It's a fact at this point: HBO's Game of Thrones is going to continue separating itself from George R.R. Martin's book series. While many of the core characters and plots will stay the same, some changes both major and minor are on the way. Martin has previously hinted that characters who are still alive in the books would be meeting their end this season, and after last night's season five premiere it looks like we now know the identity of at least one of them.
And no, it has nothing to do with Jon Snow.
Spoiler Alert: Major spoilers ahead for season 5 and A Dance With Dragons. Read on at your own risk.
We are talking about none other than Mance Rayder, the "King Beyond The Wall" who united the various wildling tribes into a fearsome fighting force. Stannis Baratheon wants Mance to kneel and swear his allegiance to the "true" king of Westeros. In exchange, Stannis will grant the opportunity for the wildlings to make a life for themselves south of the wall, if the wildlings agree to fight on Stannis' behalf.
Mance isn't having it. Despite Jon Snow attempting to convince Mance otherwise, Mance isn't willing to sacrifice his ideals, even to potentially save his people.
But his death isn't to be by beheading or hanging. Melisandre instead intends to burn Mance at the stake as an example. And burn he does, screaming and trembling in fear as the flames consume him. It's enough for Jon to feel pity for the man. He puts Mance out of his misery with an arrow through the heart, and the episode fades to black.
Just like that, another major Game of Thrones character meets their untimely end. But this is where things get tricky. Mance is burned at the stake in Martin's A Dance With Dragons, but not really. It was, in fact, an imposter, another wildling by the name of Rattleshirt, made to look like Mance with the help of Melisandre's magic. The sure-fire giveaway in the books is how "Not Really Mance" begs and pleads for his life as he burns, a very not Mance Rayder-like thing to do. Turns out that the real Mance, in exchange for his life, has been sent on a secret mission by Stannis to infiltrate Winterfell, now controlled by Ramsay Bolton. Nobody other than Stannis, Melisandre and Mance himself know this.
None of that appears to the case in the show. We are given no indication that any magical bait-and-switch has taken place.
So is Mance dead, or is he alive? Mance Rayder actor Ciaran Hinds seems to have already definitely answered the question. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hinds seems convinced his character is gone for good.
"In the books there's a lot more than there is in the television series. It's impossible to recreate everything that's in the books. You can't be absolutely faithful to the book, and why would you want to be? It's a different medium. You have to make decisions and bold decisions and there are so many other characters, that there is enough in the pot. I imagine that if Mance were to come back, like in the books, he'd come back in a different guise, as a different person - it wouldn't involve me, probably. Then you have to think: Well, in the story, if you can imagine him coming back, does it make sense for him to still be involved when there's still so much else going on? These are huge decisions [the showrunners] have to deal with and so far they've been dealing with them brilliantly, so far as I can see."
If Mance truly is gone, it will have some far-reaching consequences for other storylines. A Song of Ice and Fire readers will just have to wait and see what those consequences are later in season five.
Check out our full recap of the season five premiere (complete with gifs!) here.
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