Bran Stark Stare

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Warning: this entry contains spoilers for HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones and book series A Song of Ice and Fire.

About

Bran Stark Stare, also known as Emo Bran, refers to several scenes in which Game of Thrones fantasy TV series character Bran Stark gazes upon other characters in a somewhat unsettling manner. Online, the scenes have been parodied, with cutouts of the character also used as exploitables.

Origin

On July 30th, 2017, season seven episode "The Queen's Justice" of HBO-produced TV fantasy series Game of Thrones premiered. In the episode, character Bran Stark, portrayed by Isaac Hempstead Wright, returns to his home castle Winterfell after his long journey North, during which he gained supernatural abilities.^[1] Upon his return home, he is warmly greeted by his older sister Sansa Stark, but shows no signs of affection in return.

Spread

Following the release of the episode, multiple humorous posts highlighting Bran's disconnected behavior appeared online.^[2]^[3] In some posts, the character was referred to as "Emo Bran".

In the following weeks, several news outlets reported on the trend, including BuzzFeed,^[4] PopBuzz^[5] and Mashable.^[6]

On April 14th, 2019, Game of Thrones season eight episode "Winterfell" premiered.^[7] In the episode, Bran Stark is shown several times, usually looking upon other characters in a pondering, unsettling manner. In the final episode scene of the episode, he locks eyes with character Jamie Lannister, who is responsible for his disability.

Following the release of the episode, multiple posts referencing Bran's appearance in the episode appeared online on Reddit, Twitter and other platforms. In some posts, a cutout of Bran Stark looking at Jamie Lanniseter was used as an exploitable. For example, on April 14th, 2019, Twitter user Baebae32 posted a Nobody: version of the meme which gained over 17,800 retweets and 52,500 likes in 12 hours.^[8]