The Winds of Winter needs to do more to set it up.

when The Winds of Winter releases, which can also mean it avoids the biggest reason it didn't work in Game of Thrones.

Game Of Thrones Didn’t Do Enough With Bran Before Making Him King

The Problems Started Before Season 8

Game of Thrones season 8 concluding with King Bran is a choice that has some logic to it. After all, he's able to see the past and learn from its mistakes; he has great power but does not want for it, and so is less likely to abuse it. But the problem is that, while Tyrion Lannister was telling us that no one has a better story than "Bran the Broken," HBO's series never showed us that. Thus, it was a payoff, but without proper setup that made it feel fully earned.

He was missing entirely from Game of Thrones season 5, a mistake that's in part because of the books, but feels fatal when considering the character who becomes king missed a full season.

Since making it to the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran was largely sidelined. Hell, he was missing entirely from Game of Thrones season 5, a mistake that's in part because of the books, but feels fatal when considering the character who becomes king missed a full season. Even after that, though, the show went overboard in making Bran unknowable and unemotional. He was too far removed, his interactions with key characters were kept vague, and there was no understanding of him as a person. That might've worked for him just being the Three-Eyed Raven, but not when he became king.

The Last Two A Song Of Ice And Fire Books Haven’t Had A Lot Of Bran

A Feast For Crows & A Dance With Dragons Didn't Include Him Much

A big reason that Game of Thrones season 5 cut Bran is because his book story doesn't progress much across novels four and five, which formed the basis for that season. Indeed, looking at his POV chapters in the series, his role has diminished, not grown:

It's that lack of Bran in A Dance with Dragons that was the biggest problem for the show to adapt, since he spends his time in the Three-Eyed Crow's cave. These aren't bad chapters by any means, as he experiences a lot of visions, and they're rich with worldbuilding, mysticism, and foreshadowing. But what they don’t do is establish Bran as a future king.

His journey is definitely setting him up as the next Three-Eyed Crow (changed to Raven in the TV series). While there is some setup of him being king, with parallels to things like the Fisher King of Arthurian legend, it's still pretty vague right now, and he's extremely removed from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

Bran Stark being king was confirmed as one of three big twists George R.R. Martin told Game of Thrones' showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, in a meeting to map out the future of the series back in 2013. The others were Shireen Baratheon's death, and the Hodor/hold the door reveal.

Earlier books gave Bran more prominence - his chapters in A Game of Thrones, for instance, are essential for introducing the Stark family and exploring themes of loss, identity, and even prophecy. But as the story expanded outward, his role shrank. Characters like Jon Snow, Daenerys, and Tyrion have been more central to the political and emotional core of the saga.

This isn't a problem right now in the books, but there's a shift that needs to happen in order to set up Bran becoming king in the books, and avoid it sparking the same kind of response as it did in the TV show. Bran needs to feel more central to the overarching narrative, something that could start to happen in The Winds of Winter.

The Winds Of Winter Needs To Go Harder On Setting Up King Bran

Martin's Next ASOIAF Book Can Lay More Groundwork For It

If Bran is going to sit on the Iron Throne (or whatever is left in its place) at the end of A Dream of Spring, then The Winds of Winter needs to do the heavy lifting that Game of Thrones skipped. As a basic starting point, that should mean more chapters from his POV. But it should also involve more active participation in the story’s central conflicts, and a clearer sense of how his unique perspective fits into the political and existential crises facing Westeros.

Perhaps the most obvious choice here is having Bran’s greensight and warging abilities - and his place as the Three-Eyed Crow - being essential in the fight against the Others. His powers give him a great advantage, and while Thrones attempted to place him at the heart of this by revealing the Night King wanted Bran, it wasn't explained with enough depth. There's no Night King in the books, of course, so it will have to be different, but it needs to fully have us understand Bran's importance.

The POV structure should be a huge boon here, as we can be inside his head as this unfolds, giving us a perspective the TV show could not.

Even beyond that, though, it simply needs to make us understand Bran. What does he want, and why? What and how does he feel? How does being the Three-Eyed Crow change him, how his powers work, and so on. The POV structure should be a huge boon here, as we can be inside his head as this unfolds, giving us a perspective the TV show could not. Bran still needs to emerge as someone with real agency in the story, not just arriving with a "why do you think I came all this way?" response in a way audiences can't fully comprehend.

"Unfortunately, I am 13 years late. Every time I say that, I’m [like], ‘How could I be 13 years late?’ I don’t know, it happens a day at a time. But that’s still a priority. A lot of people are already writing obituaries for me. [They’re saying] ‘Oh, he’ll never be finished.’ Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. I’m alive right now! I seem pretty vital!" - George R.R. Martin's update on The Winds of Winter back in December 2024.

There are a lot of advantages at Martin's disposal, not least a near unlimited amount of time to tell this story the way he wants through The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. But if Bran is to be the endgame, then, especially as it won't really be a shocking "twist" in quite the same way thanks to Game of Thrones, it should lay more groundwork for it. There's a potentially great story there, and the books should be able to tell it in a much more satisfying way.

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  Game of Thrones

  Game of Thrones is a multimedia franchise created by George R.R. Martin. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is the basis for the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, which lasted for eight seasons. After the incredibly divisive final season of Game of Thrones, the series was followed up by the prequel series House of the Dragon, which also received critical acclaim.