Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season is arriving soon, available on Blu-ray and DVD on March 15th. Along with the DVD extras such as commentaries and deleted scenes, the Blu-ray set includes a free Digital HD copy of all 10 episodes, an In-Episode Guide and fifteen new Histories and Lore animated videos, including a 20-minute-long animated feature on “The Dance of Dragons.”
Today, we have a special treat for you- an exclusive first look at the Histories and Lore feature focusing on the Many-Faced God, worshipped by the Faceless Men of Braavos. The video includes stunning artwork and a narration by everyone’s favorite Faceless Man, Jaqen H’ghar, played by Tom Wlaschiha.
Here’s the complete list of Season 5 Histories and Lore from the Game of Thrones Season 5 Blu-ray:
· The Seven-Pointed Star: narrated by The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce)
· The Faith Militant: narrated by The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce)
· Volantis: narrated by Lord Varys (Conleth Hill)
· Braavos: narrated by Tycho Nestoris (Mark Gatiss)
· The Faceless Men: narrated by Tycho Nestoris (Mark Gatiss)
· Winterfell: narrated by Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton)
· The Lord Commanders: narrated by Ser Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale)
· Robert’s Rebellion: narrated by Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney)
· Dorne: narrated by Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma)
· The Fighting Pits of Meereen: narrated by Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman)
· The River Rhoyne: narrated by Lord Varys (Conleth Hill)
· The Many-Faced God: narrated by Jaqen H’ghar (Tom Wlaschiha)
· Greyscale & The Stone Men: narrated by Qyburn (Anton Lesser)
· The Great Masters: narrated by Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel)
· The Dance of Dragons: narrated by Shireen Baratheon (Kerry Ingram), Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd), Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), and Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson)
Look for our detailed review of Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season in the coming weeks!
hodor!
ETA: wow this looks really good – I always love the narrated/animated history features. I’m excited to learn more about Essos, in particular (I know I’m weird that way). Cool that they got Harry Lloyd & Jack Gleeson to come back for the DoD feature!
Did they get Addy, Lloyd, Fairley, and Pascal back just to do voice work for the Dance of Dragons feature? Edit: Jack Gleeson too? Wow.
A Man Grown,
I would guess. They can record voiceovers from a studio anywhere, they don’t need to be anywhere near the set.
A man must do more narration!
This new artstyle is really nice!
Niiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Thanks for including the narration of the Many-faced god in the post. Was great to hearing Tom’s voice.
Nifty. I liked it. Any word on who is doing which commentaries?
Anyone else think it’s great they got Qyburn to do the greyscale one?
He is, after all, the pioneer of modern medicine in Westeros. 😉
Ha ha! I love the fact that Michael McElhatton is doing the Winterfell narration. That just slays me.
Can’t wait!!
I cannot understand the Gods of this world goddammit 🙁
Another website which shall not be named has uploaded the Robert’s Rebellion video. Poor Barristan sounds so sad and mopey. Someone needs to start a @BroodyBarristan or @SadSelmy twitter.
Amazing animations!
HotPinkLipstick,
Witch one? I know of 2..
The erm…angry one. I just googled “season 5 histories and lore” and that site came up.
HotPinkLipstick,
Thanks!
“To soldiers he is Bakkalon, the pale child” – 1000 worlds reference, someone call PJ.
HotPinkLipstick,
Can’t find it… 🙁
Here.
HotPinkLipstick,
You’re the best!!!!
Torilla tavataan.
Wow! I love the histories and lore featurettes! That is my favorite section on the discs. I bought a BR player just to view them. Seeing this makes it a very worthwhile investment. The artwork is fantastic, and Tom’s voice saying, “What is dead…” made me a bit giddy. Looking most forward to The Lord Commanders and Owen Teal’s growling voice talking up the Night’s Watch; Robert’s Rebellion ’cause, well, who doesn’t love Grampy Barry’s story time; and Greyscale and the Stonemen (great band name, btw) with Qyburn–he’s so creepy-great! Can’t wait!
HotPinkLipstick,
Grrrr…I was hoping that you meant the previous home of our great WotW gang. I’d rather wait 2 weeks and get my discs from Amazon in the mail than add a visitor to that site. Perhaps some enterprising soul will add it to You Tube.
EDIT: OH! Thank you, Hottie! 🙂
It’s on youtube, but you might not want to give a listen to that channel. I linked the youtube video.
Wow… I love the Robert’s Rebellion vid… game me chills! Come on Trailer!!!! Come on April 24th!
Awesome features especially The Dance Of Dragons one! Btw Winterfell edition narrated by Roose Bolton?! That’s gotta be sacrilege in some form right? 😉
Maester Blaster,
Is this some referance?
That was great! I’m so stoked to see the rest!!
Yes, like stabbing the Stark fans in the heart.
they always improve the art for the histories and Lore, I can’t wait to watch these, they look glorious.
Winterfell: narrated by Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton)
What does Roose know that would be of any importance to that? That is going to be some weird bias account there
Nikki,
Too be honest they all are..
This history of Many faced Gods is first to be released & the posters showed all the characters dead in the House of Black & White…looks like they are trying to establish some deeper connection to this entire storyline which might unfold some dramatic twist…OR I am giving this a lot of thought & in the second stage of my withdrawal . Please HBO! a less cryptic trailer,that’s all I ask for!
Maester Blaster,
My thoughts exactly.
That was pretty amazing. Barristan’s too. Though I always forget about them, the Histories & Lore features are quite fun and informative.
I may be wrong, but wasn’t it Jaime in the books, instead of Barristan, who was told by Rhaegar about changes to come?
Thanks for loading (or linking to) this WOTW.
Y’all motherf*ckers need R’hllor only!
Luka Nieto,
You’re right.
Alltough he could have told them both
I hope there is a commentary from alfie allen and sophie turner
Sai,
Sophie isn’t doing any commentary in season 5.
HotPinkLipstick,
I don’t like the art, but I appreciate the cameos.
2:13 The Knight of the Laughing Tree
3:50 Jon Connington
🙂
Mihnea,
True. I’m not complaining, I just find it interesting that they found a way to insert in the canon of the show the insinuation that Rhaegar may have had plans to usurp his father’s throne. I wonder if it could be brought up in the future, whether it is via Bran’s visions or someone who was involved revealing it. Anyhow, even if this particular thing doesn’t come to pass, it’s fair to say we’ll learn more about Rhaegar in the upcoming season 😛
Nice! HBO is splashing out for these. Wonder how big of a budget they allot to this?
Hah! Yep. After watching Robert’s Rebellion over there, I started to watch one of their recap videos to see how quickly they bash D&D. It’s comical how angry they are about GoT. Can anyone actually sit through an entire video of theirs?
This is exciting. Makes me wonder if Volantis will play a bigger role later.
Well, that was great. Looking forward to the rest, especially Winterfell by Roose and The Dance of Dragons.
e: I’d love The Dance to be in MST3K/Rifftrax format.
Barristan talking about Rhaegar!
Missandei finally getting to narrate one!
umuckurlife,
I’ve never managed it. When this one got released, I was sort of hoping each news outlet had been authorized to release a different video and that all of them might be out there. So I put my google fingers to work. I never go to that site, never read their stuff. Life’s too short for that.
On the other hand, I was hoping they’d announce a trailer for Sunday, but probably not. Still, I love the DVDs and commentaries.
Epic!! I love it!! 🙂
BY THE SWORD OF THE PALE CHILD BAKKALON, THIS IS GOOD NEWS!
Why does the dance with dragons have so many narrators? It must be long?
Ace of Mace,
It’s 20 min.
Newbietothegame,
Exactly! The North remembers!…& we remember the North
That’s awesome! The should bring back Harry Lloyd as rhaegar in fashbacks.
HotPinkLipstick,
I don’t go there either, I avoid that site as if it were the plague. That’s why I’m so glad you post the video, thank you so much! I enjoyed it and I was pleased that I could see Rhaegar, even if only as a drawing.
Is is too much to expect to see Rhaegar in season 6?
Ace of Mace,
I like Harry Lloyd, but he did such a good job playing Viserys, that I can’t see him brave and noble… and in love.
A week ago I checked the British review board site for DVD features, they’re usually the first to list the titles, and they included the running times of each featurette. Didn’t reveal this because I was trying to figure out who the narrators for each were (they didn’t post it). I e-mailed them but they said they wouldn’t reveal that.
Anyway, the runtime for each featurette is now public knowledge – please update this news post if possible:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/game-thrones-video-163
The Seven-Pointed Star – 3:26
The Faith Militant – 5:05
Volantis – 4:18
Braavos – 5:35
The Faceless Men – 2:17
Winterfell – 2:36
The Lord Commanders – 3:32
Robert’s Rebellion -5:52
Dorne – 4:03
The Fighting Pits of Meereen – 2:50
The River Rhoyne – 3:56
The Many-Faced God – 3:00
Greyscale and the Stone Men – 2:23
The Great Masters of Meereen – 2:40
As you can see, they’re individually much longer than in past seasons, but this is simply due to length vs number of entries: in the past there were around 17-18 featurettes, this year there are only 14, but they’re proportionately longer — they still add up to 52 minutes as in past seasons (a whole bonus episode) – and that’s NOT including the Dance of the Dragons 20 minute animated featurette!
So this means they get to be longer and more in-depth. Past seasons rarely had ones that were 4 minutes long – now we have *multiple* 5 minute featurettes.
Man I love these animated histories , so much back story and lore about Westeros
I absolutely LOVE the history and lore videos! Binge watched them a couple times now. Glad Tom Wlaschiha is narrating one. 😀
I wonder if any of the gods will make an appearance on the show in some form or another. I’m not sure if you’d count the Night’s King as a god type… definitely has an air of serious magic about him but not sure if he’s godly. What do you guys think? I’d love to hear some opinions about that.
Aryamad,
I think they would like to keep the ambiguity, so that no god should be seen. I remember that, when I was a child, I saw a series after The Odyssey and I was very curious to see what the gods would look like. To my disappointment, they just showed Greek statues while the actors’ voices were heard – mainly Athena helping Ulysses. Now I consider this a very elegant solution.
About the WW I’m not sure, Craster’s daughters certainly considered them gods. I tend to believe the WW are just another kind of beings, like the COTF.
That was a fantastic video. The animation of the many different gods coalescing into a single skull was very impressive, and Wlaschiha’s narration was perfect. Congratulations to WOTW on getting the exclusive!
I’m looking forward to watching the rest of these History and Lore videos, as I do every year. I’m particularly interested in the Winterfell video as narrated by Michael McElhatton as Roose Bolton. The not-so-subtle bias of the narrators is always on point and provides an additional layer of value – sometimes emotional, sometimes comedic, sometimes both. Listening to Roose acknowledge the impressive nature and key strategic value of Winterfell – while placing only a thin veil over his contempt for the family that held it for thousands of years – should be delightful.
I really enjoyed Barristan’s take on Robert’s Rebellion as well. However, I must admit that I winced considerably when I realized that I was contributing to the view count of a certain channel … one that I’d rather not patronize in any way.
Aryamad,
“Well, the readers are certainly free to wonder about the validity of these religions, the truth of these religions, and the teachings of these religions. I’m a little leery of the word “true” — whether any of these religions are more true than others. I mean, look at the analogue of our real world. We have many religions too. Are some of them more true than others? I don’t think any gods are likely to be showing up in Westeros, any more than they already do. We’re not going to have one appearing, deus ex machina, to affect the outcomes of things, no matter how hard anyone prays. So the relation between the religions and the various magics that some people have here is something that the reader can try to puzzle out.”
I wish they had made two “Great Masters” videos, one narrated by Missandei and one by Hizdahr.
I’m excited to see Mark Gatiss doing two! Even though he’s only a cameo, I’m a big fan of his Tycho and his work on Sherlock.
Why do you think they choose for all of our fallen heroes and villains to narrate Dance, most of whom fell before Season 5?
Shy Lady Dragon,
If they do something like that with voice-overs and just some sort of inanimate object or amazing atmosphere that might be cool… *cue Morgan Freeman*
Tywin of the Hill,
Oh thanks for that! 🙂
Gods, I would love to see Harry Lloyd’s take on Rhaegar. I know it won’t happen but it would be fun. He was so good as Viserys that I actually felt a lot of sympathy for show-Viserys.
I enjoyed the Robert’s Rebellion feature more than the Many Faced God feature, even though it pains me to admit because that other place posted it. I love that Rhaegar is so prominently featured. Though, they didn’t draw him as pretty as I imagine him to be. It’s so evident that Barristan loved Rhaegar and believed he would have saved the realm if only he’d survived Robert’s war hammer. Dammit, Robert! And no, I don’t think Rhaegar will appear in S6.
They are so good. Watching all the Histories and Lore videos makes me wish HBO would do a prequel series of the Mad King’s reign and Robert’s Rebellion.
What are the histories and lore?
I think maybe someone explained that to me once
Are they on the older DVD releases?
Deesensfan,
Check youtube, they have all of them.
They are more backstory and lore. A bit biased tough as most information is presented from the narrator’s point of view.
I strongly sugest you watch them, I myself love them.
Nice little tease while we wait anxiously for the trailer. Always love these. The Many Faced God had some great styling on the art, if maybe lacking in any new insight.
Robert’s Rebellion was cool. Nice to hear from Barriston again- though it’s kind of a bummer. In his unrelenting quest for honor he forgot to have any fun, and seems filled with regret. Loved his line, “we all know what happened next.” Well, we have some ideas….
Mihnea,
they are all on you tube??
yes I would love to see them
sound so good!!
spoilers??
Deesensfan,
They are Blue Ray bonus features. You’re about to lose yourself in a youtube wormhole 5 seasons long…. Not such a bad thing. Cool art and history, you will like them.
Also- Vikings! Are you stoked?
edit: the Histories and Lore should be spoiler free- but you may learn some things and come to your own spoilerish conclusions. 🙂
Sister Kisser,
5 seasons of more game of thrones stuff?
YES PLEASEEEEEEEEE
Umm YES! Have you been watching? do you like it??
Its so dark this year!
Sister Kisser,
re: spoilers
That’s okay then. 🙂
No trailer announcement ? It’s getting ridiculously long…
Deesensfan,
I’ve just finished the second episode of the new season of Vikings and Ragnar actually said “Winter is coming”. I guess it must be true then 🙂
I don’t think of it as some grand conspiracy. Rhaegar was a pretty normal guy, mentally, and logically he’d be increasingly concerned about his father’s downward spiral into insanity, and mull over the idea of having his father removed from the throne (in the book version he seemed to indicate to Jaime that he wanted to call a new Great Council to make this transition nice and legal).
I mean “Great Northern Conspiracy” – what conspiracy? Is it any surprise that with a Mad King on the throne, the lords of the realm would grow increasingly wary of him?
At what time do they normaly release the teasers?
Deesensfan,
I have been watching, and I’m liking it. Really liked the first ep, now they are in GoTesque storyline building… which is intriguing. I like how they are including elements from the ancient tales- (F)Loki’s binding, escape, fish disguise, and punishment, complete with the “poison drip”.
Wylie,
Caught that too. And in that context, he went from
It’s become a running joke now.
Blaine said “Winter is coming” in last week’s iZombie episode, too. It must be true if the zombie-detectors can feel it.
Deposing the current monarch was generally considered treason, no matter how mad the monarch or how great the council, so I would hope Rhaegar would be smart enough to conspire if that was what he planned.
Way before now.
January to very early February, I believe. We have gone significantly past all previous release dates.
I’ve been watching this show since the beginning and love it. I don’t know enough about Viking/Norse lore to have picked up on this detail though. Perhaps I should dig around a little to get more out of the experience.
Ginevra,
Thank’s but I meant like at what time of the day, I was hoping for a teaser today since it’s friday. Can’t remember at what time they released the last teasers
Vikings is such eye candy. Floki’s abs…nice. Ragnar’s eyes. Rollo’s…everything.
Joffrey’s Cunt,
around 3:00 pm
The Dragon Demands,
Agreed. “Usurp” was the wrong word.
Joffrey’s Cunt,
Oh! The Hall of Faces teaser was at 7 or 8 PM EST, or at least that was the intended release time, but I cannot recall the other. I will look it up.
ETA: As Pounce said, the first teaser (Bloodraven and Bran) this season was released around 3 PM EST.
I believe (and dislike the idea) that they go the Netflix route: “First trailer a month before premiere”. If we don’t have a trailer by the end of March, I’ll get really angry.
Fear The Walking Dead just got its Season 2 trailer and it premieres in April. It has now joined the ranks with Penny Dreadful, Orphan Black, and Outlander who all premiere in April and have their trailers now.
And we wait…
Ginevra,
Well, considering the last one was at 7 or 8pm there’s still hope
With the ratings they are going to get for the premiere I think they will hold off on the resurrection to keep the hype up and more and more people will tune in each week to see. Whatever episode it is in it will definitely be the final scene of that episode.
Plus, with all of the premiere parties and media outlets that will see the first few episodes, I can’t see them risking that spoiler getting out so easily.
The Robert’s Rebellion one is good, but this one is amazing!
I got chills watching it.
umuckurlife,
Yeah, the cool thing is the fables are woven in subtlety, and the show’s story is increasingly pulling from fables surrounding historical figures like kings, to fables surrounding the gods. Norse mythology is awesome.
Saw your av. Did you have the ace? RIP Lemmy.
HotPinkLipstick,
I missed Lagertha this episode.
Jack Bauer 24,
I think you are on to something here. It would be in the best interest of production, from the perspective of attracting and hooking eyeballs, for them to postpone resurrection awhile.
Re: trailers. Sometimes things are worth waiting for.
Jack Bauer 24,
Maybe when it´s 50 days left for the premiere…
Going by Season 3’s example, I’d say we should see the trailer around March 20th.
Aryamad,
Morgan Freeman is a god, they knew it when they cast him in Bruce Almighty 🙂
Wylie,
Hahahaha that’s true I thought the same thing
Sister Kisser,
I did not know the Loki mythical story and connection
to flokis punishment [\spoiler] I’m sure I would have enjoyed it even more!!!!
I’m loving it also
I also love Lagertha scenes hahaha she’s my fave also
HotPinkLipstick,
Word!!!!
Deesensfan,
Fail on the spoiler covers
I never use the spoiler covers cause I don’t know any spoilers usually hahaha
Yeah they know the premiere is going to have massive ratings, so not having Jon rezzed on 4/24 is the smartest thing they could do. The hype will grow each week and more and more people will tune in each week until it happens.
Deesensfan,
Add another spoiler box, just like that one, at the begining of your sentence but without the ”\”
Mihnea,
Thank you!!!
Deesensfan,
No problem. 🙂
HotPinkLipstick,
Talk about getting better with age, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Travis Fuckin’ Fimmel!
(I do wish he’d get the beard under control, but he needs it for the character)
Nymeria Warrior Queen,
I know <3