For the kids

[Ser Greguh]

Several years ago, there was an American television program, which like "Game of Thrones" was aired on HBO in the US, called "The Wire". It was an adult show dealing with adult themes, with most of the characters for the first three seasons being policemen, drug dealers, and politicians in the city of Baltimore, exposing and dramatizing the inherent problems in those organizations. It was a fantastic show, and critically acclaimed, very frequently finding its way onto "best of all time" lists, and frequently at the top. Already recognized as great by the end of its third season it came as something of a shock, then, that the fourth season of the show was constructed almost entirely around four fifteen-year-old boys, a group of friends upon whose shoulders the entire dramatic integrity of the drama would rest. The purpose was clear - to explore some of the entrenched problems in American inner city public schools - but nevertheless it was a bold, almost impossible-to-fathom leap of faith, for an established and critically acclaimed show to put so much importance in the hands of four untested young talents. Thankfully that risk paid off, and paid off wonderfully, for the four actors in question, playing a quartet of friends whose paths in life are defined over the course of a school year, gave a performance that has been universally regarded as one of the best teenage ensembles ever committed to film. Those four boys broke our hearts, and I would have been willing to bet that I would never find myself in a position to see anything quite of its sort again.

Instead, I am now making that comparison only a few years later. In seeing one of my favorite stories come to life on the screen, another quartet of young actors has been asked to step up and deliver in much the same way. I was nervous when "Game of Thrones" was announced. Many of us were, and for much the same reason: so much of the drama rests with its children - they are the heart and soul of the story - and we all knew that the performance required from the young actors that would be found for the roles of Arya, Sansa, Bran, and Joffrey would go far beyond what is ordinarily asked of the actors in that age group. A child is often deemed a success at acting if they can hit their mark, look cute, and not horribly stumble over their lines. These roles required so much more, and as with the quartet of kids in The Wire, needed to be absolutely perfect or else damage the integrity of the series in a way from which it would be difficult to recover. It would be possible for the creators to tell a story that resembled Martin's books, by focusing only on the adults and leaving their children in the background, but that would not be A Song of Ice and Fire, only a cheap imitation. By not choosing to do that, the creators, producers, writers, and directors of this television series placed enormous faith in your ability to deliver not just a children's imitation of acting but true, honest, conflicted, and believable performances that capture these characters for all their flaws and virtues.

I can't imagine a greater success. David Benioff and Dan Weiss - and, by extension, all of us fans - were impossibly lucky to have found you. For what you have delivered in the first season of the show went, I think, beyond anyone's reasonable expectations of quality. Each of you brought to life a performance that was not just good, but worthy of the very highest praise, for you have each of you become these characters, through and through, on the screen. I think a lot of people don't fully realize just how difficult what you have done really is, that it was only made possible through not just your talent and guidance, but also through very hard work.

To each of you individually:

Maisie,

You were Arya. I can think of no higher praise. You were Arya. You were Arya. You were Arya so thoroughly, so completely, that there will never be another picture of her in my head.

Arya Stark is among the most beloved of George's characters, a child that starts off as little more than a loveable tomboy, someone who wants to play at fighting with the boys, but is forced to grow up far too quickly and, while she finds she is up to the task, also discovers a darkness inside of her that she must contend with more and more in the seasons to come. We knew from the first moment that you would nail her starting point, for that was more of a child's role. Standing in line to greet the king with a soldier's cap on your head required you to be cute, and you were up to the task, but as the story progressed and things became darker and bleaker, you blossomed as an actress in a way that none of us would have dared hope for.

We get a hint of what's in store in the second episode, where Arya's friend Mycah is attacked by the Prince. After Nymeria steps in and Arya has him at swordpoint, she has be more than just a tomboy but someone who could legitimately make Joffrey afraid for his life. The look you gave was frightening. It is one thing to be physically capable, another to be scary. You nailed it like nobody's business.

Your training interludes with Syrio are a favorite amongst many fans, and the choreography required a precision of movement not often demanded of young actors. Not only did you do it well, you did it LEFT-HANDED, in a show of dedication to the character, and to us, the fans, that went far, far above and beyond any rational expectation. I can picture a scenario in which you had chosen to do your fight scenes right handed, and some petty, whining fan might have come onto our discussion forums and made a criticism of that. The rest of us reasonable folk would have descended upon such a critic like a pack of rabid direwolves. "What," we would have asked this person, the ridicule evident in our tone, "would you honestly expect an actress, a young actress in particular, to fight with her off-hand because of a single line in the books?" It would have seemed ridiculous. Indeed, it was kind of ridiculous, in an amazing sort of way, for I promise you, we would have been perfectly fine with a right-handed Arya! And yet your dedication to the character was so apparent, and your willingness to work your butt off and bring this beloved character to life in the most honest way you knew how, is something that we treasure, even as such dedication blows our minds.

Arya's loss of innocence is, of course, in the moment where she is escaping the killing of her father's men, and a stableboy, a kid not much older than Arya herself is, threatens to bring her to the queen. Rather than submit to him she stabs him with Needle, her beloved sword, and thus begins a journey that is neither pleasant nor cute, but dark and tragic, in which Arya must be ruthless for her survival while still retaining the core of the good person we all know she is. When she is picked up by Yoren and being bullied by two boys was perhaps your best moment of the entire season. "I'm good at killing fat boys," Arya informed the more aggressive of the two, and in that scene you are not just a tomboy but someone we truly believe is capable of hurting them. When Gendry steps in to defuse the fight, he's not protecting you from them. He's protecting them from you. Everyone viewing that scene realized this, and that's because of you: that's your talent, your dedication, your very hard work. So thank you, for your performance that went above and beyond what we dared to hope. There has been talk amongst the fans that you deserve an Emmy nomination. These fans are not joking. If all actors, young and old, were as dedicated, talented, and hard-working as you, the entertainment of this world would be so much more amazing than it already is. Thank you, thank you, and thank you once again.

Sophie,

Your challenge was several-fold. Amongst the fans, Sansa is not the beloved character that her sister is, for she initially sides with the wrong person. She cannot see what we see in Joffrey, she doesn't know what we know about him, and she's blinded by an adolescent infatuation, so much so that she is willing to take his side over the side of her family, an almost unforgiveable offense given the grave context in which we know the story takes place. And yet we understand her. Sansa grew up on songs and stories and in her journey to King's Landing it seems to her as if one of those stories is coming to life. Not only is she hearing this story, it's one in which she gets to participate! That she is intoxicated by such a prospect is unsurprising, and that she is willing to blind herself to the truth, that she is not a character in a Disney movie but rather something much more dark and twisted, is perhaps inevitable. Nevertheless, such a character can be frustrating to watch. Furthermore, you faced the added challenge of the Sansa in the series being further away from her counterpart in the books than any of the other Stark children. The producers' decision to increase the age of the children meant that Sansa was no longer a sweet and innocent eleven-year-old, but a teenager, for whom conflict with her father and tutor come more naturally than they would have in the book. Book Sansa would be horrified by some of the mean things that Series Sansa says to Septa Mordane, and yet, the change felt natural as the true essence of the character remained intact. That is your doing, as much as anything. A lesser performance in your place would have been a true disaster.

Sansa is of course on her way to becoming one of the great beauties of Westeros. When you were cast, any fears of your failing to live up to that aspect of her character were put to rest, at least, but we've all seen the catastrophe that can result when someone gets an acting job because of their pretty face despite not being able to act their way out of a cardboard box. You were almost too pretty for us to believe you were cast for your talent. We'd seen, of course, that you had been acting for much of your life, that you had been in productions, and that you were no stranger to the craft, but there's a world of difference between that and a major television series. And even through the first few episodes, some doubt remained in some of the fans, not because of any specific criticism of the performance but because the character is for many, so thoroughly difficult to like. There was still the sense that you hadn't quite been tested, that you were sufficiently annoying to Arya (as thoroughly befits the character!) but that the character was not yet much more than that and still had the bulk of your journey in front of her. That innocence remained right up until the point where, in the final scene of episode eight, you pleaded for Eddard Stark's life, and the final swan song of Storybook Sansa played out for the whole court to see, in which the heroine of her own story saved her father's life by pleading so sweetly with the gallant but wronged prince.

Though you had shown your quality as an actor many times over throughout the season, any last vestiges of unease was forever put to rest in your performance in its final episode. It was breathtakingly good. You were breathtakingly good. We'd seen a glimpse of your fire when pleading for Lady's life early on, but that was a children's squabble compared to the cataclysm that was to come when Sansa's storybook world flew to pieces on the steps of Baelor's Sept. There was perhaps no resolution in the series quite so satisfying as the look on your face as Sansa recognized Joffrey at long last for the monster he truly is. That scene, often forgotten from the book, became one of the strongest in the entire show, and did so entirely because of the amazing performances put forth by Jack, and most of all, by you. Why is it that actors always seem to act their best when made up to look their worst? You made Sansa in that moment, even to many who found her unbearable in the books, someone we wanted to hug, but also someone we came to realize was suddenly capable of stabbing us in the back if it meant a chance for revenge. Such is the nature of Sansa's cold fury from this point forward, and there is no more doubt, there is nothing but certainty that you will be more than up to the task. Thank you, thank you, and thank you once again.

Isaac,

Bran Stark's journey is neither as arduous nor harrowing as that of his sisters, but it is probably the most intricate. You rose to meet that challenge wonderful, and delivered a quiet performance for a quiet character that was quietly excellent. Bran doesn't get the big scenes. He doesn't fly off the handle, or lash out in rage. That's not his style. He's quiet and contemplative and mature beyond his years, and above everything else he's frightened. Frightened of what is happening to his family, and frightened of what is happening to him, for while we all like to think it would be cool and fun to wake up one morning as Harry Potter, Bran sees his awakening to things he doesn't truly understand and he is more like how we would truly be in such a position. He is terrified, and yet, as a line that was (tragically) cut from the books informed us, that's the only time a man can be brave. Brave enough to be the Stark in Winterfell when his older brother marched off to war, brave enough to face the reality that the loss of the use of his legs meant his dream of becoming a knight could never come to be.

In order to work, your character needed a performance that was subtle and nuanced. Those are words we rarely associate with child actors. It's not as hard to find a kid that can pull off a big scene. The small scenes are the ones that require the more thorough understanding of an actor's craft, and yours was a role full of small scenes, none calling attention to themselves, each perfect in their own subtle way. Much of your acting was opposite Donald Sumpter, who as Maester Luwyn quietly gave one of the better performances of the show. Watching your scenes with him for the first time, I contemplated on how cool, how much fun, and how much of a learning experience it must have been to work with such an experienced and talented actor. On the second viewing, I inevitably thought about what a joy it must have been for him to work with you, such was the strength of your performance in its own right.

This is an enormous and intricate story, and in such a story it is easy to lose the quieter performances as the different threads of the fabric all fight for space. Yours was not lost, and it is the soulfulness and quiet intensity that you brought to the role that made that possible. Bran's big moments are yet to come, though when they come, they are likely to be very, very big. I've no doubt you will handle them with all the skill you've shown thusfar, and that is a great amount of skill indeed. Thank you, thank you, and thank you once again.

Jack,

Where does one start when it comes to King Joffrey Baratheon? I think I will go with an example from the second book, where his Uncle, Tyrion, acting as Hand of the King, feels compelled to go out of his way to prevent King Joffrey from getting a taste for burning people alive. When the average reader sees that, their reaction has to be much like mine was, to say, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." That sort of thinking says a lot about the character. That you have taken that character and translated him so directly from our imaginations to the screen says an incredible amount about your presence and your abilities.

Playing the villain is an interesting concept, made all the more interesting by the fact that there's never just one type of villain. Some take that route because they are weak, or cowardly, and the path of evil is easier than the path of good. Some, like Hannibal Lecter, are evil by nature but constructed in such a way that many in the audience will be secretly rooting for them, for they are smarter and more clever than even the heroes around them. Joffrey is not the sort of villain that anyone will root for. He is twisted and cruel and monstrous, and not even particularly clever. And yet when such a person is given such power, the results are horrifying. With your performance, you've created a character that shows the truth of that, and many times over.

Of all the child characters in the story, I think I was probably the most worried about Joffrey. It's actually very difficult to convincingly play a character so thoroughly repulsive. There's an instinct to humanize, to try to explain his behavior as something other than the obvious unchecked sadism that is practically Joffrey's defining characteristic. And when it is attempted, in lesser hands it comes off as a sort of twisted goofiness, the cackling, maniacal over-the-top blusterers who subconsciously communicate to the audience "This isn't really me, I'm just playing a fun role, see how goofy and psychotic I can be!" Such an interpretation would have made for a disastrous Joffrey Baratheon. He simply is what he is, he's amused by things that make ordinary people recoil, and he's never had an influence in his life that properly curbed such impulses, if such a thing was even possible.

At no point were you anything less than completely and utterly convincing. "Convincing" is a strong word when it comes to a character as extreme as yours. When Joffrey stood in front of the crowd and decided that it hadn't had a good enough show, off came poor Ned's head, and that was that. The realm went to war, tens of thousands died, and all was worth it for that one fleeting moment of amusement. But like many of the other kids, your best performance was at the end of the season, particularly when staring down the petrified singer who dare to conceive a song that ridiculed your father and mother. You didn't even have to say a word, until well after people knew exactly what the score was. Your performance was that good. Your portrayal of your character was that strong. If you were to read the message boards scattered across the Internet that are discussing the show, I think you'll find that your character is thoroughly despised in a way I have to say I have never actually seen before. That's more of an accomplishment than a lot of people realize, and it's exactly as it should be. Thank you, thank you, and thank you once again.

[Patrick Tully]

I'll try my response again - damned SQL errors

Two years ago, I had major doubts about child actors pulling off these roles. I figured we would be lucky to have 1 or 2 come off well. All four kids have filled these roles admirably. I hope none of them run afoul of people who can't seperate their opinions of characters with the talented actors playing them. I also hope they are level headed enough to weather the sudden attention.

[Ferrum Aeternum]

Superb post OP. Couldn't find anything to disagree with.

I too have been very pleasantly surprised by the extreme level of professionalism and attention to detail from the younger actors thus far. Their characters bear a great responsibility for helping carry this sprawling, epic story, and the actors have fulfilled their roles as well as can possibly be expected. Bravo!

[Brandon the Epithetless]

Couldn't agree more, but will also give props to our Robin Arryn - Lino Facioli, who was appropriately disturbing and creepy in the short scenes he was in.

[Erendis]

I agree with you completely. But what I like most, and what makes your opinions stand out to me, is that you've acknowledged all of the main child actors for their good work and effort.

Not to ruin the party or anything, but I'm rather sick of the Arya-hype(Though I should've expected that, since Arya is an easy character to like). This does not mean that I dislike Maisie Williams' portrayal of Arya.

[Rand]

Poor little Art, always the forgotten one!

[A'shaman]

I completely agree with OP, great post.

I must also give great props to Art Parkinson for his part as Rickon. Art looks very, very young, yet he pulled off the Rickon scene's great in my opinion. They were all appropriately disturbing and off-putting ("No they won't"), as well as sweet. You could see the tinge of "wolf blood" in him too. I loved seeing him stroke Shaggydog as he talked with Bran in the crypts.

Maise and Issac were great, but Sophie and Jack were the kid performances that really struck me. Great, great acting. Jack on the Iron Throne was superb, and Sophie's relationship with her father and Septa felt very real to me. I don't think the last two episodes were the only ones she acted amazing in, I think she was great throughout the whole season, it's just that she was most likeable in the last two episodes.

[ferthepoet]

Here's to hoping the trend of great child actors continues into the second season with Pod and the Reeds

[Phoenix]

I completely agree with OP, great post.

I must also give great props to Art Parkinson for his part as Rickon. Art looks very, very young, yet he pulled off the Rickon scene's great in my opinion. They were all appropriately disturbing and off-putting ("No they won't"), as well as sweet. You could see the tinge of "wolf blood" in him too. I loved seeing him stroke Shaggydog as he talked with Bran in the crypts.

Maise and Issac were great, but Sophie and Jack were the kid performances that really struck me. Great, great acting. Jack on the Iron Throne was superb, and Sophie's relationship with her father and Septa felt very real to me. I don't think the last two episodes were the only ones she acted amazing in, I think she was great throughout the whole season, it's just that she was most likeable in the last two episodes.

+1 to the Art Parkinson love. When he walked back into the darkness calling to Shaggydog in that sing-song voice, I cried like a little girl. He did a whole heck of a lot with very, very little.

[The Warmth of Winter]

Great post OP! Someone needs to send that to the actors, seriously.

Everyone was so good. Fierce and bold Arya, quiet and heavy-hearted Bran, crazy and evil Joffrey, Sansa going from trusting to sad and cold. They were all pretty much personified on screen.

[Ramsay Bolton]

I agree with the OP, but Jack is still my favorite of the bunch.

While the others have had 1 or 2 "less than great" scenes, Jack nails Joffrey every single time he's on the screen. I love all the reactions surrounding his character, I expected him to be hated but all the attention he gets is just hilarious.

Still, its great to know that our beloved (or hated) characters are in good hands. This was one of the biggest concerns with me as well, yet I couldn't be happier with the result.

[Ser Greguh]

I felt that Art did a very good job with the role that was given, and I could not have asked for a better Rickon. That said, I didn't feel I could legitimately go out of my way to praise the role, while being honest, without it seeming like very underwhelming praise compared to what I had to say about the four major youth roles. This isn't his fault, it's just that the role (so far) doesn't quite compare in terms of the challenge it poses to an actor. This is also appropriate to the character.

[Morrigan]

Superb post OP. Couldn't find anything to disagree with.

I too have been very pleasantly surprised by the extreme level of professionalism and attention to detail from the younger actors thus far. Their characters bear a great responsibility for helping carry this sprawling, epic story, and the actors have fulfilled their roles as well as can possibly be expected. Bravo!

Thirded (or fourthed or fifthed or whatever). Great tribute to the kids, who performed admirably well. Congrats!

(PS: Maisie, you're still my favourite. <3 :D)