No Bran or Hodor? [likely spoilers]

[Brandon the Wise]

Tbh this whole annoyance with the characters' ages not being in sync with the books is pathetic when you consider the other problems with the tv adaption

[Annara Snow]

And they look like adults then? You're absolutely deranged

Seriously? Maisie Williams is 17 and still looks about 12 in the show

Incorrect, Bran was 7 at the start of the books and 10 in the show

Uh, that's exactly what I said? How does his book age matter? Bran was 10 in season 1. Isaac was 10 when he shot the original pilot. What's incorrect about what I said?

[sj4iy]

Uh, that's exactly what I said? How does his book age matter? Bran was 10 in season 1. Isaac was 10 when he shot the original pilot. What's incorrect about what I said?

Yup. Ned is watching Bran shoot arrows, and when the other boys laugh, he says "And which one of you was a marksman at ten?"

Bran is 10. All of them were aged up about 3 years from the books.

[Seneti]

That already kind of happened with Sophie Turner. She suddenly got really tall relative to the cast members that she was normally paired with. And while she doesn't necessarily look like she's aged much over the past 4 years, she definitely doesn't look like a 14 year old anymore (or however old Sansa is supposed to be now on the show). She looks like an 18 year old.

Well, too be fair though, even book Sansa is noted to be a statuesque stunner, so Sophie growing really tall actually brought her closer to her book character.

[PhoenixfromAshes]

It's all over the news now that Isaac is going to reprise his role. Looks like a mistake from Hodor's part. ^_^

[Hiram McDrogon]

It's all over the news now that Isaac is going to reprise his role. Looks like a mistake from Hodor's part. ^_^

I'm not sure if Kristian Nairn ever said that Isaac was going to miss the season, or that he made a mistake. This passage from Slate seems to encapsulate everything that happened:

“We [Hodor and Bran] have a season off and we have a year’s hiatus,” he told the interviewer, “solely because I imagine our storyline is up to the end of the books.”

That explanation of "we" is a big and unjustified jump. I don't think Nairn ever defined "we"; it was just a whole bunch of other people that assumed he was including Isaac. He wasn't so much wrong, as lots of people leapt to conclusions.

[Brandon the Wise]

Bran is widely considered to have the most boring storyline in both the books and the HBO series

Well I disagree with that

[AdmiralKyrd]

This is speculative beyond the books, but my guess is

the actor and actress for Hodor and Meera filmed a goodbye scene with Bran during last year's production that's going to be spliced into episode one or two for Season 5 where they head back to south the Wall. It wouldn't make sense from a production standpoint to bring Kairn and Kendrick for a single scene when they are already on location and know they'll have to do it anyway.

[Lord Lyman]

That wouldn't surprise me. During the commenteries, they always mention how some scenes were originally supposed to be for one episode, but got put into another. Even GRRM mentioned that while he writes an episodes worth of scenes and is credited for said episode. They may in fact be divied up into two different episodes. it all depends how D and D want to tell the story. So moving a scene from last year to this year may not be out of the question.

[of man and wolf]

Bran did look like a boy to me at the start - but I agree that none of the others looked like children, even in Season 1.

What? Arya looked like a lil tiny child in the first season. Sansa also appeared young, but her height has always helped her look a tad older.

[of man and wolf]

And anyways it's a good thing the actors look older than the characters of the books. Did anyone want to watch Drogo have sex with a 14 year old girl?

Does anyone else find it hard to fathom a 15 year old boy leading men into battles and war? Because I do.

When I read the books I even age them up. I'll never understand why GRRM went with those ages.

[Lord Lyman]

And anyways it's a good thing the actors look older than the characters of the books. Did anyone want to watch Drogo have sex with a 14 year old girl?

Does anyone else find it hard to fathom a 15 year old boy leading men into battles and war? Because I do.

When I read the books I even age them up. I'll never understand why GRRM went with those ages.

George went with those ages when he had the 5 year gap in mind. That went out the window and so he was stuck with the current ages of the children. I think he mentioned when the show first started that he would have made the kids older had he known there would be no five year gap.

[Hiram McDrogon]

Does anyone else find it hard to fathom a 15 year old boy leading men into battles and war? Because I do.

When I read the books I even age them up. I'll never understand why GRRM went with those ages.

Yeah, I've always had trouble with that too. As Lord Lyman says, GRRM's planned five-year gap would have made things a bit more "realistic" (to modern eyes), although if I understand that plan correctly, it wouldn't have changed Robb's story at all (the five-year gap coming after the Red Wedding, I assume).

I believe I've heard GRRM reference Joan of Arc as an example of how young people in medieval times could be very influential; Wikipedia tells me that she was around 17 when she was leading people in battle. I suppose there are probably examples in history of 15-year-olds leading people into battles, but I don't know of any.

A few other age comparisons dug up on Wikipedia: Price Arthur (Henry VIII's older brother) was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon at age 11, and married (and soon dead!) at the age of 15. (Catherine always said the marriage was never consummated.) Henry V, who Shakespeare has vaguely taught me was a young warrior-king, fought Agincourt at the age of 29 - but he did have command of some forces (under his father's command) at the age of 16.

Oh, just Googling "young historical military commanders" was more useful in pulling up a couple of listicles:

Top 10 Teenage Military Leaders: including Octavian (the future Augustus Caesar), who was leading his own army at the age of 18. And Alexander the Great, who was leading armies at the age of 17, but didn't become king (after his father's death) until the age of 20.

Junior Generalissimos - Nine of History's Youngest Military Commanders: the closest equivalent here seems to be William the (future) Conqueror defeating a rebel army at the age of 18. Plus Joan of Arc is in the list.

[Beric175]

Grow up people, people will grow up.

[PhoenixfromAshes]

I'm not sure if Kristian Nairn ever said that Isaac was going to miss the season, or that he made a mistake. This passage from Slate seems to encapsulate everything that happened:

That explanation of "we" is a big and unjustified jump. I don't think Nairn ever defined "we"; it was just a whole bunch of other people that assumed he was including Isaac. He wasn't so much wrong, as lots of people leapt to conclusions.

He still made a mistake though, by not making it very clear. Nowadays you gotta be clear with your statements or else you're going to cause a lot of assumptions. Especially now the media is hungry for news.

[Game of Thrones Reference]

He still made a mistake though, by not making it very clear. Nowadays you gotta be clear with your statements or else you're going to cause a lot of assumptions. Especially now the media is hungry for news.

The journalists writing the articles are the ones who made the mistake. They took that one quote way out of context and jumped to wild conclusions with very little evidence. That's the problem with some journalists. They only care about the story, not the facts.

[The Evil Queen]

Season 1 Bran was adorable. Now he's more of a gangly teenager and not so adorable. But why would anybody expect that Bran should still be an adorable child at this point? Bran has had a really rough 3 years. And his story will have him delving further and further into magic. His appearance should change.

That is what I figure. Bran will be going through a rather unique, if stationary, journey and I can't see why that wouldn't age him, physically and mentally. Anyway, its not like all kids hit puberty and change at the same age, it can happen from anywhere between 8 and 16. I recall in high school not seeing one of my male friends for 2 months, he was a little kid then 2 months later he was way taller than me and looked like he had aged a couple years.

[scotcat]

I'm not surprised. They had to manufacture some things for Bran 7 co. to do this season, whereas in the books you can get away with having characters not turn up for the length of a novel. It's entirely possible they filmed some minor scenes at the end of season 4 that never got put into that season & will end up getting shown in season 5.

I can't believe people are still bitching about the fact the show kids are older than their book counterparts.

Seriously, four years down the line & this is what is bothering you? They had to age the kids up a bit. The material is unsuitable for actual kids of that age to do. So the actor playing Bran was 10 in season 1 instead of 7, is it the be all and end all? Dany is supposed to be 13 at the start - can you imagine the brouhaha that would have ensued if they'd had a 13 year ole actress doing that wedding night scene - among others - with Drogo?

For me, I'm far more bothered by the fact that they're missing characters out than aging them up.

[Lady of Butterflies]

I'm not surprised. They had to manufacture some things for Bran 7 co. to do this season, whereas in the books you can get away with having characters not turn up for the length of a novel. It's entirely possible they filmed some minor scenes at the end of season 4 that never got put into that season & will end up getting shown in season 5.

I can't believe people are still bitching about the fact the show kids are older than their book counterparts.

Seriously, four years down the line & this is what is bothering you? They had to age the kids up a bit. The material is unsuitable for actual kids of that age to do. So the actor playing Bran was 10 in season 1 instead of 7, is it the be all and end all? Dany is supposed to be 13 at the start - can you imagine the brouhaha that would have ensued if they'd had a 13 year ole actress doing that wedding night scene - among others - with Drogo?

For me, I'm far more bothered by the fact that they're missing characters out than aging them up.

They won't manufacture things for Bran because he still has one ADWD chapter left.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Is Bran really not going to be in Season 5? They are putting this entire storyline on hold after their big scene in the Season 4 finale?