Things We Learned from the Game of Thrones Season 5 Red Carpet Premiere (No Spoilers)

From the cast and crew, we’ve gathered the best parts of the Game of Thrones season 5 premiere including quotes, things you didn’t know and teasers for what’s ahead…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Game of Thrones season 5 is just over a week away from premiering on HBO and the anticipation is reaching a fevered pitch as the show draws nearer.

Everyone is curious where this season will go, especially considering the teasers that show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have given in several interviews while confirming that not only will more characters die this season who aren’t dead in the books, but they will split away from George R.R. Martin’s source material in a couple of other story lines as well.

The show has remained fairly faithful to the overall story from Martin’s five books already released in the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series, but with the series catching up to the novels, the track ahead is more unknown than ever before.

So to get ready for season 5 before our official preview debuts next week, we picked out some of the best moments and quotes from the Game of Thrones season 5 premiere party in San Francisco to prepare for what is about to unfold when the show returns next Sunday night at 9pm on HBO.

REEK IS STILL REEK

Despite a brief moment last season where Alfie Allen was able to play Theon Greyjoy again for at least a day, he’s back to being Ramsay Bolton’s favorite pet this year. While he enjoys working with Iwan Rheon on set, there’s no way Theon likes being stuck under Ramsay’s rule.

“As a character, yeah, I think anyone would hate Ramsey as much as anyone would,” Allen said.

One other surprise from Alfie Allen — he doesn’t actually watch ‘Game of Thrones’.

“I’ve got to be honest I don’t watch it that much anymore,” Allen said.

SER POUNCE IS NO MORE

Somehow King Tommen’s cat appearing on screen last season during a very brief scene shared with his future queen, Margaery Tyrell, made Ser Pounce the most talked about feline since grumpy cat burst into memes across the internet a couple of years ago.

Well sad news for those of you hoping Ser Pounce would be purring his way back onto ‘Game of Thrones’ this season.

“It’s really weird how people get so drawn to a cat. He’s not coming back in season five, sorry guys,” King Tommen’s portrayer, Dean Charles Chapman revealed.

THE VARYS AND TYRION ROAD SHOW

As season 5 picks up after Lord Varys helped Tyrion Lannister escape the capitol following the murder of his father, Tywin Lannister, the two are on the run headed across the narrow sea to parts unknown (for now).

Conleth Hill, who plays Varys, says that there were several reasons his character stuck his nose out to save Tyrion, but through it all his loyalty has always been to the good of the realm. While there aren’t many saviors left standing these days, Tyrion might be just the man for the job.

“Because I think he’s worth saving,” Hill said about Tyrion. “I think he’s one of the few, wholly decent people in King’s Landing even though he’s killed his father and his ex-girlfriend. He’s a good man.”

While he couldn’t confirm where Varys and Tyrion are heading, he does say that the new pair will be traveling quite a bit throughout the first part of season 5.

“It’s a bit of a road movie for a few episodes,” Hill said.

WORLDS COLLIDING

One of the most exciting parts about Game of Thrones season 5 is the way the show runners and writers have teased that for the biggest part of the first few seasons, the characters were being torn apart and spread out across a very wide known universe. Now as the show starts to travel down the path towards the final three seasons, Game of Thrones will condense for the first time ever as characters start to collide together more and more — especially this year.

It’s already well documented that Stannis Baratheon and his red priestess Melisandre are at The Wall and will be sharing a few encounters with Jon Snow as well as Mance Rayder, it appears that there will be more characters coming together as well according to the Kingslayer himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who of course plays Jamie Lannister.

“Some of the storylines, some of the characters who haven’t met before meet. That’s very exciting,” Coster-Waldau teased.

A MUCH DIFFERENT ARYA STARK

Ever since she watched her father’s head get lopped off by King Joffrey in episode 9 from season one, Arya Stark has been on the run to not only escape the evil Lannisters and reunite with whatever family there is left to salvage, but also quietly plotting her revenge against any and all who have wronged her since she first left Winterfell so many years ago.

Unfortunately, Arya has already lost most of her family with her brother Robb and her mother Catelyn butchered at the Red Wedding and as of season 4 she also found out that her Aunt Lysa ‘committed suicide’ at her home in the Vale.

So Arya decided to cash in a coin given to her by Jaqen H’ghar to barter for travel to Braavos where she will seek out the ‘Faceless Man’ who gave it to her before exiting back in season 2.

It seems as Arya starts out new in season 5, she’s more focused on an inward journey of self discovery and her goals have changed dramatically from the girl we’ve known for the past four seasons.

“This coming season, we see her take a whole new path,” Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, said. “She’s been recently stuck on this one emotion to try and get back to her family and try to right what was wrong.

“I think in the new season, we see her kind of reject that a little bit and kind of take her life into her own hands and kind of forget to look out for everyone else and just look out for herself. It’s a much more selfish Arya.”

YOU KNOW NOTHING

Kit Harrington knows lots of things, but it appears fans who meet him can’t wait to tell him he doesn’t known shit after hearing lovely red-headed Ygritte say ‘you know nothing, Jon Snow’ for the better part of three seasons.

“They do like saying that,” Harrington confirmed. “I never thought our show would be one for catch phrases, but that’s one of them.”

One more note for Harrington fans — when it comes time for big fight scenes or even sword battles, he’s not one to allow anyone to step in and perform the dangerous parts of his role. Harrington actually does all of his own stunts on ‘Game of Thrones’ and he loves it.

“I love the sword fighting. I throw myself into it,” Harrington said. The secret to sword play is having a stuntman opposite you who knows what he’s doing and can make you look good.”

TEASERS FOR THE WINDS OF WINTER

Unlike past seasons of ‘Game of Thrones’, George R.R. Martin won’t be writing a script for an episode this year like he has done for every other season of the series. He’s busy at work putting the final chapters together for the sixth book in the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series together called ‘The Winds of Winter’.

He released a new chapter on Thursday with Sansa Stark taking center stage (for the first time since 2005) and now he’s teasing even more travel coming up for his book that will likely be released in 2016.

It appears that the Lannisters and the Tyrells will both be playing a major part in the final two installments of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ as we travel to their homelands for the first time ever.

“In the book I’m writing now, there’s still locations we haven’t seen yet. We’ve got to get to Casterly Rock eventually, we’ve got to Highgarden and people may like that, too. I’m looking forward writing about those two locations,” Martin said.

When it comes to locations, Martin also confirmed that there is one part of Westeros he’s always been partial to more than any other,  although judging by how many Starks he killed in the first three books, you certainly wouldn’t know it.

“I’ll always be a North man at heart,” Martin said.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

For the past four seasons, Daenerys Targaryen has gone from being a frightened girl once handed over to a Dothraki Khal as a gift to the ruler over three kingdoms after she invaded while simultaneously freeing hundreds of thousands of slaves.

But as we saw last season, Daenerys is finally in charge, but now she has to learn how to rule. Conquering a city is one thing — governing it is completely another. She’s finding that out the hard way as cities revolt, slave masters continue to resist and her wayward dragons are out of control.

But don’t fret too much, as actress Emilia Clarke teased, Daenarys will have plenty to learn this season but her goal to reclaim the Iron Throne remains the same.

“I think everybody can learn a couple of lessons. But I feel she is getting closer (to Westeros) with every episode, let alone every season,” Clarke said. “You’ll see some of those lessons being learned this season.”

There you have it ‘Game of Thrones’ fans. Plenty of material to soak in ahead of the season 5 premiere next Sunday night on HBO at 9pm ET/PT.