Understanding Bran’s powers in ‘The Game Revealed’

Bran Stark — he would hate that we’re calling him that; he’s the Three-Eyed Raven now, Bran died in that cave — is a total enigma till the end of Game of Thrones Season 7. We can pretty much guess what Cersei’s intentions are, where Tyrion’s loyalty lies, how Jon’s feelings will get him into trouble, but we can never guess what the Three-Eyed Raven (TER) is actually thinking. The entire season, we’ve been wondering why he’s been holding important information from Jon — and in the finale we realize that what he knows is NOT, in fact, what we’ve known all along. All that time, the TER thought Jon Snow was Jon Sand, the bastard of Rhaegar Targyaryen and Lyanna Stark, born in Dorne. That’s why he wasn’t telling anyone — perhaps he thought it wasn’t game-changing enough information to bother kings and queens with.

In HBO’s The Game Revealed, Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran in Game of Thrones, shares in an interview done before the finale was aired why Bran didn’t know  that Rhaegar and Lyanna were secretly married.

ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT: He (Three-Eyed Raven) only gets the full picture when Samwell Tarly comes to Winterfell and goes to him, ‘Hang on a second, there was this secret wedding.’ Bran can then go back in time and sort of look it up, like something in a dictionary. He establishes the wedding did happen and that’s when he goes, ‘Right, now is the time to tell Jon that he’s a legitimate heir to the throne: more legitimate than Daenerys.’ But will he even bother mentioning it to Jon – because I think Bran recognizes that all these kind of petty squabbles between Daenerys, Jon, Sansa and whoever are totally irrelevant in the face of the threat that will actually destroy civilization. So it will be interesting to see whether Bran withholds that bit of information.

So he’s not psychic. He can’t see the future, that we know. And the past that he CAN see, he has to sort of know the search words for, like Google. If he doesn’t know what he’s looking for, he won’t find it. Thank goodness for Sam, right? This ought to be a real (third) eye-opener for Bran, who’s chosen to become a recluse and internalize his new persona way too much. He needs to see that talking to trees are not enough. We’re eager to see what role he plays in Season 8 — we’ve been waiting too long to see him become a badass. We’re starting to think maybe that’s about as badass as he’s gonna get.

THE GAME REVEALED

For GAME OF THRONES fans who are still dissecting and debating the major developments of season seven after the dramatic finale, HBO has released THE GAME REVEALED, a new post-season, behind-the-scenes series. The seven-part series features exclusive interviews with cast and crew that provide new info and insights on how some of the biggest moments from the latest season of the HBO series came together. The first episode of THE GAME REVEALED is now available on HBO Asia’s Facebook page, and fans. Subsequent episodes will stream on HBO GO every Wednesday fromSeptember 6 onwards.