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Barristan seems to be the leading candidate. People were already talking about how he and Grey Worm are missing from the pit photos and Grey Worm might be dead in that trailer shot of him and Missandei, he's been around since season 1, and it's possible he will die in the Battle of Meereen in early TWOW so a TV adaptation of the events that slightly speeds up his demise sounds quite feasible. I've also seen mentions of Bronn, Loras, Jorah, Davos and Sam, but I agree that right now Barristan seems like the best bet based on both TWOW and season 5 speculation.

This 5x08 information about the Watch/wildling plot was originally posted in WOTW comments a couple of weeks back, IIRC, but since there was no verification of the poster's sources I thought it was probably trolling or wishful thinking. Now I've seen speculation that some trailer shots might be from this episode, so I'm posting the quote in case it does turn out to be true. IMO, after five books it's annoying , so this sounds like a good change to me. The series is so full of truth-bombs that were never dropped in the lifetime of the people they'd have the greatest impact on that I really hope there's at least one big non-Stark reaction to the 99% likelihood of R+L=J. It's a delicious bit of irony that honest Ned did a far better job than Jaime and Cersei at concealing a royal bastard's real parentage.

I'll miss Siggy. I had a feeling she would die since there was so little of her in the promotion and they've said that the show's Rollo is the Rollo of history (so his story is heading away from her), but I didn't expect it to happen this soon. I'm glad she got to see Thyri again, and I hope the others acknowledge that she died a hero. I still have no idea what was going on with Harbard and the dead/almost-dead children, though. Ragnar circling Lagertha was such a contrast to his indifference to Aslaug in the first episode. I understand why she ended up having an affair, to feel desirable again and out of thankfulness that someone else also tried to protect Ivar, but since it happened at the same time as Siggy dying to save her other children she was less sympathetic than she would otherwise have been. The Erlendur reveal was ridiculous because it was so obviously a bad decision to spare the adult mini-Joffrey heir while killing the girls and children. The storyline got even worse with that addition. Kalf already looked out of place as viking, but Erlendur is even less intimidating (Joffrey was a horrible character played by an excellent actor, Erlendur is pure get-off-my-screen). Borg's wife was lucky to leave Kattegat with her son, but they're doomed now. The feast was great, ending with the surprise poisoning and great wordless reactions (my winners: Ragnar and Ecbert). Aelle looked disgusted, so Kwenthrith isn't safe yet.

I've never been fond of the speculation that Jaime would learn to fight again. His karmic punishment for crippling a child so that Bran will always need help simply to get from place to place in his own home and has possibly become incapable of fathering children was to... lose a hand when he's already fathered children and had years in which to build his reputation as a great knight (which he is still able to use to intimidate others into doing what he wants). That's a mild inconvenience compared to how Bran's entire life was changed, and if Jaime becomes a good fighter with his left hand, even that little bit of karmic punishment is removed so that he'll have gotten away with no personal consequences for attempted murder and his total lack of remorse or empathy for the child he crippled. In ASOIAF his role seems to be moving away from direct battles, but since GOT is more about action I expect Show Jaime will be a better fighter than Book Jaime. I hope they'll at least be realistic enough to have the Sand Snake winning before they're interrupted. That shot of Ellaria looked like she was being arrested or halted by guards. No idea about Selyse, but I'd guess it's either very early (Melisandre burns someone?) or very late (5x09, 5x10 chaos of some sort). The older Show Tommen might try to visit Cersei before the walk. Knowing that he was denied might convince her to agree to it.

Bumping this since there are now more actual spoilers and summaries out there. There was a report at some point that Littlefinger visits KL. If he and Sansa have an encounter (or almost-encounter) with Brienne in 5x02, could he be in KL in episode 4, and then skip 5 so that he can rejoin Sansa in 6 and move on to the Winterfell plot? If he rejoins her at all since the whole thing is a mystery on the show, but it would just be so stupid of him to send her to Winterfell by herself: he'd risk losing a valuable pawn and wouldn't be around to ensure that the Boltons go down in a way that increases his power.

Dany's smug "badass" speeches have gotten so tiresome. She talks a lot but she never actually gets around to going to Westeros or bothering to learn about it. Looks like Sansa is in the crypts and Vale soldiers are entering Winterfell, she and Littlefinger? are the Boltons' guests. I'm dreading the glee I'm already seeing that she might have been reduced to Show Jeyne, a character who exists so Ramsay can rape her and Theon save her. I prefer the speculation that she'll take the Manderly role as the enemy within, but the next two or so months of hopeful "the traumatizing scene could be her rape/wedding night!" won't be pretty. Since the showrunners ended S4 with Sansa so clearly gaining a level as a player, I seriously hope that they wouldn't go back and make her a victim again, this time in a storyline that's not even her own. Perhaps the traumatizing scene could be her witnessing Theon's treatment and doing nothing about it in order to protect her Alayne identity. Brienne and Pod in snowy weather. Winter arriving south or a sign that they'll go north later in the season? Loras rushes to attack Olyvar while Olenna/Margaery/Tommen/Cersei sit in chairs and the High Septon watches.

Summaries from SpoilerTV:

Another good battle scene, and the music on this show really adds to the mood. Vikings does "culture" scenes well - the human sacrifice, the blood eagle, the departure of the warriors, now the harvest. I'm starting to get tired of Floki. He's a well-acted character but this season I haven't been able to view his hate-filled religious fanaticism from a distance the way I used to. I wasn't a fan of the three women sharing the same dream (I like it when the magic on this show might be either real or delusion), but now that the wanderer is here Siggy's scepticism improved that storyline. He had a Rasputin vibe when he was charming Aslaug/Helga and healing Ivar. He's got to be connected to the dead children somehow, but I can't guess whether it's just ordinary murder or if the show is going to embrace magic and make their deaths a sacrifice that took Ivar's pain away.

GRRM's comment: I'm curious to see if Show Dany will continue to have greater resistance to fire than Book Dany in the show's version of the pit; they clearly made a decision to emphasize that in the buildup to the dragons hatching. Jon's resurrection could be like Dany's thing with the dragons, a one-time miracle that involves momentary immunity to fire, but I expect the emphasis to be more on Ghost and warging and how they enable Melisandre to restore him without the kind of damage Beric suffered. I'm not quite sure, but wasn't there also something about her magic being stronger on the Wall?

Someone in the comments said that Glover knows how Pycelle dies so it's not him. The High Septon might have scenes with Loras and Lancel, whether they can be killed depends on TWOW. Trant will almost certainly die on the show and he's going to be in the background of early Cersei/Septon scenes. So does Jon die in 5x10? It's the most likely shock that Kit would know about and which would be big even to non-readers.

Upstairs has gotten the big guest stars, it would be nice if downstairs got Hopkins this season.

I still wonder why they had him leave, but if he's gone for 3 episodes that will at least give his time away a little more weight than it would have had if he'd returned instantly.

He didn't want to listen to his current editor's comments about removing some of his repetitive phrases, I can't imagine anyone getting him to listen to a suggestion that, say, Quentyn shouldn't have been a POV before his arrival in Meereen. Worldbooks and short stories really do feel like the kind of thing that interests him now. It can be difficult to deliver a good climax after buildup that's created high expectations, but if it works, it's amazing. The GOT showrunners have cut many plots and a lot of the character complexity that I loved in the books, but at least I have complete faith that they want to conclude this story and tell us what happens to the main characters we started out with.

Any thoughts on the season preview? Though it looks like Athelstan is doomed (that shot of him was like a post-death goodbye vision), I don't think Aslaug's "kill the Christian" refers to him. Maybe it's the wanderer? He's the only new character I've read about who will be meeting Aslaug/Siggy/Helga. Ecbert's son will attack the farmers so he'd be villainous enough to kill Athelstan for catching his wife's eye, but historically he'll outlive Ecbert and Ragnar would surely want revenge for Athelstan's death. Floki's talk about the gods punishing him makes me worried that something might happen to Helga too. Does Lagertha ask for Ragnar's help after Kalf betrays her?

If Lagertha dies, even if it's in a blaze of glory, it will be tough to watch. Ecbert was shameless, going after both of Ragnar's great loves! I really like the frequent battle scenes on this show, it's something Game of Thrones doesn't do despite its massive budget. I'm still not sure about Kwenthrith's acting, but at least she was more of a character this time around and less of a one-note nymphomaniac.

I used to think Myrcella might die since they were sending Jaime to Dorne and had a 7 season goal, but the behind the scenes footage from 5x09 that shows Jaime, Doran, Ellaria and Myrcella/Trystane chatting in peace made me doubt that. Maybe Jaime does get permission to take her back to KL but in 5x10 Doran reveals to the Sand Snakes that they must go with them and sabotage the Lannisters to help Dany. I still think Grey Worm/Barristan/Daario are more likely to die than Missandei because Dany is about to gain Tyrion as a male advisor and regain Jorah if he's not fated to die in the battle. Missandei offers a different dynamic. I guess it's because a lot of the time they don't want to bring up something until it's relevant to the plot (like Sansa going from zero to master liar Maleficent in season 4), so he'll live until Yara/Theon get away from the Bolton/Stannis plot. Balon the undying has become such a fandom joke that I'd cackle if he was allowed to last all the way to season 7.

If he releases anything, I hope it's this. I checked the AFFC release date and in October it will have been ten years since the last new Sansa chapter. I'm 99% sure Glen and Dinklage will make GOT's version of this plot more entertaining than ADWD did.

This is one of the reasons I dislike Aegon, he and Connington keep Dany from having to face tough choices and an exciting fight against the familiar characters who've been in charge of KL. Since the show has scrubbed Tyrion clean of all shades of gray I'm sure the Tyrion/Dany team won't be responsible for the deaths of Tommen and other decent characters either (the High Septon/Sand Snakes/Varys/Littlefinger could become responsible on the show even if someone else is guilty in TWOW), but at least they'll get to Westeros faster than in the books if they're taking some of Aegon's role, even if it's only as the candidate supported by the Dornish army that wrecks KL in Dany's name. I doubt they'll wait that long. It would leave them only one season, two at most if they went Breaking Bad and split the final season, to get Dany and Tyrion to Westeros and start the epic dragon/zombie fights. It's more likely that Greyjoy uncles, Fake Arya and Manderly (I'm in deep mourning, but it really looks like we won't be getting any revenge for the Red Wedding or the best speech of ADWD) have all been cut and Theon will escape/Rickon will return in some other way. Leaked script summary for Season 5 Episode 1. Posted in August, it's now been confirmed by the trailer's inclusion of these scenes: According to the summary, Jon becomes LC in episode 2 or 3 and Stannis already talks about attacking the Boltons in 1.

George RR Martin’s The Winds of Winter: no plans for publication in 2015 This certainly makes me appreciate the other fantasy authors who deliver doorstopper-sized novels every couple of years. It's January and they're already telling us not to expect TWOW in 2015.

I'm glad it looks like Tom might not be gone for good after all, but since they made his departure a big deal, maybe he'll return mid-season so that it'll really feel like he's been away from Downton. I don't think Tom/Mary will become romantic, especially now that Henry Talbot seems like a viable option. Even if there was no Henry, I wouldn't want them to hook up. There are a ton of romances to root for on TV but it's so refreshing to see such a believable loving, supportive relationship between a man and a woman that's completely platonic. Now that I think about it, it's a little odd that there's been practically no Tom/Cora scenes. Of course they'd have less conflict but Isobel approved of him too and the show got some nice bonding scenes out of that. This season has really shown why Mary, Edith and Robert would miss Tom, but it didn't do the same with Cora. They could have had a talk about Sybbie and Sybil's memory, for example.

I think it says a lot that ASOIAF has gone from Ned's death and the Red Wedding to endless theories about how Jon will be resurrected. I've never run into anyone who truly believed that Jon's story was over and he died for good at the end of ADWD. The characters are important but they aren't doing important things, which means that AFFC/ADWD felt like I was spending time with POVs who couldn't be killed off but were stuck going in circles and being powerless puppets of fate/non-POVs instead of moving the plot forward with choices and their consequences; the new POVs who could die were such redshirts and examples of worldbuilding bloat that I didn't feel any tension in their chapters. The fake identities and deaths add to the powerlessness. The Stark kids are in training mode, but I wish that training could involve more doing, for the same reason that I wish Dany would have come to Westeros in ASOS: making decisions, screwing up and learning from your mistakes is more exciting and leads to more credible growth if it takes place on the main stage before the audience you have to impress rather than in an isolated hall where no one knows who you are or sees what you're doing. A bit of isolation would be fine IMO if it was just Arya and Bran doing their secret training with their magic mentors while Dany, Sansa and Tyrion were more involved with Westerosi politics, but of the characters who've been established as the most important to the narrative and endgame (Starks/Dany/Tyrion) only Jon is actively participating in either the war for the throne or the fight against the Others. And even Jon's participation consists of planning for the inevitable attack rather than facing it. ADWD had highs (Theon, Davos) never reached by Robert Jordan's infamous stall in Crossroads of Twilight, but I'm having flashbacks to how the Wheel of Time would turn and turn without progressing the plot. Right now, it's like there's a clash between soap and epic in ASOIAF. Soaps move at a glacial pace and are all about character moments/interaction, which ASOIAF still does well (Davos and Manderly, Theon and his name), but ASOIAF also began by setting up two huge plot events in the return of the Others and the dragons. My frustration over the delay in getting to the epic conflicts that were promised keeps me from enjoying the current rambling pace as a soap that can take all the time in the world before the big reveal that rearranges character relationships.

Jodhi May is Maggy and Isabella Steinbarth is Melara

The deaths of Ned, Cat and Robb were shocking even if they could be explained (the parents, the POVless kid). But after AFFC/ADWD, it's pretty clear that the others will keep on beating the odds until the grand finale. IMO, the bad guys do get bigger wins than the good guys in this series. Sure, Cersei, Littlefinger, and allies are headed for their downfalls. But almost everyone who's decent has been broken inside. Reputations have been ruined by lies, with no sign of rehabilitation that could overcome the damage that's been done. And how big will the villains' downfalls even be? Will Littlefinger's end be as quick as Joffrey's and leave his crimes still unknown to the public? Characters like Tywin and Joffrey died at the height of their power and escaped the suffering and loss of prestige that was dealt to their victims: Joffrey epitomizes the suckiness of Westeros with his karmic reward of a quick death, grand funeral and posthumous praise vs. the slaughter of unarmed guests, the desecration of their bodies and the mockery of their memory at the Red Wedding. Jaime whines about how much the Lannisters have lost in the war and then proceeds to congratulate himself for his honor after he's delivered Riverrun to the Freys as their reward for the RW. The Mountain died but he got to kill Elia's brother as his last act after a lifetime of being protected from the consequences of his crimes, and so on. The bad guys tend to be killed by other assholes for reasons that have nothing to do with justice, they suffer less than their victims did and their houses get to keep their ill-gotten gains (the Freys and Boltons are the only ones who seem 100% doomed as lords, but there are so many Freys that they'll have plenty of survivors despite losing the Twins; no house has been introduced as a viable alternative to the Lannisters in the West, so the atrocities of Tywin and his twins won't cause them to lose the Rock). The bad guys keep on winning if they're compared to the state of their deposed, slandered victims, even if they don't get away with zero losses like Jaime laments he hasn't done. I'm going to follow this series until the end because I'm hooked, but I do wish GRRM would dish out his creative horrors more evenly, or balance them with more than one instance of minor karmic justice for every five years (Slynt's execution, the kill in the Mercy preview chapter). Even though a Stark will have Winterfell when the series ends and King's Landing will have a better ruler (whoever it turns out to be), there's little sense of genuine hope for the future in ASOIAF. It's just about doing what has to be done, surviving and learning to kill others before they kill you. So in that sense, this series will end with the bad guys winning even if they'll be dead in the end: the good guys will merely have regained what was taken from them while suffering irreparable losses on the way. The Starks, Dany and Tyrion are the main characters and they're miserable. Some are bigger wrecks than others (Jon is better off emotionally than Arya or Tyrion, though who knows what his betrayal and resurrection will do to him), but they mostly come across as though they've had the capacity for joy beaten out of them. Maybe part of that is due to the POV structure. Because the number of POVs is limited, characters become isolated in different locations/plots. When terrible shit happens, they don't get to comfort each other and fight the world together. Genuine friendships and romances are scarce: the Starks believe the rest of their family has been killed, Jaime and Tyrion/Cersei were reunited only to become estranged, Dany's thing with the dodgy Daario is all about lust. As annoying as shipping can get, I guess in a strange way ASOIAF has made me appreciate romance in fantasy. It shows that life goes on for the character and that if they lose their family they can still form new and meaningful relationships. Also lacking: positive hell yeah! moments. There are plenty of twists but not a lot of stuff that shows a main character in charge. I think that's why scenes like Dracarys and Sansa's Maleficent walk were so popular with viewers. The first was a classic hell yeah, the second a sign that Sansa finally got to stop being all victim all the time. But those moments tend to be drowned out by the general misery and powerlessness when it's one shock and setback after another. The plot moves onward, not really upward. That's why I fully expect a bittersweet ending where the sweet is the death of Littlefinger/Walder Frey/all the other big villains and the bitter is the tedium of life for the emotionally damaged survivors who have lands, titles and duties but no happiness.

The career Mary wanted was being a titled lady and if Matthew had lived I expect they would have learned to run Downton as partners but still with a largely traditional division of responsibilities and interests. Now she has to take Matthew's role until George grows up. Whoever Mary's next husband is, he'll probably be a helper but not have an equal investment in living at and running Downton. So Mary taking Robert's place as the Earl (in charge, if not in name), rather than Cora's as the Countess like she expected, would be the kind of happy ending Fellowes wants for her, adjusted for Dan Stevens' decision to leave the show. I think emphasizing that and increasing the amount of work she does in the final season would be a good way to show logical character growth and maturity. IMO, Mary took more responsibility than she should have. Since the official word seems to be that Mary wanted it I guess that's the interpretation we have to accept, but like the Thomas/Jimmy and Tom/Edna stories that are being discussed in the episode 1 thread, I think the writing of Mary/Pamuk showed a kind of tone deafness. Mary's later lines play it as a woman who gave in to lust and the show could well have done that by making Pamuk more like Gillingham with his scandalous suggestion. Instead they had Pamuk use Thomas to make his way to Mary's room, tell her she'd be ruined if he was discovered there, and ignore her until she gave in. It was extremely questionable behavior; on a different, less nice show, Mary/Pamuk, Thomas/Jimmy and Tom/Edna could all have been used to address how violent male/female stranger rape isn't the only form of abuse. To me it was one of Downton's poorest storylines (at least the downstairs love quadrangle was only dull) and I'm glad that Pamuk hasn't risen from his grave recently.

I was very young when Thorne #2 was on the show and so my memories of his storylines and acting aren't the best, but now that I've seen Thorne #1 that seems like an odd recast. They're both blond and good-looking, but even though #1 is the good son to Ridge's dashing playboy favorite he can at least stand up to him. #2 seems too limp for that. I can see Brooke and Taylor with Thorne #1 but not #2. I've seen some B&B DVD box sets, but the one I'd totally buy is Brooke vs. Stephanie. In the latest episodes Stephanie has started making comments about the Logans that really have me hoping I'll get to see their first-ever confrontation. . Bonus: widowed Ridge with a beard. : Stephanie runs into Brooke and Eric, then Ridge and Taylor show up. Didn't remember this at all but I'm sure it led to wacky hijinks. Maybe it was even the first Big Bear visit.