Bran = 3EC

So I recently watched orderofthegreenhand 's vid regarding Bloodraven (BR) and the Three-Eyed Crow (3EC):




As ever, I disagree strongly with the assumption OotGH and many other readers make when arguing that the children of the forest are antagonists, but it the video is very well done and the theory is well argued. It got me thinking about wolfmaid7 's years of protest against the idea that Bloodraven was the 3EC. (And wolfmaid7 , you would really like their theory)

Anyhoo, I was open to the possibility when she raised the argument, but I was far from sold. BR=3EC was a done deal for me. But in spite of that ridiculous certainty, there were several nagging questions. As ever, my focus was drawn to the weirwoods. Why didn't the heart tree have three eyes when it looked up at Bran?

A Game of Thrones - Bran III

Bran looked down, and felt his insides turn to water. The ground was rushing up at him now. The whole world was spread out below him, a tapestry of white and brown and green. He could see everything so clearly that for a moment he forgot to be afraid. He could see the whole realm, and everyone in it.

He saw Winterfell as the eagles see it, the tall towers looking squat and stubby from above, the castle walls just lines in the dirt. He saw Maester Luwin on his balcony, studying the sky through a polished bronze tube and frowning as he made notes in a book. He saw his brother Robb, taller and stronger than he remembered him, practicing swordplay in the yard with real steel in his hand. He saw Hodor, the simple giant from the stables, carrying an anvil to Mikken's forge, hefting it onto his shoulder as easily as another man might heft a bale of hay. At the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood brooded over its reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in a chill wind. When it felt Bran watching, it lifted its eyes from the still waters and stared back at him knowingly.

So, maybe that was BR looking through the weirwood's eyes. It would make sense. BR only has one eye, but the tree has two, and BR has a root growing through his empty socket now. 

I'd rather that be Lyanna looking at Bran through the weirwood, but I understand that is more wishful thinking than cold hard logic. 

Anyway, if this was BR, then spirit flight BR does not have three eyes. Spirit flight BR only has two. 

Now I must borrow kienn 's favorite passage so we can check out this other weirwood. This time, it is animated by Bran's flying spirit:

A Clash of Kings - Jon VII

When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves.

There were five of them when there should have been six, and they were scattered, each apart from the others. He felt a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness. The forest was vast and cold, and they were so small, so lost. His brothers were out there somewhere, and his sister, but he had lost their scent. He sat on his haunches and lifted his head to the darkening sky, and his cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound. As it died away, he pricked up his ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow.

Jon?

The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . .

A weirwood.

It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow.

He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.

Don't be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

        [italics are original]


Note that this weir-contact occurs long before Bran makes his way north to Bloodraven. 

Bran is in Winterfell's crypts, which are below Winterfell's heart tree. Weirwood-Ghost-Jon sees Weirwood-Tree-Bran sprouting from solid rock. That solid rock is Winterfell's crypts, and I think it says much and more about what nourishes Winterfell's heart tree.

There are many weirwoods, but no where else (except, perhaps, the Nightfort) is a weirwood nourished by the Kings of Winter.



Bran is in a very unique position when making this long distance call to Jon (who is scaling the Frostfangs like an Ice Spider). What is even more unique is that this is not a normal weirwood. Never before or since have we found a three-eyed weirwood tree. 

The one time that we do, it is not BR using it. It is Bran.
 
While BR tells Bran that he saw him fall, and was even a part of his first dream, BR does not claim he ever made contact with Bran in any way. And, as Wolfmaid has long pointed out, and OotGH has also noticed, BR did not tell Bran that he is the 3EC

So this call was made before Bran's tree-wedding and his meeting with BR. Bloodraven has one eye...or a thousand eyes and one. And by my count, 


and, 


So the math is way off on this one. BR does not have 3 eyes, and the only time we've ever seen a weirwood with three eyes, it was Bran. 

So if Bran = Three-Eyed Weirwood, shouldn't Bran also be the Three-Eyed Crow?


"But wait!" you might say. Bran is a wolf, not a crow!

Well, there are wolves, and then there are winged wolves....


                     A Clash of Kings - Bran IV


Jojen was visited by the crow when he almost died. Bran was visited by the crow when he almost died.

The 3EC saved Bran from death, and the 3EC saved Bran's chain-breaker from death. Can that be mere happenstance? Seems to me that Bran is the only person capable of projecting a spirit-image that has three eyes... So, I'm thinking that one of Baby-Bran's "first dreams" was of being a crow that saved a green-eyed boy from greywater fever. 




And "Bran" means "Raven" ... Bran's own third eye is the one that had been filled with a terrible knowledge, but he's been too afraid to see it. Afraid to fall...

A Clash of Kings - Bran V

Jojen sat on Bran's bed. "Tell me what you dream."

He was scared, even then, but he had sworn to trust them, and a Stark of Winterfell keeps his sworn word. "There's different kinds," he said slowly. "There's the wolf dreams, those aren't so bad as the others. I run and hunt and kill squirrels. And there's dreams where the crow comes and tells me to fly. Sometimes the tree is in those dreams too, calling my name. That frightens me. But the worst dreams are when I fall." He looked down into the yard, feeling miserable. "I never used to fall before. When I climbed. I went everyplace, up on the roofs and along the walls, I used to feed the crows in the Burned Tower. Mother was afraid that I would fall but I knew I never would. Only I did, and now when I sleep I fall all the time."

But, when faced with death, that third eye comes to save the day.