It has been established that Bran doesn’t know everything all at once. He has to be pointed in a particular direction. Someone likened it to having Google in your head. All the info is there but you gotta put in the search terms. He’ll also still need a spy network since it has been shown that he knows shit but he doesn’t do anything about it.
It’s unclear how his powers work, he might not have access to everything in the past. Perhaps his powers are limited to seeing things in Westeros or areas where the Children once lived.
The Master of Whisperers might also distill information, put it in different context, or curate things. Bran has other duties and doesn’t have the wisdom, intelligence or experience to know what’s important about all topics. Presidents generally don’t look at raw intelligence, they get distilled finished products.
I’m just going to assume that enough time has passed before the small council scene for Sam to go back to the Citadel and finish his studies. At least, we’re shown that enough time has passed for the Archmaester to write a book about everything that happened in the series, and he didn’t have firsthand knowledge of any of it, so it took some time to collect the info before he could even write it, which is another slow undertaking. King Bran’s influence might have been limited to saying to the Archmaester, “We know Sam dropped out and took some priceless stolen books with him, but he did play an instrumental part in saving humanity, so maybe you could give him another chance to be a maester?”. Sam does have a chain in the small council scene, but it looks quite different from GM Pycelle’s. Maybe he’s got some sort of work-study program going on?
Speaking of pronunciation, has anyone else ever pronounced Westeros the say Sansa does toward the end? That is to say, like a breakfast cereal?
“Mmmm, I love a balanced breakfast with Wester-Os!”
So can we all agree that Bran is the most evil person on the planet?
When he became the 3 Eyed Raven, he lost what it means to be human. But what he gained is an ability to understand, holistically, what humanity is about and what affects us for good and for ill. He becomes a master puppeteer that surpassed what even Littlefinger could dream of.
How? Well for starters, he beat Littlefinger at his own game. He took none of the credit for it. He didn’t even have to wield the knife because he set the pieces in motion with his sisters.
Then with Littlefinger out of the way, he set his sights on a higher prize: The Throne.
Think about what he did for the entirety of Season 8. What were his scenes about? They were to tell Jon about his lineage. First he prodded Sam to tell Jon right before the huge fight with the Night King. He didn’t say it himself, by the way, he got Sam to do his dirty work for him. Then he was the backup when Jon internally debated telling his sisters. More than an outside observer, he said, loud and clear to everyone gathered “it’s your choice on whether to tell him,” which all but eliminated Jon’s choice in the matter. Again, Bran pulling the strings.
For what purpose was all this done? Jon’s true parents were the single biggest mystery in the entirety of the series. And yet, once it was out there, what even became of it? Absolutely nothing. For Jon anyway. For Bran, who instigated the time and place and means of revealing this information, it served an extremely useful purpose: it sowed dissent between Dany and Jon.
That dissent led to distrust and that ultimately led to the burning of King’s landing, the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocents, the death of Dany, and the exile of the rightful king by order of succession. Did Bran kill hundreds of thousands by fire? No, of course not. But he pulled the strings to make it happen. And make no mistake, he knew it was going to happen. He set the events in motion to make it happen. He has heavily implied at several points this season that he knows the future, can predict the future, or is not at all surprised after surprising events have come to pass. He could have stopped it all. “Why do you think I came here?” he said in Kings Landing, knowing full well he’d be King. He could have stopped all this from happening. He didn’t because this outcome was precisely what he wanted.
What did Tyrion and Bran talk about near the end of Episode 2? It’s sad that even the writers don’t really know. But whatever they talked about, it was enough that Bran convinced Tyrion to go to bat for him at the end of episode 6. Once again, Bran pulled the strings and came out of it with the Throne. He even “rewarded” Tyrion by making him the Hand of the King. Bran’s keeping a useful idiot around. The entire continent now sees Tyrion as the defacto king because surely this stupid kid in a wheelchair who’s never been south of Winterfell doesn’t know shit about shit. Which is exactly what Bran wants.
I understand that the show doesn’t present it this way. Doesn’t even hint at Bran’s true nature. But this is really the only conclusion that can be drawn from what’s happened. Bran manipulated his family, decimated the North, and destroyed King’s Landing, all to gain the throne. And it worked. And no one involved is any the wiser.
Sure. But also presumably it was in the North’s interest to ensure a) that the men of the Night’s Watch stuck to their duty and b) that they weren’t overrun by bands of lawless deserters.
Now, the case for a) is limited. The White Walkers have been utterly defeated. Relationships with the Free Folk are friendly. They’re unlikely to want to come south of the wall, but if they do and they do so peacefully, then no one really minds. It’s just the raiding and pillaging that are the problem. So assume that relations continue to be good for the next 5-10 years - quite likely given that a) we know that the entire civilian population of the North could fit inside Winterfell’s crypts meaning there’s no-one to steal from, and b) Jon is an excellent diplomatic link between the Free Folk and the North if any disputes do arise. At some point, the value of having a Night’s Watch becomes pretty limited. In fact, the more boring and negligible the job of the Watch, the more likely desertion and banditry become. Once the Watch ceases to be the shield that guards the realms of men and becomes simply a hive of scum and villainy, there’s no particular reason for Sansa to let scummy villains traipse through her lands only to turn round in 6 months and start trouble out of boredom.
Happily, Arya will soon have discovered Westeros++, so Bran will have a new option for a penal colony. Rather like how after American Independence Britain simply transported its criminals to Australia instead.
Regarding the FreeFolk, remember that they’re not one contiguous group. They’re a bunch of clans brought together by Mance. And some of them are worse (like the cannibals) than others. Also, we’re just assuming those are the last of the wildlings. I’m assuming that some survived north of the Wall just by staying hidden and out of the way of the White Walkers. And we don’t know what other beasts and creatures might be lurking out there.
So there is still a need for some sort of border patrol, albeit one with much friendly relations with the Wildlings that will allow them to pass as needed. As far as the giant hole, you don’t need a 700 foot tall ice wall to keep people at bay. They just need to build some sort of new fortification there
I agree with a lot in your post, but we should also consider the alternative futures that he may (or may not) have seen. Danaerys would probably have destroyed KL in any scenario (she was all hell bent to do it early season 7 already), and after that she remained a wildcard, having unsullieds, dothrakis and two dragons. She had to die for the sake of the people. Neither Jon nor Arya (the only two who might get the opportunity) would have reason to kill her before she turned KL to ashes, but they did afterwards - there may not have been any possible future scenario that lead to Dany’s death without the destruction of KL. Would Jon be a better king than Bran? Doubtful. He means well, but he doesn’t want it, knows nothing, and has shown bad judgement on several occasions. So Bran may have concluded that the future scenario he set in motion (as master puppeteer) was the best one for the people.
I see what you did there.
Heres a spinoff for the series… Drogon takes Danny to the north and somehow she is revived as the new Night King and she builds an army to destroy the south…
I don’t really have a problem with the gates being closed. They were designed and built in anticipation of total war, and the mechanical strain on keeping them open would be dangerous. But just seeing them closed after the kumbaya of the past couple of seasons struck a nerve. I mean, who wasn’t rooting for Wun Wun and Tormund?
The Night Queen. I like it. Plus, anyone she turned might be immune to fire…
Ohhh, greatness.
It might be wise to keep an eye out just in case there’s more of them.
the various links in a maester’s chain are granted upon the maester proving his mastery of a particular subject. They keep studying their whole lives, so the chain of an old, accomplished maester will be different from a younger one. GRRM has said a maester can have more than one of the same kind of link, too, signifying even more advanced knowledge, like a postgrad degree.
Canonically, maesters are supposed to be celibate, or so I’ve read. That obviously doesn’t fit with the fact Sam is either married to Gilly or close enough. It’s also baffling as to why Sam was chosen to be Grand Maester, so really his chain is the only thing that makes any sense at all in the final scene.
We know part of it, since Tyrion repeats almost verbatim what Max von Raven said to Bran.
Of course, Sam can say “This ring is for figuring out how to cure Greyscale. This ring is for figuring out R+L=J. THIS ring is for being the person who figured out how to kill a White Walker with Dragonglass. THIS one is for F-ing KILLING a White Walker with Dragonglass! Can anyone else in Oldtown make that claim?!? Didn’t thnk so.”
There shouldn’t be. As we understand the creation story, the Children of the Forest created the first one (the Night King) thousands of years ago, and he raised other White Walkers and wights. As far as we know, the Children of the Forest created no more and once they realized it was a bad idea to begin with, wouldn’t have done so. So when Arya stabbed the Night King, the danger ended all at once.
Episode 6, The Iron Throne, has a 4.3 rating on IMDB. Ouch.
And according to everyone at the start of the show, White Walkers are imaginary. I think it’s smart of the lords to go, “Hey, maybe we don’t know what’s all going on and there couldn’t be something else up there.”