Five flashbacks I’d like to see in Season 5

During the filming of Game of Thrones in Spain last month, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss made major news by telling a panel of Spanish film makers and local production people that they would be breaking a long standing tradition of the show after four seasons and adding flashbacks, along with the prophecies and dreams we saw in Seasons 3 and 4. The flashback in question seems to be assumed to be the one related to Cersei. Casting rumors support this theory.

In a story where the books rely hard on flashback, prophecy and future visions, it’s a little odd that when the show finally broke their rule against these tropes, it would be for something that is more about establishing the mental state of a single character than enlightening the over all narrative. When the news first suggested we’d be seeing a Young Cersei, my reaction was to be upset. Why, of all the flashbacks, this one?

If the show is going to break the flashbacks barrier and start bringing in memories and dreams and visions, there are so many other possibilities, ones that would enhance the story for all the characters, instead of just one. Here are my top five suggestions for flashbacks we could see in Season 5.

Note: the following includes details and speculation for things that haven’t appeared on the show, and may not. Be warned!

5. Bran’s Weirwood Visions. Bran is the first character we meet who has visions in the books. Starting all the way back from the first book, post being tossed out a window, Bran’s dreams of the three eyed crow are our first foray into mysticism. He also has the first prophetic dreams of any character, as–in the book–he sees his mother looking at the bloody knife meant for him, and rowing into the oncoming storm that represents the War of The Five Kings. Considering that Bran’s visions in the later books are key to certain fan theories that are somewhat accepted as gospel, but not well interpolated into the TV show up until now, it would be a shame not to see them brought in in some manner. I know Bran is out for Season 5, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t get this for Season 6. The one where he looks out via the weir tree in Winterfell and sees a younger vision of Ned with sister Lyanna is key . It’s one I would hope the production will be doing. Another vision that Bran sees through the weir-wood are of the older Lords of Winterfell.  In order, his visions are:

• His young father praying with a bowed head “…let them grow up close as brothers, with only love between them, and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive.”;
• A girl and a younger boy play fighting with branches;
• A pregnant woman coming out of the black pool praying for a son to avenge her;
• A slender girl on her toes kissing a knight as tall as Hodor;
• A pale, dark-eyed youth cutting three branches from the weirwood and shaping them into arrows;
• Other lords of Winterfell: tall, hard, stern men in fur and chain mail;
• A bearded man forcing a captive down on his knees, and a white-haired woman killing the captive with a bronze sickle.

My love of Westerosi history means I would love to see some of this played out–even maybe as far as seeing Bran the Builder and the construction of The Wall? But that’s pretty far fetched, unless the show wants to find a way to tie it to present day.

4. Melisandre’s visions of Azor Ahai. It’s no secret that Melisandre thinks that Stannis is the savior of the world. As the dragons grow stronger, and more magic makes its way back into the world, the abilities of her “Red God” grow in the books. Some of this has been lost in the show–the connection between the visions and abilities of those sworn to the Red God to the birth of the dragons is spelled out more starkly on the page. But whether or not this is dragon magic, the fact remains that Melisandre can see visions in the flames. These visions drive every choice she makes in the series. She believes her visions are telling her that Stannis is Azor Ahai, who defeated the Others the last time, come again. The problem is, of course, that Melisandre doesn’t have the best interpreting abilities. Here’s what she sees:

Melissandre: “Show me Stannis, Lord… show me your king, your instrument.” Yet now she could not even seem to find her king…. “I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow.”

Note that Snow is capitalized, suggesting she doesn’t mean the weather. Melisandre will also misinterpret other signs, such as believing Arya is on her way to the Wall, when it turns out to be a Karstark. Even if we don’t get to see her visions in the flames, I’m hoping this more basic error makes it into next season, because it will show her as fallible.

3. Lannister visions, non-Cersei division. We’re already pretty certain that at least one flashback vision we’ll be seeing this season is in fact Cersei’s. But what show watchers might not know is that both of her brothers also have visions in books 4 and 5, and quite interesting ones too. Jaime, for instance, has a dream where he sees their mother, the late Lady Joanna. Meanwhile, Tyrion has prophetic dreams that are visions of the final battle to come. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tyrion’s visions are cut–the show has studiously avoided showing much in the way of “future prophecies” other than the well recognized image of the Iron Throne in a snowstorm. I can certainly also understand that, as the producers don’t want to lock themselves into a certain ending for the show seasons ahead of time. (After all, look how that worked out for How I Met Your Mother.) Still the quote for the dream is quite intriguing.

That night Tyrion Lannister dreamed of a battle that turned the hills of Westeros as red as blood. He was in the midst of it, dealing death with an axe as big as he was, fighting side by side with Barristan the Bold and Bittersteel as dragons wheeled across the sky above them. In the dream he had two heads, both noseless. His father led the enemy, so he slew him once again. Then he killed his brother Jaime, hacking at his face until it was a red ruin, laughing every time he struck a blow. Only when the fight was finished did he realize that his second head was weeping.

Jaime’s vision of the long dead Lannister matriarch is more likely to show up, partly because it’s not foretelling the future, but–like Cersei’s flashback to Maggy The Frog–teaching us about the past, and perhaps more about the present that Jaime might be comfortable with.

She raised a pale soft hand and pushed her hood back. “Have you forgotten me?”
Can I forget someone I never knew? The words caught in his throat. He did know her, but it had been so long…
“Will you forget your own lord father too? I wonder if you ever knew him, truly.” Her eyes were green, her hair spun gold. He could not tell how old she was. Fifteen, he thought, or fifty. She climbed the steps to stand above the bier. “He could never abide being laughed at. That was the thing he hated most.”
“Who are you?” He had to hear her say it.
“The question is, who are you?”
“This is a dream.”
“Is it?… We all dream of things we cannot have. Tywin dreamed that his son would be a great knight, that his daughter would be a queen. He dreamed they would be so strong and brave and beautiful that no one would ever laugh at them.”
“I am a knight,’ he told her, “and Cersei is a queen.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. The woman raised her hood again and turned her back on him. Jaime called after her, but already she was moving away, her skirt whispering lullabies as it brushed across the floor. Don’t leave me, he wanted to call, but of course she’d left them long ago.

The argument, of course, for cutting this, is that this all happens when Jaime is sent north to Harrenhal and Riverrun. We already know the show is changing all of that, and sending him south to Dorne instead. But as a lesson about Tywin, I think it might do us all a lot of good to see this dream play out.