Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week for Game of Thrones I wanted to do a Direwolf
video.
Because the show is playing it a little fast and loose with the books I’ll do a quick
recap of where they all are dead or alive as we head into season 5.
I’m going to spend more time on the ones that are still alive.
For the most part the show has caught up with the Direwolves book story.
Speaking of which, I’m giving away another copy of World of Ice and Fire all you have
to do to enter is be a subscriber and leave a comment on this video.
At a certain point I will talk about some Winds of Winter Direwolf theories that George
RR Martin has confirmed publicly so just general Spoiler Warning for everything through season
4 on the show and the direwolves in the books.
I’m going to skip talking about the characters so don’t worry about spoilers for them.
Starting off, where are they?
Grey Wind was murdered with Robb Stark during the Red Wedding, Lady was killed by Ned Stark
during their journey to King’s Landing, even though Sophie Turner adopted her direwolf
in real life.
Best way for an animal actor to leave a show.
Viggo Mortensen did the same thing with his horse from Lord of the Rings after they finished
the last film.
Nymeria was turned loose by Arya and is still alive, presumed running around in the Riverlands.
A lot of this video will be devoted to her.
Summer is chilling out with Bran and the Bloodraven underneath the giant weirwood north of the
wall.
Shaggydog is in hiding with Rickon and Osha.
I’ll explain more about what’s going on with them since they dropped off the map on
the show and in the books.
and Ghost is at Castle Black with Jon Snow
Up to this point the show hasn’t changed anything major about each of the direwolves
from the books.
They’ve just omitted stuff or brushed over it lightly.
So 4 of the original 6 are still alive and no, I don’t think we’ll see any of them
reanimated by white walkers.
I always get a lot of questions about dead characters people want to see turned into
wights.
One of my favorite things about the direwolves are that they are bonded to the Stark children
just like Dragons bonded with the Valyrians or Daenerys’ dragons bonded with her, to
go with a more current reference.
I’d go so far as to say that the relationship between the Starks and their direwolves is
even closer because of their ability to warg.
I think George RR Martin hasn’t officially said whether or not all the Stark children
are able to warg but it’s implied.
Bran is the only one so far that has actually explored that ability.
But he’s extra special because he’s also a greenseer.
Which is super rare even amongst wargs.
Any time they have dreams of running around it’s a low level passive warg.
I think if all the direwolves were still alive Sansa and Robb would have the dreams too.
The show hasn’t given us Jon or Rickon dreams but that’s only because they’re non-essential
to the stories they’ve told so far.
I’ve already done a video about some of the biggest things the show is NOT doing in
season 5.
I think people are slowly getting used to that.
Because of all the things they’ve cut out I don’t think we’ll see Nymeria, Summer
or Shaggydog anytime soon.
Dave and Dan confirmed we’d open season 5 with a flashback but that Bran’s group
had already passed their book story so the actors are in a holding pattern until the
rest of the show catches up.
Just to clarify, Arya at the end of season 4 is right at the beginning of her story in
Book 4.
But Bran is at the end of his story in book 5.
So there’s no more story to tell for Bran until George RR Martin finishes Winds of Winter.
Unless Dan and Dave make up their own story, which I don’t think any of us want.
So some people on the show are further ahead of their book story than others.
It sounds weird I know.
The problem with not including extra small things is that Nymeria is one of the most
interesting direwolves, Ghost is awesome, but Nymeria is on a very similar arc to Arya
Stark.
Similar but not the same.
I’m going to be talking about book stuff here so I’ll put this spoiler tag up.
Things that George RR Martin says in open public forum aren’t really spoilers but
just in case.
Nymeria is still alive running around the Riverlands.
The last time she was referenced she had created a growing pack of normal wolves.
She’s the size of a pony so she’s always going to be the Alpha.
By the end of book 5 it’s implied that they’ve become a super pack.
Normal wolf packs in real life can get as big as 15.
George RR Martin confirmed that the Nymeria superpack would play an important role in
the future.
He didn’t say how but he made a very chekov’s gun type of joke.
For anyone who’s not a theater geek that just means that an author will never put a
weapon in a story without intending it to be used.
Nymeria’s pack is that weapon.
Although there isn’t a human character pulling the trigger.
I said all the Starks who’s direwolves are still alive have warg dreams.
Arya still has them regardless of where she travels in the world.
Just to avoid crazy season 5 spoilers.
Even though I don’t think season 5 will do any Nymeria scenes here’s what I think
will happen with the super pack in Winds of Winter.
There’s all this tension building as Stannis marches his army to Winterfell to fight the
Boltons and the Freys.
Who are largely fighting amongst themselves anyway.
I’d really like to see the superpack engage the battle when Stannis actually meets the
Bolton/Frey army.
It would be sweet revenge for the Red Wedding.
The riverlands which is where it’s assumed they still are is really far south, but wolves
run so fast that it doesn’t seem ridiculous that they could get involved.
Of all the battles teased in book 5, the battle of Winterfell is the biggest.
I just feel like that would be the biggest payoff.
Okay, so spoilers over.
Here’s my question for you guys.
What do you want to see happen with the direwolves in season 5 or in the books?
Just remember, as winter and white walkers slowly descend on the south and food becomes
more scarce.
Meat is meat and direwolves have to eat.
I know I referenced some winds of winter predictions, there’s still no official release date although
I’d put it sometime in 2016 at this point.
Finger crossed it’s by spring or summer.
I don’t want to have to wait till november 2016.
That reminds me, congratulations to last week’s Book winner, William O’Neill.
You get a copy of World of Ice and Fire.
Please message me on my channel for details.
Quick update on the Telltale Game, some screencaps leaked, I’m not going to post them here
but it looks a lot like Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us.
There were a couple of the main characters.
But I don’t know if the actors on the show did their voices.
I expect the release date to be somewhere between Black Friday and the Second Week in
Decemeber.
Usually new games are released on Tuesdays.
When it gets here, my giveaway will switch to copies of the game.
It’s going to be awesome.
I will do gameplay videos on this channel and my game channel.
Which has been sorely neglected.
Be sure to subscribe to get everything and please leave your requests for future bonus
videos.
I think my next one will be Targaryen Related.
Heads up, because youtube is letting me try out some new beta features.
I’ll still have my special links to other videos here but if you’re watching this
on your mobile phone or tablet you can finally click on them up here at the top.
Everything’s always in the description too but you get the idea.
While you wait for my next bonus video click here to learn more about the big season 5
changes and click here to learn more about ancient Valyria.
Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys tonight!