I am taking a break from posting theories as I go into the theory-blogging sunless sea to float serenely at peace atop black waters that knew no troll.
For how long? A night, day, a year? Time that is beyond time? Daendrew could not say.
But before I go. I bequeath my readers this IceBrandon primer and a show-nugget with a clip with the biggest clues that IceBrandon is coming after the primer below.
The IceBrandon Theory Primer
In my IceBrandon series I first laid out that Bran has made a deal with the Night’s Devil buying back his life after dying when Jaime pushed him off the tower.
In Flight of The IceBrandon we had a line by line analysis of Bran’s greendream foreshadowing Winter’s birth and the importance of Bran in waking him.
Lastly in The Hooded Man of Winterfell Revealed we have the foundations of what the nightwalker is (Euron-thon Badbrother) and how he used glass candles to make Theon kill Yellow Dick in Winterfell and that is the foundation to my “For The Night” theory on how Jon wasn’t killed in a mutiny.
Jon was sacrificed by someone, well no one really, no one in the room. The Nightwalker Euron via a glass candle sacrificed Jon to wake the stone dragon… the stone dragon made of ice.
Jon’s and Shireen were sacrificed to wake the dragon… to wake Winter the ice dragon.
CGIceBrandon
The producers of Game of Thrones have been very subtly hinting of the ice dragon to come. They had a CGI flying dragon in the background in the Hardhome episode. That is very expensive to produce and would not be thrown out like that willy nilly.
Keep your eyes in this red region below to see the shadow dragon flying behind the clouds. It’s very subtle.
The biggest hint for those with the eyes to see or the spring fevre dream to believe, is found in the opening scene of the season five finale.
This is the opening of the episode immediately following Shireen being sacrificed. This sacrifice traumatized us all and left purpose of her death fresh in our memory. The first thing Melisande looks at are icicles… and then Melisandre gives a very eerie smile and walks out.
Stannis was never her champion, it was through him, through his blood sacrifices that the champion of ice is born. In front of her is a puddle of black water. She walked into a black pool. She didn’t just casually step into the black puddle, they did a dramatic close up of it.
GRRM has mentioned many, many times that the black water is incredibly still and unmoving. So moments of unstill black waters, such as when Osha went into it are a big deal.
At the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood brooded over its reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in a chill wind. When it felt Bran watching, it lifted its eyes from the still waters and stared back at him knowingly.
-A Game of Thrones – Bran III
The godswood was an island of peace in the sea of chaos that Winterfell had become. Hodor made his way through the dense stands of oak and ironwood and sentinels, to the still pool beside the heart tree.
-A Game of Thrones – Bran VI
Jon watched them leave, and Arya watched Jon. His face had grown as still as the pool at the heart of the godswood.
-A Game of Thrones – Arya I
With iceicles at hand, and the still black pool now unstill, her work there was done. Melisandre got the hell out of Dodge and rode to The Wall as fast as she possibly could. She went to Jon, who upon her arrival curiously died that night.
In the books Jon announced that Stannis is dead and Melisandre quickly leaves the room. I think that Shireen may have been sacrificed off-book screen and that paid for the Nightwalker’s glass candle magic.
Stannis was never her champion, it is through him and his blood and the Baratheon sacrifices and the help of Bran via Bloodraven that she could wake her dragon… the ice dragon Winter, the stone dragon made of ice.
Shireen is sacrificed. Jon is sacrificed. The still black pool is unstill.
“You enter the forest
at the darkest point,
where there is no path.
Where there is a way or path,
it is someone else’s path.
You are not on your own path.
If you follow someone else’s way,
you are not going to realize
your potential.”
“A bit of advice
Given to a young Native American
At the time of his initiation:
As you go the way of life,
You will see a great chasm. Jump.
It is not as wide as you think.”
“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”
I have seen this ad on my facebook feed several times, but never noticed the icemungous ice dragon with the blue eye looking back at Bran until now.
This poster looked so professionally made, that I was sure it was from HBO. But no, I went HBO sites and social media and was surprised not to find it anywhere. It is a work of fan art made by someone under the name ertacaltinoz on deviantart.com
But Winter the ice dragon is coming soon enough. The IceBrandon is coming.
Endgame of Thrones 