The Hero’s Journey in Game of Thrones: Brandon Stark
What is the Hero’s Journey? It is a basic narrative pattern common across all cultures and time that seems to be shared by all heroic characters. With this in mind, mythologist Joseph Campbell designed a paradigm, also known as the monomyth, to identify the universal stages of the hero’s journey. In this series, we take a look at Game of Thrones characters and how their unfolding path follows the Hero’s Journey. This time: Brandon Stark.
Bran is an intelligent, warm, and pure-hearted kind of hero, very much a product of the Stark family. This kind of heroic goodness does not serve the Starks well, as the family has been decimated and scattered over the five years of the show. Bran is brutally injured at the beginning of his story: unable to walk, he must be carried and shielded by servants (Hodor and Osha) and sympathetic strangers (Jojen and Meera Reed) who are willing to risk their lives to see him through his journey. As one of the most supernaturally charged major players in Game of Thrones, Bran’s character fits and/or blends into both the Archetypes of the Hero and the Seer.
You can revisit the structure and stages of Joseph Campbell’s famous 17 stage monomyth model and Christopher Vogler’s more streamlined 12 stage version here. It’s important to remember that the Campbellian Hero’s Journey paradigm is highly flexible, so not all stages need appear in order or appear at all, while others flow through many other stages. Joseph Campbell sums up the monomyth concept below:
"“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from his mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons upon his fellow man.” —Joseph Campbell"
Please note that what we are looking at here is how the Hero’s Journey fits the Brandon Stark character as he is presented in Game of Thrones, NOT in A Song of Ice and Fire. This article deals only with the TV show version, which means the book stories and characters have been altered—telescoped, pared down and folded into each other in a variety of ways, and influenced by the increasing creative input of producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
George R.R. Martin has often said that he hates the predictability of traditional story construction, so why apply the monomyth to Game of Thrones? The Hero’s Journey is not an unassailable formula carved in stone on the side of a pyramid: it is a flexible, living idea, a suggested blueprint of how mankind’s greatest myths bubble up and out of the shared human condition, rising from our shared subconscious across space and time, and even deeper than that, from the structural depths of the very cosmos themselves. For the bloody bard George R. R. Martin, who steeps his stories in mythology, it seems impossible that he could completely avoid Campbell’s theoretical ballpark.
There are certainly dangers inherent in approaching any story structure with a pre-set theory in mind, and I’ll do my best to simply highlight where I think Bran’s storyline fits the monomyth without trying to force square pegs into round holes.
That said, let’s get to it. In this article, we will compare Brandon Stark’s journey through Game of Thrones to Campbell’s monomyth paradigm and attempt to answer three questions: first, does Bran’s journey fit into the monomyth at all? Second, if Bran’s journey fits the framework, how closely does it mirror the traditional experience of the Campbellian Hero? Thirdly, and especially because it looks like Bran is really just getting started, what clues can the monomyth offer us about his character’s future in Season 6 and beyond?
THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART I: DEPARTURE
1a) WORLD OF COMMON DAY: the hero, unfinished and incomplete, lives in his ordinary world before receiving the call to adventure. (This is a stage described by Vogler, not Campbell, but the world of common day is such a typical starting point for stories I decided to use the stage here.)
The Brandon Stark story in Game of Thrones begins in a traditional framework, with him practicing archery alongside his brothers at Winterfell. We see Bran in his everyday world as the advantaged and protected son of Lord Eddard Stark, an active, intelligent boy who loves to climb. As a youngster, Bran is remarkably self-assured, but his experience is limited.
"“Human beings are born too soon; they are unfinished, unready as of yet to meet the world.” —Joseph Campbell"
Lord Eddard Stark believes that the young Bran is ready to begin experiencing the harsh realities of the world and the difficult role one must accept in it, and takes Bran with him to witness the execution of a Night’s Watch deserter in “Winter is Coming” (S1/Ep1).
"Lady Catelyn: “Ned, ten is too young to see such things.”Ned: “He won’t be a boy forever, and winter is coming.”"
An easy literary example of a young boy destined for magical greatness against a deadly foe is Harry Potter, and J. K. Rowling’s story begins with Harry living a normal life among the Muggles, his potential yet untapped.
1b) CALL TO ADVENTURE: the hero is presented with a challenge, problem or adventure and he can no longer remain within the safety and comfort of the World of the Common Day. He embarks on a journey into a new and frightening realm.
What is Bran’s call to adventure? Let’s take a look at Campbell’s definition of this stage.
"“The first stage of the mythological journey—which we have designated “The Call to Adventure”—signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown. The fateful region of both treasure and danger may be variously represented: as a distant land, a forest, a kingdom underground … but it is always a place of strangely fluid and polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, superhuman deeds and impossible delight.” —Joseph Campbell"
Like many Game of Thrones heroes, Bran’s Call to Adventure is forced upon him. When Jaime Lannister shoves him from the window of the Broken Tower in the series premiere, Bran’s injuries ignite his latent supernatural abilities: when he wakes from his coma (spurred by the death of Sansa’s dire wolf Lady in “The Kingsroad,” S1/Ep2), Bran returns to the waking world in a broken body but with a mind now opened up to the powers of warging, greensight, and prescient dreams: the realm of the Three-eyed raven.
"“This is an example of one of the ways in which the adventure can begin. A blunder—apparently the merest chance—reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood.” —Joseph Campbell"
The Greek god Hephaestus, maker of Zeus’ thunderbolts, was thrown from mount Olympus because he was deformed. He was severely crippled by the fall, and then discovered his true destiny as a master of the forge and created many magical items for the Olympian gods, including two golden automatons who assisted him so he could walk. After his own crippling fall, what destiny will Bran discover?
The Hero’s call to adventure often occurs while the world or land is dying or under threat. In the very first scene of the series, we see the White Walkers, and get hints that they represent an enormous threat to Westeros. As Old Nan tells Bran in “Lord Snow” (S1/Ep3):
"Oh. My sweet summer child, what do you know about fear? Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides for years and children are born and live and die, all in darkness. That is the time for fear, my little lord, when the White Walkers move through the woods. Thousands of years ago there came a night that lasted a generation. Kings froze to death in their castles same as the shepherds in their huts. And women smothered their babies rather than see them starve, and wept, and felt their tears freeze on their cheeks. So is this the sort of story that you like? (Bran nods, frightened) In that darkness, the White Walkers came for the first time. They swept through cities and kingdoms, riding their dead horses, hunting with their packs of pale spiders, big as hounds."
2) REFUSAL OF THE CALL: the hero, not fully committed, considers turning back, but a mentor convinces him to remain.
Upon waking from his coma to find his body damaged, Bran experiences a bout of self-pity and depression. When his brother Robb tries to counsel Bran about his future (“Lord Snow,” S1/Ep3), Bran is wholly negative:
"Bran: “It’s true then, what Maester Luwin says about my legs.” (Robb Stark nods affirmatively) “I’d rather be dead.”Robb: “Don’t ever say that.”Bran: “I’d rather be dead.”"
It is easy to see how Bran, living in a violent world where weakness is not accepted, would prefer not to suffer the bleak future he expects.
"“Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work or “culture,” the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless . . . The myths and folktales of the whole world make clear that the refusal is essentially a refusal to give up what one takes to be one’s own interest.” —Joseph Campbell"
Interestingly enough, it is Tyrion Lannister, our champion of cripples, bastards, and broken things, who momentarily fills the role of mentor for Bran. Tyrion’s innovative design for a saddle that can accommodate Bran’s handicap gives Bran hope for a life beyond his bed and Hodor’s back.
3) SUPERNATURAL AID: Once the hero is committed to the quest, a mentor or guide shall appear who often awards him a magical talisman to aid with his journey.
"“For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero-journey is with a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass.” –Joseph Campbell"
The supernatural element is powerful in Bran’s character and story arc: the name ‘Bran’ means raven/crow in the Celtic languages of Welsh, Cornish and Briton. The mysterious Three-eyed raven, who Bran would eventually discover is an “old man” of the kind Campbell described, enters Bran’s dreams soon after his injury, and Bran assembles a growing retinue of protectors, including Hodor, Osha and later Jojen and Meera Reed.
Bran has his first dream about the Three-eyed raven in “Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things,” (S1/Ep4), where he finds himself physically whole and practicing archery; he is drawn towards the crypt by the strange black bird. Bran is awakened with the news of Tyrion Lannister’s arrival at Winterfell, and Tyrion (as mentor) produces the saddle design which will allow Bran to ride a horse. After Bran’s second dream, this horse ride will take him to Osha the wildling, who will become one of his fiercest protectors, a woman deeply committed to the old gods:
"“Do you hear them, boy? The old gods are answering you . . . They are my gods, too. Beyond the Wall they are the only gods . . . They see you boy. They hear you . . . the old gods have no power in the south. The weirwoods there were all cut down a long time ago. How can they watch when they have no eyes? . . . I tried telling your brother, boy: all these swords should be going north, not south.” Osha, to Bran as he prays under the Weirwood Tree (“The Pointy End,” S1/Ep8)"
Osha acting as Bran’s protector is important. As Campbell states: “The hero who has come under the protection of the Cosmic Mother cannot be harmed . . . What such a figure represents is the benign, protecting power of destiny . . . Mother Nature herself supports the mighty task.”
Archery symbolism in Bran’s dreams/visions connects him to the Greek god Apollo, god of archery (among other things) and the prophetic deity of the Delphi Oracle. Apollo is also associated with ravens, who act as his messengers to the mortal world.
Osha serves as guide and caretaker to Bran and Rickon, but it is the Three-eyed raven who is instrumental in unlocking Bran’s powers:
"“Not infrequently, the supernatural helper is masculine in form. In fairy lore it may be some little fellow of the wood, some wizard, hermit, shepherd, or smith, who appears, to supply the amulets and advice that the hero will require.” —Joseph Campbell"
The Three-eyed raven continues to appear to Bran, coming to him when Lord Eddard Stark dies (“Fire and Blood,” S1/Ep10). Bran’s supernatural abilities increase as time goes on: he wargs into Summer and sees himself wake from his direwolf’s perspective in “What is Dead May Never Die,” (S2/Ep3). Bran’s dream-visions begin to unlock the future in “The Ghost of Harrenhall,” (S2/Ep5), when he asks Osha to interpret his latest dream:
"I dreamt that the sea came to Winterfell. I saw the waves crash against the gates and the water came flowing over the walls. It flooded the castle. Drowned men were floating here, in the yard. Ser Roderick was one of them."
Bran’s dream proves prophetic, for Theon Greyjoy shall soon take Winterfell with seafaring soldiers from the Iron Islands, and Ser Roderick shall perish in the process.
"“It’s your dream, m’lord. The ocean has come to swallow this place.” —Osha (“The Old Gods and the New,” S2/Ep6)"
4) CROSSING THE FIRST THRESHOLD: the hero reaches the limits of his known horizon: beyond lies darkness, danger and the unknown.
Theon Greyjoy, in betraying House Stark and capturing Winterfell, proves to be the first Threshold Guardian Bran must overcome:
"“The hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the “threshold guardian,” at the entrance of the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in the four directions—also up and down—standing for the limits of the hero’s present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is darkness, the unknown, and danger.” —Joseph Campbell"
Theon’s capture of Winterfell (“The Old Gods and the New,” S2/Ep6) forces Osha to take Hodor, Bran, Rickon, Summer, and Shaggydog and escape into the wilderness. Witnessing the sack and destruction of Winterfell and the mortal wounding of Maester Luwin, Bran loses the world he knows and is thrust into the unknown. He and his company leave the burning Winterfell and head north to try to find safety with Jon Snow at Castle Black (“Valar Morghulis,’ S2/Ep10).
Bran’s crossing of the first threshold mirrors the leap he now makes in his supernatural development: “The beginning of the awakening of the self . . . instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again.” —Joseph Campbell
Bran soon dreams of the Three-eyed raven again (“Dark Wings, Dark Words,” S3/Ep2). Again, he has the use of his legs, and is using a bow-and-arrow. In his dream, he sees both Jon Snow and Robb Stark, who counsel him on how to shoot a raven. He also sees the mysterious Jojen Reed, who also has prophetic dreams, for the first time.
"Jojen: “You can’t kill it, you know.”Bran: “Why not?”Jojen: “Because the raven is you.”"
Soon after, Jojen and his sister Meera show up in Bran’s waking world. Osha distrusts them, believing Jojen’s ‘black magic’ is dangerous to Bran. But when Jojen has a vision of Jon Snow among the wildlings, Bran becomes convinced that he must find the Raven beyond the Wall:
"“The raven’s been coming to me ever since I fell from that tower. He wants me to find him. I don’t have my legs any more. This is what I have now. What if I belong in the north? What if I fell from that tower for a reason?” —Bran (“The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” S3/Ep7)"
Bran’s gains more control over his supernatural abilities when he intentionally wargs into Hodor when the group finds itself in danger of being discovered by wildlings during a thunderstorm in “The Rains of Castamere,” (S3/Ep9).
"Bran: “You were right. I can get into Summer’s mind whenever I want.”Jojen: “Of course you can. North of the Wall there are wildlings who can control all sorts of animals. But you’re a lot more than that. You got inside Hodor’s mind.”Bran: “They can’t do that north of the Wall?”Jojen: “No one can do that, anywhere.”"
Osha separates from the group in an attempt to get Rickon and Shaggydog to safety, while Bran, Hodor, Jojen, and Meera are shown a way through the Wall by Samwell Tarly. On the north side of the Wall, Bran touches a Weirwood tree and has a series of visions, hearing the voice of the Three-eyed Raven: “Look for me. Beneath the tree. North.” Bran responds to this experience by saying: “I know where we have to go.” (“The Lion and the Rose,” S4/Ep2)
5) THE BELLY OF THE WHALE: when crossing the magical threshold, the hero enters a womb to be reborn, so rather than conquering what lies beyond, the hero is swallowed into the unknown and may appear to have died.
"“Now we must brave the long dark of Moria. Let us hope that our passage goes unnoticed.” —Gandalf the Grey, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
Due to Theon Greyjoy’s earlier charade, in which he burned and displayed the bodies of two farm boys and passed them off as Bran and Rickon, most of the world now assumes the two youngest Stark brothers are dead. Like many of the other Game of Thrones hero characters (Jon Snow, Daenerys and Arya), Bran and Rickon vanish beyond the reach of their old friends, traveling towards an unknown fate.
When Bran and his companions arrive at the great Weirwood tree north of the Wall (“The Children,” S4/Ep10), they are immediately assaulted by wights. Jojen is killed, and his body is destroyed by a fireball-flinging Child of the Forest, who helps the survivors escape into the safety of a cave under the tree.
Entering the innermost cave, Bran finally meets the Three-eyed raven, who now appears as an ancient man merged with the roots of the Weirwood tree. (There are echoes of the great wizard Merlin of Arthurian legend here: in one version of the tale, Merlin is trapped inside a sacred tree at Glastonbury).
"Three-eyed raven: “He (Jojen) knew what would happen. From the moment he left, he knew, and he went anyway.”Bran: “How do you know?”Three-eyed raven: “I’ve been watching you, all of you, all of your lives, with a thousand eyes and one. Now you come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late.”Bran: “I didn’t want anyone to die for me.”Three-eyed Raven: “He died so you could find what you have lost.”Bran: “You’re going to help me walk again?”Three-eyed raven: “You will never walk again. But you will fly.”"
Bran’s decision to enter the realm of the Three-eyed raven seems on the surface to be a choice, but in reality, at the point of no return, it is something he must do. Just like Neo taking the red pill in The Matrix, Bran realizes that he has been waiting his entire life to enter the unknown, to die and be born again in order to pass “the magical threshold (and) transit into the sphere of rebirth.” Bran is also now moving through the second phase of the Hero’s Journey: Initiation.
THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART II: INITIATION
6) THE ROAD OF TRIALS: the Hero must undergo a series of tests, some of which he will fail, to prepare him for his transformation.
"“Once having crossed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is a favorite phase of the myth-adventure. It has produced a world literature of miraculous tests and ordeals.” —Joseph Campbell"
While the end of Season 4 seems to leave Bran in the midst of the Belly of the Whale stage, Bran has also been enduring many hero trials since before he crossed the first threshold. Bran has already suffered his crippling injury, the betrayal of Theon and the destruction of Winterfell, being captured at Craster’s Keep, and the death of Jojen. He also has yet to learn of the deaths of many of his family members.
"“The ordeal is a deepening of the problem of the first threshold … for many-headed is this surrounding Hydra; one head cut off, two more appear—unless the right caustic is applied to the mutilated stump. The original departure into the land of trials represented only the beginning of the long and really perilous path of initiatory conquests and moments of illumination. Dragons have now to be slain and surprising barriers passed—again, again and again. Meanwhile there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies, and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land.” —Joseph Campbell"
As Bran prepares to face his greatest challenge and ‘most fearsome opponent yet’, what Christopher Vogler calls the ‘supreme ordeal,’ we are uncertain of who or what that may entail. We don’t know whether Bran must face this darkest moment employing greensight or in the physical realm, but we suspect the fearsome foe must be close on the horizon. What we know for sure is that Bran is about to be sorely tested, strung up by his own flaws, tempted by the darker side of his nature, and forced to make one awful choice after another, with unexpected results likely to follow.
BEYOND SEASON 5
Firstly, does Brandon Stark’s journey in Game of Thrones fit into the Hero’s Journey at all? Looking at the evidence it is fair to say that Bran’s character stages do fit the paradigm.
Second, if Bran’s journey fits, how closely it mirror the traditional experience of the Hero? Bran’s journey follows the stages of the traditional monomyth, matching up nicely along with his role as a hero-seer, a character richly cloaked in the supernatural.
Possessing both the greensight and the ability to warg, Bran is less like a classic, sword-wielding Jon Snow sort of hero and more akin to a seer-hero of the magical arts: like Gandalf and Merlin, he is a warrior of the supernatural realm, not the natural one.
"“. . . there are two types of deed. One is the physical deed, in which the hero performs a courageous act in battle or saves a life. The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of spiritual life and then comes back with a message.” —Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth"
Thirdly, what clues can the monomyth offer us about Bran’s future in Season 6 and beyond? Let’s take a look.
The structure of Game of Thrones can be seen to roughly fit the overall three-part structure of the Hero’s Journey. Part 1 (Departure) = GoT Season 1. Part 2 (Initiation) = GoT Season 2-5 (remember that Campbell says that this is a “favorite part of the myth-adventure,” so it makes sense that it would take up a lot of space), and Part 3 (Return) = GoT Remaining Seasons.
If Bran is engaged in the Belly of the Whale stage (and the ongoing Road of Trials stage) at the end of Season 4, then the monomyth structure is poised for him to advance further into Part 2 (Initiation) in Season 6: Bran now faces the possibility of entering the next three paradigm stages: Meeting with the Goddess, Woman as Temptress, and Atonement with the Father.
The female-oriented stages offer some intriguing possibilities: now that Bran has matured, is he going to come across a girl who might oppose him and/or capture his youthful heart? This could be Meera Reed, who’s stuck with Bran since Season 3, or someone unexpected. It seems like some kind of love affair would be a nice reward for poor Bran, who’s been dragged all over Westeros and is now locked up under a weirwood tree.
The Atonement with the Father stage also offers many potential scenarios. What is Bran’s relationship to the Three-eyed raven, exactly? (Heck, what is the Three-eyed raven, exactly?) Will Bran find a way to see what happened to Lord Eddard and learn something more about his father’s life, and even come to terms with his loss and terrible death?
If no love interest appears for Bran, he may leapfrog towards the Apotheosis and Ultimate Boon stages, which feel like they will prove hugely important to such a supernaturally-charged hero’s journey.
Apotheosis: the hero suffers a death, either physically or spiritually, and achieves a state of knowledge and understanding to equip him upon his return. He now views the world in a radically different way. One can see a million different ways this can happen for Bran, installed as he is in the realm of the Three-eyed raven.
Ultimate Boon: the ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. The Hero wins the thing he/she suffered through so many trials to attain. The boon often appears in the form of an elixir, ability, knowledge, or a symbolic object such as the Holy Grail. The hero must then eventually return to the Common World and use the boon to everyone’s advantage. Of course, now that Bran will have been training with the Yoda-like Three-eyed Raven for so long, Season 6 should find him well-equipped to reveal some deep, dark secrets about the past, present and future of his world—the ‘message’ Campbell refers to above.
CONCLUSION: I hope you enjoyed taking a look at Brandon Stark’s Hero’s Journey through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s concept of the monomyth. It doesn’t match up exactly—nothing ever does, and you may accuse me of overplaying a weak parallel here and there—but since George R.R. Martin is using so many traditional archetypes in a high fantasy setting, it may be impossible for him to escape the classic narrative structure. Martin may not consciously apply or agree with the monomyth paradigm, but the argument for it is that, no matter how much you mess with the story structure and payoffs, you’re still inextricably bound to the collective human unconscious from which the ancient flow of the Hero’s story must spring.
And it looks like we are going to see a lot of Bran in Season 6: the young Isaac Hempstead Wright offers these tantalizing glimpses during his PR rounds: “I can’t say a lot, but I am back this season and it’s going to get particularly interesting with Bran. He has some interesting visions.” In another interview Hempstead hints at Bran taking on the role of “kingmaker,” to “expect lots of magic,” and “extraordinary enabling abilities” that could cause an “earthquake” in Westeros. What kind of earthquake? Hempstead doesn’t say.
Showrunner David Benioff has compared Bran’s absence from Season 5 to how Luke Skywalker vanished from sight to get some high-end Jedi training in the Star Wars movie series: “It would be far less interesting, after The Empire Strikes Back,” Benioff says, “to have an hour-long movie in between Empire and Return of the Jedi where Luke is training. It’s so much cooler to cut from the end of Empire to the beginning of Return, where he’s become the Jedi.”
As we watch Bran’s Games of Thrones journey unfold through Season 6 and beyond, we can expect it to be quite different from those of the other heroic archetype characters. And much of it surely won’t be pretty: Brandon Stark is a George R. R. Martin creation, so you know the road ahead is going to be perilous for our hero-seer, the crippled boy fast becoming a man who may soon become the only soul who knows how to save humanity from the White Walkers, and the only one who can deliver the ‘message’ from one world to the other.
All quotes by Joseph Campbell are from The Hero with a Thousand Faces unless otherwise noted. All quotes by Christopher Vogler are from The Writer’s Journey unless otherwise noted.
Other WiC Game of Thrones as Myth articles in the Archetype and Hero’s Journey series:
(Anti) Hero’s Journey: Tyrion Lannister
Hero’s Journey: Daenerys Targaryen
Alliser Thorne as Archetypal Threshold Guardian