Game of Thrones at Comic-Con 2013 A Post Red Wedding Reunion

After a facepalm-y close call this afternoon where I almost missed the Game of Thrones panel because it's only Day 2 of Comic-Con but dammit I'm already beat and I mistakenly thought it started later than it did, I made it into Hall H just in time to catch the end of what I'm assuming was a relatively lengthy "In Memoriam" montage, set to Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" and featuring character deaths from Seasons 1-3. After that, out came the panelists: showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Michelle Fairley (the late Catelyn Stark), John Bradley (Samwell Tarley), Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), Richard Madden (Robb Stark), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), Emilia Clarke (Dany Targaryen), and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. Moderater Elvis Mitchell didn't waste any time in getting the discussion started, turning to Martin and exclaiming, "George, you heartless bastard!" And thus began what would turn out to be a pretty in-depth conversation about Season 3, most notably the now-infamous Red Wedding that rocked A Storm of Swords readers way back when they first turned those fateful pages and caused a whole new wave of internet-fueled emotion when it—err, it feels weird to say "came to life," but you know what I mean—on TV this past June. Here are my notes on what went down! – An early quote from Martin: "I have so many characters—killing a few, there's always more." But then he made a point to say that Weiss and Benioff have killed characters that are still alive in the books, so he refuses to should all of the "bloodthirsty blame." – The cast members all seem to differ when it comes to reading the books. Dinklage hasn't read them because he doesn't want to know what happens, but said he plans to go back and read them once the show is over, inspiring Benioff to crack, "You become a dragon!" Fairley read one book per season. – Rose Leslie spoke a little about the "break-up" scene between Ygritte and Jon Snow, and how heartbreaking it was for Ygritte. "From her perspective, they were gonna be a team." When she saw him riding away on that horse, and the truth started to really hit her, she transitioned from sadness to "I'm going to hunt him down and hurt him." Hence those arrows in the back... – It's really nice to see Fairley and Madden up there. I feel like now that Season 3's been over for a bit, I keep forgetting that they aren't going to be on the show anymore. – Weiss said that when they were first starting work on the show, when they first read the books, they thought, "If we can get to that scene and get to the holy shit of that moment, the throw-the-book-across-the-room of that moment, if we can get people to throw their remote controls the way I threw my book, we can die happy." Later on, they praised book fans for by-and-large not spoiling that moment for viewers: "you guys are a smart, respectful, and incredibly attractive group of people." – Surprise Khal Drogo sighting! All of a sudden, Jason Momoa, who played Dany's Dothraki warrior husband in Season 1, ran out on stage, kissed Emilia Clarke, yelled "I'm not dead yet!" and ran back out again. Honestly, I wasn't quite sure who it was at first—the "intrusion" happened pretty fast—but as Momoa was making his exit, Clarke looked after him and confirmed his identity (for me, at least) with a hand to the heart and a very well-received "my Sun and Stars!" – Fairley kind of walked us through Catelyn's moment of realization that she was at the worst wedding reception in history, and I found it pretty moving. She basically relived each big beat—the doors closing, pulling up Roose Bolton's sleeve to reveal chainmail, the music starting to play—and called the whole scene "a piece of music." – Apparently Weiss and Benioff had once considered using "The Reins of Castamere" as the show's overall theme song, but decided against it. – Dinklage talked a little about working with Charles Dance, who plays Tywin Lannister, and hinted at how intense their father/son moments can be: "Every time we have one of those scenes, Charles gives me a nice little shoulder rub after each take to make sure we still love one another, as fellow thespians." ***Stay tuned for an extended video of this, I'll post it as long as soon as I get it uploaded!*** – Ooh a deleted scene! Weiss says it was excluded purely for reasons of it not fitting in an episode, and was supposed to take place before the first council meeting in which Tywin was the Hand of the King. It's a couple minutes long, and Tywin is fishing—Dance is in waders! Master Pycelle shows up, apologizes for interrupting Tywin's leisure time, and basically asks to be reinstated on the small council now that Joffrey's not running it. What follows is pretty funny, mostly thanks to Dance's awesomeness. Hopefully it'll be on the DVD? – First fan question, from a guy wearing a "Keep Calm and Tyrion" T-shirt: "What's it like working on such beautiful sets with such great writers?" Peter Dinklage: "It's amazing, I get to be on T-shirts." (Dinklage went on to talk about the lovely locations GoT films in, and mentioned that even though he hasn't take a real vacation in years, his job takes him to the most beautiful places in the world. – Fan question to George R.R. Martin: Would you ever consider doing a prequel series, as a way to keep the show going in some sense? Martin: "First I have to finish The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. That's going to take a while. ... The locomotive is coming down the tracks behind me and I'm still laying the tracks. It's not quite on top of me yet, but I can see the smoke. ... Would I write other stories in the Westeros world? I might. But I don't know thatI'd do a prequel. ... I might go back earlier and write something about Aegon and his sisters, or Aegon the Unworthy, a true scumbag of a king with nine mistresses. ... There's lots of material if I want to do more in Westeros, I just don't think I'll do the immediate pre-cursor." – And actually, that's pretty much it (there was only time for four fan questions total). Since Comic-Con is kind of poorly timed relative to Game of Thrones typical schedule—Season 3 did just end, basically—there wasn't much "new" info to report. I was actually expecting HBO to announce a premiere date and/or new characters for Season 4, just like they did at least year's panel, but no dice. Just a really pleasant and intelligent discussion of a really awesome show.
 News source: www.tv.com

Posted in: Thrones at Comic