ASOIAF: How Does Bran fulfil the Hero's journey?

Bran's  journey into the Hero's journey mould very well.

Not only Bran's.

Daenerys, Tyrion, Arya, Sansa, Jaime and Theon all go on this path, too(as well as Jon), though I haven't analyzed all of them to determine the exact steps.

The thing about the story not being finished means that we can't be certain REALLY at what point a given hero is in his or her appointed journey.

• The ordinary world:
• WE meet Bran among his family, in a world we know to be thousands of years old.
• His father is kind and wise benevolent Lord of a great land and he has a normal relationship between his siblings. 
• There is a threat on the horizon of eventual conflict with the Wildlings.
• Bran is a happy boy yearning for adventure and glory and is safe and uncomfortable, blissfully unaware of the threat to humankind that is developing over the Wall.
• IN the course of the first chapter, he gains a pet but there is grim foreshadowing of a stag killing a direwolf.

art by Mark evans

• The Call to Adventure:
• Bran's world and life is completely changed when Jaime Lannister attempts to kill him by defenestration. He is paralyzed from the waist down and all his former dreams are shattered.
• IN his coma, he is visited by a Three-Eyed Crow who shows him terrifying things happening in the world and tells him that he has been Chosen since birth and will play a part in the Events to follow.

art by sharksden

• Refusal of the Call
• Upon waking Bran refuses to accept his new status as a cripple;
• He is in denial of his growing magical abilities.
• His earthly mentor Maester Luwin cautions against a belief in the metaphysical and urges him to accept his mundane reality, which he does.
• The fact is, he is skinchanging Summer though, with increasing regularity.

• Meeting with the Mentor
• Bran has a number of mentors.
• Ned Stark gives him advice about politics and the Lord's role.
• Maester Luwin fathers him along in the art of feudal politics and teaches him a reason-based vision of the world
• Osha, the Wildling,  accepts his magical abilities and encourages his acceptance of them
• But it's Jojen Reed who is his real mentor along the hero's journey.
• A boy himself, with his own mysterious insight into the Other Side Jojen  proves the truth of his prophetic greendreams and by doing so, convinces Bran to accept his growing abilities in the mystical realm

art by Hooooon

• Crossing the First Threshold:
• To escape Theon's clutches, Bran accepts his powers, fully commits to his role, and  wargs into his direwolf, Summer.
• He leaves his life behind and sets off on a quest with his companions to find the Three-Eyed Crow of his dreams.
• He continues to warg into Summer as his powers grow

• Test, Allies, Enemies:
• Besides Jojen, Meera, Hodor and Summer, Bran meets other allies on his journey
• The Liddle who gives him shelter and food, and possibly protects him in other ways
• Samwell Tarly, who leads him through the Magic Threshold to the Other Side of the Wall
• Coldhands guides him North to the Cave of the Three-Eyed Crow. He has some distrust of Coldhands, who is obviously undead.
• Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers, the Three-Eyed Crow himself
• Bran's enemies are legion:
• He is searched for by Boltons
• he is hunted by a wild wolf-pack
• he encounters wildlings
• Tests
• He uses his magic abilities to rescue Jon Snow from the Wildlings
• He eats flesh that may be human
• He goes through a period of learning in which he masters many arts of Greenseeing as he trains under the Last Greenseer
• He is given a paste of weirwood paste that enhances his powers
• He wargs into Hodor willy-nilly, demonstrating mastery of his skills
• He, with Summer demonstrates his primacy and takes leadership of the pack of wolves following him

art by Eva Marie Toker

• Approach to the Inmost Cave
• In his final approach, Bran and his companions are attacked by an army of the Undead, but he gains entrance.

• The Inmost Cave

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This is where we stand in Bran's story. In fact, we may not be here yet. The 'Inmost Cave' may not be a cave at all. It may be some other destination, the Heart of Winter.

But whether we're still in the Enemies, allies, test phase or the Inmost Cave phase, I'd say we were still around the middle of the story arc. Bran hasn't had an awful lot of chapters, so I think his story will easily wrap up in two books.

DISCLAIMER: the point of no return

From now on, we can only speculate. It's all ifs from here.I don't like predicting too much because I don't want to spoil myself. If you disagree with my predictions, that's cool. I'm not sure I even agree with them and sometimes, my predictions contradict each other. Because I like it better that way. I like examining lots of different ways the story would play out. It's part of the fun.

The Ordeal:

Usually, in the ordeal, the hero must confront his death; or confront his greatest fear. This would be the moment when Luke Skywalker beheads Darth Vader in the Tree-Cave on Dagohbah only to find his own face behind the mask. In epic fantasies, some characters seem to repeat some of these steps over and over again.

What will be Bran's ordeal?

Is it possible that his ordeal has been the long struggle to the Inmost Cave? That the reward was the yummy paste and the pleasurable mastery of his powers? Isn't that what he's been going for?

I'd say no.

art by jbcasacop

I speculate that it will be Jon Snow's death.

Only death can pay for life.

Perhaps Bran will be forced to choose to sacrifice his own life to save Jon's.

But if so,  there will be an intervention.

Maybe it will be Melisandre sacrificing Shireen.

But I think it's more likely that it will be Stannis executing Theon to the Heart Tree. Thus Theon will redeem himself by saving Jon and  getting Bran off the hook.

However it's done,  Bran must survive the ordeal. Unless his Heroe's Journey ends abruptly. I'm not feeling it, though.

.THe Reward(Seizing the Sword)

Things are even more iffy from here on out.

This is where the hero generally accepts the treasure that he has won through the ordeal. This is traditionally the sword. Hmmm...Is Bran Azor Ahai? Just speculating, don't downvote me fanboys & girls. Just because he's a Mary Sue doesn't mean that Jon is not the big one.

Anyway...

What's Bran's quest all about? What's Bran looking for? What has he traipsed all over the North, starving, surviving only on oatmeal cookies, Jojen paste and roast human for?

You will never walk. But you will fly.

--A Game of Thrones

My guess is that Bran WILL warg a Dragon. The dragon will be his REWARD, the Sword he Seizes.

Having seized his sword, the hero usually begins on....

• The Journey Back

AT this point, the Hero feels that he has won, but he has not. He is confronted with the fact that he must join his personal cause to a higher cause: In this case, joining forces with the other Heroes in the story to defeat the Others and the menace at the Heart of Winter.

• Resurrection

AT this point, the Hero faces his greatest challenge. If he fails and dies, the world dies with him.

This seems likely to be the final battle with the Others.

THere are so many heroes in this series who fulfill various steps of the Hero's arc. Will they all fight together playing various parts? Or will they fight each other?

Will it be the Others fighting Bran? Or will it be another character? There is one dark passage that smelled like foreshadowing to me.

(And this is my darkest bit of prediction: those you who love using words like 'tinfoil' or 'crackpot' may apply them here.) In fact, just skip this part if you don't like this kind of thing)

It might be  that Bran's final adversary might be Daenerys.

I am not calling it.

I'm not at all certain. But there's one tiny little line that stuck out at me on my third re-read:

Axell Florent's brother had been burned by Melisandre, Maester Aemon had informed him, yet Ser Axell had done little and less to stop it. What sort of man can stand by idly and watch his own brother being burned alive?

--Jon III, A Dance with Dragons

Make of it what you will, but I  got chills when I read that. Could be another Stark though. Like Rickon.

I think that it's going to be one of them, though. While another one watches.

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• Final Stage: Return with the Elixir

Assuming Bran survives this final battle, Bran will go back to some sort of normalcy. Human kind will pick up the pieces. The destructive forces that have threatened will have subsided.

But everything will have changed.

Some of his siblings will be gone.

But Jojen Reed said it and I therefore believe it. The wolves will return.

I believe it literally.

The original working title of the last as-yet-not-even-started volume was A Time for Wolves.

I think at the end of the series our surviving  Stark heroes(at a guess, Jon, Arya and Bran, perhaps Rickon)  will be reunited in the bodies of their direwolves.

While Sansa rules the North..

And there's your bittersweet ending.

Written Feb 29 •