The Gathering Storm

There's a beast in every man and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand...

March has arrived which means it's finally less than a month until Game of Thrones returns for its highly anticipated third season. Audiences have been dying to see more of the hugely popular and critically acclaimed HBO series pretty much from the second the second finished but have been forced to wait over nine months. Babies have been born who have never even known the winter, however, winter is... you know, soon. The first trailer for Game of Thrones Season 3 debuted in front of last Friday's Jimmy Kimmel Live! and quickly reminded us that "death is coming for everyone and everything." Just in case you were looking for things to get better and/or a happy ending. Readers of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series are well aware of the shocking events that (could be) coming this season and the trailer did a great job of hinting at a few such moments without revealing anything to those who only watch GoT.

Continuing to ramp up promotion for the soon to air third season, HBO just released a dozen character posters followed by this extended version of the aforementioned "Bones" preview. There are only 20 seconds or so of extra footage but the added bits are pretty great and definitely worth watching. We got our first glimpse of Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye), the Red Priest of R'hllor, with the new character saying the now iconic words ("the night is dark and full of terror") to Melisandre as well as the Brotherhood Without Banners sat around a campfire. It is followed by Cersei and Tyrion Lannister having the following sibling exchange: "You're not half as clever as you think you are" / "Still makes me more clever than you." Touché. Then there's Bran awakening in a forest and being approached by an unidentified figure; and Joffrey reclining with his crossbow before a shot of Cersei accompanied by Catelyn Stark's words to Robb, "Show them how it feels to lose what they love".


Elsewhere Yara Greyjoy, sister to Theon, walks through a group of armed soldiers; Brienne of Tarth is having a bite-y looking fight and Jaime Lannister warms himself near a fire. An unidentified woman at Littlefinger's brothel moves playfully on all fours towards the camera and Joffrey looks worried on the Iron Throne, as well he might. There's a shot of Robb Stark, then one of Jaime Lannister being threatened by someone with a knife, accompanied by Jon Snow's words to Mance Rayder, "I want to fight for the side that fights for the living. Did I come to the right place?" We also glimpse Ser Jorah Mormont swordfighting, Robb Stark and wife Talisa Maegyr (Oona Chaplin) getting it on, Brienne and Jaime swordfighting, Tyrion looking through a metal grill and then spinning an axe; Jon Snow at Queenscrown and more of Stannis and Melisandre (Carice van Houten). Oh, and there is also John being a badass and Lady Brienne in the bear pit! Calm down. Still four weeks to go.

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed I neglected to mention the flash of Ygritte (Rose Leslie) in the cave. I suspect for the readers of this blog that could be the most tantalising morsel of things to come; as well as the clearest hint yet that we will be seeing one of the most iconic sex scenes of the book played out on our screens...

"I know I want you," he heard himself say, all his vows and his honor all forgotten. She stood before him naked as her name day, and he was as hard as the rock around them. He had been in her half a hundred times by now, but always beneath furs, with others all around them. He had never seeen how beautiful she was. Her legs were skinny and well muscled, the hair at the juncture of her thighs a brighter red than that on her head. Does that make it even luckier? He pulled her close.

"I love the smell of you," he said. "I love your red hair. I love your mouth, and the way you kiss me. I love your smile. I love your teats." He kissed them, one and then the other. "I love your skinny legs, and what's between them." He knelt to kiss her there, lightly on her mound at first, but Ygritte moved her legs apart a little, and he saw the pink inside and kissed that as well, and tasted her.

She gave a little gasp. "If you love me all so much, why are you still dressed?" she whispered. "You know nothing, Jon Snow. Noth---oh. Oh. OHHH."

Afterward, she was almost shy, or as shy as Ygritte ever got. "The thing you did," she said, when they lay together on their piled clothes. "With your...mouth." She hesistated. "Is that...is it what lords do to their ladies, down in the south?"

"I don't think so." No one had ever told Jon just what lords did with their ladies. "I only...wanted to kiss you there, that's all. You seemed to like it."

"Aye. I...I liked it some. No one taught you such?"

"There's been no one," he confessed. "Only you."




The network also released a short promo for Game Of Thrones: A Gathering Storm, a recap show airing on Friday, March 8th at 9:45 p.m. ET. See if you need and/or want to catch-up before the new seasons goes down. Game of Thrones Season 3 premieres on Sunday, March 31 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.