ASOIAF/Game of Thrones: Are Bloodraven and The Three eyed Crow the same characters

There is disagreement.

I say they are different but at least two prominent ASOIAF writers and probably others have said they are the same. But I haven’t seen the evidence.

Maybe it comes down to how we define character.

So I’ll present my arguments. I’m not trying to argue for the sake of argument. In the end, it probably doesn’t matter to your enjoyment of the stories(show story and book story.) so it may be a case of choose what you want to believe.

But on show matters, I go strictly for what is included in the show itself: lines of dialogue written by the writers or otherwise portrayed: I have no interest whatsoever, or time to watch, ‘Inside the Episode’(which I’ve never seen) or actor interviews. I only care about what is conveyed in the story proper.

Note: if conclusive evidence is presented from the show, I will stand corrected and delete my post.

Bloodraven

I think that the Three Eyed Raven is different than Bloodraven. At least with the evidence we’ve been given in the show.

• Brynden Rivers, Bloodraven in the book is referred to as The Three Eyed Crow, or Bloodraven or Lord Brynden or Bryden Rivers in the book.
• He’s referred to as the Three-Eyed Raven in the show. That’s it. That’s a different name. Only the Three eyes remain.
• Brynden Rivers is a skinny, spooky one-eyed albino Targaryen with a red eye in the book.
• The Three-Eyed Crow is a hale, handsome, decidedly two-eyed Swede in the show.
  
  Appearance normally wouldn’t matter but here, I’d say it does: if Tyrion were portrayed by Brad Pitt in the show, would we consider him the same character even though he wasn’t a dwarf?
  
  No. Dwarfism is an integral part of his charaters, as skinny-spooky-one-red-eyed albino-ness-spooky-ness is a part of Bloodraven.
• Brynden Rivers is around 120 years old in the books.
• In the show the 3ER says he’s been waiting for Bran for a thousand years. Dismissed by some as hyperbole; but there’s no evidence in the script that it was hyperbole. Maybe we’ll later find out he’s only been there a few decades. Until we do, I reject the hyperbole argument.
• In the books, Brynden Rivers is said to ‘have a thousand eyes and one.’ (Because he sees everywhere plus has one eye.)
• In the show he says the same. (Because he sees everywhere and has two eyes. Yes, it makes no sense whatsoever. But this is held as evidence: for me, they included the line only because it has way more of an iconic, myterious ring than ‘I’ve been watching you for a long time.’ And the show included it mainly because it plays well. And they may have originally conceived of the show character(back in Season 4 when he said it) as he’s written in the book.For others, it’s proof that they are the same character.
• Bloodraven has a very very well developed character(for such a small role) with a complex, extremely detailed backstory in the books. He had loves, loyalties, enemies. He’s a legend a hundred years after his hey day.
   He featured in a GRRM novella(The Mystery Knight.)
• The 3EK seems to be without backstory or real character. He’s just a stripped down mentor trope. Perhaps the 3ER’s backstory will become known later and it will be similar to Bloodraven’s. But until then, his backstory is: sat in a cave for a thousand years waiting for Bran. The three eyed raven and Bloodraven are the same trope but they are not the same character.

Look, the show has different characters in general.

Is book Stannis the same character as show Stannis?

How about book Tyrion? Or book Cersei?

I would argue no, no, and no. They are different characters. They make different choices, have different motivations, react to things differently.

So for me, I have no problem seeing a minor character like Bloodraven as different when these major characters are so different.

Now, I haven’t memorized every single line of dialogue in the show. Again, if someone could point me to solid and conclusive evidence based on the show, and not just an assertion based on someone’s opinion, I’ll be happy to delete my post.

Night’s King/Night King

This one is harder for me to form an opinion on.

All we have in the books is a legendary figure from the past, a man who ‘gave his soul to a female other when he gave her his seed’ (baum-chicka-chicka wow wow), who then ruled the Night’s Watch from the Nightfort for 13 years and was bad and stuff until the Stark in Winterfell and the King Beyond the Wall Joramun put him down.

In the show he’s the leader of the present Others. Apparently he was the first Other, the poor sap who got Otherized by the Child of the Forest plunging the dagger into his heart.

Because the book character is somebody from a legendary, mythological past, a Hero like Odysseus or Achilles, or King Arthur or Noah only even MORE removed in time, its difficult to say.
 The book legend may be wrong; extremely garbled by time.

The Night’s King may still be alive in the book, but he’s not made an appearance in the book yet. Maybe he will and they’ve changed the backstory on him, making him a slightly different character, too. In short when it comes to that guy, I don’t think anybody can really say for certain.

Written May27th