Few television shows ignite the geekosystem like Game of Thrones, HBO's bloody adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
Season 1 hit hard with death, intrigue and strong performances all around, providing an effective template for turning epic fantasy storytelling into tantalizing television, and the adult-oriented amalgam of sex, violence and dragon eggs helped turn the show into an instant hit with viewers.
With Season 2 of the series premiering Sunday, here's what fans of Martin's books want to know.
(Spoiler alert: Spoilers for those of you haven't read the books, or watched Season 1, follow.)
Game of Thrones App
To help viewers keep track of Game of Thrones' tangled family connections, backstabbing royals and far-flung kingdoms, a new iPad app will send an "alert feed" that appears on screen below each episode as it unfolds. By tapping the links, viewers can pause the action and drill deeper into the show's mythology, then close the bonus content to resume play. Available on HBO Go and free to HBO subscribers, the interactive app includes maps, commentary from executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, descriptions of new characters as they come into a scene, Twitter-ready dialog bits and a House Guide that diagrams the series' intricate set of family trees. --Hugh Hart
- Will Renly eat a peach?
A Clash of Kings, the second book in Martin's series, features a showdown between the two brothers of deceased king Robert Baratheon. The elder brother Stannis has a better claim to the throne, but he's harsh and unyielding, and no one likes him much. Plus, his base of operations at Dragonstone, the island fortress of the vanquished Targaryen dynasty, provides little in the way of wealth or troops. Conversely, his younger brother Renly has a weaker claim to the throne, but is adored by one and all, and his marriage to Margaery Tyrell, daughter of Mace Tyrell, lord of Highgarden, has provided him with a formidable army.
When the two brothers meet to discuss their differences, Renly treats Stannis with open contempt, and instead of a serious discussion, he launches into a mocking disquisition on the virtues of the peach he happens to be eating. It's a great moment -- probably Renly's defining moment as a character -- but will it make it into the show?
It seems doubtful. It's one thing to write about a character with limitless savoir faire, quite another to depict him on screen. The scene would have to be pitch-perfect, or else it could easily come across as silly. Also, the Renly we see in Season 1 of the HBO series has none of the effortless charisma of the character from the books, so even if the scene were played perfectly, it might come across as out of character. And Season 2 has so much backstory that moments like Renly's peach might be trimmed simply to provide the screen time needed to explain the tangled politics of Westeros.
- Will the shadow assassins be CGI?
One of the defining characteristics of the first two books, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, is that magic is both rare and ambiguous. One big exception to that is the shadow beings from A Clash of Kings -- terrifying apparitions summoned to murder the living.
Game of Thrones boasts a substantial budget for a TV show, but even so, it clearly struggles sometimes to present George R.R. Martin's epic vision using finite resources. In the case of the shadow assassins, we can't help but wonder if the producers will go the easy route and just film a few shadows on the wall and call it a day. That might actually be the wiser course, as there's something conspicuously fake about even the best CGI, but still we can't help wanting to see some free-standing, three-dimensional shadow beings lurking about.
- Will Craster's incest be downplayed?
Game of Thrones broke new ground with its depiction of the incestuous relationship between Jaime and Cersei Lannister, and the premiere episode probably set some sort of record for viewers of a sex scene asking, "Wait, is that his sister?" The fact that such a relationship produced a trio of offspring was enough to gross out most viewers, but that's nothing compared to what happens in A Clash of Kings, in which we meet Craster, a gruff old wildling who lives with and bears children upon his daughters and granddaughters.
Will the producers feel the need to downplay that? Possibly. On the one hand, the show has garnered a lot of attention for its adult themes, so they may decide to double down for Season 2. On the other hand, they might decide to leave Craster's relationship with his wives as something that's merely implied.
- Will Dany go bare-breasted in Qarth?
In A Clash of Kings, when Daenerys Targaryen arrives in the far-flung city of Qarth, she's told that local custom dictates that women walk the streets with one breast bare, and, you know, when in Rome...
So will this aspect of the book carry over into the show? The show has so far seemed to seek out every possible opportunity to showcase human mammaries -- sometimes to the detriment of dramatic purpose or basic logic -- but having Daenerys go bare-breasted in every one of her scenes in Qarth might exceed the boobage quota even for Game of Thrones. It also might risk distracting from the drama and seriousness of the story. Probably the producers will choose to have her be a bit more clothed than she is in the book, but you never know.
- What will Dany see in the House of the Undying Ones?
Probably no sequence in the novels has elicited more frenzied speculation than the chapter of A Clash of Kings in which Daenerys wanders through the House of the Undying Ones, home of the blue-lipped warlocks of Qarth. In each room, she witnesses fantastical tableaus, collages of dreamlike imagery drawn from her past and future. Some of these scenes seem straightforward to decode, particularly upon repeated readings, whereas others remain maddeningly enigmatic.
This sequence presents a formidable challenge for the producers, since an adaptation that was even vaguely faithful would take up far too much screen time, not to mention being prohibitively expensive. Most dream sequences from the books have either been excised completely (such as Dany's dragon dream) or pared to the bone (such as Bran's dream of the three-eyed crow). It seems likely that Dany's visions will be condensed into a single montage, and it'll be interesting to see which images make the cut, as this may provide clues as to which prophecies the producers (who reportedly know the ending of the TV story) consider most important.
- Will a particular character appear in disguise?
A Clash of Kings features a character who travels in disguise, and he doesn't need much of a disguise because he's not well known to the people he encounters. So it's a surprise to the reader as well as the characters when his identity is revealed. This works well in a novel, but is a lot harder to pull off on TV, since the actor's face and voice will be well known to the audience.
So how will the producers handle this? They might decide to really go crazy with the disguise, and try to radically alter the actor's voice and appearance, though the disguise would almost have to be like something out of Mission: Impossible. More likely they'll take the easy route and just give up on trying to surprise the audience, in which case they may dispense with the disguise altogether.
- Will we see the Battle of the Blackwater?
One of the big disappointments of Season 1 is that no large battles are shown. This is more forgivable with the Battle of the Whispering Wood, which in the books is only described impressionistically, but less forgivable with the Battle of the Green Fork, in which Tyrion Lannister acquits himself rather well in the novel. (In the show he suffers an ignominious blow to the head before the battle is even joined.) But A Clash of Kings features a climactic battle that's hard to imagine skipping over: The Battle of the Blackwater.
Fortunately, early indications are that this sequence will appear in the show. George R.R. Martin himself is reportedly penning the screenplay for the episode, entitled "Blackwater," and the Season 2 trailers have featured clips of larger clashes of soldiers than we saw in Season 1. In the books, the Battle of the Blackwater is an epic event, featuring carnage and destruction on an almost unimaginable scale, so it's hard to believe they'll be able to really capture it on television. If we're lucky, they'll give us a battle that's suitably big and bloody.
Season 2 of Game of Thrones premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.
