The dragons of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire are as curious as they are magical. No one really knows how those mystical, highly intelligent creatures came into the world. Each one also has its own unique personality, yet also shares a special bond with its rider. Some believe Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon‘s dragons can change their gender whenever they like. It’s impossible to even identify a she-dragon until it lays eggs. And no one understands exactly why those beasts called “fire made flesh” allow certain people to claim them and not others. But while episode six of House of the Dragon‘s second season explored established dragon lore with Ser Steffon Darklyn’s fatal attempt to become a dragonlord, the series also created its own with the Vale’s wild dragon and Seasmoke’s search for Addam of Hull.

The Dragon Seasmoke Rejects Ser Steffon Darklyn in House of the Dragon

The one (almost*) unquestioned rule for dragonriders in the lore of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy world is that they must have at least some blood of Old Valyria. The dragonlords of the former Valyrian Freehold were the only dragonlords in the world. In Westeros, that means someone must have ancestry with either House Targaryen or House Velaryon (even though Velaryons were not dragonriders).

(*One character’s uncertain birth is the only possible example of this not being true. We’ll get to that in the next section.)

Prince Jacaerys thought that rule might have simply been ahistorical propaganda meant to “gild” Valyrians. His mother still took the matter of blood seriously enough to search for forgotten relatives in old scrolls. On House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra believes even someone with “thin” Valyrian blood was more likely to successfully claim a dragon than someone without any. Especially since unquestioned family members can’t always become dragonriders, like Daemon’s daughter Rhaena. Aemond couldn’t successfully bond with a dragon either in House of the Dragon‘s world until he claimed the biggest one in the world, Vhagar.

On House of the Dragon‘s sixth episode, Rhaenyra asked the Lord Commander of her Queensguard, Ser Steffon, if he’d be willing to try to claim a dragon because his grandmother’s grandmother was a Targaryen. She reminded him to try and claim a dragon was to risk death itself, but he was honored by her even asking. Like many in Westeros, he views dragons as gods.

Seasmoke did not care about Ser Steffon’s thin Valyrian blood, commitment to Rhaenyra, or his noble heart, though. The dragon still refused to obey the Lord Commander on House of the Dragon. Worse, he bathed Ser Steffon in dragonflame for even trying.

That outcome was not a surprise for any House of the Dragon viewer who knows about dragon lore in this fantasy realm. That was not true for the other two big dragon moments during this episode of House of the Dragon, though.

Rhaena Learns the Vale Has a Wild Dragon

The last thing young Princess Rhaena expected to find in the Vale was a wild dragon, because dragons don’t live in places like the Vale on House of the Dragon. They stay close to seats of House Velaryon, either in King’s Landing or on Dragonstone. Before they came to Westeros, they only lived in the Valyrian Freehold, leaving for any extended periods of time solely when taken someplace by their dragonrider.

Having a dragon burning sheep far away from dragons’ established homes means that House of the Dragon breaks established canon and dragon lore from Fire & Blood and A Song of Ice and Fire. George R.R. Martin himself confirmed that weeks before episode six debuted. From his “Not a Blog” (emphasis our own):

My dragons are creatures of the sky. They fly, and can cross mountains and plains, cover hundreds of miles… but they don’t, unless their riders take them there. They are not nomadic. During the heyday of Valyria there were forty dragon-riding families with hundreds of dragons amongst them… but (aside from our Targaryens) all of them stayed close to the Freehold and the Lands of the Long Summer. From time to time a dragonrider might visit Volantis or another Valyrian colony, even settle there for a few years, but never permanently. Think about it. If dragons were nomadic, they would have overrun half of Essos, and the Doom would only have killed a few of them. Similarly, the dragons of Westeros seldom wander far from Dragonstone. Elsewise, after three hundred years, we would have dragons all over the realm and every noble house would have a few. 

Why would House of the Dragon violate one Martin’s few, hard-and-fast dragon lore rules? To answer that, we must discuss something from Fire & Blood. We’ll note that this discussion will provide enough context clues to spoil something that now seems inevitable on House of the Dragon. It’s up to you if you want to read it. If you don’t, skip past the remaining text in this section (which is between two images) until you reach the next sub-headline, which explores another show-specific piece of dragon lore.

By moving this specific, sheep-killing dragon from Dragonstone to the Vale, the show appears to be cutting out a major, beloved character from Fire & Blood named Nettles. She is the person whose uncertain birth/bloodline we referenced earlier. House of the Dragon seems to be giving Nettle’s storyline to Rhaena.

Obviously since we mentioned Nettles’ uncertain birth/blood line, she does go on to claim a dragon in Fire & Blood. And since we’re talking about her in this section about Rhaena and the Vale, you can guess which dragon she bonds with.

Does that guarantee Rhaena will now claim that wild dragon on the show instead? It’s a possibility the series is definitely raising, but it’s not a guarantee. Not when House of the Dragon is making such drastic changes in the first place. But we still think it’s likely on a series that also made another significant change to an unlikely dragonrider’s story in this same episode.

Seasmoke Claims a Dragonrider on House of the Dragon (Possibly While His First Still Lives)

Addam of Hull is the bastard son of Lord Corlys Velaryon and, therefore, strong with Old Valyrian blood. It doesn’t go against known dragon lore, and thus is not completely shocking, that a “dragonseed” like Addam could claim a dragon, which is clearly what happened at the end of House of the Dragon episode six. What is unprecedented is a) how the two bonded and b) the fact they bonded at all.

There are two ways humans typically bond with dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire. The first is babies of House Targaryen have dragon eggs put in their crib with them. If healthy dragons hatch from those eggs they form that special dragon/dragonrider connection. The second way is that a person approaches a living dragon who then either accepts them or not. No one knows how or why this happens, only that there’s some kind of mystical element to their connection.

Rhaena, daughter of Daemon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon, has tried to claim a dragon many times on House of the Dragon and only has burn scars to show for it. Ser Steffon Darklyn tried once, and he paid with his life for his efforts. Yet somehow, Addam of Hull didn’t even have to try to become a dragonlord. In a complete role reversal, Seasmoke claimed his human. The “lonely” dragon hunted Addam down before the two took to the sky on House of the Dragon.

That was unusual enough, but what what makes this bond entirely new dragon lore for House of the Dragon is that Seasmoke seemingly already has a dragonrider. His first mount, Laenor Velaryon, isn’t actually dead on House of the Dragon like he is in Fire & Blood. The show changed his story so that he conspired with his wife Rhaenyra to fake his death so he could live freely in Essos. But dragons only accept one dragonrider at a time. They will not accept another so long as theirs lives.

Unless we learn Laenor died in Essos offscreen without anyone on Dragonstone knowing, we know have House of the Dragon-specific dragon lore. (Which still has its own internal logic, since Seasmoke sought out the half-brother of his missing rider.)

How you feel about that is as personal as a dragon/rider bond, but what it actually means is not. Whether or not you’re familiar with both Fire & Blood and George R.R. Martin’s dragon mythology, none of us know what else could happen in the Dance of the Dragons.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The Targaryen civil war has begun in earnest in season two of House of the Dragon. While the people in this conflict are all varying degrees of “terrible human,” the dragons are innocent in all this. They just want to breathe fire and eat some sheep. Now, there’s a new way of showing your love for the precious dragons of Westeros. Kross Studios has revealed a new set of collector’s watches and egg cases, inspired by House of the Dragon. The six latest collectors sets pay homage to the dragons Arrax, Silverwing, Moondancer, Seasmoke, Vermithor, and Sunfyre. These complement and complete their dragon-inspired series. You can check out images of these exquisite collector’s timepieces below in our gallery:

Game of Thrones – House of the Dragon Collector’s Set

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Each of these House of the Dragon collector sets pays homage to a specific dragon from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga, capturing their unique essence and terrifying presence. Previous unique collector set editions, all currently sold out, were dedicated to Balerion, Viserion, Viserion Ice Dragon, Drogon, Rhaegal, Syrax, Caraxès, Meleys, Vaghar, and Vermax. The crafted dragon egg sculpture is in resin, and comes hand-painted by the renowned French workshop Leblon Delienne. Each egg, inspired by the appearance of its corresponding dragon, serves as a nest for the watch. 

The central feature of each set is a central floating tourbillon watch, designed by Kross Studio’s founder Marco Tedeschi. The House of the Dragon watch and its tourbillon, suspended beneath a sapphire crystal dome, reflects the aesthetic codes of House Targaryen, from its 45mm, grade 5 titanium case to its intricate movement. They’re not quite Valyrian steel, but the closest thing to it in our less exciting and dragon-free realm. For more information and pricing, head over to the official Kross Studios website.

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House of the Dragon‘s first season featured one of the most significant revelations in all of A Song of Ice and Fire. Aegon the Conqueror came to Westeros because he “foresaw the end of the world of men” at the icy hands of the White Walkers, and he believed the only hope to defeat the darkness was a unified Westeros led by a Targaryen. We learned about Aegon’s Dream when Viserys shared the secret with his daughter Rhaenyra. It was a vision the family’s kings had only ever told their own heirs. Or so we thought.

House of the Dragon‘s season two premiere has indicated the Conqueror shared that secret with an outsider, the Lord of a family Aegon knew would be the first line of defense when a “terrible winter gusting out of the distant north” began: House Stark. And that shared secret deepens the binds between House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, Aegon, Jon Snow, the Targaryens, and the Starks.

House of the Dragon returned by returning us to Winterfell at the outset of winter. Season two also began with the voice of Lord Cregan Stark. He said, “Duty is sacrifice. It eclipses all things, even blood.” Those were no mere words, either. He said them as part of a ceremony we’ve never seen on either Game of Thrones show before. When winter starts, House Stark sends one in ten of its own kin, drawn by random lot, to join the Night’s Watch.

Most members of that ancient order are made up of “doomed men who had their life as their only possession.” Game of Thrones viewers know those doomed men—often rapists, thieves, and cravens—usually aren’t the best Westeros has to offer. The Night’s Watch needs capable, honorable fighters and leaders to keep those men in line. The Night’s Watch needs Starks.

Even without that ceremony, though, Starks have served in the Night’s Watch since its inception. The family’s members have often served as Lord Commanders.

What makes this new piece of northern lore so monumental is who began this tradition and when. This “sacrifice” changes everything we know about Aegon Targaryen’s interactions with the Starks and the North, and, therefore, the “bastard” who will one day unite the Realm against the White Walkers.

With the ceremony complete, Cregan Stark brought Rhaenyra Targaryen’s oldest son and heir, Jace, to the top of the Wall. Jace was on a diplomatic mission to secure support of major houses for his mother’s claim to the Iron Throne. The two talked about the first time a Stark swore an oath to a Targaryen, when King Torrhen Stark bent the knee to Aegon.

The current Lord of Winterfell then assured the prince, “Starks do not forget their oaths.” The North will keep the vow Cregan’s father Rickon made to Viserys when the King named Rhaenyra his rightful heir. However, Cregan also said he has an even more sacred oath that limits how many men he can commit to the Queen’s cause.

“My gaze is forever torn between north and south,” Cregan said. “In winter, my duty to the Wall is even more dire than the one I owe to King’s Landing.” Jace did not understand why guarding against “wildlings and weather” was more important than stopping the Hightowers and saving the Realm from a war that will rip it apart. That is until Jace gazed out past the Wall in awe.

Cregan then told the story about how Jace’s great grandparents, King Jaehaerys and his wife Queen Alysanne, once visited this very spot with his father Rickon. From there, the two Targaryens watched as their dragons, “the greatest power in the world,” refused to cross the Wall. The implication was obvious even before Cregan spoke again. “Do you think my ancestors built a 700-foot wall of ice to keep out snow and savages?” Lord Stark asked the prince. When Jace then asked what the Wall does keep out, Cregan told him: “Death.”

The Warden of the North’s comments show House Stark, even millennia after the First Long Night, always knew what the Wall kept out. That exchange also reflected a memorable and ominous moment from Game of Thrones‘ pilot.

In the original series’ premiere a visiting Benjen Stark, member of the Night’s Watch, discussed whispers of White Walker attacks with his brother Ned. Unlike everyone in else Westeros would for many years, the two did not dismiss or mock those reports. They spoke of the possibility with the solemnity of a Stark who knows, and has always known, “winter is coming.” House Stark’s ancient words were always a reminder of the real threat out of the darkness plotting its return.

That’s what makes the timing and originator of the Stark Night’s Watch ceremony so significant. That’s actually an understatement. It’s among the most meaningful pieces of lore ever introduced to A Song of Ice and Fire. To understand why, we need to go back to the start of House Stark and House Targaryen’s relationship, a century before House of the Dragon.

Aegon Targaryen had already conquered most of Westeros when he turned his attention to the King in the North, Torrhen Stark. Torrhen had marched 30,000 men into the Riverlands to take their stand against the larger force of House Targaryen. But by then, Torrhen knew what Aegon, his sisters, and their dragons could do, both good and bad. The Targaryens had already ended the lines of ancient houses who had not bent the knee while empowering those who had. Aegon bestowed honors on his new allies and spared their people.

Not surprisingly, some northern lords still wanted to fight, even though they must have known on some level they would lose. Instead, the evening before the battle, Torrhen sent his bastard brother and maesters to treat with Aegon.

George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood tells us “all through the night messages went back and forth” between the camps. In the morning, Torrhen did not fight as most expected of the northerners. Instead, he knelt as the King of Winter and “rose as Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North” for King Aegon Targaryen.

Why did Torrhen kneel? Wouldn’t a Stark—-leader of a family that traces its ancient blood back to the First Men, who defended Westeros against the White Walkers long ago, who held firm against the Andals—rather go out on his shield fighting than kneel to a foreign invader?

Those obvious questions have always made Torrhen’s decision seem an easy one to explain. He was a wise ruler who didn’t let his pride get in the way of saving the people he swore to protect. But those obvious questions are also why that explanation has always felt incomplete. Why didn’t Torrhen Stark, at least, offer to fight Aegon Targaryen in single combat? He might have died, but it would have been an honorable death that still kept northerners safe from dragon flame. Without understanding what he was fully saying, on House of the Dragon, Jace provided the reason why.

The prince told Cregan, “Surely the great Torrhen Stark would’ve sooner died than bent the knee. Unless he believed the Conqueror could bring unity to the Seven Kingdoms.” Cregan said that was right, but it’s not completely accurate. Before Aegon no one cared about unifying the Seven Kingdoms, especially the North, which was unlike any other kingdom. Torrhen Stark would not have knelt to Aegon Targaryen in the name of unity.

Not unless he truly knew what Aegon was unifying the Realm against.

Everything House of the Dragon revealed about Torrhen Stark—from why he kneeled to the Night’s Watch sacrifice he began right after he knelt—can be explained by something unsaid in words during that scene yet so obvious when taken as a whole: Aegon Targaryen told Torrhen Stark about his dream.

The Conqueror believed the battle with the White Walkers would begin in the North. He even personally called his prophetic dream “A Song of Ice and Fire.”

Aegon trusted Torrhen with the most important secret in the world because only together, Stark and Targaryen, did the living have a chance against the dead. We know Aegon was right. Jon Snow, the son and rightful heir to the Iron Throne born from the love Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark shared, was the only one who could unite the Realm to stand against the White Walkers. Jon Snow’s song, as the prophecy foretold of the Prince That Was Promised did, in fact, promise, was a song of ice and fire.

Did Torrhen tell his own heirs? That seems unlikely based on everything else we know of House Stark, but he didn’t have to. The Starks always knew what was lurking beyond the Wall, which is why Torrhen believed Aegon Targaryen in the first place. It’s why Torrhen started making sure the Night’s Watch had men from his own family who could lead them. It’s why Cregan Stark can’t send all his men to help Rhaenyra Targaryen. Winter has arrived, and that means the Night King might come with it.

Like in season one with Aegon’s Dream, this enormous revelation does more than just connect both shows. It’s also bigger than even the Starks and Targaryens and how important Rhaegar and Lyanna’s love will be one day. Its beauty goes beyond even that of the wondeful symmetry it creates, as King in the North Jon Snow—secretly named Aegon Targaryen—will one day kneel to a Targaryen ruler in the name of uniting the Realm just as Torrhen Stark once did.

This revelation gets to the beating heart of George R.R. Martin’s massive story.

Without this bond between Stark and Targaryen, these houses of ice and fire, death would have done what Aegon and Torrhen both feared. Together, they began crafting the song that would save the world.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who got goosebumps during Jace and Cregan’s scene. You can follow him on Twitter and  Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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A new report from Variety says HBO is “actively” discussing an Aegon Targaryen Game of Thrones spinoff. This isn’t the first time the network has contemplated doing a series about the man who started his family’s dynasty in Westeros. It was among the original group of spinoff ideas HBO considered as far back as 2016. That version would have presented the legendary Conqueror as a “drunken lout.“

It’s a long path to go from an idea to an actual television show. That’s a road only House of the Dragon has walked flown in Westeros. But should you root for this Aegon series to be the next one to make that journey? That depends on whether you think the pros outweigh the cons.

The Cons of a Game of Thrones Spinoff Series About Aegon the Conqueror

1) There’s not a lot of mystery around the events of his invasion

Aegon’s Conquest is one of the most transformative events in Westeros’ history. That’s why his victory is so well-chronicled, both in-world and in George R.R. Martin’s books. There’s very little we don’t already know about the two-year Conquest’s biggest events. Even Aegon’s failures in Dorne, the one kingdom he never brought under his rule, are well-established.

2) Aegon’s battles were one-sided affairs without much drama

Tywin Lannister once explained to Arya Stark that “Aegon Targaryen changed the rules” of warfare forever. He did that by easily defeating all of his enemies. (Either on the battlefield or when they surrendered before the fight even began.) As fun as it would be to see three dragons sweep over the continent together, almost all of the actual Conquest’s biggest moments are anti-climactic. Even Aegon’s most visually stunning battle, the Field of Fire, would be a letdown. We’ve essentially already seen it on Game of Thrones when Daenerys wiped out the Lannister forces in the Loot Train Attack.

And while Aegon still had wars to fight after being crowned, they’re not as exciting as what we saw on Game of Thrones or what awaits on House of the Dragon.

3) There are maybe too many Targaryens and dragons already

How many Targaryen centered stories do we need or want? Daenerys was a main character on Game of Thrones. And House of the Dragon covers the era of House Targaryen when the family had the most dragons ever under its control. Westeros’s history goes back tens of thousands of years and involves countless families, heroes, and villains. There’s also an entire world of stories beyond its borders. Do we really need yet another series about that one clan of surviving Valyrians? At what point do even dragons get boring?

4) House of the Dragon already revealed the most important secret of Aegon the Conqueror’s story

Why did Aegon suddenly turn his attention west one day? Why did House Targaryen spend a century on Dragonstone before anyone thought to unleash the greatest weapon in history on the Realm? House of the Dragon already told us: Aegon’s Dream drove his conquest. That prophecy convinced him a unified kingdom under his family’s rule was the only thing that could save the world from a White Walker invasion someday.

That was a monumental, franchise-shattering revelation on House of the Dragon. It completely reframed everything we knew about House Targaryen and Aegon the Conqueror. There’s nothing else we could learn about Aegon that would be anywhere near as important.

The Pros of a Game of Thrones Spinoff Series About Aegon the Conqueror

1) An Aegon series could explore what it’s like to truly have power

Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are about the fight for power. Aegon’s story is about truly having it. That’s a very different perspective to explore. What are the burdens and pitfalls of really ruling the world? How did Aegon avoid the fate that befell someone like Robert Baratheon after his own conquest? And how did Aegon shape the way history remembers him and his legacy? Those questions, and all the possibilities for storytelling that come with them, would come to the forefront in a story about the most powerful figure in the history of Westeros.

2) We don’t know the real Aegon

For all its battles, magic, dragons, and shocking moments, Game of Thrones worked because it always centered its story around its characters. From their desires and failures, to their personal relationships, the show mattered because we cared about the people in it. The same is true on House of the Dragon, and it would be true on an Aegon spinoff.

While we know much about the big events in his life, we know very little about the man he actually was. What did he care about when no one was around? What was he afraid of? How did he get along with others? Did he relish his Conquest or bemoan the awesome responsibility that launched his invasion? Even the legendary, larger-than-life Aegon the Conqueror was a real person. Meeting that man in an intimate setting would be fascinating in the best tradition of the franchise.

3) Aegon isn’t the Conquest’s most interesting figure. His sisters are.

History calls it Aegon’s Conquest, but as Arya reminded Tywin, it did not solely belong to him. Aegon’s two sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, helped him take the Realm and ruled alongside him. That’s why House Targaryen’s sigil is a three-headed dragon. Centering all three of them equally would make for a compelling spinoff that could tell a captivating story about family, power, legacy, and love. Aegon didn’t do this alone. His sisters, both very different in personality and in their relationship to their brother-husband, were conquerors, too. There’s even more to learn about them.

4) Family Drama, with a capital “D” for dragons

If you love nothing more than seeing Westeros’s most powerful families engage in some good old-fashioned infighting and drama, a Game of Thrones spinoff series with Aegon and his sister-wives will provide plenty of that. He truly loved one but only married the other out of duty. One was also a fierce and imposing warrior, the other a charming beauty adored by all. Seeing the three of them interact together while currying favor at court would make this spinoff worth it. Far more than the actual invasion.

So do the pros outweigh the cons? Is this a Game of Thrones spinoff idea HBO and Warner Bros. should make a reality? Or is it time to stop focusing on House Targaryen? Not everyone will agree. But if Aegon’s Conquest does come to life, we doubt anyone will complain about seeing Balerion take to the sky.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at  @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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House of the Dragon is another global hit for HBO, and more Game of Thrones spinoffs are on the way. Despite all that success, though, most viewers don’t know the name of the woman whose contribution to the franchise helped make all of that possible. Because had author Phyllis Eisenstein not convinced George R.R. Martin to “put the dragons in” his story, most of us might never have met Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Princess Rhaenyra. Those fantastical beasts have cast a spell over mankind—transcending both culture and time—for as long as people have told stories. They’ve also continued to capture our imaginations since the moment we started putting moving pictures on screen. And without dragons, Westeros might not be the magical phenomenon it’s become.

Dragons have been part of mankind’s myths since the beginning of civilization itself. The first such legend dates back to Ancient Sumer during the 4th or 3rd millennium B.C.E. Those mythical animals started appearing in stories from China, Egypt, and India not long after. Ancient Greece then followed with its own famous dragon tales starting 4,000 years ago, with more societies around the world independently contributing their own tales to dragon lore. (Possibly after finding dinosaur skeletons.) The classic English dragon tales that endure to this day—ones where brave knights battle giant beasts of fire—began earlier than many realize. The Medieval story “Saint George and the Dragon” traces its origins back to around 300 C.E.

The specifics surrounding tales of large reptilian monsters differ throughout history. In some parts of the world dragons are benevolent and heroic. In others they’re cruel and dangerous. Some fly and breathe flames, while others swim or crawl on land. Others have no wings at all, but sport great horns or even antlers. But while their features, size, and personalities change, dragons’ enduring place in our myths and folktales do not. That didn’t change as the way we tell stories do, either. Just as they’ve long adorned works of art, scrolls, and books, they’ve been part of our movies and TV shows for as long as we’ve had those.

The first dragon appeared on screen in Austrian director’s Fritz Lang’s 1924 “Die Nibelungen.” A dragon made its animated film debut in Disney’s 1931 film The China Plate. (They’ve remained a staple of Disney movies ever since.) Those magical beasts then made the jump to TV in 1946 on Kukla, Fran and Ollie. (The final name in the show’s title refers to the puppet Oliver J. Dragon.) The advent of CGI has only made dragons’ place on screen more ubiquitous during the 21st century. Between live-action stories, cartoons, video games, and tabletop adventures, in many ways dragons are more prevalent in society than ever before. The 21st century makes Arthurian legends seem dragon-light.

Dragons owe their oversized place in modern pop culture to the written word just as much as moving pictures, though. J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth began with The Hobbit, an adventure about defeating a greedy dragon. We’ll never know if that novel would have been beloved without Smaug. Nor if publishers would have gone forward with The Lord of the Rings had the author’s introduction to his fantasy world not been so well received. But we know Bilbo’s journey led to us meeting Frodo, Gandalf, and Sauron, as well as generations of fantasy stories inspired by the Fellowship of the Ring. Without a dragon at the start we wouldn’t have many of the most beloved and influential fantasy epics we have today. That very much includes George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

Westeros is not interesting merely because it has dragons. It’s too rich and layered a world to only define it by one element. But it wouldn’t be the same without dragons. Those creatures add a grandeur and mystical quality the story might not otherwise have. (And, let’s be honest, dragons are always cool.) But most importantly they give A Song of Ice and Fire a timeless quality that speaks to people everywhere.

There’s a reason countless cultures, separated by both time and distance, came up with their own dragon myths. It’s the same reason their place in our stories, both for kids and adults, remains steadfast to this day. Dragons represent the power, beauty, and danger of nature. They represent both the perilous challenges and incredible possibilities all humans face. Dragons are supernatural yet made of flesh. They’re seemingly impossible to defeat or even tame, yet vulnerable as any creature. They can be good or bad or something in-between, same as us. They are a fantasy that capture the horror and wonder of the real world.

And George R.R. Martin almost didn’t include them in his story.

Martin originally considered giving House Targaryen a dragon sigil but no actual dragons. Instead he would have imbued Targaryens with “a psionic power” that was like a “pyrokinesis” where “they could conjure up flames with their minds.” Ultimately, though, his friend and fellow fantasy author Phyllis Eisenstein wisely told him to include actual dragons, forever changing the trajectory of not only Martin’s novels but the entire world of pop culture. Would his books have been as good or successful without dragons? Would HBO have adapted them without that success? And would Game of Thrones, a true global phenomenon, have found its massive audience minus an element that has long been a part of mankind’s stories everywhere?

We’ll never have answers to those questions. We don’t want to know or need to know them anyway, because we know what happened with dragons in the story. We’re reminded of that every time we watch or discuss House of the Dragon, a prequel about the time when House Targaryen had its highest total of dragons ever in Westeros.

Martin dedicated 2000’s A Storm of Swords, arguably the best book in his series, to his friend. But while Phyllis Eisenstein saw the world embrace Game of Thrones, she passed away in 2020. She never got to see dragons take to the sky on House of the Dragon.

Every time they do, though, we should remember her role in making it all possible and be grateful for what she did. Because she recognized something mankind has always known: dragons always have—and always will—make any story better.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Unlike most book adaptations, House of the Dragon is based on unreliable source material. George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood is “written” by an archmaester who lived long after the Targaryen civil war. And that fictional historian’s retelling relies on primary sources whose accounts are not only questionable, they frequently contradict. But that’s a good thing for viewers and readers alike. The spinoff series is giving us answers to some of Fire & Blood‘s most debated events, including one of the most important moments in Ser Criston Cole’s life. We now know he was the one who asked Rhaenyra to run away with him. But that wasn’t the only huge revelation the show’s explosive fifth episode gave us about the dishonorable Kingsguard. And everything we learned about him will frame his upcoming role in the Dance of the Dragons.

Fire & Blood is full of conflicting reports about signature events from this era of House Targaryen. That includes the matter of whether Princess Rhaenyra or Ser Criston Cole asked the other to run off to a life together in Essos. Now we know Rhaenyra’s sworn protector beseeched her to abdicate her throne. That wasn’t surprising, given what we know what Rhaenyra will do to claim the Iron Throne later in life. But Ser Criston’s reasons for making that outrageous request were.

Long before we got a definitive answer of who made this request, it always seemed clear it was one of love. Fire & Blood leaves no doubt Ser Criston Cole and Rhaenyra Targaryen had an intimate bond when she was younger. It was also easy to imagine why Cole would make such a desperate, outrageous plea. It’s easy to understand why a lovesick nobody from a minor house, raised to prominence by the princess he swore to keep safe, would think a fairy tale ending awaited them.

But House of the Dragon made clear the true story was far more complicated—and a lot less noble—than we ever thought. Ser Criston’s offer was not merely one of the heart, it was a selfish one. He loves Rhaenyra, but he also wanted her to rescue him from his own actions. He’s struggling to live with himself since he broke his vows (and continued breaking them) with the princess. He violated his white cloak, the “only thing” he has to his “f***ing name.” If she would merely give up her family, her title, her home, her responsibilities, and her future crown, he wouldn’t have to feel so badly about himself. She could save his honor for him.

Throw in that crate of oranges and it’s incredible she turned him down! What an offer! Rhaenyra gives up literally everything so the guy that took advantage of a drunk teenager can feel better about himself.

Whatever you think of Princess Rhaenyra and her own decisions, Ser Criston Cole clearly did not act purely out of love when he asked for her hand in marriage. Nor was he heartbroken because she said no. He was angry. He was angry at himself before, now he’s angry at her, with little self-reflection for why he is solely responsible for his own actions.

And as though that wasn’t bad enough, Criston Cole then violated Rhaenyra’s trust to Queen Alicent. He was so lost in self-pity he confessed to a crime no one accused him of. Only his guilt and need for absolution mattered to him in that moment. He gave no consideration to what his admission would mean for Princess Rhaenyra, a girl already dealing with powerful forces seeking to deny her the Iron Throne. That’s a shocking confession not found in Fire & Blood, one that has completely changed our understanding of the story.

At least Ser Criston’s anger and guilt only led him to betray Rhaenyra’s secret. Cole took out his anger and guilt on naive Ser Joffrey Lonmouth’s face, in one of the most despicable moments in Kingsguard history. Ser Criston responded to a toothless “threat” with a cold blooded murder in the throne room before half the Realm.

Ser Criston Cole’s story would have ended right then had Alicent not stopped him from taking his own life in the Godswood. And that might be this episode’s single most important revelation. It didn’t just answer some big questions about the infamous knight; it marked a major change for the Queen. She now realizes King’s Landing and its heir—which cast away her father in service of a lie—are not as sweet and innocent as she thought. Queen Alicent is finally ready to play the game of thrones.

And she begins this deadly game with a secret that could ruin Rhaenyra. A secret Ser Criston Cole is desperate to keep hidden. And what he’ll do to make sure it does—including to whom he’ll swear allegiance in the future—will forever change Westeros.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Game of Thrones adapted George R.R. Martin’s (sigh…still unfinished) A Song of Ice and Fire series. But HBO’s prequel spinoff isn’t based on those novels. House of the Dragon begins two centuries before Robert Baratheon asked Ned Stark to serve as Hand of the King. Unlike with the original hit show, though, we already know a great deal about the Dance of the Dragons that will take place in House of the Dragon thanks to the 2018 book Fire & Blood. It’s part one of Martin’s (planned two-part) history of House Targaryen.

However, it’s not the only source we have for the civil war that pitted dragon against dragon. Even that prequel has prequels. Here is a rundown of the books that House of the Dragon is based on.

What Is George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood About?

For millennia Old Valyria ruled over much of Essos. House Targaryen was only a minor dragonlord family of the empire’s 40 ruling noble houses. But things changed twelve years before the “Doom of Valyria” killed all the other dragonlords in 114 BAC (Before Aegon’s Conquest.) Fire & Blood begins the Targaryen story in Westeros with those events and is the main book that House of the Dragon will be based on. But exactly happens in this Game of Thrones prequel book?

Lord Aenar Targaryen, to the bemusement and scorn of the other Valyrian rulers, moved his family to the empire’s most western outpost of Dragonstone. His daughter Daenys had a prophetic dream about Valyria’s end. When it came true a dozen years later the Targaryens stood as the only remaining dragonlords in the world. But they did not use “fire made flesh” to take over Westeros for another century. That’s when Aegon and his two sisters brought fire and blood to the Realm. The book that takes its name from the words of House Targaryen covers the first half of the family’s three centuries-long dynasty in the Seven Kingdoms.

Fire & Blood covers the family’s story starting from Aegon’s reign and then following the five kings that came after him. It then ends with the Targaryen civil war the Dance of the Dragons, which House of the Dragon will bring to life. The Game of Thrones prequel book concludes halfway through the reign of the seventh Targaryen ruler in Westeros, the one who ascended to the throne when the war finally ended. We won’t name that person for those hoping to avoid spoilers for the show. But that monarch’s reign marked the final time anyone saw a dragon until Daenerys Stormborn.

Is House of the Dragon Based on Any Other Books?

Fire & Blood—presented as in-world history from Archmaester Gyldayn—is the most complete source we have for both House of the Dragon and the first half of House Targaryen’s reign in Westeros. But House of the Dragon may not be based on only one book; there are a few other sources that we could see come into play.

Before its release, fans of A Song and Ice and Fire learned about that civil war and its major participants from other official sources. The most important is the 2014 compendium The World of Ice & Fire. This book covers tens of thousands of years of Westeros’s history. That includes a large section on House Targaryen’s reign spanning every ruler from Aegon until Aerys II, the Mad King. However, that section is just a fraction of what Fire & Blood reveals.

Written by Martin along with Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, The World of Ice & Fire is also presented as an in-world history from Maester Yandel. The Maester wrote it for the benefit of the newly crowned King Joffrey Tommen. (Joffrey’s name is actually written over.) However, readers already knew some aspects of the Dance of the Dragons prior to that book’s release. Martin previously shared tales about some of the war’s major figures in short story collections the author contributed to.

And as though that’s not enough, A Wiki of Ice & Fire covers all of the lore and history known about A Song of Ice and Fire. The website is part of Westeros.org, run by The World of Ice & Fire co-writers Garcia and Antonsson.

All of Martin’s companion books are canon. And A Wiki of Ice & Fire is an invaluable, meticulously curated source. But sometimes the maesters’ “writing” these histories have conflicting sources. In some instances all we officially know is that no one in Westeros officially knows what happened. House of the Dragon will seemingly give us some answers to the war’s greatest mysteries, though. Martin said the show will not tell all three versions of events from the civil war’s primary historical sources.

Are There White Walkers in Fire & Blood?

The original Long Night ended in Westeros before the birth of dragons halfway around the world in Valyria. The forces of ice and fire never crossed paths during House Targaryens rule on either continent. For thousands of years most people believed the White Walkers were simply an old wive’s tale. It wasn’t until Daenerys Stormborn flew beyond The Wall on Game of Thrones that a dragonlord saw the dead.

House of the Dragon‘s story doesn’t involve White Walkers in anyway. But considering how many dragons will die roughly 170 years before the Night King returns, the ice lord’s presence will loom over everything. More dragons would have helped dealing with wights, even if they couldn’t harm the Night King himself.

Does House of the Dragon Have Anything to Do with The Winds of Winter?

No, not at all. Well, at least from a story point of view it doesn’t. The prequel show is yet another project requiring time and focus from George R.R. Martin. Which means it’s one more project slowing him down from finishing a book that is long, long, long overdue.

And since he plans on releasing part two of Fire & Blood, which could someday lead to another HBO series, technically everything he does is related to The Winds of Winter. But we’re going to try and enjoy House of the Dragon anyway and see how it lines up with the Fire & Blood book. At least we don’t have to worry about it running out of source material.

The post Which GAME OF THRONES Book Is HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Based On? appeared first on Nerdist.

In a recent “Not a Blog” post, Martin offered fans an update on his many current projects. He says he’s committed to finishing novel six in his main series (LOL). He’s also working on other books works in the franchise. But he’s also heavily involved in Game of Thrones spinoffs in development at HBO. Here’s what he said about those series:

Those have taken a ton of my time and attention this year. I have seen some comments out there questioning how much I am involved in these new series. The answer is: a lot. Deeply, heavily involved in every one of the new shows. It’s my world, and while I have been working closely with some fantastic writers and showrunners, ultimately it is up to me to try to keep the canon…well, canonical…and to do all I can to help make the new shows great. (And I love these stories too).

The author did not share the exact total of shows under consideration. But he said HBO is working on live-action series while HBO Max is developing animated shows. And while he knows “not all” will make it to air, he does “hope that a number of these shows will” beyond just House of the Dragon. (Of which he’s seen some early footage.)

At HBO, Martin says Bruno Heller (Rome) is writing a pilot script for a Corlys Velaryon series. It had been tentatively titled Nine Voyages, but its new working moniker is now The Sea Snake. That’s so it’s not confused with another spinoff idea, Ten Thousand Ships. That project, spearheaded by Amanda Segel, would follow the legendary Queen Nymeria. She rescued her people from the Rhoynar and ultimately settled in Dorne. (She was a hero of Arya Stark’s, given she named her direwolf for Nymeria.) Martin writes Segel has already “delivered a couple drafts” for the show and they “are forging ahead” with it.

As for the third live-action project, a Dunk & Egg series from Steve Conrad, Martin says he and his team “have had some great sessions with Steve and his team” where they “really hit it off. The pair are one of the most beloved duos in all of Martin’s Westeros. And it sounds like Conrad wants to make a version of their story that will please their dedicated fans. From Martin:

He’s determined to do a faithful adaptation of the stories, which is exactly what I want; these characters and stories are very precious to me. The first season will be an adaptation of the first novella, “The Hedge Knight.” Contrary to what you may have read on line, the show will not be called Dunk & Egg, which could be mistaken for a sitcom by viewers unfamiliar with the stories. We’re leaning toward A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for the series title, though The Hedge Knight has its partisans as well.

As for HBO Max’s possible animated series, Martin is under orders to remain mum on most specifics. That could change soon, though. Martin writes work on those are “moving very fast.” And also that he loves some of the concept art he’s seen for them. The animated series he’d admit to being in production is one set in Yi Ti. It’s developing under the title The Golden Empire.

Obviously, we don’t know which of the ideas will make it to air. But we expect the ones that do, will have a very wide audience. Especially book readers with nothing else to do.

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A maester could write tomes about all of the changes Game of Thrones made from George R.R. Martin’s books. The most controversial one of them all, though, might have been the show’s exclusion of Lady Stoneheart. Readers waited years to see the character appear on HBO’s hit series—but she never showed up. Now we finally know why. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have broken their silence and explained why they didn’t include her. However, disappointed fans of A Song and Ice and Fire might not agree with their reasons.

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Entertainment Weekly‘s James Hibberd shared the real story of why the infamous character was cut from the HBO series. It will be included in his upcoming behind-the-scenes book about the series, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon.

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Lady Stoneheart is the resurrected Catelyn Stark. Ser Beric Dondarrion brought her back to life with a kiss, which killed him. (Unlike the show, where he made to the Battle with the White Walkers, book Beric bows out of the story much earlier.) The mostly mute Lady Stoneheart, whose skin is gray and who still bears the throat wound from her execution, made her shocking return at the end of A Storm of Swords, the third novel in the series.

She also made one appearance at the end of A Feast for Crows. She haunts the Riverlands with the Brotherhood Without Banners, seeking vengeance against everyone who betrayed her and her family, especially those responsible for the Red Wedding.

Her appearance is one of the best, most shocking moments in the books. And she seems primed to play a major role in the story going forward. Which is why readers always anticipated Michelle Fairley’s return. She never did, and the series’ showrunners, who also said there was very little debate about using the character, told Hibberd there were three reasons why.

The first reason they wouldn’t get into the specifics of, because it would be a spoiler for Martin’s last two books. The last time Lady Stoneheart was seen she was demanding Brienne kill Jaime Lannister. Those two might have very, very different fates in the books than they did on the show.

The second reason had to do with Jon Snow. Benioff and Weiss long knew they’d be bringing the Lord Commander back from the dead and they didn’t want to lessen the impact or shock of that moment by bringing back another major character too.

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Finally, they thought bringing back Fairley for a primarily non-speaking role would not be fair to her or her great final scene. They didn’t want to retroactively lessen the impact of the iconic Red Wedding’s last moment, one of the best in the show’s run.

Martin disagreed with their decision to exclude her, and a lot of book readers still do. The Red Wedding is even more devastating in the books, and Lady Stoneheart’s shocking return doesn’t change that. Also, the character is fascinating and offers so much promise for amazing future plot twists. And Michelle Fairley, whose onscreen rage was incredible, could have excelled in the role.

So while Benioff and Weiss had their logical, defensible reasons for not including her, that doesn’t mean they were right.

Featured Image: HBO

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Here’s everything we know about The Winds of Winter so far.

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A Song of Ice and Fire‘s History

The Winds of Winter will be the sixth novel in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The author began writing his award-winning fantasy saga in 1991, when he originally envisioned it as a trilogy. The previous installments include A Game of Thrones (1996), A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005), and A Dance with Dragons (2011). The previous two books have concurrent timelines, and The Winds of Winter will be a direct followup to both. It will also cover parts of the story Martin originally planned to include in A Dance with Dragons.

The announced title for the theoretical seventh and final book is A Dream of Spring.

Cover Image

Bantam Spectra

The official cover for the book, whose authenticity Martin confirmed in early 2016, features an image of a horn. A Song of Ice and Fire has mentioned two major horns. One is Euron Greyjoy’s Dragonbinder, also known as the hellhorn, a massive black horn adorned with bands of red gold and Valyrian steel. Six feet long and made from the giant horn of a large dragon, it’s covered in Valyrian glyphs and is warm to the touch. Strangely it’s smooth, shiny surface reflects a distorted image. And when played the glyphs glow red hot before turning white.

Euron’s dubious story is that he found the horn in the ruins of Valyria. But his claim it can control dragons is more plausible. The red priest Moqorro also said it can tame dragons, but added it will kill any many who blows it. It killed the man who blew it for Euron. It burned his lungs.

Euron plans to use Dragonbinder to control Daenerys’s three dragons so he can take the Iron Throne.

The other major horn mentioned in ASOIAF is the famed magical Horn of Winter, also known as Joramun’s Horn. Joramun was the Wildling king who teamed up with the Night’s Watch to defeat the infamous Night King long ago. Tales say he blew it to wake giants from the Earth.

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The free folk believe blowing the ancient Horn of Winter will bring down the Wall. Ygritte told Jon Snow that Mance Rayder looked for it by digging up old graves, but never found it despite Mance’s claims. The wildling king said an eight foot, black horn with gold bands covered by runes engraved by the First Men was the Horn of Winter.

Melisandre and Stannis burned that horn. But Tormund told Jon the same thing Ygritte did—Mance never found the real one.

The horn on the cover of The Winds of Winter could be Dragonbinder. Or it could be the real Horn of Winter that was never found. And if the legends are right, and it falls into the hands of the Night King, it could be an omen that the Wall will come down in the novel.

Released Chapters

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Each book uses a point-of-view (POV) chapter format. Chapters are told from a single character’s perspective. Typically those major characters receive multiple chapters throughout the book. The exceptions are prologue and epilogue chapters, normally written from the POV of a minor character who does not get a second chapter.

Martin has released or publicly read eleven preview chapters from the novel. They are, in order, with links to the available ones:

• Theon I
• Victarion I
• Tyrion I (no existing video or transcript)
• Arianne I
• Barristan I
• Barristan II (no existing video or transcript)
• Tyrion II 
• Mercy (a.k.a. Arya)
• Alayne I (a.k.a. Sansa)
• Arianne II
• The Forsaken (a.k.a. Aeron “Damphair” Greyjoy)

Martin said on his “Not a Blog” blog in 2017 he would no longer be releasing any more chapters ahead of publication.

POV Characters

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In addition to the characters with chapters already released, Martin has said Areo Hotah and Cersei Lannister will appear in the novel as POV characters. He has also confirmed the seemingly obvious fact Bran Stark will also be in the book, and seems a likely candidate to return as POV character. In 2016 the author’s answer to a question about Asshai seemed to indicate Melisandre will also get her own chapters again.

But the least likely source of insight came in 2014 during a segment on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. A shot of Martin writing at his computer appeared to show him working on a chapter for Asha Greyjoy (known as Yara on the TV series).

Cliffhangers

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A Dance with Dragons ended with major plot lines left to be resolved, some of which Martin originally intended to include in the fifth novel. That includes the Battle of Meereen, where the forces of a still-missing Daenerys are under threat by the former slave master’s. The novel will also deliver the Battle of Winterfell looming between Stannis Baratheon and Roose Bolton, both still alive in the books.

Martin has promised to get to both quickly in The Winds of Winter. In a 2012 interview he said, “There were a lot of cliffhangers at the end of A Dance with Dragons. Those will be resolved very early. I’m going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen—the battle of Slaver’s Bay. And then take it from there.”

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He also said the last two novels—which unlike the HBO series have shown very little of the Others (called the White Walkers on Game of Thrones)—will travel further into their icy lands than ever. “I don’t want to give too much away, but you’re definitely going to see more of the Others in The Winds of Winter,” he said. “And what lies really north in my books—we haven’t explored that yet, but we will in the last two books.”

There’s also the question of whether or not Bran ate Jojen. (Seriously.)

Oh yeah, and Jon Snow is still dead.

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Members of the Night’s Watch murdered him at the end of A Dance With Dragons. It didn’t take long for him to be resurrected on the show, but on the page he’s been dead since 2011. If Martin never finishes the book he’ll never come back.

Expected Publication Date (LOL)

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:deep breathe:

After the release of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, George R.R. Martin originally thought he might be able to finish Winds in three years. That would have marked a huge improvement over the six years he took between the previous two books. It didn’t seem impossible either. He already had five chapters finished by the end 2010, equaling almost 100 pages. And in March of 2012 he had finished 200. For a while he was even confident he would actually finish the last two books entirely before Game of Thrones caught up to him.

None of that happened.

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He cancelled appearances in both 2014 and 2015 to focus on finishing the novel. In April of 2015 he hoped to have it finished before Game of Thrones‘ sixth season in 2016. In January he told fans the book would not be finished in time to reach that goal, as the show would finally surpass the novels for good.

Since then Martin has hinted multiple times The Winds of Winter could be months or a year away, only to then pull back and say it would not be out for at least another year or two. But his most forceful, hopeful statement came in May of 2019. On his “Not a Blog” website, he wrote:

“But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done.”

Martin all but guaranteed the book would be at least finished by August 2, 2020, even if it had not yet been published.

That did not happen either.

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Despite some sweet summer children (:sadly raises hand🙂 believing this time around was different, Martin announced on June 23, 2020 that the book was not done. But he did give an update about how he was using social distancing to work on the novel.

“I am spending long hours every day on THE WINDS OF WINTER, and making steady progress. I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week. But no, this does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week. It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go.”

He also wrote he hopes the book will be done by next year. And on July 19 he another update. It’s the most George R.R. Martin update possible:

“Three more chapters completed this past week. And good progress on several more.

Still a long long way to go, though. Do not get too excited.”

Getting too excited isn’t much of a problem for fans at this point.

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So when will The Winds of Winter come out? At the earliest some time in 2021, but based on how many times Martin has been woefully wrong about his own timeline, it could be years.

Or he’ll never finish it.

Winter is coming, but no one knows if The Winds of Winter is.

Featured Image: Bantam Spectra/TBS

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That day is August 1, 2020. Yes, 2020 as in this year 2020. And I promise it’s not as crazy a prediction as it sounds.

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Martin has been his own worst enemy when it comes to setting expectations for the book’s release. Each year he says “next year.” Then it doesn’t come out. Yet somehow that doesn’t even capture how wrong he’s been. Martin once expected A Song of Ice and Fire to be finished before Game of Thrones caught up to the books. That’s hilarious in retrospect. Well, it’s funny so long as you don’t actually read the books. The rest of us aren’t laughing.

All that disappointment is why some fans have given up hope that it will ever be finished. (Let alone ever getting the seventh and final novel in the series.) But if, like me, you haven’t given up hope yet, the most promising update came from Martin in May 2019. He wrote on his website, Not a Blog, that he was going to be at New Zealand’s Worldcon in 2020. In that entry he gave a status update for his eternally delayed book:

“But I tell you this—if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done. Just so long as the acrid fumes do not screw up my old DOS word processor, I’ll be fine.”

Martin is the Boy Who Cried Direwolf. But that prediction felt more tangible and specific than most previous updates. And then some promising signs followed.

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In November, Martin wrote about a trip to New York. While there, he checked in with all his publishers, editors, and “friends and colleagues at HBO.”

He posted that on November 18. Then, in early December, an eagle-eyed fan noticed that thewindsofwinter.com was transferred to a new owner from whomever had been squatting on it.

That transfer happened on November 24, shortly after Martin had met with his editors and publishers in New York.

If you just got a little tingle that means you’re alive, dammit.

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Since then, the world experienced a global pandemic that has forced everyone to stay home. There’s likely never been a better opportunity for a notoriously slow writer to hunker down and get to work. And Martin said he used his quarantine time to work on Winds. So why, after a decade of anticipation and six years of broken promises, am I pointing to a specific date?

Martin was positive he’d have the completed book in hand when he went to the now-cancelled New Zealand Worldcon 2020. He met with publishers a few months later. Days after that someone bought the domain name for a potential website for the book. And the original dates for Worldcon were July 29 to August 2.

That would have also coincided with a very special anniversary in the history of A Song of Ice and Fire. The first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, came out on August 1, 1996.

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…Now that‘s a tingle right there.

Am I the biggest fool in the entire fandom? The odds, common sense, and even my own past theories, say so. But after six years of disappointment I’m going to enjoy six weeks of being hopeful. And if, on August 2, there’s still no announced date for The Winds of Winter? I’ll start looking into real estate with Martin in the middle of that lake of sulfuric acid. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Featured Image: TBS

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Why THE WINDS OF WINTER Could Be Coming Soon appeared first on Nerdist.

“A Song of Ice and Fire” scribe George RR Martin spoke to German magazine Welt recently, where he dropped some clues to his best-selling books series’ future… and past? Dan translates into the common tongue for you on today’s Nerdist News!

Was the ending to the Game of Thrones TV series *that* bad? Let us know in the comments!

The post Did George RR Martin Confirm a New Ending for Game of Thrones? appeared first on Nerdist.

Back in October, HBO shocked Game of Thrones fans with its decision not to move forward with a Naomi Watts-led prequel series, instead picking up a different prequel series. After remaining relatively mum following the jaw-dropping announcements, HBO programming president Casey Bloys finally opened up about both prequel projects, from what went wrong with Jane Goldman’s canceled series to when to expect the Targaryen-centric House of the Dragon.

#HouseOfTheDragon, a #GameofThrones prequel is coming to @HBO.

The series is co-created by @GRRMSpeaking and Ryan Condal. Miguel Sapochnik will partner with Condal as showrunner and will direct the pilot and additional episodes. Condal will be writing the series. pic.twitter.com/9ttMzElgXm

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) October 29, 2019

Per Deadline, Bloys revealed at the Television Critics Association winter press tour that House of the Dragon would likely premiere in 2022. He also indicated the series was still in early production, noting no casting decisions have been made and scripts were still being written.

However, in one of the more revealing aspects of Bloys’ TCA interview, the HBO executive spoke about the decision to move forward with House of the Dragon and axe Goldman’s series. Dubbed The Long Night by A Song of Ice and Fire writer George R.R. Martin, Goldman’s series was set during the “Age of Heroes” several centuries before Game of Thrones. When speaking about the decision to greenlight the Targaryen prequel series over Goldman’s “Age of Heroes” pilot, Bloys remained relatively vague, but noted that existing source material for House of the Dragon, based on Martin’s Fire & Blood, made it significantly easier to plot than the original idea from Goldman.

“In development, in pilots, sometimes things come together, sometimes they don’t,” Bloys said. “One of the things I think Jane took on beautifully, which was a challenge, there was a lot more role creation because she set hers 8,000 years before the (mothership) show, so it required a lot more. That is a big swing. One of the things about House of Dragons, there is a text, there is a book so that made it a little bit more of a road map for a series order.”

Martin co-created House of the Dragon with Ryan Condal, who is serving as co-showrunner with frequent Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik. The Targaryen-focused series takes place 300 years before Game of Thrones.

HBO

Bloys further reiterated that nothing in particular went wrong with Goldman’s pilot, it simply never quite came together in the way HBO was hoping for. Pointing to the several Game of Thrones prequel ideas HBO famously commissioned during the flagship series’ final season, Bloys indicated the network had anticipated one of its ambitious ideas might not pan out.

He added, “I think Jane did a beautiful job, it was a big challenge but there was nothing that I would point to and say, oh, that one element did not work, just overall it did not quite gel. That’s one of the reasons when we started out to think about ‘Is there a life after Game of Thrones in terms of Game of Thrones’, we purposefully developed multiple projects. We would have been very lucky to do one pilot, have that pilot go and be a success but in development as you know, it takes a lot of tries to get it right, this is no different.”

As for the remaining prequel ideas, while Bloys didn’t rule out any future possibilities, he confirmed HBO is solely focused on House of The Dragon right now.

Header Image: HBO

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It’s one thing to watch the heroes and villains of Game of Thrones every week on the small screen, but it’s something else entirely to feel like you’re stepping into Westeros yourself. Thanks to Adobe UK and an international team of professional concept artists, you can use just your phone or a VR headset to gaze upon some of the iconic locations of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin—and not worry about losing your head to the White Walkers or Kingsguard while you do it.

The immersive virtual reality experience Unseen Westeros aims to take you to Westeros without leaving your house. These aren’t still photographs of the familiar settings of Winterfell or King’s Landing from the show; the experience focuses on unusual locations from the book series that you haven’t seen outside of your imagination before.

For example, here’s your first exclusive look at an artist’s vision of Bonetown, which appeared on a map in A World of Ice and Fire:

All you need to set your eyes on Westeros is a VR headset or your smartphone and the YouTube app. Then you’ll travel to places you’ve never seen before like Strongsong in the Vale, Widow’s Watch in the North, Valyria, and the Summer Isles, and many, many more. Your adventure starts below.

(If you’re watching on your browser, hold the mouse button and move the cursor to take a look around. Don’t hold your computer up to your eyes.)

Find out more about the VR experience and how the group of brilliant artists behind the incredible locations crafted the vistas of the Seven Kingdoms on the Adobe UK website.

If you could (safely) visit anywhere in Westeros, where would you go? Tell us about it in the comments below.

All Images: Unseen Westeros / Adobe

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We’ve been through a lot with our favorite Game of Thrones characters. We’ve watched them get beaten down, fly atop dragons, get murdered and come back to life. We’ve also followed them across distances far and wide, from Westeros to Braavos to far north of the Wall. For those who’ve also read George R.R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, those journeys look a little different, especially now that the show has surpassed the page. But have you ever wondered just how different those journeys have been? With this interactive map, you can!

This QuarterMaester map features both Westeros and Essos and a handy guide to the different locations. A special code distinguishes the towns from cities from castles and whatnot. The map also shows off the diverse terrain of the continents, from the snow mountains north of the Wall to the Riverlands and more.

But what makes this map especially neat is a function at the right side of the screen that lets you select characters to trace their path on the show or in the book. The guide is even spoiler-proof; you can drag the bar at the top to indicate where you’d like the tracking coverage to stop. For some characters, like Ned Stark, both tracking lines are identical; he went on the same journey in both the show and book, and died both times in King’s Landing. For other characters, like Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, the lines start off similarly, but diverge greatly once it gets into post-book seasons. Jon’s is particularly fun to track, as it shows him north of the Wall for quite a while, and then zipping around Westeros quite rapidly in seasons 6 and 7.

We imagine the tracking will only get more complicated in season 8, when the war between the living and the dead spread throughout Westeros. We’ll have our eye on it when it does.

Images: HBO, QuarterMaster

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’m probably one of the least romantic people you’ll meet. I think flowers are impractical (all they do is sit in water and die) and my favorite box of chocolate is one whose box can be easily repurposed to be a quickly crafted dice tray or wet palette for painting miniatures.

With that said, I think games can be terrifically romantic. After all, romance isn’t about gifts, but a special experience you share with someone and games are just that, with the bonus that they can be enjoyed for the rest of the year and for years to come. Here are 10 fantastic 2-player games perfect to share with someone special.

Hanamikoji

This beautiful, but simple small box game is a game about giving gifts. In Hanamikoji, you’re a restaurant owner trying to win the favor of geisha against a rival restaurant owner so you can have the best entertainment in your establishment. Hit a threshold of geisha who choose your establishment, and you win. With splendid art, simple mechanics, and a quick playtime (15-30 minutes) it’s easy to learn but strategically rich, offering meaningful choices to players. It’s a perfect game to bring for a dinner date and play at the table while you wait for your meal.

Deep Water Games – $19.95 MSRP

Patchwork

Designed by the venerable Uwe Rosenberg (who also designed Bohnanza, Agricola, and Le Havre), this 2-player game features adorable polynomial fabric patches used to collect and create a beautiful patch with buttons as the currency. You start with an empty board and a set amount of buttons to purchase new fabric strips, and the first person to either finish their board or have the most buttons at the end wins. Check out our full overview of the game.

Mayfair Games  – $29.99 MSRP

Onitama

Contributor Ruel Gaviola described this simple game: “There are two ways to win in Onitama: either capture your opponent’s master pawn or get your master pawn to your opponent’s starting temple space. Each game begins with a random draw of five cards that determine each piece’s movement for that game. You play one card to move, then exchange it for another card for your next turn. Featuring top-notch components, lots of movement cards for replayability, and a 15-minute gameplay time, Onitama can be enjoyed by any gamer, but especially those with an affinity for chess or checkers.”

Arcane Wonders – $29.99 MSRP

Jaipur

Raf Cordero gushed about this game: “No two player game has seen more table time in my house than Jaipur. A devilishly simple game of trading goods in an Indian bazaar, Jaipur pits you and your opponent against each other as rival merchants. Each player has a hand of cards with a strict hand size and a pile of camels. Between the players sits a trade row of public cards. The goal is simple: earn two Seals of Excellence in a best-of-three series of games to win an invite to the court of the Maharaja.”

Asmodee – MSRP $24.99

War Chest

With its beautiful components, medieval theme, and abstracted narrative, this is a game that will hit the table often for a pair of strategically-minded gamers. There’s so much replayability in this heavyweight box. I’ve previously remarked on the game’s heirloom quality, and the game evolves as you become more fluent in it (much like classic games of chess or checkers.) You can check out my full overview of the game, and videos showing you how to play the game here.

Alderac – $49.99 MSRP

Tak

Another classic game with an heirloom quality, Tak is a simple strategy game played with 2 players, in the same vein as chess or checkers. It’s very short, simplistic, and easy to learn; each game can last anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes. And the objective is a clear one: build a road that connects each side of the board where all of the pieces are adjacent to each other (never diagonal). It was the game featured in the Kingkiller Chronicles series by Patrick Rothfuss, and brought to life by Rothfuss and designer James Earnest. You can read our full overview here.

KeyForge

Raf Cordero enthusiastically called the game one of the most exciting games he’s played, saying: “It’s a two-player card game with a number of interesting twists, chief among them that no two decks will ever be the same. […]  The simple-yet-deep mechanisms make for a game that is easy to teach and play, and the deck randomness ensures that games with new opponents are fresh. KeyForge is a winner and I can’t wait to see what they do with the system.” Check out his overview of the game here.

Fantasy Flight Games – $39.99 (2-Player Box Set) $9.99 (Individual Deck) MSRP

Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft

A cooperative game, Ruel described this 30-minute thematic game as an, “Underrated two-player game features Sherlock and his brother Mycroft matching wits while investigating the case of a young man who either plotted an attack on the Houses of Parliament or is the victim of circumstantial evidence. You and your opponent take on the role of one of the Holmes brothers in this worker placement and set collection game. ”

Devir Games – $19.99 MSRP

Star Wars Rebellion

One of our best games of 2016, this two-person game is a fantastic and compelling gaming experience for the right couple. As Charlie Theel put it, “Rebellion is noteworthy because it draws its DNA from two contrasting genres of play. It’s part “dudes on a map” where you’re commanding large forces of plastic troopers and spaceships, and part hidden movement focused on the cat and mouse game of hide and seek. This clashing of large scale warfare and military operations with a seek and destroy reconnaissance exercise is thrilling. “. Check out his full overview of the game.

Fantasy Flight Games – $99.95 MSRP

A Song of Ice and Fire

Yes, I am the kind of person to recommend a miniature war game an alternative to chocolate and roses, but hear me out: a couple that hobbies together stays together.  A Song of Ice and Fire is a game that plays quickly for a miniatures game (60-90 minutes), has an incredible amount of miniatures in the box, and has a universe that is immersive and rich (so much so that HBO made a show based on it, in case you haven’t heard.) It was one of our favorite games of 2018, and I wrote extensively on why it’s such an incredible game.

CMON Games – $149.99 (2-Player Lannister & Stark Starter Set)/$84.99 (Free Folk or Night’s Watch Starter Sets) MSRP

MORE GAMING GOODNESS!

• Our Top 20 Tabletop Games of 2018 (Part 1)
• Our Top 20 Tabletop Games of 2018 (Part 2)
• DUELOSAUR ISLAND is the 2 Player Card Game of Building Dinosaur Theme Parks

Image Credits: Ruel Gaviola, Teri Litorco, Raf Cordero, Fantasy Flight Games, Blythe Wiedemann

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Between HBO’s Game of Thrones‘ undeniable success and the growing popularity of miniature wargames, there was a certain inevitability for the arrival of a miniature wargame set in Westeros.  I heard murmurs and rumors of it floating around since 2016, particularly since Dark Sword Miniatures had a license for the literary universe and had been producing miniatures for several years, including one infamous Cersei Lannister that was skillfully painted to make her dress look scandalously sheer. 

Combine this with an established audience for but distinct lack of a dominant, publisher-supported ranked miniature wargame (since the discontinuation of Warhammer Fantasy Battles) and it was only a matter of time that a gaming company would find a way to bring ranks of miniatures with Westerosi livery to the table, and sure enough, after running a successful Kickstarter to launch the game, CMON Games released A Song of Ice and Fire (a.k.a. ASOIAF) into the hands of backers and onto the shelves of retailers over the summer.

Full disclosure: since its release, I’ve been obsessed with the game, collecting and painting minis, and playing out battles. Despite the lack of dragons, Targaryens, and Arya Stark (which are all presumably going to eventually show up in the game in future expansions), this is one of those games that long time miniature wargamers will find deeply interesting because of how many compelling strategic choices are available. Gamers who may be less familiar with miniature wargames but have some familiarity with boardgames will appreciate the integration of interesting boardgame mechanics to influence the battlefield, including tactical card hand management and worker placement. Newcomers to the hobby as a whole should be warned: the combination of the accessible license and easy-to-learn mechanics puts them at risk to become as obsessed with this game as I am.

The starter box has everything a pair of players needs to get playing: two playable factions — Starks and Lannisters — with enough unit options to create multiple playable 30-point lists, a rulebook (though its available online for free), terrain, dice, and rulers. The starter set has specific characters that are unavailable in any other expansion: Jamie, Cersei, Tyrion, The Mountain, Sansa, Catelyn, Robb, and Grey Wind. Expansions for both houses have also been made available, including the release of the (faction neutral) House Bolton characters and units. The miniatures are characterful, detailed and come fully assembled. If you’re not a painter, the plastic of the miniatures are color-coded based on their faction, though the miniatures themselves are easy to paint:

Beyond the minis, it’s easy to be sucked into the gameplay experience. The level of refinement and polish designers Eric Lang and Michael Shinall have injected into the game is obvious: it’s fast-paced, movement-oriented, hard-hitting, and immersive: units move around the board, crash into combat, and lots of models die. At the same time, the tactics board and tactics deck allow for non-combat units like Tyrion, Sansa, and Cersei to support battlefield forces by maneuvering behind the scenes and playing politics. Worker placement has never felt so confrontational.

When you play ASOIAF, you can feel as powerful and vicious as the Mountain, as skillful as Jamie (with both hands), as treacherous and underhanded as Cersei, as clever as Tyrion, and as stalwart as a Stark. Despite its simple mechanics, the different playstyles, the various unit combinations, and the strategic opportunities come together to satisfy on many different levels. Translating the characters into mechanics reinforces the immersive experience: Ned Stark and his noble Honor Guard hold fast on objectives unsurprisingly well, where Ramsey Snow, is able to intimidate enemies by torturing Theon.

Less than 6 months since retail release, CMON has also released an app that allows for players to build lists as well an entirely new faction unavailable through its Kickstarter: The Night’s Watch. Part of the release of this new faction is a standalone single-faction starter set, complete with Jon Snow and Ghost, enough Black Brothers to create a few 40ish point lists, and everything else one player needs to play a game of ASOIAF. They’ve also teased out the upcoming release of the scapegoats beyond-the-Wall, The Wildlings, complete with a taste of the fantasy elements of Westeros with giants.

It’s clear CMON has invested in the game, which is required for success in this niche of tabletop: it takes years to get a miniature from concept to the table of a player. The same things that made ASOIAF an inevitability are the things that will make it a success: players hungry for a tactical, immersive miniature gaming experience set in Westeros. Surely I can’t be the only one looking forward to the day where I stand on one side of the table, look at my opponent squarely in the eye, roll a handful of dice and yell Dracarys! as a model dragon breathes imaginary fire across the battlefield.

Who’s your favorite Game of Thrones character? Tell us in the comments!

More Gaming Goodness!

• Build Your Empire During the Industrial Revolution in BRASS: BIRMINGHAM
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• Seal Team Flix Wildly Blends First Person Shooters & Flicking Discs

Image Credits: Teri Litorco, CMON Games (giants, box photos)

Disclosure: Review copies of the ASOIAF and Night’s Watch starter sets were provided for media purposes.

Teri Litorco is the contributing editor of Geek & Sundry, author of The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming, a YouTuber, and a social media oversharer: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Westerosi legends have a habit of proving very real. From the Children of the Forest, to giants, to the White Walkers, tall tales told to naive children about ancient races and scary monsters often turn out to be anything but stories. One terrifying creature Old Nan used to frighten the Stark children with has never appeared though: ice spiders. As big as hounds, she said the blue-eyed ice demons (known in the books as the Others) rode the spiders as they hunted the living during the first Long Night. But Old Nan might have gotten this one wrong, but not for the reason you think. A new illustration for the 2020 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar shows them to be much bigger than we ever thought.Is this just a fun interpretation of what they might have looked like, or is this a sign we will finally see them walking around Westeros on Game of Thrones?George R.R. Martin shared artist John Howe’s gorgeous cover art for the 2020 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar on Twitter, and it features two gigantic ice spiders being ridden like walking thrones by the Others, who look like Grim Reapers.

Here’s an official sneak peak of John Howe’s cover art of our 2020 SoI&F calendar featuring the legendary ice spiders which haunt old Nan’s creepiest bedtime stories. pic.twitter.com/5Tm0FbPFpC

— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) December 13, 2018

Yes. YESSSSSSSSS.I’ve been waiting for giant ice spiders to show up on Game of Thrones for the last three seasons as the White Walkers became more and more of a threat, so I’m definitely treating this as a potential tease they will make an appearance in season eight. However, since this is a calendar for 2020, and the show’s final season probably doesn’t need much help being totally insane, it might be a sign they will appear on the prequel series.Old Nan said that’s when they roamed Westeros, thousands of years ago during the first Long Night. Also, George R.R. Martin hasn’t been shy about how he wants HBO’s still unnamed prequel series to be called The Long Night. Showing one of the most terrifying mythical creatures in the history of the Seven Kingdom would show just how scary things were during that time.Because even if giant ice spiders are a legend now, that doesn’t mean they weren’t real once. That’s happens a lot in Westeros.

Featured Image: Random House

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We’re still several months away from the return – and the end – of Game of Thrones, but HBO just threw us a bone with a new look at season 8. Of course, in true Game of Thrones promo fashion, there’s no actual new footage in the video, but that doesn’t mean aren’t hunting for clues anyway. Let’s take a closer look.

The real takeaway here is that the “song of ice and fire” has finally enveloped Westeros. As the White Walker ice drenches the North, we see the South in flames. Of particular note here is the burning of King’s Landing and the Lannister lion sigil. This could merely be a symbolic hint that Daenerys will somehow thwart Cersei, or it could be quite literal. Don’t forget Dany’s House of the Undying vision back in season 2, where she walked through a destroyed King’s Landing throne room dusted with snow. Fans have debated what exactly that scene means for years now; was “snow” on the throne an early hint of Jon’s lineage, or is it more literal?The teaser doesn’t give any real clarity, but it’s interesting how bluntly it shows the Lannister’s hold in flames. Another interesting tidbit: near the end of the video, just before the Game of Thrones title hits the screen, we see the fire and ice clash, creating a wall of molten rock smack in the middle of Westeros. Again, maybe this is pure symbolism, but what if it’s teasing that “bittersweet” ending George R.R. Martin has talked about from the beginning? Is there anything more bittersweet than another war that results in even more division and a brand new wall?It also looks as if the fire and ice meet at the Trident, a river in Westeros where Rhaegar Targaryen was famously slain by Robert Baratheon and Robert’s Rebellion ended. If this is more than just symbolism, it looks like the final battle could bring us back full circle, proving that the history of Westeros is doomed to repeat itself.Of course, this is pure speculation for now. We’ll have to wait and see what this all means when Game of Thrones returns for its final season in April 2019.

Images: HBO

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Sometimes I can’t help but envy fans of A Song of Ice and Fire series who are convinced George R.R. Martin will never finish the novels. I envy them because their certainty means they don’t spend time or energy being disappointed by his missed deadlines and never-ending delays. They don’t hopelessly fall for every new rumor that ultimately proves incorrect, or get angry when he announces he’s working on another project altogether. They’ve made peace with the nightmare possibility that he will never complete the last two books, forever leaving behind unanswered questions about the fates of numerous characters and plot lines that aren’t a part of Game of Thrones. For these lucky masses, the Long Night is already here, so there’s no need to worry that winter is coming.

And yes, they may be right. Which is why I am painfully aware that what I am about to say might make me sound like the dumbest, most naïve simpleton in the Seven Kingdoms: I think The Winds of Winter is already done and George R.R. Martin is actually in the process of finishing the seventh and final book, A Dream of Spring.Please stop laughing. I swear to the old gods and the new that’s not a totally insane idea.

For a long time I’ve hoped this was the case, mostly as a coping mechanism to avoid falling into the same pessimistic abyss of those described above. Earlier this month, though, Miles Surrey at The Ringer put together a timeline of the world’s predictions of when Martin would finish the sixth book, factoring in the author’s own many (many) wrong guesses. Upon looking at Martin’s array of mistakes, I realized something: It almost looks as though he were hiding something from us.

In 2012, Martin predicted The Winds of Winter, for which he already said he had chapters completed in 2010, would be released in 2014. In early 2015 he said he thought he could finish it in a few months, then later in the year said he was hopeful it would be out before the spring of 2016. That would have kept the books ahead of the show, a goal he repeatedly said he was confident he could achieve. In January of 2017, he said he thought it would be released that year, but recently he said it won’t be before 2019.

Seeing it all laid out like that really highlights how insane this journey has been. But not because he hasn’t had lengthy delays and missed deadlines before. A Dance of Dragons was released in 2011, six years after A Feast of Crows came out, despite them having concurrent timelines and having been at least partially written at the same time. No, what’s insane is that he has consistently made such predictions and announcements knowing the entire world was tracking his every move because his books risked being surpassed by the most popular show in the world. People notice when you say you are only a few months away from being done with something and then don’t finish for another five years and counting. Even with his other projects and responsibilities, that’s an almost impossible miscalculation.

So what are the possibilities we are left with to explain this almost unfathomable delay? The first is that his notoriously slow writing pace has come to an almost paralyzing crawl, and that even if he does finish The Winds of Winter, a book he will have needed nine years to write, next year, we could be another decade away from the final novel A Dream of Spring.

(Hold on one sec, I have to drink a barrel of wildfire after writing that paragraph…)

The other, more hopeful possibility, is that Martin wasn’t that crazy back in 2012 when he said he’d be done in 2014, nor was he off the mark by four freaking years when he said he just needed a couple more months in 2015. But if that’s true, it raises the obvious question: Why? Why not announce that the book is done? Why keep putting out fake predictions for a novel that is long complete?

There are two possibilities. One practical for a writer, and the other strategic as a public figure.

It makes sense he wouldn’t release the penultimate book in his series until he finishes the final one, in case he runs into any logistical problems with the story. A Song of Ice and Fire boasts an incredible large universe, with so many characters and plots that it doesn’t seem possible to keep track of all of them. The closer he gets to the end, the fewer opportunities Martin will have to work his way out of any snags in the canon; less story time limits where he can go. Martin may be holding onto The Winds of Winter in case it needs some narrative tweaking based on a problem he hits toward the end of the Song of Ice and Fire epic. He obviously wants to nail the landing on the defining work of his career, and this could be the best way to ensure that happens.

But if this is indeed what he’s doing, why not just tell his faithful readers the plan? He can’t buy a cup of coffee without someone asking about The Winds of Winter—wouldn’t he be eager to put those questions to rest? Well, if fans are losing their minds about when he will finish it, how do you think they’d handle it if they knew for a fact the novel was done but being kept from them? Plus, in this scenario, Martin doesn’t really have to worry about backlash when the truth comes out, because for as annoying as it will be to find out we could have had the book years earlier, think about how amazing it will be to read an announcement that we’re getting The Winds of Winter in 2019 and A Dream of Spring in 2020? It would more than make up all of the frustration and fear we’ve had over whether the novels would ever be finished!

(It also doesn’t hurt that by delaying the release of The Winds of Winter, HBO, who will likely produce at least one Game of Thrones spin-off, was able to maximize interest in the show. There isn’t a single reader who won’t read the last two novels just because the show finished first, so Game of Thrones getting ahead of the books was never going to hurt Martin’s sales.)

See? It’s not that crazy. Definitely not any crazier than the idea he has managed to miss his original prediction of needing just two more years by about 250%.

Still, I know it’s more likely that I am the Charlie Brown of Westeros, the gullible fool who thinks that this time Cersei will definitely hold onto that football, even though every missed publication date always ends with me on my back feeling like The Mountain is squeezing my head like a lemon. But it’s better than thinking The Winds of Winter is never coming. And how else can you get through the Long Night unless you believe in A Dream of Spring?

What do you think? Is there any chance this is true, or are we more naïve than a Stark in King’s Landing? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Images: HBO, NBC, TBS

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• The Game of Thrones cast celebrated Kit Harington and Rose Leslie’s wedding
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• Feast your eyes on the most elegant Game of Thrones photo shoot ever

The post Here’s a Possibly Insane Theory That THE WINDS OF WINTER Is Already Finished appeared first on Nerdist.

If there’s one thing to really love about George R.R. Martin, it’s that he still appreciates the fine art that is LiveJournal blogging. The fantasy author has used his trusty “Not A Blog” account to share thoughts and news for many years, and now he’s one-upping himself by delivering a nugget of new information in the comment section.

In a February 7 post about Hugo Awards nominations, Martin let slip in the comments section that we can expect a new A Song of Ice and Fire book in 2018. Sadly, it’s not The Winds of Winter, but instead the first volume of a companion story collection called Fire and Blood.

via GIPHY

If you’re making the Sad Jon face, you’re not alone. But chins up, because Fire and Blood actually sounds pretty cool, and, according to Martin, is mostly made up of recycled material from his encyclopedic The World of Ice and Fire, meaning there probably wasn’t a lot of extra writing involved to distract him. The collection will focus on “fake histories of the Targaryen kings,” from Aegon’s Conquest to the regency of boy king Aegon III.

Back in 2017, Martin jokingly referred to Fire and Blood as “the GRRMarillion” (a play on J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Silmarillion). He also hinted that The Winds of Winter will come out between the releases of Volumes I and II of Fire and Blood. That doesn’t tell us much, but it does sound like there’s at least some sort of publishing schedule in place, even loosely.

Luckily, A Song of Ice and Fire fans are a strong breed and are prepared to wait a long time for that thing they love. In addition to the long drought before The Winds of Winter, we also have a full year before the final season of Game of Thrones hits TV screens in 2019. Hopefully Fire and Blood can fill the void of anticipation in the meantime.

Images: HBO

More news from Westeros

• Altered Carbon has a Game of Thrones Easter egg
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The post A New SONG OF ICE AND FIRE Book is Coming in 2018, But Not the One You’re Hoping for appeared first on Nerdist.

Warning: Major spoilers follow for Game of Thrones season seven.

The Starks have truly reunited, Eastwatch of the Wall has fallen, and the Night King is riding around on a gnarly dragon that breathes a very powerful ice-fire hybrid. Things just got really, really wild on Game of Thrones, and among the bevy of action and high-stakes reveals in the season finale was that series-defining moment when Bran Stark and Samwell Tarly realized that Jon Snow (a.k.a. Aegon Targaryen) was the true heir to the Iron Throne.

This moment raised many questions: Why did Rhaegar name two of his kids Aegon? What the hell was Sam playing at by taking credit for Gilly’s earth-shattering discovery of Rhaegar’s annulment to his first wife and subsequent marriage to Lyanna Stark? And why is Bran so weird? But there’s truly only one question that any cool Game of Thrones fan should care about: Is there still a chance that we might see Jon ride Viserion next season?

Viewers have known that Jon Snow is actually a Targaryen since the finale of season six–a popular, book-based fan theory that, like so many Game of Thrones prophecies, actually came true. This season we were given a glimpse into the potential that Jon has to become one of the three foretold dragon riders; Drogon let him stroke his face, his magical dragon powers giving him the ability to sense Jon’s lineage whilst the rest of Westeros stumbles around none the wiser. This also fits in well with another fan theory that Tyrion is in fact a Targaryen, the product of an affair of his mother and the Mad King. Tyrion is the only other person to have touched the dragons, way back when he freed them from the crypts of Meereen.

Sadly, this beautiful fan dream of three badass Targaryens flying through the skies on the backs of their regal beasts seemed to be dashed in the penultimate episode of this season. As the Night King threw an icy spear through Viserion’s heart and bought him back as a terrifyingly cool wight dragon, it seemed like Viserion was lost and the legend of the three dragon riders had died. But has it?

In the finale of of Game of Thrones season five, we saw Jon Snow murdered by his own men, only to be brought back from the dead by the Red Witch, Melisandre, via the dark sorcery of the Lord of Light. Many fans questioned the point of such a short death for Jon, but what if it was a pivotal stepping stone toward what might ultimately be one of the coolest moments in Game of Thrones history?

Now that Viserion is one of the Army of the Dead, it surely fits in that maybe, just maybe, Jon Snow could climb upon that beast’s back and ride him through the skies once more.

This isn’t actually as wild as it seems. Jon is technically dead and has been revived by some kind of magic—the same magic that revived Beric Dondarrion a handful of times and may not be all that different from the magic that the Children of the Forest used to turn the first men into White Walkers in the first place. The Children of the Forest were known to be strong native magic users, something that over millennia has become almost nonexistent Westeros. The power of bringing the dead back to life, though, is usually reserved for the red priests of R’hllor, better known as the Lord of Light. Could this mean that the Children were the first to utilize the magic that would later be used to resurrect the King in the North?

Most important here is Jon/Aegon’s bloodline. He’s a true Targaryen, a Valerian bloodline, which even an undead Viserion should be able to detect. Dragon magic is a deep and mysterious thing, something that in Westerosi legend is believed to be intrinsically connected to the amount of magic in the seven kingdoms. “Since the death of the last dragon in 153 AC, summers grew shorter and the winters colder and crueler, while magical spells became less powerful.” This could be something the Night King has likely underestimated.

We also know that a Dragon can bond with a new Dragonrider after their first rider dies, which leads us to another question: Will Jon kill the Night King? And if he does, does it really seem so farfetched that Viserion will recognize Jon’s Valerian blood and allow the half-dead Targaryen to climb on his back, becoming the dragon rider he was always destined to be?

This theory is a lot more than just icy cool though with it fitting incredibly well into the greater landscape of the show and it’s many prophecies. Specifically the three treasons prophecy from Dany’s vision in the house of the undying:

“Three treasons will you know… once for blood and once for gold and once for love…”

The blood and gold prophecies are already believed to have occurred, so could it be that season eight will see Jon and Viserion betray her and enact the third part of her fate?

Are you digging our dramatic dragon theory? Would you love to see a zombie Targaryen team-up or have we been drinking too much Westerosi wine? Fly your badass ice dragon into our comments and let us know!

Images: HBO

WANT MORE GAME OF THRONES?

• Why are there no female White Walkers?
• What role might Bran play in Game of Thrones‘ endgame
• How Dany’s House of the Undying vision prepares us for Thrones‘ future

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Waiting for George R. R. Martin to tell us when The Winds of Winter is coming out can be maddening. We’ve been waiting for over seven years, and all he can say is that the book is underway. But thanks to the wonder of neural networks, our wait may finally be at an end.

According to Motherboard, programmer Zack Thoutt created a neural network to write sample chapters from The Winds of Winter, under the joke pen name “George AI Martin.” The network compiles existing text from previous books in the Song of Ice and Fire series and reveals some of Martin’s authorial quirks in the process. As chapter one shows, dude loves his old-timey phrasing like “donned,” “rough-hewn,” and “the [X] of [X]”(e.g. “the second son of Ser Whoever” rather than “Ser Whoever’s second son”). Motherboard only has the first chapter, but you can read further chapters here.

The syntax isn’t great—neural networks aren’t as hot on complex sentence structure as they are on, say, band names—but once you get into the writing, it almost feels like prose poetry or narration from The Sound and the Fury… if Faulker wrote about swords and direwolves instead of the collapsing Southern gentry:

“It is an effort. Mine uncle had do the same color. She could hardly count by death.

It made Ned better stop until the fire was falling, standing beneath the arch of a shattered still distant field where the shadow tower paid the camp behind. The elder brother had known no sun and chunks of broken buildings and ash wailing towns; four hundred thousand ravens, his own torsos.”

Isn’t that gorgeous? My favorite bit is “ash wailing towns.” Just…chills.

Granted, the neural network doesn’t always deliver. Other parts are less poetic and more WTF:

“She Baratheon is one of the crossing. The second sons of your onion concubine.”

Is an onion concubine the sexy version of an Onion Knight? Also, there’s that “the [X] of [X]” business. Just say “your onion concubine’s second sons.”

“What do you want without shelter?” asked Jared.

If you read this and said, “He went to Jared!” to yourself, you’re not alone. Encountering a guy named Jared, even in an A Song of Ice and Fire parody, is disconcerting. It’s like meeting a knight named Ser Brayden, or an archer named Mike. If he must be there, his name should at least be spelled funny. “Jeryd,” maybe.

“Catelyn wondered if he knew she was fool.”

All I can think is: BUT WHO WAS PHONE?!

“Petyr Baelish jerked his head off, threw himself over the shaft, and pushed it off his shoulder.”

So that’s why we never saw what his hands were doing under his cloak on Game of Thrones.

Wait, what if this is actually how he dies in the books? I wouldn’t put it past the non-AI George R. R. Martin to kill him in the most upsetting fashion imaginable.

I’ll leave you with the top contender for Moments I Wish We’d Seen In The Show:

“Meera kicked the turtle warily at Tyrion’s face”.

Which is your favorite line from the neural network version of The Winds of Winter? Tell us below!

Images: Flickr/Gage Skidmore, HBO, Giphy

WANT MORE GAME OF THRONES?

• Why are there no female White Walkers?
• What role might Bran play in Game of Thrones‘ endgame
• How Dany’s House of the Undying vision prepares us for Thrones‘ future

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In Game of Thrones‘ season seven premiere, sharp-eyed viewers spotted an illustration of a dagger Sam found in an old book looked identical to the one used by Bran’s would-be assassin in season one. Rather than just a fun Easter egg though, that dagger took on added meaning when Baelish “gifted” it to Bran last week.

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But while we were busy wondering what scheme Littlefinger is working on, we might have missed out on the show answering one of the great mysteries of Valyrian steel. If so it’s a revelation that would be far more important going forward than anything Littlefinger is planning for the future.This was the dagger used by the cutthroat (catspaw in the books) assassin in season one, which Catelyn brought to Littlefinger who lied about it belonging to Tyrion Lannister.Compare that to the illustration in Sam’s dusty forgotten book.They are exactly the same, and that’s not by chance. John Bradley who plays Samwell Tarly talked about the filming of that scene with The Huffington Post after this season’s premiere, and he had this to say about that specific page in the book.

“I was literally told make sure that you linger on this page. They were shooting over my shoulder and said make sure to linger on this page. Make sure we get a good shot of this page before you turn the page over.”

The actual dagger from the show, from the Making of Game of Thrones Production Diary

In the moment the only thing any viewer could really notice on that page is the dagger, but the show’s creators had to know that fans would decipher what the text had to say, which is exactly what Reddit user rataface did by making an exact replica of it.

[EVERYTHING] I replicated a page from Sam’s book about dragonglass from gameofthrones

His reproduction is so accurate it can be a little difficult to read, so here’s what it says (bolded section ours):

The Valyrians were familiar with dragonglass long before they came to Westeros. They called it “Zirtyl yierzyll,” which translated to “frozen fire†in Valyrian, and eastern tales tell of how their dragons would thaw the stone with dragonflame until it became molten and malleable. The Valyrians then used it to build their strange monuments and building without seams and joints of our modern castles. When Aegon the conqueror forged his Seven Kingdoms, he and his descendants would often decorate their blades with dragonglass feeling a kinship with the stone. The royal fashion for dragonglass ornamentation soon spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms to those wealthy enough to afford it. Hilts and pommels were and are the most common decoration for dragonglass if too brittle to make a useful crossguard. Indeed, its very brittleness is what relegate it to the great houses and the most successful merchants.

It’s more than a little curious that an illustration of a Valyrian steel dagger doesn’t mention the word “steel” one time. This entire entry speaks only of dragonglass, almost as though the two are one and the same.We wrote extensively about Valyrian steel before, about how no one knows how the Valyrians made it, their secrets dying with them in the Doom. All we know for certain is that it is lighter, stronger, and sharper than even the best castle-forged steel. It is thought to have been forged in dragonflame, and it was cast with magic and spells. (George R.R. Martin himself has called it a “fantasy metal” because magic played a role in its making and it contains magical qualities.)Because no one knows exactly how it was made there is a finite amount of it in the world, making it is almost priceless. That was true before anyone knew it could kill a White Walker.There is something else we know about Valyrian steel though: it has a very dark color.In A Storm of Swords as Tywin is having House Stark’s ancestral Valyrian steel sword Ice reforged into two swords for House Lannister, he has this thought:

“Most Valyrian steel was a grey so dark it looked almost black, as was true here as well.”

That dark color could be because it was likely forged in dragonflame, but remember that bolded line from Sam’s book that seemed to discuss Valyrian steel and dragonglass interchangeably?

“…eastern tales tell of how their dragons would thaw the stone with dragonflame until it became molten and malleable.”

Only dragonflame is hot enough to turn obsidian molten, and dragonglass is usually black.Was Valyrian steel forged with dragonglass, which is why it both looks especially dark and can kill White Walkers?The Children of the Forest made the White Walkers by inserting dragonglass into the heart of a man. We might not know the specifics of how that worked, but we know dragonglass is both magical and the White Walkers weakness.We assumed Valyrian steel could also kill White Walkers because it was forged in dragonflame, but what if it’s actually because Valyrian steel is partially made of dragonglass itself?Whether or not the steel was forged in dragonflame wouldn’t matter, the dragonglass would have had to have been melted by dragons, so dragons were still needed for the process, which is why no one has been able to make it since the Doom of Valyria.But if Sam has come across this information and can somehow piece it together, at Dragonstone right now are three dragons and a “mountain” of dragonglass. Valyrian steel swords and daggers in the hands of gifted fighters like Jon and Arya would be much more desirable to fight with in the Great War than dragonglass spears or arrows.Of course the magic the Valyrians forged the steel is still required, and they’d need skilled blacksmiths to quickly make them since the White Walkers seem poised to finally arrive at the Wall.Is Melisandre heading to Volantis, the oldest of the Valyrian outposts and home to the Lord of Light’s most devoted followers, to find that lost information and return to Westeros with it? Is long-lost blacksmith Gendry finally going to return when the living need him most?It would be quite the convergence, but Bradley did also have this to say in that interview:

“All of these storylines, no matter how spread out they feel sometimes, they are a lot of the same storyline and in the equation.”

The show wanted him to linger on that page because they wanted us to pay attention to it, and that might be because it contains an answer to one the great mysteries of making Valyrian steel.With the dead marching it’s sounds like it could be a recipe for victory.What do you think? Is Valyrian steel made with dragonglass? Is that why it kills White Walkers? If so what might all this mean going forward? Forge all of your thoughts in our comments section below.For more information on the significance of the dagger that Littlefinger gave to Bran, click here.To understand how Jaime Lannister possibly sank so deep so close to shore (lol), click here.Is Gendry actually coming back? Here is what we think about that.

Images: HBO

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Over the past six seasons, Game of Thrones has generated a lot of bizarro fan theories. Some people have claimed that Roose Bolton is a Dracula. Others have posited that there’s going to be an epic showdown between The Hound and the Mountain, and some–including yours truly–have asked the all-important question: is Varys secretly a merman? (Like Kevin Feige says, “never say never.”) While those likely won’t bear any narrative fruit, a new fan theory has been making the rounds this month, and it’s got more legs to it than most. This fan theory, which comes courtesy of redditor FollowTheBeard, puts forth that Azor Ahai, the legendarily prophesied Prince that was Promised, the Warrior of Light, the Lord’s Chosen, the cool dude with a rude ‘tude who’s going to defeat the White Walkers and save us all is none other than Ser Davos Seaworth! Gasp you should, dear reader, because this theory isn’t as crazy as it sounds, and we’re going to break it down on today’s episode of The Dan Cave.

Now before we get any further, here is your SPOILER WARNING for all things Game of Thrones, both books and TV. If you’re not caught up, what is your problem? Get with it. The rest of you, get in the palanquin ’cause we’re going theory-crafting.

via Buzzfeed

Ser Davos Seaworth isn’t just my favorite character on the entire show; he may well be its most important if this theory holds true. But first let’s start with the question of who the hell is Azor Ahai? Well, 8,000 years ago, back when the White Walkers were marching on the realms of men and generally wrapping their bony fingers around the proverbial throat of Westeros, a hero arose to team up with the Children of the Forest–you know, those weird spell-slinging little nymphs?–and beat the bone brigade back beyond the Wall, to the land of eternal winter, a.k.a. the New England of Westeros.

This selfless soldier was known as the Last Hero, and is thought by many to be none other than Azor Ahai. hero’s return was foretold in a prophecy, which goes as follows in A Clash of Kings, Chapter 10, which is coincidentally a Davos chapter:

“In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.”

This quote is modified slightly in A Dance with Dragons when Melisandre tells Jon Snow that “when the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.”

To recap, Azor Ahai is going to come back when the world needs him most, wielding the burning sword Lightbringer, the mythical blade that was tempered by plunging it into Azor Ahai’s wife’s heart, and use it to vanquish the forces of evil.

According to FollowTheBeard’s theory, they start laying clues that Ser Davos is actually Azor Ahai as early as season 2. Remember that fun and flirty beachside ceremony where Melisandre burns the new gods in effigy and has Stannis draw a flaming sword from the pyre? After Stannis does his solemn duty and draws the sword, he sticks it in the sand. As we all know, Stannis proved that he definitely wasn’t the legendary warrior of prophecy when he met his untimely demise at the pointy end of Brienne of Tarth’s blade. So who took up the mantle of the proverbial Lightbringer? Ser Davos Seaworth, of course! At the end of that season 2 scene, it is Ser Davos who picks up the blade on the beach and walks off with it.

Remember that bit about how “there will come a day when the stars bleed?” There’s a red comet in the sky above Westeros and Essos all throughout season 2. Simple enough. Some, like Osha, believe it meant the return of dragons to the world, but iif you believe the theory, it is literally a bleeding star as foretold in prophecy.

What about the rest of that quote, about how “the darkness gathers?” It’s kind of like in the movie Dodgeball where it’s a metaphor…but it really happened. During the Battle of the Blackwater, Ser Davos Seaworth and the Baratheon troops tried to make landfall at King’s Landing under the cover of darkness. They waited for the darkness to gather around them, only to be summarily blown to smithereens by the alchemists’ dragonfire. In the ensuing explosion, Davos was sent hurtling into the salt water of the ocean amidst the stifling smoke of the fire. When he washed up on the rocky shoals a few days later, his smuggler pal Salladhor Saan remarked, “You’ve only just come back to life. Stay alive a little longer, my friend.” Likewise, Stannis told his erstwhile Hand, “I heard you were dead.” Maybe he was dead. And maybe he was born again amidst smoke and salt.

I know, I know, you’re ready to throw your monitor out the window in a fit of rapturous joy now that we’ve cracked this prophecy open wider than a coffin big enough to accommodate Hodor. Before we celebrate, there’s still the little matter of that pesky bit of “[waking] dragons out of stone.” While I’d like to think that this means Ser Davos will turn Dragonstone into some sort of massive mechanical automaton a la The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it actually refers to Davos raising Jon Snow from the dead. That’s right, Ser Davos raised Jon Snow from the dead, not Melisandre. You probably thought it was her this whole time with her murderous vagina demons and lying statement necklaces, but you’d be sadly mistaken.

Think back to season 6, episode 2, when Jon Snow was lying dead as a doornail on a stone slab at Castle Black, freshly murdered by his so-called “brothers” of the Night’s Watch and that traitorous little shit Olly. Melisandre had seemingly given up hope on bringing Jon Snow back from the sweet hereafter, but Ser Davos gave her the kind of speech that would inspire a struggling youth sports team to overcome a gang of bullies in an epic underdog victory in the third act of an apocryphal Disney movie. While it encouraged Melisandre, her magic didn’t seem to work, so she left, as did Dolorous Edd and Tormund Giantsbane. The only one who stayed behind with Jon was the Onion Knight himself. As FollowTheBeard points out, there’s a protracted moment of silence as Ser Davos intensely observes Jon. He isn’t just checking out Kit Harington’s bod that just won’t quit; he is performing some sort of inner monologue or ritual that brings everyone’s favorite bastard back to life! Lo and behold, shortly after Davos leaves, what happens? Ol’ Jonny boy’s eyes shoot open and the bastard stars breathing again! Thus, it was Ser Davos who woke the dragon from stone.

via Giphy

You may be asking, “W-w-what about that dragon part? Jon Snow doesn’t have leathery wings outside the confines of my DeviantART page! And he can’t breathe fire!” Well, you’ve got me there folks. Just kidding. No you don’t. If we look into another recently confirmed fan theory, we know that R + L = J. This isn’t a math equation for Kyle Hill to solve; it’s the story of Jon Snow’s true parentage: R stands for Rhaegar Targaryen, L stands for Lyanna Stark, and J stands for Jon Snow. Rhaegar Targaryen is Jon’s true father, not Ned Stark, and as we all know the symbol of the Targaryens is a three-headed dragon. Thus when Ser Davos brings Jon back to life, he is quite literally waking a dragon from stone.

Adding further fuel to the fire is the fact that actor Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos on the show, has mentioned in interviews with Rolling Stone and Conan O’Brien that when he first met George R.R. Martin, the author told him a secret that he hadn’t told anyone else. Did he whisper that the Onion Knight was indeed the Prince that was Promised? Or did he confirm our other favorite fan theory, that Azor Ahai is actually Jaime Lannister? Only time will tell, and hopefully we’ll get more answers when Game of Thrones returns on July 16, 2017.

via Giphy

What do you think of this fan theory? If not Davos, who else could be Azor Ahai and why? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: HBO

Sources: reddit; Bustle; Buzzfeed

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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

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The minds behind Game of Thrones must feel really guilty about their decision to call it quits on the series in 2018, if how much they’re overcompensating to make it up to us is any indication. We already knew that four A Song of Ice and Fire-based spin-off projects were in the works for a post-finale release on HBO, but apparently that didn’t seem to cut it–as announced by George R.R. Martin just yesterday via his LiveJournal, a fifth Thrones spinoff has graced the drawing board.

“We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five,” Martin said, adding, “We have added a fifth writer to the original four.” He remained cagey when it came to naming the new addition outright, but expressed excitement over his affection and knowledge for the world of Westeros and beyond.

via GIPHY

Though we’re still in the dark about much of what’s yet to be seen in any of these new Game of Thrones shows, Martin did at least clue us into what we won’t be seeing: “None of these new shows will be ‘spinning off’ from GOT in the traditional sense,” he said. “We are not talking Joey or AfterMASH or even Frazier [sic] or Lou Grant, where characters from one show continue on to another. So all of you who were hoping for the further adventures of Hot Pie are doomed to disappointment.”

And even more revealing than that: “Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros.”

Adding to the list of definite no-gos, Martin stated, “We’re not doing Dunk & Egg [as] there are at least seven or eight or ten more [of those novellas] I want to write [before bring the story to television],” and, “We’re not doing Robert’s Rebellion either… but by the time I finish writing A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, you will know every important thing that happened in Robert’s Rebellion.”

While Martin himself admitted that it’s “very unlikely that we’ll be getting four (or five) series,” it seems safe to say that we’ll at least have something to keep us tucked snugly in Martin’s world after we’re forced to say goodbye to Daenerys, Tyrion, Jon Snow, and the rest.

In other words, you’re off the hook, guys. Guilt absolved.

Featured Image: HBO

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BREAKING NEWS: The Winds of Winter still ain’t here!Release the Hound! Ring the Seven Bells! Sound the Horn of Joramun: George R.R. Martin has something to say about the latest installment of your favorite book series—but you’re probably not going to like it.Since 2011, fans have waited oh-so-impatiently for the release of the sixth book of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic, A Song of Ice and Fire (better known to TV lovers as that teeny, tiny little show Game of Thrones). And each and every single year, they are disappointed and let down by the news that no, Virginia, there is no new book coming through. When the HBO iteration premiered in 2011, most people assumed it would leave Georgieboy plenty of time to get the last two purported books—The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring—done ahead of the series. Especially because George himself had admitted as early as 2014 that he was feeling the heat to finish the story.Oh, what sweet summer children we were back then.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APLoxnEWt0YNow, don’t get it twisted: winter is HERE on Game of Thrones the TV version (ahem cough cough cough siiiigh), but as of yet, there’s nary a dream of an officially confirmed release date for TWOW, even if Amazon France alleged it to be March 9, 2017 on their site. Which, naturally, got us all PRETTY EXCITED. Because, when you’ve been receiving chapters of the book from the author himself since as early as 2011 (and you can see more about the chapters here, here, here, and here), well, you can understand why audiences would be a bit, erm, antsy to finish reading the whole dang thing.

A Storm of Chapters

Think about it—we’ve seen a lot of this book already! Back in December 2011, a Theon Greyjoy chapter was presented in a special UK iteration of A Dance with Dragons that will end up in TWOW. (Read it here.) Another Iron Island-centric bit fronted by Victarion was also read aloud during a conversation at TIFF in 2012 (it starts at 30 minutes in):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlJblxV3QHQ&t=30m0sThough it’s not all northerners getting attention: the short-shrifted Dornish got in on the game in January 2012 that was originally intended for book five with not one but two chapters featuring Arianne Martell. You can read an archived version of the first one here, and the other on GRRM’s site.Our men of the dragon—namely Tyrion Lannister and Ser Barristan Selmy—also have chapters available on the World of Ice and Fire app (which you can pick up via iTunes or Google Play)! First read at a convention in October 2013, the Barristan chapter also came out as a preview chapter in the US paperback edition of ADWD and a fan even narrated it in a video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpJ78DJLjwQAs for our Northern women—Arya and Sansa Stark—their current monikers, Mercy and Alayne, also have chapters you can read online. This Arya chapter was originally intended to be a part of “A Feast for Crows” and has shifted between books before being slotted for “Winds of Winter.” It has been archived online and is also available in the app.

A Feast of Promises

Of course, it’s not just the written teases that are terrible—it’s the promises George has doled out over the years that have also made this wait feel longer than the longest Winter on record at the Citadel. Back in 2014, GRRM insisted the book was coming in 2015. And then again in 2015 he insisted that 2016 was the year …only to come back around and say “just kidding!” on his blog. And now, in 2017, we’ve got another LiveJournal-centric update in the comments:”Not done yet, but I’ve made progress. But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now. I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”To which we say:lololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololI mean ok sure, don’t stop believin’ George.In short? Don’t hold your breath. Will we get a new chapter? My money’s on yes, if for nothing else than a peace offering for a lack of winter winds in 2017—but maybe all this disbelief about his progress will make him sour on the thought like a Dornish red gone bad.But what do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image Credit: HBO

Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist, creator/host of Fangirling, and the resident Khaleesi of all things Game of Thrones at Nerdist. Find her on Twitter!

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Winter is almost here, so why not curl up with a traditional Westerosi game? Not the one you’re thinking. The *other* one.

Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books (sorry casual Game of Thrones watchers, this one’s not for you!) should be familiar with a game presented in the series called Cyvasse. Discussed in a number of the novels, it is played across Westeros, though its particular rules are never discussed at any great length. Each player has a number of pieces from Spearmen to Elephants and even Dragons. On its face, the game plays a bit like a combination of Risk and Chess. Some detail oriented fans have even extrapolated rules from the scant details outlined in the novels, and you can play a homebrew version if you’re so inclined! Seems custom made for tabletop fans, right? Too bad it’s not real.

Well.

One determined fan contacted UK-based Bristol Design Forge to create for them a one-of-a kind Cyvasse board, and the results are GORGEOUS.

Bristol Design Forge specializes in laser-cutting incredible pieces for an equally incredible list of clients, including Volkswagen, The Great British Bake Off, and Courvoisier, among others. But fear not fans–for the amazingly reasonable price of about $130, a specially cut Cyvasse board can be yours! Hop on over to Bristol Design Forge’s etsy page to pick one up, and make sure you swing on over to their Facebook and show them some love.

What’s another game from fiction you’d like to see realized? Did you know Tyrion is kind of a badass at Cyvasse? Leave us a comment below!

Photo Credits: Fantasy Flight Games, Bristol Design Forge

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Role-playing games evolved out of tabletop wargames. That’s why, for many years, games were so focused on the minutiae of combat. That focused widened as RPGs explored new genres and new design techniques. Many games have developed systems for social combat that mirrors the physical combat that’s been around for decades. Mental wounds linger and affect characters just as much as cuts, bruises, or getting kicked in the face by orcs. We’ve chosen a few games that handle social combat admirably to highlight below.

Bubblegumshoe

Fans of Veronica Mars will want to check out this game, where players create a small town full of mysteries and then explore them using the GUMSHOE investigation rules. These types of heroes rarely get into drawn out physical combat, so the game focuses on Takedowns, where teens toss vicious one-liners at each other to damage each other in the eyes of their peers. Exposing secrets and lies in front of friends, family, and lovers hurts a lot more than any +1 longsword ever could.

Hillfolk

Legendary game designer Robin Laws turned his attention to one of the challenges in social RPGs: how to encourage players to back down during an argument or confrontation so that the story keeps moving forward. His solution was the DramaSystem that powers Hillfolk, which gives players who concede arguments favor points they can use later in the game to bend the narrative to their favor. The name of the game comes from the initial setting of the book, a cable-style prestige drama set in an Iron Age full of swords and intrigue. If that setting doesn’t sound interesting, the Kickstarter unlocked dozens of other settings in multiple genres, each one designed by a different renowned tabletop game designer.

Smallville

Based on the DC soap opera, this game wears its intentions on its sleeves by foregoing the usual attributes of Strength and Dexterity to define characters by their values, like Duty and Love. Players use the Cortex Plus system to inflict Stress on each other, inflicting damage framed as being Angry or Afraid. Values can even shift up or down as the game goes on, reflecting character changes brought on by dramatic reveals and personal tragedies. Although the game is currently out of print, fans of current CW shows like Arrow and The Flash might want to track down a copy to play games that mix superpowers and relationships so well.

A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying

It makes perfect sense that the official Game of Thrones RPG featured rules where words hurt as much as weapons do. Not only that, but the game offers a killer hook to get a group together. At the start of a campaign, the table creates its own House of Westeros through a combination of plot discussion and random rolls to flesh out the house’s history. Then characters get made, filling out the house with the current generation of noble lords, scheming relatives and smallfolk caught up in intrigue. Older characters have better stats and skills, but younger characters have access to more luck and narrative control to help them grow into the hard men and women that end up on The Iron Throne.

Do you have a favorite moment from your campaign where someone laid the smackdown with their words instead of weapons? Tell it to us in the comments!

Image credit Evil Hat

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Lyanna made Ned swear to protect her newborn child, her son with Rhaegar Targaryen, a boy the world knew as Jon Snow. In our very first History of Thrones piece we discussed why many always though Ned’s bastard son might really be a Targaryen, one whose true identity was hidden for his own safety. But how did it all happen? How did a Stark woman end up pregnant with the legitimate child of an already married Targaryen crown prince? The answer can be found at a tournament that led to a rebellion.

HBO

(Side note: It is almost impossible to come up with a totally new Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire theory. At least two people figured out “Hodor” was short for “hold the door” years before it was revealed, so that should give you an idea of how difficult it is.

That said, I have never seen this theory presented before, and it came to me as a result of doing all of these pieces on important historical events in the history of Westeros. So, if you have seen this said elsewhere previously, or even came up with it yourself, please know I believe you, it’s just that I never did.)

If we work backward from the Tower of Joy, we face the question of just how Lyanna and Rhaegar came together at all. We know that their entire relationship only covered two years, starting in 281 AC at the infamous Tourney at Harrenhall, and ending with them both dead in 283 AC. (Rhaegar from a blow of Robert’s warhammer at the Battle of the Trident, Lyanna in the Tower of Joy).

The major events that we know for sure include:

—281 AC: After winning the jousting competition at the Tourney of Harrenhall, Rhaegar stunned the Seven Kingdoms by naming Lyanna the Queen of Love and Beauty instead of his own wife, Elia. Ned Stark referred to this moment as the day “all the smiles died.”

—Sometime after that tournament, Rhaegar, with the help of two Kingsguards (Sers Oswell Whent and Arthur Dayne) “kidnapped” Lyanna, leading to her oldest brother Brandon going to King’s Landing and demanding Rhaegar face him. Brandon and his friends were imprisoned by The Mad King for treason, and the king then called for their fathers to come to King’s Landing. They were all (save for one) executed, with Lord Rickard Stark burned alive while Brandon choked himself to death trying to rescue him. When King Aerys II called for Jon Arryn to send him the heads of Robert Baratheon (Lyanna had been promised to him by Lord Rickard) and Ned Stark, Lord Arryn refused, and instead Robert’s Rebellion began.

—283 AC: Robert killed Rhaegar at the Ruby Ford. Shortly after, Jaime Lannister killed The Mad King while the Lannister forces took the city for Robert, brutally killing Rhaegar’s wife and children in the process.

—With the war basically over, Ned and his bannermen traveled to the Tower of Joy, where, strangely, Rhaegar had ordered his three best and loyal Kingsguard to protect Lyanna Stark. All three may have saved Rhaegar’s life during the war, the king’s life, or Elia and their children if they had been with them instead. Only two (adults) left the Tower of Joy alive, Ned and Howland Reed, and neither ever spoke about what took place inside.

None of it adds up, if, like Robert Baratheon and Brandon Stark both believed, Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna. But that’s because he didn’t.

HBO

Lyanna Stark was known as The She-Wolf because, like her niece Arya, she was courageous, fierce, and stubborn. The idea that Lyanna Stark would allow herself to be kidnapped without putting up a fight never made any sense. Not only that, the logistics of the most beloved and recognizable man in Westeros, which Rhaegar easily was, traveling north— with two famous knights of the Kingsguard—to abduct the daughter of the Lord of Winterfell without issue makes even less sense. It just couldn’t happen.

Lyanna would have had to have gone with him willingly for any of it to be possible. Instead, she went with him because she loved him. How in the world did that happen though? The answer lies in another great mystery from the Tourney at Harrenhall, the anonymous “Knight of the Laughing Tree.”

HBO

Howland Reed, a bannerman of House Stark, attended the Tourney, and was dishonored by three squires. While they were physically picking on Lord Reed (a man short both in physical stature and prestige), Lyanna Stark came to his rescue on her horse. (She was a great rider.) She and her brothers then invited Howland to sit with them at the feast that night and treated him with honor and respect. During the feast Rhaegar played one of his sad, beautiful songs on his harp, and it made Lyanna weep. Rhaegar notoriously had that effect on women, no matter how tough they were.

Then, a couple of days later, a short mystery knight—dressed in hastily thrown together and improperly fitting armor, and carrying a shield that had a laughing weirwood tree painted on it—entered the joust and defeated the knights of all three squires that had mistreated Howland Reed. When the mystery knight spoke it was with a “booming” voice, one that did not seem to be the knight’s real voice.

Attempts to unmask the knight proved futile, and to this day there are theories it was Howland Reed himself, Benjen Stark, or even some other Northerner. But the answer is in the other popular candidate: Lyanna Stark. And there lies the origin of Rhaegar’s love for her.

The “Knight of the Laughing Tree” was short (check), used a fake voice (check), was obviously good with a horse (check), had an interest in vengeance for Howland Reed (check), defeated knights that weren’t overly renowned for their jousting, meaning the mystery knight didn’t need to be the greatest jouster (check), didn’t have armor of his (or her) own (check), and paid homage to the old gods (check).

Lyanna Stark fits all of those. Yet, you might be asking, if no one ever truly knew who the mystery knight was, what does it have to do with Rhaegar? Because Rhaegar did figure it out.

HBO

The Tourney at Harrenhall was the first time the paranoid Mad King had left the Red Keep in years, and because he was paranoid and saw conspiracies everywhere, he was sure the mystery knight was an enemy of his. He sent his son Rhaegar out to find the knight.

Rhaegar reported back that all he found was the knight’s shield in a tree. And that’s where the story seemingly ends. Only, Rhaegar almost certainly lied. What he actually discovered that it was this tiny, young, beautiful, brave Stark girl that had stood up for her loyal bannerman. Rhaegar didn’t turn her in. Beyond probably being awed by her, Rhaegar also knew his father was too lost to see what this was. It was an act of love and honor for a bannerman. The Mad King likely would have had her arrested or executed for treason, not only killing her but setting off a potential war with the North.

It’s why, when Rhaegar won the joust himself, he bypassed his own wife Elia and named the heroic Lyanna the Queen of Love and Beauty, for she had been the mystery knight of the tournament.

When you factor in that Rhaegar had made her weep, and that he was the handsome crown prince—a man everyone loved and admired, the man who was good at everything he did—you have the beginnings of their doomed love.

HBO

Lyanna was the “Knight of the Laughing Tree,” a secret Rhaegar learned and kept for her safety. And he fell in love with her for it, as she fell in love with him. It’s why she stole away with Rhaegar a short time later, and why he had the Kingsguard protect her during Robert’s Rebellion. She was the love of his life, and she was carrying his child. The rightful heir to the throne.

(It probably didn’t hurt Rhaegar was obsessed with the prophecy of the prince that was promised, the one whose song would be that of ice and fire. A Stark and Targaryen child would truly be of ice and fire.)

We learned Jon Snow was a Targaryen, and his mother Lyanna died giving birth to him in the Tower of Joy. But one day we might also learn how his parents fell in love in the first place. When the crown prince learned the secret of a courageous young Stark girl and fell in love with her for it.

Images: HBO

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Prior to season six of Game of Thrones we examined important historical events from the complex and controversial history of Westeros, ones that might tell us something about the story going forward. With the season now in full swing we’re going to continue by looking at what we know about characters and events that are new and important to the show. However, if you think theories are spoilers, do not cross the Dothraki sea of this warning, for there they are found. It is known.

You can find all other History of Thrones entries here.

THE DOSH KHALEEN OF VAES DOTHRAK AND THE STALLION WHO MOUNTS THE WORLD PROPHECY

The Dothraki are no great mystery to us at this point (they’ve been around since the pilot episode). We know that the nomadic horselords are fierce, feared, ruthless warriors renowned the world over for their strength, though not a worry to anyone in Westeros, because as Ned Stark once said, “I shall fear the Dothraki the day they teach their horses to run on water.”

Made up of competing, rival khalasars—each led by a great khal—the Dothraki are not a unified people. In fact, they only have one city, but it’s not even built up with walls. It’s more a gypsy-esque camping destination where the khalasars come together as one from time to time, better known as Vaes Dothrak.

In the northeastern part of the Dothraki sea, a giant swath of land in northern Essos, beneath the Mother of Mountains and near the lake known as the Womb of the World, sits the un-walled, gigantic Vaes Dothrak (which translates to the City of Riders). The city’s entrance is the Horse Gate, which is not actually a gate, but the start of a godsway framed by two giant bronze stallions. The godsway is named for the hundreds of monuments of the gods taken from people the Dothraki have conquered.

Vaes Dothrak has two major trade centers, the Western and Eastern Markets. The Western Market is made up of Free Cities traders, so the items there would seem familiar to a Westerosi. The Eastern Market is made up of sellers from the Far East, places like Asshai and Yi Ti, so the goods there would be quite foreign and exotic to someone from the Seven Kingdoms.

While great warriors, it is forbidden to carry any kind of steel blade into Vaes Dothrak or spill a free man’s blood. The show has been there before this season—Vaes Dothrak is where Daenerys ate that horse heart (among other things). It is also where her brother Viserys was given his gold “crown for king,” which was a clever way for Khal Drogo to bloodlessly kill him without dishonoring the sacred city.

While the city is huge in physical size—large enough to hold all the khalasars at once—Vaes Dothrak’s year-round population is actually quite small, consisting of slaves and the dosh khaleen, the widows of great khals.

Here, the former khaleesis are honored and serve as  fortunetellers. Potential khaleesis must be presented to them for approval, overseeing the heart-eating ceremony performed by pregnant khaleesis. That ceremony is used as an omen for the birth of the child, and after Daenerys finished her horse heart, one of the dosh khaleen said this of her unborn son:

“As swift as the wind he rides, and behind him his khalasar covers the earth, men without number, with arakhs shining in their hands like blades of razor grass. Fierce as a storm this prince will be. His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief. The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name. The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world.”

Image: HBO

For a culture not big on rules or customs, the dosh khaleen hold an important place in their hierarchy, even though the horselords are highly superstitious, wary of witches and blood magic. They also have their own horse god, the Great Stallion, but it is that prophecy that stands out most—even though we know Drogo and Dany’s son did not end up being the stallion who mounts the world.

Image: HBO

For clarification, let’s look back at the original prophecy after Daenerys ate the heart.

“As swift as the wind he rides, and behind him his khalasar covers the earth, men without number, with arakhs shining in their hands like blades of razor grass. Fierce as a storm this prince will be. His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief. The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name. The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world.“

If we have learned one thing from this story, it’s that prophecies can be misread. What if the great stallion who mounts the world isn’t a man: What if the prince “fierce as a storm” happens to be someone that is literally Stormborn? Maester Aemon certainly thought so as he died. From A Feast For Crows:

“No one ever looked for a girl,” he said. “It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought… What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female … The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it.” Just talking of her seemed to make him stronger. “I must go to her. I must.”

The prince that was promised—the one that will save the world from the White Walkers—might be the princess we know as the Mother of Dragons. If that is the case, why can’t she also be the stallion who mounts the world, too? They might very well refer to the same prophecy. After all: the true nature/power of religions in the Realm has yet to be revealed.

The original plan put in place in season one was for a Targaryen to cross the Narrow Sea with an army of Dothraki. It’s been over 5 seasons since, and here we are with Daenerys back at the start. As Jorah once said, “The Dothraki follow only the strong.” Well, what would be more powerful to them than someone that rides a dragon instead of a horse?

Daenerys is a captive at the moment, but the Dothraki are waiting for the one that will unite them and ride to the ends of the earth. With every khalasar coming to Vaes Dothrak now, might they realize the Mother of Dragons is the strongest of them all? I mean, when your options are following one of many khals on a horse or one khaleesi on a dragon, the choice isn’t that hard.

It is known.

What do you think of Daenerys Targaryen’s future with the Dothraki? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

You can find all other History of Thrones entries here.

Featured Image: HBO

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Cersei Lannister is my favorite character in Game of Thrones, and everybody I know looks at me like I just spoiled the Red Wedding when I mention it. Just because she’s a villain and rather cruel to… well, everyone, doesn’t mean that she’s not an admirable person. Part of why I adore Cersei is because she is fully aware of the gender role restrictions around her and tells those restrictions to go jump in the Blackwater.

So, you know what? I’m going give you five reasons why I love Cersei and so should you.

1. She rules in a land where men tell her she’s not fit to rule because she’s a woman

Cersei grew up Lannister and has been the queen for over a decade. She’s the most qualified and experienced person to rule the Seven Kingdoms in the royal line. So when Robert dies, the men around her tell her she can’t run a kingdom because she has lady bits. Because. She. Has. Lady. Bits. I can’t think of anything more stupid and infuriating. I’m fully aware this is fiction, but any woman can relate to that kind of bull. So when the men around her put her young sons in charge, Cersei usually manages to find a way of getting what she wants.

2. Something interesting always happens when she’s on screen

A friend of mine made a really interesting point about why he likes Joffery. Sure the kid is a snot-nosed psychopath, but when everyone is carefully moving their pieces about, Joffery is the one who would come over and flip the board, scattering them everywhere.

Any storyteller would say that conflict is the root of all good narrative. Somebody has to create that conflict. That’s what Cersei does. She’s not enduring a long, boring trek over wastelands. Just intrigue, deception, and plot twists.

3. Those outfits

By the seven gods, Cersei is the best dressed woman in the history of television.

4. She speaks her mind and knows exactly when to do it

Throughout history and fiction, women have been taught that they are supposed to put the opinions and needs of others before their own. Game of Thrones offers many female characters who are strong in their own ways, but they’re all still oppressed by sexism. Some people hate Cersei because she’s not nice, demure, or submissive. She’s not afraid to lash out, but she’s still intelligent enough to know when to hold her tongue. She’ll tell off her abusive husband, be blunt with Sansa, threaten Margaery, and stand up to Tywin. She has no qualms about putting someone in their place–which is always beneath her–if they get out of line. She’s not going to tolerate anyone’s crap. Though she might allow them to think she will before going behind their backs to make their lives a living hell. And damn do I love her for that.

5. She has the inner strength of a lion

With all the power and glamour that comes with being queen, it’s easy for people to forget that Cersei has suffered. Her father arranged her marriage not once, but three times. King Robert abused her and openly slept around. The only people she truly loved were taken from her. Her brother Jamie was captive for over a year, and returned as a changed man. Two of her three children were murdered. Most recently, she was stripped and forced to walk through the city while citizens threw trash at her. And yet, despite all this, even at the end of the walk, that fierce heart of the lion always prevails. She survives again and again. And if she hasn’t taken her revenge yet, just you wait.

Do you love Cersei too? Let us know who your favorite Game of Thrones characters are in the comments!

Image credits: HBO

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