Westeros

With the end of the U.K. run of the first season, the fine folks at Thronecast have put together a last episode, with a lot of good things. Among them? An interview with Natalia Tena, who plays Osha, which reveals details about her audition (she brought her own shackles!) and the mighty Hodor (yes, that was a prosthetic; she got to handle it!) And, of course, Linda and I give our thoughts on the final episode and the series overall.

The Natalia Tena interview also appears to have an extended version on their site, as well as an extended version of their interview with Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark) who—as some have noted—is rather publicity shy, so that’s quite a coup! And besides that, the Thronecast team very kindly arranged for Natalia to speak exclusively with Linda and I for a few minutes, the results of which can be found in our Features section, which contains quite a few interviews with other members of the cast and crew.

It was a great experience to be part of it, and we’d like to thank Ruby Thomas at Sky, Dan Wright at Koink, and Geoff Lloyd (en väldig trevligt kille!) for his fine hosting and helping put us at ease—it was all quite a new experience, to say the least.

The latest entry in the Wild Cards series, co-created and edited by George R.R. Martin, is now available!

Containing contributions from old hands and members of the original Wild Cards Consortium—Melinda Snodgrass, Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, and Victor Milán to name a few—as well as writers brand new to the Wild Cards universe such as Mary Anne Mohanraj, Campbell Award-winner David Anthony Durham, comic book and Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell, and more, it’s a look at life on the streets of Jokertown from the perspective of NYPD officers assigned to the eponymous “Fort Freak”, the headquarters for the police precinct responsible for the area. It really seems like a bit of a throwback to the early entries in the city, which focused on and were very much informed by life in New York City at the time.

Via James Hibberd at EW, some great news: viewership of the final episode of Game of Thrones hit 3 million viewers, with 3.9 million viewers overnight across recap and other sources. According to TV by the Numbers, the “key” 18-49 demographic was 1.4, which surpassed Boardwalk Empire‘s finale in that same metric. That figure probably matters rather more to advertising-supported broadcast television—18 or 99, a subscriber is a subscriber as far as HBO is concerned—but it does show that the core audience slants younger.

Via Digital Spy, it looks like “Fire and Blood”  was the 2ndmost-watched episode of the series in its initial airing (after the premiere), with an average of 667,000 (2.7%) viewers in total. The overall viewership of episode 8, “The Pointy End” was, unfortunately, down a bit according to BARB (via @WyverynWood—1.36 million viewers, down from 1.556m for the previous episode. That’s a rather baffling result, we admit, but as we’ve noted before, U.K. figures do seem to have a greater margin of error.

We expect the U.S. figures to come in within a few hours.

Two items that should be of interest to fans were posted over at Suvudu over the weekend or thereabouts, but with all the excitement over

First, the first glimpse of one of the first bound hardcovers of A Dance with Dragons (Preorder: US, UK, Audio US, Audio UK) in the hands of editor Anne Groell, who very cheerfully (...) points out that the book is under embargo; only a handful of reviewers have received copies, and they have all been required to sign non-disclosure agreements. So, don’t expect much in the way of spoilers or reviews until a few days prior to the release on July 12th at the earliest.

And secondly, in honor of the finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Suvudu’s launched a contest with a total of twenty prizes: ten copies of the first novel, and ten copies of the first novel in audio book form. The audio book, read by actor Roy Dotrice, is a real treat—and won Dotrice an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records!

An amazing finale for Game of Thrones! The collective gasps and cheers on Twitter were certainly something else. As with last week’s episode, we’ve rushed to put together our full recap and detailed, chapter-by-chapter break down comparing the episode to what author George R.R. Martin originally had on the page. Please forgive any typos or errors—the hour’s late!

Read the “Fire and Blood” recap!

(P.S. The recap has something very special at the end…)

Ahead of the finale, HBO wanted to show their appreciation for the fans at Westeros.org for their support of the show… and so they’ve let us know a day early that they’re bringing back to their 20% off sale at the HBO Store!

They’ve added quite a few new items in the last days, including the very cool Hodor shirt you see on the right, a Khal Drogo portrait shirt, and a “Daenerys, SPOILER of SPOILERS” shirt that maybe could have waited one day… but, hey, with the special sale and all, why not?

Get your shopping done before the finale,with a nice discount on top. To get the discount, just put GOT20 into the promotion code box at checkout. We’re told the sale will last through the 26th, so no rush… unless that Hodor shirt sells out before you can buy it. Why wait?

You can also visit our own Store page, which includes much of the same catalog of items, plus some Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk alternatives (without that 20% off applicable, of course) when available.

A few interviews trickling in before the finale that we thought we’d highlight:

• Emilia Clarke at TV Guide: Some remarks about riding horses, working with Jason Momoa, her wig, and what the toughest scenes where.
• Emilia Clarke at the Vulture: Besides similar information on horses, Clarke discusses the nude scenes as well as the prop horse’s heart she had to eat which turned out to be quite awful.
• Gethin Anthony with Shadowlocked: Discussing his role as Renly (see our own interview with the actor for more insights) as well as the Minister of Chance audio drama he’s involved in.
• Many Actors with TV Guide: Mark Addy, Jason Momoa, Emilia Clarke, Harry Lloyd, Kit Harrington, Sean Bean, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and George R.R. Martin are asked what their sigil would be, if they could choose, and what their first proclamation would be if they became rulers. Fun one.

Last but not least, as we mentioned the Vulture, here’s a funny video they’ve edited together, giving a buddy comedy spin to the relationship between Bronn and Tyrion Lannister:

It looks like Dynamite Entertainment has decided to run with A Game of Thrones as the title of their new, comic book adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s bestselling “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, according to Bleeding Cool, who also feature one of the covers for the first issue. According to Rich Johnston, covers for the issue will be provided by the very famed Alex Ross and fan-favorite Mike S. Miller (who drew the much-praised The Hedge Knight and The Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword graphic novels.

We’ve previously reported on the adaptation, including an interview with Daniel Abraham, the SF/F author who’ll be handling the scripting chores. Look for an upcoming interview (and maybe some new art!) with artist Tommy Patterson (@TommyFPatterson) next week.

It looks like HBO has just sent out details of the official Game of Thrones panel at Comic Con. Here’s the scoop, via Jace Lacob (@televisionary) and Maureen Ryan (@moryan):

Day: Thursday, July 21st
Moderator: George R.R. Martin(!)
Participations: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Jason Momoa, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau… and more panelists to be announced, it seems.

That’ll be exciting, to say the least!

Pearson Moore of Winterfell Keep continues his thought-provoking series of essays on Game of Thrones. This time, his latest essay looks at all manner of swords—literal and figurative—in the narrative of episode 9, “Baelor”, and in the wider scope of Game of Thrones. And as to popular culture references? Pearson has a knack for them, and this time there’s a bit of The Matrix action going on.

You’ll also notice that at the bottom of the page (both this one and the feature page) is a new comment system, replacing our old one. Using Facebook Comments, anyone with an FB account (or, if you don’t want to use that, a Yahoo! or Hotmail account) will be able to comment directly and easily. We’re slowly getting comments into the rest of the site, but you’ll find them available on the Gallery as well as other sections of the site such as All Sorts of Weird Stuff.

A bit of a foregone conclusion: HBO has finally admitted that, yes, Belfast will again be the headquarters for the second season of Game of Thrones. No real surprise here, as various members of the cast and crew have indicated that they are or will be in Belfast for filming, but it’s good to know. Of note? A confirmation of Monday, July 25th as the planned start of shooting.

As Maureen Ryan notes, that happens to be the day after San Diego Comic Con—no surprise there, either, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau recently noting he’ll be there to promote the show,as have executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss. Series creator, co-executive producer, and writer of episode 8 George R.R. Martin will also be there, and we’re quite sure other members of the cast and crew will be in attendance.

The full press release can be found below.

There’s many neat fan sites out there for the books, but one of the new ones that absolutely knocked our socks off when we first came across them is the Inn at the Crossroads. The bloggers who run it have wowwed everyone (including GRRM) with their recipes, most of them drawn directly from the books and using medieval and Renaissance cooking techniques and recipes. With lovely photographs to go along with them, the Inn at the Crossroads—which already holds over 70 recipes, with more to come—is a great, engaging site for fans of the series.

And the hosts? They’re pretty engaging too! We’ve had the opportunity to interview them for Suvudu, with a bit of a focus on feasts and how to get a Seven Kingdoms-style to your meals. You can read the interview, “Like a Trencherman: Feasts and Feasting in the Seven Kingdoms”, at Suvudu!

Executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss sat down with Joy Press of the L.A. Times Showtracker to discuss the second season. Some interesting hints and details, including GRRM’s role in writing his script and figuring out its scope, women’s fashion in Essos, and more. Some highlights below (including some spoilers!):

Linda and I have cooked up our latest article for Tor.com, this one dealing with masterminds—characters that fans generally love to hate, or in some cases fawn over and admire! It’s definitely spoiler material, so avoid it if you’ve not read the books. There’s also a few notes comparing the “masterminds” to their representation in HBO’s Game of Thrones, because the show has taken a different tack with some of them, at least in regards to certain aspects of their scheming.