Thoughts/Theories on a Brandon in a Bran Vision

Recently in a discussion with u/iwprugby about one of Bran's weirwood visions, the user mentioned something I hadn't considered before regarding the vision below:

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand.

"No," said Bran, "no, don't," but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth … but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

I've previously posted on this section of visions in which I speculated that the man executed was one of The Bastards of Winterfell. But due to some comments by the above user, I thought it would be interesting to look at just "Who is Brandon Stark in this passage that GRRM is referring to?"

I think the obvious and most likely answer is that Bran is tasting the blood that execution dropped onto the weirwood, but it could also be argued that the man being executed was in fact a "Brandon Stark".

Other Potential Brandon Starks

There have been up to 18 total Brandon Starks (according to the wiki) and timeloops and multiBrans* withstanding, we can begin to limit down the potential identity using a variety of factors.

The visions that Bran sees seem to go back in time at Winterfell:

• Ned praying about Jon (~283 AC)
• Benjen/Lyanna playing with swords (~mid 270's AC)
• A woman heavy with child (???)
• Potentially Dunk kissing old Nan (~mid 210's AC)
• Potentially Brandon Snow slicing off three arrows to use on the dragons (~1 AC)

So this final vision must have occurred before that. We also can take into account the fact that they used a bronze sickle (original Ice??) in order to perform the execution.

Since the execution occurred before Torrhen knelt to Aegon (since we are going back in time), that eliminates any Brandon that lived post Conquering. Thus eliminating 8 Brandons.

If interested: Tales From the Crypt (of Winterfell)

Eliminated due to timing (8)

1. Lord Brandon Stark (The Boisterous) - son of Torrhen
2. Lord Brandon Stark (The Boastful) - father of Walton/Alaric
3. Brandon Stark (son of Bennard)
4. Lord Brandon Stark (son of Cregan)
5. Brandon Stark (son of Lord William Stark - nursed by Old Nan)
6. Brandon Stark (son of Artos the Impacable)
7. Brandon Stark (Ned's brother)
8. Bran the Broken*

Eliminated due to a known fate (1)

This "Brandon Stark" was executed via a sacrifice to a heart tree. While it remains possible he got resurrected and died elsewhere, I think we can assume all Brandon's with a known fate that isn't "executed in front of a weirwood" can be eliminated. This eliminates (1) Brandons:

1. King Brandon Stark, also called Brandon the Shipwright, a King of Winter who was lost sailing the Sunset Sea

Use of Bronze as an Execution Weapon (4)

Now it may be that the Starks continued the use of this bronze sickle until the acquired the current ice:

Four hundred years old it was, and as sharp as the day it was forged. The name it bore was older still, a legacy from the age of heroes, when the Starks were Kings in the North.

but from the passage it seems to me that this occurred back during the time of the First Men (no steel). This would remove anything that happened in the last 2,000 years (latest date of Andal arrival):

With that in mind I think all of the Brandons that have been alive since Brandon the Shipwright can be removed as the North's power at sea has only been gone for:

In addition to a mint, Lord Manderly also proposed to build Robb a warfleet. "We have had no strength at sea for hundreds of years, since Brandon the Burner put the torch to his father's ships. Grant me the gold and within the year I will float you sufficient galleys to take Dragonstone and King's Landing both." -ACOK, Bran II

1. King Brandon Stark, also called Brandon the Burner, the son of Brandon the Shipwright who burned the northern ships following his father's death
2. King Brandon Stark, also called Brandon Ice Eyes, who recaptured the Wolf's Den from slavers originating from the Stepstones
3. King Brandon Stark, also called Brandon the Bad
4. King Brandon IX Stark, who stopped Skagosi raids on the Bay of Seals

Potential Answers (5)

This leaves us 5 potential Brandons that could have been executed in front of that heart tree in the vision.

1. Brandon Stark, also called Brandon the Builder, the legendary first King of Winter and builder of Winterfell and the Wall
2. Brandon Stark, the son of Brandon the Builder, who might have designed the Hightower of Oldtown
3. King Brandon Stark, also known as Brandon the Breaker, who defeated the Night's King in an alliance with King-beyond-the-Wall Joramun
4. Lord Brandon Stark, called the daughterless, a Lord of Winterfell in the legend of Bael the Bard
5. The Night's King (Old Nan mentions his name may have been Brandon)

My guess would be the next step would be to look at how the death of each of these characters would be worth mentioning in Bran's vision. But I will leave that up to whoever is interested.

TLDR: In Bran's vision a captive is executed before a weirwood tree. GRRM uses the wording "Brandon Stark could taste the blood". Its likely that GRRM was referring to Bran here (Bran is referred to as Brandon numerous times in the series), but I thought it would be interesting to see if the captive's name might have been Brandon.