User:TAnthony/ASOIAF research


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Talk: Jon Snow

 * Here's my take:
 * First of all, Quartz and Inverse are referencing an IMDb user entry, and Winter Is Coming is also crediting a fan researcher. Those are not wp:reliable sources. But since these three (relatively) notable websites are reporting on it, I'm willing to consider the information notable. It's still basically trivia though, so I simply moved it out of the lead and into an appropriate section, rather than removing it entirely.
 * From a real-world perspective, the amount of screen time a character gets is not really a reflection of anything, especially when comparing other characters like Tyrion and Daenerys, who apparently have almost as many minutes of screen time. This is not a typical means of classifying characters; we usually rely on reliable sources to tell us which characters are, for example, main/contract or recurring or whatever. Even using the number of episodes in which characters appear is wp:original research if we are using it to draw conclusions (and MOS:TVCAST specifically deprecates the listing of episode counts in cast lists).
 * The two Good status GoT character articles Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow (character)

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Family tree citations

 * Arryn * Baratheon * Greyjoy * Lannister * Martell * Stark * Targaryen * Tully * Tyrell

Houston family tree

More Tyrion

 * Tyrion is perhaps most notable for being a little person, but though his height does not give him the best physical vantage point, Tyrion’s mismatched black and green eyes do not miss much. He is, perhaps, the smartest character in the novel (and is certainly at least the wittiest). He devises a way to escape the Eyrie, for instance, though it seemed impossible to do so. Tyrion also sees hard truths, and he is bluntly honest with himself, acknowledging how others see him because of his physical appearance, and with others as well, whether he is confessing his petty crimes before Lysa or giving Joff, Jon, or Tywin his advice. He has a gift for determining other people’s motives, and he may have more in common with the legendary Lannister family progenitor, Lann the Clever, than any of the rest of his family. Tyrion knows when someone can be bought, as with the mountain clans, and when someone cannot be bargained with, as with the Starks after Joff kills Ned. Moreover, Tyrion’s dual-colored eyes are something of a metaphor for the book’s multiple perspectives, since Tyrion can see things both ways. As such, he is somewhat morally ambiguous to the reader, and though Tyrion always proclaims his love for his family, he doesn’t forgive their flaws either. Consequently, even Jaime wonders whose side Tyrion is on.
 * In interviews, Martin has mentioned that Tyrion Lannister is his favorite character, and it’s hard not to be captivated by Tyrion’s witty comebacks, intelligence, and sense of justice. A dwarf with mismatched eyes, Tyrion is regularly mocked, even by his own family. To compensate, he jokes about his height and appearance, but he never forgets the way others perceive him. In fact, he often uses the prejudice he encounters to his advantage, allowing people to underestimate him while he clevely outmaneuvers them. Over the course of the novel, he also proves himself to be brave in battle and an astute and shrewd military commander, surprising even himself. Tyrion, accordingly, is among the most complex characters in the novel. He can be callous toward those he sees as enemies, but he also demonstrates that he is thoughtful, regularly showing concern for people he sees suffering. Even as Tyrion tries to behave justly, he also fully belongs to his family, the power-hungry House Lannister. Tyrion wants to both ensure that the kingdom is well run and promote his family’s interests, and the two goals do not always coincide. He also frequently finds himself battling his sister, Cersei, who dislikes and distrusts Tyrion. Tyrion's struggle to wrest power from Cersei while still doing right by the kingdom and doing what's best for his family forms much of the political and psychological drama of his story.
 * Everyone around Tyrion mocks and despises him, predominantly because he is unusually short and odd looking. His father is notably dismissive and favors his other children over Tyrion. In response, Tyrion is sarcastic and moody, and he engages in misbehavior like drinking too much and routinely hiring prostitutes. Indeed, as we have learned in the earlier novels, Tyrion believes he married one such prostitute, Tysha, and the aftermath of that event had a profound effect on Tyrion that influences his present behavior. Tyrion met Tysha when he and Jaime came across some men assaulting her, and they drove the men off. Tyrion fell in love with her and married her, but Tywin disapproved, and as punishment had his soldiers rape Tysha in front of Tyrion. His brother Jaime told Tyrion that Tysha was a prostitute all along and they’d planned the whole episode so Tyrion could lose his virginity. Now, Tyrion still despises and distrusts his father, and he often does things just to spite him. He distrusts Jaime as well. The event also made Tyrion skeptical that any woman could genuinely love him, which is a large part of the reason that Tyrion prefers dealing with prostitutes to women at the court. (Of course we learn at the end of the novel that Tysha wasn’t really a prostitute and Jaime lied.) For all these reasons, Tyrion is a constant outsider, despite being among the most intelligent and capable characters in the series. By the end of the novel, however, Tyrion has changed from resigned outsider among the Lannisters to a hateful enemy of his family. In the previous book, Tyrion showed great cunning and courage in battle, and his efforts helped save King's Landing and the Lannister family. But despite his bravery and tenacity, no one in his family shows him any respect or gratitude. Tyrion feels further alienated as his father and sister heap constant abuse on him. When he is accused of Joffrey's murder and imprisoned, he isn't exactly surprised, but he nonetheless feels extraordinarily betrayed, as he had worked only for the good of his family. Aggravating that sense of betrayal is Shae's abandonment of Tyrion, which recalls for him his experience with Tysha. These feelings of betrayal boil over with Jaime's revelation that Tysha did truly love him. She wasn't with him for money but because she wanted to be, and yet his father, with no resistance from Jaime, had her brutally raped to teach Tyrion a lesson. Before Tyrion flees, he vows revenge on Jaime, then seeks his father out. Finding Shae in his bedroom, he murders her first, then his father, getting his vengeance against both.


 * So: we are now watching a series with no “protagonist.” And yet, the rest of “Baelor” demonstrated that, while Ned was getting himself ensnared in King’s Landing, the rest of the ensemble has developed characters we can be as much or more invested in. Tyrion, for instance, who is further humanized in, yes, another scene involving exposition with a whore–but this time, one that doesn’t even involve having sex with her! Tyrion’s story of his early, humiliating “marriage” continues complicating our picture not only of him but of his relationship with his father, whom he nonetheless is still trying to please. But maybe more important–in a series with so many examples of how women are sexually subjugated in this culture–is a scene in which we have a woman who is a sexual object but who is not *presented* as a sexual object in the scene. Shae, rather, proves to be a mystery and a challenge to Tyrion, whose ability to read people–which has literally saved his life–falls short when he tries to figure out what makes her tick. Tyrion is saved from honoring Tywin with his death in battle by an errant Hill Tribes war hammer–which also saves Game of Thrones from having to depict a battle in the field between thousands of armored men. The move may be obvious–the budget is big but not that big–but it also focuses the drama of the battle on the mental, tactical game between Robb and Tywin.

More Jon Snow




William Van Meter of Out called “You know nothing, Jon Snow”—Ygritte's "trademark quip"—"the closest thing the show has to a catchphrase".

So far this season, Jon Snow has become Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and more multifaceted than in previous seasons. Game of Thrones exists not only in its own universe, but its own moral one. Snow has had to become more complex than we’ve seen him before, such as when he beheaded one of his men who was begging for mercy. For Harington, it’s been a different season from the others.

“Usually Jon’s got a good lot of scenes,” he says, “but I don’t speak much. Quiet character. This year he talks a lot, because he’s got to be a politician, which is really weird for me. I also had more filming dates than, I think, anyone. There was a lot of Jon Snow stuff. I had a big season.”

“Jon was a difficult role to cast,” Game of Thrones’ executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stated in a jointly written email. “We knew from the outset that whichever actor played him would end up carrying a tremendous amount of the story on his shoulders — and we knew it would be heavier as the seasons went on, if we were lucky enough to get that far. We needed a young actor who could effectively convey the rich inner life of an emotionally reserved character, which is one of the most difficult things an actor can do. Jon needed intelligence, gravitas, intensity, charisma, and the ability to lighten up effectively without breaking character. Kit had all these things combined with a devotion to abdominal definition that bordered on the fetishistic — which he never gets to show, because he’s always buried in eight layers of clothing.”

Other character articles






















General series

 * In 2005 Lev Grossman of Time called Martin "the American Tolkien",


 * But even though I was left wanting more, I thoroughly enjoyed the last third of A Game of Thrones. That’s mainly because several of the book’s final plot twists took me completely by surprise — I never thought, for instance, that Eddard would actually get beheaded ... I figured that Lord Stark would continue to be a main character throughout the series ... And as unnerving as this death was, I appreciated its value as a catalyst for the events of the next book. It was also a nice touch that Eddard began the book by decapitating a traitor and ended it with his own head on the chopping block for the same reason. In terms of poetic justice, though, nothing can beat the incredibility of Viserys’ crowning.


 * As it turns out, the biggest problem I had with Game of Thrones is that it ended.


 * In the sequel to A Game of Thrones (1996), Martin skillfully limns the complicated, bitter politics of an inbred aristocracy, among whom an 11-year-old may be a bride, a ward, or a hostage, depending on the winds of war.


 * It's all very exhausting for even the hardiest reader to keep up with...and that was merely scratching the surface. Suffice it to say that, unlike so many epic fantasies, A Clash of Kings merits its length. Martin packs his pages with story upon story upon story upon story, and all of it (as I've said before) populated by some of the most finely realized characters the genre has ever seen. Beyond its bone-crunching action scenes and its often agonizing suspense, this is a story about human beings. And even though Martin does bow to convention enough to give us clearly delineated good guys and bad guys, in truth most of his characters are flawed, or are at least affected by the horrors around them in ways anyone could relate to. Catelyn Stark, though she remains brave as she sees her precious family scattered and lost all around her, eventually grows numb and even a bit cold in the face of tragedy. Not a reaction one might associate with a heroine but certainly one you'd associate with a real person.




 * Set on the magical continent of Westeros, the show might as well be set in Washington, D.C. It’s a parable of politics and self-interest, albeit with dragon eggs and dire wolves.


 * Stark is heroic. But “Game of Thrones’’ is more fascinated with corruption and decadence. That’s what helps give the show more range than you might expect from fantasy; it has a dark view, even in terms of the cool-toned production design. Westeros is a fractured continent, pulled apart by the baser instincts and desires of its inhabitants. The good guys don’t automatically prevail, as they might in other fantasy tales. The most riveting characters are the most self-serving, notably the queen, Cersei (Lena Headey), and her twin brother Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), with whom she is having an incestuous affair. They have gorgeous, aristocratic features, but they are pure, compelling evil.


 * Last season, the Starks, and particularly the now-headless Ned (Sean Bean), were the series’ focal point. Now the Stark children are scattered, and so is the story. Peter Dinklage, a scene-stealing actor playing the scene-stealing Tyrion, takes over as the central character, a trade up in entertainment value, and a trade-off in morality. With this replacement, the show is suggestively, even helpfully nudging viewers away from an attachment to “good guys.” Ned was noble and honorable and those qualities got him killed. Tyrion is more cynical, more manipulative and much better suited to surviving. He’s not so keen to be made into meat, and that makes him the kind of man characters in the show and audience members alike should be investing in.


 * In 2014 Benioff and Weiss commented that the series' center is "right there in the title. The game of thrones features women and men vying for power while the powerless try to avoid getting squashed underfoot. No one can protect you, neither gods nor family nor friends. You have to fend for yourself — and even then you might get your throat cut."


 * Benioff & Weiss: We wouldn’t say that the characters you mention have rejected morality. Dany tries desperately to be just, even while dealing with viciously unjust opponents. Jon Snow tries to live with honor, while knowing that honor often gets his family members murdered. And et cetera. But a lot of this story — this season especially — is about people learning to face hard truths about the world they live in, and adapt themselves to those truths. The struggle many of them face is how to do that without losing their grip on who they are. Whether or not they succeed… well, people will have to decide for themselves. This season many characters undergo drastic changes in their own identities, and are forced to reevaluate how they see themselves and their places in the world.


 * The Atlantic Rachael Brown found A Dance with Dragons "infinitely more satisfying than its predecessor, 2005's bleak and plodding A Feast for Crows. The aspects of Martin's work that have endeared him to fans are abundant here – rich world building, narrative twists and turns, and gritty depictions of the human struggle for power. Characters who were sorely missed in Feast – Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow – make up more than a third of the novel, and Martin is wise enough to give us at least a chapter from (almost) everyone else"


 * "I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I can say all the characters people have been waiting for are there: Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Tyrion."


 * But he did see the original version of the series’ pilot, and he was “quite pleased. It’s my story. Yes, there are changes, there are alterations. I think that’s inevitable when you move from a novel to television show or film. But there were no unnecessary changes.” Martin doesn’t spill too much about the future plans for the TV series should it prove a success. He does mention one thing that’s no doubt been on the minds of his readers: “Minor characters in the first book become very major characters three books later on, which is a challenge for any producer, because how do you deal with that in the series?” (SPOILER ALERT: Seriously, what do you do with someone like Jaime Lannister? He’s a vaguely villainous minor character in Game of Thrones, then is basically absent from Clash of Kings, and suddenly he becomes a tragic hero in Storm of Swords.END SPOILER ALERT)


 * “Rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war ever fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day,” said Mr. Martin, 65, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M. “To omit them from a narrative centered on war and power would have been fundamentally false and dishonest,” he continued, “and would have undermined one of the themes of the books: that the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves.”


 * George R. R. Martin responded that rape and sexual violence are common in war, and that omitting them from the narrative would have undermined one of his novels' themes: that "the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves."




 * GRRM: I loved some of the new scenes they added. As a novelist, I have certain tools like internal monologue and the device of the unreliable narrator. I can have flashbacks and dreams, which are pretty hokey in a TV series. So they had to insert some new scenes. I loved the interplay between Varys and Littlefinger, which never occurred in the books since neither is a viewpoint character. I loved the scene of Drogo ripping out Mago’s throat, which was entirely new. But that’s going to have ramifications if we go the full length down the pike. I’ve talked to Dan and Dave about the butterfly effect — you’re familiar with the classic Ray Bradbury short story? ... Step on a butterfly in the Pleistocene Era and it changes everything in year 2000. [MILD BOOK 6 SPOILER WARNING] So Mago is not dead in the books. And, in fact, he’s going to be a recurring character in Winds of Winter. He’s a particularly nasty bloodrider to one of the other Khals that’s broken away after Drogo dies. This is the challenge the shows face as we go forward. There will be divergences, they’re trying to be faithful and Dan and David are doing a wonderful job. But the books are plotted so intricately that you do step on a butterfly in season one and in season four you’re going to have to deal with that. There’s also another character, [the singer] Marillion, who also got his tongue ripped out in season one, and that doesn’t happen with the books. Joffrey makes that decision, but it’s an unnamed bard. Marillion [has more to do]. We ought to call it The Tongue Effect instead of The Butterfly Effect.


 * Dance is heavily stocked with such favorites as Jon, Daenerys, and Tyrion, along with plenty of Martin's trademark shocking twists and the surprise return of one tragic character. The author's ruthlessness about killing beloved characters who make poor decisions has been a hallmark of the series, and has famously led fans to throw their books across the room — only to go pick them up again.


 * Still, the most compelling plots remain those of the subalterns, who are forced to wield power from below. These characters range from heroic figures like the tomboy Arya Stark to villains like Littlefinger, but even the worst turn out to have psychic wounds that complicate their actions. If the show has a hero, it’s Tyrion (Dinklage), who is capable of cruelty but also possesses insight and empathy, concealed beneath a carapace of Wildean wit. So far, his strategic gifts have proved more effective than the torture-with-rats approach. Power is “a trick, a shadow on the wall,” the eunuch tells Tyrion. “And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”


 * But now, with no more war, and hardly any Starks left on the game board, the series has effectively become all about the characters. So for those merely waiting for one of the "good guys" to stick a sword through Joffrey's chest, it's possible that the show has misrepresented itself to you. This is a show where not only are the innocent punished in foul ways, but those characters who do make mistakes, and would be offered a road to redemption on any other TV series, get taught unbalanced and violent karmic lessons. Robb made one mistake of passion (Talisa) and one of honor (executing Lord Karstark) and was served up brutal retribution at the hands of some extraordinarily dishonorable people.


 * Strangely enough, the people who do seem to get redemption arcs on this show are the villains. Jaime, aside from the atrocity exhibit at the end of episode nine, had the best storyline of the season. Which is why it felt so disappointing when we didn't any meaningful follow-up scene following Jaime saving Brienne from the bear pit in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair." Because that conversation, or any sort of aftermath exchange they could have had on their journey to King's Landing, is something I would have loved to have seen. That being said, his story was filled to the brim with wonderful, hand-hacking moments - after a moment of kindness from Jaime, in an attempt to save Brienne from Roose Bolton's hunters, lead to him getting mutilated and humiliated. And an amazing scene in a bath, in the great episode "Kissed by Fire," where Jaime tearfully explained his entire role, and motivation, in King Aerys Targaryen's death. And, of course, the whole "My name is Jaime" breakdown was fantastic.


 * In March 2014, Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone ranked:
 * praised as the nth greatest character in the series by Rolling Stone.
 * In March 2014, Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone ranked:
 * praised as the nth greatest character in the series by Rolling Stone.

Cersei & Jaime
When Jaime began his long march toward King’s Landing with another fan favorite (and one of Westeros’ few truly honorable citizens), Brienne of Tarth, it provided him with an opportunity to show a different, more sympathetic side of his character. He begins his journey insulting and challenging her at every turn, but before long he’s sacrificing his sword hand and squaring off with a bear to save her. Unexpected pairs of characters in the Game of Thrones universe often call for a spin-off buddy comedy show, but perhaps none were louder than those for Jaime and Brienne. She helped him rediscover his sense of chivalry, and he helped her to not be so morbidly serious at all time.

Upon his arrival at King’s Landing, it seems like we really are seeing a new Jaime. Humbled by the loss of his hand and imbued with a greater appreciation for duty, Jaime refuses to renounce his position as a member of the Kingsguard despite Tywin’s request that he do so. He holds his tongue when Joffrey insults his entry in the “Book of Brothers” and even has a charming left-handed sword lesson with Bronn. He’s still the Kingslayer, but he’s a kinder, gentler, more fan-friendly version of the remorseless badass that charmed viewers way back in the series’ first season.

Thing is, that gentler Jaime Lannister is also more fragile. Losing his hand has made him not only physically weaker but also weaker emotionally. The swagger and bravado that the Kingslayer possessed in spades was based on an ability he no longer (at least for the time being) possesses. He’s been shamed by his father, insulted by his son and rejected by his sister. Only his brother seems to want anything to do with him — and even Tyrion isn’t above poking a little fun at Jaime’s unfortunate circumstances.

That’s part of why his rape of Cersei is so maddening — it’s an act so unmistakably hideous that it undoes all the work that made him a dynamic and complex character.

Whatever the reasoning behind the change, this is the Game of Thrones universe that we’re stuck with: the one where the Kingslayer is at best one of the most warped anti-heroes on television, and at worst a villain just as morally bankrupt as his manipulative father and evil son.

Used for Jaime

 * Despite my initial ambivalence, I plodded onward, assuming (and hoping) that things would get better. And boy, am I glad I did. The turning point for me came about 70 pages in, when young Bran Stark [SPOILER ALERT] accidentally spies Queen Cersei and her brother Jaime having an, uh, intimate moment in a remote tower. The twist was lurid and shocking, exactly what I needed to jolt me awake and make me start paying closer attention.[/SPOILER] By the end of the chapter — “The things I do for love” — I was totally hooked on Thrones.


 * But he did see the original version of the series’ pilot, and he was “quite pleased. It’s my story. Yes, there are changes, there are alterations. I think that’s inevitable when you move from a novel to television show or film. But there were no unnecessary changes.” Martin doesn’t spill too much about the future plans for the TV series should it prove a success. He does mention one thing that’s no doubt been on the minds of his readers: “Minor characters in the first book become very major characters three books later on, which is a challenge for any producer, because how do you deal with that in the series?” (SPOILER ALERT: Seriously, what do you do with someone like Jaime Lannister? He’s a vaguely villainous minor character in Game of Thrones, then is basically absent from Clash of Kings, and suddenly he becomes a tragic hero in Storm of Swords.END SPOILER ALERT)


 * There were the Southern Lannisters, a crowd of high-cheekboned beauties (and one lusty dwarf, played by the lust-worthy Peter Dinklage), who form a family constellation so twisted, charismatic, and cruel that it rivals Flowers in the Attic for blond dysfunction.


 * Robert and Ned once fought together, and the king remains a friend of the Starks', though the same can not be said of his wife, Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), her loathsome son Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), her handsome and unscrupulous twin Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and her brilliant but low-living brother Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), known as "the Imp."


 * Strangely enough, the people who do seem to get redemption arcs on this show are the villains. Jaime, aside from the atrocity exhibit at the end of episode nine, had the best storyline of the season. Which is why it felt so disappointing when we didn't any meaningful follow-up scene following Jaime saving Brienne from the bear pit in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair." Because that conversation, or any sort of aftermath exchange they could have had on their journey to King's Landing, is something I would have loved to have seen. That being said, his story was filled to the brim with wonderful, hand-hacking moments - after a moment of kindness from Jaime, in an attempt to save Brienne from Roose Bolton's hunters, lead to him getting mutilated and humiliated. And an amazing scene in a bath, in the great episode "Kissed by Fire," where Jaime tearfully explained his entire role, and motivation, in King Aerys Targaryen's death. And, of course, the whole "My name is Jaime" breakdown was fantastic.


 * Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe: Stark is heroic. But “Game of Thrones’’ is more fascinated with corruption and decadence. That’s what helps give the show more range than you might expect from fantasy; it has a dark view, even in terms of the cool-toned production design. Westeros is a fractured continent, pulled apart by the baser instincts and desires of its inhabitants. The good guys don’t automatically prevail, as they might in other fantasy tales. The most riveting characters are the most self-serving, notably the queen, Cersei (Lena Headey), and her twin brother Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), with whom she is having an incestuous affair. They have gorgeous, aristocratic features, but they are pure, compelling evil.


 * The king faces threats from his viper wife Cersei (Lena Headey) and her scheming clan of the wealthy Lannisters, including her dastardly twin Jaime, played with malevolent charisma by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. King Robert also must worry about invasion from across the sea by the exiled former rulers, whose platinum princess Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) weds a Dothraki warrior to align with his mighty army of savages.


 * (The rest of the Lannisters are stunted too, but on the inside.): Lev Grossman of Time: A Dance with Dragons is the fifth volume out of a planned seven, and in many ways it's the best. Martin was marking time a little bit in Feast for Crows, pushing his pawns up the board but leaving his big pieces alone. Now the camera has swung back to the main characters: Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister, the brilliant, black-witted dwarf whose family has had the firmest grip on power for much of the series, though that's not saying much. Tyrion is another good example of what separates Tolkien and Martin. Tyrion isn't a hearty, ax-wielding, gold-mining member of a noble dwarven race. He's not Gimli. Tyrion is an actual dwarf, achondroplastic and stubby-limbed, a joke to passersby and an embarrassment to his family. (The rest of the Lannisters are stunted too, but on the inside.) Tyrion is on the run because at the end of A Storm of Swords he fatally shot his father Lord Tywin in the groin with a crossbow bolt as Tywin sat on the toilet. We catch up with Tyrion at the beginning of A Dance with Dragons crossing the Narrow Sea in a state of shock at his own actions.


 * It's a shockingly brutal story that you tell. The first major jolt comes when the knight Jaime Lannister pushes a child, Bran Stark, through a window because the child witnessed Jaime and Jaime's sister, Cersei – the wife of Westeros' King Robert – having sex. That moment grabs you by the throat.
 * I've had a million people tell me that was the moment that hooked them, where they said, "Well, this is just not the same story I read a million times before." Bran is the first viewpoint character. In the back of their heads, people are thinking Bran is the hero of the story. He's young King Arthur. We're going to follow this young boy – and then, boom: You don't expect something like that to happen to him. So that was successful [laughs].
 * Both Jaime and Cersei are clearly despicable in those moments. Later, though, we see a more humane side of Jaime when he rescues a woman, who had been an enemy, from rape. All of a sudden we don't know what to feel about Jaime.
 * One of the things I wanted to explore with Jaime, and with so many of the characters, is the whole issue of redemption. When can we be redeemed? Is redemption even possible? I don't have an answer. But when do we forgive people? You see it all around in our society, in constant debates. Should we forgive Michael Vick? I have friends who are dog-lovers who will never forgive Michael Vick. Michael Vick has served years in prison; he's apologized. Has he apologized sufficiently? Woody Allen: Is Woody Allen someone that we should laud, or someone that we should despise? Or Roman Polanski, Paula Deen. Our society is full of people who have fallen in one way or another, and what do we do with these people? How many good acts make up for a bad act? If you're a Nazi war criminal and then spend the next 40 years doing good deeds and feeding the hungry, does that make up for being a concentration-camp guard? I don't know the answer, but these are questions worth thinking about. I want there to be a possibility of redemption for us, because we all do terrible things. We should be able to be forgiven. Because if there is no possibility of redemption, what's the answer then?
 * I don't know if somebody like Jaime or Cersei can be redeemed. Cersei's a great character – she's like Lady Macbeth.
 * Well, redeemed in whose eyes? She'll never be redeemed in the eyes of some. She's a character who's very protective of her children. You can argue, well, does she genuinely love her children, or does she just love them because they're her children? There's certainly a great level of narcissism in Cersei. She has an almost sociopathic view of the world and civilization. At the same time, what Jaime did is interesting. I don't have any kids myself, but I've talked with other people who have. Remember, Jaime isn't just trying to kill Bran because he's an annoying little kid. Bran has seen something that is basically a death sentence for Jaime, for Cersei, and their children – their three actual children. So I've asked people who do have children, "Well, what would you do in Jaime's situation?" They say, "Well, I'm not a bad guy – I wouldn't kill." Are you sure? Never? If Bran tells King Robert he's going to kill you and your sister-lover, and your three children ... Then many of them hesitate. Probably more people than not would say, "Yeah, I would kill someone else's child to save my own child, even if that other child was innocent." These are the difficult decisions people make, and they're worth examining.

To use





 * http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/18/game-thrones-lena-headey-nude-double-van-cleave


 * Ned and Robb Stark, for example, resemble Richard, 3rd Duke of York and his son Edward IV, and Queen Cersei resembles both Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville.


 * While there are parent-child dynamics aplenty in “Game of Thrones,’’ the show delves deeply into sibling dynamics, not just among the Lannisters and Starks but among the exiled Targaryens, who are planning to take back the throne they lost years earlier.


 * Eddard once aided Robert in an uprising against the ruling Targaryens, and only he seems aware just how dangerous Robert's queen, Cersei Lannister, and indeed the entire Lannister House, really is. Cersei has designs upon the throne for her snot of a son, Joffrey, and will evidently stop at nothing to achieve her ends ... Robert, though he dislikes his wife, remains blissfully ignorant of the extent of her intrigues.


 * The women are particularly good -- Queen Cersei is both evil and sympathetic, Lady Stark is a formidable foe, Arya becomes the heart of the story while the terrified and enslaved Daenerys finds her inner strength.


 * Beyond the emotion–underscored nicely by the cut to silence in the last seconds before his death–the scene also telegraphically conveyed that Joffrey’s snippy decision was not just cruel but rash. We know Cersei is a figure of no great kindness and yet we see her horror at realizing that she was wrong to allow her son this one gesture of autonomy and assume he would do her bidding. She knows Robb has raised an army, and even if her father’s forces are greater, she’s consolidated power; peace is much better for her than civil war. (Even without the capture of her brother/lover, which I assume she is unaware of at this point.)


 * The Hollywood Reporter: His mother Cersei (Lena Headey) continues to pull the puppet-strings. But it’s her brother Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) who seems to be the one to watch, as he’s the smartest Lannister and knows that having a brat for a king -- who mistreats all those around him -- could cause major backlash.


 * In an episode heavy on the revelations of schemes and secrets, you know King's Landing is going to lead the way. While Tyrion is trying to find a way to pay for the Royal wedding, everyone else in the capital seems concerned with other weddings. Cersei enlists Baelish to find out what the Tyrells are up to, and he uncovers their plans to wed Sansa to Loras. Upset that his own plans to marry Sansa are being foiled, Baelish takes this information to the Lannisters and plays innocent to Sansa, getting back in her good graces with the old "I don't care if you come with me or not, as long as you're safe and happy routine." Cersei and Tywin cook up a way to solve the Sansa problem by setting her up with Tyrion, who is disgusted with the idea and obviously flustered he was too busy counting beans to prevent it. Cersei's proud grinning doesn't last too long as Tywin informs her that she's to marry Loras herself, sewing up relationships with the north and south. That Tywin, always two steps ahead.

EW: One of my favorite chapters, perhaps of the whole series, was Cersei’s walk of shame. I was riveted. GRRM: That was an interesting chapter to write, and based on actual medieval events. Jane Shore, mistress of King Edward IV, was punished that way after Edward died. It’s going to be a controversial scene when it comes out — is it misogynistic or feminist? It wasn’t a punishment ever inflicted on men. It was a punishment directed at women to break their pride. And Cersei is defined by her pride.


 * Most important for fans, “A Dance With Dragons” catches up with some of Mr. Martin’s most popular characters, including Daenarys Targaryen, queen of the city of Meereen and “mother” of three dragons; Jon Snow, 998th lord commander of the Night’s Watch; Arya Stark, 11-year-old daughter of the late Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell; and the disgraced Queen Cersei of House Lannister.


 * A Game of Thrones/The Lannister family. The Lannisters, a rich and powerful dynasty in this absurdly popular fantasy series, lead the juiciest of lives, rife with incest, murder, pillaging, sabotage, betrayal. I would not recommend messing with them.


 * Later in the book, when its timeline finally converges with that of Feast, we see a bit more of what transpires in the lives of Arya, Cersei and Jamie Lannister, and others.


 * In the season’s penultimate episode, the show made a radical move: it killed off the protagonist. On a public stage, Ned Stark was beheaded, on the orders of the teen-age sadist King Joffrey, a sequence edited with unusual beauty and terror—birds fluttering in the air, a hushed soundtrack, and a truly poignant shot from Ned’s point of view, as he looked out toward his two daughters. This primal act suggested the limits of ethical behavior in a brutalized universe, and also dramatized the show’s vision of what aristocracy means: a succession of domestic traumas, as each new regent dispatches threats to his bloodline. (Or, as Joffrey’s mother, Cersei, puts it, kinghood means “lying on a bed of weeds, ripping them out one by one, before they strangle you in your sleep.”)


 * But in all that verbiage, there’s a lot of delicious detail in ADWD. More than any book in the series, for instance, it gets deeply into the varying religions of Westeros and Essos, and their temporal power for good and evil. Each of the religions reflects its culture’s temperament. No religion seems to be the true faith—there are eerie displays of power on many sides—nor do they have a monopoly on virtue. In Westeros, for instance, you may have cheered to see the zealous High Septon throw Cersei in the clink at the end of AFFC, but in ADWD we see the pettiness and misogyny that inform his judgment of her (“All women are wantons”), whatever actual crimes she is guilty of.


 * You say often in interviews that Tyrion Lannister is the easiest Song character for you to write, and that he's personally your favorite character, if you were forced to pick one. What about him particularly is appealing to you?
 * Martin: There's a number of things. I think his wit is appealing. He gets off a lot of good iconoclastic, cynical one-liners, and those are fun to write. He's also a very gray character. All my characters are gray to a greater or lesser extent, but Tyrion is perhaps the deepest shade of gray, with the black and white in him most thoroughly mixed, and I find that very appealing. I've always liked gray characters more than black-and-white characters.
 * You tend to write protagonists with strongly negative personality quirks, people who certainly don't fit the standard mold of a hero. People like Tuf in the Tuf Voyaging series, and Stannis and Tyrion in Song of Ice and Fire. Do you deliberately inject your characters with unattractive elements to make readers consciously think about whether they like them and why?
 * Martin: [Laughs.] Well, I don't know that I'd choose the word "unappealing," but I look for ways to make my characters real and to make them human, characters who have good and bad, noble and selfish, well-mixed in their natures. Yes, I do certainly want people to think about the characters, and not just react with a knee-jerk. I read too much fiction myself in which you encounter characters who are very stereotyped. They're heroic-hero and dastardly-villain, and they're completely black or completely white. And that's boring, so far as I'm concerned. It's also unreal. If you look at real human history, even the darkest villains had some good things about them. Perhaps they were courageous, or perhaps they were occasionally compassionate to an enemy. Even our greatest heroes had weaknesses and flaws.



Daenerys



 * http://www.tor.com/2016/07/11/the-history-behind-game-of-thrones-daenerys-targaryen-and-cleopatra/


 * David Orr of The New York Times - Martin’s finest creations thus far are Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen ... Jon’s leadership is the best hope of Westeros, so naturally he’s in imminent danger throughout “A Dance With Dragons.” As is Daenerys Targaryen, the former king’s youngest daughter, who has spent the previous four books in southern kingdoms raising armies to invade Westeros, but who is now slightly sidetracked by her desire to destroy the slave trade. Also, the titular dragons are hers. They turn out to be problematic.


 * And in a fascinating subplot, we meet princess Daenerys Targaryen, one of the last surviving heirs to that unseated regime. Living in exile in a land far across the ocean (the book doesn't even provide a map to it) and having been wedded to a savage but noble warlord, she dreams of returning to her homeland one day and seeing the Targaryen name and its power restored.


 * On a totally different note, I’m starting to look forward to Daenerys’s sections more as I continue reading. She’s grown and changed more than any other character in the book, at least so far, and I’m really enjoying watching her transformation; the khaleesi who watched her brother burn to death in a pile of molten gold has come a long way from the scared little girl we first met in Thrones‘s third chapter.


 * Dany, meanwhile, has grown a lot from the wide-eyed terrified bargaining chip we met her as. But just as she’s grown comfortable with her power as a character, her husband–and her source of temporal power with the khalessar–is on the verge of death. Even as she defies Drogo’s already-rebelling captains, Emilia Clarke shows the fear behind her imperiousness; the khal’s fading heartbeat is the only thing that stands between her and her child and their likely death at the hands of Drogo’s resentful heirs. And her hope is Mirri Maz Duur, the maegi, or witch, she rescued from the pillage of her home. Game of Thrones’ world has been described as “low-magic,” which is–as we’ve seen at The Wall–is not the same as no magic. And as yet another horse whinnies its last for the uses of humans, the unearthly roars inside the tent indicate the presence of something scarier than sharpened steel.


 * Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, is faced with a difficult quandary: return to Westeros to pursue her claim to the throne or stabilize conquered Meereen before it buckles under insurrection.


 * Meanwhile, in another part of the kingdom, the son of the previous king plots his revenge. Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) so wants to sit on the Iron Throne that he sells his young sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) to the warlord of the Dothraki, a fearless (and shirtless) band of horse warriors who, in return, will wage war against King Robert, as soon as they can figure out how to get all those horses across the Narrow Sea.


 * The women are particularly good -- Queen Cersei is both evil and sympathetic, Lady Stark is a formidable foe, Arya becomes the heart of the story while the terrified and enslaved Daenerys finds her inner strength.


 * While there are parent-child dynamics aplenty in “Game of Thrones,’’ the show delves deeply into sibling dynamics, not just among the Lannisters and Starks but among the exiled Targaryens, who are planning to take back the throne they lost years earlier.


 * Benioff & Weiss: We wouldn’t say that the characters you mention have rejected morality. Dany tries desperately to be just, even while dealing with viciously unjust opponents. Jon Snow tries to live with honor, while knowing that honor often gets his family members murdered. And et cetera. But a lot of this story — this season especially — is about people learning to face hard truths about the world they live in, and adapt themselves to those truths. The struggle many of them face is how to do that without losing their grip on who they are. Whether or not they succeed… well, people will have to decide for themselves. This season many characters undergo drastic changes in their own identities, and are forced to reevaluate how they see themselves and their places in the world.


 * The king faces threats from his viper wife Cersei (Lena Headey) and her scheming clan of the wealthy Lannisters, including her dastardly twin Jaime, played with malevolent charisma by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. King Robert also must worry about invasion from across the sea by the exiled former rulers, whose platinum princess Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) weds a Dothraki warrior to align with his mighty army of savages.


 * Meanwhile, in the south, Queen Daenerys tries to assert her claim to the various thrones with an army of eunuchs, but discovers that she must choose between conquering more and ruling well what she has already taken.


 * The Atlantic Rachael Brown found A Dance with Dragons "infinitely more satisfying than its predecessor, 2005's bleak and plodding A Feast for Crows. The aspects of Martin's work that have endeared him to fans are abundant here – rich world building, narrative twists and turns, and gritty depictions of the human struggle for power. Characters who were sorely missed in Feast – Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow – make up more than a third of the novel, and Martin is wise enough to give us at least a chapter from (almost) everyone else"


 * "I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I can say all the characters people have been waiting for are there: Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Tyrion."


 * Most important for fans, “A Dance With Dragons” catches up with some of Mr. Martin’s most popular characters, including Daenarys Targaryen, queen of the city of Meereen and “mother” of three dragons; Jon Snow, 998th lord commander of the Night’s Watch; Arya Stark, 11-year-old daughter of the late Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell; and the disgraced Queen Cersei of House Lannister.


 * Dance is heavily stocked with such favorites as Jon, Daenerys, and Tyrion, along with plenty of Martin's trademark shocking twists and the surprise return of one tragic character. The author's ruthlessness about killing beloved characters who make poor decisions has been a hallmark of the series, and has famously led fans to throw their books across the room — only to go pick them up again.


 * But readers will appreciate this one a great deal more, I think, because the three fan-favorite characters who were cut from Feast completely — Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen — carry the bulk of the story this time.
 * Elsewhere, everyone is waiting for Dany Targaryen, who has set herself up as queen of the far eastern city of Meereen in Slaver's Bay, to make her intentions known. All are somewhat bewildered that she is, so far, choosing to stay put, rather than come back to Westeros to claim the Iron Throne. But Dany is determined to do right by the people of Meereen, whom she has liberated from slavery by banning that institution entirely. It is a decision that has essentially wrecked the whole area's economy. Even some freed slaves are unhappy with their new lives, especially those body slaves used to sleeping on silks, who now find themselves begging in gutters. War is in the offing, plague is raging through the countryside, shadowy assassins are picking off her loyal eunuch soldiers one by one, and only her growing trio of dragons are left to intimidate her enemies. But they may be growing to the point she can no longer control them. Several suitors descend upon Meereen. Some are naive princes from Dorne in southern Westeros, one a wealthy merchant with ties to the city's rich and powerful. But which, if any, should Dany choose? Who can she trust, when she's haunted by prophecies of betrayal? Will war and disease undo everything? Can she really just abandon what she started to return to Westeros, a land by now thoroughly strange to her, and nothing like home?


 * Across the sea, there were the Dothraki, a Hun-like race of horseman warriors, whose brutal ruler, Drogo, took the delicate, unspellable Daenerys as a bride. A teen girl traded like currency by her brother, Daenerys was initiated into marriage through rape; in time, she began to embrace both that marriage and her desert queenhood. (Although the cast is mostly white, the dusky-race aesthetics of the Dothraki sequences are head-clutchingly problematic.) By the finale, she was standing naked in the desert—widowed, traumatized, but triumphant, with three baby dragons crawling over her like vines.


 * Which leaves Daenerys, still out in Essos, burning people to a crisp with her "babies." Dany had some amazing moments during the first half of the season; meeting up with Ser Barristan and then "negotiating" for 8,000 of the world's most dangerous killer eunuchs. Traveling through the slave cities, from Astapor to Yunkai, gave Dany a new sense of purpose and the ability to rationalize not playing fair with slave traders. Her "art of the deal" seemed to be "I'll make a deal with you, but my dragons are free to renege at any moment and turn you into smoldering screams." Jorah continued to be a loyal aid, but I feel as though many viewers' opinions of Dany, more so than ever before, will be made now based on how she treats Jorah. At first, it was Jorah and Barristan butting heads, playing a passive-agressive game to see who'd be Dany's confidant, and then it was Jorah becoming jealous, in a different way, over Dany's affection toward the jarringly handsome Daario. And it's become clear, even though Dany's more badass than ever, and has an affection for the people that no other leader on the series has shown, that she simply doesn't appreciate Jorah perhaps the way she should.


 * Lev Grossman of Time: Now the camera has swung back to the main characters: Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister
 * A long-expected meeting is approaching. Tyrion is vectoring toward the exiled Daenerys Targaryen, who has been isolated from most of the rest of the players in the series until now. As the daughter of Aerys Targaryen, the last (mostly) uncontested king of Westeros, Daenerys has one of the better claims to the throne. She's been running wild in the exotic lands to the east of Westeros in the company of three feral dragons, beasts not seen in that world for at least a century. She rules the city of Meereen. (She is guarded by, among others, Ser Barristan Selmy, an aging, immensely dignified knight of Westeros who wonders how duty has led him so far from home — and into such strange company. He and Tyrion are Martin's finest creations.) Two of the great narrative arcs of the series are bending toward each other, and when they meet, current will flow.


 * [A Feast for Crows] occupied us with characters we hadn’t gotten close to—we got really, really familiar with Dorne and on the Iron Islands—while some favorite characters were MIA for eleven long years. ADWD brings them back—bastard warrior Jon Snow, exiled dragon queen Danaerys Targaryen, fugitive dwarf Tyrion Lannister and crippled, mystical Bran Stark, among others—and almost from the get-go that gives it a narrative edge over its companion book. Each, in his or her own way, is dealing with a question of power.


 * Dany, having decided that she must bring peace to the conquered city of Meereen before claiming her throne in Westeros, finds it difficult to manage an elite caste that resents her having abolished slavery (along with the neighboring, belligerent city-states)—not to mention the upkeep of three hungry dragons.


 * Some people I met thought we have to find the story's through line. Who's the important character? Somebody thought that Dany's the important character – cut away everybody else, tell the story of Dany. Or Jon Snow. Those were the two most popular characters to build everything around, except you're losing 90 percent of the story.
 * Tom's presentation of the above: Martin told Rolling Stone in 2014 that some early inquiries he received about adapting A Song of Ice and Fire suggested identifying the story's "important character" and focusing on their plot line: Daenerys and Jon Snow being the two most popular choices. Martin was not interested in sacrificing so much of the story.

Arya



 * When Lord Stark of Winterfell, an honest man, comes south to act as the King's chief councilor, no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control. It is fascinating to watch Martin's characters mature and grow, particularly Stark's children, who stand at the center of the book.


 * Most important for fans, “A Dance With Dragons” catches up with some of Mr. Martin’s most popular characters, including Daenarys Targaryen, queen of the city of Meereen and “mother” of three dragons; Jon Snow, 998th lord commander of the Night’s Watch; Arya Stark, 11-year-old daughter of the late Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell; and the disgraced Queen Cersei of House Lannister.


 * To ensure Ned's loyalty, plans are made to marry Joffrey to the oldest Stark girl, Sansa (Sophie Turner). The younger daughter, Arya (Maisie Williams), would rather be a soldier than a wife ... The women are particularly good -- Queen Cersei is both evil and sympathetic, Lady Stark is a formidable foe, Arya becomes the heart of the story while the terrified and enslaved Daenerys finds her inner strength.


 * So much story, so much ground to cover, so many fantastic characters — and so many Starks, including the delightful Maisie Williams as Ned's tomboyish daughter Arya. She and earnest brother Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) idolize their bastard brother Jon Snow (soulful heartthrob Kit Harington), who seeks purpose by joining the Black Watch guarding the fictional world of Westeros from the encroaching dangers from the North. Early on, the young Starks adopt a motherless pack of direwolves, and you will even come to care about these fiercely protective beasts as forces of evil converge to test the Starks' resolve.


 * THE CHANGE: He's the cold and calculating patriarch of the richest, cruelest family in Westeros. She's the wild-child daughter of a fallen hero, on the run from forces sworn to destroy her. Together they're dynamite! In the books, Arya spends Lord Tywin's time in Harrenhal as a peon who only catches the occasional glimpse of House Lannister's top dog; the show's incognito-cupbearer plotline is grafted in from another section of the book. THE VERDICT: Maisie Williams plus Charles Dance equals great TV. It's pretty much just that simple. Kudos to the show for finding a way to have one of its best child actors (and it's got more good ones than some entire networks) and its most commanding actor/character combo (Dance looks nothing like Tywin in the books but it's now hard to imagine him any other way) go head-to-head on the regular. Arya's less-than-effective cat-and-mouse stuff with Littlefinger and Lorch is a small price to pay.


 * Later in the book, when its timeline finally converges with that of Feast, we see a bit more of what transpires in the lives of Arya, Cersei and Jamie Lannister, and others.


 * Season 3 finale: Arya Stark, girl hero, killed a man, but seemed to take it in stride.


 * Arya, sadly, made it to Riverrun but has little to show for it except more mental trauma and an impulse control problem that’s only getting worse. We’ll cover all that in a second. The immediate aftermath of the Red Wedding is difficult to watch. The carnage at the Stark camp is bad enough, but grisly details like the head of Robb’s wolf being sewn to his body? Man, George R. R. Martin, that is fucked up. It’s the appropriate backdrop for the Hound to have another heroic moment—he only really shines through at the darkest of times, when any humane action sticks out, even if it’s just him grimly riding through the chaos to protect Arya. What to make of Arya’s vengeance on the Frey lackeys, stabbing one mercilessly as he boasts of his work desecrating Robb’s corpse? On the one hand, you give ‘em hell, Arya. On the other hand, it’s a bleak moment, meant to signify how far past rock bottom she’s gone with no family left to turn to. Even the Hound is surprised (mostly that she managed to spirit a knife away from him), but what’s really unsettling to watch is the little act she tries out before killing her prey, distracting him with a lost-little-girl routine that includes a dropped coin for misdirect and everything. It’s creepy stuff, but what of Arya next year? Does she just become the Hound’s murdering chum?
 * Better, then, were sequences that took characters and pushed them off cliffs they’ve been standing on a long time. Arya, with the help of the Hound, came upon some of the soldiers responsible for the deaths of her brother and mother, and she stabbed the shit out of one of them. (The Hound took care of the rest.) Was it the first man she’d killed? Yes, she said. The first man, and one could sense a much more dynamic season coming for America’s favorite Stark bargaining chip.


 * The other character I wanted to single out here - a personal favorite of mine - is Arya. While her moments never once ended an episode, or were the main focus of any particular Season 3 chapter, her journey continues to captivate - even though it also continues to take us further away from any hopes and dreams we initially held for her as being the one true warrior of the Stark bunch. In fact, I think this season of TV did a better job of conveying her hate-spiral than the books. Arya's someone we always thought of as a character who, down the line, could avenge her entire family. But after seeing her dad executed, her life's just been one long parade of misery, mud and death. As soon as she left the walls of King's Landing and entered the war-ravaged Riverlands, Arya got to experience the cold, cruel and harsh reality of the realm; a place where only scoundrels and monsters win. Not only did Arya systematically lose Hot Pie and then Gendry (in a nice little twist from the books), she learned that even the "heroes of the people" - i.e. The Brotherhood - played the numbers game. Granted, Gendry left Arya to join the Brotherhood before he was then handed off to Melisandre, and it was during that moment that Arya opened up, perhaps for the last time, and told Gendry that he could be her family. In both an innocent and not-so-innocent manner. He misunderstood of course, and then fell back on his mistrust of nobles. So by the time Arya even got to The Twins, with her mother and brother so close, she was a dark, shadow of her former self. Of course, it didn't help that The Hound mocked her fear of failing to reach home just moments before she failed to reach home. So here's a show that gives us people to hate, and then later on gives them complicated layers and understandable motivations (save for Joffrey, naturally), but could Arya's journey be that of a future villain? That of someone not unlike The Hound?


 * Williams and Dormer were featured in Entertainment Weekly's 'Women Who Kick Ass' panel. Williams said that before she took the part of Arya, acting had been more of a hobby, but she was interested in playing her because "she was similar to me." She added, "My 12-year-old head didn't realize it would turn out like this."



Sansa

 * When Lord Stark of Winterfell, an honest man, comes south to act as the King's chief councilor, no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control. It is fascinating to watch Martin's characters mature and grow, particularly Stark's children, who stand at the center of the book.


 * Sansa’s misery is more conventional (she’s more conventional after all) but also pretty tough to stomach, especially after her and Tyrion have a cute little moment at the top of the hour taking comfort in their shared outcast statuses. Tyrion’s relationship with her is one of the most unambiguous in the show—he wants to protect her, nothing more, but he’s doomed to let her down forever just by being a Lannister. There’s nothing he can do about that. Still, it’s great to see him stick up for her at the small council meeting, which doubled as the funniest scene of the year—blackly funny, for sure, but funny nonetheless.
 * Cersei insists that she, somehow, won't be marrying Loras, but Tyrion didn't get the opportunity to figure a way out of marring Sansa. Poor Sansa. Another character still being punished for her one mistake, back in Season 1, of crushing on Joffrey. Not that marrying Tyrion is all that terrible (I mean, we know he's awesome), but the news of her nuptials came right after her refusal of Littlefinger's offer to escape with him when he left for The Eyrie. You can blame the Tyrells for that one, and Margaery for getting Sansa's hopes up. While the Tyrells are a powerful, cunning family, they simply got beaten to the punch by Tywin.
 * There was so much good acting in this episode, but I think Sophie Turner deserves a special mention for her portrayal of Sansa. In the first season, before her father was killed, Sansa seemed like just another vain, spoiled, rich girl. But she's been through hell, thanks to Joffrey, and has acquired a measure of character -- without ever quite losing the impatient-princess vibe that always set her apart from Arya. In a way, it wasn't surprising to learn that she's just 14. She's still naive and still arrogant, but she never stops growing. I wonder what she and Tyrion will achieve together.
 * There was so much good acting in this episode, but I think Sophie Turner deserves a special mention for her portrayal of Sansa. In the first season, before her father was killed, Sansa seemed like just another vain, spoiled, rich girl. But she's been through hell, thanks to Joffrey, and has acquired a measure of character -- without ever quite losing the impatient-princess vibe that always set her apart from Arya. In a way, it wasn't surprising to learn that she's just 14. She's still naive and still arrogant, but she never stops growing. I wonder what she and Tyrion will achieve together.


 * http://time.com/3882162/game-of-thrones-sansa-stark-wedding-ramsay-bolton/


 * http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/17/game-thrones-sansa-ramsay-interview


 * http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/26/game-thrones-sansa-ramsay-interview


 * http://www.ew.com/recap/game-of-thrones-season-5-episode-6


 * http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/18/george-rr-martin-sansa-wedding

Tyrells

 * Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg) was a such a stand-out character this season that she managed to get a juicy, quip-filled scene with just about every character in King's Landing. And Margaery, while getting totally owned by Cersei during Tyrion's wedding in "Second Sons," displayed her powers of manipulation by slowly seducing Joffrey into becoming something/someone more than a psychotic bastard. Or, at least, getting him to act civil while she's around. Still, the fact that she sees his cruel ways as little more than an annoying trait she needs to put up with in order to become Queen shows you just how strong and resolute she is.
 * A fan of 'Thrones' from the start, Dormer had watched the first season and admired the way it "wrote 3-D, complex women really well." She revealed that her audition scene was the moment from "What Is Dead Will Never Die" (203) in which Margaery offers to bring Loras into the bedroom for Renly. On the topic of Margaery's motivations, Dormer pointed out that female characters are better served on TV than in film these days. "TV doesn't feel the need to polarize women so much. Male writers want an angel or a whore," she said, adding that with Margaery, those traits don't have to be mutually exclusive. "You can be human and be shrewd," she said. "Those are not two separate things."
 * In the books – and I make no promises, because I have two more books to write, and I may have more surprises to reveal – the conclusion that the careful reader draws is that Joffrey was killed by the Queen of Thorns, using poison from Sansa's hairnet, so that if anyone did think it was poison, then Sansa would be blamed for it. Sansa had certainly good reason for it. The reason I bring this up is because that's an interesting question of redemption. That's more like killing Hitler. Does the Queen of Thorns need redemption? Did the Queen of Thorns kill Hitler, or did she murder a 13-year-old boy? Or both? She had good reasons to remove Joffrey. Is it a case where the end justifies the means? I don't know. That's what I want the reader or viewer to wrestle with, and to debate.
 * Q: There are characters on the TV show, I feel like, because of the actors playing them, they have an extra dimension, does that come back to the novels? Do you think about the actors? Like Natalie Dormer is amazing as Margaery Tyrell.
 * GRRM: She is, she's incredible ... And, with Margaery — my Margaery is younger than Loras, not older than Loras. So she's really just like a sixteen year old kid. And Natalie is brilliant, but she's clearly not a sixteen-year-old kid. She's very smart. She's almost what my Margaery will become in ten years. So these changes have consequences. [Also], there's two missing Tyrell brothers in the show. [The television] Tyrell [family] has Margaery and Loras, and there's two older brothers, Willas and Garlan in the books. We have the biggest cast in television, so we can't afford to add more characters. I have the biggest cast in literature, I think.

Shae

 * Shae (character)

"[Tyrion]’s lost everything ... He’s lost his position in House Lannister, he’s lost his position in court, he’s lost all of his gold — which is the one thing that’s kind of sustained him throughout his life. Whatever disadvantages he’s had in terms being a dwarf, he didn’t have the sort of physical abilities to be a knight, but he had the great advantage of an ancient and powerful name and all the gold that he could want to buy things — including followers like Bronn and other people to defend him. Now he’s lost all of that and he’s also found out that Jamie — the one blood relation that he loved unreservedly and has his back, and was always on his side — played a part in this traumatic event of his life, the ultimate betrayal. He’s so hurt that he wants to hurt other people ... and he knows that just up this ladder is a chamber that was once his that now his father has usurped from him. So he goes up to see his father. And I don’t think he knows what he’s gonna say or do when he gets up there but he — some part of him feels compelled to do it. And of course then we find Shae there, that’s an additional shock to him, an additional knife in his belly. I think sometimes people just get pushed too far, sometimes people break. And I think Tyrion has reached his point. He’s been through hell, he’s faced death over and over again, and he’s been betrayed, as he sees it, by all the people that he’s tried to take care of, that he’s tried to win the approval of. He’s been trying to win his father’s approval all his life. And despite his misgivings, he fell in love with Shae ... It just reaches a point where he can’t do it anymore. I think the two actions are quite different, although they occur within moments of each other. He’s furious at Lord Tywin because he found out the truth about his first wife and what happened to her, and ... Lord Tywin is convinced that since he doesn’t love Tyrion, then no one can possibly love Tyrion. So it’s obviously some lower-class girl who’s just trying to get the dwarf into bed because he was a Lannister ... So basically the equivalent of being a whore — she’s just f–king him for possession of status and he’s trying to teach Tyrion a lesson in that regard. And so he keeps using the word 'whore' which is like pouring salt into his wound, and Tyrion tells him not to do that, don’t say that word again. And he says that word again and at that moment, Tyrion’s finger just pushes on the trigger. An important thing that has been drilled in with him since his youth — because it’s very much Lord Tywin’s philosophy — is that you don’t make threats and then fail to carry them out. You threaten someone and then they defy you, and you don’t carry it out, then who’s gonna believe your threats? Your threats have to carry weight. And that’s drilled into Tyrion all his life. So his father says that word, his finger pushes on the crossbow, the decision of a split second, and then it’s done. And it will haunt him. Tywin was his father and that will continue to haunt him, probably for the rest of his life. With Shae, it’s a much more deliberate and in some ways a crueler thing. It’s not the action of a second, because he’s strangling her slowly and she’s fighting, trying to get free. He could let go at any time. But his anger and his sense of betrayal is so strong that he doesn’t stop until it’s done and that’s probably the blackest deed that he’s ever done. It’s the great crime of his soul along with what he did with his first wife by abandoning her after the little demonstration Lord Tywin put on ... it’s again something that’s going to haunt him, while the act of killing his father is something of enormous consequence that would be forever beyond the pale, for no man is as cursed as a kinslayer."

"It’s also worth mentioning Shae is one of the characters that really has changed significantly from the books to the TV show. I think that [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] wrote Shae very differently, and a symbol to Sibel Kekilli — the incredible girl playing her. Shae is much more sincere in her affections for Tyrion. This is almost contradictory, but with the Shae in the TV series, you can tell she actually has real feelings for Tyrion — she challenges him, she defies him. The Shae in the books is a manipulative camp-follower prostitute who doesn’t give a s–t about Tyrion any more than she would any other john, but she’s very compliant, like a little teenage sex kitten, feeding all his fantasies; she’s really just in it for the money and the status. She’s everything lord Tywin thought Tyrion’s first wife was that she actually wasn’t. So there are all layers of complexity going on here. They’re the same character, but they’re also very different characters, and I think that’s going to lead to very different resonances playing out in the TV show than in the books. &mdash;"


 * But back to Sansa, poor girl. I thought the nuptials in Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" were nightmarish, but this wedding from hell might be worse -- except that, for all his drunkenness, Tyrion actually saves the day, twice. First, he foils Joffrey's wicked plan to strip Sansa naked in front of all the guests (and rape her later), and then he chooses decency over filial loyalty and elects not to consummate the marriage after all. This has the added benefit of scoring him points with Shae, who arrives in the morning to find Sansa's sheets pristine and unbloodied. Is it too much to hope that these three will work out an "arrangement"?


 * So: we are now watching a series with no “protagonist.” And yet, the rest of “Baelor” demonstrated that, while Ned was getting himself ensnared in King’s Landing, the rest of the ensemble has developed characters we can be as much or more invested in. Tyrion, for instance, who is further humanized in, yes, another scene involving exposition with a whore–but this time, one that doesn’t even involve having sex with her! Tyrion’s story of his early, humiliating “marriage” continues complicating our picture not only of him but of his relationship with his father, whom he nonetheless is still trying to please. But maybe more important–in a series with so many examples of how women are sexually subjugated in this culture–is a scene in which we have a woman who is a sexual object but who is not *presented* as a sexual object in the scene. Shae, rather, proves to be a mystery and a challenge to Tyrion, whose ability to read people–which has literally saved his life–falls short when he tries to figure out what makes her tick. Tyrion is saved from honoring Tywin with his death in battle by an errant Hill Tribes war hammer–which also saves Game of Thrones from having to depict a battle in the field between thousands of armored men. The move may be obvious–the budget is big but not that big–but it also focuses the drama of the battle on the mental, tactical game between Robb and Tywin.

Davos

 * Other notable characters are crippled eight-year-old Bran; Melisandre, a beautiful, menacing priestess; and Ser Davos, who won knighthood breaking a siege with a boatload of dried fish.
 * I’m much more excited for Stannis’ next move, also aimed at the white walkers. For most of the episode, he’s plotting to burn Gendry alive as a sacrifice to the gods, pointing to Robb’s death as evidence of Melisandre’s witchery, but Davos (more and more the beating, honorable heart of the show, filling a void left by Ned) rescues the boy and manages to convince Stannis and Melisandre to cast their gaze north instead. The turnaround on this is … quick indeed. Davos is seconds from death, and two minutes later he’s right at Stannis’ side for the big push to the Wall. I assume this is a little less rushed in the books, but I’m willing to forgive it if it gets Stannis out of Dragonstone and back into the thick of things. He’s been licking his wounds too long, and with Robb out of the fight, the war is pretty much over.

Renly & Loras
GRRM: It’s amazing what people pick up on and what they don’t. The whole controversy over Renly and Loras, [viewers saying] “HBO made these characters gay!” EW: It was always firmly hinted. GRRM: And many got that, but many didn’t. I’m still getting letters about it. They were oblivious when they read the books and [producers] made it explicit.


 * Loras sleeps with Slutty squire Olyvar (Will Tudor) who works for Varys http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/04/29/game-of-thrones-sansa-tyrion-engaged-season-3-episode-5-recap/

The adaptation openly depicts Renly and Ser Loras Tyrell as lovers, an interaction obliquely addressed in the novels.

Osha

 * Osha (character)
 * EW: Is there any performance in the TV show that’s caused you to think differently about a character?
 * GRRM: The performances have been great, but they’ve been great at capturing the characters as I saw them. The one exception is Natalia Tena as Osha. Cause she’s very different than in the book, but I think she’s more interesting. When I bring Osha back in Winds of Winter, I’ll have Natalia in mind and perhaps give the character more interesting things to do.


 * Q: Do you now think about what [Dormer]'s going to do with the material you're writing now, as an actor?
 * GRRM: To some extent. You know, the most extreme example of that is Natalia Tena as Osha. Who is a pretty minor character in the books, has a one-note personality, is really there to advance the plot, and fulfill certain plotpoints. And Natalia Tena made it such an interesting and vibrant, alive character, and much different. Natalia is much younger and much more attractive than my Osha, who was ten, fifteen years older, weathered, leathery...

Ygritte
William Van Meter of Out called “You know nothing, Jon Snow”—Ygritte's "trademark quip"—"the closest thing the show has to a catchphrase".

Brienne

 * As for her favorite part of playing Brienne, Christie said she was happy that people were responding to her character and "making judgements for the choices she makes rather than the way she looks."
 * In the wrong hands, a big ensemble like this can be deadly, but Martin is a tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting plotter and a deft and inexhaustible sketcher of personalities--including Tyrion Lannister, a bitter, cynical, high-born dwarf (he's Martin's Falstaff) and Brienne the Beauty, a huge, unmarriageable, monstrously ugly woman who fights in full armor and usually wins. Martin has an astonishing ability to focus on epic sweep and tiny, touching human drama simultaneously. The supernatural plays a role, but only rarely.
 * Interview re: Killing Stannis

Melisandre

 * Other notable characters are crippled eight-year-old Bran; Melisandre, a beautiful, menacing priestess; and Ser Davos, who won knighthood breaking a siege with a boatload of dried fish.


 * Jon Snow, now Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch at the Wall, is struggling to lead an undermanned force through an immigration crisis—a stream of wildling refugees fleeing the Others in the North. His already thankless job is made more complicated by serving under the eye of King Stannis, claimant to the Iron Throne, who is encamped with his army and his priestess/sorceress/Svengali, Melisandre.



Direwolf pups

 * (2000) Do you remember how Song of Ice and Fire started for you, the first moment where you realized you had this story you wanted to tell?
 * Martin: I began the series in 1991, when I was still very much involved in Hollywood. I had a few months there where I had no immediate script assignments, and I started a science fiction novel, one that had actually been in my idea books for a long time, that I'd been thinking about writing for over a decade. So I started work on it, and it was going along well. But then one day, as I sat down to write, suddenly the first chapter of A Game of Thrones came to me. Not the prologue, which is the first thing you read in the book, but the actual first chapter, which is the Bran chapter where he's taken out to see his father behead a deserter, and his brothers Robb and Jon find the direwolf pups in the snow. That came to me so vividly that I knew I had to write it. So I put the other book aside and sat down and wrote that chapter, which came very easily. And by the time I finished it, I knew what the second chapter would be, so I started writing that. Before I knew it, the other novel was gathering dust in the drawer, and I was going headlong into A Game of Thrones.


 * (2001) The series itself crept up on him, Martin recalled. He was working on a science-fiction novel when a scene -- the discovery of direwolf pups in the snow beside their dead mother -- popped into his head. The image of pups became a scene-setter in the first chapter of "A Game of Thrones." Martin gave up the novel and began exploring a new world of fire and ice, and thus was the series born.


 * (2005) Then, one day, an image came to him. A man is taking a boy to witness a beheading. They encounter a dead direwolf who has just given birth to a litter and they rescue the pups. "To this day I don't know where it came from," he said. "But I knew that I had to write it."


 * (2014) You've talked before about the original glimpse of the story you had for what became A Song of Ice and Fire: a spontaneous vision in your mind of a boy witnessing a beheading, then finding direwolves in the snow. That's an interesting genesis.
 * It was the summer of 1991. I was still involved in Hollywood. My agent was trying to get me meetings to pitch my ideas, but I didn't have anything to do in May and June. It had been years since I wrote a novel. I had an idea for a science-fiction novel called Avalon. I started work on it and it was going pretty good, when suddenly it just came to me, this scene, from what would ultimately be the first chapter of A Game of Thrones. It's from Bran's viewpoint; they see a man beheaded and they find some direwolf pups in the snow. It just came to me so strongly and vividly that I knew I had to write it. I sat down to write, and in, like, three days it just came right out of me, almost in the form you've read.

The Wall

 * How did you come up with the Wall?
 * The Wall predates anything else. I can trace back the inspiration for that to 1981. I was in England visiting a friend, and as we approached the border of England and Scotland, we stopped to see Hadrian's Wall. I stood up there and I tried to imagine what it was like to be a Roman legionary, standing on this wall, looking at these distant hills. It was a very profound feeling. For the Romans at that time, this was the end of civilization; it was the end of the world. We know that there were Scots beyond the hills, but they didn't know that. It could have been any kind of monster. It was the sense of this barrier against dark forces – it planted something in me. But when you write fantasy, everything is bigger and more colorful, so I took the Wall and made it three times as long and 700 feet high, and made it out of ice.

ASOIAF Critical response

 * In 2007, Weird Tales magazine described A Song of Ice and Fire as a "superb fantasy saga" that "raised Martin to a whole new level of success".


 * Among the most critical voices were Sam Jordison and Michael Hann, both of The Guardian. Jordison detailed his misgivings about A Game of Thrones in a 2009 review and summarized "It's daft. It's unsophisticated. It's cartoonish. And yet, I couldn't stop reading .... Archaic absurdity aside, Martin's writing is excellent. His dialogue is snappy and frequently funny. His descriptive prose is immediate and atmospheric, especially when it comes to building a sense of deliciously dark foreboding [of the long impending winter]."


 * 2011
 * Salon.com's Andrew Leonard "couldn't stop reading Martin because my desire to know what was going to happen combined with my absolute inability to guess what would happen and left me helpless before his sorcery. At the end, I felt shaken and exhausted."


 * Shortly before the release of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Bill Sheehan of The Washington Post was sure that "no work of fantasy has generated such anticipation since Harry Potter's final duel with Voldemort",


 * and Ethan Sacks of Daily News saw the series turning Martin into a darling of literary critics as well as mainstream readers, which was "rare for a fantasy genre that's often dismissed as garbage not fit to line the bottom of a dragon's cage".


 * As Salon.com's Andrew Leonard said, "The success is all the more remarkable because [the series debuted] without mass market publicity or any kind of buzz in the fantasy/SF scene. George R. R. Martin earned his following the hard way, by word of mouth, by hooking his characters into the psyche of his readers to an extent that most writers of fantasy only dream of."


 * The Globe and Mail


 * and USA Today.


 * Time magazine named Martin one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011,


 * and USA Today named George R.R. Martin their Author of the Year 2011.


 * According to The Globe and Mail John Barber, Martin manages simultaneously to master and transcend the genre so that "Critics applaud the depth of his characterizations and lack of cliché in books that are nonetheless replete with dwarves and dragons".


 * According to the Los Angeles Times, "Martin's brilliance in evoking atmosphere through description is an enduring hallmark of his fiction, the settings much more than just props on a painted stage", and the novels captivate readers with "complex storylines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing, and the willingness to kill off even his major characters".


 * The Christian Science Monitor advised to read the novels with an A Song of Ice and Fire encyclopedia at hand to "catch all the layered, subtle hints and details that [Martin] leaves throughout his books. If you pay attention, you will be rewarded and questions will be answered."


 * Hann did not see the novels stand out from the general fantasy genre despite Martin's alterations to fantasy convention, although he rediscovered his childhood's views "That when things are, on the whole, pretty crappy [in the real world], it's a deep joy to dive headfirst into something so completely immersive, something from which there is no need to surface from hours at a time. And if that immersion involves dragons, magic, wraiths from beyond death, shapeshifting wolves and banished princes, so be it."