Game of Thrones

We might not like to admit it, but Cersei Lannister is currently winning in Game of Thrones. 'The Queen's Justice' saw Daenerys left with basically no allies as Jaime Lannister got rid of Olenna Tyrell and Cersei (Lena Headey) got her revenge on Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) for killing her daughter. And what a revenge it was, with Cersei leaving Ellaria chained up to watch her daughter slowly die from poison in front of her eyes. As well as being a chilling scene, it turns out that the Game of Thrones showrunners were potentially dropping another hint that Cersei is turning into the Mad Queen, following her use of wildfire in the explosive season six finale. Cersei's revenge against Ellaria has parallels with the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen, and his punishment of Rickard Stark, Ned's father. Aerys had Rickard tied up and burned alive as Ned's brother Brandon watched, eventually strangling himself to death to free himself from a noose to reach the s...

Sophie Turner, best known as Sansa Stark in the hit HBO show Game of Thrones, has a lot of followers on social media. And according to Turner, producers take that kind of thing into consideration when casting different projects. In fact, Turner says that she only got a recent acting gig because she has a large presence on social media. Turner has built up a huge audience online, with 1.35 million followers on Twitter, 5.4 million followers on Instagram, and over 2 million followers on Facebook. And according to a new interview, those numbers helped her secure a role that may have been better suited to an actress with fewer followers. “A lot of what I have achieved is about timing and luck, but it is also, and I hate to say it, about a big social-media following,” Turner said in the latest issue of Porter magazine. “I auditioned for a project and it was between me and another girl who is a far better actress than I am, far better, but I had the followers, so I got the job,” Tu...

Season 7, Episode 3 of Game of Thrones had plenty of plot twists and shocking moments to keep even the most casual viewer coming back for more. But after a few re-watches, even more layers of the story come to light. Here’s a spoiler-free look at all the book and show references, callbacks, and Easter eggs you might have missed from “The Queen’s Justice.” In Defense of Ned: As hesitant as we are to contradict the Mother of Dragons (especially when she’s in full, imperious queen mode), we should probably stand up for Ned Stark here. Daenerys besmirches Ned’s honor by implying that he was complicit in any or all of the assassination attempts on her life. In fact, Ned threw down with his best friend Robert several times over the safety of both Daenerys Targaryen and her unborn child in Season 1. He even (temporarily) quit as Hand of the King over it, declaring: “You’re speaking of murdering a child.” I’m sure Lord Varys—who was in the room when that happened—would have come to N...

If 2017 had to be the year of the cyber attack, HBO might have hoped that their time would come after the current season of Game Of Thrones was done. No such luck, though — with over half of Season 7 still to air, some sad hacker has decided to target the channel, stealing 1.5 terabytes of their data, presumably just to ruin Thrones for the 10 million+ people who watch it religiously. The company announced Monday afternoon that they had "recently experienced a cyber incident." Here's the statement in full: "HBO recently experienced a cyber incident, which resulted in the compromise of proprietary information. We immediately began investigating the incident and are working with law enforcement and outside cybersecurity firms. Data protection is a top priority at HBO, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect the data we hold." What's actually contained within the leak isn't yet known, although the hackers have released upcoming episode...

Everyone seemed to agree on one thing about the latest Game of Thrones episode — the dialogue and the acting was the best of the season so far, the show at its finest, apart from Bran Stark. Finally reunited with sister Sansa after years in the wilderness, Bran's return to Winterfell was anti-climatic thanks to his stone-face and controversial way of revealing his powers of omnipresence. At their first meeting, as Sansa stood, teary-eyed and taken aback at the sight of her brother, Bran didn't even crack the slightest of smiles, doing his best impression of a socially awkward teenager who passively skim-read "How To Be Cool For Dummies." Things got even weirder later; as he explained his new role as the Three-Eyed Raven meant he could see everything, he decided to tell Sansa she looked pretty the night she married (and was viciously raped by) Ramsay Bolton. Not strange at all, mate. But there could be a valid reason for Bran's bizarre behavior, and for now...

I think by now everybody knows that the Game of Thrones writers are pretty damn clever. They clearly think things out seasons in advance and have probably got the whole thing locked-in until the end of the series. So when a fan notices a conversation from way back in season 1 that only comes full circle in the latest episode, it’s not hard to argue that this was probably not a coincidence. Cersei is pretty unstable, she’s actually a full-blown megalomaniac by all Game of Thrones accounts, and she’s more than likely going to meet a very sticky end. To fully support this, Redditor pnr32 highlighted a conversation from season one episode 5: I know she wont want to do it this way, but they're (kind of) all she has left... Cersei Lannister: He's not serious enough. I'll say this for Ned Stark: he's serious enough. Was it really worth it? Losing him this way? [Robert places the cup on the table and stands] Robert Baratheon: I don't kno...