Bran as a disappointment for the show
Dr. Schoppe
UNIV 375 100
February 20, 2020
Bran as a disappointment for the
show
Ever since the beginning of the show
we lay eyes on Bran Stark. in fact, the very first success that gives us a hint
of how cold and cruel this show can be, uses him as an example! The show sort
of starts us with the stark family in Winterfell where we already see Bran
being himself wondering around Winterfell. Brans Stark’s story is one of the
most interesting stories in Games of Thrones, and one of the most ironic as
well.
Bran started as the weakest character
of the cast, even being out skilled by his sister Arya in skills he was supposed
to master, as he wanted to become a great knight. To make things worse for him, he's shortly after paralyzed by
Jaime Lannister when he pushes Bran down the window of Winterfell’s tower after
he caught him doing it with his sister Cersei. Starting off this way, a long
journey for Brand Stark, a journey where he depended on other people for a long
time, especially from Hodor. But within his weakness, he understood that he had the greatest abilities than any other person and that he had a calling to be
something more than a simple human, a calling to be a vessel for the
whole world. Bran went from being a little cripple kid to becoming the most important piece
to humanity's survival. But he also went from being the most powerful character
in the show to feeling like a disappointment towards the final episodes of the
show.
Talking about Bran Stark and
everything that built up to what Bran was supposed to do, is kind of confusing.
Because we’ve seen Bran go through all this training, we’ve seen people die in
order to protect him, and at the end, it seems like it was all in vain. Bran is
the most powerful character in the show. Because he is the three-eyed raven he
had the ability to change the outcome of the war, but instead his role in the
war was to be there just so he could lure the night king and defeat him. But it
just doesn’t seem right to build up this character so much thorough the seasons
just to play the role of a bait? It doesn’t make sense. It leaves me with this
feeling to want to see so much more from him, to see the true potential of all
his powers.
I believe that the night king was
going after bran for something else, something in specific. Let’s recap for a
moment. When Bran started to develop his abilities, he was able to get into Hodor’s
head, into wolves, and into birds. But out of all of his abilities, there is
one that he uses more often and has way more impact. Bran’s ultimate ability is
knowledge. He possesses so much information about the history and every single
person in Westeros. Let’s take the scene when he exposes lord Baelish, accusing
him of holding a knife to Ned’s throat, Bran even quotes lord Baelish whispering
to Ned “I did warn you not to trust me”. I’m sure we all remember that scene
from season 7. But anyway, that is what Bran’s true power is, to drop dimes on
people!
Now, having in mind that Bran’s greatest
ability is all the information he possesses, and then also having in mind that
the biggest, greatest enemy that all of Westeros has seen (the night king) is
solely after Bran, has to mean something. Bran’s purpose is to learn everything
that is going to happen in the future, and everything that has ever happen in
the past, such as the night king backstory. Did Bran see something that the
night king didn’t want to get exposed? Or was he supposed to learn some type of
knowledge that was supposed to help them defeat the night king? Because if he
did, he did not use this during the final battle. And this is what drives me
mad! Bran had so much power to do so much more throughout the story, but his
powers are limited to little more than small plots throughout the show.
Bran gave Arya Stark the dagger to
kill the king night, he also told Sam to tell Jon he was Aegon Targaryen, which
was very useful because Bran also knew that Sam was completely shattered by
Daenerys because she had told him that she ended with his father’s and brother’s
life. Is clear that Bran had already mastered his powers by the time the final battle
arrives, but he doesn’t use any of them to better the outcome of the war. Actually,
the fact that Bran had all this information in his head, and yet did very
little to change the outcome of the war, makes some people believe that Bran
Stark is the true villain of Games of Thrones,
the one who hid in the shadows watching thousands of people die just so he
could sit on the throne.
But surely, there is an explanation as to why the writers decided to not give bran the role he deserved. I thought
maybe it was a budget issue, maybe there was too much content on the story
already, nothing too relevant. But it appears that the creators of the show
decided to intentionally remove fantasy elements from got because they “didn’t
want to appeal to that type of fan” which honestly makes sense if you start
off the show that way. But then, why include dragons? Dark magic? And creatures
like giants and nightwalkers which aren’t necessarily from “this world”
I remember feeling like there was
much more to be said by the end of the show. I don’t believe there was another
reason other than poor planning for why the directors didn’t give Bran’s story
a greater impact towards the finale of the show. This was the same reason why
we didn’t see much from Ayra’s acquired assassin talents. It just felt like we
didn’t get the complete background stories we had gotten used to throughout the
show. Along with the death of Daenerys, and Jon returning to the wall, it was
disappointing for me to see this character suffer these consequences of poorly
planned final episodes.
References
I enjoyed reading this post Erik. One thing that I found interesting when watching the show is that during one of Bran's "dream sequences" where he is using the powers of the three-eyed raven, he runs into the Night King and almost causes Bran to lose his powers. I feel that the Night King was specifically after Bran for the knowledge and power that he possesses. Once someone or something is killed by the Night King or anyone of his fellow dead soldiers, they become apart of the army of the dead, and with the power of being able to know everything about all that are still on the side of the living, in my opinion, would be a drastic advantage for the Night King and his army. I think your theory is interesting though and would love to see an alternate ending where the Night King managed to turn Bran into one of his soldiers and see the outcome for Westeros.
ReplyDeleteErik I fully agree with you that Bran is a disappointment in the end of GOT because we all had high expectations with him becoming the 3 eyed raven, not the king. I wonder if the reason for the change in his character is because of how short they made season 8. Like you said maybe there were budget problems or maybe they just got tired and lazy we don’t know. I like the point you made about how Bran had mastered all his powers by the ending battle but didn’t use them which I agree with I feel like yes, he did give Arya the knife that killed the knight king but what else did he do nothing. I wanted to see him evolve into the 3 eyed raven and see what all that entails with dark magic because maybe it would show a way to keep the world of Westeros safe from other dangers like the white walkers. Bran had all the knowledge that led back to the beginning which we were all hoping we would get see through his eye instead we only got small parts of what he knows. What do you think would be a great ending for Brans character? Do you think he should’ve been king? I was rooting for Dany to sit up on the Iron Thorne and did not see Bran becoming king at all.
ReplyDeleteAh yes. I remember coming to the end of the final episode of the show, after watching my favorite characters get crushed to death, burned to death, decapitated and whatever else. When bran said "Why do you think I came all this way?" I was like " Y'know. . . I guess." . None of his entire story would have made sense if this hadn't been the outcome. I suppose my immediate criticism is that I don't see how this equivocates to times of peace. Bran is just a boy. He has seen things and he absolutely knows things beyond what is worldly, I just don't understand what can be achieved through prophesy. If you think about it, knowing the future and the past can be very dangerous. We saw that he sure didn't do anything to prevent the terror that happened in Kings Landing. Also, the three eyed raven doesn't have an agenda for peace. It just is what it is, ya know?
ReplyDeleteI love this show, but the creators get on my last nerve. They continually refused a Writers' Room, even when HBO would have given them one. It was clear that they were competent adapters, but God Awful writers. They really *needed* a writers' room once they no longer had the books to rely on for dialogue, exposition, etc. This issue becomes even more complicated when one considers that they were two white guys... perhaps inviting some women or people of color into the room would have changed the problematic aspects of the show by providing some different viewpoints and perspectives.
ReplyDelete