'Game of Thrones' star finally reveals what Bran was doing during the Battle of Winterfell

During the Battle of Winterfell, the army of the dead fought the army of the living, and Melisandre provided some excellent lighting so we could see some of it. (Stellar job, Red Priestess! You can tell she has centuries of experience.) The army of wights burst through the Unsullied like a tsunami, and eventually overtook the castle. Thankfully, most of the main characters weren't killed, thanks to their Valyrian steel, and Plotarmoran steel, the strongest alloy of all.

As the epic battle continued, Bran The Three-Eyed Raven sat in the godswood as bait for the Night King. Theon Greyjoy attempted to talk to him, only for Bran to say, "I'm going now," and roll his eyes into the back of his head. (Happens every time you talk to a stoner at a party.) Evidently, he was warging into a raven, but some viewers were wondering why. Was he just joyriding or was he playing a part in the battle?

Watch the moment Bran tells Theon that he's going now:

In an interview with The New York Times, actor Isaac Hempstead Wright revealed where Bran went. "As far as I understand it, he’s just in the ravens," he said. "He’s just keeping tabs on the battle. But having lots of shots of ravens flying around wouldn’t be much of interest! [Laughs] And it would be pretty impractical for him to be like, “Hey, Theon, can you go run over there and tell this guy to get out of the way of that guy?"

You might ask, "Why didn't he warg into a dragon? That would be so badass!" Well, apparently the Three-Eyed Raven doesn't interfere. "Bran recognizes that all he can do is sit there and let whatever happens, happen," Wright said. "We saw how quickly all their plans disintegrated! There would have been no chance of an efficient communication system."

The Times reporter points out that Bran does interfere at some points of the story - giving Arya the catspaw dagger, ordering an emotional Sam to tell Jon about his real parents and telling Dany there's no time to chit-chat. "When Bran gives Arya the catspaw dagger, he knows there’s something important to do with it, but he doesn’t know [what]," Wright said. "I’ve never actually gone through a very detailed analysis of what exactly Bran’s powers are with [the showrunners]... It’s best to keep that sense of mystery and an unknown to it."

Watch Arya conquer the Night King to save Bran

But what about that meaningful look Bran shared with the Night King? What was that all about? "I came up with this idea that the look Bran gives the Night King is one of pity," Wright said. "Bran saw the creation of the Night King, or the first White Walker, or whatever. He realizes that he was once just a normal guy who was forcibly strapped to a tree, and had a piece of dragonglass plunged in his heart. He didn’t ask to become this raving, crazy ice killer."

Watch Bran discover the origin of the White Walkers on Game of Thrones

"So it’s a bit like a Frankenstein’s monster scenario," he continued. "He was forced into this situation, and he was trapped into this Night King’s body, and programmed to kill everyone. So we tried to get a moment where Bran is feeling sorry for him... And the reason the Night King takes so long is that he’s been programmed to destroy the Three-Eyed Raven from the moment he was created, so he’s taking a moment to savor it."

Well, that moment to savor it sure cost him! Try again next millennia!