Well September has rolled around again and that means one thing for me….TitanCon. This is my third time attending this event and my second year of involvement with it.
In my first year I was a humble guest enjoying the actors and writer panels but over the past few years i have become more involved such as moderating the extras panel and doing the odd bit of security detail.
This year saw the return of Miltos Yerolemou aka Syrio Forel, Arya Starks’ Water Dancing Instructor in Season 1 and Aimee Richaradson who played Myrcella Baratheon for the first 4 seasons. Will Simpson was also in attendance and doing some great doodles during the Great TitanCon Quiz.
I had met Aimee on the previous years but Miltos unfortunately couldn’t make the first two i attended so it was great to finally meet with him. We (the extras) got a great picture with Miltos and Aimee and I was very humbled when Miltos asked me to sign his copy of it.
In addition to the Game of Thrones guests we had authors expressing their views on various genres. I think the highlight for me was when Joe Abercrombie read an excerpt from Morrissey’s first fiction novel The List of the Lost which was an over dramatic erotic scene which can be viewed using the link below.
Later came the Extras Panel which I had the pleasure to moderate. During the extras panel we were involved in discussions answering questions like, ‘What is it like to be an extra on the set of Game of Thrones’, ‘Which actor would you like to work with most?’. The idea is to give the audience a bit of insight in to being an extra and letting them know that through Extras NI they can do it themselves. All of the panel members including myself are seasoned veterans when it comes to Game of Thrones filming and with all of us being great fans of the show and literature it was easy for us to relay how much it means to us to be involved in the biggest show in TV history.
As the evening approached we had time to break for dinner before returning to “Kings Landing”to watch the masquerade and enjoy some live music followed by Karaoke.
On Sunday we went on the coach tour which brought us to Portrush Stand which was used for the Dorne scenes where Jamie and Bronn landed in Season 5. It was also used with the sand snakes where they buried a ship’s captain up to his neck and let scorpions pick at him before finishing him off.
We then proceeded to Ballintoy Harbour famous for Theon Greyjoy’s first landing back on the Iron Islands. Since then it has been used for Arya’s embarking on her boat journey from Saltpans to Braavos. The beach next to it was also used for Melisandre burning Lord Axell Florent for his refusal to renounce The Seven.
After the quaint harbour it was time to go over to Larrybane Quarry at Carrick-a-rede to see where Renly Baratheons camp was and where Lady Brienne of Tarth defeated The Knight of the Flowers, Ser Loras Tyrell.
The evening consisted of a hog roast banquet at Clandeboye Estates’ banqueting hall and then back to Belfast.
This convention is one of the smaller ones but new people are discovering it each year and hopefully it continues to grow stronger in the coming years.
Who’s that handsome guy behind you and Miltos?