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game of thrones - How do Bran's Wargging powers work in S06E05 "The Door"?


In the fifth episode of season six of Game of Thrones, "The Door",



Bran is "warged" into the past, viewing a scene in Winterfell from when Hodor/Wyllis was a child.




Meanwhile,



Whitewalkers are attacking the cave, and Hodor goes into fits similar to the last few times Whitewalkers have attacked. Eventually, Hodor's eyes roll back, which is our visual clue that Bran has warged into his body, and he starts behaving un-Hodor-like, standing up and taking action. It is apparent that Bran is now in control of Hodor's body.



But,



Bran is shown to still be warging/viewing the past (is that the same power? Is it something else?). So he seems to be both viewing the past and controlling Hodor's body at the same time.



And then finally,




Bran appears to - intentionally or not - also warg into young Hodor/Wyllis's body while in the past, causing the young version to seize and begin shouting the phrase heard by his older present-day self.



So what actually happened here?



How do Bran's powers work? Has he ever been able to warg two people at the same time, or was that only possible because they were both versions of the same people? Has he ever warged into someone while viewing the past? Has he ever been shown to be able to "see" himself as himself while warging someone, as he was still seeing himself as Bran while controlling Hodor? Or was everything that happened in this episode brand new incarnations of his ability?




Answer



I dont think there is a definitive cannonical answer yet. As far as I know, Bran had never warged into two things at the same time prior to this incident.


In this interview, Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran) says,




Hodor was a totally normal kid that was screwed over by Bran.



The actors are often left in the dark about the future of their character or have a differing opinion than GRRM. However, in the absence of clear direction, I'll take what Wright says.


Hollywood Reporter also posted an article that extrapolated a bit. Obviously this isn't canon, but I post it since it contains some perspectives that hadn't originally occurred to me.



In the final moments of "The Door," Bran's green-seeing and warging abilities crossed the streams in such a way that he wargs into Hodor and orders him to "hold the door" from an army of the dead. It gives the present Hodor his final directive, and the past Hodor the new name and limited vocabulary that would haunt him for the rest of his life.


...


In Game of Thrones, Bran hopping into the past and ordering Wylis to "hold the door" always happened, resulting in the name and word "Hodor." While it's a harrowing end for such a beloved character, the implications are even more unsettling, as it confirms suspicions that Bran can indeed interact with the past, with horrific results.



Take together, the implication is that Bran was indeed warging present Hodor and past Wyllis/Hodor at the same time. Furthermore, the Bran's interference in the past is what caused Wyllis to become Hodor. Bran doesn't just view the past, his actions there can have real consequences.



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