Shipyards added to the Game of Thrones location roster; more sightings!

shipyards

ElCorreo reports today that a new location has been announced for Game of Thrones season 7 filming in Spain. According to the publication, it has been confirmed by Fresco Films via Europa Press that Las Atarazanas, the Royal Dockyards of Seville, are joining the locations roster.

The location is a medieval shipyard, Gothic in design, built in the 13th century on the order of Ferdinand III of Castile. The warehouses of the dockyard have survived intact over the centuries. They’re located just a few minutes away from the Real Alcázar of Seville, which has served as a shooting location for the past two seasons.

And what purpose will the Royal Dockyards serve? That’s left up to speculation currently. We certainly have characters on Game of Thrones who are working with a lot of ships at the moment- Daenerys and her crew, for example, but the location doesn’t necessarily have to be used as a shipyard. The aged atmosphere of the space could be some other stop on Dany’s journey, or part of Oldtown for example.

In other filming news, the sightings continue in Belfast, Northern Ireland with the beginning of season 7 filming.

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While Jessica Henwick arrived in the city this weekend:

Will Ellaria and the other Sand Snakes be close behind?

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

98 Comments

  1. That is an amazingly cool building! Can’t wait to see it used in the show (since its unlikely I’ll ever get to travel there).

  2. This place looks awesome- my first thoughts are the Dragonpit, due to the sheer scale of the space. I was in Seville in July (beautiful city).. Looks like I’ll need to go back once the show wraps and check these new locations out.

  3. Off topic, but I remembered a scene D&D were talking about writing for season 7 that involved a huge parade through the King’s Landing which was originally conceived as a scene in a small room. What could it be and what characters would it involve?

    The way they talked about it seemed like the KL was still intact and untouched by fire at that moment.
    If that’s the case does it mean the parade takes place before Dany arrives or after and if so does it actually mean that Dany managed to take KL without setting the city on fire with her dragons or without Cersei going full Mad King on the city with wildfire?

    Do we have any hints to help us figure out or predict this scene?

  4. The vaulted ceilings are stunning. My first instinct was something in Oldtown at the Citadel.

    Seville is a beautiful city (I visited in 2011, a few years before GoT started filming there) and it lends itself well to the pseudo-medieval setting of the show. I can’t wait to see what it is used for – perhaps when Spanish filming gets underway we might get a better idea what it will be used for based on who is in the area.

  5. Jack Bauer 24,

    Amazing news mate, digging all the info ^^
    Filming looks really intense, just by all the new locations I think we are going to be in for a treat next summer.

  6. Last week Keisha Castle Hughes confirmed at Amsterdam Comic Con the Sandsnakes are back in season 7.
    So yup…

  7. Alba Stark: The vaulted ceilings are stunning. My first instinct was something in Oldtown at the Citadel.

    They certainly are. The fact that they are still intact, standing since the 13th century without any pillars or girders, attests to how sturdy and stable an architectural form that is. I truly wouldn’t mind seeing it revived by contemporary architects!

    On another note, it’s amusing to see that both John and Isaac are wearing North Face jackets. I wonder if they were compliments of the manufacturer. Surely all the tee-shirts and things saying stuff like ‘The North Remembers’ styled like the North Face logo aren’t doing their business any harm.

  8. steffan:
    Off topic, but I remembered a scene D&D were talking about writing for season 7 that involved a huge parade through the King’s Landing which was originally conceived as a scene in a small room. What could it be and what characters would it involve?

    A wedding, a funeral or a coronation.
    I don’t know which one scares me the most 🙂

  9. Rhaenys Stark:
    Jack Bauer 24,

    Arya in King’s Landing confirmed?

    Maisie heading to Croatia (if it’s for filming) does give me the unfortunate sense that Arya will be heading south instead of north. Argh.

    Flayed Potatoes:
    Euron could use a shipyard too.

    Waiting for some Northern news….

    He certainly could but the architecture of the shipyard gives off more of a southern Westeros vibe rather than the dark, damp feel of the Iron Islands.

    Yeah, me too. Aside from Iceland, have we even gotten any other possible location news for the north? All of these locations seem to be for Dany’s storyline, so far. I hope the lack of news is because they’ll start filming the Northern storyline later, and not because it’s going to get reduced screentime.

  10. So Isaac and Ellie are the only two from northern storylines to have been spotted. Other than Littlefinger who will probably be filming scenes in the Vale. Wonder what Bran and Meera are doing that doesnt require waiting for the colder darker weather.

  11. BunBunStark,

    Well, Liam is still in Syria. So who knows when they will start with the northern storyline.
    Even though, it’s been only a week since filming started. So it doesn’t really have to mean a reduced screentime or anything like that. Besides, even Emilia has yet to reach Belfast, surprisingly.

    As for Maisie, I read somewhere that she was in Pula for some Outlook festival this past weekend. No idea if that’s true.

  12. BunBunStark:

    Aside from Iceland, have we even gotten any other possible location news for the north? All of these locations seem to be for Dany’s storyline, so far. I hope the lack of news is because they’ll start filming the Northern storyline later, and not because it’s going to get reduced screentime.

    I tend to think that the idea behind extending the filming window into January/February was to have the wintry exterior shots filmed then. I would guess that the southernmost exterior scenes (in terms of southern Westeros, that is!) will be shot first, with the likes of the north – in which winter is going to be harsher – being shot later on in the calendar when the weather best matches the look they are after.

    Mary:
    So Isaac and Ellie are the only two from northern storylines to have been spotted. Other than Littlefinger who will probably be filming scenes in the Vale. Wonder what Bran and Meera are doing that doesnt require waiting for the colder darker weather.

    IF they are going to make it through to the other side of the Wall (which I think they will do) there will likely be interior shots that they could do earlier on in the schedule.

  13. Mary,

    “Wonder what Bran and Meera are doing that doesnt require waiting for the colder darker weather.”

    Most likely they’ll pass through the Wall and have a scene or two with Edd.

    BunBunStark,

    I doubt Euron is only staying in the Iron Islands, so he could definitely make it to Oldtown. I want him and Cersei to hook up. That couple would be such a hot mess.

  14. BunBunStark,

    Well most of the location news we get is from Spain so obviously that’s going to be the south.The north shoots mostly in Northern Ireland and we know of Iceland but that’s going to be in January.Plus there are six months of filming so there is plenty of time and it stands to reason that if they want winter it is going to start later.The screentime is going to be same or even higher because there are less storylines in general.I remember last year when Sophie and Lena weren’t spotted filming much and people thought of a reduced time but it was clearly not the case

  15. I’m pretty sure the mountain is going to kill at least one of the dragons during battle like the story of that guy smashing ones head with a hammer. Surely dude wasnt even close to being a mountain either.

  16. ghost of winterfell:
    BunBunStark,

    Even though, it’s been only a week since filming started. So it doesn’t really have to mean a reduced screentime or anything like that. Besides, even Emilia has yet to reach Belfast, surprisingly.

    You’re right, it doesn’t have to mean much of anything yet.

    I do wonder if there was any actual filming done last week. It’s possible all these sightings are just the cast going in for fittings and readings and getting their accommodations in order. Because the lack of Emilia, Kit, Sophie, Liam, and Maisie makes me doubt filming is in actuall full swing yet. That’s why I don’t want to read too much into Aidan Gillen, of the WF cast, being the only one spotted in Belfast.

    Flayed Potatoes:
    Mary,

    Most likely they’ll pass through the Wall and have a scene or two with Edd.

    I would love a few scenes between those 3. I can already imagine Edd’s bewilderment at Jon Snow’s brother appearing from beyond the Wall.

    Flayed Potatoes:
    BunBunStark,

    I doubt Euron is only staying in the Iron Islands, so he could definitely make it to Oldtown. I want him and Cersei to hook up. That couple would be such a hot mess.

    Gods, wouldn’t they?! My head tells me a coalition of Cersei and Euron can only mean more suffering for the common people, but dammit, the batshit crazy would be so fun to watch too.

  17. Mary:
    Other than Littlefinger who will probably be filming scenes in the Vale.

    Why would he be in the Vale? The Vale’s armies have moved north, and so has Littlefinger’s storyline.

  18. Sean C.: Why would he be in the Vale?The Vale’s armies have moved north, and so has Littlefinger’s storyline.

    Because of Robin Arryn? I don’t think we have nearly enough info to say Littlefinger will or will not return to the Vale, but the fact that his Lord is still in the Vale might be reason enough for LF to go to there for a scene or 2. I can’t imagine the Lord of the Vale can be completely disregarded and I don’t think he’d be allowed to leave the safety of the Vale to go North. So I think the possibility exists that LF may return to the Vale at some point in S7.

  19. Jenny: The screentime is going to be same or even higher because there are less storylines in general.

    Fewer.

    – Stannis the One True Grammarian

    (Sorry, can never resist an opportunity to do this!)

  20. BunBunStark,

    I can already imagine Edd’s bewilderment at Jon Snow’s brother appearing from beyond the Wall.

    This is a bit of an understatement I’d say. Rather, everyone’s bewilderment at the rightful heir to Winterfell who was assumed dead years ago somehow miraculously surviving years of starvation and near freezing to death in the most dangerous place on earth all while being severely disabled, and now has magical powers/is technically a God. Will be very interesting to see indeed.

  21. Does anybody else find it funny that in that picture with Alfie, there’s the words “Emergency life saving equipment” in the background?

    And, damn NCW is gorgeous! 😀

  22. Sean C.,

    My understanding is that Littlefinger only brought the Knights of the Vale to the North, there were no foot soldiers from the Vale in the Battle of the Bastards. Considering the Vale stayed out of the War of the Five Kings, I would imagine the Vale could raise an army of around 20,000 soldiers. So considering Littlefinger wants to be king, I imagine he will want the full strength of the Vale at some point and most likely he would need to go back to the Eryie, to get Robin Arryn’s approval.

  23. Didn’t know Isaac and John were friends. John should probably watch out though, poor isaac all his friends in the cast keep getting killed off

  24. BunBunStark,
    I agree wholeheartedly with you on this.
    I am not quite certain any of the “major players” got any shooting done yet. Maybe everyone is just showing up in their own sweet time, getting nicely ready. Enjoying gorgeous Belfast before real hardcore work gets underway. 😉

    Mary,
    Cersei is completely “unleashed”, so to speak, so she may very well be tempted to attack the Vale. Or anyone else for that matter. ^^

    However, the Vale is quasi-impregnable by land. The Bloody Gate is one hell of a protection in this regard. The only way into Eagle Land would be by sea, I would think. : invade Gull Town and spread out… Does Cersei have the navy necessary to go ahead with such an ambitious plan ? Perhaps but it seems somewhat unlikely.
    Were she to attempt something against the Vale, she would probably do so to weaken Littlefinger, the traitor who promised her Sansa’s head on a spike yet just declared for House Stark. Having SweetRobin killed could do the trick : Baelish’s control of the Vale is entirely rooted in his influence over its heir. No heir, no influence… I am not sure it would actually work but I can fathom Cersei coming up with something like that.

    As far as a full-on, military attack is concerned, my money is still on the Riverlands : it shares a wide, land fronteer with the Crownlands so the royal army can just march in without much hassle; it is on the way to the North; Walder Frey’s death created a power vacuum; and last but not least, a Tully resurgence is entirely in the cards.
    If Cersei is still as eager to see her redhaired enemy’s head detached from the rest of her body as Jaime said so, attacking Sansa’s maternal family may be a good strategy to bait her out of the inaccessible North.

    PS Gorgeous location ! Architecturally, it would fit the south, broadly speaking (Reach or Dorne). No idea what it could be used for though.

    PS 2 The Sand Snakes are back… I shall rejoice as long as they share all their scenes with Lady Olenna ^^

  25. Kit’s in Montreal filming the Death and Life of John F. Donovan. The reason production was delayed was to catch the different light in Belfast and Iceland, which is only really changing now. My guess is northern stuff will start filming later.

  26. Sam:
    BunBunStark,

    This is a bit of an understatement I’d say. Rather, everyone’s bewilderment at the rightful heir to Winterfell who was assumed dead years ago somehow miraculously surviving years of starvation and near freezing to death in the most dangerous place on earth all while being severely disabled, and now has magical powers/is technically a God. Will be very interesting to see indeed.

    I wonder if Bran will tell Edd exactly who he is. If Bran reaches the Castle Black side of the Wall only to be told that Jon isn’t there, he may try to hide his identity as he did at Craster’s. That said, Edd was among those at Craster’s, so perhaps he would recognize him? Either way, I wouldn’t be shocked if Bran tried to pretend he was Meera’s brother or something. Yes, Edd would likely be suspicious – given that this boy is apparently unable to walk (as Bran is) – but did Jon and Sam tell anyone that Bran had gone beyond the Wall? Meera and Bran could concoct some story about Bran falling off his horse. It will be interesting to see if Bran trusts Edd – and how much each of them tell the other.

  27. Melanie,

    Kit was spotted with Rose at the airport in NYC catching a flight to London.
    He ended filming the first leg of john donovan. The second part will be filmed next year in London.

  28. Alba Stark: I wouldn’t be shocked if Bran tried to pretend he was Meera’s brother or something.Yes, Edd would likely be suspicious – given that this boy is apparently unable to walk (as Bran is) – but did Jon and Sam tell anyone that Bran had gone beyond the Wall?

    Yeah, the possibility that Bran won’t reveal his true identity has crossed my mind. He and Meera are dressed as Wildlings afterall, so they could pretend to be survivors fleeing from the White Walkers. Considering Sam knew Jon’s brother “fell from the window”, I think it’s safe to say Edd would know the story too but I don’t think he was privy to the news of Bran going beyond the Wall.

    I really hope the writers don’t go that route though. Because 1) I want to see Edd’s WTF reaction to the reappearance of Bran Stark and 2) it seems like unnecessary plotpoint to delay the Bran/Jon/Sansa reunion in an already shortened season. I just want Bran to get to CB, tell Edd who he is, Edd to tell him his siblings are at WF, send a raven to WF, Jon and Sansa go get their long-lost brother, and I get another tearful Stark reunion. Is that too much to ask for, show??

  29. Alba Stark,

    If Bran reaches the Castle Black side of the Wall only to be told that Jon isn’t there, he may try to hide his identity as he did at Craster’s.

    Bran can probably use his powers to see whats going on at Winterfell/The Wall before he even gets there so I think he would know that the North belongs to the ‘Starks’ again. The only reason I can think Bran would want to still hide his identity is as a precaution against some of the unsavory personalities that might be at Castle Black who would want him dead/hold him ransom for whatever reason. But I dont think d&d think too hard about that kind of stuff so Bran will probably just tell Edd who he is without giving it a second thought.

    That said, Edd was among those at Craster’s, so perhaps he would recognize him?

    Well, Edd never saw Bran at Craster’s. Nobody did. And anybody that for some reason knew what he looked like when he was younger would probably not be able to recognize him now. I wonder if his own siblings will even recognize him at first.

    but did Jon and Sam tell anyone that Bran had gone beyond the Wall?

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think (in the show) Jon’s reasoning for going to Craster’s Keep was because he suspected Bran might be there. So I’m sure he must have told the others in the Watch to keep an eye out for him too.

  30. Alba Stark,

    It will be interesting to see if Bran trusts Edd – and how much each of them tell the other.

    I want to know if Bran will tell him who he is, not just his name but that he’s the 3 Eyed Raven. And will Edd or anyone else believe him? In the books I know wargs and those sort of supernatural type people are feared and hated by westerosi people. I dont remember if the show has touched on this at all. I’m very excited to see how magic becomes more central to the main plot of the show and to other characters.

  31. Sam:
    Alba Stark,

    Bran can probably use his powers to see whats going on at Winterfell/The Wall before he even gets there so I think he would know that the North belongs to the ‘Starks’ again. The only reason I can think Bran would want to still hide his identity is as a precaution against some of the unsavory personalities that might be at Castle Black who would want him dead/hold him ransom for whatever reason. But I dont think d&d think too hard about that kind of stuff so Bran will probably just tell Edd who he is without giving it a second thought.

    Well, Edd never saw Bran at Craster’s. Nobody did. And anybody that for some reason knew what he looked like when he was younger would probably not be able to recognize him now. I wonder if his own siblings will even recognize him at first.

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think (in the show) Jon’s reasoning for going to Craster’s Keep was because he suspected Bran might be there. So I’m sure he must have told the others in the Watch to keep an eye out for him too.

    Sorry I wasn’t clear – I meant that Bran might have seen Edd at Craster’s and recognize him as someone who had fought alongside Jon there.

    I never thought of Bran using his powers – it might depend on whether or not he saw anything else through the weirwood tree before he heads to the Wall.

    Mary:
    Alba Stark,

    I want to know if Bran will tell him who he is, not just his name but that he’s the 3 Eyed Raven. And will Edd or anyone else believe him? In the books I know wargs and those sort of supernatural type people are feared and hated by westerosi people. I dont remember if the show has touched on this at all. I’m very excited to see how magic becomes more central to the main plot of the show and to other characters.

    Yeah, I am curious as to what he tells people too. I think that he will definitely tell Jon and Sansa if/when he meets up with them, but as to what he tells anyone else – there has to be a limit to 1) what he thinks people will believe and 2) how far he wants this information to spread.

    BunBunStark: Yeah, the possibility that Bran won’t reveal his true identity has crossed my mind. He and Meera are dressed as Wildlings afterall, so they could pretend to be survivors fleeing from the White Walkers. Considering Sam knew Jon’s brother “fell from the window”, I think it’s safe to say Edd would know the story too but I don’t think he was privy to the news of Bran going beyond the Wall.

    I really hope the writers don’t go that route though. Because 1) I want to see Edd’s WTF reaction to the reappearance of Bran Stark and 2) it seems like unnecessary plotpoint to delay the Bran/Jon/Sansa reunion in an already shortened season. I just want Bran to get to CB, tell Edd who he is, Edd to tell him his siblings are at WF, send a raven to WF, Jon and Sansa go get their long-lost brother, and I get another tearful Stark reunion. Is that too much to ask for, show??

    I really hope that Bran will confess his true identity also. I think that it would be great to see Edd’s reaction – and I wonder if Bran would ‘fess up if Edd gave him the rundown on what has happened to Jon over the season and a bit. That said, I think that given the information he is in possession of, Bran will want to go south as soon as possible. I think he will go to Jon and Sansa rather than them going to him; aside from anything else, I think that the Wall will be breached in season seven (probably towards or at the end of the season) and that Jon will be at Winterfell when this happens.

  32. Old Nan’s Pie:
    7 hells, not the Sand Snakes please.

    I want to encounter Sarella Sand in Oldtown, disguised as a boy so she can learn the secrets of the Maesters! Since her mother was a Summer Islander, it would be a perfect role for Lupita Nyong’o, who was hinting a while back that she’d really, really like to be cast in GoT.

    Other than her, I wish that the Sand Snakes would just slither quietly away.

  33. Jenny,

    Yes, the screentime will be higher in s7.

    Storylines at the start of s6:

    1. Tyrion
    2. Dany
    3. Jorah and Daario
    4. Arya
    5. Bran
    6. Jon
    7. Sansa
    8. Iron Islands
    9. Dorne (2 scenes)
    10. Cersei
    11. Ramsay
    12. Sam
    13. Jaime (later)
    14. The Hound (later)

    At the start of s7

    1. KL
    2. The North
    3. Bran
    4. Dany and Tyrion
    5. Arya(I think that BwB and Brienne will in some way be part of this storyline)
    6. Sam
    7. Euron(he will become part of some other storyline very soon)

  34. BunBunStark,
    Sam,
    While I would love nothing more than to witness Edd’s WTF reaction to Bran’s tales while they are both waiting for the eldest Stark siblings to show up and reunite with their baby brother, I do not think we can disregard the possible effects Bran’s crossing of the Wall would have on said Wall…

    Bran, to the best of our understanding, is still “marked” and, as Benjen pointed out, the Wall is, in part at least, held together by spells. Will Bran’s crossing “simply” break the spells, in the same fashion as what happened to the Three-Eyed Raven’s lair, or will it have a physical, immediately visible effect on the Wall ? Could it start melting, eroding, creeking or would it downright crumble ?
    If anything “obvious” happens to the Wall, I doubt the ensuing panic will leave much time for a conversation between Bran and anyone. ^^

    mau,
    Very true. And all those seven storylines are bound to interconnect at some point : Euron with Dany and Tyrion; Dany/Tyrion and King’s Landing (eventually); Arya and either the North or King’s Landing; Sam and the North at some point; Bran and the North; King’s Landing and the North possibly; etc.

  35. Sam:
    Alba Stark,

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think (in the show) Jon’s reasoning for going to Craster’s Keep was because he suspected Bran might be there. So I’m sure he must have told the others in the Watch to keep an eye out for him too.

    Nah, Jon’s explicit reason was to dispose of Karl and Co before Mance could get to them and torture information about the NW’s true numbers out of them. It was only to Sam that he proposed the idea that Bran may have sought shelter at Craster’s. Of course, once the mutineers had been killed Jon didn’t even bother to look around for any evidence of Bran, LOL.

  36. mau,

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam becomes part of another storyline as well.

    Bran will also most likely become part of The North storyline. The BwB and Brienne are also headed North.

    Curious to see where Arya goes.

  37. BunBunStark,

    To be fair, the show included a scene where the Night’s Watch was rounding up the bodies and counting them (before Ghost appeared), so it’s likely they would have looked for any signs of Bran and didn’t find anything.

  38. Yaga,

    I lived in Pula for 2 years during the mid 90s, it’s a beautiful city on the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, and yes the Arena is an amphitheater from the Roman occupation, well Istria used to belong to them and some parts of it still have a big Italian speaking population. It could just be a personal trip for Maisie, I don’t see GoT crew using Pula for filming, it doesn’t have a whole lot of ancient structures besides the Arena.

  39. One truth and two lies … or are they??:

    * Maisie Williams was in Pula for the Outlook Festival, as suggested above. Of course, this neither proves nor disproves whether she will also film in Croatia.

    * The first episode of season 7 will be entitled “Seven Sand Snakes for Seven Brothers”. It is known.

    * Looking for a suitably unhinged place to attack, Cersei will decide to attack Bear Island. Cue staring contest with Lyanna Mormont.

  40. BunBunStark,

    Of course, once the mutineers had been killed Jon didn’t even bother to look around for any evidence of Bran, LOL.

    This really really really REALLY bothers me. And jon never mentioned Bran ever again. I dont understand why Jon had to find out Bran was alive in the first place if they were just going to have him forget about it.

  41. Rhaenys Stark,

    Thank you for this! Missing some Jon Snow/Kit Harington news lately so this will do for now. 🙂 BTW, the Emmy’s is just less than 2 weeks away so there’s that to look forward to.

  42. Sam:
    BunBunStark,

    This really really really REALLY bothers me. And jon never mentioned Bran ever again. I dont understand why Jon had to find out Bran was alive in the first place if they were just going to have him forget about it.

    When Jon and Sansa reunited, I hoped that they would talk about Arya, Bran, and Rickon (and maybe how to find them). However, the show needed to focus on something else (i.e., the retaking of WF). We can just assume that somehow they talked about them but was just not shown to us, the audience. I’m curious to see if they will plan to look for Bran and Arya now that they’ve taken back their home.

  43. Sam: When Jon and Sansa reunited, I hoped that they would talk about Arya, Bran, and Rickon (and maybe how to find them). However, the show needed to focus on something else (i.e., the retaking of WF). We can just assume that somehow they talked about them but was just not shown to us, the audience. I’m curious to see if they will plan to look for Bran and Arya now that they’ve taken back their home.

    I was so looking forward to that conversation, so imagine my disappointment when instead we got a conversation about Old Nan’s kidney pies and watched Sansa take a swig of ale. It’s perplexing to me that Jon hasn’t even mentioned Arya since S1. At least Sansa has, and Arya has mentioned all of her siblings (she even wanted to go to the Wall before sailing to Braavos), but from Jon there’s been nothing. As much as I would love to see Jon and Sansa formulate a plan to look for their 2 remaining siblings, I won’t set myself up for disappointment again. I won’t be surprised if Bran and Arya continue to be the elephants in the room until they are actually knocking at the gates of Winterfell.

  44. ghost of winterfell: As for Maisie, I read somewhere that she was in Pula for some Outlook festival this past weekend. No idea if that’s true.

    Pretty sure she’s on her own time in Croatia, judging from her social media posts. Also, Sophie is in Venice at the film festival (as of yesterday, anyway). Also, I think Kit and Rose were spotted in NY this weekend. Kind of surprised to see Alfie on set and Emilia by her own Instagram posts, nowhere near arriving.

  45. BunBunStark,

    I know what you mean! In the books (sorry for mentioning the books!), Jon would often think about his siblings. If I remember correctly, the reason he didn’t want to be legitimized in the book was because he didn’t want to take away from his siblings their right to their home. On the show, that reason was not mentioned and they just focused on Jon’s conviction to stay committed to his NW oath. I would love for all four of them to get happily reunited but this is GOT so I’m not holding my breath either.

  46. Sam,

    Sansa mentioned to Jon that they need to take back Winterfell not just for themselves, but for Arya, Bran and Rickon, wherever they are. Unfortunately, I think we have to assume that all conversation about long lost siblings has already happened off-screen.

  47. Jack Bauer 24:
    https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ_lKY-j6Pv/

    Alfie’s back in London.

    Grosssss, jellied eels.

    See, this is why I’m not convinced the main cast is filming yet. Besides the fact that half of them have yet to arrive in Belfast, the ones that have are only in town for a day or two before taking off. Which is why I don’t wanna play the guessing game of who Aiden is filming with or who Peter/Tyrion is sharing scenes with if not Emilia/Dany.

  48. BunBunStark,
    I understand the disappointment but to be fair to Jon, by joining the Night’s Watch, he symbolically had to forsake his blood family… To the best of my understanding, this is what the Night’s Watch is : a brotherhood which, for all intents and purposes, severs and replaces any family ties its members might have had prior to joining and forbids them to create new ones outside of it (they cannot take wives or father children).
    As a “crow”, Jon’s duty and allegiance were to his brothers of the Watch, not to the Starks, no matter what emotional connection he maintained towards the latter (the books makes that more evident, as Sam wrote). He could not have spent any of the brotherhood’s ressources on searching for / protecting his missing relatives for it would have been a betrayal of the Watch’s mission.
    That is why it was so poetically ironic that the end of his watch, hence his departure from the Night’s Watch “family”, and the Starks’ (through Sansa) return into his life coincided so perfectly : he switched families again. And it takes some time to adjust 😉

    As for Bran and Arya, I too would love for Jon and Sansa to mention them or to attempt to find them. However, there is objectively very little they can do. They do not even know for sure that their siblings are still alive, said siblings have been pretty good at avoiding detection for the past 5-6 years and tracking them would require an intelligence network the Starks do not have.
    The best thing they could do was take back Winterfell, as ghost of winterfell alluded to. Now, the Starks have “headquarters”, for lack of a better word, and everybody knows about it. I would imagine Jon and Sansa’s reasoning is that, if their siblings are still out there, they will eventually hear about Winterfell now being a safe haven and come back.

  49. ACME,

    My disappointed isn’t in Jon forsaking the Starks for the NW because while he was loyal to the NW, there was no doubt a part of his heart still belonged to the Starks. He mentioned Robb, Ned, and even Bran often enough, and referred to Benjen as his uncle – not as the First Ranger. It wasn’t a secret he still loved his family or that he hated Roose Bolton for killing Robb. Nor am I disappointed that he didn’t use the NW resources to look for his missing siblings.

    My disappointment is that Jon, after S1, never mentioned the sister he was closest to. Which I can reluctantly forgive because there’s no way the show could convey all the times he thought of her like he does in the books. What baffles and annoys me is that after he decided to leave the NW and he tells Edd he’s going “south”, he says it’s to “get warm”. I believe my immediate reaction to that was “are you shitting me?!” Would it have killed the writers to have him say “Well, my sisters were last seen somewhere down south, perhaps I’ll go have a look around and ask if anyone has any idea where they might be”? And even after he and Sansa are reunited, we’re denied hearing the conversation where they share the info they have on their 3 missing siblings. All we got was Sansa’s line about WF belonging to Bran, Arya, and Rickon “wherever they are”. Apparently the writers thought the audience would love to hear about Old Nan’s pies instead.

    After their reunion, I understood why Jon and Sansa put any thoughts of Bran and Arya on the backburner since they had the more pressing issue of saving Rickon. Even after they reclaimed WF, I didn’t expect them to mention Bran and Arya either since they were dealing with Mel, Davos, LF, and the Northern lords. BUT I don’t think the writers can realistically continue to have Jon and Sansa not talk about Bran and Arya onscreen. Something like: “we couldn’t save Rickon but maybe we should send a few bannermen to the Eyrie to look for Arya”. They can decide it would be fruitless anyway and simply wait for Bran and Arya to come to them, like you said. A minute conversation is all I need to reassure me that Jon and Sansa haven’t given up on Bran and Arya. C’mon, writers, throw a girl a bone.

  50. I imagined Jessica Henwick would be too busy with Iron Fist. She has a very small role in GOT so it would make sense to just end her contract with GOT.

  51. BunBunStark,
    To me, Jon “going somewhere warm” indicated that Jon actually did forget about his Stark family. A long time ago. He moved on, to more important things, like the impending Apocalypse… or he thought so. Until Sansa came and reminded him, either way.

    And I think concentrating on the Apocalypse and not on a person who might have been dead for years would have been the sane thing to do, too.

    And the situation hasn’t changed much since the last season. The Apocalypse is incoming, and if Jon intends to make Winterfell the capital of the human resistence, why would he bring Arya there? To put her in danger, so that they may die together in one family? Don’t forget that Jon doesn’t know that she’s an assassin and multiple-times killer now herself.

  52. Yaga,

    I don’t think that he necessarily “forgot” about them, but he is still the brooding, closed off bastard (in the literal sense) that he has always been. Hiding his emotions is Jon’s hallmark (except anger of course). In the books, we get to see the mush inside; we can’t really get that in the show when Sam isn’t there for Jon to speak with. He doesn’t trust easily, as we saw with Sansa and the battle plans scene, and he has even less incentive to trust anyone now that he’s in the Great Game. Along with Arya, his evolution has been the most interesting: his toward openness and trust, hers away from it. I hope it is not Jon that she eventually kills, but that would be very GRRM, wouldn’t it? ?

  53. ACME: The best thing they could do was take back Winterfell, as ghost of winterfell alluded to. Now, the Starks have “headquarters”, for lack of a better word, and everybody knows about it. I would imagine Jon and Sansa’s reasoning is that, if their siblings are still out there, they will eventually hear about Winterfell now being a safe haven and come back.

    I wholeheartedly agree. Even if Jon and Sansa talked about Arya and Bran (although to be honest, Sansa did mention them), what could they’ve done? Go out and search for them? Where? And how? All by themselves? In enemy territory? Where would they start looking for? The most important thing for them was to retake their home. Once the word spreads that Winterfell belongs to the Starks again, Arya and Bran would come back again. Any other plan would be silly, considering the dangers they are still surrounded by.

  54. Sam,

    Who says he forgot about it? The fact that not everything is shown on camera does not mean they don’t follow up on things. The fact is, as somebody pointed out earlier, that they rounded up all the bodies and found no one else. Even if Craster’s daughters-wives spoke about Bran being captive there, the fact that they did not find him means he left. Jon was not going to go further North looking for him. Even if he wanted to, he could not.

    D&D have limited time to depict this massive story: why would they spend it showing LF’s and Varys’ travels or Jon’s fruitless search for Bran… It was clear that Bran needed to head North and Jon had to go back to the Wall for the story to move on.

    I’ll guess we will have to use our imaginations to fill in the blanks.

  55. Sam,

    Yes, in the books Jon thinks a lot about his siblings, the operative word being “thinks”. Showing this on camera is kind of difficult. The only one he could confide about these feelings is Sam, and Sam is no longer near. If he spoke to everyone else about them continously, he would probably come across as a softie, instead of a the leader he is.

    I know he could speak to Sansa about it now that they are together…(and I’m sure they have, off camera) but I’m also sure he does not want to go down memory lane now that they are facing a pretty daunting task and the terrain is really unstable. There are no certainties regarding Bran’s and Arya’s fates. They survived initially, yes, but it has been long since anyone has seen them… nobody knows where they are now, so making rescue plans is a little bit like planning to find a needle in a haystack. Jon is pragmatic and Sansa is becoming shrewd, as much as they love their younger siblings, with no hint of where they might be, devicing a rescue operation is kind of idle.

    As for the things Sansa and Jon spoke about when they met… I think it is what makes them human. Conversations don’t always flow easily, specially among people who didn’t use to converse a lot. Probably a Jon-Arya or a Jon-Bran conversation would have gone a different path, a much more intimate one. But Jon and Sansa were not close buddies back in the days, so in reuniting, while very emotional for both, they’ll have to find the little common ground they had, and Old Nan’s pies are one of those safe topics (remember Sansa did not get along so well with Arya, and she had little in common with Bran, who wanted to be a soldier)…

    For Sansa and Jon re-establishing their ties takes time and adjustment. Both have grown in very different directions. Jon remembers Sansa the naive girl with fantasy dreams -which she is no more- and Sansa saw Jon last as the brooding boy with little prospects in life, pretty much in Robb’s shadow… He’s still brooding, but he definitely is not in Robb’s shadow any more, and he has worked his way up in the world, acquiring positions of power everywhere he goes. People see things in him that his siblings didn’t perceive.

    More than them bonding over their sigblings, I would love to witness a conversation about what they went through… Probably we will never see this, but I wander if they will ever trust the other enough to at least “sketch” what happened to them during the years they were apart? I mean, will they ever truly open up to share how they felt? Because if there is something each can understand about the other is the loneliness they felt.

    In the books, at least Sansa begins to understand how Jon might have felt as a bastard, when she assumes Alayne Stone’s identity. And then she begins to think more warmly about him and longs to see him…

  56. BunBunStark:
    My disappointment is that Jon, after S1, never mentioned the sister he was closest to

    I empathise, to a large extent.

    It is much easier for the writers to show Arya thinking about Jon because she owns a physical representation of their bound (Needle) while her brother has no such memento the directors and producers can use as a visual cue to let the audience know he thinks of his sibling. So it is much more in the ether.

    BunBunStark

    What baffles and annoys me is that after he decided to leave the NW and he tells Edd he’s going “south”, he says it’s to “get warm”. I believe my immediate reaction to that was “are you shitting me?!” Would it have killed the writers to have him say “Well, my sisters were last seen somewhere down south, perhaps I’ll go have a look around and ask if anyone has any idea where they might be”?

    I think we may be underestimating the profound effect his death had on Jon.

    Beyond the obvious (he failed as a Lord Commander, ultimately rejected by almost all his men), there is his slightly more subtle and underplayed realisation that there is nothing after death.
    I do not think Jon is an overly pious man however we have been shown time and time again that Westeros is a profoundly religious world, for some good reason since supernatural creatures (dragons, Children of the Forest, giants) and experiences (greensight, resurrection) do exist. In the North, religiosity is even more crucial for it is intertwined with regional identity : while the rest of Westeros believes in the Faith of the Seven, the North prays to the Old Gods.
    Furthermore, the Starks have a symbiotic relationship with their dead. They live among them, so to speak. The crypts are part of Winterfell, as much as the dining hall or the chambers, and, as Sansa demonstrated, it is customary for them to visit and pay respect to their departed relatives when coming home. The Direwolves are a sentimental, nostalgic bunch.
    So while Jon may not be the most religiously zealous of men, he probably grew up believing in some kind of afterlife, some sort of post-death “continuation”. I would assume such belief must have provided him with mild comfort when many of his loved ones started dying at an alarming rate : he could hold onto the thought he would see them again, after his own passing.

    His resurrection proved him wrong. There is nothing after death : no reunion, no peace, no retribution. Just nothing. This void must have been haunting and probably explains Jon’s despondency for most of the season. His decision to go south, without mentioning anything or anyone, without refering to his sisters, illustrated his rejection of Davos’s recommendation : he did not want to “go fail again”; he wanted to give up everything and give in to the void. But then, something/someone happened… 😉

    As for Jon and Sansa sharing information in relation to their missing siblings, the problem is that it would have been redundant. We, the audience, already know what they know and there is no suspense as to whether the eldest Stark siblings would exchange such information (they, of course, would). In the end, the scene may have ended up looking like two characters recaping the past couple of seasons of GOT. So, instead, the writers went for a more “atmospheric” kind of dialogue : two deeply damaged people reminiscing, grieving and bonding over seemingly mundane details.

    BunBunStark

    A minute conversation is all I need to reassure me that Jon and Sansa haven’t given up on Bran and Arya. C’mon, writers, throw a girl a bone.

    I shall keep my fingers crossed 😉

    A Dornish Tyrell,
    Abso-f*cking-lutely ! Even now that they are more secure, I do not quite see what Jon and Sansa could do to track down Bran and Arya : sending anyone north of the Wall would be suicide and there is no guessing where Arya might be.
    All of Littlefinger’s and Varys’s spies would probably not be enough to find them. The sole strategically viable solution is to keep a Stark stronghold that can act as a beacon to the lost Direwolves.

    Ashara D:
    He doesn’t trust easily, as we saw with Sansa and the battle plans scene, and he has even less incentive to trust anyone now that he’s in the Great Game.

    Just to be annoyingly nitpicky here but Jon’s reaction to Sansa’s words in the tent did not register as mistrust to me; it read a bit more like hurt, I would think.

    Hurt because well… Who wants to hear that they cannot save the people they love ? It is not an easily acceptable notion and Jon, being particularly keen on saving as many people as he can, would recoil at the very thought.
    Hurt also because, as we have been told / shown time and time again, Sansa is very Catelyn-esque. Jon’s relationship with his stepmother was profoundly fraught and damaging. It must have been quite terrible for a very young Jon to witness all the maternal love, acceptance and care Catelyn gave her own children while being excluded from it. His childhood was stamped by a beautiful redhaired woman denying him love and affection because, in her eyes, he was not “right”, not good enough. And here he is, in a tent, twenty odd years later, being told by Catelyn-reborn that he is wrong and not as talented at something (laying traps in this instance) as someone else. Not good enough. It must have cut deep which may explain his immediate and visceral defensiveness…

  57. A Dornish Tyrell: I wholeheartedly agree. Even if Jon and Sansa talked about Arya and Bran (although to be honest, Sansa did mention them), what could they’ve done? Go out and search for them? Where? And how? All by themselves? In enemy territory? Where would they start looking for? The most important thing for them was to retake their home. Once the word spreads that Winterfell belongs to the Starks again, Arya and Bran would come back again. Any other plan would be silly, considering the dangers they are still surrounded by.

    Count me in as another a bit miffed that we didn’t get at least a mention of Arya and Bran, in particular Arya (considering her closeness with Jon).
    Brienne told her about her run in with Arya (she was with “a man”, really Brienne?), so let’s assume a year passed. The last time she was seen she was alive. I have to believe Sansa shared that information with Jon, off screen. Of course, the battle for Winterfell and to save Rickon (which Sansa declared hopeless after pumping it up at Castle Black, which was weird) takes priority but she sent Brienne to deliver a message to the Blackfish because it’s safer for the message to be hand delivered. Okay. But Jon, or maybe it was Sansa, also said they sent ravens to other houses?
    I really was expecting Sansa to send Brienne to look for Arya. Of course, the writers wanted to reunite Jaime/Brienne (which is meh for me) and this was the perfect opportunity but I was so hopeful that bringing the family back together, those they could find, would still be in the order of business. It was just a little bummer.

  58. ACME,

    Just to be annoyingly nitpicky here but Jon’s reaction to Sansa’s words in the tent did not register as mistrust to me; it read a bit more like hurt, I would think.

    Hurt because well… Who wants to hear that they cannot save the people they love ? It is not an easily acceptable notion and Jon, being particularly keen on saving as many people as he can, would recoil at the very thought.
    Hurt also because, as we have been told / shown time and time again, Sansa is very Catelyn-esque. Jon’s relationship with his stepmother was profoundly fraught and damaging. It must have been quite terrible for a very young Jon to witness all the maternal love, acceptance and care Catelyn gave her own children while being excluded from it. His childhood was stamped by a beautiful redhaired woman denying him love and affection because, in her eyes, he was not “right”, not good enough. And here he is, in a tent, twenty odd years later, being told by Catelyn-reborn that he is wrong and not as talented at something (laying traps in this instance) as someone else. Not good enough. It must have cut deep which may explain his immediate and visceral defensiveness…

    By “trust” I meant trust anyone enough to open himself up: be vulnerable–to ridicule, to questioning, to attack, as he undoubtedly was as a child in that household (hence his connection to Arya, the other misfit). So yes, we’re on the same page here. Perhaps saying he’s wary would be better? Clarified! ^_*

  59. steffan,

    I heard the same thing. I always presumed there would actually be no fighting between Cersei and Dany. Cersei and Lannisters leave peacefully under the intention of staying loyal to Dany. Maybe some fire is shot down to show her power but I assumed it was a coronation of Dany.

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