Seven non-dead ‘Game of Thrones’ characters that we’re pining for in season 5 

Seven non-dead ‘Game of Thrones’ characters that we’re pining for in season 5

These characters may be gone, but they\'re not forgotten, and we\'d like them to come back now, please.

Features Seven non-dead ‘Game of Thrones’ characters that we’re pining for in season 5

has a huge cast and not everyone’s story can be front and center all of the time. We get that. However, we’re over halfway through season 5 and there are some characters we’re really wishing would show up again.

is a show absolutely packed with lead characters and that no one’s fave ever gets enough screentime. Every single episode is full to bursting with a variety of storylines and many lead characters have entire episodes where they don’t show up at all — it’s only after it ends that we’ll realize “oh, there was literally no Jon/Dany/Jaime/whoever this week.” But with only a few episodes left to go in season 5 — each one deviating further and further from the coinciding books — we’re wondering if the original plotlines for some of our favorite absent characters will ever be returned to.

We’re still in mourning for plenty of the show’s best characters — we could have easily watched another three seasons starring Oberyn Martell and we still get sad every time Dany mentions Khal Drogo, but even more frustrating than that, especially for book fans, is missing the characters who are still alive but just aren’t currently being featured. Here’s seven of our favorite characters whose stories didn’t make it into the show this season.

This article contains spoilers for the A Song of Ice and Fire books currently being adapted on the show.

and ASOIAF are still moving towards the same ending

Seriously, if you haven’t read the books and you don’t want to be spoiled for ASOIAF book plots or facts that may show up at some point in

Although Arya’s journey to the Faceless Men in Braavos has been long-awaited, it means that we’ve had to leave some of her most important relationships behind. In last week’s episode “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” she got a rather sharp reminder of her bond with her captor-cum-companion Sandor Clegane when her claims of hating him are judged as a lie. Over the past two seasons, Clegane and Arya developed a grudging mutual respect and protected each other many times and they were undeniably both entertaining and moving to watch as a pair.

The Hound has terrible deeds to his name, but in Westeros, who doesn’t? He’s a complex character with a tragic past and anyone who told Joffrey to stick it is okay by us. The Hound’s fate is canonically uncertain after Arya left him for dead, but it’s heavily implied in the books that he survived and is living a life of repentance. We believe that Clegane has the potential to be a good guy deep down, so we’d love to see his story explored further.

Given that the books and the show both begin from his perspective, and because his Lannister-assisted “fall” out of the tower was one of the catalysts that got the

story started, we’ve always kind of considered Bran one of show’s true main characters in a cast of thousands, so it’s weird to have him totally absent. The fourth and fifth A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which season 5 is based on, occur concurrently, and Bran’s story is followed in the fifth,

. However, the show chose to pass over his arc completely this season.

As the rightful Lord of Winterfell, we can’t imagine that Bran’s gone for good, and we know very little about the strange greensight and Warg powers that the Starks apparently have the potential to develop. We left Bran just as he discovered his magical Three-Eyed Raven mentor and the non-human race called the Children of the Forest, and we have no idea how Bran’s crazy mystical antics are going to ever connect to the rest of the characters and the overall plot. We want answers about this kid, now.

Yara Greyjoy, called Asha in the books, is a point-of-view character in both

season 5. As a matter of fact, the last we saw of her, she seemed to be giving up on her aim to rescue Theon, saying “my brother is dead” once she sees the state that Theon is in, which doesn’t quite match up with what happens in the books.

As Theon loses more and more of himself serving Ramsay Bolton as Reek, the rest of the Greyjoys have a complex storyline as they consider their position in Westeros, and Asha, or Yara, is at the heart of that, with her own motivations and her own relationships. We adore Brienne, of course, but it was nice to have another female warrior character around who had something a bit different to offer and Yara was truly unique and memorable on screen. Maybe this Ironborn plot would make a good arc for season 6?

Another casualty of Arya moving on. Among all the handsome young men on this show, King Robert’s bastard Gendry was one of the handsomest, and he had a nice little bit of shippable chemistry with Arya as well.

combined the separate book plots of two of Robert’s bastards — Gendry did join the Brotherhood Without Banners like in the show, but it was Edric Storm who was originally used for blood magic by Melisandre.

The last we saw of Gendry was in season 3, when Ser Davos Seaworth freed him from Stannis’s clutches. Given that the show’s Brotherhood happily sold Gendry to the Red Woman, it’s unlikely that he returned to them, but he’s presumably still alive, and he does pop up again in the books on Brienne’s quest to find Sansa. We’d quite like to see his face (and his arms) again. His shirt can stay back in season 3.

Where is this wolf? Seriously? Presumably he’s around Castle Black, hanging out off-screen because the show doesn’t want to shell out for animal actors or extra CGI, but we miss seeing the huge, beautiful direwolves that represent House Stark. In the books, Ghost returned to Jon from the wilderness right when he was contemplating Stannis’s offer of legitimacy and ultimately the wolf’s presence and his connection to the old gods played a big part in Jon turning the Baratheon king, and his Lord of Light religion, down.

More importantly, Ghost represents an aspect of Jon Snow’s character and development that the show hasn’t really touched on — the fact that he, like Bran, is a skinchanger and that he has a magical bond with his animal that’s much more than simply master and pet. In the books, Jon has already discovered his ability to see through Ghost’s eyes, but he’s untrained and unaware of his true power. As mentioned, even the books haven’t clued us in to the importance of Warg abilities, but — spoiler alert — Jon and Bran aren’t the only Stark children who can do it.

Now, we did mention that this list would be covering characters who had the potential to return – i.e., known to be alive — and the last time we saw Cat was during season 3’s Red Wedding when her throat was cut by a Frey. We got a heartfelt little reminder of her recently during Sansa’s return to Winterfell, but she is still, as far as the show is concerned, extremely dead. Now, we did already issued a spoiler warning, but we highly suggest that fans who haven’t read the books stop reading here.

Are they gone? Good. We can talk freely now. Bring on Lady Stoneheart. We want to see a very changed Catelyn as the vengeful leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners. The enigmatic Beric Dondarrion, a character the show hasn’t really utilized, gave his life to resurrect Cat mere days after the Red Wedding, which was two seasons ago. Sources have flip-flopped for years about whether this plot would ever actually happen on the show, but seriously, why would you let this opportunity slide? Plus, we’re running low on Starks at this point.

Which ‘Game of Thrones’ character are you missing the most this season?

Related: Our 5 favorite moments from ‘Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken’

A Song of Ice and Fire game of thrones game of thrones season 5 george rr martin

Hodor. Hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor? Hodor!

Seriously though, where the hell is Gendry??? Davos helped him escape and then he vanished. I’m here for the whole list. I get why we’re not seeing Bran and Hodor this season but I still wish they could’ve squeezed them in.

Scrap everyone else, I WANT GENDRY. I’ve been parted from my second (Pod must be first, that lovely bumbling idiot) beloved for far too long. Also, it has been made very clear that Lady Stoneheart isn’t showing up. However much people want her, she just won’t be coming. Some speculate that perhaps another female character (Sansa or Brienne) might take over the role for Stoneheart but that’s just tinfoil for now. I recommend the Game of Thrones podcast from BaldMove. I mean, you would have to subject yourself to the Spoiler section of the podcast in order to have enough of tinfoil for speculation. Anyways..as I was saying GIVE ME GENDRY DAMMIT.

ooh – Brienne and Sansa teamed up could be interesting – riding through the country clearing out their enemies….

I’m kinda hoping that WHEN (its GOT to happen) Gendry comes back, it will be for Arya – lke, Arya now has another Face and is in Westeros probably having to kill someone she once knew/loved (maybe Sansa?) and she has to remember herself.

I’m hoping for that too! That when he shows up again (DAMMIT HE BETTER…HE BETTER) it will be through seeing Arya somehow.

No please don’t bring Gendry back, knowing the writers he’d be dead after five minutes. Just cause they can.

Did the author of this article even bother to do research before posting this article?

The Hound is dead. Brandon Stark and Hodor did not even film at all this season so will not be appearing.

You know what? I can take all sorts of criticism, but not being told that I’m uninformed when I know that I’m not. Did you actually read this piece, or just scan and comment?

1) This is a features article with the theme ‘characters we are missing the presence of, and here’s why they’d work in season 5′ not ‘hey, where are they? What’s going on?’

2) I know perfectly well that Bran and Hodor’s plot is not happening this season. I do not live under a rock. The point of this piece, once again, isn’t ‘yo, where are they? Huh? I’ve never read a news article!’ The fact that they’re not in the season doesn’t eliminate the fact that we want to know what’s going on with them.

3) If you think the Hound is dead, you either haven’t read the books or you aren’t a thorough enough reader to have interpreted them correctly. And as far as the show goes, he ain’t dead til you actually see the body laid out. It’s bizarre to me that you’ve demanded, on two media platforms, that he’s dead and that saying otherwise is some sort of lack of research.

All in all I think you’re taking this article a bit too seriously, like it’s some sort of think piece about season 5 and bad continuity or something, and it just… Isn’t. It’s characters we miss seeing who, according to BOOK CANON, do have the potential to return to the show.

Dude, the hound is DEAD in the books, Biter picked up his hound helmet from his corpse, and he was killing people on the riverlands making everyone think he was the hound, ultil brienne killed him

Meera Reed! And with decent lines and a more developed character.

aswerIt’s my own choice radaronline < my neighbor's ex-wife makes $69 every hour on the laptop . She has been out of a job for seven months but last month her pay check was $12754 just working on the laptop for a few hours.

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