New spoilers for major GoT S5 scene, Lhara returns, & a casting call for “flamboyant” villain 

season 5, with the Croatian city representing various parts of Meereen, Braavos and more.

Two of our sources have provided us with information concerning different characters’ plot arcs, all taking place in Essos.

WARNING: As this post is spoiler-ridden, the important information is below the cut.

One of our sources has given us detailed information on one of Daenerys’ season 5 scenes.

The scene takes place on Dany’s terrace in Meereen, and involves her sentencing a slave to death (in Meereenese) before an audience of both masters and slaves. Daario performs the execution, after which chaos erupts. Both parties shout and clash, with only the Unsullied to protect Daenerys and escort her away from the conflict. The scene is apparently lengthy, and will take place in the fourth episode.

Here are some behind the scenes images of the shoot.

Another source has outlined a recent casting call for us.

The character in question is Luther, a powerful, big-bellied head slaver with a penchant for cruelty. Described as a charismatic, extremely dangerous man, he decides the fate of two characters who have been sold into slavery.

The actor will shoot for two weeks in Belfast and Croatia, with filming of his scenes beginning on September 19th.

Lastly, we have a surprising return for season 5. In season 4, a beautiful redhead named Lhara accompanied Salladhor Saan in the Braavos bathhouse, during Davos’ visit with the pirate. According to actress Sarine Sofair‘s CV, she will be appearing in season 5, and her Twitter does include recent mentions of Croatia as well.

Since Braavos is a city of courtesans as well as bankers and sailors, it makes sense they might want to include a familiar face in that area, with the show spending extensive time in Braavos this year.

Thanks to our reader Greenjones for the Sofair tip! Luther sounds like Yezzan in all but name… which is strange, since he has already been cast. Speaking of Yezzan, Enzo Cilenti begins his first day of shooting as the character today in Belfast.

Celebrating the eve of my first day on #GameOfThronesSeason5 with dinner at the fabulous @oxbelfast Wish neither would end.

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Hodor! Looks like we’re definitely getting the intrigue at Dany’s court.

All this sounds like they’re really super committing to the political plot in Meereen this year which is wonderful news. Add in King’s Landing doing what it’s doing, and the Wall too, and it’s going to be a great season.

Oh God they are going full Mereen on us -_-. Barristan save us

That was my first thought as well, very odd!

I wonder if show-Yezzen will be something more like The Shavepate or Grazdan Mo Eraz in character then? Maybe a hybrid role that can take on aspects of various masters and Graces? Even if true I’m not sure why they would swap names…..

Yezzan was never described as particularly cruel was he? I recall Tyrion remarking he wasn’t that bad compared to others. Although it has been a while since I’ve read DWD so I could be wrong.

Could this Luther then be the slave trader himself, casting them away to Yezzan

Since Yezzan has already been cast, could Luther be Game of Thrones’ version of Nurse?

I could see such a character serving as Yezzan’s overseer when Tyrion and Jorah are sold into his service.

That scene with Daenerys sentencing the slave to death sounds like it will have echos of Robb Stark executing Rickard Karstark back in Season 3. A follower of a leader purporting to be just commits a serious crime, and said leader feels like they cannot let the crime go unpunished without compromising what they stand for. They have the perpetrator executed … and suffer from the backlash.

On second thoughts, except for the big belly (but no mention of being incredibly overweight) and the fact that he is a powerful slaver, that doesn’t sound like Yezzan at all.

Yezzan was neither charismatic nor particularly cruel and I don’t remember if he even had any dialogue in the book since he didn’t interact with most of his slaves directly.

Is it wrong when I saw flamboyant villain there was a flicker of hope for Euron?

Will see how it pans out but it’s yet another couple of made up characters. If this guy is there to give a face to the Sons of the Harpy then fair play but I honestly cared very little for what was going on in Mereen. If they can make it more interesting then fair play but I’d rather they not commit too much screen time to it when there’s more itneresting stuff going on in other places.

I thought the same, Euron or Darkstar. I really, really just want to see Darkstar.

in the title, I immediately thought of Reznak, but reading the further description … not Reznak. Luther doesn’t sound ghiscari, so there’s that. Not sure what to make of it, but I’m glad they’re giving Dany some real opposition this time. Her storyline needed it (badly) since … S2, I would say, not counting Kraznys. As much as I disliked Qarth, I thought Spice king was rather awesome.

Yeah me too – ‘flamboyant villain’ I read. ‘Yay Darkstar!’ I went

Dany, time to invent trial by jury of peers, girl!

I think it’s what most people would have thought on seeing that, to be honest.

I understand characters being cut for time and pacing, and if that has to include some favourites, so be it. I wasn’t a great fan of the Belwas character, but many were, and I think they understood he was superfluous, as there was no way people wouldn’t recognise the actor playing Ser Barristan no matter how much of a beard he grew. I even understood Stoneheart not being included, although it was a disappointment, and leaves Brienne at a loose end.

What I’m not quite understanding, and even with this happening GoT is still a fine show, is cutting these characters and replacing them with new ones who are utterly disinteresting, and for some reason usually prostitutes, male or female.

So far we’ve got a few new prostitutes, a few prostitutes from the past returning, and Ramsay’s loopy girlfriend to replace the Greyjoy’s, Arianne, Quentyn, and the “Shy Maid” gang. If there wasn’t time for them, I don’t see how there’s time for these original characters, none of whom set the world on fire in their appearances.

What I’m not quite understanding, and even with this happening GoT is still a fine show, is cutting these characters and replacing them with new ones who are utterly disinteresting, and for some reason usually prostitutes, male or female.

So far we’ve got a few new prostitutes, a few prostitutes from the past returning, and Ramsay’s loopy girlfriend to replace the Greyjoy’s, Arianne, Quentyn, and the “Shy Maid” gang. If there wasn’t time for them, I don’t see how there’s time for these original characters, none of whom set the world on fire in their appearances.

You can’t compare background characters to people like the Greyjoys or Arianne, who have their own plots. The prostitute, for instance, is presumably going to show up in Arya’s storyline.

anyone else, they’re completely unrelated. Did the Spice King in Qarth replace Weese in Harrenhal? Nope.

Yeah, a lot of these small characters will take up very little screen time.

Awesome. This show already has zombies, why not vamp it up?

You could have cut Ros completely and used her screen time to introduce Wyman Manderley for example, in Seasons 1 and 2. If he turns up, his change in character from “jolly fat man” to, well, what he turns into won’t have the same effect, as we’ve never met him before and can’t compare. Or the two young Frey’s (Myranda seems if anything a stand in for Big Walder). Take her out of Season 3 and have the time devoted to Balon’s attempt at breaking the record for the high-dive and introduce Euron. Or re-introduce Quaithe, and get the whole “prophecy” thing going.

The only sensible reason I can think is that the characters cut are filler material in the books, which does spoil certain book plotlines. As I say, still a fine show, but I don’t quite get some of the decisions made.

The difference is that it’s not a one-to-one exchange. The characters that you mention aren’t necessarily being cut or delayed so that Game of Thrones can devote more screentime to its ‘new’/’invented’ characters. They’re being cut or delayed so that Game of Thrones can devote that screentime to

(from the books) like Tyrion, Daenerys, Jon, Arya, Cersei, Jaime, etc. Those characters can’t always interact with each other – they need supporting players to interact with, and those characters exist only to service the ‘main’ characters’ stories. A character like this ‘Luther’ most likely isn’t going to get more than a few seconds of screentime where he isn’t directly interacting with a member of the main cast, so he isn’t replacing anyone (other than maybe a minor character like Nurse). Myranda doesn’t exist because Benioff and Weiss are thinking “She’s so much more interesting than [insert character from the novels here]“. She exists to support Ramsay and Theon’s storyline. If she’s replacing anyone, she’s replacing the Bastard’s Boys – who are extremely minor characters in any sense of the word. And with apologies to the actress playing her, someone like Llara isn’t really a character. She’s basically a featured extra. She appeared in one short scene in Season 4, and if she gets significantly more screentime than that in Season 5, I’ll be surprised.

As for a character like Ros … she’s effectively a compilation character. She took on the roles of several smaller characters (like Alayaya) who did play small but important role in the books – which was an economical way for the show to handle business rather than casting three or four separate actresses to do the same thing. She wound up getting enough screentime that she became a recognizable character, but that’s hardly a reason to resent her. I do not believe that cutting her completely and distributing her plot functions to extras would have given the show sufficient time to introduce Wyman Manderly, as you suggested.

By contrast, characters like Arianne, Quentyn, Euron and Victarion exist in their own storylines in different locations from most of the main cast. To justify their place in the story, the show would need to give them precious screentime out of the ~550 minutes that Game of Thrones has to tell its story each year. If you include those characters, you aren’t taking screentime away from Myranda and Luther. You’re taking screentime away from Theon, Tyrion, Arya, etc.. That may be a tradeoff that you’re willing to make, but not all viewers (especially people who haven’t read the books) might be willing to make that sacrifice.

Game of Thrones already has the largest cast of regular characters and recurring speaking roles any show on TV, and it’s not even remotely close. They can’t include everyone from the books. They simply can’t. A minor, purely supporting character like Myranda or Luther can fade into the background or die the second that they’re no longer relevant to the plot. Someone like Euron or Arianne can’t. They need screentime and resolution if viewers are going to care. The showrunners have to make hard choices, because if they try to jam too many new major characters who need screentime into the show at once, then it’s going to be very hard for them to do justice to their old characters and even harder to do justice to the new ones. And if they can’t service most of their characters sufficiently while also telling a fast-moving, compelling story … then no one is going to be happy.

A Ghiscari named Luther? Next we will have a Targaryen named Kirby?

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New spoilers for major Game of Thrones season 5 scene, Lhara returns, & a casting call for “flamboyant” villain

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