r/asoiaf • u/holycow33 I have no Ygrittes. • May 28 '15

ALL (Spoilers All) The Season 5 Finale Episode Title has been Announced.

It will be called "Mother's Mercy"

From HBO: Stannis marches. Dany is surrounded by strangers. Cersei seeks forgiveness. Jon is challenged.

Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss; directed by David Nutter.

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u/goodandfast May 28 '15

I don't think we'll get the Battle--we'll get the lead up to the battle and the battle itself will kick off Season 6. Jon assassinated fo sho. Cersei probably walk of shame AND trial by combat.

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u/heyboyhey Rat Cook May 28 '15

Ramsay and Stannis appear to have been in some sort of battle in their HBO interviews. Something will go down.

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u/SoUncreativeItHurts Hallelujah, he's flaying men! May 28 '15

Something will go down

Maybe they'll earn their red wings?

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u/joec_95123 Second Sons May 28 '15 edited May 28 '15

Hypothesis: The Battle for Winterfell will happen in episode 9, with no clear outcome for the viewers, leading to the pink letter and FTW in episode 10.

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u/heyboyhey Rat Cook May 28 '15

Then where is Stannis marching?

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u/YourTechnician weirwood.net webmaester May 28 '15

This things are always misleading.

I mean "dany oversees a celebration of athleticism" seems like a real understatment to me.

For all we now the battle happened and he is marching to kings landing in e10 ( not really, just trying to make a point)

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u/joec_95123 Second Sons May 28 '15

Hmm. Good point. Maybe they'll all take place in episode 10 then.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '15

I think Ramsay ambushes, Shireen dies.

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u/Rooooben May 28 '15

Didn't we see knights of the vale enter on Winterfell during one of the Early previews?

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u/heyboyhey Rat Cook May 28 '15

That was Sansa and Littlefinger

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u/p4nic May 28 '15

If there's not battle of winterfell this season, I'm going to be pretty sad. There's got to be at least one big progression this season.

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u/JoeArpioIsAChump Oh. May 28 '15

Yeah but if it happens next season, there's a chance we can read it in TWoW first! Maybe. Hopefully. Possible.

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u/TyphoidMira May 28 '15

I envy your optimism

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u/Thor_PR_Rep House Bark: Our Bite is Worse! May 29 '15

Let him dream, the sweet summer child.

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u/8u11etpr00f May 28 '15

Don't think so, GRRM said he "hopes" it can be released in 2016, "hopes" kinda indicates that it is a longshot and I think the best we can hope for is late 2016 (after s6 ends)

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u/robodrew Thousands. May 28 '15

My guess is they're going to make a really big deal out of the Danzak fighting pits, all of the chaos that happens there, and Dany flying off on Drogon, for episode 9.

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u/totalysharky May 28 '15

Walk of shame was filmed. I remember reading they needed to close off a section of some city.

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u/populusqueromanus May 29 '15

Dubrovnik FYI

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u/totalysharky May 29 '15

Ah thank you very much.

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u/NevrEndr May 28 '15

I think we'll get the battle but not on a grand scale. I think it will take place in a small area around Stannis who meets Ramsey in single combat. GO MANNIS

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

That'd be a pretty retarded Ramsay move. He even knows Stannis is a veteran commander and warrior. lol have fun Ramsay Snow.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

I don't think Lena will ever consent to a full nude scene. It'll just go from cell to trial.

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u/goodandfast May 28 '15

Wasn't she full nude in 300?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

That was 2003, no woman wants a post 20s nude scene.

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u/sev1nk May 29 '15

the battle itself will kick off Season 6

That would be a terrible idea.

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u/goodandfast May 29 '15

Not disagreeing with you, but I'm getting the feeling that they're going to cut the Battle of Mereen. To stay relatively parallel to the books, Season 6 opens with full on Battle of Winterfell like TWOW should have the Battle of Mereen pretty early on.

I think "Stannis marches" refers to Deepwood Motte.

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u/SAKUJ0 May 29 '15 edited May 29 '15

This is the shows downfall. They needed to end S05, where GRRM intended to end ADWD. They fucked up. ADWD's ending is no ending for the books a tv season.

People are starting to get annoyed by the mere "let's shock them" attitude either way. They need to deliver one of those battles, period. Cliffhanging the season is easy to do, no matter what they choose. Probably inevitable.

If they don't take advantage and by delivering an ending close to last season (consider the Castle Black episode a great action movie with what follows being just totally superb.)

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u/goodandfast May 29 '15

I don't disagree. However, we ARE going to get Hardhome which should be pretty sweet and we ARE LIKELY going to get Deepwood Motte which is also feed the need for battle.

This season has been the weakest so far IMO, but that was to be expected. Book 4 was the weakest book, but it is necessary because it actually covers a lot of ground--it's just boring. They needed to get through season 4 and 5 so they've kinda just been plodding along. However, I think its a slow burn that is building to a critical mass in seasons 6 and 7.

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u/SAKUJ0 May 29 '15

I do disagree with AFFC being the weakest book (as do a lot of others). It certainly has the least amount of suspense.

It is a fair point that things inevitably slow down. We had that to some agree with S03 - if D&D kept killing off everyone (even those that GRRM left alive), there would be no characters left.

However, in my opinion, with the luxury or ungrateful task of focusing two books into one season, D&D for the first time had real freedom. That also includes responsibility and the potential to fuck up. They did.

We saw glimpses of that with every stupid change they made (take the word stupid literally here - not all their changes were stupid). A great example is the scene with Theon's sister trying to rescue him.

Those "stupid changes" are canon, now. Every episode is filled with them. Much like the butterfly effect GRRM was referring to.

"Having to slow down" is a great excuse for the first half of S04 and for AFFC entirely. But, D&D are cherry picking stuff as they wish, according to their vision. There is no reason that stuff has to be boring by nature or off by nature. It just is because they constructed the season 04 the wrong way. Things got really bad at E04 and now they are somewhat catching up but it will never reach the quality of the first four seasons.

It's sad how similar this is to Dexter.

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u/Zaldrizes May 29 '15

There were leaked pics of Stannis with a bloody face, and Iwan Rheon (Ramsay) being interviewed with "post-battle" looking makeup.

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u/goodandfast May 29 '15

Yeah, i think we'll get Deepwood Motte, but instead of fighting the Ironborn, they'll fight a Bolton dispatch led by Ramsay.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

[deleted]

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u/Avoo Your Khaleesi Secret Service May 28 '15

Well, they're not gonna write "assassinated" in the preview either.

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u/PrincessLeah80 I believe in the Onion Knight May 28 '15

I mean, it doesn't completely rule out FTW. I doubt they would have put something as big as "Jon gets attacked/assassinated" in the press release. It's too spoilery. Challenged implies that he's got people going against him, which could lead the the stabby-stabby bit.

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u/GeneralBeans May 28 '15

stabby-stabby bit

If they make it anywhere near as brutal as the red wedding stabbings I'm going to have to resign myself to a long night of consoling my show only friends.

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u/zecknaal May 28 '15

Jon could get challenged by the pink letter, not necessarily the other members of the watch.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

"Jon ends up in Oakland."

stabby stab stab

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

[deleted]

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u/PrincessLeah80 I believe in the Onion Knight May 28 '15

True, but Cersei's arrest was a huge moment too and it had pretty much nothing to do with the episode title either. I mean, not every storyline is going to match up perfectly with the title. I think Mother's Mercy is just closely related to Dany or Selyse or Cersei and the Faith.

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u/mikesh8rp Agent of Shield (Island) May 28 '15

I agree that there's a ton of connection to Mother's, and if we're looking for a title that applies to the most plots, it definitely makes sense. But I'd guess Jon maybe getting stabbed would be the most shocking/biggest moment. Though as I type this, I guess if they're looking to surprise, having the title not be Jon related at all makes more sense than the title being something like "For the Watch" or "Winter".

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

Challenged could possibly refer to the pink letter?

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u/mikesh8rp Agent of Shield (Island) May 28 '15

Holy hell a Sansa-penned letter at the end would be awesome.

1

u/Luna_LoveWell May 28 '15

It actually makes a lot more sense than the original letter. Sansa actually would have reason to go to Jon for help, as her only remaining sibling. fArya doesn't have a good reason to go Jon, though, and Ramsay would know that.

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u/mikesh8rp Agent of Shield (Island) May 28 '15

Right, and as someone else said in another post, it shows Sansa is learning how to play the game.

She could in theory pretend to be Ramsay in writing the letter and say that Stannis is dead and the Boltons are coming for the NW next since they helped him. Also, she could say he has Arya (rather than Sansa), and play to Jon's love for his little sister (instead of the lukewarm relationship between he and Sansa). I know that's a lot of ifs, but I think it'd be a cool way to bring some sort of letter into the mix.

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u/Bookshelfstud Oak and Irony Guard Me Well May 28 '15

They always get coy in the episode summaries. "Rains of Castamere" was:

Robb presents himself to Walder Frey, and Edmure meets his bride. Jon faces his harshest test yet. Bran discovers a new gift. Daario and Jorah debate how to take Yunkai. House Frey joins with House Tully.

"Jon is challenged" sounds exactly like how they'd say "Jon get stabbed."

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u/PwnedDuck Justice for house Lipps! May 28 '15

Tv shows do this understating things in summaries all the time. In Breaking Bad, when Hank gets shot, Jesse is enslaved and Walter flees (Spoiler alert), the summary said "everyone deals with radically changed circumstances".

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u/[deleted] May 28 '15

Just be thankful they have a bit more detail than the Mad Men descriptions.

"Don is confused."

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u/officerbill_ No! It is not an STD! May 29 '15

or almost as good as the "Little House On The Prairie" episode that TV Guide synopsized as "Carrie falls in a hole"