WiC Weekly: December 27-January 2

It was an eventful week in the world of Game of Thrones. Here are are the past week’s top stories:

The hype for Season 6 has begun; Entertainment Weekly released a photo of Bran Stark, returned to the show after a season-long absence and looking pretty sharp.

EW followed up the photo with an interview with Isaac Hempstead Wright, who’s played Bran since the start of the show. This is the first interview with a cast member based entirely around Game of Thrones. The promotional push has begun.

Martin gives us all a big update as to his progress on The Winds of Winter. It might not be the best news in the world, but so far people have been largely understanding.

Next, we take a thorough look at how Jon Snow’s story conforms to the Hero’s Journey, an archetype that turns up again and again in literature. On top of being a fun thought exercise, this analysis provides some clues about the character’s future.

We do a little theory housekeeping at look at the notion that Westeros connects to Essos through the Lands of Always Winter. Use your imaginations, people!

We may have to wait awhile for The Winds of Winter, but this website will allow you to take a deep dive into the sample chapters that have already been released, along with the rest of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels.

Bran is quickly becoming one of the more fascinating aspects of the new season. We speculate on what he might get up to in the new year.

It’s a new year, so it seemed like a good time to discuss our hopes and fears for Game of Thrones Season 6.

Incidentally, the vote is WAY lopsided on this one, but I suppose that’s to be expected.

Christmas is over, but we revisited what a bunch of cast members did during the holidays.

And in what might be the least surprising news ever, Game of Thrones is awarded the title of ‘Most Pirated Show of the Year.’