Grumpy Old Ladies
If you thought Downton’s Dowager Countess (Dame Maggie Smith) was a master at saying inappropriate things at entirely appropriate times (appropriate for our personal enjoyment, anyway), just wait until you hear the word-bombs dropped by Highgarden’s Lady Olenna Tyrell (played by another dame, Diana Rigg). If it weren’t for the fact that Game of Thrones takes place hundreds of years before Downton Abbey (as well as on a completely different version of Earth), we’d say these two old in body, but young at (curdled) heart biddies were separated at birth. Then again, considering the pride the Dowager Countess takes in her advanced age, maybe they were.
Read more: Game of Thrones vs. Downton Abbey: Are They the Same?
Best Bit of Face-Saving: In the books, Tyrion emerges from the Battle of Blackwater with a good chunk of his face missing, particularly around the nasal region. For understandable reasons (make-up budget; Peter Dinklage wanting to keep his damn nose) his on-screen alter ego simply has a fetching scar running down his cheek. At least the writers allowed Cersei to call them out on this bit of page-to-screen plastic surgery, as she greets her brother by remarking, “They said you’d lost your nose, but it’s not as gruesome as all that.” If the person next to you laughed, it’s a tell-tale sign that they’ve read the books and are thus totally spoiled for the rest of the season. Move away… move away now.
Read more: Game of Thrones: Our Weekly Westeros Scorecard
And get our Game of Thrones 3x1 “Valar Dohaeris” Recaplet
Puppies and Kitties
Direwolves and dragons may not exactly be dogs and cats, but for all intents and purposes in this show, they’re pretty much cuddly-wuddly lovable babies. (And aren’t they, though? The dog connection is clear for direwolves, and cat lovers will understand that Daenerys’s screechy rambunctious fire-breathing little tykes are essentially kitties.) If you’re desperate to get people to make .gifs of your series, pair your attractive actors with animals, and you’ll be Tumblr-famous in no time.
Read more: Game of Thrones: What Other Shows Can Learn From It
Let Us Feel Smart
But really, one of the reasons that the GoT fandom is so loud is because talking about the series and understanding its complexity allows us to feel smart, given its dense mythology. The series even encourages us to read books (a classic smart-person move) and we get the sense that if we actually cared about real medieval history, we’d be able to grasp it just as easily as we do this show. Probably.
Read more: Game of Thrones: What Other Shows Can Learn From It
