5 Things To Know About Game Of Thrones Season 5

With Season 5 of Game of Thrones fast approaching, you might be wondering just what’s in store for fans of TV’s biggest fantasy series. Without getting into specifics or spoilers, there are five major elements to the first four episodes of Season 5 that make it a different beast from previous years of the show, or even the original books. Check our review if you’re hoping to go into Sunday’s premiere with as close to as little information as possible, but those looking to get a little more information about Game of Thrones can read this supplementary breakdown of what to expect in Westeros, King’s Landing, and places beyond. Meet the New Gods, Not Quite the Same as the Old Gods Folks in Westeros make no bones about discussing politics whenever possible. When it comes to matters of faith, though, the conversation is often a lot cagier, probably because there are so many Gods and sects to choose from. The Old Gods, worshipped by those in and north of Winterfell, usually only pop up when someone is making a pledge. If you want to let others know you’re super-duper committed to a vow, you swear by the Old Gods and the New. Less popular deities include The Drowned God, prayed to by Iron Born like the Greyjoys, and The Lord of Light, who has made recent inroads into Westeros thanks to Melisandre. Up until now, the Faith of the Seven, the dominant religion in Westeros, has mostly existed as window dressing for Game of Thrones, mentioned by those uttering a prayer, or blessing an almost-certainly doomed marriage. This changes early in Season 5 though, as the power vacuum created by the stunted Lannister regime makes religion just about the only enduring pillar of society left in King’s Landing. So, what is the Faith of the Seven? Think of it like super-sized Catholicism, with the High Septon of King’s Landing being the papal equivalent. Silent Sisters are akin to nuns, and in times of crisis, devout followers have formed armed militias called the Faith Militant. Rather than using a septatheistic hierarchy, the Faith of the Seven worships one single God with seven different aspects: The Father, Mother, Warrior, Maiden, Smith, Crone, and Stranger. Each aspect is prayed to individually for help in different daily matters, the exception being The Stranger, a mysterious figure associated with death. This being Game of Thrones, The Stranger is usually the most frequently invoked aspect of The Seven, but the religion as a whole has a major role to play in events to come. Welcome to Dorne Game of Thrones has given us a pretty good idea of the geography of Westeros, spreading the action across most of the Seven Kingdoms in the continent, or at least making dignitaries from far off lands integral to the story. The big exception: Dorne, the sunny, sandy, and southern-most kingdom of Westeros. Frequent mention of Dornish wine (their main export) was the Dorniest thing about the show up until last season, when Prince Oberyn Martell, younger brother to the ruling Doran Martell, made a memorable entrance to King’s Landing…and even more memorable exit. For the most part, though, Dorne has largely been a non-factor in the show. That’s entirely by choice, as Dorne’s reputation for shrewd, isolationist politicking goes back centuries. When the first Targaryens used dragons to unite Westeros (the proposition: unify or fry), Dorne resisted, employing hit ‘n run tactics and their infamous spears (the namesake of the capital, Sunspear). It would take decades of bloody rebellion and political concessions by the Targaryens before Dorne would submit to outside ruler, with House Martell maintaining their titles of Prince and Princess as a reminder of their former independence. Once sufficiently embedded into the Targaryen dynasty, they supported the old regime when Robert Baratheon rebelled, but a proposed marriage of Joffrey’s sister Myrcella to a Dornish prince helped sway Dorne to the Lannister’s side during the War of the Five Kings. Having failed to avenge his sister Elia (killed by The Mountain on Tywin Lannister’s orders), Oberyn’s death has put the Martells and Lannisters at odds once more. That’s bad news for Myrcella, a guest/hostage in Sunspear, as the fruit of Oberyn’s loins proves the revenged-filled apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Enter the Sand Snakes, the bastard daughters of Oberyn that inherited their father’s eyes, and love of score settling. The many Sand Snakes of the books have been combined and reworked into three main players: Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene, the last of whom is also the daughter of Ellaria, Oberyn’s Season 4 paramour. Remember her face when she saw Oberyn die? Yeah, that’s what these ladies are looking to inspire in the face of every remaining Lannister, which goes against the more diplomatic wishes of enfeebled Doran. Who Runs Westeros? Girls While the Sand Snakes add a triplet of badass and dangerous new ladies to the world of Game of Thrones, it’s also clear at season’s start just how many of the most powerful Y chromosome-carriers in Westeros have been killed or removed from power. Daenerys used her dragons to help “convince” the eastern free cities to give a matriarchy a try, but it’s only now that so much of the old guard in Westeros is gone that women used to wheeling and dealing from the sidelines are taking the country by the reins. With the sweet, but naive Tommen seated on the throne in King’s Landing, one of the biggest power struggles in Season 5 is between Margery Tyrell, his wife-to-be, and Cersei, the boy-king’s mother. Remember all that passive-aggressive sniping between the two last season? Well, there’s plenty more of that, only now without Tywin around to glue the shaky Lannister/Tyrell alliance together. It’s a great rivalry complemented by continued smaller stories from Brienne and Arya, who have to start making new destinies for themselves. More than ever, it’s the women of Westeros pushing the story forward –even perpetual object of pity Sansa Stark is ready to start making some moves this year. Surprising, right? Well, get use to it. Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes It’s not as though Game of Thrones hasn’t made significant alterations to the books over its first four seasons, but often those changes paled compared to the impressive faithfulness the show had to the source material. For the most part, the adaptation process meant making two characters one, switching the order of some events, or simply cutting away a lot of the fat in Martin’s sprawling narrative. For a long time, only a purist could be upset at the concessions made in bringing Game of Thrones to TV. Anyone furious at minor changes, like a third-tier character being killed by neck-snapping instead of having his limbs force-fed to him, could always go back to the books (though hopefully after seeing a shrink first, in that particular case). But the introduction of the mysterious White Walker leader mid-way through Season 4, and absence of another key figure at season’s end are nothing compared to some of the major divergences Season 5 makes from the source material. For the most part, the plot-rejiggering was done to make sure we wound up at the same place as the books, just faster or more sensibly. By episode two, Season 5 has introduced three new plotlines (and one incredible new pairing) to the story, one of which might actually be from a future installment of the books. For readers, that means spoilers are back on the menu. It’s an exciting prospect…assuming you didn’t make any enemies in the last four years of lording your future knowledge of events over people. Winter: Still Coming We were pretty spoiled by Game of Thrones in its fourth season, as so many plotlines and story arcs came to an (almost always violent) end. Episode two gave us the theoretical tragedy of The Purple Wedding, and the final three hours of the season featured some of the biggest duels and deaths the show has ever had. Where Season 5 will end up is still a mystery, now more than ever thanks to the breaks from Martin’s outline. But the early hours are marked by the show moving into a new phase of its lifecycle, and with that comes a lot of prep work for the road towards a series finale. The season premiere’s title, “The Wars to Come,” says all you need to know about where the focus is right now. The first four hours are heavy with omens and promises about the conflicts that lie ahead, but the immediate future is filled with people figuring out how they’ll survive to see any of those premonitions come to pass. It’s a smaller, slower start than we’ve seen from Game of Thrones since it first began, with fewer excuses for big action setpieces. Make no mistake – big, game-changing things are brewing all over the place, but early Season 5 is very much about getting us reacquainted with our favourite characters, and seeing what the new world of Game of Thrones looks like. Good thing they’re both still as entertaining as ever to be around.