Anyone else sickeningly excited about the return of Game of Thrones? Have enjoyed the books, though they are a bit of a project, but really loved the first season of the show. I thought the casting was generally good, (particularly all of the Lannisters) and the production brilliant. Lots of blood, sweat and tears to come from the second book! Very excited :)

Ohh yes me!  I have read all the books too - but how long will we have to wait until the next one - I think he plans 2 more.  I hope they don't deviate too far from the book in the show .   I thought it was so blood thirsty to begin with but I have since been reading the book on Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore - I keep wondering if GRR Martin got a lot of his inspiration from history - it has all been done before and worse.  

He does take his time writing them doesn't he, it's taken him the best part of ten years to get the last 2 books out! Hopefully now that HBO are doing the show he will finish the books in a more timely fashion, bet they write the end up as anything if they catch up with the tv show before he finishes the books.

I keep wondering if GRR Martin got a lot of his inspiration from history - it has all been done before and worse. 
He did indeed, some of it was based on The War of the Roses and he had the UK in mind when he was setting the location, hence the cast having British accents.

Really looking forward to it tonight. It's my birthday today so I'm looking at it as my special birthday present from Sky lol.

> but how long will we have to wait until the next one

ages and ages and ages... that being said hopefully since the show is being done now his editor will give him a foot up the bum.

> did indeed, some of it was based on The War of the Roses and he had the UK in mind when he was setting the location, hence the cast having British accents.

yes and its grim up north...

which makes me a wildling :D

Happy birthday!

LOL, me too !

I cannot give any spoilers but some of the things that happen in future episodes - I have noted jump out of the pages of the history of Jerusalem as I read it - even some of the names - Melisende - Melisandre for instance. 

Oh and happy Birthday Celli - have a good evening.  I won't see this first episode because I am off to agility club. 

> have noted jump out of the pages of the history of Jerusalem as I read it - even some of the names - Melisende - Melisandre for instance. 

I really enjoy history but must say that this is not an area of it i have looked at before. must find some good reading material- any suggestions?

Melisandre is such an intriguing character... and I have something of a crush on the boy who plays Jon :)

We have just been on a cruise to the Med and visited Jerusalem - my hubby bought the book for me at Christmas.  I still haven't finished reading it.  I dip into it everyday - it is easy to read but a long read and very interesting.  I watched the TV series but I have this awful habit of dropping off half way through these days - especially when we have the fire lit!!! 
I wanted to watch GoT last night when I got in but my hubby was watching other things - grrrr.  

i am assured that it is internetable

> internetable

Ha ha - the English language expands yet again. 

lol language is an evolving construction :)

watched the show last night, really good taster episode. As you'd imagine it is mainly setting up but it is good.

Loved the size of the direwolf!  That was one of the things that seemed a bit tame in the first series - although they were supposed to be young then. 

Yes the Dire Wolf was a great improvement.
I'm looking forward to seeing Jaqen H'gar, one of my favourite characters and one I would have liked to have seen more off in the books.

wasn't convinced by some of the graphics used on Gray Wind though. Really good when standing still, a bit plasticy when moving

Well - I suppose so but he looked pretty threatening all the same :-)  Was that supposed to be Hodor carrying Bran?  He wasn't big enough.  And whatsit - Stannis's ........ (forgotten what he is called) met his end in the wrong way. 

I agree about Hodor, and he was too old.
Do you mean Stannis's Maester ?.....I thought that was what happened to him.

> Maester

That is the word!  He put something in the drink which caused suffocation - I didn't think he drank first - would have to look it up to see.  But then I suppose we could go on all night finding differences between book and film. I shall just enjoy it, however you really can't beat the book - nothing like getting lost in a good book is there.

nothing like getting lost in a good book is there.

couldn't agree more, it's amazing how many hours can disappear into a good book.
If you enjoyed GOT, have a look at The Name of the Wind, not on the same epic scale, but a fantastic read, it's the first book of a trilogy, amazingly good for a first novel.

thanks -will kindle it now!

Cannot put these books down! just finished a dance with dragons and picked up dance with dragons 2 straight away.I dont have sky,im so left out,i will have to wait.

> Was that supposed to be Hodor carrying Bran?  He wasn't big enough

and a smidgeon too old but perhaps i am being picky :)

and a smidgeon too old but perhaps i am being picky

Not picky at all, surely they could have found someone a bit younger to play Hodor, I can't imagine the part would be much of a stretch for an actor.

My brother (who watches it on-line on Sunday ) informs me tonight's episode has lots of rumpy pumpy in it, he said if you take out the sex the episode would be 15 mins long....you have been warned lol.

Hope they don't over egg the sex and violence part - you can't play it down because it is part of the story but to concentrate on porn instead of plot and dialogue is not good.  We shall see ...... 

What was all that carry on with Stannis and Melisandre ?...that never happened in the book !.

Loved the part when Janos Slynt got booted off to the wall, Tyrion is by far the best of the bunch.

> carry on

quite!  It was sort of implied but never ever made that obvious.  They are obviously struggling to portray upcoming events.  Yes Tyrion is excellent.  I don't think John Snow actually followed anyone out into the woods at night either - they were just told what happened. 

> They are obviously struggling to portray upcoming events.  Yes Tyrion is excellent.  I don't think John Snow actually followed anyone out into the woods at night either - they were just told what happened

i think that there is going to be some licence used to make it work, but we shall see.

and lordy the gratuitous sex lol...

i think that there is going to be some licence used to make it work,

They did in the first season, Daenerys is quite a bit older than in the book, she's about 13 originally, which I must say I found a bit off putting when I read it the first time.

It was great to see Jaqen H'ghar finally, I always wished Martin had used that character more, it would have been good if he'd appeared when Arya was in Braavos

Ummm Yara Greyjoy??!!  Wasn't it Asha.  All the child characters seem older than they are supposed to be.  Rob, John Snow, Sansa - they all look older than their teenage years.  However in my reading experience of history I see that many a young man becomes king in his teens and has to be a grown man and lead - in a time when 30 was probabally considered to be old there was no time for extended childhood.   Only Joffrey sounds like the youngster he is supposed to be.  As for Jaqen H'ghar - there are still 2 books to go - hopefully.   My biggest groan about this programme is the adverts - I made it about 9 minutes of story followed by a block of adverts - even winding it on was a big stop in the flow.  Dreadful really.

Your right about Yara being Asha, wonder what the point of that was ?. It's that sort of thing that will just pee fans off.

Have you read any of GRRM's other books, he has a few, one's a horror ( about vampires on the Mississippi ) there's two anthologies of short stories, his short story The Skin Trade, is supposed to be one of the best werewolf stories written, most of them are SciFi.

I have one sitting on my kindle waiting to be read - 'A song for Lya'.  Got to catch up with some of the real books in my cupboard.  In spite of buying a kindle for my husband for Christmas he refuses to use it (only bought one because he complained that he couldn't read my books - if you knew him you would laugh - the last book he would read is GOT!!!)  So I am struggling night time with blurred pages - I still don't use reading glasses - I really need prescription ones because shelf ones just don't do a thing for me. 

>>Your right about Yara being Asha, wonder what the point of that was ?. It's that sort of thing that will just pee fans off.

They thought their audience would be too dim to tell the difference between Osha the wildling and Asha Greyjoy (as the names are rather similar), so for the tv series they changed Asha's name to Yara. They did the same for Robert Arryn who in the tv series is known as Robin as oppose to Robert (though how people would have trouble differentiating between a middle aged king and a young sickly boy I don't know).

> Robert Arryn who in the tv series is known as Rob

Oh no he is often referred to as Robin in the books I am sure.

>> Oh no he is often referred to as Robin in the books I am sure

His nickname in the books is 'Sweet Robin' but his name is Robert. In the tv series they have changed his actual name to Robin.

hey thought their audience would be too dim to tell the difference between Osha the wildling and Asha Greyjoy (as the names are rather similar), so for the tv series they changed Asha's name to Yara. They did the same for Robert Arryn who in the tv series is known as Robin as oppose to Robert (though how people would have trouble differentiating between a middle aged king and a young sickly boy I don't know).

Oh for goodness sake !, talk about dumbing down.

> It was great to see Jaqen H'ghar finally, I always wished Martin had used that character more, it would have been good if he'd appeared when Arya was in Braavos

i think he will appear again

I don't have sky either but found the box set in Tesco's on Tuesday for season one.  Only thing with having the whole lot available in one go is I haven't had enough sleep this week, I get to the end of an episode and instantly want to see the next one, so had a few late nights.  Big plus side though is not a single advert, yay!

Lucky you :-) - however I can't wait until season 2 is out as a boxed set to do away with adverts.  I shall keep recording and fast forwarding. 

If I had sky I'd be doing the exact same thing!

Big chunk missed out in last nights episode, it went from the barn fire where Arya frees Jaquen to being caught by Amory Lorch, I guess they have to cut something, but I enjoyed the journey bit in the book.
Not sure about the relationship between Renly and what's his face from Highgarden, it was suggested in the book but nothing like what's in the program, smack's of titillation to me.
Brienn was brilliant though, she was one tall lady !.
I must also confess to have a bit of a "thing" for Tyrion, Peter Dinklage who plays him is such a fantastic actor.

> Peter Dinklage who plays him is such a fantastic actor.

he's wonderful isn't he? I'm really enjoying him.

> smack's of titillation to me

LOL it's HBO! they make great programs but they all now feature a lot of sex. Did you watch Rome? Great show but lots and lots of sex.

Besides, it was strongly hinted at, his Kingsguard were called the Rainbow Guard :) To be honest I am liking that they are not being shy about homosexuality

> Brienn was brilliant though, she was one tall lady

the actress is very tall but I thought it looked a bit adjusted as she was so EXTREMELY tall next to Cat.

Alfie Allen is good as Theon, will be interested to see how he keeps going.

Oh don't get me wrong, I've no problem with sex on telly, gay or otherwise, it's just that it seems to have been added for no reason. I must admit though, I hadn't twigged on the " Rainbow Guard " lol.

I did see Rome, brilliant, for sex per minute though, the award has to go to Spartacus !

I forgot it was Alfie Allen as Theon, yes he's very good in the role.

> Oh don't get me wrong, I've no problem with sex on telly, gay or otherwise, it's just that it seems to have been added for no reason

agree. the first episode it seemed like they suddenly remembered that there had not been sex so stuck in a scene lol