Is The Three-Eyed Raven Future Bran On 'Game Of Thrones'? With Time Travel, Anything Goes

Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones sure was a doozy, and I think we all "learned a great deal," though some of that knowledge was almost too heartbreaking to bear. The events of last episode, the death of the Three-Eyed Raven, the revelation that Bran can actually affect events in the past, and the attack of the White Walkers has set the Internet ablaze with ever more outlandish and possibly genius theories about what's coming next for our most beloved characters. One of the more intriguing, if bizarre, theories is that Bran actually is the Three-Eyed Raven on Game of Thrones, and has in fact been training himself all this time.

When Bran made the extremely rookie move of greenseeing without his mentor's guidance and accidentally getting marked by the Night's King, thus giving them away, the Three-Eyed Raven intoned ominously, "It is time for you to become me." Now, this sounds exciting and everything, but it's not entirely clear what that actually means. Is Bran going to be the new wise old man? Or maybe Bran is going to literally become the Three-Eyed Raven.

If this theory were true, it would mean not only that Bran has been training himself all this time, but also that Bran had found a way to travel to the past and stay there in order to meet up with himself some 1,000 years later. It's a little far-fetched, sure, but once you introduce time-travel into the narrative, anything is fair game. Some other theories about Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven include that Bran actually is Bran the Builder – the almost mythic original Bran Stark who built Winterfell and founded the Stark house. Maybe if Bran is not the Three-Eyed Raven, he was the one who trained him, and then in the future was trained by him, creating a terribly confusing time loop that is giving me a headache.

Some evidence in favor of the Bran-Is-Three-Eyed-Raven include the fact that the Three-Eyed Raven said he was the "Last Greenseer," except that in training Bran proved this wrong. Doesn't that make Bran the last Greenseer? Could that mean they are one in the same? He also of course said that it was time for Bran to "become him." Perhaps he meant this literally. Or then again, perhaps he only meant that now it was Bran's turn to become the Last Greenseer. After all, he did say that Bran would not end up an old man in a tree.