bironic

In 2019, within a few months of subscribing to Spotify, I heard a song that I thought would make for a fantastic Game of Thrones vid. "Boy From the North," by a Scandinavian singer-songwriter named Monica Heldal, had a strong, haunting atmosphere, with recurring lines about dragons, having once been too young, and in the end being ghosts, being gone.

I thought about Jon Snow first, and then about all the Stark children, who'd been so young and naïve at the start of the story when they traveled south to King's Landing or further north to the Wall, then went on such physical and psychological journeys, half their family and more felled along the way.

Oh, you came out from the woods where I was waiting
Said you were making time
And when I looked around you were gone back there
Oh, boy from the north, beware
Cause your night will fall again

And there's light streaks making their way through the trees
But you can't see them clear
You'll survive anything but this has no end
Oh, boy from the north, your hollow soul
It will never feel purposeful

[Chorus]
And I know you came with a travelling show
And you started out too young
You could follow me back where we used to meet
Now hear me call from the heart
Oh where the dragon sleeps

[Chorus]

And you told me your thoughts of your errors and misbehavior
Say it hurts but feels good now under your skin
And how you fight so to win, and I say
Oh, why don't you try God again

[Chorus]

And when it's gone
And when you're gone
And now it's gone
And now you're gone
And now you're gone

But I didn't want to sift through the ton of footage necessary to make the vid, nor was I sure I could achieve something so mood-driven. So the idea sat.

Then

sisabet came along in spring 2020, offering limited vid commissions for charity. I pitched her the idea and she accepted.

Friends: She did it. She took this concept and a few guideposts and not only crafted the vid that was half-formed in my head, she made it better.

There was Jon with his huge character arc, and Sansa with her loss of innocence and rise to maturity and power, Arya's hardening, Robb's failed bid for the throne, Bran's... whatever Bran became. And even Rickon and little Rickard.

sisabet nailed the mournful and nostalgic tone, opening with the vast, echoing, empty, cold spaces of Winterfell and the North that are nonetheless hearth and home to the Starks. At first the beginning struck me as potentially feeling murky on POV to people who don't already know the vid concept, but soon I saw how

sisabet constructed it to be deliberately about not seeing the kids' faces; it's backs, hoods, feet, shadows, glimpses, until they come into focus during the first verse. It's all Winterfell and history and mystery.

She gave me what I asked for on specific beats, such as visiting King's Landing on "You came with the traveling show"; the Godwood on "Why don't you try God again"; and refraining from showing literal dragons on each instance of "where the dragon sleeps." Then she did a whole lot more.

She wove in the direwolves and other Stark-associated animals, like the three-eyed raven. So clever.

She tied together the series of beheadings that marked the first season or two: Jon's duty + Sansa's heartbreak + Bran watching his father carry out justice + the kids watching "justice" carried out on their father.

She wove beautiful sequences of the children falling, coming back to life, dying (including Arya's metaphorical death, the attempt to erase herself in pursuit of the Faceless), and reuniting.

sisabet's eye for visual parallels throughout the entire vid is remarkable.

She made the fascinating decision to explore the survivors' development during the song opening and choruses while dedicating each verse to Starks who didn't make it. There's Robb, giving me all kinds of feelings I didn't know I had about him. There's Ned, trying his best but holding too hard to his ideals. (Catlin, as a Tully, didn't make the cut.) And, brilliantly, in the final verse, there's Benjen and Lyanne from Ned's generation and all the Starks of generations past down in the Winterfell crypt. I never would have thought of that. It's so great.

And the family history leads into the last dragon reveal, where the introduction of Targaryen blood transitions into Jon reaching out to touch Daenerys' dragon.

Lastly,

sisabet inverted my idea for the echoey "And now you're gone" at the end. What seemed like a powerful way to recall how many family members and loved ones had died became a way to showcase those who survived. The ghosts have already been shown throughout the vid, and now we get to see the Starks who still stand being anything but gone. We see the tree, representing eternal memory.

The final product is so good. I'm so happy. It's what I wanted and more, and someone talented made it happen.

sisabet decided to premiere the vid at

fanworks in October, where it got an enthusiastic response in the live Discord chat.

Do you know what's baffling, though? More than two months after she posted it to the AO3, the vid has no comments and only 16 kudos. I hope that if you watch it and like it, you'll let her know.

Have you seen it? Do you like it? What else do you notice in there?

A final note: This vid helped support the ACLU, NAACP, Bail Fund, Feeding America, and the Navajo, Hopi & Apache COVID-19 relief funds.