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Warning: Contains many, many spoilers for Game of Thrones. Proceed at your own risk.
Despite his limited time in the show, Bran has always been at the centre of much speculation and wild theories, including one which sees him warging into icy Viserion.
SEE ALSO:Could Bran Stark stir up some trouble with the Night King's ice dragon?But -- rest assured -- the latest theory to make the rounds on social media is the most mind-blowing to date.
What if Brandon Stark is actually the Night King? What if everything that has ever happened in Westeros is Bran's fault?
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Even if you hate Ned Stark's son, this theory -- which has actually been popular for a while -- is pretty wild, isn't it? Let's begin by piecing together all the evidence.
In Season 6, if you recall, the Three-Eyed Raven taught Bran how to finesse his Greenseer abilities to drift freely through time -- past, present and feature -- at will.
Bran has also the ability to warg into people's consciousness, just like he did with Hodor.
According to some fans, those two abilities -- greensight and ability to warg -- make Bran even more powerful to the Three-Eyed Raven.
However, the Three-Eyed Raven -- that omniscient killjoy -- promptly warned Bran that "the past is already written" and "the ink is dry". Also, he warned Bran that the more time you spend inside someone else's body, the more difficult it is to leave.
Credit: HBO"It is beautiful beneath the sea; stay too long and you drown," he says.
Now, if you remember the Tower of Joy flashback in Season 6, episode 3, it seems pretty clear that Bran has the power to influence the past as well as watch it.
As explained by Mashable's very own Sam Haysom, just look at the confusion on Young Ned Stark's face after Bran calls out to him:
The Three-Eyed Raven certainly looked nervous in the flashback when Bran yelled "father;" it was as if he knew what the consequences of the boy's actions could be.
Other evidence, in both the books and show, point to the fact that the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen, became mad after Bran attempted to warn him about the White Walkers.
"Burn them all," was the Mad King's final order, which might be Bran warning him about the White Walkers.
Credit: HBOOther theories about Bran and time travelsuggested he may in fact be one of the legendary Brandons he hears about in Old Nan's stories (Brandon the Builder -- who built both the Wall and Winterfell to shield off the White Walkers, Brandon the Shipwright, etc.).
In a nutshell, according to these theories, Bran keeps travelling back and forth in time in a bid to fix things, and destroy the White Walkers once for all.
But the most important piece in the puzzle is when Bran has the vision of when the Night King was Born, as explained by YouTuber Game of Theories a few months ago.
Thousands of years before the events of Game of Thronestake place, the Children of the Forest were at war with the First Men, who almost wiped them out of their sacred weirwoods.
Credit: HBOIn desperation, they captured one of the First Men and inserted dragonglass into his chest with a ritual on a weirwood tree. That's how the first White Walker, the Night King, was created.
As noticed by many commentators, Bran's real body in the Three-Eyed Raven's cave winces and clenches his fists. As if he's experiencing the pain. As if HE is in the Night King's body.
Bran warged into that man in an attempt to persuade them not to go through the process that would create the White Walkers. But since "the ink is dry" that means he cannot change the past through time travel, only fulfil it:
Credit: reddit/screengrab/turm0il26From that moment, Bran got stuck in the past and became the Night King, while the future Bran keeps moving in time in a desperate attempt to warn people about the Long Night.
The theory would explain how the Night King is always at the right place and the right time:
Credit: REDDIT/SCREENGRAB/TURM0IL26All the events happening in Game of Thrones, then, just originate from Bran, and will lead to Daenerys and Jon Snow fighting together to defeat him stuck inside the Night King.
This is how the show will end, according to the Redditor:
This theory also parts with Jon snow being the prince that was promised, who eventually has to kill his little brother Bran (Night king cannot kill Jon Snow at Hardhome then, can he?), giving us a bittersweet ending.
Still not convinced? Well, this guy wrote a Medium post on "Why Bran Stark Is not the Night King". Good luck with that.
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TopicsGame Of Thrones