Just when you thought "Game of Thrones" Season 6 couldn't get any more convoluted, the show suddenly slaps you in the head with time travel. Its fifth and most recent episode, "The Door," featured one of the series' most heart-wrenching scenes to date. It also brought in deep implications for future episodes.
Hold The Door
Ever since Hodor first appeared in Season 1, many fans had been wondering why the gentle giant could only utter his equally mysterious name. As it turns out, the origin of "Hodor" was a result of a future event.
Vox explained that it was present-day Bran Stark who traumatized young Hodor in the past. During the episode's climactic last scene, Bran uses his Greenseer powers, the ability to observe past and future events, on old Hodor. While doing so, Meera and the Three-Eyed Raven begged Bran to also use his Warg powers so that the reluctant giant could shield them against the White Walkers.
The phenomenon somehow created a link between Hodor's mind in the past and present. Young Hodor could be seen shaking profusely and repeating the words "hold the door" while his older self was dying at the hands of the Night's King's army.
A More Complex World
Bran's newly-established powers could possibly have significant consequences for the "Game of Thrones" universe. The show's new time travel element opens a new set of questions about what has transpired thus far in the series. Tech Insider speculated that Bran or Bloodraven could have orchestrated pivotal events during past seasons, without viewers knowing about it.
"It's enough of a utility to just be able to look back in time and allow that to inform your decisions in the future, but the fact that you might be able to change time? It's massive. It's unprecedented," Hempstead Wright shared to The Hollywood Reporter. "For Bran, it presents a humongous kind of challenge, because we all know from 'Doctor Who' that if you start messing with time, things go wrong."
