The 5th Playable Character theory.
Firstly i want to say that im not debunking other theories im just giving my reasons for coming to the conclusion i have.
I am basing this off the events of ep1 and the trailer for the second episode. I will not be using the shadows as a guide.
I think the 5th pc will be a man from the whitehill garrison at Ironrath (most likely gryff). This would be our eyes into ironrath and the characters who are there.
A few reasons why i think this:
Most characters at Ironrath have a set personality (like Duncan or Talia). Its possible but unlikely that we will take control of these characters.
Next up, Malcolm, he doesnt say much to really set him up as a character but he does meet up with Asher and having 2 pc's in one area wouldn't make sense from a gameplay perspective.
Finally, Rodrick, its possible he survived the red wedding and he hasn't said a word or made any decisions, so it could be Rodrick. Chances are it isnt though, we are going to see what happens inside Irorath next episode and, If Rodrick is alive he is probably a prisoner of the Freys or too injured to make the journey home (at least this episode).
This why i think its a whitehill solider, he will already be there for the events of ep2 and it would allow a multitude of choices and a new layer to the game and story as a whole. The only problem with this theory is that we do see Talia and her mother (forget her name) arguing about fighting back and so on. Even just as a placeholder character this makes sense to me and would be interesting to see what could happen. Let me know what you think or if i missed something (ive only played through once).
Sorry for any spelling errors, i didnt have time to check through.
Comments
I really like this theory and already thought of this myself. I think that a whitehill soldier (most likely Gryff) could be an interesting and likely 5th character.
There is more to this than just the fact that it would made an interesting 5th character: We have been free to define the personality of the playable characters in every recent Telltale game. They were more or less characters we knew very little about, that were defined by the dialogue options we picked. We already know the personality of Talia, Elissa and Malcolm by talking to them. We don't know the personality of Gryff or Rodrick because we never talked to them.
I highly doubt Malcolm is going to be playable (even though I would have liked that), since he and Asher are going to be in the next episode together. It makes little sense to have two playables in the same area.
Even if Rodrik is alive, I don't see him making a return before the end of Episode 3 or 4. We need a playable character at Ironrath next episode and a character we never met before (aka Gryff Whitehill) would be the best option in my opinion. The scene from the trailer, where Elissa and Talia are talking about having people who will fight back, could very well be in an argument with Gryff, during which Elissa subtly threatens him not to underestimate House Forrester. So, yeah Gryff would be my favourite choice for a playable character in the next episode.
Wait, who is Gryff?
Lord Whitehill's son. He is to be in charge of whitehill's Ironrath garrison.
Exactly
I love the idea of a subtle threat aswell, it fits game of thrones politics so much.
In the preview trailer, we see Duncan and Ser Royland arguing. In order to see this scene, we must play as a character who is at Ironrath.
Thats not a bad theory tbh. A set of eyes and ears onto the Whitehills side of things would be nice, and we can make them a soldier sort of sympathetic to our cause.
I just Asher is still one of the PC :P
huh, haven't thought of that!
interesting theory, while i don't think it's likely(pretty sure gared is going to be the only non-forrester we'll play), i most certainly like it, mostly due to the blank personality argument, while i would love to play talia or elissa, they already have set personalities.
Yeah, chances are it is Rodrick but it still would be cool to see the whitehills perspective i.e why they hate the forresters because game of thrones is never simple so id like to see their actions justified and see the grey area that GoT does so well.
who knows? maybe all the forrester lords before gregor were total jerks, that would be a nice reveal :P
generally, i would rather everything over Rodrick, he's too much of a "perfect lord" to be interesting, i want asher to be lord, and besides i hate "killing" characters then bringing them back, no matter the circumstances.
Huh, nice theory. I didn't even consider Griff being the 5th protagonist and it really make sense. It'd be really interesting to play as him.
Was Griff Whitehill in the 1st episode? I know Lord Whitehill mentioned him but I don't know that they specified which one he was or if he was actually at Ironrath at the time
Huh, nice theory. I didn't even consider Griff being the 5th protagonist and it really make sense. It'd be really interesting to play as him.
EDIT: Double post. sigh Why must the universe punish the good?
nah, we didn't see him at all and we know nothing about him,all we know as that his father trusts him enough to put him in charge of "babysitting" his nemesis, which is quite a lot, so i guess we can assume his father is pretty fond of him.
Interesting theory, and it would be nice to play as Griff. But then again playing with a character who is against Forresters kinda feels weird when you are so hard trying to save them with the other PCs.
We could play as Gwyn Whitehill instead of Griff. Not sure how that would work being in Whitehill territory, but she could interact with Ryon and possible have to deliver something to her brother Griff bringing her to Ironrath?
She would have a very conflicted view of her house and the Forresters because Asher was in love with her. And someone else in another thread mentioned that she could be the one to gut Lord Whitehill too!
He wasn't one of the characters we were shown in the concept art was he?
Nope. Not even Lord Whitehill was. Only members of House Forrester were in the original 13 images
It is a nice theory and it would have been a cool idea, but Telltale wrote this on their blog:
And Gryff surely isn't a member of House Forrester. But the theory was still a nice idea, but sadly it's already confirmed that won't happen.
I'm not sure I buy into the blank personality argument. Clementine had a set personality when we started playing as her. She had been moulded by prior events, some of which were by extension our choices, but she wasn't a blank slate. Likewise, Asher has been described in multiple places as being a hot-head with some bloodlust, everyone is going to know the type of character he's meant to be before we play as him. This will surely impact dialogue and choices. Why couldn't it be the same for a character we've already met? I think it would be amazing to play as Talia, who has just watched her twin-brother die for her - how she reacts to his death, entirely up to us.
Gryff might be the 3rd-4th born son so he may be looking to get further in life because he wont inherit a title when Lord Whitehill croaks it. It makes sense as well as the first born is extremely "treasured" so he would be put in harms way really. Also gared says "its never easy being the forth born son". Just speculation but it could be a player choice to pick sides really.
I thought they expressed you'd only play as a Forrester or servant of a Forrester though?
If we don't get to play Gryff Whitehill, I'm banking on Norren, if mainly to give some proper ramifications to Bowen's death/survival.
We need a Gif of Rodrik Confirmed.
I'm saying it's Rodrik.
They said the characters we'll play as will be Forresters and those playing the game on their behalf. They could be lying, but that would seem to automatically rule out Gyrff a character I imagine Asher will butt heads with and may indeed try to ransom back for the little brother. Indeed just killing the Garrison and taking a Whitehill prisoner seems like the kind of stupid thing I imagine Asher doing.
Also just because a character is on the screen doesn't mean we'll play as them. Wasn't Gregor on the screen before we started the episode? We never played as him. Similarly I wouldn't be surprised if they stick to 3 PCs per episode with others subbing in and out depending on their plotlines. We might just be playing with 3 characters, and having the 5th one revealed.
The set personality thing doesn't hold water. We can play with the characters on a spectrum, but all of our protagonists have been somewhat pre determined. Ethan is always a introverted thoughtful boy. He can be played diplomatically or aggressively, but the core of his character never changes. Asher is a character who we know about, I'm sure we can play him as a bit nicer, or more of a jerk. But he is a hothead, that's pre determined. Also the borderland game had multiple PCs in the same scene.
The one thing that is interesting is the argument back at Ironrath. To see that you'd think we would need a character at least somewhat close to it. But it could be a brief cutscene setting the scene for a PC segment, like "Oh man I hope Mira does something," then we play as Mira. Maybe Asher gets back in one episode. Gared jogged from the Riverlands to Ironrath in like 2 minutes, so, why not?
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Lol I've missed these.
You didn't see Gregor on the title screen. It was just Ethan, Gared and Mira. So yeah, we're going to play as Asher.
I don't think it's gonna be Gryff or Gwyn Whitehill, if I'm not wrong Telltale said that all the characters are related somehow to House Forrester.
I think it's gonna be someone we don't know, but maybe he's gonna appear in Episode 3 because he hasn't been revealed with Asher after playing Iron From Ice (I may be wrong though)
I think it will be the one that we choose to be the sentinel.
You're right about him not being there I just double checked. But I didn't mean we wouldn't play as Asher. I meant we would wouldn't necessarily be playing as the shadowed figure on the screen in episode 2.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback, ive read through all your comments and ive refined the theory slightly.
Telltale's blog that said we would only play as forresters etc now this could just be an oversight from them as they posted this a while back and most of the writing for the next episode takes place in the weeks leading up to release or they could be deliberatly misleading us for more of a surprise.
As for the Rodrik theory, i still dont like it, its possible yes but seems so obvious and TT have already pulled this trick with kenny from TWD. Ofcourse this isnt TWD and they could still do, but so many people believe it that i dont expect him to make a "surprise" re-apperance. I think TT have something more surprising planned that fits the GoT political grey area complexity. Not to metion he is dead/crippled.
The sentinal seems unlikely as they would have to do every scene twice, (one with either character).
Now, Norren (The guy who Bowen squired for at the red wedding) is very possible and i like this idea. The only thing i have with this is that the game is more focused on saving house Forrester and i doubt a war will happen it wipl probably be through diplomacy (even the force choice for Ethan was only a show, no actual fights happened)so having 2 lower-born soliders might not be the best way to interact with the lords of weseros.
Tl;Dr - No conclusive proof for anyone really, only theories, so pick your favourite and hope for the best
Maybe most of the scripting takes place in the months before the episode comes out. But they've already plotted out who lives and dies, and how it all ends. The writing their doing is the details, specific lines, not actual plot changes along the lines of who the 5th character is.