Inconsistencies and incongruities

In an interview with the NYT, Isaac Hempstead Wright gives as in-depth a look on Bran as we have seen.

He presents Bran as the Three-Eyed Raven, a being that knows and lives in the past and even sees glimpses into the future. He does not tell others what he knows as this “would affect the outcome” and is aware things must “unfold naturally”. This persona is solidified in the interview when IHW labels the 3ER as “an indifferent keeper of history and time” and that he “doesn’t sit there judging. He doesn’t sit there advising. He just sits there keeping an eye on history and time.”

So, Bran is a shitty plot device that is used as a video player for the viewers. Disappointing, but understandable given how these past two seasons have gone.

But here’s where this idea breaks down

Far from being a passive knowledge repository, Bran has been directly involved and ultimately responsible for every single significant event since he has become the Three-Eyed Raven.

His visions were used to provide the evidence that convicted Littlefinger.

He gave Arya the Catspaw dagger

IHW, in the same interview above, let slip that Bran manipulated Theon to charge the NK to buy the additional few seconds needed for Arya

And, the big one, Jon’s parentage reveal which ultimately led to the events of the last episode.

So no, the 3ER has not been there to passively record history and time and let events unfold “naturally”. Far from it, in fact. The future is as he has seen entirely because of the actions of the 3ER.

This begs the question: why? Why this outcome? Does the 3ER have a motive or “want”? If he truly does not, is the 3ER a tool of an entity that does?

I don’t believe we will get all of the answers to these questions in the final episode, but I do think we will see Bran/3ER as the puppet master behind everything that has occurred in this series.

This will set up a rich and intriguing environment for the prequels, or as Martin calls them, "successor show", as he says “they are not Game of Thrones spin-offs in the traditional sense.”