For those that have read all the books, a bit of speculation..

Obviouslly spoiler

The standard fan theory is:

Interesting..too that I have also read..

And now, as a PSA, here are the major players and their houses (families) that we've seen in the show thus far:

House Targaryen: They rules the Seven Kingdoms (aka Westeros) for 300 years before being deposed. The only two survivors of the house are Viserys (the white haired dude) and his sister Daenerys. Viserys married his sister off to Kahl Drogo (think "Genghis Khan") so that Drogo would use his army to reconquer Westeros and Viserys could be king again. The symbol of house Targaryen is a dragon.

House Baratheon: Robert Baratheon is the current king of Westeros -- he became king roughly 18 years ago when the Targaryens were overthrown. Robert was in love with Ned's sister Lyanna, but she died and he married Cersei Lannister instead. They have three children: Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. Robert and Eddard were best buds growing up -- they were both wards of Jon Arryn. Robert has proposed that Joffrey marry Sansa Stark. The symbol of house Baratheon is a stag.

House Stark: Eddard Stark, aka Ned Stark. He has five children with his wife, Catelyn, aka Cat. They are (from oldest to youngest) Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Rickon. Ned also has a bastard son, Jon Snow. Also seen in House Stark is Theon Greyjoy. He is close to Robb and Jon in age, and is staying with the Starks basically as insurance -- his father rbeelled against King Robert, so Theon lives with the Starks to ensure that the Greyjoys don't try any funny business. Theon was the dude with the knife who was all set to kill the dire wolf pups. Ned also has a brother, Benjen Stark, who serves on the Nightwatch. The symbol of House Stark is a direwolf.

House Lannister: We've seen three Lannisters: Twins Jaime and Cersei and their brother Tyrion. Cersei is married to King Robert; Tyrion is the Imp. The symbol of House Lannister is a lion.

House Arryn: We haven't seen much of them. Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark were wards of Jon Arryn, and when Robert became king, he made Jon Arryn his Hand (basically, the guy who actually runs the kingdom while the king hunts whores and fucks boars, or maybe it's the other way around). Jon just died -- he was the guy lying in state during Ep. 1 as Jamie and Cersei debated whether he had told anybody the secret that he had figured out. Jon was married to Lyssa Tully, who is the sister of Cat Stark. Their symbol is a falcon.

The Nightwatch: Not a House, per se. When you join the Nightwatch, you forsake all familial ties (though Benjen obviously still has affection for his brother Ned). They sit in the North, guarding the kingdom of Westeros from whatever lies on the far side. When the books start, White Walkers have not been seen in centuries and are considered a myth. North of the wall, there are Wildlings (savages), and that's generally what people think the Nightwatch is keeping them safe from.

I think that's everyone we've been introduced to without spoilers on where the stories are going and without spoilers on backstory that gets dramatically revealed down the line.

Clearly this is a show I need to watch instantly if I have any hopes of keeping up.

Or catch the recaps, but yes..this is not a procedural show where it all wraps up in a episode.

Imagine how it is for us who have been waiting for the next book since 2005.

The good thing is that my son will be reading these books when book 6 comes out.

I meant with the discussion threads.

Ratings out:

So HBO won't release official ratings for last night's brilliantly hyped premiere of Game of Thrones until tomorrow. But one early indicator suggests that the numbers probably won't break any records. Don't panic, GoT groupies: The good news is, HBO doesn't live or die by Nielsen's verdict, and we're about 98.5 percent certain that the network will green-light a second season of the epic fantasy. That said, let's look at what the first returns from Nielsen show.

According to data obtained by Vulture, GoT earned a 1.6 rating in Nielsen's overnight household sample. By way of comparison, last September's debut of Boardwalk Empire on HBO averaged a 2.8 rating in the overnights. Household ratings aren't used much anymore, with most networks tending to look at overall viewership or demographic averages to gauge a program's success. What's more, because of HBO's smaller distribution — it's in about 28 million homes — household overnight ratings can vary substantially from the national total viewer figure. All of these caveats aside, down is down: Based on this snapshot of its performance, it's clear GoT won't come close to matching the nearly 5 million viewers who watched the Boardwalk Empire premiere in September.

In fairness, despite the massive marketing, GoT had a big disadvantage versus Boardwalk: The latter series was heavily promoted during HBO's airings of massive hit True Blood. By contrast, HBO's on-air promos for GoT aired during Mildred Pierce, which failed to crack a million viewers last week. It's also worth noting that True Blood began small — attracting fewer than 2 million viewers when it debuted. It's now HBO's biggest hit, with an audience three times as big as it started with.

Out of curiosity, how old is your son?

9 months lol.

That sounds about right.

I was thinking after watching that this is a story that might work better for non-readers on DVD/BD, where they can watch several episodes at a time. I can imagine people forgetting what's what and who's who from week to week, but maybe I don't give general audiences enough credit.

Hmm, still, less than they hoped I'm sure.

It is a good thing that they don't intend to go over any of this in future episodes.




And two questions:



And was the bald old guy with the tied off beard during the beheading supposed to be Cassell? I assumed so, but couldn't hear.

Nice!

Also here is the link to the HBO viewers guide for the houses which has pics, profiles, and family trees. There is also a map with all the major points of interest that you can click on for more info.

http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of.../guide/houses/

Yup that was Ser Rodrik Cassel

They're not just "the rival family." They're one part among MANY. And since you didn't seem to get this from the dialoge (I thought it was crystal clear, but then I come in knowing the story), they were the royal family before they were overthrown by the current king (Robert, with the help of Eddard) and forced into exile. Their father was the king who held the throne before Robert.

If you keep watching, I think you'll discover that calling them "the rival family" is rather an amusing statement. You're assuming a level of simplicity that's just never going to be there.

FWIW, if this series does not get renewed, it seems like this first season will be a good launching pad to get people interested in the books and establish mental images of everything. It's not like there will be no options to get more story if it gets canned after two or three seasons like Deadwood.

Yup this, we will get a ending.

Well...given Martin's speed of writing, that's still highly debatable! But we will have the option to explore more on our own nonetheless.

One thing is for certain, there is no way they can keep True Blood going long enough to cover all of Harris' books.

Seems like even if the ratings aren't super-high, HBO would probably continue on with the series based solely on their international sales. Interest abroad for GoT has been quite high.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034893?refCatId=19

I think a second season is likely, though if it doesn't get good ratings or big Emmy awards I doubt it will go beyond two.