Peñíscola Photo Roundup: Cast and Story Spoilers for Season 6!

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Saturday’s filming at the Plaza Santa Maria

The filming of Game of Thrones season 6 in Peñíscola has brought us new Meereen spoilers over the past few days- including more info about a possible return– and today brings more with the latest images from Spain.

First, a quick video of the Unsullied filming:


New photos from the filming this week:

The above photos rotated and cropped-

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We can see now that below “Kill the Masters,” it says, “MHYSA IS A MASTER,” telling us which way the wind is blowing in season 6. Public favor was turning against Daenerys in season 5, but now she is outright being viewed the same as the slave masters she overthrew.

Mhysa

A shot of the extras, including Unsullied:

Extras

Here are some more photos from the Peñíscola Photoblog, providing details from Saturday’s filming at the Plaza Santa Maria.

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Tyrion and Varys filming a scene today:


 

Here’s the big news today-

There’s been a cast-member spotting on set that is a MAJOR SPOILER, so consider yourselves warned!

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Sibel Kekilli was seen today with Conleth Hill exiting the Plaza Santa Maria, this time in costume! Sibel was wearing clothing similar to the ex-slave peasant costumes. Does this mean Shae will turning up in season 6 after all? Perhaps as a vision, a hallucination or a memory in Tyrion’s mind combined with the sight of a Meereenese woman?

Sibel costume

 

Thanks to WotW readers caliopesnow, Balerion the Cat and H. Stark for assistance in gathering images!

Sue the Fury
Susan Miller, Editor in Chief of WatchersOnTheWall.com

313 Comments

  1. Well, that squelches the idea some had that she was just visiting. A lot of people are suggesting a vision, which is certainly possible, but it could also be somebody using a glamour to mess with Tyrion.

    I suggest the latter both because while the show has departed a bit more from its initial confining of dreams, etc. to Bran, this would still seem to me like a big stylistic leap; and because if they were going to have Tyrion dreaming or hallucinating about Shae, wouldn’t that seem more like something we’d have seen last year when he was seriously burned out and drinking himself into a stupor?

  2. I am voting Tyrion seeing “Shae” when looking at someone else. Her clothes are what the random extra women are wearing so Tyrion, when dealing with whatever issue is going on there, may start having random visons of shae due to guilt? anger? or whatever

  3. Probably a hallucination/dream sequence like they did with Drogo and Rhaego. Could be one of the faceless men as well…but how would they get her face?

  4. To be honest i would prefer Jaime’s vision with their mother from AFfC (since they do these things now) but i wish it’s a TWOW vision Tyrion will get that will matter much in the story. Shae is not the dead i miss the most. 😛

  5. The Mhysa is a master could just as easily be a harpy grafitti response to the slave graffiti of kill the masters to further erode her favor with the commoners. There’s absolutely no indication it’s from slaves.

  6. I like how Dan doesnt seem freaked out at all that people are clearly taking a pic of Sibel. Which could be some stuff they dont wanna see leaked out ! ^^

  7. Personally I thought it strange that people presumed she was visiting. Surely they’ll too busy to have visitors on location. If it had been in Northern Ireland I might have been more sure about just a visit, but not on location. It is good to get some confirmation of it though, because no one really knew at all. George loves Sibel, so maybe he persuaded D&D to have her back. Probably not, but I do like when the show acknowledges the past, so I’m all for it, even though Shae was hardly my favourite character.

  8. Sansarya,

    thats not actually filming in that videobut , hopefully we get some actual info/footage soon so we can get a better idea of whats going on 😀

  9. Well, considering Tyrion is not in that particular scene, only interaction between her and Vary’s, makes one wonder; a twin sister, Kinvara glamoured, Sheaheart, doppelganger, take your pick; I don’t believe it’s a hallucination or dream though.
    Just saw the twitter pic of Sibel and Peter, which indicates she interacts with him also, very interesting indeed and confusing to say the least, to say we’re intrigued is an understatement, and many are probably upset, to which I say, “stuff it, Shae troll haters”.

  10. Maybe he did not strangle her all the way and she just passed out.
    I am hoping for Tyrion just ‘seeing things’.

    Or, she could be the one releasing the dragons, hehe.

  11. Jeb: Personally I thought it strange that people presumed she was visiting. Surely they’ll too busy to have visitors on location.

    Indeed, another triumph for Bayes’ Theorem!

    Maggie: To be honest i would prefer Jaime’s vision with their mother from AFfC

    Jaime’s mother has not been on the show, so it would not mean much. Besides, whatever this vision did (I don’t remember it off-hand), it was for the Crows/Dragons story: they are on to the Winter story now. This should relate to that story, whatever it is.

    Shae was deliberately cagey about her past. She was not the daughter of a prostitute, if you recall, but she did not state what her mother was. It’s possible that they had something in mind back in season 1 already that is coming to fruition here. What, I have no idea: but I have not read Winds of Winter!

  12. I have a theory. D & D are aware of all of the leaks this year and decided to troll everyone. Sibel wasn’t busy, so they flew her out to set for a few days, gave her an extras’ costume and told her to mug for the cameras.

  13. If they’re willing to bring back dead characters for visions, it’s a shame they didn’t have Tywin and Ned in the crowd at Cersei’s walk of atonement.

  14. I’m supporting the vision theory, maybe some Kinvara glamour trick but, just for argument sake, nobody thought about Faceless Men?

  15. Sean C.: if they were going to have Tyrion dreaming or hallucinating about Shae, wouldn’t that seem more like something we’d have seen last year when he was seriously burned out and drinking himself into a stupor?

    But we do not know what Tyrion goes through in Winter. Again, given the strict focus on story in this series, this must in some way be important to the story of Winter, and presumably to Tyrion’s contribution to that story. There are a huge number of angles that could be explored. Who knows, perhaps Shae’s family are clergy in the Red Church, and they can do some magic to impersonate her? Perhaps an attempt to win Tyrion over to the church will involve them slipping him hallucinigens that make him see Shae. Maybe she had an identical twin. Etc., etc. Chances are decent that none of us will guess in advance what her part is before we see it (or have it “spoiled”).

  16. Sean C.:
    Well, that squelches the idea some had that she was just visiting.A lot of people are suggesting a vision, which is certainly possible, but it could also be somebody using a glamour to mess with Tyrion.

    I suggest the latter both because while the show has departed a bit more from its initial confining of dreams, etc. to Bran, this would still seem to me like a big stylistic leap; and because if they were going to have Tyrion dreaming or hallucinating about Shae, wouldn’t that seem more like something we’d have seen last year when he was seriously burned out and drinking himself into a stupor?

    I think it will be a “vision” letting them bring in the whole “where do whores go” trope for Tyrion.

  17. Hopefully a one day shoot.

    It is odd to me that she keeps mugging for the camera and no one’s trying to keep anything under wraps, however.

    Meh.

  18. Oh lord, that was one of the most utterly stupid things about the show, the “Kill the Masters” written in ENGLISH, by one would assume an ILLITERATE SLAVE. Someone who cannot read or write “common tongue”, or anything else.

    We greatly focused on how Davos can’t read… but here comes graffiti! In bright colours, expensive no doubt to produce on a slave budget!

    Took me 100% out of the fantasy of GoT. Now we’re going to revisit it!

    Who cares about the casting stuff, I’m so very disappointed…

  19. This last link a few posts ago is interesting. There is Tyrion and Shae going over lines (it appears) so they have a scene(s) together? I just don’t see Tyrion as a person who has hallucinations. It also seems as of end of last season that he is drinking, but not like when he first arrived in Pentos. He appears lucid when walking with Varys in their shot above. The very convoluted plot that has been written of where Shae actually did leave and go to Essos but her twin sister or FM testified against him at the trial and it was her/FM in Tywin’s bed that Tyrion killed…..I don’t know why, but that just makes zero sense to me, mostly because there has been zero build up of it, not in books or show regarding Shae and her character. She never said “You know, I have got this twin sister who looks so much like me, no one can tell us apart”. When they were doing the drinking game in the tent with Bronn and “sharing stories” would have been a perfect time.

    So I am pretty much in the dark as to what Shae’s purpose is filming there. I guess he could start to see her face in the crowd out of guilt or something, but I don’t buy it. There is a reason for the two actors to be on set with the two show runners, looking at the same script (it appears). I mean to say, this is pretty significant. I suppose being as we don’t have book 6, this is all new material that we just have never heard or read before. Sort of exciting, but I err on the side of not going off on any sort of spun out tangent.

  20. I’m excited for any and all spoilers but this one just doesn’t do much for me. I will reserve the right to change my mind once I see the episode

  21. A Faceless Man using Shae’s face to screw with Tyrion? Or Shae’s a FM. Or a hallucination/flashback. Kinvara or the Red Priest could show him some fancy visions.

  22. So we are positive she died on the show? D&D have taken liberties before, so why not with Shae? Varys could’ve discovered her after Tyrion left the room and secured her safe passage out of KL, before leaving himself. Obviously the most logical conclusion is that she’s a dream/vision haunting Tyrion but I wouldnt be shocked if she turned out alive in Maureen.

  23. mau,

    Agree, it would not be necesarry, and would take away from what Cersei goes through, by making the viewer wonder: “The hell is Ned/Tywin doing there!?”.

  24. wanderer,

    There is no confirmation she died, neither Cersei nor Jaime say anything about her.

    Bu even so, I still tend to go with the dream/hallucination idea.

    But your point is good, and that possibility should not be ignored.

  25. Flora Linden,

    The History&Lore is amazing. Very well written, contains some more information for those who want it, nice art, amazing voice overs,…etc.

    Can’t wait too see them!

  26. So she wasn’t just visiting after all. Didn’t make much sense. For a while I thought I was wrong and she was just visiting, when she wasn’t seen filming, but I didn’t know she was staying for more than a day.

    A hallucination, I assume, whether it is induced by hunger, magic or poison.

  27. http://oi58.tinypic.com/2zp6utc.jpg

    He looks a little bit more bald here but this is really Mark Mylod right? If so, we can assume, as pointed in another post by Sue, these episodes are probably 7-8.

    Meereen being a chaos that late in the season doesn’t leave much time for Dany to arrive and do much. I’m afraid she’s not returning to Meereen before heading to Westeros. I’m a big Dany supporter but if she does leave R&V behind I think can’t forgive her lol

  28. No confirmation that she died, no confirmation that The Hound died, no confirmation that Stannis died. I guess I saw something different on the tube. Because I saw Shae attack Tyrion and he takes her chain and twists and twists and twists while she is fighting and he is just holding it tightly running tears down his face. When she stops moving, he slumps to the floor with her head hanging down off the bed. But, no…no confirmation.

    I think the LSH plot has just gone through to all other characters. Well, she came back…..in the books. “Where do whores go?” being asked incessantly by Tyrion? In the books. It has not been a part of the television program. Tyrion was wretched and mean and drunk and just an awful friend to Penny and the trip was LONG and a torture to read, quite frankly and of course my opinion. I am glad they cut it out and just got him the heck to Meereen. And stopped all the “woe is me” schick. To have it all brought on now just doesn’t seem to jive for SHOW Tyrion.

    And some are right, her mugging the crowd and tossing peace signs as Weiss looks on….doesn’t really leave me with warm and fuzzies. But more confused. But I absolutely do not buy the glamour/hallucination/fever dream/dream/flashback/red priestess/FM theories. Sorry.

  29. Sean C.:
    Well, that squelches the idea some had that she was just visiting.A lot of people are suggesting a vision, which is certainly possible, but it could also be somebody using a glamour to mess with Tyrion.

    The latter is more logical, but they never used glamour in the show and many are not fans of that technique in the books.

    Maybe Tyrion will have some failures at ruling, that will cause him to go into depression again?

    I don’t know. From leaked script we saw that Kinvara can see pasts (Varys), so maybe she can do the same with Tyrion?

  30. Lady Wolfsbane,

    who said slaves are illiterate? Salves have all kind of background. Tyrion and Jorah were enslaved, they were noble westerosi; Missandei was a slave, she was a scribe. Probably all the tutors in Mereen were slaves.

  31. JCDavis:
    .But I absolutely do not buy the glamour/hallucination/fever dream/dream/flashback/red priestess/FM theories.Sorry.

    But what you buy then??

  32. Wimsey: Indeed, another triumph for Bayes’ Theorem!

    Jaime’s mother has not been on the show, so it would not mean much.Besides, whatever this vision did (I don’t remember it off-hand), it was for the Crows/Dragons story: they are on to the Winter story now.This should relate to that story, whatever it is.

    It was the last thing before he wake up to see the first snow in Riverlands, and Cersei’s letter, i thought it was cool because of that. 🙂

    Mihnea:
    wanderer,

    There is no confirmation she died, neither Cersei nor Jaime say anything about her.

    Bu even so, I still tend to go with the dream/hallucination idea.

    But your point is good, and that possibility should not be ignored.

    The actress took part in the “The Fallen A Roundtable” a memorial panel….i think she is dead dead….dead.

  33. Maggie,

    I know, I myself still think she is dead. And I go on a vision/dream,..etc. theory.

    But it is a nice tinfoil theory to keep us busy,…for at least this evening.

  34. Well, fans cannot get too irate, after all Winds has not been released. Therefore who knows what George has planned, D&D could be incorporating all this after a Martin revelation to them.

  35. mau: But what you buy then??

    Well, right about now? Lunch. 😉 But with regards to the show, I am not certain that we know what all the options are at this point. It is fan conjecture, which one of the options could turn out to be correct….but at this point, I am just not ready to commit to any of them because other than the dream/flashback option, I can’t see that any of the rest of it fits. It doesn’t fit current Tyrion or anything that has been shown (not read) before. I hope that makes sense.

  36. wanderer,

    It’s possible for Tyrion to have botched his murder of her, she could have just lost consciousness from being choked. But it’d be awful if they brought her back, after having cut LS and Aegon/JonCon subplots. I hope it’s just a vision or D&D trolling us because of certain leaks from other sets, namely Saintfield and TOJ. Because if she survived, somehow managed to locate Tyrion and went all the way to Meereen for whatever reason, I’d be disappointed.

  37. On the DVD release date…Season 4 was released on February 17th, Season 5 is set to be released a month later (March 15th) than Season 4 was. Does this mean we’re looking at a significant push back for the Season 6 premiere?

    So it seems like these are some of the scenes fans have seen filmed or we know were going to be filmed (in no particular order):

    -Kinvara preaching to a crowd of Meereenese
    -Varys bidding Tyrion goodbye and calling him “the world’s most famous dwarf”
    -Varys and Tyrion inspecting the aftermath of a riot
    -smoke billowing from the set
    -Varys and Tyrion walking and talking, surrounded by Unsullied
    -Tyrion and Missandei talking with an Unsullied soldier (who may be Grey Worm) in Artillery Park
    -a powerful political figure (Tyrion? Varys?) encountering a starving woman, who is too frightened to speak to him (more likely Tyrion)
    -something with “Shae” (ghost, vision, hallucination, what have you)

    I’m also going to go out on a limb and suggest that 6×09, even if it isn’t a one-plot episode like Blackwater, is going to be mostly devoted to the North battle, with not much time for other storylines. If so, I’m guessing there’s a lot of Meereen storyline in 6×07 and/or 6×08. If Mark Mylod is filming this Varys stuff, maybe Varys leaves in 6×08 and

    pops up in Westeros in 6×10 to kill Kevan and Pycelle

    . We’ll see.

  38. Wimsey:
    Shae was deliberately cagey about her past.She was not the daughter of a prostitute, if you recall, but she did not state what her mother was.It’s possible that they had something in mind back in season 1 already that is coming to fruition here.

    I’ve been wondering myself about this cagey-ness of Shae’s since that conversation happened. Any chance Shae did not die? We didn’t hear anything in S5 about finding a “dead whore” in Tywin’s bed, did we? Perhaps ShowShae is a stand in for the book Tysha, who he meets in Meereen in WoW? Crazy theory…

  39. I posted this yesterday evening on the earlier thread. I still think it’s one possible way this could play out.

    – Varys is either a FM or in alliance with them (common, unproved theory)
    – Varys sent the real Shea to Essos/Mereen to get her out of the way of fShae
    – Varys produces fShae for Tywin to give evidence against Tyrion
    – Tyrion’s conviction drives an irrevocable wedge between Tyrion and Tywin
    – Varys sends Shae to Tywins bed, and Tyrion to Tywins room
    – Tyrion kills Tywin (as predicted by Varys)
    – Varys has successfully managed to get Tywin killed
    – Tyrion is forced to flee KL, having lost his only supporter in the family (Jaime)
    – Varys ensures Tyrion gets to Dany (even goes with him to make sure)
    – Tyrion meets Shae in Mereen, and has a WTF moment (unplanned)
    – Tyrion begins to think that Varys is up to something. But Varys claims it was all part of his “plan” to protect Shae and Tyrion
    – Varys has a plan. And it isn’t to protect Shae and Tyrion.

  40. That bald guy in the frame from the video where Sibel is looking over her script facing away from the camera could be Daniel Sackheim (6×03/6×04). We know he’s in Peniscola thanks to his Instagram. It would make more sense for a scene with Varys and Tyrion than much later in the season.

  41. Because they seem fine with us catching glimpses of Shae, I almost wonder if they just put her there to screw with us in retaliation for the Kit Harrington sightings.

    And I agree that while Tyrion hallucinating Shae makes the most sense, it would have been better served in the last season.

  42. phantomstrife:
    Lisa0527,

    To have Shae’s face, wouldn’t she need to die at the House of Black and White?

    we don’t know for sure. It’s not necessary in the books so it probably isn’t in the show too.
    What is necessary is the face to be “fresh”. A half rotten one wouldn’t do.

  43. JCDavis,

    Shae and Stannis are dead. Lalla mentioned GRRm comment about Emmy’s. In Shae’s case it might fewer dream, hallucination or something like that. The Hound we’ll see.

    Stannis vs Boltons was some sort of a preview to bigger battle between Boltons, Karstarks, Freys ? vs Starks, Umbers, Wildlings with Jon. In the books Stannis might live for a bit longer and perhaps even winning this battle, but show simply gave this part to Jon. Jon simply has to do something and they can’t sideline him like Bran when this kinda of opportunity presents here. Jon needs united North against the Others and emotional involvement is much bigger with Jon than Stannis. Jon is half-Stark and Winterfell is his home. What would be the point of him living. Ressurected Jon and Widlings are not going to follow him, Davos too after what he did and Mel too. Uniting North? Northerners would follow only of their own and not someone from south. Simple as that.
  44. phantomstrife:
    Lisa0527,

    To have Shae’s face, wouldn’t she need to die at the House of Black and White?

    This is the weak link. I can’t find anything definitive about what the limits of the FM shape shifting powers are. We see them in the House of Black and White with the faces/masks of the dead. E also see Jaqen change appearance just by passing his hand over his face. Foreshadowing tells Viserys she has met simeone fromAsshai who can change his face at will. So I don’t know.

    Of course, Shea could be dead and FM Varys grabs her face.

  45. Geralt of Rivia,

    i don’t think so , martin said a long time ago, that major events would have not changed , in order to have jon as king in the north defeating the boltons and taking control over the north , stannis has to die , northeners recognize only one king , the king in the north , whose name is stark , do u remember these words ?lyanna mormont!From a narrative point, u can’t have two kings in the north , stannis would never kneel before anyone , i think this big battle of season 6 will occurre at the end of he next book , while the first will be stannis vs boltons.

  46. Geralt of Rivia,

    Not sure why you address this to me. I believe that Stannis is dead on the show (not book). I believe that Shae is dead. As lalla writes above and I read it as well at the Not A Blog site after GRRM won his Emmy, he thanks all the ghosts that were on the stage that night, those who have died and he lists them all. The only two that were NOT called out by GRRM are The Hound and Jon Snow. Jon Snow, I think we all have a pretty good idea of him coming back……the Hound I am not as certain of. Though I have said before I do think he is dead. Shae and Stannis were called out specifically by GRRM. You can read it for yourself.

    For The Hound. Way back at the beginning of filming when Kit H. started to show up with Edd and Ramsay….someone “said” (no photo, no other person but just this one) that they had seen Rory in Belfast. That was followed with, “he lives close to there”. So no actual confirmation that he was seen and none to indicate that he has filmed. Could be secret squirrel stuff and highly under wraps, unlike this Shae thing, which is actually pretty “in your face I am here”.

  47. Newbietothegame: Maybe he did not strangle her all the way and she just passed out.
    I am hoping for Tyrion just ‘seeing things’

    I always wondered how Tywin’s body was found so quickly after being bolted by Tyrion. It was the middle of the night, and not likely that some random servant would be walking around, nor would guards be likely to just walk into the bedroom of the Hand of the King for no reason. Varys obviously wasn’t expecting an alert to go up so quickly. It could be the guards who were supposed to be watching Tyrion in his cell discovered him gone, but it would be interesting if Shae had only passed out. Then again, she looked pretty much dead. Who knows? Only D&D

    LOL something more to look forward to.

  48. So the GoT production in Almería just spread the news that they are looking for even more extras (only men this time). Seems like the ones selected in july won’t be enough – around 1-1.2k men and 1-1.2k women so we can kinda figure out how big the scenes in Almería will be.

    The casting lasts until thursday this week.

  49. They don’t exactly seem to be trying to hid the fact that she’s there, considering the efforts they’ve gone to to keep things under wraps in general, which does make me a bit suspicious. If she’s a big surprise reveal they could presumably have filmed indoors instead or perhaps have her wear something with a hood while outside so she’s not easily recognisable. I’ve no idea why/how Shea might be back so I’m voting for trolling by D&D. I’m not convinced they are by any means but the idea tickles me and it does make a kind of sense; if everyone thinks Shea turns up in Meereen because they’ve seen her on set, but when S6 comes around there’s no sign of her, they’ll start doubting all the other things that have been spotted. And by everyone I do of course mean us more, er, enthusiastic fans who devour spoilers, not the sort of people who have GoT-free lives for 9 1/2 months of the year when it’s not actually on tv 😀

  50. lalla:
    JCDavis,

    After the Emmy, GRRM thanked all the actors who “died” in the show; Sibel Kekilli and Stephen Dillane were in the list, Kit and Rory weren’t.
    http://grrm.livejournal.com/444850.html

    I am aware of this. I read all of GRRM’s blogs…well the one’s that aren’t all about puppy bowls and pro football games. I think if you check I may have even commented under that very blog you are speaking about. It was called out by several people on that blog that those two were missing and was that intentional on GRRM’s part….he didn’t respond.

  51. Master of Boobs:
    Meh. Ugh.Cheap tricks and lazy writing.

    Remember how much information you actually have. It’s pretty rash to react as such to so little. The people on this site will think of the worst possibilities. There are others.

  52. JCDavis:
    Geralt of Rivia,

    For The Hound.Way back at the beginning of filming when Kit H. started to show up with Edd and Ramsay….someone “said” (no photo, no other person but just this one) that they had seen Rory in Belfast.That was followed with, “he lives close to there”.So no actual confirmation that he was seen and none to indicate that he has filmed.

    I don’t think Rory lives in Ireland – he has his boat in Scotland, and a place in London. (I know this because it’s the same boat that I’ve been paddling for a few months that has your name engraved on one of the seats) 😉 Joiiinnnnnnn ussssssss!!!!

  53. Matt: This season is AFFC, ADWD and TWOW.

    Not really: they’ll be doing the Kingsmoot as a warm-up for Euron, but the story is going to be the Winter story. Just as Crows/Dragons was a fundamentally different story from Swords (and Swords & Crows/Dragons from Clash, etc.), the Winter story will be fundamentally different from the Crows/Dragons story.

    The big difference? For the first time, we do not know what the story is.

  54. Lulus Mum:
    They don’t exactly seem to be trying to hid the fact that she’s there, considering the efforts they’ve gone to to keep things under wraps in general, which does make me a bit suspicious. If she’s a big surprise reveal they could presumably have filmed indoors instead or perhaps have her wear something with a hood while outside so she’s not easily recognisable. I’ve no idea why/how Shea might be back so I’m voting for trolling by D&D. I’m not convinced they are by any means but the idea tickles me and it does make a kind of sense; if everyone thinks Shea turns up in Meereen because they’ve seen her on set, but when S6 comes around there’s no sign of her, they’ll start doubting all the other things that have been spotted. And by everyone I do of course mean us more, er, enthusiastic fans who devour spoilers, not the sort of people who have GoT-free lives for 9 1/2 months of the year when it’s not actually on tv ?

    This would make the most sense to me out of all the other possibilities. For some reason I am just not hyped about this one.

  55. tyjon: Therefore who knows what George has planned, D&D could be incorporating all this after a Martin revelation to them.

    It is more probable that this is the case than it is not. If nothing else, then it very probably is is adapted from stuff that GRRM has in Winter. Someone else (say, Tysha) might be used in the books if it is some sort of vision thing; alternatively, if this is not Shae but someone impersonating her via magic, then Shae might not be the one impersonated.

    giulio: i think this big battle of season 6 will occurre at the end of he next book , while the first will be stannis vs boltons.

    Well, remember that Stannis vs. the Boltons is already in the narrative past in Jon’s storyline in the books. (But narrative future for Theon; oh what tangled webs we weave when we have diachronous and even polyachronous narrative lines…..)

  56. Pigeon: I don’t think Rory lives in Ireland – he has his boat in Scotland, and a place in London. (I know this because it’s the same boat that I’ve been paddling for a few months that has your name engraved on one of the seats) Joiiinnnnnnn ussssssss!!!!

    *looks around* I think we are going to need a bigger boat. *rolly eyeball emoji*

    Yes, truth? I was repeating what was posted here – don’t/didn’t know where Rory lives OR keeps a boat. 😀 I guess there just hasn’t been any conclusive proof of Rory filming and certainly not at outside Ireland locations.

    *hunches down over name and breaks out basket with bread, fruit and wine*

  57. She’s dead. Mainly because there would be no reason for her being alive. She served her purpose in the plot and Tyrion ending her was closing a chapter in his.
    If she is somehow miraculously alive then people can’t complain about the outlandishness of YG or LS or any other theories.
    She’ll be a mental image. Chalk another one up for Team Past.

  58. She is a funny girl she may have asked D&D a costume just to mess with us, like they did with the walker in Girona…

  59. This all feels really ominous to me and I sense the hand of the Red God (or his followers at least) behind it. I think it was Wimsey who said in another thread that the red priestess in Volantis “noticing” Tyrion might’ve been hanging a gun on the wall, and in the leaked audition Kinvara mentions Tyrion’s presence during that red priestess’s sermon. So Tyrion is definitely known to them… and I fear they might try to manipulate him somehow, possibly even use him to gain an audience with Dany herself.

    Clearly the Red God and his followers are starting to become a significant presence in the story, beyond just Mel… and I don’t think that’s a good thing.

  60. JCDavis,

    The only reason I know that random info is that he’s my favourite character/top 3 actors on the show, and also somewhat reclusive (when he’s not having a riotous good time in a pub somewhere), so reading most of his interviews and articles doesn’t take long. 😉 Add some bourbon in there and we have a plan! 😀 Some dude keeps rowing by us as well….

  61. Wimsey,

    But is it really in the narrative’s past in Jon’s storyline? Can we say that for certain? The author of the pink letter could simply be lying and no battle has yet taken place and Stannis is still alive. For some reason the “In Braavos you may hear that I am dead. It may even be true” makes me really suspicious of Stannis in terms of who wrote the letter, then again, Stannis is not imaginative enough to come up with that type of ruse.

  62. shorty next to sibel in the video is thick af! As for sibel as soon as the pics surfaced I figured she’d be back.

  63. Lulus Mum,

    and yet another thought to be dead person was filming in the open with his man bun 😉 no offense to the actress, but maybe D& D didnt think it was a big deal…not after so many things have already been leaked from the set.

    anyway, very happy for all of the hard work you guys put in with the spoilers! makes it fun to speculate 🙂

  64. Sean C.:
    Tyrion dreaming or hallucinating about Shae, wouldn’t that seem more like something we’d have seen last year when he was seriously burned out and drinking himself into a stupor?

    No, I even think he being so calmed abouit what happened in S4 was unrealistic, he even couldn’t get aroused so I think he could still get some post traumatic stress or something like… But glamouring could also be possible…

  65. In the deleted scenes from season 4 we see Bronn put Shae on a boat to Essos. As Tyrion requested. (remembering that it was Varys who tells Tyrion she”s in danger!) Then she shows up at the trial. HOW??? I don’t recall there being any explanation of how she got back to Westeros. Which is weird. I still think the Shae we’re seeing on set is the real Shae who got on a boat and sailed for Essos.

  66. lisa0527,

    Tywin: “Stop al the ships in the harbor!”, after the Red Wedding. The writers have been on record saying they thought that would be enough. It was for me.

  67. ElEisandFire: No, I even think he being so calmed abouit what happened in S4 was unrealistic, he even couldn’t get aroused so I think he could still get some post traumatic stress or something like… But glamouring could also be possible…

    I agree with Sean C. At this point and time, with so much at stake and completely out of character for SHOW Tyrion to just lose it and start being a useless eejit, just doesn’t fit for me.

  68. Danny: The author of the pink letter could simply be lying and no battle has yet taken place and Stannis is still alive.

    People kept trying to turn the Pink Letter into a lie. However, guess what: we’ve pretty much seen it come true.

    Incidentally, here is a reconstruction of the timelines from overlapping Dragons/Winter chapters” https://i.imgur.com/UWeRf3V.png. I’m not sure I agree with the exact details entirely, but it reconstructs the Battle of Ice happening before the 3rd to last Jon chapter! That might be a little early: but it was well before “For the Watch,” it seems.

    This might be critical, by the way: if Ramsay is heading north, then that will have huge implications (in book and on show) for Castle Black.

  69. Dark Knight’s King:
    I have a theory. D & D are aware of all of the leaks this year and decided to troll everyone.

    But you do realize that for maybe 80% of the audience even RW was a complete shock?

    And we are speaking about the event that was published in the books 13 years before S3.

    How many people know anything about S6?

    2%? 3%?

    We are absolutely unimportant to them now. They wouldn’t spend their money and time to troll us.

  70. Like I said in the previous thread, this probably only connects to “Winds” in the sense that “Show Shae” is emotionally what “Book Tysha” is in Tyrion’s psyche. And Tysha (if not literally…….conceptually at the least) has a most definite “part” to play in the next book. It’s part of Book Tyrion’s emotional arc. Yes, there will be a emotional payoff to “Where do whores go” 🙂

    So this could very well be D & D adaptation. “Show Shae” has to fill that Tysha emotional arc somehow.

    But enough with the tinfoil!
    (ie: D & D are pranking, Shae isn’t dead!, Faceless men are involved!)

  71. Luka Nieto:
    lisa0527,

    Tywin: “Stop al the ships in the harbor!”, after the Red Wedding. The writers have been on record saying they thought that would be enough. It was for me.

    And Jon Snow is dead! They couldn’t very well have said she arrived safely in Essos.

  72. lisa0527: And Jon Snow is dead!

    He is. But he’ll get better.

    Seriously, Tywin’s “stop all ships” was basically “Oh crud, Shae isn’t getting away, is she….”

  73. Sue. You’ve been very quiet and low profile. Do you know more than you’re willing to say at this point?

  74. Maggie:
    To be honest i would prefer Jaime’s vision with their mother from AFfC (since they do these things now) but i wish it’s a TWOW vision Tyrion will get that will matter much in the story. Shae is not the dead i miss the most. ?

    Yeah i’m hoping for the Jaimie mother dream, it was quite nice

    My guess is this is a Shae hallucination,

    Would be quite something though if Missandei FW theories are actually true and she face changes into Shae at some point…

  75. So, in order for Tyrion to be hallucinating or having visions of Shae would imply he is drinking or on some kind of stimulants (or at the very least the heat is getting to him). Unlikely given the tense situation in Meereen and given how much Tyrion loves politics and power plays he probably won’t be in ‘Drunk Tyrion’ mode anymore – a haunting vision would have played better last season. Besides, she is also wearing local clothes – if it was a vision of some sort wouldn’t it make more since to imply that by having her stand out (for the audience ) by dressing her they way Tyrion remembers her looking – if no one can see her but Tyrion this would make the ‘vision’ aspect clearer, visually anyway.

    The idea of a twin or look-a-like is a possibility and not out of the question given how little we know of her background.

    Also, Tyrion spends a lot of time in the books asking where whores go which sort of implies he is hoping to find or hear news about his first wife. There are even several theories floating around that one of the Bravossi prostitutes that Arya meets or learns about may be Tyrion’s wife, thus maybe there is a chance Tyrion may find out eventually what happened, I know far-fetched but… since they mashed up Tyrion’s first wife (can’t remember her name) and Shae in the show, perhaps this is their way of adapting that story thread? Having a twin or look-a-like for Tyrion to have to deal with past sins (gang rape of first wife, killing of shae?) Probably not 🙂
  76. Rob the Stud:

    And how do you know that Stannis wins the battle in Winds,did you read it somehow ? Because David and Dan read most of what Martin wrote so far .

    Just looking at what in the books, including Theon’s TWOW chapter, I would be shocked if Stannis doesn’t smash the Freys. The problem is that even if he wins the battle on the Ice Lake, he’s still stuck outside the walls of Winterfell. He might have a plan to deceive the Boltons (based on certein info in Theon’s chapter) but that is very speculative. If he has nothing, he’s pretty much at the mercy of the Boltons if a second battle should happen.
  77. This is totally far-fetched, but could Arya make her way to Mereen and be FM trying to learn about Dany/Tyrion/et al?

  78. If Shae isn’t dead/has a twin sister/was switched for a FM I will lose my shit. Pardon my little tantrum, but this would really be a turning point in my enjoyment of the series. This has to be a glamour or hallucination. It just has to be.

  79. In the first picture, those thingies that some were quick to call siege engines (presumably of the defensive kind) look more like
    a) toy telegraph poles with rope for telegraph wires
    b) clothes lines
    c) some kind of a serial loom being set up
    d) a rope making operation (what’s the traditional word for a rope-maker??)

    What exports is Meereen known for besides slaves? Is there any industry? Is the lack of any manufacturing industry the reason why Dany’s “free the slaves” economic policy wrecks the economy of Meereen (and Yunkai and Astapor)?

    Of the Free Cities, Myr is known for its lace and carpets, Braavos for its shipping and financial services, Lys for its bedslaves… I’m sure Tyros and Pentos have their own specialites as well but can’t remember them now. Volantis is a hub for “international” trade, including eastern spices (via Qarth). Slavers Bay/old Ghisgari areas… just slaves?

  80. Non-bookreading self-sullier (yes, in both possible meanings of the word)… What’s up with the warlocks of Qarth? Was it one dude, or a bunch that looked the same? Is there precedent in this world for a cadre of folks who look the same?

  81. Tyrion Pimpslap:
    If Shae isn’t dead/has a twin sister/was switched for a FM I will lose my shit. Pardon my little tantrum, but this would really be a turning point in my enjoyment of the series. This has to be a glamour or hallucination. It just has to be.

    I agree wholeheartedly.

    I can live with Tyrion imagining for a second or two he sees Shae among the starving/rebelling/whatever Meereenese mob. Squints his eyes, closes them, shakes head, the “vision” is gone – but his guilt and remorse won’t be.

    Please, no secret twin sisters or switched FM contortions!

  82. Tyrion Pimpslap:
    If Shae isn’t dead/has a twin sister/was switched for a FM I will lose my shit. Pardon my little tantrum, but this would really be a turning point in my enjoyment of the series. This has to be a glamour or hallucination. It just has to be.

    I am right there with you. I don’t think that’s the case, though. I can’t see either Martin or D&D coming up with that. For instance, if Shae got on the boat, stayed on it, and arrived safely in Essos, that would mean not only was it a FM Tyrion “killed,” but a FM who gave all the testimony at the trial. Yes, this is a fantasy, but for me that would go way too far beyond willing suspension of disbelief.

  83. Tyrion Pimpslap:
    If Shae isn’t dead/has a twin sister/was switched for a FM I will lose my shit. Pardon my little tantrum, but this would really be a turning point in my enjoyment of the series. This has to be a glamour or hallucination. It just has to be.

    I had a wisp of a thought involving the diamonds that Varys gives Shae. A vague thought about diamonds and glamouring and why he got Shae to touch them. But that’s all I got.

  84. Tyrion…you drinking too much again…

    or

    They do this Shae thing because Kit was spotted at his shooting in Stark dress. They try to confuse the fans with Sibel Kekilli. To people not believe that Jon Snow will return. Because Shae is 100% dead and she will stay like that.

  85. Nymeria Warrior Queen: I am right there with you.I don’t think that’s the case, though.I can’t see either Martin or D&D coming up with that.For instance, if Shae got on the boat, stayed on it, and arrived safely in Essos, that would mean not only was it a FM Tyrion “killed,” but a FM who gave all the testimony at the trial.Yes, this is a fantasy, but for me that would go way too far beyond willing suspension of disbelief.

    Me three, for reasons stated above. Altho, I just may NOT lose my shit. 🙂 Just sayin’.

  86. Wimsey,

    Maybe it wasn’t Shea that Tyrion strangled in KL. Maybe Varys had someone put a glamour on some random whore that Tywin slept with or was sleeping with. Varys may have orchestrated the whole scenario.

  87. Tyrion Pimpslap:
    If Shae isn’t dead/has a twin sister/was switched for a FM I will lose my shit. Pardon my little tantrum, but this would really be a turning point in my enjoyment of the series. This has to be a glamour or hallucination. It just has to be.

    This! ^

  88. Nymeria Warrior Queen: I am right there with you.I don’t think that’s the case, though.I can’t see either Martin or D&D coming up with that.For instance, if Shae got on the boat, stayed on it, and arrived safely in Essos, that would mean not only was it a FM Tyrion “killed,” but a FM who gave all the testimony at the trial.Yes, this is a fantasy, but for me that would go way too far beyond willing suspension of disbelief.

    I kind of think it would be pretty cool. I’m one of those who’s never really bought the Varys-the-good-guy thing. So I see this as the beginning of peeling back the layers on Varys ultimate motivations and goals. Which I have no idea about, just that he’s probably not quite what he seems.

  89. Lisa0527:
    talvikorppi,

    Wouldn’t need a script then. From the video I might e pest her to have actual dialogue.

    Ah! That too. 🙂 Missed it above, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

    I just don’t know what to make of it. That’s the beauty of us all, show and book people, being off-book on most storylines. 😀 Things will get curiouser and curiouser and interestinger and interestinger. 🙂

  90. mau: But you do realize that for maybe 80% of the audience even RW was a complete shock?

    And we are speaking about the event that was published in the books 13 years before S3.

    How many people know anything about S6?

    2%? 3%?

    We are absolutely unimportant to them now. They wouldn’t spend their money and time to troll us.

    You know, I was convinced they were trolling us too, (Sibel is actually waving at the camera!!) but you make a good argument. It is easy to forget that this site is not a representative subset of the fandom 🙂

    Mark me down for Tyrion’s having visions. Maybe he’s going through detox? (Famine…no wine…seeing Shae…)???

  91. mitch,

    Ok. But why are people having so much trouble with the fact that Shae is in Mereen and it looks like she will have at least one scene with Varys and Tyrion? Saying its a dream or flashback is just as tinfoilish as any other explanation. I could maybe see it if she wasn’t also apparently in a scene with Varys. I don’t think he’s having the same hallucination. We just don’t know what’s going on. Off book, isnt it all tinfoil?

  92. JCDavis,

    I probably wouldn’t literally lose my shit, but I could possibly throw things, or yell at the television, or something along those lines.

    Lisa0527,

    I think a dream or vision is much more plausible than Shae being a FM. Dreams, hallucinations, and visions happen throughout the books, but thus far all the theories of “x” or “y” being a FM has not come to fruition. If it is something only in Tyrion’s imagination, I could see him seeing Varys and Shae having a conversation, since for a long while Varys is the only one who both knew Shae and who she was to Tyrion. I’m not entirely convinced it isn’t some kind of troll, although it seems like a pretty elaborate troll. If she will, in fact, be appearing, though, I just don’t see it as anything other than a figment of Tyrion’s imagination…whether dreaming or awake.

  93. you snow nothing:

    Mark me down for Tyrion’s having visions. Maybe he’s going through detox? (Famine…no wine…seeing Shae…)???

    I don’t think it even needs to be a “vision” in the supernatural sense. Riots in Meereen, Tyrion rides through the city, and among the mob gets a fleeting glimple of Shae, blinks and realises it was just a ghost of his own guilt, the woman has either dissappeared or is just another freedwoman on a closer look.

    Except this won’t work if Tyrion and “Shae” have dialogue together.

    I don’t know what to think. Is “Shae” taking on some Tysha things? Is Varys controlling the whole thing? Or… just WTF. I’ll just wait for the next season/next book to find out more.

  94. JCDavis:
    Geralt of Rivia,

    The only two that were NOT called out by GRRM are The Hound and Jon Snow.

    Another name not mentioned in the dead was Ciaran Hinds. All three omissions were picked up in the comments on the blog post, as well as a typo that was corrected by GRRM, but he didn’t add any more names.

    As you pointed out, the books differ from the show in some character deaths. I thought Mance Rayder’s story was one of those, but maybe not?

  95. Has anyone gotten a good look at Shae/Sibel’s neck? I should think that the “Shae” in Tywin’s bed would still bear the marks of that strangling by Tyrion.

  96. phantomstrife: But it’d be awful if they brought her back, after having cut LS and Aegon/JonCon subplots.

    This is major false equivalency. Chances are good that Shae will be relevant to a small number of Tyrion scenes: and if they did not use Shae (or someone looking like Shae or whatever it is), then they would have had to do something else that would communicate something similar to the overall story for Tyrion. After all, Tyrion has to do his Winter stuff to make the Winter story happen.

    In contrast, bringing in LS or Aegon/JonCon would meant adding a whole new plots to feature these characters and tie them into the story. Now, I suppose it might have been worth it for A/JC this year: but for all we know, they might not amount to much in Winter. (I am increasingly suspecting that is going to be the case.)

    Barbara: English is the official language of Mereen?

    That’s just the TARDIS translation circuits kicking into play.

    Seriously, what are they going to do, write in High Valyrian? That would mean so much to the audience….

  97. Lisa,

    Hinds was probably not major enough to warrant being mentioned. He was in, what, four episodes over three seasons?

  98. I absolutely hate this. Completely unnecessary. If they liked this two bit actress so much, do a different show for her.

    I have to admit I have enjoyed her previous body of work; but not enough as to ruin such a good show as GOT.

  99. I am quite certain that this will either be glamour by the new red priestess, some type of hallucination or a dream.

  100. JCDavis: And whatever one does, they should NOT definitely NOT shit the shit up.

    or frack the fracking up or anything of that nature.

    but it is inevitable that some fracking will go on and some characters are already all fracked up, e.g. poor Sansa

  101. Wimsey,

    agreed on that point, besides there’s been a couple of examples of former slaves who could speak the common tongue, its not a big stretch to imagine there are more who could have easily done the graffiti

  102. TheMannis,

    I’m banking on the return of “Shae” being the work of Kinvara. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence to me that “Shae” is showing up around the same time this new red priestess is.

    The question is… why? What does Kinvara hope to gain by tormenting (or perhaps seducing) Tyrion with a vision, hallucination, glamour, etc. of Shae?

  103. Master of Boobs: I absolutely hate this. Completely unnecessary. If they liked this two bit actress so much, do a different show for her.

    And why/how do you know this? The fact that you haven’t read something like it in Winds of Winter does not count for much! Remember, B&W know what is in Winter: we do not. I will bet that once we (or if we ever) read Winter, we will recognize what they did.

    Roose On The Loose: agreed on that point, besides there’s been a couple of examples of former slaves who could speak the common tongue

    And if the Harpies have any brains (and some of them are bound to have), then it will occur to them that stirring up dissent among the Freedmen would be tactically wise. So, one of them could have done it. (It is the sort of thing I would do if I were a Harpy!)

  104. lalla: After the Emmy, GRRM thanked all the actors who “died” in the show; Sibel Kekilli and Stephen Dillane were in the list, Kit and Rory weren’t.
    http://grrm.livejournal.com/444850.html

    He didn’t mention Nell Tiger Free, too… So let me ask this again:

    Probably dumb question: is Myrcella really dead?
    Ellaria and Bronn took an antidote. What if Trystane has the antidote too?
    I’m not particularly attached to Myrcella, so I don’t want her to be alive at any cost… It’s just something that came to my mind when I watched that episode. We see her nose bleeding, right? But even Bronn started bleeding and he was saved anyway. So if Trystane has the antidote, I presume Myrcella can be saved too. Or was her death already been confirmed by the authors? I don’t know.
    Why should Trystane be in possession of the antidote? Well, poisoning seems the national sport in Dorne, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Doran gave his son an antidote, just in case… 😀

  105. lalla,

    I think Stannis will even beat the Boltons… Er… I mean, the northern army travelling with Stannis will beat the Boltons and then kill Stannis and his survivors in favor of Sansa, Rickon and/or Jon. They won’t knee to a southern king again.

    I think that D&D just streamed the plot. They decided not to bring back Stannis for another season just to be killed by the northern lords after the take of Winterfell letting Jon raise the North against Boltons.

    So I disagree with Wimsey in respect that Stannis fate in TV show proves that Stannis is actually dead in the books.

  106. StandOzone: So I disagree with Wimsey in respect that Stannis fate in TV show proves that Stannis is actually dead in the books.

    The problem with this scenario is that it offers no explanation for a key bit of Raven delivered postage in the books. Far and away the simplest explanation is that what we saw on the show is not far from what we will read (and have read) in the books. (Well, sort of: I doubt that any point-of-view characters will be present, so we’ll only get the aftermath.)

  107. Just yesterday many were convinced that Sibel was just “visiting” friends, and being quite unprofessional by hanging around when her friends were WORKING! 😉 I mean, somebody visiting friends would be seen at restaurants and stuff with them, not hanging around actual shooting. And today we get confirmation she is actually filming! Awesome times – loving this! 😀

    I am going to rage a bit if this is some unrealistic “glamoring” voodoo (I hope we never see glamoring in the show, the undead are more than enough fantasy), or Tyrion after appearing quite sane and sound at the end of Season 5, has started smoking something and is seeing visions. (In fact, the logic of why would he see Shae in a vision dressed in Meereenese slave clothes, is unclear to me). I think it’s an ex-slave who looks very similar to Shae, perhaps even a sister, but someone who spurs Tyrion to do more for the ex-slaves of Meereen. That is, this character has to spur on Tyrion’s actions and character development. His chance at atonement for killing Shae.

  108. Wimsey,

    First I support the idea that pink letter, if not written by Stannis, is half true half false (then written by Ramsay). I believe that Stannis will have a glorious victory as a climax just to suddenly be killed by the Northern army.

    Second, Theon is held captive with Stannis so I think we can see the battle through his PoV… It’s possible that Theon will be sacrificed early in WoW before the battle and that’s why Theon will be in the Kingsmoot in the show taking Victarion’s role. However… Yara!!!

    Anyway, didn’t D&D say that Shireen will be sacrificed the same way in the books? So didn’t people started a discussion that show!Stannis was not a huge departure from book!Stannus because GRRM already planned that scene? At this point I think that Melissandre will sacrifice Shireen by her own decision so show!Stannis was quite different from his book homologue. Insert “character assassination” right here :p

  109. Kay: Just yesterday many were convinced that Sibel was just “visiting” friends, and being quite unprofessional by hanging around when her friends were WORKING!

    People visit sets all the time. That’s not unusual at all.

  110. Ravyn,

    I think the funny thing is how we all get so stuck on our theories, when we know nothing. Visiting the set, FM (my weakness) hallucination, flashback, twin, look alike…who knows. We’re off book. It’s all tinfoil from now on. Which is kind of cool if you like tinfoil. And I really, really do.

  111. Just got some insider information. Shae is the doing of the Red Priestess Kinvara who repeatedly attempts to seduce Tyrion because of his ‘king’s blood’.

  112. I like the “Tyrion seeing her face in the crowd, as part of a guilt trip, halucination or Red Priestess illusion” theory best.

    The twin theory seems a bit cheap. Not something to expect from these writers.

  113. StandOzone,

    I think Stannis was killed on the show for convenience, to make space for other storylines / new storylines.
    It only proves that Stannis is not a very important part of the end game in the book. He could still survive in the books, or perhaps die later from a different fate. Greyscale seems a likely fate for him.

    Also we may know that Shireen dies by fire in the book. It is even likely that she is sacrificed to the red god. But it is difficult to see a scenario where Stannis is responsible for it, being so far away.

    D&D has said, that they never understood the Stannis character. This is very frustrating to me, since Stannis is by far the character I understand best, and feel most connected with (book Stannis). I really doubt he will sacrifice his daughter in the books.

  114. Nymeria Warrior Queen: I am right there with you.I don’t think that’s the case, though.I can’t see either Martin or D&D coming up with that.For instance, if Shae got on the boat, stayed on it, and arrived safely in Essos, that would mean not only was it a FM Tyrion “killed,” but a FM who gave all the testimony at the trial.Yes, this is a fantasy, but for me that would go way too far beyond willing suspension of disbelief.

    D&D has played it pretty straight, so I doubt they’re going to go off the reservation and just start throwing in a ton of fake outs. I have no idea why she would be shooting anything, but my guess would be either a quick flashback or a hallucination. This WILL NOT be her re-introduction to the series, at least not in a way that would require us to rethink her fate in S4.

  115. Sean C.:

    I suggest the latter both because while the show has departed a bit more from its initial confining of dreams, etc. to Bran, this would still seem to me like a big stylistic leap;

    If so, I welcome it. I am of the opinion that the show could be a bit more stylistically bolder. You know, more scenes like the “Small Council musical chairs”, stuff like Hardhome’s outstanding sound editing, a more pronounced (but not over the top) visual and thematic symbolism, a more daring use of camera and editing (remember the three-in-one Varys/Pycelle/Littlefinger scene with Tyrion in Season 2?)

    I am all for expanding the range of tools GoT employs.

  116. Wimsey:

    Not really: they’ll be doing the

    Kingsmoot

    as a warm-up for Euron, but the story is going to be the Winter story.Just as Crows/Dragons was a fundamentally different story from Swords (and Swords & Crows/Dragons from Clash, etc.), the Winter story will be fundamentally different from the Crows/Dragons story.

    The big difference?For the first time, we do not know what the story is.

    I’d say you’re both right, in a way. I view AFfC/ADwD as pretty much one enormously huge prologue for Winds. A lot of stuff in those books — not everything, but a lot — is only there because Martin scrapped his 5 year gap. If you look at it like this, you can still say that Season 6 encompasses Feast, Dance, and Winds while covering only the Winds story.

    Now that I think about it, I’m getting more and more impressed by how D&D chose to adapt AFfC/ADwD. Virtually everyone imagined one of three scenarios (some unlikelier than others):

    1) Divide the material geographically between two seasons, much like the books (was never going to happen);

    2) Divide the material chronologically between two seasons, essentially covering the first half of both books in one season, the rest in another (also was never going to happen; no suitable stopping point);

    3) Cut a lot of material out and stuff the rest in a single season, with some smallish leftovers perhaps being included in the following season (the most likely scenario).

    What we have here is actually quite brilliant, if GoT pulls it of. D&D dissected the plot and story of the books and then reconstructed them from the ground up, including in Season 5 only those parts of the plot that suited the overarching story for that season and integrating the rest with the story of Winds.

    That’s why there were no Northern lords in Stannis/Bolton story, or why there were no Ironborn or the Riverlands. For all the rage and gnashing of teeth, the way that David, Dan, and Bryan adapt the impossibly complex books is worthy of much praise.This is what Martin should’ve done in the first place!

  117. Of all the people to return back to life/not really be dead she is the last one I’d ever think of. I remember most people saying they didn’t care for her acting. To hear that she is one of the writer and runners favorites means that either she’s just super likable in person or else the audience and the insiders have big difference of opinion on what constitutes a good actor. Anyways, I’m guessing she really was not strangled to the point of death. Anything else would be too far-fetched (Ok maybe not seeing as we really don’t know how outlandish the rest of the books/show might be!

  118. Mr Fixit: What we have here is actually quite brilliant, if GoT pulls it of. D&D dissected the plot and story of the books and then reconstructed them from the ground up, including in Season 5 only those parts of the plot that suited the overarching story for that season and integrating the rest with the story of Winds.

    That’s why there were no Northern lords in Stannis/Bolton story, or why there were no Ironborn or the Riverlands. For all the rage and gnashing of teeth, the way that David, Dan, and Bryan adapt the impossibly complex books is worthy of much praise.This is what Martin should’ve done in the first place!

    Thank you! I’m shocked that many people don’t seem to get that.

  119. Wimsey:

    That’s just the TARDIS translation circuits kicking into play.

    Seriously, what are they going to do, write in High Valyrian?That would mean so much to the audience….

    actually i always thought it would have been EXTREMELY easy to do this right .. when the master is killed by the slaves in season 4, they could have shown him looking at the walls, and seeing a lot of different phrases in different, ‘unknown’ alphabets..with the camera zooming on the ‘commont tongue’ translation “Kill The Masters”.

    it’s a very obvious and effective idea to think of, it’s not some kind of ‘special thought’ i just had, so i never understood why they didn’t do it like that 🙂

  120. I really can’t see Shae surviving and making her way to Essos. That’s cheapen the show when we have Jon and possibly the hound coming “back from the dead” and I doubt GRRM would ever influence (or even be able to) D&D to get his old dead pal back on the show. We don’t actually know that Sybel had a dialogue scene with Conleth (or Peter), we only saw pics of them together on set so not enough to to draw conclusions from.

    My guess is that Tyrion may see her and this could be an early sign of madness in him..

  121. A most amusing development. And an object lesson in the complications that can ensue when you have a sect of face-changers in your locker.

    Personally, I’d have a punt that Shae didn’t die at Tyrion’s hand and made it to Essos. The fact that she made it onto the official dead list means nothing; whatever their original intent, D&D could easily have realised that her demise was not really closed out in the show and then changed their minds.

    Failing that, I love the notion of Sibel just trolling us fans by borrowing a costume.

  122. Ravyn:
    GRRM really wants Sibel back on the show, doesn’t he?

    She’s is great! I never miss one Episode of Tatort Borowski here in Germany, also because Tatort is good…

  123. There has been no mention of a “glamour” in the show NOR would one believe they would actually use it. For multiple reasons – the show wants to stick to has much realism as possible allowing the magic to only occur in big important instances. Using it on Shae is a waste. Just like everyone wants Stoneheart to come back and Jon. Having them both come back to life in one season takes away from the magic. She was naïve and held Tyrion down. Also, HBO literally just ended a show that used glamouring and the word glamour every 15 minutes in True Blood. I personally hope there is no glamouring in the show.

  124. Mr Fixit: I’d say you’re both right, in a way. I view AFfC/ADwD as pretty much one enormously huge prologue for Winds.

    Plotwise, it is: although one could state that about every story with a sequel! (Of course, the cool middle-aged people now call them “prequels”: get hip to the 1990’s, dude!)

    However, Crows/Dragons did have it’s own distinct story that had a definite conclusion at the end of Dragons. Whatever the story of Winter is going to be, it will not be “Kill the child/Let the Adult be born” again: Jon, Daeny, Tyrion, Arya, Bran, Jaime, etc., all had their definitive moments on that score. The Winter story is going to be using the Men/Women that were clarified in Dragons. How, and to tell what, I do not know: but as Jon, Daeny, Tyrion, etc., are not going to magically revert to Swords Jon, Daeny, Tyrion, etc., we will see! (And we might even get to read it someday…..)

    Stargaryen: There has been no mention of a “glamour” in the show

    There had not been in the books until it was done: and then only in the most recent book. However, the “magic” gun has been well-hung and well-fired. We know that Red Priests/Priestesses can do magic: so the audience will not be surprised to learn that they can do glamours if it happens. We know that other people have ways of “shape shifting,” too.

    And, besides: who is to say that it’s not going to be introduced for some other purpose? Perhaps this will be a glamour gun-hanging for a bigger firing later in the season. (Again: we do not know what happens in Winter!)

  125. talvikorppi:
    In the first picture, those thingies that some were quick to call siege engines (presumably of the defensive kind) look more like
    a) toy telegraph poles with rope for telegraph wires
    b) clothes lines
    c) some kind of a serial loom being set up
    d) a rope making operation (what’s the traditional word for a rope-maker??)

    I’ve wondered about that, but in these pictures it’s pretty clear that they’re making ropes and not some elaborate whatever thingy. There are clearly three smaller ropes being tied into a larger one. You can also see a couple of finished ropes.

    Now I’m not sure if this is indeed just a rope factory doing regular business. Why show that? I think it’s more likely they’re producing these things because they’ll need a large amount pretty soon. What could they possibly need that many ropes for? Mass hangings? Are they for tying all the slaves together, after the Harpies have regained control and are trying to sell them all off, maybe so they can exchange them for fresh ones who haven’t had their minds poisoned by that ludicrous “freedom” concept of that crazy dragon girl?

  126. *scratches head* Well that’s not what I had been expecting. At first I was thinking a set visit. I don’t stalk other shows in the off season or during production so I don’t know if visits from old cast members are the norm or not…I just couldn’t see her coming back.

    Now I am all in on a fan theory I read about here yesterday, that claims the ‘Shae’ from Tywin’s bed chamber was really a Faceless Man, and the real Shae split town after the trial. It’s my favorite until someone comes up with something more interesting.

    I suppose fever dreams are a possibility, and probably a more reasonable one. But now is not the time for reason.

  127. StandOzone: First I support the idea that pink letter, if not written by Stannis, is half true half false (then written by Ramsay).

    Stannis would never have written a letter like that. Indeed, he could not have done so easily: it includes information that he never had. However, there also is no reason for Stannis to write that letter: as self-styled King (and he never would have called himself a False-King), he would just command that those things be done.

    And given what we’ve seen on the show, I think that people really need to drop the idea that the letter is a fake.

    Regarding the PoV, it will be difficult for it to be Theon: obviously, he’s scarpered the camp by the time Ramsay overruns it. We might well get the sort of narrative where the last thing that Theon sees of the camp is the lines breaking or something like that as he flees.

    And, no, the showrunners did not say that Shireen is sacrificed in the same way. Quite the opposite: they said that when GRRM told them about Shireen getting sacrificed, it put the idea in their head of doing what they did. At this point, I am betting that Shireen is going to get burned in a belated attempt to save Stannis by a distraught Selyse. At this stage, I am not 100% certain that Melisandre will be in on it: she might realize that she was wrong about who the Chosen one is, and start backing a new horse instead.

    Hightower: He could still survive in the books, or perhaps die later from a different fate. Greyscale seems a likely fate for him.

    Or he might die in a manner similar to how we read that he died in the books! (Parsimony! It’s not just for breakfast!) I doubt that greyscale would be his fate: that would be pretty arbitrary, and Stannis is not anywhere where people are prone to contract it.

    Ravyn: People visit sets all the time. That’s not unusual at all.

    We have few (if any) examples of other alumni visiting the sets for Thrones.

  128. Wimsey:

    Whatever the story of Winter is going to be, it will not be “Kill the child/Let the Adult be born” again

    Wimsey, over at a Jaime-Brienne-GoT fansite, a poster named zuzu’s petals had the following theory. Here it is, in his/her words:

    “I just love the idea that this season all (or a lot of) the main characters’ storylines will by somewhat cyclical in nature. To go forward, one must go back, and I think there’s a lot of evidence that this is will be a major storytelling theme next season. There’s Dany having to go back and cope with the Dothraki, which is where her story started. There’s Tyrion who’s going to be in basically a repeat situation of Season 2 in KL only in Meereen (and possibly having to contend with some personal demons it seems?) Jaime will finally be facing head on the question of Cersei’s love/loyalty for him, and then returning back to where his REAL story started in the Riverlands, where hopefully Brienne is as well. Even a character like Sam is going home to face his father, and Theon is going home as well. I just feel like the season has been set up to have every character confronting or repeating something from their past, possibly to set them all up for the end of the story. If that’s the case, I’m super excited to see it all come together.”

    Maybe “To go forward, one must go back” will be the overall story theme for S6.

  129. lalla,
    Wimsey,

    and others, but I don’t want to tag out…

    The writing could have been in High Valerian – we did have TWO characters that could have read it for the audience. But again, why would SLAVES use that to communicate with other SLAVES? Still makes no logic whatsoever. SOME may certainly be literate in languages – but writing with WORDS would not reach the entire intended audience.

    A painting of ANYTHING would have worked. Breaking chains, Dragons saving people. Revolt. Just CGI something, anything! And then – this season an alteration, adding Dany as the oppressor in the painting.

    How is Davos learning to read English (KNiggit) Little Mormont is writing in it – and across the sea, slaves use it?

    Why go the beautiful, elaborate route of creating entire multiple languages and then utterly insult it when you get to the written word…

  130. H.Stark:
    Last night having dinner

    https://instagram.com/p/8iNNloiFJZ/

    Are you sure this was last night? In the recent photos, Peter’s beard is longer and unkempt. Also Bineoff looks different to me over the photos we have seen in the past few days. Now…it is truth that both of them could have tidied up for supper…..

  131. Lisa: Another name not mentioned in the dead was Ciaran Hinds. All three omissions were picked up in the comments on the blog post, as well as a typo that was corrected by GRRM, but he didn’t add any more names.

    As you pointed out, the books differ from the show in some character deaths. I thought Mance Rayder’s story was one of those, but maybe not?

    It appears that Nell Tiger Free wasn’t mentioned either. Now it is up to four characters. It is just hard for me to go out on that limb and say that because he didn’t call them out, they are not really dead. Mance, he is dead. I am positive. Myrcella could have been given an antidote by someone on the boat including Trystane. We just won’t know until next season. For Shae, I am still saying she did die at Tyrion’s hand in Tywins bed. There are many who question Stannis’ death, The Hound. Do we really think it is possible that all these characters didn’t really die but are coming back simply for personal wish fulfillment? I have to wonder.

    I would start a thread in the Forums about it and get some consensus, but people here just don’t utilize the forums as I have seen them used at other fan site for other authors. (Tolkien/Rowling).

  132. Wimsey: Not really: they’ll be doing the Kingsmoot as a warm-up for Euron, but the story is going to be the Winter story.Just as Crows/Dragons was a fundamentally different story from Swords (and Swords & Crows/Dragons from Clash, etc.), the Winter story will be fundamentally different from the Crows/Dragons story.

    The big difference?For the first time, we do not know what the story is.

    Not really, this season is going to be a combination of many books. There are a lot of leftovers to be covered from the other books.

  133. Conan Troutman,

    I did some hard staring at the pics today too. I would think it funny if they’ll film Tyrion and Varys doing a tour of a rope making factory. But maybe it really is the only lucrative business left in Meereen 😀

    You’ve got laundry to dry?! We’ve got ropes.
    Need to tie your goats? We’ve got the ropes.
    People to hang? WE TOTALLY GOT THAT COVERED!

  134. Flora Linden,

    This also matches up with what we know of Arya, that she’s going to be reminded the past (and bastardized depictions of it I assume) from the actor’s troupe, continue to fail at being a Faceless Man, and eventually return to where she started (likely retrieving Needle – the last symbol that she’s Arya Stark – before she goes). And Jon… I mean, I can’t speak from personal experience or anything, but I assume dying and coming back to life might cause one to question every facet of one’s very existence. 🙂

  135. TormundsWoman,

    Ha!

    Hm, we’ve never seen any hanging, have we? We had plenty of executions, but they were either decapitations, crucifixions or burnings. Seems like that world for some strange reason isn’t all that into hanging people. Maybe they’re trying to change that and need Tyrion for the ad campaign.
    “Your sword is rusty? Don’t want to waste your firewood? Tired of the loud moaning at all those crucifixions? Try hanging with our cheap, reusable ropes! By ten and get a gallows for free!”

  136. Lady Wolfsbane: How is Davos learning to read English (KNiggit) Little Mormont is writing in it – and across the sea, slaves use it?

    Well, he was not learning “English”: he was learning the common tongue which would (in principle) be completely alien to any of us. The kuh-nig-ut joke was really an anachronism. (But it’s always a good one, and a nice tip-of-the-cap to Monty Python!) As the show is being made for an English speaking audience, the speech and writing should generally be in English unless you are showing the PoV character not understanding or speaking poorly in another language. It’s not “English”: it’s just the language of the central character in a scene. And as both Tyrion and Varys can read Valyrian (even if a bit nostrilly), signs written in Valyrian should be readable by us, too.

    Abyss: Not really, this season is going to be a combination of many books. There are a lot of leftovers to be covered from the other books.

    Leftovers, yes. Important leftovers? No. Quite frankly, most of the stuff that the show cut should have been cut from the books, too: none of it is going to be relevant in the end. (Indeed, it is very probable that the only three Crows chapters that will be at all important in the end are the 3 Arya chapters: it seems pretty implausible that any of the other PoV characters are going to be important at the climax of the series!)

    Flora Linden,
    Jaime’s “real story” had nothing to do with a geographic place, and everything to do with a place in his mind. He sets out to prove that he is Tywin II but instead reveals that he’s a man with a soul. That is Jaime’s “kill the boy (who idolized his father) and let the man be born (who is very much not his father). The dead-horse-beating plot that was the Riverlands in Crows was not the only way to tell that story: and last season almost certainly would not have gotten the accolades that it did had it bogged down the story with that plot!

    Besides, Winter is not going to be kill the child/become the adult: and thus it’s going to need new plots for whatever mutual identity crisis GRRM has planned for the lead characters.

  137. Wimsey,

    You could be right… or not. I also find unlikely that Stannis had written the pink letter but he has Bolton’s maestre… so I think he has a good source of information. Anyway, I’m more on the idea that Ramsay captured Mance and his letter is half true, half a lie.

    The Shireen’s issue was just for comparison in how people use to say that TV show proves Stannis’ defeat at Winterfell but at the same time keep their idea that book!Stannis = show!Stannis based on the producers comment about Shireen’s fate when the book!Stannis wouldn’t allow Shireen to be sacrificied. Or at least we never know because by the Boltons or the other northern lords, Stannis won’t return to Castle Black.

  138. Conan Troutman: Hm, we’ve never seen any hanging, have we?

    Haven’t we seen a log of hung commoners in the war-torn regions? GRRM (and B&W) seem to be sticking to the idea that hanging is a commoner’s death in Westeros (as it was in Europe) whereas beheading is the nobleman’s death. Indeed, it was adding insult to injury to hang a nobleman during most of medieval times: you were not just killing him, you were demoting him socially at the same time.

  139. Wimsey,

    I think the meaning is not that the Riverlands plot from AFFC was so important, but that the Riverlands was where Jaime lost his hand, met Brienne, and began changing into that man with a soul (this is Season 3/Book 3 stuff). That’s what is meant by “going back to the start” and his “real story.” It has little to do with his AFFC story, and more to do with the Riverlands being a symbolic location where Jaime slowly began turning into a new man.

  140. Conan Troutman: I’ve wondered about that, but in these pictures it’s pretty clear that they’re making ropes and not some elaborate whatever thingy. There are clearly three smaller ropes being tied into a larger one. You can also see a couple of finished ropes.

    Now I’m not sure if this is indeed just a rope factory doing regular business. Why show that? I think it’s more likely they’re producing these things because they’ll need a large amount pretty soon. What could they possibly need that many ropes for? Mass hangings? Are they for tying all the slaves together, after the Harpies have regained control and are trying to sell them all off, maybe so they can exchange them for fresh ones who haven’t had their minds poisoned by that ludicrous “freedom” concept of that crazy dragon girl?

    They need to make a really strong, really long dragon leash.

  141. Lady Wolfsbane,

    It was written in blood… derrrrp.

    Yes, it doesn’t make perfect sense. But no viewer would understand anything different. It’s like how in the books, people can communicate through different languages but we’re reading it in english because otherwise its absolutely meaningless.

  142. Wimsey,

    Hence, the theory zuzu’s petals and kit_hepburn put forward. After having been changed by their experiences, when they go back to a situation that’s reminiscent of the past, they will react differently, showing how much they’ve changed (for better or worse or both).

    I was just noting the “to go forward, you must go back” could be an overall theme for S6, with characters no longer behaving in the usual pattern in certain situations like before. That’s obviously true with the example you gave of Jaime.

    Or, the S6 theme could be something we haven’t even considered. 🙂

  143. Benjen,

    Yup, thats exactly what I tought of it. We read what they say in english, even tough it is mentioned 2 words before that the character speaks Dothraki/Valyrian,..etc.
    I can see why it could bother some people, but it never bothered me.

  144. Ever since I read the first book i’ve always felt [ spoiler ] Varys was a Faceless Man [ / spoiler ] this kinda reinforces that idea.

  145. This is all just D&D trolling. Sibel was probably going to be in the area visiting everyone so D&D put her in a simple costume for the lolz. In each pic she’s pretty much posing for the cameras or at least waving to em. Not to mention in that one pic you can see D&D smiling as if they’re totally aware they’re being watched

  146. Dutch Maester,

    This is the point. There are competing facts here that need to be reconciled.
    – We see Shae put on a boat by Bronn (cut scenes S4)
    – We see Shae die
    – We see Shae alive, with a script, with both Varys and Tyrion

    So any explanation has to incorporate all of the facts, not just one. There must be a thousand possibilities.

  147. Lisa0527,

    We do not see Shae alive. That is just you. We have no clue as to the nature of Shae’s involvement in the scene. We do know she died, because it happened in 4×10. It would be nice if by now you got that.

  148. You can obviously tell where the fans interest lies by the number of comments Mereen gets compared to the north (bastard bowl) Dany and the whole Mereen arc is boring as fook.

  149. JCDavis: I am positive. Myrcella could have been given an antidote by someone on the boat including Trystane

    A lot of emphasis has been put on Myrcella’s death because it aligns with the prophecy: “gold will be their crowns and gold their shrouds.” What isn’t hinted at is when those shrouds will come to be. How do all of you interpret it? Does it mean they will die within Cersei’s lifetime, so that she will be tormented by their deaths? Or could it mean, simply, that when they die, their shrouds would automatically be gold.

    The remaining children, Tommen and Myrcella could live longer lives, their shrouds will still be gold based on their position, wouldn’t they? Is Myrcella considered already “crowned” on the basis of being a princess, or would she have to be crowned as a queen? If that’s the case, then she has some living to do. Or is the outcome of the prophecy somehow tied to Cersei’s state of mind? If she is intent on believing in dire results, then that’s what comes to be.

  150. StandOzone: You could be right… or not. I also find unlikely that Stannis had written the pink letter but he has Bolton’s maestre…

    ?? Stannis does not have Bolton’s maester. I think that he has Karstark’s. And there is no particular reason to think that Karstark’s maester would have this information: why would the Bolton’s share it with someone that Stannis might capture?

    Ultimately, it comes down to this. The idea that Stannis meets his end in the Battle of Ice prior to Jon’s assassination predicts everything we read in the letter and everything we’ve seen on TV. The alternative ideas always require a lot of twists and gyrations worthy of a Tychonic geocentrism!

    kit_hepburn: That’s what is meant by “going back to the start” and his “real story.” It has little to do with his AFFC story, and more to do with the Riverlands being a symbolic location where Jaime slowly began turning into a new man.

    Ah, that is a little different. However, that does not require rehashing Crows material. After all, Jaime is still at large and doing things in the Riverlands in Winter: and whatever GRRM has happening there in Winter can (and possibly should) be used this season. But, it just gets back to story: what GRRM had Jaime do in the Riverlands in Crows (and what B&W had Jaime do in Dorne) was for the Boy->Man story. As this is a new story, it is improbable that the same plot will be useful.

  151. I love how Sibel waves at the camera there at the end. Like, “Hey, I see you! We’re so busted!”

  152. As far as Shae goes, I don’t mind seeing her again. I thought she was dead, and most unfairly so. Granted, Tyrion was brutal with her in order to get her to leave. Efforts had been made to get her to leave several times before. A real “whore” would have taken the money and position offered to her, and taken off in a flash. I don’t think a real whore would have spent time as a maid, either.

    Shae was intent on staying by the man she loved, hence necessity of the brutal dismissal. But once dismissed, wasn’t she entitled to make whatever sleeping arrangements that worked best for her? Sadly, sleeping with Tywin wasn’t especially wise, as it turns out.

    I never believed she got on the boat. Bronn was cagey and skirted the issue when Tyrion asked him if she was sent off ok. Not knowing exactly how she is going to be worked back into the story is what makes the off-season interesting. We will all be watching very closely to see her face in those crowds.

  153. Wimsey: ??Stannis does not have Bolton’s maester.I think that he has Karstark’s.

    The maester sank to his knees. He was red-haired and round-shouldered, with close-set eyes that kept flicking toward Theon hanging on the wall. “Your Grace. How may I be of service?”

    Stannis did not reply at once. He studied the man before him, his brow furrowed. “Get up.” The maester rose. “You are maester at the Dreadfort. How is it you are here with us?”

    Wimsey:
    Ultimately, it comes down to this. The idea that Stannis meets his end in the Battle of Ice prior to Jon’s assassination predicts everything we read in the letter and everything we’ve seen on TV. The alternative ideas always require a lot of twists and gyrations worthy of a Tychonic geocentrism!

    Two words: Mance Rayder.

  154. Tywin of the Hill: Two words: Mance Rayder.

    Mance would not have made the mistake of asking for Reek, as Mance knows that Jon would have no idea who that is. Mance also would not have requested Melisandre be sent: he would not want anything more to do with her!

    Seriously, if Mance was going to send anything, then it would be an SOS, not a lure.

  155. Tywin of the Hill,

    I belive that was confirmed to be a mistake. After all the chapter isn’t edited.

    I clearly remenber there being a debate on another forum, when that chapter first apeared, and then someone came and said it IS a mistake.

    After all it makes much more sense of that being Karstarks maester, and him having a raven that goes to the Dreadfort, so that can link the Karstarks too the Boltons..etc.

    Also Boltons maester is still clearly in WF, like Lady Dustin points out to Theon.

  156. Wimsey: Haven’t we seen a log of hung commoners in the war-torn regions?GRRM (and B&W) seem to be sticking to the idea that hanging is a commoner’s death in Westeros (as it was in Europe) whereas beheading is the nobleman’s death.Indeed, it was adding insult to injury to hang a nobleman during most of medieval times: you were not just killing him, you were demoting him socially at the same time.

    There have been more than that….I guess Sylese doesn’t count as she hung herself. But also didn’t the two burned kids at Winterfell get hung? Also the outlaws???? that were on the road when Brienne and Jaime went through that way…before they were captured by BwB. And I seem to recall a few more…just not coming to mind.

  157. Mihnea:
    Tywin of the Hill,

    Also Bolton’s maester is still clearly in WF, like Lady Dustin points out to Theon.

    Lord Roose Bolton brought three maesters to Winterfell to be put in charge of the ravens and messages. They were Maester Henly from Blackpool, Maester Medrick from Hornwood and Maester Rhodry from Castle Cerwyn.

  158. Thronetender,

    I did actually think of that too. I guess Tommen is still alive as of season 6, but I don’t expect that to last long. And I agree, it was one of the reasons that I thought Myrcella would be easier to let die as we saw her rather than, oops, bring her back and she again dies anyway. While rather ironic, I don’t think the show runners have that in them. I think GRRM has her die in the books and D & D did it their way on the show.

  159. Ask yourselves this, if Shae really was put on a boat by Bronn and did leave, she did so with a bag of gold. So how does she wind up in Meereen wearing commoner/slave clothing? The trip across the Narrow Sea is not a dangerous one, so being captured by slavers shouldn’t be a possibility. And besides, Dany had ended slavery in Meereen, so a slave ship wouldn’t have went there to trade. Shae is dead. This is a vision/hallucination.

  160. Lady Wolfsbane,

    It’s for the audience, there’s not deep thinking behind it. High Valyrian isn’t even the language of Mereen, write it in English is just easyer. If that bothers you, what do you think of the citizen of Braavos speaking English?

  161. Wimsey,

    I didn’t meant Mance wrote the letter (my guess is Ramsay, being fooled by

    Karstark

    , did).
    I meant that the differences between Mance’s role in the books and his role in the TV-series are quite notable. The same could happen with Stannis and Bolton.

  162. Kay: Jeremy Podeswa having dinner with Peter, Conleth and Sibel. JP is directing Ep. 1 and 2. Suggests that Sibel’s appearance in Meereen is pretty early next season.

    We saw that photo above, has it been confirmed that it was a recent photo? Peter looks pretty cleaned up and better groomed over the photos we have seen of him shooting season 6 also Benioff looks different to me….can’t put a finger on it.

    Sue? Anyway to confirm this is legit as being shot last night?

  163. Mihnea:
    Tywin of the Hill,

    So what? The maesters rode to battle?

    I’m…not sure what you mean. I only said that Bolton’s (or rather, Dreadfort’s) maester wasn’t listed among the maesters present in Winterfell.

  164. Abyss,

    if you mean death, he will die… eventually. So will a lot of characters that are still alive.
    If you mean the events will go the same way they went in the show, well, I hope we’ll find out soon enough.
    I doubt that, if only because they are already very different.

  165. Mr Fixit: I’d say you’re both right, in a way. I view AFfC/ADwD as pretty much one enormously huge prologue for Winds. A lot of stuff in those books — not everything, but a lot — is only there because Martin scrapped his 5 year gap. If you look at it like this, you can still say that Season 6 encompasses Feast, Dance, and Winds while covering only the Winds story.

    Now that I think about it, I’m getting more and more impressed by how D&D chose to adapt AFfC/ADwD. Virtually everyone imagined one of three scenarios (some unlikelier than others):

    1) Divide the material geographically between two seasons, much like the books (was never going to happen);

    2) Divide the material chronologically between two seasons, essentially covering the first half of both books in one season, the rest in another (also was never going to happen; no suitable stopping point);

    3) Cut a lot of material out and stuff the rest in a single season, with some smallish leftovers perhaps being included in the following season (the most likely scenario).

    What we have here is actually quite brilliant, if GoT pulls it of. D&D dissected the plot and story of the books and then reconstructed them from the ground up, including in Season 5 only those parts of the plot that suited the overarching story for that season and integrating the rest with the story of Winds.

    That’s why there were no Northern lords in Stannis/Bolton story, or why there were no Ironborn or the Riverlands. For all the rage and gnashing of teeth, the way that David, Dan, and Bryan adapt the impossibly complex books isworthy of much praise.This is what Martin should’ve done in the first place!

    Luka Nieto: Thank you! I’m shocked that many people don’t seem to get that.

    They were clearly hinting at this “approach” last season. It’s why they stopped being open discussing omissions and adaptation choices.

    When questioned about the lack of a particular character, D.B. Weiss told EW, “We reached that point that commenting individually on what is or is not in the show from the books is a prospect of diminishing returns.” He goes on to say, “Early on in the process, it was something we talked about a fair amount. [The change of strategy is] not out of any disrespect; the fact that people care enough about the books and the show to have arguments about it is something we have huge gratitude and respect for. I just don’t think there’s value in anything we have tosay about it. It opens a Pandora’s box of questions you could spend your whole life answering, and the net result is that what you said will probably make people less happy than if you hadn’t said anything.”
    Apparently, Benioff feels that fans will understand better, that it’ll be “easier once everything is out and it’s 70 hours,” the complete seven seasons. He explains to EW, “People will complain about things because they don’t know what’s coming up ahead. He adds, “Not that people shouldn’t complain—that’s why God invented the Internet—but I think we’d be better able to have that argument later. Sometimes we’re going in a different order or telling a different story. We think the story will all make sense at the end. Otherwise it will be eight wasted years.”

  166. JCDavis,

    It was last night. If you look at the instagram page of the person posting it, you’ll see.

    Also, with this picture, we are sure Podeswa (1&2), Sackheim (3&4), Bender (5&6) and Mylod (7&8) shot exterior Meereen scenes.

    (The scene Mylod was seen shooting involved only Missandei and Tyrion. No Varys, logically, as by then he will have left Meereen.)

  167. JCDavis: We saw that photo above, has it been confirmed that it was a recent photo? Peter looks pretty cleaned up and better groomed over the photos we have seen of him shooting season 6 also Benioff looks different to me….can’t put a finger on it.

    How can it be anything but recent? No Shae in Season 5, which is when Podeswa first came on the GoT scene as director.

  168. Kay,

    Thank you. Just wanted to be sure. We have had so many photos that are old, trying to be called “new”. 🙂

  169. Matt,

    So am I. It can hardly be worse than last season, so that’s good 😉

    I’m expecting a bit more scenes from Doran, tbh. Hopefully some sort of plan at least.

  170. JCDavis,

    Yes that photo from Carmen Guillemot in Pensicola was from yesterday. Even if one wants to believe it was from a later date (and management for some odd reason is JUST putting up the pics on social media), the restaurant itself is fairly new, opened this spring.

  171. Tywin of the Hill,

    Ah, it was a popular idea here a year or so ago that Mance authored the letter: I thought that you were reviving that idea!

    But I think that they just cut to the chase with Mance. After all, Mance’s book role was to force Theon to do something. Sansa took that role on the show. Sansa’s a lead character who might very well be important in the end, whereas Mance is dead on the show, and almost certainly as good as dead in the books.

    And they might not even being cutting to a chase with Stannis: after all, Jon learns of Stannis’ death before his assassination attempts in both media. GRRM’s narratives have always run parallel to the story rather than parallel to the events, so the Theon chapter in Winter actually happens before “For the Watch” even though the former chapter was issued long after the latter chapter. However, “jagged timelines” never works anywhere near as well on TV or film.

  172. Wimsey: hung commoners in the war-torn regions?

    Well, that seems plausible but I don’t know.

    There is one particular instance of a noble woman (Brienne) and her squire being hanged by an ex-noble woman…Hmmm…so maybe LS was trying to add insult to injury…?.
  173. Dutch Maester,

    It is perfect for Sunspear. Hopefully this year’s Dorne story will be meatier. It doesn’t necessarily requiere more screen-time (in fact, without a main character there, such as Jaime last year, I imagine there we’ll see less of Dorne); it just needs more “plot per minute.”

  174. Luka Nieto:
    Dutch Maester,

    It is perfect for Sunspear. Hopefully this year’s Dorne story will be meatier. It doesn’t necessarily requiere more screen-time (in fact, without a main character there, such as Jaime last year, I imagine there we’ll see less of Dorne); it just needs more “plot per minute.”

    I think we all will be hoping for this.

  175. Luka Nieto: Hopefully this year’s Dorne story will be meatier.

    Who needs the mystique and intrigue of Darkstar and Alleras/Sarella when we’ve got “Bad Pussy”?

  176. Dark Knight’s King,

    That’s also what I think. Sibel had announced a couple of months earlier that she would visit the cast on location in Spain. So D&D make use of that. For one thing, they like her, and as a surprise put her in as an extra for a cameo. Presumably she might have a little scene as a Shae lookalike that Tyrion sees or believes to see. For another, they are trolling the fans a bit and direct attention away from speculations about the fates/scene shootings of the main characters, like that of Jon Snow.

  177. Conan Troutman,

    Yes, we haven’t seen any hangings in Essos. So that’s the new thing Tyrion will be teaching the city. Then again until Dany we haven’t seen death by dragon either. These Westerosi are sure making their mark on Meereen :p

    Honestly I wished Tyrion would not resort to mass hangings for uprising because of famine. But maybe he won’t and it is just a threat never to be implemented. Who knows though why or how. We will have to wait I suppose to see how all plays out.

  178. So yeah, that piece of Meereenese furniture” that we orginally speculated as possibly being a siege weapon (Trebuchet), but then assumed it was just a granary tool…..

    I came across an article from the “old site” of season 3’s filming of slaver’s bay scenes.
    Noticed that familiar “object”.
    http://winteriscoming.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/essaouira-harbor.jpg

    Make of that as you will.

    BTW, Here’s what middle ages Trebuchets looked like.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=trebuchet&biw=1280&bih=673&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMInZflm6CxyAIVTeCACh3IYQu8#tbm=isch&q=trebuchet+middle+ages&imgrc=oIh6eoa9zUCQDM%3A

  179. Wimsey,

    I will give you that the Monty Python made me giggle in my belly, but war propaganda is at it’s best is visual – there was never any need to see what writing looks like across the narrow sea….
    sigh…
    “Kill the graffiti”

  180. WiC has some new photos/video. One of the photos shows Shae carrying a basket of flowers. What are they doing with her?

  181. Master of Boobs: Yes, yes, more gratuitous nudity please.

    Well, technically, Luka’s remark about Dorne’s plot needing to be “meatier” can indeed be construed as wanting an increased presence of certain meatier parts of female anatomy, preferably those that come in pairs.

    Luka, I urge you to cease and desist with your inappropriate and lurid comments! Think of the children!

  182. Hodor’s Bastard: Who needs the mystique and intrigue of Darkstar and Alleras/Sarella when we’ve got “Bad Pussy”?

    Err, I’ve not read the books, only the summaries of the characters but these two in particular didn’t seem all that important to me. If they were, wouldn’t they have been included in the show despite the several plot lines they have going on with the numerous characters they already have?

    *shrugs* Maybe I missed something?

  183. Hodor’s Bastard,

    “Bad pussy” was better than Darkstar, since it was a single line that didn’t waste much of my time.

    Thomas Sandstone,

    You didn’t. Sarella in particular only has a cameo in AFFC (and disguised as another character, a boy named Alleras, so most readers probably didn’t even notice), nothing more as of yet.

  184. Thomas Sandstone: Err, I’ve not read the books, only the summaries of the characters but these two in particular didn’t seem all that important to me. If they were, wouldn’t they have been included in the show despite the several plot lines they have going on with the numerous characters they already have?

    *shrugs* Maybe I missed something?

    You didn’t miss much.

    Sarella is up to something at the Citadel, but we don’t know what yet. Could have some relevance in the next book(s). Darkstar is a complete and utter joke of a character who tries way too hard to be cool and fails spectacularly every time. The problem is that Martin seems to have written him in a straightforward manner, so he doesn’t come off as some kind of comedic doofus, but as a true writing botch/miscalculation. I mean, what can you say about a character that utters one of the most hilarious sentences in all the five books: Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night.
  185. Luka Nieto,

    So basically she’s done nothing yet. Why do people want her in the show then? Because she is one of Oberyn’s daughters?

    Mr Fixit,

    Yeah reading just the basics of him made me chuckle, but not in a good way. If he ever ended up on the show he would need a revamp. Especially since all I gathered about him was that he likes to act like he was the best thing since sliced bread, sleeps with Arianne and mutilates a young girl.

  186. Hodor’s Bastard: Who needs the mystique and intrigue of Darkstar and Alleras/Sarella when we’ve got “Bad Pussy”?

    Clearly a section of internet-commenting fans needed “FAT PINK MAST” instead of “Bad Pussy.” 😉

  187. ‘Bad pusssay’ was cringey but it’s nowhere near as bad as ‘Men call me Darkstar and I am of the night’

  188. Now here is another theory. So far the Aegon Targaryan (ADWD) storyline has been left out. What if Varys presents a surviving Shea as a lost child of Rhaegar in place of Aegon? A bit far-fetched, I admit. Yet, having survived the strangulation could help convince Tyrion of a dragon residing inside Shae. There is also Shae’s mysterious past. And remember that scene at the beginning of the drinking game in S1, where they were playing the candle game? Shae didn’t feel pain of fire. Of course, there are some dragons left in Meereen, and such qualities could be put to test quickly…and checked if Varys is just making this up, having by chance found Shae in time and saved her, or found a perfect lookalike, as opposed to the possibility that Shae really has some dragon’s blood inside herself. Ok. That is highly…speculative, to say the least. However, the Targaryan kings had many illegitimate children, and it is not totally out of place that some inherited dragon qualities. Just saying that one could spin such a story without hitting on harsh inconsistencies. Surely, that is not the background of book Shae. But book Shae and show Shae are different characters, and as mentioned before, a show device could be to blend Shae’s character with another one.

  189. Luka Nieto: a boy named Alleras, so most readers probably didn’t even notice), nothing more as of yet

    If I did notice at the time, then I had long forgotten it!

    Thomas Sandstone: Why do people want her in the show then?

    D’uh: because of how important she is in the Winds of Winter book. I mean, obviously….. 😀

    Kay: Clearly a section of internet-commenting fans needed “FAT PINK MAST” instead of “Bad Pussy.”

    This really is no different from the graffiti in English. There have been different phrases for this through the years that all mean the same thing: but “wanton cunny” or “eager beaver” or something like that doesn’t mean that anymore.

    phantomstrife: ‘Bad pusssay’ was cringey but it’s nowhere near as bad as ‘Men call me Darkstar and I am of the night’

    gads: is that really in Crows? Well, maybe Arianne was not the only reason why I was in the “Dorne sucked more!” camp!

    shudder

  190. phantomstrife,

    If it weren’t conflicting with the schedule of how matters happen, I would say that Shae is in fact Arya in the faceless guise of Shae attempting to assassinate Tyrion. The flower girl is always a killer. In any movie.

  191. That Darkstar line actually works when Roy Dotrice does it in the FEAST audiobook because he doesn’t sound like he’s trying to be cool at all. Remember the context is he is

    being a bit of a prick to a kid. He has been resenting and/or uncomfortable being compared to that other Dayne before this, so by the time he’s introduced to Myrcella, and she starts asking him about the “Sword of the MORNING”, he’s pretty impudent to her about it. In that “grouchy, world-weary, cynical adult to innocent child” way.

    So the way Roy reads it, it’s just a shortform kinda grumpy way to make clear again, that although he is also a Dayne, he’s definitely not him. Definitely not the wonderful morally impeccable, righteous SWORD OF THE MORNING. So shut up about it, you stupid kid!

    “There was an Arthur Dayne,” Myrcella said. “He was a knight of the Kingsguard in the days of Mad King Aerys.”
    “He was the Sword of the Morning. He is dead.”
    “Are you the Sword of the Morning now?”
    “No. Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night.”

    And then yeah, Darkstar tries to kill Myrcella right after that.

  192. Ellaria and the Sand Snakes are Darkstar in the show. 4 cringeworthy characters instead of 1. Sorry, but show Dorne was infinitely worse than book Dorne, IMO, and I’m no huge fan of book Dorne.

  193. Mr Fixit,

    D&D dissected the plot and story of the books and then reconstructed them from the ground up, including in Season 5 only those parts of the plot that suited the overarching story for that season and integrating the rest with the story of Winds.

    That’s why there were no Northern lords in Stannis/Bolton story, or why there were no Ironborn or the Riverlands. For all the rage and gnashing of teeth, the way that David, Dan, and Bryan adapt the impossibly complex books is worthy of much praise.This is what Martin should’ve done in the first place!

    Exactly – this is what I saw them doing even in season 4 actually and was pleased that was how they seemed to be moving. And yeah, life would have been easier if Martin had done that in the first place. But no one was editing apparently so we got what we got, an interesting, bold, creative mess. Good think the show has managed to make it make sense.

  194. mitch,

    I’ve never heard the audiobooks or RD’s interpretation of the various characters but I enjoyed reading your comment. Thx! 🙂

  195. talvikorppi: What exports is Meereen known for besides slaves? Is there any industry?

    I vaguely remember something about a weavers’ guild and a highly reputed weaver who gets murdered by the Sons of the Harpy.

  196. Mr Fixit: You didn’t miss much.

    Sarella is up to something at the Citadel, but we don’t know what yet. Could have some relevance in the next book(s).

    The coolness factor of Sarella/Alleras is that she is a woman trying to get a Master’s education by disguising herself as a boy. At least for me, that’s the main reason why I hope the character doesn’t get cut. I have high hopes for the Citadel plot.

  197. Hodor’s Bastard: Who needs the mystique and intrigue of Darkstar and Alleras/Sarella when we’ve got “Bad Pussy”?

    Tell me you’re joking. Please.

    ”Intrigue”? Mystique”? Darkstar being interesting??

    I never tought I’ll see the day when someone will say they like Darkstar…

  198. Thomas Sandstone,

    They are not important, only book-readers who still try to tell themselves that all those characters introduced in AFFC/ADWD are important will tell you differently.

    Even after Quentyn..

    People who want her to be in, are those who still try to convince themselves that all those characters will be important in the future, and there is more to their existance then to move the story foward.

  199. Master of Boobs,

    I will never understand people who say this kind of stuff.

    We saw 1 pair of breasts in both the show and the books. Of course now you will try to tell me that Arrianne’s ”huge dark nipples” serve a point.

    Seriously go back and read the Dorne chapters and try to find one, where Arrianne doesn’t sleep with someone, thinks about someone she slept, or wants to sleep with someone else.
    Also find me a Hotah chapter where Hotah doesn’t think what huge whores the Sand Snakes are.

  200. Wimsey: gads: is that really in Crows? Well, maybe Arianne was not the only reason why I was in the “Dorne sucked more!” camp!

    Indeed. Sadly, GRRM has said that he was surprised by the people’s reaction to Darkstar; we were supposed to think he was actually cool, instead of funny —or embarassing. I don’t know how we were supposed to take him seriously. “Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night.” Batman in Westeros, really?

    And no, the context doesn’t help, mitch. Not at all.

    Dutch Maester,

    That’s exactly what I was thinking of. Not much CGI needed, either.

  201. mitch:
    So yeah, that piece of Meereenese furniture” that we orginally speculated as possibly being a siege weapon (Trebuchet), but then assumed it was just a granary tool…..

    I came across an article from the “old site” of season 3’s filming of slaver’s bay scenes.
    Noticed that familiar “object”.
    http://winteriscoming.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/essaouira-harbor.jpg

    it’s a harbor crane
    https://www.google.it/search?q=medieval+harbor+crane&num=40&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI1s3nz9qyyAIVxW4UCh3m7gVW&biw=1209&bih=656#imgrc=OoRnSgX4NRNsJM%3A

  202. Thomas Sandstone:

    So basically she’s done nothing yet. Why do people want her in the show then? Because she is one of Oberyn’s daughters?

    She is also in Marwin’s gang, and she seems the only sand snake interested in something other than vengeance.
    Also, people want her because she’s black. Lupita Nyong’o would have had her role if they dediced to put Marwin plotline in the show.

  203. lalla,

    Wanting some character to apear just for the colour of his skin is ridicolouse.

    Also can’t see what people find interesting about her, she has had no more then 2 lines of dialogue.

    Is there the possibilly of her doing something interesting? Sure. But the chances are very low. especially if things go the same way they did in AFFC/ADWD.

  204. Mihnea:

    Wanting some character to apear just for the colour of his skin is ridicolouse.

    I agree wholeheartedly.
    Unfortunately the colour of the skin seems a pretty important thing to a lot of people who comment on the casting of certain characters.

    Also can’t see what people find interesting about her, she has had no more then 2 lines of dialogue.

    She got me curious when Arianne remembered how she was so interested in the ruins and the people who lived there once.
    From the little whe saw and Arianne’s thoughts, she seems to have inherited most of the good qualities of Oberyn (good physical and fighting skills, love for life and knowledge, love for challenges, curiosity, a certain amount of kindness, an open mind).
    She doesn’t make fun of Sam, she is involved in Marwin’s stuff, she’s now one of the very few characters in the South that knows of the Other’s threat and believes it.
    Maybe I’m totally worng and she’s another bitch. She might be a completely different person once we will know her better (if we will know her better), but for now that’s what I got from those chapters.

  205. lalla,

    She is nice, don’t get me wrong. Well at least when compared with her other sisters.
    I have nothing against the character, I like her much more then her sisters, altough that doesn’t really say much.

    I just question her relevance to the overall story and doubt that she will have a big impact on it.

  206. Mihnea: Tell me you’re joking.

    I think you can figure that out. As Kay implies above, both book and show contain their share of campiness, but imagining the eye-rolling reaction of some during a comparative joust via keyboard is sometimes even more fun.

  207. How much I love GOT, but of all the characters they can and SHOULD come back, they bring back F*king SHAE????>!!!

  208. Mihnea: Also can’t see what people find interesting about her,

    She’s a highly intelligent woman who is creatively rebelling against the social structures of her time that are preventing her from getting the Westerosi equivalent of a prestigious university education just because of her sex. This makes Sarella an extremely intriguing character to many women fans – and I would presume quite a few men as well.

    That would include the author, who makes sure to remind us repeatedly that women excelling against all odds and refusing to take ‘You can’t do that, you’re a woman’ for an answer is not merely a modern feminist phenomenon, but something that has occurred throughout history (counting only the ones whom male historians thought worthy of record).

    And it’s nice to have a relatable ‘feisty’ female character who is not just a battling badass like Brienne or Arya or Asha/Yara, but someone more concerned with the life of the mind. Of course, women intellectuals in patriarchal societies sometimes came to bad ends; let us hope that GRRM doesn’t take too much inspiration from the brilliant life and grisly death of Hypatia of Alexandria!

  209. Firannion,

    Great, hope you enjoy her, and hope her story will please you.

    To me she is just a girl dressed as a boy, who did absolutly nothing.
    And will do nothing of importance.

    And don’t try to give the: ”she has been set-up to do some great stuff”
    I still remeber people telling me that around 2006-2007 about Quentyn.

  210. Firannion,

    Definitely one of the more interesting characters from Dorne…the one that I feel shows the most promise in doing Oberyn’s memory justice with her intelligence and passion, and at the same time carving her own path. Smart as a whip, and more effective than one alone. 😉

    ‘And now for something completely different!’

    (and you just brought my Classics studies roaring back with good ol Hypatia!)

  211. Hello, So is Shae alive or death? I think we will see how did she began or was planted by varys to Tyrion? maybe in the final episode? somebody know anything?
    I hope Im not asking something you already discuss (Im new)
    Thank you

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