Glass Candle Dialogue: Lady Olenna, Queen Margaery, and Ser Loras Tyrell (and Mace)

This week in the Glass Candle Dialogue, Luka and I eulogize the Tyrell family. We discuss the Machiavellian machinations on which House Tyrell was founded, chat about LGBT representation, and try to find some catharsis in the tragic end this family faced.

Petra: For me, and I think for a lot of people, House Tyrell was the family I wanted to be a member of the most. The Starks were probably the most realistic family unit but the Tyrells were the most appealing. So it was really unfortunate that they got blown up.

Luka: They seemed to get along with each other better than a lot of the Westerosi families but I wouldn’t say their dynamics were completely healthy. Olenna was very manipulative and controlling. It’s understandable, of course. As a woman, “soft power” was the only kind of authority she could really wield but that doesn’t change the fact that she practiced the same kind of political machinations on her family as Tywin did.

Petra: They were a very ambitious family, to be sure. Their sole motivation the entire time seemed to be just to rise as far as they could. They never had any particular goal to achieve with their newfound power or internal conflict to put to rest, right?

Luka: Yeah. Determination to climb the social ladder seems to have been an inherited ambition. The Tyrells started out as the stewards of the Gardeners and, when Aegon the Conqueror showed up, they took advantage of the situation and ended up on top. Three centuries later, the family was still doing more or less the same thing.

Petra: Maybe it’s fitting that their sigil is a plant. A vertical rise has been their sole motivation for their entire history. “We Grow Strong: It’s All We Know How To Do.”



Petra: Olenna is kind of like the sassy grandma we wish we had.

Luka: Except for the murder and the assassinations.

Petra: Hey, as long as it worked to my benefit and I didn’t get framed I wouldn’t necessarily refuse her help. Anyway, as much as she fits the archetype of the loving, sharp-tongued grandma, your comment does make me wonder how different her demeanor towards Margaery would have been if she hadn’t shared that ambition.

Luka: Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed her character. They seemed more modern, for good and ill. The Tyrells generally displayed a more Renaissance-era mindset than the other Westerosi families, particularly in the sense that they excelled in discreet political machinations and poisonings rather than outright military action.

Petra: Well, the first book and the TV show are both titled “Game of Thrones,” in reference to Cersei’s phrase for high-stakes political intrigue held at court. The Tyrells were far from unique in that sense, though they were better at it than, say, the Starks. But I agree that they’re Renaissance-era in terms of aesthetic appreciation. They prized beauty, fashion and architecture on a level beyond the other Westerosi families. They were also far more socially progressive and inclusive than most others.

Luka: Along with the Martells.

Petra: Oh, true, we talked about that just last week! Okay, so the Tyrells and the Martells were the most progressive, particularly in terms of sexuality. It’s implied in The World of Ice and Fire that Aegon the Unlikely’s son, Daeron, was gay. He never married, “preferring the companionship of Ser Jeremy Norridge, a young knight whom he had befriended when they were squires at Highgarden.” I think it’s funny that the shorthand for LGBT in ASOIAF could be Highgarden. Like “friends of Dorothy” is “friends from Highgarden” in Westeros. But I do appreciate how inclusive the Tyrells were. I love that scene between Margaery and Renly where Margaery takes him totally off guard with her honesty. “Hey, I’m your queen and you need to put a baby in me. We can get my brother involved if that’ll help you. Whatever you need. I’m flexible.”

Luka: And Renly was so repressed he was absolutely shocked that she was talking about it so freely. His brain short-circuited. It’s worth noting, though, that we’re talking about the sexuality of these characters in very modern terms. We have classifications and vocabulary for sexual orientations that people in our world didn’t have until very recently. I’m wondering whether Westerosi society has our modern classifications for sexual orientation, even if their values prohibit anything non-heteronormative, or if their view of sexuality is more nebulous as it was for the bulk of human history.

Petra: Good question! Yara and Oberyn’s openness suggests that Westeros has a better handle on same-sex attraction than historical medieval Western Europe did, but then the characters never discuss sexual orientation explicitly. It all seems to fall under Jaime’s observation to Brienne: “We don’t choose who we love.” That said, I think there’s a significant difference in the way sexuality is presented in the books and the show. To me, Game of Thrones takes a more progressive stance than ASOIAF. I get the criticisms against Loras’ characterization in the show, in that he’s “the gay character,” but in ASOIAF, with the exception of women having their servants go down on them, we don’t have any overt same-sex relations. The nature of Loras’ bond with Renly is left in between the lines. When Renly dies Loras says, “When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.” At least, in the show it’s clear that they were in a relationship.

Luka: Martin veers too far into the logic of “In Westeros, which is inspired by medieval Western Europe, they would keep it secret.” Yes, of course they would, but … come on, that’s no excuse not to feature a non-hetero POV when you have so many characters, or at least someone who is close to one and thinks about it explicitly. (Well, except for Jon Connington, but again that’s implied and we never get the kind of detail about his orientation and experiences we would get if he was a heterosexual man.) In the show we actually got to see Renly and Loras together. We saw the dynamics of their relationship.

Petra: I think the show has been doing a pretty good job at addressing “modern” (the quotation marks can’t be stressed enough) issues in a “medieval” context insofar as characters love who they love despite heternormative cultural values and it isn’t really framed as an issue until the High Sparrow takes power. Loras never seemed to have any internal conflict about his love for Renly prior to his incarceration. Poor, poor Loras.



Luka: I never really got the love for Loras, to be honest. I know you like him. I don’t dislike him; I just don’t find him interesting. He’s more compelling in the books, certainly, just because there’s more of him. Or there’s more to him, at least.

Petra: He’s certainly more of a character in the books. He’s an arrogant young man that Jaime sees as a younger version of himself, which is really cool and I’m sad that they didn’t incorporate that into the show. I do agree that in the show he was treated as a “gay character” whereas in the books he was a character who happened to be gay.

Luka: The show emphasized his sexuality above all else, that is true, but to say that in the books he’s “a character who happens to be gay” is a bit of a stretch. He’s a character who, if you really read into it, is involved with a man, but his sexual orientation or his romantic relationships aren’t parts of his character that’re ever explored.

Petra: That’s true. I wouldn’t qualify Loras in the books as LGBT representation since it’s all hidden in subtext. Basically, the themes explored through Loras are fundamentally different in the books and the show. ASOIAF explores arrogance, entitlement and Jaime’s development through Loras whereas Game of Thrones addresses sexuality and homophobia through him. There’s not much crossover.

Luka: I think Finn Jones did a good job with what he was given. He was a secondary or tertiary character, so of course he wasn’t really afforded an arc, in either the books or the show. We sort of saw the beginning of an arc when he was in prison in season six but all that potential was cut short by, you know … Kaboom!

Petra: I think my affinity for Loras is comprised solely of pity. It’s kind of like talking about Rickon. How do I feel about him? I feel sad. Just sad.

Luka: Finn Jones even looks like a sad puppy sometimes. In the books, I get the love insofar as media is starved of LGBT characters and so fans have a tendency to mine for representation in the fictional works that they love. That line you quoted, “When the sun has set, no candle can replace it,” seems like everyone’s go-to line when criticizing Loras’ characterization on the show in favor of ASOIAF’s version.

Petra: I only remember that line because it’s been quoted in so many articles.

Luka: Yeah, me too.

Petra: I don’t consider Loras a standout example of LGBT representation in either the books or the show. What really gets me about Loras on Game of Thrones is the sheer tragedy of his story. Finn Jones said in interviews that if he could have played any other character it would have been Theon. In the end, Loras did parallel part of Theon’s arc insofar as he snapped in a dungeon but whereas Theon’s had the chance to rebuild himself, Loras died at his lowest point. I just find that so unbelievably sad.

Luka: And right after denouncing his identity, his lover and forsaking all claim to his inheritance. It’s a bit like what happened to Ned. He compromised himself and everything he stood for and died immediately afterwards.



Petra: Something similar can be said about Margaery. She didn’t compromise herself per se but she’d been conning the High Sparrow all season, playing the long game, in order to protect herself and her brother, but in the end it was all for naught.

Luka: Margaery was really interesting, particularly in the way she was translated from the books to the show. The Margaery we got on Game of Thrones seemed to be based on the perception of her in ASOIAF rather than her actual characterization. We’ve never had a Margaery POV chapter, or even a chapter from the perspective of someone who knows her well. Most of the information we get about Margaery comes from Cersei’s perspective in A Feast for Crows, and she’s not the most reliable narrator at that point. She views Margaery as a schemer who uses sweetness as a front but we have no way of knowing if that’s completely true or if that’s mostly Cersei’s paranoia. We really don’t get much face-value characterization of Margaery at all. So, Game of Thrones basically transplanted Cersei’s perception of Margaery onto the actual character of Margaery and then developed her further into a three-dimensional character.

Petra: That’s a good point. By the time I got to Margaery’s introduction in the books I knew about her through osmosis and Tumblr gifsets. So I was like, “Oh, great! Now I get to learn about her personality and read all of her clever quips” and instead I just got descriptions of how pretty she is and how sad that she’s a thrice-widowed virgin. However, I really loved her character on the show. She was another interesting example of someone exerting “soft power.” I love the way she adapted to ingratiate herself with Joffrey and Tommen. She showed a fascination for torture and crossbows with her second husband then she was all into kittens with her third.

Luka: To be fair, I think dealing with Tommen was easier for her. She wasn’t a chameleon to the degree that she didn’t have values of her own. I certainly think it was easier for her to pet kittens than it was to pretend to be interested in torturing people.

Petra: Fortunately we also got scenes between her and Olenna in which she was able to be herself so we did get to know her true nature. Again, as you said, on the show she got to be an actual human being, not just a blank slate for Cersei to project on.

Luka: The first time I took notice of her was in that classic scene in which Littlefinger asks her if she wants to be a queen and she says, “No, I want to be the queen.”

Petra: Yeah, it’s sort of interesting to me that Margaery, and the Tyrells in general, are as endearing as they are, considering they are made of pure ambition, and their story doesn’t really deconstruct what it actually means to want power. Everyone else who achieves a degree a power is like, “God, this sucks.” Robert complained about how uncomfortable the Iron Throne is; Cersei told Tommen how boring the council meetings are; Daenerys realized conquering other civilizations is a complicated endeavor. It seems like the wisest (maybe not the smartest, but the wisest) people in Westeros are the ones who don’t crave power. Margaery seemed too wise to want to be on top.

Luka: Eh… [Shrug] Not when you consider that Olenna was her mentor. Margaery didn’t want to be the regnant queen; that was unprecedented, until Cersei. But the role of queen consort is another story. She could practice the sort of backroom manipulations her grandmother taught her and, in the event of negative repercussions, use her husband as a human shield.

Petra: That’s sounds like Margaery.



Petra: The advice Olenna gave Daenery was interesting: that the love of the people didn’t help Margaery in the end and that Daenerys should go ahead and “be a dragon.”

Luka: By the time she had that conversation with Daenerys she wasn’t the same person we’d known in earlier seasons. She didn’t care about the future. She was using Daenerys as a tool, essentially as a literal flame thrower, against Cersei.

Petra: I do think she was trying to give Daenerys good counsel, though. I agree that her motivations and worldview changed after her family was killed but I don’t think she was so blinded by grief that she was urging Daenerys to go on a suicide mission.

Luka: She definitely believed that she was giving good advice, but it’s not the sort of counsel that she would have ever given Margaery. I think my issue is that I disagree with her new worldview. She doesn’t have a long-term, so she doesn’t care about it anymore.

Petra: Ah, yes, I get that. Olenna’s end is really tragic, that this old woman outlives the rest of her family, and then dies in defeat.

Luka: At least she got to go in a poetic way. Part of what made Margaery, Loras and Mace’s deaths so upsetting (in a good way) was that their stories felt incomplete when they were cut short by Cersei’s madness. We’ll always wonder what Margaery would have done next, after the trial. By contrast, Olenna got to have a conversation with her executioner and deliver one final blow against Cersei. We’ll miss Olenna but we’re satisfied with how her story – and by extension the Tyrell family’s story – concluded.



Luka: Oh shit, we forgot about Mace. Anything to say about him?

Petra: Uh… I’ve got nothing, sorry.

Luka: Okay. So… NOT NOW, MACE!

Watchers on the Wall Awards Season 7: Best Supporting Actress – Preliminary Round

We kicked off Watchers on the Wall Awards voting this week, and we’re going to keep it rolling this weekend! Today we’re actually covering two categories – Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Actress. With the first, however, we’re going to skip the preliminary voting, because there are just four candidates, therefore they’ll be going straight to the final round (taking place in a few weeks). The nominees for Best Leading Actress will be: Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams. Congrats, ladies!

Onto the voting for Best Supporting Actress!


The standard rules: Select up to FIVE nominees from the poll. You can choose fewer if you like, but you cannot choose more than 5. (Visit the initial WotW Awards post for a complete explanation of the rules and process.)

At the end of 72 hours (Tuesday 10/24/17 at 4PM Eastern Time), whichever five actresses have the most votes will continue on to the finals. The results of the poll will be revealed when it’s time to choose the winner of Best Supporting Actress in a few weeks.

The Writing On the Wall: Flames Of the Seven

Valar Morghulis,

The seats of power within the world of Game Of Thrones are thoroughly dominated by men. Six out of the seven kingdoms on the continent of Westeros operate under a strict male primogeniture system. In such a system, the eldest male child is the one who inherits the family’s seat of power. One can imagine that such a system portends far too much risk, and indeed, glances at just the medieval European era alone proves how such a system inherently eschews a consistency of sense and stability. Dorne is the only aberration from this patriarchal primogeniture, its uniqueness borne out of it being founded by the warrior queen Nymeria.

Systems of power do not exist in vacuums and they often rely upon a quid pro quo mechanism in order to continue to operate. Patriarchal primogeniture in that regard is no different. It is first and foremost a result of strictly defined, binary gender norms that exist to reinforce a rigid social hierarchy between men and women. Yet as much as existing social norms are responsible for the creation and the sustainment of patriarchal primogeniture, the beneficiaries of the system also reinforce them to ensure the longevity of their power.

Patriarchal primogeniture is nevertheless a singular example of the way that systems of power in Westeros are dominated by men. Game Of Thrones is ubiquitous with examples of male-dominated institutions and hierarchies. The Faith of the Seven is dominated by male priests and during the rise of the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) that male domination turns into something particularly ugly. The Red God is represented most ubiquitously by women but the construction of that religion is founded upon the all-knowing savior-hood of a male figure. The Maesters of the Oldtown, the keepers of all Westerosi knowledge, simply refuse to even allow women to enter the hallowed halls of their library.



A dominant theme of Game Of Thrones is the examination of the various ways in women traverse these patriarchal halls of power and what those pathways look like. Just as importantly, the theme delves into what those pathways tell the audience about the society that seems to exist so far away but is unfortunately not as different as we would like it to be. The fiery conflagration that destroys the Sept of Baelor in “The Winds Of Winter” is a key case study in looking at patriarchal systems and how they shaped and drove the decisions Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) made when the latter decided to bring the Sparrows to power.

Westerosi organized religions are a patriarchal construction and as the predominant faith for approximately half of the continent, the Faith of the Seven is intimately tied to that construction. Faithful devotees pray to the Mother on matters of pregnancy and childbirth. They pray to the Crone for wisdom and guidance. They pray to the Maiden to keep their young daughters safe. But the priests and decision-makers of the Seven are all men and that orthodoxy, while never lost in the religion’s history, is reinforced in a markedly different way when the Sparrows are brought to power.

Cersei’s entire life has been shaped by patriarchal institutions and critically by individuals (mostly men) who enforce those institutions’s aims and processes. Her father Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) inspired the sort of fear and respect she so desperately desired for herself but could not garner on account of her gender. Her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) received all of that attention and respect she wanted on account of him being the presumed heir to Casterly Rock. Her disastrous relationship with Robert (Mark Addy) irrefutably shaped her perceptions of what it means to be a man in a position of authority and it only helped cement her resentment at being born a woman.



With the assassination of Tywin, the opportunity opened up for Cersei to finally grab the reins of power and prove to her father that she was in fact his worthy heir. And as far as she was concerned, the real opponents lying in her way was House Tyrell, whose rose façade crumbled in front of her to just show an abundance of thorns. If she could diminish the influence of her rivals, the pathway towards consolidating her hold over the power that emanated from King’s Landing. In her desire to diminish the influence of House Tyrell in King’s Landing, she strikes a fateful bargain with a seemingly humble man of the gods.

Cersei’s calculus, or lack thereof, was quite simple in theory. She would operate the tools of power as her father would have and in this case the tool of power would be able to provide Cersei the resources of the Faith of the Seven. When she meets this so-called High Sparrow, she sees an impoverished peasant feeding the poor and mumbling on about the inequities of Westeros. She sees an easily manipulable tool and as far as she was concerned, the High Sparrow would be eternally grateful that she rose his position and if he was truly committed to serving the poor, then she could just throw gold his way. As schemes in Game Of Thrones often go, this one falls apart and backfires spectacularly.

The initial mistake was her arming of the Faith Militant. Analogous to the existence of the papal armies that was formally disbanded in 1870, the Faith Militant served as the military branch of the Faith of the Seven. Relationships of power between governmental and religious institutions have a tumultuous history and this is no different. During the reign of King Maegor I (also known as Maegor the Cruel) of the Targaryen Dynasty, the Faith Militant was disbanded and removed as a threat to the monarchical power. The writing of Cersei’s decision to do this is sharper in the books as there is a financial component attached but even in the show, the reasons for doing so are obvious. The Faith Militant would be a more forceful, violent arm of her power schemes and if the Tyrell army in any capacity moved against them as Cersei would expect, then it wouldn’t be precious Lannister soldiers falling to the soldiers of the rose.



At first, Cersei’s plan seems to be going swimmingly well. Loras (Finn Jones) is imprisoned for homosexuality and Margaery (Natalie Dormer) is imprisoned for lying to protect him. When Cersei visits Margaery in prison, she is gleefully ensconced within that aura of jubilation and seeing her rival queen dirty and seemingly defeated does nothing to temper that aura. A few minutes later, however, her eyes widen in shock as she realizes that the man to whom she had handed weapons and authority to use for her is turning them on her instead. Cersei arguably tried the same strategy that she did with Joffrey, of handing men power because the patriarchal systems of power demanded that she do so.

The patriarchal paradigm of the High Sparrow’s political positions demanded that Cersei’s power be publicly denounced. Critically, however, that denunciation needed to happen in a way where the onus of the behavior fell squarely upon her shoulders. The Walk of Shame was designed to be a public spectacle primarily to remove the fear that Cersei has inspired as Queen Regent, for seeing her in such a vulnerable state removes the veneer of impenetrability she had had. The sexual and gender aspects are kept critically in mind to add further connotations to stripping away Cersei’s power and adding onto her vulnerabilities.

The trial of Cersei Lannister is arguably an allegorical trial about the patriarchal power systems the High Sparrow embodies. It is a farce of justice where the outcome is determined, regardless of the truth about the accused (in this case, Cersei was quite guilty of committing the accused deeds). Cersei is well aware of what lies ahead of her at that trial, even if the specific punishments are unknown to her. She knows that at that juncture, there simply is no turning back and she frankly no longer cares about her place within the patriarchal paradigms of Westeros. She decides to stop trying to play the game of chess through men. Instead, she detonates the chessboard itself.

Valar Dohaeris,

Akash Of the Andals

Game of Thrones: Conquest Bridges the Gap Between Veteran and Casual Thrones Mobile Gamers

 Game of Thrones: Conquest is now available on iOS and Android devices! Do you like MMO strategy games on mobile and find yourself constantly checking your castle’s defenses, city’s granaries, and soldiers’ upkeep? This game is for you! Do you not know what any of what I just said means but have an undying love of all things Game of Thrones in whatever form they may come? Then this is for you! For those whom mobile gaming is old hat, this is a new chance for you to welcome  GoT into your daily gaming. For those of you who are new to this, your favorite characters will walk you through the tutorial step by step so that you won’t feel overwhelmed.
According to HBO:

Game of Thrones: Conquest is a mobile MMO strategy game that gives players the opportunity to navigate the dangerous political landscape of Westeros while establishing their house, creating their sigil and raising their army to march against rivals. Players can sabotage their enemies from within or march with their friends & bannermen into war, and can expect to see some familiar faces from the HBO series, including Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Petyr Baelish and more…

Navigating Westeros won’t be simple, but with the help of the innovative Allegiance System, players can recruit allies from around the globe to have a fair shot at the Iron Throne and prove their loyalty to their lord or lady. In this dynamic and political world, players will have the option to choose between deception and loyalty. Or as they shift their Allegiances, in true Game of Thrones style, betray their own Allegiance to grow their influence in Westeros and claim the Iron Throne for themselves.

In Game of Thrones: Conquest, players can capture 120+ iconic Seats of Power from the series such as King’s Landing and Winterfell. To control these locations you must recruit allies, as no war is ever won alone. Players must raise their armies and clash against rivals to capture these iconic strongholds. Once captured, players will need to defend them, as each Seat of Power endows their Allegiance with military and economic upgrades. They will then appoint their own small council and reward their most loyal bannermen by making them wardens of a Seat of Power.

I was fortunate enough to visit HBO HQ in NYC for a peek at Game of Thrones: Conquest. As I’m much more of a board gamer than I am a mobile gamer, I hewed closely to the tutorial. Fortunately for me, Tyrion helped guide me through the what’s and how’s of building my city. From adding farms and medic tents, to manning the City Watch, to helping my maesters gain their chains, Tyrion’s helping hand was essential to a novice like me. For experts of the genre, you can skip through this, or just sit back and enjoy Tyrion’s banter (there are many fun quips to be found throughout).

This was where Daenerys came in. While Tyrion is the overall guide to your home territory, Daenerys is the tutorial overseer of the map of Westeros, which looks gorgeously stylized to many of the maps you find in the actual show (Dragonstone, Robb’s camp, King’s Landing, etc.) She guides you through how you move your soldiers along the vast map, which includes SO many areas, from big names (Riverrun, Winterfell, etc.) to smaller names for the book devotees (Seagard, Crakehall, etc.)

How do you move about them and make your way across the vast expanse? I suppose you need an escort to explain alliance building (to be read in an Aiden Gillen voice). This is naturally Littlefinger’s part, as he steps in to explain the general theme of the game, which revolves around pledging allegiances (and breaking oaths) to liege lords. Said liege lords will not be NPC (non-playable characters) but will indeed be actual players! This is the true heart of the game excites me most about it. Through real-time actions, by pledging and conquering, you get to imagine yourself as a Lord or Lady of Westeros and experience the world of George R.R. Martin for yourself!

What makes this experience so exciting is that there is something for everyone. Do you enjoy socially-driven games and want to establish and betray alliances? Do you enjoy strategic soldier deployment and territory control? Do you just want to play a game involving the actual GoT characters, complete with authentic music from the show?

Kit Harington looking forward to the end & Winterfell set gets new defenses for an attack in Game of Thrones Season 8!

About a month ago we reported on the goings-on at Moneyglass, where the Winterfell set stands. Though we did point out “construction work at Moneyglass is par for the course,” the remodeling for season eight appeared to be particularly extensive at the castle’s walls — as if they were getting the set ready for a defensive battle sequence… Now, we may have not seen a White Walker around yet, but a new photo gives us a clear view of the nearly finished set — and the set expansion is even greater than we thought!

Based on previous photos, we speculated the walls and gate towers were being refurbished, but now, thanks to Roy Dowie, it’s clear the work went beyond that:

For starters, the outer walls now include crenellations, which are not only new for the Moneyglass set (though other parts already had them) but also for the fictional castle, which was always depicted with simpler battlements on the outer walls. For comparison:

Winterfell as it looked in season six

Winterfell set as it looks for season eight — notice the uniform battlements

The towers, on the other hand, have always been there when we watch the show — but not on the set, or not entirely: though there were foundations, the top of the gate towers and the guard towers were achieved via VFX. If they are bothering to actually build the crenellated walls and towers, that can only mean we’ll see actors interact with these defensive fortifications for the first time. The addition of so much snow piled up on the outside of the walls also points to that side being filmed, which has rarely been done.

All of this leads me to one inescapable conclusion: the production is getting the set ready for an attack. Though it’s something we all imagined, nonetheless it’s worthy of note now that there is actual evidence — Winterfell is getting sieged.

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As an aside, two fun little interviews have surfaced, one of them with Paul Kaye, who plays Thoros of Myr — or rather played him, until a really pissed off bear got in the way:

“[M]y ruckus with the zombie polar bear was filmed in Belfast,” Kaye tells Den of Geek. “I was fighting with some guy in a green suit holding a flaming wheelbarrow. It couldn’t get further from what ends up on telly!” he says, echoing the honesty of fellow cast member Rory McCann, who made us all laugh with “No, you’re not [a bear]; your name’s Toby!”

If the formation of the Brotherhood without Banjos wasn’t telling enough, Kaye exalts the camaraderie that was formed between the so-called “Magnificent Seven” during all those weeks in Iceland and Wolf Hill Quarry in Northern Ireland: “I’ll miss the boys. We all got on so well. Rory McGann [sic] and Richard Dormer and Kit [Harington] and Kristof [Hivju], Joe Dempsie… we all got on brilliantly. A great little gang.”



Finally, for Digital Spy, Kit Karington gets emotional about the end of Game of Thrones:

“Thrones is coming to the end at the right time for me, and everyone involved in it,” Harington claims. “I was exchanging emails with [showrunners] David [Benioff] Dan [Weiss] last night and we were all getting very soppy and emotional with each other.”

But it’s not all sadness: “It will be liberating, just the thought of having a whole year free — you shoot for six months, but half of the projects you might want to do will have started shooting before that six months is over. There’s a lot of things you can’t do. I’m looking forward to finishing, and eight years is the right amount of time. I wouldn’t want it to go on any longer than it has. I have other ideas I’d like to look at producing,” he says, in reference to the new show in which he is the star and producer: “I found the producing side of Gunpowder fascinating. I would like to do more of it. I’ve found it’s opened up a different side of my creative brain, which I’ve really enjoyed.”

“Game of Thrones is coming to a very quick end, which I’m feeling emotional about,” he admits. “I’ve learned working with the Thrones producers what the job involves.”

I don’t know about learning to be a producer, but I think we all share Harington’s bittersweet feelings about the show coming to an end. We all want the satisfaction of a resolution, but that also means there is no more Game of Thrones!

Track the screentime of the Top 100 characters on Game of Thrones

Here at Winter is Coming, we love it when fans go the extra mile. And a fan named Shivaraj has gone so many extra miles he practically reached the Wall…that is no longer there. (Too soon?)

Publishing his work on Tableau, Shivaraj has gathered data and created a magnificent chart that breaks down how much time the “Top 100” characters on Game of Thrones have spent onscreen over the past seven years, with further breakdowns by season and house. Take a look below, and click here to see the chart in its native habitat, where you can get a closer look.

So what are some of the takeaways from this wonder?

• In season 1, the Starks had the most screentime, with 305 minutes. Of that, Ned took the lion’s share with 92.5 minutes, Jon spent 54.8 minutes brooding, Catelyn fretted for 42.3 minutes, Arya was a badass for 33.5, Bran nabbed 25.8, Robb and Sansa had 24 each, Benjen snagged 6.3, and poor Rickon only had 1.3 minutes.

• Season 1 in the only season where the Starks had more screentime than “Others,” which refers to characters not affiliated with the Houses Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, Greyjoy, Baratheon, and Tyrell. For every other season, the “Others” take the lead. Three cheers for characters Brienne of Tarth, Davos Seawroth, Bronn, the Hound, Ramsay Bolton, Melisandre, and the like.

• Across the series, Sansa has just a little more screentime than Arya — they clock in at 238.5 minutes and 224.3 minutes respectively. Cersei comes in just below Sansa with 336 minutes, a fact that would surely infuriate her.

• Jorah Mormont is the most prolific character in the “Other” category with 142 minutes of screentime.

As for who has had the most screentime, that would be Jon Snow at 338.3 minutes. It wasn’t always that way, though. Tyrion had the most screentime in seasons 2, 3 and 4 — in recent years, Jon’s pulled ahead of him and only just topped him by the end of season 7. Tyrion has now been onscreen for a total of 337 minutes. Daenerys comes in third at 276.



Despite there being only seven episodes in season 7, Jon had more screentime than ever before with 70 minutes, followed by Daenerys with 54.5. With all the shipping and incest and such, that seems oddly fitting. Tyrion is the third most seen character in that season at 43.5 minutes.

This is an incredible way to look at the series see how the arcs have played out out over time, and discern how characters were used. For instance, Ned had by far the most screentime in season 1 because we had to fall in love with him for the big twist of his death to land.

Watchers on the Wall Awards Season 7: Best Death Scene – Preliminary Round

Welcome to the 2017 Watchers on the Wall Awards Preliminaries! Voting is now in session, Game of Thrones fans. Once again you the readers created the pool of nominees, and now it’s time to whittle ’em down, until we have the ultimate winners, the best of the best of season 7!

We’ll be starting off our voting with a category perfectly appropriate for this time of the year. Halloween is just around the corner; what better time to get ghoulish and discuss the best death scenes. So today, we want you to choose your five favorites from the preliminary poll!

The standard rules: Select up to FIVE nominees from the poll. You can choose fewer if you like, but you cannot choose more than 5. (Visit the initial WotW Awards post for a complete explanation of the rules and process.)

At the end of 72 hours (Saturday 10/21/17 at 6PM Eastern Time), whichever five death scenes have the most votes will continue on to the finals. The results of the poll will be revealed when it’s time to choose the winner of Best Death Scene in a few weeks.

The Sellsword and the Squire

Game of Thrones features multiple characters who facilitate analysis when comparing them to someone else. Arya and Sansa, for example, are two sides of the same coin with complementary abilities and survival mechanisms. Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy are another pair whose shared history and contrasting decision-making generates deep discussions.

I consider Podrick Payne and Ser Bronn of the Blackwater a similarly aspected dualistic couple. They have a shared history but are on opposite ends of fealty and other spectrums, but sometimes those antipodal positions might shift.

Once upon a time, Tyrion Lannister was poring over the crown’s finances, worried about the amount of debt that Master of Coin Petyr Baelish had amassed to finance various royal initiatives for the Baratheon administration. Tyrion’s bodyguard and go-to skulldugger Bronn was not fully appreciating Tyrion’s assessment of the dire financial situation.

Tyrion: For a man of the world, you’re strangely naive.

Bronn: I’ve never borrowed money before. I’m not clear on the rules.

Tyrion: Well, the basic principle is: I lend you money, and after an agreed-upon period of time, you return it. With interest.

Bronn: And what if I don’t?

Tyrion: Well … you have to.

Bronn: But what if I don’t?

Tyrion: This is why I don’t lend you money.

Bronn isn’t a moneylender, he’s a sellsword. If there’s a flow of money, it’s typically from other people to him (okay, he then spends the money in various ways, but you get what I’m saying. When he gives people money, he’s getting goods and services immediately and so a balance is maintained).

Bronn is one of the rare individuals in Westeros who isn’t bound to this lord or that lord through feudal service. He expects to be compensated for his deadly skills, and he’s been reasonably successful. Early on in the series, Bronn entered into a lucrative arrangement with Tyrion by standing for the Lannister as champion when Tyrion was facing defenestration at Robin Arryn’s elevated court.

This was more or less a constant in their relationship: Tyrion securing personal security by paying Bronn handsomely. Bronn even got a salary promotion after being knighted for his service at the Battle of the Blackwater.

Bronn: If you want me to carry on protecting you, you’ll have to pay more.

Tyrion: I thought we were friends.

Bronn: We are. But I’m a sellsword. I sell my sword. I don’t loan it out to my friends as a favor.

Tyrion: How much?

Bronn: Double.

Tyrion: Double?!

Bronn: I’m a knight now. Knights are worth double.

Ser Bronn’s service to Tyrion abruptly ended following Joffrey’s death and Tyrion’s subsequent arrest and demand for trial by combat. Unfortunately for Tyrion, his one-time champion had been bought off by Queen Cersei, to not represent her brother against the crown’s mountainous champion.

Cersei had arranged a marriage match between Ser Bronn and the lady Lollys Stokeworth, the second daughter to a minor lord. (To further his position, Bronn immediately began to consider how best to facilitate Lollys becoming the heir to the Stokeworth lands.) But for old time’s sake, he did open the possibility for Tyrion to out bid the queen.

Bronn: You once said, if anyone ever asked me to sell you out, you’d double their price.

Tyrion: Is it two wives you want? Or two castles?

Bronn: One of each should do. But if you want me to kill the Mountain for you, it’d better be a damn big castle.

Tyrion: I’m a bit short on castles at the moment – but I can offer you gold and gratitude.

Bronn: I have gold. And what can I buy with gratitude?

With his partnership with Tyrion ended, Bronn eased into the role as Lollys Stokeworth’s betrothed, spending time with his lady while scoping out the Castle Stokeworth grounds, working on the calculus of Lollys older sister meeting up with some tragic accident.

His plans were short circuited when Jaime Lannister brought news that Cersei had arranged a new betrothal for Lollys, cutting Bronn out from obtaining either Stokeworth wife or castle. Jaime, in need of a good swordsman and always one to press an advantage, offered Bronn the chance to earn a much better girl and a much better castle.

This promise has more or less been carried along unfilled through several seasons, with Bronn occasionally reminding Ser Jaime of the debt.



At Riverrun:

Bronn: You promised me a lordship, and a castle, and a highborn beauty for a wife.

Jaime: And you’ll get all three. A Lannister always pays –

Bronn: Don’t say it. *muttering* Don’t you f***ing say it.

At Highgarden:

Bronn: There still is the question of my prize.

Jaime: That’s a lot of money I just gave you.

Bronn: It’s not a castle. How about that one? It’s available.

Jaime: You don’t want Highgarden.

Bronn: I beg to differ.

Ironically, the otherwise practical Bronn, in entering into an agreement with Tyrion’s siblings for promises instead of hard cash, has found himself on the other end of the lending situation he and Tyrion had once discussed.

Essentially, something like this:

Bronn: I’ve lent you the services of my sword, and I believe it’s time you repaid me with a castle.

Jaime: And what if I don’t?

Bronn: Well … you have to.

Jaime: But what if I don’t?

While Tyrion would pay Bronn to keep him safe and secure, Jaime essentially gets that service for free. If Jaime dies, Bronn would have no one to make good on these promises. Queen Cersei certainly has no motivation to reward Tyrion’s former sellsword. And so Bronn has more or less backed himself into the role of loyal bannerman to Ser Jaime. To the point where he’ll ride sideways into dragonfire to protect his potential future.

It’s funny to think of the circumstances that Bronn is now in, where of all things his self-interest provides an approximation for the selfless defining attribute of one of the most loyal characters on the show, Podrick Payne.

Podrick: Thanks! But I might not be so quick to ride into dragonfire…

Tyrion: Nonsense, Pod. No dragon would dare harm you. You’re too adorable.

Bronn: I protest! I’m just as adorable.

Tyrion: You’re not.

Bronn: Aye. I’m not.



Like Bronn, Podrick Payne came into the story early in service to Tyrion Lannister. The show revealed him to the audience in the second season, but in the books Podrick is Tyrion’s squire for Tyrion at the Battle of the Green Fork. (The one where Tyrion arrives at Tywin’s camp with all those hairy mountain people.)

Podrick nearly did not have a chance to serve Tyrion: he’d been squire to a hedge knight in Lord Tywin’s army, a knight who is discovered stealing from the Lannister army’s baggage train. The larcenous hedge knight was hung, but Kevan Lannister spared Podrick since House Payne were bannermen to the Lannisters and assigned him to Tyrion.

In serving Lord Tyrion, Podrick got little in the way of instruction in knightly skills. Pod mostly poured his master wine and ran errands, but the squire did save Tyrion’s life at the Battle of the Blackwater when kingsguard Ser Mandon Moore tried to assassinate Tyrion in the melee.

Bronn: Don’t forget, I was going to fight two kingsguard after the battle to get to Tyrion. Meryn Trant and some Ser Arseface.

Podrick: But you didn’t kill them, though. So I’m one up on you, in regards to dead kingsguard.

Arya: Me too! I’m the one who killed Trant.

Bronn: You two are both more adorable when your traps are shut.

As a reward, Tyrion financed an afternoon of entertainment for Podrick at Petyr Baelish’s brothel. Two extraordinary things happened:

• the prostitutes charitably refused to accept Podrick’s payment, giving him their services for free
•  Podrick gave the money back to Tyrion

Bronn: You knucklehead. You didn’t have to give that money back. He wouldn’t have known.

Podrick: But … I had to.

Bronn: But what if you didn’t, eh?

Podrick’s service to Tyrion ended roughly the same time as Bronn’s, with Tyrion framed for Joffrey’s murder, but the circumstances of their parting were different.



Tyrion wanted Bronn to risk his life, but Bronn instead had accepted a bribe, choosing a reward (and security) over loyalty and friendship. Podrick had also been approached with a bribe.

Tyrion’s squire had been offered a knighthood, if he’d be willing to provide false testimony against Tyrion. Unlike Bronn, Podrick had turned down the offer, which terrified Tyrion in regards to Podrick’s safety. Rather than have Pod risk his life should the anti-Imp conspirators switch from bribes to coercion, Tyrion insisted that Podrick flee the capital.

Tyrion: Pod – there has never lived a more loyal squire.

Thanks to a recommendation by Jaime Lannister, Podrick’s unemployment was brief as he transitioned from being Tyrion’s wine-pourer to being the squire to the chivalrous paragon Brienne of Tarth. This was particularly appropriate since Brienne’s quest was to find and provide security for Sansa Stark. As the lady wife to Podrick’s master Tyrion, Sansa was also owed fealty and service. Despite being sent away by Tyrion, Podrick could continue to serve Tyrion’s household.

Podrick perhaps had less control in his circumstances than Bronn has throughout the series: Pod had been shuffled from one master to the next, but his decision to remain loyal to his master during Tyrion’s imprisonment will probably pay off handsomely by the end of the story. Assuming Podrick lives, and/or the army of the dead doesn’t take over.

Podrick is squired to Brienne of Tarth, who has provided excellent service to the Lady of Winterfell. It’s likely that the Starks will richly reward Brienne when all is said and done, and that can’t help but flow to Podrick.

As well, Tyrion is likely to want to reward Podrick for his years of loyal service, and Tyrion is the Hand of Daenerys Targaryen, who is likely to be well positioned by story’s end.



Podrick has steadfastly held onto his identity as a man from the Westerlands. Even as far north as Winterfell, where Lannisters and men of the Kingdom of the West are not all that welcome, Pod continues to wear the burnt umber color of Lannister troops. Podrick is likely, when things settle down and a new regime in place, be granted lands in the West. He might possibly be granted control of the Payne estates, as the most well-connected Payne to the mighty and powerful of Westeros deserves.
And that might be the most significant difference between Podrick Payne and Bronn. Prodrick is a Payne. Bronn is a nobody.

Tywin: And who are these companions of yours?

Tyrion: This is Shagga, son of Dolf. Chieftain of the Stone Crows. Timett, son of Timett – ruler of the Burned Men. This fair maid is Chella, daughter of Cheyk. The leader of the Black Ears. And here we have Bronn, son of …

Bronn: You wouldn’t know him.

We know very little about Bronn. He’s been many places, to Dorne (his trip with Jaime was not his first time) and north of the Wall “for work.” But we don’t know where he called home before he answered the call of bloody-handed adventure. There’s probably no home to go back to.

Bronn is clearly the superior fighting man in regards to Podrick (Pod might one day get better, since he’s being trained daily by Brienne and has learned some dirty tricks from Bronn) but Bronn knows that his fighting prowess, his means of earning a living, can’t last forever. Being granted the title of Ser is certainly better than not being a knight, but hedge knights in Westeros have little status. This is why Bronn was so eager to obtain a castle and marry into the aristocracy. It would provide respectability, security and an income. This must seem particularly attractive to a man who is nameless, friendless, and landless.

He just needs Jaime Lannister to honor the agreement and provide him with a castle.

Jaime: I will! In time.

Bronn: But what if you don’t?

Jaime: I can’t hear you! I’m too far north right now…

Bronn: WHAT? Bloody hells!

Game of Thrones is so rich and fully developed, that even the supporting characters who attend to the primary ones are on their own narrative arc. Bronn and Podrick could have just been two barely-fleshed out servants to the complex and brilliant Tyrion Lannister, but each of these men-at-arms, the cynical and selfish sellsword and the steadfastly loyal squire, have their own arcs, ones that kind of shadow one another.

Bronn operates on selfish self-interest, but is now trapped almost against his will in service to Jaime, in the hopes of becoming a noble. His story will no doubt culminate in him either obtaining a fookin‘ castle, or dramatically fail to do so.

Podrick is already part of the minor nobility, with almost guaranteed elevation by the end of the story. Will that be the sum of his story arc? Possibly. Possibly not.

Just like Bronn is working on becoming a noble, Podrick is working on improving his fighting prowess, but that doesn’t necessarily seem like a complicated narrative arc.
If I can indulge in speculation, Podrick’s future storyline might bring his signature attribute, loyalty, into play.

Game of Thrones is complicated, and even though Team Stark (which includes Brienne of Tarth, Podrick’s lady) and Team Targaryen (which includes Tyrion Lannister, Podrick’s former lord) are allies, that’s a situation that might change. Particularly if there is any dynastic inheritance-based friction between Daenerys Targaryen and Jon “Aegon Targaryen” Snow. If that friction should happen, Podrick might have to re-evaluate who he should be serving.

Tyrion freed Podrick from his service at King’s Landing, but did he truly? Or did he just send Podrick away, and Podrick’s time with Brienne is more like the squire being loaned out.

Tyrion: I’ve loaned you the loyalty of this excellent squire, but I think it’s high time you give him back to me. We’ll consider his improved martial arts prowess the interest.

Brienne: And what if I don’t?

Tyrion: Well … you have to.

Brienne: But what if I don’t?

Jaime: Just keep me out of this, you two.

Podrick’s choice of fashion is a symbol of him maintaining his allegiance to the kingdom of the West, whom Tyrion represents far more strongly than Stormlander Brienne could, and his service with Brienne was also maintaining continuity of service to Tyrion’s household in regards to Sansa Stark. A case can be made that Podrick’s loyalty remains with the Lannister, and the case that Podrick should stay loyal to Brienne is based more from Podrick’s self-interest, since she’s providing him the fighting skills he wants to obtain.



Bronn: Wait. Let me get this straight. If he sticks with the blonde, Pod’s a selfish bastard like me. And if he dumps her for Tyrion, then from her perspective he’s a faithless bastard. Like me.

Me: More or less.

Bronn: This. Is. The. Best. Podrick “the bastard” Payne.

Alright, realistically the show probably can’t indulge in a crisis of conscience for Podrick. We have roughly nine hours to wrap things up in Season Eight and I assume the show runners aren’t all that interested in exploring this angle of Podrick. Bronn’s more likely to get a castle.

Bronn: YES!

But like I said, we have probably over a year until the next season to start up, so plenty of time to consider what possible narrative arcs and motivational conflicts are in store for our characters. And not just the lords and ladies.

For the sellswords and squires as well.

Liam Cunningham discusses Game of Thrones secrets and Easter Eggs

On a show as dense as Game of Thrones, there are Easter Eggs are all over the place. In an interview with HuffPost regarding his latest project, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) discussed one of the latest examples.

In Game of Thrones season 7, we learned that Jon Snow’s real name is Aegon Targaryen. Is it a coincidence that, back in season 3, “Aegon” happened to be the first word Davos was taught to read by Shireen Baratheon?

“Yeah, they’re very good at that sort of thing,” Cunningham said. “David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] plant little Easter eggs there if you want to see them.” If we want to see them? We live for them.
Keep in mind, though, that Cunningham couldn’t have made any such connection at the time:

No, are you kidding me? I don’t know what the hell’s gonna happen from one episode to the next. That’s testament to how good the writing is on that, too. After seven seasons, people are still asking the same question they asked in Season 1. ‘Who do you think is gonna end up on the throne?’

That also ties into why Cunningham was attracted to the part in the first place:

I got involved in “Game of Thrones” because I thought it was a ridiculously wonderful story and beautiful storytelling. Nobody knew it was gonna turn into a cultural phenomenon. But we try and improve, keep the quality as high as it possibly can [go] without patronizing an audience or [being] condescending to them, thinking we know more about it than they do. Nobody knows more about it than they do. And we just try to deliver it with a bit of honor and a bit of respect.

Cunningham gave this interview before heading to Belfast to read season 8 for the first time along with the rest of the cast. That table read has now happened, with filming to start very soon. After joking that everyone will likely come to the read drunk, Cunningham talked about what this final meeting meant, and where he and the rest of the cast will go from here.

I did get an email from David and Dan talking about, “This is the last table read,” and that was a really sweet email. Yeah, it’s gonna be really odd. It’s gonna be very odd. We’ve kind of been trying to prepare ourselves for the end of this from the beginning of last season. That’s when we kind of said we have to start thinking about this. This is gonna end. They’re gonna take this baby off us. We’ll be out in the wilderness again with nobody even remembering who we are. Back to obscurity.

Considering how passionate Game of Thrones fans are, we somehow doubt the cast will fade into obscurity. But it’s good to stay humble.



Finally, Huffpost asked Cunningham about the oft-repeated rumor that George R.R. Martin once told him “a secret” about the plot. While Cunningham didn’t spill any beans, he did prepare fans for “a real letdown” when and if he lets slip what it is:

Everybody thinks he told me who’s on the throne because that’s what they’re projecting. “He must’ve told him something.” You’re bigging it up. It ain’t that big. It was just something he told me. It’s not monumental.

This is Game of Thrones, Ser Davos. Everything is big.
You can read more about Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams at HuffPost. That show will debut on Amazon sometime in 2018.

Mysteries of Game of Thrones: What “fake scenes” did HBO film for season 7?

During filming for Game of Thrones season 6, actress Sibel Kekilli, who played Shae, showed up on set and in costume for a scene set in Meereen. At the time, fans wondered at that — how could Shae return to the show? Would she be in a dream sequence? Did she have a twin sister? Would you make like Jon Snow and rise from the dead?

It came to nothing, because in the end, Kekilli was nowhere to be seen in season 6. Apparently, this was just the producers having fun. They knew fans were photographing the set, so why not give them something to photograph?

It’s one of the many ways the Game of Thrones machines deals with spoilers — if the fans can’t tell which scenes are real and which are fake, they don’t have as good an idea of what to expect. If you can believe Kit Harington, they continued that strategy when filming season 7. According to an interview he gave to Jimmy Kimmel back before season 7 aired, he said that the production “faked some scenes” to throw people off the scent.

“We did fake some scenes,” he said. “We put together people in situations where we knew the paparazzi was around so they’d take photos and that’d get on the internet.” Harington even gave some specifics, saying he participated in three fake scenes which took around five hours each to shoot.

Now that season 7 is in the can, we thought it’d be interesting to try and see what scenes were faked. We covered the behind-the-scenes goings-on pretty thoroughly, after all — was there anything that the production filmed in plain view of paparazzi but which didn’t make it onto the screen?

As it turns out, not really. Or at least, there was nothing as blatant as having Sibel Kekilli come on set and get into costume. There were a couple of little things. For example, at one point, a fan spotted someone at a London airport waiting for Tobias Menzies, who plays Edmure Tully. This particular flight was returning from Belfast, the production nerve center of Game of Thrones.

 Edmure, obviously, didn’t show up in season 7. But of course, this by itself proves nothing — Menzies is allowed to fly from London to Belfast without having filmed scenes for Game of Thrones.

The scene is filmed at night near Malpartida de Cáceres, in the same general area where the show shot the Loot Train Attack from “The Spoils of War.” We suppose it could have been part of the battle, but we don’t see this particular shot represented anywhere onscreen, nor does the battle happen at night. Then there are the lines. After the guy is set on fire, someone shouts “No, Khaleesi!” and “What sort of witchcraft is this?” Again, we don’t hear that anywhere in season 7.

Was this scene filmed to throw fans off? Because what’s going on is so ambiguous, it’s hard to be sure. It’s also hard to believe that the production would go to the trouble and expense of setting a dude on fire just to give fans a fake spoiler, but it also doesn’t pay to underestimate HBO, so it’s inconclusive. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned up as a deleted scene on the season 7 Blu-ray release.

If this is a deleted scene rather than a fake one, we couldn’t find any scenes clearly designed to confuse fans. That means that Harington was either lying in his Kimmel interview or that he did film fake scenes and no one noticed, which must be doubly frustrating.

In any case, it’s worth thinking about this stuff as filming on season 8 starts up. There have been already been reports that the production is filming multiple endings to the show in order to prevent the real one from getting out. If that’s true, faking individual scenes is still very much on the table.

One more thing: we didn’t see Gendry wearing this super-cool cloak in the scene where he left Dragonstone in “Eastwatch”:

Justice for the cloak!

Kit Harington is ready to move on from Game of Thrones

As filming gets underway (or not) on the final season of Game of Thrones, some of its stars contemplate the future. One of them is Kit Harington, who admitted to The Express that he’ll be happy for a change of scenery once the show is over. “I’m personally done now with Medieval in the 1600s,” he said, referring both to Jon Snow and his role as Robert Catesby in the BBC’s Gunpowder, about a failed plot to assassinate the king of England in 1605. Harington is ready for “[s]omething with guns. I want to move myself more modern, slowly!”

“I think [the role of Robert Catesby] fit quite well with me not being able to cut my hair!” Harington quipped. Does that mean the lustrous Jon Snow locks are coming off when season 8 is over? For shame.



Hair aside, Harington seems to have to found peace with the end of Game of Thrones, bittersweet as it is. “Game of Thrones is coming to a very quick end, which I’m feeling emotional about,” he told Digital Spy.

Thrones is coming to the end at the right time for me, and everyone involved in it. I was exchanging emails with David [Benioff] Dan [Weiss] last night and we were all getting very soppy and emotional with each other.

When season 8 wraps, Harington and many other cast members will have spent eight years of their lives making the show. Harington is looking forward to the next step:

It will be liberating, just the thought of having a whole year free – you shoot for six months, but half of the projects you might want to do will have started shooting before that six months is over. There’s a lot of things you can’t do. I’m looking forward to finishing, and eight years is the right amount of time. I wouldn’t want it to go on any longer than it has. I have other ideas I’d like to look at producing.

Harington learned “what the job involves” by working with producers on Thrones, and got to put some of that knowledge to use behind the scenes of Gunpowder. “I found the producing side of Gunpowder fascinating, I would like to do more of it,” he said. “I’ve found it’s opened up a different side of my creative brain, which I’ve really enjoyed.”



Gunpowder, which costars fellow Thrones alum Mark Gattis (Tycho Nestoris), debuts this Saturday, October 21 at 9:10 BST on BBC One.

From the Maester’s Desk: The Lone Wolf Dies, but the Pack Survives

The article contains spoilers from ASOIAF.

Bran: Where are the rest of you?

Leaf: Gone down into the earth…Into the stones, into the trees. Before the First Men came all this land that you call Westeros was home to us, yet even in those days we were few. The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.

– A Dance with Dragons, Bran III

Direwolves are named after an actual prehistoric wolf species. The real-life dire wolves disappeared along with many other megafaunal species, though the reasons behind the extinction event are still being debated. Climate change is one of the many hypotheses, though it wasn’t winter what came for them, but a rise in temperature instead.

The Ice & Fire Direwolves seem to have been extinct south of the Wall for quite some time now, to the point they have achieved a near-mythical status, enough to be considered “freaks” by some. Beyond the Wall, where the land remains mostly untouched by human beings (apart from the wildlings), it is said they can still be found.

Despite the fact they’re considerably larger and stronger than common wolves, and also more intelligent, they have no magical attributes or skills that would set them too much apart from their smaller relatives. Otherwise, the Starks would’ve had an easier time against their enemies.

The way the direwolves were introduced in the story was a beautiful way to foreshadow the fate that would befall the Stark family. An adult direwolf wolf killed by a stag, survived by her six pups. After reading the story, the symbolism is clear: Ned Stark died as a consequence of Robert making him his Hand – that, or Joffrey (who was officially a Baratheon) ordering his execution. It works both ways.

One of the six pups was found distanced from the others, a subtle touch by George R.R. Martin to signal Jon wasn’t really the son of Ned. Later on, Ned’s thoughts and memories about the Tower of Joy would make this fact obvious, but the direwolf moment remains really poetic for me.

Sadly (and rather infamously) the limitations that come with the live-action adaptation of a fantasy story would mean less screen time for the direwolves, with Daenerys’ dragons taking the lion’s share of the CGI budget. It’s easy to understand why: the dragons are a big selling point for the show and also help to make more spectacular set pieces. But it’s a shame nonetheless to see the poor direwolves sitting on the bench, since they have hardly seen any action at all.

Last time in From the Maester’s Desk, we took a look at some of the dragons from the Ice and Fire saga. It’s only fair that this time I give the same treatment to the amazing creatures represented in House Stark’s sigil.

Lady

Status in the books: Deceased.

Status in the show: Deceased.

Lady was the direwolf adopted and raised by Sansa Stark. The smallest of the litter, she soon learned to be as elegant and graceful as her owner.

Sadly, she became collateral damage as a result of both Joffrey’s cruelty and Sansa’s defense of him instead of siding with her sister Arya. Sansa can’t be blamed too harshly, since she was young and in love. Being in love with someone can lead anyone to ignore the other person’s worst impulses. And speaking out against Joffrey would’ve surely ended the relationship.

The TV adaptation pretty much adapted the sad end of Lady verbatim. And even if the mercy killing by Ned happened off-screen, many people still got upset and complained about it on the internet, prompting a response from Martin himself, who assured the audience the real Lady (a Northern Inuit named Zunni) was alive and well, and not only that, but was also adopted by actress Sophie Turner.

Nymeria

Status in the books: Alive.

Status in the show: Alive.

Nymeria, Arya’s direwolf, also left us early, but fortunately not because she died. After biting Joffrey Baratheon, who was abusing Mycah (the son of a butcher who was a friend of Arya, and later killed by the Hound), Arya realized she had to chase her away. Otherwise, Nymeria would’ve faced certain death (which is what happened to Lady in the end).

She finally returned to the show this year, after six years of absence, if only to let us now that she was still alive. Nymeria recognized Arya, but refused to come home with her. She has a new home now in the Riverlands, and a wolf pack of her own.

In the books, however, we kept getting nuggets of information, suggesting Nymeria’s still around. Rumors of a monstrous female wolf leading a pack of wolves in the Riverlands, showing no fear for men nor hounds.

From A Storm of Swords onwards, Arya starts having “wolf dreams”, much like Bran’s, meaning she’s a warg too. This trait for Arya was cut from the show, though currently we can only speculate on the reasons why. Most likely it was a matter of streamlining, and a desire to leave each Stark kid with an unique set of skills. Bran gets to be a warg, and Arya a Faceless assassin.

I think it’s unlikely Nymeria will return in Season 8, and that her brief appearance in Season 7 is enough closure for her story, but surely George is planning something different for her. Arya seems to be going through a darker path in the novels, to the point of enjoying munching on innocent shepherds and their dogs during her wolf dreams. Her show counterpart, on the other hand, has never harmed anyone who’s innocent.

Grey Wind

Status in the books: Deceased.

Status in the show: Deceased.

Grey Wind, Robb’s direwolf, got his name due to his fast speed and grey fur.
Unlike his brothers and sisters (with the exception of Ghost), he participated in many battles alongside the Young Wolf, and earned fearsome reputation for both himself and his owner. Terrified and defeated Lannister forces would tell stories of how Robb could turn into a wolf at will, or how he couldn’t be killed.

Despite their prowess in the battlefield, both Grey Wind and Robb were ultimately killed at the Red Wedding, at the orders of the treacherous Walder Frey. Much like the direwolf corpse at the beginning of the story was a sign of things to come, Walder was very much like the stereotypical troll who guards a bridge. Robb tried to renege on his payment by marrying Talisa (who replaced Jeyne Westerling in the books, a character with a similar role) instead of one of Frey’s daughters.

We only got precious few shots of Grey Wind, but I really lament we didn’t get a particular moment from the books among them. That is, when Robb and his host arrive at the Twins, and Grey Wind growls at some of the Frey brothers, as if suspecting something, and Catelyn urges his son to trust the direwolf. Grey Wind was locked in the stables instead, and we know what happened later.

Apart from budget concerns, I imagine that potential scene was nixed because it heavily telegraphs the Frey betrayal, but it would’ve been nice to see such a display of intelligence from Robb’s wolfish friend.

Summer

Status in the books: Alive
.
Status in the show: Deceased.

Summer was Bran’s direwolf. In the books, his fur is a mix between silver and grey, whereas in the show he was mostly white, with a dash of light brown.

A loyal friend to the crippled Stark kid, he saved him from the catspaw assassin and later sacrificed himself to give Bran time to escape from the wights that were invading the cave where the Three-Eyed Raven used to live.

Before his demise, Summer’s role seemed to be serving as training wheels for Bran to test his warging abilities.

As of A Dance with Dragons, Summer’s still alive and kicking in the novels, remaining by Bran’s side. It is likely that even if the dramatic “Hold the Door” moment doesn’t play out like in the screen adaptation (and it likely won’t, considering Jojen is still alive), Summer will die before or shortly after Bran finishes his training with Bloodraven and becomes the new “three eyed crow”. If only because it is fitting that such transformation comes with a cost: not only the loss of Bran’s previous identity, but also the lives of the friends who helped him reach his goal.

Shaggydog

Status in the books: Alive.

Status in the show: Deceased.

Lady had the least number of appearances in both the show and the novels, but Shaggydog is a close second. Rickon’s direwolf, with his unique black fur, was the most feral of the pack -something that was exemplified when he jumped at Bran and Osha, scaring them.

Very much like his master, Shaggy didn’t have too large of a presence in either the screen adaptation or the source material. After leaving Winterfell, and realizing he wouldn’t be able to make his little brother travel so far up North, Bran made the call to send Rickon away, along with Osha and Shaggy, thinking they’d be safe under the protection of House Umber.

Turns out the Umbers had different plans for them, and after two seasons of absence, Shaggy finally returned in Season 6 in the form of a severed head. It was a rather ignoble end for him, but at least we can assume he didn’t go down without a fight, trying to protect Rickon.

Shaggy’s still alive in the books, same as Summer. Apparently (if we are to take the vision from a dream at face value) hunting and eating unicorns in Skagos. An unicorn injured him with its horn, but I doubt it’s a grave wound. Most likely just a flesh wound.

I feel like the unceremonious death of the Rickon-Osha-Shaggy trio in the show had to do more with the importance of tying up a loose end and the restructuring/abbreviation of the story than with George’s plans. Should they reappear in The Winds of Winter or A Dream of Spring, it’ll be under different circumstances and Rickon would effectively be lord of Winterfell (if we consider Bran is unable to take that role and Jon isn’t a Stark). My prediction is that him and Shaggy will be around and ready by the time the Others come down from Beyond the Wall.

Ghost

Status in the books: Alive.

Status in the show: Alive.

All the direwolves have their fans, but the favorite has to be Jon’s. Ghost was the runt of the litter, an albino with fur as white as snow and red eyes. In the novels he’s the inseparable companion of Jon Snow, but budget limitations has kept him mostly absent from the screen: he didn’t show up at all in Season 7. Sure, we all loved “The Spoils of War,” but Ghost’s disappearance was a shame all the same (there’s allegedly a brief scene in which Jon says farewell to Ghost before departing to Dragonstone that was cut from the final product, so we’ll have to wait and see if it’s included as an extra in the Blu-ray/DVD release).
Just like Arya, Jon is revealed to be a warg and have “wolf dreams” in the novels. That’s the main reason so many fans believe he warged into Ghost after he was betrayed and stabbed during the mutiny at Castle Black. This character trait didn’t make it to the show, so apart from the “Ghost” theory, it’s somewhat hard to see how it’ll factor in the two remaining novels, if it does in any significant way, that is.

As the war against the Night King (and Cersei) looms, and having in mind that Season 8 will be something akin to a Hollywood blockbuster thanks to the shortened number of episodes, surely Ghost will take part in a major battle this time. He had to sit out The Battle of the Bastards because of Wun Wun (it wasn’t possible to have both of them) so with a bit of luck, the dragons, undead giants and (possibly) elephants won’t prevent Ghost from kicking some wight (or Golden Company) butt.

If Ghost remains MIA, it wouldn’t be surprising, though. And perhaps it’d be for the best -as I said before in a past article, an absent Ghost is a live one. I sincerely hope he doesn’t go out the way of Summer (despite it was a noble sacrifice). Liam Cunningham said it best: “I would prefer to have Ghost with Davos [rather] than with Jon. […] A big battle like that is no place for a direwolf. They’re not gonna last very long”.

Even if the “warging” theory doesn’t come to fruition, it’s a safe bet to assume Ghost will see more action in the final two novels, which are free from the limitations of a CGI budget. Same as with the show, I’d hope George doesn’t kill him, even if it’s just a fool’s hope. If the dragons are bound to die, at least let us keep one of the direwolves (well, two if you count Nymeria).