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.
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