‘Game of Thrones’ Tease: What’s Ser Davos’s Connection With Jon Snow?
A dragon took flight from New York’s Herald Square last night. Following a screening of the animated featurette, “The Dance of Dragons” from the Game of Thrones Season 5 Blu-ray, HBO unleashed a fearsome digital projection of a dragon in the Square. But fans were much more thrilled earlier in the evening when Ser Davos Seaworth himself, Liam Cunningham, made a surprise appearance.
We spoke to Cunningham before the event, and got as much information about Ser Davos’s dealings in Season 6 as we could without putting the star at risk of HBO coming for his blood. Cunningham was very deliberate in his usage of the past tense to describe Jon Snow, but read on for some hints at how the Onion Knight’s fate may be tied to the fallen Night’s Watch Lord Commander.
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Ser Davos is one of the only characters you could really describe as a “good guy” left on the show.
Yeah, [Laughs] there’s not many of us left.
Should that make us nervous for Ser Davos this season?
I’m nervous for Ser Davos. He has a moral backbone, doesn’t he? I mean, there’s a few of them. I think Samwell is a good guy and tries to do the right thing. He’s put himself in harm’s way a few times. Jon Snow was. Although, he was painted into a corner and had to do a few questionable things. But with this show, anything can happen.
It takes one moment for your sympathies to change with characters on this show. I refer back to Jaime in Season 1. He was a despicable character; everybody despised him. And yet, as this show went on, especially during his dealings with Brienne, we saw this kernel of humanity in him. And that’s what’s fantastic about this show. You’re never sure where these characters are going to go, you never know where your sympathies are going to be taken to and messed with and all that. I think that’s one of the great things about the show—the unpredictability of it and the surprises—and the three-dimensional, in some cases morally grey, characters. I think that’s incredibly interesting.
I imagine Davos isn’t going to take the news about Shireen too well. Is he going to some darker places? Will there be some grey in his character coming up?
Again, one could speculate on him, and we don’t know if he does get the news, we don’t know when he’s going to get the news, or even if. It’s going to be very interesting to see what he does with that information, if he does get it.
So much of Davos’s character has been wrapped up in serving Stannis.
He was his reason for living, really.
Does he find a new reason to go on? Something to fight for?
Well, I think he did, even when Stannis was there, when they were parlaying with Jon Snow. They both recognized, Davos certainly, that he was a fellow traveler, that he had the interest of Westeros in his heart. It wasn’t about him, it wasn’t a power trip, or any ambition to be a leader. In a bizarre way, I think there’s an inevitable bond between the two of them, dramatically. But that’s all been taken away!
With so much secrecy this season about so many plot points, has it been more difficult than usual to keep things under wraps?
Oh, there’s been a lot of pressure! Huge amount of pressure, but we haven’t buckled. If I say anything, I could lose an arm! [Laughs]
Hopefully that doesn’t happen. We’re rooting for Ser Davos.
So am I!
Game of Thrones returns Sunday, April 24 on HBO.