'Game of Thrones' Hodor Reveal Means Bran Stark Is Secretly the Lord of Light
The reveal about Bran's time-jumping abilities cast a new light on "voices" Red Priests have heard in the flames.
Bran Stark’s powers have always been mysterious, but the most recent episode of Game of Thrones took them to an entirely new level. “The Door” showed him essentially creating Hodor through his time-jumping powers, reaching in the past to scramble his mind and turn him into the tragically brain-damaged gentle giant we’ve always known. As we have discussed, this brand of time-travel is not the Back to the Future kind where Bran’s actions can change the present. He’s not about to be erased from his parents photographs or accidentally make Biff rich. Rather, it’s the Harry Potter and Outlander closed-loop kind: If Bran created Hodor’s mental state, it means he was always going to create it.
But that raises an intriguing possibility. Put on your Game of Thrones tinfoil hats, guys: If “Hodor” was really saying “Hodor” in response to some unseen time-loop fuckery in which the phrase “hold the door” played in his head all along — what else in the present was actually a response to Bran Stark’s unseen meddling? What other “voices” on the show or seemingly random words and phrases might not be what they seem?
The Lord of Light is the most obvious example. Melisandre and her Red Priestly Brethren are always talking about hearing voices in the flames. When the creepy Kinvara takes Varys on a trip down memory lane to his castration, she mentions that when the sorcerer tossed his parts into the flames, he heard a “voice.” Maybe Bran was on a time-vacation to watch some castration happen.
Those voices could very well be Bran’s voice, reaching through his time-jumping. If Bran revisits the Tower of Joy and learns of Jon’s destiny as Azor Ahai reborn, perhaps he’s been passing that message along to Melisandre all along.
And if that’s true, then the entity the other characters think is the Lord of Light could very well be Bran Stark himself. And on a show that keeps us on our toes about the validity of its various religious sects, that would be the ultimate mic drop.
