Moderator Edit: Those who intentionally or maliciously spoil upcoming events in Season 2 of Game of Thrones will be summarily dealt with in the harshest and most permanent manner. Please respect others' wishes to learn the story for themselves by watching the show if you have already read the books! Thank you, the management.

Y'all ready for this? I just wanted a place for the GoT discussion on the site to be focused. After each episode we can discuss things we thought were awesome, what we saw coming, what we didn't what they changed (better or worse?).Let's remember to use our spoiler tags when necessary. For now, we can start with introductions. When did you get into the series? Have You read the books?

Personally I started with the series years ago when I saw Feast for Crows at a Costco (the cover was cool!). It turned out that it was the 4th book in the series and that Costco didn't have the others. That or I just didn't find them. Soon I tracked down all 4 books and bought them. Read Game of Thrones, loved it. Read through a bit of Clash of Kings, and abandoned the series either due to school or I dunno. Then when the show came along I went through the rest of the books, read the Dunk and Egg stories, waited for DwD, and read that too.

I was just thinking about making a thread like this. Fuck yeah Game of Thrones!

Everyone dies!

Seriously.

I'm on the first book so far, and really enjoying the extra nuggets of information surrounding the universe. Besides that, I'm very impressed with how HBO is handling the source material!

Well, I got into the series a little while before the first season started. I had read this sample from Amazon since it was high on my recommendations so I took a chance on it. Despite my dislike of magical elements, especially in a medieval-like setting, the prologue got me interested in it. Eventually I'd see the entirety of the first season of Game of Thrones and became hooked, reading the first and second book not too long after to prepare myself. I'm currently in the beginning of the third book mid-chapter.

I'm very excited to see Brienne and Melisandre, or Melisandra, in the second series and specific scenes that involve them.

I read the first four books and eagerly awaiting the new season.
 
I'll probably be able to find it somewhere tomorrow and I cannot wait.
I'll admit, been watching some highlights from the previous season tonight. 
 
This series has some great characters, cannot wait for Davos Seaworth to be on screen.

So pumped for this!! I love the books.

Will wait a couple of weeks before starting to watch.

I blitzed through the entire series of books last summer and I have to say the last couple were hard to get through. It becomes a a bit of a sadistic soap opera. That said the first TV series was great.

It's go time!!!!!!

The North Remembers

I first watched the show after I saw how much buzz it was getting and then I started reading the books to fill in the gap when it was over. Hopefully this season will be longer than the last one.

I absolutely loved the first season, and Tyrion is by far the best character.

Shagga - "How would you like to die Tyrion, son of Tywin?"  
Tyrion - "In my own bed. At the age of 80. With a belly full of wine and a girl's mouth around my cock."
 
Winter is indeed coming. Book 2, in my opinion, was the best of the lot so it's going to be interesting to see what they do. It's just sad that there's no Boromir anymore...

Wow, they segwayed really well into that last scene. I always assumed Gendry was the eldest of the bastards (probably is in the books), but looks like they decided to have a bunch more in King's Landing for Janos to murder. 

My plan to re-watch the first season before this premier didn't work out. I only watched the first episode. This season is going to be great though. I just hope the fall back into a groove with only a few stories each episode instead of jumping around every 5 minutes. Anyways, I'm off to go through the rest of season 1 and then watch the season 2 premier again.

Pretty damn good.

RIP babies :'(

Sky Atlantic is set to record. My body is ready.

I want this season to be over already because season 3 is going to have something insanely sick to reproduce on screen that I can't wait to see.

Cant wait to be able to talk with people about something else than the first book/season so much cool stuff happens in later books.

I am finishing up A Dance with dragons atm

Well that was a underwhelming opening.

First off the episode felt extremely disjointed, they were trying to squeeze in way too much information into one episode. This felt incredibly rushed, with zero impact. The worst thing being the information they were trying to cram into this episode was worthless in context of the show ( Not the books). Since last season's closing, and this opening we haven't moved an inch. They talk about initiating political plans in terms of the war/wars for 95% of the episode, and can't even be bothered for a decent build up to the closing scene? That scene was plugged in like a forgotten piece to a jigsaw puzzle, and it ruined the possibility of any emotional or dramatic impact.

This isn't a great start as far as season openers go, i'm getting a Walking Dead budget cut vibe form this episode. Oh shit we got no money, make them talk in circles that costs less! Even though i know that's completely untrue, its the feeling i get.

Maybe I've been spoiled by the Soap Opera nature of Spartacus, with constant fights, plots or sex taking place at every turn on every scene.

@Beaudacious:

I couldn't possibly disagree with this more

The budget has been increased especially for the last couple episodes.It's HBO and you're talking about them not having money?

Also it's crammed because there's a lot to get out of the way to start the wheels in motion for a steady pace for the rest of the season. There's a lot going on and a lot of characters it's how the books written.

Comparing Thrones to Sparticus is also laughable there's nothing to compare. Thrones exceeds and passed Sparticus after it's pilot there's really nothing else to say.

Maybe Sparticus is appealing if you have ADD but if you've been following the Thrones story there's kinda deep shit going on and much more to come. Sorry there isn't a 60 minute fuck fest or people killing each other out of character every 30 seconds.

@PeasantAbuse said:

RIP babies :'(

That was messed up.

I like the music in this.

@xaLieNxGrEyx:

• Please read fully, and avoid knee-jerk reactions.
• Um this is TV, is suppose to be for people with ADD.
• I don't care how the books are written, if you can't show it on screen properly then don't do it.

Also: " if you've been following the Thrones story there's kinda deep shit going on and much more to come ", so there's some deep shit if I've already read the books? So if i already know the whole story then this episode represents some deep shit? I think that's the definition of bad transfer of book to screen.

Season One was generally well paced, and the ending was quite dramatically set. In comparison this opening was a dull followup, and openings set the tone for the following acts. It should get you riled up in some fashion, excited for whats to come. This felt more like a mid-season episode. Don't get me wrong it wasn't a bad episode, it was simply a bad opening episode.

Also Spartacus isn't dramatic because of the amount of killing, its the production that makes it dramatic. They emphasize each kill, in a theatrical manner, similar to how ancient tales of such times were overly dramatic. It fits the time, and the boisterous nature of " Epic Tales" of blood and love. I feel like people forget that our ancient ancestors of nobility were violent, cruel, and crazed sex hounds.

This episode gave me tingles because of the insane amount of foreshadowing in it. Granted, I've read all the books and know what it is that they are foreshadowing, but I suspect those criticising this episode will look back on it in future as laying the foundations for some mind-blowing shit.

It's a good opener in my opinion, but I'll agree it's not the best episode. It was necessary to set up what's to come.

All of the plot threads of this season have been identified and now you all get to enjoy them as they unravel.

I like the music in this.

This episode gave me tingles because of the insane amount of foreshadowing in it. Granted, I've read all the books and know what it is that they are foreshadowing, but I suspect those criticising this episode will look back on it in future as laying the foundations for some mind-blowing shit.

It's a good opener in my opinion, but I'll agree it's not the best episode. It was necessary to set up what's to come.

All of the plot threads of this season have been identified and now you all get to enjoy them as they unravel.

Oh and anyone criticising this for having too much political scheming, this season is rife with it and it's easily the most entertaining aspect of the book.

Tyrion's political war with Varys, Cersei and Littlefinger is just brilliant. Twists and turns round every corner.

Edit: Also, yay for Peter Dinklage being the top billed actor :)

I thought the episode did a great job of setting up all this season's various plot threads as well as introducing the trio of new major characters. We now have a clear understanding of how Eddard's death and the actions taken during his final days have affected the world. It wasn't the most eventful episode, but it took care of a lot of necessary stuff and was consistently entertaining and interesting. Looking forward to shit getting real next week.
 
Btw, that ending was fucking dark.

Oh and anyone criticising this for having too much political scheming, this season is rife with it and it's easily the most entertaining aspect of the book.

Tyrion's political war with Varys, Cersei and Littlefinger is just brilliant. Twists and turns round every corner.

Edit: Also, yay for Peter Dinklage being the top billed actor :)

@Sooty: YES! I am just about done with book three, and so far it is my favorite. Soooo much crazy shit happens.

I only just started watching the first season of Spartacus last week and its super weird going from that show to GoT. Just the difference between production quality is staggering. Then again I only watch Spartacus because its hilarious.

@FonkyMucker: you're in for the most unfuckingbelievably mindblowing climax to grace storytelling in years.

I watched the whole of last season because I couldn't wait for winter to come.

It never came, instead it was just a bunch of political bull shit.

WINTER BETTER COME THIS SEASON!

I watched the whole of last season because I couldn't wait for winter to come.

It never came, instead it was just a bunch of political bull shit.

WINTER BETTER COME THIS SEASON!

Game of thrones is amazing.

I'm up to the fifth book but it got real boring real quick.

I did not know the series until the show started. I watched Season 1 and loved it like no TV show ever and bought all the books. Right now I am a few chapters into A Feast For Crows. I have never come across a story that is able to pull emotion from me like this one. Can't wait to watch more of the show and read the books.

thought it was as good as season 1, which i thought was amazing. I havent read the books tho

It was decent I thought. The 10 episodes a season shows with this one though -- they had to show too much in too little time. Cressen, for example. His death had less impact since they didn't have time to flesh out how his character was.

The episode was alright, but i feel that they sort of made this episode as a throw anyway just to set everything up to get back into full swing later, i can assure you all it will only get better from here.

Took way too long for boobies to appear. Game of Thrones started off on the wrong foot this season.

@Beaudacious: First: Their budget was increased due to season 1's success. Second: If the ending didn't have any kind of impact then see a psychiatrist asap. The brothel scene with Ros conveyed quite clearly what was going on. Third: It's the season premiere, they are not going to blow the doors off with the first episode, it pretty much did what the first few chapters of book 2 did (lay the groundwork for season 2)

One episode in and 3+ kids have been systematically murdered.

Oh geez.

They should have had a 2 hour season premier. Episode 1 was just exposition. They did a great job of it, but it would have been nice to get into the story more. Oh well, there is a whole season ahead!

My favorite story from last season, the Aria stuff, got like 2 seconds of screen.  I hope they are finished establishing all of the different threads so the story can start rolling in the next episode.

Tyrion is a boss, as always.

Daenerys is still cute it seems.

How much sex was in this episode?

That shit was always awkward as hell to watch with my family.