I tend to watch them the evening, here, after broadcast in the states, which is naughty, but f**k it, I'm f**ked if I'm going to spend more on TV Channels than I already do.

The Red Wedding came as a bit of a shock, to say the least, as at that point I hadn't read the books, and whilst I saw it coming, it still came as a bit of a 'F**k Me' moment as the credits rolled.

The Jon Snow stabbing, I knew about, and I was worried they were going to leave it out (essentially its how the last book ended, more or less).

As for books vs Series, the series is a lot better, and is actually focused compared to G R R Martins incessant over focus on the irrelevant (a factor common in fantasy writing). They're all right (book 2 aside) but they're no where near as well written as people would have you believe.

Above average, decent fantasy is however very rare.

Rubbish. I started reading the books in the late 90s and the only problem with them is that there was too big a gap in between them.

The series is undeniably very very good, but the books are without doubt better.

Edited by OknotOK (01 Jul 2015 3.34pm)

My problem with the books is that they meander and get side tracked so often, and lack a coherence that the Series presents, and the author has a hardon for utterly superflusious side lines and details that actually serve no constructive or artistic value (In fact they read like a first draft screen adaptation - which is GRR Martins background).

The series manages to strike a much broader impact with its themes and control a stories that the novels really can't. The only aspect the novels have to offer over the series, really is some depth in terms of historical background etc.

Too loose, often poorly constructed and overly verbose for my liking, book 2 meandered through pointless exposition after exposition, and there is definitely a case that their idea of the continuity across time, rather than 'skipping time' was a very poor decision, that ultimately served only to drag it out to create another 'Robert Jordon' rather than a real work of art.

Margere for me, don't really know why she absolutely tops my list, but there is just something about her, that's totally saucy.

No one bats an eye when she's f***s a kid either!

In terms of shocking moments for me, as I'd neither read the books or heard one spoiler and blitzed 5 series, it was the wedding at the end of season 3. I then was more shocked by Cersai's walk of shame and wondered how you would actually go about filming such a long, difficult scene with so many extras involved.

I don't know what the episode was called that was entirely on The Wall, but that was a quality epsisode.

I didn't think for one second Sansa and Reek killed themselves. I hope Ayra Stark isn't permanently blinded and did wonder what happened to the two boys, as they didn't feature in the whole 5th season. Didn't guess it would be study leave lol.