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==Editions== '''Foreign language editions''' * Bulgarian: Бард: "Вихър от Мечове" * Catalan: Alfaguara: "Tempesta d'espases" "Storm of swords" * Chinese: 重庆出版社(2007): "冰雨的风暴" ("Storm of Freezing Rain"). * Czech: Talpress: "Bouře mečů" ("Storm of Swords") * Danish: Gyldendal: "En Storm af Sværd" ("A Storm of Swords") * Dutch: Luitingh-Sijthoff: "Een storm van zwaarden" ("A Storm of Swords") * Estonian: Two volumes, hardcover, Varrak (2010, 2011): "Mõõkade maru. Teras ja lumi" (A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow"), "Mõõkade maru. Veri ja kuld" ("A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold") * Finnish: Kirjava: "Miekkamyrsky" ("Swordstorm") * French: Four volumes (Hardcover: Pygmalion (2001, 2002, 2003); paperback: J'ai Lu (2003, 2004)): "Les brigands" (hardcover) / "Intrigues à Port-Réal" (paperback), "L'épée de feu", "Les noces pourpres", "La loi du régicide" ("The Outlaws/Intrigues in King's Landing", "The Sword of Fire", "The Crimson Wedding", "The Law of the Kingslayer".) * German: Single volume, Fantasy Productions (2005): "Schwertgewitter" ("Sword Storm"). Two volumes, Blanvalet (2001, 2002): "Sturm der Schwerter", "Die Königin der Drachen" ("Storm of Swords", "The Queen of Dragons"). * Greek: Two volumes, Anubis: "Παγωμένες Λεπίδες", "Ματωμένο Χρυσάφι" ("Frozen Blades","Bloody Gold") * Hebrew: "סופת החרבות חלק א - פלדה ושלג, סופת החרבות חלק ב - דם וזהב" ("Storm of swords - Steel and snow","Storm of swords - blood and gold") * Hungarian: Alexandra Könyvkiadó: "Kardok vihara” ("Storm of Swords") * Indonesian: Fantasious: "Amukan Baja” ("Steel's Fury") * Italian: Three volumes, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (2002, 2003, 2004): "Tempesta di spade", "I fiumi della guerra", "Il Portale delle Tenebre" ("A Storm of Swords", "The Rivers of War", "The Gate of Darkness"). * Japanese: Three volumes, hardcover : Hayakawa (2006-7), paperback : Hayakawa (2012): "剣嵐の大地" ("The Land of the Sword Storm") I, II and III * Korean: Eun Haeng Namu Publishing Co. : "성검의 폭풍” ("Storm of Holy Swords") * Lithuanian: Alma Littera "Kardų audra" ("A Storm of Swords"). * Norwegian: Two volumes, Vendetta (2013): "Stål og snø: en sang om is og ild, bok 3, del 1", "Blod og Gull: en sang om is og ild, bok 3, del 2" ("Steel and Snow: A Song of Ice and Fire, book 3, part 1, Blood and Gold: A Song of Ice and Fire, book 3, part 2)" * Polish: Two volumes, Zysk i S-ka: "Nawałnica mieczy:Stal i Śnieg (I)", "Nawałnica mieczy: Krew i Złoto(II)" (A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow", "A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold") * Brazilian Portuguese: Leya: "A Tormenta de Espadas" ("The Storm of Swords") * European Portuguese: Two Volumes, Saída de Emergência: "A Tormenta de Espadas" ("A Storm of Swords"), "A Glória dos Traidores" ("The Betrayer's Glory") * Romanian: Nemira: "Iureșul săbiilor" * Russian: AST: "Буря мечей" ("Storm of Swords"). * Serbian: Two volumes, Лагуна: "Олуја мачева Део први: Челик и снег"(A Storm of Swords First part: "Steel and snow"), "Олуја мачева Део други: Крв и Злато" (A Storm of Swords Second part: "Blood and Gold" ) * Slovenian: Vihra mečev ("A Storm of Swords") * Spanish: Two volumes, Gilgamesh (2005): "Tormenta de espadas I", "Tormenta de espadas II" ("Storm of Swords I", "Storm of Swords II"). * Swedish: Forum: "Svärdets makt" ("The Might of the Sword") * Turkish: Two volumes, Epsilon Yayınevi: "Buz ve Ateşin Şarkısı III: Kılıçların Fırtınası - Kısım I & Kılıçların Fırtınası - Kısım II" ("A Storm of Swords") * Ukrainian: KM Publishing (2015): "Буря мечів" ("A Storm of Swords") * Vietnamese: Three Volumes: "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 3A: Sự trở lại của Ngoại nhân", "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 3B: Nước mắt Sói Tuyết", "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 3C: Tử Hôn". ("Game of Thrones 3A: Return of the Others", "Game of Thrones 3B: Tears of Direwolf", "Game of Thrones 3C: Purple Wedding")

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==Reception== ''Publishers Weekly'' said the third volume was "one of the more rewarding examples of gigantism in contemporary fantasy. ... The complexity of characters such as Daenerys, Arya and the Kingslayer will keep readers turning even the vast number of pages contained in this volume, for the author, like Tolkien or Jordan, makes us care about their fates. Those two fantasy greats are also evoked by Martin's ability to convey such sensual experiences as the heat of wildfire, the chill of ice, the smell of the sea and the sheer gargantuan indigestibility of the medieval banquet at its most excessive. Perhaps this saga doesn't go as far beyond the previous bounds of high fantasy as some claim, but for most readers it certainly goes far enough to command their attention." Martin was nominated for the 2001 Hugo Award for Best Novel, but lost to J. K. Rowling for ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire''. Afterwards he made this comment about his fans: "Eat your heart out, Rowling. Maybe you have billions of dollars and my Hugo, but you don't have readers like ''these''."

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==Awards and nominations== * Hugo Award – Best Novel (Nominated) – (2001) * Locus Award – Best Novel (Fantasy) (Won) – (2001) * Nebula Award – Best Novel (Nominated) – (2001) * Geffen Award – Best Fantasy Book (Won) – (2002) * Ignotus Award – Best Novel (Foreign) (Won) – (2006)

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==External links== * A Wiki Of Ice And Fire Wiki dedicated to ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' * '' A Storm of Swords'' at Worlds Without End

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"'''Mother's Mercy'''" is the fifth season finale episode of HBO's fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'', and the 50th overall. The tenth and final episode of the fifth season, the episode was written by the series creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and directed by David Nutter. "Mother's Mercy" garnered critical acclaim, with critics lauding Lena Headey's performance, David Nutter's direction and the writing of Benioff and Weiss. Particular praise was directed to Cersei Lannister's walk of atonement, which involved a body double and the use of CGI. In the United States, the episode premiere achieved a viewership of 8.11 million, making it the show's most watched episode, until it was surpassed by the season six finale, "The Winds of Winter". The episode won Emmy Awards for Writing in a Drama Series and Directing in a Drama Series for Benioff, Weiss, and Nutter. This episode marks the final appearance for Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon), Tara Fitzgerald (Selyse Baratheon), and Ian Beattie (Ser Meryn Trant).

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===In the North=== The weather conditions at Stannis' camp drastically improve, clearing the route towards Winterfell. Melisandre takes credit, claiming that the Lord of Light is rewarding Stannis for sacrificing Shireen. However, Stannis' officers inform him that Shireen's sacrifice has also prompted a mass desertion of his troops, leaving him with only half his army and no cavalry, and driven Selyse to hang herself. Melisandre immediately flees to Castle Black. Despite all of these setbacks, Stannis orders his remaining troops to march forward towards Winterfell. As Stannis' army marches through the Wolfswood, Podrick sees them and warns Brienne, who leaves to take revenge on Stannis. As Stannis prepares to besiege the castle, the Bolton cavalry, led by Ramsay, suddenly emerges. It becomes clear they greatly outnumber Stannis's army; nonetheless, Stannis leads his men into battle. After a quick yet fierce battle, the Boltons emerge as the victors. Stannis survives the destruction of his army, but is severely wounded after fighting several Bolton soldiers. Brienne then arrives and announces her intentions to execute Stannis for the murder of Renly ("The Ghost of Harrenhal"). Stannis accepts his fate, and Brienne executes him. Meanwhile, in Winterfell, Sansa escapes her room using the corkscrew she stole and lights a candle in the ruined tower to signal for help, but Brienne has already left. After witnessing the defeat of the Baratheon army, she tries to return to her room but is confronted by Myranda, who threatens to mutilate Sansa. Theon finally finds his inner strength and throws Myranda from the castle ramparts to her death, just as the victorious Bolton army returns to Winterfell. Theon and Sansa realize they have to escape at once, and jump from the castle walls into the deep snow below.

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===In Dorne=== Jaime, Myrcella, Bronn and Trystane leave for King's Landing. On the ship, Myrcella reveals that she knows Jaime is her real father and that she is glad that he is her father. However, Myrcella suddenly collapses, and it is revealed that Ellaria had secretly poisoned Myrcella by kissing her with poisoned lipstick.

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===In Braavos=== Arya infiltrates the brothel patronized by Trant by taking one of the faces from the House of Black and White. She stabs Trant multiple times, revealing her true identity and confronting him for the murder of Syrio Forel before cutting his throat. When she returns to the House of Black and White, she is confronted by Jaqen and the Waif. Jaqen berates Arya for taking a life not meant for her to take, and that another life must be taken in order to appease the Many Faced God. Jaqen then proceeds to drink from a vial and collapses, much to Arya's shock. However, the Waif changes her face to that of Jaqen and points out to Arya that "Jaqen" never existed, and that she had been talking to "No One" the entire time. The Waif also warns Arya that putting on a new face if one is not "No One" is like poison. Because of this, Arya is struck blind as punishment.

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===In Meereen=== Daario and Jorah decide to leave Meereen to search for Daenerys. Tyrion wishes to join them, but Daario points out that he is better suited to govern Meereen in Daenerys' absence, assisted by Missandei and the still-recovering Grey Worm. As Tyrion watches Jorah and Daario leave and ponders his next move, Varys suddenly appears. Varys compares Meereen's current state to that of King's Landing when it was threatened by Stannis, and offers use of his spy network to aid Tyrion.

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===In the Dothraki Sea=== Drogon brings Daenerys back to his lair. Daenerys orders Drogon to take her back to Meereen, but Drogon, still exhausted and wounded, ignores her and goes to sleep. Daenerys wanders off on her own in search of food, eventually spotting a Dothraki horde advancing in the distance. Daenerys drops a ring to the ground before being surrounded.

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===In King's Landing=== Cersei confesses to committing adultery with Lancel to the High Sparrow, but denies having slept with Jaime or conspiring to have Robert Baratheon killed. The High Sparrow decides to grant the "Mother's Mercy" and let Cersei return to the Red Keep, but says she must return to face trial for the other sins she has not confessed to, and must undergo an "atonement". Cersei is stripped, her hair cut short, and she is forced to walk naked the entire way from the Great Sept of Baelor to the Red Keep. As she walks, she is relentlessly harassed, jeered and pelted with garbage by the angry populace, ultimately breaking down in tears when she finally returns to the Red Keep. She is covered up by Qyburn, who reveals to her the newest member of the Kingsguard, a re-animated Gregor "the Mountain" Clegane.

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===At the Wall=== Jon sends Samwell with Gilly and her baby to Oldtown to become a maester, acknowledging (and even somewhat endorsing) the romantic relationship blossoming between Samwell and Gilly. Davos arrives shortly after to ask for supplies and Wildling reinforcements, but Jon refuses, reminding Davos that the Wildlings will never fight for Stannis. Melisandre arrives soon after; her demeanour leads Jon and Davos to realize that Stannis has been defeated and that Shireen and Selyse are dead. At night, Olly tells Jon that a wildling had recently seen his uncle Benjen Stark, and takes him to speak to him. Led outside to the courtyard, he only finds Thorne, Bowen Marsh, Othell Yarwyck and several other men, along with a grave-marker that reads "Traitor". As Jon realizes that he has been betrayed, Thorne, Marsh, Yarwyck, Olly, and the others take turns stabbing Jon, each uttering "For the Watch". The men leave Jon as he dies alone in the snow.

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===Writing=== "Mother's Mercy" was written by the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It primarily covers elements from George Martin's novels ''A Feast for Crows'', chapters "Samwell I" and "Cat of the Canals" and ''A Dance with Dragons'', chapters "Jon II", "Theon I", "Daenerys X", "Cersei I", "Cersei II" and "Jon XIII". It also contains material from Martin's upcoming sixth novel in the series, ''The Winds of Winter'', chapter "Mercy".

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===Filming=== "Mother's Mercy" was directed by David Nutter, He also directed the previous episode, "The Dance of Dragons". It was photographed by Robert McLachlan and was edited by Tim Porter, one of the show's main editors, under the supervision of Nutter.

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===Cersei's walk of atonement=== Actress Lena Headey portrays Cersei Lannister in the series. For Cersei Lannister's nude "walk of atonement" through King's Landing, HBO employed actress Rebecca Van Cleave as a body double for Lena Headey. While filming the scene in Dubrovnik, Croatia in October 2014, Van Cleave performed fully nude while Headey wore a simple beige shift. Both performances were then merged by the show's editing team, combining close-ups of Headey's facial expressions and long shots of Van Cleave's nude walk through the city. In some instances CGI was used to put Headey's face on Van Cleave's body. Headey says that the showrunners decided to cast a body double for "several reasons." Headey says she was glad to use a body double for the scene because she wanted to focus on the character's emotions. Another actor noted that Headey's "extensive tattoos" may have been another reason. Months later, Headey announced that she was pregnant with her second child, though it is unclear if she was pregnant when this scene had to be filmed. Sarah Buchanan of ''Express'' notes the strangeness of casting a much younger actress to play the middle-aged Cersei when the key outcome of the walk of atonement in ''A Dance with Dragons'' is that when the people see that Cersei's body is not beautiful, she loses a large part of her mystique. The 27-year-old Van Cleave did not show any of the specific signs of aging or past pregnancy for which the Cersei of the books was mocked by the crowd. When casting for the role, HBO received applications from more than actresses to act as Headey's body double for the scene. A selection of seven finalists, including Van Cleave, was then flown to Belfast, Northern Ireland to audition before the show's producers. Headey also opted out of the casting process, but director David Nutter said finding the right double was one of the most important parts of making the finale. "We needed somebody who could do The Walk of Shame physically, somebody who could match Lena's integrity, intensity, and sensibility. We found a tremendous actress in Rebecca; she was a godsend. The courage of this girl, who's never done anything like this in her life, who understood what was important about this...once I had her I felt like I could accomplish anything." Van Cleave herself described the scene as "one of the scariest, most wonderful, most gratifying experiences I could have imagined ... I never in a million years would have thought I would be in Dubrovnik surrounded by hundreds of extras and crew members throwing food at me, but it was amazing" and "I hope the next thing I do will have my head in it." She also praised Headey's willingness to help her, describing the two of them as a "tag-team"; Headey would walk behind Van Cleave during the shoot, coaching her on the character's responses. When the showrunners first announced the plans of shooting a nude scene in Dubrovnik, the city's Catholic Church of St. Nicholas strongly opposed the idea, due to it being immoral to walk their sacred grounds in the nude. Eventually, both parties came to the agreement that the shooting could commence, provided no nude scenes would be filmed in a place of worship. During the three-day shoot, Headey walked Van Cleave through each shot, giving insight into all the emotions Cersei was feeling. The six-minute scene was filmed using 500 extras.

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===Fate of Jon Snow=== D.B. Weiss discussed the decision to kill Jon Snow by saying that he felt the visual medium did not give him the freedom to leave Jon's fate open: "In a book, you can present that kind of ambiguity. In a show, everybody sees it for what it is. It’s that rule: 'If we don't see the body then they’re not really dead.' Like when we cut Ned’s head off, we didn’t want a gory Monty Python geyser of blood, but we needed to see the blade enter his neck and cut out on the frame where the blade was mid-neck. ... we needed Ned's death to be totally unambiguous." Actor Kit Harington said of the scene, "I loved it. I loved how they brought Olly in to be the person who kills me. I love how the storyline with Thorne was wrapped up." Although Weiss meant the scene to be unambiguous, the episode left many viewers uncertain as to whether Jon Snow had been killed or merely injured (his fate in the novels is left unconfirmed as of ''A Dance with Dragons'', with much debate about Martin's future intentions). Some of the confusion may be because, as reviewers have noted, Jon was killed in what can be seen as the middle of his story arc and his death does not have an obvious narrative purpose. For example, Nate Jones of ''Vulture'' notes, "It's easy to see what other characters' deaths meant for the series' sprawling narrative: Ned's execution sent the Stark kids adrift in a universe where there was nobody looking out for them, while Robb's murder was the final death knell for the hopes that the saga would ever have a traditional 'happy' ending. What would be accomplished, narratively, by getting rid of Jon permanently right now?" Both before and after these announcements, viewers have speculated that Jon Snow might have survived his stabbing and there are many fan theories on how he might have accomplished this, including spiritually possessing his direwolf's body or being brought back to life by Melisandre. When jokingly asked during a panel if Kit Harington would ever get to play a warg (human who has possessed the body of an animal), Weiss replied with, "Two words for you: Season 6." In July 2015, photos of Kit Harington arriving in Belfast—where the series is primarily filmed and where other actors are arriving for the Season 6 script read-throughs—surfaced, fueling speculation of his survival. However, Joanna Robinson of ''Vanity Fair'' pointed out that Charles Dance was seen at Belfast the previous year, and his character Tywin Lannister only appeared in the first episode of the subsequent season and only as a corpse, although Dance himself confirmed the nature of his role shortly after the announcement. Another photo that showed Harington on set in Belfast in a costume that varied from the Night's Watch outfit was published on September 25, 2015.

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===Fates of other characters=== Various interviews with the producers, director and writers have indicated that it is a "safe bet" that Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy survive their fall, while Stannis and Myrcella Baratheon were definitively killed after being beheaded and poisoned, respectively.

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==Reception== D. B. Weiss and David Benioff received an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for this episode.

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===Ratings=== "Mother's Mercy" was seen by an estimated 8.1 million viewers on its first airing. This is higher than any previous episode, exceeding the 8 million for "The Wars to Come." With Live+7 DVR viewing factored in, the episode had an overall rating of 10.43 million viewers, and a 5.4 in the 18-49 demographic, which was a series high in both viewership and 18-49 rating. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 2.437 million viewers, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week. It also received 0.121 million timeshift viewers.

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===Critical reception=== "Mother's Mercy" received critical acclaim. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes assembled 31 reviews and gave "Mother's Mercy" a 97% score and an average rating of 9.1 out of 10. The site's consensus reads that the episode "wraps up a particularly dark ''Game of Thrones'' season with a finale that delivers strong character work and a handful of appropriately bleak cliffhangers." In his 9.0/10 review, Matt Fowler of IGN praised Jon Snow's death and Cersei's atonement, as well as Arya's and Dorne's storylines, but felt Sansa's storyline was too hurried. Sean T. Collins of ''Rolling Stone'' was positive too, writing, "Slaughter and shame made this the show’s most upsetting season-ender yet."

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===Accolades=== Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series Kevin Alexander, Candice Banks, Rosalia Culora, Gary Machin, Laura Pollock, Nicola Mount Outstanding Make-up for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) Jane Walker and Nicola Matthews Directors Guild of America Award Outstanding Animated Performance in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project Florian Friedmann, Jonathan Symmonds, Sven Skoczylas, Sebastian Lauer' for "Mother's Mercy" - Wounded Drogon Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Episode Travis Nobles, Mark Spindler, Max Riess, Nadja Ding for "Drogon Lair" Writers Guild of America Awards

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"'''Fire and Blood'''" is the tenth and final episode of the first season of the HBO medieval fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones''. First aired on June 19, 2011, it was written by the show's creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Alan Taylor. The title of the episode is the motto of House Targaryen, and alludes to the aftermath of the previous episode's climactic events. The episode's action revolves around the Starks' reactions to Eddard Stark's execution: Sansa is taken hostage, Arya flees in disguise, Robb and Catelyn lead an army against the Lannisters, and Jon Snow struggles with his divided loyalty. Across the narrow sea, Daenerys must deal with the blood magic that has robbed her of her husband, her son, and her army. The episode was well received by critics, who singled out the closing scene as a particularly strong way to end the first season. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 3.04 million in its initial broadcast. This episode was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series.

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===At Winterfell=== Maester Luwin informs Bran and Rickon of Ned's execution.

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===In the Riverlands=== At the Stark army camp, Robb vows revenge on the Lannisters after Ned's death, but Catelyn says they must first rescue Arya and Sansa. The Starks followers now support Northern independence, proclaiming Robb the "King in the North", rather than support Stannis or Renly Baratheon, who have both claimed the Iron Throne. Jaime tells Catelyn he pushed Bran out of the tower window, but does not explain why. At the Lannister army camp, Tywin, unable to sue for peace with the Starks after Ned's execution, orders Tyrion to go to King's Landing in his stead as "Hand of the King" to keep Joffrey under control. Against his father's orders, Tyrion brings Shae with him.

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===In King's Landing=== Joffrey forces Sansa to look at Ned and his household staff's severed heads on spikes. When Sansa says she wishes to see Joffrey's head mounted there after Joffrey says Robb's head will be, Joffrey has Ser Meryn slap her. The Hound advises Sansa to obey Joffrey for her own safety. Arya, rescued by Night's Watch recruiter Yoren, escapes with him under the alias of "Arry", a boy, to the Wall with his new recruits, including Lommy, Hot Pie, and Gendry, the late Robert's unknowing bastard son.

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===At the Wall=== Jon attempts to desert the Night's Watch to join Robb and avenge Ned, but Sam, Pyp, and Grenn convince him to return. The next morning, Jeor, despite knowing Jon attempted to desert, orders him to join him in an expedition beyond the Wall, intended to counter the threats of the wildlings and the White Walkers, and to find Benjen Stark.

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===In Lhazar=== Daenerys learns that her unborn son died due to Mirri's spell. Furthermore, although Drogo's life was saved, he has fallen into a catatonic state, causing most of his followers to abandon him. Mirri reveals that she caused this to avenge the destruction of her village and her people. Daenerys mercy kills Drogo. Daenerys has Mirri tied to Drogo's funeral pyre, with her dragons eggs placed on top. Daenerys declares herself queen of a new khalasar and steps into the lit pyre. By daybreak, Jorah and her remaining loyalists find her unharmed in the ashes, carrying three dragon hatchlings, the first born in decades. Amazed, they bow to Daenerys.

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===Writing=== The episode was written by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Like the rest of the first season, it adapts the plot of ''A Game of Thrones,'' the first novel in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series by George R. R. Martin. The episode covers the novel's chapters 66 to 73, that is, Arya V, Bran VII, Sansa VI, Daenerys IX, Tyrion IX, Jon IX, Catelyn XI, and Daenerys X. It also covers part of the second novel, ''A Clash of Kings'': Arya I (chapter 2) and part of Catelyn VII (chapter 55). Scenes added for the adaptation include Catelyn and Robb receiving news of Eddard's death, the revelation of Cersei and Lancel Lannister's relationship, as well as interactions between Grand Maester Pycelle, the prostitute Ros, Varys, and Littlefinger.

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===Filming=== The dragons featured in the episode's finale were implemented by BlueBolt, the lead VFX agency for the first season. VFX supervisor Angela Barson confirmed that the CGI dragons were among the most stressful effects, prompting sleepless nights. Commenting on the episode's climactic scene where the hatchling dragons are revealed, actress Emilia Clarke told VH1, "You see the relationship that Dany has with her eggs, and you see that grow and grow and grow and kind of the intuitive connection she has with them, you see that develop really beautifully". Clarke also hinted that she expected to "get to play with some more dragons!" in the second season, based on her conversations with book author and executive producer George R.R. Martin. "VFX Data Wrangler" Naill McEvoy later confirmed that dragon presence would be increasing in season two. In the scene where Joffrey forces Sansa to view the heads of Ned and his entourage on spikes, one of the prosthetic heads briefly seen in profile is that of former U.S. president George W. Bush. In their commentary on the DVD release of season 1, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explained that this was not meant as a political statement, but rather because the production used the prosthetic heads that happened to be at hand. Following media reports in June 2012, HBO apologized for this shot, which their statement described as "unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste". The statement also said that the shot would be edited for any future home video production and TV broadcasts. HBO removed the episode from digital download services until the scene was edited. In the edited scene, the head bears no resemblance to Bush.

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===Airings and ratings=== "Fire and Blood" was first aired on HBO in the U.S. and Canada on June 19, 2011. The episode was the most watched episode of the season and was viewed by an estimated 3.041 million viewers and received a 1.4 share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 1.4% of all 18- to 49-year-olds at the time of the broadcast. With repeats, the episode brought in 3.9 million total viewers. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 1.314 million viewers, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week.

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===Critical response=== "Fire and Blood" received positive reviews, and much critical acclaim for the closing scene. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 32 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, ""Fire and Blood" creatively provides closure after a shocking penultimate episode while strategically setting up arcs for season two." Matt Fowler of IGN wrote that " 'Fire and Blood' wasn't exactly a powerful roar of an episode, but that book fans would definitely appreciate the small parts of the second book, ''A Clash of Kings'', that got included to help set up season two next year". He rated the episode 8.5 out of 10. Emily VanDerWerff of ''The A.V. Club'' gave it an "A-", commenting: David Sims, also writing for ''The A.V. Club'', called it a fitting end to the season, "leaving absolutely everyone salivating for season two". Writing for the ''Star-Ledger'', Jenifer Braun praised the episode for its set dressing ("I have to say, it's a pleasure just to look at all the shiny stuff the HBO set dressers came up with for Tywin Lannister's tent") and the authenticity of the baby dragons ("And wow, HBO, seamless special effects here. Baby Dragon looks every bit as real as the series' dogs"). HitFix said it "Wrapped up its terrific first season...it was damned entertaining along the way--with the finale as possibly the most entertaining so far--and we know that at least one more season is coming. And if the creative team can keep up this level of quality, it's hard to imagine HBO shutting things down anytime soon, even with a budget that only figures to get higher. Dragons aren't cheap, but they're also amazing".

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==== Awards and nominations ==== Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Special Visual Effects Rafael Morant, Adam McInnes, Graham Hills, Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, Stuart Brisdon, Damien Macé, Henry Badgett, and Angela Barson

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===George W. Bush controversy and removal=== The use of an effigy of George W. Bush's head on a spike caused HBO to issue an apology and to edit the scene. The episode contains a scene in which Joffrey forces Sansa to look at her father and family household staff beheaded on spikes. After a scene of the disfigured heads is shot, one decapitated head resembled former president of the United States of America George W. Bush. HBO quickly began removing and editing the scene as it sparked political outrage on social media. The beheaded prop was edited to resemble an ordinary head prop. A small amount of politicians began calling for a boycott of the series, describing the scene as 'despicable'. Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss both apologized for the filming of the prop, stating:

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'''Gilly''' is a fictional character in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation ''Game of Thrones''. Introduced in 1998's ''A Clash of Kings'', she is a wildling from the wild lands north of the Wall who is befriended by Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow. She subsequently appeared in Martin's ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000), ''A Feast for Crows'' (2005), ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011), and will appear in the upcoming novel ''The Winds of Winter''. Gilly is portrayed by Hannah Murray in the HBO television adaptation.

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==Character description== Gilly is a wildling girl, daughter and wife of Craster. She is in her late teens, has brown eyes and is estimated to be around 15 or 16 years old when she first appears in the novel. Gilly is not a point of view character in the novels, so her actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of other people, such as Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow.

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==Storylines== On Jeor Mormont's ranging, the Night's Watch stops at Craster's Keep, where Gilly encounters and befriends Samwell Tarly. After the Night's Watch regroups at Craster's Keep, Gilly gives birth to a son. Craster is killed before he can sacrifice the child, and in the confusion Gilly flees south with Samwell. In ''A Feast for Crows'', she is sent South aboard a ship to Oldtown with Samwell, ostensibly with her child; in truth Jon Snow swapped her child with that of Mance Rayder, to spare the innocent child from Melisandre's flames on account of his king's blood.

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==TV adaptation== Hannah Murray plays the role of Gilly in the television series. Gilly is played by English actress Hannah Murray in the television adaption of the series of books. In an interview, Murray spoke about Gilly's relationship with Sam. Murray stated, "A big thing that connects them is having horrible fathers. We haven't seen Sam's father, but we know about that in a different way from Gilly, Sam was abused as well." She continued, "She knows that he loves her and she definitely loves him, but she's not someone who can process her emotions very well or has a sophisticated language for them. I've thought for a long time that they are like this little, unconventional family. He loves the baby as much as she does. John has said, 'Sam couldn't love it any more if it was his own.'" In another interview, Murray spoke about her fellow castmember John Bradley, who plays her lover Sam and also about other castmembers on the show, saying "I’m really good friends with John, and I also have friends who I was friends with before we started the show. I did Skins with Joe Dempsie. My friend Jacob Anderson plays Grey Worm — we used to live together. We shared a flat with another actor. I think we were still living together when Jacob got the part, and I was so happy he was going to join."

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====Season 2==== A young wildling girl who lives north of the Wall, Gilly is one of many daughters of Craster, a wildling who takes all his daughters as wives once they grow up into women. She has a son with her father Craster. Samwell falls for her and becomes protective of her.

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====Season 3==== After Craster is killed and Commander Mormont's rangers turn on each other, Samwell runs with Gilly and her son to Castle Black. Along their journey, Gilly becomes fascinated with Samwell over his knowledge and his bravery of defending her son from a White Walker. After the three of them manage to reach Castle Black, Maester Aemon allows Gilly and her son to stay with them. In gratitude for Samwell helping them, Gilly names her son after Sam.

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====Season 4==== Gilly settles in a nearby inn close to Castle Black, with Sam's assistance. The Inn is later attacked by wildlings, but Gilly hides with her son. They are found by Ygritte, who spares them. They make it back to Castle Black safely, where Sam hides them in the food storage, and kisses Gilly for the first time in case he dies. She is also visibly surprised when Janos Slynt hides in the food storage as well. Gilly remains unharmed throughout the battle, and reunites with Sam in the aftermath.

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====Season 5==== She expresses concern of being sent away or executed if Ser Alliser Thorne becomes the new Lord Commander. She is later present at Mance Rayder's execution. Gilly has begun to learn letters from Princess Shireen Baratheon, with Samwell watching over the two. Gilly also reveals to Shireen that she had sisters that also had Greyscale, but they were quarantined away from the other women at Craster's Keep and eventually succumbed to the disease. After Maester Aemon's death, during Jon's absence in Hardhome, she is almost sexually assaulted by two members of the Watch, but is saved by Sam and Ghost, after which she willingly makes love to him. She and her baby later leave Castle Black for Oldtown with Sam on Jon Snow's orders.

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====Season 6==== Along the way, they stop at Horn Hill, where Sam initially intends to leave Gilly and the baby with his family, but despite Randyll Tarly allowing them to stay, Sam decides to take them with him to the Citadel in Oldtown. In the sixth-season finale, they arrive.

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====Season 7==== While Sam is in the Citadel in Oldtown, trying to know more about how to defeat the White Walkers, she stays with him. While he is transcribing papers in his quarters, Gilly discovers that Rhaegar Targaryen (which she mispronounced as "Ragger") had his marriage to Elia Martell annulled and married another woman in secret, but Sam does not realize the significance of this information due to the mispronounciation. Later, because Gilly is tired of not being taken seriously, she and her baby leave Oldtown with Sam.

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====Season 8==== When Sam and Gilly arrive at Winterfell in the season finale, Sam reveals the information to Bran Stark, allowing the latter to piece together the truth that Jon Snow (the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna) is not a bastard, but a legitimate heir to the Iron Throne. Gilly works with Davos Seaworth to prepare Winterfell's women and children to shelter in the crypts during the battle against the Army of the Dead. Gilly survives the battle. When Gilly and Sam leave Winterfell, Gilly is pregnant.

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'''''A Feast for Crows''''' is the fourth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' by American author George R. R. Martin. The novel was first published on October 17, 2005, in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following on November 8, 2005. In May 2005, Martin announced that the "sheer size" of his still-unfinished manuscript for ''A Feast for Crows'' had led him and his publishers to split the narrative into two books. Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, Martin opted to instead split the material by character and location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters. ''A Feast for Crows'' was published months later, and the concurrent novel ''A Dance with Dragons'' was released on July 12, 2011. Martin also noted that the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series would now likely total seven novels. ''A Feast for Crows'' was the first novel in the series to debut at number one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, a feat among fantasy writers only previously achieved by Robert Jordan and Neil Gaiman. In 2006 the novel was nominated for the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the British Fantasy Society Award. It has since been adapted, along with ''A Dance With Dragons'', for television as the fifth season of ''Game of Thrones'', though elements of the novel appeared in the series' fourth and sixth seasons.

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== Plot summary == The War of the Five Kings is slowly coming to its end. The secessionist kings Robb Stark and Balon Greyjoy have been killed. One claimant to the throne, Stannis Baratheon, has gone to fight off invading wildling tribes at the northern Wall, where Robb's half-brother Jon Snow has become the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the order responsible for guarding the Wall. The eight-year-old King Tommen Baratheon now rules in King's Landing under the regency of his mother, Cersei Lannister. The warrior woman Brienne of Tarth has been sent by Cersei's brother (and lover) Jaime Lannister on a mission to find Robb's sister Sansa Stark. Sansa is hiding in the Vale, protected by her mother's childhood friend Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, who has murdered his wife Lysa Arryn and named himself Protector of the Vale and guardian of Lysa's son, the eight-year-old Lord Robert Arryn.

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==== Prologue in Oldtown ==== Pate, a young apprentice at the Citadel in Oldtown, is studying to become a maester, a member of an ancient order of scholar-healers. He has stolen an important key to a depository of books and records at the request of a stranger in exchange for a reward; after turning over the key and receiving the reward, he dies abruptly from poison.

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==== King's Landing ==== Following the death of Cersei's father Tywin, the late Hand of the King, Cersei's regency is marked by rampant cronyism, and her councils are staffed with incompetent loyalists and unreliable flatterers. She disregards advice from her uncle Kevan and her brother Jaime, alienating them both. Making matters worse is Cersei's increasing distrust of the powerful Tyrells, whose alliance is essential to the stability of the Lannister regime—particularly Tommen's fiancée Margaery Tyrell, whom Cersei believes to be the subject of a prophecy about a "younger, more beautiful queen" who will take away all that Cersei holds dear. Her incompetent management raises the kingdom's debts to the Iron Bank of Braavos and the Faith of the Seven. The Iron Bank refuses to grant new loans and demands immediate repayment, nearly crippling the economy of Westeros. To settle the crown's debts to the Faith, Cersei permits the restoration of that religion's military order, the Faith Militant, ignoring the danger to her own power. A scheme to falsely have the Faith put Margaery on trial for adultery backfires when the religious leadership imprisons Cersei herself on similar (correct) charges.

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==== Riverlands ==== Cersei dispatches Jaime to the Riverlands to put down the remnants of the late Robb Stark's rebellion. He negotiates with Robb's great-uncle Brynden “the Blackfish” Tully to surrender the castle of Riverrun in exchange for his nephew Edmure‘s life. Though the siege ends bloodlessly, Brynden escapes. Jaime then receives word that Cersei, who has been arrested by the Faith, wants him to defend her in a trial by combat, but Jaime ignores her message and abandons her to her fate. Brienne's quest leads her all over the Riverlands, where she witnesses the devastation caused by the war. She acquires as traveling companions Podrick Payne, former squire to Jaime's brother Tyrion, and Ser Hyle Hunt, a knight who had once mocked her ugliness. Eventually she is captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners, an order that was once devoted to protecting the smallfolk of the Riverlands but is now commanded by the undead Catelyn Stark—Robb's mother, murdered with him but magically resurrected and set on vengeance. Catelyn, who has taken the name Lady Stoneheart, sentences Brienne to death for consorting with the Lannisters, but offers to let her live if she agrees to kill Jaime.

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==== The Vale ==== In the remote castle of the Eyrie, Sansa poses as Littlefinger’s daughter Alayne, befriending young Lord Robert Arryn, managing the household, and receiving informal training in politics. During this time, Littlefinger appears to be carefully manipulating Robert's bannermen and securing control of the Protectorship of the Vale. He eventually reveals that he plans to betroth Sansa to Harrold Hardyng, the next in line to Robert's title; when the sickly Robert dies, Littlefinger intends to reveal Sansa's identity and claim her family stronghold of Winterfell in her name.

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==== Iron Islands ==== On the Iron Islands, the rebellious realm of House Greyjoy, the late Balon Greyjoy's eldest surviving brother Euron returns from exile to claim the throne. To prevent this, his younger brother Aeron, a priest, calls a Kingsmoot to elect Balon's successor. Though Euron's claim is contested by his other brother Victarion and Balon's daughter Asha, eventually Euron is chosen as king for his promise to control dragons with an enchanted horn he possesses. The fleet of the Ironborn captures the Shield Islands, threatening House Tyrell's seat at Highgarden. Euron sends Victarion east to woo Daenerys Targaryen on his behalf, to thus gain a claim to the Iron Throne by marrying the daughter of a past king; but Victarion decides to woo her for himself instead.

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==== Dorne ==== In the southern region of Dorne, Prince Doran Martell is confronted by three of his brother Oberyn's bastard daughters, who want vengeance for the death of their father, who was killed defending Tyrion Lannister from a false charge of murder. Because they are inciting the commonfolk, Doran has them imprisoned in the palace. A bold attempt by Doran's daughter Arianne to crown Tommen's sister Myrcella as queen of Westeros is thwarted. In the confusion, one of Arianne's co-conspirators, Ser Gerold "Darkstar" Dayne, attempts to kill Myrcella; she survives but her face is scarred, and a knight of Tommen's Kingsguard is killed. This strains the new Dornish alliance with the Lannisters and the Iron Throne. To his daughter, Doran reveals that her brother Quentyn has gone east to bring back "Fire and Blood" through an alliance with Daenerys.

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=== Braavos === Arriving in Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the House of Black and White, a temple associated with the assassins known as the Faceless Men. As a novice there, Arya is taught to abandon her identity and pose as an anonymous girl called "Cat of the Canals", but her true identity asserts itself in the form of wolf dreams. Jon Snow has ordered Night's Watch steward Samwell Tarly to sail to the Citadel in Oldtown, to research the hostile creatures known as the Others and become a maester. Sam is accompanied by the aging Maester Aemon, the wildling girl Gilly, Gilly's newborn baby, and Dareon, another Night's Watch member. After the voyage is underway, Sam realizes that the child is actually the son of the wildling leader Mance Rayder, swapped with Gilly's son for his protection. Aemon becomes sick and the party waits in Braavos for his health to improve. After learning that Daenerys Targaryen possesses dragons, Aemon concludes that she is destined to fulfill a prophecy. Shortly after the party leaves Braavos (without Dareon), Aemon dies at the age of 102. Arya chances to meet Dareon and executes him as a deserter from the Night's Watch. The Faceless Men punish her for this unauthorized killing by feeding her a potion that causes blindness. At the end of the novel, Samwell arrives at the Citadel to begin his training. He meets the archmaester Marwyn, who tells him the maesters are plotting against magic, and leaves to find Daenerys. Samwell also encounters a fellow apprentice who introduces himself as Pate, connecting the prologue to the narrative.

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== Characters == The story is narrated from the point of view of 12 characters and a one-off prologue point of view. Unlike its predecessors, the fourth novel follows numerous minor characters as well. * Prologue: Pate, a novice of the Citadel in Oldtown * Cersei Lannister, The Queen Regent * Ser Jaime Lannister, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard * Brienne, Maid of Tarth, a young warrior woman searching for Sansa and Arya Stark * Sansa Stark, pretending to be Petyr Baelish's daughter "Alayne Stone" (her later chapters are titled as such) * Arya Stark, later referred to as "Cat of the Canals", beginning her training at the Temple of Him of Many Faces in the free city of Braavos * Samwell Tarly, a sworn brother of the Night's Watch ** The Prophet, The Drowned Man: Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy, Self-proclaimed servant of the Drowned god, youngest of Late King Balon's three surviving brothers ** The Kraken's Daughter: Princess Asha Greyjoy, daughter of Late King Balon of the Iron Islands ** The Iron Captain, The Reaver: Prince Victarion Greyjoy, Captain of the Iron Fleet, one of Late King Balon's three surviving brothers ** The Captain of Guards: Areo Hotah, Captain of the Guards to Prince Doran Martell of Dorne ** The Soiled Knight: Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard ** The Queenmaker, The Princess in the Tower: Arianne Martell, daughter of Prince Doran and heir to Dorne

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== Editions == '''Foreign-language editions''' * Bulgarian: Бард: "Пир за Врани" * Catalan: Alfaguara: "Festí de corbs" ("Feast of crows") * Chinese (Simplified): 重庆出版社(2008): "群鸦的盛宴" ("Feast for Crows"). * Chinese (Traditional): 高寶國際(2006): "群鴉盛宴" ("Feast for Crows"). * Croatian: "Gozba vrana" ("Crows' Feast") * Czech: Talpress; "Hostina pro vrány" ("Feast for Crows") * Danish: Kragernes rige ("The Kingdom of the Crows") * Dutch: Luitingh-Sijthoff: "Een feestmaal voor kraaien" ("A Feast for Crows") * Estonian: Two volumes, hardcover : Varrak "Vareste pidusöök" ("Feast of Crows") book 1 & book 2 * Finnish: "Korppien kestit" ("Feast of Crows") * French: Three Volumes, Hardcover: Pygmalion (2006–...): "Le chaos", "Les sables de Dorne", "Un Festin pour les Corbeaux" ("Chaos", "The Sands of Dorne", "A Feast For Crows"). * German: Single volume, Fantasy Productions (2006): "Krähenfest" ("Crow's Feast", to be released). Two volumes, Blanvalet (2006): "Zeit der Krähen", "Die dunkle Königin" ("Time of the Crows", "The Dark Queen"). * Greek: Anubis: "Βορά Ορνίων" ("Prey of Vultures") * Hebrew: "משתה לעורבים א\ב" ("Feast for Crows pts. A/B") * Hungarian: Alexandra Könyvkiadó: "Varjak lakomája" ("Feast of Crows") * Italian: Two volumes, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (Hardcover 2006, 2007 – Paperback 2007, 2008): "Il dominio della regina", "L'ombra della profezia" ("The Rule of the Queen", "The Shadow of the Prophecy"). * Japanese: Two volumes, hardcover : Hayakawa (2008), paperback : Hayakawa (2013): "乱鴉の饗宴" ("Feast of the War Crows") I and II * Korean: Eun Haeng Namu Publishing Co. :"까마귀의 향연" ("Feast for Crows") * Lithuanian: Alma Littera "Varnų puota" ("Crows' Feast") * Norwegian: Two volumes, "Kråkenes gilde" (The Crows' Feast), "Jern og sand" (Iron and Sand) * Polish: Two volumes, Zysk i S-ka: "Uczta dla wron: Cienie Śmierci", "Uczta dla wron: Sieć Spisków" ("A Feast for Crows: Shadows of Death", "A Feast for Crows: Web of Intrigues") * Brazilian Portuguese: Leya: "O Festim dos Corvos" ("The Crows Feast") * European Portuguese: Two volumes, Saída de Emergência: "O Festim de Corvos" ("A Feast of Crows"), "O Mar de Ferro" ("The Iron Sea") * Romanian: Paperback 2009, Hardcover 2011: "Festinul ciorilor" ("The Crows' Feast") * Russian: AST: "Пир стервятников" ("Vultures' Feast"). * Serbian: Two Volumes, Лагуна: "Гозба за вране Део први", "Гозба за вране Део други" ("A Feast for Crows") * Slovenian: Vranja gostija ("A Feast for Crows") * Spanish: Gigamesh (2007): "Festín de Cuervos" ("Feast of Crows") * Swedish: Forum bokförlag: "Kråkornas fest" ("The Crows' Feast") * Turkish: Two volumes, Epsilon Yayınevi: "Buz ve Ateşin Şarkısı IV: Kargaların Ziyafeti – Kısım I & Kargaların Ziyafeti – Kısım II" ("A Feast for Crows") * Ukrainian: KM Publishing (2016): "Бенкет круків" ("The Feast of Crows") * Vietnamese: Two Volumes: "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 4A: Tiệc Quạ đen", "Trò Chơi Vương Quyền 4B: Lời Tiền tri". ("Game of Thrones 4A: A Feast of Crows", "Game of Thrones 4B: The Prophecy") * Mongolian: Хэрээний найр ("Feast of Crow")

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== Publication == Martin released the first four "Iron Islands" chapters of ''A Feast for Crows'' as a novella called ''Arms of the Kraken'', published in the 305th edition of ''Dragon'' magazine, published in May 2003. Another chapbook featuring three Daenerys chapters was published for BookExpo 2005 although, following the geographical division of the book, these chapters were subsequently moved into the fifth volume in the series, ''A Dance with Dragons''. Martin originally planned for the fourth book to be called ''A Dance with Dragons'' with the story picking up five years after the events of ''A Storm of Swords'' (primarily to advance the ages of the younger characters). However, during the writing process it was discovered that this was leading to an overreliance on flashbacks to fill in the gap. After twelve months or so of working on the book, Martin decided to abandon much of what had previously been written and start again, this time picking up immediately after the end of ''A Storm of Swords''. He announced this decision, along with the new title ''A Feast for Crows'', at Worldcon in Philadelphia on September 1, 2001. He also announced that ''A Dance with Dragons'' would now be the fifth book in the sequence. In May 2005, Martin announced that his manuscript for ''A Feast for Crows'' had hit 1527 completed pages but still remained unfinished, with "another hundred or so pages of roughs and incomplete chapters, as well as other chapters sketched out but entirely unwritten." As the size of the manuscript for 2000's ''A Storm of Swords'', his previous novel, had been a problem for publishers around the world at 1521 pages, Martin and his publishers had decided to split the narrative planned for ''A Feast for Crows'' into two books. Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, Martin opted to instead split the material by character and location: It was my feeling ... that we were better off telling all the story for half the characters, rather than half the story for all the characters. Cutting the novel in half would have produced two half-novels; our approach will produce two novels taking place simultaneously, but set hundreds or even thousands of miles apart, and involving different casts of characters (with some overlap). Martin noted that ''A Feast for Crows'' would focus on "Westeros, King's Landing, the riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands," and that the next novel, ''A Dance with Dragons'', would cover "events in the east and north." Martin also added that the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series would now likely total seven novels. ''A Feast for Crows'' was published months later on October 17, 2005, over five years after the previous volume in the series, ''A Storm of Swords''. The parallel novel ''A Dance with Dragons'' was released on July 12, 2011.

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== Release details == * 2005, UK, Voyager , Pub date October 17, 2005, hardback * 2005, UK, Voyager , Pub date ? ? 2005, hardback (presentation edition) * 2005, US, Spectra Books , Pub date November 8, 2005, hardback * 2006, UK, Voyager , Pub date April 25, 2006, paperback

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== Reception == Though ''A Feast for Crows'' was the first novel in the sequence to debut at number one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, it received more negative reviews in comparison with the previous novels in the series. Martin's decision to halve the plot in terms of character and location was highly controversial; many critics felt that this novel consisted of characters that people were less interested in. ''Publishers Weekly'' said, "Long-awaited doesn't begin to describe this fourth installment in bestseller Martin's staggeringly epic Song of Ice and Fire. .... This is not Act I Scene 4 but Act II Scene 1, laying groundwork more than advancing the plot, and it sorely misses its other half. The slim pickings here are tasty, but in no way satisfying." Salon.com's Andrew Leonard said in 2011, "I don't care how good a writer you are: If you subtract your three strongest characters from your tale, you severely undermine the basis for why readers fell under your spell in the first place. It didn't work. But there was also a sense in ''A Feast of Crows'' that Martin had lost his way. The characters whose stories he did tell wandered back and forth across a landscape devastated by war and oncoming winter, but didn't seem to be headed anywhere in particular." Remy Verhoeve of ''The Huffington Post'' noted in their 2011 ''A Dance with Dragons'' review that the fifth volume had to "repair some of the damage done by ''A Feast for Crows'', which frankly felt as if it was written by a ghost writer at times." Both books had "the same structural problems", being "sprawling and incoherent", and in her opinion ''Feast'' has the less interesting characters. ''The Atlantic'' Rachael Brown said in their ''A Dance With Dragons'' review that ''Feast'' was "bleak and plodding" and "sorely missed" Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow.

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== Awards and nominations == * Hugo Award – Best Novel (nominated) – (2006) * Locus Award for Fantasy – Best Novel (nominated) – (2006) * British Fantasy Award – Best Novel (nominated) – (2006) * Quill Award – Best Novel (Science Fiction & Fantasy) (nominated) – (2006)

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"'''The Pointy End'''" is the eighth episode of the first season of the HBO medieval fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones''. First aired on June 5, 2011, the episode was directed by Daniel Minahan and written by George R. R. Martin, the author of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' novels on which the show is based. The plot covers the aftermath of Eddard Stark's capture. While the Lannisters seek to capture his daughters, his son and heir, Robb, raises an army in the North. Meanwhile, Daenerys witnesses a Dothraki raid on a peaceful village, and Jon Snow faces a new threat at the Wall. The episode's title refers to the sword fighting lesson that Jon gave to Arya before their farewell: "Stick them with the pointy end." The episode was well received by critics, who praised Martin's adaptation of his own work as well as the actors' performances. It was dedicated to Ralph Vicinanza, an executive producer who died of natural causes. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 2.72 million in its initial broadcast. The episode garnered an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Costumes for a Series, but lost to ''The Borgias''.

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===In the Mountains of the Moon=== Ambushed by tribesmen, Tyrion bribes them to escort him and Bronn to Tywin's camp

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===In the Eyrie=== Catelyn Stark learns from a message that her son Robb has called the banners of the North to war against the Lannisters and that Ned is imprisoned in the dungeons in King's Landing. Catelyn becomes furious with Lysa for not telling her, but nonetheless implores Lysa to help by sending the Knights of the Vale to join Robb, but Lysa, doubting that Robb can beat Tywin Lannister, refuses.

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===In the North=== Receiving a letter from Sansa (see below), Maester Luwin deduces she is being manipulated by Cersei. Robb gains the respect of Lord "Greatjon" Umber and calls the Stark bannermen to war, leaving Bran in charge of Winterfell.

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===In the Riverlands=== Tywin agrees to honor Tyrion's promises to the tribesmen if they join the Lannister forces, and they demand Tyrion accompany them as insurance. Catelyn reaches the Stark army. Pondering whether to attack Tywin's or Jaime's forces, Robb sends a captured Lannister scout with a message to Tywin, deceiving the scout that Robb is sending all 20,000 men against Tywin.

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===At the Wall=== Jon and Sam return to the Wall with the corpses of Benjen's fellow rangers; although dead for weeks, they show no decay. Mormont informs Jon of events in the south but reminds him of his commitment to the Night's Watch. Jon tries to attack Ser Alliser for mocking Ned and is confined to quarters. That night, Ghost prompts Jon to investigate Mormont's quarters. He is attacked by a dead ranger, returned to life as a wight, and destroys it with fire. In the morning, the Night's Watch burn all the remains.

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===In Lhazar=== Khal Drogo's khalasar sacks a Lhazareen village to gather funds for ships. As ''khaleesi'', Daenerys demands the raiders marry their captured women rather than enslave them, infuriating raider Mago. Drogo kills him in a duel but is wounded, and reluctantly accepts village healer Mirri Maz Duur's treatment.

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===In King's Landing=== The Lannisters detain Ned and Sansa, but Syrio Forel holds off the Kingsguard, allowing Arya to escape. Arya flees, accidentally killing a stable boy who tries to stop her. Cersei convinces Sansa to write to Robb, imploring him to come to King's Landing and swear fealty to Joffrey. Joffrey and Cersei reward the City Watch Captain with a lordship, naming Tywin the new Hand of the King and Jaime new Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Sansa pleads for her father's life, and Joffrey agrees to show mercy if Ned will confess to treason and accept him as the rightful king.

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===Writing=== The episode was written by ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' author George R. R. Martin. The episode was written by George R. R. Martin, the author of the book ''A Game of Thrones'' on which the series is based. Content from this episode is derived from chapters 43, 51-54, 55-58, and 61(Tyrion VI, Arya IV, Sansa IV, Jon VII, Bran VI, Catelyn VIII, Tyrion VII, Sansa V, the early part of Eddard XV, and Daenerys VII). Martin has extensive experience in television writing, but it had been a decade since he had produced a teleplay. He said that he found writing this episode very easy because of his familiarity with the characters and the story, and that the hardest part was "getting used to the new screenwriting software that he had to use." Martin delivered the first draft of the script to the show's executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss on May 1, 2010, admitting that it was probably "too long and too expensive." In fact, one scene that Martin wrote – Robb Stark calling his father's Northern bannermen, with a montage of eight different castles receiving the summons and riding out – was deemed impossible to film. The first scenes depicting Tyrion descending with Bronn from the Mountains of the Moon and encountering the clansmen were not written by Martin. Since they were originally intended to be part of episode seven, they were written by that episode's authors, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As often happens in TV production, the scene was moved from one episode to another during editing. The scene where Drogo fights Mago was not in the original script, but Momoa suggested it after realizing that Drogo, supposedly a great warrior, had never had his fighting prowess shown onscreen.

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===Casting=== "The Pointy End" includes the first appearance of two significant recurring characters in the book series: Clive Mantle as the Northern bannerman Lord Jon Umber, known as the Greatjon due to his size, and Ian Gelder as Lord Tywin's brother and right-hand man Ser Kevan Lannister. Audley's Castle was used as one of the ruined towers of Moat Cailin that defend the Neck.

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===Filming locations=== Interior scenes were filmed at The Paint Hall studio, in Belfast, including all the scenes set in the Red Keep and Winterfell. The exterior of the Stark and Lannister war camps were shot on location in the Castle Ward estate, near the village of Strangford. Audley's Castle in the estate doubled as the ruined remains of one of Moat Cailin's towers, seen when Catelyn and Rodrik join Robb's army. The scenes at the village of the Lamb Men that is sacked by the Dothraki were filmed towards the end of October 2010 in Malta, at the farming town of Manikata. For the exterior of the Red Keep where Arya recovers her sword Needle, San Anton Palace was used.

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===Dedication=== The episode was dedicated to the memory of Ralph Vicinanza. He had been one of the co-executive producers attached to ''Game of Thrones'', and died in his sleep from a cerebral aneurysm on September 25, 2010. Vicinanza was the literary agent who handled George R. R. Martin's foreign language rights, and (with Vince Gerardis) one of the co-founders of the management company ''Created By'', which aimed at developing feature films and television shows based on the works of Vicinanza's clients. He was instrumental in bringing Martin's work to the screen, recommending the books to David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and leading the negotiations with HBO. He died a few days after HBO greenlighted the series.

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===Ratings=== The episode was seen by 2.7 million viewers for the first airing, a season high, and by another additional 900,000 for the repeat. It therefore obtained a total audience of 3.6 million for the night.

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===Critical response=== "The Pointy End" was well received by critics. Among the most enthusiastic was Maureen Ryan from AOL TV, who called it "the best episode yet," and wrote that she was "extremely impressed with how many moving parts were deployed smoothly and how the hour just flowed." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes surveyed 18 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, ""The Pointy End" is a fast-paced transitional episode which, though written by source novelist George R.R. Martin, proves the show is now finding its own way as a separate entity from the books." IGN's Matt Fowler remarked that this mostly Ned-less episode was very busy; he enjoyed that Robb got to share the spotlight as viewers witnessed part of his "maturation." The episode's multiple perspectives were commented on: James Hibberd wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' that "for a show that can often seem disjointed due by having so many storylines unfolding in different locations, this was the most cohesive episode we've seen yet, as the entire realm was impacted by Ned Stark being arrested for treason." At HitFix, Alan Sepinwall called it "by far the busiest episode of the series to date," remarking that it not only moved "pieces around the chess board to set things up for the season's final two episodes," but also included "some crackling dialogue, a few good character moments and some of the best action the show has featured to date." David Sims from the ''A.V. Club'' wrote that the episode "masterfully kept us abreast of everything going on, while sticking to the point-of-view style the show has held from the start." On his blog Cultural Learnings, reviewer Myles McNutt found the episode "filled with moments where much is done with very little. We don't really spend a sustained period in any one location, with only brief scenes possible to establish some pretty substantial story developments." Many critics considered that a great part of the episode's merits were due to George R. R. Martin's script. Sepinwall felt that "Martin didn't get the easiest draw when he wound up having to dramatize the events depicted in 'The Pointy End,' " but still loved the results. Mo Ryan concluded that anyone who was doubting whether Martin had forgotten about writing television scripts should now put their doubts to rest. The "expert" review from the ''A.V. Club'' by Emily VanDerWerff noted "a definite sense of Martin's hand at work here. Characters that have never quite worked onscreen—like Sansa—suddenly feel much more alive. Characters that have been working—like Tyrion and Arya—get lots of fun stuff to play that never once feels labored." The scenes with Sansa Stark were also noted. According to Elio Garcia from westeros.org, "Sophie Turner really shines in her scenes. There are a lot of people out there who judge Sansa very harshly, but you would have to have a heart of stone not to sympathize with her plight in this episode." Many reviewers agreed with this sentiment, commenting on the transition from a "spoiled brat" to a young, confused, but courageous teenager were noted by several reviewers positively. ''Time''s reviewer James Poniewozik emphasized the growth of Robb Stark's character, praising both Martin's writing and Richard Madden's acting. Maureen Ryan highlighted the scene where Syrio Forel confronts the Lannister men to allow Arya's escape, which she considered masterfully staged.

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==== Awards and nominations ==== Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Costumes for a Series Michele Clapton and Rachael Webb-Crozier

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'''''Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms''''' was a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) under development by Bigpoint and Artplant, in collaboration with HBO. The game was based on the HBO TV series ''Game of Thrones'', which is itself an adaptation of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' book series by George R. R. Martin. The game was being built using the Unity platform, and will be playable in the browser using the Unity Web Player plugin.

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==Gameplay== ''Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms'' was to be set within the fictional realm of Westeros, and will use a third-person viewpoint. Gameplay was planned to be mainly based around player vs player (PvP) combat, which would involve small group combat, one on one duels and siege battles, large scale battles in which players must capture keeps, forts and castles. Player vs Environment (PvE) combat was planned to be available at launch, although this was not a major priority. Combat would be realtime, with movement controlled using the WASD keys. Players would be able to come together to form guilds, known as lesser houses. Lesser houses align themselves with one of the three major houses in-game: Baratheon, Stark or Lannister. Solo play will be possible, although group play will be encouraged. Players would be able to customize their characters by changing features such as hair and clothing.

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==Development== ''Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms'' was announced in February 2012, with the first look being unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in March 2012. The first gameplay footage was shown in a trailer released on July 12, 2012. The game was under development by German videogame developer Bigpoint, and Norwegian developer Artplant. The studios have previously worked together on Battlestar Galactica Online, another browser based multiplayer game. The game was being made in collaboration with HBO. Everything put in game is reviewed by HBO in advance, and Bigpoint is working with the HBO design teams. The look and feel of the weapons and armour, for example, are straight from the show. The game was being built on the Unity platform.

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The second season of the fantasy drama television series ''Game of Thrones'' premiered in the United States on HBO on April 1, 2012, and concluded on June 3, 2012. It was broadcast on Sunday at 9:00 pm in the United States, consisting of 10 episodes, each running approximately 50–60 minutes. The season mostly covers the events of ''A Clash of Kings'', the second novel of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series by George R. R. Martin, adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. HBO ordered the second season on April 19, 2011, which began filming in July 2011, primarily in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Croatia and Iceland. The story takes place in a fictional world, primarily on a continent called Westeros, with one storyline occurring on another continent to the east known as Essos. Like the novel, the season follows the dramatic death of Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, with all of the Starks being separated across Westeros. Season two mainly centers around the War of the Five Kings, fought between the leaders of Westerosi factions who are either staking a claim on the Iron Throne, or seeking independence from it. Meanwhile, in Essos, with three newborn dragons by her side, Daenerys Targaryen struggles to find allies to help her on her way to take back the Iron Throne. ''Game of Thrones'' features a large ensemble cast, including Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley and Emilia Clarke. The season introduced a number of new cast members, including Stephen Dillane, Natalie Dormer, Carice van Houten and Liam Cunningham. Critics praised the show's production values and cast. Viewership rose compared to the previous season. The second season won six of the twelve Emmy Awards for which it was nominated. It received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Peter Dinklage) and Outstanding Drama Series. U.S. viewership rose by approximately 8% over the course of the season, from 3.9 million to 4.2 million by the season finale.

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=== Main cast === * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister * Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister * Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark * Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen * Aidan Gillen as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish * Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth * Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly * Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon * Rory McCann as Sandor "The Hound" Clegane * Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon * Carice van Houten as Melisandre * Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell * Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister

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===Guest cast=== The recurring actors listed here are those who appeared in season 2. They are listed by the region in which they first appear:

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====At and beyond the Wall==== * Simon Armstrong as Qhorin Halfhand * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett * Edward Dogliani as the Lord of Bones * Ian Whyte & Ross Mullan as White Walkers

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====In King's Landing==== * Callum Wharry as Tommen Baratheon * Aimee Richardson as Myrcella Baratheon * Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle * Dominic Carter as Janos Slynt * Eugene Simon as Lancel Lannister * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne * Roy Dotrice as Wisdom Hallyne * Antonia Christophers as Mhaegen

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====In the Stormlands==== * Gethin Anthony as Renly Baratheon * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth

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====On Dragonstone==== * Kerr Logan as Matthos Seaworth * Lucian Msamati as Salladhor Saan * Oliver Ford Davies as Maester Cressen

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====On the Iron Islands==== * Patrick Malahide as Balon Greyjoy * Ralph Ineson as Dagmer Cleftjaw

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====In the North==== * Art Parkinson as Rickon Stark * Donald Sumpter as Maester Luwin * Ron Donachie as Rodrik Cassel

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====In the Riverlands==== * Oona Chaplin as Talisa Maegyr * Michael McElhatton as Roose Bolton * John Stahl as Rickard Karstark * Tyrone McElhennon as Torrhen Karstark * Fintan McKeown as Amory Lorch * Ian Gelder as Kevan Lannister * Karl Davies as Alton Lannister * Anthony Morris as the Tickler * Eros Vlahos as Lommy Greenhands * Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar

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====In Essos==== * Nonso Anozie as Xaro Xhoan Daxos * Nicholas Blane as the Spice King * Slavko Juraga as the Silk King

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==Production== HBO ordered a second season of ''Game of Thrones'' on April 19, 2011, two days after the series premiere. The second season obtained a 15% increase in budget in order to be able to stage the war's most important battle, the Battle of the Blackwater, in episode nine. Filming took place during 106 shooting days. During three-quarters of those, two crews ("Dragon" and "Wolf") were working simultaneously in different locations.

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===Crew=== David Benioff and D. B. Weiss serve as main writers and showrunners for the second season. They co-wrote six out of ten episodes. The remaining four episodes were written by story editor Bryan Cogman, ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' author George R. R. Martin, and new series writer and co-executive producer Vanessa Taylor, who wrote two episodes. Alan Taylor was promoted to co-executive producer and directed four episodes, including the season premiere and finale. David Petrarca and David Nutter each directed two episodes, while series cinematographer Alik Sakharov and filmmaker Neil Marshall directed the remaining two.

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===Casting=== The casting for the second season began in May 2011. Although a large portion of the first-season cast were returning, the producers were still faced with a huge number of new characters to be cast. The producers decided that several characters from ''A Clash of Kings'', including the Freys and Crannogmen Reeds at Winterfell, Frey bannermen of the Starks, the Tullys, Stannis' wife and daughter, Theon's uncle Aeron Greyjoy and the bastard Ramsay Snow would not be cast despite appearing in the novel. Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss commented on this saying that certain character introductions taking place in ''A Clash of Kings'' would be delayed until the third season. This was done due to the large number of characters already introduced in season two, and because they couldn't afford to have people "waiting around" for their characters to become central to the plot. Having to fill so many speaking roles, the showrunners not only "postponed" the introduction of several key characters, but they also merged some into one, or certain plot-functions were given to different characters. Many physical traits were also altered, such as the ethnicity or age of characters. The cast was estimated to be the largest on television. Scattered around two fictional continents characters include, by order of importance: Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon) Emerging as the fourth claimant to the throne is the estranged brother of the late king Robert, Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane). The foreign priestess Melisandre, portrayed by Carice van Houten poses as an influential, yet manipulative advisor to Stannis. Van Houten was previously asked (but unable) to audition for the role of Cersei in season one. While her character retains her signature red robes and hair, unlike in the novels Melisandre is not portrayed as having red eyes, making her appear somewhat more human. Liam Cunningham stars as Ser Davos Seaworth, the "Onion Knight", a bannerman of Stannis and a former smuggler. Cunningham had already been in talks for a role in the first season. As he is left-handed, his Davos has the fingers of the right hand shortened, unlike in the novels where his left hand is crippled. In an interview, Cunningham said that a lot of new dialogue had to be written for his character, because in the novels Davos, a point-of-view character, is portrayed more through his thoughts than through his actions. These three characters headed a new storyline set on a different location, that by the end of the season merged with the main plot. Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), a main cast member from the first season, but with lesser importance than the others, came to prominence during the second season, as his story unfolded and his character became more central. Gemma Whelan appeared as his sister, Yara Greyjoy. Named "Asha" in the novels, the character's name was changed to avoid confusion with the Wildling Osha, Bran Stark's companion. "Asha" is portrayed as a fairly provocative and independent woman, a captain of thirty ships, as opposed to her television counterpart Yara, who did not retain "Asha's" traits, although her rivalry with Theon remained intact. Their father Balon Greyjoy was played by Patrick Malahide. Many of the characters involved in the Greyjoys' storyline weren't introduced, most notably Balon's brother Aeron Greyjoy. Nonetheless, the storyline received enormous praise, with the alteration of Yara's name and persona being the only criticism. Tom Wlaschiha is cast as Jaqen H'ghar, a mysterious prisoner who develops a murderous relationship with young Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). Wlaschiha's pronunciation of his character's name, ''Jack-in'', was adopted for use in the show. Natalie Dormer, best known for her portrayal as seductive Anne Boleyn in Showtime's ''The Tudors'', was cast in a similar role as Margaery Tyrell, a noblewoman and the wife of the third claimant to the throne, Renly Baratheon. Gwendoline Christie played, to much praise, Brienne of Tarth, a female warrior who joins Renly Baratheon's guard, but later becomes a follower of Catelyn Stark. To prepare for the role, Christie took up an intense training regimen, adding over a stone (6.4 kg) of muscle mass. So that she could be mistaken for a man, her armor was decorated with lines that slant away from her hips. On the other side of the fictional world, two female roles with rising prominence were added to the cast: ''Skins'' star Hannah Murray filled the role of Craster's daughter Gilly, a love interest to Samwell Tarly; while the second role, the one of Ygritte, Jon Snow's love interest among the Wildlings, was played by Rose Leslie. Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) stay at Qarth, opened the way for several recurring characters. Nonso Anozie played Daenerys's host at Qarth, Xaro Xhoan Daxos. The character differed a lot from his novel counterpart. Xaro's homosexuality, femininity and caucasian origin were overshadowed by dark skinned Anozie's masculinity and heterosexuality. Acting as one of her suitors is the treacherous warlock Pyat Pree portrayed by Ian Hanmore. Her third and final suitor was the masked priestess Quaithe (Laura Pradelska). Specially created for the television series was the so-called "Spice King", a rich merchant from Qarth, played by Nicholas Blane. Also an original creation of the show is the character of Talisa (Oona Chaplin), a healer from Volantis and a romantic interest for Robb. She fills the role of another female interest of Robb's, called Jeyne Westerling, who has no similarities with Talisa whatsoever. In addition to Talisa, Michael McElhatton joins the cast in the role of Roose Bolton, an important character in Robb Stark's storyline. Lastly, Simon Armstrong plays the legendary Night's Watch ranger Qhorin Halfhand. Others were also added to the cast, either in a small recurring role or with reduced prominence. The most notable example is Tony Way's Ser Dontos Hollard, a drunkard knight, who had a pivotal role in Sansa Stark's storyline that ran in the course of two novels, while in the series the role was reduced to a small scene in the opening episode. Others include: Ben Crompton as "Dolorous Edd" Tollet, a man of the Night's Watch. Robert Pugh as the Wildling Craster, father and husband to Gilly. Kerr Logan as Davos Seaworth's pious son Matthos. Karl Davies as Ser Alton Lannister, a character created for the series who replaces Cleos Frey as envoy from the Starks to the Lannisters. Daniel Portman took the role of Podrick Payne, the squire to Tyrion Lannister. The 19-year-old Portman plays Podrick as about 16 years old, instead of about 12 as in the novels. To be able to portray Podrick as awkward, shy and weak, Portman, previously a sportsman, stopped his fitness regimen and gained some weight to appear more endearing. Lucian Msamati played Salladhor Saan, a Lysene pirate and friend of Davos Seaworth. Finally, Edward Dogliani appeared briefly as the "Lord of Bones" (or "Rattleshirt" in the novels), a Wildling leader and Oliver Ford Davies as Stannis's maester Cressen. All of the recurring characters from the first season returned, with one notable exception: Conan Stevens, whose role of Gregor Clegane was recast with Ian Whyte, did not return. Roy Dotrice, a friend of George R. R. Martin, known for reading the audio versions of the novels and having previously rejected a role due to health reasons, appears this season as Pyromancer Hallyne, an elderly alchemist at King's Landing.

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===Locations=== walled city of Dubrovnik stands in for King's Landing in season 2 For the second season, the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, was used instead of Malta for scenes in King's Landing and Daenerys' scenes in Qarth. For example, the Minčeta Tower in Dubrovnik was used as the House of the Undying. Scenes set north of the Wall were filmed in Iceland in November 2011. The main locations are the Vatnajökull glacier, the Svínafellsjökull glacier near Skaftafell, and the Mýrdalsjökull glacier near Vik used as the location for the Fist of the First Men with Höfðabrekka as the Frostfang Mountains. New shooting locations in Northern Ireland include The Linen Mill Film & Television Studios in Banbridge, Ballintoy Harbour and Downhill Strand. As the story in the second season required that the Winterfell set be expanded, a new set for Winterfell was built at the Moneyglass Estate near Toome village.

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===Music=== The music for the second season was again composed by Ramin Djawadi. It contains a rendition of a song often mentioned or sung in the novels, ''The Rains of Castamere'', by the indie rock band ''The National''. The soundtrack for the season was released on June 19, 2012.

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===Promotion=== HBO released numerous teaser trailers for the second season, beginning on December 11, 2011. The second trailer, published on January 29, 2012, was viewed 3.5 million times in the first three days after publication, a record for HBO promotional content. Other trailers were released on February 24, March 3 (set to Florence and the Machine's ''Seven Devils'') as well as subsequently. HBO also published other promotional material, such as cast photographs and teaser posters, prior to the airing of the first episode. The second issue of ''Entertainment Weekly'' in March 2012 had four alternative covers dedicated to in-costume photographs of Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys), Kit Harington (Jon Snow) or Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey (Jaime and Cersei Lannister).

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==Reception== Thanks to the critical and commercial success of the first season, as well as HBO's marketing efforts, the second season received intensive media coverage well before it started airing. ''Sunday is Coming'', a two-minute short film for ''Funny or Die'', satirized viewers' excitement about the return of ''Game of Thrones''.

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===Critical response=== Several media outlets reviewed the season's first four episodes before they were broadcast, and rendered almost uniformly positive verdicts. The season holds a Metacritic score of 90 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has a 96% approval rating from 37 critics with an average rating of 8.82 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Game of Thrones'' follows up a strong debut with an even better second season, combining elegant storytelling and vivid characters to create a rich fantasy world." ''Entertainment Weekly'' rated the new season "A-" and praised the "vivid, vital, and just plain fun" storytelling. In the reviewer's opinion, the greatly enlarged cast did not feel like bloat and the show remained accessible to those who had not read the novel. ''The Huffington Post'' called the start of the second season "far more elegant and engaging" than that of the first, and appreciated the show's maturation, increased assurance and momentum as well as the visually improved settings and the new actors' performance. ''Newsday''s review gave it an "A+", calling it the "best show on television" and warranting the preparation required by viewers. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' also wrote that ''Game of Thrones'' made a "strong case for being one of TV's best series". Impressed that the series continued to improve in quality as it breathed life into its vast web of interconnected storylines, the reviewer considered that, unlike other genre shows, ''Game of Thrones'' had gravitas such that it should not be considered dramatically inferior to shows like ''Mad Men'' or ''Breaking Bad''. ''HitFix''s Alan Sepinwall gave the new, "bigger and better" season an "A", praising its increased confidence and smoothness despite its even greater use of "sexposition". New to the series, the ''Chicago Sun-Times''s reviewer found the season premiere "engrossing" and praised the "top-notch" acting, writing, sets and storytelling. The ''New York Times'' was the only major publication to publish a mixed review. It criticized the lack of complexity in the characters apart from Dinklage's, the confusing multitude of characters and the meandering plot.

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===Accolades=== The second season was nominated for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, which included Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Peter Dinklage. It won six awards, for, Outstanding Costumes for a Series, Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series, Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic), Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One-Hour), and Outstanding Special Visual Effects. Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Television Series Drama Best Supporting Actress, Drama David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, Frank Doelger, Carolyn Strauss, George R. R. Martin, Vanessa Taylor, Alan Taylor, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis and Bernadette Caulfield Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series 64th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series Gemma Jackson, Frank Walsh, and Tina Jones for "Garden of Bones", "The Ghost of Harrenhal" and "A Man Without Honor" Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series Outstanding Costumes for a Series Michele Clapton, Alexander Fordham, and Chloe Aubry for "The Prince of Winterfell" Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series Kevin Alexander, Candice Banks, Rosalia Culora, and Gary Machin for "The Old Gods and the New" Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) Paul Engelen and Melissa Lackersteen for "The Old Gods and the New" Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special Paul Engelen, Conor O'Sullivan, and Rob Trenton for "Valar Morghulis" 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 for "Blackwater" Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series (1 hour) Matthew Waters, Onnalee Blank, Ronan Hill, and Mervyn Moore for "Blackwater" Outstanding Special Visual Effects Rainer Gombos, Juri Stanossek, Sven Martin, Steve Kullback, Jan Fiedler, Chris Stenner, Tobias Mannewitz, Thilo Ewers, and Adam Chazen for "Valar Morghulis" 2nd Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Hollywood Post Alliance Awards Outstanding Visual Effects – Television Outstanding International Producer David Benioff, Frank Doelger, Carolyn Strauss and D. B. Weiss Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series British Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography in a Television Drama Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Best Television Series – Drama For the complete first season on Blu-ray Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon For the complete first season on Blu-ray Individual Achievement in Drama Outstanding Achievement in Drama Breakthrough Performer of the Year The cast of ''Game of Thrones'' ADG Excellence in Production Design Award One-Hour Single Camera Television Series Gemma Jackson for "The Ghost of Harrenhal" American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in One-Hour Episodic Television Series Kramer Morgenthau for "The North Remembers" British Academy Television Awards Costume Designers Guild Awards Outstanding Period/Fantasy Television Series Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Television Series – One Hour Ronan Hill, Onnalee Blank, Mathew Waters, and Brett Voss for "Blackwater" 10th Irish Film & Television Awards Favourite Program – International Drama Best Sound Editing – Long Form Dialogue and ADR in Television ''Game of Thrones'' for "Valar Morghulis" Best Sound Editing – Long Form Sound Effects and Foley in Television ''Game of Thrones'' for "Valar Morghulis" Best Sound Editing — Short Form Dialogue and ADR in Television ''Game of Thrones'' for "Blackwater" Best Sound Editing – Short Form Music in Television ''Game of Thrones'' for "Blackwater" Best Sound Editing – Short Form Sound Effects and Foley in Television ''Game of Thrones'' for "Blackwater" Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Neil Marshall (director) and George R. R. Martin (writer) for "Blackwater" "The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama" David Benioff, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, Carolyn Strauss, D. B. Weiss 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series Rob Cooper, Jamie Edgell, Dave Fisher, Dave Forman, Paul Herbert, Michelle McKeown, Sian Miline, Jimmy O’Dee, Domonkos Pardanyi, Marcus Shakesheff, CC Smiff, and Mark Southworth Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial or Broadcast Program Irfan Celik, Florian Friedmann, Ingo Schachner, Chris Stenner for "Training the Dragons" Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program Falk Boje, Esther Engel, Alexey Kuchinsky, Klaus Wuchta for "White Walker Army" Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial or Broadcast Program Rene Borst, Thilo Ewers, Adam Figielski, Jonas Stuckenbrock for "Pyke" Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program Rainer Gombos, Steve Kullback, Sven Martin, Juri Stanossek for "Valar Morghulis" Writers Guild of America Awards David Benioff, Bryan Cogman, George R. R. Martin, Vanessa Taylor, D. B. Weiss Best Performance in a TV Series – Supporting Young Actor Best Performance in a TV Series – Supporting Young Actress Best Performance in a TV Series – Supporting Young Actress For the complete second season on Blu-ray

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===Broadcast=== The second season of ''Game of Thrones'' was broadcast on HBO in the United States from April 1, 2012 to June 3, 2012.

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===Home media=== DVD/Blu-ray box sets and digital downloads of the second season were released in North America on February 19, 2013. The DVD set contains a 30-minute feature covering the production of the episode "Blackwater", actor interviews, character profiles, twelve audio commentaries by cast and crew, and a discussion about Westerosi religions by the showrunners and George R. R. Martin. The Blu-ray set additionally contains a feature about the "War of the Five Kings" that breaks out in season two, as well as 19 animated histories of the mythology of Westeros and Essos.

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===Copyright infringement=== The second season of ''Game of Thrones'' was the most-pirated TV series in 2012.

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