• Game of Thrones is a medieval/fantasy/drama, with a lot of sex thrown in. Definitely not a common form of television. Katherine covers the mis’en’scene after me but in terms of the series as a whole the costume and props from the show clearly represent a kind of period piece. The dialogue is clearly from a medieval/fantasy, with all it’s vague references to unknown locations and dragons. The sets are nearly always on location. Filming in Croatia, Morocco, Northern Ireland and Iceland. The producers clearly want as much authenticity as possible.

The episode Baelor is the second last episode of season 1 of Game of Thrones. It sets up the continuing tradition of episode 9 being the culmination of all the seasons tensions. While episode 10 is a kind of epilogue. Essentially, the main tension this season has been the struggles between Lannister and Stark. In this episode these struggles finally come to a head in the form of battle and ultimately, death. Final victory is not achieved by either side, setting the tone for the next season.

• After the usual epic opening credits, the episode proper begins with Eddard Stark in the dungeons of Kings Landing. Varys, the spy master visits him and attempts to convince Eddard to confess to crimes he didn’t commit. Ned rebuffs him saying his honor is more important to him than his life. Varys mentions his daughters though, leaving us unsure as to what Ned is going to do. Eddard son meanwhile is attempting to cross a bridge so he may face Tywin Lannister in the field. Catelyn, Eddard’s wife, eventually finds a way for her sons army to cross by offering her sons hand in marriage to the Frey’s, who control the bridge.

• On the other side of the battlefield we see Tyrion Lannister getting ready for his first battle by befriending a camp follower by the name of Shae. He tells her a story about his childhood, culminating in more embarrassment for him. We cut away from the main story of the episode a couple of times, with both Jon in the far north and Danaery’s in the east. Jon is given a new sword that is admired by the rest of the nights watch, while Danaery’s tries to save her husband from death by enlisting a witch of sorts to preform some “blood magic”.

• Back in Westeros, the the battle between Tywin Lannister’s and Robb Stark’s armies commences, it turns out that Robb is a better tactician than Tywin thought. He tricked the Lannister army and captured Jamie Lannister, Tywin’s other son. After this victory of sorts we now come up to the scene that we have decided to analyse. Ned facing up to his supposed crimes.

• There are two types of TV series: episodic and serial, with Game of Thrones definitely being of the latter.

• Game of Thrones have important plots in almost every episode, if not every scene.

• Its complex and twisted storyline stir up heated discussions among viewers