Game of Thrones: In Defense of King Bran Stark

Bran Stark has seen what happens when men and women play the game of thrones. Even before his ascension, he knew the human cost of war. He knew the price paid by the small folk because lords and ladies decide to take up weapons to enlarge holdings or swell purses. He’s a true Stark; he carries no taint of the Valyrian madness that brought down Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and the rest of House Targaryen. He’s confined to a wheelchair, so he never took up arms and fought on the field of battle. He spent two seasons as far away from the squabbling politics of Westeros as possible, and to put it bluntly, he rolled through the biggest possible pile of aurochs dung and emerged without any of it on him. Everyone else at the table, from silly uncle Edmure (Tobias Menzies) to the up-jumped pirate Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham), has blood on their hands. 

The best way to save lives, both innocent and not so innocent, is to break the wheel. Ending the cycle of bloodshed in the pursuit of power wouldn’t be possible in the hands of someone who shed blood in the pursuit of power. One look at Bran, the “broken” boy in a wheelchair, makes it perfectly clear that he won the game of thrones by not playing it.

“Bran has no interest in leading,” – Sansa Stark

Sansa, unsurprisingly, provides the best motivation for Bran to take over as King. He doesn’t really seem to want the job. After Bran casts off his humanity and assumes the mantle of the Three-Eyed Raven, he’s a different person. Literally, he’s grown beyond his mortal shell and has a new outlook.

This is both good and bad. The bad reasons concern mostly around a lack of empathy. As Meera Reed reminds him, Hodor, Summer, and Jojen all died to protect him, along with most of the Children of the Forest. The reunion with his family should be a cause for joy, but Bran seems mostly unmoved by the reunion, if only because he knew that they were all still alive due to poking around in the time stream. However, it’s more than that.

Bran’s disconnect from the living world is going to be the thing that makes him king. He’s aware of the weight of his decisions thanks to the losses he personally suffered. However, he’s distant enough from most of the people that he won’t be tempted to revisit old conflicts to settle scores. When one of his allies inevitably starts plotting against him, like for example Sansa, he’ll be in a good position to stop it before it starts without staying his hand to spare a loved one.