This season, “Game of Thrones” has found itself galvanizing its fanbase. There are folks that feel that the creative decisions of the final six episodes are a great payoff to the almost-decade of storytelling. Others (let’s call them a very vocal contingent) would tell you that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have sacrificed story for the sake of spectacle. But as seen in a new art book about the series, Benioff and Weiss did show a bit of restraint in Season 7.
As reported by Vanity Fair, a new art book titled “Game of Thrones: The Storyboards,” with art from William Simpson, is set to be released at the end of the month. And while the storyboards are probably worth the price of the book themselves, it’s the annotations to his art that is drawing interest.
In a storyboard for a famous scene in Season 7, during the premiere episode, “Dragonstone,” Bran (boy, what a letdown his story turned out to be, huh?) had a vision of the Night King approaching with his massive army of the dead behind him. In the scene, as it aired, the army is fairly nondescript, as far as the faces go. However, in the storyboards, Simpson drew up an original plan, which would have featured the Night King being followed by his army, which would have included Hodor and Season 5 character Karsi among the legion.
While fans are still recovering from the Hodor reveal and untimely death during Season 6, it might have been too much showing his reanimated corpse among those serving the Night King. Of course, we all assume that Hodor, and many of the other fallen heroes, were part of his undead forces, it was probably best to leave that idea on the cutting room floor.
Karsi might not be a name that immediately jumps out at you, even if you’re a diehard ‘Thrones’ fan. However, for those that remember the names of every character, as well as the side characters that are quick to die, Karsi might be an old favorite. She was part of the famous “Hardhome” episode (perhaps second only to “Battle of the Bastards” as one of the greatest battle episodes of the entire run), where she was shown to be a brave, and very gifted, warrior that paid the ultimate price during the fight with the Night King’s forces.
So, while we might hammer on Benioff and Weiss for being a bit too obsessed with spectacle and shock value, we have to applaud them for not going for cheap reactions with these two appearances.
The finale of “Game of Thrones” airs this Sunday at 9 pm ET.
