Warning: Contains Spoilers
Long, long ago, Bran Stark was a sweet little boy who loved to climb and longed to be a knight.
We all sympathised when his life was changed forever after being shoved from a window by Jaime Lannister, leaving him permanently unable to walk. But little did we realize just how much of a transformation young Bran would undergo.
Indeed Bran isn’t really Bran anymore. He’s the Three-Eyed Raven, a mysterious being who appears completely detached from human emotion.
With so much going on his head, this monotone demeanor certainly adds up. However, could it be that there’s something more going on behind that steady gaze? Could it be that Bran is actually evil?
The ‘Bran is evil’ theory is a popular one, and makes sense within the Game of Thrones universe.
The Night King touched Bran on the arm – during a particularly intense warging adventure in season six – marking him and gaining knowledge of his whereabouts.
However, whenever the Night King has touched others – from Craster’s sons to Viserion – he has brought them to his side and made them evil.
Now, Bran’s eyes aren’t exactly glowing blue but he’s certainly not the curious young family lad he once was. And fans have speculated that his intentions are not quite as pure as you might think.
Some fans have even speculated that it was Bran who caused the destruction of King’s Landing by warging into Drogon and unleashing his fiery breath. Now, this sounds like something Bran could do, but would he?
One fan certainly appears to think so, laying out their theory in a detailed Reddit post:
I believe the 3ER [Three-Eyed Raven] is an evil character created by the Children of the Forest (OR hes the Lord of Light) to destroy not only the Night King but the entirety of humankind, and he’s the grandmaster at playing chess.
He’s gone back through the past and manipulated people into doing things that makes Westeros the way it is today (Including making Aerys Targaryen go mad) Everything has to happen in a certain way to set up his next play. (Example. giving Arya the Valyrian Dagger).
The theorist continued:
His most recent play has been doing everything to manipulate Dany into going Mad and burning down Kings Landing.
Which will cause all the other lords to revolt against her. Problem is he underestimated Dany and instead of burning down Kings Landing she was headed for the Red Keep so the 3ER warged into Drogon and did it himself. (Dany’s eyes are LOCKED onto the Red Keep when she takes off and shes beelineing it for it for quite awhile.
Its only after we see the identical scene of Bran’s vision from an earlier season of Drogon’s shadow flying over King’s Landing that Drogon changes directions and starts lighting everyone up. They don’t show a close up of Dany again after that.)
The Redditor also had some thoughts on how the show will end:
I’m not sure what will happen in the last episode, but I do believe either Sansa or Tyrion or maybe both figure out the truth about Bran/3ER because Dany will tell Tyrion she lost control of Drogon.
And remember that private conversation the 3ER and Tyrion had? Something they discussed will stand out to Tyrion once he learns Dany wasnt controlling Drogon. Better ending than Dany pulling an Anakin Skywalker…
I mean think about it. The entire series has played out like a chess match among the different characters. Everything GRRM writes has a meaning behind it that later plays out in a huge way. And apparently the show IS doing GRRM ending.
This interesting take will undoubtedly please fans who have been left distraught by Daenerys’ plummet into completely tyranny. However, with one episode left I honestly doubt there’s time to reveal Bran as being the Big Bad…
You can now watch the new season of Game of Thrones on HBO or Sky Atlantic.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.