Brandon Nowalk is a freelance television and film critic whose work has appeared at The A.V. Club, Indiewire, Salon, and more. He’s just begun two new series at the blog he never updates, But What She Said. He thinks it’s time to resurrect King Renly already. He’s also written for us before about Thrones and Outlander, and will be providing Unsullied analysis for us going forward. 

When Tyrion and Varys decided to take a trip across the pond in the Season 4 finale, I naturally hoped that might eventually lead them to a particular bed-and-breakfast in Slaver’s Bay, which I hear is lovely this time of year. But given the pace of things in Essos, I never expected they’d be considering the journey so soon. Then along comes the Season 5 trailer, priming us for just such an event. It’s a low-def bootleg cam on YouTube, so I’m not positive what I’m looking at part of the time, but it gets its point across: “Who said anything about ‘him’?”

Game of Thrones has been trending away from its macho patriarchs and toward its more cunning women since day one, and look how far it’s come….

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Maisie Williams – Arya (Season 4 Game of Thrones)

Maisie Williams, who portrays Arys Stark on Game of Thrones, held court in her very first Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), this morning. As AMA’s go, Maisie’s was one of the better ones I’ve seen in a while. The actress answered all sorts of questions, from her Game of Thrones filming, to her upcoming role in The Last of Us, and for a first timer to the world of AMA’s, she did rather well.

See what she had to say about Game of Thrones, after the jump

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The Winds of Winter book cover

UPDATE: The language  that Jane Johnson used is very careful and easily misinterpreted. All she’s said is that The Winds of Winter is not currently on the schedule, but since she stresses the importance of the novel, it’s fairly clear that it would be published as soon as possible. For comparison’s sake, A Dance with Dragons was announced in March of 2011, and published in July–that can still happen with Winds in 2015.

Original story below.

The release date for George R R Martin’s 6th book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series has been rumored, speculated and unconfirmed, but now it’s official. According to Time who scooped-up the story from The Guardian, Martin’s publisher finally has confirmed that The Winds of Winter will not be published in 2015.

See what will be published in 2015, after the jump

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We’ve had our first good look at the Season 5 trailer of Game of Thrones, and we’re getting more and more hyped for the season. But this season is going to be much more of a loose adaptation, thanks to the size and difficulty of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

So for readers, here are five of our biggest questions about the new season….

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UPDATE 2: Commenter john has pointed us to a new, slightly higher-quality version from YouTube user David Dutton. Some of the faces in this one are much easier to see.

UPDATE: User adelaido Rahl has the full version, which is now below.

YouTube user ShempyFiddles has uploaded the first Season 5 trailer, which was shown at IMAX. It’s good enough to watch, though not top quality–hopefully we’ll get that soon. Check it out after the jump…

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Arya Stark water dancing in Season 4

Maisie Williams had some interesting things to say on Arya’s journey in the upcoming Season 5 of Game of Thrones, when Access Hollywood talked to the actress during the a pre-SAG awards party.

“I say this every year, it’s like, ‘Arya’s changed,’ but this year, as an actor, it was quite difficult for me because ‘Game of Thrones’ is sort of my safety net, my comfort blanket, because I come back every single year and it’s the same crew and stuff. This year was the first year that I was kind of like, ‘This is not the Arya that I am used to.’ And yeah, it was a big jump and I’m really nervous actually, for everyone to see it.”

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WesterosCraft (King’s Landing)

The world-wide popularity of George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and HBO’s Game of Thrones, has spawned a dedicated and ravenous fan-based community. From websites such as WiC, to fan-made YouTube videos, the ASOIAF/GoT community continues to grow every day. As part of that wonderful fan-base, a group of Minecraft players, have been meticulously constructing the continent of Westeros, and in the process, have grown their own community, as well.

See the video, narrated by Issac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark),

after the jump.

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Yesterday, as part of the marketing hype for Game of Thrones in IMAX, we got a video of Benioff and Weiss having just watched “The Watchers on the Wall/The Children” on the big screen. I was focused on what they were saying in the video, and their emotional reaction to seeing their work writ large, and completely missed something.

That something (which is spoilery!)–below….

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Bigger! Lavish! Bloodier! At this point the only thing the cast of Game of Thrones hasn’t said about this coming season is that it will be more “EXTREME!” Emilia Clarke is no exception, though her tack while talking to Access Hollywood was probably a little more telling. After all, “bloodier” doesn’t tell you much, except maybe that the prop depart worked overtime. “Lavish” doesn’t tell you much except that when the budget numbers are released for this season, they’ll probably be higher than usual. But this?

“You know how you can watch the YouTube reactions to the crazy stuff we do? There’s gonna be a bunch of those this season,” [Clarke] said. “Like, a couple.”

“Unsullied Watch Game of Thrones” videos are something of a cottage industry on YouTube. With perhaps the sole exception of Season 2, every year of the show has had at least one major shock!death, from Ned in “Baelor” to Oberyn last year.

We’re going to delve into some spoilery speculation below. Beware!

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Yi Li is a London student studying public policy. She previously wrote on teenagers in Game of Thrones, and is a member of our Small Council.

Game of Thrones is so rife with ethical dilemmas and dueling political philosophies that it’s awfully tempting to see its characters as stand-ins for a particular point of view. Being someone who’s studied a good deal of political and ethical philosophy, I’ve often tried, as Jake Emen did in his piece earlier this month, to find in the musings, decisions, and declarations of Ned and Dany and Jon and all the rest, a consistent worldview that I could find mirrored in philosophical texts.

But here’s the trouble: Well-drawn characters, like most real people, are not armchair philosophers. They’ve not developed their own systems of ideas about the nature of the good and right. They don’t devote time thinking about the underlying principle that underlies their beliefs. When presented with a moral decision, they just do what seems right to them in that particular situation— even if sometimes, they don’t exactly know why it seems right.

In fact, there’s really only one well-developed moral theory in Westeros’ cultural milieu: The idea that what’s right is what’s honorable….

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Game of Thrones debuts in IMAX tomorrow night. Even though IMAX executives admitted that they hadn’t expected it to do that well, tickets are selling out. Meanwhile producers Benioff and Weiss got an early look, and EW has their reaction.

“I’m still kind of in shock,” Weiss said…. “It’s a completely different viewing experience, one that’s so immersive and so superior.”

Check out the screen grab above–they look in shock. Non-spoilery details below.

ETA: Video now embedded below.

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Box Office numbers are not yet available, but word is ticket sales for the IMAX screenings of Season 4’s last two episodes, “Watchers on the Wall/The Children” has exceeded industry expectations.

According to EW.com, the people at IMAX only expected an initial burst of fan interest when tickets went on sale. Then they would “hit the wall” and decline….Sources say an average weekend take for an IMAX theater is $4000-$5000 per screen, but Thrones is tracking like it’s going to easily exceed that.”

More after the jump….

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