As expected, we are seeing more Game of Thrones interviews and small clues about the Season 6 schedule coming out as a result of Comic Con, including interviews from TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Access Hollywood and ToplessRobot.com. Most of these are fun, short videos where we get to hear from some of the actors that we don’t get to hear from too often.
Videos and more after the jump!
TV Guide has a brief but funny interview with some of the actors at ComicCon who get less attention than others like Conleth, Hannah and Liam. At one point, Liams tells Carice to “put it away”. If you need a smile, this one is a must watch.
Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd did interviews at Comic Con splitting the panel into two. The first video group includes Gwen, Alfie, Liam, Carice, Sophie and Carolyn Strauss and the other half in the second video includes John, Hannah, Natalie, Conleth, Maisie and David Nutter).
Here’s part I:
Here’s part II:
Access Hollywood talked to Liam about his being nervous at his first Comic Con. More on topic, they did ask about Season 6. Liam said he was expecting to get his scripts that same day and the plan was to have their first table read through this Thursday, July 16.
And finally, ToplessRobot.com has an interview with Todd McFarlane of McFarlane Toys, the maker of major league sports figures and building sets for shows like the Walking Dead. The interview was conducted on the convention floor so the sound isn’t great but it’s a nice review of the Game of Thrones toys he is planning on releasing just in time for Christmas. There aren’t any links on his site just yet but you can take a look at other things he has made to date.
“The Kardashians because then we could kill them.”
+1 Sophie.
Is it me or is Alfie strangely sexy? First time I notice in five years.
Lol at Conleth at the end when the members of the cast announce themselves : “I’m Peter Dinklage” xD
What did Natalie Dormer do to her face?
Liam and Carice are so great.
I’m with John Bradley – I don’t know how some of the actors do it in heavy costume in hot climates! I’ll stay at the wall. 😉
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
That made me love Sophie even more haha.
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
The funny thing is that Sophie’s admitted before that she watches KUWTK too haha.
I’ve never seen Sophie so serious in an interview before, although I think she handled everything very well.
On a side note, Carice’s accent is awesome.
So they now have their first scripts, filming begins in 2 weeks … we should have some casting news soon!
I wonder if they will announce the actors, but not reveal the characters that they are playing, like when they hired Iwan Rheon, but only referred to him as “The Boy” in order to keep things as secret as possible, for as long as possible …
Aarghhhhh!!! Is it April yet?!!
man, I cant wait anymore like you red viper, !!
Nah, I don’t think they’ll do that. In Iwan’s case, the character had to be kept secret for plot reasons and was therefore not in any marketing at all. If they do that with every character, the show will lose a strong marketing opportunity: just look at all the Sand Snakes/Dorne marketing for S5.
I never could understand why they tried to keep that secret. Roose clearly said to Robb that he would send his bastard to sort Theon out.
I thought it was pretty obvious it was him all the time and I didn’t see the point of any secrecy.
Was it just to add to the show?
Love Sophie’s answer on the controversy in this one on one interview during her X-men comic con appearance
http://www.mtv.com/news/2211063/sophie-turner-jon-snow-game-of-thrones/
What I have been saying all this time. ITS A TV SHOW LOL
Second, her answer about Jon.. really? Does no one care that Kit is gone for good?
After the Red Wedding, Lena Heady said she called Michelle Fairly and Richard Madden told us about his planes story after shooting was done. Anyway.. Seems like no one cares!
And yet a lot of people were totally stumped about it. Although I think it was revealed a little late in the end maybe. I suppose they could have done it during the Red Wedding…but it might have been a distraction. I do think they tend to worry too much about keeping the wrong things secret, like what characters will be in the show, instead of making sure scenes don’t leak.
Deesensfan,
What did she say wrong about Jon? I don’t see a problem with what she said. Maisie on the other hand…lol.
Thanks for these vids.
The toys is a funny one. I’d be tempted to buy some but I never have in my life. As a child they either didn’t make TV/movie spinoff toys or (more likely) we were just too hard-up to be able to buy any (violins playing).
So I made up for it by buying all my kids hundreds of Power Rangers/Thomas the Tank Engine/ Barbie/Disney Princess/Dora the Explorer/Peppa Pig etc toys. Not a good decision as I now have a house overflowing with clutter that I can’t get straight!
That in itself is enough to put me off buying anything, but I also have a weird aversion to buying anything that isn’t useful. I’ll buy mugs and T-shirts etc but just can’t see the point in miniature replicas for adults.
Especially when they are so expensive (I’ve looked, as DD1 also watches now, but I’m not even sure it’s her favourite show- I think she prefers Breaking Bad, TWD and OITNB).
Plus she’s nearly 18 so I can’t help thinking she’s a bit old.
Maybe that’s the real difference between the genuine ‘geeks’ and the recent converts, buying toys as an adult!
Men tend to gravitate towards cars or DIY tools or sports equipment.
Women perhaps want to buy things to improve their or their home’s appearance, or get into crafts or cooking or gardening or whatever.
So maybe it’s just seen as arrested development to continue to want these kind of useless objects.
Whatever floats your boat, I’d rather build a Lego Hogwarts/ Winterfell than buy fancy clothes but end up doing neither!
Chris,
No no, nothing wrong with it… I get a rehearsed vibe from everyone to downplay it like its nothing
Theyre over doing the “I don’t care” attitude regarding that story… except Emilia.
I find the way they are talking about it just really bad. The only reason why they might just brush it off like this is because he is not totally gone…
Clem,
That really caught me off guard. I actually exploded.
Fantastic Interview with Roose Bolton aka Michael McElhatton
I hope Michael gets more screen time next year. He was underused last season. We need more of Roose’s contempt looks of fury towards Ramsey and less Ramsey crazy flaying time. That dinner scene where he announced the pregnancy and looked at Ramsey like “I run this joint not you. Your time is up very soon. I win. Boom! Drop the metaphorical mic.” Roose Bolton does not mess around at all.
Season 5 was the biggest for him so far.
Gilly looks really nice, barely recognized her when shes not wearing a potato sack
viki,
Thanks for posting that. Longer interviews with Michael McElhatton are very rare, in fact that’s the first one I ever saw.
Lady Bumbelly,
He definitely is. Maybe they should have had him look more like that in the first couple of seasons, with shorter hair. Although, I guess that would have looked out of place when compared with the rest of the (initial) northerners.
Would contrast really well with Reek’s appearance later on, however.
I know and it was so good. He needs to get more screen time. The Bolton story line is getting even bigger next year.
I hope they will match it in screen time with him. I just want less Ramsey and more Roose. He is getting overshadowed by the crazy Ramsey.
mau,
Really? Is that confirmed in screentime or just an assumption? Because I’m guessing he actually had more screentime in S3.
Winterfell is probably about to get sacked by Littlefinger and the knights of the Vale, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Boltons either retreat back to the Dreadfort or are outright destroyed. If Ramsay takes his dogs out for a hunt to find Theon and Sansa like I suspect he will, he’ll probably die during that somehow (perhaps via a Valyrian steel sword through the back).
Perhaps the Northern lords will quarrel with Littlefinger instead, who probably thought for certain the North would accept him so long as he killed the Boltons and wed Sansa.
I think somewhere you can look up how much screen time per season. I don’t know. He was in more episodes in Season 3. I don’t know if that means more time. It could be fewer minutes over more episodes.
Oh crap I forgot about the Vale. They will take out the Boltons. I thought the casting meant more time. We would see the lack of support among the lords. We didn’t see it last year so I thought it would be next year.
Robb Snow,
I’m really excited to see how LF reacts when he gets back to Winterfell and finds out that Sansa escaped. I agree that the North probably won’t accept him, a southern lord, without a Stark to support him. I’m also wondering if they’re going to try to consolidate plots by having Sansa and Theon escape to the Iron Islands instead of the Wall.
Sansa and Theon escaping to the Iron Islands would be an interesting twist. I just hope she doesn’t end up being someone’s salt wife…
Deesensfan,
Which makes it all the more suspicious. Kit is a really popular among the cast members and this attitude just confirms everything to me. No gift on the set, no Comic-Con apperance, these interviews. Put everything together and there you have it.
I don’t know if Theon will return to the Iron Islands. Is that how we meet Euron initially? Kingsmoot happens after they reject Theon as heir. Yara/Asha tries to speak for him. Euron gets chosen instead and then off to the Reach for raiding. Theon and Sansa stay there for safety from the Boltons.
It does resolve the problem of where do Theon and Sansa go after the escape. They won’t make it to the Wall. They could try to make to Torrhen’s Square to take a boat. That castle sits by a river that goes out to the Sunset Sea according to the map. It will be friendlier and closer than Barrowton. They can make it to the coast with Brienne’s help.
The scene from couple of years ago with him and Walder Frey after the Red Wedding was some good T.V. Him throwing out the phrase “forever young” kind of bothered me for a bit (sounded way too modern of a thing to say for some reason) but the acting and writing in the scene was excellent.
I just re-watched it again on YouTube and they sure seemed to be doing some Blackfish foreshadowing but I’m kinda doubtful we’ll see him again (not sure what impact he could have on any of the story-lines).
Lady Bumbelly,
First thing I thought when seeing the first pic. But I was thinking…Season 1 Theon was kinda sexy as well. As Reek he is repulsive of course, showing what a great actor it is. He seems also a really nice guy
Angela,
I agree with you about Littlefinger. I’m not sure why Sophie always insists that Sansa and LF are an excellent tag-team, because it’s pretty obvious at this point that the only person he truly cares about is himself. As I mentioned earlier, it’s going to be fun to see his shock and fury when he realizes that his most precious pawn has escaped him 😉
The main reason I think that Sansa and Theon might go to the Iron Islands is because the only person who tried to save Theon after he was captured by Ramsay was his sister, and as far as he knows, she’s at Pyke. It would make sense to run to her than to anyone else, except for maybe Jon.
The exchange was really good. I was hoping the finale would go back for interactions with the conspirators.
I want Blackfish back too.
I’ve never watched the Comic-Con footage or events quite so closely in prior years as I have this year. Does anyone remember if there was always a “show-runner” or director or other would-be HBO spy attending every cast interview and appearance like there has been this year? Nutter is at one, Strauss at another. Is that common every year?
Oh yes. I hope she wakes up to his true agenda soon. I hope she does go to the Iron Islands and ruins everything for LF. He can’t be Warden of the North without a Stark. I would be very happy. I am not a fan of LF and Sansa because it is clearly a manipulative and mentally abusive relationship. He is taking advantage of her fears of being caught by the Lannisters to stay with him. She is afraid of separating herself from LF. I don’t like it at all.
He got her family members murdered, home burnt, and her lands taken from her. Then, he has the balls to offer her lands back to her? I was like, you are offering Winterfell back to a Stark? You created this problem of Boltons in Winterfell in the first place.
You have the audacity to create a plan to remove them from Winterfell? It just made me not like the arc even more. I was already hesitant but I gave it chance until the crypt scene. The reveal of the plan was for me ” You got to be kidding me?” Wait for Stannis and he will declare what is rightfully yours by law and blood. Okay. Sansa is already the Wardeness of the North. The Boltons stole her lands. It made me kinda mad that Sansa is not seeing through it yet.
Or if not marry Loras, then at the very least not use her as merchandise in a deal with Roose Bolton. I’m thinking maybe he wanted her to see him as some sort of hero-rescuer, when he comes with drawn sword and army to “free” her.
I just hope they don’t get caught and imprisoned by Ramsay again. I couldn’t stomach any more torture scenes. Imagine what he’d do to them now that his little side-piece is on the stone floor with her head bashed in. Nothing left to relieve his pressure but more torture of Sansa. Where could they go, though, with no money, no supplies, barely dressed for the weather? Brienne will have to save them. Do you think the Winterfell super long-lasting, special rescue candle is still burning?
LF was saying “Stannis will give you back your lands to you from the people who murdered your family and stole them from you.” That’s such an awesome plan. Geez, you are giving back her home. You are the reason why she has to do this. What a great guy. I gave the new Sansa story the full benefit of playing out all the way through the finale. I did not like the plan. I was hoping it would be something else.
Exactly or at least a place she could be somewhat happy. I was just using the Loras/Highgarden as an example.
I suspect that is part of the idea. It is part of that codependency relationship. He is saving her from evil people that what to kill her. He also has that grudge about not winning the duel against Brandon. It was a humiliation about his lowborn status.
So, he creates these terrible circumstances to put Sansa through so he can save her. He does have that big of an ego. It is not all the reasons why LF does these things. It is in there somewhere. The duel did some serious mental damage to LF.
Sure and Brienne still doesn’t see it after killing Stannis. She is on her way back to watching Winterfell and gets distracted by Pod. It just sits there still burning somehow in the windy and snowy North. No one sees it even though it burns brightly enough to be seen at Brienne’s location. How did Ramsey not see that candle?
Littlefinger really needs to be held accountable for his part in Sansa’s suffering this past season. Whether he knew what Ramsay was or not, he’s still responsible for what happened. I hope Sansa is the one who ends Littlefinger’s grand scheme once and for all.
I’m probably forgetting something, but how did Littlefinger put the Boltons in Winterfell? As far as I’m aware, he had nothing to do with the Red Wedding…
Me too. I think she is the only one who can. He has a huge blind spot when it comes to Sansa. He may not care that much about her but he wants to impress her with his “awesome” plans. He likes to bask in his own glory. He won’t see it because she is his little pawn to play with. If she has learned anything, then she will use that against him. I don’t know because Sansa’s development is all over the place. You see her move forward a step and then gets pushed back by her following too much with LF. I understand she has to put on a good face for him. She is stuck with him for now. I hope that she starts unraveling everything that he has put into place.
Jon Arryn’s murder started the dominoes of the War of Five Kings which lead to the RW.
Jon Arryn’s murder started the dominoes of the War of Five Kings which lead to the RW. He pitted the Starks and the Lannisters against each other.
Oops I double posted. The second one is the complete answer.
LF is the reason why they are there. I am sorry that I wasn’t clear. He started the war and it lead to the deaths of her family members. It gave Bolton the opportunity to switch over to the Lannisters when they started losing. The RW was how Tywin was going to end the war. As a reward, Roose was given Winterfell.
Here’s the Women Who Kick Ass panel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbvvbcxpyTE. I particularly loved watching Kathy Bates’ face the whole way through. I’m not sure if she was having a bad day or what, but she seemed rather bored or even irritated with the responses from most of the panel, except for Gwendolyn’s answers, where she was practically gleeful in comparison. She must be a Game of Thrones fan.
Sansa and Theon are heading to the Wall. Neither of them know Jon is dead.
Then Sansa and Davos will join forces and go rallying the North and looking for Bran and Rickon (never dreaming that Bran has gone beyond the Wall – Sam and Gilly are the only ones who know that now).
Meanwhile Mel and Brienne will head south to find Beric and Thoros. Mel will see in her flames the truth about Jon. She won’t be able to raise him herself, but she knows who can. That will be a season long storyline.
Anyway, I believe we will end the season with the Wall down and Dany et al. on their way to invade Westeros. I don’t think we’re going to be very pleased with what comes back when they get Jon Snow onto his feet again.
There is a lot of time spent analyzing Littlefinger’s actions and motivations. That’s a great testament to GRRM, as his creator, but also to Aiden Gillen’s spot-on performance. Such a character could come off as a cartoon villain in lesser hands, but Gillen hits the perfect proportion of sophistication and slime.
It’s universally fascinating to watch someone so wildly ambitious (“Oh, I want EVERYthing, everything there is”) be so deft in his craftiness, so perfectly, medievally sneaky. You find yourself mentally thumbing through your own list of friends and acquaintances, wondering if there is a Littlefinger squirming his way through your own life. That’s some great acting.
Not that Littlefinger is my favorite character, mind you, all apologies to Gillen and the rest of the wonderful cast. My favorite is currently in a state of limbo in the icy North.
His original creator, GRRM, says coyly “Oh, you think he’s dead, do you?” While the director says flatly he’s deader than dead. The theories, book and show, suggest he has warged into another being. Last word said in books: “Ghost.” Last word said in show: “Olly.” So he’s either a beautiful white Direwolf, who will probably be whacked by Aliser Thorne, or he’s a mewling, confused little shit who stabs people in the heart, literally and figuratively. Either way sucks. Kit must return. KIT you are not forgotten.
And if one poster comes on here and says to give up on Jon Snow, I’ll … I’ll… write back and tell you to STFU.
Oh, thank you, I like that idea so much more than thinking that a possibly pregnant Sansa is recaptured by a very angry Ramsay. There would be nothing left of poor Theon. I already pity the poor soul who left the corkscrew around for her to find so she could escape in the first place. I like the idea of Davos having Sansa to protect. I still can’t believe he won’t find out what Mel did to Shireen. With all the defecting soldiers scattered about, he has to run across at least one who will tell the story.
A Mel – Brienne road trip. Now that would be interesting. Do you think Pod would stay with Sansa?
How many more months til the new season?
viki,
Yeah, that was a wonderful interview. Michael understands the story (even some of the the theories, I’d guess) well, and unlike in the case of many other (younger) GoT actors, I did not cringe when he was speaking about his character. As a reader, I was super-satisfied. Actually it felt like Roose Bolton dressed up as a modern actor to give an interview.
Why would Mel need to take Jon’s body to Thoros? It wasn’t even actually Thoros himself that performed resurrections. All he did was pray, and the Lord of Light answered. If R’hllor will answer the prayer of one priest, why wouldn’t he answer the prayer of another?
What if he’s a total twat on set and everyone hates him and are glad to see the back of him?
J/K he seems really nice in interviews and it really is super fishy the things they’ve been saying.
I assumed since George gave that famous ‘Oh you think he’s dead do you?’ in reply to the question as to why he killed him off that he either doesn’t die or will be resurrected.
The whole R+L=J and him being the song of ice and fire theory just adds to my belief that he is absolutely the central figure in the story and thus has more to do.
I don’t believe for one second that he won’t return in some form.
If he doesn’t I’ll blame D&D and if he doesn’t in the books I’ll assume GRRM changed his mind.
So I’m in denial all the way to Thebes.
Haha!
It is just too much denial. Nobody is talking about their time with Kit at all. Usually they talk about filming with them during GOT. It’s just “He’s super dead and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Next question.”
GRRM is totally right. The story is not finished. I won’t believe it until April.
R+L= J is for real. I don’t understand hinting at it all the time but then permanently killing off that character. It is just a bad ending. Jon is a huge part of the story. It made no sense to me.
Oberyn’s death made sense. An over confident fighter that had tunnel vision. His cockiness sent him to the grave. Pedro did a lovely performance of that character. It still made sense for the story. Jon’s permanent death doesn’t at all. It is just killing off a character because you can do it.
Mel will make up for the Shireen burning and bring him back. She will give us a solid.
Yeah, Mel doesn’t need Thoros. Mel just prays, “Hey R’hllor please resurrect Jon Snow.” Then wait for the answer of “Sure.” Jon Snow wakes up. Resurrection complete.
Lady Bumbelly,
He’s the sexiest man with no balls i ever met
We knew this already but…
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/13/game-thrones-bran-stark-season-6
If I’m being honest, it looks like Carice is the one who has had a little work done.
I always think that bit Ramsay dropped about Jon being LC to Sansa wasn’t just a throwaway. I feel like that’s what will lead her to The Wall, if she and Theon can still walk, that is.
Its gut wrenching to think that read throughs are Thursday, which means one of these fine people might be getting the Sopranos walk in the next two days….
Lion of Night,
Hodor?!
If they can make it that far with sprained/broken ankles. They will at least get those minimum injuries. If they don’t break their legs. Snow isn’t that soft. It does not break your fall that well.
I could only imagine at that height it would do some damage. They are not jumping into a cushion. Snow gets very icy on the top layer due to the constant temp changes from freezing and melting all the time. I don’t understand why people think they won’t break or sprain something. It is compacted snow.
Some people have these ideal about snow. People were like “They will be fine, there’s snow on the ground. They will land into pile of snow.” Nope. They will land on top it on the hard surface and break their ankles. They should head to the west coast with Brienne. It’s closer than the Wall and get on a ship to a far away land.
“The plan was to have their first table read through this Thursday, July 16.”
How does this work? Unlike a “normal” TV show, where you’d have a table read of Episode 1, then film it the following week, then move on to Episode 2, etc., I understand that GoT is filmed out of sequence. So you might shoot a scene from Episode 7 one day, and then a scene from Episode 2 the next day, based on availability of sets, directors, etc.
So then, how do they do the read through with all the actors? Do they get everyone in the same room, and read through all 10 scripts in one day? That must take forever!
Yes, over time, snow does melt and refreeze. However, we don’t know how long the snow has been there, and when I watched it, I got the impression they were jumping into a snow drift. No, I’ve never jumped into a snowdrift from the top of a tower, and I’ve also never jumped into a snow drift nearly as deep as I’d guess the ones at the bases of the walls of Winterfell would be, but I’ve gone at breakneck speed on a sled into a deep snow drift, and it was surprisingly soft. I say surprisingly because I’ve also gone at break neck speed on a sled into a pile of snow which had had a chance to thaw and refreeze. Ouch. I guess what I’m saying is it all depends on whether they jumped into a drift, or a pile which had been there a while. Even if it was a drift, from that height there’s no guarantee they will be not be injured, but I don’t know there’s a guarantee they will be, either.
Something that I’ve always been curious about (and I’m sure someone here with knowledge of the industry can enlighten me) is how they are able to keep the cast and some of the ‘non-permanent’ crew available. Obviously the directors know a few months prior to filming that they’re in, but do the cast have an early nod as to whether they’re actually in the season? It seems obvious for the main cast that unless they have a cliffhanger they will be, but with a production this huge, people can hardly be expected to wait until the beginning/middle of July to know if and when they could be filming – especially if they’re being offered or interested in other projects that could conflict with the time frame.
You could find out you die in episode 2, filmed in August or something, then see ya. Boggles my mind how they can organize this beast.
Thronetender,
Aidan and his portrayal of Littlefinger are up there with my favourites. What a great character.
The flippancy of the cast and crew towards Jon/Kit is a little painfully obvious. If and when Jon dies for good, they’ll have Kit at every event and interview and sing his praises. The whole “meh, whatever, it sucks but what can ya do” is a bad cover, but I suppose they can’t really do much else!
Nymeria Warrior Queen,
I’ve jumped off mini cliffs into drifts (not one of my better ideas, but we get bored in the north in winter), but those were maybe 25 feet, tops. And it still hurt like a b*tch with that nice stinging pain up the middle of your feet.
The height that Thansa jumped from, and the relatively shallow heap o snow they would have landed in, would shatter a few things easily, I agree 100%. Theon’s already half shattered as it is. If they make the drift magically bigger in the off season, they’d plop right in it like 2 javelins and suffocate.
Either Brienne has to conveniently pass by on avalanche rescue duty, or it truly is a fantasy show!
Joseph Nobles,
It is an interesting theory, but I think Brienne should remember Arya as well… last time they met Brienne ‘killed’ Arya’s only protector and then failed to find her in the aftermath. She should still be concerned about correcting that mistake and helping reunite the Stark siblings. Davos goes out to find Bran and Rickon and Brienne continue to look for Arya maybe with Mel in tow to find Thoros – but only after they find a safe haven for Sansa with a prominent trusted Northern house, or she elects to travel with one of their groups to look for her siblings. Sansa doesn’t seem like a happy traveler though, and it would be more interesting to have her with the Manderley’s or Mormont’s helping to unifying the North and dealing with LF’s ( and Vale army ) return – not to mention the Boltons who will be looking for her.
The snow Theon and Sansa land in would be soft, because Stannis brought the sun out, melting it.
The last time Edmure was mentioned was by Walder Frey, something about him spending his wedding night in the dungeon. It’s assumed that he was allowed to consummate the marriage, otherwise his daughter wouldn’t be married and either of them could marry someone else, as Sansa did. One shtup and off to the dungeon, where he probably still is.
Blackfish had the most cosmically opportune need to excuse himself and go “piss” in fictional history. He pointedly said “find a tree to piss on,” meaning he would have been outside when the attack began. Talk about luck!
He could be anywhere, hopefully plotting the demise of Freys and Boltons, since no one else seems to be making such plans. Maybe he’s been alerting and organizing the other northern families, many of whom had family members killed in during the Red Wedding. I liked his character and do hope to see more of him.
Bran is officially confirmed for season 6. He says he has a lot of interesting visions. It’s up on IGN.
As Hannah Murray and Sophie Turner are both to the best of my knowledge natural blondes it looks as if they’ve had their hair coloured their GoT colours (prior to filming I guess). Natalie Dormer uses a dark wig in GoT I think.
I seem to recall that there were fans who convinced themselves that he could not be Ramsay for one reason or another. Moreover, the vast majority of the viewers who either haven’t read the books or read them once years ago would not have known who he was.
You are correct: jumping into a snow drift that had not frozen over would be like jumping onto one of the big “pillows” that rescue teams will use to save people who need to jump out of burning buildings.
However, they still should die, just as Theon and Jeyne should have died in the books for one simple reason: when you get covered in snow like that, it basically starts freezing to your face. That will rapidly form an ice mask, especially around your nostrils and mouth. You then suffocate even more rapidly than you would in the snow alone. (This is how a lot of people killed in snow avalanches actually die: although, of course, many would suffocate under the snow or freeze to death shortly afterwards. Basically, if a snow avalanche does not kill you quickly one way, then it will kill you almost as quickly another way.)
But if we forget that, then they would have a good chance of surviving and escaping. Given that nobody seemed to see them jump (unlike the book), and given that the Boltons would first commit resources to hunting for the Sansa & Theon inside Winterfell (which both know much better than do the Boltons), they could easily get far away. Once another storm came (and let’s forget that the storm probably would kill them), they would be untraceable.
However…. whither goeth they? I’m not betting on the Wall. I’m betting that they go after Bran & Rickon. Of course, that might wind up being the Wall: after all, where else would Bran & Rickon have gone?)
Why would most of this happen? What incentive does Davos have to search for Bran & Rickon? Why does Mel need to find Thoros? As for “trusted Northern houses,” there do not seem to be any left on the show: it seems like they largely went down at the Red Wedding. (Yes, the viewers might remember that Rickon went to one such house: but we do not know that the characters know that any such houses still are functional.)
Remember that Blackfish (despite fan adulation!) is a tertiary character at best: really, he’s just an incidental one that never really plays an important part in even the plot, never mind the story. The show has been pretty assiduous in having protagonists or (at minimum) secondary characters do “big” things: so, even if GRRM has Blackfish do something in Winter, B&W probably would have an important character do that on the show.
At any rate, the show implies that the Northern families were largely wiped out at the Red Wedding: so, there would not be much for Blackfish to organize. (And, strictly speaking, they would not be “other” Northern families to him: the Tullys are southroners.)
Nah. Logically, you are right, but I’m thinking they will forego logic here and decide that in Westeros, Snow is actually more like cotton and cushions your fall adequately.
And if people complain about this, I’ll have to answer like John Bradley: it’s a fantasy show. There are dragons and shadow babies – are we really going to criticize the texture of Westerosi snow as the most jarringly unbelievable thing? 😉
In general, however, they have been good about these things. For example, a classic fantasy trope is to stick a torch on something and watch it go up in flames like a rag soaked in petrol. In particular, this is how you kill undead. However, the show has wisely stayed away from that: the only incinerated wights were torched with magic, or with oil-filled lamps. If you struck a frozen corpse (magically animated or otherwise) with a torch or burning arrow, then it would…. make a slight burning smell where you charred the flesh (think rotting pork), and cause the torch/arrow to fizzle out. It was wise to stay away from this because although it seems that some fantasy fans think that torches are easier to burn than dry grass, the general audience knows that it’s actually really really hard to burn a corpse: and harder to burn anything frozen.
Because of this, I did suspect that they would do something different with Sansa’s escape: e.g., use the crypts or something like that. Again, I think that the audience will accept that they might have landed on a soft snowbank: but why didn’t they subsequently freeze to death or suffocate under an ice mask? This is an educated audience: and most of them would know that this is what would happen to someone who fell into a deep enough snowbank that it would braced a big jump like that.
Many of the families would have lost the elders and the heirs that were of age to ride with the armies. That accounts for a good many deaths, but doesn’t necessarily mean that all the Northern families are wiped out. Sam had quite a list of names neither we nor Jon had ever heard of when he had Jon sign those requests for men and supplies.
What about families that may have had young males not quite of age to ride with the army who have since come of age? And what of the widowed women who would vow revenge of some kind for their lost husbands and sons? If you are saying that an angry, inspired female couldn’t possibly have any effect on the outcome of a war, then a good part of the GoT story is already nullified. Not that those women would become Briennes or Aryas and ride to battle, but there are ways to keep the war movement in motion, under the radar.
This site needs a good map of the GoT world somewhere. I’ve looked and haven’t found one on site; my apologies if there is one and I’ve overlooked it. Just point me in the right direction. It’s hard to remember what houses are where geographically. Like Osha said once, the Starks were southerners to her. And Dornishmen would be southerners to those in the Riverlands.
Yea, you are right that Blackfish is a peripheral character, but still, Cat was a favorite niece, and he still might be mentioned as stirring up some trouble, even in mid-Westeros. Whatever, it’s all speculation, a way to keep GoT close to us and keep us immersed in the world, even though we have a long wait ahead of us. It’s been a month now. I hope the speculation keeps up for a while longer.
Geralt of Rivia,
That’s what im thinking too. I don’t want to get my hopes up though
another interview!! http://time.com/3955029/sophie-turner-game-of-thrones-x-men-jean-grey/
This is not the first time I read this speculation, but in the SHOW, why would Davos care to look for Rickon or Bran??
Before S05E10 I was thinking because Jon would ask him to, but now I just have no idea. Davos doesn’t even know that they’re alive.
Wimsey,
I think it was mentioned somewhere (perhaps A Game of Thrones) how the wights are actually extremely flammable, and burn quickly and easily. Perhaps a drawback in the Others’ magic?
Gravemaster,
That’s what I am thinking also… I don’t see it happening at this point
Lady Bumbelly,
He does look more stylish this year. I read somewhere that he hired a stylist.
My theory is that they film in huge blocks. Jack Bender was quoted in multiple articles (here’s one) as saying that the commitment to direct your two episodes of Game of Thrones was 4 1/2 to 6 months. And in one article, although I couldn’t find it again, I’m sure I read that he would be directing alongside one or two other directors. So my best guess is that they schedule to do the first four or six episodes all in the first block and then the remaining episodes in the next block, which would explain why there’d be such a huge block of commitment for the directors. And so I would imagine that all of the actors get together twice for read-throughs: once for the first block and once for the second. But this is a pretty big guess.
So IDK if this has been posted already, but it’s hilarious! Slightly terrible :DDD but hilarious!
http://www.dorkly.com/post/75274/conans-cameras-show-george-rr-martin-hard-at-work-in-his-santa-fe-home
I think the actors will all know early on whether they are or are not in the season, but the actor who plays Roose Bolton gave a big interview just a few days ago where he said that he still didn’t know his filming days but that they’d be getting the schedule any day now. I imagine that the schedule goes out with or closely to the scripts. Actors also do not seem to know if they’ll be killed off that season until immediately before they get the scripts or sometimes until they read it in the scripts.
Robb Snow,
I don’t find that interesting at all, i think we should see sansa looking for support from northerners against boltons/littlefinger and also searching for her brothers of course, in fact that probably would be her main priority right now anyway i assume it’s going to be an incredible season for sansa in various aspects.
Nodor,
She has the most beautiful smile! Maybe she will get a costume change this season.
Deesensfan,
You’re right in no way it’s fitting to have him search for them, people talk about it a lot and it’s annoying they’re just trying to fit things with books while in the show it doesn’t make sense specially when you consider that sansa is back in north and more importantly know about them being alive so finding them ( giving us some stark reunion which we desperately need) should be her main priority ( she probably will run into brienne and this time accepts her service) also i would definitely love to see sansa starts a north remembers campaign and gather support from some of the northern lords against boltons and finally free the north and restore the honor of her great name, if they manage to merge these two(searching for her family and gathering the northerners) into one solid arc it’ll be magnificent in fact i probably won’t need anything else well other than sansa and my secondary favorites stay alive to the very last credit of the series.
I’ve mentioned this before but I hope that when Sansa and Theon jumped they somehow landed on Ramsay, breaking their fall and his back/neck and he suffers a slow, lingering death while watching them escape and being unable to do anything about it. And loads of other horrible things happen to him while he’s lying there paralysed.
Sadly I think he’s gonna get back, find Myranda and go on a hunt *shudder*. Someone mentioned that Reek was living in the kennels so may have some kind of bond with the dogs, they are pack animals after all. I wonder if he uses this to slow down/distract them, perhaps sacrificing himself, to allow Sansa to escape?
This is my rambling way of getting around to a question: how long do we think the thaw will last? I’m in the school of thought that says the purpose was nothing to do with Stannis, but purely to show Mel she was backing the wrong horse, so to speak, and allow her to get to CB to revive Jon. And having just seen 7 Days in Hell I hope that she says her magic words over his body, he sits up in a hey-guys-I’m-back fashion, she says “You are the chosen one” or something like that and he looks a bit confused and says “Indubitably”. And then Wun Wun stomps on loads of people ‘cos that’s comedy gold for me 😀 Er…where was I? Yes, the thaw; the weather was appallingly bad for traveling anywhere just before so how far people manage to get depends on how long it lasts. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Lutfita, I read that as Reek hired a stylist. Hmmm, you’d think he had other things to worry about but he did look good for Sansa’s wedding! 😉
Angela,
All I can say is growing up (in Ontario, Canada) my siblings and I used to jump off the roof into piles of snow all the time, and just after a big storm it was perfect, the drifting caused by the wind actually made it a softer landing.
Having said that, our roof was not 80ft high and a recent melt would probably mean we weren’t allowed to do it….but no one us ever hurt ourselves more then bruises and cut lips.
Kit is actually popular among the cast members (he’s a friend with many of them). If look up to photos, numerous events or recently other inteviews Isaac, Alfie, Maisie for MTV all of them would like to see Kit back, but there is HBO policy on this. Keep talking in the style “he’s dead and you need to get over it and stuff.” This whole Jon Snow/Kit cover up is lame and it’s clear,where we’re going with this.
If Kit was truly gone he would have been at Comic Con, cast members would sing his praises and other stuff.
I was not bothered by the Dorne scenes in S5, but I think that the Dorne marketing strategy was counterproductive. They hyped Dorne to the roof, specially with characters that had very little action in the final cut (the actress that plays Nym, spoke to just about everybody of her whip training and how the three characters were so different and all… and then she was the least interesting SS with less dialogue and action of the three).
Maybe it was a smoke screen to deviate attention from Hardhome and Jon Snow’s fate, Sansa’s rape and Daeny’s travels on Air Drogon, but anyway I felt it was poorly done.
Geralt of Rivia,
I agree about that also… if he was truly gone, he would have been at Comic Con considering he even said that he can do nothing as good as Thrones after it is over (in an interview shortly before the finale). It has been a huge part of his life so I think he could have spared 2 3 days to go to SD.. like he had done before.
Gravemaster,
Why dont people use imagination?
Stannis is dead, Jon will be dead for a while.
Sansa knows Bran/Rickon are alive.
LF has a huge Vale army marching north as we speak.
Here are 3 scenarios i thought in a minute –
1- Sansa / LF meet, LF takes WF in ep 1 or 2. Sansa travels to the wall , finds Davos who pledges loyalty to her now that Stannis is dead. She trusts him and sends him off to find Rickon.
2-Sansa / Theon escape, make their way to Wall. Davos finds them and tells them it is not safe. The 3 then decide to team up and try to find Rickon.
3- Sansa is escaping when LF arrives. LF Takes Winterfell. Sansa controls the castle. She rallies the Northern Lords and thus finds out from the Umbers that Rickon lives. Rickon/ Umbers come to WF. Or Sansa goes to the Godswood, Bran talks to her and tells her about Rickon. sansa stays at WF and sends Davos to Umbers.
There. Problem solved.
DABID AND DAN,
Again, why does Davos give a $hit about a Sansa?
I think he will stick to whatever becomes of Jon
LOL, Kit seems like a sweetheart, although it’s tricky to tell with actors from interviews alone: some are sweet as pie in interviews and douchey in real life, some are sweet in interviews and in real life. I don’t see the cast falling all over themselves to say how nice he is the way they did with Jack Gleeson, but he wasn’t playing a supremely detestable villain the way Jack was, so that doesn’t surprise me.
To me, it looked like snow that was piled up over a course of a few days. Which looked from 80 ft up like a hard surface. It did not look like a soft cushion. Maybe I was wrong when watching the finale. Maybe I had bad luck jumping into snow. It was hard when I jumped off of areas. My bad experiences with snow has clouded my opinion.
To me, it looked like snow that was piled up over a course of a few days. Which looked from 80 ft up like a hard surface. It did not look like a soft cushion. Maybe I was wrong when watching the finale. Maybe I had bad luck jumping into snow. It was hard when I jumped off of areas. My bad experiences with snow has clouded my opinion.
I know I am overthinking a fantasy show. I just made an observation about people posting that they will run to the nearest Northern castle or the Wall. I was thinking, “How? They will have broken ankles because they just jumped 80 ft onto snow.” It is fiction and they will be fine. Brienne will save them and kill the entire Bolton army with 2 people.
I was probably overthinking the jump. It just didn’t look like that to me. The snow storm lasted awhile during the season. Then the weather got warmer and melted some of the snow. Then probably refroze immediately after the melt. I don’t know. I just didn’t think they could stand back up with no injuries. They could be fine in Season 6. I am looking too deeply into a fictional fantasy show.
The Entertaiment Weekly person sounded upset that they only got some of the cast and they could not talk about season 6 lol.
The thaw would actually make it worse. Fresh snow tends to be light, soft and powdery. Once it warms up and begins to melt, it becomes wet and heavy, and it compacts under its own weight (This is the kind of snow you need for good snow ball fights, fresh snow just falls apart when you try to throw it). It would get even worse if the weather turned cold again and refroze it into solid ice.
During the storm, the wind could have blown a very deep snow drift at the base of that wall, much deeper than the surrounding snow, and that didn’t look like a high traffic area where it would have been compacted by people, horses, etc. walking on it, so it could potentially have been an ideal landing spot (though at that depth of snow, it might be a good idea to have Podrick hanging around to dig them out). Hopefully the thaw was brief enough that it hadn’t compacted into a dense mass yet.
Well it depends on the type of snow I’d imagine. Don’t Eskimos (or Inuit or whatever the current PC name is) have twenty different words for it?
Here in the UK snow is so rare that we rarely get it. In the last 27 years where I live we’ve only had snow deep enough to build snowmen twice, once in 2010/11 and again in 2012 I think.
The first time I went outside with my kids to build snowmen (something I’d done many times as a child in the 70s) and we couldn’t. The snow just wouldn’t stick together. It was fluffy and powdery. Apparently it was too cold.
However, even if any kind of snow is unsuitable, you can’t expect GRRM to get scientific facts right. He’s an artist not a scientist. The snow was forty foot deep so they could have slid down a forty foot slope to the bottom.
In the prologue of GOT, George wrote about a (non-full) moon rising as the sun set. The only time a moon rises at sunset is when it’s full, because it is totally opposite the sun. When it’s not full it rises at other times of the day (approx one hour later each day/night).
I guess, not being Earth, it could have a slower or faster orbit, but it hardly matters really. You just have to suspend your disbelief as with all plays/movies etc.
Ashara Dayne,
That still would not work: a satellite can only be full from the main planets surface when the planet is between its star and its satellite: and that is the only time the satellite would rise at sundown!
Again, the bigger science flaw is that Theon and Jeyne should have suffocated after melting snow froze to their faces even if they survived the fall.
It just depends on what happens when the weather got warmer. If it melted and refroze than it won’t be powdery. It would be icy on the surface. Icy snow is good for snowmen and snowballs. Not so much for jumping into.
We just don’t know. We are analyzing snow in a fantasy show. It is off season and we are speculating what will happen to those characters. I felt: Very high jump (80ft or more) + Refrozen icy surface = broken ankles.
I could be completely incorrect. We will find out in April.
This is why, in many ways, I might have preferred them going out through the crypts. However, there is another big problem with that: dogs would be able to track them, at least once they thought to bring dogs to the crypts. And it’s not like the audience would not wonder about that: after all, dogs have been an emphasis here! It would be much more difficult for dogs to track what they did: too many people go through the more open areas, and the result (jumping off the wall) would make no sense.
So, that would have required suspending more disbelief!
In reality, when one looks at successful prison escapes, it usually is the outrageous and improbable that worked. This is outrageous and improbable.
Exactly.
Are you sure?
The same has crossed my mind. If the dogs recognise him as a friend, I was actually thinking that they might refuse to attack him. A pack of dogs won’t magically turn on another member of their pack out of the blue. Sansa, as a Stark, also has warging abilities. She also has a connection with a certain Hound, even though that’s slightly played down in the TV series. It would be cool if she used the ability to warg to fend the dogs off. I’m unsure how this would be played, though, as she has never really had the chance to develop her skills due to Lady dying so early. I suspect it will have to remain as a badass scenario that only happens in my head 😛
But wasnt it stated previously that Alfie Allen was spotted near Ballintoy Harbour with the Ironborn Fleet, where as Sophie Turner was spotted on the set of Winterfell before it was dismantled, i can only surmiuse from that, that Theon escapes and Sansa is captured..
Wayne Gleeson,
Edit: responded to the wrong person. Oops!
….
Dolorous Methuselah,
It seems he’s going to reappear this season with the Jaime plotline, ending the siege of Riverrun and all. Half of the great aspects of that chapter were inner Jaime monologues about how he always looked up to him and now he’s gone from becoming Arthur Dayne to the Smiling Knight..
But at least we might get him firing the Frey in charge and perhaps reintroduce the BwB to hang him..(i don’t think Stoneheart will ever be in the show.)
They have cast a whole new bandit band which my best guess is they will stand in for Rorge and Biters fake Hound gang that did all the raping and pillaging.