#outsidewesteros

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ASOIAF fancasting –> The Dothraki: Zoë Robins as Jhiqui

“ ‘You are too skinny for him,’ Jhiqui was saying. ‘You are almost a boy. Rakharo does not bed with boys. This is known.’ Irri bristled back. ‘It is known that you are almost a cow. Rakharo does not bed with cows.’ ”

Ms Robins matches really nicely with my fancast for Irri, in my quest to provide a face for female characters who are far too easily relegated to the background.

More fancasts beyond Westeros

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ASOIAF fancasting --> The Stormlands: Brooke Williams as Johanna Swann

Amongst those thus enslaved was Lady Johanna Swann, a fifteen-year-old niece of the Lord of Stonehelm. When her infamously niggardly uncle refused to pay the ransom, she was sold to a pillow house, where she rose to become the celebrated courtesan known as the Black Swan, and ruler of Lys in all but name.

Yet another victimized woman who was completely let down by her male relatives, I bet she at least gave a smirk when the realm of Westeros erupted into the Dance of the Dragons.

More Stormlands fancasting here

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ASOIAF fancasting –> Beyond Westeros: Gina Torres as Kojja Mo

‘There is the coast of Dorne. Sand and rocks and scorpions, and no good anchorage for hundreds of leagues. You can swim there if you like, and walk to Oldtown. You will need to cross the deep desert and climb some mountains and swim the Torrentine. Or else you could go to Gilly.’

‘You do not understand. Last night we...’

‘... honored your dead, and the gods who made you both. Xhondo did the same. I had the child, else I would have been with him. All you Westerosi make a shame of loving. There is no shame in loving. If your septons say there is, your seven gods must be demons. In the isles we know better. Our gods gave us legs to run with, noses to smell with, hands to touch and feel. What mad cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must forever keep them shut, and never look at all the beauty in the world? Only a monster god, a demon of the darkness.’

I know Kojja is supposed to be a full Summer Islander... but I like Gina Torres in this role in my head so much that I’m willing to headcanon her as having slightly mixed blood. After all, her father is a trader and a sailor.

More fancasts from beyond Westeros

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ASOIAF fancasting --> Dorne: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Queen Nymeria

“When Mors Martell took Nymeria to wife, hundreds of his knights, squires, and lords bannermen also wed Rhoynish women. To celebrate these unions, and make certain her people could not again retreat to the sea, Nymeria burned the Rhoynish ships. ‘Our wanderings are at an end,’ she declared. ‘We have found a new home, and here we shall live and die.’ ”

Probably the most influential lady in the history of Westeros thus far, she established an entire system of government as well as a set of customs that grew to influence her entire kingdom. She is by far the coolest ancestor of all the ruling Houses of the Seven Kingdoms.

Fancasts of Dorne

Fancasts from the lands beyond Westeros

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ASOIAF fancasting --> House Mormont: Ray Winstone as Jorah

“The knight smiled. Ser Jorah was not a handsome man. He had a neck and shoulders like a bull, and coarse black hair covered his arms and chest so thickly that there was none left for his head. Yet his smiles gave Dany comfort.”

One of my favorite actors to feature on the historical-movie circuit, he combines all the aspects of Jorah except, possibly, being a little too fair of complexion. This is definitely the face of Dany’s “bear” and a man who has fought against fierce enemies in exile lands.

More northern fancasts

Fancasting House Targaryen and allies

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ASOIAF fancasting --> Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Osmund Kettleblack

“Alas, Tyrion could not say the same for Cersei’s second choice. Ser Osmund Kettleblack looked formidable enough. He stood six feet and six inches, most of it sinew and muscle, and his hook nose, bushy eyebrows, and spade-shaped brown beard gave his face a fierce aspect, so long as he did not smile. Lowborn, no more than a hedge knight, Kettleblack was utterly dependent on Cersei for his advancement, which was doubtless why she’d picked him. ‘Ser Osmund is as loyal as he is brave,’ she’d told Joffrey when she put forward his name. It was true, unfortunately. The good Ser Osmund had been selling her secrets to Bronn since the day she’d hired him, but Tyrion could scarcely tell her that.”

Wild and scraggly as any hedge knight, this actor definitely has the dangerous look of a sellsword Kettleblack.

Fancasts of the Westerlands and servants of House Lannister

Fancasts for sellswords and others beyond Westeros

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ASOIAF fancasting --> Beyond Westeros: Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Bellegere Otherys, the current Black Pearl of Braavos

“She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed. She had dressed in a low-cut gown of pale yellow silk, startling against the light brown of her skin. Her black hair was bound up in a net of spun gold, and a jet-and-gold necklace brushed against the top of her full breasts. As they watched, she leaned close to the envoy and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh. ‘They should call her the Brown Pearl,’ Mercy said to Daena. ‘She’s more brown than black.’ ”

From an ancient line renowned for beauty, I don’t think it surprises anyone that Bellegere is considered one of the most beautiful women in Braavos. A fitting fancast is this beautiful actress.

More fancasts beyond Westeros

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ASOIAF fancasting --> People of Dorne: Deobia Oparei as Areo Hotah

“Areo Hotah did not know what to say to that. He was only a captain of guards, and still a stranger to this land and its seven-faced god, even after all these years. Serve. Obey. Protect. He had sworn those vows at six-and-ten, the day he wed his axe. Simple vows for simple men, the bearded priests had said. He had not been trained to counsel grieving princes.”

The Watcher fulfils his purpose very well, giving us several of the more memorable chapters from Dorne.

Fancasts from Dorne

Fancasts beyond Westeros

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Random fancasting --> The Dothraki: Lesley-Ann Brandt as Irri

“She kissed Irri’s hand where Drogon had bitten it. ‘I’m sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship’s cabin.’

‘Dragons are like horses in this,’ Irri said. ‘And riders, too. The horses scream below, Khaleesi, and kick at the wooden walls. I hear them. And Jhiqui says the old women and the little ones scream too, when you are not here. They do not like this water cart. They do not like the black salt sea.’ ”

Both the Dothraki handmaidens are generally part of the background and scenery, simply adding completion to Dany’s picture. But they have been there from the beginning, two distinct presences, and they have witnessed the Mother of Dragons on her entire journey thus far.

House Targaryen fancasts here

Main series era House Martell here

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Random fancasting --> The Free Companies: Emma Appleton as Pretty Meris

“Pretty Meris frightened him. A Westerosi woman, but taller than he was, just a thumb under six feet. After twenty years amongst the free companies, there was nothing pretty about her, inside or out.”

Concealing tragedy under a brutal exterior, she joins the ranks of ASOIAF ladies who really really shouldn’t be messed with.

House Targaryen fancasts here

Main series era House Martell here

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Random fancasting --> The Free Companies: Toby Stephens as Jon Connington

“Robert Baratheon had been hiding somewhere in the town, wounded and alone. Jon Connington had known that, and he had also known that Robert’s head upon a spear would have put an end to the rebellion, then and there. He was young and full of pride. How not? King Aerys had named him Hand and given him an army, and he meant to prove himself worthy of that trust, of Rhaegar’s love. He would slay the rebel lord himself and carve a place out for himself in all the histories of the Seven Kingdoms.”

This grizzled ginger actor is just about everybody’s choice for the hardened griffin lord, and with good reason. It’s easy to imagine him sailing to Westeros for vengeance, and exacting ruthlessness in the name of his dead prince.

House Targaryen fancasts here

Main series era House Martell here

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House Targaryen fancasting --> Bruna Marquezine as Kiera of Tyrosh

“Tyrosh is governed by an archon, selected from amongst the members of a similar conclave.”

Even though she is literally never mentioned, Kiera must have held a position of some importance. She was wed first to Valarr, who was second in line for the Iron Throne after his father - first in line after Baelor’s death - and after he too died, she was married to Daeron, who would theoretically have been the heir of preference if Aerys and Rhaegel’s lines failed (which they did). It must have been hard for her to leave her own country, where she doubtless held a very high position, and only encounter heartbreak and disappointment in her new life.

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House Targaryen fancasting --> Diane Kruger as Larra Rogare

“Larra Rogare had taken up residence in the Red Keep with her husband, yet in her heart she remained a lady of Lys. Though fluent in High Valyrian and the dialects of Myr, Tyrosh, and Old Volantis in addition to her own Lysene tongue, Lady Larra made no effort to learn the Common Tongue, preferring to rely upon translators to make her wishes known. Her ladies were all Lyseni, as were her servants. She even had her own protectors. Lysine swords guarded her night and day, under the command of her brother Moredo and a towering mute from the fighting pits of Meereen called Sandoq the Shadow. She would have no part in the worship of the Seven, nor the old gods of the northmen. Her worship was reserved for certain of the manifold gods of Lys: the six-breasted cat goddess Pantera, Yndros of the Twilight who was male by day and female by night, the pale child Bakkalon of the Sword, faceless Saagael, the giver of pain.

Her ladies, her servants, and her guards would join Lady Larra at certain times in performing obeisances to these queer, ancient deities. Cats were seen coming and going from her chambers so often that men began to say they were her spies, purring at her in soft voices of all the doings of the Red Keep. It was even said that Larra herself could transform into a cat, to prowl the gutters and rooftops of the city.”

Now it would be way cool if Larra could actually have turned herself into a cat… but she was much more flesh and blood, an interesting character with intriguing contradictions.

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House Targaryen Allies: Fancasting House Martell --> Deniz Çakir as Mellario of Norvos

“Quentyn had been very young when he was sent to Yronwood; too young, according to their mother. Norvoshi did not foster out their children, and Lady Mellario had never forgiven Prince Doran for taking her son away from her. ‘I like it no more than you do,’ Arianne had overheard her father say, ‘but there is a blood debt, and Quentyn is the only coin Lord Ormond will accept.’

‘Coin?’ her mother had screamed. ‘He is your son. What sort of father uses his own flesh and blood to pay his debts?’ ”

No doubt a beauty in her youth and willing to travel across a continent to marry the man she loved, she must have become more careworn as the years progressed and her love turned to bitterness.

House Targaryen fancasts here

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House Targaryen fancast --> Helena Mattsson as Serenei of Lys

“A Lysene beauty from an ancient but impoverished line, brought to court by Lord Jon Hightower, the new Hand. Serenei was the most beautiful of Aegon’s mistresses, but she was also reputed to be a sorceress.”

I couldn’t resist Helena Mattsson’s lovely smile for this fancast, and we know that few would have been able to resist Serenei.

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House Targaryen fancasting --> Jamie Campbell Bower as (f)Aegon

“ ‘It is almost as if someone wanted to keep you hidden whilst still preparing you for… what? Now, there’s a puzzlement, but I’m sure that in time it will come to me. I must admit, you have noble features for a dead boy.’

The boy flushed. ‘I am not dead.’

‘How not? My lord father wrapped your corpse in a crimson cloak and laid you down beside your sister at the foot of the Iron Throne, his gift to the new king. Those who had the stomach to lift the cloak said that half your head was gone.’ ”

A valiant enough boy, predictions abound as to how his downfall will come about. My guess is for love… of a certain Dornish bastard girl who loves horses.