SPOILERS FOR THE FINALE OF GAME OF THRONES!
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
It’s probably safe to say that the reception to the finale (and final season on the whole) of Game of Thrones was a bit polarised among the millions of fans around the world.
Between the character arc of Daenerys Targaryen to Jon Snow being banished to the Wall (again), the wildly varying opinions of the show’s conclusion was enough to give someone whiplash. But if there was one character ending that had the fans going “WTF”, it would be Bran’s unexpected ascension to the throne as the King of the Seven Six Kingdoms because, well, it just came out of nowhere.
But whereas many thought Bran becoming King was something of an afterthought that David Benioff and Dan Weiss tacked on to the show’s end, apparently it was in the works this whole time and it came from none other than George R. R. Martin himself.
DUN DUN DUN.
In an interview with Making Game of Thrones, Isaac Hempstead Wright revealed that GRRM told David and Dan the two things he had in mind for Bran in the remaining couple of A Song Of Ice And Fire novels: the Hodor “HOLD THE DOOR!” twist and becoming King of (most of) Westeros.
“[Creators] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] told me there were two things [author] George R.R. Martin had planned for Bran, and that was the Hodor revelation, and that he would be king. So that’s pretty special to be directly involved in something that is part of George’s vision. It was a really nice way to wrap it up.”
After much attention was given to GRRM’s post-finale comments that the ending to his novels will differ to the show in some ways, it appears that Bran’s ascension to the Iron Throne will be more or less the same.
But before the remaining Thrones and ASOIAF fans get too upset about this, just remember that it’s all about the journey and not the destination, and it appears that Bran becoming King in the novels is a lot more interesting than what we saw in the show.
For those who haven’t read the books, Bran is being trained in the ways of the Three-Eyed Raven by a 150+ year-old being called the Bloodraven, who has an insanely interesting backstory of being a bastard Targaryen who became Hand of the King but was banished and ultimately picked up all the magic of the old gods in his journeys.
The prevailing theory is that Bloodraven will possess Bran (not unlike Bran possessing Hodor in the show) and use him like a puppet to become King. Now this is obviously a theory but with Isaac revealing Bran’s ending was in GRRM’s plan all along, this has suddenly become much more interesting.
Now that would be a hell of a better way for Bran to become King of the Six Kingdoms than having Tyrion convince everyone with a five-minute monologue about stories.