Wow! I have been away for two weeks and I think it is time to get back to writing some stuff, especially about Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire. Before I start I would like to confess that I read the first book of the Outlander series while I was away. At the same time that I have been trying to catch up with a few episodes. After watching episode 2 and episode 5, I fell in love with the costumes, especially the ones worn by Dutch actress Lotte Verbeek (Geillis Duncan). She looks pretty in the profile picture.
As a result, I found the blog from the costume designer. Here is the link.
Outlander Costume Designer Blog
Concerning Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire, here are some interesting information for both TV and book readers.
Lady Stoneheart: First, of all there will not be a Lady Stoneheart in the show. Many book readers were expecting to see her in the season finale. Lady Stoneheart is no other than the reanimated Catelyn Stark, and her role is the extermination of Lannisters and Freys. In the books, Arya has a wolf dream in which her wolf, Nymeria, lost in the Riverlands, “fishes” out Catelyn’s corpse of the river. Moments later Beric Dondarrion, the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners, reanimates the corpse and dies in the process. Lady Stoneheart then becomes the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners, and we see her in action in the epilogue of A Storm of Swords in which she hangs Merrett Frey. This means that TV viewers will get more of Beric Dondarrion. Based on some information that George R.R. Martin mentioned at the San Diego Comic Con, it seems that the prologue of The Winds of Winter will be about The Brotherhood without Banners and the Blackfish (Brynden Tully) working together to free Edmure Tully. Here is the link in which Michelle Failey, the actress who played Catelyn Stark, confirms that Lady Stoneheart has been cut off.
A year ago, I promised that I will post something about Arya Stark. However, her character and plot line are very hard to define in terms of where they will be going (at least for me). Luckily I have found www.radiowesteros.com, a website that has ASOIAF Podcasts. Basically the hosts are two users of Westeros.org, Yolkboy and Lady Gwyn. Both users Yolkboy has one of the best theories concerning Jon Snow and Melisandre. and Lady Gwyn is great in terms of analyzing the text. They both have their own websites. Here is their first podcast, and it is about Arya.
In order to understand this podcast, the most recent gift chapter from the unpublished The Winds of Winter must be read. Here is the link.
For non-book readers that want to be spoiled or for those who have not read yet A Dance with Dragons, here is some information about Arya’s plotline.
- In order to become a Faceless Man, Arya has to lose her identity. Basically she has to forget who she was. However, this is not possible because she is connected to Nymeria, her lost direwolf. She has constant wolf dreams. It seems also the Bran is trying to contact her in this chapter – there is a tree watching her in her wolf dream.
- Izembaro is the King of the Mummers. Arya has been sent to him by the Faceless Men for training purposes.
- Fake Arya is no other than Jeyne Poole, Sansa’s friends and the daughter of Vayon Poole, the Steward of Winterfell. The character has remained underdeveloped in the TV show. She travels to King’s Landing with Sansa. However, once everybody from the Stark household is killed in the first book, she is forced to be trained as a prostitute by Littlefinger. Of course, the Stark girls are not aware of this. Later on, she is forced to assume the identity / role of Arya Stark in order to be married to Ramsay Snow (I do not use Bolton because the king that legitimized him is not a legitimate heir). She is mistreated / abused by her husband. This character is central in a way to Jon Snow’s plot line in A Dance with Dragons. However, I believe Jeyne Poole / Fake Arya has been cut off from the show (I could be wrong though). This character does not make an appearance in the Mercy gift chapter but discussed in the podcast.
- The podcast hosts discuss the concept of a warg sensing another warg. In the prologue of A Dance with Dragons, Varamyr Sixskins, is a skinchanger that “owns” six animals (he skinchange into / wargs them). The interesting thing is that he can sense that Jon Snow is a powerful warg with underdeveloped skills in the field. This character is going to make an appearance in the fifth season. However, I believe he will be a merge of book Varamyr and book Boroq, another skinchanger. That will be a topic for another post though.
- The Kindly Man is a priest of the Many-Faced God in the House of Black and White in Braavos and a Faceless Man. Is he a warg? This is something that is discussed in the podcast. I think this character has been merged to another character in the TV show, either the waif or Jaqen H’ghar.
- Raff the Sweetling is one of Gregor Clegane’s men who did a lot of atrocities at Harrenhall in the books. He is the one who killed Lommy Greenhands in the books. In the TV show, this act was done by Polliver who also stole Needle from Arya. The Arya gift chapter was released before the fourth season started. Please note that the manner in which Arya kills Polliver in the TV show is the same in which she kills Raff in the gift chapter.