Bran Stark

Brandon Stark, and commonly known simply as "Bran", is a major character in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth seasons of Game of Thrones.

He is the fourth child and second son of Lord Eddard Stark and his wife, Lady Catelyn Stark, the brother of Robb, Sansa, Arya and Rickon Stark, and the paternal half brother of Jon Snow.

Background
Bran is the fourth child and second son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, and Warden of the North, and Lady Catelyn Tully of Riverrun. He has two brothers, an older brother Robb, and a younger brother Rickon, and two older sisters, Sansa and Arya. Bran also grew up with a bastard half-brother, Jon Snow.

Bran was named for Ned's elder brother, Brandon, who was brutally executed by the Mad King along with Bran's paternal grandfather Lord Rickard Stark. He is only called "Brandon" by his mother when he has done something wrong. Bran dreams of being a knight of the Kingsguard, and his favourite hobby is climbing the walls of Winterfell, using its old rooftops and passageways to get around. Having grown up around the teachings of the Faith of the Seven, his mothers religion, as well as his fathers religion of the Old Gods, many in Winterfell had hoped Bran would reach a high position within the faith, perhaps even becoming High Septon in King's Landing.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels Bran is seven years old when the action begins. He has a love of climbing, and has been known to climb the walls of Winterfell and go exploring its ancient nooks and crannies. He dreams of one day being a great knight, but he is also fascinated by magic. Bran is described as having red-auburn hair like his mother, full brothers, and oldest sister, though on the series he has brown hair. Robb Stark's hair was also similarly darkened for the television series, while Rickon's is lightened to blond.

Before his disability, Bran shows some skills with a sword when Robert Baratheon visits Winterfell by befriending and sparring with Tommen Baratheon. Eddard also initially intends to take Bran to with him to King's Landing, along with Sansa and Arya, in the hopes that he will form a strong bond with the king's sons to foster good relations between their families in the next generation, much like Ned's close friendship with Robert did. Catelyn, however, wishes for Bran to remain in Winterfell with her and prays to the Seven Gods for something to keep Bran from leaving. Bran is later shoved out of a tower window by Jaime Lannister after he catches Jaime and Cersei together, and rendered crippled from the waist down, forcing Ned to leave him behind after all and leading Catelyn to blame herself.

While in a coma after the fall, Bran has dreams that he is still falling while the three-eyed crow (which became the Three-Eyed Raven in the series), tries to help him open his own third eye and his magical abilities. He also sees visions of the present and potentially the future. Bran wakes from his coma just as he has accepted his power and chosen to fly instead of fall. Upon waking, he learns of his disability as well as the fact that his father, mother, sisters, and half-brother Jon, have left him behind. In A Clash of Kings, Bran reflects, "It was as if some cruel god had reached down with a great hand and swept them all away, the girls to captivity, Jon to the Wall, Robb and Mother to war, King Robert and Father to their graves, and perhaps Uncle Benjen as well.” Bran spends a great deal of time depressed by his situation, which not only keeps him from the activities he loves but makes his dream to be a knight impossible. When the king dies and Eddard is taken prisoner, Bran acts as Robb's confidant while his older brother struggles to take on their father's role as lord and to bring together their bannermen in preparation to march south. Bran's the only one Robb can confess his fears and insecurities to while their bannermen take turns challenging Robb's authority. The Northern army soon marches south to save Ned, leaving Bran to be the Stark in Winterfell. Though Robb achieves some military success, Bran soon learns that his father has been executed.

Like in the television show, much of Bran's storyline in the second novel initially deals with his learning to rule Winterfell and his growing skinchanging abilities. But Bran's role is primarily in learning to rule as well as Northern politics and diplomacy, while the decision making is left to Rodrik Cassel and Maester Luwin. Bran also has to play host to two of Walder Frey's grandsons who are now being fostered at Winterfell as part of the pact Catelyn made to bring House Frey to Robb's side in the war. A harvest feast is held at the castle now that autumn has begun, and the remaining Northern nobility who haven't gone south with Robb come to Winterfell with various food offerings and to discuss political issues with Rodrik, Luwin, and Bran. Jojen and Meera Reed also attend the feast and reaffirm the crannogman's oath of fealty to House Stark.

After the celebration has ended, the Reeds remain in Winterfell and befriend Bran. Jojen has magical gifts similar to Bran's and repeatedly attempts to discuss them and the future with him, only for Bran to put him off because he is afraid of acknowledging his own abilities, though he knows he is skinchanging into Summer when he sleeps. Jojen has prophetic visions or green dreams which he shares with Bran. In the television show, the prophetic dreams are given to Bran since the Reeds are not introduced until the third season. One of Jojen's visions is of the sea coming to Winterfell, drowning a number of the castle's household. This comes to pass when Theon captures Winterfell while Rodrik is distracted by the attack at Deepwood Motte. Theon frees "Reek", a Winterfell prisoner who had served the presumed dead Ramsay Snow, while committing crimes. Theon takes him as one of his men. Not long after being forced to yield the castle to Theon, Bran, Rickon, the Reeds, and Hodor escape with the help of Osha the Wildling. They end up circling back to hide in the castle's crypts while Theon attempts to recapture them. When Theon fails to find them, "Reek" suggests they kill the sons of a miller and pass them off as Bran and Rickon. The children only leave the crypt after Ramsay Snow, who had been posing as Reek, sacks Winterfell and takes Theon prisoner. They find a dying Luwin in the godswood. He advises them to split Bran and Rickon up for safety. Osha takes Rickon while the Reed siblings take Bran. In the series, the younger Stark brothers aren't separated until the end of the third season.

Bran spends the third novel traveling to the Wall with the Reeds while also strengthening his skinchanging ability. Jojen warns him not to spend to much time in Summer's mind or else he'll lose himself. In their journey, they come upon a man from House Liddle, who seems to recognize who Bran is due to his direwolf and paralysis, but says nothing overtly. When they part, he leaves much of his food with them and Bran vows to pay House Liddle back for this once he returns to Winterfell. While hiding in an abandoned castle, the children see Jon fighting Wildlings below them. Bran skinchanges into Summer to fight them off, allowing Jon to escape. Once the Wildlings are gone, they continue traveling north until they reach the Nightfort at the Wall. Once there, they meet Sam and Gilly, who were instructed by a mysterious man named Coldhands to send Bran and his party through the Wall to meet him on the other side. Sam immediately realizes who is Bran, since he is both paraplegic and accompanied by a direwolf. Sam brings them to the Black Gate and opens it for them by reciting part of his Night's Watch vows. Before leaving, Sam swears three times that he will not tell anyone about meeting Bran, for his safety, and keeps his word.

Coldhands leads the party beyond the Wall for a great deal of time until they reach the cave of the three-eyed crow. Before entering, they are attacked by wights and have to fight their way in with the help of the children of the forest. Once there, Bran meets the three-eyed crow, who is a very old man whose life has been extended by the physical joining of his body with the weirwood roots. Bran asks if the three-eyed crow can help him walk again, but is told that he can't. But even though Bran will never walk again, he will fly.

In the television series, the character Coldhands is left out. So Sam helps them to the other side without his instruction while the children make their way to the cave on their own. There is not, however, any interaction between Bran and the Night's Watch mutineers or Vargo Hoat (Locke's literary counterpart), these subplots having been added in order to stretch out Bran's storyline and avoid completing his A Dance With Dragons chapters. Also, while Jojen dies during the battle with the wights outside of the cave in season four, he survives to enter the cave in the novels, though he is weak and depressed.

In real life, "Bran" is the word for "raven/crow" in several Celtic languages (Welsh, Cornish, Breton, etc.).[46] Given that Westeros is loosely analogous to Britain, the First Men and their Old Gods are loosely analogous to the original Celtic inhabitants of Britain who worshiped druidic nature gods, but were later driven to the fringe of the island by invading peoples (i.e. the Andals are like the Anglo-Saxons). It is unknown if George R.R. Martin intentionally picked the name "Bran" knowing it is the Celtic word for "Crow", but it does neatly associate with Bran and his visions of the three-eyed crow.

Bran is the very first POV character in the novels. His chapter in A Game of Thrones, "Bran I", initially led many fans to assume that Bran was the main protagonist of the novel, and George R.R. Martin has since stated that Bran's fall from the tower was the series' first shocking moment which captivated fans, before other plot twists such as Ned's execution, the Red Wedding and the Mutiny at Castle Black.