Juliajms

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.

They already decided to give it a second season! http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/04/19/game-of-thrones-season-two-2/

I thought it was really good too. Some things seemed a little rushed, but that's to be expected. Overall HBO is doing a good job and whoever is in charge of their promo department is earning his/her keep these days.

I think that's understandable. If you aren't into fantasy anyway, there isn't a lot of motivation and the books are dense. I love fantasy, was an English minor, and still found the beginning difficult to get through. After the first 100 pages or so the momentum builds though.

I think it's just a lazy comparison. Everyone knows who Tolkien is, so they go for the easy comparison. I've read both series, so I feel justified in saying they have little in common (size of the books being the major thing). Game Of Thrones is more about politics and sex, especially in the first 3 books. At some point, I think there will be an epic battle of evil vs. less evil, but that is no where near happening yet. Among the human players (and almost every player is human) there are few clear cut villians or heroes. If GRRM is like Tolkien at all, I'd say its in the ability to write a great, complicated, epic fantasy. The stories themselves are so different, that comparison is all but lost on me. I can't even say which I think is better. I think Tolkien was probably a better writer in the classic sense, while GRRM might be more entertaining to the masses, but that's obviously, jmo.

It's nothing like "Lord of the Rings". I can't really understand why anyone makes that comparison, except that both books are well written epic fantasy. Game of Thrones is quite soapy and at least in the first several books there is little magic.

I thought it was good so far. Loved it when Bran's little sister hit the bulls eye. Can't wait to see the rest.

HBO is going all out to promote this show. I am so impressed with whomever is behind their marketing efforts. They even have a freaking food truck in NYC that is serving food featured on the show. http://ology.com/technology/case-you-missed-first-game-thrones-food-truck

Yep and I think what has made original NCIS and Criminal Minds big successes are the characters. Procedurals are petty boring to me, so I can't watch unless I feel something for the main characters.

I bet it was a $ issue.

A new promo: http://io9.com/#!5773478

You can watch the 10 min promo here: http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/?cmpid=ABC587