'Game Of Thrones' Season 6 Episode 6: Bran's Vision, Frame By Frame, Reveals The Future And The Past

When it comes to visions and dreams on TV it’s hard to tell how literally we should be mining each shot for data. Is a certain moment just for effect, or is it to be taken literally? That’s the question we ask ourselves while poring over what might be the most consequential moments of Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 6, “Blood of My Blood,” as Bran totally trips balls and catches new glimpses of the past and the future.

Here’s the vision so you can check it out for yourself:

Bran’s vision just seemed like a lot of random b-roll footage, right? Maybe, but let’s check it out for ourselves. Here’s every shot from Bran’s episode 6 freak-out:

1. The sun sets over the North and a cold fog obscures it.

   

2. A baby dragon flies in a cloudy sky, probably a recycled shot from Season 2.
3. The shadow of Drogon over a city. Meereen would make the most sense, but it sure does look like King’s Landing.
4. A cutesy little dragon roars on Daenerys’ shoulder. It’s the last moment of Game of Thrones Season 1.
5. That Craster kid the White Walkers White Walkify.
6. The Night’s King begins the White Walkification. These three shots are all from Season 4, when it’s revealed that the White Walkers are transforming babies into rad warriors with flowing white hair and ice powers.
7. Two shots of ravens buzzing about. The Three-eyed raven is dead, but perhaps he lives on in Bran’s visions. After all, the Three-eyed Raven from the past could talk to the Bran of the future easily enough.
8. The Alchemists’ Guild create stockpiles of wildfire beneath King’s Landing. Aerys “The Mad King” Targaryen had them hide caches of it around King’s Landing. In his last moments he ordered the city set ablaze, believing he’d be reborn from the ashes. Luckily, a Kingslayer was there to put an end to the madness.

   

9. The Mad King raves from the Iron Throne: “Burn them all!”

   

10. Wildfire detonates in the tunnels beneath King’s Landing. This could be a vision of what could have come to pass, but didn’t. Or, perhaps it’s from the future? There’s a scene from A Feast for Crows that could fit this footage nicely...
11. Alchemist doofuses stockpile even more of the stuff.
12. Jaime Lannister, Kingsguard, unsheathes his sword and mounts the stairs to King Aerys.

    

13. Young goon Eddard Stark sneers (“Where’s my sister?”) right before getting his ass kicked by Ser Arthur “the Sword of the Morning” Dayne. He’s too late to save his dying sister, busy giving birth to Jon Snow upstairs (though we’ve yet to witness that on Game of Thrones ).
14. Hands covered in blood on a stone floor. Best guess? This is Lyanna Stark’s blood after Eddard finds her bleeding to death.
15. Jaime stabs the Mad King in the back.
16. Roose Bolton stabs Robb Stark, wannabe King in the North, in the stomach. The Red Wedding resonates still.
17. Jaime wiggles his sword around in the Mad King’s back a bit, just to make sure the despot is dead.
18. A raven flies by. It doesn’t appear to have three eyes, but it’s hard to tell for sure.
19. More Red Wedding.
20. A Child of the Forest stabs her dragonglass blade into a human, creating the first White Walker: The Night’s King. Why dragonglass both creates and destroys them remains a mystery.
21. That White Walker from the Season 5 episode “Hardhome” takes a swing at Jon Snow, unaware that Jon’s Valryian sword is about to make him explode.
22. Jaime sits on the Iron Throne, the dead king at his side.

    

23. More wildfire.
24. More baby dragon.
25. More giant dragon flying over King’s Landing. This better happen in Season 6, damnit.
26. Now we’re just reversing back out of the vision, repeating shots of the Night’s King, Daenerys and her dragons. It’s as if the vision was a dream we sunk into and now we’re being dragged back out through the same chronological layers.
27. More Jaime stabbing the Mad King.
28. More ravens flying about.
29. More Children of the Forest plunging that knife home.
30. Jaime again.
31. Wildfire again.

End.

While this is more of the Mad King’s reign than we’ve ever seen before, the majority of the footage in this Game of Thrones Season 6 psychedelic tree-wizard freakout reiterates historical and plot points we’ve seen in past episodes.

It’s surprisingly light on the spoilers, despite having nods to R+L=J and Daenerys’ impending invasion of Westeros. Bran’s farsight provide him many dark visions and portents, but few hard answers.