Well, here we go. San Diego Comic Con. Ready yourself. As always: views are mine- permanently caffeinated, perfunctorily regulated, likely offensive.
Clearly the big draw for the TV thread of this years San Diego Comic Con was of course the big Game of Thrones panel, and besides the compare having the comedic value of syphilis, it did not disappoint. Here are my two cents on why:
NEW CAST ANNOUNCEMENT! Aka Hey fans, here’s a slew of people you are going to grow to adore who we are then going to decimate in one fell swoop of Valyrian steel and leave you feeling as depressed as that time your childhood sweetheart dumped you via Tamagotchi note on a train to Weston. Ya get me?
Now- all cards on the table- because I read at the glacial pace of a paraplegic sloth I’m only half way into A Clash of Kings. As such, these characters mean very little to me. But what I can gather, between the Sands, nouveau Martells & Hotah; watch out anyone that isn’t in da House Martell massiv. I just hope among all hopes this means that Lady Olenna is bumped up to a season regular.
Then there’s also Jonathan Pryce playing a High Sparrow. Which will be interesting because the only bird I’ve ever seen high is a magpie after it huffed a half empty popper can on Canal Street.
But let’s face it, when it came to the cast, I can’t remember anything past Toby Sebastian. l Let’s look at that boy a second.
*le sigh*
Between this & all that panel talk of more male nudity… I digress.
Basically: yay new people; that means DB&D are less likely to bump off our faves. right? RIGHT!?
But yes aside from new shit, we had awkward George, even more awkward uber fans (Jack Sparrow, really?), awkward Sansa (is Sophie Turner okay, can we check on her please), possibly the most ingratiating host since Michael McIntyre, Natalie Dormer turning me straight and best of all Gwen (Brienne) & Rory (Clegane) having a stellar bromance.
Then there was the now annual Comic-Con quasi-official farewell to that seasons dearly departed, of which Season 4 had a bumper crop. Rose Leslie halted her resting-toxic-candy-sucking face long enough to quite heart-touchingly muse on my beloved Ygritte’s final moments. Aww (I’m still hung up on her loss). Clegane barked a little too much for the joke to be funny. But of course our little viper, who garnered the loudest crowd reaction on entry, was the man of the hour. Namely for this without-fault without-pause response when asked what’s better: dragons or direwolves?
Flawless, Pedro, flawless.
Dan & Dave were ever light on spoilers- though did spill that Season 5 will shoot in Spain & Croatia, so I’m mainly hoping to see Tywin rave it up in Magaluf & there to be a *hilarious* ‘ARE YE A CROW OR A CRO’’ pun. They also expressed script intent to up Stannis’ standing on the show to… “STANNIS THE MANNIS”. And you thought my pun was bad…
Mr Martin was a little more forthcoming, revealing that the prologue to The Winds Of Winter will be from the POV of Jeyne Westerling (crowd goes wild, I twiddle my thumbs). He also furthered my love of him in an extended call-to-arms to fans insisting that the differences between the novels & series canon mean nothing, and that one isn’t better than the other. Using the analogy of Scarlett O’Hara and her maternal differences in the book versus movie iterations of Gone With The Wind he said “Does she have three children (as in the book) or one (movie)? The correct answer is she doesn’t have any, because she’s not a real person”. So, shut it die-hards. There was nothing wrong with us having Talisa.
As for what Season 5 holds: all held tighter lips than… Erm… Okay everyone’s too promiscuous on the show for me to pull that joke. But effectively we know the usual: 10 episode run, airing next April. It’ll kick some serious vosma (yeah that was Dothraki what of it). They’re also fully into production, with Kit spilling – causing 2 specific panicked faces on the panel- that he starts shooting his scenes this past Monday. Hurrah for loose lips, eh Ygritte? (I knew I’d make the joke work somewhere).
And finally, if we gained anything from the full hour long panel- or even the entirety of Comic Con as a whole- it was this, my new go to saying to the haters:
Thank you Emilia.
And that’s my two cents.
MyTwoCentsFilm 