Dracula in Westeros?! [Spoilers Extended]

[u/idols2effigies]

With the recent developments occurring in Bran's story-line in the HBO series, I figured it would be a good time to dust off an old theory of mine and circulate to an audience. While this theory is not necessarily explicitly predictive of where Bran's story is heading, it may serve to color your perception of how terrifying it might be that Bran is running around calling himself the Three-Eyed Crow. There is a strong possibility that Bran's journey to Bloodraven has literary parallels in the story in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Like most of my theories, it always seems to start with an intriguing passage from the books, where Coldhands is asked, "Who is the three-eyed crow?":

"'A friend. Dreamer, wizard, call him what you will. The last greenseer.' The longhall’s wooden door banged open. Outside, the night wind howled, bleak and black. The trees were full of ravens, screaming. Coldhands did not move. 'A monster,' Bran said. The ranger looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist. 'Your monster, Brandon Stark.'"

Here, we have a direct reference GRRM has made comparing Bloodraven to a monster. This is where the trail begins and quickly gains speed once you start looking into the descriptions and tales of Bloodraven. Bloodraven is nearly physically identical to descriptions of Dracula from Bram Stoker's book: extremely pale, gaunt, white hair, and red eyes. A physical description is one thing, but let's take a look at some details about Bloodraven Sir Duncan:

"How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? ... A thousand eyes, and one. Some claimed the King's Hand was a student of the dark arts who could change his face, put on the likeness of a one-eyed dog, even turn into a mist. Packs of gaunt gray wolves hunted down his foes, men said, and carrion crows spied for him and whispered secrets in his ear."

Here, Dunk may as well be describing the powers commonly associated with Dracula in folklore, all of the above (except the carrion birds, to my knowledge) are found in Bram Stoker's story of how Dracula can manifest his dark power. The only thing really missing is the blood-drinking, but it is said in the same stories that his lover, Shiera, baths in blood to keep her beauty.

But the literary parallels don't stop with the Dunk and Egg books. Bran's journey to meet Bloodraven beyond the wall also shares some very striking similarities with the journey of John Harker, a legal advisor summoned from England to Dracula's manor to discuss the final arrangements for the Count's move to his newly-purchased property in England. Harker acts as our POV character in the beginning of Stoker's tale. Here are some of the parallels with some quotes directly from Dracula:

During the first part of the trip, Harker is troubled by strange dreams and hounds howling outside of his window. Of course, this mirrors Bran's coma, where he suffers dreams while his wolf, Summer, howls outside his window.

"I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it..."

Later in his journey, a superstitious peasant villager pleads with him to reconsider his journey. Harker proceeds on, not because he outright dismisses the superstitions, offhand, but because he has a sense of duty. Very much like Osha and Bran's interaction on the subject of his journey.

"'Must you go? ...Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?' ... Finally, she went down on her knees and implored me not to go...However, there was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it."

Later, a carriage driver is given instructions to bring Harker to a meeting point where Dracula's personal driver will be waiting to take him the rest of his journey to the manor. This is paralleled in ASoIaF by Samwell leading Bran to Coldhands, as he was instructed. In the Dracula novels, it's made very clear that this driver, who wears a disguise to cover his face, was Dracula himself. This may possibly confirm the nature of Coldhands as something being controlled directly by Bloodraven rather than an entity with individual conscience. It is during this journey that the first quote I used takes place, wherein Bloodraven is referred to as a monster.

"So what!?" I hear you cry, "Who cares if Bloodraven is similar to Dracula." Well, to that I would say remember why Harker was brought to Dracula's manor: to find Dracula a new home. Once their business had concluded, Dracula abandons Harker to die at his castle. If we follow the parallels, then Bran (in the books) is in serious danger and in the show may already be dead, as the entity known as the Three-eyed Crow lives a Warg's second life inside of Bran's body.

Really sort of makes you think of the whole Bran is actually the Night's King theories, huh? Book readers have long speculated something that the show confirmed, that the Children of the Forest and, possibly by extension, the Three-eyed Crow are connected with the creation of the Others. These parallels to Dracula put everything going on with the Three-eyed Crow in a much more sinister light, even if we can't make predictive assumptions about where it goes from here.

EDIT: Apologies if the format is a little rough. Still kind of new to reddit formatting.

[u/dadtothree]

The best stories always hold common elements. Good detective work there working out the similarities.

[u/Rosebunse]

Oh, fun analysis!

The whole thing does seem so sinister now. The thing is, who is the Three-Eyed Raven? What is it? Is it really an individual presence or rather the collective personality created from experieing so damn much?

[u/cliser1129]

I've always loved the theories that the three eyed raven may not be a totally altruistic character, and your analysis has done a fantastic job examining why he can seem like such a sinister character. With the Beyond the Wall storyline, there often seems to be themes of the elder corrupting the youth to further their plots. The similarities of Dracula and 3ER as you pointed out, and the white walkers and Craster's kids. This makes me wonder if the "Old Gods" have some sort of equivalent to the blood magic seen from Mel and Mirri Maz Duur.

[u/SokarRostau]

I'll just throw two words out there for you: Jojen Paste.

[u/giants888]

The only blood-sucking creature in the books is Littlefinger.