[Spoilers] Game of Thrones: Is Bran Stark really the Lord of Light, the Fire God?

Bran isn’t Bran Stark any more. But could he actually be a God?

May 1, 2019

“Lord of Light! Come to us in our darkness. We offer you these false gods. Take them and cast your light upon us. For the night is dark and full of terrors.”

Warning: Spoilers from Season 8, Episode 3 of Game of Thrones.

Bran Stark has been weird for a while now in Game of Thrones.

In Season 8, Episode 3 “The Long Night,” however we learned all that uncanny, preternatural behavior (staring extra long, watching people have sex on weirwood-tube and making commensurately prescient, cryptic and unnerving remarks from his wheelchair) from the Three-Eyed-Raven and artist formerly known as Bran Stark was with very good reason: ending the menace of the Night King and the White Walkers.

Sure, it seemed like Bran was knee-deep in weirwood paste after the Night King marked him during a Green Sight vision in Game of Thrones S6 E5, “The Door,” killed his predecessor with a single swipe of his blade and started hunting the boy across Westeros. However, Bran wasn’t as green a greenseer we figured he would be; even though the Night King too was ostensibly a greenseer with centuries more experience than Bran, Bran still prevailed (after baiting the Night King to the weirwood tree in the godswood of Winterfell). And made it look almost too easy.

Helen Sloan/HBO

But how? According to an in-depth Reddit thread, it’s because Bran is actually the Night King’s counterpart and antithesis, the Lord of Light (AKA the Fire God, AKA R’hllor, AKA the Red God). The Wiki of Ice and Fire entry for R’hllor states:

The religion is based on a dualistic, manichean view of the world: R’hllor, the god of light, heat, and life, and R’hllor’s antithesis the Great Other, the god of ice and death.

R’hllor is also called the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. His nemesis, the Great Other, whose name may not be spoken, is known as the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror.

Bran is the new representative of the god of light, heat and life. And in S8E3, we saw him defeat his nemesis the Great Other, AKA the Night King. And the evidence has been there since the beginning of Season 1.

Dontmicrowavecats’ theory:

Bran is a powerful warg. We know he gets visions of the past, present and future…and can manipulate the past to help save his future self. We don’t yet know the extent of this power.

We knew the Night King can reanimate the dead into evil still-dead soldiers. But this episode we learned he can also manipulate snow and ice at will, sending a full blown blizzard. (This is key.)

Followers of the Lord of Light believe that their Lord is always at war with his evil opposite diety. Theres always a dichotomy. Light vs Dark. Good vs Bad. Fire vs Ice. Everything in this world has an antithesis.
The 3 eyed raven seems to be NK’s eternal adversary. He intentionally killed the OG 3 eyed raven, and ever since he’s been after Bran.

The lord of light supposedly has a “purpose” for everyone. Consequently, everyone supposedly brought back by the lord of light helped Arya defeat the Night King.
Bran gave Arya the dagger, and offered himself as bait. So like the Lord of Light, everything Bran has done recently also ultimately leads to Arya defeating the Night King.

What we can take from this…

If the Night King is Lord of Death, Night, and Ice…he should have an equal opposite. That opposite would of course be the Lord of Life, Light, and Fire (ie. The Lord of Light) .

The Night King is a physical entity, his opposite should be too. The Lord of Light likely has a physical presence (or a physical champion at the very least). So who is it? they don’t ever explicitly show any other being with NK’s level of power (or do they?)

If the Night King can reanimate the dead, his “light” opposite should have an equal level of power to bring life. And if NK’s reanimated dead fight for evil, then his opposite’s reanimated dead would fight for good/the living.

George R.R. Martin confirmed this logic, with his mentioning the existence of the “Fire Wight”. Beric, Jon, (and maybe the Hound) are one of them. So the above theory that the Lord of Light is the NK’s opposite holds water

If the NK can manifest snow and ice at will. Then his opposite should be able to manifest fire at will. And maybe…communicate with others through it.
Bran and the Lord of Light are working towards the same goal.

The 3 Eyed Raven is the NK’s ultimate adversary….the force he’s always at battle with.

The simplest explanation to all of this …The 3 Eyed Raven is the Night King’s opposite. The NK’s opposite is the Lord of Light. Therefore, Bran = the Lord of Light (or at least what people think is the Lord of Light due to the signs he brings)

Helen Sloan/HBO

But what does this all mean? If the Night King was the overarching threat which all of humanity needed to unite against or perish — then what is there left for Bran Stark, the Three-Eyed-Raven to foresee… or do without an “evil” race of ice creatures perpetually looming? Where does Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen, the ostensible chosen one fit into all of this if he wasn’t in fact destined to kill the Night King and end the invasion of the White Walkers? We’ll explain more in the next installment.

More: Jump to Part Two of our analysis — Is Jon Snow a fire wight controlled by Bran Stark? And is Bran/3ER the final villain of Game of Thrones?