Cut characters, A Feast for Crows, and why the absence of a certain Lady still matters

Recently, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were asked about the ongoing absence of a certain popular character from the books. And no, we’re not talking about Strong Belwas. (RIP Strong Belwas.)

There are still people and places that insist that even saying her name in an article is some kind of huge spoiler—and that includes Entertainment Weekly, who asked showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss about it in their latest interview. But I maintain (and you can feel very free to disagree) that we book readers made such a huge screaming fuss over the lack of her appearance at the end of last season that even the most stubborn of Unsullied knows her name. This past off-season has been been one long stubborn insistence that she would appear. Since June, our tip line has received dozens of emails with false pictures of Fairley’s fake head from the Red Wedding, cited as proof she would return. We’ve been spammed over Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, with various “here’s the proof” theories the producers were just kidding, and she was going to show up. Someone even went to IMDB a few weeks ago and added her to the cast list in the ultimate act of trolling. All this, even though Michelle Fairley had no idea she existed until the morning after the Season 4 finale when everyone started calling her to ask why the character didn’t show up, and when she asked the producers about it, they said: “No. Sorry. Go find work on other shows.”

But you know who are really tired of being asked to talk about this? Benioff and Weiss. Check out what they had to say below when asked yet again. And please be advised:

THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW!

For the record, this is not the first time Entertainment Weekly has asked the production about Lady Stoneheart. Weiss’s new quote suggests he is quite ready to put the subject to bed.

“We reached that point that commenting individually on what is or is not in the show from the books is a prospect of diminishing returns,” Weiss said. “Early on in the process, it was something we talked about a fair amount. [The change of strategy is] not out of any disrespect; the fact that people care enough about the books and the show to have arguments about it is something we have huge gratitude and respect for. I just don’t think there’s value in anything we have to say about it. It opens a Pandora’s box of questions you could spend your whole life answering, and the net result is that what you said will probably make people less happy than if you hadn’t said anything.”

This is something of a backtrack from the first comments made on the subject by director Alex Graves, who make light of the notion of Lady Stoneheart “stumbling around the Westeros countryside,” and suggested that it would be “a waste of Fairley’s talents.” Also, I think it’s fair to surmise that this “change in strategy” has come about because of the fan’s reaction to her being cut.

But there’s a reason for that reaction, and it stems from A Feast For Crows being such a frustrating read. Leaving aside the complete absence of Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Bran Stark, and Daenerys, much of what we sit through in that book felt like…well, like watching someone play the fiddle while Rome burns. After all, Cersei’s machinations now that she runs King’s Landing might be very interesting in the moment, but in the overall picture, it’s hard to see how any of it will amount to a hill of beans once the White Walkers and dragons show up. To me, one of the very few things that did feel important was Lady Stoneheart. Partly, this is because I’m assuming that her “zombie rebirth” is only the first of many. Several sympathetic characters who die, or who have been left for dead, have or will suddenly turn up, hooded and mysterious, like a Good Guy Zombie Army springing up from the soil of Westeros by magic, not knowing that they still move because they’ll be needed to fight that blue eyed Bad Guy Zombie Army that’s coming over the Wall.

So to suddenly have the production tell us that this character—who many book readers assumed would somehow be important—was not just cut, but “not actually necessary” was a shock. It was like being told that Ned wasn’t going to take that Hand of the King position—not really necessary, you know? I think this is why the fans have reacted so strongly and keep asking about her, even though Benioff and Weiss are not Steve Moffat. They don’t lie to us like that. After all, when Coldhands didn’t show up, people didn’t freak out, despite the favored theory that he’s somehow related to the Stark clan. But being told that Stoneheart wasn’t really important was too hard—it basically took what little we knew from A Feast for Crows and destroyed it.

Benioff asks fans to have patience with them.

“People will complain about things because they don’t know what’s coming up ahead,” Benioff said. “ ‘Why haven’t we seen this guy?’ And I think it will be easier once everything is out and it’s 70 hours. Not that people shouldn’t complain—that’s why God invented the Internet—but I think we’d be better able to have that argument later. Sometimes we’re going in a different order or telling a different story. We think the story will all make sense at the end. Otherwise it will be eight wasted years.”

Note once again that Benioff insists this is 70 hours. The more they insist on that, the more I become convinced we are heading into prepping for the end game this season. If that’s the case, there’s a lot of trimming and plot line streaming and work to cut the books down into a manageable narrative that can be finished in the next 30 hours. After all, this is not Lady Stoneheart’s story. This is a story that started off focusing on the next generation—Arya, Bran, Sansa, Dany, Jon Snow—those born after Robert’s Rebellion. I believe it is still their story. I may be sorry to never see characters like Lady Stoneheart, Strong Belwas, or Coldhands on the screen. But we should remember to keep our eyes on the prize.

• Published on 03/26/2015 at 11:51 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT