Test Your Game of Thrones Knowledge With EW’s Quiz, Plus a New Trivia Game

Our pals over at Entertainment Weekly recently constructed a comprehensive Game of Thrones quiz to get you ready for Season 6.

From the name of Arya’s sword (Needle) to the location of the Iron Bank (Braavos), the many languages used on the series, and the even greater number of character deaths, there are enough facts and trivia items about the HBO series to fill a book — or, as it were, an entire series of them.

You can head over to EW and take the quiz, but be sure to come back here and boast of your mental prowess where your knowledge of all things Westeros is concerned. Of course, if you don’t come back with 17 out of 17, then don’t bother coming back at all…

Speaking of Game of Thrones trivia, according to a posting on Amazon, Fantasy Flight Games is putting out a brand new Game of Thrones trivia game, slated for release on May 31, 2016. The game runs a cool $42.99, and you can pre-order it now. Game of Thrones: The Trivia Game includes:

• Trivia and strategy game for two to four players or two to four teams
• Questions are based on the first four seasons of the hit HBO series
• Can adjust questions for difficulty or organize by season to remain spoiler-free

Interesting that you can adjust the game to not spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the show…though why would you play a game based on a show that you haven’t seen? Seems a bit asinine to me.

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/29/test-your-game-of-thrones-knowledge-with-ews-quiz-plus-a-new-trivia-game/

A Feast with Dragons: a new way to read the final two books Song of Ice and Fire novels

It’s a commonly known pastime of Star Wars fans to argue passionately about the proper order in which to watch all six (now seven!) films. There’s release order, chronological order, the contentious Machete order, and other jumbled ways you can experience the original sextology. A Song of Ice and Fire fans now have something similar: knowing with certainty that A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were originally intended to be one book, how can we combine the chapters from both books into one coherent experience? The folks over at Game of Owns, a Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire podcast, have drafted their own version, entitled A Feast for Dragons.

This combined order kind of seems like a response to the most famous Feast/Dance reading order currently out there, from Boiled Leather. Boiled Leather’s list attempts to put the many chapters at issue in a rough chronological order without ruining the structure of either book (since George R.R. Martin did attempt to allow both books to stand as individual pieces in the story by breaking them geographically). In contrast, Game of Owns focuses more on theme and narrative. Here’s BryndenBFish, one of the fans who put together the A Feast with Dragons, on what they were going for:

[W]hat we attempted to do was to marry up chapters with close narrative dovetails or parallel thematic poignancy. For instance, on the narrative, ADWD, Tyrion I occurs right after AFFC, Cersei I as they both interplay strongly against each other with Cersei’s nightmare and search for Tyrion coupled with Tyrion drinking his way across the Narrow Sea…Thematically, we rolled the ADWD Prologue together with ADWD, Jon I as the Prologue gives us a how-to on warging, and we open immediately next to Jon warging Ghost.

You can read more about the thought process behind this order over at Watchers on the Wall.

In my mind, nothing sells this order quite like the ending. The Dance epilogue is actually shifted ahead of the last Barristan chapter, allowing Daenerys’ last chapter (in which she and Drogon eventually wind up surrounded by a Dothraki khalasar) to be the ending of the books. Sam’s final chapter from Feast also shows up later than it does in Boiled Leather, adding extra dramatic oomph to the one-two-three punches that Dance provides in its dying moments.

The list has its own website with a neat color scheme to clearly differentiate between chapters from the two books (something that was a personal pet peeve of mine when I scribbled down the Boiled Leather list a while ago). It’s worth a shot, as the care given to the parallel themes and narrative structure here is very similar to what D&D have attempted—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—in the television show.

Next: Clive Russell talks about being cast as Blackfish

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/29/a-feast-with-dragons-a-new-way-to-read-the-final-two-books-in-the-song-of-ice-and-fire-saga/

Famous Game of Thrones Landmark Felled by Storm Gertrude

It’s funny to think of places in a magical fantasy kingdoms having real life landmarks. But for a show like Game of Thrones, which is filmed on location all over Europe, it’s a fact of life. There are areas in Croatia, Spain and Ireland which proudly bill themselves to tourists as different locations in Westeros. And one of the most famous is the copse of trees that has served as the place where the King’s Road meets King’s Landing.

The location was already a locally well known Irish landmark called Dark Hedges, located in County Antrim (a county where several Westeros locations are filmed.) But last night, the extreme weather event known as Storm Gertrude took it down. The storm, which had ripped through Ireland and Scotland in the last days, with 90 mph winds, causing massive power losses in the Scottish Highlands, flood warnings across the UK and disrupted the country’s public transport systems, was the second major storm in the last few months seen by the islands.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, three of the 200 year old beach trees that made up the famous tunnel of branches were ripped up by the roots during the storm.

Already one of the most photographed natural landmarks on the island of Ireland, the tourist attraction recently achieved global prominence after it appeared on the hit HBO series… The beech trees were planted in the 18th century by a local family, the Stuarts, with the intent of creating a grand entrance to their nearby Georgian mansion, Gracehill House.

The road is likely to be closed to traffic for the remainder of Friday as Northern Ireland’s Roads Service works to remove three fallen trees.

The area was one of the major Game of Thrones tourists stops on the official Ireland tour. They will be missed.

 

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/29/famous-game-of-thrones-landmark-felled-by-storm-gertrude/

Game of Thrones nominated for Shorty Awards

Game of Thrones, Maisie Williams and a popular GoT GIF have all been nominated for Shorty Awards, which are honors for excellence in social media.

The Shorty Awards are divided into two competitions: influencers and brands. All three of our nominees fall into the latter category. Influencer winners (and five additional finalists) are selected through a combination of votes from the public and scores from The Real Time Academy, whose members include Jenna Marbles and Arianna Huffington.

Nominees are judged for the quality and originality of their content on all social media platforms, innovation in social media usage, interaction with followers, fans, friends and critics and their overall impact on the world.

The Shorty Awards have nominated Game of Thrones for Best TV Show, citing its popularity across varied social media platforms, the cast members’ virtual interaction with fans and the characters’ knack for inspiring Halloween costumes and internet memes. Speaking of which …

The GIF of the Night’s King from “Hardhome” raising his arms to simultaneously raise the dead and taunt Jon Snow, dubbed ‘Come at me, Bro” by the internet, is nominated for GIF of the Year.

Last but not least, Maisie Williams is nominated for Best Actress for her online engagement with fans, most notably the launch of her own YouTube channel.

You can show your support for the Game of Thrones nominees by voting here. The voting period began January 19th and will end February 18th at 11:59 pm EST.

The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on April 16th, which will be available to live stream.

The post Game of Thrones nominated for Shorty Awards appeared first on Watchers on the Wall.

Via http://watchersonthewall.com

Clive Russell on being cast as the Blackfish: “Nobody knew who I was.”

Actor Clive Russell, who appeared as Brynden Tully, aka the Blackfish, in Game of Thrones Season 3, says most American fans of the show had no idea who he was when he showed up. Ser Brynden Tully, a respected knight and uncle to Lady Catelyn, is the younger brother to Hoster Tully, the Lord of Riverrun.

While touring through Scotland on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip this week, Russell, 70, talked a little bit about being cast on the hit HBO show:

That is a complete one-off in my life. I’ve never been involved in anything with that visibility . . . When I was chosen, the blogs were like ‘who? Who is this?’

That is something coming from Russell, who has had quite a distinguished acting career in the UK, including earlier roles on Ripper Street, Sherlock Holmes (2009 film), Maid of Honour, and The Bill, to name just a few.

Though the Blackfish didn’t carry a major storyline in Season 3, he was memorable for grumpily taking a bow and arrow from his nephew, Lord Edmure, when he repeatedly failed to hit Lord Hosters’ funeral boat. Ser Brynden is a strong supporter of the Starks (he is often seen advising Robb) and Lady Catelyn, and he appears to have escaped the slaughter of the Red Wedding feast by having excused himself to go outside and urinate on a tree.

SEASON 6 SPOILERS FOLLOW

And although Clive Russell is mum on the subject, on-set reports have it that the Blackfish will return for Season 6, so Ser Brynden may soon have a bigger part to play in the Game of Thrones saga. If Ser Brynden, infuriated by the murders of his niece and the Starks, is able to return to Riverrun and hold the Tully castle in Robb’s name, he’ll most likely face a siege by some combination of the Freys and Lannister.

And, considering reports of siege equipment on the Game of Thrones Riverrun set in Corbet, Ireland, it looks like there is a good chance Clive Russell may become much more familiar to American audiences very soon.

h/t Daily Express

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/28/clive-russell-on-being-cast-as-the-blackfish-nobody-knew-who-i-was/

Game of Thrones Season 6: The Last Time We Saw The Starks

Excitement for Game of Thrones Season 6 is building—just this week we were gifted with three mini-teasers focusing on the Houses of Stark, Lannister, and Targaryen. Last week, we caught ourselves up on the comings and goings of the members of House Lannister at the end of Season 5. This week, we’ll point our gaze north to…

House Stark

When last we laid eyes on the wolves of House Stark, the pack was scattered to the four winds of Westeros…and beyond. Like the members of House Lannister, the members of this great House find themselves spread across the continents of Westeros and Essos, and like the Lannisters, they’ve had to deal with loss.

To say that House Stark had fallen since Season 1 would be a bit of an understatement. After Lord Eddard died, his heir and rightful King in the North, Robb Stark, followed, as did Lady Catelyn. Winterfell has fallen to the hands of the Ironborn, and then House Bolton. Lord and Lady Stark’s remaining living children—Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, and the bastard Jon—are spread over the map, and several of them don’t know that the other ones are alive. Here’s where each of the Stark children stood at the end of Game of Thrones Season 5:

Sansa Stark began her Season 5 journey in the Vale, but Lord Petyr Baelish hatched a plan to bring her to Winterfell. En route, Sansa came into contact with Brienne of Tarth, who dispatched several of Littlefinger’s guards and began to follow Sansa, intending to keep the promise she made to Lady Catelyn about protecting her daughters.

Baelish hurried Sansa along and next stopped at Moat Cailin, where he gave her a choice: continue to Winterfell and marry the recently legitimized son of Roose Bolton, who betrayed her brother and mother at the Red Wedding, or turn back toward the Vale. Sansa, thinking she was up to getting revenge for her decimated family, chose to go on to Winterfell.

At Winterfell, the situation quickly turned dire. Baelish, of course, was not to be trusted, and he left Sansa with Ramsay Bolton, Roose’s son. On her wedding night, Ramsay raped Sansa while Theon Greyjoy, now going by Reek, was forced to watch. Later, Sansa learned that Theon did not in fact kill her younger brothers Bran and Rickon during his brief tenure as lord of Winterfell. This gave her a ray of hope in a very dark time.

Sansa was also approached by an elderly woman and told to light a candle in the broken tower if she was ever in trouble. Ramsay eventually found out what the woman was up to and had her flayed, but never looked further into it, so he didn’t find out that it was Brienne’s idea. Brienne had followed Sansa to Winterfell, and watched for that candle for days on end.

During this time, Ramsay’s bed warmer Myranda became extremely jealous of Sansa. This culminated when Myranda confronted Sansa in the confusion following Stannis’ defeat outside the castle. Theon, who was nearby, had an awakening and threw Myranda from Winterfell’s battlements before she could harm Sansa, and then he and Sansa jumped from the walls themselves, presumably into a pile of cushy snow.

Sansa’s status at the end of Season 5: Most likely escaped Winterfell, and hopefully runs into Brienne.

Let’s move on to Rickon and Bran. We saw neither of them in Season 5, but we know that Bran will return for Season 6, and odds seem good that Rickon will be there as well. When last we saw Rickon, he and his guardian—the wildling woman Osha—were leaving taking their leave of Bran, Hodor, and the Reed siblings before the latter three went north of the Wall. As the last surviving Stark male not currently learning to be a magic tree, Rickon is technically next in line to rule Winterfell and the North, so expect him to play a very important role in the year to come.

Bran’s story is slightly more convoluted. The last time we saw him, he had finally made his way to the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, who will teach him to harness his latent magical powers. Here’s what he’ll look like in Season 6, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, which published this neat little photo.

Rickon and Bran’s status: Alive, but past that, we don’t know much.

Arya had a very active Season 5. The girl who is now no one learned the art of sweeping floors, cleaning the bodies of the dead, selling seafood, and feeding poison water to little girls. Then, in what may have been the most gratifying of the Stark-focused storylines last year, Arya finally got revenge on one of the many men on her death list: Ser Meryn Trant, the man who killed her dancing master Syrio Forel and, unbeknownst to her, beat her sister Sansa during the latter’s stay in King’s Landing. It one of the most gruesome deaths I’ve seen on Game of Thrones, and not entirely unsatisfying. Valar Morghulis.

However, Arya’s bosses, the Faceless Men, were displeased that she wandered outside of her jurisdiction to kill Trant. As punishment, Arya was blinded, and her future is hazy.

Arya’s status at the end of Season 5: Blind…still no one.

Now we come to Jon Snow. If you had asked me on Wednesday how certain I was about Jon Snow showing up in Season 6, I would have puffed out my chest and told you it was all but certain he would play a prominent role…then I read a recent interview with Kit Harington, and now I’m less confident.

Anyway, Season 5 was a great year for Kit Harington and Jon Snow alike—the character went through a lot of changes and Harington got to show off his acting skills. Episode 8, “Hardhome,” was a high point for both of them.

After being made Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch early in the season, Jon and a small contingent of wildlings and loyal Night’s Watchmen sailed to Hardhome, a frozen fishing village where the wildlings had been massing following their defeat by Stannis and his army at the end of Season 4. Jon’s intention was to bring the wildlings there back to Castle Black. His reasoning was sound: the more living he saved, the less dead the Night’s King would have for his army.

Once Jon returned to the Wall, his days were numbered. It seems like, in Jon’s absence, Ser Alliser Thorne had been rallying Night’s Watchmen opposed to Jon’s pro-wildling stance. Once Jon returned to the Wall with several (but by no means all) of the wildlings he’d hope to save in tow, thins went into overdrive. Thorne and his cronies lured Jon out of the Lord Commander’s tower, and murdered him under the weeping eyes of the Wall.

Dead and Not Dead. Schrödinger’s Crow, Jon Snow.

Jon’s status at the end of Season 5: DEAD…

Game of Thrones Season 6 could see House Stark rise from the ashes where it’s been mired for the past four seasons. If Jon does indeed rise and do battle with the likes of Ramsay Bolton, and if Rickon returns to rule Winterfell, and if Sansa is there to help as regent, and if Arya can return to Westeros to dispatch more names on her list, then House Stark could be great once again.

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/28/game-of-thrones-season-6-the-last-time-we-saw-the-starks/

Kit Harington: “Jon Snow Is Dead, Get Used to It”

Kit Harington is bound and determined to make us believe that he’s not coming back for Season 6 of Game of Thrones. First he told BBC Breakfast that he’d only “heard” that Season 6 would be “very exciting.” Now he’s telling Digital Spy that his character is not only dead, but he hasn’t personally filmed for the show “in a while.”

In the interview, which may have been meant to focus on Harington’s upcoming turn in Doctor Faustus but which somehow gets off track, Harington was blunt.

People didn’t want me to die, but he’s dead. So there you go, everyone has to get used to it.​

He insists that his involvement in Season 6 will be minimal, suggesting that if he was seen on set, it was mainly to film a funeral.

I haven’t done Thrones in a while. I had quite a lot of time off last year. I’ve been taking it easy. And relaxing. When I realised I was doing this, I had a few months to prepare for it, and something like this takes some working through before even getting into the rehearsal room.​

SPOILER X-ING

Previously, Harington was seen on set during filming of a major Season 6 battle scene. Filming on that sequence wrapped in October, after the production had been shooting it for longer than it had shot any other scene in the history of the show.

It’s been over two months since filming wrapped on that scene. Assuming it really was the last thing Harington filmed, I suppose that qualifies as “quite a while.” And his refusal to do any press during the filming period, or even to show up for award shows, counts as “rest.” He’s probably not technically lying in this interview, but to twist a famous phrase from another series, “An actor never lies, but the truth he tells you isn’t the one you think you hear.”

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/01/28/kit-harington-jon-snow-is-dead-get-used-to-it/