As a book reader, I came into this season with low expectations. Particularly because I felt last season was relatively sub-par as the writers closed in on the books and began introducing some of their own material. But so far, aside from botching Dorne, this season has been great. I love the faster pace. For TV. Jon back alive, reunited with Sansa, planning to take back Winterfell. Dany already on top of the khalasar again and presumably heading back to Mereen with an even stronger army. Extremely close to R+L=J confirmation. I look forward to reading these plotlines handled with a bit more detail in TWoW. Maybe read about Sansa and Brienne's journey to the Wall. Read about the politics of Castle Black before Jon gets resurrected. Etc. But for the show, this is just very exciting to watch all these plotlines ramping up so quickly.
Ramsay is about to get 1. Jon, Sansa, and Brienne 2. The Wildlings 3. The Wrath of Theon's sister 4. The Vale Army
Oh my god! The end of this episode had my jaw on the floor. George RR Martin is a genius Spoiler: Spoilers for tonight's episode I would have never guessed that's what he was saying the whole time... Hold the Door!! But they never actually showed him die. Maybe Hodor survives some how
Spoiler: spoiler So can someone explain to me what exactly happened? I was trying to follow it, I'm under the impression that Bran warged into present time Hordor, while at the same time, warged into past hordor. It caused Hordor to mentally break, and all he heard was "Hold the door"? Is that correct?I was actually abit confused.
All this time traveling gets me freakin confused. Do you think Summer is gone? That would leave only Ghost and probably Nymeria...
Basically he went into the past to manipulate the present. Bran's warged into Hodor before to protect the group (like when they were escaping the wildings and Locke), the only difference this time is that he did it in BOTH the past and in the present...which screwed up Wilis' (Hodor) head.
So Bran needed to warg into present Hodor in order to protect themselves from the wights. But the problem is that at the time, Bran was temporarily stuck in a "dream/vision" of the past. So he was trying to warg into present Hodor while he was right next to past Hodor, and things got all messed up. He was able to access present Hodor through past Hodor, traumitizing past Hodor in the process. Which begs the question though, did Bran cause that to happen? Or was it already kinda destined to happen? I was wondering why Bloodraven even decided to take Bran to that vision anyways. Seems like if they're about to get killed, there might be some more important memories to visit. But then I realized that he needed Bran to "close the loop." Bran HAD to go back and mess up Hodor because if that didn't happen, they wouldn't have been there and present Hodor wouldn't have been able to save them. One of the most intriguing parts of the episode for me is Bran's dream where he interacts with the Night King. In order to access that dream, he had to crawl and touch the roots of the tree. So it's like he was warging into Bloodraven. So does Bloodraven frequently communicate with the white walkers through his dreams? Because the children of the forest were apparently the ones that created the white walkers anyways. I know they all died and even sacrificed themselves in this episode, so it does seem like they regret creating the white walkers, but there's something weird going on there.
A lot of people are pissed at Bran, but how culpable is he really? Back in S04, when they first meet the three-eyed raven, he basically said Jojen died so that Bran could "find what you lost". So I think pretty much everything is predestined.
I think another interesting storyline is the setup of the "Bastard Bowl" between Jon Snow and Ramsay. Who do you guys think will win? I think the wildcard here are the Knights of the Vale and/or the Tully forces. If they show up on the side of the Starks it's basically game over for Ramsay. That being said, I have no idea what's actually up Littlefinger's sleeves and i'm pretty sure the Tullys(however loyal they are to the Starks) are not going to march an army up North, when they have their own problems dealing with the Lannisters and Freys at Riverrun.
It's just a classic time loop. Where bran's future self, went back in time to warg into Hodor, hodor saw his future death and was traumatized. Went the rest of his life only saying Hodor, and finally met the end he saw when he was a little boy.
This is my big question. The trailer for Sunday's episode shows the two of them surrounded. I've read Benjen, and that makes sense, but what the hell is Benjen at this point if he is able to fight off that many freaking zombies. If it weren't for the fact that the beginning of the season had a trailer for the entire season that showed Drogon flying over Daenerys and her army, I might speculate that Drogon came across the narrow sea and Bran is able to grab him and Warg into him. I mean, to take all those guys out, you'd need something like a gigantic fire-breathing dragon.
It could be that Jojen having worgen powers, could of seen the future via a weir wood before. As with weird woods, you don't only see the current and past, but you also see the future. So essentially Bran can see the future, or maybe one universe/predestined future, considering if he uses the weir woods to see the future, he can change it somehow if he wants
My take on it is that the more Bran bonds with the tree, the less in time he is. For example the scene being discussed. Bran is literally both in the past and supposed present and is in two different places/spaces. To use a crummy analogy, if everyone else is stuck in the river of time as it moves forward, Bran has managed to occupy two spots in the river at the same time, but not in the same place. I wonder if he continues to warg with the tree will his connection to current time and place continue to weaken, that seems to be insinuated by the three eyed crow.
Finally caught up. I liked the episode before Hold the Door, but Hold the Door is by far one of the greatest moments in the show. Not just emotionally impactful, but very clever story telling as well. The time travel aspect was extraordinarily creative. Hodor meanwhile becomes one of the most tragic figures in modern television. He was created for the sole purpose of that moment. It was predestined. Geez.
I might be odd, well I am odd that is just a fact, but at the end I just thought "Man Bran you sure a irresponsible BLEEP." So cause Bran doesn't want to listen and follow the several thousand year old beings instructions, he ends up a) not learning what he is supposed to learn, b) perhaps aiding in the extermination in what might be the last of a dying race of creatures, and c) takes a poor boy with severe intellectual disabilities, further cripples him mentally AND makes the decision to sacrifice the poor fellow. Good job Bran...
Yeah Bran sucks. I've been very disappointed in his story and the "high" point of interest was one of the saddest parts of the show... You suck, Bran! I'm also getting impatient with the Dragon Mother. Cool stuff happens to her, but she's on a bit of a treadmill over there. I'm also happy Arya is moving away from the Daredevil stuff. I like the direction of her story now!
agreed about Bran...it was his fault for touching that branch..his fault they found him...his fault Hodor died, his fault the 3-eyed raven died..heck it was even his fault that he's crippled, shoulda listened to his mom and not climb walls he can die next, im good