The A Song of Ice and Fire fandom is an international and informal community of people drawn together by George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the HBO television series Game of Thrones , and the related merchandise.
The A Song of Ice and Fire fandom is an international and informal community of people drawn together by George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the HBO television series Game of Thrones , and the related merchandise.
During his years in television, Martin's novels slowly earned him a reputation in fiction circles, [1] although he said to only receive a few fans letters a year in the pre-internet days. [2] The publication of A Game of Thrones caused Martin's following to grow, with fan sites springing up and a Trekkie-like society of followers evolving that meet regularly. [1] By 2005, Martin received tons of fan e-mails and was about 2000 letters behind that may go unanswered for years. [2]
Ice and Fire Con (also known as A Con of Ice and Fire and A Convention of Ice and Fire) is a North American convention held annually in Mount Sterling, Ohio that celebrates George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series, as well as HBO's Game of Thrones television adaptation.
The convention's programming has included a Tourney of Champions since 2013, featuring "LARP"-based duels, melees, jousts, and archery contests. Other annual activities include a weekend-long live action Assassin-style game themed after the series' Faceless Men characters, a board game tournament, and a "Flea Bottom Fete" dance party, among others. A mock election has been held each year since 2013 allowing attendees to campaign for and vote for characters from A Song of Ice and Fire. A donation-based voting format was incorporated beginning in 2017, with all proceeds going to Santa Fe's Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, a favorite charity of Martin. [3] [4]
In 2016, FanSided named Ice and Fire Con as one of the top ten nerdiest vacation destinations. [5]
In 2017, NowThis News praised Ice and Fire Con in its "Game of Thrones - A Community of Ice and Fire" coverage for the event's "more intimate gathering that's more party than press conference", favorably comparing the Ice and Fire Con to the fan conventions Martin himself attended in the 1970s and 1980s as a fan and built the friendships that served him throughout his career. [6]
Sweden-based fans Elio M. García Jr. and Linda Antonsson run one of the main Ice and Fire fansites, Westeros.org, which they established in 1999. The site had about 17 thousand registered members in 2012. Martin himself has checked with García (whom The New Yorker dubbed a "superfan" with encyclopedic knowledge of Martin's works) to confirm details of his own series, and has referred HBO researchers to García as well. [7] [8]
The very first fan website and messageboard (as recounted by García, Antonsson, and Martin) was a site called "Dragonstone", which only lasted for about one year between the release of the first novel in 1996, and the site crashed in 1997, never to be rebuilt. The creator of "Dragonstone" moved on; however, several of the earliest online fans who had met on the site (Elio García among them) coalesced again to create Westeros.org. [9]
Though his work at Westeros.org is voluntary, García has been a paid consultant for licensed tie-in merchandise. [7] García and Antonsson are Martin's coauthors of a companion book to the series, The World of Ice & Fire (2014). [7] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Martin had approached the pair about the project in 2008. [11]
The Brotherhood Without Banners is an unofficial fan club operating globally. [7] George R. R. Martin attends their gatherings on his travels and counts their founders and other longtime members among his good friends. [7]
Since the creation of the television series in 2011 there has been a proliferation in the number of fansites dedicated to the show and novel series. [16] These include 'ToweroftheHand.com', which organizes communal readings of the novels, and 'Fleabottom.net', an online discussion forum. In addition to these there is further discussion on more general sites, such as Reddit, and tumblr, where there are many fan-created blogs.
Moreover, there are also many podcasts covering the series. [17] These podcasts, such as 'Game of Owns', and 'A Podcast of Ice and Fire' provide discussions of each book chapters, and each episode in the television series, as well as discussing the current theories in the fandom.
"After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am sixty years old and fat, and you don't want me to 'pull a Robert Jordan' on you and deny you your book. Okay, I've got the message. You don't want me doing anything except A Song of Ice and Fire. Ever. (Well, maybe it's okay if I take a leak once in a while?)
—George R. R. Martin on his blog in 2009 [18]
While Martin calls the majority of his fans "great", and enjoys interacting with them, [19] some of them turned against him due to the six years it took to release A Dance with Dragons. [7] A movement of disaffected fans called GRRuMblers formed in 2009, creating sites such as Finish the Book, George and Is Winter Coming?. [7] [20] It is not uncommon for Martin to be mobbed at book signings either. [1] The New Yorker called this "an astonishing amount of effort to devote to denouncing the author of books one professes to love. Few contemporary authors can claim to have inspired such passion." [7]
When fans' vocal impatience for A Dance with Dragons peaked in 2009, Martin issued an angry statement called "To My Detractors" [18] on his blog to stem a rising tide of anger. [21] Author Neil Gaiman backed Martin on his own blog, replying to a fan's inquiry about Martin's tardiness that "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch." [7] [22] Martin sees it a right to withdraw anytime and enjoy his leisure times as he chooses. [19] Martin believes of himself as being bound by an informal contract with his readers; he feels that he owes them his best work. He does not, however, believe that this gives them the right to dictate the particulars of his creative process or to complain about how he manages his time. As far as the detractors are concerned, Martin's contract with them was for a story, their engagement with it offered on the understanding that he would provide them with a satisfying conclusion. [7]
Martin is committed to nurturing his audience, no matter how vast it gets. [7] Starting out as a fan himself, he visited his first convention in 1971 after selling his first story. [23] Since there are different types of conventions nowadays, Martin tends to go to three or four science-fiction conventions a year simply to go back to his roots and meet friends, [23] such as the Brotherhood Without Banners. [7] His fan mail occasionally includes photos of children and pets named after his characters, [1] which Martin displays on his website. [24] He also administers a lively blog with the assistance of Ty Franck. [7]
Martin does not read message boards anymore, so as not influence his writing by fans foreseeing twists and interpreting characters differently from how he intended. [23]
The series has a devoted global following of people from a range of backgrounds.
Celebrity fans include former U.S. president Barack Obama, [25] [26] former UK prime minister David Cameron, [27] former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard [28] [29] and Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans, who framed European politics in quotes from Martin's novels in a 2013 speech. [30] Other fans includes singer Zara Larsson, Adam Lambert, and Scott Ian from the metal band Anthrax, with the later one having read books, stated that he likes the show better, saying that it's very rarely that a TV show or a movie is better than the source material. [31]
Other celebrity fans include actors Laurence Fishburne, Richard Dreyfuss, June Squibb, Amanda Peet, Zach Braff, Patton Oswalt, Elijah Wood, Mindy Kaling, Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Kerry Washington, Dylan McDermott and Jennifer Lawrence. [32] [33] [34] Singers T-Pain, Kelly Clarkson, Snoop Dogg, Ed Sheeran, Madonna and Joe Jonas (who was married to Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark on the show), and comedians Kevin Smith, Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari. [33] Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively are also both fans of the show. [35] [34]
Author Stephen King is also a fan of the series. [34] Jay-Z and Beyoncé are both fans of the show, while Jay-Z once bought dragon eggs for his wife Beyoncé. [36] In 2017, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also said that they watch the show. [37]
Several podcasts are dedicated to the A Song of Ice and Fire books and Game of Thrones HBO series, including: After the Thrones , Thronecast , Game of Owns, [38] Podcast of Ice and Fire, [39] Mythical Astronomy of Ice & Fire, [40] A Storm of Spoilers, [41] and Radio Westeros. [42] Several of these podcasts also cross-post to YouTube.
Several YouTube channels are dedicated to the franchise as well, including Alt Shift X, [43] [44] Emergency Awesome, Red Team Review and Preston Jacobs (two separate channels that frequently cross over), and Game of Thrones Academy. [45]
In 2019, in anticipation of the eighth and final TV season, several YouTube channels collaborated to make an anthology of essays about the show: The Thrones Effect: How HBO's Game of Thrones Conquered Pop Culture. The book was edited by Gil Kidron of Game of Thrones Academy, and included essays from other prominent YouTube fan channels such as History of Westeros, Ideas of Ice & Fire, Gray Area, Secrets of the Citadel, Smokescreen, and Civilization Ex. [46]
George Raymond Richard Martin, also known by his initials G.R.R.M., is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer, and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which were adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019) and its prequel series House of the Dragon (2022–present). He also helped create the Wild Cards anthology series, and contributed worldbuilding for Elden Ring.
A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. He began writing the first volume, A Game of Thrones, in 1991, publishing it in 1996. Martin originally envisioned the series as a trilogy but has released five out of a planned seven volumes. The fifth and most recent entry in the series, A Dance with Dragons, was published in 2011. Martin continues to write the sixth novel, titled The Winds of Winter. A seventh novel, A Dream of Spring, is planned to follow.
Jon Snow is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its HBO television adaptation Game of Thrones, in which he is portrayed by Kit Harington. In the novels, he is a prominent point of view character. He is one of the most popular characters in the series, and The New York Times cites him as one of the author's finest creations. Jon is a main character in the TV series, and his storyline in the season 5 finale generated a strong reaction among viewers. Speculation about the character's parentage has also been a popular topic of discussion among fans of both the books and the TV series.
Stannis Baratheon is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones. He is the second son of Steffon Baratheon and Cassana Estermont, as well as the brother of Robert – lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Renly – lord of Storm's End. He is the Lord of Dragonstone, and after his elder brother's death, becomes a claimant to the Iron Throne of Westeros and a key player in the subsequent civil war. Stannis's goals are frequently impeded by his lack of manpower and resources, owing to his unpopularity with other noble houses. He must therefore rely on the counsel of the foreign priestess Melisandre and his right-hand man, lowborn smuggler Davos Seaworth, who he later promotes to Hand of the King. Stannis often struggles to escape the shadow of his two more overtly charismatic brothers, particularly Robert.
White Walkers are humanoid creatures from the HBO television series Game of Thrones, and the George R. R. Martin novel series A Song of Ice and Fire on which it is based. Primarily referred to as the Others in the novels, White Walkers are a supernatural threat to mankind who dwell north of The Wall in Westeros. The Verge named them among "the most visually iconic creatures on the show". White Walkers are also featured in the show's merchandising.
Melisandre of Asshai is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin and its television adaptation Game of Thrones. She is a priestess of the god R'hllor from the continent Essos and a close advisor to King Stannis Baratheon in his campaign to take the Iron Throne. She is often nicknamed the Red Woman, due to the color of her hair and clothes, and has mysterious powers over fire and shadow. She is a prominent example of Martin's use of magic within the story, and is the source of several important prophecies that guide the narrative.
Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first of which is A Game of Thrones. The show premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and concluded on May 19, 2019, with 73 episodes broadcast over eight seasons.
The Winds of Winter is the forthcoming sixth novel in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American writer George R. R. Martin. The novel is expected to be over 1,500 pages in length. It has been delayed several times, such that Martin has refrained from making hard estimates for the novel's final release date. Martin stated in October 2022 that he had completed approximately three quarters of the novel, estimating that he had written approximately 1,100 to 1,200 pages, and had roughly 400 to 500 pages left. He gave a similar estimate in November 2023, saying that he was "struggling" with the manuscript.
"Winter Is Coming" is the series premiere of the HBO medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones. The first episode of the first season, it was written by series creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, in an adaptation of the first chapters of George R. R. Martin's book A Game of Thrones. The episode was directed by Tim Van Patten, redoing the work done by director Tom McCarthy in an unaired pilot.
A Song of Ice and Fire, the series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, has formed the basis of several works in different media.
The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones is a companion book for George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. Written by Martin, Elio M. García Jr. and Linda Antonsson, it was published by Bantam on October 28, 2014. The 326-page volume is a fully illustrated "history compendium" of Martin's fictional world, written from the perspective of an in-world "Maester" and featuring newly written material, family trees, and extensive maps and artwork.
A Song of Ice and Fire is an ongoing series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. The first installment of the series, A Game of Thrones, which was originally planned as a trilogy, was published in 1996. The series now consists of five published volumes, and two more volumes are planned. The series is told in the third-person through the eyes of a number of point of view characters. A television series adaptation, Game of Thrones, premiered on HBO in 2011.
Game of Thrones Ascent was a 2013 strategy game developed and published by Disruptor Beam for iOS, Facebook, Kongregate, and Android. The game is an adaptation of the series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin and the HBO television series Game of Thrones. According to Martin, the game features "alliance building, treachery, marriages, murders, and most of all the constant struggle to be the greatest house in Westeros." The game includes the ability to engage in the dynamic political and social intrigue featured in the books and television show. The game had over 9 million registered players though daily activity suggested 3 thousand active players.
"Walk of Punishment" is the third episode of the third season of HBO's medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 23rd overall. The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Benioff. It first aired on HBO on April 14, 2013.
"The Bear and the Maiden Fair" is the seventh episode of the third season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 27th episode of the series overall. The episode was written by George R. R. Martin, the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels on which the series is based, and was directed by Michelle MacLaren, her directorial debut for the series.
The Iron Throne, in the fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, is the throne of the monarch of the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and serves as a metonym for the monarchy of Westeros as an institution. The success of the HBO television adaptation Game of Thrones has made the show's version of the royal seat an icon of the entire media franchise. Martin said in 2013, "Say 'Game of Thrones', and people think of the HBO Iron Throne."
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire media franchise:
Elio Miguel García Jr. and Linda Maria Antonsson are authors who have contributed to the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, co-writing the companion books The World of Ice & Fire (2014) and The Rise of the Dragon (2022). They are also the founders of the fansite Westeros.org, one of the earliest fan websites for A Song of Ice and Fire.
The Sons of the Dragon is a novella by George R. R. Martin, set in the fictional land of Westeros, the setting of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The story commences about 270 years before the start of A Game of Thrones (1996). It centers on the death of Aegon I, known as "Aegon the Conqueror" for his bloody unification of the warring nations of Westeros, and his two sons: Aenys I, who succeeded him, and Maegor I, reviled as "Maegor the Cruel", in their respective successions to the throne thereafter, and the conflicts faced between them. The story concludes with the death of Maegor, and introduces the groundwork for its sequel, being about the life of his successor and nephew Jaehaerys I "the Conciliator", whose 55-year reign brought about an unprecedented age of peace to the Seven Kingdoms.
Fire & Blood is a fantasy book by American writer George R. R. Martin and illustrated by Doug Wheatley. It tells the history of House Targaryen, the dynasty that ruled the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in the backstory of his series A Song of Ice and Fire. Although originally planned for publication after the completion of the series, Martin revealed his intent to publish the history in two volumes as the material had grown too large. The first volume was released on November 20, 2018.
