New 'Game Of Thrones' Season 6 Photo Still Leaves Wiggle Room For Cannibalized Jojen Paste

A popular fan theory held that Bran Stark would cannibalize his companions to awaken his greenseer and warg abilities. A new photo for Game of Thrones Season 6 presents a very much alive Meera Reed, which would seem to debunk the most savage readings of Bran Stark’s journey in George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons. However, there’s still plenty of room for Jojen Paste.

According to the Jojen Paste fan theory, Bran Stark slurped down a magical slurry of weirwood tree sap and his traveling companions blood. “Something about the look of it made Bran feel ill,” Martin writes. “The red veins were only weirwood sap, he supposed, but in the torchlight they looked remarkably like blood. He dipped the spoon into the paste, then hesitated.”

The Three-eyed Raven’s cave is strewn with bones. In A Dance with Dragons this mentor describes the ability to see through time and space like a blood magic, telling Bran, “your blood makes you a greenseer.” Perhaps with his capacity for prophesy Jojen’s blood could be a powerful catalyst.

Unlike in the novels, Jojen Reed is already dead on Game of Thrones , killed by wights as Meera, Hodor and Bran make a desperate dash for the magical weirwood tree. So while the more violent possibility — Bran killing and eating his companions — is out of the cards, would it be so surprising to hear that Bran’s holistic powers are enhanced through a few slurps from a long pig smoothie?

With the reappearance of Meera Reed, the Brannibal fan theory has taken quite a hit. Still, the possibility remains that, just as Melisandre draws prophetic power from blood, Bran’s own abilities may depend upon some of that good old-fashioned cannibalism.