Juliajms

I think having read the books is sort of a disadvantage. It makes it harder for me to judge the episodes on their own merits because I have so much background info. I've read the books twice because there was so much time in between that I needed a refresher, so I pretty much know the story in and out. I wish I could see this with "fresh eyes". I think the next two episodes should be pretty exciting.

Interview with Sophie Turner (Sansa). http://www.tvguide.c...er-1034079.aspx Also short article on Sean Bean talking about Ned. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118038108/

He does. I'm pretty sure he started out in TV, although I can't remember what it is he's done. I know that old show Beauty and the Beast, but he's done more recent and famous shows too. It's slipped my mind, which ones. For me, this was the best written episode, but I think that's because I know the books. So I know that he wasn't wasting my time with characters that are ultimately unimportant (Roz) and annoying "sexposition" scenes. I feel sorry for Sansa. She can't see through Cersei at all.

There are 2 more episodes left. Poor Sansa begging mercy for her father. Cersei is such a bitch. I felt bad for the Septa too. Both she and Syrio sacrificed themselves for the girls. Tyrion's scenes were good as always. Glad he is getting Lysa back by arming the clans of the vale. It just figures that he has to fight in the upcoming battle. I hope Bronn sticks close by him.

Episode 8 preview: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=6AoQQjkL2gc Also tyrion preview:

Well, HBO did have a linguist come in and create a Dothraki language, so it's not completely gibberish. I agree though, Robert's did a good job of pissing Drogo off, and the hoard he was so worried about is headed for his kingdom. Just figures he died and left the problems to others.

So much happened, I didn't even miss him and he's my favorite. He better be back next week though. I wonder if he's headed to King's Landing or Casterly Rock? If only Ned had listened to Renly and taken Joff under his "protection". Now the realm is well and truly screwed. The Dothraki are coming and Stannis knows he has a claim. Plus, you have Renly and Loras going who knows where to do god knows what. It sure didn't sound like Renly was planning on backing Stannia. Such a clusterfl*ck.

I know. I couldn't help myself. I'll watch live on Sunday too though. i always watch more than once.

Thanks Q! I couldn't wait and that was awesome! Will discuss after it airs on Sunday!

I'm going to lay out the clues so far as to who I think Jon's mother is. I'll put this in spoilers, even though it isn't known for sure, even in the books at this point. Don't read this unless you want to know one of the major theories among book viewers. I'm only going to use clues we've seen on the show though:

He is Sir Jorah Mormont. Ned Stark was going to execute him for selling slaves, but he fled. He's selling Dany out to Robert in order to get a pardon, so he can come back to Westeros. His father is the Lord Commander on the wall. I think you can tell that Jorah has sort of fallen for dany. I think she's won him over more than he expected. Here is a link to the veiwer's guide: http://viewers-guide...!/guide/houses/ which makes it a lot easier to keep the characters straight. I cannot wait for this next episode.

No. bastards don't count in the line of succession. The heir in line after Robert is now his older brother Stannis and then younger Renly. John Arryn was hunting down Robert's other children because he wanted to see if black haired Robert ever fathered a blond haired child. He never did. There was never a blond Baratheon as far back as that liniage book went either. And of course, Cersei's first little boy had dark hair. I liked how you could tell everyone was rooting for Dany. There was such a look of sympathy on everyone's face when it seemed like she wretched that heart up (even Viserys, I thought). Then she pulled it off. Viserys was a bully, but that was such a brutal death. I think having Bran's wolf missing from the Wilding attack was a glaring omission. That wolf wouldn't have left his side. I've read the breed of dog they are using are hard to train and they didn't have a lot of time for this season. Tyrion was awesome as always. I have mixed feelings on Sansa. Sometimes I hate her. Like when she rejected her father's gift. Yes, she's too old for dolls, but that means she's old enough to consider other people's feelings.

Episode 6 was another good one. I actually felt sorry for Viserys, even though I know he had it coming. He always seemed like the weak bully on the playground who would run crying the second someone stood up to him. Not the psycho bully who could and would throw down for real. You could see that he lost Dany's love when he threatened her baby though. She was simply done with him. I liked the way Dany's people seem to love her now. You could just tell that everyone was rooting for her to keep the horse heart down. Sensa is one of the characters I like least. She almost deserves Joffery, almost. It was a cute little family scene when Ned and Arya got a smile out of Sansa saying she didn't want someone brave and gentle, she wanted Joff.

Oh, that's Loras Tyrell, The Knight of Flowers. He's definitely important.

There isn't a blond gay. Renly and Loras, both have dark hair. I haven't seen Hollyoaks so I'm not sure who you mean...

Link to GRRM's "Not a Blog" with some thought's on people's reactions to Lady's death: http://grrm.livejournal.com/216015.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I know. That was awful. Cat looked as shocked and horrified and Tyrion. I don't think they've given us many hints that Renly was gay, except maybe that he loves spending money on clothes. Loras and Renly aren't the only homosexual characters, but I can't remember at what point the other characters show up. The course of events have merged in my mind because there are so many thousands of pages. I just want to scream at Ned to get the hell out of King's Landing. What was he thinking when he went to that brothel tonight? Does it matter how many dark haired bastards the king has fathered with blond women? No, it doesn't! Get your daughters and go back to WinterFell. I bet he did say that about the third book. The fourth one is another matter. They are going to have to come up with some sort of plan to both merge and split book 4 and 5, I would think. Some of the major characters do not appear in book four at all. It was a big mess at the time that pissed a lot of fans off. GRRM claimed that the book was too big to publish at the time and he really had the whole thing written, but he had to split it up. 5 years later and the "second half" has yet to be published. It will be this July though. So how HBO is going to handle that, I have no idea.

They've already announced that season two will also be 10 episodes, but I think season 3 will either have to be more episodes or a split season. "A Storm Of Swords" is a huge book. It might just be best if they go ahead and do two 10 episode seasons from it, if the series is doing well. It took GRRM 5 years to write the 5th book in the series and the last thing we want is for HBO to catch up to him. That could lead to bad things, imo.

I have read the books, but I am "pretending" that I have not on the boards and on social media, so as not to spoil the experience for others. Some things are actually a bit different, so this is almost like an alternate universe, sort of like "Fringe" if you watch that. LOL! I don't regret having read the books, but it definitely colors how I see this version of the world. If I could do it all over again I would probably read each book after the season it depicts airs. The books are incredibly good. There is a lot of emotional depth in the books that the show just doesn't have the time to get into. Here is a viewer's guide that HBO has put out explaining the various Houses: http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/#!/guide/houses/

Well, it's not too late to read the books. It would help in keeping all the names straight, that is for sure.

I hope so. This show makes me wish for Sunday. BTW, Robert is a jerk for making Jaime listen while he screws his whores and I feel sorry for Lancel. So maybe Tyrion isn't the only good Lannister.

I think Dany is in danger on several fronts considering that King Robert just got done saying that he will kill every Targaryen that he can get his hands on. I just wish Robert would focus his efforts on Viserys, since for all he knows Dany will have a girl. It would kind of be sweet if Robert would send an assasin to kill off Viserys and get him out of Danys hair. I think Cat will rue the day she arrested Tyrion. He's the only good Lannister and she doesn't have much in the way of proof, so this is more likely to start a war than anything else.

That last episode was good. I'm glad Dany is getting stronger. She finally told her worthless brother off. I only wish he would make the mistake of hitting her in front of her husband.

I'm not sure who you mean by the wrestler dude? Tyrion (the dwarf) is one of my favorites. If ever a person deserved the triple slap, it's Joffery. I only wish Tyrion had been there when all that had gone down with the butcher's boy. Maybe he couldn't have done anything, but I like to think he might have stepped in and asked a few questions and maybe got Sansa to speak the truth. It's hard for me to cut Sansa any slack because Arya is such a stand up, tough, little girl, but at the same time Sansa is young. So I can kind of see how she is fooled by Joffrey and her head is turned by dreams of being a princess.

Jon is the bastard. He has darker hair. He's also the one who had a conversation with the Imp, Tyrion. Robb's hair is more auburn to match his mother's (Cat). But yeah, I never sweat the names when I watch this type of show. I'm pretty impressed with the visuals too. I bet the production team had the time of their lives putting this show together.