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The eighth and final season of the fantasy drama television series ''Game of Thrones'', produced by HBO, premiered on April 14, 2019, and concluded on May 19, 2019. Unlike the first six seasons, which consisted of ten episodes each, and the seventh season, which consisted of seven episodes, the eighth season consists of only six episodes. The final season depicts the culmination of the series' two primary conflicts: the Great War against the Army of the Dead, and the Last War for control of the Iron Throne. The first half of the season involves many of the main characters converging at Winterfell with their armies in an effort to repel the Night King and his army of White Walkers and wights. The second half of the season resumes the war for the throne as Daenerys Targaryen assaults King's Landing in an attempt to unseat Cersei Lannister as the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. The season was filmed from October 2017 to July 2018 and largely consists of original content not found in George R. R. Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series, while also incorporating material that Martin has revealed to showrunners about the upcoming novels in the series, ''The Winds of Winter'' and ''A Dream of Spring''. The season was adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The season received mixed reviews from critics, in contrast to critical acclaim of previous seasons, and is the lowest-rated of the series on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Criticism was mainly directed at the condensed story and shorter runtime of the season, as well as numerous creative decisions made by the showrunners, though the acting, directing, production, and musical score were highly praised. The season received 32 nominations at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, the most for a single season of television in history. It won for Outstanding Drama Series and Peter Dinklage won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. ==Episodes== ==Cast== ===Main cast=== * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister * Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister * Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen * Kit Harington as Jon Snow * Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark * Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei * Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly * Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth * Conleth Hill as Varys * Rory McCann as Sandor "The Hound" Clegane * Jerome Flynn as Bronn * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane * Joe Dempsie as Gendry * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm * Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont * Hannah Murray as Gilly * Carice van Houten as Melisandre ===Recurring cast=== The recurring actors listed here are those who appeared in season 8. They are listed by the region in which they first appear. ====In the North==== * Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne * Rupert Vansittart as Yohn Royce * Bella Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont * Megan Parkinson as Alys Karstark * Richard Rycroft as Maester Wolkan * Harry Grasby as Ned Umber * Staz Nair as Qhono * Vladimir Furdik as the Night King ====In King's Landing==== * Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy * Anton Lesser as Qyburn * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane * Gemma Whelan as Yara Greyjoy * Marc Rissmann as Harry Strickland * Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully * Lino Facioli as Robin Arryn ==Production== ===Development=== HBO announced the eighth and final season of the fantasy drama television series ''Game of Thrones'' in July 2016. Like the previous season, it largely consists of original content not found in George R. R. Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series. As Benioff had verified in March 2015, the creators have talked with Martin about the end of the series, and they "know where things are heading." He explained that the ends of both the television and the book series would unavoidably be thematically similar, although Martin could still make some changes to surprise the readers. When asked about why the television series is coming to an end, he said, "this is where the story ends." ===Crew=== Series creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss serve as showrunners for the eighth season. The directors for the eighth season were announced in September 2017. Miguel Sapochnik, who previously directed "The Gift" and "Hardhome" in the fifth season, as well as "Battle of the Bastards" and "The Winds of Winter" in the sixth season, returned to direct two episodes. David Nutter, who had directed two episodes each in the second, third, and fifth seasons, including "The Rains of Castamere" and "Mother's Mercy", directed three episodes for the eighth season. The final episode of the series was directed by Benioff and Weiss, who have previously co-directed two episodes, taking credit for one episode each. At the series' South by Southwest panel on March 12, 2017, Benioff and Weiss announced the writers for the series to be Dave Hill (episode 1) and Bryan Cogman (episode 2). The showrunners divided up the screenplay for the remaining four episodes amongst themselves. ===Writing=== Writing for the eighth season started with a 140-page outline. Benioff said that the divvying up process and who should write what section became more difficult because "this would be the last time that they would be doing this." ===Filming=== In an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', HBO programming president Casey Bloys said that instead of the series finale's being a feature film, the final season would be "six one-hour movies" on television. He continued, "The show has proven that TV is every bit as impressive and in many cases more so, than film. What they're doing is monumental." Filming officially began on October 23, 2017 and concluded in July 2018. Many exterior scenes were filmed in Northern Ireland and a few in Dubrovnik, Croatia; Paint Hall Studios in Belfast were used for interior filming. The direwolf scenes were filmed in Alberta, Canada. ===Casting=== The eighth season saw the return of Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully and Lino Facioli as Robin Arryn in the final episode, neither of whom appeared in the seventh season. Marc Rissmann was cast as Harry Strickland, the commander of the Golden Company. ===Content=== Co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have said that the seventh and eighth seasons would likely comprise fewer episodes, saying that after the sixth season, they were "down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We're heading into the final lap". Benioff and Weiss said that they were unable to produce 10 episodes in the series' usual 12 to 14-month timeframe, as Weiss explained, "It's crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule." HBO confirmed in July 2016 that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes and would premiere later than usual in mid-2017 because of the later filming schedule. Benioff and Weiss later confirmed that the eighth season would consist of six episodes and would premiere later than usual for the same reason. Benioff and Weiss said about the end of the series: "From the beginning, we've wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It will turn out to be a 73-hour movie, but it's stayed relatively the same of having the beginning, middle, and now we're coming to the end. It would have been really tough if we lost any core cast members along the way; I'm very happy we've kept everyone and we get to finish it the way we want to." The first two episodes are, respectively, 54 and 58 minutes long, while the final four episodes of the series are all more than an hour in length—episode three is 82 minutes (making it the longest episode of the series), episodes four and five are each 78 minutes, and the final episode is 80 minutes. A two-hour documentary, ''Game of Thrones: The Last Watch'', which documents the making of the eighth season, aired on May 26, the week after the series finale. ===Music=== Ramin Djawadi returned as the series' composer for the eighth season. The soundtrack album for the season was released digitally on May 19, 2019 and was released on CD on July 19, 2019. ==Release== ===Broadcast=== The season premiered on April 14, 2019 in the United States on HBO. ===Marketing=== On December 6, 2018, HBO released the first official teaser trailer for the eighth season. A second teaser trailer was released on January 13, 2019, which announced the premiere date as April 14, 2019. The trailer was directed by David Nutter. HBO released a promotional advertisement with Bud Light on February 3, 2019 during Super Bowl LIII. Later, first-look photos of several main characters were released on February 6, 2019. On February 28, posters of many of the main characters sitting upon the Iron Throne were released. The official full trailer was released on March 5, 2019. ===Illegal distribution=== The season premiere was reportedly pirated by nearly 55 million people within the first 24 hours of release. Of these numbers, 9.5 million downloads came from India, 5.2 million came from China, and 4 million came from the U.S. On April 21, 2019, it was reported that the second episode of the season was illegally leaked online hours before it aired due to being streamed early on Amazon Prime Germany. On May 5, 2019, it was reported that the fourth episode of the season was leaked online, with footage from the episode circulating on social media. ===Home media=== The season will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on December 3, 2019. ==Reception== ===Critical response=== The season received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 56% based on 13 reviews with an average rating of 6.32/10. It is the lowest-rated season of the series on the website. The website's critical consensus reads: "''Game of Thrones'' final season shortchanges the women of Westeros, sacrificing satisfying character arcs for spectacular set-pieces in its mad dash to the finish line". On Metacritic, the eighth-season premiere garnered a score of 74 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." The first two episodes were met with mostly positive feedback. "The Long Night" was praised for the cinematography and grand scale of the battle between the living and the dead, but was criticized for its lack of catharsis, logic, disorienting lighting, and the anticlimactic ending of the White Walker storyline that had been built up for seven seasons. "The Last of the Starks" and "The Bells" were criticized for their rushed pacing, writing, logic, and deviation from character development, with "The Last of the Starks" being labeled as "anticlimactic" and "a huge letdown." "The Iron Throne" was described as "divisive," and according to Rotten Tomatoes, the series finale represents "a modest rebound" but it "went out with a whimper." "The Bells" and "The Iron Throne" are the worst-reviewed episodes of the entire series on the website, with an approval of 49% and 48% respectively, while the last four episodes of the season "plunged to record low scores." David Sims of ''The Atlantic'' wrote that the final season "has been the same story over and over again: a lot of tin-eared writing trying to justify some of the most drastic story developments imaginable, as quickly as possible. As usual, the actors did their best with what was on the page." Lucy Mangan of ''The Guardian'' wrote that the final season "has been a rushed business. It has wasted opportunities, squandered goodwill, and failed to do justice to its characters or its actors." Zack Beauchamp of ''Vox'' wrote that the final season "dispensed almost entirely with trying to make sense of its characters' internal motivations — let alone the complex political reality that its psychological realism initially helped create." Kelly Lawler of ''USA Today'' wrote that the series ultimately betrayed its "identity" of "tragedy and injustice" with a "pandering" ending. Judy Berman of ''Time'' wrote that the series failed to complete the answer to "conflicting ideas about freedom, justice and leadership"; these were themes that previously brought depth to the series. Ellen Gray of the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' and Darren Franich of ''Entertainment Weekly'' agreed that the final season was not as complex as previous seasons. Franich gave the final season, featuring "big-huge set pieces," a 'C' rating. The final season's "broseph mentality shined through," shunting the interaction between female characters. Additionally, Franich criticized Cersei doing nothing this season, as well as the ultimate focus "on Jon Snow, the least complicated main character." Huw Fullerton of ''Radio Times'' wrote that the eighth season was not "Thrones at its best" but still had "some sort of ending for the characters." For Fullerton, the season was "like the finale — some bits I liked, one or two I loved, an awful lot that leaves me scratching my head." ===Ratings=== ===Audience response=== A petition to HBO for "competent writers" to remake the eighth season of ''Game of Thrones'' in a manner "that makes sense" was started on Change.org after "The Last of the Starks" aired, but went viral after "The Bells" aired. The petition described showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss as "woefully incompetent writers". As of September 6, 2019, it has amassed over 1.73 million signatures. ''Digital Spy'' reported that fans of the series criticized the season for the way it handled several character arcs and the "rushed" pacing. The petition's creator stated that he never expected HBO to remake the season, but saw the petition as a message "of frustration and disappointment at its core". The petition was labelled as "disrespectful to the crew and the filmmakers" by actress Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa Stark), "ridiculous", "weird, juvenile" by actor Isaac Hempstead Wright (who plays Bran Stark), and "rude" by actor Jacob Anderson (who plays Grey Worm). Emilia Clarke (who plays Daenerys Targaryen) indicated she was previously unaware of the petition, but gave a warmer response when she was asked what she would want to see happen if the eighth season were redone: "I can only speak to my own character, and the people that I interact with on the show. But I would've loved some more scenes with me and Missandei. I would've loved some more scenes with me and Cersei". Richard Roeper, writing for the ''Chicago Sun Times'', wrote: "Over the last 25+ years, I've reviewed thousands of movies and dozens of TV shows, and I don't think I've ever seen the level of fan (and to a lesser degree, critical) vitriol leveled at this show in recent weeks". However, Roeper noted that social media was not yet widely used during much of this time period. Lenika Cruz, writing for ''The Atlantic'', wrote that with the end of the series, "there are folks who don't feel as though the hours and hours they've devoted to this show have been wasted", but "there are many others" who felt the opposite. Kelly Lawler of ''USA Today'' wrote that the ultimate ending of the series was not what fans "signed up for". CBS News has described several plot points that fans are dissatisfied with: the character arcs of Daenerys and Jaime; the manner of death for Jaime, Missandei, Rhaegal, and the Night King; the Battle of Winterfell being visually too dark; the "basic existence of Euron Greyjoy"; and "Jon's treatment of Ghost". ===Cast response=== In an interview published just as the final season premiered, Kit Harington said, "whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their negative judgement on it, in my head they can go fuck themselves. ... I know how much work was put into this ... Now if people feel let down by this final season, I don't give a fuck—because everyone working on the series tried their hardest. That's how I feel. In the end, no one's bigger fans of the show than we are, and we're kind of doing it for ourselves." In an interview with ''The New Yorker'', Emilia Clarke said she had to hold back her innermost anxiety from Beyoncé: "I was just, like, Oh, my God, my absolute idol in life is saying that she likes me, and I know for a fact that by the end of this season she's going to hate me. ... All I wanted to scream was 'Please, please still like me even though my character turns into a mass-killing dictator! Please still think that I'm representing women in a really fabulous way.'" Nathalie Emmanuel, who played Missandei, was heartbroken when she read her character's sudden demise: "...I think the fact that she died in chains when she was a slave her whole life, that for me was a pungent cut for that character, that felt so painful". Emmanuel, who was the only woman of color who was a regular on the series for the last several seasons, said, "It's safe to say that ''Game of Thrones'' has been under criticism for their lack of representation, and the truth of it is that Missandei and Grey Worm have represented so many people because there's only two of them." Conleth Hill, who played Varys, told ''Entertainment Weekly'' that the seventh and eighth seasons were "kind of frustrating" and not his "favorite", noting that Varys "kind of dropped off the edge". Hill reacted with "dismay" to Varys apparently "losing his knowledge": "If he was such an intelligent man and he had such resources, how come he didn't know about things?" After being "very bummed to not have a final scene with Littlefinger", Hill was "bummed not to have any reaction to Littlefinger dying, if he was Varys' nemesis". Also, once the series ran out of book material as a source, Hill noted that "special niche interest in weirdos wasn't as effective as it had been". However, Hill was "not dissatisfied on the whole" regarding the series. Lena Headey had a "mixed" initial reaction to the manner of death of Cersei Lannister, the character she played. Headey would rather have Cersei die by "some big piece or fight with somebody". Eventually, fellow actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau persuaded Headey on how to appreciate the scene, and she said her eventual belief that "it seemed like the perfect end for" Cersei because Cersei and Jaime "came into the world together and now they leave together". ===Accolades=== With 32 nominations, ''Game of Thrones'' broke the record of the most nominations received by a regular TV show in a single year. Award Category Nominee(s) Result 71st Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Drama Series David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, David Nutter, Miguel Sapochnik, Vince Gerardis, Guymon Casady, George R. R. Martin, Bryan Cogman, Chris Newman,Greg Spence, Lisa McAtackney, and Duncan Muggoch Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Kit Harington (for "The Iron Throne") Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emilia Clarke (for "The Last of the Starks") Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Alfie Allen (for "The Long Night") Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (for "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms") Peter Dinklage (for "The Iron Throne") Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Gwendoline Christie (for "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms") Lena Headey (for "The Bells") Sophie Turner (for "Winterfell") Maisie Williams (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series David Benioff and D. B. Weiss (for "The Iron Throne") David Nutter (for "The Last of the Starks") Miguel Sapochnik (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series David Benioff and D. B. Weiss (for "The Iron Throne") 71st Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series Nina Gold, Robert Sterne, and Carla Stronge Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series Jonathan Freeman (for "The Iron Throne") Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media within a Scripted Program "Fight for the Living: Beyond the Wall Virtual Reality Experience" Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes Michele Clapton, Emma O'Loughlin, and Kate O'Farrell (for "The Bells") Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Carice van Houten (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series Kevin Alexander, Candice Banks, Nicola Mount, and Rosalia Culora (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Main Title Design Angus Wall, Kirk Shintani, Shahana Khan, Ian Ruhfass, and Rustam Hasanov Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) Jane Walker, Kay Bilk, Marianna Kyriacou, Nicola Mathews, and Pamela Smyth (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) Ramin Djawadi (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More) Deborah Riley, Paul Ghirardani, and Rob Cameron (for "The Bells") Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or Special Emma Faulkes, Paul Spateri, Chloe Muton-Phillips, Duncan Jarman, Patt Foad, John Eldred-Tooby, Barrie Gower, and Sarah Gower (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Katie Weiland (for "The Iron Throne") Tim Porter (for "The Long Night") Crispin Green (for "Winterfell") Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour) Tim Kimmel, Tim Hands, Paula Fairfield, Bradley C. Katona, Paul Bercovitch, John Matter, David Klotz, Brett Voss, Jeffrey Wilhoit, and Dylan T. Wilhoit (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour) Onnalee Blank, Mathew Waters, Simon Kerr, Danny Crowley, and Ronan Hill (for "The Long Night") Outstanding Special Visual Effects Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Adam Chazen, Sam Conway, Mohsen Mousavi, Martin Hill, Ted Rae, Patrick Tiberius Gehlen, and Thomas Schelesny (for "The Bells") Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie Rowley Irlam 17th Gold Derby Awards Best Drama Series ''Game of Thrones'' Best Drama Episode "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" "The Long Night" Best Drama Actor Kit Harington Best Drama Actress Emilia Clarke Best Drama Supporting Actor Alfie Allen Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Peter Dinklage Best Drama Supporting Actress Gwendoline Christie Lena Headey Maisie Williams Best Drama Guest Actress Carice van Houten Best Ensemble The cast of ''Game of Thrones'' 45th Saturn Awards Best Fantasy Television Series ''Game of Thrones'' Best Actor on a Television Series Kit Harington Best Actress on a Television Series Emilia Clarke Best Supporting Actor on a Television Series Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Peter Dinklage Best Supporting Actress on a Television Series Gwendoline Christie Lena Headey Sophie Turner Best Performance by a Younger Actor on a Television Series Maisie Williams 35th TCA Awards Program of the Year ''Game of Thrones'' 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards Best Show ''Game of Thrones'' Best Performance in a Show Emilia Clarke Best Hero Maisie Williams Best Fight Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) vs. White Walkers ==Notes== ==References== ==External links== *  – official US site *  – official UK site * ''Game of Thrones'' – The Viewers Guide onHBO * * * Making ''Game of Thrones'' on HBO

'''"Titties and Dragons"''' is the ninth episode in the seventeenth season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 246th episode of the series overall, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on December 4, 2013. It is the conclusion of a three-episode story arc that began with "Black Friday", and continued with "A Song of Ass and Fire". The story centers upon the children of South Park, role-playing as characters from ''Game of Thrones'', split into two factions over whether to collectively purchase bargain-priced Xbox One or PlayStation 4 video game consoles at an upcoming Black Friday sale at the local mall, where Randy Marsh has been made the Captain of mall security. The episode received critical acclaim. ==Plot== In the conclusion of a three-part storyline, the children of South Park are split into two factions over whether to purchase bargain-priced Microsoft Xbox Ones or Sony PlayStation 4s at an upcoming Black Friday sale at the South Park Mall, a schism that sees best friends Stan Marsh (PS4) and Kyle Broflovski (Xbox) on opposite sides. As the PS4 faction turn their attention to the Red Robin restaurant, which serves as a side entrance into the mall, the Xbox One faction arrives to announce they wish to join the PS4 ranks. Though Stan does not trust them, Cartman and Kyle say they have a way to monopolize the Red Robin: by renting it out for a wedding party. Cartman and Stan, who are having a private talk in the "Garden of Andros", are interrupted by the elderly owner, who informs Stan of the true intentions of the Xbox faction: they have merely feigned surrender in order to lock the PS4 faction in the Red Robin while they retrieve their consoles. Stan is further angered to be told that this was Kyle's idea. To prevent Stan from informing his allies of this, Cartman defecates in the old man's yard and frames Stan for it, resulting in Stan being grounded. When Kyle learns of this, he tries to explain his actions to Stan but he is promptly sent away. As Randy Marsh's mall security guards deal with the increasing shopper violence, George R. R. Martin arrives at the mall to cut the ribbon that will open the mall for the Black Friday sale. However, he stalls by regaling the agitated crowd with musings on his penis. An impatient shopper charges forward, slices off Martin's penis, and cuts the ribbon, allowing the crowd into the mall, leading to mass deaths. In the Red Robin, Kyle, Kenny and their allies turn on Cartman and his faction, revealing that they are no longer Xbox supporters. The standoff is then interrupted by Bill Gates and the head of Sony. The Sony executive is brutally killed by Gates, who announces that Xbox is victorious. The children journey through the blood-and-corpse-covered mall to purchase their Xbox Ones. While playing with his new console, Cartman realizes that he wishes to play outside, saying that their improvised ''Game of Thrones'' role-playing over the past few weeks has been filled with so much the drama, action and romance that they do not need Microsoft or Sony to have fun. ==Production== As with the previous episode, the show's opening title sequence is modified to depict the characters in their role-playing garb, while the soundtrack has been altered to include the penis-themed chorus singing to the ''Game of Thrones'' opening theme introduced in the previous episode. Series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said that they experimented with different styles of opening sequences before settling on the penis-themed chorus version; a Japanese Princess Kenny opening sequence was one of the original ideas. ==Reception== "Titties and Dragons" received widespread critical acclaim. Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode a score of 9.0 out of 10, writing, "The final chapter of ''South Park''s Black Friday trilogy finished strong, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, subtle commentary and genius satire. There were a few nitpicks—most of which were negligible—but overall, this week's episode proved that Matt and Trey can still dish out a satisfying multipart arc, with style." Marcus Gilmer of ''The A.V. Club'' gave the episode an A− rating, praising the "Red Robin Wedding", and said, "The show’s ability to inject a bit of soul is one of the best tricks the writers have pulled off regularly throughout the show's run. Beneath all the crude jokes and the potty humor, there's legitimate heart that manages to be genuine and self-aware without ever straying into the maudlin." ==References== ==External links== * "Titties and Dragons". South Park Studios. * * *

'''''The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens''''' is a novella by George R. R. Martin, published in the 2013 Tor Books anthology ''Dangerous Women''. Set in the Westeros of Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series, 200 years before the events of ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996), it chronicles the "continent-burning warfare" (called the "Dance of Dragons") that explodes between Targaryen Princess Rhaenyra and her stepmother, Queen Alicent. The work is presented as the writing of the fictional Archmaester Gyldayn, also the "author" of Martin's 2014 novella ''The Rogue Prince'', a direct prequel to ''The Princess and the Queen''. ==Plot== When King Viserys I Targaryen dies, his widow Queen Alicent has their eldest son Prince Aegon crowned King Aegon II before Viserys' daughter Rhaenyra, the only surviving child of his first marriage, can claim the Iron Throne herself. Though Rhaenyra is the king's oldest child and had been named his successor years before, Alicent and her supporters declare Rhaenyra unfit to rule and argue that, as a woman, Rhaenyra should be placed after Alicent's own male children in the line of succession. After Rhaenyra declares herself Queen at the Targaryen ancestral seat of Dragonstone, her middle son Lucerys Velaryon and King Aegon's younger brother Aemond take their dragons to seek the support of Lord Borros Baratheon of Storm's End. However, Lucerys and his dragon are killed there. Rhaenyra's husband Prince Daemon has Aegon II's son and heir Jaehaerys murdered in revenge. Soon both branches of the Targaryen royal line are at war, with dragons on both sides. The people of King's Landing, tired of the constant conflict and fear of dragon's destroying their city, storm the Dragonkeep, destroying it and a large portion of the dragon population in Westeros. Eventually all of Rhaenyra's children except for Aegon and Viserys are killed and she herself is captured by Aegon II and fed to his dragon, Sunfyre, though the war continues. ==Development== The story was to be included in the companion book ''The World of Ice & Fire'' but was removed because the book was becoming too long for the original concept of a fully illustrated book. It and several other stories appeared in abridged versions in other anthologies. ==Reception== ''Entertainment Weekly'' called the 35,000-word novella "a great demonstration of Martin's ability to dramatize the slippery complexities of power: how evil begets heroism, how heroes become villains". ''The Princess and the Queen'' was nominated for a 2014 Locus Award. ==References==

"'''Beyond the Wall'''" is the sixth and penultimate episode of the seventh season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 66th overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Alan Taylor. At 70 minutes, it was the series' longest episode until the airing of the season's finale. The episode's main plot focuses on Jon Snow's raiding party as they journey north of the Wall; they successfully capture a wight to prove the threat, though Thoros is killed. Daenerys rescues the group from the Army of the Dead, and the Night King kills and reanimates Viserion. Jon is separately rescued by Benjen, who sacrifices himself, and Jon acknowledges Daenerys as Queen. Meanwhile, at Winterfell, tension builds between Sansa and Arya. The title of the episode is taken from the namesake lands where most of the episode takes place. "Beyond the Wall" received mostly positive praise from critics, who listed the epic scale and special effects of the battle between the White Walkers and the dragons, the interactions between the northern raiding party, and Jon swearing fealty to Daenerys as highlights of the episode, though some reviewers criticized the episode for "defying logic" and its rushed storytelling. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 10.24 million in its initial broadcast. This episode marks the final appearances of Joseph Mawle (Benjen Stark) and Paul Kaye (Thoros of Myr). ==Plot== ===At Winterfell=== Arya confronts Sansa about the letter Sansa wrote to persuade Robb to bend the knee to Joffrey. Arya accuses Sansa of mainly being concerned that she will lose face with the Northern lords if the letter is made public. Sansa confides in Littlefinger, who suggests that Brienne, sworn to serve both sisters, would intervene if Arya acted against Sansa. However, when Cersei invites Sansa to King's Landing to parley, Sansa sends Brienne as her representative. Sansa searches Arya's room and finds Arya's faces. Arya discovers Sansa and explains her training with the Faceless Men. Arya says she could take Sansa's face, seemingly threatening her with the Valyrian steel dagger before instead leaving her with it. ===At Dragonstone=== Tyrion suspects Cersei will lay a trap when they meet, but counsels Daenerys to not stoop to her level. Daenerys grows frustrated with Tyrion's pragmatism, but he reassures her of his loyalty to her cause. Tyrion further questions how Daenerys, who believes herself infertile, can establish a legacy that will outlive her. She refuses to discuss the succession before ascending to the Iron Throne. ===Beyond the Wall=== Jon, the Hound, Jorah, Beric, Thoros, and Gendry journey beyond the wall with Tormund and several other Wildlings. Jon offers Longclaw, the ancestral Mormont sword, to Jorah, but Jorah insists Jon keep it. An undead polar bear attacks the party, and Thoros is savaged saving the Hound. The party continues onwards. Jon and the others ambush and destroy a White Walker accompanied by wights, and all but one of the wights instantly collapse, inanimate. They capture the last wight. A horde of wights approaches, and Gendry is sent alone to Eastwatch to send a raven to Daenerys while the others take refuge on a small island in the middle of a partially frozen lake. The Night King and other White Walkers watch from high ground. Beric suggests that destroying the Night King will in turn destroy the other White Walkers and the wights. Thoros succumbs to his wounds and the others cremate him. Gendry arrives at Eastwatch, and Davos has the raven sent to Daenerys. Daenerys flies her dragons north, having received the raven and having rejected Tyrion's advice to "do nothing." The wights attack Jon's group when the water refreezes. Daenerys arrives and the dragons burn many wights. The men try to evacuate on Drogon but the wights continue their attack; using an ice javelin, the Night King kills Viserion. Jon stays on the ground to cover the others' departure, but is pulled into the water. Jon is saved by Benjen Stark, who gives Jon his horse to ride to Eastwatch while sacrificing himself to hold off the wights. Jon recovers aboard a ship. He apologizes to Daenerys for Viserion's death; she tearfully accepts the loss as the cost of her learning the truth, and she vows to fight the Night King with Jon. He calls her "my Queen" and believes the Northern lords will come to accept her leadership. Beyond the wall, the Night King reanimates Viserion. ==Production== ===Writing=== The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. "Beyond the Wall" was written by the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. In the "Inside the Episode" featurette published by HBO following the airing of the episode, David Benioff indicated that the death of the dragon Viserion was something that he and the writers had been working towards for a long time, and added "The whole path of the show in some way has been trying to map out all of the episode end points, and with this one, it was the dragon opening its blue eye, and realizing that the Night King has finally gotten his own weapon of mass destruction." Weiss also stated that the most enjoyable part in writing the sequence was to make it seem as though all of the "good guys" were going to "get out the other side more or less scot-free," and knew that subsequently killing the dragon would have "a tremendous emotional impact," due to its importance to Daenerys. He continued by saying that they knew it would be important for the Night King to seize on the opportunity to kill a dragon, and that they intended for the scene to be a "one-two punch" by having the viewer witness "the horror" involved with seeing "one of these three amazing beings like this in the world going under the water and not coming up again, and processing that," but also "processing something that's even worse," by having the dragon pulled out of the water and becoming a part of the Night King's army. Regarding the inclusion of the wight polar bear attack, Benioff and Weiss stated that they had wanted to have a wight polar bear for "about four seasons," but never made it onto the screen due to opposition from the special effects team. Weiss recalled being told that they were not able to afford the special effect, but felt that it made "perfect sense that you could have one of these things out there, and we really put our four feet down and said goddamnit, we want a zombie polar bear," and thus wrote it into the episode. Weiss also spoke about the concluding Winterfell sequence, saying that once Sansa finds Arya's collection of faces and is confronted, Sansa was intended to start to see Arya as "a real, physical danger to her," and that they wanted to translate that fear to the subsequent episode, in "The Dragon and the Wolf". ===Filming=== "Beyond the Wall" was directed by Alan Taylor. This was Taylor's seventh episode as a director for the series, but it was his first episode since the second season, where he directed that season's finale episode, "Valar Morghulis". He was also a director for two episodes in the first season, "Baelor" and "Fire and Blood", as well as four other episodes in the second season. Since his hiatus from the series, Taylor was a director for several big budget Hollywood films, including ''Thor: The Dark World'' and ''Terminator Genisys''. In an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', Taylor spoke about the differences between his earlier stint with the series, and his return for the show's seventh season, saying he was previously told to avoid using green screen, and thus special effects, due to the budgetary constraints that the series had in its earlier seasons. However, with "Beyond the Wall", he was able to fully utilize visual effects to create the large environment, dragons and armies due to the increased budget. He also described the experience as "going full circle," having witnessed the evolution of characters such as Sophie Turner as Sansa and Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, who he directed when they were children, and that they have since grown up. Alan Taylor returned to the series after a hiatus, last directing "Valar Morghulis" in the series' second season. Many of the scenes leading up to the battle with the White Walker army were filmed in Iceland, but the majority of the episode's battle sequence was filmed in a quarry in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Taylor had expected to film the sequence entirely in Iceland, but quickly realized that it was not feasible due to the amount of production that was required. In filming the wight polar bear attack, Taylor noted that the bear was designed by the New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which previously worked on ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy. Richard Dormer, who portrays Beric Dondarrion, described filming the scene in a separate interview, saying "It was very cold, wet and physical. Hot as well, running around imagining a 12-foot flaming polar bear. It’s pretty weird, but it was fun." Dormer also noted the difficulty of filming a flaming sword, revealing that the sword could only burn for two minutes at a time, and could not be swung too quickly, requiring Dormer to slow down his movement. He also said that the sword he was using weighed approximately three times more than a normal sword. Though the actors were dressed warmly for the scenes beyond the Wall, their suits contained a "tube system through which cold water can be circulated between shots using a portable pump to keep them from getting overheated," due to the actual warmth of filming on a fake set in Northern Ireland. This was also essential due to the possibility of Rory McCann's, who portrays Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, prosthetic makeup melting off his face. In another interview with ''The Hollywood Reporter'', Taylor also spoke about the process of interacting with the lake and water, saying "every moment of interaction with water had to be a multiple stage process where we filmed the action on our 360 degree set and landscape, and then restage it against green screen with elements we shot in a dunk tank rig, and all of those elements get married together to form something as simple as a guy falling into the ice and plopping into the water." Four to five different shots were needed in order to accomplish this portion of the battle. Taylor described working with Vladimir Furdik, who portrays the Night King, noting that Furdik is completely covered in prosthetics, and saying "He's just delightful. There's nothing he can't do. He's a full-on actor in that role, aside from being able to do all of the action and all of the horse work. He has a beautiful face — although you lose some of that behind the Night King prosthetics." Taylor revealed that he had worked with Furdik previously, as Furdik was also a stunt performer on ''Thor: The Dark World''. To film the death of the dragon, Viserion, Taylor said that he "provided the shots where we knew the dragon was going to be impaled and crash," for special effects supervisor Joe Bauer to use later. But Taylor also filmed reaction shots "all along the way" while the dragon fell to its death, utilizing a tennis ball on a stick in order for the actors to understand where the dragon was in the scene, as well as a "pre-viz" and storyboards for them to understand what the final product would look like. Taylor praised Emilia Clarke's performance as Daenerys Targaryen in the scene, and he was also grateful that he was chosen to direct the dragon's death, due to his self-proclaimed past with directing pivotal death scenes in several series, including the death of Ned Stark in season one, as well as major deaths in ''Rome'', ''Deadwood'' and ''The Sopranos''. Taylor also spoke about the amount of time that was intended to pass between the approach of the White Walker army, and Daenerys's arrival, saying that they were being intentionally vague, "We did a few things, like getting deliberately hazy about how much time is passing, because it's so dark in the frozen lake and you don't know how many days or nights you may have witnessed. We tried to make it a little ambiguous and give it some wiggle room on that end. We were aware that we were asking for people's suspended disbelief — plausible impossibilities is what you're aiming for." ==Reception== ===Ratings=== "Beyond the Wall" was viewed by 10.24 million viewers on its initial viewing on HBO, which was less than the previous week's rating of 10.72 million viewers for the episode "Eastwatch". The episode also acquired a 4.7 rating in the 18–49 demographic, making it the highest rated show on cable television of the night. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 3.18 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week on its channel. It also received 0.98 million timeshift viewers. ===Critical reception=== "Beyond the Wall" received mostly positive reviews from critics who listed the epic scale and special effects of the battle between the White Walkers and the dragons, the interactions between the northern raiding party and Jon swearing fealty to Daenerys as highlights of the episode, although some reviewers criticized the episode for " logic." It has received an 84% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 43 reviews, with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. The site's consensus reads ""Beyond The Wall" delivered the epic battles and plot twists that are expected from the penultimate episode of a ''Game of Thrones'' season – although sometimes in ways that defied logic." Some reviews were more negative. Terri Schwartz of IGN wrote in her review of the episode, "''Game of Thrones'' has long set the precedent that its penultimate episodes of its seasons would be the biggest in terms of scale and, oftentimes, loss, in everything from "Baelor" to "The Rains of Castamere". In that way, "Beyond the Wall" was no different, as it arguably featured the greatest loss the series has faced to date: a dragon killed by the Night King, and even worse, resurrected by him." However, Schwartz also criticized the episode saying that it suffered "more than any other episode to date from the rushed, truncated storytelling in Season 7." Schwartz went on to also praise the interactions between the northern raiding party on their journey to find the White Walkers, and ultimately gave the episode a 6.9 out of 10. Daniel D'Addario of ''Time Magazine'' wrote in his review of the episode "This episode, occupying the penultimate-in-the-season slot that has historically been the spot where the biggest moments occur, was ever-so-slightly less a barnburner than last year's "Battle of the Bastards," for instance. But that's in part due to the increasing obviousness of the stakes." Myles McNutt of ''The A.V. Club'' spoke similarly in his comparison of the episode to the previous season's penultimate episode, questioning some of the reasoning behind the battle, writing "we have a situation here where a series of events engineered for action and suspense effectively sells out the characters involved." He also praised the episode, however, by saying "On the level of spectacle, "Beyond The Wall" is another series high point, with stellar work from returning director Alan Taylor, capturing the visceral battles that the seven men and several Red Shirts encounter on their journey. And I was charmed by the series of "walk and talks" that punctuate their travels, brief vignettes of characters like Sandor and Tormund interacting for the first time while marching toward their potential dooms." He gave the episode a B. Steve Greene of IndieWire wrote in his review, ""Beyond the Wall" might not be the best episode of the season, but it's more assuredly the most important. By bringing the season-long promise of terror and triumph in rapid succession, the series turned this vital episode into a horror story to remember." ===Accolades=== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2018 American Cinema Editors Awards Best Edited One-Hour Series For Non-Commercial Television Tim Porter Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Live Action Production Paul Story, Todd Labonte, Matthew Muntean, Cajun Hylton, Georgy Arevshatov Cinema Audio Society Awards Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Television Series – One Hour Ronan Hill, Richard Dyer, Onnalee Blank, Mathew Waters, Brett Voss (for "Beyond the Wall") Directors Guild of America Awards Dramatic Series Alan Taylor Visual Effects Society Awards Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Chris Baird, David Ramos, Sam Conway Outstanding Animated Character in an Episode or Real-Time Project Paul Story, Todd Labonte, Matthew Muntean, Nicholas Wilson – "Zombie Polar Bear" Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial or Real-Time Project Daniel Villalba, Antonio Lado, José Luis Barreiro, Isaac de la Pompa – "Frozen Lake" Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project Manuel Ramírez, Óscar Márquez, Pablo Hernández, David Gacituaga – "Frozen Lake" Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode Óscar Perea, Santiago Martos, David Esteve, Michael Crane  – "Frozen Lake" Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing in Television, Short Form: Music David Klotz British Academy Television Awards Must-See Moment "Viserion is Killed by the Night King" 2018 Gold Derby Awards Best Drama Episode Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Alan Taylor Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes Michele Clapton, Alexander Fordham, Emma O'Loughlin, Kate O'Farrell Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Tim Porter Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Series Onnalee Blank, Mathew Waters, Richard Dyer, Ronan Hill Outstanding Special Visual Effects Steve Kullback, Joe Bauer, Adam Chazen, Michelle Blok, Sam Conway, Ted Rae, David Ramos, Wayne Stables, Derek Spears ==Leak== Similar to the fourth episode of the season, "The Spoils of War", the episode was leaked before it was set to air, on August 20, 2017. Four days before its official broadcast, HBO Spain and HBO Nordic accidentally allowed "Beyond the Wall" to be available for on-demand viewing for one hour before being removed. ==References== ==External links== * "Beyond the Wall" at HBO.com * *

"'''Dark Wings, Dark Words'''" is the second episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 22nd episode of the series. Written by Vanessa Taylor, and directed by Daniel Minahan, it aired on April 7, 2013. The title is an in-universe old saying about messenger ravens, referring to the fact that such urgently delivered messages are often bad news. In the episode, Robb Stark receives news of the death of Hoster Tully as well as the sack of Winterfell and the disappearances of Bran and Rickon. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Margaery and her grandmother Lady Olenna persuade Sansa to tell them the truth of King Joffrey's cruelty. After discussing his bride-to-be with Cersei, Joffrey invites Margaery to his chamber and questions her about her last husband, Renly Baratheon, and shows off his new crossbow. Shae warns Tyrion that Lord Baelish has taken an interest in Sansa. ===Beyond the Wall=== Mance Rayder continues to be distrustful of Jon, and speaks with Orell, a 'warg' capable of seeing through the eyes of animals, who tells him that he has seen the aftermath of the battle at the Fist of the First Men. Marching to the Wall, Sam falls from exhaustion, and Jeor Mormont orders Rast, who had been taunting Sam, to ensure he reaches the Wall alive. ===In the North=== Heading north with Hodor, Osha, and Rickon, Bran has another strange dream. While Hodor and Rickon are away, Osha suspects someone is following them and leaves to investigate. Bran is confronted by Jojen Reed, the boy from his dream and a seer like Bran. Accompanied by his sister, Meera, Jojen says they have been searching for Bran. ===In an unknown location=== Theon Greyjoy has been taken captive, and despite answering all questions truthfully, is continued to be tortured. A boy who claims to be sent by Yara promises to aid Theon. ===In the Riverlands=== Robb receives news of the death of his grandfather, Lord Hoster Tully, and that Winterfell has been razed by the Iron Islanders but Bran and Rickon have not been found. He and Catelyn depart for Riverrun for her father's funeral; Lord Karstark voices his displeasure with the funeral distraction. Catelyn discusses her children with Talisa, and admits that she feels responsible for what is happening to them all. Traveling north, Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie are brought to an inn by a group led by Thoros of Myr, fighting for the Brotherhood without Banners. Another Brotherhood party arrive with a captive Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, who recognizes Arya and announces her true identity. A farmer warns Brienne and Jaime of the danger in traveling the Kingsroad. Jaime warns Brienne that the farmer must be killed, but she refuses. While crossing a bridge, Jaime seizes one of Brienne's swords, but she gains the upper hand. They are taken captive by Locke, a bannerman of Lord Roose Bolton, aided by the farmer who had recognized Jaime. ==Production== ===Writing=== "Dark Wings, Dark Words" was written by co-writer Vanessa Taylor, who had previously written the episodes "Garden of Bones" and "The Old Gods and the New" for Season Two. This episode adapts the following chapters from George R. R. Martin's ''A Storm of Swords'': Bran I, Sansa I, Jon II, Arya I,II and V and Jaime II and III. ===Casting=== With this episode, Joe Dempsie (Gendry) is promoted to series regular, after guest starring in the first and second season. This episode also marks the first appearances of Diana Rigg (as Lady Olenna Tyrell), Mackenzie Crook (as Orell), Paul Kaye (as Thoros of Myr), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (as Jojen Reed), Ellie Kendrick (as Meera Reed), Philip McGinley (as Anguy), Noah Taylor (as Locke), and Iwan Rheon (as the cleaning boy attending Theon). ==Reception== ===Ratings=== "Dark Wings, Dark Words"'s first airing was seen by 4.27 million viewers. Taking into account the viewers of the later repeat, the figures rose to 5.54 million. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 0.988 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's second highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== "Dark Wings, Dark Words" received very positive reviews from television critics, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveying 21 reviews of the episode and judging 90% of them to be positive with an average score of 7.7 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Burdened with character and plot reintroductions, 'Dark Wings, Dark Words' starts slow before revving up and delving into the real intrigues of the season." IGN's Matt Fowler gave the episode an 8.5/10, writing "Not many big moments in this week's Game of Thrones, but a lot of new characters came into play." David Sims, reviewing for The A.V. Club, rated the episode with a B+ for newbies. Emily VanDerWerff, rating for experts, also gave the episode a B+. == References == == External links == * "Dark Wings, Dark Words" at HBO.com * *

"'''Walk of Punishment'''" is the third episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 23rd episode of the series. Written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Benioff, it aired on April 14, 2013. The title of the episode alludes to a place called "The Walk of Punishment" in the series, a road where slaves are crucified and displayed as examples to the slaves who thought of disobeying their masters. The episode received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Tywin plans to have Baelish wed Lysa Arryn to deprive Robb of allies, and names Tyrion the new Master of Coin. Tyrion rewards Podrick with prostitutes, later learning they refused payment. Discovering that as treasurer Baelish borrowed millions in gold from Tywin and tens of millions from the Iron Bank of Braavos, Tyrion fears Tywin will not forgive the debt and the Iron Bank may fund the Crown's enemies. ===In the North=== Freed by the cleaning boy, Theon rides east to Yara at Deepwood Motte, but is caught by his captors. Their leader prepares to rape him, but the boy arrives, slaying the soldiers and accompanying Theon onward. ===At Dragonstone=== As Melisandre prepares to sail for an unknown destination, Stannis begs her to give him another son, but she says he does not have the strength and her magic requires king's blood, which must be acquired from others who share Stannis' blood. ===In Astapor=== Daenerys negotiates with slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz, offering her largest dragon in exchange for all 8,000 Unsullied and boys in training, and Kraznys's slave translator Missandei. ===Beyond the Wall=== The wildling army finds decapitated horses arranged in a spiral by the White Walkers, and Rayder tells Jon the dead Night's Watch have become wights. Ordering Tormund to take a party, including Jon, to climb the Wall, Rayder says he will signal them with a fire to attack the Night's Watch. The remaining Night's Watch take refuge at Craster's Keep, where Sam witnesses Gilly give birth to a boy. ===At Riverrun=== At the ship burial of Lord Hoster Tully, his son Edmure is shamed by his uncle, Brynden "the Blackfish”. In conference with Robb, Edmure is chastised for engaging Ser Gregor Clegane. Catelyn discusses her pain with Brynden, and Talisa tends to Tywin's captured nephews, Martyn and Willem Lannister. ===In the Riverlands=== Props from the episode: Jaime Lannister's severed hand, his shackles and Locke's cleaver. Arya confronts the Hound for killing her friend Mycah, but he is taken away. Arya and Gendry bid farewell to Hot Pie, who has been left to the inn as payment by the Brotherhood after proving his skill as a cook. En route to Harrenhal, Jaime convinces Locke that Brienne's father is rich, and Locke stops his men from raping her. Jaime promises that Tywin will reward Locke if Jaime is returned; Locke feigns acceptance but is actually offended, and severs Jaime's sword hand. ==Production== "Walk of Punishment" was written and directed by producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. ===Writing=== "Walk of Punishment" was written by the show creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, based on material from George R. R. Martin's novel ''A Storm of Swords''. The episode adapts parts of chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28, 32, 34 and 36 of the book (Catelyn II, Jon II, Arya III, Tyrion III, Jaime III, Daenerys II, Daenerys III, Jaime IV, Samwell II and Catelyn IV). The writers also included original storylines including Theon's flight, Tyrion bringing Podrick to a brothel, and Melisandre departing Dragonstone. In the scene at the brothel, Tyrion claims that the last prostitute he introduces is one of the few women in the world able to perform "the Meereenese Knot". This is an inside joke referring to the name that Martin gave (after the legendary Gordian Knot) to a complicated structural problem that he had to face while writing the fifth book of the series, ''A Dance with Dragons''. This book had to synchronize the arrival of several characters in the city of Meereen while keeping the chronology and causations in line and informing the reader of events happening in places where no point-of-view character was present. Martin worked on solving "the Meereenese Knot" from 2005 to 2011, and it was one of the main causes behind the late delivery of the book. ===Directing=== The episode was directed by the writing team itself, although to comply with the rules of the Directors Guild of America only Benioff is credited for directing. For both Benioff and Weiss, it was their first direction experience though the former had previously directed an experimental short film "When the Nines Roll Over". ===Casting=== "Walk of Punishment" introduces the Tully family at Riverrun, marking the first appearances of Lady Catelyn's uncle Brynden Tully, played by Clive Russell, and her brother Edmure, played by Tobias Menzies. Edmure Tully is depicted in the show more harshly than in the books. Talking about his character, Menzies described him as "as comic as ''Game of Thrones'' gets ... He's a little flawed, really." Dean-Charles Chapman first appears in the role of Martyn Lannister in this episode. In Season 4, however, Chapman returns portraying a different character: Tommen Baratheon, who was played by Callum Wharry in previous seasons. ===Filming locations=== The river Quoile was used to depict the surroundings of the Riverrun castle The interiors of the episode were filmed at the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast, the show's base of operations. For the exterior shots the production used many other locations across Northern Ireland: the Redhall State (County Antrim) for the Inn at the Crossroads, the Clandeboye Estate (County Down) for Craster's Keep, Downhill Strand (County Londonderry) as the coast of Dragonstone, and the River Quoile (County Down) as the setting of Lord Hoster Tully's funeral. The storylines led by Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen continued to be filmed in Iceland and in the Moroccan city of Essaouira respectively. ===Music=== The band of Locke's men sing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", heard for the first time in the series with music composed by Ramin Djawadi. The song, a very popular song in Westeros both among the commoners and the nobility, appears often in the original novels. Singing at the head of the group is Snow Patrol's frontman Gary Lightbody, in a cameo appearance. The closing credits reprise the song in a new version recorded specifically for the series by the indie band The Hold Steady. The group, one of Benioff and Weiss's favourite bands, was chosen because they wanted the rendition "to be bawdy and a little sloppy – drunken musicians getting up on the table and jamming while the rowdy party continues around them". The decision to place the song at the end of the episode, right after the amputation of Jaime's hand, was made to reinforce the surprise of the viewers: “It’s such a shocking ending and when we read the scene in the books it was so shocking to us. To really hammer home the shock of that moment you need something unexpected. There’s no version of a traditional score that would keep you as off balance as we wanted that scene to leaving you feeling.” ==Reception== ===Ratings=== "Walk of Punishment"'s first airing was seen by 4.7 million viewers, setting a new viewership record for the show. Taking into account the viewers of the later repeat the figures rose to 5.8 million. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 1.173 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== The episode was praised by critics; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 21 reviews of the episode and judged 95% of them to be positive with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A bit of well-placed levity perfectly compliments the shocking final scenes of 'Walk of Punishment', adding up to hands down the most thrilling episode of the season so far—minus one hand." Matt Fowler, writing for IGN, rated the episode 8.8/10, writing "A shocking chop and a rollicking rock song led us out of a strong Thrones episode." Writing for the A.V. Club, David Sims rated the episode an A-. Also at The A.V. Club Emily VanDerWerff gave the episode another A-, praising its quickening of narrative pace. Time magazine reviewer James Poniewozik praised the episode, writing "...one thing I love about it – as a fan of fantasy fiction since I was a kid – is that it has a level of ugly realism missing from much of the genre." == References == == External links == * "Walk of Punishment" at HBO.com * *

"'''The Dragon and the Wolf'''" is the seventh and final episode of the seventh season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 67th episode overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Jeremy Podeswa. The episode's plot includes a negotiation between Cersei and Daenerys, and a rift between Cersei and Jaime; Theon rededicates himself to Yara; Sansa and Arya unite against Littlefinger; Jon Snow is revealed to be the child of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen; Jon and Daenerys's romantic relationship comes to fruition; and the Army of the Dead penetrates the Wall. "The Dragon and the Wolf" received a positive reception from critics, who listed the meeting at the Dragonpit, the full revelation of Jon Snow's lineage, Cersei's lack of cooperation to defeat the White Walkers, Aidan Gillen's final performance as Littlefinger, and the demolition of the Wall as highlights of the episode. The pacing, however, was met with mixed reviews, and criticism was also leveled at the resemblance of Rhaegar Targaryen to his brother Viserys Targaryen. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 12.07 million in its initial broadcast, making it the highest rated episode of the series. Furthermore, it received eight nominations at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards – making it the most Emmy Award-nominated episode of the series to date –, including for its writing, Podeswa's direction, Djawadi's music and was submitted by Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey to support their nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor and Outstanding Supporting Actress respectively, with Djawadi and Dinklage winning in their categories. The title of the episode refers to the sigils of House Targaryen (the Dragon) and House Stark (the Wolf) and their newfound alliance. This episode marks the final appearance of Aidan Gillen (Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish). ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Cersei, Daenerys, and their entourages meet. The Hound and Jon successfully use the captured wight to prove the existence of the threat posed by the White Walkers. Cersei agrees to help against the dead on the condition that Jon remains neutral between the queens, but retracts her support when Jon affirms he has already sworn himself to Daenerys. Tyrion goes alone to confront Cersei. He explains to Cersei that Daenerys wanted to destroy King's Landing until Tyrion persuaded her not to. During their conversation, he realizes Cersei is pregnant. Cersei returns to the parley and agrees to send her entire army north to fight the White Walkers. Jaime prepares to mobilize the army, but Cersei reveals she lied and will not join Daenerys and Jon's cause. Euron leaves for Essos to transport the Golden Company, with which she will fight the presumably weakened faction that wins the Great War. Jaime is disgusted and refuses to break his word. Cersei contemplates assassinating Jamie but refuses out of love. He abandons her and rides north alone as snow begins to fall on King's Landing. ===On Dragonstone=== Daenerys's party returns and plans to travel to Winterfell. Jorah advises Daenerys to fly a dragon there to avoid any potential assassination attempts, but she decides to travel by sea and land with Jon, in hopes of garnering popular support. Theon seeks guidance from Jon, who declares they both preserve Ned's legacy. Theon decides to save Yara. He defeats the leader of the remaining Ironborn in a brutal fight and the others join Theon. ===At Winterfell=== Sansa and Littlefinger discuss Arya's actions. Littlefinger advises Sansa to always assume others have the worst possible motive. Sansa summons Arya before the lords of the North and Vale, then stuns Littlefinger by accusing him of murder and treason, which Bran corroborates. Finding no allies in the crowd, Littlefinger begs for mercy, but Arya executes him. Sam arrives at Winterfell with his family. Bran tells him that Jon's real parents were Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Sam reveals information from the High Septon's journal: in secret, Rhaegar's marriage to Elia Martell was annulled and he married Lyanna. Bran determines that, as Rhaegar's legitimate son, Jon is the heir to the Iron Throne. ===In the Narrow Sea=== Tyrion witnesses Jon Snow entering Daenerys's cabin. Jon and Daenerys give in to their feelings for each other and have sex. ===At Eastwatch-by-the-sea=== The undead army arrives at Eastwatch. When the Night King appears, riding Viserion, Tormund orders the defenders to evacuate. Breathing blue fire, Viserion destroys Eastwatch and a section of the Wall, allowing the White Walkers to finally invade the Seven Kingdoms to put an end to mankind. ==Production== ===Writing=== The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. "The Dragon and the Wolf" was written by the series' co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. In the "Inside the Episode" featurette published by HBO following the airing of the episode, they described the meeting at the dragon pit as one of the most challenging scenes in the episode to write, as they felt it was important to give each character their due. Weiss described the many different interactions between various characters as "deceptively difficult", and the necessity for the actors to be "playing off the person they're supposed to be playing off of" for the scene to be properly translated during the filming process. For the culmination of the Winterfell storyline, and the death of Littlefinger, Benioff and Weiss stressed the importance of the scenes leading up to the finale, which they described as a realistic threat of harm between Arya and Sansa, with Benioff saying "It's one of the benefits of working on a show like this, where over the years so many beloved characters have been killed, and so many characters make decisions you wish they hadn't that you can believe Sansa might conspire against Arya, or that Arya might decide that Sansa has betrayed the family and deserves to die." Benioff continued by revealing his excitement in seeing Aiden Gillan's performance as Littlefinger, as it was the first time that they had written a scene in which the character was caught unaware, saying "He's imagined every conceivable eventuality except this one." Isaac Hemsptead Wright, who portrays Bran, described a scene that was originally written between his character and Sansa, but it was later removed from the episode. Another challenge involved with writing the episode involved the presentation of the information regarding Jon Snow's lineage, as it mostly consisted of details that had already been revealed in prior scenes. As such, the inclusion of a montage, of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and Jon and Daenerys, was one of the ways that Benioff and Weiss stated they were able to go about this problem. Weiss noted that it was important to make it clear "that this was almost like an information bomb that Jon was heading towards." Benioff continued by describing Jon and Daenery's intimacy as a complication "on a political level," and "on a personal level," due to the two being related, with Weiss adding "Just as we're seeing these two people come together we’re hearing the information that will inevitably, if not tear them apart at least cause real problems in their relationship." In writing the final interaction between Jaime and Cersei, Benioff felt it was important to convey Cersei's refusal to confide her plan to abandon the agreement to fight the White Walkers and subsequent alignment with Euron and the Iron Bank, and its effect on Jaime, saying "He's realizing that his loyalty to her is not reflected in her loyalty to him. I think that's absolutely what informs his decision to leave King's Landing." Leading up to the seventh-season finale, Benioff and Weiss revealed that it was always planned for the penultimate season to end with the destruction of the Wall, and the White Walker army crossing into the Seven Kingdoms. Weiss noted, "The wall's kept these things out for eight thousand years and there's no real reason it can't keep doing that unless something puts a hole in the Wall. There's one thing on the board from the beginning that is now big enough to do that and that's a dragon." They also felt it was essential for the seventh-season finale to contrast well with previous season finale episodes, particularly the sixth-season finale, "The Winds of Winter", which Benioff stated had a more "triumphant ending" as opposed to something "much more horrific" with the conclusion of "The Dragon and the Wolf". ===Filming=== "The Dragon and the Wolf" was directed by Jeremy Podeswa. He joined the series as a director in the fifth season, his first episode being "Kill the Boy", which was followed by "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. He further directed two more episodes in the series' sixth season, and also directed the seventh season's premiere episode, "Dragonstone". This would be Podeswa's final episode as a director for the series, as he would later reveal that he would not be returning for the series' final season. The Roman amphitheatre at Italica stood in as the dragon pit in King's Landing. In an interview with ''Variety'', Podeswa described the tone in filming the scene at the dragon pit as "laden with tension," and that he was very excited to film the sequence due to several characters meeting for the first time and others reuniting after a long absence from each other. According to a separate interview with ''USA Today'', shooting of the dragon pit scene took place over the course of six days, and was first rehearsed in Belfast, and later on set in Spain. The Italica ruins near Seville, Spain stood in for the dragon pit. Podeswa revealed that the sequence was "40 to 50 pages" in the script, which he felt was a lot of material to work with, saying he had to "make sure everything landed," and that "every look in that script and every moment that needed to be there was actually going to end up on screen." "The Dragon and the Wolf" marks Aidan Gillen's final appearance as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish. In an interview with ''The Hollywood Reporter'', Podeswa described filming the death of Littlefinger and Aidan Gillen's performance, saying "It was moving and difficult to see somebody get to the end of their role on the show, but it was an amazing scene to go out on. The mood when we were shooting it was incredible, actually. Aidan's performance was so, so passionate, and so surprising in a way." The filming of the scene took place over the course of an entire day, with the conclusion being filmed later, with Podeswa noting, "We didn't really shoot the end until a certain point, and was very ready at that point." Podeswa also described the process behind filming the sexual intimacy between Jon and Daenerys, saying, "In the script, it described the fact that they were love-making, but it didn't go into great detail in terms of what was going on between them as characters in that moment." He went on to state that he "built in a moment between" Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke, who portray Jon and Daenerys respectively, where they "stop for a moment and look into each other's eyes." He continued, "The intention from my point of view, and their point of view too, is that they're driven by passion into this. They don't even fully understand what it's all about and what the consequences of it are. They really can't stop themselves. It's almost destiny that's bringing them together." In regards to the similarity between the appearance of Rhaegar and Viserys Targaryen, Podeswa stated that the brothers were meant to look similar. Podeswa's first reaction to the final scene of the episode, with the destruction of a portion of the Wall, was "This is an enormous, spectacular sequence. How are we actually going to pull it off?" In order to piece together the sequence, Podeswa was required to work with several different departments, including Benioff and Weiss, the visual effects department, storyboard artist, the set designers, stuntmen, the cinematographer, and the actors themselves. All of the scenes that were filmed on top of the Wall, with Kristofer Hivju and Richard Dormer as Tormund and Beric respectively, were on an actual set in Belfast, along with filming of the stuntmen falling, which would be later transposed by visual effects. He continued by describing the process of creating the non-practical shots by saying, "All of the more panoramic spectacular shots are visual effects, but they're designed by me working with the visual effects department from storyboards that I created with storyboard artists." There were also several interactive elements involved, which Podeswa noted by saying, "When we were shooting the Wall set, we had the lighting effect on the Wall that was caused by the flame, but we hadn't created the flame yet." He continued by revealing the process that went into Viserion's appearance, saying "Everything comes from a sense of logic, so I guess in this particular instance with Viserion, what were the wounds that he suffered before he died? What happened to him underwater and when he was dragged up? All of those kinds of things folded into the discussion of what he should appear to look like when he's resurrected." ==Reception== ===Ratings=== "The Dragon and the Wolf" was viewed by 12.07 million viewers on its initial live broadcast on HBO, and an additional 4.4 million viewers on streaming platforms, for a total 16.5 million viewers. This set a ratings record for ''Game of Thrones'' as the highest rated episode of the series to date, surpassing "Eastwatch", which previously held the record. The episode also acquired a 5.7 rating in the 18–49 demographic, making it the highest rated show on cable television of the night. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 3.54 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week on its channel. It also received 1.02 million timeshift viewers. ===Critical reception=== "The Dragon and the Wolf" was praised by critics, who listed the meeting at the Dragonpit, Cersei's lack of cooperation to defeat the White Walkers, Aidan Gillen's performance as Littlefinger, and the demolition of the Wall as highlights of the episode. The episode has received an 87% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 47 reviews, with an average score of 8.7 out of 10. The site's consensus reads "While much slower in pace than the season that preceded it, 'The Dragon and the Wolf' delivered satisfying conclusions to several story arcs, and masterfully set up the series' final season." The pacing of the episode received mixed reviews, with Matt Fowler of IGN praising its ability at, "Delivering lengthy meaningful scenes filled with dialogue, deception, revelations, twists," and assembly the dragon pit. He gave the episode a 9.3 out of 10. On the other hand, Erik Kain of ''Forbes'' believed the episode to be too rushed, but praised it nonetheless for being one of the most "ultimately satisfying episodes HBO has given us to date." He listed the reveal of Jon Snow's lineage as one of the most important moments of the episode, and praised it for paralleling Jon and Daenerys's intimate sexual encounter. Myles McNutt of ''The A.V Club'' wrote that the episode returned to the slow pace of the premiere and criticized its pacing and some of the characters motivations, but gave it a B+ overall. Jeremy Egner of ''The New York Times'' also gave praise to the episode, albeit with some criticism towards the episode's predictability, stating that while there were "Plenty of enjoyable moments and blue fire-fueled spectacle, and effectively set up next season’s culminating clashes, it didn't offer much in the way of surprise." Kain and McNutt were also critical that Rhaegar Targaryen bore too great a resemblance to his brother Viserys Targaryen. ===Accolades=== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2017 Humanitas Prize 60 Minute Network or Syndicated Television David Benioff, D. B. Weiss 2018 Directors Guild of America Awards Dramatic Series Jeremy Podeswa Visual Effects Society Awards Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project Thomas Hullin, Dominik Kirouac, Sylvain Nouveau, Nathan Arbuckle – "Wall Destruction" Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Jeremy Podeswa Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series David Benioff and D. B. Weiss Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series Kevin Alexander, Candice Banks, Nicola Mount, Rosalia Culora Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) Jane Walker, Kay Bilk, Marianna Kyriacou, Pamela Smyth, Kate Thompson, Nicola Mathews Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) Ramin Djawadi Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Katie Weiland ==References== ==External links== * "The Dragon and the Wolf" at HBO.com * *

"'''And Now His Watch Is Ended'''" is the fourth episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 24th episode of the series. It was written by showrunners and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and directed by Alex Graves, his directorial debut for the series. The episode's title comes from a chant made by the Night's Watch at the funeral of a fallen brother while at Craster's Keep. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Varys tells Tyrion of being made a eunuch by a sorcerer in Myr, before revealing that he has captured the sorcerer and plans to take revenge on him. Ros informs Varys that Baelish may take Sansa when he leaves to wed Lysa Arryn, and Varys warns Olenna that Baelish may seek to control Sansa. Discussing the missing Jaime and the Tyrells' presence with Tywin, Cersei distrusts Margaery for her ability to manipulate Joffrey. Sansa tells Margaery that Cersei will not allow her to leave King's Landing, and Margaery says she would see Sansa wed to Ser Loras. ===In the North=== Bran dreams of chasing the three-eyed raven through the woods with Jojen, and climbs a tree in pursuit of the raven, but falls when Catelyn appears. Arriving at what he believes is Deepwood Motte, Theon explains to his rescuer that he never killed the Stark boys, having Dagmer Cleftjaw burn two orphans instead, and reveals his remorse, declaring Eddard Stark was his true father. Theon then realises he has been taken back to the dungeon from which he escaped and is subdued by the guards, to the boy's amusement. ===In the Riverlands=== Locke and his men taunt Jaime for the loss of his sword hand, and quickly beat him when he tries to attack. Brienne chastises Jaime for wanting to die, telling him to live and take revenge. Arya, Gendry, and the Hound are taken to the Brotherhood's leader, Lord Beric Dondarrion. He calls the Hound a murderer, and Arya and the Hound argue over his execution of Mycah. Dondarrion sentences the Hound to face him in trial by combat. ===Beyond the Wall=== Rast declares the Night's Watch cannot trust Craster, and Sam and Gilly discuss her newborn son. After a funeral for a fallen brother, Karl Tanner challenges Craster over their poor food, and Rast enrages Craster by mentioning his bastard parentage. Craster orders the Night's Watch out, but is goaded by Karl, who stabs Craster when he attacks. When Jeor intervenes, Rast kills him. As a fight erupts, Sam flees with Gilly and her son. ===In Astapor=== Exchanging the Unsullied army for Daenerys' dragon, Kraznys continues to insult her in Valyrian. Daenerys, in fluent Valyrian, orders her new army to sack Astapor, killing all slavers and freeing every slave, and reclaims her dragon, ordering it to kill Kraznys. After the battle, she offers the Unsullied the choice to remain with her as free men or leave; none choose to leave, and Daenerys and her army depart. ==Production== ===Writing=== The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. "And Now His Watch Is Ended" was written by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It was based on George Martin's novels, chapters Tyrion X from ''A Clash of Kings'' and Jaime IV, Tyrion II, Samwell II, the first part of Arya VI, and the second half of Daenerys III from ''A Storm of Swords''. Benioff and Weiss considered this episode one of the "big ones" and a turning point of the series. Weiss said that when he was reading the books he was swept away by Daenerys' final scene, and remembered thinking how he'd be able to put it on screen if he could ever get to film it. This final scene includes the first instance of the High Valyrian language in the series, apart from short stock phrases, spoken by Daenerys. Up to this point only the Astapori dialect of Low Valyrian, a creolized form of the ancient language of the old Valyrian Empire, had been heard, spoken by the slaver Kraznys. David J. Peterson, the language creator hired by the series, designed both versions of the tongue. ===Casting=== The episode reintroduces Lord Beric Dondarrion, now played by Richard Dormer. Dondarrion had previously been portrayed by David Michael Scott in his brief appearance in the first season episode "A Golden Crown", where he was entrusted by Lord Eddard Stark with the task of capturing Ser Gregor Clegane. This episode also marks James Cosmo's last appearance in the series, as his character Jeor Mormont is killed by his own men. ===Directing=== The episode was helmed by director Alex Graves, a newcomer to the production. The producers praised his work, in particular in the handling of the final scene at Astapor: "He took a scene that had us quite nervous – the number of people on set, the size of the action, the amount of the effects work – and had it all done in a few days. A scene that might take a feature eight days; for us it was two or three." ===Filming=== The interiors of the episode were shot at Belfast's The Paint Hall, including a new set representing the colossal Great Sept of Baelor at King's Landing. For the exteriors, the episode filmed extensively at the forests of Clandeboye Estate, where the sets of Craster's Keep and the encampment of Locke's band were built. The gardens where Olenna and Varys plot are parts of the Trsteno Arboretum, in Croatia. The scenes with Daenerys were filmed in Morocco. While during the first three episodes the city of Astapor had been represented by the coastal ramparts of Essaouira, the plaza and the walls seen in the episode were sets from Atlas Studios, located five kilometres west of the city of Ouarzazate. The walls had been built to stand in for the city of Jerusalem in the 2005 film ''Kingdom of Heaven''. ==Reception== ===Ratings=== The ratings of the episode raised to a new record for the series, with a viewership of 4.87 million viewers and a 2.6 share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The encore was watched by another 1.03 million, totaling 5.90 million viewers for the night. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 0.992 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's second highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== The episode received critical acclaim, being consistently rated as the best of the season at the time of its airing. Review aggregator surveyed 21 reviews of the episode and judged 100% of them to be positive with an average score of 9.2 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "'And Now His Watch is Ended' is an enthralling meditation on betrayal and revenge, bolstered by a mind-blowing surprise for those who would underestimate Daenerys Targarean ." IGN's Matt Fowler rated it with a 9.3/10, highlighting "shocking deaths, brutal double-crosses and a Kingslayer undone made for some mighty fine Thrones". David Simms, writing for The A.V. Club, considered it "an insanely satisfying, shocking episode" and gave it an "A" grade. His colleague Emily VanDerWerff agreed on the score. The final scene with Daenerys was unanimously praised. At Cultural Learnings, Myles McNutt found that the scene was one of the series' best sequences and considered it an impressive feat to have achieved a climax so satisfying for the viewer with only a relatively small number of scenes building up to it in the first three episodes. VanDerWerff felt that Emilia Clarke's performance Emmy worthy. HitFix's Alan Sepinwall also praised her performance, remarking that "her big moment comes in a (fictional) foreign language, and the subtitles are barely necessary. That's how good she is." ====Awards and nominations==== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series Peter Brown, Kira Roessler, Tim Hands, Paul Aulicino, Stephen P. Robinson, Vanessa Lapato, Brett Voss, James Moriana, Jeffrey Wilhoit, and David Klotz Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour) Matthew Waters, Onnalee Blank, Ronan Hill, and Mervyn Moore == References == == External links == * "And Now His Watch Is Ended" at HBO.com * *

"'''The Bear and the Maiden Fair'''" is the seventh episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 27th episode of the series overall. The episode was written by George R. R. Martin, the author of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' novels on which the series is based, and was directed by Michelle MacLaren, her directorial debut for the series. The plot of the episode advances the storylines of Daenerys's arrival to the city of Yunkai, the repercussions of the upcoming marriage of Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark, and Brienne's fate at the ruined castle of Harrenhal. The title of the episode refers to "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", a popular song among commoners and noblemen within the series' universe, which had been introduced four episodes earlier. In this episode, it refers to Brienne of Tarth (the maiden fair) facing a real bear. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Sansa is comforted by Margaery, who has heard of Sansa's betrothal to Tyrion. Elsewhere, Tyrion and Bronn discuss the match and how it will affect Shae. Tywin meets with Joffrey. Joffrey asks what they should do about the rumors of Daenerys and her dragons, but Tywin claims there is no threat. On Blackwater Bay, Melisandre reveals to Gendry that his father was King Robert Baratheon. ===In the North=== Jon and the wildling party continue their journey south. Soon after, Orell speaks to Ygritte, confessing his love for her and trying to convince her that Jon is still loyal to the Night's Watch. Later, Jon tells Ygritte that the wildling cause is hopeless, but she remains undaunted. Theon is freed from his constraints by two young women. They begin pleasuring him. The three are soon interrupted by his tormenter, who had ordered the women to seduce Theon in order to torment him further. The boy mocks Theon's sexual prowess, before ordering his men to restrain Theon as he removes Theon's genitals. Heading for the Wall, Osha continues to grow suspicious of the Reeds, calling Jojen's visions "black magic". When she says they have to continue to the Wall, Jojen reveals that the three-eyed raven is north of the Wall. Osha refuses to allow them to go north of the Wall, relating to them the story of her husband's death and resurrection as a wight. ===In the Riverlands=== Robb, his advisors, and his army are delayed by rain in their march toward the Twins for Edmure's wedding to Roslin Frey. Catelyn and the Blackfish discuss their distaste for Walder Frey, who will see their delay and Robb's oath-breaking as slights against his family. Talisa reveals to Robb that she is pregnant. At the Brotherhood's hideout, Arya berates Beric and Thoros for selling Gendry to Melisandre. When Anguy tells Beric of a Lannister raiding party near them, Beric orders the men to move out in pursuit. Arya calls Beric a liar, as he promised to take her to Riverrun. She runs away and is taken captive by the Hound. ===Outside Yunkai=== Daenerys, Jorah, Barristan, and the Unsullied reach Yunkai. Daenerys tells Jorah she will take the city to free its 200,000 slaves. An envoy, Razdal mo Eraz, is sent by Yunkai to offer terms of peace, which include chests filled with gold bars and as many ships as Daenerys wants. Daenerys refuses his offer, demanding the slaves of the city be freed and paid for their service. ===At Harrenhal=== Jaime visits Brienne in her cell. He tells her that he will be leaving for King's Landing the next day. Before Jaime leaves, Brienne makes him swear to uphold his oath to Catelyn and return the Stark girls to their mother. As he leaves, Jaime dryly tells Roose to tell Robb that "the Lannisters send their regards". When Qyburn informs Jaime that Brienne will not be ransomed by Locke, Jaime manipulates the party leader, Steelshanks, to order their return to Harrenhal. Upon their arrival, Jaime finds that Brienne has been thrown into a pit by Locke and his men, and has been forced to fight a grizzly bear while armed only with a wooden sword. Jaime leaps into the pit to protect her. Jaime boosts Brienne out of the pit, and is then lifted to safety. ==Production== ===Writing=== George R. R. Martin, author of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' novels, scripts one episode per season. The episode was written by George R. R. Martin, author of the novels of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' saga that the show adapts. "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" is based on material from the third book of his series, ''A Storm of Swords'', adapting chapters 42 to 46 (Jon V, Daenerys IV, Arya VIII, Jaime VI and Catelyn V). In some of the scenes, Martin had to take into account the changes done by the production to some of his original plots or characters, writing scenes that could never happen in the novels: the books have Talisa's counterpart stay in Riverrun instead of following Robb, Melisandre never interacts with Gendry, and Sansa does not get to confide with Margaery. Martin initially titled the episode "Autumn Storms", because it was supposed to be raining in many of the scenes. When he was forced to change it because most of the rains had been cut from his script in pre-production, he came up with the title "Chains", that worked both in a literal and metaphorical level. However, later on, the final scene including the bear that had been originally written by showrunners Benioff and Weiss for the next episode was incorporated, and the episode was given its final title. ===Casting=== To play the part of the bear at Harrenhal, the producers chose the nearly nine-foot-tall Alaskan brown bear Bart the Bear 2 (a.k.a. "Little Bart"), who was born in 2000 and trained by Doug and Lynne Seus (the same trainers of his well-known predecessor, the original Bart the Bear). ===Filming locations=== The episode introduces Yunkai, based on the Moroccan city of Aït Benhaddou. The production continued to use Morocco to depict the Slaver's Bay. While the coastal city of Essaouira had doubled as Astapor, this episode used the city of Aït Benhaddou (near Ouarzazate) to depict Yunkai. Daenerys's camp was built in the nearby location of Little Barrage. The scenes with Jon Snow and the wildlings were filmed in the forests around Toome, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The scenes in Northern Ireland were filmed six weeks before the production moved to Iceland to film several scenes for the previous episodes. Due to the legal restrictions and the difficulties involved in the transport of large animals, the scenes with the bear Little Bart had to be filmed in the USA. Although it was only used for a single scene, this was the fifth country where the production filmed during the season (after Northern Ireland, Morocco, Croatia, and Iceland). The actual bear-pit set was built in Northern Ireland: the bear was filmed where it was living in Los Angeles, interacting with its trainer, and was later digitally added into the footage from the bear pit set in Northern Ireland. ==Reception== ===Ratings=== 4.84 million viewers watched the premiere airing of "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", a decrease of 0.67 million compared to the previous week. This ended the streak set during the four previous episodes, each of which established a new series high in ratings. 1.12 million people watched the second airing, bringing the total viewership of the night to 5.96 million. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 1.023 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== The critical reception to the episode was generally favorable, although most commentators agreed that it was not among the best episodes of the third season, or the ones written by Martin. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 21 reviews of the episode and judged 81% of them to be positive with an average score of 8.05 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "'The Bear and the Maiden Fair" feels like a bit of a holding pattern as Game of Thrones moves its pieces into place for the final three episodes." The quality of the dialogue and characterization was widely praised. ''The A.V. Club''s David Sims found that the interactions felt more natural, and Elio Garcia from Westeros.org suggested that the characters "oozed a richer version of themselves". Another aspect that was mentioned as an improvement was the treatment of the romantic relationships. Many reviews signaled the lack of focus as the main flaw of the episode, although they agreed that the story required preparing the stage for the final part of the season: Emily VanDerWerff wrote at ''The A.V. Club'' that it was a "somewhat disjointed hour, full of characters moving into place for what’s next (...) it nonetheless accomplishes what it sets out to do". According to Myles McNutt from Cultural Learnings, the episode "never evolves into a particularly exciting hour of television, content mostly to sketch out the boundaries of the season’s storylines in preparation for the oncoming climax." The final scene, where Brienne is forced to fight a bear, was very well received: IGN's Matt Fowler called it "a spectacular moment", HitFix's Alan Sepinwall deemed it "gorgeously staged and executed", and David Sims found it "tense, thrilling television". Other scenes that were highlighted were the parley between Daenerys and the slaver, and the confrontation between Tywin and Joffrey. In the latter, the camera work used by director Michelle MacLaren was lauded. In contrast, the scene featuring Theon's torture was criticized for what was seen as its gratuitous violence and nudity, and for the repetitiveness of the storyline over the season. Sepinwall declared that he had no need "to witness more of The Passion of the Greyjoy", and Sims considered it "boring and confusing to watch". VanDerWerff concluded: "Endless torture sequences don’t make for terribly exciting fiction, and that’s more or less bearing out here." On the other end of the spectrum, the reviewer for ''Time'', James Poniewozik, considered it "chilling". == References == == External links == * "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" at HBO.com * *

"'''Kissed by Fire'''" is the fifth episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 25th episode of the series. Directed by Alex Graves and written by Bryan Cogman, it aired on April 28, 2013. The title of the episode refers to the red-haired Wildlings, like Ygritte, who are said to be "kissed by fire". Fire is also a key element in other storylines, with Sandor Clegane's fear of fire being shown, as well as the Mad King's obsession with Wildfire, as told by Jaime Lannister. The episode won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Make-up for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. ==Plot== ===At Dragonstone=== Stannis is surprised when his wife, Queen Selyse, encourages his infidelity as service to the Lord of Light. His daughter, Princess Shireen, visits Davos in the dungeons with a book; he admits he is illiterate, and she begins teaching him to read. ===In the Riverlands=== In trial by combat, the Hound is frightened by Beric's flaming sword, but overcomes his pyrophobia and kills Beric. Gendry stops Arya from killing the Hound, and the three are astounded to find Beric resurrected by Thoros, who frees the Hound. Gendry tells Arya he intends to stay with the Brotherhood as a smith. Arya talks with Thoros about taking her to Riverrun. ===At Riverrun=== Captives Martyn and Willem Lannister are slain by Lord Karstark and his men. Despite Talisa, Catelyn, and Edmure entreating Robb to hold Karstark prisoner, he personally executes Karstark. The Karstark forces abandon the Northern army, and Robb tells Talisa his new plan to attack Casterly Rock, the Lannister ancestral home, and forge an alliance with Lord Frey, whose daughter he was to marry. ===At Harrenhal=== Locke delivers Jaime and Brienne to Lord Roose Bolton, who frees Brienne and sends Jaime to Qyburn, a former maester who treats Jaime's amputation. At the baths, Jaime tells Brienne of Robert's Rebellion, and the "Mad King" Aerys Targaryen's plot to burn King's Landing with caches of wildfire. Jaime reveals that he slew the Mad King to save the city, its people, and his own father. ===Beyond the Wall=== Jon lies to Orell and Tormund that a thousand men are guarding the Wall. Ygritte steals Jon's sword and he chases her into a cave, where she convinces him to break his Night's Watch vows and make love with her. ===In Slaver's Bay=== On the march, Jorah probes Barristan's motives for joining Daenerys, but he appears unaware Jorah was originally a spy for Varys under King Robert. Daenerys’ Unsullied officers select Grey Worm as their leader. ===In King's Landing=== Cersei asks for Baelish's assistance in ridding King's Landing of the Tyrells. Loras’ squire and lover Olyvar reports to Baelish the Tyrells' plan to marry off Sansa. Baelish meets with Sansa to discuss their journey to the Vale, but she decides to stay in King's Landing. Tywin tells Tyrion and Cersei his plan to ruin the Tyrell's plot by wedding Tyrion to Sansa and Cersei to Loras, refusing their objections. ==Production== ===Writing=== Series veteran Bryan Cogman wrote the episode, his third episode of the series. "Kissed by Fire" is the third episode in the series written by the co-producer and executive story editor Bryan Cogman, after the first season's "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" and the second's "What Is Dead May Never Die". Cogman is the member of the writing team entrusted with keeping the show's bible and mapping the story arcs with those of the original books for each season. The sections of George R. R. Martin's novel ''A Storm of Swords'' adapted in the episode include parts from chapters 20, 21, 27, 32, 35, 38 and 40 (Tyrion III, Catelyn III, Jon III, Jaime IV, Arya VI, Jaime V, and Arya VII). The scenes with Stannis' wife and daughter were written to present the characters, whose introduction had been delayed in the show since the beginning of season 2. The idea of Queen Selyse conserving the fetuses of her stillborn sons in glass, absent in the original novels, was a notion that Cogman came up with while writing the episode. Cogman enjoyed that the episode he was assigned to write included several fan-favorite scenes, and involved a lot of material with the child actors: "The kids are always my favorite characters to write... Maybe it’s because I’m so fond of the actors who play them, and I’ve watched them grow up for the past four years." He wrote all the Arya scenes before starting with the other storylines. Initially the episode did not include any scene with Daenerys, but early in pre-production some scenes originally written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for the next episode were moved into the script. The confrontation between Jon Snow and Orell was written and included by Benioff and Weiss later during production. ===Casting=== The episode introduces Stannis's family with actresses Tara Fitzgerald and Kerry Ingram as queen Selyse Baratheon and princess Shireen Baratheon, respectively. Selyse had briefly appeared in the first season 2 episode during the burning of the gods at the Dragonstone beach, played by an uncredited extra. Jacob Anderson also debuts playing Grey Worm, the commander of the Unsullied. ===Filming locations=== Most of the episode was shot in the sets built in The Paint Hall studios in Belfast. Also in Northern Ireland, the Pollnagollum cave in Belmore Forest was used to film parts of the hideout of the Brotherhood, and the gardens of Gosford Castle served as the Riverrun exteriors where Lord Karstark was beheaded. The scenes with Daenerys were filmed in Morocco, and the ones with Jon in Iceland. The Wildlings camp was built by the shores of lake Mývatn, with its distinctive vertical lava formations clearly seen. The nearby grotto where Jon and Ygritte have sex is cave Grjótagjá; however, the cave was used mainly for establishing shot of Jon Snow and Ygritte in the cave, and most of this scene was filmed in the studio. The thermal water pool of the cave is actually used for bathing and is a popular tourist attraction. Finally, two Croatian exteriors appear in the episode: the conversation between Cersei and Littlefinger takes place at the inner terrace of Fort Lovrijenac, and Littlefinger's later visit to Sansa was filmed at the Trsteno Arboretum. ==Reception== ===Ratings=== "Kissed by Fire" set a new ratings record for the series, with 5.35 million viewers for its first airing and a 2.8 share of adults aged 18 to 49. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 0.959 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's second highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== "Kissed by Fire" received positive critical reviews after airing, with particular praise going to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau for his performance. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 21 reviews of the episode and judged 100% of them to be positive with an average score of 8.8 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite lacking the big action reveals of the previous episode, 'Kissed by Fire' is anchored by a devastatingly intimate scene between Brienne and Jaime, and plenty of Lannister intrigue." IGN's Matt Fowler gave "Kissed by Fire" a 9.5/10, his highest rating of the season, writing "No dragons this week, but Game of Thrones still gave us some of its best material ever." Reviewing for ''The A.V. Club'', David Sims gave the episode an "A-", commenting on how despite the lack of shocking moments like those of the last episode, the show delivers quality in its slower, dialogue-driven scenes. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+". Sean T. Collins of the ''Rolling Stone'' magazine also gave an overwhelmingly positive review, calling it a "nearly flawless" episode, praising especially Maisie Williams' acting in the scenes with Arya and the Brotherhood. ===Accolades=== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2013 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) Paul Engelen and Melissa Lackersteen 2014 Hollywood Post Alliance Awards Outstanding Color Grading – Television Joe Finley American Society of Cinematographers One-Hour Episodic Television Series Anette Haellmigk == References == == External links == * "Kissed by Fire" at HBO.com * *

"'''The Climb'''" is the sixth episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 26th episode of the series. Directed by Alik Sakharov and written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, it aired on May 5, 2013. The episode's title comes from climbing of the wall by Jon Snow and Ygritte, and also the references from dialogue between Lord Petyr Baelish and Lord Varys. The episode marks the final appearance of Esmé Bianco. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Meeting with Olenna, Tywin threatens to appoint Loras to the Kingsguard, thereby renouncing his right to inheritance and marriage and leaving House Tyrell without a male heir, and Olenna consents to Loras and Cersei's marriage. Tyrion accuses Cersei of trying to have him killed during the Battle of the Blackwater, but deduces it was Joffrey who ordered his death and Cersei tells him he is not in danger now that Tywin is the Hand. Tyrion informs Sansa that she will not wed Loras, but himself. Baelish tells Varys he has given Ros to Joffrey to kill for his pleasure. Sansa watches tearfully as Baelish departs by ship, losing her chance at leaving the capital. ===In the Riverlands=== Arriving at the Brotherhood's hideout, Melisandre is shocked to learn of Beric's six resurrections, and takes Gendry into her custody. Arya unnerves Melisandre, who declares Arya will "shut many eyes forever" and they will meet again. At Riverrun, Robb and his advisors discuss an alliance with Lame Lothar Frey and Black Walder Rivers. Lord Walder Frey's demands include a formal apology from Robb, the castle Harrenhal, and for Edmure to marry one of his daughters. ===At Harrenhal=== Roose Bolton agrees to send Jaime to King's Landing if Jaime assures Tywin that Bolton had nothing to do with his maiming, but keeps Brienne under arrest for abetting treason. ===In the North=== Bran defuses tensions between Osha and Meera, and Jojen tells Bran his vision of Jon surrounded by enemies. Torturing Theon, the boy threatens to sever his finger if he cannot guess the boy's identity and their location. After his finger is flayed for several wrong guesses, Theon guesses the boy is a Karstark and he is being tortured at the Karhold for betraying Robb. The boy pretends Theon was correct before continuing to flay his finger, admitting his torture is solely for his amusement. Theon finally begs his torturer to remove his finger. ===Beyond the Wall=== En route to the Wall, Sam shows Gilly the dragonglass dagger he found and tells her about Castle Black. Ygritte reveals she is aware Jon remains loyal to the Night's Watch, but tells him their loyalty to each other is greater. As Tormund's party climbs the wall, Ygritte inadvertently causes an avalanche that kills some wildlings and leaves her and Jon hanging by their rope. Before Orell cuts the rope, Jon secures himself to the Wall and reaches the top with Ygritte, where they embrace. ==Production== The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. "The Climb" is the sixth episode of the season written by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and 18th overall. It is based upon George R. R. Martin's novel ''A Storm of Swords'', namely, chapters 30, 35, 37, and 48 (Jon IV, Catelyn IV, Jaime V, and Samwell III). Gilly's baby, appearing in the fourth episode and in "The Climb"'s first scene, was played by ten months-old Arya Hasson – named after Arya Stark – from the Waterside in Derry. ==Reception== ===Ratings=== "The Climb" set a new record for ''Game of Thrones'' in ratings, the fourth consecutive episode to establish a new series high. 5.5 million viewers watched the premiere airing, with 1.27 million additional viewers watching the second airing. The episode also set a new series high in viewers aged 18–49, with a rating of 2.9. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 0.926 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== "The Climb" was met with positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 21 reviews of the episode and judged 90% of them to be positive with an average score of 7.9 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads "Tywin Lannister and Olenna Tyrell steal the show with their exquisite negotiation as 'The Climb' builds towards the Wildlings' death-defying scaling of The Wall." Writing for IGN, Matt Fowler gave the episode an 8.8/10, writing "This week's Game of Thrones started off slow, but then built to a roaring crescendo." Two reviews were published by The A.V. Club. David Sims gave the episode a "B" rating for people new to the series, while Emily VanDerWerff rated the episode a "B+" for people who have read the novels. ===Awards and nominations=== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2013 Hollywood Post Alliance Awards Outstanding Sound – Television Paula Fairfield, Brad Katona, Jed Dodge, Onnalee Blank and Mathew Waters 2014 Visual Effects Society Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program Kirk Brillon, Steve Gordon, Geoff Sayer, Winston Lee Outstanding Created Environment in a Broadcast Program Patrick Zentis, Mayur Patel, Nitin Singh, Tim Alexander == References == == External links == * "The Climb" at HBO.com * *

"'''Second Sons'''" is the eighth episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 28th episode of the series. The episode was written by executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Michelle MacLaren. It aired on . The episode is centered on the wedding of Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark in King's Landing, Gendry's arrival at Dragonstone and Daenerys's meeting with the mercenary company of the Second Sons before the walls of Yunkai. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Tyrion visits Sansa to ease her apprehension at the prospect of being his wife. In the Sept of Baelor, Cersei threatens Margaery with the story of House Reyne, former Lannister vassals whom Tywin exterminated when they rebelled against him. After arriving at the Sept, Sansa is walked down the aisle by Joffrey. At their wedding feast, Tyrion gets drunk. Joffrey, after threatening to rape Sansa, calls for the traditional bedding ceremony to begin, but his plan is thwarted when Tyrion threatens to castrate an outraged Joffrey. Tywin defuses the situation. Tyrion leaves the feast with Sansa, and he tells Sansa he will not share her bed until she wants him to. ===At Dragonstone=== Melisandre returns to Dragonstone with Gendry and takes him to see Stannis, who recognizes Gendry as one of Robert's bastards. When Gendry is taken to his chamber, Stannis and Melisandre discuss what they intend to do with him. In the dungeons, Davos continues to learn to read. Stannis visits him to discuss Melisandre's plan to sacrifice Gendry. Davos objects to the plan, but Stannis remains resolved. He then makes Davos swear to never raise his hand to Melisandre again, and frees him. Later, Melisandre visits Gendry and seduces him, tying him to a bed in the process. She lays three leeches on him to draw his royal blood. Stannis ritually burns the leeches, speaking the names of the usurpers to his throne: Robb Stark, Balon Greyjoy, and Joffrey Baratheon. ===In the Riverlands=== Arya tries to kill the Hound while he is sleeping, but he is revealed to be awake, and thwarts her attempt on his life. They depart their camp and head for the Twins, where the Hound intends to ransom Arya to Robb. ===At Yunkai=== Jorah tells Daenerys that Yunkai has employed a mercenary group called the Second Sons. Daenerys meets with Mero, his co-captain Prendahl na Ghezn and his lieutenant Daario Naharis. She attempts to bribe Mero to fight for her, and gives him two days to make a decision. After nightfall, Daario enters Daenerys' camp, disguised as an Unsullied soldier. He enters her tent and shows her and Missandei the severed heads of Mero and Prendahl, admitting that he is smitten by Daenerys. ===Beyond the Wall=== Sam and Gilly continue their journey to the Wall. They stop at an abandoned hut for the night. When they hear a murder of crows cawing nearby, Sam leaves the hut to investigate. Soon after, he is attacked by a White Walker. The Walker intents on taking Gilly's son, but Sam stabs it with his dragonglass dagger, causing the Walker to disintegrate. ==Production== ===Writing=== The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. "Second Sons" was written by the show creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, based on material from George R. R. Martin's novel ''A Storm of Swords''. The episode adapts parts of the book's chapters 19, 29, 37, 43, 47 and 48 (Samwell I, Sansa III, Davos IV, Daenerys IV, Samwell III and Arya IX). ===Casting=== The episode introduced the mercenary captains in service of Yunkai: Mark Killeen was cast as Mero (known as the Titan's Bastard), Ed Skrein the recurring role of Daario Naharis, and Ramon Tikaram the part of Prendahl na Ghezn. Tikaram is mistakenly credited as "Ramon Tikrum" in the closing credits. ===Filming locations=== Most of the scenes of the episode were shot in the Belfast studios of The Paint Hall, including the wedding of Tyrion and Sansa that was filmed at the huge semicircular set of the Great Sept of Baelor in mid September 2012. For this scene, a few hundred extras were recruited. ==Reception== ===Ratings=== The episode received 5.1 million viewers, an increase from the previous week, with an 18-49 demographic of 2.6. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 0.907 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, being the channel's highest-rated broadcast that week. ===Critical reception=== "Second Sons" received critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 20 reviews of the episode and judged 100% of them to be positive with an average score of 8 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, " 'Second Sons' shines through efficient storytelling -- and a comparatively low number of storylines to keep track of this week." Writing for IGN, Matt Fowler rated the episode a 9.0/10, and wrote "This week's well-crafted and wonderfully acted Game of Thrones gave us a cold wedding, a hot bath and a blood-letting." He especially praised the scenes between Sansa and Tyrion and between Ser Davos and Stannis. David Sims and Emily VanDerWerff, both writing for The A.V. Club, gave the episode "B" ratings. Sims was frustrated by the episode's meandering pace, but praised the end of the episode, with Sam killing the white walker, as "the most crucial, fascinating, electric moment of the night". VanDerWerff praised the use of nudity in the episode, writing "...I actually think Game Of Thrones has gotten quite a bit better at utilizing nudity and sex in the midst of everything else as a method of telling its story. It’s come a long way from the 'sexposition' days of season one, when it sometimes seemed like the series would toss some breasts into the background of a scene just in case we got bored of hearing somebody talk at length." ===Accolades=== Due to his nomination, Peter Dinklage submitted this episode for consideration for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. At the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the episode was nominated for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series. ==References== ==External links== * "Second Sons" at HBO.com * *

The fire maps show the locations of actively burning fires around the world on a monthly basis, based on observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. The colors are based on a count of the number (not size) of fires observed within a 1,000-square-kilometer area. White pixels show the high end of the count—as many as 100 fires in a 1,000-square-kilometer area per day. Yellow pixels show as many as 10 fires, orange shows as many as 5 fires, and red areas as few as 1 fire per day. '''Fire''' is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition. Fire is hot because the conversion of the weak double bond in molecular oxygen, O2, to the stronger bonds in the combustion products carbon dioxide and water releases energy (418 kJ per 32 g of O2); the bond energies of the fuel play only a minor role here. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are produced. The ''flame'' is the visible portion of the fire. Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different. Fire in its most common form can result in conflagration, which has the potential to cause physical damage through burning. Fire is an important process that affects ecological systems around the globe. The positive effects of fire include stimulating growth and maintaining various ecological systems. The negative effects of fire include hazard to life and property, atmospheric pollution, and water contamination. If fire removes protective vegetation, heavy rainfall may lead to an increase in soil erosion by water. Also, when vegetation is burned, the nitrogen it contains is released into the atmosphere, unlike elements such as potassium and phosphorus which remain in the ash and are quickly recycled into the soil. This loss of nitrogen caused by a fire produces a long-term reduction in the fertility of the soil, which only slowly recovers as nitrogen is "fixed" from the atmosphere by lightning and by leguminous plants such as clover. Fire has been used by humans in rituals, in agriculture for clearing land, for cooking, generating heat and light, for signaling, propulsion purposes, smelting, forging, incineration of waste, cremation, and as a weapon or mode of destruction. ==Physical properties== ===Chemistry=== The fire tetrahedron Fires start when a flammable or a combustible material, in combination with a sufficient quantity of an oxidizer such as oxygen gas or another oxygen-rich compound (though non-oxygen oxidizers exist), is exposed to a source of heat or ambient temperature above the flash point for the fuel/oxidizer mix, and is able to sustain a rate of rapid oxidation that produces a chain reaction. This is commonly called the fire tetrahedron. Fire cannot exist without all of these elements in place and in the right proportions. For example, a flammable liquid will start burning only if the fuel and oxygen are in the right proportions. Some fuel-oxygen mixes may require a catalyst, a substance that is not consumed, when added, in any chemical reaction during combustion, but which enables the reactants to combust more readily. Once ignited, a chain reaction must take place whereby fires can sustain their own heat by the further release of heat energy in the process of combustion and may propagate, provided there is a continuous supply of an oxidizer and fuel. If the oxidizer is oxygen from the surrounding air, the presence of a force of gravity, or of some similar force caused by acceleration, is necessary to produce convection, which removes combustion products and brings a supply of oxygen to the fire. Without gravity, a fire rapidly surrounds itself with its own combustion products and non-oxidizing gases from the air, which exclude oxygen and extinguish the fire. Because of this, the risk of fire in a spacecraft is small when it is coasting in inertial flight. This does not apply if oxygen is supplied to the fire by some process other than thermal convection. Fire can be extinguished by removing any one of the elements of the fire tetrahedron. Consider a natural gas flame, such as from a stove-top burner. The fire can be extinguished by any of the following: * turning off the gas supply, which removes the fuel source; * covering the flame completely, which smothers the flame as the combustion both uses the available oxidizer (the oxygen in the air) and displaces it from the area around the flame with CO2; * application of water, which removes heat from the fire faster than the fire can produce it (similarly, blowing hard on a flame will displace the heat of the currently burning gas from its fuel source, to the same end), or * application of a retardant chemical such as Halon to the flame, which retards the chemical reaction itself until the rate of combustion is too slow to maintain the chain reaction. In contrast, fire is intensified by increasing the overall rate of combustion. Methods to do this include balancing the input of fuel and oxidizer to stoichiometric proportions, increasing fuel and oxidizer input in this balanced mix, increasing the ambient temperature so the fire's own heat is better able to sustain combustion, or providing a catalyst, a non-reactant medium in which the fuel and oxidizer can more readily react. ===Flame=== A candle's flame Northwest Crown Fire Experiment, Canada Photo of a fire taken with a 1/4000th of a second exposure ISS A flame is a mixture of reacting gases and solids emitting visible, infrared, and sometimes ultraviolet light, the frequency spectrum of which depends on the chemical composition of the burning material and intermediate reaction products. In many cases, such as the burning of organic matter, for example wood, or the incomplete combustion of gas, incandescent solid particles called soot produce the familiar red-orange glow of "fire". This light has a continuous spectrum. Complete combustion of gas has a dim blue color due to the emission of single-wavelength radiation from various electron transitions in the excited molecules formed in the flame. Usually oxygen is involved, but hydrogen burning in chlorine also produces a flame, producing hydrogen chloride (HCl). Other possible combinations producing flames, amongst many, are fluorine and hydrogen, and hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. Hydrogen and hydrazine/UDMH flames are similarly pale blue, while burning boron and its compounds, evaluated in mid-20th century as a high energy fuel for jet and rocket engines, emits intense green flame, leading to its informal nickname of "Green Dragon". The glow of a flame is complex. Black-body radiation is emitted from soot, gas, and fuel particles, though the soot particles are too small to behave like perfect blackbodies. There is also photon emission by de-excited atoms and molecules in the gases. Much of the radiation is emitted in the visible and infrared bands. The color depends on temperature for the black-body radiation, and on chemical makeup for the emission spectra. The dominant color in a flame changes with temperature. The photo of the forest fire in Canada is an excellent example of this variation. Near the ground, where most burning is occurring, the fire is white, the hottest color possible for organic material in general, or yellow. Above the yellow region, the color changes to orange, which is cooler, then red, which is cooler still. Above the red region, combustion no longer occurs, and the uncombusted carbon particles are visible as black smoke. The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, as soot tends to rise to the top of a general flame, as in a candle in normal gravity conditions, making it yellow. In micro gravity or zero gravity, such as an environment in outer space, convection no longer occurs, and the flame becomes spherical, with a tendency to become more blue and more efficient (although it may go out if not moved steadily, as the CO2 from combustion does not disperse as readily in micro gravity, and tends to smother the flame). There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is that the temperature is sufficiently evenly distributed that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in micro gravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behave differently in micro gravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. These discoveries have potential applications in applied science and industry, especially concerning fuel efficiency. In combustion engines, various steps are taken to eliminate a flame. The method depends mainly on whether the fuel is oil, wood, or a high-energy fuel such as jet fuel. ===Flame temperatures=== ====Temperatures of flames by appearance==== It is true that objects at specific temperatures do radiate visible light. Objects whose surface is at a temperature above approximately will glow, emitting light at a color that indicates the temperature of that surface. See the section on red heat for more about this effect. It is a misconception that one can judge the temperature of a fire by the color of its flames or the sparks in the flames. For many reasons, chemically and optically, these colors may not match the red/orange/yellow/white heat temperatures on the chart. Barium nitrate burns a bright green, for instance, and this is not present on the heat chart. ====Typical temperatures of flames==== The "adiabatic flame temperature" of a given fuel and oxidizer pair indicates the temperature at which the gases achieve stable combustion. * Oxy–dicyanoacetylene * Oxy–acetylene * Oxyhydrogen * Air–acetylene * Blowtorch (air–MAPP gas) * Bunsen burner (air–natural gas) * Candle (air–paraffin) * Smoldering cigarette: ** Temperature without drawing: side of the lit portion; ; middle of the lit portion: ** Temperature during drawing: middle of the lit portion: ** Always hotter in the middle. ==Fire ecology== Every natural ecosystem has its own fire regime, and the organisms in those ecosystems are adapted to or dependent upon that fire regime. Fire creates a mosaic of different habitat patches, each at a different stage of succession. Different species of plants, animals, and microbes specialize in exploiting a particular stage, and by creating these different types of patches, fire allows a greater number of species to exist within a landscape. ==Fossil record== ==Human control== Bushman starting a fire in Namibia Process of ignition of a match The ability to control fire was a dramatic change in the habits of early humans. Making fire to generate heat and light made it possible for people to cook food, simultaneously increasing the variety and availability of nutrients and reducing disease by killing organisms in the food. The heat produced would also help people stay warm in cold weather, enabling them to live in cooler climates. Fire also kept nocturnal predators at bay. Evidence of cooked food is found from , although there is a theory that fire could have been used in a controlled fashion about 1 million years ago. Evidence becomes widespread around 50 to 100 thousand years ago, suggesting regular use from this time; resistance to air pollution started to evolve in human populations at a similar point in time. The use of fire became progressively more sophisticated, with it being used to create charcoal and to control wildlife from tens of thousands of years ago. Fire has also been used for centuries as a method of torture and execution, as evidenced by death by burning as well as torture devices such as the iron boot, which could be filled with water, oil, or even lead and then heated over an open fire to the agony of the wearer. By the Neolithic Revolution, during the introduction of grain-based agriculture, people all over the world used fire as a tool in landscape management. These fires were typically controlled burns or "cool fires", as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires", which damage the soil. Hot fires destroy plants and animals, and endanger communities. This is especially a problem in the forests of today where traditional burning is prevented in order to encourage the growth of timber crops. Cool fires are generally conducted in the spring and autumn. They clear undergrowth, burning up biomass that could trigger a hot fire should it get too dense. They provide a greater variety of environments, which encourages game and plant diversity. For humans, they make dense, impassable forests traversable. Another human use for fire in regards to landscape management is its use to clear land for agriculture. Slash-and-burn agriculture is still common across much of tropical Africa, Asia and South America. "For small farmers, it is a convenient way to clear overgrown areas and release nutrients from standing vegetation back into the soil", said Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, an ecologist at the Earth Institute’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation. However this useful strategy is also problematic. Growing population, fragmentation of forests and warming climate are making the earth's surface more prone to ever-larger escaped fires. These harm ecosystems and human infrastructure, cause health problems, and send up spirals of carbon and soot that may encourage even more warming of the atmosphere – and thus feed back into more fires. Globally today, as much as 5 million square kilometres – an area more than half the size of the United States – burns in a given year. There are numerous modern applications of fire. In its broadest sense, fire is used by nearly every human being on earth in a controlled setting every day. Users of internal combustion vehicles employ fire every time they drive. Thermal power stations provide electricity for a large percentage of humanity. Hamburg after four fire-bombing raids in July 1943, which killed an estimated 50,000 people The use of fire in warfare has a long history. Fire was the basis of all early thermal weapons. Homer detailed the use of fire by Greek soldiers who hid in a wooden horse to burn Troy during the Trojan war. Later the Byzantine fleet used Greek fire to attack ships and men. In the First World War, the first modern flamethrowers were used by infantry, and were successfully mounted on armoured vehicles in the Second World War. In the latter war, incendiary bombs were used by Axis and Allies alike, notably on Tokyo, Rotterdam, London, Hamburg and, notoriously, at Dresden; in the latter two cases firestorms were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire surrounding each city was drawn inward by an updraft caused by a central cluster of fires. The United States Army Air Force also extensively used incendiaries against Japanese targets in the latter months of the war, devastating entire cities constructed primarily of wood and paper houses. The use of napalm was employed in July 1944, towards the end of the Second World War; although its use did not gain public attention until the Vietnam War. Molotov cocktails were also used. ===Use as fuel=== coal-fired power station in the People's Republic of China Disability-adjusted life year for fires per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004 Setting fuel aflame releases usable energy. Wood was a prehistoric fuel, and is still viable today. The use of fossil fuels, such as petroleum, natural gas, and coal, in power plants supplies the vast majority of the world's electricity today; the International Energy Agency states that nearly 80% of the world's power came from these sources in 2002. The fire in a power station is used to heat water, creating steam that drives turbines. The turbines then spin an electric generator to produce electricity. Fire is also used to provide mechanical work directly, in both external and internal combustion engines. The unburnable solid remains of a combustible material left after a fire is called ''clinker'' if its melting point is below the flame temperature, so that it fuses and then solidifies as it cools, and ''ash'' if its melting point is above the flame temperature. ==Protection and prevention== This visualization shows fires detected in the United States from July 2002 through July 2011. Look for fires that reliably burn each year in western states and across the Southeast. Wildfire prevention programs around the world may employ techniques such as ''wildland fire use'' and ''prescribed or controlled burns''. ''Wildland fire use'' refers to any fire of natural causes that is monitored but allowed to burn. ''Controlled burns'' are fires ignited by government agencies under less dangerous weather conditions. Fire fighting services are provided in most developed areas to extinguish or contain uncontrolled fires. Trained firefighters use fire apparatus, water supply resources such as water mains and fire hydrants or they might use A and B class foam depending on what is feeding the fire. Fire prevention is intended to reduce sources of ignition. Fire prevention also includes education to teach people how to avoid causing fires. Buildings, especially schools and tall buildings, often conduct fire drills to inform and prepare citizens on how to react to a building fire. Purposely starting destructive fires constitutes arson and is a crime in most jurisdictions. Model building codes require passive fire protection and active fire protection systems to minimize damage resulting from a fire. The most common form of active fire protection is fire sprinklers. To maximize passive fire protection of buildings, building materials and furnishings in most developed countries are tested for fire-resistance, combustibility and flammability. Upholstery, carpeting and plastics used in vehicles and vessels are also tested. Where fire prevention and fire protection have failed to prevent damage, fire insurance can mitigate the financial impact. ==Restoration== Different restoration methods and measures are used depending on the type of fire damage that occurred. Restoration after fire damage can be performed by property management teams, building maintenance personnel, or by the homeowners themselves; however, contacting a certified professional fire damage restoration specialist is often regarded as the safest way to restore fire damaged property due to their training and extensive experience. Most are usually listed under "Fire and Water Restoration" and they can help speed repairs, whether for individual homeowners or for the largest of institutions. Fire and Water Restoration companies are regulated by the appropriate state's Department of Consumer Affairs – usually the state contractors license board. In California, all Fire and Water Restoration companies must register with the California Contractors State License Board. Presently, the California Contractors State License Board has no specific classification for "water and fire damage restoration." Hence, the Contractor's State License Board requires both an asbestos certification (ASB) as well as a demolition classification (C-21) in order to perform Fire and Water Restoration work. ==See also== * Aodh (given name) * Colored fire * Control of fire by early humans * Deflagration * Fire (classical element) * Fire investigation * Fire lookout * Fire lookout tower * Fire making * Fire pit * Fire safety * Fire triangle * Fire whirl * Fire worship * Flame test * Life Safety Code * List of fires * List of light sources * Phlogiston theory * Piano burning * Prometheus, the Greek mythological figure who gave mankind fire * Pyrokinesis * Pyrolysis * Pyromania * Self-immolation * ''The Chemical History of a Candle'' ==References== ==Bibliography== * * Haung, Kai. 2009. Population and Building Factors That Impact Residential Fire Rates in Large U.S. Cities. Applied Research Project. Texas State University. TXstate.edu * * Kosman, Admiel: Sacred fire. In: Thu, January 13, 2011. ==External links== * How Fire Works at HowStuffWorks * What exactly is fire? from The Straight Dope * On Fire, an Adobe Flash-based science tutorial from the NOVA (TV series) * 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Fire from ''Discover'' magazine

The title sequence of the HBO fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'' that introduces every episode serves as a guide to the physical landscape of the world of the series. It changes depending on the locations visited in the particular episode it introduces. The title sequence was created by Elastic for HBO, and is accompanied by a theme tune composed by Ramin Djawadi. The sequence depicts a three-dimensional map of the series' fictional world, projected onto a concave earth, and lit by a small sun contained within an armilla (or spherical astrolabe) that metaphorically depicts major events in the history of the fictional world at the sphere's center. As the camera swoops across the map and focuses on the locations in which the episode's events take place, complicated clockwork mechanisms cause buildings and other structures to emerge from the map and unfold. Meanwhile, the names of the principal cast (with the symbols of the characters' families next to the names) and creative staff are displayed. The sequence concludes after about one-and-a-half minutes with the title card and brief opening credits indicating the episode's writers and directors. Creative director Angus Wall, art director Robert Feng, animator Kirk Shintani and designer Hameed Shaukat received the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design for their work on the sequence. The title sequence has been ranked one of the best TV title sequences of all time. ==Description== The title sequence consists of a three-dimensional map of the world, with the continents of Westeros and Essos located on the inner surface of a sphere, which is rendered in the style of a fantasy role-playing map used as a game board by participants for their battle plans. The maps used are those of Westeros and Essos that precede the novels in the book series. At the center of the sphere is a heliocentric armillary sphere. The title sequence serves as a guide to the physical landscape of the world of ''Game of Thrones'', and details of the title sequence change each week depending on the locations visited, and new locations may be added in each season. The sequence of every episode opens with a close-up of the sun and the sphere surrounding it. Relief depictions of the fictional's world's history are visible on the sphere, such as the Doom of Valyria, Aegon's Conquest and the rise of House Baratheon, which appear at varying points in the sequence. The camera then pans to different parts of the map, on which different locations in the fictional world are shown. Many of the cities and buildings on these locations appear out of the ground using clockwork mechanisms. Other elements, such as the weirwood tree at Winterfell and the Horse Gate at Vaes Dothrak, are also added at the various locations. The locations shown vary depending on the locations visited in that particular episode, and three or four variations of the title sequence are shown in each season. However, due to the limitation on time for the title sequence, no more than six locations may be shown in any episode. Also, because of their importance in the show, every episode features King's Landing, Winterfell, The Wall, and wherever Daenerys may be regardless of whether or not any of these locations is featured in that episode. The sigils of the reigning families are added to each location; for example, the Baratheon stag sigil on King's Landing and the Stark dire wolf at Winterfell. The names of the cast are also shown together with the corresponding sigil of the character they portray. The sigil may change depending on the storyline, for example the flayed man sigil is displayed over Winterfell when it is taken by the Boltons, but it reverts to the dire wolf sigil after it is recaptured by the Starks. Other events in the show are also reflected in the title sequence. For example, after Winterfell is burned, smoke is depicted billowing out from it. The ''Game of Thrones'' logo appears over the armilla at the end. HBO released an interactive 360-degree video of the title sequence in season 6. While the locations featured change from episode to episode, the general design and route of the sequence remain roughly similar. However, in the final season, the title sequence received a major revamp to denote the change in season and shift in storyline. In this new version, the first location shown is the breached wall instead of King's Landing, and moves down to the cities south of the wall following the path of the army of the dead. The interiors of two major locations are shown for the first time: the crypts of Winterfell and the Red Keep at King's Landing, as well as the latter's throne room. The appearance of the armilla and the events depicted on it also change to reflect event of the season 7 finale, such as the fall of the Wall. ==Conception and production== The title sequence was created by three teams: its design, which forms the bulk of the project, was done by Elastic, the computer graphics by a52, and the title sequence editing by Rock Paper Scissors. Elastic had previously created the title sequences for ''Rome'', ''Big Love'', and ''Carnivale'' for HBO, and they were approached by Carolyn Strauss of HBO, with whom they had worked on these shows, to create the title sequence for ''Game of Thrones''. Angus Wall, the head of title design firm Elastic, met with Strauss, the showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and producer Greg Spence to discuss the project around a year before the show debut. When the pilot was first made, it was felt that the geography of the imaginary world of Westeros and Essos might confuse the viewers, and that maps could be useful as navigational guides for the viewers. An early suggestion was to use animated maps as a transition between scenes to orient viewers, but that idea was dropped as it would interrupt the narrative flow. The idea of the map was therefore moved into the title sequence. For the original pilot, the showrunners Benioff and Weiss initially wrote the title sequence as a crow's flight from King's Landing to Winterfell; however, the production team at Elastic thought the idea was too flat and devised the idea of using 3-D models within a sphere that represents the world of the show. The sphere was used to obviate the question of what might lie beyond the horizon of the map, and the whole sphere is lit by the sun in the middle. According to Angus Wall, the title sequence had "a concrete function in the world of the show, in that it serves as a legend the way the map at the beginning of a fantasy book orients you." The title sequence informs the viewers of the locations of the show relevant to each episode, and changes to reflect the storylines of the show and changes within this world. On the use of an armillary and models with moving parts, producer Greg Spence explained that Angus Wall at Elastic came up with "a vision of a mad monk, in a tower somewhere," who was somehow keeping track of all this action "and creating as he went. He would then fashion little automatons out of the materials that would be available in his world. They would be stone, or tin, or wood, and everything would feel very hand-crafted." The idea is, therefore, that everything in the title sequence could be created with hammer, saw, and chisel, and operated with gears and cogs. The turning gears and cogs were meant to be reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions. The design team were given a list of the locations where the action may take place in each episode after the shooting had completed, and they had around 3 months to create title sequences. The concepts, including details such as the machinery used, were first sketched by hand, and the models were then created with computer graphics. ==''Game of Thrones'' theme== The theme music that accompanies the title sequence was composed by Ramin Djawadi. The production team showed the title sequence they were working on to Djawadi, who was then inspired to create the music for the "''Game of Thrones'' Theme" and finished the theme music three days later. Djawadi said the showrunners Benioff and Weiss wanted the theme music to be about a journey that reflects the variety of locations and characters in the show. ==List of elements== The following table lists the locations shown in each episode's title sequence, in the order of their appearance in the sequence as determined by the first episode in which they are shown. The locations King's Landing, Winterfell, and The Wall are featured in every title sequence, as well as the most recent location in Essos (in the first 6 seasons), even if they are not present in that particular episode. It is also noteworthy that the appearance of Winterfell has changed over the seasons: in Seasons 3 and 4 Winterfell was covered in smoke, referencing its burning at the end of Season 2, and in Season 5 the smoke was removed but the Bolton sigil replaced the Stark sigil, reflecting how the Boltons moved to Winterfell during that season. In episode 6.10, the Stark sigil returned, the result of Jon Snow and Sansa Stark's reclaiming Winterfell from the Boltons at the end of the previous episode. ===Summary=== S. 1 S. 2 S. 3 S. 4 S. 5 S. 6 S. 7 S. 8 Total Count '''Locations''' King's Landing 10 10 10 10 10 10 7 6 73 Winterfell 10 10 10 10 10 10 7 6 73 The Wall 10 10 10 10 10 10 7 6 73 Meereen 10 10 10 30 Braavos 5 9 7 21 Dragonstone 3 4 5 7 19 Pyke 9 3 3 15 Vaes Dothrak 9 3 3 15 Harrenhal 7 8 15 Riverrun 6 3 9 Dorne 7 2 9 The Eyrie 4 2 1 7 The Dreadfort 7 7 Qarth 7 7 Oldtown 7 7 Yunkai 6 6 Last Hearth 6 6 The Twins 1 2 1 1 5 Moat Cailin 3 1 4 Astapor 4 4 Eastwatch 3 3 Pentos 1 1 2 ==Homage== ''The Simpsons'' episode "Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart" features a homage to the ''Game of Thrones'' title sequence, with famous buildings in the town of Springfield rising through the ground as characters watch on, dressed in ''Game of Thrones''-style costumes. The Wall is replaced by the monolithic "Couch" at the end of the sequence. A version of the title sequence has also been recreated with Oreo cookies. ==Awards== The design team behind the title sequence, Angus Wall, art director Rob Feng, designer Hameed Shaukat, and C.G. supervisor Kirk Shintani, won a Creative Arts Emmy Award on September 10, 2011. === Awards and nominations === Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2011 63rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Main Title Design Angus Wall, Hameed Shaukat, Kirk Shintani and Robert Feng 2016 68th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Interactive Program Game of Thrones Main Titles 360 Experience ==References== == External links == * Perkins, Will; Albinson, Ian (June 29, 2011). "Game of Thrones (2011)". Art of the Title. May 11, 2011. * Appelo, Tim (April 19, 2011). "Secrets Behind 'Game of Thrones' Opening Credits (Video)". ''The Hollywood Reporter''.

"'''Mhysa'''" is the third season finale of the American medieval epic fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and its 30th episode overall. Written by executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by David Nutter, it originally aired on on HBO in the United States. The episode revolves on the aftermath of the events instigated by "The Red Wedding", in which Tywin Lannister is revealed to be the mastermind behind the massacre — with Walder Frey and Roose Bolton having conspired with the Lannisters against the Starks. As a result, House Frey receives the Seat of Riverrun and Roose Bolton is appointed the new "Warden of the North". Elsewhere, House Greyjoy begins a new military campaign. In the North, Maester Aemon sends out ravens to alert the whole of Westeros about the arrival of the White Walkers. And across the narrow sea, the freed slaves of Yunkai hail Daenerys as their "mhysa", the Ghiscari language's word for "mother". According to Nielsen Media Research, "Mhysa" was seen by 5.4 million household viewers in the United States, a twenty-eight percent increase compared to the second season finale, "Valar Morghulis". After its broadcast, the episode received generally positive reviews from television critics, with some of them addressing its anti-climactic closure of the series' third season, and its establishment of potential storylines for the fourth season, such as through the final scene's "glimmer of hope". The episode received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. ==Plot== ===In King's Landing=== Tyrion learns of the deaths of Robb and Catelyn during the Red Wedding. Tyrion tells Tywin that northerners will never forget the role the Lannisters played in the Red Wedding. Varys gives Shae a sack of diamonds to sail for Essos, but she refuses. Jaime, Brienne, and Qyburn arrive in King's Landing. ===At the Twins=== Sandor and Arya find a group of Frey men. Arya kills one, who claimed to have desecrated Robb's body and Sandor kills others. Walder and Bolton discuss the escape of Brynden and their new oppositions as Lord of Riverrun and Warden of the North. ===In the North=== Bran and his group arrive at the Nightfort and meet Sam and Gilly. Sam realizes that Bran is Jon's brother. Bran asks Sam to take them north of the Wall. He takes them through the passage and gives them his dragonglass weapons. Sam and Gilly arrive at Castle Black and meet Aemon, who, after hearing of White Walkers, sends all ravens with messages warning the return of White Walkers. Ygritte finds Jon, but before he escapes, Ygritte shoots three arrows into him. Jon arrives at Castle Black, where his wounds are treated. At the Dreadfort, Theon's torturer, revealed to be Bolton's bastard Ramsay Snow, nicknames Theon Reek. ===On the Iron Islands=== Balon reads letter from Ramsay, demanding to have the Ironborn soldiers withdraw from the North. Balon allows Theon's torture to continue, but Yara takes 50 best Ironborn men to attack the Dreadfort. ===At Dragonstone=== Stannis informs Davos of Robb's death and Melisandre plans to sacrifice Gendry to the Lord of Light. Davos gives Gendry a boat to escape Dragonstone. Stannis orders Davos’ execution, but after he shows Stannis a letter from the Wall, Melisandre tells Stannis that only he can save the North from the White Walkers and that he will need Davos' help, preventing his execution. ===Outside Yunkai=== Daenerys frees slaves from Yunkai, who begin to shout mhysa, which Missandei tells Daenerys is Ghiscari for mother. ==Production== The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. ===Writing=== "Mhysa" was written by executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, based on George R. R. Martin's original work from his novel ''A Storm of Swords''. Chapters adapted from ''A Storm of Swords'' to the episode were chapters 43, 49, 53 to 55, 57, 63, and 64 (Daenerys IV, Jon VI, Arya XI, Tyrion VI, Davos V, Bran IV, Jaime VII, Davos VI). ===Casting=== After being absent for the entire second season, Peter Vaughan returns as Maester Aemon and Josef Altin returns as Pypar. This episode also marks the return, after a long absence, of Patrick Malahide as Balon Greyjoy and Gemma Whelan as Yara Greyjoy. ==Reception== ===Ratings=== In its original American broadcast in HBO, "Mhysa" was seen by an estimated 5.4 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. It marked a year-to-year increase in viewership of 28 percent compared to the second season finale, "Valar Morghulis", which was seen by 4.2 million. The second broadcast of the "Mhysa" during the night was viewed by 900,000 viewers, bringing its total viewership for to 6.30 million. According to analysts, the success of the episode significantly helped ''Game of Thrones'' to surpass ''True Blood'' as the second most-watched series on HBO, after ''The Sopranos''. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 1.154 million viewers, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week. It also received 0.110 million timeshift viewers. ===Critical reception=== "Mhysa" received generally positive reviews from television critics, with some of them addressing the finale's anti-climactic closure of the third season and for establishing new storylines for the fourth. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 20 reviews of the episode and deemed 100% of them to be positive with an average score of 8.5 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "'Mhysa' wraps up several of season 3's lingering storylines while subtly setting the table for season 4." James Poniewozik of ''Time'' wrote in his review, "The end of season 3, then, spent some time among the winners and losers in post-Red-Wedding Westeros, giving the audience a chance to soak in the shock, seethe at the winners' glee, and get a reminder of the larger forces – White Walkers, dragons – well beyond the war between the Lannisters and the Starks. If the Red Wedding seemed to kill hope, 'Mhysa' made clear that it didn't end anything. And it weaved together the many, many threads of ''GoTs'' tapestry by returning to a recurring theme: that ''Game of Thrones'' is ultimately about family." Matt Fowler of IGN described that the finale had "nicely set up a lot of cool stuff for Season 4, but it was also lacking some of the power and majesty of previous finales. Especially the ending with Dany, who herself had a better ending back in 'And Now His Watch is Ended' when her dragons torched Astapor and she left with a full army." He also praised the scene where Arya killed a Frey soldier. Writing for ''Today'', Drusilla Moorhouse remarked that "After last week's shocking massacre, most fans braced for more tragic deaths in season three's finale. Instead, the blow was softened with poignant reunions and surprising saves, setting the stage for an explosive fourth season." In her review for Zap2it, Terri Schwartz wrote that "Nothing can ever quite redeem the deaths of Robb and Catelyn Stark, but at least larger forces are taking shape that are propelling this series into Season 4. Daenerys is as powerful as she's ever been, Jon Snow returns to the Wall while Bran heads north of it and the Greyjoys ready an assault to finally save Theon from his captor. Then there's the fact that Stannis decides to sail north to the Wall to aid the Night's Watch in their fight against the White Walkers, which seems like it's going to end up being the greater, global conflict in the future of 'Game of Thrones'." Writing for ''The A.V. Club'', David Sims gave "Mhysa" an "A-" rating, while Emily VanDerWerff gave it a "B+". Sims, writing for audiences who have not read the novels, described the episode as lacking "a lot of serious plot movement or major twists and may have fans gnashing their teeth a little bit as they wait nine months for season four. The previous season finales have also had that quality, but they each ended on a barnstorming note. 'Mhysa', not quite so much." VanDerWerff, writing for audiences who have read the novels, wrote that "On a plot level, not a lot happens in 'Mhysa'", but praised the episode in addressing the series' "value of one human life is in the face of a kingdom." He also mildly criticized the series' template of when "something terrible happens in Westeros, Dany offers a glimmer of hope over in her story line", referring to it as its "Achilles' heel". Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush wrote in his review, "All in all, the air (or blood) of the season had mostly been let out by 'The Rains of Castamere', as even a returning Jaime’s most interesting moments arrived much earlier in the season, but 'Mhysa' gave us a good course-heading for season 4, with some much-needed catharsis along the way." The episode's final scene, in which Daenerys, "the blondest possible savior figure", appears with "uncharacterized brown people" as "being lifted up as their messiah and praising her for saving them from bondage", was criticized by at least four commentators as having colonialist or even racist undertones. They asked why the series chose to portray the Yunkish as nearly uniformly dark-skinned, rather than as ethnically diverse as in the source novels, to which George R. R. Martin replied that this was because the scene was shot in Morocco with local extras. Commentators also criticized, more broadly, that the series's inclusion of people of color was limited to only a small number of characters. == References == ==External links== * at HBO.com * *

The soundtrack album of the fifth season of HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', titled '''''Game of Thrones: Season 5''''', was released digitally on June 9, 2015, and on CD on July 17, 2015. The album was composed by Ramin Djawadi. ==Reception== The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. ==Track listing== ==Credits and personnel== Personnel adapted from the album liner notes. * David Benioff – liner notes * Ramin Djawadi – composer, primary artist, producer * Czech Film Orchestra and Choir – primary artist * Bradley Hanan Carter – featured artist * D.B. Weiss – liner notes ==References==

The soundtrack album of the sixth season of HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', titled '''''Game of Thrones: Season 6''''', was released digitally on June 24, 2016, and later released on CD on July 29, 2016. The album reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard''s Soundtracks chart, and the track from the season finale "Light of the Seven" reached No. 1 on ''Billboard''s Spotify Viral 50 chart. The "Light of the Seven" is the first time piano is used in the music for ''Game of Thrones''. The album was composed by Ramin Djawadi. The soundtrack has received favorable reviews and peaked at #1 on the U.S. Soundtrack Albums chart and #27 on the U.S. Billboard 200. It won an International Film Music Critics Association for "Best Original Score for a Television Series". ==Reception== The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. ==Track listing== ==Credits and personnel== Personnel adapted from the album liner notes. * David Benioff – liner notes * Ramin Djawadi – composer, primary artist, producer * D.B. Weiss – liner notes ==Charts== Chart (2016) Peak position UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC) 2 US Soundtrack Albums (''Billboard'') 1 US Digital Albums (''Billboard'') 5 US Top Album Sales (''Billboard'') 12 ==Awards and nominations== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2016 International Film Music Critics Association Best Original Score for a Television Series World Soundtrack Awards Television Composer of the Year ==Notes== ==References==

The soundtrack album of the seventh season of HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', titled '''''Game of Thrones: Season 7''''', was released digitally on August 25, 2017 on CD on September 29, 2017. ==Track listing== ==Credits and personnel== Personnel adapted from the album liner notes. * David Benioff – liner notes * Ramin Djawadi – composer, primary artist, producer * D.B. Weiss – liner notes ==Charts== Chart (2017) Peak position New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ) 4 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) 85 ==Awards and nominations== Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2018 60th Annual Grammy Awards Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media Ramin Djawadi 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Music Composition for a Series Episode: "The Dragon and the Wolf" ==References==

The soundtrack album of the eighth season of HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', titled '''''Game of Thrones: Season 8''''', was released digitally on May 19, 2019, A double CD release was released July 19, 2019 and a vinyl release is set later in the year. Ramin Djawadi received his seventh Primetime Emmy Award nomination, for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score), for the season's third episode, "The Long Night" and then won the award, making two consecutive wins for Ramin. ==Background== "It's been such an honor to be a part of this incredible show for the past eight years", said Ramin Djawadi. Djawadi says of his track "The Night King": "When I talked to Miguel Sapochnik|Miguel Sapochnik, the director, and when David Benioff|David Benioff and D. B. Weiss|D. B. Weiss came to my studio and we started working on this episode, we all agreed that it had to be a piano piece again, just like 'Light of the Seven'.... It definitely misled the audience because of what they knew from 'Light of the Seven', back in season six. We always treated the music as another character in the show." == Track listing == ==Charts== Chart (2019) Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) 75 French Albums (SNEP) 88 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) 51 UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC) 6 US ''Billboard'' 200 95 US Soundtrack Albums (''Billboard'') 6 ==References==

Linda Antonsson and Elio García at Archipelacon on June 28, 2015. '''Elio Miguel García Jr.''' (born May 6, 1978) and '''Linda Maria Antonsson''' (born November 18, 1974) are authors known for their contributions and expertise in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series by George R. R. Martin, co-writing in 2014 with Martin ''The World of Ice & Fire'', a companion book for the series. They are also the founders of the fansite Westeros.org, one of the earliest fan websites for ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. ==Career== Elio García was attending the University of Miami, while his partner Linda Antonsson was living in Sweden. At that time, in 1996, Antonsson introduced García to the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' book series when it came out on paperback. After the second book, ''A Clash of Kings'', was released, they decided to create a forum for discussion of the series, creating an early iteration of Westeros.org, and later expanded it as the series became more popular. As of 2016, Westeros.org had more than 100,000 registered members. García and Antonsson have communicated closely with George R. R. Martin, serving sometimes as fact checkers and researchers of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' universe. They first approached Martin when they had the desire to create a game based on the series, seeking his permission, and created Westeros.org as an information source about how to play the game, titled "Blood of Dragons", but it transformed to become more encompassing of the entire series as a whole, with discussion forums, news, and a Wiki. Around 2000, when ''A Storm of Swords'' was published, García and Antonsson began compiling a concordance of facts and details about Westeros, which they sent to Martin, leading him to state that they knew more about Westeros than he did. During the writing of the series' fourth book, ''A Feast for Crows'', the couple became a regular fact checker for details regarding the series' many characters and locations. After meeting with Martin in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the pair was approached by Martin to co-author a book titled ''The World of Ice & Fire'', a companion book which focuses primarily on the history of the Targaryen family, one of the main families presented in the books. The book is written from the point of view that it is a scholarly work of a maester at the Citadel, the main center of knowledge in the world of Westeros. They work together from their home in Nödinge-Nol, near Gothenburg, Sweden. Antonsson has stated that they never contribute to the main series of books on a story level, rather about setting details and continuity details. In addition to writing, Antonsson has also done English to Swedish translating, including for ''Game of Thrones''. The pair provided episode recaps, analysis and video commentary for each episode of Game of Thrones on westeros.org, but as the television series surpassed the book series, they have become critics of many of the show's plot conveniences, in their view, and "clichés"; following the 6th season of the program, Garcia announced that he would no longer be watching the show, after which Antonsson began doing the episode reviews and commentary alone. ==Personal life== García and Antonsson met in 1995 while playing a game based on ''The Lord of the Rings'' over the internet. They were married in 2014, the same day that ''The World of Ice & Fire'' was released, 16 years after the couple had become engaged. García moved to Sweden in 1999, where the couple now lives in Nödinge, Ale Municipality. ==References== ==External links== * Westeros.org - Official website

'''''The Sons of the Dragon''''' is a novella by George R. R. Martin, set in the fictional land of Westeros, the setting of Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series. The story commences about 270 years before the start of ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996). It portrays the death of Aegon I, known as "Aegon the Conqueror", and his two sons Aenys I, his successor to the throne, and Maegor I "the Cruel", in their respective successions to the throne thereafter, and the conflicts faced between them. The story concludes with the death of Maegor, and introduces the groundwork for its sequel, being about the life of his successor and nephew Jaehaerys I "the Conciliator", who reigned 55 years as the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. ==Format== As with his previous Westerosi "histories", including ''The World of Ice and Fire'', ''The Rogue Prince'' and ''The Princess and the Queen'', Martin wrote ''The Sons of the Dragon'' from the perspective of a fictional Westerosi scholar, referred to in-universe as some rank of "maester". Unlike the previous works, attributed to Maester Yandel and Archmaester Gyldayn, the maester of ''The Sons of the Dragon'' remains anonymous throughout the story. At the conclusion of the novella, the unnamed maester notes that the following history of the Targaryen family, concerning the life of Jaehaerys I, would be a "task for another maester". ==Background== Following an early 2017 leak that revealed plans for the novella to be included in the anthology ''The Book of Swords'' (edited by Martin's longtime friend Gardner Dozois), Martin himself confirmed that the anthology was scheduled to be released on October 10, 2017, and confirmed that ''The Sons of the Dragon'' would be included. The story was derived from previously written lengthier material that Martin had prepared for the companion book ''The World of Ice & Fire'', but was removed because the book was becoming too long for the original concept of a fully illustrated book. It and several other stories appeared in abridged versions in other anthologies. The story is included in full in ''Fire & Blood''. ==Publication== The novella was released by Bantam Spectra in October 2017 in hardcover, paperback and audiobook formats, all as the final story in ''The Book of Swords'' anthology. The audiobook edition was narrated by Ralph Lister, who previously collaborated with Martin and Dozois as narrator for their 2012 anthology ''Down These Strange Streets''. ==References==

'''''Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming''''' is a new videogame published in 2019, based on the ''Game of Thrones'' television series and the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' books. On 26 March 2019, Chinese studio Yoozoo Games announced the global launch of ''Game of Thrones Winter is Coming'', a real-time strategy browser game officially licensed by Warner Bros, under license from HBO. The player takes the part of the king of one of the seven kingdoms of Westeros, and he has to try to conquer the other six kingdoms, or to unify them by stopping wars which are current between them. YouTube advertisements for this game seem to say that game activity includes not only fighting and war, but also increasing food production (cultivating land, herding sheep, fishing, picking fruit), mining metal ore, having weapons made, felling timber and making buildings, and training men. In the game, a dragon can be obtained, as an egg, which can be hatched, and the hatchling can be raised through its juvenile stage to being big enough to be useful in battle. The game starts after Eddard Stark dies. It takes some days to play it to completion. ==References== ==External links== * Game of Thrones Winter is Coming Official Website *https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-official-game-of-thrones-browser-game-wont-fill-that-dragon-shaped-hole-in-your-life/ :: critical review by PCGamer * description by Gamewarrior * description by bluemoongame * on Facebook

'''Ellaria Sand''' is a fictional character in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of high fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin and its television adaptation, ''Game of Thrones''. Ellaria first appears in ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000), and while she is only mentioned in ''A Feast for Crows'' (2005), she returns in ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011). She is the paramour to Oberyn Martell and mother to several of his bastard daughters, the Sand Snakes. After the death of her lover in a duel at the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane, she is sent into deep mourning, although her subsequent characterization differs between the novels and the television adaptation. In the novels, she sues for peace, seeking an end to the cycle of revenge. In the television adaptation, however, she is portrayed as ruthless and vengeful, willing to do anything to destroy House Lannister, even if it means killing Oberyn's own family in the process. The character is portrayed by Indira Varma in the HBO television adaptation. ==Character description== Ellaria Sand is a bastard from Dorne but is not discriminated against for this, as Dorne's views and customs towards children born out of wedlock differ from those of the rest of Westeros, where bastards are often discriminated against. She is the paramour of Oberyn Martell, as even in Dorne a Prince cannot marry a bastard. She is the mother of the youngest four Sand Snakes (Oberyn's bastard daughters). Like Oberyn, she is bisexual. In the novels, Ellaria Sand is mostly a background character. She is not a point of view character; rather, her actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of other people, such as Tyrion Lannister, Arianne Martell, and Areo Hotah. ==Storylines== Coat of arms of House Martell ====''A Storm of Swords''==== Ellaria comes with Oberyn to King's Landing, as part of Tyrion Lannister's efforts to win them to the Iron Throne. Oberyn, however, clearly wants revenge for his sister's death, apparently committed on the orders of Tywin Lannister, during King Robert's rebellion. Oberyn wants Ellaria to sit with him at Joffrey Baratheon's wedding, causing trouble when Olenna Tyrell calls her "the serpent's whore". Later, when Tyrion is condemned for poisoning Joffrey Baratheon, Oberyn acts as his champion in a Trial by Combat against Ser Gregor Clegane, who had raped and murdered Oberyn's sister, Elia Martell, during the Sack of King's Landing. Oberyn wounds Gregor with a poisoned spear but is killed by Gregor. Afterwards, Ellaria returns to Dorne. ====''A Dance with Dragons''==== Gregor Clegane apparently dies of the poison after spending days in agony (Oberyn having treated the poison to work slowly). His skull is sent to Dorne, where Oberyn's brother, Doran Martell, the ruling Prince of Dorne, sees it. Despite Gregor and Tywin's deaths, Oberyn's bastard daughters want revenge. Ellaria argues against revenge, saying all those they want revenge against are dead and the Lannisters they are now targeting took no part in their kin's deaths. She reminds them Oberyn died trying to avenge his sister's death and worries they too will die, if they seek vengeance. Doran sends her back to her father, Lord Harmen Uller of Hellholt with her youngest daughter Loreza Sand. ==TV adaptation== English actress Indira Varma portrays Ellaria Sand. Ellaria Sand is played by the British actress Indira Varma in the television adaption of the series of books. She won the Empire Hero Award along with the rest of the cast in 2015. She was also nominated, along with the rest of the cast for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2016. ====Season 4==== Ellaria Sand's storyline in this season is very similar to her storyline in ''A Storm of Swords''. ====Season 5==== Ellaria tries to persuade Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne, to avenge his brother's death. However, Doran refuses, as Oberyn's death was via trial by combat, and therefore by Westerosi law, Gregor Clegane did not murder Oberyn. Ellaria soon learns that Jaime Lannister is sailing for Dorne, planning to rescue his daughter Myrcella, betrothed to Doran's son, Trystane. When Jaime arrives at the Water Gardens, the Sand Snakes attack him and Bronn, but the skirmish ends with all arrested by Martell guards. Doran and Jaime reach a deal, Trystane will marry Myrcella, but the two will live in King's Landing and Trystane will be granted a seat on the Small Council. Ellaria is threatened with death by Doran if she ever defies him and she feigns allegiance to him. She kisses Myrcella goodbye at the docks, secretly wearing lipstick coated with a slow-acting poison, which kills Myrcella on the ship headed for King's Landing. ====Season 6==== After Doran Martell realises that Myrcella has been murdered, Ellaria stabs Doran, while in King's Landing, Obara and Nymeria, who had snuck onto the ship headed to King's Landing, kill Trystane. This makes Ellaria the de facto ruler of Dorne. A while later, Ellaria meets Olenna Tyrell, whose son and grandchildren have been killed by Cersei, the present Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Ellaria then reveals her allegiance to Daenerys Targaryen. Later, Martell and Tyrell ships can be seen in Daenerys' fleet heading for Westeros. ====Season 7==== Ellaria and the Sand Snakes arrive in Dragonstone to discuss the conquest of Westeros with Daenrys. Yara and Theon Greyjoy return Ellaria and the Sand Snakes to Dorne so they can gather their army. En route, Euron Greyjoy attacks them and burns Yara's fleet. He kills Obara and Nymeria and captures Yara, and takes Ellaria and Tyene to Cersei, as a gift. In the dungeons Cersei recalls the death of Oberyn Martell and explains how much she loved Myrcella. Then she kisses Tyene using the same poison that Ellaria used to murder Myrcella. She tells Ellaria that she will be watching Tyene die and after Tyene's death, she will be kept alive to watch as her daughter's body rots away. ===Family tree=== ==References==

'''Margaery Tyrell''' is a fictional character in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of high fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation ''Game of Thrones''. Margaery is first mentioned in ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996) and first appears in ''A Clash of Kings'' (1998). She is a member of the House Tyrell, the second wealthiest and largest of the eight Great Houses in Westeros. She is twin sister to Loras Tyrell and the granddaughter of Olenna Tyrell. She subsequently appeared in ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000), ''A Feast for Crows'' (2005), and ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011). Like her grandmother, she is shrewd, ambitious and adaptable, and uses her beauty, generosity and family influence to secure power for herself. Having wed herself to three different kings over the course of the narrative, she is one of the most influential political figures in Westeros, which often brings her into conflict with her chief rival at court, Cersei Lannister. Margaery is portrayed by English actress Natalie Dormer in the HBO television adaptation, a role for which she has received critical acclaim. Margaery is one of the most popular supporting characters in both the books and television show, and is often cited as a prominent example of the story's strong feminist themes. ==Character description== Margaery is the only daughter of Alerie Hightower and Mace Tyrell, the Lord of Highgarden in the Reach. Her older brothers are the heir Willas, Garlan and Loras the Knight of Flowers, who is a member of the Kingsguard. One of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Westeros, House Tyrell is actually guided by the willful Lady Olenna, Mace's mother, who has arranged Margaery's marriages and mentors her in politics and court intrigue. Margaery Tyrell is not a point of view character in the novels, so her actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of Sansa Stark and Cersei Lannister. ==Storylines== Coat of arms of House Tyrell Margaery appears in ''A Clash of Kings'' (1998), having married Renly Baratheon and supporting his claim to the Iron Throne. After Renly's assassination, the Tyrells switch allegiance and Margaery is instead offered to wed King Joffrey Baratheon. In ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000), she becomes popular among the citizens of King's Landing through her various charitable activities. Margaery forms an amiable relationship with the King's ex-fiancee Sansa Stark and through Sansa she learns much about Joffrey's true nature. Margaery weds Joffrey, but he is poisoned at their wedding feast. In ''A Feast for Crows'' (2005) Margaery marries Joffrey's younger brother, Tommen, and encourages him to assert himself as king. Margaery's growing influence over Tommen puts her in a bitter power struggle with his mother Cersei Lannister, which eventually culminates in Cersei framing Margaery for adultery. In ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011), Margaery is released from prison and placed under house arrest, where she awaits trial. ==TV adaptation== In HBO's ''Game of Thrones'', Margaery's backstory and plotline in the early seasons remain largely unchanged from the novels, though the character is more prominent in the series and this version of Margaery is an adult as opposed to a teenager. Margaery first appears in the second season, following her marriage to Renly; she is well aware that her marriage is a political one, and displays pragmatism regarding Renly's homosexuality and his relationship with her brother Loras. ===Season 2=== Margaery, newly married to Renly, reveals that she is aware of his romantic relationship with her brother and is willing to work around his desires to secure their alliance and her position. Following Renly's assassination, Margaery indicates to Petyr Baelish that she is aware that her brother-in-law, Stannis Baratheon, is more likely to be behind the assassination than Brienne of Tarth, the official suspect. She also makes it clear that her ambition is to be the Queen of Westeros, and that she will not settle for anything less. ===Season 3=== Margaery has relocated to King's Landing and taken up residence in the Red Keep. She swiftly proves that she is one of the few people capable of managing Joffrey, which pleases his grandfather, Tywin Lannister, but makes her an enemy in Cersei. The series also expands on Margaery's friendship with Sansa Stark, though her motives are unclear and Margaery swiftly replaces Sansa as Joffrey's fiancee. Through several shrewd PR moves towards the city's poor and orphaned, Margaery becomes extremely popular with the common people as their future Queen. ===Season 4=== Margaery Tyrell has been married to Joffrey Baratheon, but she is widowed hours later when he is poisoned at the wedding feast. Soon after, Olenna reveals herself as masterminding the poisoning, but Margaery, now aware that Tyrion Lannister's trial is a farce, keeps quiet. Arrangements are made to wed Margaery to Joffrey's younger brother Tommen, to whom Margaery swiftly ingratiates herself. Cersei and Margaery continue their bitter rivalry; Cersei resents being displaced as Queen and being forced to marry her very young child to the much older Margaery, while Margaery tries to outmaneuver her. ===Season 5=== Margaery and Tommen wed, and she finally becomes the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She taunts Cersei over her triumph, and exhorts Tommen to send Cersei away from the capital. Cersei, in a shortsighted attempt to get rid of her rival, consents for the Faith of the Seven to once again bear arms. Cersei intends for the zealously fervent religious order to seize and condemn Loras for his homosexual behavior, thus tricking Margaery into perjuring herself by denying knowledge of his proclivities. Margaery finds herself arrested and awaiting trial, although Cersei is arrested as well for her unrelated charges, ie. her incestuous behaviors. ===Season 6=== After a period of captivity, Margaery is permitted to visit Loras in his cell. She discovers that he is beginning to break under the Faith's questioning, and that the meeting is a ploy to break her too. Jaime Lannister leads the Tyrell army on the Sept of Baelor to secure Margaery's release, but it is revealed that she has been absolved, by convincing Tommen to forge an alliance between the Faith and the Crown. To placate Cersei, Margaery surreptitiously convinces Olenna to return to Highgarden, subtly indicating that she is still loyal to House Tyrell. Margaery persuades the High Sparrow, the leader of the Faith, to release Loras if he surrenders his claim as heir of House Tyrell and joins the Faith. However, when Cersei fails to arrive for her trial Margaery deduces Cersei is plotting something. Panicking, she desperately tries to convince the High Sparrow to evacuate the Sept of Baelor, but the High Sparrow refuses and has the Faith Militant bar the exits. Moments later, wildfire set beneath the Sept by Qyburn, on Cersei's orders explodes. Margaery is killed, along with hundreds of others present. Her death, and those of her brother and father, lead Olenna to accept a proposal by the Sand Snakes (who currently lead the Reach's ancient rival, Dorne) in supporting Daenerys Targaryen's invasion of Westeros. ==Family tree of House Tyrell== ==Reception== ===''A Song of Ice and Fire''=== Adam Whitehead of the wertzone feels Margaery's rivalry with Cersei Lannister is a major driving force in ''A Feast for Crows''. Hahn Nguyen of wickedlocal.com feels that Margaery is a background character whose cunning is only addressed subtly. She states that; "In the books, I felt Margaery was just pushed to the background. A pawn," and "Margaery's cunning was hinted at in the books, especially in her lunch with Lady Olenna and Sansa." In a similar vein, Sean T. Collins writing for ''Rolling Stone'' feels that author Martin has been vague about Margaery's ambition and political cunning and describes her as a; "mute mystery whose motives and level of involvement in the game of thrones are unknown by ''A Clash of Kings''" However other writers feel Margaery's political ambition is more obvious. Madeline of Feministing writes; "Margaery is an ambitious politico as well as being a damn good actress – she plays the part of the tragic, virginal twice-widow so well that almost no one suspects that she is dead set on winning the throne. Despite frequently being used as a bartering chip, Margaery uses her womanhood to her advantage, knowing that producing an heir will shoot her to power." Similarly, Danica Liu writing for ''The Duke Chronicle'' describes Margaery as "subtle and graceful" and like most of the women in ''A Song of Ice and Fire,'' deals in the currencies of power. ===''Game of Thrones''=== Natalie Dormer plays the role of Margaery Tyrell in the television series. David Sims writing for ''The A.V. Club'' enjoyed the introduction of Margaery's character in "What Is Dead May Never Die" commenting; "the fun twist to this plot is that Margaery Tyrell is obviously not the blushing maiden she appears to be, but an operator just like everyone else," and "Margaery could just be a cypher, a mostly silent cog in Renly's plans for dominance, but instead she's going to be a lot more." He uses her character to praise the writing of ''Game of Thrones'', stating that it; "rarely traffics in cliched characterization." Jenna Busch of Zap2it calls Margaery a "power player" who will "do anything to stay on the throne." Writer and editor Silvia Moreno Garcia describes Margaery as "a sleeker, more determined player of this game of thrones" when compared to her book characterization and goes on to comment that she is a "shrewd politician," who might give the other good players a run for their money." She also believes she is "older and worldlier than the one in the books." In "Valar Dohaeris", Diana Huang of UC Riverside's ''Highlander News'' appreciated the development of Margaery's character and called her "self aware and quick-witted" and believes she has the power to wreak havoc in King's Landing. Many commentators notice Margaery's desire and ability to gain the support of the public. Rhiannon of feministfiction writes: "this Margaery is ambitious but kind, clearly sweet and generous, but also a master at working people's emotions in her favor. Graceful, elegant, and aware of how powerful every word can be. She's an expert at the game that Sansa has only just begun, and it is stunning to see her." Tiffany Brown, writing for ''TV After Dark'', states "Margaery has gained the favor and love of the people of King's Landing, and has even garnered the affections of her future king." Natalie Dormer, the actress who plays Margaery, when interviewed by HitFix discussed Margaery's political savviness: Margaery brings this whole new element to the Game that you haven't seen before, which is basically PR. It's quite a modern ethos on PR and courting public affections, hopefully. We've all seen politicians kiss babies. It doesn't mean that she's insincere in her genuine hope to do charitable work and it's just an interesting new comment on how you handle the masses and how you win power that maybe we haven't seen in Westeros before. She also noted that Margaery comes from a matriarchal family and "that she's more cut from the cloth as a protegee of her grandmother, so she knows what it's like for a woman to be in charge." For her performance in the show, Natalie Dormer, along with the rest of the ensemble cast, was nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, and the cast was awarded the Empire Hero Award in 2015 by the British film magazine ''Empire''. For her performance in the third season of the show, Dormer won the Ewwy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Drama. ==References==