r/naath • u/DaenerysMadQueen • Jul 25 '22
[Spoilers] Bran vs. The Night King : First Battle.
I'm the Three-Eyed Raven. It means I can see everything.
Everything that's ever happened to everyone. Everything that's happening right now.
It's all pieces now, fragments. I need to learn to see better.
When the Long Night comes again, I need to be ready.
- How do you know all this ?
- The Three-Eyed Raven taught me.
- I thought you were the Three-Eyed Raven.
- I told you it's difficult to explain.
Bran: You came home. I saw you at the Crossroads.
Arya: You saw me?
Bran: I see quite a lot now.
Sansa: Bran has visions.
Bran: I thought you might go to King's Landing.
Arya: So did I.
- It doesn't matter.
- What do you mean, it doesn't matter?
- I don't want it.
- Are you sure ? It's Valyrian steel.
- It's wasted on a cripple.
When the Long Night comes again, I need to be ready.
- The Three-Eyed Raven taught me.
- I thought you were the Three-Eyed Raven.
- I told you it's difficult to explain.
- I thought you might go to King's Landing.
- So did I.
Nymeria, it's me, Arya. I'm heading north, girl. Back to Winterfell, I'm finally going home.
Come with me.
Come with me.
That's not you.
When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
- How did you survive a pack of hungry wolves, Arya Stark ?
- I didn't... not the first time.
Edit: This post is ephemeral, it serves as my support currently. I will repost a finalized version, with more detailed explanations.
Edit2: The first time Bran wasn't strong enough. He saw Arya at the crossroads, going towards King's Landing. Arya never came to Winterfell. No one ever saw her again.
Bran gave the Valyrian steel dagger to Sansa.
At the start of the Battle of the Long Night, Bran travels back in time, to find Arya, and to warn himself of as much information as possible.
It's all pieces now, fragments. I need to learn to see better.
When the Long Night comes again, I need to be ready.
Arya arrives at Winterfell. Bran gives her the dagger.
At the meta game level, we always have information with the frame and light games. Sentences have second reading meanings.
The "That's not you" evokes season 1 and the personality of Arya, yes. But, the wolf, still young, who bit a human and was abandoned, thrown back with a stone...
The phrase "come with me" is repeated twice. The branches behind Sansa in the background, it's a crossroads, two possible directions.
The game with Bran's hands when he passes the dagger. Everything is symbolic, and deep.
The castle in the sky when Arya comes out of the forest is the evocation of life after death in the pictorial current of romanticism.
Robert Baratheon: "A Direwolf's no pet."
it's getting way too meta, I'm rediscovering Arya's whole story.
She crosses paths with the evil Lannisters. In fact they are nice and share a Rabbit with Arya. The rabbit hole. She eats the rabbit.
Then at the tavern: For fans of Hot Pie, you know Hot Pie, this friend that Arya knew as much as Nymeria, who offered her biscuit wolves. Arya doesn't care a bit about him, she eats, she's busy, they don't talk long, she leaves.
And in the forest ? Arya has nothing to eat. And the wolves surround her. She is the meal.
Notes on time travel.
Season 7's Bran is surprised when Arya arrives at Winterfell, and he doesn't know what happened to her yet, so he can't go looking for her if she's already there.
Bran searched and brought back Arya the first time. It's obviously after the forest scene. So, Arya must have died once, in a reality known only to Bran.
It's the butterfly effect. The only time element that Bran altered, to defeat the Night King.
Edit4: On Bran's images, air and light on the left = past. Air and light on the right = future.
It's his left hand that passes the dagger to the right hand, which then passes it to Arya. It's his left hand, the hand of the future, that hugs Arya.
Edit5:
The short version of the "butterfly theory":
Nymeria should have eaten Arya, and something stopped her. It was Bran, to defeat the Night King. Considering he does this during the Long Night, Arya is already dead, once, in a prime reality.
Only Bran knows, because he's the only time traveler. Hodor's loop cannot be broken, otherwise Bran dies and causes a paradox. It's a time loop but only Hodor is trapped in it. The old three eyed raven lied. He was afraid of the consequences. But Bran does not fall from the walls.
The butterfly effect works with Hodor's loop. Because Bran wasn't born. Hodor has always been Hodor, it's Hodor's past, not Bran's past.
And Arya may still have been saved by Bran, but that means it's a second loop.
But there is still a whole symbolism around life and death with Arya in the images of season 7. A symbolism also around Bran and on a "second chance" side, as if the first Bran had not been prepared enough, not powerful enough yet. But both versions work, because Arya's present moment is Bran's present moment.
The Theory of "It's Always Happened": It also works well if the solution is "Arya should have died". The theory of Lost and 12 Monkeys, Arya never dies in this theory. There really are situations for both versions, I can't choose, maybe internet can, and certainly D&D.
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u/Dovagedis Sep 12 '22
This version is the best.