Unexpected Character Spotted In Peñíscola, As Meereen Takes a Darker Turn

Rumors abound on how bad it’s getting in Meereen, as filming in Peñíscola enters its second week. We’ve got pictures and reports from Dragons and Direwolves on today’s set up for filming.

Well, since we know the hurricane is actually over the Atlantic, and just finished taking out the state of South Carolina, I’m guessing it’s probably not the weather.

Here’s another shot of the area:

You know, if Tyrion needs to clean up in a hurry, I hear dragon fire is very cleansing.

These pictures add fuel to the fire that the siege of Meereen will be on this coming season, along with yesterday’s rumors that the extras are being made up to look as if they are starving. As to that last point, it’s hard to tell. Check out this video of Meereenese extras heading to filming, and decide for yourself.

Meanwhile, in much bigger spoiler news, another character who we’re sure is definitely dead showed up on set for Season 6. Stop reading here if you don’t want to know. The spoilers and the speculation are heavy down below.

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Are you sure? Peter Dinklage looks pretty pained. It might be for the best is you turn back now.

No?

On your own head be it then.

This literally posted just as I sat down at my desk this morning. As you can see, that’s Sibel Kikelli, who played Tyrion’s (and Tywin’s!) late lover, Shae.

It should be noted that, unlike everyone else, Kikelli does not, at first glance, appear to be in costume. So there is a chance that this is just an actress who happened to stop by the set because she was in Spain, and wanted to see old friends.

BUT. (And everyone loves a Big But.)

What if she is here to film? Let’s go speculation wild!

Book Readers know that Tyrion’s guilt and grief over killing Shae is one of the defining features of his character in A Dance with Dragons, and that his father’s words “Wherever whores go” echo in his head like a bizarre litany over the course of his trip to Meereen. Now, for those who haven’t read that far, part of this is due to an emotional plot complication that the show chose to cut. Just before leaving Tyrion off, Jaime admits that the first wife Tyrion had, Tysha, who his father and Jaime told him was just a whore they’d paid to have sex with him, was actually what she seemed when they met her—a maid on the road. She had really fallen in love with and and married Tyrion. She had never been a whore. Tywin had just forced Jaime to tell Tyrion that, and Jaime has felt guilty all these years, and wants to come clean to Tyrion since this is the last time they’ll see each other.

This revelation is a huge blow to Tyrion, who gets so angry he tells Jaime he killed Joffrey. It’s also what drives him to go to the Hand’s Chambers…where he finds Shae.  Call it the Whore Paradox. In the space of a few minutes, Tyrion learns that the woman he believed was a whore his whole life really loved him, and the woman he though really loved him was a whore.

With this really complicated bit cut, the show freed Tyrion to not wander about muttering about whores for the next few seasons. But they also cut any direct reference to Tyrion’s guilt, other than showing him drinking a whole hell of a lot at the beginning of Season 5. I had wondered, now that they’ve shot through Tyrion’s Essosian journey and installed him as a leader in Meereen (a place he has not made it to in the books, by the way), if they would find time to work in Tyrion’s grief over Shae. Seeing Shae as a ghost, or talking to her apparition as he works through the stress of running a foreign country would certainly be one way to address it. And if the famine (not to mention illness) that is a feature of Meereenese life in the fifth book is also a major factor in this coming season, he could even be hallucinating her alive again.

https://twitter.com/VicentPeris1/status/651013261899497472

Or, you know, she could just be visiting the set to see her friends working on Season 6….

UPDATE: Except!

Also, we’ve got a couple new shots from today’s filming, including a scene with a woman that Varys and Tyrion stop and talk to.

https://twitter.com/VicentPeris1/status/651054443270701056

(Sorry about the sideways bit. But that’s a great shot of the face of the woman.)

https://twitter.com/VicentPeris1/status/651062555012657157

Or maybe the baby is starving to death…

https://twitter.com/VicentPeris1/status/651054777955164160

Next: WiC Weekly: Sept 27th-Oct 3rd