It turns out Hodor's story, which aired in the latest episode of Game of Thrones, was handed down to show-runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss by George RR Martin himself.
But the fact that it was always meant to be doesn't make it any easier to deal with - in a behind the scenes clip Weiss says, "It was just one of the saddest and most affecting things".
"Even sitting in a hotel room having someone tell you this was going to happen in the abstract in some way and that 'hold the door' was the origin of the name Hodor, we just thought that was a really, really heart-breaking idea."
And now Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran) and Kristian Nairn (Hodor) have spoken about how it effected them.
First, Wright took to Twitter to say that like many fans, he too blames Bran for what happened to Hodor.