Yeah, apparently they dropped the Tower of Joy and the whole, "Promise me, Ned!" stuff because on-screen it would be way, way too obvious what was going on. Apparently they'll come into it a different way later on in the series.

Assuming the show's success is maintained (and HBO have safeguarded it through early pre-sales to other countries, which means each season is 50% paid for before they shoot a frame of footage), GRRM's progress is irrelevant. If they overtake him and have to create an ending based on his outline and notes, that's what…

Yeah, the Red Wedding is almost certainly going to be the final episode (or almost so) of Season 3.

Indeed. Martin has always said he made the kids too young, and would have aged them up 2-4 years if he could do it again. For the TV series, they've already done that. He's also said he regrets putting quite so many balls in the air in the books, as it's made resolving the storyline in the books more complex than it…

It happens offpage in the second book. The Freys at Harrenhal hear about it at the end of A CLASH OF KINGS, as Arya sees them throwing a massive strop but neither she nor the reader knows why. We only find out what happens in SWORDS. So chronologically it takes place in the timeframe of the second novel.

To be honest, they handled Worf much, much better on DS9 than on TNG. Okay, partly because of his rich backstory (developed on TNG), but because they had allowed Worf to grow up and mature a bit and not respond to every situation stupidly with "Attack! Fire! Kill!"

There's a full list of connections between Earth and the SW universe given here:

They've cast Roose, but they haven't cast Ramsay. That has led some to believe that the Winterfell storyline in Season 2 will end before the Book 2 one does, possibly on a more dramatic cliffhanger (a suitable one immediately comes to mind).

The setting is rich enough to support two very popular pen-and-paper RPGs, multiple board games and war games and a MUSH that's been running for a decade and a half, not to mention a whole companion guidebook to the world that's coming out next year.

The licensing thing is a bit complicated. Martin has a deal with Cyanide allowing them to make games based on the books. HBO has a deal with these guys allowing them to make an MMORPG. However, HBO and Cyanide also reached a one-off deal allowing them to use some of the TV show's visual look in the RPG, just to…

I haven't played it but it got absolutely universally slated, even moreso by fans of the books.

It's worth noting that Shepard's pet hamster in MASS EFFECT 2 is actually a nod to the hamster from BG1+2. They even have the same sound effect :-)

There's also the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series, BLOOD AND CHROME. The pilot episode has apparently just been completed and SyFy is looking for a relase date for it, so there's some hope there. There was also some movement on the BLAKE'S 7 remake in the UK last year, although that seems to have stalled again.

I think that both Microsoft and especially Sony will want their next-generation consoles to be as profitable as possible. They're not going to want to spend another 3 years making a loss on every unit sold. For that reason, I expect the next generation consoles to skew towards the conservative side on the specs front…

The invasion of Iraq was in March 2003. The first English translation of the novel was February 2003. However, the film was released in December 2000 with an English-subtitled version available the following year.

HG has to pull a lot of its punches and often resorts to superficial characterisation (especially of everyone who isn't Katniss). The ending is also implausibly saccharine. BR is psychologically more realistic (the event leaves serious traumatic scars on everyone involved) and the ending is harsher. BR also has much…

In the novel and movie of BR the winner is sometimes interviewed or profiled after the game's conclusion and there are discussions about it. In fact, at the start of the movie you see the winner of a previous event being filmed on camera and a news reporter trying to talk to them, but they've been rendered insensible…

Probably rightly so, as it's a bit odd that native Qartheen - from a city far further south even than Dorne with its Meditarranean/North African-coloured residents - would have such a complexion in the first place. The warlocks who have probably been recruited from all over, sure, not to mention the numerous…

No, he doesn't have the right to sell the image. Can he make and post it? Sure. But sell it? No. I just informed GRRM's representatives about this and they are not happy, to put it mildly. If the image was a satirical derivative of the original material (like some of the other posters he has) that would be one thing,…

"The Dominion is never for a moment meant to be seen as having a point or being in the right."