You may have heard, the new and final series of Game of Thrones aired last night (Sunday 14) in the US, for anyone in the UK – Monday 15 April.
The world’s most popular TV show is finally back after nearly two long years.
In February this year, a date was set for when the show was going to be back on our screens giving fans enough time to refresh and new fans time to catch up with previous episodes.
I know right, it’s quite hard to imagine that there are people out there who haven’t watched Games of Thrones.
For some people, the wait was just way too much.
For those people, Wood Rocket has released a Game of Thrones porn parody, and you won’t believe what they’ve called it.
At the time of series 4, GoT had an average viewing audience of 18.4 million, beating the record that The Sopranos previously held.
By season 7, the average per-episode viewing figure was over 30 million. That is an absolutely astonishing number, especially given how much choice there is days, and the fact that it’s not on Netflix.
The TV show is actually based on a book series.
GoT is actually based on a series of books called A Song of Ice and Fire. They have been written by George R. R. Martin, who is actually from New Jersey, although the books take a lot of their inspiration from European history, in particular the War of the Roses between Yorkshire and Lancashire.
A Game of Thrones is actually only the name of the first book in the series.
George R. R. Martin first started writing the books in 1991, with the first being published in 1996. It has been 28 years since he first started writing them, and he is still only writing the sixth book out of a total of seven.
His health isn’t too good either, so people were worried that they would never find out what will happen. But apparently, he shared it with the show’s creators, so that they could finish the story if anything ever happened to him.
Luckily he’s still going strong, but the book fans are going to still have to wait a few years to find out what happens.
If it feels difficult to keep track of who’s who in Westeros, that’s because there actually are so many characters. In fact, there are 533 listed characters in the TV show.
Although it does list uncredited roles, that’s not including the hundreds of extras that are needed for any crowd or battle.
That’s nothing on the book series though. Somebody ran the book through a supercomputer, and it found 2,103 characters mentioned.
No wonder it can feel confusing.
The plot of GoT might seem fiendishly complicated with over a hundred cast members, but it’s actually a bit simpler than it first seems.
It follows three major storylines.
Let’s break it down, one storyline follows the battle for the iron throne in Westeros, the second one, follows the life outside of Westeros through the story of the deposed ruling dynasty (Daenerys), and the final story follows the defense of the realm against everything north of The Wall.
Let’s take a look first at what’s been going on in Westeros, so we can enjoy the porn parody in all its glory.
At the start of GoT, the throne belongs to Robert Baratheon, as his army overthrew the mad king, Aerys II Targaryen.
With the death of Robert, it fell to his (alleged) sons; Joffrey and then Tommen, although this was hotly contested.
In short, everyone. The people with the best claim to the throne were Robert’s two younger brothers; Stannis and Renly Baratheon.
House Tyrell decided to throw their hat in the ring too, since Margaery had married Tommen.
Since the Lannisters betrayed Ned Stark, the north has been at war with the south, and the Starks have been at war with the Lannisters.
The Starks are known for being far more loyal and just rulers than the Lannisters, so they are well-respected although less wealthy.
Most people in the north think that the ruler of the north should be the ruler of Westeros, and at the moment that role is split between John and Sansa.
Okay, but who is actually on the throne at the moment?
Cersei Lannister is currently the Queen of the seven kingdoms, although not many of the kingdoms agree with that.
As Robert’s wife, Joffrey and Tommen’s mother, and daughter of the filthy rich Lord Tywin Lannister, she assumed the position on the throne when everyone else was dead.