Hey guys! I’m coming to you live from Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. In a few moments, the cast and crew of HBO’s Game of Thrones will take the stage to give folks their first look at the upcoming season. Stay tuned right here to live updates! If you can’t be in the room, I promise this is almost as good. I will be using character names instead of actor names because live blogging is a speedster’s game.
1:25PM – We should be starting in about five minutes but you know how it is. Hall H starting on time would be a miracle.
1:31PM – As usual, things are running behind. We should be starting in a few moments. This panel will be half the cast and crew talking and half Q&A from the audience. I have to run and interview the creators of Rick and Morty soon though, so will be cutting out probably around the time the Q&A starts. But watch this space for Rick and Morty later this weekend!
1:36PM – The panel begins with the Game of Thrones trailer we’ve already seen. Fun fact: I had to move to the “press cage” and I am literally sitting with my back against a subwoofer so I’m shaking with both fandom and bass reverb. As the cast and crew take the stage, the audience goes wild. I’m close enough to the backstage area that I could hear the cast chanting “Hodor Hodor” behind the curtain as their moderator Hodor takes the stage.
1:41PM – Theon brought his puppy and honestly the rest of this panel can end now so we can ALL PET THE PUPPER PLEASE. Nevermind, Brienne is here, so who cares about the puppy? (Me.)
1:42PM – Brienne says her value system isn’t based on if men like here. BUT! Who doesn’t like being appreciated for their skills and looks? So underneath the awkwardness of not knowing how to react Tormund is a slight happiness. The audience is now arguing if Brienne should be with Tormund or Jaime. My suggestion? Why not both?
1:44PM – Huge cheer for Greyworm as he talks about his future with Missandei. He just wants them to be happy, and that Dany would not only approve but maybe officiate their nuptials.
1:46PM – Basically this panel has already devolved into a dating simulator. Now Sansa is talking about how she’s been silently absorbing and adapting to play the game instead of being manipulated by the likes of Cersei and Littlefinger.
1:48PM – Missendei taking about how her character and Greyworm have such traumatizing backgrounds, that to find each other and find happiness and laughter is a wonderful thing. She’s afraid to say it, but she hopes they get to live happily ever after.
1:50PM – Sam thought going to the Citadel would be the perfect fit, somewhere he could fit in and be surrounded by other people who love knowledge. But he’s an outsider again but he still has Gilly. He doesn’t need the acceptance of hundreds when he has two people who love him. (Seriously, make Game of Thrones a dating sim like, IMMEDIATELY).
1:52PM – Bran says the three-eyed raven is one of the few fragments that remain from the Old Westeros, the magical side. What that means hasn’t been revealed yet, but it appears the Night King is his sworn enemy but now that Bran is the Three-Eyed Raven we don’t know how that will shake out.
1:55PM – What drives Brienne to never give up her quest to help the Starks? Brienne realized with Catelyn that strength in women can take many forms. Brienne doesn’t have to fold herself into a mold of masculinity to do good or be taken seriously. She could be propelled by her own moral compass to do right in the world. And Brienne sees that same strength in Sansa (and I’m sure it would in Arya as well if she knew what the youngest Stark girl was up to).
1:59PM – Theon is just following Yara’s lead in their relationship with Dany. He sees himself in an equal partnership with his sister but is happy to let them take the reigns and ride into Westeros. Unrelated, Hodor’s advice when someone asks you to hold a door? Don’t.
2:02PM – Does Sansa retain any of her ideas about romantic love and happiness? Sansa says she’s always on the search for happiness, but the rose-colored glasses are gone. She sees men and the world in general in a different light. She “woke now guys.” She is cautious and trusts no one; man or woman, family or not. And that’s an important skill in when you play the Game of Thrones.
2:05PM – Ser Davos doesn’t have the addiction to the drug that is power, so it’s easier for him to see things clearer than those around him. He doesn’t much miss his smuggling days because he feels like it’s his duty to help guide whoever he is sworn to.
2:07PM – Samwell grew up without a good male role model in his life, so Jon filled that role: a best friend, a brother, a commander, a confident. Then he find Gilly, who had a life of systematic abuse in front of her, so he wanted to save Gilly and her son because Sam knew how important it could be to have one person to believe in them. He feels that Jon passed the baton to him. Now Samwell wants to join Jon in the battle for the Night King but Sam’s battlefield is the Citadel, finding the knowledge to defeat the Night King. Not all battles are fought on the field.
Okay guys, they are opening the floor up to questions from the audience so I’m going to be heading out for my Rick and Morty interviews! It’s gonna get SCHWIFTY!
