Bran The Broken
Bran the Broken is the ceremonial title Tyrion Lannister gave Bran Stark when Bran was crowned king of the Six Kingdoms in Game of Thrones' 2019 finale. Twitter and Reddit users spent the same night mocking the plot choice, the condescending nickname, and Bran's frozen coronation reaction.
Overview
Bran the Broken is the ceremonial nickname given to Bran Stark after he was chosen as king of the Six Kingdoms in the finale of HBO's Game of Thrones3. The title was announced by Tyrion Lannister during the war council that closes the series, and viewers immediately fixated on how strange and condescending it sounded delivered as an official royal style.
Jokes about the phrase went up across Twitter and Reddit within hours of the May 2019 broadcast1. Most of them ridiculed the logic Tyrion used to justify picking Bran, his blank facial expression when the vote passed, and the medieval bluntness of naming a paralyzed king 'the Broken'. Bran the Broken quickly became one of the go-to shorthand jokes used to sum up the widely disliked season eight ending.
How It Spread
How to Use This Meme
Bran the Broken is typically used as shorthand for an underwhelming or bewildering plot conclusion, especially when a passive character wins a contest for reasons that do not track. Posts often pair the phrase with Isaac Hempstead Wright's slack, unreadable expression in the coronation scene, and screenshots of Tyrion's 'best story' speech get remixed with unrelated failed leaders or awkward workplace promotions.