Warning: The following contains spoilers from the first three seasons of the HBO series Game of Thrones as well as spoilers and speculation regarding George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series that it is based on.
Congratulations to the makers of Game of Thrones for creating a Sunday ritual as obsessive and addicting as the National Football League, but with an even longer offseason. Winter is here, and the offseason is dark and full of terrors. Season Three wrapped up over a month ago but there’s still nine months or so of anticipation and speculation before we get to see Westeros once again.
There are two kinds of Game of Thrones fans: those who have read the books, and those who have not. The two communities have trouble coexisting because one knows more than the other, and yet, like Jon Snow, they both know nothing. We the book readers, still don’t know how it will end, who Jon’s parents are, or even what the name of the series is supposed to mean. As we patiently wait for George R.R. Martin to feed us more knowledge, we also try and figure out who we would like to see playing characters from the later books.
With the recent announcement of Pedro Pascal being cast as Prince Oberyn Martell, also known as The Red Viper of Dorne, we now turn our attention to Euron Greyjoy. Euron, who is often referred to as “Crow’s Eye” is the mysterious uncle of Theon and Asha (renamed Yara on the show) Greyjoy, and younger brother of King Balon Greyjoy, the king of Salt and Rock and Lord of the Iron Islands. He is handsome, clever, brutal, and despised by everyone in his family. It is unclear when he will appear on the show, since the Ironborn timeline on the show has deviated from the books, but it’s never too early to start picking favorites to play the role.
While Theon is being tortured at the Dreadfort, his father Balon is still trying way to hard to be relevant in Westrosi politics. Balon was a distant fifth in the War of Five Kings, but has moved up to third place by virtue of still being alive. I expect in the fourth or fifth season that we will get to see more of the Iron Islands and learn more about their interesting, brain damaged viking religious rituals.
After some thought, the only actor I can see in the role of the Crow’s Eye is Dominic West. I was really bummed out when he said he turned down a Game of Thrones role that was shooting in Iceland last season. Iceland is where they shoot North of the Wall, so most people on the Internet believed he was considered to play Mance Rayder before they cast Ciaran Hinds to play the King Beyond the Wall. West is no stranger to HBO, having brilliantly played the closest thing The Wire had to a protagonist during his five seasons as Baltimore homicide detective Jimmy McNulty. McNulty was one of the great anti-heroes in the history of television, too smart for his own good, a nightmare to supervise, a drunk and a bad father, but also shrewd and charming when he wanted to be. I’ve talked myself into this one. I would love to see Bushy Top trying to rule the Ironborn and get some dragons of his own and whatever else he may have up his sleeve. Why does it take so long for this show to come back!?! I can’t wait.
Dave's Words 