EveryThing: Someone Predicted Last Night’s Game of Thrones Ending Two Years Ago

I’m going to begin with two things:

1. I am a huge Game of Thrones fan. I read the books, I have a GoT inspired tattoo, and I make a religious effort to watch the show on Sunday nights. (#HouseStarkForever)
2. You need to stop reading right here if you don’t want last night’s episode spoiled for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones (Season 6, Episode 5) showed us more secrets from the Realm, including more of Bran’s gift, how the white walkers were formed, and what really happened to Hodor.

With George R.R. Martin not finishing a book from his beloved A Song of Ice and Fire series since 2011, fans of the series have been wanting to learn more about Hodor for many years since it still hasn’t been explained in the books or TV show. In a few episodes this season, we were able to see that Hodor used to have a vocabulary that consisted of full sentences, as opposed to only verbalizing the word “hodor.”

Michael A. Ventrella is a writer that spoke to Martin multiple times at convention back in 2014 where they were both guest authors, and he predicted what the word “hodor” actually meant. Ventrella wrote an article about his conversation with Martin back in April 2014. After running into each other frequently in an elevator in the hotel where they were staying, the final conversation went like this:

Ventrella:  I finally figured out why you have a character named “Hodor.”

Martin:  Oh?

Ventrella:  I was thinking about your comment about wanting to be an elevator operator.  It’s clear to me now that “Hodor” is short for “Hold the door.”

Martin:  (laughing)  You don’t know how close to the truth you are!

image via sbnation

It might just be me, but my mind is blown after reading about this. How in the world did Ventrella come up with this theory? And does anyone else besides me believe that Hodor will somehow live through his current situation? I can’t bear to think of both Summer (Bran’s direwolf) and Hodor dying to save the Stark boy, but then I have to remind myself that he isGeorge R.R. Martin.