Season Five of HBO's Game of Thrones starts again this year on Sunday April 12, at 9 PM. I am not looking forward to this premiere as much I did for earlier seasons. I didn't think that the likely source material for this season, primarily books four and five of George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, was gripping reading like the first three books. However I am an unabashed Stark bannerman. That bias can occasionally warp my enjoyment of the story. Books four and five introduced a boatload of new characters and shifted emphasis to events in new Westeros locations or different continents altogether. This was a an issue for me because I want bloody revenge for the Starks. I really just want to see the remaining Starks grow up, reunite and destroy their enemies but to quote Ramsay Bolton, "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention". George RR Martin has consistently said that his story's conclusion will be bittersweet. I don't think that revenge, justice or the Starks are the most important elements of his tale. We shall see. It is 2015. The book series has at least two more entries yet to be published while the HBO series will probably complete in 2017 or 2018 based on prior statements by the showrunners. So there's an excellent chance that the story's conclusion will be shown on HBO before it is revealed in a book. So it goes. Theoretically show viewers could visit book reader blogs and drop spoilers all over the place, just for fun. Season Four already depicted non-book events. Some of these were presumably Benioff/Weiss initiated story changes while others could have been Martin created storylines which he has not yet published but has shared with the showrunners. It's important to remember that the showrunners know Martin's ultimate ending while we don't. Supposedly inexplicable narrative twists may make perfect sense if we knew the greater story. We do know that the British-Nigerian actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, pictured above, will be playing a character named Malko. Malko was not in the books. He may or may not be a replacement for or amalgamation of other book characters. Season Five and future seasons will have more surprises both for people who have read all of the books and people who only watch the show. Season Five will feature many people from Dorne, which we talked about here and here previously. Dorne is not as patriarchal/patrilineal as the rest of Westeros. In the books it's also slightly more diverse. We'll see if that last element makes it to screen. Sarella Sand, the Red Viper's black daughter, has not been cast AFAIK. Another Dornish character, Arianne Martell, has either not yet been cast or has been dropped. Both absences could have butterfly effects for the remaining story. Anyhow, please watch below for introduction of some new actors. And as usual please don't discuss spoilers if you know them.
