#King Bran

[atopvisenyashill]

king bran

so i’ve lined up my theory on how bran will be king in harrenhal but i was a little lax on details about king bran foreshadowing. there’s the “bran in harrenhal” stuff i’ve outlined which includes-

bran’s connection to the weirwoods & the magical connection the isle of faces has

the whent connection

bran being a metaphorical heir to robb by ruling over the lands robb was born, fought, and died in

the importance of harrenhal as a symbol of both the wasteful excess and hope for the future

but why king bran specifically? well…

ATTEMPTED SLAYING BY THE KINGSLAYER

for one thing, bran is our introduction to the entire series (barring the prologue, rip to 3 icons). he introduces us to the brutality of this world, to the themes of justice, kingship, leadership, to the Others, and to magic. that very important lesson about how the person to pass judgement must swing the sword, and must be sure that the life they're taking is one that deserves to be taken? That comes to us not through Jon, or even Arya, but Bran:

Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

That last sentence in particular is a belief that really sticks in all the kids heads as they go about their journeys, and it is through Bran that we learn it.

But in his second chapter, Bran also introduces us to jaime, cersei, and the main plot twist of the first book which kick starts the war of five kings. before he's pushed from the tower, this is all we know about Jaime-

He’s blonde, he’s named Jaime, and he killed the king.

Then the first thing he does is attempt to slay Bran.

AEGON VI AND THE PISSWATER PRINCE

What’s most interesting to me regarding King Bran foreshadowing is that the story of how Bran survives the sack of Winterfell is very similar to Varys & Illyrio’s story of the pisswater prince. Here is Tyrion’s summary of it-

"And when the pisswater prince was safely dead, the eunuch smuggled you across the narrow sea to his fat friend the cheesemonger, who hid you on a poleboat and found an exile lord willing to call himself your father. It does make for a splendid story, and the singers will make much of your escape once you take the Iron Throne…

and some reminders about Bran, helpfully color coded-

It was not Bran we killed. It was not Rickon. They were only miller's sons, from the mill by the Acorn Water. "I had to have two heads, else they would have mocked me… laughed at me..."

Three times he had sworn to keep the secret; once to Bran himself, once to that strange boy Jojen Reed, and last of all to Coldhands. "The world believes the boy is dead," his rescuer had said as they parted. "Let his bones lie undisturbed. We want no seekers coming after us. Swear it, Samwell of the Night's Watch. Swear it for the life you owe me."

“Hodor must stay with Bran, to be his legs," the wildling woman said briskly. "I will take Rickon with me." “We'll go with Bran," said Jojen Reed. "Aye, I thought you might," said Osha.

Another interesting thing about Bran, the Reeds, and Aegon VI here-

“He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire."

I swear it by earth and water," said the boy in green. "I swear it by bronze and iron," his sister said. "We swear it by ice and fire," they finished together.

BRAN, THE REEDS, AND THE FISHER KING

Now first of all, quick rundown with more color coding. The Fisher King is a character in Arthurian legend, involved in a story with Perceval and the Holy Grail (so you know we’re already cooking here bc Holy Grail stories are baller). The Fisher King is the last in a long line of kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. He is injured at some point, usually in the groin, and is rendered barren by the wound, and his land is a barren wasteland where nothing will grow because he is connected to the land. Only when a prophesied hero comes seeking him will the Fisher King be healed. Perceval, of course, comes seeking him, heals him, and gets the Holy Grail.

Now some of the beats of that story should sound familiar-

Thousands and thousands of years ago, Brandon the Builder had raised Winterfell, and some said the Wall. Bran knew the story, but it had never been his favorite. Maybe one of the other Brandons had liked that story. Sometimes Nan would talk to him as if he were her Brandon, the baby she had nursed all those years ago, and sometimes she confused him with his uncle Brandon, who was killed by the Mad King before Bran was even born. She had lived so long, Mother had told him once, that all the Brandon Starks had become one person in her head.

He was going to be a knight," Arya was saying now. "A knight of the Kingsguard. Can he still be a knight?" "No," Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. "Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon." But he will never run beside his wolf again, he thought with a sadness too deep for words, or lie with a woman, or hold his own son in his arms.

The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either.

What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins. He had thought the three-eyed crow would be a sorcerer, a wise old wizard who could fix his legs, but that was some stupid child's dream, he realized now. 

No," said the pale lord. "That is beyond my powers." Bran's eyes filled with tears. We came such a long way. The chamber echoed to the sound of the black river. "You will never walk again, Bran," the pale lips promised, "but you will fly."

Now what’s interesting is in twoiaf we learn about some ancient rulers called the Fisher Queens-

From such we know of the Fisher Queens, who ruled the lands adjoining the Silver Sea—the great inland sea at the heart of the grasslands—from a floating palace that made its way endlessly around its shores.

The Fisher Queens were wise and benevolent and favored of the gods, we are told, and kings and lords and wise men sought the floating palace for their counsel.

And what do you know look at who Bran is traveling with-

“My father taught me. We have no knights at Greywater. No master-at-arms, and no maester.” “Who keeps your ravens?” She smiled. “Ravens can’t find Greywater Watch, no more than our enemies can.” “Why not?” “Because it moves,” she told him.

Jojen Reed was thirteen, only four years older than Bran. Jojen wasn't much bigger either, no more than two inches or maybe three, but he had a solemn way of talking that made him seem older and wiser than he really was. At Winterfell, Old Nan had dubbed him "little grandfather."

When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered. All their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world. Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods. When singers die they become part of that godhood.

I like to say this about Theon, when he sees Bran's face in the weirwood and thinks, "The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name." that this is partially true - Theon is beloved by the gods but what he doesn't realize is that the old god he is beloved by is in fact Bran Stark. When the old gods weep for Theon and Jeyne, it is Bran weeping for them! So similarly, the way the Fisher Queens in their moving castle were thought to be beloved by the gods the Reeds in their floating castle are beloved by the gods because they are beloved by Bran. This reinforces Bran's connection to the Fisher King imo - just as the old greenseers and singers/cotf are quite literally connected to the land because they have become part of the the weirwood hivemind, Bran has this same connection to the land.

AND what’s more is that the Fisher King story is likely to trace itself back to a Welsh story, of a magical King who gives his sister's hand away, only to learn that she is being mistreated, and musters a host to go save her. During a battle, the King is mortally wounded by an injury in his foot, and as he dies he tells his men to cut off his head and take it to London so he can protect their people from invasion, and for several years after he "dies" his head continues speaking. If that also sounds familair, do you want to know what that man’s name was?

Bran the Blessed.

MELISANDRE'S VISION

Now staying in the realm of magic, we also have this very interesting passage from Melisandre, emphasis mine-

Show me Stannis, Lord, she prayed. Show me your king, your instrument. Visions danced before her, gold and scarlet, flickering, forming and melting and dissolving into one another, shapes strange and terrifying and seductive. She saw the eyeless faces again, staring out at her from sockets weeping blood. Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. Shadows in the shape of skulls, skulls that turned to mist, bodies locked together in lust, writhing and rolling and clawing. Through curtains of fire great winged shadows wheeled against a hard blue sky. A face took shape within the hearth. Stannis? she thought, for just a moment … but no, these were not his features. A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled.

THE REGENCY OF AEGON III

So warning this is part parallelism and part prediction

The Dance of the Dragons was done, and the melancholy reign of King Aegon III Targaryen had begun.

As he was still but ten years of age, the new king’s first act was to name the men who would protect and defend him, and rule for him until he came of age.

This was a council of which Septon Eustace heartily approved, “six strong men and one wise woman, seven to rule us here on earth as the Seven Above rule all men from their heaven.” Mushroom was less impressed. “Seven regents were six too many,” he said. “Pity our poor king.” Despite the fool’s misgivings, most observers seemed to feel that the reign of King Aegon III had begun on a hopeful note.

So many lords, both great and small, had perished during the Dance of the Dragons that the Citadel rightly names this time the Winter of the Widows. Never before or since in the history of the Seven Kingdoms have so many women wielded so much power, ruling in the place of their slain husbands, brothers, and fathers, for sons in swaddling clothes or still on the teat.

The smallfolk of the Seven Kingdoms speak of King Aegon III Targaryen as Aegon the Unlucky, Aegon the Unhappy, and (most often) the Dragonbane, when they remember him at all. All these names are apt. Grand Maester Munkun, who served him for a good part of his reign, calls him the Broken King, which fits him even better. Of all the men ever to sit the Iron Throne, he remains perhaps the most enigmatic: a shadowy monarch who said little and did less, and lived a life steeped in grief and melancholy.

There is also a big focus on the “tax policies” aspect of the story through these two child rulers. Much of Aegon’s regency centers around him butting heads with his guardians while Bran’s ACOK arc sees him as the ruling Stark in Winterfell and learning how to lead with mentors in Maester Luwin & Ser Rodrik Cassell. EYE also think it’s interesting how both Aegon & Bran get some focus on having a lil gaggle of companions around. Aegon has Gaemon, Jaehaera, Viserys, Daenaera, and Larra Rogare, while Bran has the Big Walder, Little Walder, Rickon, Jojen, and Meera. They both feel like very similar groups of kids that are thrown together & running amok with adult supervision that is more lax/not coming from their parents.

There's also just like, a lot of parallels between Baela, Rhaena, Jacaerys, and Aegon with Arya, Sansa, Jon Snow, and Bran. There are several good breakdowns of the Sansa/Arya parallels as well as the Jace/Jon Snow ones, so I won't dig into that here, but I think when you put all this together what you have between Bran and Aegon III is-

Two boy kings who will have a long regency

Both orphaned due to a brutal succession war

Both referred to as "broken" - aegon by munkin, and bran referring to himself

Younger - but not the youngest - brother coming into his seat after his older brother is killed

Both have names that are important in their families & frequently re-used - and in fact both share a name with their uncle

A very rare "winter of widows" where most of the houses are ruled by women due to all the men being dead and their heirs being babies is coming up in the main series

This anti parallel of Aegon being a very melancholy person & Bran being known to be “quick to laugh and easy to love.”

As for his relationships, we have-

His bastard born brother With Some Secret Paternity Going On, who is likely not going to be in the running for King at the end of the war (hopefully um, Jon Snow actually lives unlike poor Jacaerys)

His oldest brother dying at 16 during the war

One sister who is more adventurous and "tomboy"ish, who is associated with ships and travel

Another sister who is more ladylike, who has a largely political arc in the Vale

Both sisters are likely to take leading roles as political players in the aftermath of the war - I do suspect we will get some sort of “Hour of the Wolf” parallels here, just before or after Bran is crowned

SOME CHOICE QUOTES TO LEAVE OFF ON

Bran could perch for hours among the shapeless, rain-worn gargoyles that brooded over the First Keep, watching it all: the men drilling with wood and steel in the yard, the cooks tending their vegetables in the glass garden, restless dogs running back and forth in the kennels, the silence of the godswood, the girls gossiping beside the washing well. It made him feel like he was lord of the castle, in a way even Robb would never know. - Bran II, AGOT

Ahead he glimpsed a pale white trunk that could only be a weirwood, crowned with a head of dark red leaves. - Jon VII, ADWD

[s8tnn]

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[agentrouka-blog]

I know I'm on record saying it will be Tyrion who makes Bran king, but the more I think about Samwell's successful election campaign on behalf of Jon Snow... he's going to have a hand in it. Convincing a diverse range of voters to choose an unlikely candidate based on identifying and explaining how this candidate can serve their individual interests in different ways?

That's Sam.

Sam who independently met Bran in a magical context, understanding his purpose at least in part, therefore having a credible set-up for a collaboration of a different kind later on, removing the idea that he would simply be supporting Jon's little brother out of loyalty to Jon.

As a Tarly of the Reach he is unlikely to appear terribly biased to the members of a Great Council, in general. A trustworthy source of information.

The Great Council having a great deal of trouble coming to a decision and then electing the least likely little king with Tully-Whent blood to preside over the new permanent parliament at Harrenhal? That's the fitting sequel to the Night's Watch election.

If Tyrion gets the soup going, it's Sam who will put the finishing touches on it.

[esther-dot]

Have we talked about these?

Those purple eyes grew huge then, and the royal mouth drooped open in shock. He lost control of his bowels, turned, and ran for the Iron Throne. Beneath the empty eyes of the skulls on the walls, Jaime hauled the last dragonking bodily off the steps, squealing like a pig and smelling like a privy. A single slash across his throat was all it took to end it. So easy, he remembered thinking. A king should die harder than this. Rossart at least had tried to make a fight of it, though if truth be told he fought like an alchemist. Queer that they never ask who killed Rossart . . . but of course, he was no one, lowborn, Hand for a fortnight, just another mad fancy of the Mad King.  (ASOS, Jaime II)

Lickspittle. If truth be told, Jaime had come to rue heaving Brandon Stark out that window. Cersei had given him no end of grief afterward, when the boy refused to die. "He was seven, Jaime," she'd berated him. "Even if he understood what he saw, we should have been able to frighten him into silence." (ASOS, Jaime I)

and

"A man who would violate his own sister, murder his king, and fling an innocent child to his death deserves no other name." (ASOS, I)

and

"Does the sight of my stump distress you so?" Jaime asked. "You ought to be pleased. I've lost the hand I killed the king with. The hand that flung the Stark boy from that tower. The hand I'd slide between my sister's thighs to make her wet." He thrust his stump at her face. "No wonder Renly died, with you guarding him." (ASOS, Jaime V)

I was just rereading some Jaime chapters, and I thought we were joking about “Kingslayer” being a hint for King Bran, but that’s actually what Martin was doing?

[catofoldstones]

Now that I am rereading AGOT, I feel like Bran is set up to be king since the first chapter.

This was the first time he had been deemed old enough to go with his lord father and his brother to see the king’s justice done.

The whole theme of the chapter is to introduce Bran to the responsibilities of a ruler. Well actually the whole series starts with Bran being introduced to the duties of a leader. Not to mention his chapter comes straight after the final villain of the books have been introduced so we know that he will be instrumental in defeating them from the get go. There’s a reason he named his direwolf Summer but I digress. The chapter continues on to Ned’s famous lesson

“…and we hold the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

This is clearly more metaphorical than it is literal. It reminds me of Gandalf’s philosophy from the Lord of The Rings

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.

It is the same message, life is precious and violence is barely ever the answer. So King Bran might not swing the sword on his own but will remember what his father had said when meting out justice.

The most apparent foreshadowing I found in this chapter was Ned directly talking to Bran, teaching him, and preparing him for a ruler role, though as Robb’s bannerman but a ruler role nonetheless.

“… and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”

The last line is as plainly as it could be said. You will be a ruler Bran, be a just one.

And that is all I could find in the first chapter.

[iceywolf24]

Bran is a prince of a lost kingdom, and the old gods are linked to rivers.

What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins

The caves were timeless, vast, silent. They were home to more than three score living singers and the bones of thousands dead, and extended far below the hollow hill. "Men should not go wandering in this place," Leaf warned them. "The river you hear is swift and black, and flows down and down to a sunless sea.

And there was the old first men kingdom kingdom of the riverlands/rivers and hills

"Here lies Tristifer, the Fourth of His Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills." Her father had told her his story once. "He ruled from the Trident to the Neck, thousands of years before Jenny and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the onslaught of the Andals. The Hammer of Justice, they called him. He fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety, or so the singers say, and when he raised this castle it was the strongest in Westeros." She put a hand on her son's shoulder. "He died in his hundredth battle, when seven Andal kings joined forces against him. - Catelyn V ASOS

The name Brandon also means hill in some forms.

The trees remember forgotten truths, is this foreshadowing that the riverlands is the first place in the south where Bran brings back old gods magic.

Bran is not Prince of Winterfell, he's alsobthe Heir to the Kingdom of the Rivers and the Hills, Prince of the Trident.

[laurellerual]

Do you know a detail of GoT that irritates me even after all these years?

This is Sansa the Queen of the North:

And this is Bran the King of the Six Kingdoms who reigns where the iron throne once stood:

But for some reason they bothered to come up with a crown design for only one of the two.

[queenmiriamele]

I think one of the most disapointing things for me about King Bran is that, while all of our protagonists are of noble birth, Dany and Jon have acquiered ruling experience in a post obtained by their own will and merits while Bran's experience is owed to being Robb's brother and the circunsmtances.

[sayruq]

If it turns out Bran is able to have children, who do you think he should marry. While Breera is cute I don't see it happening.

Should marry - probably an influential house, perhaps a lannister given how their wealth is imperative to helping westeros recover from the long night. Maybe Rosamund Lannister from Lannisport. But having a Lannister be queen will definitely be controversial after everything they've done.

He will probably marry a Southerner, likely someone whose kingdom is not as accepting of his reign perhaps. I can see him marrying someone from the Westerlands (not a Lannister because I don't think they'll have much wealth left thanks to @istumpysk reread project) in an effort to give the War of the Five Kings a peaceful conclusion. Same with a girl from the Iron Islands. I can also see him marrying someone from Dorne to bind the Dornish to his kingdom like Daeron II did and as a way of establishing a continuation between Aegon VI's reign and his reign.

[bookcalanthedaily]

"The Nilfgaardians will rue that day, brother."

[atopvisenyashill]

Harrenhal will be the new seat of what’s left of the Seven Kingdoms at the ending.

I know a few people have already said bits and pieces of this but I wanted to get everything in one post for my own sanity lmao. There’s three kind of main branches to this theory: geographical reasons, historical reasons, and reasons specific to King Bran theories.

Geography surrounding Harrenhal

It’s the center of everything! Let me show you on the map because i’m a visual learner:

Ignore the North and Dorne and probably the Iron Islands too, bc the first two are not gonna be part of The Seven Kingdoms anymore and the Iron Islands is…gonna be a fucking mess lmao. Lemme zoom in:

It’s a very centralized point in the Riverlands but it’s also fairly centralized to the Crownlands (which will probably get absorbed into the others), the Stormlands, the Eyrie, the Reach, and the Westerlands. It makes sense, from a geographical standpoint, that if the lords need to choose a new ruling seat - and they will no matter what, because King’s Landing is gonna go boom - that a more centralized location for easier access to the capital would be their decision.

The Riverlands is also an excellent choice in general because geographically, they are always getting screwed due to being right in the middle of everyone. They get fucked during the Dance, the Blackfyre Rebellions, Robert’s Rebellion, AND the War of the Five Kings. The only area that really gets screwed over more during the various wars is probably the Dornish Marches, because of the conflicts between the stony Dornishmen and the Storm and Reacher Lords but you can’t really set up there because it’s too far from the Eyrie and Riverlands.

And the thing about the Riverlands is that part of why it gets fucked up is that it’s right in the middle of everything and has no natural defenses. The Eyrie has the mountains, the North has their snow, the Dornish has their desert. The Reach manages to stay out of a lot of fighting because that’s where the food is (although the Iron Islands are about to screw them, but that’s because the war has spiraled out of control) and while both the Stormlands and the Westerlands have seen big battles, they have some protection in their coasts, which gives them ships that the Riverlands just can’t quite access. Having the King set up in the Riverlands gives the smallfolk of the Riverlands some much needed protection and potentially, a break from all the fighting.

So the Riverlands is a good place to set up shop, but Harrenhal specifically? Well, that’s because it’s huge:

Every child of the Trident knew the tales told of Harrenhal, the vast fortress that King Harren the Black had raised beside the waters of Gods Eye three hundred years past, when the Seven Kingdoms had been seven kingdoms, and the riverlands were ruled by the ironmen from the islands. In his pride, Harren had desired the highest hall and tallest towers in all Westeros. Forty years it had taken, rising like a great shadow on the shore of the lake while Harren's armies plundered his neighbors for stone, lumber, gold, and workers. Thousands of captives died in his quarries, chained to his sledges, or laboring on his five colossal towers. Men froze by winter and sweltered in summer. Weirwoods that had stood three thousand years were cut down for beams and rafters. Harren had beggared the riverlands and the Iron Islands alike to ornament his dream. And when at last Harrenhal stood complete, on the very day King Harren took up residence, Aegon the Conqueror had come ashore at King's Landing.

If it’s going to be the capital, it has to be somewhere that can hold a whole lot of people and Harrenhal is ginormous and perfect for holding lots of people. It’s even happened before; part of why Lord Whent stages his big tourney where Lyanna is crowned queen of love and beauty is because likely because Ser Oswell Whent, his brother on the Kingsguard, asked him to stage an excuse to get all the Lords together so Rhaegar could discuss with them what to do about his father and Harrenhal is the biggest castle they can do that in outside of King’s Landing. From The Kingbreaker chapter:

Old Lord Whent had announced the tourney shortly after a visit from his brother, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. With Varys whispering in his ear, King Aerys became convinced that his son was conspiring to depose him, that Whent's tourney was but a ploy to give Rhaegar a pretext for meeting with as many great lords as could be brought together.

It’s also built up to be sturdier than King’s Landing. Whereas King’s Landing was kind of haphazardly thrown together as it built up over the years, Harren the Black had always meant for a lot of people to be housed there. We see how many people can live in it during Arya’s chapters as she runs around inside of it and Harrentown and this is with a ruler who has no interest in keeping a lot of people in it. With a King or Queen living there, it opens itself up to growing in a much more easily defensible way than King’s Landing.

Historical Reasons Harrenhal is Significant

As you can see on the map, it’s built right on the edge of a very important place: The Isle of Faces and the lake that surrounds it, called the Gods Eye.

It’s a key place for the history of Westeros because it’s where the First Men and the Children of the Forest made peace:

Inexorably, the war ground on across generations, until at last the children understood that they could not win. The First Men, perhaps tired of war, also wished to see an end to the fighting. The wisest of both races prevailed, and the chief heroes and rulers of both sides met upon the isle in the Gods Eye to form the Pact…

It’s also notable for being the only place the Andals never managed to conquer:

It is possible that a few [Children of the Forest] survived on the Isle of Faces, as some have written, under the protection of the green men, whom the Andals never succeeded in destroying.

It’s a place associated with peace and negotiations between people, a place to stand strong against war and untouched by its horrors. A monument to what could be, if you will. And Harrenhal sits on its shore; it would add a very rich layer to setting up King’s Landing in a place associated with peace. And this isn’t the only time a succession crisis of sorts is settled there. The Great Council of 101 AC was held there.

To resolve the matter of his heir once and for all, Jaehaerys called the first Great Council in the year 101 AC, to put the matter before the lords of the realm. And from all corners of the realm the lords came. No castle could hold so many save for Harrenhal, so it was there that they gathered. The lords, great and small, came with their trains of bannermen, knights, squires, grooms, and servants. And behind them came yet more—the camp followers and washerwomen, the hawkers and smiths and carters. Thousands of tents sprang up over the moons, until the castle town of Harrenton was accounted the fourth largest city of the Realm.

Once again, we have Harrenhal associated with peace and negotiation in its history. However, that’s not all it’s associated with; there are several very significant battles that take place near the Gods Eye - again, it is in the middle of everything. It’s a place with lots of history and lots of ties to everyone in Westeros. There’s the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye between Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned, The Battle of the Lake Shore and The Battle Over the Gods Eye during the Dance, as well as the story of Addam Velaryon landing Seasmoke on the Isle of Faces to take counsel from the green men after being accused of treason. It is, all in all, a very significant place in Westeros.

But that’s not the only reason Harrenhal is talked about. Basically every single time Harrenhal is brought up, someone will mention that it’s haunted. This belief comes because of Aegon the Conquerer and Harren the Black. While Orys Baratheon and Rhaenys march for the Stormlands & Daemon Velaryon and Visenya left for the Vale, Aegon himself first turns towards Harren the Black and the Riverlands. All three face opposition but Aegon conquers the Riverlands first because Harren is so ill loved:

So now the riverlands rose against him, led by Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun. Summoned to the defense of Harrenhal, Tully declared for House Targaryen instead, raised the dragon banner over his castle, and rode forth with his knights and archers to join his strength to Aegon’s. His defiance gave heart to the other riverlords. One by one, the lords of the Trident renounced Harren and declared for Aegon the Dragon. Blackwoods, Mallisters, Vances, Brackens, Pipers, Freys, Strongs … summoning their levies, they descended on Harrenhal.

And he makes very quick work of Harrenhal, making it the first Kingdom to become part of the Seven Kingdoms:

The riverlords outside the castle walls said later that the towers of Harrenhal glowed red against the night, like five great candles … and like candles, they began to twist and melt, as runnels of molten stone ran down their sides.

Ever since the burning of Harrenhal, no House has been able to hold it without going extinct soon after. For House Targaryen’s rule in Westeros to start with Harren the Black’s hubris and the fall of Harrenhal, and end with Harrenhal becoming the new seat of the King of the Four (??) Kingdoms is a really neat connection.

Reasons Why It Works With King Bran

But wait! you say. Didn’t you just say that Harrenhal is cursed??

Why yes I did. HOWEVER. There is one family that the Curse of Harrenhal supposedly never touched: The Whents.

You see, from Harren the Black up until the Whents, every other House in charge of it has gone extinct.

House Hoare? That’s Harren’s house and we all know what happened there - they don’t call him Balerion the Black Dread for no reason.

House Qoherys? Dead less than three decades later.

House Harroway? Wiped out a decade later.

House Towers? died out within two decades, ending with sickly Maegor Towers and then old and tired Rhaena Targaryen, until the two odd friends died and the holdings were free again.

House Strong? Well…between the fire that kills Harwin and Lyonel, Larys’ shenanigans getting him merced by Cregan, and Aemond just straight committing a minor genocide in the Riverlands, they all died out (except maybe Alys Rivers’ baby but we don’t have any info there).

House Lothston? Interestingly, they hold the castle for several decades, but they too went completely extinct under King Maekar.

So we come to House Whent. They’ve held it for about 6 ish decades and though they’ve also had some bad luck, they’ve had their people grow old - Walter Whent who threw the tourney is called “Old Lord Whent” by Barristan, and Shella Whent is old when she dies. But the most interesting thing is Minisa Whent.

We don’t know a lot about the Whent line, only that Shella refused to bend the knee to Joffrey, fled Harrenhal when it was attacked, and later died. You could say the curse still got them but in every other case, the whole line dies, not just the main line! Even Janos Slynt has no descendants and Littlefinger will have none to inherit either. But the Whents do: they have House Tully. Minisa Whent married Hoster Tully and had Catelyn and Edmure. The Whents are known for their sharp cheekbones and both Catelyn and Sansa, funny enough, are described as having sharp cheekbones. This very close relation could mean that the Starklings have a claim to Harrenhal through their mother.

This fits with King Bran because we know the lords are perfectly fine fudging things and going through the female line if it fits their needs. They did the same thing with Robert and his grandmother Rhaelle Targaryen, who married Ormund Targaryen, Steffon’s mother. Renly says here:

Oh, there was talk of the blood ties between Baratheon and Targaryen, of weddings a hundred years past, of second sons and elder daughters. No one but the maesters care about any of it.

The maesters love a loophole inheritance.

And remember that the odds of surviving the books for the Baratheons and Targaryens is very, very low. It’s pretty much just bastards all the way down (on both sides lmao, because I do not think either Young Griff or Dany are gonna survive). And whenever the inheritance isn’t clear, a Great Council is called. Catelyn even suggested it while parlying with the Baratheons:

Let the three of you call for a Great Council, such as the realm has not seen for a hundred years. We will send to Winterfell, so Bran may tell his tale and all men may know the Lannisters for the true usurpers. Let the assembled lords of the Seven Kingdoms choose who shall rule them.

Mentioning Bran, of course. A lot of people think it’s far fetched and while I do think him being so young is gonna be a hard sell now that the time jump is gone, I don’t think it’s that far fetched that the lords of the Stormlands, The Reach, the Eyrie, and The Westerlands would be convinced to choose Hoster Tully’s grandson and Ned Stark’s baby boy to rule over them.

And finally, Robb wasn’t called “Robb Stark, King in the North” he was also explicitly called “King of the Trident.” All the talk about who is Robb’s heir but look at how they all think of themselves - “as brave as Robb” “as strong as Robb” or they’ll have sons and name them Robb. Whereas Who Rules The North is all tied up in Robb’s legacy, the Iron Throne isn’t! If King Bran rules from the Riverlands, however, it gives Bran that tie to Robb; he gets to protect and rule from the lands Robb swore to protect, the lands he ultimately fought and died in. For Bran, he still gets to be Robb’s heir, at least in spirit, and I think that would be, to Bran, something very bittersweet.

[stainspoetry]

i’m ngl idgaf who ends up on the iron throne as long as it’s not a lannister. same vein, i don’t discuss KitN or QitN bc robb’s death is still too soon for me. just as long as it’s Stark spawn (including Jon).

[agentrouka-blog]

I'm curious, do you think Jon or Bran will be king at the end? I find Jonsas tend to be more receptive to the idea of King Bran, even if they don't think its endgame since Jon and Sansa can still be together in Winterfell, unlike the Jonerys side of the fandom who accept Queen Dany as the only possible satisfying endgame. I'm kinda torn between the two, I think grrm could make either work, though Bran would be the more subversive option than the secret prince of an overthrown ancient dynasty. But on the other hand I feel like there won't even be an Iron Throne/7 united kingdoms by the end, so for a King in the North, my #1 pick would always be Jon (alongside his Stark Queen of course).

Oh, I am 100% on board with king Bran! <3

My specific scenario is that he will be an unlikely selection voted in by a Great Council for the new political system in the South of Westeros, which is a parliamentary monarchy of a voluntary union of the Southern regions. There's a permanent Great Council, presided over by a much less powerful figurehead king (hereditary or not) at Harrenhal, which is centrally located in the South and big enough to house that kind of institution, plus symbolically close to the Isle of Faces.

(The Iron Throne and KL being roasted and destroyed, there's need for a whole reassassment of the political future of the continent.)

Bran would be chosen based on his maternal ancestry line (Tully-Whent) connecting him to Harrenhal, through an effective but stealthy election campaign by his aquaintence Samwell Tarly, and probably influenced by Tyrion Lannister in some way. His disability and extreme youth would be considered a plus in this scenario, ensuring the inability to increase royal power beyond the bare minimum through charismatic war mongering for the foreseeable decades. Bran would shine through his intelligence and his ability successfully negotiate political decisions as this proto-democratic institution finds its feet.

I don't think GRRM would ever contemplate putting a Targaryen descendent into a position of ultimate power over Westeros in the end. It would validate the entire dynasty in a way that entirely undercuts the point made by the descent into villainy for literlly everyone actively pursuing that same throne. It would also define Jon's place in the world through the Targaryen line instead of the Stark line, which is.... improbable, given his lack of personal ties to the South and his deep thematic and emotional connection to the culture, landscape, people and politics of the North. The perfect match to Queen in the North Sansa.

[esther-dot]

I feel that BRAN is actually the "Queen Elizabeth I" of the story & a child by Sansa/Jon would be the King James I of England (6th of Scotland)

Oh Esther thank you so much for the shout out. I am not an expert by any means but I think anon is onto something here.

1. Sansa shares clear parallels with Elizabeth I but she also shares parallels with Bran:

A. Both are unlikely heirs, having an older sibling who reigns. Robb, like Mary Tudor, married against the wishes of their council to someone who was profoundly disliked.

B. Any jonsa kid would be “of the North” which is roughly the Westerosi equivalent of Scotland so, parallel with James.

C.A jonsa child would be Brandon’s nephew, just as James was of Elizabeth.

D. A jonsa child would technically be both the northern heir AND the southern heir, therefore uniting BOTH crowns. This way the North wouldn’t be giving up their independence.

E. Both lost their mother at an early age and had to deal with responsibilities beyond their years. James was also a very young King.

F. A funny tidbit is that James’s mother was considered a great beauty, and her embroidery skills were legendary, just like Catelyn’s.

The way I see it, Brandon is not Elizabeth but the York King, if he had lived. GRRM is writing the war of the Roses with a flipped ending where the Yorks=Starks win and not the Tudors=Targaryens.

(about this ask)

Thank you for the additional thoughts, @minitafan!

[thewingedwolf]

FDR covered up how disabled he was because he was well aware that people would think him weak if they knew just how advanced his disabilities were. FDR was elected during a time when tv and paparazzi didn’t exist and very notably, the first televised presidential debate was a resounding win for JFK bc he looked handsome on tv, while nixon was sweating bullets. Also notably, there has been no publicly acknowledged disabled president since FDR. Regardless, we live in a time period where people who are disabled are offered euthanasia as a way out, bc it is more convenient to murder our disabled than care for them, and a mass disabling event was allowed to run rampant through poor communities, killing literally millions of people worldwide. Acting like a disabled ruler wouldn’t be interesting or a subversion is both ahistorical and like, clearly just you downplaying the violence disabled people face every single day in both the medieval time periods George based the series on and in our current day.

Also, Bran being King does not inherently mean that Arianne and Sansa won’t have crowns in their own right!! We have no idea what the endgame is going to look like. Just say you’re boring and don’t like Bran and leave it at that, it’s less words!

[laurellerual]

The figure of the Fisher King appears for the first time in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval ou le conte du Graal with the characteristics you described. But he shares many similarities with Brân the Blessed from the Mabinogion (collection of ancient Welsh stories).

I believe in some way our Bran fills both the role of the Fisher King and that of Perceval, knight of the Grail. Bran like Perceval desires the knight's life, has a protective mother who at the beginning of the story would like to keep him with her, has a brother who died for having followed in the footsteps of his father.

Bran Stark undertakes a quête that takes him to the 'castle' of the Fisher King (Bloodraven), but when he interrogates him and asks if he is the Three-Eyed Crow, he fails to get the answer he seeks.

A fundamental part of the myth of the Fisher King is the question that the knight must ask the King. The question will heal the King and the land with him. Bran seeks Three-Eyed Crow to heal himself, but perhaps the right question he needs to ask, as in the original story, is about the Grail. Brân the Blessed's proto-Grail was a cauldron capable of resurrecting the dead, but not completely, in fact they were unable to speak. Perhaps the metaphorical Grail of Asoiaf is knowledge about the origins of the Others.

I love how Bran is clearly the Fisher King of the series, whose direwolf is named Summer. How this indicates that he would not be someone playing merely from the sidelines but would be someone who perhaps would decisively bring an end to the Long Night.

I have very little knowledge of the Fisher King legend. I think I only heard it in relation to either Browning or T.S. Eliot. The legend goes that he is the king of a land, but his wound has rendered him infertile and because he is the representation of his kingdom, so has the land become barren. I also just now learnt from Wikipedia that the FK was the last of the long line of kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. Now that itself is of consequence as the quest for the Holy Grail not only forms the basis of the impressive Arthurian legends but also for its religious connotations ( if I am not wrong).

So in the series we have Bran. We have Bran who is the namesake of a long line of Brans, all the way upto Bran the builder, who apparently raised the Wall. I love how there is a legend of the Wall being built with magic ( there are spells woven into it and blood from all who died while building it...Idk if I am making this up but I have this very faint memory of reading this). And Bran the Builder laid the foundation of House Stark and built it its ancient seat. So all these legends of Bran the Builder now come down to our Bran through Old Nan's stories and perhaps through history lessons ( though less fantastical). And our Bran, he deems himself the frailest of all, owing to his disability. I don't remember if it was himself who took on the moniker of Bran the broken or if it was a jibe.

This Bran once boasted of knowing every crook of Winterfell better than Robb. Who climbed and went exploring around this ancient seat as none of the Stark kids ever had. And when the sack happened, Bran compares himself to the stones of Winterfell. Broken but not yet dead. And this parallels so beautifully with the Fisher king legend. The king is injured and his land reflects the pain. But a knight shall come, and finally through a holy quest would once again restore the king to his glory.

And I love how George subverts the myth here. The knights did come- but Meera and Jojen won't be undertaking the quest for Bran, rather they would guide him and get him where he needs to be. The Fisher king has to fight this battle himself and earn the glory back.

A big part of Bran's storyline is his struggle with disability. Young highborn boys have a particular life set out for them. Those who are younger sons would squire under prominent knights and then would become one themselves. They would participate in jousts, be a part of a battalion and then maybe earn a name and a keep for their services and rule over the land. Bran dreamt of this life. He dreamt of adventures, of being bold and strong. But now he has to listen to jibes and sit through the pitying looks of the lords who think living a life where one cannot joust or hunt or ride into battle is a freakish one. I think a part of Bran's quest is to realize his strength. Martin uses magic to communicate this, but indeed so many people out there walks through this world differently than an able bodied person. So a part of this "quest" is to realize his worth as a powerful greenseer and warg ( and not because it gives him the freedom from his broken body). He has to realize even "broken", he has the power to move the course of lives. That his strength lies in his convictions- he won't forget the kindness showed to him by the man who shared his food while Bran's party was on the run.

Bran is the Fisher King, descended from a long line of kings whose duty was to protect the Wall and keep away the darkness. But now the darkness is here and perhaps the Wall shall fall. Our Fisher King has to regain his strength, realize his worth and face the cold like a knight. Only then can summer come, and the land ( Winterfell and the North) shall once again bear fruits.