While the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones was met with a significant amount of backlash from critics and longtime fans alike, HBO remains undeterred in continuing to bring the fantasy world created by author George R.R. Martin to screens. House of the Dragon, a spinoff/prequel series centered around House Targaryen, is currently in the works and expected to premiere next year. While this development certainly makes sense given House Targaryen’s popularity among fans, there is another family the Game of Thrones franchise desperately needs to revisit: House Forrester.
Between December 2014 and November 2015, Telltale Games published its own episodic graphic adventure video game based on Game of Thrones under HBO’s license. While the game featured appearances by a number of returning cast members from the show — including Emilia Clark as Daenerys Targaryen, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister and Kit Harington as Jon Snow — the real stars of Telltale’s Game of Thrones were the members of House Forrester.
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House Forrester was originally obscure, having only been mentioned in passing in 2011’s A Dance with Dragons, the fifth entry in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga. However, Telltale’s Game of Thrones fleshed out the house significantly, introducing its key members and giving them their own character arcs. House Forrester was led by Lord Gregor Forrester and his wife, Lady Elissa. The pair had four sons — Rodrik, Asher, Ethan and Ryon — and two daughters — Mira and Talia.
House Forrester was based out of Ironrath, a castle located in the North, and dealt primarily in ironwood. The members of House Forrester were vassals of House Glover, the members of which were themselves vassals of House Stark. The Forresters also had a long-standing rivalry with House Whitehill, the members of which were loyal to House Bolton. So, naturally, House Forrester was not in great shape after the Red Wedding, during which Robb Stark was killed and House Bolton took control of the North.
To put it mildly, House Forrester was put through the wringer during Telltale’s Game of Thrones Season 1. For starters, Lord Gregor was killed during the Red Wedding. With his eldest son, Rodrik, also presumed dead and his second son, Asher, having been exiled to Essos, the 14-year-old Ethan was left to assume the mantle of Lord Forrester. Ramsay Snow (Iwan Rheon), bastard son of Lord Bolton, soon arrived on the scene, at which point he murdered Ethan and placed Ryon in the custody of Lord Whitehill. All the while, eldest Forrester daughter Mira was serving as a handmaiden to Lady Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) all the way in King’s Landing and Gared Tuttle, Gregor’s squire, was sent to the Wall for killing a Bolton.
Rodrik was revealed to have survived the events of the Red Wedding, though he was certainly worse for wear. Meanwhile, Malcolm Branfield, Lady Elissa’s brother, was sent to retrieve Asher from Essos as the conflict between House Forrester and House Whitehill escalated. Elsewhere, Mira’s attempts to get Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) to help her family proved fruitless, though Gared did manage to venture beyond the Wall and successfully locate the North Grove, where he discovered Gregor’s illegitimate children, Josera and Elsera Snow.
By the nature of Telltale’s games, the way Game of Thrones Season 1 ultimately turns out is player-determinant. Either Asher is killed after returning home, or Lord Rodrik is killed and Asher becomes the Lord of House Forrester. One way or another, however, the conflict between the Forresters and the Whitehills comes to a violent head, Ryon is retrieved, Lady Elissa is killed and Ironrath is lost to the Whitehills.
Meanwhile, Mira is either executed for killing a guard or is forced to marry Rickard Morgryn, who plans to claim Ironrath (and the ironwood business) for himself. Gared then chooses to either stay in the North Grove or lead Josera and Elsera down to Ironrath. As Ironrath burns to the ground, the surviving Lord Forrester (either Rodrik or Asher) is reunited with Talia, leaving the future of House Forrester uncertain. In other words, Telltale was clearly setting up an epic second season — one that was never actually released.
After Telltale’s Game of Thrones finished its first season in late 2015, there was little information regarding the next chapter of House Forrester’s story. Season 2 was formally put on hold in 2017 amid restructuring at Telltale, and it was canceled outright in 2018 when the company folded, meaning Season 1’s cliffhanger ending would likely never be resolved.
We can assume the surviving Forresters were able to find their footing after the Starks reclaimed the North during the Battle of the Bastards, but there’s no way to know for sure. That being said, with HBO still planning more Game of Thrones content, it could — and should — finally follow up on House Forrester and the other key players from Telltale’s game in one way or another. There would be a few complications, such as how the fates of certain characters in Season 1 come down to player choice. However, HBO could easily establish a canon sequence of events, like Arkane Studios did when it developed a sequel to its player choice-focused video game Dishonored.
Furthermore, HBO is reportedly developing a Game of Thrones animated series, which would be the perfect place to wrap up House Forrester’s story, given the CG nature of the Telltale game. Finally, characters created by Telltale for a licensed game being brought back by the actual owner of the IP would not be unprecedented. Just look at The Walking Dead‘s Clementine, who is set to make her comic book debut this year.
The ultimate fate of House Forrester is one of Game of Thrones‘ biggest hanging threads. At some point, HBO should offer some form of closure to the fans who put their time, money and effort into completing Season 1 of Telltale’s game with the expectation of a resolution.
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