Five flashbacks I’d like to see in Season 5

2. The Fall of the Targaryens. These are, basically, Dany’s visions during her trip to the House of the Undying in book 2/Season 2 that were cut. No, I’m not over it. I wanted these visions. I was counting on seeing Rhaegar and being told the dragon would have three heads. And instead I got….a snow covered Iron Throne. It was a massive disappointment to me then, and it’s something I’m still waiting for the show to correct. I could accept it when the show was explicitly Not Doing Any Flashbacks. I could understand that some of her visions in the House of The Undying would be cut because the show did not want to tie itself to a specific future. But some of Dany’s visions could be quite photogenic, and if we are to try to finally circle back around this season and weave that certain fan theory that’s been missing all this time from the show, having her visions occur would be very helpful. Of course, some of them are now defunct, such as the images that foretell the War of the Five Kings (which is basically over, with three of them dead), or the vision foretelling the Red Wedding.

The other visions I would like to see:

a man who looked like Viserys, but taller and with darker eyes, who says to a woman nursing a baby, “Aegon…What better name for a king…He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire”; and when the man’s eyes meet Dany’s, he says either to her or the woman with the baby, “There must be one more…The dragon has three heads”, and he picks up a silver harp and begins to play;
a dying prince with rubies flying from his armor whispering the name of a woman with his last breath;
a blue-eyed king with a red sword in his hand who cast no shadow;
a blue flower growing from a chink in a wall of ice;

The first represents the birth of a character known as Young Griff, a character who we have not met in the show yet (and may not this season, unless the show is keeping it under tight wraps.) But more importantly, this would also give us “The Dragon has Three Heads,” something that has not come up once in the show, and many believe references fan theories about Jon Snow (and perhaps Tyrion.) The second, and the one I would most like to see, is the death of Rhaegar. Seriously, who would not like the see a stylized fountain of rubies burst forth from a Targaryen’s knight’s chest as he dies at Robert’s hand at the Trident?

1. The Tourney at Harranhal in the Year of the False Spring This is, above all, the thing I miss the most in the show’s rendering of the books to screen. Now, let me be clear: I know perfectly well why the show has cut and continues to cut all story telling that links back to the Year of the False Spring. This is a show that is already densely packed into ten episodes, many of which are round robin check-ins to five or more simultaneous plot lines per week.

Most of the Year of The False Spring stories are told in the third novel, which Martin wrote years before he knew this show would become a popular TV show. His stated goal when first writing the novels was to write something that was not beholden to the budgets or time constraints of TV. These Year of the False Spring tales are exactly that sort of deviation. One can go off in a book for pages with Meera telling a history story to Bran to pass the time on the road, or Barristan telling to Dany because she wants to know more about the brother who died before she could meet him. Of course the show can’t do that–they’d end up devoting an entire hour of the show to telling this history. It would never work.

But my gods, would I love to see the show just throw down and say “to hell with you all, and to hell with good TV storytelling practices, this is so important, we’re going to do it anyway.” They could even have Maisie Williams play Lyanna Stark–after all, the book only says a dozen times that Arya takes after her aunt quite strongly. What feminist who watches the show wouldn’t want to see Lyanna in armor, sneaking into the tourney as the Knight of the Laughing Tree, and fighting to defend the honor of Howland Reed. (Again, could easily be played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played the now-late Jojen.)  And after hearing both Robert’s version of Rhaegar as this terrible monster way back in Season 1, seeing him through a (younger) Barristan’s eyes at the tourney would be a revelation. I know it is in the books, and it’s one of the mind bends of the book that has never been translated to screen.

These are the flashbacks and prophecies I’d like to see play out on screen–how about you?