Where have all the Wildlings gone?
April 13, 2013 5:47 AM   Subscribe

Game of Thrones: A graphic representation of the Game of Thrones. If you're not sure about the major houses of Westeros, the history, timeline, alliances, religions and incestuous relationships this will help and/or further confuse you.
posted by HuronBob (51 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
this will help and/or further confuse you

It sure is pretty, but the information is very, very non-obvious, even when you figure out that hovering over the circles reveals house (or other) affiliation. It seems the red triangles mean dead (per the show, not the books), but I can't figure out what the blue ones mean.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:19 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Speaking as the last person in the US to have not watched a single minute of GoT, I can't say that the graphic does anything to spur my desire to start watching. The labyrinthine overlaps and entanglements seem to imply to this non-viewer that the writers are taking the "throw a pan of pasta at the wall and describe the mess" approach to the show. Sort of like Lost, but not as clear and organized.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:24 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


About as useful as nipples on a breastplate.
posted by lalochezia at 6:37 AM on April 13, 2013 [5 favorites]


That's not actually true, Thorzdad. The writers have done a pretty good job of streamlining the show and making it less of an impenetrable mess. For one thing, a very large chunk of the characters depicted here are characters the average viewer doesn't need to be able to identify; for another, there are many characters listed here who are no longer actively part of the plot, and there are many who have only been recently introduced. The viewer doesn't have to know all of these people at the same time; they just have to know enough to follow week to week.

Also, unlike Lost, all the characters have clear trajectories; they may get waylaid, but there's very little mystery, and there is a clear underlying plot to the whole thing.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:39 AM on April 13, 2013 [5 favorites]


Also, you know, the one guy wrote the books.

The show has diverged, but only in ways that makes sense for the media transition, IMO
posted by flaterik at 6:54 AM on April 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


The writers have done a pretty good job of streamlining the show and making it less of an impenetrable mess.

So, then, this graphic is decidedly not an INFO graphic?
posted by Thorzdad at 7:02 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


GEEK ALERT: It's also erroneous. Maesters do not belong to any house, but instead serve whomever is lord to the castle or keep to which they are assigned. This was even made clear in the television series, when Winterfell falls to the Ironborn.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:06 AM on April 13, 2013


Thorzdad: "So, then, this graphic is decidedly not an INFO graphic?"

Yeah, it's more like a confusion graphic. But it's pretty.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:15 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Spoiler check: Before I click on this, is this "safe" for people who are up to the current episode in Season 3? Or does it reveal events that have happened in the books but not on the show yet?
posted by sparklemotion at 7:43 AM on April 13, 2013


Safe. It's tracking the TV version only.

(Since I last saw it a couple of characters introduced in last week's episode have been added; so maybe slightly spoilery if you're not up-to-date with the most recent episode of the show. Otherwise you'll be OK.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:58 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Sparklemotion, it's a TV-based graphic, so no worries there.

A good way to check when you read online articles, timelines, etc. (other than that the TV series has a different name than the book series) is to look up Theon's sister. If she's called "Asha", whatever you are reading is based on the books. If she's called "Yara", whatever you are reading is TV-based. (The TV writers quite sensibly realised that "Asha" would sound confusingly like "Osha" to TV viewers who weren't looking at the printed text!)

I agree with flaterik - most of the streamlining makes sense, even when it makes me - as a book reader - pine for lost content.

Spoilers go both ways, incidentally - the TV series keeps all the main characters onstage most of the time, and compresses some of the books' timelines to do so. As of last week, the TV series has included material from as far ahead as the start of book 5, even though this season nominally only covers the first half of book 3. So if you're reading the books and don't want to be spoiled, best to put the series on the DVR until you're done reading!
posted by Wylla at 7:58 AM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Thanks. I've only read the first book and I hadn't realized the Asha/Yara thing. I thought that people who were talking about Asha were just confused about the spelling of Osha.

Which of course caused even more confusion because how did Osha get to the iron islands anyways?
posted by sparklemotion at 8:06 AM on April 13, 2013


Aerrys Targarean?
posted by jeudi at 8:40 AM on April 13, 2013


I can't figure out what the blue ones mean.

New character I think.
posted by fleacircus at 10:30 AM on April 13, 2013


Alright, this is sort of confusing but if I'm reading the chart right Jorah Mormont is my great grandfather.
posted by mazola at 11:21 AM on April 13, 2013 [7 favorites]


I tried reading the 3rd book but I gave up 1/5th into it. He insists on naming every character's horse's uncle's sister with some unpronounceable name and I am not sure if this is important or not. So I will just watch the show, which is pretty.

But yeah, I agree with the general sentiment here, the website is pretty, but doesn't do much for me in regards to picking up the book and continue reading.
posted by nostrada at 12:11 PM on April 13, 2013


Spoiler check

Here we have a spoiler of a different sort.

I've read the books enthusiastically, and I eagerly wait for each TV episode, but these graphics lay out too much detail. Confronted with the minutia of the Fire and Ice world improbabilities, and particularly with the absurdities in its history, I've started to wonder why I'm bothering with this silliness.
posted by fredludd at 1:24 PM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Hello thread I'm from game of thrones I know you're walking through the woods going somewhere and youve never seen me before but I have a sword now let's go somewhere else entirely.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:22 PM on April 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Spoilers go both ways, incidentally - the TV series keeps all the main characters onstage most of the time, and compresses some of the books' timelines to do so. As of last week, the TV series has included material from as far ahead as the start of book 5, even though this season nominally only covers the first half of book 3. So if you're reading the books and don't want to be spoiled, best to put the series on the DVR until you're done reading!
posted by Wylla at 12:58 AM on April 14


At the risk of asking for spoilers (though I've no plans to read the books) what might this be in reference to?
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:34 PM on April 13, 2013


...what might this be in reference to?

The tortured man.

I totally understand the reasons, but it seems rather impatient. The reveal in the books was a very bright spot in a volume filled with doldrums.
posted by porpoise at 5:22 PM on April 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


The revelation of the tortured man didn't faze me (probably since I *have* read all the books), but I also don't see how they couldn't have revealed the tortured man -- that just seems to be the difference between print and video. Given the trimming that the producers have been doing with the books, I trust that they'll be streamlining much of book 5's doldrums...

For another instance of this, see also: in season 1 (and book 1, correspondingly), there is a conversation overheard. In the books, the character overhearing it doesn't know who is speaking (and as a result, the reader doesn't, either. Just from googling, I find several websites from years back that tried to "sleuth" who the characters were.) But in the show, since you've heard *both*speakers' voices, you know who the conversants are. [I don't recall if in the show they actually show the conversants as well..because the viewer would definitely have SEEN them earlier in the season, making this more dramatic irony than a mystery to be solved.]
posted by subversiveasset at 4:19 AM on April 14, 2013 [2 favorites]


There's also this infographic. It's a little out of date now -- I think it was created during the first season and then never updated. But I still find it easier to comprehend than the one in this post. And honestly you don't really need an infographic to watch the show, it just helps fill in the details. You can certainly understand the main gist of what's happening without any outside information.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:35 AM on April 14, 2013


Ouch!
posted by homunculus at 10:04 PM on April 14, 2013




Damn, that was good homunculus.

I'll raise you: The Hold Steady's take on The Bear and the Maiden Fair (with bonus spoilery [for this ep only] track cover art)
posted by sparklemotion at 8:16 AM on April 19, 2013


Anyone else seen the new intro yet?
posted by jeffburdges at 3:03 PM on April 22, 2013 [1 favorite]




Amusingly, I have Kent strongly associated with A Song of Ice and Fire. I learned about them almost simultaneously, and when I read fiction books I read non-stop almost without sleeping or eating, so I burned through them all before boring of Kent.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:57 PM on April 24, 2013








At this point it is clear that Jon Snow knows something about, well, you know.
posted by homunculus at 12:06 AM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]




And... now we know who the maid with honey in her hair is.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:31 PM on May 3, 2013


Game of Game of Thrones
posted by homunculus at 11:59 AM on May 5, 2013


I was not a huge fan of her character, but: poor, poor Ros.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:16 PM on May 5, 2013


Damn, I did not see that coming. Though in hindsight, of course that's what would happen. Fucking Little Boots, that rat bastard.
posted by homunculus at 10:11 PM on May 5, 2013


Ugh.
posted by homunculus at 10:16 PM on May 5, 2013


Damn, spoilered by the new and excellent Secret Metafilter page showing the end of this thread with the other active older Metafilter posts. Non-US based Game of Thrones fans beware!
posted by Flitcraft at 6:01 AM on May 6, 2013


Sorry, Flitcraft!
posted by ocherdraco at 7:47 AM on May 6, 2013


Well then, let's put in a few comments to push the spoilers off the page...

Didn't the Wall look crazily thin from the top? A couple of characters looked over the lip on the North side, turned around, walked across a little path, and were at the Southern edge. Aren't there supposed to be tunnels and passages through the ice? 700 hundred feet tall and 12 feet wide: you'd expect it to be swaying back and forth. The wildlings could have just dug right through it.
posted by painquale at 10:51 AM on May 6, 2013


you'd expect it to be swaying back and forth

The Wall is not the same thickness from base to top, as far as I know.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:03 AM on May 6, 2013




Here's something I'm not clear on: does Tywin Lannister understand that Arya Stark is not in King's Landing, or has no one had the courage to tell him?

I'm waiting for a scene in which Tywin asks about Arya, only to be told that she actually escaped a long time ago; it's thought that she was dressed as a boy accompanying a group of recruits for the Night Watch. And then it hits him. Heh.
posted by homunculus at 11:04 AM on May 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


The Wall is not the same thickness from base to top, as far as I know.

I think that's right to some extent, but the sides are almost always depicted as nearly vertical. Also, it certainly couldn't support Castle Black or any of the other fortresses unless it were vastly wider than pictured in that scene.

does Tywin Lannister understand that Arya Stark is not in King's Landing?

It is a little weird that he hasn't mentioned it yet!
posted by painquale at 11:38 AM on May 6, 2013






New GoT thread.
posted by homunculus at 1:34 PM on May 7, 2013


The new thread has taken a sadly spoilery turn. I'll just hang out here until they kick me out.
posted by sparklemotion at 4:01 PM on May 12, 2013


Darn. We can hide here until this thread closes tomorrow morning, but then we'll be out in the cold.
posted by homunculus at 6:00 PM on May 12, 2013


I hope the bear doesn't get an infection.
posted by homunculus at 10:25 PM on May 12, 2013


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