George R.R. Martin confirmed that one of the characters who died in "Game of Thrones" will still be alive come "Winds of Winter."
This week, the author answered a fan's question on the comments section of his Not A Blog LiveJournal website. The fan asked whether Stannis Baratheon is alive or dead.
In the HBO series, "Game of Thrones," Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) pointed her sword, Oathkeeper, at Stannis, who is portrayed by Stephen Dillane. It was only implied that Baratheon died since the camera cut away before the act was completed.
However, episode director David Nutter confirmed that Stannis did die. "From the beginning, and [through] the script process, that was the intent - he's dead," Nutter told Entertainment Weekly.
In the books, though, there was no battle scene written yet. Since the chapters change points of view, the only news from Winterfell came from Ramsay's letter to Jon Snow claiming that the Boltons won and Stannis died.
Furthermore, since George R.R. Martin's books are infamous for misleading readers into thinking that a character is dead when in reality they are alive, there are speculations that the letter was just a ruse and that Stannis Baratheon is alive.
The author recently confirmed that the wannabe king is not dead in his books. "In my books? Alive, beyond a doubt," Martin wrote.
A few months back, Martin has admitted that he just came up with a massive, revealing twist on "Winds of Winter" for a long-time character. "This is going to drive your readers crazy but I love it," he said.
"I'm still weighing whether to go that direction or not. It's a great twist. It's easy to do things that are shocking or unexpected, but they have to grow out of characters."
Fans are wondering whether the twist will be about Jon Snow's return and the events after that. "It's nothing they can do in the show, because the show has already-on this particular character-made a couple decisions that will preclude it, where in my case I have not made those decisions," the author added.