Welcome and glad tidings from the new and improved home of all-things Thrones, the Watchers on the Wall.
If you are new to our fanatical escapist plot of internet property, then thank you for joining us. We have constructed this monstrosity so that you may find even more enjoyment out of your Game of Guilty Pleasures.
This one’s name is Oz and I have the somewhat inglorious prestige of being one of the only Unsullied (non-book reader) contributors for this fine site of GoT extremists.
After the cut, I will attempt to somewhat loosely explain what this series typically entails and will do my best to get it jumpstarted. With only five more months or so before the premiere of Season 5, there is little time to waste.
Scan your WotW fast pass, and let’s ride…
Back at the old apartment, I authored a series of off-season “Looking Forwards” that theorize and speculate as to what chaos may be in store for the season to come. This astonishingly insightful analysis comes from a non-book reader (also referred to as “Unsullied”) trying to make heads or tails of a Braavosi coin.
But if a man can be honest and come clean, I have struggled starting the series this year because so much seems to be standing in the unknown with no clear-cut course for the upcoming ten episodes.
However, you don’t get to carry on the title of “village idiot” by way of abstinence. Making a viable effort for a speculation piece to come across to Sullied and Unsullied alike as at least “educated” while trying to maintain at least a snippet of credibility can be challenging.
The primary source of struggle moving forward here is calculating and accounting for how much change the viewer of this series is going to endure moving toward next season. The death count of Season 4 was not all that different from seasons past. But the amount of major character deaths we witnessed in S4 seems stifling, especially when you couple it with so many remaining characters making major location changes in the process.
Case in point: King’s Landing. No longer will it feature Joffrey, Tywin, Shae or Oberyn (unless of course we are treated to further grand funeral processions followed by poorly executed rape/consensual sex scenes at the neighborhood funeral home).
Nor will the KL feature Varys (on a slow boat to St. Somewhere), Tyrion (on a slow boat to St. Somewhere in a crate), Brienne (assumed killer of hounds) or Podrick (professional chef of rabbits).
Their absence of course assumes that none of them will be back in the capital for the foreseeable future unless they are the bearer of a teleportation device like the one being horded by Littlefinger (uh-oh… here comes the comment that proclaims something to the effect of “time and travel are not measurable in Westeros as it is on Earth” explanation from someone who specializes in Westerosi time travel). Before you start, I will concede as long as you will concede that Littlefinger seems to get where he needs to go faster than anyone else in the fantasy world. Agreed?
This leaves the capital with a couple of Lannister lovers; a product of incest King (good kid, but a product of brotherly love nonetheless); a sword swallower who presumably will no longer be wed to the King’s mother; a beautiful wannabe Queen who supposedly enjoys the company of royal cats; a Lord Oaf who is reportedly an excellent fetcher of quills; an old Maester who reportedly smells like dead cats; a new Maester who is supposedly not a Maester at all; and Frankenmountain. Or Mountainstein.
What the hell could possibly go wrong?
On top of that, Stannis is at the Wall. Arya is on a boat. Jorah is on a horse. Brienne has no horse. Bran is under a tree. The Bolton’s are moving to Winterfell. And both Braavos and Dorne appear to be major plot locations (neither of which the Unsullied know a hell of a lot about).
Even the blind can see the conundrum. Many of the story arcs have enough semi-known plot for which to speculate. But some do not. The Game in many respects has indeed changed.
So here are my thoughts for the series leading up to Game Day and if you have any suggestions, please chime. BUT DO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS in the reasons for your recommendations. The “Oz” posts are Unsullied friendly.
- Dany and the Meandering of Essos, which in all honesty I find more intriguing for Season 5 than the past couple of seasons. We’ll discuss the reasons another time.
- The Wall and the North
- King’s Landing and what we know of Dorne
- Arya and what we know of Braavos
- Bran’s Journey
- Littlefinger and “extreme makeover” Sansa
- The Missing and the Miscellaneous
- Your better suggestions
Thanks for taking in the first “Looking Forward” at Watchers on the Wall, but most importantly thank you for reading and supporting the site. The founders built this Wall for the true fan of Game of Thrones and to maintain and expand a thriving community.
If you are new to the site, make sure you check out our Lexicon page for WotW terminology. It was put together by the Dame herself and is an excellent source of site info.
I am off to take in some American football and to nurse an ailing Ozzette back to health after a wild night on the town (hangover remedy suggestions welcome).
Until next time, follow and like WotW, spread the word to your colleagues and companions, and may there always be peace in your realm. –Oz
“Unbowed. Unbent. Unsullied.”
Follow Oz of Thrones on twitter.
REMINDER: Please be mindful of the Unsullied and refrain from any spoilery in the comments!! Not even covered spoilers!
This might count under “missing and miscellaneous”, but I’d be interested to hear which characters you’d like to see back after their season four hiatus/small amount of screentime, and what you think they might have been up to…
ETA: Hodor!
Did I miss something? Where are your thoughts on the topics Oz?
I’ve only come here to hide from the shitstorm raging over the Iron Islands. Just kidding.
I wonder where Nymeria is and if she’ll be seen again. Yeah I know it’s only a direwolf but they’re so symbolic of what happens to their owners, I’d love to see her reappear and mirror what’s going to happen to Arya, whatever that may be.
I have been looking forward (pun not intended) to these posts for a while, and was beginning to wonder if they were going to happen, or not. I concur with ffiferoo about returning characters. I would also think you might be able to get two seperate posts out of Kings lanidng and Donre, but that migth have been your intention anyway.
I’m Sullied, but it can be so interesting to hear what an Unsullied like yourself thinks. Nice to have this featurette back!
Yes.
“Looking Forward Game of Thrones S5, Part 1″
Part 1. It’s a series. This is an intro of sorts.
Not really relvant but thought I should ask it somewhere! Is there a way to move the spoiler tags (the written out ones) to somewhere near the ‘Leave a Reply’ section? It’s an awful long way down in some threads (even with the jump links) so would make more sense to have it near the post writing part?
So, Oz, now that Lysa the lunatic can no longer be your muse due to a gravity issue, who will be next? Dark Sansa (she gets me all tingly)? Magic Mel? Mischievous Marg? Wary Meera? Mysterious Missandei? Virile Varys?
Please, do tell….
I will be interested to read your thoughts on the series going forward – I have enjoyed your posts to date.
Missing and Miscellaneous seems like it’d be a fairly large group. Tyrion/Varys, Brienne/Pod, the Brotherhood without Banners, the still rowing Gendry, the not-dead-until-we-see-a-corpse Hound, the Freys, Edmure, the Blackfish, Lady Olenna…
Definitely a huge fan of this series. I don’t expect them to come out all at once but I do hope as a fan that you get them out reasonably timed (one a week? one every other week?). As I said, just a huge fan of the looking forward series by Oz and glad you’re still doing it! Should be very interesting to see your guesses and speculation as, you said, there’s a lot of change from the end of season 4.
By the way, not like anyone needs this pointed out, but I go on both of the Game of Thrones fan sites. This one gets hundreds of comments per article, the other site struggles to get double digits on most. Really not hard to see why when the other site spends time comparing Walking Dead and Scandal to GoT. What a joke
Ok thanks I see. Looking forward to part 2!
Well, that was a waste of five minutes. Why not just write “I’m after some suggestions for a new series of posts, let me know your ideas”?
Looking forward to this series, Oz is always fun.
Well, if that was a waste of your time, why take even more of your time to comment?
I’m always interested to hear the theories of Unsullied, especially when I enjoy their writing, like I do Oz’s!
Bilbo,
And yet you find it ok to waste another 5 minutes on a disrespectful and largely useless post, good work champ.
On another note, Welcome back OZ, as a sullied your speculations are both welcome and hilarious, where you get some of your left field ideas I have no idea, but i’m glad you share them.
Also, kilos of Bacon and litres of orange juice cure any hangover.
I think his user name should be changed from “Bilbo” to something more along the lines of…oh, I don’t know…Orc?
Imo, there’s no such thing as “just a direwolf.” 🙂
I’d looooooooooove to see Nymeria, again!
I loveeeeeeeeeeee this, please give me more 😉 I love all you suggestions Oz you are amazing…
PD: Sorry for my English
A good framework for the speculation ahead – thx Oz and be sure to include Yara in that missing & misc pile. Now that Westeros has become (Benioff &)Weissteros and, as a book reader I long for a place I shall now call Yesteros, I am missing a label for myself; De-sullied, Purified?
More of the Brienne/Pod meandering through the Seven Kingdoms. In the books she never ran into Arya so it’ll be interesting to see if she continues to look for Sansa – as Jaime asked her to do – or goes to find Arya. She now knows both girls are alive and her promise to Catelyn was to bring both of them home. She’s going to have to decide which daughter to go after and where she plans to take them if she ever finds them.
I think her storyline from the book has been completely derailed since The Hound killed someone who features into Brienne’s storyline and the producers decided not to bring back a certain someone.
And what’s going to happen to Gendry? Will he show up again or was he rowing out of the series for good at the end of 3×10?
I’d probably split the missing and the miscellaneous since there area lot of characters to cover there. Also possibly Kings Landing and Dorne. That said you probably don’t have a lot to go on for Dorne so maybe you can’t. I have always enjoyed you speculation in the past. Sometimes you’re kinda right, sometimes you’re dead on the money and sometimes you’re so far off base it’s hilarious, but your work is always well written and thought out. If I were still unsullied (as we all will be next year) I would happily have you as our blind leader.
…Rickon and Osha, Benjen, Nymeria the direwolf…
HAHAHAHA This had me in stitches:
I could hear the ZING all the way in the North.
Intrigued myself by Brienne has no horse part. Next maybe you could throw us some of your speculation. Bookwalkers are just as the Unsullied on that one. Which means: no idea really.
As a Sullied I would really like to know which storyline are you most looking forward this season Oz. Considering that there’s a chance that all of us might go a bit to the unsullied side this season, I’ll be sure to checkout this series.
Everyone is unsullied now. Every aspect of the show is different from the source material now
Pâté Pate.
Bacon or sausage, and I find tomato juice with salt and pepper (maybe a little hair of the dog mixed in as well) to work the best. Sorry for your pain, Ozette! Looking forward to your musings, Oz!
Oz! So glad to see you back! (Even if you haven’t been cast on the show… )
I’d really like to check in with Gendry, the Brotherhood, and the Blackfish this season. I happen to be sullied, but I’m not a purist. I don’t care if D&D follow the books at all on any of them, I’d just like to see them incorporated back into the narrative.
Happy to know that the Looking Forward series will continue.
Oz, I am interested in your thoughts about Theon and how his story line moves forward.
I am very curious to hear your speculation about Sansa (I’m sullied but as you probably know Sansa is mainly caught up with the books by now)!
Strider,
Yeah, some of these topics have no business being brought up in an Unsullied thread.
Strider,
Shame, Strider, shame! No spoiler tagging in an Oz thread! For punishment, you need to go feed R & V. 🙂
Minor characters I’d like to see, without any clues that point anywhere (yes, I am a Sullied):
1. Balon Greyjoy — Stannis dropped three leeches into the fire. The leeches have successfully taken out two “usurpers.” What about #3?
2. Mord, the gaelor in the Vale — “NO GOLD! NO GOLD!” Aw, who I am kidding, he’s never coming back. I just enjoyed the interactions between arguably the smartest character introduced in the series and the dumbest character.
3. Quaithe – I just love Laura Pradelska and thought she was so perfect in this very minor, oddball part. I’d love to see her again, if only for five minutes.
4. Gendry — Can we have a cold open of him having rowed around the world and ending up at White Walker Day Care (LLC)?
5. The dying farmer – Yes, he’s dead. I would be thrilled, though, if they took Barry McGovern and gave him another 5-minute scene (with some heavy makeup/ a beard) just to capitalize on his greatness.
6. Salladhor Saan – He’s not higher on this list because D&D seem to like giving the people what they want on this one, which is one appearance per season from the great Lucian Msamiti.
7. Ilyn Payne – The assumption had been that he’d been written out after word of Wilko Johnson’s cancer…which he has had a miraculous recovery from. And then in Season 4/Ep 10 we have Tywin saying “Do you think I’d let Ilyn Payne take your head?” So, uh, cameo appearance, folks?
8. The Blackfish! Presumably still on the run.
9. Ellstin Limehouse. Wait, sorry, that’s Justified.
10. Hot Pie, if only so he can keep his streak alive as one of the dwindling number of actors who have appeared in every season. (So far, it looks like it’ll be this: Four Stark children, less Rob/Rickon; 3 Lannister siblings, Tywin Lannister (most likely his corpse in Season 5); the Small Council Triumverate of Baelish/Pycelle/Varys; Jorah and Dany; Meryn Fucking Trant (!); Samwell Tarly; Loras Tyrell; Bronn, various characters played by Ian Whyte, and that’s it, right?
Well written, passionate and relavant piece! Well met Ser Oz of the House Unsullied!
Winter Is Coming/The North Remembers!
Greatjon of Slumber,
Great point about Ilyn Payne. It would be great to see him back even for a small cameo.
Do Reek next, please
Actually, it is a little known fact that Littlefinger comes from the future, as can be seen in this grand little movie…
Greatjon of Slumber,
10. + Theon Greyjoy
Ha Oz, good to see you again.
Good list so far, I agree with you on the Dany part. Here are some other suggestions:
Seperate the Wall and the North. Reek & Ramsay deserve a seperate post.
I know you don’t know much about Dorne, but I would suggest to give them a seperate post as well. Troughout the seasons we have learned of several people that are there (Myrcella, Oberyn’s brother, Oberyn’s daughters, etc).
Give Tyrion and Varys their own post! After all he’s been through, he deserves that much right?
looking forward to your next post!
Also, I’m looking forward again to this series of posts, Oz! Especially now that I’m experiencing a GoT identity crisis: I read the first four books years ago, but am unsure now if I should read ADWD before season 5… After feeling too much spoiled for the tv series the first year, I stayed away from most of the pre-season discussions to have maximal viewing pleasure in-season. However, not reading the fifth book before season 5 will spoil the written story, which I probably still value a bit more. So at the moment I’m pretty much unsullied, but I’m tempted to become fully sullied again…
Ha! If he is complaining about the plot as it is i can only wonder what would he say if he had read the books!
Hey Strider! I’ll be annoying your sycophant ass in here too from now on. Blame it on jentario.
I’m really looking forward to this series (especially “The Wall and the North”, my favourite storylines*), I always love to hear the speculations and ideas of Unsullied!
*Especially next season, with the amazing and wonderful Northern plot from ADWD!
Dolan,
Yes yes yes, win
Tar Kidho,
Read it after season 5, it will be different enough (which would only take away from season 5, not ADWD).
Tar Kidho,
I would not know what to do either, tough call. Since it looks like (as far as we know) there will be a) AFFC b) ADWD c) some TWOW and d) lots of D&D invented material in Season 5 all mixed together, even if you read ADWD you’re still going to have new material in S5… Since I was only Unsullied for Season 1 (which was extremely faithful to AGOT) I never got to experience reading after the season and disentangling things, could be very interesting OR very confusing since AFFC and ADWD are such a disorganized mess anyway…
Dutch maester,
Yep. That’s right.
Tar Kidho,
Ha, so I’m not the only Sullied Unsullied!
I binge-watched the first 3 Seasons, then binge-read the books until S4 started (which makes me more of a series than a book person). I then read and watched S4 simultaneously, but Just.Could.Not stop myself reading ahead, with the result that I knew what was going to happen in the last three episodes…
My opinion: I am never doing that again. I was furious to be cheated of the complete surprise of Oberyn’s almost-win, Tyrion’s murders then escape, Stannis at the Wall… So I’ve bought ADWD but it’s going to stay on my shelf till AFTER S5.
As you say you’re still more of a book reader, that may absolutely not be the thing to do for you, but for me, I’ve chosen my side of the fence 😛
Bronn For King,
Lol if it takes you 5 minutes to write that single sentence, I feel bad for you
A Girl Will Obey,
That was well explained, thanks! Can I ask, did you have trouble keeping straight what was going on at any point if you read the books after having seen the show and there were major changes? (I mean, from what it sounds like, we are going to be getting the biggest changes ever so far in Season 5, but still) Or were you able to keep everything straight?
Great post as always Oz!
I’m really interested in Dorne and whatever is going to happen there. Also great to finally see a region from Westeros we haven’t seen before.
And looking forward to the North storyline. Hopefully the Boltons get what’s coming to them.
Old rules still apply: anything to do with the books that we haven’t seen on the show, no matter how obvious you think it is at this point, that post is getting deleted. Same goes for posts with spoiler coding.
Sue the Fury,
I did that to point out there’s some things that should not be in the thread, Sue. King in the North understood right of the bat. Nothing says Sullied as spoiler coding. Jumps right out in a thread, you don’t even have to read the posts. Won’t be doing it again 😉
@Oz, out of curiosity, how many of the season 5 pictures that keep being posted on WOTW have you actually seen? Because obviously, lots of them are quite spoiler-y in nature and I wonder how many of them would unsully your sulliedness. Unless of course, you’ve somehow managed to avoid them, even as a moderator…?
Oz doesn’t moderate posts other than his own, in general.
God I’ve missed these, looking forward to your thoughts on where the shitstorm will hit next.
PS: Not really a hangover cure, but more of a trick. Before going to sleep, I know it’s hard to remember, but drink a full glass of water. It will slow the deshydration process on your body that the alcohol started and thus, ease your next morning.
sword swallower hahahahha
Jaime’s girl,
Lol. I experienced major confusion as to what had happened, not yet happened, had been changed, and in which format, yes. Got it all straight now as it seems to have settled in my mind over time…
Not sure if there’s a right/better way of doing it. Anyway, haunting this site means I’m spoilt for a few more events to come, as I’m no good at not reading posts or not looking at photos that give hints to S5. But I just can’t keep away.
Tar Kidho,
I flew through AFFC and ADWD. About a third of the way through AFFC, I realized I was reading far too quickly and was missing a lot of detail. I already knew I’d reread, so decided not to slow down and just get the broad brush strokes my first time through. I had intended on a reread around now, but started thinking maybe it would be better to wait. The more time that goes by, the more firm I become on not rereading, right now. I think it will keep me more fully immersed in what is happening on the screen, as opposed to going, hmmm, I wonder why they did that…or, hmmm, that’s different. So, for my two cents, I’d hold off on reading ADWD until the season is over. That way you can just enjoy the show as the show, then go back and read and notice the changes without them taking you out of what you’re watching on screen.
Jeb,
lol I’m glad someone caught that
I like the shot of Huisman that’s newly in the Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/AngelaPeMay/status/526405599886839808/photo/1
He’s just trying to go to work, and he’s got multidirectional camera assault on unwashed hair and a striped shirt.
A Girl Will Obey,
Haha cool 🙂 Yeah it seems impossible not to have things confused at some point (or I feel like I’m constantly in that state, anyway!)
I think we’re all going to be in that position anyway when Season 6 comes out so we might as well get used to it 😉
Tar Kidho,
Oh also – when you read AFFC/ DWD, be sure to combine the two books and use Boiled Leather order of chapters. It is a MUCH improved read that way!
From what I’ve read about Wilko Johnson, it’s less that he has made a miraculous recovery, and more that he is recovering (which is miraculous). It’s still a work in progress, last I heard. He now feels he can consider the possibility of one day appearing on GoT again, but I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon. Maybe in another year, or two?
Freakin Kevan Lannister… Introduced in Season 1, small role in Season 2… disappeared in Season 3 and 4.
Ridiculous if you consider how important he becomes now that
is gone.
Ser Matt the Sullen,
Did you not read the thing about spoilers…?
Littlefinger has a TARDIS.
Don’t forget you can vote for Game of Thrones (and for Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke individually) on the People’s Choice Awards website! It’s preliminary voting right now up til Nov 4th I think. If you love GoT, show them some love! 🙂
This is OT, but I just saw Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane) in a great role in a film called Force Majeure…awesome film, and KH actually has awesome comedic timing in a very silly, self-deprecating role.
Also spotted at my local film fest: Lord Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer, that is) in the spectacular British/Irish thriller ” ’71 “. Which had a great Irish cast, some of whom would be great addition to GoT. How come Sean Harris was never cast on this show? Seems like a major oversight to me.
Sue the Fury,
I understand that…but does he read or see the other headlines posted? Like, when you or someone else posts a picture that is captioned with ‘X was spotted filming with Z!’ I wonder if Oz sees that? (Granted, these days, many pictures are spoilers for all of us, not just those who are Unsullied.)
?
John,
We said no spoilers!!!!!!
😛
Bilbo,
I think you have misconstrued Oz’s feature. Are you new to this site? Oz did give 8 suggestions for his articles which is more than enough to fill the six months until April 2015 when (probably) season 5 of GoT will air. Oz wrote some speculative articles last year on a site which shall not be named. People have previously mentioned possible story-lines that they would like Oz to consider, so I think what Oz was doing was pre-empting suggestions that might be made after he has commenced his series of articles proper (the above being an introduction). There are always “haters” who are “gonna hate” but I believe there are more people who follow this site who enjoy Oz’s writings than vice versa. Oz has a talent for being both thoughtful and amusing – a number of people can write a thoughtful article as there are also those who can come up with a witty one, but not so many manage to demonstrate both attributes.
I’m glad I read the books first, so I wasn’t cheated of the surprise of all these things happening in the books.
Especially since so many of them (Tyrion’s murders, Sansa’s forced marriage, the burning of Winterfell and Theon’s capture, Jon going over to the wildlings/Quorin’s death…) were so much better done in the books. I wouldn’t have minded if I had seen Ned’s death, the hatching of the dragons, Dany in Astapor or the Jaime/Brienne’s bath scene in the show first, since those things were really well done. But they were also excellent in the books; knowing what happens didn’t take away anything when I saw them on screen.
I agree about the Wall and the North. Separate locations, and there are lots of major characters in both of them now, especially at the Wall.
A Girl Will Obey,
Yeah, I didn’t want to read the books at first for pretty much the same reason. I didn’t want to know what was going to happen.
I soon came to realize, however, that it’s difficult to read or watch anything GOT-related online without worrying about spoilers… So, I read through the books this May, ’cause I was sick of having to avoid spoilers all the time.
Yeah, I know what’s going to happen now, but at least I can go anywhere online now without worrying about GOT being spoiled for me (plus now I can see the reactions of my Unsullied family!)
Objectively, I would say the books are definitely better. They are better-written, have more depth to them, and they tell a much larger story…
And yet, oddly enough, I feel much more emotionally invested in the show.
I like this site better than the last one
Hey everyone! Please a excuse a man’s silence.
SirSquinty,
Obviously I do see most of the headline photos, but never go beyond the cut especially when notarized by this great staff as “spoilery”. The only plots I may have been exposed to thus far for S5 is a big scene involving Cersei (by no fault of this site) and the fact that Aidan was seen where KL filming is taking place (which in all honesty, was no big surprise). Oh, and No Hodor.
I am also highly unqualified to moderate. These guys and gals do a great job of keeping me away from spoilery discussions that go on and are a great group of professionals. I am able to help out with the technical support aspect.
ProfessorArtNerd,
LOL. You think a kickstarter campaign could make it happen?
Bronn For King,
The bacon was effective. It’s like duct tape for your stomach.
Greg,
Hey, i live in New Zealand, it takes longer than you would think to morse code a message to Australia to be posted
Game of Thrones posted some artwork on Facebook of a wolf howling at the moon with the tag line “The North Remembers…”
A massive part of me hopes this is a hint for what’s to come in season 5… I’m sure it’s just wishful thinking though.
Waxfoot,
This is the wrong thread for story discussions but could you please provide a link?
still angry we haven’t seen the Great Jon since season 1 🙁
Thanks guys and galls for your thoughts on my unsullification issue. Since I do value the books more than the series, I will probably re-read AFFC and read for the first time ADWD.
Great, that definitely sounds interesting, since the first time around reading AFFC was not a great pleasure with the missing POV characters. I found the unsullied-friendly version here in case someone else is interested.
Hi Oz,
It’s great to see the Looking Forwards continuing; I’ve missed them!
So where the hell is Oz??? =)