Tower of the Hand

The second season of Game of Thrones is set for April 1, a mere ten weeks from now. In anticipation of the show's return, HBO will count down the weeks by replaying a first season episode every Thursday night until then. It all starts tonight at 10 PM ET with the very first episode, "Winter Is Coming." If you haven't seen the show in a while or you only watched it the one time, tune in tonight and join us in this official re-watch thread.

GRRM responds to Reddit. Reddit readers got a chance to ask George R. R. Martin 10 questions about A Song of Ice and Fire, including a couple of interesting ones on A Dance with Dragons. [h/t Ron]

Qarth to be explored more in S2. After watching a video interview with Nonso Anozie (Xaro Xhoan Daxos), TIME's James Poniewozik ruminates on how the second season of Game of Thrones may be expanding the story and world of A Clash of Kings, particularly in Qarth.

The next dragon of the year. Warning! This post may discuss events from beyond your current scope. If you're fully caught up, you can remove this spoiler warning from all similar blog entries, or view this post without bypassing the warnings of other entries.

Croatia in Production Video. Another video goes behind the scenes of Game of Thrones, this time showing off Dubrovnik, Croatia, the new "home" of King's Landing and Qarth. HBO has also released a special "Art Direction," available exclusively on the (free) HBO App (via iTunes or the Android Market). For those who can't watch either video, Winter Is Coming has annotated screenshots.

Ned Stark cosplay as Geek Therapy. Geek Therapy's latest video sees Game of Thrones mediating a dispute between a nerd and a geek. [h/t Kristen]

GRRM interviews Bernard Cornwell. Bernard Cornwell's latest book Death of Kings is on sale now. George R. R. Martin interviewed the author, discussing the similarities between epic fantasy and historical novels, as well as the connection between Ned Stark and Cornwell's signature character, Richard Sharpe.

Open Thread, Golden Globes. With Ricky Gervais hosting tonight's Golden Globe awards, should we expect the acid-tongued Brit to tweak the heavily British Game of Thrones? The HBO show is nominated for several awards, including best television drama. Also nominated for a Golden Globe: tons of films, of which I've seen exactly one. Feel free to talk about whatever else is on your mind right now, or to continue discussions from the previous (overflowing) open thread.

Fellowship of the slave ring. Warning! This post may discuss events from beyond your current scope. If you're fully caught up, you can remove this spoiler warning from all similar blog entries, or view this post without bypassing the warnings of other entries.

A Westeros Map for Mobiles. Sergey Rekuz's Westeros Map app lets you quickly see and look up locations from the world of Game of Thrones, all from the convenience of your mobile device. Free versions of the app are available for both iOS (via the iTunes Store), Android (via the Android Market), and the Kindle Fire (via the Amazon Appstore). Thanks, Sergey, for your great work on this handy app!

Season 2 to premiere on April 1. HBO has officially scheduled the second season of Game of Thrones, with the first of ten new episodes premiering on Sunday, April 1, at 9PM ET.

Boiled Leather Audio Hour #4. Stefan and Sean T. Collins continue their continuing discussion with redundancies in its own description and explore the topic of religious fundamentalism in Westeros and Essos. In the course of the Podcast, they visit the four great beliefs of Westeros and even make quick visits to beliefs smaller and farther away.

WiC gets new domain, Tumblr. Over the weekend, Winter Is Coming debuted some welcome additions to its already impressive lineup: a simplified domain name (winteriscoming.net), a Google+ page (circle them here), a new editor (Ours is the Fury), and a Tumblr (uh, tumble here). Check them out and be sure to say "Hi!" from their neighbors at Tower of the Hand.

10 signs you read too much GRRM. It's like Thought Catalog can see inside my head. [h/t @wicnet]