Bran Stark Is Finally Back On 'GoT'

I don’t know about you, but I'm actually ready for the Bran Stark story to continue on Game of Thrones . It’s been a long time since we last saw the young Winterfell lord (who doesn’t look that young anymore), but we’re finally jumping back into his storyline. The Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones brought a few revelations, including the fact that Melisandre is about 1000 years old and Dany may be thrown in some type of Khaleesi convent. The preview for this Sunday teased the return of Bran Stark in Episode 2. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen him and he may just have the best plotline of them all this year.

Now that he’s been training with the Three-Eyed Raven, he will be able to use the gift of sight to see the past, present and future of Westeros and Essos. We may finally see glimpses of the past with The Mad King, or hints of who’s going to take the iron throne in the end. He could look into the future and see the fate of Jon Snow, or see if the theory L+R=J is a real thing. In a way, Bran holds the key to literally everything we want to know as a viewer, which is why his return is super important. It’s been awhile though, so I rounded up some of Brans major plot points, just to remind you what happened before the break.

The Three-Eyed Raven

The entire time Bran was on the show, he was trying to figure out what was happening with the Three-Eyed Raven. He saw it in his dreams and eventually realized he need to follow this bird and understand what it meant. It only took four seasons to do so, but eventually we learned that the Three-Eyed Raven is not a bird, but a super old man who’s been watching him through the eyes of the raven.

Fleeing Winterfell

Let’s not forget about that time Theon attempted to take Winterfell. Bran, Rickon, Osha and Hodor escaped, but Theon killed and burnt two farmer boys and told everyone it was the youngest Stark sons. At this point they are still believed to be dead by pretty much everyone, except Sansa. Theon revealed to her last season that he didn’t really kill the Starks.

"The Sight"

In season 4, Bran finally realized that he had some control over his ability to warg into animals. Over the season he figured out how to warg into Summer, his direwolf and he was even able to go into Hodor’s mind and control him. He was just learning that ability when we last saw him, but I assume the old guy in the tree was a good mentor.

Going North Of The Wall

Originally his group was headed toward Castle Black to find Jon Snow, but there was a moment in Season 3 when he accidentally warged into Hodor to stop him from yelling and realized that he needed to set out beyond The Wall to find the raven. He told Osha to take Rickon to a safe place and continued his journey with Jojen and Meera.

Crastor’s Keep

Right after the group got North of The Wall they stumbled upon Crastor’s Keep (The place where that guy kept knocking up his daughters and killing any boys they birthed). They were all captured by Karl, the rogue Night’s Watch member. Right as Karl was about to torture Meera, a group of the Night’s Watch attack the Keep. Bran warged into Hodor to free himself and they all got out unharmed. Jon Snow and Bran were so close to reuniting, but it was once again a failed Stark reunion.

Jojen’s Death

The group finally got to the tree they'd been looking for, but got attacked by wights popping out of the ground. Jojen was stabbed and he told Meera to leave him behind.

The End

They ran into a cave underneath the tree and met the old man who said he'd been watching them for a long time. Bran asked him if he was going to help him walk again, to which the man replied, “You will never walk again, but you will fly.” Cryptic AF. But, now that Bran is back, I'm sure we'll see how it all plays out very soon.

Images: Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO