WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS OF SEASON SIX EPISODE FIVE

George RR Martin began the first A Song of Ice and Fire novel, on which Game of Thrones is based, in 1991. Although the TV series has now moved beyond the books, Martin has remained a guiding force in the show’s plotlines. And it would seem that he has held a long-term – and devastating – plan for Hodor that could date as far back as the very beginning.

In The Door, episode five of season six, we finally learned why Hodor can only say “hodor” and, it turns out, it was all Bran’s fault. We also learned that Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) can, potentially, manipulate time. Creating a time loop in which the stable boy called Wyllis was always destined to become a traumatised man that can only say one word, it was because of Bran that Wyllis heard and felt his own death at the hands of dozens of wights. Read a full recap of The Door