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‘Game Of Thrones’ Reveals Heartbreaking Origin Of Hodor’s Name [Spoiler]

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 14:02 PST, May 22, 2016

This week’s episode of Game Of Thrones was fittingly titled “The Door.” It could also be called, “How Hodor Got His Name.”

Overall the show was pretty slow tonight. That’s probably because so much time was spent on background information and preparations for future clashes. While that might give us a lot to look forward to down the road, the lull was strongly felt.

That aside, the origin of Hodor’s name came with one of the most heart-stopping moments of the season thus far. It might also turn out to be the most heartbreaking.

The information that follows is extremely spoilerish. If you haven’t watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones, you might not want to read any further.

For those who’ve seen the episode, it certainly brings the understanding of the character Hodor full circle. A few episodes ago, GoT fans learned Hodor’s real name is Wylis. Even more interesting, Wylis could string together quite a few more syllables than we’re used to hearing from him.

https://youtu.be/YJJce5X3W_Y

This flashback caused a slew of theories to emerge as to what exactly happened to Hodor. In what PopSugar called a “ridiculously contrived” Reddit thread, it seemed the theorizing forum members came remarkably close to the likely cause. That is, you overlook the whole “Hodor is the spirit of Lyanna’s horse” discussion.

Member piney had this to say:

The last several minutes of his speaking life were probably spent repeating ‘hold the door’ to himself. But they broke through, beaned him, and the rest of his life is spent repeating ‘ho(ldthe)door’.

I’m American, but when I read the books I read ‘Hodor’ pronounced as one word with the emphasis on the first syllable, and was surprised on the show when they gave equal emphasis to both syllables, almost like it’s two words, and with a pronounced r on the end. I think that’s meaningful.

It turns out piney’s Game of Thrones theory was a sound one.

Near the end of Episode 5, Bran traveled back through time and space to observe his family when his visions are interrupted by a frantic Meera telling him to warg into Hodor. An army of white walkers, led by the Night’s King, has discovered their hiding place.

Later, Hodor led Meera and the unconscious Bran to a great door. Though the group manages to open it and get to the other side, the large man is unable to close it in time. Hodor must then physically hold the door to prevent hundreds of the icy undead from tearing them to pieces. Meera screamed for him to, “Hold the door!” so she and Bran could escape.

Meanwhile in the past, Wylis seems to see Bran right before he has something akin to a seizure. As Meera demanded that Hodor hold the door in the present, Wylis began to scream, “Hold the door!” over and over again in the past.

Past and present meet with Hodor using his strength to hold the door against a growing number of white walkers. At the same time “Hold the door!” abbreviated to “Hodor!”

Bran realizes that the gentle giant’s name emerged from a nightmarish vision of his own death.

As Meera escapes with Bran into the bitter cold, the last thing we see is a bloody Hodor holding onto what’s left of the door. Walkers are chopping through, and though we don’t see Hodor’s demise, it’s pretty easy to guess that he probably died.

Perhaps the most upsetting aspect of the close to this Game of Thrones episode is that what happened both in the past and present is a result of Bran Stark’s own selfish behavior. He used his warg abilities when he should not have and revealed his location to the Night King. Thanks to the icy villain being able to reach out and touch Bran, he was able to mark him. This forced the group to have to flee their underground hiding place.

Then, despite the danger in the present, Bran holds onto his vision of the past, ultimately bringing about Hodor’s condition — and likely death.

In addition to this unfortunate turn of events, we learned something crucial: Bran can warg into and influence past events. Although it probably won’t happen, it’d be good to see this kind of time-bending power used to prevent the endless tragedies that have befallen the Stark family.

For now, Bran and Meera will no doubt be focused on getting as far away from the Night King and his hordes as possible.

Do you blame Bran for Hodor’s tragedy or was it simply something that was meant to happen? Share your thoughts on the latest Game of Thrones episode below.

[Image via HBO]

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