Bran The Broken

2019catchphrasedead

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

Reaction jokes hit Twitter the same night the episode aired. On May 19, 2019, @Adam_Jacobi posted a tweet mocking the choice that pulled in more than 7,100 retweets and roughly 45,800 likes within twelve hours1. Later that day, @TheRachelFisher posted another Bran the Broken joke that ran up over 35,200 retweets and 157,200 likes in the same window2.

The nickname also fed into the wider backlash against the season eight ending on Reddit, where fan subreddits turned the 'best story' line and the 'Broken' epithet into recurring punchlines. An Urban Dictionary entry riffing on the coronation appeared in the following weeks4.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions