Game of Thrones A-Z (10 page)

It was this chain of events that led to King Robert’s Rebellion, which would eventually overthrow the Mad King. Fearing his time was coming to an end, Aerys tried to unleash his plan to destroy the city, but before he could he was killed by Jaime Lannister. According to Jaime, the Mad King feared he would survive the fire and be brought back as a dragon.

MANCE RAYDER

The man dubbed the King-Beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder is a lean man, who turned his back on his duties as a member of the Night’s Watch to join the wildings, teaching them new manoeuvres and shaping them into a formidable fighting team. He was born a wilding before he was taken by the Night’s Watch as a child and raised among them at Castle Black. He is a loyal member, until he is healed by a female wilding after suffering an injury during a ranging mission. She looks after him and even mends his cloak with new fabric. However, upon his return to the Wall, he is stunned when they order him to replace his mended uniform.

Wishing for a life where he could make more of his own choices, he abandons his oath and the life he knew to live with the wildings. Rayder is discussed many times during the first two seasons of 
Game of Thrones
, and is eventually revealed to the viewer during the third season.

SPOILER:
Jon Snow has gone undercover from the Night’s Watch in a bid to infiltrate Rayder’s army. However, Snow discovers that they are living in fear of the evil things that plague the vast lands, and they want to take over the Wall merely to defend themselves against the creatures. Rayder attempts to invade the Wall, but Snow and a skeleton crew of the Night’s Watch men somehow manage to hold them off until Stannis gets there. Stannis orders Rayder to be burned alive, but his fire sorceress Melisandre spares him by using a spell to make another man look like him. Rayder is currently being held captive by Ramsay Bolton and has sewed together skins in a cage to keep himself warm.

N

NED STARK

One of the key aspects in George R. R. Martin’s world is the notion that no one is safe. It’s something that is evidenced time and time again. This is a dangerous world, and, while there are heroes, they are not of the superhuman kind. They make mistakes, they bleed and they will die – some quicker than others.

The death of Lord Eddard ‘Ned’ Stark was the signal that this was not the sort of show you normally expect. The seemingly ‘lead’ characters don’t die only towards the end of a series either – certainly not in the case of Ned anyway.

Martin pulls the rug wonderfully from under your feet because he knows people’s expectations of heroes, and he throws people off the scent even more as he signals an intent to free Stark from the Lannisters’ capture if he admits a betrayal to the throne. It goes against everything this honourable man stands for, but it allows him to ensure his children’s safety. It seems an appropriate punishment – wound the leading man but don’t kill him. The expectation is that he will go home an emotionally hurt man, but will come back to fix his pride at a later date with revenge against the Lannisters. But that is not how it goes.

The character, who was at the forefront of the advertising campaign, simply dies, beheaded in front of a baying crowd. It’s a dynamic scene, and is reminiscent of the death that Janet Leigh suffered in 
Psycho
. She was a big star at the time, and the whole film was geared towards her character as she escapes from a town with stolen money.

Instead, she is merely a victim of Norman Bates fairly early on, and it’s only then that we realise the film only really starts when she is killed. The same happens in 
Game of Thrones
: the whole series kicks off the moment Ned dies. Suddenly, houses go to war against each other, murmurs of discontent sweep the Seven Kingdoms and a number of people attempt to seize the Iron Throne for themselves.

The website 
winteriscoming.net
 wrote the following after the screen death aired on TV: ‘Most of us knew this was coming, but for many that knowledge didn’t make Ned’s death any easier. For fans of George R. R. Martin’s 
A Song
 
of Ice and Fire
, this was the seminal moment. The death of Eddard Stark was a wakeup call to every person holding that book in their hands: no matter what you were used to, no matter what came before, no matter how certain you were in the tropes and the traditions of fantasy writing – this was when you sat up, eyes wide. This put fear into you. If this guy could die.’

Executive producer Weiss commented, ‘Ned dying is telling a hard truth about the price of honour and the price of morality in a world where not everybody has the same values as you do. It’s not a simplistic redemptive message, where you sacrifice yourself and it saves the day. A lot of times sacrifice ends up being futile.’

Still, while it was written in the book, it’s another thing for a TV series to hire a big star, promote the show with his star status and then kill him before the first season has even ended.

However, HBO is a different beast to most TV networks, and, while Weiss and Benioff had hundreds, if not thousands, of meetings with their bosses over how to adapt this series, there was never any murmur of discontent about the death of Ned Stark.

He was played by Sean Bean, a big star thanks to roles in 
The Lord of the Rings
 movies and 
Patriot Games
, and as the Bond villain in 1995’s 
Golden Eye
. Despite a career playing mainly bad guys, Bean rose to fame as the maverick Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe in the hit British series 
Sharpe
. The roguish officer stole the hearts of female viewers, with the male ones impressed by his rousing derring-do. So who better to play the noble Lord in 
Game of Thrones
.

Martin announced on his blog in 2009: ‘For the movie fans out there, Sean Bean needs no introduction. I mean, what the hell, he was Boromir (in 
Lord of the Rings
) and he was Sharpe, he was terrific in both roles, and in a hundred other parts besides. I can’t imagine a better Ned. The deal took some doing, so my fingers have been crossed for a month now (and boy, that made it hard to type), but now it’s done, and I’m thrilled.’

‘It’s a good thing to be typecast, isn’t it?’ Bean said to 
Collider
 about playing another fantasy character. ‘I suppose it’s similar to 
The Lord of the Rings
 in its size, its quality, its magic and its danger. I happen to enjoy playing the kind of roles with riding horses, swinging swords, having fights, wearing wigs and growing beards, even though I don’t first thing in the morning, when it takes you about three hours to get ready. I do have affinity to that kind of role. I think the good thing about 
Game of Thrones
 is that there is such score for it. 
The Lord of the Rings
 was three films, and they thoroughly researched it, and it was very well replicated on screen. But, with what George has created, it’s a very different world. It goes on much, much further and much longer, and there’s many more twists and turns, but I certainly enjoy this genre.’

And he was delighted when he first met David and Dan. ‘I read the book and found it very exciting, very luxuriant, very dangerous, very edgy and very sexy. That’s very flattering. I’m very flattered that I was chosen to play this part.’

News of his casting met with near-universal endorsement, with Bean adding, ‘I’m not really familiar with computers and blog sites and stuff like that, but I’ve heard some good things. So that’s encouraging. They seem to think I’m a suitable choice for the role so I’m flattered by that.’

And talking about his death, he said, ‘It’s quite heroic, I suppose. I didn’t just get knocked off and nobody notices.

Plenty of people noticed. It was a good one. It really sets the standard, which is high already, for what you would expect from HBO. This was a courageous venture to take on in the first place, with such a vast, big-scale production, and this very bold, daring narrative structure. It’s a good thing about George R. R. He’s prepared to kill off the main guys. You don’t get the feeling that the good guy is going to last forever, like James Bond.’

Bean admitted, ‘He’s such a predominant character, straight through all of it, and you think, “Wait a minute, what’s happening?” He’s obviously been betrayed left and right and centre, but you never thought it would come to this. Even the shock on his face before it happens, it’s like,

“But we made a deal.” It’s a pretty awful ending and the kids are watching as well.’

‘We were in Malta in the middle of a big square,’ he added. ‘A big piazza with hundreds and hundreds of people on a raised platform. I’m making a last speech; I have my hands tied behind my back. I kind of say that I have betrayed the realm and I have been a traitor in order to save my children. It’s real heartbreaking stuff.’

NIGHT’S WATCH

The military order that is the Night’s Watch gives those that are underprivileged, not born to royalty or far down the line for a place on the throne a chance to seize some glory of their own. With luck, bravery and dedication, it’s entirely feasible for these lost men to find themselves in a position of power and be looked upon with high regard at the stronghold of Castle Black.

Of course, there are obvious disadvantages. Their job is to guard the imposing and immense fortification known as the Wall, which keeps out the wildings and a number of unspecified creatures that haunt their nightmares. Some believe their tales from childhood of things that go bump in the dark from Beyond the Wall, while some disregard them as nonsensical fairytales.

The latter opinion has become the norm when the series begins. The Night’s Watch is less honoured than before, with numbers dwindling, and new members that swear the oath not loyal soldiers but former prisoners and thieves faced with an ultimatum of being maimed or spending their lives guarding the Wall.

Those that swear the oath must live a life of celibacy, and can never desert their brothers. Punishment for deserting is death by beheading, as witnessed in one of the early scenes of the first episode.

There are three groups within the Watch: the Stewards, who look after the needs of the members of the Watch, the Builders, who maintain the stronghold and the Wall, and the Rangers, who patrol the dark forest.

The wall, which is a staggering 700ft high, separates the Seven Kingdoms from the North. Jeor Mormont is the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch – a gruff but honourable man, who believes change is coming from the North and fears for the lives of his men. He is held in great esteem by his men, and is always accompanied by a raven. Mormont marched to war with Lord Stark during Robert’s Rebellion, before joining the Night’s Watch six years later, and rapidly moving through the ranks to become Lord Commander.

As Lord of Bear Island, Jeor marched to war under Lord Eddard Stark’s banner during Robert’s Rebellion. Concerned by the dwindling numbers, he used it to his advantage, dropping the regular patrols for a more random system so wildings could never guess when they would happen.

Mormont is played by veteran Scottish actor James Cosmo, who said of the series in 2011, ‘It’s pretty violent, and pretty sexy, with lots of political intrigue. They conjure up a wonderful world. It’s got a 
Lord of the Rings
 mythical quality to it, but there’s horror elements and zombies, and lots of swords and horses.’

One of the recruiters for the Wall is Yoren, a man who joined the order after killing his brother’s murderer with an axe. Yoren, played by former 
EastEnders
 actor Francis Magee, travels around the Seven Kingdoms, usually to castle jails, recruiting new members. During the first season, Tyrion Lannister takes a liking to Yoren, and they both head off to King’s Landing. Their journey together ends when Tyrion is captured by Catelyn Stark and men dedicated to the Starks, but Yoren flees to the Red Keep where he tells Ned Stark about his wife’s actions.

It’s Yoren who grabs Arya in the square following her father’s execution, and quickly cuts her hair and instructs her to pose as a boy to avoid detection from the Lannisters. He is killed by royal soldiers after refusing to surrender a recruit.

The greatest daily threat to the Night’s Watch are the wildings, or the Free Folk as they are known. Groups regularly cross over the Wall on raiding trips. They are seen as nothing but a nuisance by some, but are becoming an organised and deadly unit under the leadership of the former Night’s Watch member with the self-imposed tag of King-Beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder. The charismatic leader plots an invasion against the Seven Kingdoms to escape the threat from the Others. The Others are creatures that roam the sparse lands Beyond the Wall.

Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, a member of the Night’s Watch, said of the Watch to the 
Huffington Post
, ‘In Jon’s head, he is very loyal to the Night’s Watch. To forsake his family, his brothers and sisters down South and after all that’s happened in the first season, his position now lies with the Night’s Watch. He has to be 100 per cent loyal to them because if it was anything less, he would have gone South. I think in Jon’s head – and this is where I’ve had to piece it together myself as to what his future plans are – I think he does want to avenge his father. He does want to join his brother eventually, and he wants to tie his position in the Night’s Watch into being able to do those things, to take his revenge on Joffrey. How he’s going to do that, I don’t think he knows yet, but he’s adamant that he will, sometime in the future. His main priority at the moment has to be with his commander and his mission North of the Wall. He hides from everyone, but he has a burning ambition to go South and to join his brother’s war, but he can’t do that yet.’

O

ORIGINAL PILOT

When news of the cast was announced, a quick glance at the many forums, message boards and comment sections underneath the stories saw just how excited – if slightly bemused – the fans were about it. ‘This is really happening, isn’t it?’ wrote one, an opinion that echoed sentiments all over the internet.

In October 2009, the unthinkable had happened – the unfilmable novel was being filmed. Lasting nearly a month, the pilot was shot in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco.