Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones," including speculation of future events.
Sunday's "Game of Thrones" episode left fans heartbroken with the deaths of Hodor, Summer, and Bloodraven (not to mention the last remaining Children of the Forest). But among the confusing and panicked ending, you may not have realized just how significant Bran's actions were.
Through the death (and origin) of Hodor, we learned that Bran is interacting with the past in what appears to be a closed time travel loop. Bran warged into Hodor in both the past and the present somehow, permanently damaging Hodor's psyche and making him only remember to "hold the door" for the rest of his life.
Technically Bran isn't changing the course of history — he's playing his part in a pre-determined chain of events. "The past is already written, the ink is dry," Bloodraven once said. Bran had always been the one to make Hodor "Hodor," he just didn't realize it.
This newly established ability of Bran to invisibly control people in Westeros through greensight is huge. The time travel aspect opens up a whole new set of questions. What has Bloodraven done in (or to) the past? What will Bran do in the future? Are there things we've seen in the show that Bran or Bloodraven orchestrated without us knowing it?
Breaking down the final scene
The final scenes with Bran were hectic, so we're going to break down the sequence of events. Once Bloodraven realized the Night's King would be coming for them, he told Bran "the time has come for you to become me." While Meera and the Children defended the cave against the wights and White Walkers, Bloodraven and Bran went to a vision of Winterfell. It was the day young Ned Stark left for the Vale, essentially on a path to becoming a man. Wylis, the young boy who will become Hodor, is there as well.
Within their vision Bloodraven and Bran can hear Meera panicking, screaming at Bran for help from inside the cave. She needs him to warg into Hodor and help fight. Meera is yelling "warg into Hodor now!" and Bloodraven (inside the Winterfell vision) tells Bran to listen to her.
Then the scene cuts back to the cave and we see grown-up Hodor's eyes flash white — Bran has warged into him from inside his vision. Bloodraven seems capable of seeing and speaking to Bran in the vision, and seeing what is happening in the cave. He realizes the Night's King is about to kill him, and tells Bran (in the vision) "the time has come, leave me."
This entire time, Bran is not conscious inside the cave as Meera and Hodor drag him outside on a sledge. In the Winterfell vision, he watches as Bloodraven dies and evaporates, and then turns to look at young Wylis/Hodor. Bran can hear Meera yelling again, her voice carrying from real life into his vision.
Meera is telling present-day Hodor to "hold the door," keeping the wight army locked inside the cave while Meera runs away with Bran. Inside the vision, Bran watches as Wylis' eyes flash white. Somehow, while greenseeing in a vision, Bran warged into Wylis from the future/present-day.
Prior to Sunday's episode, no one knew why Hodor was "Hodor." Book readers knew he had a different name as a boy, and that something had happened to make him "simple" and unable to say anything but "Hodor." But we didn't know why. Now, according to the show's canon at least, we have an answer. Bran created Hodor through time travel and warging.
Bran and the effects of time travel
Bran traveled to the past and used his powers to put young Wylis' mind into events that would take place in the future. Wylis was placed into his own mind in the future, and experienced his own death at the hands of the terrifying zombie "wights." All of this occurred while Meera ran from him, yelling "hold the door" over and over.
The whole reason why he seemed mentally-ill, and only repeated the word "Hodor," was because he had experienced his own death as a young boy. Hodor knew the last words he would ever hear were "hold the door," a phrase which he repeated quickly enough until it transformed into "Hodor." Bran accidentally created Hodor by showing Wylis his own death in the future.
When Bloodraven told Bran, "it's time for you to become me," he might have been referring to this ability to change the past. He specifically took Bran to that moment in Winterfell, and he must have known what Bran would do to Hodor. This implies that Bloodraven has also interacted with people during his greenseeing.
So not only can Bran see into the past, he now knows that he can directly effect the people he sees. This time travel aspect is a bit difficult to wrap your head around, given the fixed-loop nature of it: Bran accidentally created Hodor while warging into him through his vision, which Bloodraven knew would happen because he orchestrated it. But Bloodraven only orchestrated it when he realized he was out of time to teach Bran about his powers.
Hodor was needed to get Bran to Bloodraven, and to protect him in his final moments. Bran's creation of Hodor was a perfect loop of events (known as a causal loop in time travel theory).
How this impacts the future of the series
Bran is now more important than ever. Not only could that mark left on him by the Night's King play a part in allowing the White Walkers to get past the Wall's magic, but Bran and Bloodraven may have been behind some of the events we've already seen in the show or read about in the books. Bran's powers are going to shape the war to come, and those involved in the fight.
Just before the scene with Bran's vision of the Night's King, we were introduced to Kinvara — the High Priestess of R'hllor, the Lord of Light. "Everything is the Lord's will," she told Tyrion and Varys. "Everyone is what they are, and where they are for a reason. Terrible things happen for a reason."
This echoes Bloodraven's statement noted earlier: "The past is already written, the ink is dry." Bran cannot change the fate of Westeros or humankind, but he can (and will) play a significant role in history. The causal loop of time travel means that every action he takes is pre-determined and necessary for other events to occur.
One theory fans have regarding Bran's abilities focuses on the Mad King Aerys Targaryen. Book readers and show watchers alike have heard many tales of Aerys, Daenerys' father and ruler of the Seven Kingdoms before Robert Baratheon usurped the throne. Aerys was known as unstable and paranoid, convinced that those around him were conspiring.
When Aerys' son Rhaegar "kidnapped" Lyanna Stark, her oldest brother and father (Brandon and Rickard) went to King's Landing to demand answers from Aerys. When they arrived, Aerys had them both burned alive. This double-murder, along with Lyanna's kidnapping, was what sparked Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark's rebellion against the Targaryen dynasty. Brandon Stark was betrothed to Catelyn Tully. In light of his death, Ned married her instead, and they went on to have the five Stark children.
What if Bloodraven was somehow behind Aerys' actions? It's not unlikely that Bloodraven was speaking to Aerys through greensight, making him "hear voices" and become paranoid. Or what if somehow it will be Bran who travels back to King's Landing when Aerys ruled? Bran might need to create the circumstances surrounding Brandon and Rickard's death so that he can be born to Ned and Catelyn.
Though fans of the series knew Bran was a significant character, Sunday's episode sheds a whole new light on his importance. Bran just went from being interesting and mysteriously powerful to becoming one of the main players in the game.
We have a feeling Bran's future visions in the series are going to get a lot more interesting. "His storyline is pretty damn important," actor Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran) recently told Entertainment Weekly. "Now he’s realized he’s been having his dreams because he’s got to save Westeros."
Pretty damn important, indeed. Though we're sad the revelation came at the expense of Hodor (and Summer!), we can't wait to see where Bran goes next.
