Is It Time For ‘Game of Thrones’ To Kill Off Bran Stark?

Game of Thrones is in the middle of its penultimate season on HBO. As we sprint towards the show’s finish line, time is running out for many of our favorite major characters in Westeros — but who should live and who should die? Decider’s own Meghan O’Keefe and Joe Reid will weigh in on all of your favorite leading lords and ladies, breaking down the reasons why they deserve to survive the brutal war ahead or should just get killed off already. Next up: Bran Stark.

First thing’s first: Do you think it is time for Bran to die?

Joe: If for no other reason than there are SO MANY things he now knows in his new position as the Three-Eyed Raven, I say no. Not yet. Not until he tells Jon Snow who his real parents are, or tells Arya about the active role Littlefinger played in their father’s execution, or tells Daenerys Targaryen to watch out for the ice giants when taking her dragons out for a ride. The most frustrating thing about Bran’s scene with Sansa last Sunday was that he did that annoying thing that all oracles do: he got cryptic and silent. We can’t kill him until we turn him upside down and shake the secrets out of him like so much loose change.

Meghan: True, true. The thing saving Bran isn’t just that he knows so much about the larger lore of Westeros, but that he’s the only person left with this kind of knowledge. Bran is too gosh darn powerful to shove out of the way yet.

And yet I personally don’t like Bran and think he’s annoying as a whole — not just as an oracle — and his super knowledge only makes him more insufferable. I would personally like to see him killed off, but I understand he’s too useful to the plot going forward.

Let’s break this down. Where else can Bran’s storyline go?

Meghan: As you said, Bran has key knowledge pertaining to Jon’s true parentage and can give everyone a leg up in the war to come against the White Walkers. He is the steward of all this ancient knowledge. Because of that, his story could go lots of places…including the past. There’s more than one theory online that Bran could indeed be the mythic Bran the Builder. A Stark ancestor responsible for building the Wall, Winterfell, and other famous fortresses throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

Also, I’m 99.9% sure he’s going to make some bonehead Bran move that will propel the White Walkers’ invasion. I used to think that maybe by passing through the Wall he removed some of the magical spells warding the White Walkers away — much like he did in the Three-Eyed Raven’s tree fort man cave place. Bran has a big role to play in the story to come and, ugh, I wish he and his dumb Beatles hair cut didn’t.

Joe: I do somewhat feel for Bran. I mean, he didn’t ask to get shoved out of a window (by Jaime, who we all love and swoon over) and paralyzed and sent down this path towards annoying mysticism. But here we are, and all of Bran’s closest friends are trees. I feel like Bran’s storyline might have the most places he can go, particularly after last week made it clear that he doesn’t really consider himself a Stark anymore. It’s doubtful he’ll stick around at Winterfell throughout the war. There are any number of places he could go to where characters need to hear what he’s got to tell them. (If, you know, he actually tells them and doesn’t start, for example, waxing poetic about Dany’s wedding-night raping.) He’s ultimately destined to have a role in the war with the White Walkers, and while I doubt he’ll survive it, we’re not quite there yet.

If he is killed off, how does that affect the rest of the “gameboard”? (i.e. What are the military/political/personal repercussions? What loose narrative threads need to be tied off?)

Joe: Getting rid of Bran now wouldn’t affect the gameboard as it stands now very much, if only because the characters most in line to benefit from his Three-Eyed Raven knowledge don’t know about him yet. But for book readers and show followers and amateur theorists, all sort of things we always assumed would be blown to bits if, say, Littlefinger got the jump on him in the dead of night or he falls victim to a warg-ing gone wrong. Also, not for nothing, but what happens to Meera if Bran dies? I’d argue our intrepid Reed girl is overdue for some narrative attention as it is — usually, Game of Thrones characters end up getting a secondary purpose after being this single-minded for so long. Personally, I feel like the dedication Meera showed Bran would win her a fan in Brienne of Tarth; maybe she can train at Brienne’s side. I thought for a while that the show was setting up Meera and Bran as a romantic pair, but now I just want to make sure she’s settled before Bran’s story comes to an end.

Meghan: I’m completely with you. Justice for Meera!

Yeah, Bran’s primary purpose at this point seems to be as an instrument to help Jon et al prepare for the great war against the White Walkers. Outside of his mystical knowledge, he can help solidify Jon as Westeros’s true king – which would in turn help him rally troops and resources to the cause. If Bran gets killed, the truth about Jon, knowledge about the origins of the White Walkers, and potential information for how EVERYONE can survive the long winter ahead gets lost. He really needs to stay alive for at least a little while longer.

That said, I don’t feel all that bad that Jaime pushed him out of a tower anymore. You know why? Bran wasn’t supposed to be climbing that tower in the first place. He “promised” Catelyn he wouldn’t and he broke the rules. If Bran had not climbed that tower, Catelyn would not have had to sit by his bedside while Ned rode south, and no one would have tried to kill Bran, and Catelyn would not have left Winterfell to Robb and Theon and the rest of the kids when she rode south to King’s Landing, and there wouldn’t be bad blood between the Starks and Lannisters, and they wouldn’t have started scheming against each other, and all of Season One wouldn’t have been put into motion, and the whole “Game of Thrones” may have been avoided.

I mean Dany would still have her dragons and the White Walkers would still be on there way, but maybe someone’s life could have been saved.

Ugh, Bran!

Can you make a case for him to survive until Season 8?

Meghan: (sigh). Yes. As we laid out, we need Bran to play a key role in the war to come.

Joe: Okay, first of all GOD FORBID a kid goes climbing as all kids do! Sigh. Now I’m defending Bran. Anyway, yes, the case for Bran’s survival is pretty open-and-shut at this point. Until he reveals at the very least Jon’s parentage, consider him bulletproof.

Meghan: Okay, okay, Bran can climb! That was a very uncool thing to happen! But it was also uncool to talk to Sansa about her rape and then play off being a Three-Eyed Raven like it’s the equivalent of being in a hip indie band. Just saying!

Crazy bet: Do we think he’ll survive the whole series?

Joe: Nope. Oracles always die before it’s all over. That’s just basic hero’s-journey stuff.

Meghan: Eh, I’m with you. I’ll add that if he lives, he lives in the body of, like, an actual raven, LOL, or wargs back in time to live his days out as some mystical person in the past. The body of Bran Stark will perish, but his annoying Three-Eyed Raven alter ego will endure.

UGH.

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