New Game of Thrones Trailer Hints at the Series’ Endgame
Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series were saddened (if not wholly surprised) when word broke late last week that we’re more than likely going to be cooling our heels until 2016 waiting for The Winds of Winter, the sixth installment in the blockbuster epic fantasy saga following 2011’s A Dance with Dragons.
Long waits have become de rigueur for Martin’s readers, however—the gaps between books have only grown as the series progressed in popularity (and page count). Frayed nerves aside, this was all well and good until it started to look like a possibility (and now appears to be a certainty) that we’ll see the end of the two-decades-in-the-making story on television long before we read it on the page.
Be warned—spoilers for all five books and four seasons of the show lurk below.
A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5)
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A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5)
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In fact, a careful analysis of the (not quite as) long-awaited trailer for season five of the HBO series, which leaked online on Friday, hints that the show is already setting up its endgame, and is lopping the heads off of many of the key plot lines in Martin’s books in the process. Of course, there have already been plenty of snips and shifts bringing the 1,000-page doorstoppers to the screen. Even with 10 hours of screen time per season, it’s simply unfeasible to cram that much plot into a coherent filmed narrative. But for every killed darling (though we’re not quite sure that’s the right term for the excised Lady Stoneheart plot), the show has introduced new ideas that made sense cinematically (getting to know Robb and Jeyne a bit more intimately made the Red Wedding even more unpleasant).
As the series barrels into its later stages (already renewed for a sixth season, it’s ultimately expected to end after a seventh), however, it appears to be rapidly leaping over several of the main plot threads of A Dance with Dragons, including the one perhaps most crucial to the overarching narrative—the endless struggle for the Iron Throne (hey, ice zombies aside, it isn’t called Game of Thrones for nothing).
In fact, a careful analysis of the (not quite as) long-awaited trailer for season five of the HBO series, which leaked online on Friday, hints that the show is already setting up its endgame, and is lopping the heads off of many of the key plot lines in Martin’s books in the process. Of course, there have already been plenty of snips and shifts bringing the 1,000-page doorstoppers to the screen. Even with 10 hours of screen time per season, it’s simply unfeasible to cram that much plot into a coherent filmed narrative. But for every killed darling (though we’re not quite sure that’s the right term for the excised Lady Stoneheart plot), the show has introduced new ideas that made sense cinematically (getting to know Robb and Jeyne a bit more intimately made the Red Wedding even more unpleasant).
As the series barrels into its later stages (already renewed for a sixth season, it’s ultimately expected to end after a seventh), however, it appears to be rapidly leaping over several of the main plot threads of A Dance with Dragons, including the one perhaps most crucial to the overarching narrative—the endless struggle for the Iron Throne (hey, ice zombies aside, it isn’t called Game of Thrones for nothing).
The trailer prominently features scenes of a bearded and exhausted Tyrion, on the run after the impulsive murder of his father at the end of season four, talking politics with scheming spider Varys while overlooking an idyllic landscape that can only be the port city of Pentos. Now, here’s where things get interesting: In the books, Varys has smuggled Tyrion to freedom in order to enlist him in a plot to place a new king on the Iron Throne—Prince Aegon Targaryen, the heretofore thought murdered son of the late Prince Rhaegar, killed by King Robert Baratheon (who is also now dead… why do people want the throne again?).
In the trailer, however, Varys seems to be sending Tyrion directly to Meereen to council with another would-be ruler—Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons. The key bit of dialogue:
Varys: “The Seven Kingdoms needs a ruler loved by millions with a powerful army and the right family name.”
Tyrion: “Good luck finding him.”
Varys: “Who said anything about him?”
Varys was deeply involved in the Prince Aegon storyline in the book. If he’s putting his weight behind Dany instead, that suggests we won’t see the prince on the show at all, and considering the pages Martin spent on the plotline in Dance, that signals not only one of the most drastic departures from the text yet, but hints that the end is much, much closer than we faithful readers ever imagined.
Unfortunately, all there is to do now is wait a little longer: Season five debuts on April 12.
The trailer prominently features scenes of a bearded and exhausted Tyrion, on the run after the impulsive murder of his father at the end of season four, talking politics with scheming spider Varys while overlooking an idyllic landscape that can only be the port city of Pentos. Now, here’s where things get interesting: In the books, Varys has smuggled Tyrion to freedom in order to enlist him in a plot to place a new king on the Iron Throne—Prince Aegon Targaryen, the heretofore thought murdered son of the late Prince Rhaegar, killed by King Robert Baratheon (who is also now dead… why do people want the throne again?).
In the trailer, however, Varys seems to be sending Tyrion directly to Meereen to council with another would-be ruler—Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons. The key bit of dialogue:
Varys: “The Seven Kingdoms needs a ruler loved by millions with a powerful army and the right family name.”
Tyrion: “Good luck finding him.”
Varys: “Who said anything about him?”
Varys was deeply involved in the Prince Aegon storyline in the book. If he’s putting his weight behind Dany instead, that suggests we won’t see the prince on the show at all, and considering the pages Martin spent on the plotline in Dance, that signals not only one of the most drastic departures from the text yet, but hints that the end is much, much closer than we faithful readers ever imagined.
Unfortunately, all there is to do now is wait a little longer: Season five debuts on April 12.