153 ASOS 10 Bran I: Fly or Die

Warging Summer is making Bran a worse person and it will only gain momentum unless they reach the teacher who lives beyond the Wall. Having thought he'd prefer to live as Summer and not realize his potential as a greenseer, Bran realizes the Reeds offer to help him reach the three eyed crow represents his one chance to reverse his crippling. Any safe haven is only another crypt. He must struggle to realize his potential in order to be himself, alive.

Stone Chains

The punch at the end of the chapter is that Jojen's dreams are truer than even he knows. Jojen thought the stone chains were Winterfell except

"The chains are off you now, yet still you do not fly."

Bran had wondered, earlier in the chapter, why they followed Jojen. "What Jojen dreamed came true. Except he dreamed me dead, and I'm not. Only he was, in a way." 128 Only what Jojen saw was Bran and Rickon in their graves, where they hid. Now, Bran sees that the stone chains from Jojen's dream actually refer to all castles, especially in contrast to the open road. When offered the decision of where they'll go, by Meera, Bran has to acknowledge there is only one choice: the hard road. That Jojen was right again, and that his dreams show the future is again a marvel. It creates a sense of wonder about what is in store for Bran via this more powerful teacher beyond the Wall. It also communicates the stone chains as metaphors for Bran's stubbornness, his preference for ease and gluttony, his willingness to be consumed by Summer as a side effect of warging. The question Bran has been asking, of why not just be Summer, is answered when he realizes he'd dwindle and die.

Leadership

The concept of a mighty will dominating is introduced in stages. First, Summer dominates a pack of wolves with brute force. Then, Hodor dominates Bran with brute force, waking him from his warging. Then, Jojen asks Bran if he remembered to dominate Summer's will with his own by marking a tree or doing anything of his own inside Summer's body. Bran forgot, but he questions how Jojen leads the group when he's not the strongest or the one who supplies food, like Meera is. Nor does he have a title like "prince," as Bran does. The answer is not only that Jojen has a strong will and stubborn determination but that he thinks things through for the group.

When Meera challenges Jojen on the topic of traveling north on foot, saying they should get horses, Jojen soon explains that they can't trade for horses because it's too obvious who they are and Bran is protected by being thought dead. They can't steal them, either, even were that moral, because they'd be hunted for thieves. Their path must be by foot.

Bran's time as Prince of Winterfell was one of training to act as a lord. Leadership may not be in his future, but the principles of leadership apply to any activism. Even if Bran stays among the weirwood roots, he must feel responsible for the ramifications of his interference in the world, especially since it might be significantly powerful.

Ironies

When Bran proposes they go to one of Robb's bannermen, it's for the safety of the group. To convince Bran to choose for himself, alone, Meera must give Bran the say and communicate that they will serve him in this. Only then does he understand there is no choice to make. Summer and Hodor will stay with Bran no matter what, but the Reeds sacrifice to aid him on this mission and it would be self-destructively selfish for him to decline their offer, just as it is self-destructively selfish for him to prefer to be a wolf.

Bran would rather be a wolf than a cripple, but realizes he'll only ever be a cripple if he doesn't choose to be himself.

Mnemonic device "Fly or Die" refers to

1) The three eyed crow's words to Bran in the chapter where he wakes from his coma in A Game of Thrones.

2) Jojen's dream of Bran as a winged wolf in stone chains

3) The inter-generational mission of mankind's survival. If efforts are not made to transcend current capabilities, the race may face extinction. This is basic to Bran's role in the war against the Others. He doesn't get to be a child at play, forever, because the future has need of him.

Constructions

Arya's unwitting warging endangers her.

Mention of Karstark as a loyal house with a strong castle prepares for upcoming execution of Lord Rickard, long term treachery by Arnolf & Cregan, and the contention over Karhold.