The Heir to Winterfell: Bran Stark Discussion
Jun 25, 2016 22:51:02 GMT
kingeomer, day dreamer, and 3 more like this
Post by 7timesdamnedshewolf on Jun 25, 2016 22:51:02 GMT
Can you dig out the quotes? I think we loaned out our copy of AGOT.
Bran II AGOT: ...Bran could see all of Winterfell in a glance. He liked the way it looked, spread out beneath him, only birds wheeling over his head while all the life of the castle went on below. .... It made him feel like he was lord of the castle, in a way even Robb would never know.
It taught him Winterfell’s secrets too. The builders had not even leveled the earth .... he knew you could get inside the inner wall by the south gate, climb three floors and run all the way around Winterfell through a narrow tunnel in the stone, and then come out on ground level at the north gate, with a hundred feet of wall looming over you. Even Maester Luwin didn’t know that, Bran was convinced.
....
Most of all, he liked going places that no one else could go, and seeing the grey sprawl of Winterfell in a way that no one else ever saw it. It made the whole castle Bran’s secret place.
It taught him Winterfell’s secrets too. The builders had not even leveled the earth .... he knew you could get inside the inner wall by the south gate, climb three floors and run all the way around Winterfell through a narrow tunnel in the stone, and then come out on ground level at the north gate, with a hundred feet of wall looming over you. Even Maester Luwin didn’t know that, Bran was convinced.
....
Most of all, he liked going places that no one else could go, and seeing the grey sprawl of Winterfell in a way that no one else ever saw it. It made the whole castle Bran’s secret place.
Bran IV AGOT: Robb was seated in Father’s high seat, wearing ringmail and boiled leather and the stern face of Robb the Lord. ....
Robb stood and ....
“Hodor, bring my brother here.”
“Hodor,” Hodor said, and he trotted forward smiling and set Bran in the high seat of the Starks, where the Lords of Winterfell had sat since the days when they called themselves the Kings in the North.
Robb stood and ....
“Hodor, bring my brother here.”
“Hodor,” Hodor said, and he trotted forward smiling and set Bran in the high seat of the Starks, where the Lords of Winterfell had sat since the days when they called themselves the Kings in the North.
Bran V AGOT: (to Robb) “Eight isn’t so much younger than fifteen, and I’m the heir to Winterfell, after you.”
Bran VI AGOT: Robb was not with them. He took his meal in the solar instead, with Lord Rickard and the Greatjon and the other lords bannermen, to make the final plans for the long march to come. It was left to Bran to fill his place at the head of the table, and act the host to Lord Karstark’s sons and honored friends. They were already at their places when Hodor carried Bran into the hall on his back, and knelt beside the high seat.
....
“You are the lord in Winterfell now,” Robb told him. He was mounted on a shaggy grey stallion, his shield hung from the horse’s side; wood banded with iron, white and grey, and on it the snarling face of a direwolf. His brother wore grey chainmail over bleached leathers, sword and dagger at his waist, a fur-trimmed cloak across his shoulders. “You must take my place, as I took Father’s, until we come home.”
....
“You are the lord in Winterfell now,” Robb told him. He was mounted on a shaggy grey stallion, his shield hung from the horse’s side; wood banded with iron, white and grey, and on it the snarling face of a direwolf. His brother wore grey chainmail over bleached leathers, sword and dagger at his waist, a fur-trimmed cloak across his shoulders. “You must take my place, as I took Father’s, until we come home.”
Bran I ACOK: It made Bran feel queer when they called him prince, though he was Robb’s heir, and Robb was King in the North now.
Bran II ACOK: Bran had never asked to be a prince. .... it was his duty. “You are your brother’s heir and the Stark in Winterfell,” Ser Rodrik said, reminding him of how Robb used to sit with their lord father when his bannermen came to see him.
Lord Wyman Manderly had arrived from White Harbor two days past, traveling by barge and litter, as he was too fat to sit a horse. ....Bran had welcomed them to Winterfell from his father’s high stone seat with the direwolves carved into the arms, and afterward Ser Rodrik had said he’d done well.
....
“... Bran,” Maester Luwin said after. “One day you will be a good lord for Winterfell, I think.”
“No I won’t.” Bran knew he would never be a lord, no more than he could be a knight. “Robb’s to marry some Frey girl, you told me so yourself, and the Walders say the same. He’ll have sons, and they’ll be the lords of Winterfell after him, not me.”
“It may be so, Bran,” Ser Rodrik said, “but I was wed three times and my wives gave me daughters. Now only Beth remains to me. My brother Martyn fathered four strong sons, yet only Jory lived to be a man. When he was slain, Martyn’s line died with him. When we speak of the morrow nothing is ever certain.”
Lord Wyman Manderly had arrived from White Harbor two days past, traveling by barge and litter, as he was too fat to sit a horse. ....Bran had welcomed them to Winterfell from his father’s high stone seat with the direwolves carved into the arms, and afterward Ser Rodrik had said he’d done well.
....
“... Bran,” Maester Luwin said after. “One day you will be a good lord for Winterfell, I think.”
“No I won’t.” Bran knew he would never be a lord, no more than he could be a knight. “Robb’s to marry some Frey girl, you told me so yourself, and the Walders say the same. He’ll have sons, and they’ll be the lords of Winterfell after him, not me.”
“It may be so, Bran,” Ser Rodrik said, “but I was wed three times and my wives gave me daughters. Now only Beth remains to me. My brother Martyn fathered four strong sons, yet only Jory lived to be a man. When he was slain, Martyn’s line died with him. When we speak of the morrow nothing is ever certain.”
Bran III ACOK: Dancer was draped in bardings of snowy white wool emblazoned with the grey direwolf of House Stark, while Bran wore grey breeches and white doublet, his sleeves and collar trimmed with vair. Over his heart was his wolf’s-head brooch of silver and polished jet. He would sooner have had Summer than a silver wolf on his breast, but Ser Rodrik had been unyielding.
The low stone steps balked Dancer only for a moment. When Bran urged her on, she took them easily. Beyond the wide oak-and-iron doors, eight long rows of trestle tables filled Winterfell’s Great Hall, four on each side of the center aisle. Men crowded shoulder to shoulder on the benches. “Stark!” they called as Bran trotted past, rising to their feet. “Winterfell! Winterfell!”
....
(Ser Rodrik) “You have done well, Bran. Here, and at the audiences. You will be an especial fine lord one
day, I think."
....
He was the Stark in Winterfell, his father’s son and his brother’s heir, and almost a man grown.
The low stone steps balked Dancer only for a moment. When Bran urged her on, she took them easily. Beyond the wide oak-and-iron doors, eight long rows of trestle tables filled Winterfell’s Great Hall, four on each side of the center aisle. Men crowded shoulder to shoulder on the benches. “Stark!” they called as Bran trotted past, rising to their feet. “Winterfell! Winterfell!”
....
(Ser Rodrik) “You have done well, Bran. Here, and at the audiences. You will be an especial fine lord one
day, I think."
....
He was the Stark in Winterfell, his father’s son and his brother’s heir, and almost a man grown.
Bran VI ACOK: (Theon telling Bran to yield) "...This is no game, Bran, so don’t play the boy with me, I won’t stand for it. The castle is mine, but these people are still yours."
....
(Maester Luwin helping him dress) "You are the Stark in Winterfell, and Robb’s heir. You must look princely."
....
(Maester Luwin helping him dress) "You are the Stark in Winterfell, and Robb’s heir. You must look princely."
Bran VII ACOK: At the edge of the wolfswood, Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. Wisps of smoke still rose into the grey sky, but no more than might have risen from Winterfell’s chimneys on a cold autumn afternoon. Soot stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing merlon could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance. Beyond, the tops of the keeps and towers still stood as they had for hundreds of years, and it was hard to tell that the castle had been sacked and burned at all. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I’m not dead either.
Bran I ASOS: (Meera) "You are only a boy, I know, but you are our prince as well, our lord's son and our king's true heir. We have sworn you our faith by earth and water, bronze and iron, ice and fire. The risk is yours, Bran, as is the gift. The choice should be yours too, I think. We are your servants to command."
Bran II ASOS: (the Liddle man) “It was different when there was a Stark in Winterfell. But the old wolf's dead and young one's gone south to play the game of thrones, and all that's left us is the ghosts.”
“The wolves will come again,” said Jojen solemnly.
....
One day there would be Starks in Winterfell again, he told himself, and then he'd send for the Liddles and pay them back a hundredfold for every nut and berry.
“The wolves will come again,” said Jojen solemnly.
....
One day there would be Starks in Winterfell again, he told himself, and then he'd send for the Liddles and pay them back a hundredfold for every nut and berry.
Bran III ADWD: One day I will be like him. The thought filled Bran with dread. Bad enough that he was broken, with his useless legs. Was he doomed to lose the rest too, to spend all of his years with a weirwood growing in him and through him? ....
What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins.
What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins.
Fwiw, the word "Winterfell" appears 137 times in Bran's and Jon's PoVs, 75 times in Arya's, and 55 times in Sansa's, despite Bran having the least total chapters of all of them. He only has seven chapters altogether post-Clash, so the majority of his page-time is spent in Winterfell. So, y'know, at anyone who still thinks the wolves coming back to Winterfell will not include Brandon Stark of Winterfell.
Back to the dragon-warging question, IA with @witchy that it could only happen as a temporary experience, not like the bond Dany has with Drogon or Bran had with Summer. I can't imagine Jon and Dany on Rhaegal and Drogon, while Viserion just spends the whole time riderless. (Yes, I am assuming Jon's dragon is the one named for his bio-father.)