Watching Game of Thrones, much like coming to WIC to talk about Game of Thrones, is a social activity for many. There are a lot of folks that gather with their friends each week to have “watch parties” so they can take in all the blood-splattering, fire-breathing goodness of HBO’s hit series.

If you’re throwing a GOT watch party, why not have some specialty cocktails to add to the fun?

Jessica Kinney of Winter is Coming Live will now be filming weekly segments during which she presents a Thrones-themed cocktail and shows the audience just how to whip it up.

This week, Jessica is showing us how to make a Red Wedding Martini.

After the jump.

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In Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones we were introduced to a fully formed Reek, the last remaining piece of Theon Greyjoy after a torturous, and often cringeworthy Season 3. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Alfie Allen promises his Season 4 scenes will be easier to watch, as Reek’s torture takes a new shape.

“It gets dark. I don’t think people will find it as hard to watch this year. It depends what kind of person you are. It’s more of a mental torture than it is physical. It’s daunting as an actor. I have to do more telling of the story with my eyes than with words. I’ve never really done that type before.”

But the screaming isn’t completely over. Alfie hints, “oh, actually, there is some hoarse-throat moments for me, so look forward to that.”

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HBO’s Game of Thrones brandishes a consistent and high degree of fidelity to the nearly 5,000-page-long source material of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, but there still, of course, are differences. While most of these gaps from the page to the screen are small and detail-oriented, it is nonetheless the case that the most subtle discrepancies often hold the biggest insight into the adaptation process, into the demands of filmmaking, and into the rigors of the literary narrative.

This, then, is the anatomy of a key scene of Thrones – not because of its dramatic importance or visual effects whizbangery, but because of the telling nature of its realization.

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Yes, the title of the post says it all. April 17th marks exactly three years since the first ever episode of Game of Thrones aired on HBO. What a ride it has been! And it’s nowhere near the end yet.

• In April we started getting the very first reviews, including ones from major publications, and they were positive.
• Phil travelled to NYC for his GoT experience that included the first Winter is Coming moot, with Finn Jones attending as well.
• Our founding father provided us with the first impression of the first episode.
• Soon, we were able to form our own impressions, as two weeks before the premiere HBO shared the opening 14 minutes of the show with us. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to see it, and then returning to bed all excited. They did it, they actually pulled it off!
• Since we like viewership numbers, here is a bit of trivia: the 14-minute preview actually made the charts, with 0.72 million people watching it. Crazy for a preview.
• This mother of all behind-the-scenes videos aired: the half an hour of Making Game of Thrones.
• One more trailer, called Poison, aired a week before the premiere.
• Gemma Jackson introduced the iconic throne room set to us.
• HBO was confident in the second season. And we got one as well. (Now, we have six, in case you have forgotten!)
• The infamous New York Times review by Ginia Bellafante saw the light of day, and triggered quite an epic response among writers and bloggers around the internet, including one from GRRM.
• The coundown clock finally reached zero.
• Do you want to see the very first edition of FaB’s twitter posts? Here it is.
• Our game of ratings started right here. The first episode was seen by 2.22 million viewers.
• The GoT opening credits sequence received its share of well-deserved attention and praise.
• Not only had we seen the first two episodes by the end of April, but A Dance with Dragons was completed as well. What a month for the fans that was!

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It’s been a very purple week, and in an effort to cheer everyone up Entertainment Weekly has released some fun videos of Game of Thrones cast members taking their Pop Culture Personailty Test.

First up is what turns out to be the dynamic duo of Alfie Allen and John Bradley. The pair talk Spice Girls, The Sound of Music, and Showgirls, with many embarrassing moments to be witnessed.

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Fashionista has debuted their new weekly feature, “Fashion of the Realm,” which will be inspired by each new episode of Game of Thrones. In their first feature they talk with costume designer Michele Clapton and hair designer Kevin Alexander to get the details on Margaery’s gown, and the ladies’ wedding hairstyles.

Spanning nearly 6 weeks and 3 fittings, inspired by the Tyrell House Sigil, Margaery’s wedding gown was created with painstaking detail.

Fashionista: How did you craft all the roses?
Michele Clapton: They were hand rolled and stitched. And there were a lot! The thorns were also hand-made in leather.

Any symbolism in the dress?
The fabric is a linen silk mix and has leaves woven into it. This led beautifully into my idea of a creeping  briar rose that, although pretty, will draw blood if you catch yourself on its thorns and can end up smothering its host. Pretty but dangerous!

What about that crown?
The idea of the briar rose is continued into the crown where it wraps around the Baratheon antlers [Joffrey's sigil]. This was to show her creeping influence, which is not lost on Cersei.

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Social media wasn’t the only thing buzzing after Sunday’s new episode of Game of Thrones. Torrent Freak has reported that The Lion and the Rose broke the record for the largest BitTorrent swarm ever, as people from all over the world clamored to see what all of the fuss was about.

The episode was downloaded by roughly 1.5 million people in its first day of release, but even more impressively, had close to 200,000 people sharing a single file a few hours after it appeared online.

Torrent Freak explains, “the tracker reported that 193,418 people where sharing one single torrent. 145,594 had a complete copy of the episode and continued to upload, while 47,824 were still downloading the file. These are unprecedented numbers – never before have 193,418 people shared a single file simultaneously.”

The Lion and the Rose stole the throne from, well, themselves. The previous record was held by the finale of Game of Thrones Season 3, with 171,527 people sharing on a single tracker. The premiere of Season 4 garnered about 140,000.

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Welcome once again to the Player of Thrones.

Player of Thrones posts will be utilized to highlight new characters from HBO’s Game of Thrones, and also return to some familiar faces.

I encourage you to discuss what role you think this character plays in the Game of Thrones. If you do choose to talk about the character with spoilers, please remember to use our spoiler veil of magic.

With that being said our second feature is focusing on a player that we are all familiar with. After hearing some of your comments on my twitter page @WiCThoros I have been enlightened to bring you a feature on The Red Priestess Melisandre. 

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Winter is Coming Live chat “Maester” Bryan Forrest is a pretty talented dude. When he isn’t fielding your questions during WIC’s official Game of Thrones recap show, Bryan is an actor, stuntman and a blacksmith!

That is why we knew we were lucky to get Bryan to help out on WIC Live. Recently, we decided to start filming a short new segment called “Weapons of Westeros” where Bryan could talk a little bit about some of the weaponry used in Game of Thrones.

After the jump, check out the first edition of “Weapons of Westeros” where Bryan takes a look at the ancestral sword of House Stark.

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For those of you who like your recaps/reviews to be a bit more…animated, here are some video wrap-up and discussions, based on your own recommendations. In these posts, we will compile a collection of video reviews and recaps with varying degrees of irreverence (and length!).

Many thanks for helping sort the written recaps; your comments have been invaluable. For now, categories for videos will be Book Readers, Unsullied or a combination of the two.

SourceFed Nerd hosts discuss the shocks and surprises of episode 2. Show Watchers, Moderated by Book Reader.

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Rejoice, Tweepies! Revenge is a dish best served cold, preferably at the hands of one’s loyal cupbearer!

You know what time it is! It’s Twiiiiiitter tiiiiiime agaaaaaain! (For a taster-sized version of some of this episode’s epic tweets, check out this Twitter post from Sunday night!)

These sweet Tweets were culled from George R.R. Martin’s wildly popular episode “The Lion and the Rose.” Directed by Alex Graves, this sucker’s gonna go down as one of the better ones. At the very least on the strength of that last half hour.

So I, the amiable @Axechucker, along with my partner in crime @The_Rabbit01, greedily collected thoughts and feels from around the globe. And here we have them for you!

My all-stars for this episode: @TaraGiancaspro, @duckandcover, and @BlackGirlNerds respectively. Take a bow, ladies! (And y’all can follow ‘em on Twitter if you so desire!)

(An extra special star to any #FakeWesteros people playing Joffrey on Twitter. There was some epic Joffers stuff from them.)

No more pussyfooting around! Let’s git it awn!

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Charitybuzz is in the habit of making dreams come true while making a difference with their online charity auctions, and they’re about to make some Game of Thrones fans very happy.

Ballintoy Harbour of Northern Ireland transforms into Dragonstone for Game of Thrones Season 4

Currently up for auction, and generously donated by David Benioff, is a trip to the set of Game of Thrones Season 5 in Northern Ireland. The winning bidder will be one of the first to see the drama unfold before their eyes, and as an added bonus will get to spend one hour with Thrones co-creator David Benioff. (Plenty of time to squeeze spoilers out of him!)

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