We’ve said it a million times before, but “Game of Thrones” fans are a picky bunch. And that’s not a slight in the least. After being trained for almost a decade to hypothesize about what’s going to happen and pick apart lines of dialogue for clues, you better believe that fans are going to have questions when one of the most-talked-about characters gets brushed aside.
And in last Sunday’s episode, fans felt that Ghost, the direwolf that has fought alongside Jon Snow since the beginning, was cast aside in a very underwhelming (if not cruel) way. As Jon Snow was leaving Winterfell, perhaps never coming back, he tells Ghost to stay behind because the South is no place for a direwolf. As if that wasn’t enough to upset fans who have been waiting for more Ghost, Snow doesn’t even stop by his trusty companion to give him one last pet.
According to the episode’s director, David Nutter, in an interview with HuffPo, there was a practical reason for this decision.
“Since the direwolves are kind of CG creations, we felt it best to keep it as simple as possible,” said Nutter. “And I think that it played out much more powerfully that way.”
He added, “Then he just walks off by himself, he turns to Ghost and has this moment with Ghost that I thought was very, very powerful.”
CGI complications aside, one of the actors in the scene feels that there is a logical story reason why Jon would leave Ghost behind.
John Bradley, who plays Samwell Tarly, said, “I think that Jon knows what he’s leaving behind. Jon Snow is a noble man, and he knows all about sacrifice … He knows what he has to keep safe, and he knows he has a responsibility to Ghost and a responsibility to Sam, Gilly and Baby Sam because he knows where they’ll be safe.”
Of course, there are still two episodes remaining for the series, which means that Ghost could show up again and get another moment to shine. However, the way “Game of Thrones” is going, this sure did feel like a real goodbye.
“Game of Thrones” airs on Sunday nights on HBO.
