After disappearing for more than a season, Isaac Hempstead Wright’s Bran Stark returns this Sunday for Season 6, Episode 2 of Game of Thrones: “Home.” And he’s not alone. Joining Bran this year is film legend Max von Sydow as the Three-Eyed Raven. (The part was played, briefly, by Struan Rodger in Season 4.) Surely Game of Thrones wouldn’t have brought in a player as strong as von Sydow if the role wasn’t going to be worth it, so we can expect the character will do more in Season 6 than offer vague, esoteric advice while tangled up in some tree roots. What should you know about the Three-Eyed Raven? Well, for starters, that’s not his only name.
As the character told Bran back in Season 4—in one of only a few lines of his book dialogue that made it into the episode—he has been many things. He’s the three-eyed bird of Bran’s dreams, the withered wizard in the tree, and, over a hundred years ago, was a warrior and sorcerer named Brynden Rivers. That’s right, Melisandre isn’t the only ancient creature hanging around the frosty North. In fact, Hempstead Wright told IGN, “I think there's something interesting to come in the coming season which will reveal exactly what the relationship between those two mystical characters -- the Three-Eyed Raven and the Night’s King -- is. That’s something that'll be cool.” Ancient and connected to the leader of the White Walkers? Who is this guy?
Brynden Rivers was born 115 years before Bran Stark. Rivers, like Snow and Sand, is a surname given to bastards and Brynden’s illegitimate father was King Aegon Targaryen IV a.k.a. the great-great-great-great-grandfather to Daenerys Targaryen. Yeah, ike I said, Lord Rivers is old. In his heyday, Brynden had another, more evocative name, Bloodraven, for the wine-colored birthmark on his neck. But neither the birthmark nor Brynden’s missing left eye seem to have made it into either show version of the character.
Before he retired to a cave beneath a frozen tree up North, Rivers had a full life serving as the Hand to two Targaryen kings, fighting on the Targaryen side of a lengthy war of succession called the Blackfyre Rebellions, and for his troubles (which included having his own nephew beheaded) Brynden was sent to the Wall to take the black. He traveled up to Castle Black alongside the much younger Aemon Targaryen (R.I.P.) and eventually rose to become Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. His loyal men—a cadre of archers called the Raven’s Teeth— joined the Watch with him. When Lord Commander Rivers went missing (presumed killed) approximately 50 years before the action of the HBO series, his men vanished with him. But some book readers theorize that at least one of them is still wandering North of the Wall to this day.
While not even book readers know what happened to Brynden in the 50 years between his disappearance and his retirement under that tree, that Hempstead Wright interview indicates that it may have had something to do with the Night’s King. We do know that by the time Bran meets him in the books, the Bloodraven is a powerful greenseer (i.e. has prophetic visions) and a skinchanger (meaning that, like Bran, he can slip into the bodies of other humans and creatures—like a raven!). There are even theories that the Bloodraven can and has brought people back from the dead. (Hey! That might come in handy!) The Bloodraven was considered the last greenseer until Bran showed up, but there are indications the Stark kid could be even more powerful than the ancient, moldering Targaryen.
In the books, the Three-Eyed Raven tells Bran he cannot change the past—he can only observe via visions. “You cannot speak to him, try as you might,” he says instructing the young Stark. “I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them.” But there are hints in the books that through his visions, dreams, and connection to the Weirwood trees, Bran has been able to make (light) contact with both Theon and Jon Snow. And Hempstead Wright seemed to confirm these hints telling Entertainment Weekly that Bran’s “starting to make use of the visions and starting to discover he can interact with the past — he’s like Doctor Who. It’s Doctor Bran!” The episode title, “Home,” likely refers to Winterfell where the beginning of Bran’s time-traveling training will take place.
So was the Three-Eyed Raven lying to Bran or just unaware of the strength of the Stark kid’s powers? Is Bran’s new mentor friend or foe? It’s unclear. Brynden’s convivial relationship with the Children of the Forest (those elfin, grenade-lobbing creatures we met in Season 4) seems to indicate that he’s on the side of good. But there is a foreboding passage about him in George R.R. Martin’s “A Dance with Dragons.” Melisandre (who is, yes, the definition of an unreliable narrator and not exactly sympathetic) sees the Bloodraven in a vision:
If the Bloodraven can have that kind of impact on someone as powerful as Melisandre in a vision, imagine what kind of ripples he will make when he starts taking action in this week’s episode? Tune in to find out.
