"Game of Thrones" has diverged quite a bit from George R. R. Martin's fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire," which has been the source material for the HBO fantasy series till Season 6. With Martin's "The Winds of Winter," the sixth instalment in the franchise, yet to be published, the show has more or less charted its own path, but it has still managed to spoil a few plots that are sure to come up in "The Winds of Winter."
For instance, Martin has confirmed that Shireen, who died in the previous season of "Game of Thrones," will die in his book as well. Yet another plot that will be spoiled includes the character Hodor, who died in Sunday's episode titled "The Door." Interestingly, a fan had earlier predicted how Hodor's story would end. On April 20, 2014, "A Song of Ice and Fire" fan Michael A. Ventrella wrote a blog post saying he kept running into Martin in the elevator at a convention.
The final time we ended up together, the conversation went like this:
Me: I finally figured out why you have a character named "Hodor."
Martin: Oh?
Me: I was thinking about your comment about wanting to be an elevator operator. It's clear to me now that "Hodor" is short for "Hold the door."
Martin: (laughing) You don't know how close to the truth you are!
The episode also revealed that Bran has the ability to interact with the events in the past, and possibly alter them forever.
"It's enough of a utility to just be able to look back in time and allow that to inform your decisions in the future, but the fact that you might be able to change time? It's massive. It's unprecedented," actor Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran, told The Hollywood Reporter. "For Bran, it presents a humongous kind of challenge, because we all know from Doctor Who that if you start messing with time, things go wrong. I think the temptation now is definitely there."
"Game of Thrones" airs on Sundays on HBO.
