Let me throw up the all cap SPOILER WARNING for those wanting to remain completely unspoiled for the upcoming season or for events in the book series, mostly Feast for Crows.
EW caught up with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Spain where he was filming scenes for the upcoming 5th Season of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Fans of George R.R. Martin’s books may scratch their heads at this appearance, since Spain is widely known as the real world location for Dorne and Jaime Lannister hasn’t visited that kingdom in the course of the books.
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EW can apparently confirm that that is going to change in the show. In the wake of Oberyn Martell’s death at the hands of the Mountain and Tywin Lannister’s murder, Jaime will be sent to Dorne on a diplomatic mission to shore up the uneasy alliance between House Martell and House Lannister. This will also presumably mean that Jaime may encounter Myrcella Baratheon, Cersei’s daughter.
Seems a bit of a foolhardy mission, the kind that would take the political and personal finesse that Tywin Lannister had and showed, which House Lannister doesn’t have any more. We’ll see how this goes.
Barring reserving judgment until seeing this development play out, I don’t mind this change. It seems to me like a similar change to when Varys boarded the escape ship with Tyrion at the end of Season 4 instead of staying hidden in King’s Landing. This change will work to keep the show’s main cast together without having to introduce supplementary characters for roles that can be played by existing characters.
In the books, instead of going to play nice with the Martells, Jaime is sent to defeat the last loyal vestiges of the Tullys, Edmure and Blackfish. He actually manages to show some political savviness in these dealings. Perhaps Dorne is just where Jaime will show it instead. Since, as far as the books have gotten, Jaime is still wrapping up those dealings, it’s hard to tell how this change in the show will impact the overall series.
Game of Thrones will return for its fifth season, sometime in spring 2015, presumably. No release date has been announced.
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