Con of Thrones 2019, Day 2: Jaime Lannister speaks!

It’s day two of Con of Thrones here in sunny Nashville! We spent the first day of the festivities getting our bearings and taking in some of what the world’s premiere Game of Thrones celebration has to offer. What fresh wonders will Day 2 offer?

For one thing, there were a lot more people! Friday’s a work day, after all, but the Music City Center was abuzz with fans this time around. Because I spent a lot of time interviewing them about their takes on the final seasons (and their cosplay — some of it is amazing and I can’t wait for you to see it on video), I didn’t have as much time to attend panels today, but I still saw some bangers, starting with…

Lord of the Rings vs. Game of Thrones: World-Building, Prophecies, and Curses, Oh My!

It’s no secret that George R.R. Martin was mightily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings when writing his A Song of Ice and Fire. These panelists teased out the links between the two works. I particularly enjoyed panelist Carole Brown’s take on Smaug, her favorite character from The Hobbit.

Spotlight: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jerome Flynn, Hannah Murray and Miltos Yerolemou

This is the one everyone was waiting for! What do the actor behind Jaime Lannister, Bronn, Gilly and Syrio Forel have to say about Game of Thrones now that it’s over?

Quite a lot, as it ends up. We’ll write up their full comments in another post, but Coster-Waldau in particular had some interesting things to say about the reception of the final season. Also he thought the Harpy of Meereen was an angel because no one’s perfect.

Spotlight: Kieran Belshaw

This interview with longtime Game of Thrones concept artist Kieran Belshaw was fascinating. He walked through many of the changes his work goes through on its way to completion, with visual aids. Did you know that at one time the ceremony where Bran is chosen is king took placed in the ruined Iron Throne room, or that Arya was originally going to bound across rooftops on her way to kill the Night King? Those ideas live on in Belshaw’s concept art.

The Spinoff Panel

Hey, I was on this one! Me and my fellow panelists discussed what little we know about the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel show — the purported title, the cast, the filming — where we’d like it to, whether it seems too similar to the original series, what HBO has to do to make it a hit, and much more. It was a blast!

Con of Thrones Cosplay Contest 2019

Arguably the best part of these cons has been the remarkable cosplay. Let’s let it speak for itself:

A lot of these weren’t actually in the costume parade, but they’re all worth highlighting. Kudos to everyone who came in costume. Y’all are remarkable.

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Also, and I’ll show you all this in video form soon enough, I had a bottlecap shot off my head by the head of Dur Demarion, a Nashville-based Belegarth fighting league. It was a day well spent!

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