Hey Youtubers, it’s Charlie! A lot of you have been asking for a Game of Thrones bonus video.
Like a nice long one, like I used to do when the season was going on.
So, this is going to be all about the Citadel.
That's the place where people go to learn to be Maesters.
The show hasn't sent a lot of time there yet. So, I'll start with book stuff that they've already skipped.
Then I'll explain how they show might be able to use it in season five and season six.
We are almost in the home stretch, in terms of the show coming back.
So, I'll also explain what my bonus video schedule is going to be at the end of this video.
And the giveaway is continuing,
all you need to do to enter that, is be a subscriber and leave a comment on this video.
I'll just be naming new winners every time I post a new bonus video.
So, now everybody pull out your maps of Westeros, and scan all the way down to Oldtown.
Right down here in the Reach, Oldtown. This is where the Citadel is.
There are disputes about who deserves credit for creating it, but,
the books suggest it was a person named Prince Paramour Hightower.
Also known as, Paramour the Twisted because of physical birth defects.
He malformed spine that made him hunch over and one of his arms was never fully developed.
He was kind of a Tyrion type character, very highly learned,
but very put upon because of the way he looked.
His father was King Uther Hightower.
They lived around the same time that Brandon Stark, Brandon the Builder was alive.
This would have been around somewhere in the early years after the Long Night had ended.
and everyone started rebuilding the kingdoms and remember, yes,
because Aegon the Conquerer had not united the seven kingdoms,
there was still a bunch of different kings all over Westeros.
The Hightower's at the time were just very, very powerful, very rich.
King Uther as part of this big post-war rebuilding effort,
hired Brandon the Builder, or one of his sons,
to rebuild what he called "The Hightower". That's, like, his castle.
It used to be made of wood, but he had it remade of stone. It was so big,
that it became one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
His son, Paramour; because he wasn't ever going to become King, he was the second son,
chose to spend his money patronizing academia.
So he had people from all over the world; wizards, mages, sorcerers
anyone who was highly learned, come to Oldtown so that they could learn from each other.
When he died, when Paramour died, his older brother became King
and granted the land that they had been using to those people that his family had been funding.
They were the ones who officially created the citadel, and the order of maesters.
So before that, the maesters hadn't existed. It was just much more loose association of scholars.
After they got the land and they formed the citadel, it became a formal order.
Some really fun facts. So we met Qyburn at the end of season four on the show.
He is not a maester. He was excised from the order while he was studying to be a maester,
because of the work he did in Necromancy.
Originally, whenever Prince Paramour first started bringing scholars to Oldtown,
he was open to just about anything.
Nowadays though, maesters frown upon magic and the dark arts.
There is an arch-maester for the study of magic and the occult.
In the books in present day his name is Marwyn the Mage,
Each of the links that a maester forms in his chain is representative of an order of study.
They just, it's like sixteen different chain links, I think.
All representing the different metals known to man.
The coolest being Valerian steel that's the one that represents magic and the occult.
When you want to learn one of those disciplines and form the link in the chain you go to an arch-maester.
They're basically, like, the masters of what ever that particular area of study is, but
as an arch-maester they also gain the right to sit on the Conclave.That's the governing body of the citadel.
They're the ones that appoint the Grand Maester
Who is is actually Grand Maester Pycelle on the show right now.
The reason they wear chains is to represent their life of servitude
It's more of a symbolic thing, like, their are not actually going to get chained to stuff.
Unless, they get chained down in the black cells.
Which Tyrion actually did to Maester Pycelle during season two.
For those that are asking, though. No, there is no obsidian link in the chain.
Obsidian technically isn't a metal, it's more of a stone that you carve.
You might also know it as dragonglass. That's what Samwell's dagger was made of.
The one he used to kill the whitewalker.
Some of you may not know that Oberyn Martell, for instance, studied at the Citadel to become a maester for awhile.
He formed six links in his maesters chain before he got tired of it and quit and went on.
He's an amazing man. But he has, like, a really short attention span.
Although, technically six links is not a short attention span, that takes a lot of work.
Becoming a maester is kinda like taking the black, though. You're entering a life of servitude.
So, if you're a noble member of a noble house, it's usually frowned upon.
But if you are a normal lowborn person it's actually a pretty awesome thing to do.
I feel like where we are in the books right now, like, in present day before Winds of Winter
the Citadel is becoming a much bigger part of the story.
But, on the show they almost completely avoided it.
Because most of the characters are looking for knowledge about,
you know, dragons, whitewalkers, ancient magic.
There are very few places they can go to get that.
There are scrolls, like at the Night's Watch. Samwell, you see him trying to read scrolls,
but usually they just fall apart whenever he touches them.
So, the Citadel is one of the only places that you can go to learn more about that.
Marwyn the Mage actually in present day,
would be the person to talk to.
Just because he's the arch-maester for magic and the occult.
But since we haven't seen him on the show, it's entirely possible that they've completely cut him out.
So now I'm just going to talk a little bit about season five,
season six, where I think that the show can go with the Citadel.
So careful for spoilers for everything up through season four.
It remains to be seen whether or not we're actually going to go to the Citadel in season five.
I've seen a lot of sets that look like they could be the Citadel.
I mean it sits on the Honeywine, so it's like a big stone building that sits on a river.
I've seen some sets that look like that but, I think their mostly for Dorne and the Braavos locations.
Most of the people associated with the Citadel, in the books, are secondary characters.
and as we've seen like, Young Griff, for instance the show tends to cut a lot of things out.
Arienne Martell is probably the biggest example.
Typically what they do in those situtations though,
is that they take the storylines and just give those parts to other characters
So it's possible they could give, like, the Citadel/Marwyn the Mage part to Tyrion in season five.
I'm really hoping they don't.
But, based on some the behind the scenes images
for end points, you know, like really spoilery stuff that I'm not going to post here just because it is super spoilery.
I do think that we will see a very particular Samwell scene at the end of season five.
For those who have read the books, just use spoiler tags if you want to talk about it.
It really gets you excited for Samwell's character, though.
I really am hoping that they don't dramatically alter Samwell's story.
As far as we know, if you following along in the books.
I think that season five will largely take up most of books four and five.
There will be probably a few things that they won't do, they'll save for season six.
But, for the most part they'll end with the ends of books four and five.
If you do want to catch up and you're not like a big reader
I'd recommend listening to the audiobooks,
you can totally get it all in before season five starts.
Cool thing about the Citadel, though. Is that it's such a place of learning
that it's like where you have to go to get books on stuff.
So, like Tyrion wants to learn more about dragons, has to go to the Citadel.
Qyburn wants to learn more about necromancy, has to go to the Citadel. Even though he was kicked out.
Really, I think that they will have to go there at some point,
and it's an amazing location that we haven't seen yet.
When the show does go there and you know, fingers crossed that they actually end up doing that.
I think logically what they would do is they would show us the Hightower first.
It would be like seeing the Titan of Braavos, you know, like this giant wonder of the world
The Citadel is very impressive but, when you are talking about physical landmarks,
like, little things that look amazing from a far distance, it's really the Hightower that you want to see.
Just imagine one of Daenerys' dragons, or like Drogon
perched on top of the Hightower in, like, season seven or something like that.
That's just my fantasy. That hasn't happened. That not like a book thing or anything.
Really when everyone thinks about dragons coming to Westeros, they're always thinking about King's Landing.
Oldtown is just one of those other big, really notable locations. Especially in terms of Westerosi history.
Let me know, what do you think though?
Do you think that we will actually see Oldtown on the show?
Like, we'll see the Citadel on the show or do you think they'll just cut it out completely?
I think right now in terms of other big forces. The show is prioritizing the Faith of the Seven,
just because they cast the High Sparrow, and he's such a big character.
It makes you think about The War of Five Kings in this really different light.
So, like you have all these different lords and kings fighting over the same territory.
But then, on another level you have these supernatural forces like
the whitewalkers, the Great Other, and the Red God fighting each other for control of the world.
And then another level, you have all these organizations pushing their own agendas.
Like the Faith of the Seven, the Citadel, or the Conclave of arch-maesters at the Citadel.
The Iron Bank and the Faceless Men.
I think as we get to each new season,
they will take time to kinda push new organizations to the forefront.
Like in season four, the Iron Bank was a big antagonist to Stannis.
This year in season five, the Faith of the Seven is going to be a big antagonist.
So, it's totally possible that in season six the Conclave of Arch-maesters could also be a big antagonist.
It's all going to be a lot of fun. So, don't worry even if the show doesn't go there, we still have Winds of Winter.
Marywn the Mage, though. Keep your eyes peeled for Marwyn the Mage.
I am so excited about that character.
I think one of my favorite things about the characters, whether it be on the show or in the books,
is when, you know, the lesser characters get this mega call to action that dramatically alters their trajectory.
Just as a quick update for other bonus videos that I am working on,
just because I spent so much time talking about Citadels and maesters.
I think my next bonus video will pry be for Qyburn, just because
he is such an oddball, in the books.
He is so much fun. We have only seen a little bit of him on the show.
So, I will talk about both book and show stuff. Whenever I do that video.
I'll try to post that next week so be sure to subscribe to get it.
If there are specific bonus videos that you guys want to see, like specific topics,
just leave requests in the comments.
Like, I'm always happy to get to everything. .
we have about twelve weeks, a little more than twelve weeks before the show gets here.
So, almost in the home stretch
Congratulations to this weeks giveaway winner, Layla Willow.
you win a twenty dollar Amazon gift card.
Be sure to message me on my channel for details, just so I can get your contact info.
Right now if you are on your mobile phone or on a tablet,
there's new mobile links you can click on up here.
It's the same as the links over here,
but you can click here to learn about another big organization in season five,
the Faceless Men, in Braavos.
and click here for all my other season five bonus videos.
Thank you so much for watching! So let's all high five.
I'll see you guys tonight.