Jojen Paste is a Game of Thrones fan theory
claiming that Bran eats Jojen. Which sounds crazy, but may actually be true – so let’s
have a look. In season 4 of Game of Thrones and Book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire, Bran
Stark travels north, with Jojen, Meera, Hodor, and, in the books, Coldhands, a mysterious
walking corpse. They go to the home of the three-eyed crow, or Bloodraven, a “Dreamer,
wizard [and] greenseer” connected to the weirwoods and the children of the forest and
the magic of the old gods. The point of all this, apparently, is for Bloodraven to teach
Bran to use the magic power of the old gods, the powers of a greenseer. So in Dance, we
get a sort of a training montage, kinda like Luke Skywalker’s training in Star Wars – amongst
darkness and twisted tree-roots, an old but powerful mentor trains a young hero to unlock
his mystical powers. Bran learns to see into the past through the eyes of weirwood trees
, and to better skinchange – enter the minds of animals . As part of this training, Bloodraven
and the children of the forest give Bran a bowl of white paste apparently made out of
weirwood seeds. It’s “thick and heavy, with dark red veins running through it”
that look “remarkably like blood” . Apparently the purpose of this paste is to “help awaken
[Bran’s] gifts and wed [him] to the trees” . So Bran eats it, then has a vision through
the eyes of a weirwood tree. Afterwards, he finds Jojen and Meera curiously absent . He
then has more visions, and the chapter ends, and that’s the last we’ve seen of Bran.
So the Jojen Paste theory claims that the weirwood paste that Bran eats actually contains
the blood or body of Jojen. So – what’s the evidence?
Firstly, the tone of this whole chapter is really really dark and ominous. Its imagery
includes “dead men”, “dark clouds”, “blood stew”, “murder”s of crows,
“chambers … of bones”, a “talking corpse” and “whispers in the dark”,
it’s like a Halloween haunted house in here. There’s particular emphasis on flesh , and
blood , and knives – the line “The moon was a crescent, thin and sharp as the blade
of a knife” appears four times in this chapter, as the phases of the moon are used to track
the passage of time. So the tone and the imagery of this chapter really set the scene for something
bad to happen, maybe something involving knives and flesh and blood.
And it’s strongly implied that something bad is going to happen to Jojen. Of course,
in the show, Jojen is already dead. He’s stabbed, then mercy-killed, then blown up
by a child of the forest, cause apparently that’s what you do, but in the books, Jojen
survives the wights, and while Bran trains, he mopes around Bloodraven’s cave, growing
“ever more sullen and solitary” . “Food and … rest” improve his physical health
“after … their journey, but he [seems] sadder now, sullen, with a weary, haunted
look about the eyes” . At one point he implies that he has reason to be afraid . And this
seems to be related to his greensight – his prophetic dreams of the future. Meera says
Jojen “will not even try and fight his fate. He says the greendreams do not lie” . Jojen
has hinted that he’s foreseen his own death in his dreams . What seems to be going on
here is that Jojen is upset because he knows his death is coming. So why might Jojen have
to die? Jojen’s job is to bring Bran to Bloodraven
so Bloodraven can teach Bran to use the magic of the old gods. But magic in A Song of Ice
and Fire is not some Harry Potter swish-and-flick bullshit, magic in this world is messy and
ugly and it often has a price. When Daenerys uses magic to try to keep Drogo alive, the
price is the life of a horse – and of Dany’s unborn child. Melisandre needs king’s blood
and the burning of innocents to work her magic . Euron Greyjoy makes blood sacrifices to
make his ships sail faster . And there are many other examples from many different cultures
all across the world of ice and fire of the need for human sacrifice, or blood sacrifice,
in magic . So it makes a lot of sense that awakening Bran’s magic would also require
human sacrifice – especially when we’re talking about the magic of the old gods – we’re
told repeatedly that northmen used to make human sacrifices to the weirwoods – and
the Skagosi apparently still do . Further, Bran’s last vision in this chapter is of
a woman slashing a captive’s throat before a weirwood tree, and “as his life flow[s]
out of him in a red tide”, Bran can “taste the blood” . So in the same chapter where
Bran eats the suspiciously bloody weirwood paste to awaken his magic, we’re reminded
of the connections between the magic of the old gods and the weirwoods and human sacrifice.
Further, with human sacrifice and blood magic, one person’s blood can be more powerful
than another’s – for example, Melisandre specifically needs king’s blood for her
most powerful magic. This might explain why Jojen’s blood is needed, rather than Meera’s,
or Hodor’s, because while Jojen isn’t a fully-fledged greenseer like Bloodraven,
he does have green dreams, prophetic dreams , and special moss-green eyes that mark his
gift . Jojen has the power of the old gods in his blood, so it makes sense that his sacrifice
specifically has the power to awaken Bran’s magic.
Another thing that’s going on here if Jojen Paste is real is cannibalism. And cannibalism
is a recurring theme in the north – Stannis’ starving soldiers eat their own fallen , Wyman
Manderley bakes Freys into pies, Varamyr eats human flesh while warged into his wolf . And
cannibalism, especially unknowing cannibalism, is a recurring theme specifically in Bran’s
chapters. When Bran is at the Nightfort, he recalls the tale of the Rat Cook , who cooked
an Andal prince in a pie and served him to his father, then was cursed to live as a rat,
eating his own young . In the cave of the three-eyed crow, Bran and co. eat suspicious
meat that might be squirrel, or rat, or maybe something else … And when Bran is travelling
north, Coldhands feeds him the flesh of some Night’s Watchmen and tells him that it’s
pork . Also, like Varamyr, Bran eats human flesh while warged into his wolf . So Bran
has already eaten human meat – snacking on some Jojen would be just one more example
of cannibalism in his chapters. Further, on the journey north, Bran and co. eat Coldhands’
elk, which Bran feels guilty about because he considers the elk a “friend” . So Bran
has not only already been eating human flesh, but he’s already been eating his friends.
So the pieces are starting to come together. This chapter is really dark and ominous, it’s
strongly hinted that something bad will happen to Jojen, it makes sense that Bran’s magical
awakening would require blood sacrifice, cannibalism is a theme of Bran’s chapters. It looks
like – maybe – Bloodraven and the children of the forest secretly kill Jojen and put
his blood in the weirwood paste that they feed to Bran in order to awaken Bran’s magic.
But does that fit with what we know of Bloodraven? Bloodraven doesn’t exactly seem like a good
guy – just look at him – he’s a hundred-and-twenty-five-year-old “half-corpse and half-tree”, with “weirwood
roots [snaking] in and out of his withered flesh”. He’s “less a man than some ghastly
statue made of twisted wood, old bone, and rotted wool” . He lives in a cave full of
creepy forest elf children and “the bones of thousands dead” – his home is literally
littered with human skulls . And look at the shit he says – “Never fear the darkness,
Bran … Darkness will make you strong” . To return to the Star Wars comparison, Bloodraven
is much less like Yoda than he’s like Vader or the Emperor. He’s dark, seductive, manipulative,
and deceptive. Bran thought Bloodraven would be “a wise old wizard who could fix his
legs” , he never signed up to become a psychic tree . And what about Jojen, Meera and Hodor,
what’s gonna happen to them? They can hardly return to the Wall with winter setting in.
Maybe Bloodraven has good reasons for all this. Leaf says he works “For us, for you,
for the realms of men” , but even if that’s true, Bloodraven really doesn’t seem to
have Bran, Jojen, Meera and Hodor’s best interests at heart. He risks their lives bringing
them to his cave, he never explains what it is that he wants, and he’s turning Bran
into something that he never wanted to become. If sacrificing Jojen was necessary for Bloodraven’s
goals, it’s easy to believe that he’d do it.
Finally, this theory could fit well with Bran’s character arc. Bran starts the story as a
boy who dreams of being a heroic knight like in the fairy tales , just like Sansa dreams
of being a noble lady. Both of these characters get what they wish for – Sansa courts a
prince in the royal castle , and Bran journeys into danger in search of a magical power.
But Sansa soon realises that the world that she dreamed of is actually pretty terrible.
Joffrey’s a “monster” , and Cersei’s a – quote – “vile, scheming, evil bitch”
. Bran is starting to make a similar realisation – Coldhands is a “monster” , and the
mystical three-eyed crow is actually a creepy half-corpse tree-man. Maybe part of this disillusionment
for Bran will be the horrific discovery that he ate his friend. And there are a bunch of
interesting ways that could go – maybe, after finding out, Bran would try to get away
from Bloodraven – which might be difficult for someone who can’t walk – or maybe
he’ll embrace the darkness anyway. Bran has done some messed-up stuff lately, like
warging into Hodor all the time even though it clearly makes Hodor distressed . However
bad this Bloodraven stuff is, it empowers Bran at a time when he’s frustrated by his
helplessness – maybe he’d be too immersed in his greenseer power to notice or care about
the death of Jojen. Another interesting factor here is that Bran has a crush on Meera . How
would Meera react to Jojen’s death, and how would Bran react to Meera? And what will
happen to poor Hodor? There are lots of different ways this could work, but the point is that
Jojen Paste could fit into Bran’s story in some really interesting ways, possibly
as part of a turn towards darkness. So. Is there any strong direct evidence that
Bran eats Jojen? No. There’s no strong evidence against it, either. But here’s what we do
know. In an extremely dark and ominous chapter, it’s strongly implied that Jojen knows his
death is coming. Bran eats a suspiciously bloody weirwood paste, and afterwards Jojen
and Meera seem to be gone. The paste is meant to awaken Bran’s magic power, and we know
blood sacrifice is often needed to work magic, especially the magic of the old gods and the
weirwoods. Cannibalism is a recurring theme in Bran’s chapters, with Bran having already
eaten the flesh of humans and of friends. Bloodraven is a creepy, nasty dude who seems
willing to put his goals above the safety of others, and Bran’s story seems to be
heading towards a confrontation with the darkness. So there’s nothing concrete here, but the
pieces do seem to fit. It seems very plausible, likely, even, that Bran unknowingly eats Jojen
in Bloodraven’s weirwood paste. Thanks for watching, and thanks to all supporters
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