Five Questions from the New Season 5 Trailer-For Readers

It’s been about 48 hours since the Game of Thrones trailer dropped in the middle of what was otherwise a rather unassuming Apple Watch event. We’ve broken the trailer down, and Gif’d the hell out of it, and are considering all angles. As a book reader, this season is a world enshrouded in mist. What will stay? What will go? After all, we’re basically overlaying two books together and cutting away the fat (all the fat, especially the Ironborn fat.)

But like the first trailer, which raised as many questions as it answered, this trailer too brought clarity, and yet curiosity. Here are the five biggest questions it raised for me…

Be warned–major book discussion below the cut! THERE ARE RED WEDDING LEVEL SPOILERS BELOW. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Let’s start with the elephant, err, dragon in the room, that flew in on the first poster art for Season 5. Drogon escaped Dany’s cruel to be kind lock up of her babies, when she chose the children of Meereen over her own. In the books, we all know that Drogon gets gone and stays gone during most of the next 2000 pages or so, a reminder that with her dragons no longer in attendance, Dany has lost a part of herself. After all, the birth of her dragons was the culmination of Dany’s self discovery. They have been her companions ever since, her strength and the course of her power.

But I suppose in a TV show in which one major spoke of the story wheel (sorry) is based on Dragons, having Drogon disappear for an entire season is as unthinkable as having an entire book where Tyrion doesn’t show up. (Ahem!) So what exactly is Drogon doing, now that he’s been added back. Besides impressing the hell out of Tyrion with a flyby? That clip with Dany, as she reaches out to her last baby is so touching and yet at once, my thought was that she would lock him up too, given the chance. DROGON! FLY YOU FOOL!

Speaking of Dany, we book readers knew falling into bed with Daario was in the cards–it’s basically the majority of what she does in Book 5. At least here in the show world, the beginnings were more auspicious, with Dany taking charge of the situation instead of allowing Daario to take the lead in these matters. But though said affair in the novels is something of a source of frustration–without Jorah there to temper her, Dany’s bad decisions seem to stem from Daario’s bad ideas–seeing her lying in bed with him is still a striking image. Especially as he mansplains what it is to rule. All rulers are butchers–all meat? It’s nice to hear your boyfriend has such a high opinion of you Dany.

Daario also seems to be leading the charge against the Sons of the Harpy–at least, that’s who I assume the golden masked men are in the street fights and surrounding Dany and company in the fighting pit in those later shots. Will Daario have an expanded role this season? And will Dany’s storyline catch more fire with it?

I want to know everything and anything about the High Sparrow. Full confession–I have loved Jonathan Pryce since I saw him in Brazil way back many moons ago. His was the casting I look forward to the most, and how he twists Cersei’s story to his own devices. Cersei has never been able to see past the trappings of power. How badly will she under estimate this man in his grey sack and unkempt hair. In the books she writes them off until it is too late, to her own detriment and eventual downfall.

The question for me is–how true to the books with this story line stay? Will the High Sparrow take down the Tyrells along with Cersei before he is done, or will Margaery be semi-spared? (Her moment of bursting through the door in terror is telling. Side question: Who is that in the bed with her? Is that real or one of Cersei’s wild fantasies?) Cersei has never known how to handle the masses, can she possibly handle someone who bends the many to his will with religious fervor?

This was probably the most surprising voice over–that of Roose Bolton. Once the Bolton the elder bestows his name on Ramsay Snow, the latter heads for Winterfell, and proceeds to settle down like he’s going to winter there. (Also ewww, that shot of Ramsay having sex. Eww eww eww.) Stannis at the Wall doesn’t seem to bother him. But the Bolton paterfamilias is judging the threat of Stannis at the Wall as something major to be considered. A threat to his plans to rule the North. That’s a huge deviation from the books, where no one takes Stannis seriously, and then he proves them all right by getting bogged down in snowstorm.

I’m not saying I was exactly looking forward to spending time with Ramsay as he turns Winterfell into his home. Though I was curious (especially with the picture of him and Fat Walda Frey) if he would be still trying to marry a fake Arya–and of course, if returning to Winterfell woke Theon out of his Reek-stupor. If the Boltons are considering going on the offensive against Stannis, that’s a new twist indeed, and one that would jazz up Stannis’ role. After all, getting stuck in the snow is really boring to watch.

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Hardhome. Hardhome. Hardhome. It’s the big butterfly effect change to the books that’s coming this season that the production kept under wraps until the “A Day In The Life” special. Book readers know that Jon Snow, once he takes charge at Castle Black, is basically pinned there while Sam does his politicking. The great downfall comes when Jon sends Sam away. The straw that breaks the camel’s back is when he decides to charge south to rescue “Arya” from Ramsay Snow (because he has no idea it’s a Fake Arya.)

Clearly, this is so not the case now. Hardhome–a fighting event with the Wildlings that the Black Brothers undertake is only heard about second and third hand, via Raven, or in one case, the real Arya having visions in the House of Black and White. But, much like getting bogged down in snow, or hanging out dragonless in Meereen doesn’t make for very good television, the producers have decided to try and new tack–what if Jon went to Hardhome himself? What if he made a real effort to unite the Nightswatch and the Wildlings into a major force, instead of suggesting it to those running the Castle, only to have it die in committee? Would that not lead to the same consequences that Jon suffers at the end of Book 5?

Bonus question: Is the “death no one will see coming” that everyone is hyping this season his? How damned disappointed would you be if that was the case? (Especially if my pet theory turns out to be not true, and he doesn’t save himself by warging into Ghost?)

• Published on 03/11/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:06 PM CDT