Flashback, Flashforward: What Could Bran Be Seeing in Season 6 

Season 6. Not only is Brantree c0nf1rm3d, eleventyone, etc, but Isaac Hempstead Wright is promising us that

‘ first foray into flashback land last season was only the beginning. This coming season, Bran will be making like he’s on

, flashing forwards, backwards and perhaps even sideways. All from the comfort of his own version of a Westerosi living room, 

So what could Bran possibly be flashing on about? With certain scenes confirmed as happening this season (which we’ll get to in a minute), we do have some ideas of which direction we may go. But we also have quite a long list of visions that Bran is supposed to see via his greenseeing powers that are listed in the novels. Spoilers and speculation ho!

—GIMME THOSE SPOILERS, DON’T LET THEM END—

, we see Bran have several visions via his tree bonded state. In order, they are:

His young father praying with a bowed head “…let them grow up close as brothers, with only love between them, and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive.”;

A girl and a younger boy play fighting with branches;

A pregnant woman coming out of the black pool praying for a son to avenge her;

A slender girl on her toes kissing a knight as tall as Hodor;

A pale, dark-eyed youth cutting three branches from the weirwood and shaping them into arrows;

Other lords of Winterfell: tall, hard, stern men in fur and chain mail;

A bearded man forcing a captive down on his knees, and a white-haired woman killing the captive with a bronze sickle.

Now, we know that child-aged versions of Ned Stark and his brother and sister were cast this season. So it’s a good chance that a couple of these visions, specifically two and five, are in the offing. Though the first one, of Ned Stark praying that Jon and Robb grow up as brothers, would be nice, it’s also unnecessary. We know Ned wanted them to grow up a family and that Cat never did forgive or forget. The sixth one is also a bit of a throwaway—it would be easy enough to do as part of a montage, but also easy enough to cut. It’s the third, fourth, and seventh ones that I want to see included this season, if nothing else than to confirm what they show.

When I first read them, I assumed that three is Lyanna Stark, having just learned that Robert killed Rhaegar at the Trident, and that four was her and Rhaegar’s first kiss. That’s not to say it’s really what those visions are, it’s just one theory. The final vision, on the other hand, is a total mystery to me. There are quite a few theories floating around as to which past event it is, but considering the promises of futurecasting, perhaps this one is a chilling vision of things to come? I certainly could see Dany wielding an arakh (which Bran would see as a “bronze sickle”), not to mention there are several candidates for the “bearded man” by her side.

Other flashbacks I’ve been dying to see ever since the show began: Melisandre’s visions of Azor Ahai and Dany’s visions in the House of the Undying. The former is unlikely to be shown to us in that format, and the ship sailed on the latter long ago. But that doesn’t mean Benioff and Weiss couldn’t backtrack and/or reassign. Perhaps Bran could see Azor Ahai and the first battle of the Long Night way back during the Age of Heroes? The “all this has happened before/all this will happen again” aspect is too good to be lost. (And wouldn’t it be nice to let TV show viewers understand why the first Brandon Stark all those generations ago felt it necessary to build The Wall?) Pair that with some flash-forward visions of the ending fight coming between the Night’s King and those humans who will stand and fight him, and you’ve got a doozy of a scene for Season 6.

(By the way—so you know how there’s this spoiler about a certain dead character having been seen on set, and that’s the proof we’ve been looking for that they’ll be some Red Priestess Resurrection action this year? What if we’re all wrong, and those are just Bran’s visions of things that never were? /trolling)

Meanwhile, though some of Dany’s visions are now out of date, like the vision of the dwarves playing out the War of Five King’s at Joffrey’s wedding, or the image of Robb Stark wearing his wolf’s head post-Red Wedding, some are still highly valuable clues, as well as insight to all that has come before.

“A dying prince with rubies flying from his armor whispering the name of a woman with his last breath”

isn’t just the longed-for vision of Rhaegar’s defeat at the Trident; it’s also seriously cinematic. Who wouldn’t want to film that? “

A blue flower growing from a chink in a wall of ice” 

is just a lovely shot, and one that could be reused and remixed in many of Bran’s trippy visions. But the real one that I want Benioff and Weiss to go back for is the following scene:

…a man who looked like Viserys, but taller and with darker eyes, who says to a woman nursing a baby, “Aegon…What better name for a king…He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire”; and when the man’s eyes meet Dany’s, he says either to her or the woman with the baby, “There must be one more…The dragon has three heads,” and he picks up a silver harp and begins to play…

Now, I know that the show has (so far) cut Young Griff, aka Aegon, much to the confusion of book-readers who have to wonder if this is proof that he really is a False Dragon, and therefore unimportant to the main plotline. But this vision of Dany’s has, to me, always been proof that Aegon, though a late arrival to the dragon party, is probably the real deal. And if the show is streamlining his story into something less out-of-the-blue, or at least less convoluted, this would be a good introduction. And hey, who knows—maybe the show could decide that instead of a random extra Targaryen throne claimant, the baby that Ned Stark named after his mentor and father figure Jon Arryn was to be named Aegon if things had gone very differently, and this is a vision of what his birth should have been instead.

But no list of flashbacks would be complete without the twin original sins, as it were, of the Tourney at Harrenhal and the Tower of Joy. Now, we know from filming spoilers that the Tower *is* on the docket this season. That means we have a Lyanna, we have a Young Ned, and we have several important players from that time period cast. How much more would it take to add in some Year of the False Spring scenes interspersed, since those actors are already on the payroll?

As I’ve said before, that story, which is told and retold via memories, myths, and tales over the course of the later books, has been cut because having characters stop the action and recount what happened twenty-plus years ago out of the blue would never work, especially when the show is as jammed for time as it is. (Although I did appreciate the truncated version from Littlefinger last season, not to mention that LOOK he gave Sansa when she tacked on the false ending that Robert insisted on spreading as fact after his victory over the Targaryens.) I want the show to find a way to depict the events of this incident. And if Bran sitting around watching

 the past on his Weirstation 4 (or is a WeirBox One?) is the way to get to see Lyanna kick some ass as “the Knight of the Laughing Tree,” I’ll take it. Especially if it ends with Rhaegar riding right past his wife and crowning her with a wreath of blue roses, and naming her the Queen of Love and Beauty to boot.

Next: A Search of Ice and Fire now includes the sample Winds of Winter chapters

Yesterday, Entertainment Weekly debuted the first official image from Game of Thrones Season 6:...

SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES SEASON 6 AHEAD Last we law Bran Stark, he had just met the...

Have you already read all the books and/or don\'t care about spoilers? You can reveal all the spoilers in the comments with the click of a link below.

They should just extend the show for 20 years and show everything they left out…

Or they could do more than 10 episodes per year?? 😎😇. Just a thought. That would be a win win situation!!

They finished filming a couple weeks ago and will still be doing editing (last few episodes) when the season starts, they really don’t have enough time in a year to do more.

Yeah I know. It’s just that 10 episodes per year goes very quickly. And more episodes would give them more time to delve into aspects of the books more thoroughly. I know it ain’t gonna happen. 😊

yeah, to do it right, it would probably take that long. GRRM always thought 10 episodes a season was too short anyway.

I’m not the first to believe (nor the last) that the vision of the slender woman kissing a knight as tall as Hodor is Old Nan and Ser Duncan the Tall.

Ok maybe that’s the case, but what does it have to do with anything?

It’s an easter egg for D&E readers. Just like the Brandon Snow vision is an easter egg for World book readers (or a clue as to how Dany dragons will be killed).

Lyanna was at the Tower of Joy. There’s no way she leaves Winterfell after Rhaegar falls at the Trident and travels all the way south to Dorne pregnant and ostensibly alone.

Also, given the way the visions seem to be racing backward in time the way they are presented in the book, I’ve always assumed that the last scene is the Night’s King with his White Walker bride. The books have suggested that the Night’s King was a Stark, and the white-haired woman seems to line up with what little we know of his corpse-bride. The bronze sickle is really a bronze sickle, indicating the scene takes place in the distant past before the availability of iron and steel.

Oh my God. Is Old Nan actually Shiera Seastar?? Are Old Nan and Bloodraven going to throw-down?

How off book are we versus events that GRRM has told D&D what to come? Hasn’t D&D had access to drafts of books 6 and 7?

Where do you get the notion that #5 depicts young Ned or one of his siblings? I thought that one was usually interpreted as a Stark from the Aegon’s Conquest era, prior to the Kings in the North bending the knee to the Targs, who believed that the three dragons could be felled with magical arrows made from weirwood.

#5 is Brandon Snow. You’re correct that it’s from the Aegon I era. No idea where the author got that it could be Ned or either of his brothers.

I thought #5 might be Bloodraven himself. I think we was known to carry a Weirwood longbow, and he formed a company of Archers called the “Raven’s Teeth.”

I agree. We need 15 episodes per season. 10 isn’t enough. I hope they decide to do a prequel after GOT has finished. I would love to see the dragons flying around in war time and how they died.

How can you dislike somebody you’ve never met and don’t know? Just a question…..I’m not having a go at you, but it does seem a little harsh.

Agree Slizzy. Really illogical and totally unnecessary rudeness. Even if you had just inserted …[Bundle]’s VIEWS… Absolutely no need to make it personal.

I don’t like that troll who uses several different names on this Blog and always goes hysterical whenever someone disagrees with them….

I can only speak for myself here, but I don’t think it was as serious to say I don’t like her as a person. She’s probably very lovely. You’re right, I’ve never met her and never will so I can only speak in the context of her as a writer. I think her pieces rarely make sense, and always seem rushed and not thought out.

I don’t agree with much that’s written above either tbh 😄

When did bran have a vision of a prince with blue eyes and a red sword in the show? I must have missed it….

When the correct answer could be Hodor and it doesn’t show up its kind of a let down.

oh you sweet summer child, the visions are going backwards in time to the beginning of the life of the weirwood tree in the gods wood in Winterfell. The seventh vision might be the Night’s King and his Other bride, but I think it is also showing a blood sacrifice to awaken the eyes of the tree itself.

My interpretation of Dany’s vision of the dwarves raping a beautiful woman is not a vision of the mummer’s show at Joff’s wedding, it’s a vision of the actual war. The woman is a symbol for Westeros and the dwarves are the kings destroying the land.

Yeah, Dany’s visions in the House of the Undying are symbolic pictures of what is to come. It’s not literally Robb with Greywind’s head stitched on that she sees – but it’s pretty clearly a symbolic vision of the Red Wedding.

There was a new about young Ned and then there will be young Robert too. And also was a new about Hodor’s origin.

-A large boy, with an actor who is 10-12 but playing 7 or 8. He’s described as “a clever boy” who seems too large for his age. He’s big and tall but not fat. “Characterful squat features” are a plus for this part. it’s specified that this is a one-time appearance. (Hodor, when he was Walder)

-12 year old boy, with brown hair and blue eyes. He needs to use a Northern accent. He has scenes where he has to spar with a wooden sword.

The length of the role isn’t specified. (young Robert) – Mark Addy=Robert Baratheon has blue eyes

-7 year old boy with dark brown hair, a narrow face and green eyes. He also has a Northern accent. He also spars with the wooden sword, so it’s safe to assume it’s the same scene. This role is similarly open-ended, the description only stating that the character is being ‘introduced.’ (young Ned) – Sebastian Croft will playing young Ned who has green eyes

I think this scene is a vision and Bran sees both of them young at Winterfell. (on the picture he maybe lookin at Winterfell’s wall)

I’m sorry but I think you’re way off the mark with pinning down what it is that Bran is seeing in his flashbacks in the book. The flashbacks are in reverse chronological order, so pregnant Lyanna would not be before Lyanna and Benjen fighting as children.

2. Lyanna and Benjen playfighting. The show may and probably will insert Ned into this, as you suggested.

3. Probably one of the She-Wolves of Winterfell, to be seen in the next Dunk and Egg novella. Not Lyanna.

4. The girl kissing the tall knight is Young Nan kissing Dunk (and a clue that Hodor is Dunk’s descendant). Rhaegar is not described as being as tall as Hodor.

5. This is Brandon Snow making weirwood arrows to kill Aegon I’s three dragons. I’m not sure why young Ned being cast makes this one clearly on the table. It’s not Ned.

7. A clue about how weirwood sacrifice works. This is something that happened a long, long, long, long time ago and it probably isn’t anything specific (if it IS something specific, I agree that it’s something to do with the Night’s King), just showing how northerners used to practice their religion. We know, from Davos’ chapter in the Wolf’s Den, that the northerners used to make sacrifices to weirwoods. This is what Bran is seeing here and it may come into play again (say if Theon is sacrificed to a weirwood, as hinted at in his WoW chapter).

I do agree that the ToJ will be a flashback vehicle for Bran in the book.

I quite like the idea if #3 being the Stark lady that was abducted by Bael the Bard

Ani, I’ve read your post 3x now and I’m so confused. I have so many questions. Do you not believe that the visions are in reverse chronological order? Why do you assume #4 is about Lyanna and Rhaegar and not Nan and Ser Duncan the Tall? The woman is kissing a knight..so supposedly in armor..who is ridiculously tall. And #5? Why do you assume that’s about Ned Stark and his siblings? These would be Starks from a different time making magical weirwood arrows as weapons, no? The only way your assumption makes sense is if you don’t think the visions are in reverse. And #7?? Dany?? Not the Night’s King and bride, but Dany? Why? Her character development so far doesn’t match up with this. Is it just because she has white hair? Are these your theories from reading the books or did you read these theories somewhere and decide they make the most sense to you? I really don’t understand.

I don’t believe that the show is anywhere near the end. They need more time to explain everything. And, I think Season 6 will explain everything from Seasons 1 – 6.

Christ, well if that’s true for the show then the books have a helluva mess to wrap up in 2…

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