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Episode 332 – Interview with Kristian Nairn
Kristian Nairn joins the podcast for an emotional conversation following the UK premiere of The Door.
Discussion Topics
Busy day
Breaking hearts
Finding out about the end
Hodor’s path
Working on Season 6
Challenging scenes
Warged, or not warged
What did Hodor remember?
What Hodor leaves with Bran
Thoughts on Dorne
Hodor
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Hold the door! ?
???????
Where is the image ? :O
🙁
What a great interview – and what a great asset Kristian Nairn has been to this show with both his on-screen performance and his off-screen personality. Door well and truly held!
Aww man I can’t listen right now. Would it be against the spirit of the post if someone were to summarize what he said, especially in regards to if he was warged or not?
He doesn’t know, but he thinks that Hodor was only warged by Bran to get him on his feet and get moving, and then was fully himself. It was Meera asking him to hold the door, not Bran.
I don’t know how Hodor being warged in the past can be explained then, but perhaps it was a delayed consequence of a ‘link’ established by Bran between past Hodor and present Hodor.
You should really listen though, Kristian is a funny guy.
Lollius Palicanus,
My feeling is if you are ‘with’ with a person in the present and the past and warg into them it happens to them in both timelines. If that makes sense?
Please tell me what you think !!!
The scene seemed intentionally ambiguous to me. It almost seemed like half-warging and half-greenseeing, as if Bran couldn’t really do both fully simultaneously. Combined with receiving a mega-download from 3ER and adult Hodor’s death, the metaphorical streams crossed and young Hodor got his mind blown out. I really don’t think the “technical” details of clashing magic really matter much to the story, plot, or characterization in any case, so I am fine to let sleeping dogs lie in the that respect.
The bigger questions for me are whether young Hodor experienced or saw his own future death, and whether he remembered it. I hope the book makes this more clear, and I hope the answer is yes, as it elevates Hodor from awesome to an even higher level of greatness – a hero who consciously and unflinchingly marched to his own death, having already experienced it and knowing how it comes.
It was great to hear Kristian’s insight!
Chad Brick,
The bigger questions for me are whether young Hodor experienced or saw his own future death, and whether he remembered it.
I got the sense young Wylis experienced/greensaw? his future death. There is a lot going on in that scene so I need to watch it again but I am not ready yet.
The whole 3ER/NK part is just so similar to vader/kenobi that I have to believe the two had a “past life” relationship. I am interested to hear spec on what that was.
Fantastic interview, GOO! And thank you, Kristian for being such a great Hodor, and for being a fun guest as always.
The way young Hodor’s voice fades away as adult Hodor dies makes me think this is the case (I certainly prefer to think it!) but it is ambiguous. Maybe we will never know.
My main note on GoT6e5 to D&D and GRRM is could you not have just used Summer to help Meera pull Bran ‘sled-style’? There was still a role for him.
redxgod,
We don’t really know…. They do.
Chad Brick,
I prefer this too! It just adds another layer to Hodor’s’ motivation and character if he knew all along.
redxgod,
Chad Brick,
Yeah I didn’t mean it predominantly in a technical way, I guess it’s supposed to be a bit vague. But it does raise some questions, including if young Wyllis saw his own death through mental connection with adult Hodor, if Greenseeing and Warging are not really different ‘magic’, but different forms of teke, etcetera. How was Bran able to warg into Hodor from inside his vision in the first place, and why could he hear Meera? Questions, questions.
redxgod,
Every time a direwolf dies, it’s because the corresponding Stark made a huge error. Sansa lied about what Joffrey did to Mycah, Robb went back on his word to the Freys, (we don’t know the true CoD of Shaggydog so I’ll leave that out for now), Bran went joyriding in the weir network.
Summer sacrificed himself to give Bran more time to get away. So did Leaf. So did Hodor. It wasn’t for nothing.
Lyanna_Targaryen,
Good point. I guess trusting the Umbers would do it for Rickon. Its tough that they left poor Meera carrying Bran back all on her own…so is no Brienne!
Great interview. He is such a nice and fun guy. Got teary-eyed a couple of times when the discussion was about last week’s episode.
Chad Brick,
In the interview, Kristian thinks that Willys brain was fried, esp the communication part, and his brain was wiped clean, so he might not have had that image growing up.
Oh and in the interview, I love that they missed a joke when they asked Kristian if about the crew working with him, that it probably was a skeleton crew to keep too many people from knowing. I cracked up and was surprised that they totally missed it.
Great interview, thanks! BTW is it possible to close caption those? My hearing loss makes these things difficult for me in general, but when there is an accent as strong as Kristians, it was more so (but I did manage to get quite a bit of it, just took a lot of work). Close caption would really help (tho I understand if it can’t happen)
what a lovely guy.
He is right about Osha – she was too easily dispatched.
I think someone asked, why did the NK want to kill Bran and BR? I was thinking about it – and it seemed to me that the NK could have just sent his wights to the cave to kill the two, but instead came himself, and swung the sword to kill BR – like BR was his kill; someone he personally wanted dead. He also ignored Bran, Meera, and Hodor- as in he didn’t go after them himself – was this because they got away or because Bran wasn’t his aim? Given that BR is who he is, I wonder if the NK is looking to align with the Starks- not fight them.
I love that guy. Someone at work, who hadn’t watched the episode yet, asked me what Hodor’s last words were… if it was “Hodor”. I told him it was more like “Aahhhraah” XD I kid but it was so sad!!
Rickon stole some of Smalljon’s walnuts
I totally agree…well said. But…this only makes me 10x MORE nervous for the remaining two direwolves. Definitely for Ghost, even though I trust Jon’s judgement…but we also know there’s a dangerous road ahead for Jon and Co. Absolutely worried about Nymeria…just based on where I think Arya’s storyline is headed this season.
Jade Joon,
Good question, which I’ve been wondering about myself. I had assumed that when the NK saw Bran, he probably knew he was a greenseer, just based on the fact that this young kid popped out of nowhere. There’s still so much we don’t know – maybe the NK knew of BR, and a cave under a massive weirwood was a dead giveaway. When he encountered BR and saw him intertwined with the weirwood branches, he knew that he was probably a powerful greenseer that could be detrimental to the fate of the WW. Or, the NK knew of BR, and had been looking for him for countless years. The NK might’ve figured that Bran was just an “apprentice”, and that there was no way that he was THE main man, Mr. Top Greenseer. He might’ve known that marking Bran would lead him to who he was REALLY after – BR. This attack felt personal to me, as far as the NK is concerned…like it definitely had to be him and his WW buddies that had to lead this attack, versus watching from the sidelines as the wights did the nasty work. Also, maybe he wanted to directly ensure that the BR was wiped out – if you think about it, the WW are functioning and have some level of intelligence, versus the undead, mindless wights. Maybe the NK thought that there could be some level of a fight on his hands, dealing with a greenseer that has powers…and he wanted to be able to fight back with more than just mindless stabbing, which is all the wights are capable of. Who knows…just my take on it. For now, anyways 🙂
Lady_Vicious1984,
Nk wanted bran for sure but I don’t think is was to hurt him only let him know he was being used by 3eyed raven. Noway do I trust a guy named blood raven .his loyalty is targ all the way. Bran wouldn’t know this.I’ve kinda even thinking meera was the one he was after.
Also *summer ” Wight direwolf to carry bran to battle as a greenseer next nights king of always winter .just sounds fuckin bad ass.
What a great interview!!! A big thanks to all involved, including, of course, Kristain Nairn.
Not only did you do fantastic work as the character, your generosity of spirit is beautiful to behold. Thank you!
My favorite part was that they had Isaac call a wrap for Kristian. I wonder what gift D&D gave him.