What we’re covering here: The final battle for Westeros is on, and we’re as obsessed as you are. From now through the May 19 finale, we’ll be posting GoT news, recaps, predictions, memes and other stuff here. We hope you’ll join us.
Did you like that episode? Did all the fireside chats and sweet moments of affection between your faves warm your heart and make you foolishly believe, even for a moment, that there may be true happiness awaiting them on the other side of this war?
Good, because we all know what happens next: PAIN, and LOTS OF IT.
Winterfell is preparing for war. For the common folk, this involves lots of training and fighting and weapons making and giant stick-whittling, but for the main characters, it mostly means chugging fermented goat’s milk and hooking up on hay bales.
Hey, everyone’s pretty sure they’re going to die anyway.
Everyone except Daenerys, that is. What else would explain her continued preoccupation with ruling the Seven Kingdoms when there’s an entire army of dead people at her door?
Michael Hayes, a 32-year-old welding student in Louisville, asked his buddies at the Knight Welding School to build a life-size version of the iconic throne as a wedding present for his wife Kacie.
His version – made of aluminum – weighs 200 pounds, has more than 300 swords welded on it and cost more than $7,000. Don’t tell Cersei.
When we last left Jaime Lannister, he was arriving solo at Winterfell on horseback, wearing a hood and an anxious look.
With good reason. The last time he was there, way back in “Game of Thrones’” pilot episode, he pushed young Bran Stark off a Winterfell tower, paralyzing him and setting in motion seven seasons of betrayals, murder and power grabs.
Let’s just say Jaime is not popular with the Starks.
So a new HBO publicity photo from tonight’s Episode 2 has people talking. It shows Jaime – who exchanged a long, portentous stare with Bran upon his arrival last week – standing unarmed in a Winterfell hall, surrounded by soldiers and looking very much like’s on trial. Or pleading for his life.
Maybe he’ll come clean about Cersei’s latest treachery. Maybe he’ll offer to lead the charge against the White Walkers in the upcoming Battle of Winterfell. We’ll find out tonight.
Sweet relief! “Game of Thrones” is finally back, and to celebrate, everyone gets a reunion! Jon and Arya! Gendry and Arya! Jon and Sam! Tyrion and Sansa! Jaime and the creepy omniscient child he pushed off a tower mid-coitus all the way back in the very first episode!
Bet you didn’t see that one coming (unless you’re Bran).
Read the rest of our recap here (SPOILERS AHEAD!):
How big of a global juggernaut is “Game of Thrones?” Here are some numbers from HBO that illustrate the show’s massive production scale – and staggering growth:
U.S. viewership (in millions):
Weeks of post-production per season:
Countries where the show has filmed: 10 (Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Morocco, Malta, Spain, Croatia, Iceland, United States, Canada and Scotland)
Countries where the show is broadcast: 207
Extras used in Northern Ireland over its eight seasons: 12,986
Wigs and hairpieces used over its eight seasons: 12,137
Prototypes used to develop Daenerys’ wig color and style: 7
Wondering what you’ll need for your watch party tonight? Or the next six Sunday nights?
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly) and Kristofer Hivju (Tormund) are here to help.
“What’s a must-have for a ‘Game of Thrones’ watch party?” Bradley wonders aloud in a video posted to Twitter. “Lots of tissues, lots of friends, lots of emotional support.”
And “Doritos,” he offers helpfully.
“A sword,” chimes in Tormund – oops, we mean Hivju. “I think if you’re going to have a real ‘Game of Thrones’ party you need swords. Alcohol and swords.”
Alcohol and swords – what can go wrong?
Don’t forget to serve Hot Pies, Chicken Littlefingers and lemon cake.
And if you’re not a “GoT” fan but you’re going to a party to see what the fuss is all about?
Sit down and be quiet. That’s all you need to do.
After eight years, seven seasons and 67 episodes, even the most diehard “Thrones” fans might not remember everything. Our “GoT” interactive guide is here to help. Track your favorite characters and relive major moments from the first seven seasons. We’ll be updating it with all the new developments throughout Season 8.
Nothing in “Game of Thrones” happens by accident.
In the final few episodes, basically every detail, line of dialogue and theory from the past seven seasons could very well be at the center of some mind-blowing revelation. However, a LOT has happened, and you’d be forgiven if somewhere between the Red Wedding and Margaery Tyrell becoming green mist, the section of your brain devoted to “Game of Thrones” deep cuts got a little overloaded.
So, settle in to your favorite knobbly tree, let your eyes roll back in your head and let’s journey through time and space to revisit 10 critical details that may or may not play a part in the final season – but will be good to remember anyway.
Ramin Djawadi says he was aiming for iconic status when he composed the theme music to “Game of Thrones.”
It’s fair to say he succeeded. The opening bars of his pulse-pounding score inspire an almost Pavlovian response in fans eager for GoT drama.
Watch as the “Game of Thrones” composer talks about creating the music for the groundbreaking series.
“Game of Thrones” is not just a TV show. Since it premiered eight years ago, it has inspired countless articles, fan sites, podcasts and viewing parties. The HBO series has been a boon for bloggers and journalists who have made careers out of reporting on every development from Westeros.
But winter is coming for this community of superfans.
Robinson, who specializes in “Thrones” coverage for the magazine while also hosting three “Thrones” podcasts in her spare time, said that she’s written “likely hundreds of stories” about the show. That may seem normal now due to its popularity, but when she started at Vanity Fair, she said she had an editor who told her that one “Thrones” story a week was more than enough.
Robinson said the show definitely helped “elevate her career” and gave her opportunities she never expected, like writing a cover story on “Thrones” star Emilia Clarke. But she isn’t too emotional about the series coming to an end – at least not yet.
Here’s what other reporters had to say about the impact “Thrones” had on their career and lives.
As “Game of Thrones” fans gear up for the final season, the show is giving them a special treat.
HBO has dropped a series of YouTube videos featuring interviews with stars of the show and titled, “The Cast Remembers.” Some feature flashbacks of the show’s younger stars, including Maisie Williams (Arya) when she was 12, Sophie Turner (Sansa) when she was 15 and a 10-year-old Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran).
And it isn’t the only bit of fun the show is having with fans. A worldwide scavenger hunt invites fans to hunt down six iron thrones that have been hidden around the globe in places such as Björkliden, Sweden; Puzzlewood, England; Atienza, Spain; and Beberibe, Brazil.
David Benioff loved the way “The Sopranos” ended, but he well remembers all of the arguments about it.
Benioff and his fellow “Game of Thrones” showrunner Dan Weiss talked to Entertainment Weekly about their show’s forthcoming series finale.
The eighth and final “GoT” season starts Sunday and viewers have already started theorizing about, and agonizing over, how it will all conclude.
Benioff told EW “From the beginning, we’ve talked about how the show would end.”
Benioff talked about how hotly debated the ending of “The Sopranos” was was when it aired in 2007. The screen cut abruptly to black in the middle of a tense scene, leading many viewers to think their cable had gone out.
“I’ve gotten into a lot of arguments with people about why that was a great ending, but people felt legitimately cheated and that’s their right to feel that way, just as it’s my right to feel like they’re idiots,” he said.
Benioff is not shying from such debate.
“It’s also part of the fun of any show that people love arguing about it,” he said.
Weiss said there’s another popular finale he hopes their ending evokes.
“I’m hoping we get the ‘Breaking Bad’ [finale] argument where it’s like, “Is that an A or an A+?,’” he said. “I want that to be the argument. I just wish we found better directors for it.”
The worry over spoilers for the hit HBO series (HBO is owned by CNN’s parent company) has been ever-present, with Benioff saying,”If the NSA and CIA can’t protect all of their information, what hope do we have?”
“People say I look like a White Walker,” Anderson Cooper recalls saying to “60 MInutes” producer John Hamlin. “It would be cool to become one.”
It took about four hours, but it happened.
Watch as Cooper, reporting for “60 Minutes,” transforms into a White Walker while behind the scenes of “Game of Thrones.”
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die,” the character of Cersei, played by Lena Headey, said in season one of “Game of Thrones.”
Those uninitiated in the phenomenon must surely wonder what all the fuss is about, especially as the HBO drama becomes increasingly difficult to avoid in the build-up to its series finale. Dragons and debauchery, after all, don’t sound like much of a breakthrough.
While there’s seldom a simple explanation for why something catches on in Hollywood, the show’s popularity stems in part from how well it has bridged the gap between movies and TV, between theatrical blockbusters and dense serialized drama.
Some keys to its appeal include:
Even if sex, violence and dragons aren’t your cup of tea (or ale), “Thrones” accomplished what it set out to do – commercially as well as creatively – in a manner that’s virtually unmatched in terms of its scope and scale.
The fantasy world of “Game of Thrones” is not as mythical as it seems.
Some of the show’s most pivotal moments are rooted in history as author George R.R. Martin often draws from the historical record. The rampant feuding in “Game of Thrones” is likely inspired in part by the Wars of the Roses in 15th-century England between the Lancasters and the Yorks – and the feuding in Scotland, which was far more prevalent.
Blood feuding, both in Scotland and in Westeros, evokes images of bloodthirsty men of the aristocracy, eager to exact retribution for slain family members. However, for every Rob Stark we have a Catelyn Stark, who took it upon herself to avenge her dead husband.
So what does history tell us about these bold women?
Historian Keith Brown, Dean of Humanities at the University of Manchester, notes that the women of early Scottish history were seen as “soft targets” in the eyes of acquisitive neighbors – or sometimes their own family – and their “best defense lay in marriage.” Yet these women could also wield power to avenge their families, not unlike Cersei Lannister, Margaery Tyrell and Sansa Stark.
Here’s a little history lesson on who some of the bold women in “Game of Thrones” are based on:
There are SO many – TOO many – questions that need to be answered by the end of this final season of “Game of Thrones,” like:
Here are some other questions that we absolutely need the answers to by the end of the season.
