Quote Originally Posted by Prediction? Pain. View Post
The dragon battle was amazing. And I really dug Arya's return to Winterfell, and I'm cool with how Jon and Dany's relationship is progressing, too. Great episode.

But what the eff's the deal with Bran's recent descent into glassy-eyed crazytown? And let me preface my beef by saying that I was one of the very few uber-nerds who was really into Bran's story at the end of season 4 only to be let down in season 6. Fireball wielding androgynous pixie emerges from a cave hurling fireballs at the undead to save Bran and lead him to a mystical-looking shaman seated among the roots of an ancient tree? Kapow, Children of the Forest, bitches! Time for Bran to become an all-knowing wizard. Fast forward to season 6, and the Children of the Forest have morphed into adult, low-level Dr. Moroeau extras, the three-eyed-raven is just some dude in a black robe, and Bran's training is tagalong flashback watching (important though the details may have been). Bottom line, I thought it was a waste.

But regardless, when the hell did Bran become catatonic? Meera said "You died in that cave." Really? Because I didn't see that. During his training (when he tried to talk to his dad and raptly watched him during the Tower of Joy vision), he was the same ole Bran. When he encountered the Ice King in his vision (and became visibly frightened and screamed), he was the same ole Bran. During his escape from the cave as he was stuck in a vision (when he smiled as he watched his grandfather leave his father at Winterfell), he was the same ole Bran. And when he met up with his uncle on his trek to the wall (when he expressed adolescent frustration about how he couldn't control his visions), he was the same ole Bran.

So, again, whence Bran the Dud? (Zinger to Little Finger notwithstanding.) I get the explanation. The visions are just too much for him. But it was just dropped in our laps with zero context, explanation, or development. If you're going to go that way, why not just have it happen slowly over these first few episodes? But why even go there? We didn't get tons of screen time from Max Von Sydow as the previous Three Eyed Raven, but even he was more animated (at least in the visions) than Bran is now.

- inconsequential rant over -

So yeah, I'm stoked about how things are going. And I agree with you, Beardo, re: Bronn and Jamie's fate. Too many awesome possibilities for interactions with Tyrion not to go that route. (Plus, I'm not sure what the alternative is.)
It is almost like Bran is becoming similar to being autistic with information overload. I agree, Bran should have been slowly going there and it was almost like the talk with Meera was how it should have happened if he acted weird after the first time with the 3 eyed raven. He was still pretty normal in the cave. I wonder if we see Meera at some point in the future or is it like they are just doing a shitty version of tying up loose ends. I believe GRRM when he says the books will be different. There is way more out there that is going on where the show is just condensing stories like crazy.