This Reddit user just shared the craziest “Game of Thrones” theory about a psychic fight and we think they might be right
We’ve heard a lot of crazy Game of Thrones theories over the years, but one fan just came up with a new one that’s seriously out of this world.
Like many Bran Stark theories, this one focuses on his future — and what his powers as the new Three-Eyed Raven will mean. We’ve already seen Bran slip into other’s bodies and now time-travel, but some are theorizing Bran could take things a step further.
In a proposal Reddit user /u/YezenIRL is calling the “Mindbowl,” Bran’s destiny would become intertwined with The Night King.
We’ve seen a little of that before.
“The show has made it even clearer than the books than Bran Stark is essential to stopping the Others,” the theory starts. “From Jojen’s cryptic comments to Samwell at the end of season 3 that none of the kings or armies of Westeros can stop them, to the Three Eyed Raven’s promise of a greater destiny, to UnBenjen straight up telling Bran that he needs to be ready and waiting when the Night King makes it to the world of the living; All indications point to Bran’s role in stopping the Others being pivotal, if not the most pivotal. But how can a time traveling, body snatching, vision seeing, crippled demigod stop the winter apocalypse?”
Enter Mindbowl, “the theory that (in the show) Bran will fight the Night King with his mind.”
We’ll let /u/YezenIRL explain the theory themselves.
In The Door (S6Ep5), we see that although Bran is invisible when he astral projects his consciousness, the Night King is able to physically take hold of Bran’s projection due to his own magical/telepathic abilities, and thus is able to make a physical mark on Bran’s arm. While I at first considered this a show plot device to get the Others into the Three Eyed Raven’s Cave, it’s also possible that it’s a major setup. If contact with Bran’s consciousness by the Night King can physically affect Bran, then logic follows that Bran’s projection can physically affect the Night King. This is advantageous because while the Night King can guard himself with hoards of wights, Bran can hypothetically project his consciousness anywhere the Night King is, and as a projection of consciousness cannot be physically affected by the surrounding wights.
They continued:
I imagine this fight on the show playing out a lot like the Tower of Joy scene, with the Night King taking the role of Arthur Dayne, Jon taking the role of Ned Stark, and Bran taking the role of Howland Reed. The show will probably have Jon sword fight the Night King, because they had that face off at Hardhome, and the showrunners love to give Jon badass hero swordfights. But the Night King will probably have the upper hand, at which point Bran’s astral projection will come up behind the Night King in the same way that Howland Reed came up behind Arthur Dayne, and grab him similar to how he marked Bran in season 6, using his powers to bring the Night King to his knees for Jon to strike the final blow.
If you’ve read the books, you might be a little confused.
But /u/YezenIRL is quick to clarify this is a show-only theory and is actually inspired by a book-only spoiler from Tumblr user PoorQuentyn that features Euron Crow’s Eye instead of The Night King.
But /u/YezenIRL also has one more disclaimer:
“If this happens it’s probably going to suck.”
Yep, they’re not a fan of their own theory — but it makes so much sense that they couldn’t help but share it.
“A mental battle cinematically taking the form of a physical altercation isn’t necessarily anything new… but I’ve almost never found it compelling in anything,” they explained. “In a gritty and realistic series like ASOIAF, when you have characters fighting a physical battle, we are aware of the general rules of the battle and the general consequences of being struck….But with a mental battle, or a fight on the astral plane, all of those things are totally abstract, and the writer can do whatever they want with not only how the battle looks, but how a battle is won and what are the physical consequences of the battle to the real world.”
At the same time, we have to agree it seems pretty likely. And, compelling or not, it definitely fits in with the “rules” of the show. After all, Jon Snow was brought back to life. Daenerys Targaryen can walk through fire without being burnt. And Bran can already peer through time and even affect the events of the past (remember what happened with Hodor?).
We don’t know if this is going to happen… but we’re pretty convinced. And if the show goes this route, we’re confident they could find a cool way to show it on screen. One even /u/YezenIRL would agree with.
Check out the full post here.
