Dongo

Dongo
Biographical information
Died	301 AC at Castle Black Shot in the back with a ballista by a black brother during the Battle of Castle Black
Personal information
Culture	Giants
World of Westeros
Season(s)	3, 4
Appeared in	3 episodes (see below)
First seen in	"Valar Dohaeris"
Last seen in	"The Watchers on the Wall" "The Children" (corpse)
Died in	The Watchers on the Wall
Portrayed by	Ian Whyte

"First time you've seen a giant, Jon Snow?"

―Ygritte

Dongo was a giant in the wildling army of Mance Rayder.

Biography

Background

Dongo is one of the non-human race of giants who joined the Free Folk army assembled by Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall.

Season 3

Dongo's presence dominates Mance's camp.

While approaching the camp of the Free Folk in Skirling Pass, Jon Snow witnesses this giant building a tent from the bones and tusks of a mammoth. As Jon stares at the giant in disbelief, Ygritte warns him that giants are shy, but quick to anger and tells him how she once witnessed a giant smash a man into the ground like a hammer to a nail. This giant catches Jon gawking at him and grunts in annoyance.

​​Season 4

Dongo takes aim.

During the Battle of Castle Black Dongo emerges from the Haunted Forest holding a bow with the other members of Mance Rayder's army. He escorts Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg and his mammoth to the outer gate of the Wall. While a wildling bowman fails to reach the black brothers on top of the wall with his arrow, this giant crouches next to him, pulls a massive bow out and shoots a ballista bolt at the wall, wreaking havoc on their defenses. His next arrow hits a brother with such force it causes him to fly off the other side of the wall and land in the middle of Castle Black. At the gate, while Mag turns around the mammoth and several wildlings tie ropes to it, Dongo violently exposes the gate's supports and ties the other end of the ropes to them. While the mammoth tries to pull the gate open, men of the Night's Watch throw down flaming barrels of tar, which explode and drive the mammoth off. The giant chases after it, but this brings him within the firing arc of a large ballista mounted atop the Wall. The ballista bolt impales him from behind and he is killed, which enrages Mag and spurs him to lift the gate and confront the men within all by himself.

Dongo's body lies before the Wall.

When Jon leaves Castle Black to kill Mance Rayder, Jon walks past Dongo's corpse, which has crows picking at its flesh.

Appearances

Template:Season Three Appearances Template:Season Four Appearances

Behind the scenes

• It wasn't initially clear that the grey-haired giant seen in the Season 3 premiere was meant to be the same individual as the grey-haired giant who later appeared at the end of Season 4, despite being played by the same actor. It was later confirmed that they were the same individual in the book Inside HBO's Game of Thrones: Seasons 3 & 4.
• The character has no direct counterpart in the novels. The giant never received an official name in on-screen dialogue. The Inside HBO's Game of Thrones: Seasons 3 & 4 book, however, mentioned that the production team assembling the costumes took to calling him "Dongo the Doomed" by the end of Season 4 ("doomed" because he gets shot in the back with a ballista bolt). There were in fact only two specific giant costumes, for two distinct individuals: Mag the Mighty and Dongo the Doomed. The script for "The Watchers on the Wall", however, does refer to him as "Dongo the Doomed".
• "Mag the Mighty" is really a nickname that the human wildlings came up with for the giant whose full name in the Old Tongue is "Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg". While "Dongo" isn't a name from the novels, presumably the in-universe explanation would be that "Dongo" is a shortened nickname for a longer name in the Old Tongue - the few giant names revealed so far always have five syllables in them, written as distinct words. For example, something like "Don Goh Tun Doh Weg", etc.
• The Blu-ray commentary revealed that the way Dongo falls down after being shot in the back is an homage to the famous scene in the 1971 film The French Connection, when Gene Hackman's character shoots the hitman Nicoli.
• Although Dongo died, actor Ian Whyte returned in Season 5 to play a new giant, Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun ("Wun Wun"), who unlike Dongo, is a character from the novels.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Mance Rayder uses giants for breaching the tunnels at the Wall. However, none of the giants wield bows during the Battle of Castle Black. The most complex weapons that the giants seem capable of wielding are clubs and simple mauls.