Scripting Episode 10

The last episode of our ten-part “scripting” series is going to cause some heads to ‘splode. This isn’t the endgame; it is what happens after the endgame has been played and the playing pieces still lie strewn across the playing board.

It confirms the death of you-know-who; because there still may be various disbelieving audience members who go, “No, they wouldn’t do THAT…!” Some of them will need an episode like this to get their mourn on. The need closure. And just when you begin to think “closure” is all you’re going to get, across the Narrow Sea…

EPISODE TEN
50 scenes; 64 pages

CATELYN 10
BRAN 7
SANSA 6
DAENERYS 9
TYRION 9
JON 9
CATELYN 11
DAENERYS 10

Our (very) rough Season One outline can be found HERE. Episodes 2 – 9 can be found here: Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9. PLEASE NOTE that none of these scripts are official. Episode 10 encompasses the following pages from “A Game of Thrones” (U.S. softcover): pages 694 – 701 (The Battle of Whispering Wood), and pages 729 – 807.

Spoilers are everywhere! This thing is all about spoilers. You’ve been dutifully warned.

Introductions: Lord Jason Mallister, Squire Olyvar Frey, Patrek Mallister, Smalljon Umber, Daryn Hornwood, Dacey Mormont, Robin Flint, Ser Harys Swyft, Ser Flement Brax, Lommy Greenhands, Hot Pie

Deaths: Daryn Hornwood, Eddard Karstark, Torrhen Karstark, Khal Drogo, Mirri Maz Duur

Sex: Dany tries to have sex with an unresponsive Drogo. Fail.

EXT. WHISPERING WOOD – EMBANKMENT – NIGHT [half page]

Catelyn waits on a high hill in the dark, watching the forested river path below. Hal Mollen assures her it won’t be long now. Hal commands thirty men kept back to ensure her safety. “When it comes it comes,” she says. She is used to waiting, and has done it her entire life…

FLASHBACK TO:

EXT. RIVERRUN – BATTLEMENTS – DUSK [half page]

Young Catelyn Tully bids a younger-looking Lord Hoster Tully farewell before he rides out. “Watch for me, little Cat,” he whispers to his daughter.

EXT. RIVERRUN – BATTLEMENTS – DAWN [quarter page]

Young Catelyn is there to greet her father upon his return. “Did you watch for me?” he asks as he takes her in a great hug. “Did you, Cat?”

EXT. RIVERRUN – BATTLEMENTS – DUSK [quarter page]

A Teenaged Catelyn Tully is on the battlements with her betrothed, Brandon Stark. “We will be wed on my return,” he says to her.

INT. RIVERRUN SEPT – DAWN [quarter page]

Teenaged Catelyn instead weds Brandon’s brother, a younger Eddard Stark.

EXT. WINTERFELL – GATES – DAY [quarter page]

Catelyn Stark bids her husband Ned farewell as he gets on his horse to head south with King Robert to become his Hand.

BACK TO PRESENT:

EXT. WHISPERING WOOD – EMBANKMENT – NIGHT [2 pages]

Catelyn watches her son Robb move amongst his men, giving cheer as needed before the coming battle. LORD JASON MALLISTER has joined them with a force from Seagard. Robb’s squire, OLYVAR FREY helps him mount. “I must ride down the line, mother,” Robb says to Catelyn. “Go, let them see you,” she replies, and that is their farewell. Amongst Robb’s cohorts are many younger fighters eager to prove themselves: Torrhen and Eddard Karstark, PATREK MALLISTER, SMALLJON UMBER, DARYN HORNWOOD, DACEY MORMONT, and a few older, like Ser Wendel Manderly and ROBIN FLINT. Theon Greyjoy is here, as ever, and Grey Wind. They watch as the Lannister men ride into the trap, led by Ser Jaime Lannister himself. A horn is sounded, Grey Wind howls, and Robb leads the charge down the embankment.

EXT. WHISPERING WOOD – BATTLE – NIGHT [1 page]

Robb cries “Winterfell!” in the dark as arrows whizz by. A nighttime battle is joined with only the moon for light. Flashes of the fight are seen, choppy and chaotic; Jaime’s forces are overcome but he rides hard for Robb, cutting through the defenses. Jaime kills Daryn Hornwood and beheads Eddard Karstark; Jaime is nearly close enough to kill Robb but his sword is caught in the neck of a dying Torrhen Karstark. Robb is almost on him so he leaves the sword in Karstark’s neck pulls a wicked looking dirk–

OPENING SEQUENCE [1 page]

EXT. WHISPERING WOOD – EMBANKMENT – PRE-DAWN [2 pages]

Robb returns riding a different horse, his sword covered in blood. Theon Greyjoy and the Greatjon drag Jaime Lannister between them. Jaime says, “Lady Stark, I would offer you my sword, but I seem to have mislaid it.” Theon urges Robb to kill him, but Robb’s cooler head prevails. They drag him away. Other than the deaths of the Karstark heirs, the news is good: captured Lannister bannermen include Lords Westerling, Banefort, and Estren; Garth Greenfield, Ser Tytos Brax, Mallor the Dornishman, and three of Lord Tywin’s nephews. Catelyn asks if they’ve captured Lord Tywin. Theon admits they have not; “Until you do, this war is far from done,” she says.

INT. WINTERFELL – MAESTER’S TURRET – DAY [2 pages]

Bran watches men practicing in the yard below; “They don’t fight very well,” Bran says dubiously, and Maester Luwin agrees, though he says Ser Rodrik will have them up to shape in time. Bran says he had a dream in which the three-eyed crow came to him again; he says it took him down into the crypts where he spoke with his father. But when he woke this morning and tried to go look for his father, Hodor refused to take him down. Maester Luwin reminds Bran that his father is down in King’s Landing, not the crypts of Winterfell, and offers to take Bran to the crypts himself to show him.

EXT. WINTERFELL – PRACTICE YARD – DAY [half page]

Osha carries Bran across the yard (Hodor still won’t come), walking toward the crypts. Maester Luwin follows, as does Summer. They pass Ser Rodrik Cassel, still in the yard drilling the newer recruits.

INT. WINTERFELL – CRYPT – CONTINUOUS [3.5 pages]

Osha carries Bran down as Maester Luwin lights the way. Bran tells Osha tales of the many Stark men and their deeds or infamies. At the end, they come to the crypts of Lord Rickard Stark, Brandon, and Lyanna. Osha remarks on Lyanna’s beauty, and Bran says, “Robert was betrothed to marry her, but Prince Rhaegar carried her off and raped her. Robert fought to win her back. He killed Rhaegar on the Trident with his hammer, but Lyanna died and he never got her back at all.” Bran and Luwin go to the open tomb that will one day be Lord Eddard’s—and Shaggydog comes snarling out of the darkness, savaging Luwin’s arm! Summer leaps to Luwin’s rescue and the wolves fight. Little Rickon was here all along, hiding in Eddard’s empty tomb; he insists he too is waiting for their father.

INT. WINTERFELL – MAESTER’S TURRET – DAY [6 pages]

Maester Luwin bandages his arm with Osha’s aid; he reiterates to both Bran and Rickon that dreams are only dreams. Osha says the Children of the Forest knew dreams differently; Luwin retorts, “The Children live only in dreams now.” Luwin goes to a desk drawer and pulls out obsidian arrowheads, which Osha calls “dragonglass.” Maester Luwin insists the Children are gone, but Osha stubbornly says they remain. Maester Luwin talks about the Children: a people from the first age, the Dawn Age, before there were kings or kingdoms, with dark features, no taller than children; their village wise men were called Greenseers. But twelve thousand years ago the First Men came from the east with bronze weapons; these men cut the faces from the Children’s weirwood trees and set them afire, and war was made. Finally, after many years, a peace was settled. Maester Luwin is about to speak of the first encounter with the Andals, when a raven arrives bearing a message. Rickon immediately begins to cry. “What is it?” Bran asks fearfully. Osha says, “You know what it is, boy.” Maester Luwin bows his head and quietly says, “We shall need to find a stonecarver who knew his likeness well.”

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – DAY [quarter page]

Sansa mourns the death of her father. Dishes of food are piled by the window, untouched and spoiling. All she can think about is her father’s death:

FLASHBACK TO:

EXT. GREAT SEPT OF BAELOR – DUSK [quarter page]

Sansa screams as Ser Ilyn slowly raises her father’s sword Ice. She cannot look away as Ned is executed. His legs twitch and twitch.

BACK TO PRESENT:

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – DAY [quarter page]

Sansa sits listlessly by the window. Then on the bed. Then in the corner. Once she gets up, throws open the shutters, fully intent on jumping to her death–

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – NIGHT [quarter page]

Sansa is lying in her bed again, weeping.

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – DAY [half page]

Servants enter to bring more food for her, but Sansa doesn’t talk to them. Later, Grand Maester Pycelle brings a box of flasks, telling her to drink a little bit of the potion every night. Sansa drinks it all right there and goes back to sleep.

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – NIGHT [half page]

Sansa wakes to the sound of soft boots coming up the tower stair. She hides behind her bed as the door opens. She realizes then that she is naked. Slowly, the door opens. The tip of her father’s sword Ice enters, followed by the man who holds it, Ser Ilyn Payne. He has come for her…

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – NIGHT [quarter page]

Sansa wakes from the nightmare whispering, “Please, please, I’ll be good, please, I promise.” Sansa weeps.

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – MORNING [2.5 pages]

Sansa’s door opens again; the curtains are yanked back and she squints against the light-– it is King Joffrey. He tells her she will attend him in court today and must dress. The Hound is with him, as is Ser Meryn Trant and Ser Arys Oakheart. Joffrey orders the Hound to dress her; the Hound picks Sansa up off the bed and sets her down at the wardrobe. Joffrey tells Sansa that even though she has traitor’s blood he still has to marry her. “I don’t want to marry you,” Sansa wails, “you chopped off my father’s head!” Joffrey glibly says he did her father the kindness of a clean death; Sansa whispers, “I hate you.” Joffrey has Meryn strike her. “Will you obey me now, or shall I have him chastise you again?” Sansa says she will behave. Everyone leaves but the Hound. She asks if he knows what Joffrey wants; the Hound says, “He wants you to smile and smell sweet and be his lady love. He wants you to love him, and to fear him.” The Hound leaves as two handmaidens come in to bathe her.

INT. MAEGOR’S HOLDFAST – SANSA’S ROOM – DAY [1 page]

Ser Meryn Trant returns for Sansa. He acts as though he’d never struck her at all; she asks if he was instructed to hit her if she refuses to come. Meryn asks, “Are you refusing to come?” Sansa tells him he is no true knight, but she goes with him.

INT. RED KEEP – THRONE ROOM BALCONY – DAY [1.5 pages]

Sansa watches as Queen Cersei, Littlefinger, and Grand Maester Pycelle all handle the cases that bore King Joffrey, who sits restlessly on his throne. Joff only stirs for the interesting ones; his decrees are usually of the violent sort.

INT. RED KEEP – STAIRS – LATE AFTERNOON [quarter page]

King Joffrey is there to meet Sansa as she leaves the throne room; the Hound and Ser Meryn Trant are with him. Joffrey commands Sansa to walk with them.

INT. RED KEEP – HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS [half page]

Joffrey talks to Sansa as they walk; he boasts he will get her with child as soon as they are married, but if she has a child as stupid as she is he will chop her head off and marry a smarter wife.

EXT. RED KEEP – BATTLEMENTS – LATE AFTERNOON [4 pages]

Joffrey takes Sansa to see the heads he’s collected; he shows Sansa her father’s head as well as Septa Mordane’s. Sansa looks at them stoically; they’ve been dipped in tar and are hardly recognizable. Joffrey has two spikes reserved for Stannis and Renly Baratheon; he says in honor of his name-day feast he will give Sansa her brother Robb’s head as a gift. Sansa retorts that perhaps Robb will give her Joffrey’s head instead. Joffrey has Ser Meryn hit her again, hard. Sansa falls. For a moment Sansa looks as though she might push Joffrey off the edge of the battlement– and as she rises, there is a moment she has a chance to do just that-– but the Hound steps in front of her before she can. He dabs her broken lip with a handkerchief.

INT. LONG HALLWAY WITH RED DOOR – DAY [1.5 pages]

DREAM SEQUENCE: Daenerys is walking down a long hallway toward a red door placed at the far end. Her feet leave bloody footprints. Viserys’s voice whispers, over and over again, “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” Flashes of imagery are interspersed: Dany and Drogo making love; Ser Jorah, sorrowful, saying, “Rhaegar was the last dragon,”; Viserys screaming at her, his hands turned into snakes, biting her; her son Rhaego, grown and beautiful; ghosts of Targaryens past. The last image she sees is her brother Rhaegar mounted, wearing his black and red armor, the visor to his helm lifts … and it is her own face staring back at her.

INT. KHAL DROGO’S TENT – NIGHT [1 page]

Dany wakes on the floor, feverish, covered in blankets. She sees her dragon eggs and begins to crawl toward them. Ser Jorah enters and carries Dany back to her sleeping silks. Mirri Maz Duur has Dany drink something, and she goes back to sleep. Later when she wakes again, Dany weakly asks for a dragon egg to hold.

INT. DAENERYS’S TENT – DAY [1.5 pages]

Dany wakes in her own tent this time; it is stifling hot beneath the blankets, and her dragon egg has droplets of dew on it. Dany tells her handmaidens to summon Ser Jorah but stops Jhiqui before she can leave, asking her what has happened; Jhiqui tells Dany her son was stillborn. Ser Jorah enters with Mirri Maz Duur, and Mirri tells Dany of the birth, saying Rhaego was born an abomination, hideous, and died immediately. Dany commands Mirri to “show me what I bought with my son’s life.”

EXT. LHAZAREEN HILLS – DOTHRAKI REMNANTS – DAY [3 pages]

Dany steps out into a blaze of sunlight; only a small scattering of tents remain. Most of Drogo’s khalasar is gone, leaving only the old and decrepit. Dany learns the girl Eroeh was taken by Khal Jhaqo’s men, raped, and then killed. Dany finds Khal Drogo alive, but lying on the ground and staring at the sun. Jorah explains Drogo’s mind is essentially gone, his spirit wasted away. Mirri Maz Duur says he lives, but “You asked for life, you paid for life.” Dany asks Mirri when will Drogo as he once was; Mirri says, “When the seas go dry and the mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, but not before.” Dany accuses Mirri of doing all this on purpose; the maegi responds, “It was wrong of them to burn my temple. That angered the Great Shepherd. The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar will trample no nations into dust.” Dany has the men of her khas bind her and take her away.

INT. DAENERYS’S TENT – DAY [quarter page]

Dany has them bring Khal Drogo into her tent; a bath is prepared, and Dany bathes him personally, though he is unresponsive.

EXT. LHAZAREEN HILLS – DOTHRAKI REMNANTS – DAY [3/4 page]

Dany leads Drogo outside and lays him down beneath the stars; she tries to rouse him with her hands, whispering endearments to him, but Drogo does not stir. Dany rises and goes back inside her tent. Moments later she comes back out with a pillow; Dany kisses Drogo’s lips one last time and then presses the pillow over his face.

INT. CROSSROADS INN – COMMON ROOM – NIGHT [6.5 pages]

Lord Tywin Lannister is furious at the news of Jaime’s capture, and the news keeps getting worse. Tyrion is here, as is Ser Kevan Lannister and Ser Gregor Clegane. SER HARYS SWYFT, a Lannister bannerman, worries aloud at all that’s befallen them: the siege to Riverrun was thrown off by Robb Stark, and Marq Piper continues to harry their outriders. SER FLEMENT BRAX is notified his father drowned in full plate trying to cross the river. Ser Addam Marbrand and Harys Swyft bicker until Lord Tywin silences them all: “They have my son.” He clears the room of all but Kevan and Tyrion. Lord Tywin is angry at King Joffrey for killing Ned Stark, and needs him controlled. Worse, he has news that Renly Baratheon wed Loras Tyrell’s sister Margaery a fortnight past and has declared himself King Renly. Lord Tywin orders removing the Lannister forces to Harrenhal, and says Gregor will take his reavers and act as a wave of destruction before them, as will Vargo Hoat and Amory Lorch. Lastly, Lord Tywin orders Tyrion to go to King’s Landing and assume his position as the King’s Hand. “If his councilors are playing us false…” Tywin vows, and Tyrion finished for him: “Spikes. Heads. Walls.” As Tyrion nears the door, Lord Tywin tells him he is not to take “the whore” to court.

INT. CROSSROADS INN – TYRION’S ROOM – NIGHT [half page]

Tyrion wakes Shae with a gentle kiss. He whispers to her, “I have a mind to take you to King’s Landing, sweetling.”

INT. CASTLE BLACK STABLE – NIGHT [1 page]

Jon saddles a horse in the dark, preparing to flee his duty. He mounts, calls Ghost to him, and wheels the horse for the stable door. Samwell is there, begging him not to go. Jon goes anyway, nearly running Sam down; at the last moment Sam dives aside.

EXT. CASTLE BLACK – COURTYARD – CONTINUOUS [quarter page]

Jon rides out the gate and does not look back.

EXT. KINGSROAD – NIGHT [quarter page]

Jon flies south in the dead of night. His face at times reflects consternation, doubt, regret, and resolve. He rides hard.

EXT. MOLE TOWN STREETS – NIGHT [quarter page]

Jon flies through the town in the dead of night, passing by the
Sunken homes and low wooden shacks that made up MOLE TOWN. A few small hearth fires remain on, but most are out; no one sees him ride through.

EXT. OFFROAD RIVERBANK – NIGHT [quarter page]

Jon finally slows his pace and guides his horse down to a riverbank. They both drink, and Ghost disappears into the woods. After, Jon walks his mount along the river.

EXT. KINGSROAD – NIGHT [half page]

Jon calls to Ghost a few times, but the wolf does not come. Jon trots his horse south along the road for a while, finally pulling up and dismounting. Jon sits beneath a tree and eats a biscuit while his horse grazes. Jon hears horses to the north, so he quickly mounts and leads the horse off the road again.

EXT. FOREST CLEARING – CONTINUOUS [2.5 pages]

Jon hides within the trees but is betraying by Ghost, who goes out to greet Jon’s brothers of the Night’s Watch: Grenn, Pyp, Halder, and Toad have ridden out to bring Jon back. Jon draws his sword, saying. “I belong with my brother.” They surround him and Pyp repeats the first line of the vow they all swore. Grenn chimes in, and then soon they each take turns; Jon curses them to their faces, wheeling his horse for an escape, but it’s too tightly blocked in. When Pyp finishes with “…for all the nights to come,” he gently reaches out and takes Jon’s reins. Jon is beaten. Pyp says they’d better hurry; if they’re not all back by dawn’s light, the Old Bear will have their heads.

EXT. CASTLE BLACK – COURTYARD – PRE-DAWN [half page]

Jon returns with his Black Brothers. Samwell is waiting at the stable, looking worried. They exchange a few short words, but Jon is still angry.

INT. CASTLE BLACK – KING’S TOWER – DAWN [3.5 pages]

Jon attends Lord Commander Mormont in his temporary room; it is soon evident Mormont knew all along Jon would leave. “Honor brought you back,” Mormont growls. “My friend brought me back,” Jon retorts. Mormont replies, “Did I say it was your honor?” Mormont says if he beheaded every boy who rode to Mole’s Town in the night, the Wall would only be manned by ghosts. Mormont speaks of duty, and of his own sister, Maege; he says he can hardly stand to be around the “wretched woman,” but that does not mean his love for her is any less. “When dead men come hunting in the night, do you think it matters who sits the iron throne?” Mormont asks, then reminds Jon his lord father sent him to them. Mormont reveals he will be leading an expedition beyond the wall. He means to find Benjen Stark, and means to ride in force against Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. He wants Jon there to be his steward. “So I will have an answer from you, Lord Snow, and I will have it now. Are you a brother of the Night’s Watch … or only a bastard boy who wants to play at war?” Jon answers, “I am yours, my lord. Your man. I swear it. I will not run again.”

EXT. LHAZAREEN PLAIN – PYRE – DUSK [2.5 pages]

Daenerys oversees the building of a great pyre for Drogo. A horse is killed and set aside for the ceremony. Mirri Maz Duur watches, bound hand and foot. Mirri mocks Dany, telling her that bloodmagic is no child’s game: “Maegi” means “wise,” she says, and says that if Dany loosens her bonds she will help. Dany has her whipped instead. Ser Jorah Mormont approaches Dany, begging her not to do what she intends. She kisses him on the forehead and assures him, “I am not such a child as that, sweet ser.” Dany then frees the slaves who remained behind, saying they can travel with her as part of her khalasar or go free. Dany names Jhogo, Aggo, and Rakharo to her ko, making them her bloodriders; she gives them gifts, though they each refuse the honor, saying only a man can be khal. She tells Ser Jorah he is the first of her Queensguard, and that one day she will gift him with a Valyrian blade. She returns to her tent; everyone looks upon her as though she is quite mad.

INT. DANAERYS’S TENT – DUSK [1 page]

Dany bathes with the help of Irri, Jhiqui, and Doreah. Afterward, they anoint her with oils and spices. Dany goes to the corpse of her dead husband; she braids Drogo’s hair and dresses him.

EXT. LHAZAREEN PLAIN – PYRE – DUSK [3.5 pages]

Khal Drogo is laid down on the pyre and doused with oil. Dany commands the three dragon eggs be places there as well; Ser Jorah begs her once more to sell the eggs, that if she does she will be a wealthy woman all the rest of her days. “They were not given to me to sell,” Dany replies. Even Mirri Maz Duur, still bound, calls her mad. Dany has her placed in the pyre as well. “You will not hear me scream,” Mirri says. Dany says, “I will, but it is not your screams I want, only your life. Only death can pay for life.” Mirri now looks upon Dany with something akin to fear. Jhogo raises his hand and points to the sky: a RED COMET, new to the world and fiery, is slowly marking its way across the sky. For Dany that is as good a sign as she could want; she takes the torch and lights the pyre. Mirri Maz Duur’s ululating song soon turns to screams. After Mirri burns, Drogo’s body begins to burn as well, and only then does Dany finally step up onto the pyre, walking straight into the flames. Jorah screams her name. Dany’s clothes catch fire and then her hair does too. Dany does not scream. The fire roars up; the flames, smoke, and cinders hide her from all sight.

END CREDITS MONTAGE: [1 page]

EXT. KING’S LANDING – SIDE STREET – DUSK

Arya, with large chunks of hair hacked from her head, sits in a wagon flanked by LOMMY GREENHANDS and HOT PIE. The wagon is led by Yoren, and is followed by another caged wagon with a tarp thrown over it. They head towards one of the King’s Landing Gate, seen in the distance.

EXT. RED KEEP – BALCONY – DUSK

Sansa stands alone on the balcony looking north; beautifully dressed in exquisite finery and surrounded by all the opulence anyone could ever want. She’s completely alone. Sansa has tears in her eyes, but she refuses to cry. She adjusts her dress, lifts her chin, and exits the balcony.

EXT. RIVERLANDS – CAMP – DUSK

Robb confers with his men around a fire. They’re all angry, debating some issue hotly. Robb looks angriest of all. In the distance, away from the fire, Catelyn sits with a note in her hand. She looks devastated.

INT. WINTERFELL – BRAN’S ROOM – DUSK

A sad Bran sits with Summer beside him, looking out the window. Rickon is asleep, curled with Shaggydog at the end of Bran’s bed. Bran is watching the stars; one in particular seems an odd red color…

EXT. THE WALL – DUSK

Jon looks north. A snowstorm gathers on the horizon. Jon says, quietly, “Now I am ready.”

END CREDITS

BLACKNESS

FADE IN:

EXT. LHAZAREEN PLAIN – PYRE – END OF DUSK [1 page]

We fade in on a RED STAR twinkling in the night, there amidst all the other pale ones. Pan down…

The fires of Drogo and Daenerys’ pyre have at last died down and they are able to shove the burnt beams aside, Ser Jorah leading in the effort. There do they finally see Dany again: she sits naked amidst the ashes, unhurt. In her arms are three dragon hatchlings; two of them suckle her breasts for milk, and the third coils about her neck. Ser Jorah, her bloodriders– everyone falls to their knees. “Blood of my blood,” whispers Rakharo, reverently. Daenerys rises to her feet with her three new dragon hatchlings in her arms.

FIN

And for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

Fire And Blood:We already pretty much know that’s going to be the final shot. The real question will be: how well will they do the dragons? It has to be so starkly real yet mind-blowingly fantastical that it have to walk quite a fine line. It will either launch fans of the show hungrily toward season two … or it will fall flat. Of all the CGI, the dragons are the one I hope they truly get right; all coils and untested wings and hungry little hisses. I want real dragons.

Note that a lot of the characters I’ve named (Aerys Oakheart, Robyn Flynt, Dacy Mormont, Wyman Manderly, et/al) will no doubt be simple unnamed featured extras– if that. I still like using the names, however, just in case we do get a scene like Whispering Wood where we have a bunch of unnamed bannerman huddling around Robb. The general audience may not be able to pick them out of a lineup, but surely there are a few we could put names to.

So that’s that. Until next season… our scripting is at an end.

4 days ’til the premier. Let’s do this already!

• Published on 04/13/2011 at 7:37 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 6:04 PM CDT