The post WiC Weekly: May 19-25 appeared first on Winter is Coming.
The final season of Game of Thrones remains in production and will continue for a little while longer, but it stands to reason some cast members may already be done with their parts at this point. This is not the case for Emilia Clarke … but it is for Daenerys!
In this month’s Vanity Fair cover story, Joanna Robinson interviews Emilia Clarke (with occasional additional remarks by Kit Harington, Rose Leslie, Dan Weiss, David Benioff and others) about her life and career before and after Game of Thrones, as well as, of course, the blockbuster Solo: A Star Wars Story, in which she stars as Qi’Ra (she is also surprisingly candid about the disastrous experience of filming Terminator: Genisys.)
Here we are all about Thrones, however, and thankfully she did reveal a few things: she’s already shot Dany’s “final on-screen moments.” In her own words, “it fucked me up. Knowing that is going to be a lasting flavor in someone’s mouth of what Daenerys is…”
Damn. That may not be a spoiler but I’m sure it will give birth to hundreds of wild theories about what she could possibly mean. Am I crazy or is she saying her character’s final moments in the show may be quite controversial? Whatever she means, I believe it must be made clear Clarke is not done with season eight. She did film Dany’s last scene, as the show is never shot chronologically, but it’s likely Clarke will be around until the end of production, given her character’s importance and usual screen time.
And what will what screen time consist of? Believe it not, she offers a few tidbits. While discussing the difficulty of infusing the serious Daenerys with Clarke’s own light-hearted humor, she implies we shouldn’t expect much of that in season eight. More than that, she says she’s “doing all this weird shit. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.”
The interview also confirms something we knew had to happen, given where Jon and Dany were heading last we saw them, but it’s still nice to know for sure: she’s “shooting for the first time with several of the show’s top stars, including Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams.” I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to that encounter!
Clarke also discusses pay parity; her journal of her experiences in this final season that we may one day get to read; and much more. However, for that you should really read the cover story at Vanity Fair, wonderfully written by friend of the site (and Con of Thrones special guest!) Joanna Robinson. Seriously: give it a read! It’s a great piece.
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The post WiC Weekly: May 12-18 appeared first on Winter is Coming.
The Spanish shoot for the last season of Game of Thrones is behind us and what’s ahead of us won’t last for much longer. With filming nearly finished, it appears production is now re-focused on Belfast’s fictional neighbourhood, the streets of King’s Landing, with the crew shooting its newly demolished wall from an epic bird’s-eye view.
Yesterday, A Red Priestess took photos of the capital set as production was underway. In these pictures you can also appreciate the end result of the recent construction work:
After a lot of work, the gate towers now appear to be burned down. Photo: A Red Priestess
The two crane-held cameras (top left) are for crane shots. Photo: A Red Priestess
The avenue is being filmed from the Lannister-held Red Keep gate. Photo: A Red Priestess
We can’t see much, but it’s exciting to know this setpiece shoot is past a turning point in which the city is breached. Whatever is being filmed exactly, we should expect lots of epic crane shots; I can’t blame them for wanting to showcase this set in all its glory.
As for the sudden reappearance of the vertical Lannister banners on the Red Keep gate, I wouldn’t advise you to read too much into it. After all, the banners were only stripped from the gate for a short time, and the show isn’t filmed in any coherent order anyway. In fact, the green screen behind the Red Keep battlements could indicate yesterday was the first time anything was shot directly on the gate. Because of all this, the inconsistent flags could have absolutely nothing to do with the story and be all about production.
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Report of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board
for The Fiscal Year Ended June 30 1922
Baltimore, Md. — “Back River” has been a by-word in Maryland for 20 years. Navy medical officers and the surgeons at Camp Holabird, Edgewood Arsenal, and Fort Howard, and perhaps those at the Veterans’ Hospital at Perryville, know it as a source of venereal diseases. “Back River” stood for “Goeller’s Place” and “Bob’s Locust Grove.”
Joe Goeller, with a large investment in an “amusement park,” had so entrenched himself with the local forces of law and order that he had nothing to fear except (he said to a board’s agent) the prohibition officers.
Federal inspectors in September, 1921, found upwards of 40 prostitutes operating with soldiers and sailors at Back River. Prostitution and bootlegging were the head liners on the “amusement” program.
Bob Mundon, on a smaller scale, imitated “Goeller’s Place” with “Bob’s Locust Grove.”
With the assistance of State authority the board brought the evidence before the courts. The proprietors were sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500 each. Their places are boarded up, and they are serving their sentences, having failed in their attempts at pardon.
The county police force that failed in enforcing the law was found to have been corrupted and a part of Goeller’s “Machine.” They were tried and dismissed in disgrace.
Investigations by the agent of the board in the city of Baltimore showed that houses of prostitution are on the increase. These were placed in the hands of the police commissioner. No action has been noted. The police commissioner claims that when houses are watched, raided and the cases brought to court for trial, the cases are indefinitely postponed, and it is hard to secure a conviction. One well-informed authority who has to deal with venereal diseases resulting from the situation, stated that Baltimore was one of the worst cities he had ever known.
Come to the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor this September 28-30 for the 2018 Baltimore Comic-Con! Purchase your tickets now and avoid lines at the ticket counter. The Baltimore Comic-Con will feature some of the industry’s most impactful talent, including Batman’s Harvey Bullock creator Howard Chaykin, Blue Devil creator Paris Cullins, Preacher creator Garth Ennis, Black Lightning creator Tony Isabella, New Mutants creator Bob McLeod, Power Pack creator Louise Simonson, Beta Ray Bill creator Walter Simonson, Thanos creator Jim Starlin, Big Hero 6 creator Gus Vazquez, and John Constantine creator Rick Veitch, just to name a few.
Howard Victor Chaykin is a longtime veteran of the comic book business. As a cartoonist — both writing and drawing — he has been a major influence on the direction of comics, referred to frequently as one of the principle architects of the modern comic book. His signature creation, American Flagg!, introduced a new level of narrative complexity, depth of character, and point of view in its text, not to mention a previously unseen level of design and craft to the visual nature of an all-too-frequently staid and timid medium.
Chaykin continues to produce work that pushes the envelope of concept, context, and content in comics. Last year’s The Divided States of Hysteria, thanks to social media, enraged an entirely new generation of the willfully ignorant who might have had a better case if they’d actually read the damned book. Chaykin’s new series, Hey Kids! Comics!, is a fictionalized history of the comic book business, a love letter written with just a frisson of acid in the ink, to the field he’s loved and called home for over four decades.
Paris Cullins courtesy of DC in the 80s
Paris Cullins landed in DC Comics’ intern program after repeatedly bringing in samples of his work in the 1970s. His first work was featured in Secrets of Haunted House #42, and he went onto work on other DC horror titles like Ghosts, The Unexpected, and Weird War Tales. Cullins transitioned to super-hero titles, doing back-up or assistant work on Green Lantern, Justice League of America, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, and
The Fury of Firestorm before taking on his first work on a title for his co-creation, Blue Devil. While he spent much of his career working at DC on titles such as Batman, The Forever People, and The New Gods, Cullins has drawn Richie Rich and Hot Stuff at Harvey Comics, Hyperkind for Marvel’s Razorline imprint, and Shi for Crusade Comics. In addition to his work in comics, Cullins has spent time at advertisement agencies doing storyboards for TV commercials, and has provided full-color storyboards and designs for video games.
Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis broke into the American Comic scene in 1991, taking over the writing reins on Hellblazer. After a successful four-year run, Ennis moved on to create
Preacher, a 66-issue epic that ran from 1995 -2000, which has now been adopted to a hit television series on AMC. In addition to these two ground-breaking series, he also had lengthy runs on DC’s The Demon and Hitman. More recently, Ennis wrapped up The Boys, a 72-issue story which began at DC’s Wildstorm imprint before moving to Dynamite Entertainment with issue #7. He has had numerous stints on Marvel’s The Punisher for Marvel Knights and MAX, as well as Fury for Marvel MAX. His recent work includes Dastardly and Muttley for DC Comics and Jimmy’s Bastards for AfterShock Comics.
Tony Isabella is creator/writer of Black Lightning, co-creator of Misty Knight and Tigra, and writer of Captain America, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Star Trek, and many more. He was an editor and writer at Marvel Comics. At DC, he created Black Lightning, the company’s first prominent African-American super-hero. He co-wrote the prose novels Captain America: Liberty’s Torch and Star Trek: The Case of the Colonist’s Corpse. He’s the author of 1000 Comic Books You Must Read and the odd-but-wondrous July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic-Book Life of Tony Isabella. He’s received an Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International in San Diego and a Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award from ECBACC. Cleveland Magazine named him one of that city’s most interesting people of 2018. His most recent comics work is the six-issue Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands, marking his return to his creation. He writes the daily “Tony Isabella’s Bloggy Thing” and the weekly “Tony’s Tips” review column. He lectures on comics history, comics writing, and diversity in comics.
Beginning his career in Marvel Comics’ production department, Bob McLeod got his early credits penciling and inking for Crazy magazine. He was a member of The Crusty Bunkers inkers while working at Adams’ Continuity Studios, became a top inker on titles like Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Conan the Barbarian, and Star Wars, and DC Comics’
Detective Comics, Legion of Super-Heroes, Wonder Woman, and The New Titans. He also drew the graphic novel and the first three issues of Marvel’s New Mutants, as well as inking a number of subsequent issues, and helped launch DC’s Superman: The Man of Steel. He also wrote and illustrated Superhero ABC from HarperCollins, and edited Rough Stuff magazine for TwoMorrows Publishing. McLeod currently teaches part-time at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.
Louise Simonson has, like her husband Walter, contributed significantly to the comic book industry. “Weezie”, as she is known, began her comics career as an editor at Warren Publishing before leaving for Marvel to edit titles including X-Men, New Mutants, and Star Wars. Departing the editorial role in favor of writing, Weezie has contributed to storylines in Marvel’s Marvel Team-Up, Web of Spider-Man, and Red Sonja, and was responsible for the introduction of Apocalypse in X-Factor as well as the launch of Power Pack. At DC Comics, she worked on Superman: The Man of Steel and The Adventures of Superman.
Walter and Louise Simonson
Walter Simonson has made vast contributions to comics publishing, as a writer, an artist, and even in founding publishing imprints. He was recognized in 2012 at the Harvey Awards in Special Award for Excellence in Production/Presentation and Best Domestic Reprint Project for Walt Simonson’s The
Mighty Thor, Artist’s Edition from IDW, and in 2013 for Alien: The Illustrated Story from Titan Books for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work. He also received the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 at the Harvey Awards. Walt’s career began in the 1970s at DC Comics, where he worked on titles such as Weird War Tales, Manhunter, Metal Men, Orion, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Vigilante, and Hercules Unbound. Over at Marvel Comics, Simonson has had numerous noteworthy runs, including The Rampaging Hulk magazine, X-Factor, Fantastic Four, and Thor, on which he was responsible for the introduction of Beta Ray Bill and Thor as a frog.
The multi-talented Jim Starlin has worked on both writing and creating art for some of the most noteworthy creations since his entry into the field of comics in the 1970s. The mind behind the Marvel character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, he is also responsible for a number of noteworthy cosmic characters in the Marvel Universe, including Gamora,
Drax the Destroyer, and the villainous Thanos, all of whom are featured in this year’s major motion picture, Avengers: Infinity War.He developed noteworthy runs on Marvel’s Captain Marvel, Warlock, and Silver Surfer, Marvel mini-series Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, and Infinity Crusade, and DC Comics’ Batman, The Weird, and Cosmic Odyssey. His Death of Captain Marvel was the first Marvel graphic novel to be published. More recently, he has provided writing and art for DC’s Stormwatch and writing on Green Lantern: Mongul #23.2, and he returned to his classic villain in April 2014 with Marvel’s Thanos: The Infinity Revelation and 2018’s Thanos: The Infinity Siblings.
Gus Vazquez
Gus Vazquez is an illustrator who has worked in nearly every field, including comic books, trading cards, storyboarding for music videos, commercials, animation and film, logo design, character and toy design, and more. He started his career in comic books working as an assistant to comic book artists Adam Pollina on X-Force, and Kevin McGuire on Trinity Angels. He got his first solo gig at Marvel Comics drawing the covers and interiors for Sunfire and Big Hero 6, the series that introduced the characters featured in Disney’s Oscar winning Big Hero 6.
He has worked on such Marvel titles as Deadpool, X-Force, Spider-Man, What If? Civil War, What If? Back in Black, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and more. For DC, he has worked on such titles as Green Lantern, JLA, Blue Beetle, and most recently on Flash, Suicide Squad, and Green Arrow. Gus was the artist on several issues of Claudio Sanchez’s (of rock music group Coheed and Cambria) The Amory Wars, and was instrumental in helping bring together the creative team of his friends, David Atchison (writer) and Tony Shasteen (illustrator), and his niece, film and TV actress Rosario Dawson on 12 Gauge’s The O.C.T. Currently, Gus has been working for DC Comics on The Sasquatch Detective, a backup story which can be found in the pages of Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, as well as DMC (Daryl Makes Comics) and on La Borinqueña. He is also working on his creator-owned book, Fang.
A member of The Kubert School’s first graduating class, Rick Veitch made a name early in his career as a fantasy artist and writer for Marvel’s Epic line of titles, where he worked on Epic Illustrated, Heartburst, and The One. He went on to work on the critically acclaimed
Swamp Thing from DC Comics, as well as Miracleman from Eclipse Comics, for which he both wrote and provided art. Veitch then moved into the indie comics scene, working initially on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Mirage Studios and then launching his own King Hell publishing house, with titles like Bratpack and The Maximortal. Returning to larger publishers, Veitch has worked on Image’s 1963 and Supreme, and DC’s Tomorrow Stories, America’s Best Comics, The Question, and Aquaman. More recently, he wrote the Vertigo title Army@Love and The Big Lie from Image. You can find his Miracleman work reprinted these days from Marvel Comics and Rick Veitch’s The One from IDW Publishing.
“We were looking through our guest list and came to the realization that a tremendous amount of significant comics characters were created by guests in the room this year,” said Marc Nathan, show promoter for the Baltimore Comic-Con. “Without the contributions of these guests, the comics tapestry would be far less ornate in each publisher’s respective universe. We know our fans are going to be excited to pull out issues of their favorite or first appearances of these characters to get signed by these great guests!”
Emilia Clarke has been noticeably absent from filming in Seville this past week, but perhaps we can chalk it up to her incredibly busy schedule promoting her new film, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Clarke is currently in France for the Cannes Film Festival, but she did take some time to discuss Game of Thrones at the Kering Women in Motion talk.
As an avowed feminist, Clarke shares her views on how women can push for more equality in Hollywood, especially regarding the wage gap. This isn’t an issue for her on Game of Thrones, as she says, “I have always been paid the same amount as my male co-stars. It was my first job and I was not discriminated against because I was a woman, in my paycheck.” She stresses the importance of women advocating for themselves and making it clear they won’t accept less than they’re worth – something she admits is difficult for her at times. “Khaleesi aside, I’m not naturally aggressive as a human.”
Playing a powerful character like Daenerys has led to Clarke being labelled as “strong woman,” a term she hates. She believes it gives the implication that most women are weak, and it is almost never used to describe men. “Find another adjective, damn it,” she insists. “Enough already with the strong women. Let’s just be women.”
Clarke declines to give any details about the final season of Game of Thrones, but she does confess how difficult it is now that it’s coming to an end. “It really feels like preparing to leave home…so that’s exciting, but it’s sad and scary, all at the same time.” It may seem hard to believe, but she is adamant about not knowing how the series ends. In her opinion, however, “it will be what none of us think it will be.”
The entire interview is worth a watch – check it out below.
Armorer and weapons specialist Natalia Lee has been with Game of Thrones since the very first episode, and in a new interview with Metro she admits working on the final season has been bittersweet. “It has been a huge journey. For a lot of us it has been the end. You have to look at it as we are happy to move forward and do other things and be challenged. But it is sad. We are like a family.”
Lee explains that working on the show has been one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs she’s had, and that it will be difficult to find anything else like it. “I have shot on glaciers in the middle of Iceland to deserts in Spain and Morocco, and on fortress walls. For me it was a masterclass of filmmaking. It is the best of the best. The hardest thing is that we have set a benchmark, and we are not going to top anything like this again in our careers.”
Although she won’t give any secrets away, Lee does have a few hints about what to expect in season eight.” All I can say is think big and multiply it by a billion,” she teases. “We know the storylines now. It is survival of the fittest. There’s only a few left standing. Anyone and everyone can die.” Let’s hope it doesn’t go quite that far!
Read the rest here.
Finally, Rodeo FX has released the VFX breakdown for two big moments of season seven – the nighttime sea battle between Euron Greyjoy and the Targaryen forces, and the Night King and Viserion bringing down the Wall. Take a look at the video above to see each sequence from concept art to spectacular finish! It’s especially amazing to see the fall of the Wall in such detail and from so many more perspectives than in the show.
The post Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones and gender equality; Weapons Specialist Natalia Lee on Season 8; New VFX video! appeared first on Watchers on the Wall.
In the first episode of Game of Thrones, young Brandon Stark climbed to the top of Winterfell’s walls with a specific purpose: the retinue of King Robert Baratheon was nearing Bran’s home and the young Stark wanted to enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the approaching southern royal host.
Years later, Bran Stark is back at Winterfell, literally watching through the eyes of birds as the undead retinue of a decidely non-southron king shambles into the kingdom through a breach in the ancient Wall.
Much has changed for Bran. Where he once was the privileged second-son of a mighty lord able to roam care-free about the massive playground that was Castle Winterfell – now he spends his days never far from Winterfell’s gloomy heart tree and with the heavy weight of destiny on him. Bran now has great power, with the responsibilities that accompany it.
Bran’s story first picked up speed when he unexpectedly discovered the queen and her brother Jaime Lannister having an affair. This information was so dangerous that Jaime, breaking the rules of what is expected of welcomed guests, tossed Bran from Winterfell’s heights, putting him into a coma.
Jaime: Unfortunately, these Starks are hard to kill.
Soon after his fall, Bran began to experience mysterious dreams that featured a black-feathered, three-eyed bird. Surviving an assassination attempt and escaping from a captured-then-razed Winterfell, Bran’s dreams were interpreted for him by Jojen Reed, the young son of Ned Stark’s stalwart bannerman Howland Reed.
With Jojen’s guidance, Bran traveled into the far north, where he finally met face-to-face with the old tree-bound wizard who had been sending these dreams.
(Max Von Sydow played a less-creepy version of the character in the sixth season.)
Bran: You’re the Three Eyed Raven.
Old Guy in Root System: I’ve been many things. Now, I am what you see.
Meera: My brother – he led us to you, and now –
Old Guy: He knew what would happen. From the moment he left, he knew. And he went anyway.
Meera: How do you know?
Old Guy: I’ve been watching you. All of you. All of your lives, with a thousand eyes and one. Now you’ve come to me at last, Brandon Stark. Though the hour is late.
Bran: I didn’t want anyone to die for me.
Old Guy: He died, so you could find what you have lost.
Bran: You’re going to help me walk again?
Old Guy: You’ll never walk again. But you will fly.
There’s a fair amount to unpack from Bran’s first meeting with the Three Eyed Raven, and honestly not much of it is reassuring on examination.
The Three Eyed Raven’s language is particularly fast-and-loose, not to mention defensive. He doesn’t give Bran a straight answer on who he is, although I don’t think he isn’t the person behind the mystical bird that had come to Bran in dreams.
When Meera brings up her brother Jojen, the old man cuts her off as if to not dwell on or be accountable to any personal cost that she’d paid. And then he directs the focus onto Bran.
“Now you’ve come to me at last, Brandon Stark. Though the hour is late.”
As if Bran is at fault for the tight timetable. It almost sounds as if the Three Eyed Raven is saying that lazy, procrastinating Bran should have made his way up the continent to the weirwood cave, starving and trudging through the wilderness, much earlier than he had.
Bran seemed to sense some of this blame falling on him, but he was a few notes behind in the measure, still tracking along with what Meera had been about to say about Jojen Reed’s death.
“I didn’t want anyone to die for me.”
And then the Three Eyed Raven pulls off a bait-and-switch.
“He died, so you could find what you have lost.”
Whoa, Nelly! This is great news! Since Bran lost his ability to walk, that’s the only thing that could be meant, right? Wrong. When Bran (who has leapt to that exact conclusion about his lost mobility) specifically asks if he’ll walk again…
“You will never walk again. But you will fly.”
Bran never had the ability to fly, so it’s not like that’s what he’s lost. Doesn’t quite jibe properly with what was said before. I’m not trying to dismiss the value of what the Three Eyed Raven is offering: to train Bran in magic. But it feels like the old wizard lured Bran up to his cave under false pretenses and possibly hollow promises.
It’s not like Bran, now essentially trapped in the cave, will refuse whatever Faustian bargain is being presented. What choice did he have?
Three Eyed Raven: Sure would be too bad if you decided to leave, and walked over another squad of the undead, waiting under the ice. Sure would be unfortunate.
Bran: Fine. But this is beginning to sound like Skullcrusher Mountain by Jonathan Coulton.
And so, Bran began a crash course in expanding his consciousness: connecting to the weirwood-based network of information available to the Three Eyed Raven, as well as distributing his perception across the raven-based surveillance network.
A reasonable question might be: what’s the tuition fee at Westeros Hogwarts?
Okay, Game of Thrones isn’t ABC’s Once Upon a Time, where the Rumpelstiltskin character is contractually obligated to say “All magic has a price, dearie” at least once every other episode. But magic requiring some kind of sacrifice has been touched on before in the show.
Mirri Maz Duur: Only death can pay for life.
Jaqen H’ghar: The Red God takes what is his, little girl. Only death can pay for life.
Melisandre: Hear us now, my Lord. To you, we offer up this girl. That you may cleanse her with your fire and that its light may lead our way.
Mirri Maz Duur: Wow. I thought I was the scary witch on this show.
Jaqen H’ghar: A woman in red is the worst.
So, what sacrifices will Bran be expected to make, in exchange for power?
Maybe nothing. In a sense, it’s possible that he’s already paid a price. It seems rather significant that the Three Eyed Raven started coming to Bran in his dreams after Bran suffered terrible injuries in his fall. Why would that be? Coincidence?
Let’s consisder that there might have been no way for the old wizard to contact Bran, until Bran’s sleeping mind was awakened as a result of the fall and Bran’s coma.
Bran did already have a connection to the supernatural – in some ways all of Ned’s children (and Jon Snow) had a touch from the Old Gods by virtue of their direwolves. Bran’s comatose state and latent mystical potential might have been what was needed to bring Bran more into the spiritual realm, to bring down the barriers to communication. In that case, we might think that Bran’s injuries were a down-payment on magical teaching. Bran paid the price already.
The other Stark kids (to greater or lesser degree) have mystical connections with their wolves, and although Jon and Arya (in the books) have had wolf-dreams like Bran experienced in Season Two – only broken Bran has had the vivid dreams that appear to be sent by the Three Eyed Raven.
Rickon: Don’t forget about me! I had prophetic dreams!
Me: Whoa, that’s right. I almost forgot about you.
Rickon: Story of my life…
Rickon Stark makes it a harder sell that Bran absolutely could not have been a recipient of magical telegrams before his fall. And Jojen Reed seemed to have been given much more information from the Three Eyed Raven, enough to act as the wizard’s go-between and the travel agent for Bran.
Is it more likely that the Three Eyed Raven chose to spam a child’s dreaming mind with unsolicited offers because this particular broken child was vulnerable? Vulnerable and desperate?
“It was just a lie,” he said bitterly, remembering the crow from his dream. “I can’t fly. I can’t even run.”
“Crows are all liars,” Old Nan agreed, from the chair where she sat doing her needlework. “I know a story about a crow.”
— Bran IV, A Game of Thrones
Being a vulnerable and sad child, unable to block out messages from the Three Eyed Raven, it’s no wonder Bran was receptive. Despite all the warnings he received from the women in his life.
Old Nan: Crows are all liars.
Old Nan didn’t necessarily have all of the context with Bran, but she had opinions about crows, real or in dreams. Don’t trust them.
Bran began to have more raven dreams on the road, before meeting up with Meera and Jojen Reed. Jojen joining Bran’s group provided the young Stark with a confidante with whom he could share his dreams (figuratively and literally – since Jojen also had been appearing in Bran’s dreams.) These were conversations that he could not have with his wildling protector, Osha.
Osha: Were you inside the wolf again, little lord?
Bran: No. It was the three-eyed raven. It’s back. I tried to kill it, but I couldn’t. And there was a boy –
Osha: I don’t want to hear about it.
Bran: But you asked.
Osha: We’ve got plenty worries. No need calling black magic onto us.
Bran: I didn’t ask for black magic dreams.
Osha might be superstitious and generally wary of the mysterious and unexplained, but in the Season Three dialogue above, we can see that she makes a distinction among Bran’s mystical situations. Bran warging into Summer is something that she’d talk to Bran about, but she wouldn’t discuss dream-visitations from a dark bird with the wrong number of eyes. That was too much for her, and her reluctance wasn’t something Bran heeded.
After Bran and his companions meet Jojen and Meera Reed, Bran receives another warning. In a dream.
In Bran’s familiar dream forest, he and Jojen are observing a raven with three eyes, up in a tree.
Jojen: You have to go after him.
Bran: How?
Jojen: You know how.
Bran climbs the tree, to a thick branch where the raven rests. Then things get complicated. A dream version of Catelyn Stark appears behind Bran.
Catelyn: Brandon.
Bran: Mother!
Catelyn: How many times have I told you? No climbing.
Bran: Mother, I need to find it. It’s here. It’s calling me.
Catelyn: I want you to promise me. No more climbing. Promise me!
The scene ends with Bran falling, reminiscent of Bran’s fall from the old tower at Winterfell in the first episode of the show. In that episode, Catelyn Stark had expressed her displeasure with Bran’s hobby of parkouring around the castle; so Catelyn showing up in Bran’s dream to berate him for climbing seems to be consistent with her character.
But why is she in Bran’s dream at all? If we assume that the Three Eyed Raven is architecting these dreams, then he’s deliberately putting in a red flag warning to Bran: his mother implicitly saying to stop going towards the goal that Jojen is urging him towards.
Now, maybe the Three Eyed Raven isn’t completely in control of Bran’s dreaming, and this dream-Catelyn is being generated by Bran’s own subconscious (which means Bran on an instinctual level is not trusting Jojen and the raven), or that some other supernatural entity that’s unfriendly to the Raven is causing this. But this doesn’t seem to be the handiwork of the Night King, or R’hllor, and I’d be very surprised if the New Gods were real and that this was proof of their supernatural presence.
If we return to the idea that Bran’s dreams were being managed by the Raven, then there’s a fairly sinister implication. The Three Eyed Raven has admitted to have been watching Bran all his life. He’d know of Catelyn’s issues with Bran climbing, and with Bran’s habitual breaking of promises to his mother on that topic. He’d know that dream Bran would not take Catelyn’s warnings to heart, and by having Catelyn push Bran from the tree, would cause Bran to distrust any feelings of doubt about trying to find the Raven.
It was fortunate for the Three Eyed Raven that Osha was unwilling to venture north of the Wall, and she and her forbodings could be separated from Bran. (It was unfortunate for Osha that Bran suggested she take Rickon to the Umbers.)
The idea that the Three Eyed Raven might have been manipulating Bran calls Jojen’s participation into question as well. Jojen certainly seemed trustworthy: the direwolves explicitly gave a show of approval when Jojen first met Bran.
But Jojen himself might not have had any ill-will towards Bran to register on the direwolf threat-radar. And the direwolves might not be good at detecting plots from the Three Eyed Raven, to be honest. Like Bran, the Raven was a powerful warg. There are theories that the Raven directed the mother direwolf to travel south of the Wall in the first place.
So Jojen might have Trojan Horsed his way into Bran’s trust, to lend some credentials to the Three Eyed Raven’s overall reputation.
Near the start of the seventh season, Bran Stark had returned to Winterfell, although all but one of his companions who had traveled with him from Winterfell and ventured past the Wall were dead. Osha, Rickon, Summer, Hodor, and Jojen all died before Bran could return to his home.
Only Meera Reed saw Bran through the North, past the Wall, to the cave and back again. With Bran safe at Winterfell, Meera came to an interesting conclusion.
Meera: Bran.
Bran: I’m not really. Not anymore. I remember what it felt like, to be Brandon Stark, but I remember so much else now.
Meera: You died in that cave.
Meera is not all that wrong, although the cave isn’t where Bran died. Bran still largely seemed himself when his undead uncle Benjen saved the pair of them during the escape from the Night King’s forces, and brought them to the Wall safely. At that point, Bran used a nearby weirwood to unpack some of the bundled up experiences that his mentor had apparently prepared for him.
The next time we see Bran, negotiating passage through the Wall at Castle Black, he’s different. Kind of vacant and creepy.
In the show, the Three Eyed Raven says that he’s been waiting for a thousand years for Bran. (Let’s save arguments about his age for the comments, book readers.) If we take that as given, a millennia of experience and knowledge has been poured into the mind of a young boy.
Who we are is largely defined by our memories of who were were. Once Bran’s native memories became outnumbered by the memories of an old man (or possibly the memories of a series of Three Eyed Ravens) – Bran Stark effectively ceased to be. The person staring out through Bran’s eyes was no longer Bran.
In other words, Bran Stark might have been manipulated into venturing into the wilderness on false pretenses, to his doom. And some ancient psychic vampire has come instead to Winterfell, inhabiting Bran’s body and enjoying the privilege of being the Lord of Winterfell. (More or less. At the very least, he’s the brother of the Lady of Winterfell.) A bit better than existing in an ancient body, embedded in tree roots.
Regardless if we consider Bran Stark the new Three Eyed Raven, or we consider that he’s the old Three Eyed Raven inhabiting Bran Stark’s hijacked body, it feels like his being at Winterfell will be important in regards to resolving the threat of the Night King.
Although I’ve cast the Three Eyed Raven in a somewhat sketchy light, he appears to be in opposition to the Night King and the North does need all the allies they can muster against the threat of the White Walkers. We don’t know much about the motivations and drives of the White Walkers, but we’ve seen the Night King prioritize an aggressive response to Bran Stark when their enhanced perceptions interacted in Season Six, marking Bran magically and bringing the White Walkers and a horde of wights to the Raven’s weirwood cave refuge.
Although I think it would be strategically smart for the Night King to more or less ignore the North, and just march futher south to where the populations are –
– I don’t think the Night King will be able to avoid dealing with Bran Stark first.
We’ve already witnessed the priority he put on attacking Bran, and other than Melisandre there is no other magical opponent that he might consider an immediate threat to neutralize. Although I can see the Night King putting the land of the North in the rear view mirror, to be conquered after recruiting a million souls from metropolitan King’s Landing, I would wager that the Night King would not leave the North while the Three Eyed Raven was free to act.
But what can Bran do about a huge army of fearless wights? So far, we’ve only seen him look into the past, or use ravens to keep track of the Night King’s troop movements. (There’s some debate if Bran can see into the future – but even if he can, future visions are often spun as “seeing potential futures” instead of absolute destiny.)
But I think it is fair to speculate that Bran can do something. That he has access to magical tools that raises his threat level in the icy blue eyes of the Night King.
The Children of the Forest laid down their lives for Bran. Benjen Stark was convinced that his nephew would uncover what he needed to do. This implies that there was something that Bran could do.
Maybe this was a something that the Three Eyed Raven, alone in a cave at the edge of the world, was unwilling or unable to pull off. In his isolated cave, he was a withered husk bound to a tree – a tree surrounded by bones. (Maybe the old Three Eyed Raven had been trying to get something going, ritually, but the sacrifices at hand were just insufficient.)
At Winterfell, the new Three Eyed Raven has family. One of whom, Bran knows, has the magical blood of kings.
“There is power in a king’s blood,” the old maester had warned, “and better men than Stannis have done worse things than this.”
— Jon I, A Dance With Dragons
Since magic has a price, the price might have to be paid at Winterfell.
Magic, besides being costly, is also hard to control. In the books, GRRM has an excellent visual phrase about magic:
“Sometimes the short road is not the safest, Jon Snow. The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it.”
— Jon X, A Storm of Swords
We’ve seen time and again magic being used to solve problems but with less-than-ideal results. Khal Drogo’s health was returned, but not with his mind intact. Stannis’s sacrifice of Shireen gave him favorable weather, so he could march to Winterfell to be slaughtered. The Children of the Forest magically created the White Walkers to use as a weapon against their human foes, but found their creation a weapon that cuts both ways.
I’m not trying to say that Bran Stark will be the big bad in Season Eight, but we should be at least somewhat skeptical of his intentions as the Three Eyed Raven.
Alternatively, Bran’s story in Season Eight might feature Bran Stark’s triumph over the Three Eyed Raven. Bran is still in there, just buried under alien memories and experiences. This would be especially relevant, if the Three Eyed Raven is planning to do something big and awful.
Jaime: I could always drop him from a tower again… just sayin’
Me: Hey. No.
Jaime Lannister is on his way into the North. We know that Bran has seen visions of himself falling from the tower, but the memory of how he came to fall has not yet been explicitly replayed in a vision. I think it would be narratively satisfying if Jaime Lannister showing up in Winterfell jogged that memory, and it had the effect of shocking Bran’s personality to emerge more strongly, subverting any plans of the Three Eyed Raven.
Jaime: And … you’re welcome.
Is there enough time in Season Eight, the last six episodes left to us, to reveal a dark and complicated spin on Bran’s magical hero’s journey? Maybe, maybe not. We know he’ll at least have a role politically, with the knowledge that he and Sam Tarly have in regards to Jon Snow’s true lineage.
But there really should be some kind of resolution to the conflict that was initiated between Bran and Jaime Lannister, so long ago. And the more unexpected the resolution, the better.
So I’m hoping we’ll all keep an eye on Bran Stark. With a thousand eyes, and one.
The post Bran Stark: The Long Fall appeared first on Watchers on the Wall.
You won’t want to miss the 2018 Baltimore Comic-Con, taking place September 28-30 at the Inner Harbor’s Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con is elated to announce the return of Frank Miller on Friday and Saturday at the show.
Frank Miller is a comic book writer and artist, a screenwriter, a film director, and a movie producer. Originally from just down the street in Olney, MD, Frank was raised in Montpelier, VT, and eventually found his way to New York City and the comic book industry in the late 1970s. Finding work in Gold Key Comics initially, he went on to work with DC and Marvel.
At the latter, after recurring fill-in and cover artist gigs, he took over art and, eventually, writing duties on Daredevil. He co-plotted the Wolverine limited series with Chris Claremont, and would continue working on titles (his own and those of the companies for which he worked) including Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Elektra Lives Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, and 300. In addition to his comic book work, Miller wrote the scripts for Robocop 2 and 3, directed the film version of The Spirit, shared directing duties with Robert Rodriguez on the Palme d’Or-nominated Sin City and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and produced the film 300. Eagle-eyed viewers can spot him in cameo roles in Robocop 2, Daredevil, Sin City, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and The Spirit. Miller is known for creating Elektra for Marvel Comics’ Daredevil series, and a female version of the Robin character, Carrie Kelley, for DC Comics.
Miller will be appearing on Saturday and Sunday, and a limited number of tickets are available for fan interaction during his appearance. To purchase tickets to the Baltimore Comic-Con and the Frank Miller events specifically, please see our tickets webpage.
“What a thrill for us (and his fans) to have Frank back again this year!” said Marc Nathan, show promoter for the Baltimore Comic-Con. “We really enjoyed having him to the show last year, and Frank had a good time as well, so we’re pleased to be able to bring him back to Baltimore.”
