Game Of Thrones: What Becoming The Three-Eyed Raven Means For Bran

Last season of Game of Thrones brought forth many bombshells for the show's ever-growing slate of [...]

By Jenna Anderson - March 8, 2017 07:27 pm EST

Last season of Game of Thrones brought forth many bombshells for the show's ever-growing slate of characters. Among them were the events that occurred around Bran Stark's storyline. Bran was mentored throughout the course of the series by the Three-Eyed Raven (Max Von Sydow), who helped the boy hone in his ability of 'Greensight', or seeing the past and future.

After an altercation with the Night King led to the old man's death, the mystical being appeared to be gone from the series, until Bran's uncle Benjen (Joseph Mawle) revealed that the title of the Three-Eyed Raven was now passed on to Bran.

So how will Bran handle this new title, and all of the responsibilities that come with it, in the show's seventh season? Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran on the show, recently hinted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that while the experience will change Bran, he will still maintain his moral compass.

"I think the thing with Bran is that he's had to change massively." Hempstead-Wright explained. "His circumstances are pretty bad, but overall I think Bran has maintained his sense of being good. He hasn't gone, like, 'Oh man, I have all these amazing powers now, let's mess some things up!'"

According to Hempstead-Wright, much of Bran's personality has revolved around having to adapt to strange circumstances, meaning being given this mystical title will only have a similar effect.

"What's been important has been taking this new role and that's what Bran has done his whole life. He suddenly lost his legs, and then his family got killed, and then his house burned down, so it's like, okay, 'Now I'm in this forest with all these random people, and now I'm having weird dreams.' But what Bran is thinking of above anything else is this sense of responsibility and purpose and not just being a kid anymore and doing whatever he wants to do. Bran has certainly understood that this is out of his control now. He's a piece on the chessboard that has to make a move, and he hasn't got any moves."

But the actor did hint that Bran does have a few pieces of information up his sleeve - mainly the notion of Jon Snow's (Kit Harrington) true parentage. "He's a combination of [chess] pieces," the actor later joked, "a weird spiritual combination."

Does this offer some clues as to how Bran will handle the events of the seventh season? While Hempstead-Wright did not reveal any specifics, he did say that Bran starts the season in an uncertain place.

"Bran is in the same position he's in, which is kind of like, 'What am I gonna do? What's gonna happen?' Is he gonna tell Jon? Is he gonna find anyone? Is he even going to make it past the Wall? He's only with Meera now, and he's out in the middle of nowhere, so it's not looking great."

Game of Thrones Season 7 will air on HBO in the summer of 2017.

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