Well… this would change things.
Before you continue, you should know that this post contains possible spoilers for the latest season of Game of Thrones.
First up. The Night King is one scary dude. Remember that scene in Hardhome when he stood on the edge of the sea, looked Jon Snow in the eye, and then raised the dead in front of him?
Of course you do…
Well, there’s a theory going around that the Night King is actually someone that we all know. There’s a theory that Night King is actually Bran Stark aka The Three-Eyed Raven.
Before you start calling us a shower of pr*cks, hear us out.
There’s no doubting that Bran isn’t exactly the flashiest character in the series, but he’s had a significant role in many of the big moments of the series so far.
Game of Thrones seems to stick by the rule of time travel that whatever happens, like when Bran warged and got Hodor to hold the door, and in the process turned poor Wylis into Hodor.
It’s set in stone, what’s going to happen, will happen.
According to this theory from turm0il26, Bran has warged himself back in time to try and prevent The Children Of The Forest from creating the White Walkers.
But as he was told, it’s dangerous to spend too long in the past because you can become trapped there, which is what some people think happened. The theory said:
“Bran goes back all the way to where the Night king was created, to warg into the human that later is going to become the Night king. He wargs into him to instead stop the ‘dragonglass into the heart’-event from happening. Only he doesn’t think of that the children of the forest won’t recognise him from the future, and that they at that point are in war with the first men (he is gagged because of all the weird future-talk). When he realised he failed again, he tries to go back in the current timeline, but can’t because he’s too deep into the past and stayed too long (‘it is beautiful beneath the sea, stay too long and you drown’). From here Bran gets stuck in the past (exactly as Brynden and Jojen warned him not to) and becomes the Night King.”
So Bran is in the body of the man that becomes the Night King, which would help explain that scene where the Night King grabbed his arm when Bran thought he was invisible. There’s clearly some kind of connection between the pair.
There’s also the scene between Bran and the Children of the Forest after Bran sees that they created the White Walkers and confronts them.
Leaf: We were at war. We were being slaughtered. Our sacred trees cut down. We needed to defend ourselves.
Bran: From who?
Leaf: From you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQMKT6mA_g
Turm0il26 suggests that the magic that the Children of the Forest possess added to Bran’s powers would ultimately lead to corruption and madness, and Bran, trapped in the past slowly loses his sense of self and truly becomes the Night King.
In the books, the Night King is said to be the 13th Commander of the Night’s Watch, but it wouldn’t be the first time the series has skewed from the path of the books and this theory is so well thought out, we believe there’s a possibility it’s true.
