This Overlooked Game of Thrones Character May Hold a Major Key to the Series End
Warning This post contains major spoilers for Game of Thrones. She may only have a handful of scenes in the Game of Thrones TV show, but in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, Old Nan  House Stark's oldest servant  may have long ago foreshadowed a major key to the series' end. When Bran is paralyzed from the waist down after being pushed out of a Winterfell tower by Jaime Lannister, he spends quite a bit of time in bed listening to Old Nan's stories. But while he mostly takes her anecdotes with a grain of salt, there seem to be clues about both the past and future  and his connection to them  in much of what she says. Especially now that some of the specifics of Bran's time traveling abilities have come to light, several of Martin's passages about Old Nan give the impression that they hold a deeper meaning about what's to come in the series. In fact, this has already occurred, with major events that were hinted at by Nan, such as Arya's gruesome method of killing Walder Frey, later coming to pass. In the season three episode following the Red Wedding, Bran relays the story of the Rat Cook  a legend in which a cook in the Night's Watch killed the son of a visiting king, cooked him into a pie and served him to the king  to Jojen and Meera while they're hiding out in the Nightfort. In Martin's A Storm of Swords, it's revealed that it was Nan who originally told Bran this tale. This story is ostensibly included to demonstrate how gravely the Freys violated the sacred Westerosi tradition of guest right. However, once Arya took out Walder Frey, it became clear it served another purpose. MORE The 20 Most Essential Game of Thrones Episodes, Old Nan also has been around to care for multiple generations of Stark children. It's said that she is the great-grandmother of Hodor and that she originally came to Winterfell to nurse a Brandon Stark  which realistically could have been either the current Bran's great-uncle or great-great-uncle  but her exact age is not known, making some of her statements all the more mysterious. In A Game of Thrones, Martin includes a scene in which Bran grows frustrated with Nan. "I hate your stupid stories," he tells her. "My stories?," she responds. "No, my little lord, not mine. The stories are, before me and after me, before you too.", This not only indicates that Old Nan may be worldlier than she seems, but also lines up with what the Three-Eyed Raven later tells Bran about the nature of time. "The past is already written," he says. "The ink is dry.", If those statements are true, it means time in the Thrones universe operates in a closed loop. Bran cannot change the past through time travel, he can only fulfill it  i.e. Bran shattering Hodor's mind by warging into him from the past was a fate that was always set in stone. Confused? The concept is summed up well in this TV Tropes post on understanding self-fulfilling time travel. Now, here's where Old Nan really comes into play. In A Game of Thrones, Martin gives Bran an inner monologue in which he contemplates his nurse after she offers to tell him the story of Brandon the Builder  the story she insists was always his favorite. Martin is known for including seemingly insignificant details that turn out to foreshadow major plot points. So it doesn't seem like a stretch to say this last sentence could be a hint that the current Bran Stark somehow embodies all past Bran Starks  and was quite possibly Bran the Builder. In fact, this is a theory often touched on by fans in Game of Thrones forums. "Bran will go back in time to build the Wall, and when people will ask the guy's name, he'll just say Bran,'" wrote one Imgur user on the topic. "Thus, Bran the Builder, who will be the inspiration for his name when he's born in the present time. He'll be the one who'll establish, in the past, that there must always be Starks at Winterfell, because he must ensure that he comes to exist in the present.", HBO also fanned the flames of this theory when it showed Bran the Builder being carried around on a platform  indicating he may have been paralyzed just like Bran Stark  in an extra about the history of Westeros on the Thrones DVD boxed set. If our Bran turns out to be the Bran who built the Wall, he may also play a role in other aspects of Westerosi history that are essential to the survival of mankind in the impending war against the White Walkers. His time traveling abilities may even be the key to their defeat, making him one of  if not the  most important characters in the series. Whatever the case may be, the only thing we know for sure is that we can't wait for July 16.