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Whats the point of the dire wolves?


Ben GT

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As above, as we go further and further into the series the dire wolves are either dead or getting no screen time at all.

I'm beginning to wonder why have the dire wolves at all? Obviously Bran used to warg into his, but that could have been a wild wolf north of the wall, it didn't have to be a particular dire wolf .

Will Ghost have a major role as the things start to clear up?

Dany's dragons clearly have a point and I always believed the wolves would in a similar way but it's becoming clearer they're useless- besides they are on the Stark sidual. Unless I'm missing something...?

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it's sad how real life problems and issues with working with animals has impacted the telling of the story. The Direwolves should have been seen on a level with the Dragons (maybe a notch down) but proper special creatures. They just look like dogs and as the show has gone on have featured less and less because the showrunners find them difficult to work with. really is sad...

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Yep, they should have looked like the wolves used by the Orcs in the Warcraft movie, much larger and ferocious.

I guess they decided that the cost of having them onscreen just as companions to the Starks was too much and they decided to be more pragmatic.

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I was gutted there was no Ghost in the battle.  But I get the feeling he'll be dead when the battle occurs in the books.  I think Ghost's main purpose in the books is to act as an avatar for Jon when Jon is "dead".  That obviously didn't happen in the show....

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The Wolves play a major role in the books....Ghost with Jon, and GRRM has even stated that Nymeria will play a major role in the upcoming books.  Not to mention the Wolves have a lot of symbolism attached to them.

In the show...they don't serve quite as big of a deal.  But they couldn't just axe them out of the series all-together, so they are put in there, even though they don't really serve much of a purpose in the long run.  I'm sure Ghost will still play some sort of role, though.

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They were cool pets in season 1 but then dragons came and devoured their CGI budget.

But really, they were underused af. It'd be awesome if they actually made Grey Wind so big that Robb could ride on him to battles. Instead GW died without a chance to kill at least one tiny little Frey, Shaggydog and Summer died pointlessly, Nymeria has yet to appear again and Ghost is probably still in Jon's resurrection room because I don't think that we've seen him since then.

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9 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

They were cool pets in season 1 but then dragons came and devoured their CGI budget.

 

In season 1 they don't needed any CGI for the direwolfs. They just took normal dogs or wolfes and styled them as puppies. No big deal compared to the CGI nightmare that is needed now to make the big Wolf interact within the movie.

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5 hours ago, Ben GT said:

As above, as we go further and further into the series the dire wolves are either dead or getting no screen time at all.

I'm beginning to wonder why have the dire wolves at all? Obviously Bran used to warg into his, but that could have been a wild wolf north of the wall, it didn't have to be a particular dire wolf .

Will Ghost have a major role as the things start to clear up?

Dany's dragons clearly have a point and I always believed the wolves would in a similar way but it's becoming clearer they're useless- besides they are on the Stark sidual. Unless I'm missing something...?

Because the wolves symbolize everything about the Stark children, each wolf is customized to each child. It's part of the fantasy aspect of the series. If you can't tell from my avatar, it's one of my favorite aspects of the story. Shaggydog I suppose I get, if that's what happens in the books too, but Summer's death just seemed completely unnecessary to me. 

3 hours ago, WinterPool Stark said:

it's sad how real life problems and issues with working with animals has impacted the telling of the story. The Direwolves should have been seen on a level with the Dragons (maybe a notch down) but proper special creatures. They just look like dogs and as the show has gone on have featured less and less because the showrunners find them difficult to work with. really is sad...

I hear that complaint a lot on these boards, but is there any proof of that this is true? 

9 minutes ago, Hodor's Aunt said:

In season 1 they don't needed any CGI for the direwolfs. They just took normal dogs or wolfes and styled them as puppies. No big deal compared to the CGI nightmare that is needed now to make the big Wolf interact within the movie.

Why is it so much harder to make a CGI wolf than a CGI dragon? Or white walker or wight or knights on horses battling each other in the mud? 

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I have an odd theory that the direwolves foreshadow which Starks will survive the Long Night - so at this point, just Jon and Arya. If you notice so far, all the Direwolves have perished before their owners.  If they also foreshadow cause of death maybe Sansa gets executed for some reason and Bran is killed by the Others? I know it's a long shot but as the OP states I really can't see the purpose of the direwolves otherwise - I really can't buy the CGI argument, if they will really wanted to save money/time they could have easily just had the direwolves MIA until important scenes.

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Speaking of Direwolves, where has Nymeria been this season? There were leaks from the set that there was a plot point in the RIverlands involving a large pack of wolves. Will that be in ep. 10, or was it a fake leak intended to misdirect people? It seems the casting call for Wyman Manderly was fake, perhaps this was too. :(

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They will be much more important in the books. Just too much trouble for the show to include time and money wise, and too much difficulty dealing with the actual wolves.  Not much  you can do, animating fur is expensive!

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45 minutes ago, Lord Davos Seaworth said:

I have an odd theory that the direwolves foreshadow which Starks will survive the Long Night - so at this point, just Jon and Arya. If you notice so far, all the Direwolves have perished before their owners.  If they also foreshadow cause of death maybe Sansa gets executed for some reason and Bran is killed by the Others? I know it's a long shot but as the OP states I really can't see the purpose of the direwolves otherwise - I really can't buy the CGI argument, if they will really wanted to save money/time they could have easily just had the direwolves MIA until important scenes.

I don't think that Ghost will survive. I think he would die in the next season or so, and upon his death Jon will get one of 3 Dany's dragons, signifying him moving from his Stark identity to Targ. And I think he would not survive in the books either.

Nymeria.... perhaps.

1 hour ago, CalvoHobbo said:

I hear that complaint a lot on these boards, but is there any proof of that this is true? 

Why is it so much harder to make a CGI wolf than a CGI dragon? Or white walker or wight or knights on horses battling each other in the mud? 

#1 Dragons are mystical creatures, basically create them anyway you like, copy from any video game or movie - you got your "realistic dragon". Wolves, well we all know wolves, if they don't look real or act real or act too much like dogs, to bad proportions, bad moves - its obvious. (Check out Ramsey's last scene - that dog did NOT look real to me, it looked CGI)

#2 In first season they used puppies and dogs, then they decided that those look completely unrealistic for other seasons. So to create wolves, they actually had to use real-life wolves and then size them up. Right now, from what I read, there is only 1 reliable trainer that most filmakers use. He has a small pack of highly trained wolves with one nice white wolf named Quigly for Ghost. However, the trainer and his pack are in high demand. He is off about 10-11 months out of the year doing big budget and nature movies and such in China and etc, so GOT filmakers have extremely limited amount of time film the wolves (maybe like a week or two) and they have to come onsite to Alberta, Canada to do so

So much more expensive and time-limited

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3 hours ago, CalvoHobbo said:

 

I hear that complaint a lot on these boards, but is there any proof of that this is true? 

 

D&D said it themselves; something like;

'We don't like wolves, they don't listen and do their own thing. Dragons are much better behaved' (giggle giggle). Real world problems caused the downfall of the Direwolves from the show

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1 hour ago, WinterPool Stark said:

D&D said it themselves; something like;

'We don't like wolves, they don't listen and do their own thing. Dragons are much better behaved' (giggle giggle). Real world problems caused the downfall of the Direwolves from the show

That's just sad. As someone said earlier, why not just make CG wolves, like in the Warcraft movie?

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5 hours ago, SevasTra82 said:

The Wolves play a major role in the books....Ghost with Jon, and GRRM has even stated that Nymeria will play a major role in the upcoming books.  Not to mention the Wolves have a lot of symbolism attached to them.

In the show...they don't serve quite as big of a deal.  But they couldn't just axe them out of the series all-together, so they are put in there, even though they don't really serve much of a purpose in the long run.  I'm sure Ghost will still play some sort of role, though.

Exactly this. I think Sansa was the only one who didn't warg into Lady. Probably because she died pretty soon, but I'd also guess it was to show how she was the only one disconnected from her Stark heritage.
Also, let's remember there are lots of book things the show had to drop, either because of time, budget or simply unfeasible to translate to TV.
That's why I always say, the show and the books are completely different entities. The end game will be the same such as who will sit on the IT, heck, if there will still be an IT, the future of Westeros, etc, but how we get there, will probably be different.

4 hours ago, CalvoHobbo said:

Because the wolves symbolize everything about the Stark children, each wolf is customized to each child. It's part of the fantasy aspect of the series. If you can't tell from my avatar, it's one of my favorite aspects of the story. Shaggydog I suppose I get, if that's what happens in the books too, but Summer's death just seemed completely unnecessary to me. 

I hear that complaint a lot on these boards, but is there any proof of that this is true? 

Why is it so much harder to make a CGI wolf than a CGI dragon? Or white walker or wight or knights on horses battling each other in the mud? 

The CGI wolf is harder because of the fur and as someone mentioned, as much as they are giant wolves they are somewhat "real" and should resemble the animal. I don't think the WW are CGI or, at least, have that much CGI since there are people with makeup representing them. Also, I do believe the wolves connection with the Stark children would be hard to translate to TV since it's subtle and would require a lot of explanation so they cut that to a minimum, whereas the dragons, well, they fly and fry. :D

50 minutes ago, Drogo_1 said:

I don't understand why people are questioning Ghost not being in the battle, it seems pretty obvious to me, it's an animal with no armor, he would be dead in like, 5 minutes! Didn't Summer's death show ya'll anything? I mean, he had to attack the WW and sacrifice himself so Bran and co. could have a chance at escaping. Though I much hope that's not he goes out and he manages to escape with Bran. And please, George, Hodor too. :ack:

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7 hours ago, CalvoHobbo said:

Because the wolves symbolize everything about the Stark children, each wolf is customized to each child. It's part of the fantasy aspect of the series. If you can't tell from my avatar, it's one of my favorite aspects of the story. Shaggydog I suppose I get, if that's what happens in the books too, but Summer's death just seemed completely unnecessary to me. 

I feel like Summer's death will likely happen in the exact same way in the books.  Just look at his name.  Summer.  It's symbolic to have White Walkers kill Summer... Winter is arriving, and thematically killing what was a very long Summer.

6 hours ago, Lord Davos Seaworth said:

I have an odd theory that the direwolves foreshadow which Starks will survive the Long Night - so at this point, just Jon and Arya. If you notice so far, all the Direwolves have perished before their owners.

No they haven't?  Grey Wind, notably, was killed in his pen, in the aftermath of the Red Wedding.

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