You might think that being an all-seeing tree wizard would leave you immune to surprises, but that’s not the way Bran Stark’s powers work, according to star Isaac Hempstead Wright. Chatting with CinemaBlend, Hempstead Wright explained why his character was unable to learn Jon Snow’s true parentage until Samwell Tarly arrived in Winterfell in “The Dragon and the Wolf,” the season 7 finale.
"I think it wasn’t quite fully explained how Bran’s power works. It’s not that he knows absolutely everything already, it’s like he has a dictionary in front of him, or an encyclopedia with all of history, and he can look anything up. Like at the end when Samwell says ‘Oh, is this something you can see?’ Bran can go back and look at it and say ‘Oh yeah, that happened.’"
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly) recently gave a similar take on Bran’s powers, and hinted that Bran and Sam will continue to work together in season 8.
Back to Hempstead Wright, he clarified Bran’s powers further:
"He hasn’t been the Three-Eyed Raven long enough to look through all of history in the way that Max von Sydow’s Three-Eyed Raven had to be in that cave for thousands of years and had been able to spend every single day exploring different parts of history, whereas Bran Stark is still only kind of looking at the important bits. It was more the fact that he didn’t know where to look, not that he was withholding. That’s officially how Bran’s power works."
For the record, we never thought Bran was “holding out.” Anyway, this explanation makes a lot of sense. Even if you have access to Westerosi Google, you still need the right search terms. It’s just a shame that Jon and Dany didn’t have access to this information just a just a bit earlier. You could argue that Game of Thrones should have better clarified the mechanics on Bran’s powers on the show itself, but when you’re working with in-world abilities this mysterious, there may not be anyone who possesses the knowledge to do that. Even Bran, nigh-omnipotent as he is, is figuring it out as he goes.
With a season 8 showdown with the White Walkers looming, Bran and Sam will have to work overtime to give Jon and Dany an edge. And let’s throw Gilly in there, too, who actually discovered Jon’s parentage, albeit accidentally. Get her some books and let her rip.
Next: Here are all the audio commentaries on the Game of Thrones season 7 boxset
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