Juliajms

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

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

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

Looks like HBO will be giving us a little preview soon. "Inside Game of Thrones", 15 minute program, running at 8:45 and 11:45 PM EST, Dec. 5.

Well, production wraps up on December 18th. It looks like the show will premier in April from what I read on HBO's blog. You have to kind of dig to find it, so I'm not sure if it's the latest word. My guess is that GoT will be their spring show leading to the June premier of True Blood. GoT only has 10 episodes this season. I'm already worried because while I think it's going to be awesome, it looks incredibly expensive to produce from what I've read. I guess Ireland gave them some really nice tax breaks and they were able to use some sets from another show to help with the costs, so that's something.

EW has a new article with pictures and such: http://www.ew.com/ew...0442931,00.html

Same here, that was a really good scene. I can't believe I'm watching a show about zombies and liking it. Sure, I like Sci-fi, but zombies have never been my thing. Still, this is a pretty good show compared to almost anything on the networks. I'm thrilled it's been renewed for 13 episodes, since this first season only has 6.

Thank you so much Lucid! For anyone who is on Twitter the production team is on under @GameOfThrones. They tweet behind the scenes pictures and such. I haven't been this excited about a show in ages.