, he will not even try and fight his fate, he says the green dreams do not lie.

spk_0 Brand thinks Jojen is being brave in the face of his fate, but Miris thinks he's being stupid and

spk_0 stubborn. When she starts to cry, Brand thinks about hugging her, but the distance between them

spk_0 is too great given his useless legs and even though it makes him feel strange,

spk_0 he's considering slipping into hoed or skin to hug her when she jumps up and runs from the chamber.

spk_0 And so the days wear on until one day Lord Brendan tells Brand it is time.

spk_0 Filled with apprehension, Brand asks what he means. His teacher replies,

spk_0 for the next step, for you to go beyond skin changing and learn what it means to be a green seer.

spk_0 Then, leave and snowy logs, bring forth a weird bowl containing, quote, a white paste thick and

spk_0 heavy with dark red veins running through it. Brand thinks uneasily that the dark red veins

spk_0 remind him of blood, and remember that we would sap has been repeatedly compared to blood throughout

spk_0 the story since the very first book. What we think is going on here is something that has been

spk_0 implied throughout this chapter that green seers literally become one with the weirwoods,

spk_0 mingling both their bodies and their spirits with the physical trees. Added to this, the rumors

spk_0 of human sacrifice being done in front of the sacred trees, stay tuned for more on this,

spk_0 and there's every reason to believe that weirwood sap is a very close analogue to,

spk_0 perhaps even containing elements of actual blood. But we do not in fact think that this

spk_0 bowl of goo has anything to do with Jojen or the mysterious and tragic fate he seems so resigned to.

spk_0 Yeah, well it's true that Mira and Jojen aren't seen on page again after the paste.

spk_0 That's likely because the rest of the chapter all takes place in a matter of hours.

spk_0 We leave reassuring brand that the trees will teach him. He does as he's instructed, it eats the

spk_0 paste, so evocative of human blood, wondering aloud if it will make him a green seer. Lord

spk_0 Brinden tells him that his own blood makes him a green seer, and that the paste merely helps

spk_0 awaken your gifts and wed you to the trees. Although he's not so sure he likes the sound of being

spk_0 wed to a tree, brand does as he's told and slips his skin, focusing on the roots of the tree above him.

spk_0 What happens next is truly remarkable and reveals much and more about the true nature of what

spk_0 many call the Weirwood Network. Saying follow them up through the earth to the trees upon the hill

spk_0 and tell me what you see, it seems like Brinden expects Bran to follow the roots up into the trees

spk_0 above their heads. Instead, Bran finds himself in the Winterfell God's wood, looking at his father.

spk_0 Here's the scene he sees. Lord Eddard Stark sat upon a rock beside the deep black pool in the

spk_0 God's wood, the pale roots of the heart tree twisting around him like an old man's knalled arms.

spk_0 The great sword ice lay across Lord Eddard's lap and he was cleaning the blade with an oilcloth.

spk_0 Bran is so astonished that he whispers aloud Winterfell and his father reacts with who's there

spk_0 before Bran is gone, back in the cave with Leif and Lord Brinden looking at him. They assure him

spk_0 that his father heard a whisper no more and that it was his own yearning that had brought him to

spk_0 Winterfell and to the past when his father still lived. Both react strongly when Bran insists that

spk_0 his father was alive and Brinden tries to explain, time is different for a tree than for a man,

spk_0 son and soil and water. These are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and

spk_0 centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present

spk_0 always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one

spk_0 place and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak in the weirwood.

spk_0 A thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood and through such gates, you and I may gaze

spk_0 into the past. Brinden is very firm that the past cannot be changed or even reached in any way,

spk_0 though he promises that one day Bran's gift will allow him to look where you will and see what the

spk_0 trees have seen, be it yesterday or last year or a thousand ages past. And he adds,

spk_0 nor will your sight be limited to your godswood. The singers carved eyes into the heart trees

spk_0 to awaken them and those are the first eyes a new green sea learns to use. But in time,

spk_0 you will see well beyond the trees themselves.

spk_0 Disappointed, Bran wants to know how long it will take him to learn this skill,

spk_0 which is an answer, Brinden, cannot give him. In a year or three or ten, that I have not

spk_0 glimpsed. It will come in time. I promise you. And so the day's lesson ends and Bran is brought back

spk_0 to his chamber by Hodor. Mira and Jojen are specifically noted to not be present, but notably

spk_0 Bran expects them to arrive at any moment. And while he waits, he closes his eyes.

spk_0 And he finds himself immediately back in Winterfell, looking at his father again from the eyes of

spk_0 the heart tree. This time Ned is much younger and he's praying. Let them grow up close as brothers,

spk_0 with only love between them, and let my lady-wife find it in a heart to forgive.

spk_0 Bran again tries to reach him, but his father dissolves, replaced by a scene of two children,

spk_0 playing at juelling in the godswood. He thinks at first that it's aya, but realizes the boy

spk_0 could not be him, and then before he can decide who he's observing, the scene changes again,

spk_0 with each new image coming and going more quickly than the last. A woman heavy with child,

spk_0 emerged naked and dripping from the black pool, knelt before the tree, and begged the old gods

spk_0 for a son who would avenger. Then there came a brown-haired girl, slender as a spear,

spk_0 who stood on the tips of a toes to kiss the lips of a young knight as tall as Hodor.

spk_0 A dark-eyed youth, pale and fierce, sliced three branches off the weirwood and shaped them into

spk_0 arrows. It says that as he watched, the tree was growing smaller, while nearby trees shrunk and

spk_0 vanished altogether, sometimes more than once. It says, now the lords' brand glimpsed were tall and

spk_0 hard, stern men in fur and chainmail. Some more faces he remembered from the statues and the

spk_0 crypts, but they were gone before he could put a name to them. And then comes a final image,

spk_0 a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree, a white-haired woman

spk_0 stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand.

spk_0 Brown is distressed by this image and tries to say no don't, but of course he can't be heard

spk_0 across the centuries, and so the chapter and brands arc to date ends on this final image.

spk_0 The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle around his throat and slashed,

spk_0 and through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet

spk_0 drummed against the earth. But as his life flowed out of him in a red tide,

spk_0 Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

spk_0 There are many things that can be gleaned from this final scene in Brands of Dance with Dragon's

spk_0 Arc. Fans love to decode the images he saw, Ned praying about John Snow, Liana in Benjen,

spk_0 then possibly Melantha Blackwood, widow to Lord Willem Stark, followed by a girl who might be

spk_0 a young old man kissing a youth who might be a young Sir Duncan the Tall, and then another

spk_0 youth who might be Brandon Snow, brother of King Torren Stark, preparing his Wearwood Arrows,

spk_0 with which he thought to kill Aegon's dragons. And whether or not these guesses are correct,

spk_0 it's clear that the visions go backwards in time to end in a long ago era of human sacrifice.

spk_0 But what we can infer about Brands' future, based on the things his teacher tells him in this

spk_0 chapter, but also long and patiently established by the author from almost the very beginning,

spk_0 is that Brands' gift will lead him to become one who watches, an observer of events across time

spk_0 in space who will, in some way, use his abilities to affect the endgame of the story. How this will

spk_0 come about remains to be seen, but we can make a couple of guesses. First is that Brand is suddenly

spk_0 noted to be exceeding his teacher's expectations, maybe even of what he thought was possible.

spk_0 Brand is told to go through the roots into the tree above him and ends up looking out through the

spk_0 Winterfell heart tree. Not only that, but after he disconnects from his Wearwood throne and

spk_0 returns to his chamber, he has that very strong series of visions, implying that perhaps his

spk_0 abilities are not dependent on a physical connection with a tree as the other green seers seem to be.

spk_0 Furthermore, we can guess that he might be able to achieve actual communication through the tree.

spk_0 This is hinted at in Theon Greyjoy's Prince of Winterfell chapter, in Dance, which comes some days

spk_0 or weeks after Brand 3, in which Theon distinctly hears someone say his name as he kneels before

spk_0 the heart tree in the Winterfell God's Word. And if Brand can make himself heard through the tree

spk_0 in such a relatively short time into his apprenticeship, we have to wonder if his talents might one day

spk_0 also challenge his mentor's assertion that the past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we

spk_0 cannot change it. And lastly, there's Brand's persistent use of Hodor as a vessel. It probably

spk_0 goes without saying that Brynden Rivers doesn't know his people is doing this and would not approve

spk_0 if he did, but the implications of it for Brand are huge from the questions of morality to the

spk_0 sheer power it takes to invade another human's body. As we saw in the Veremir Prologue, even for a

spk_0 highly skilled skin-changer such as Veremir Sixkins, who's noted to be the most powerful of his

spk_0 kind in generations, taking a human body wasn't easy and the spearwife Thistle was able to fight him off.

spk_0 Whatever Brand's gifts are and no doubt they are significant, we don't think that Brynden Rivers,

spk_0 the three-eyed crow and the last green seer, is going to have the last say in Brand's fate.

spk_0 While in the moment the cave feels very much like an endpoint, there remains too much that connects

spk_0 Brand to the outside world. His sisters live and two of his brothers, his home remains,

spk_0 and he's clearly deeply connected to it since his first attempt at green-seeing brought him

spk_0 directly there. In these seven chapters spread across two books, we see Brand's story used to

spk_0 connect the dots on a lot of fronts. The use of storytelling is one way this is accomplished,

spk_0 but also in the swift intersections Brand, a fairly passive character, has with two highly

spk_0 active characters, his brother John and Samuel Tarley. Even his visions in this final chapter,

spk_0 brief though they are, have depths that have yet to be fully realized. It may well be that the

spk_0 Knights watch are the watchers on the wall, but throughout his arc it's Brand and Stark,

spk_0 who's being established as the true watcher. Watching events play out through his window,

spk_0 through summer's eyes, through the trees, and very possibly beyond.

spk_0 Thanks so much for joining us today, as usual we'll end the episode by giving credit where credit

spk_0 is due thanks to George R.R. Martin for stories and visions and to Kevin MacLeod for allowing us

spk_0 to use his music in our production. And now we want to thank our patrons from the Castle Steel

spk_0 level. If you enjoy the podcast, consider being a patron and you could be hearing your name here too.

spk_0 Our sincere thanks to Atari Loon, AJ, Aegon VI, Alibi, Brennan, Kasey, Cassandra. Lady Amalphia,

spk_0 Chris, Christian, Courtney, David, Darion, Demetri, Bee, Dennis, Lady Diana, Dane,

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spk_0 Lord of the Breadfort, Engville, Something like a lawyer, Jim McGuin, Winters King, Red

spk_0 Jimbo Rivers, John Ares, writer of the Ice Dragon, Sonarion, The White Storm, Jordan G,

spk_0 Judson, Katie, Kenneth, Treet Girl, Sir Gala who of what, and Hayden Jones and her husband,

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spk_0 First of his name, Richard, Rico Pickle, Sam, Sir Swift, The Peppered Knight from the House of

spk_0 Black and Grey, Sir Lars Lot of Beehill, Sirn, The Rat Chef, Take Wazine, The Peppered Knight,

spk_0 Terrence, Sir Terrence, Night of the Seaters, Steph Lines, Quarren Halfhand, Andy Vaughn.

spk_0 As always, let us know if I've pronounced any of your names wrong, if you have a nickname

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Radio Westeros E97 - Bran Stark, part 3

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