Game of Thrones A-Z (7 page)

Arryn is only seen for a few seconds briefly in episode one, but he is one of the most important characters – as it is his death that sets off the events of the entire series. He was like a father to Eddard and Robert as Warden of the East, and, when the Mad King wanted them to be turned over, he refused, fighting several Lords over the decision.

He fought on Robert’s side during his attempt to take over the throne, and married Lysa Tully in a bid to gain her father’s powerful support.

After Robert took the crown, he made his ‘second’ father the Hand. Arryn advised Robert to marry Cersei Lannister, believing that a cemented alliance with Tywin Lannister would ensure that finance would never be an issue. However, Robert would still spend an extravagant amount of money on tournaments.

Arryn and Stannis Baratheon later figure out that Robert was not the father to Cersei’s children; it was, in fact, Jaime Lannister, her brother. Arryn was killed before he could tell anyone else the news. The second Hand, Ned Stark, is beheaded near the end of series one.

In series two, Tywin Lannister is King Joffrey’s Hand, with Tyrion acting Hand. Tyrion plays an integral part in the Battle of Blackwater but is not really credited for the victory and is soon replaced by his father.

SPOILER:
When Tommen Baratheon becomes King, Tywin Lannister, Harys Swyft, Orton Merryweather and Mace Tyrell have all been his Hand.

HBO

The year 2010 saw, as 
Entertainment Weekly
 described it, a miraculous recovery for HBO – aka Home Box Office.

The company had been hit by accusations that the trailblazing network credited for injecting new life into tired US dramas and sitcoms had lost its mojo. But that year showed impressive signs that it was back.

True Blood
 was hugely popular for it, as was comedy 
Eastbound & Down
. It also had
Treme
, from the writers of 
The Wire
, and 
Boardwalk Empire
 – the searing prohibition drama that was produced by Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese. It also had 
Game of Thrones
, albeit only as a pilot, but already heat was building up about the project.

HBO’s programming president, Michael Lombardo, found the storytelling more appealing than the low-key magic or the exotic milieu, despite the network’s new developmental policy to ‘take shots at shows that we wouldn’t have taken a shot at five years ago’. In August 2010, Lombardo made an unusual confession – he didn’t particularly care for fantasy stories: ‘It wasn’t the genre we responded to, it was the storytelling,’ he said. ‘There’s enormous pressure on the 
Game of Thrones
 people. It’s a very sophisticated audience; you have to get it right.’

There were comparisons with 
True Blood
, with HBO executive Richard Plepler admitting, ‘Alan [Ball, creator of 
True Blood
,] has created this extremely compelling and addictive world. When you get passionate fan bases, they talk with each other and that’s catalytic.’

HBO has nearly 30 million subscribers, and broadcasts to over 150 countries. The network’s origins go back to 1965, when Charles Dolan won a franchise to build a cable system in New York, which became the first urban underground cable system in the US. Calling it the Sterling Manhattan Cable, he laid the cable underneath the streets because the large buildings blocked TV signals.

Time-Life, a production company, bought a 20 per cent stake in the company, agreeing to back Dolan’s idea of the Green Channel – which would become HBO in November 1972.

The pay-for channel showed films and sporting events, but it would constantly lose customers, who grew weary of watching the same films and subsequently cancelled their subscription. However, the channel would continue to innovate with satellite technology and original programming, including HBO’s first made-for-pay-TV movie aired in 1983. Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications in 1989, and HBO is now a part of Time Warner.

The turnaround in fortune, and a sign of things to come, came with 
The Larry Sanders Show
 in 1992. Starring Gary Shandling, the fly-on-the-wall comedy/drama of a late-night television show was a major success, winning awards, and it clearly influenced other HBO comedy shows like 
Curb Your Enthusiasm
. Because it’s a subscription-only service, there is more freedom to use explicit content such as profanity and nudity.

HBO’s first one-hour drama series was prison drama 
Oz
, and they followed that up with
The Sopranos
. The mafia drama would run to six seasons and become part of pop culture. Scoring an astonishing 111 Emmy nominations, the show has been praised for its dark content and well-drawn characters. There is no right or wrong, and the narrative structure, normally so tight and rigid when it comes to episode TV, is fluid and loose. There wasn’t always an explosive third act and a reveal could happen any time, not just as the end credits rolled – a formula that had served TV for decades. People died when you least expected it and the main characters didn’t learn moral lessons at the end.

More impressive shows followed, but they broke new grounds once again in 2002 with
The Wire
. A slow burner in every sense, the show, about Baltimore cops tackling, in vain, the drug culture that permeates the city from the very top to the very bottom, took a while to get going, and even longer to get an audience.

But there comes a point when the show clicks: it could be the simple shot of D’Angelo playing chess in the middle of a council estate or Jimmy McNulty encouraging his children to spy on a prominent drug dealer in an outdoor market. But, when it does, 
The Wire
 is pure TV addiction –each episode layered with so much love and detail in the characters that frequent this realistic world. The show would eventually find an audience, and they would become ardent supporters, spreading the word to anyone who listened.

HBO continues to roll out programmes of the highest order – most recently 
Boardwalk Empire
and 
True Blood
. And, of course, 
Game of Thrones
.

One of the criticisms levelled at HBO is that it doesn’t do enough to tackle piracy. 
Game of Thrones
 is one of the most pirated shows in the US. According to Forbes’ Andy Greenberg, ‘The second season of the show has been downloaded more than 25 million times from public torrent trackers since it began in early April, and its piracy hit a new peak following 30 April’s episode, with more than 2.5 million downloads in a day.’

Season one was the most pirated show of all time, behind season six of 
Dexter.
‘HBO hasn’t helped the problem by making the show tough to watch online for the young and cable-less,’ notes Greenberg. ‘The show isn’t available through Hulu or Netflix, iTunes offers only season one, and using HBO’s own streaming site HBO Go requires a cable subscription.’

I

ILLYRIO MOPATIS

Illyrio Mopatis resides in the Free City of Pentos. He is a rich man thanks to his dealings in a range of spices and dragon bones. He and Varys concocted a scheme whereby Varys would steal precious objects from thieves, and Illyrio would retrieve them for their previous owners for a small fee. It would make them very rich, and their wealth would continue to grow through his very first spy network.

Mopatis’ main aim is to find a way for the exiled Targaryens to reclaim their place on the Iron Throne and is using Varys’ influence as the Kingdom’s master whisperer to achieve that.

Obese, with a yellow stained beard, Mopatis used to be an exceptionally handsome Sellsword. He has a daily reminder of that time, with a marble statue of him as a naked boy, lithe and handsome, adorning his marble pool. He is close to crying when he sees the difference between the way he looked as a young boy compared to how he is now.

It was at his home that he watched over Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, after agreeing to take them in, but it is revealed that he once thought of killing Viserys so that he could marry his young sister, Daenerys. But he soon realised her timid nature would not be a suitable match for him.

His protection over them seems to stem from a monetary interest rather than true love, as Viserys is said to have promised him the Master of Coin title when he became King. In return, Mopatis massages Viserys’ ego by telling him that Westeros are desperate for him to return and toasts his victory. He is also the person that brokered the arranged marriage between Daenerys and Khal Drogo.

IRON THRONE

It may not look the most comfy of chairs, with its jagged edges, twisted metal, spikes and hard surface, but the Iron Throne is the greatest seat in Westeros. It’s the seat of the Kings, and the whole saga of 
A Song of Ice and Fire
 series is about who will finally sit upon it.

The throne is made from a thousand swords surrendered by Aegon the Conqueror’s enemies. Aegon Targaryen was the first King of the Seven Kingdoms, and Balerion the Dragon heated and melted down the blades. He made it as uncomfortable as possible, ruling that a king should never sit easy. The Mad King (Aerys II Targaryen) is said to have cut himself several times.

Mark Addy, who plays King Robert, said, ‘I didn’t actually shoot any scenes in what is the Throne Room where the Iron Throne is, but we did a poster shoot and that was the only time I actually sat on the Iron Throne. It was interesting because you sat on it and went, “Oh this is not very comfy,” and the designers went, “Ha ha! Exactly!” because of course it’s not the place that you want to be. Whoever’s on the Iron Throne, you are right in the firing line there.’

The Throne Room was decorated with skulls of dragons, but Robert got rid of them in favour of hunting tapestries. The Throne is said to have killed several people, with the Throne Room the setting for the death of Richard and Brandon Stark, and Joffrey during his wedding feast.

SPOILER:
The current King to sit on the Iron Throne is Tommen Baratheon following the death of his older brother, Joffrey.

J

JAIME LANNISTER

The bad boy of Westeros, Jaime Lannister is a handsome, long-haired blond, with a swaggering machismo and a quick tongue. He is capable of doing the most dastardly of things to get his way. So the fact that he garners, if not sympathy, a sense of empathy is a great credit to Martin’s writing and Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s performance.

Jaime Lannister, more commonly known as the Kingslayer, is the first-born son of Tywin Lannister, arriving shortly after his twin sister Cersei. As Hand to the King, at 15 years old Jaime became the youngest person in history to become a member of the Mad King’s Kingsguard. He served King Aerys, and watched a series of horrific encounters during his time there including the death of Ned Stark’s brother and father.

When his father stormed the castle and raped and pillaged the town, Jaime discovered that the King had buried huge amounts of wildfire underneath the city and was going to use it to blow up King’s Landing. Disobeying his royal pledge, Jaime stabbed him in the back, killing him and warranting the unwanted nickname Kingslayer.

He watched his beloved sister marry Robert Baratheon, and she would have three children during their marriage.

However, the children, Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen, are not, in fact, Robert’s but Jaime’s. The twins had been inseparable growing up, and had begun to sexually experiment together when they were younger.

During one such incident, they are discovered by a servant who quickly tells their mother. As a result, she moves them to separate sides of the castles and forbids them from ever doing it again – something that obviously didn’t work.

Jaime leaves home at 11 to be a squire, but at 15 he visits his sister. While visiting her, he is told by Cersei that their father wants him to marry Lysa Tully, so she comes up with a plan that will see Jaime become a member of the Kingsguard, believing that this will keep them closer together and avoid Jaime being married off to another woman. They end up having sex and Cersei makes sure that he becomes a member of the royal order.

Jaime soon realises that the Mad King has only chosen him for the honour to get back at his father, of whom Aerys was jealous – robbing him of the chance to make his favourite son heir to Casterly Rock.

Their mother wasn’t the only person to discover Jaime and Cersei’s incest – Bran Stark discovers the pair having sex, while he is climbing an outbuilding. The consequence for Bran is life changing: Jaime throws him out of the window and, although he survives the massive fall, he is left a cripple. This incident triggers the divide between the Lannisters and the Starks, eventually leading to Jaime’s capture by Robb Stark’s army. On top of this, while remaining under Robb’s watch, unbeknown to Jaime, his beloved sister has begun a sexual relationship with their cousin, Lancel.

After being held prisoner by the Starks for some time, Jaime is eventually released by Catelyn Stark, an unlikely hero. Acting on her own behalf for the love of her family, and against Robb’s command, she wants to make an exchange for her two daughters. Catelyn doesn’t act in haste, though, and entrusts a fearsome female warrior named Brienne to take him back to King’s Landing with her terms. During their journey home, Jaime eventually warms to Brienne, even though he finds her one of the ugliest maids he has ever set his eyes upon.

SPOILER:
The journey back to King’s Landing is long, and on their way back they are captured. Their captors recognise Jaime straight away and taunt him for being the Kingslayer. As a punishment, they cut off his sword hand, leaving him with a rotting stump, and take him to Harrenhal as a captor. After he sinks into a deep depression on realising that the only thing that made him the fearsome man he was was his sword hand, it is Brienne who helps him recover. Eventually, Jaime is freed, but Brienne remains imprisoned. However, while making his way home, Jaime has a moving dream about her and heads back to Harrenhal to rescue his companion. After returning to King’s Landing, and following the death of Joffrey, Jaime meets up again with Cersei and they have sex right in front of their son’s corpse. However, Jaime has returned a changed man, and his relationship with Cersei falls apart soon after. When Tyrion is wrongly accused of murdering Joffrey – and sentenced to death – Jaime rescues him. He also learns that Cersei has been having affairs behind his back, and when, after leaving King’s Landing, he receives a letter from Cersei pleading with him to be her champion in a potential trial-by-combat ruling after she is imprisoned, he orders the letter to be burned.