Game of Thrones: Is Bran the Night King? We decode
What's the story
In the last Game of Thrones episode, Bran decided to act as bait for Night King and wait for him near the Winterfell castle's weirwood forest (Godswood), while others try to keep the army at bay. There are various theories regarding Night King's motivation and Bran's decision. Read on to know our take on the dynamic between Bran, Night King, and the GoT universe.
The Beginning
This story began thousands of years ago
Thousands of years ago, The First Men came to populate the lands inhabited by The Children of the Forest. The Starks were one of them and received some magical powers from the children. Subsequently, a war ensued and the children created the White Walkers to fight the First Men. Their plan, however, backfired because the White Walkers took control, becoming a threat to everyone.
Stark Children
The Starks are a clan of magical abilities
We have seen Bran do some strange magical things like projecting his consciousness into different beings (warging) and being able to see everything in the past and present (greensight). In the books, almost all Stark siblings possess warging abilities; Bran's are just on a whole another scale. Here's where things get interesting. The Night King has these abilities too. He has already 'marked' Bran.
Weirwood Connection
These powers, originally of the 'Children', are connected to Weirwoods
Weirwoods are Winterfell's trees that have faces on them. The first men believed them to be the source of greensight. When they started cutting the trees, the aforementioned war began. To put it simply, the trees are like cameras that record everything and project the images to greenseers. This is why we usually see Bran near the trees- they are his power source.
Bran and Night King
Both Bran and Night King are connected to the 'Children'
While Bran's connection with the Children of the Forest is complicated, Night King's is quite simple. As we've seen in the show, Night King was created by them by shoving a piece of dragonglass in his body while he was bound to a weirwood tree. Because of this connection, Night King can psychically track Bran and has even put his mark on Bran's arm.
Theory 1
Bran's meeting with Night King could end all White Walkers
It has been already determined that killing a White Walker would kill all Wights created by it, leading Beric Dondarrion to infer that if the Night King is killed, the undead army will die as well. Maybe, Bran's plan is to lure the Night King to himself and at the right opportunity, destroy him with dragonglass. This will require some extraordinary amount of luck.
Theory 2
The second theory: Bran is the Night King!
One can't deny this possibility of Bran being the Night King. Bran has been repeatedly warned against too much warging by multiple people. In "The Door", he has warged back in time, causing Hodor to lose his mind. What if Bran tries to warg into the Night King (of the past) but gets stuck in his body for thousands of years? Crazy, right?
Theory 2.5
But there is another modification of the second theory
Every story needs a hero. One modification to the second theory suggests that Bran is GoT's biggest hero and will voluntarily warg into the Night King's (past) body to create the Walkers and give the future humans an external force to unite against. If Bran is the Night King, his death is almost certain, making him either a gallant hero or a dreadful villain.