Ellie Kendrick talks about Meera’s development

It is a truth that no one has actually acknowledged that when a main, or at least B-level character is on their last go round for Game of Thrones ahead of dying, that the actor does a ridiculous amount of interviews relative to the interest in their character. Last season, Natalie Dormer (Margaery) did so many interviews she actually got sick of them by the end. Ahead of Season 5, Kit Harington was everywhere at once, as part of his Jon Snow is going to die this season act. Ahead of Season 4? It was Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Lannister Baratheon.) Season 3 it was Richard Madden (Robb Stark.) And on and on, all the way back to Season 1 and Sean Bean.

So every year, starting at about this time, we start watching for anyone who might be “over-interviewing”, as it were. And we already have a candidate. In yet another interview, Ellie Kendrick is back, talking about Meera’s development in the upcoming Game of Thrones Season 7.

I think we’ve seen Meera go through a real process of character development. She has no idea what she’s getting herself into when we first see her. She’s there with her brother, she’s young and tough, and she’s got an axe to grind with Osha; she gets pretty shirty and knows the way that she thinks things should be done….. Gradually members of their party start peeling off and she loses everything that’s dear to her, you know? She’s away from her home. All of their group has slowly dwindled. Her brother has died. She wasn’t able to save him, and of course, that changes her massively.

Meera is one tough character–Kendrick says her semi-samurai moves were actually taught to her for the show by a former Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle actors. But the experience of last season, of being unable to defeat the zombies, and nearly losing Bran the same way she lost Hodor and her brother has done something “pretty crazy to {her} head.” right?

And that feeling of helplessness is something that is really different to the young, more idealistic, more headstrong Meera that we see in the beginning, who thinks that she can change everything. Then we get to a sense of more despondence and trauma by the end of it, I think, by the end of season six that we’ve seen. Yeah, it’s quite a big arc. She’s had a lot of bad stuff that’s happened to her. She has to put up with a lot.

Do all these interviews mean that this is Meera’s last hurrah in Westeros this season? Does this mean we’ll never make it, as an audience, to the Neck, or meet Howland Reed after all? Will it all have been just a strange coincidence that Meera and Jojen Reed, the children of Ned’s best friend, and the only man who knew the truth of what happened at the Tower of Joy, found Bran all those seasons ago?

We’ll just have to wait for Season 7 to learn the truth.

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/12/04/ellie-kendrick-talks-about-meeras-development/