WiCNet’s Top Ten Posts of 2015

Happy New Year’s Eve, all! It’s been an eventful year for Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire—the fifth season of the show rocked the fanbase, rumors about The Winds of Winter continued to fly, and the filming period for Season 6 was perhaps the busiest in the show’s history, in no small part because of the massive interest in whether a certain mopey Night’s Watchman was alive or dead. We’re going to celebrate by looking back at some of the biggest posts from the past 12 months, barring stuff like episode recaps, as determined by your clicks.

One of our biggest posts of the year was also a bit of a downer. Jane Johnson, the editor for the Song of Ice and Fire novels, echoed the sentiments of many fans when she bemoaned how the show is straying from the source material.

Incidentally, she made these comments around the time Barristan Selmy died in “Sons of the Harpy,” so we can only imagine what she had to say by the end of the season.

On the lighter side of things, Game of Thrones isn’t appealing purely for the story—it’s also a marvel of production design, costuming, and makeup. With that in mind, our rankings of the 25 Best Hairstyles on the show went over very well.

Another, more up-to-date fashion post: the 25 Best Looks from Game of Thrones Season 5.

Moving on to speculation about Season 6, there’s one topic all but guaranteed to get A Song of Ice and Fire fans talking: Lady Stoneheart.

Speaking of speculation, we had fun before Season 5 began thinking about whether Griff and Young Griff, two important characters from A Dance with Dragons, would make their debut on the show. Wishful thinking, in hindsight.

There but for the grace of an overactive imagination…early in the year, a very interesting letter surfaced. It was a letter George R.R. Martin wrote to his publisher during the early stages of writing A Game of Thrones, and it outlined how he imagined the series progressing. To put it lightly, his initial ideas transformed considerably over time.

Since it happened, we’ve written a few times on Sansa’s wedding night with Ramsay Bolton, about the event itself, the fan reaction to it, and the real-life dimensions of it. The most popular post on the topic was the first, when Ani Bundel broke down how the community was feeling.

Of course Jon Snow was going to show up on this list somewhere. First, writer David “Razor” Harris’ obstinance in the face of Snow’s apparent death racked up clicks…

…and then there was a revelation about what, if anything, the future holds for the 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.

As I said above, the filming period for Game of Thrones Season 6 was probably the busiest in the show’s history. Check out some of the new characters, including several taken straight from the books, who we’ll be dealing with in 2016.

Who doesn’t love a good Game of Thrones fan theory? This one, on the Grand Northern Conspiracy, proved especially popular.

Lastly, we catalog the 33 Most Stunning Deaths on Game of Thrones, Seasons 1-4. Probably due for an update ahead of Season 6, if we can bear it.

See you all in the new year!

(I realize that there are actually 14 posts on this roundup, but I’m grouping together the two fashion-related slideshows, the Stoneheart posts, the Jon Snow articles, and the Season 6 casting calls. Is that cheating? Probably.)