With much delay, here is another look into the past. While you can read about what went on in the world of Game of Thrones three years ago below, we have a festive occasion to commemorate: our fan community has been around for seven years! A blessed number.
Yes … it was in November 2008 that Winter (Phil) started it all. What are your memories of that period? Were you around then? Here’s to many more years. Hip Hip Hooray!
Check after the jump what went on in the fall of 2012, three years ago.
- Season three filmed in Norhern Ireland, Iceland, Morocco, and Croatia, no surprise there if you do your maths right …
- New names joined the cast, including some big ones: Ciarán Hinds became our Mance! We learned from a source that Noah Taylor was cast (eventually to play Locke, the Vargo Hoat substitute), and so was Burn Gorman (the Night’s Watch rebel Karl Tanner). We also learned about Dan Hildebrand (Kraznys mo Nakloz), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm!), and Ed Skrein (as the first Daario).
- Game of Thrones won a Hugo award, and got an official beer line in partnership with Brewery Ommegang. Cheers!
- Two promo videos were released: an In Production featurette, and a video blog on Art Direction.
- We collaborated with Topix Media to publish a special one-time Game of Thrones magazine full of GoT material.
- Not to anyone’s surprise, Game of Thrones became the most pirated show of 2012 for the first time, and has stayed at the top of the list since.
Be well until Season Six! (Yes, I know it has a 9gag stamp …)
Hodor, please, hodor, let me hodor
Edit: Yes, my life is full now!!!!!!
I’m pretty sure I was around back then. 😉
I don’t know though, feels like another lifetime ago. Was there ever a time when Game of Thrones wasn’t the biggest TV show on the planet? It doesn’t seem like it.
I just joined this summer. Lucky number 7, way to go WotW.
Newbietothegame,
It’s a year and a half here, and the rest back at the old website. But the GoT show fan community was born then.
I can’t remember when I made the shift from lurking to commenting at WiC. I remember reading casting guesses when GRRM was posting froggy clues, those were the best. I think I actually joined the community not long before the show premiered.
I want to thank the team of this website for everything : the exclusive news, the debates, your energy and the good mood. You are passionate and this website is my favorite GOT website.
Thank you, and I wish you another 7 years at least 😉
Long live WotW, Sue and the other writers and you, sers and ladies, fellow fans!
I joined while impaciently waiting for season 5 to begin, but I started to comment after several months of lurking.
I love Schroedinger’s Snow, great idea!
I hope we will be all here, commenting after the last episod of GOT and after reading A Dream of Spring… whichever comes first! 🙂
I wasn’t around from the very start, (I think I found this community in ithe beginning of 2009), but I remember when Fury got mod status, the riddles and the hilarious first interviews Axey did with the cast. – And I remember to Always Support the Bottom, I always remember that…
Started following the community at the end of season 5. Have really enjoyed reading the updates, comments and speculation especially as I have become more caught up on the books.
Great group of fans who enjoy discussing both the show and books and are generally respectful/non-troll to each other.
I started lurking and then commenting in Season 2 and joined the crew when we moved to our new home at WotW. It’s been a privilege.
Wow, I had no idea that Sue and other crew started as lurkers and then general commenters! Props to them for running this wonderful site. I discovered WOTW only at end of S5. It’s undoubtedly the best GOT related site.
Started lurking after S3 at the old site, and was happy (and relieved!) to find the Watchers site when the community moved here. Thank you for this site and making it a fun place to hang out and find out spoilers. 🙂
Want too thank everyone for this great site!
It was the first time I started commenting on GOT and that was thanks to the great atmosphere here! 🙂
I found the other website while waiting for season 3. I had just binge watched season 1 & 2 and was like, where was I all this time??? So I had to do something! I found WiC and got started following my dear friend Oz’s perfect recaps during season 3 (as I am unsullied). I got hooked. and followed my friends to this lovely place. When I do my daily web surfs while I am at work, they include some world news catch ups, NFL website, UEFA website, and of course, WOTW. I love coming here every day, and I am happy that filming is ending so I can participate in more conversations, as I have been avoiding spoilers. Keep up the great work to EVERYONE.
Also, such celebration also calls for an OZ piece. Come on Oz.
Such a long time ago. The early beginnings of the show I only followed on George’s Not a blog – that’s where I read that HBO had options on the show, that they decided to shoot a pilot and of his travels to Belfast during the pilot shoot.
I first heard about (the old) site when he started mentioning it in his blog. I think it was in June or July 2010 when he posted casting clues and he kept referring to the “folk at WiC” who kept solving clues in 5 minutes that I started lurking, and a couple of weeks later I made my first post.
I found WiC after season 1 aired and got a regular reader the same year in autumn, when I was so pumped for season 2 after started reading the books. That was the time when every second post had “Where are my Reeds??!!??” in it and Arthur did his “Nathalie Dormer is so hot….” comparisons in every post. If I remember right this was also the time when Sue the pirate went mod and became Fury
Never posted on the old site and only rarly here, but this community is a daily companion ever since for my GoT hook. It’s kind of funny how some members dominated the discussions for quite some time and vanished afterwards (or changed the name, who knows?).
Anybody remember the Valyrian Plastic guy? Think I haven’t heard of him since 2 seasons, he posted a lot on the old site.
I’m very happy WotW continued the great work of Phil and it’s nice to see some of the old names here from time to time. THANKS!!!
I found The Other Site in 2012, during season 2. I was coming out of a gnarly bout of postpartum depression and a friend suggested I watch the first season. I finished it in record time and caught up to season 2 midway through. I partially credit my enthusiasm for this story/television show for pulling me back from that (well that, and the meds).
Yay for GoT fandoms 🙂
WinterPhil,
You don’t remember running around telling all your friends that the best show ever was coming, and it was about wolves and dragons and ice zombies and going to be on HBO? And all the strange looks you got?
Lady Wolfsbane,
I’ve successfully gotten a minimum of 12 people addicted to the show. They all look at me stupidly at first when I suggested it (or shoved my copy of the dvds in their hands) and said, “I’m not really into Lord of the Rings” and I said, “That’s good, because this is… not that.” They figured it out pretty quick.
Group hug!
Always nice to see you in the comments, Phil,
Hehe, I’m so glad this community is kicking hell and high !
I joined between season 1 and 2, so yeah, quite a while now !
And there is no doubt we’re gonna be here for quite a few years to come as well !
Moka,
And I very enthusiastically second your wonderful sentiments!!!!!! Thanks so very much WOTW!!!
I discovered the show near the end of season one to be honest. After what happened to poor Ned I was hooked. Read all the books since then. I only discovered the fan sites fairly recently… maybe two years ago I found the WiC site. Wasn’t super into it so I just lurked there quietly and not very often. Then I heard of gleaming recommendations for WotW from WiC users and have never been back to that site since! You guys are awesome, personable, and so thorough with the info! Here’s to more years of stellar work from our favorite series and the folks at WotW! 🙂
I must also add this community is the best. Even when everyone is debating and calling each other out on BS you have provided me with many laughs. Cheers guys! 😀
Would have been quite something to be speculating as book purists on how such an epic set of books could be translated to TV
And to have to lady who played Cat Stark confirmed. And then changed?
I saw series 1 (drawn in by Sean Bean), season 1 is quite unique, feels like books adapted to TV, feels fantasyish, I remember the ads playing on it
Lyanna_Targaryen,
I just thought of 9 people that I told *cough forced cough* to watch Game of Thrones, are now addicted.
Its just a show they said.
WinterPhil,
Thank you, Phil, for starting it all and good to see you are still lurking! I read the books back in early 2000s and was on the big fan site for quite a few years but did not find the first iteration of this till 2011- have never looked back since.
Also, GIANT (Mag the Mighty) shout out to Sue for everything! Love you guys…
I started the show in 2013. I binge-watched the first three seasons. By the time Season 4 premiered, I had read the first two books and a half of the third. I read the rest after the season ended.
I convinced one person to watch the show.
Moka,
Agreed.
I found Phil’s site either just before or just after the green-light. I was searching for something other than Not A Blog to find out information. I lurked there for many years until sometime last year when I kept seeing REALLY poor analyses and discussions about theories that have been around for years, pop up like they were revelations. Finally some random commenter posted about WotW and I saw it before it was deleted.
I’ve never been a very active participant in the commentary, but I’ll throw my 2 cents in here & there.
Thanks WotW for sticking to your ethics and keeping this community awesome!
Lyanna_Targaryen,
Getting people addicted to Firefly is even harder…..
“It’s a sci-fi show, with no aliens but it’s a Western, and everybody speaks Chinese, and…” Just shoving the DVD’s at them without explanation might be a better choice.
I hate LotR… I mean, I respect it as a revolutionary quazi-historical novel – but I HATE reading that sort of thing…
WinterPhil,
7 years… I miss those days when all we wanted was at least one season.
I first found WIC between seasons 1 and 2. I my earliest memory is of stannis casting debates. My first post was is Jon snow dead?
I’m a new comer to both GOT and this awesome site. I watched all previous seasons in 2.5 weeks this year and was caught up and watched the second half of season 5 live. I was hooked! I found this site when season 5 was over because I needed more. I also read the books over the summer and fall of this year. I am almost done with book 5 now. Hmm, maybe I need a 12 step program.
Thank you all for your awesome work with WotW it is the best site out there!
I started as an ‘Axechucker Retweets’ fan about 2 or 3 years ago, and gradually became a
‘Any and all rumours 24/7’ fan. Can’t seem to get enough while waiting for spring. :sigh:
Thanks for all the chuckles and gossip! 😀
This is my first post but I’ve been coming to this website daily since the beginning of Season 2. I’m obsessed with the show and I don’t think we could ask for a more faithful adaptation of George’s work. David, Dan, and everybody else involved has done an amazing job bringing his books to life. Like everyone else here I’m super pumped for Season 6.
I love reading the well written articles and positive comments from fellow fans of the books AND the show found only on this website. Congratulations on seven years. I look forward to visiting Watchers on the Wall for years to come.
I adore LOTR and reading on a spanish newspaper that there was this new show that was a crossing between Lotr and The Sopranos instantly got my attention…Saw the first season, loved it and couldn´t get enough so I bought all the books including ADWD but still couldn´t get enough so I started lurking about in any ASOIF website possible…The comments here were enthusiastic,friendly,quite knowledgeable and pretty respectful so after loooog consideration decided to contribute and I´m super happy I did 🙂
ladywolfsbane,
I feel as if I need a cavity filled after nearly every viewing of any of the Hobbit or Lord of The Rings films. I respect them, but they don’t really blow my skirt up, if you catch my meaning. I need dark and twisty, too.
7 years!?! Wow, I have been obsessed for a looong time. I read the books back in the early ’00s, then saw the first trailer on HBO and went online looking for info on it and found that big site. It was my first foray into online fandoms (yeah, I’m older than 29). During Season 1, I kept checking in there and disagreeing with the nitpicking in the episode analyses and the nastiness on the comment boards, until one day I noticed that they credited WiC for some inside info, so I checked it out and never went back! There were some bumpy times (remember the Pedro Pascal casting thread?) but it has remained civilized and accepting and downright good entertainment for all of these years! It is truly what all of the internet should strive to be. And it is a damned refreshing refuge in these angry, polarizing times here in the US. Thanks, everyone!!
and the gang is STILL here!
Alex G,
Well,when I saw LOTR for the first time in 2001,it felt like Xmas morning to me!! An amazing new world unraveled before my eyes…Also,It gave me the books that I cherish like gold…Having said that,dark and twisty is welcome,as well! 😉
WiC and WoTW helped me through my Masters and PhD (or distracted me…). I was an excellent lurker on the old site and was seriously bummed out when it started to die…until I found the new one! I’ve been so happy that this site exists that I try not to lurk… too much. Happy 7 years, all!
Love this fandom. Thanks to all the mods for keeping this thing alive and true. After I began lurking around season 2 offseason over at WIC, (I loved that site) I began commenting and found I actually enjoyed being a part of a fandom outside of my friends and family (many of whom love GoT just as much as I do). I was very vocal- surely pissing some folks off- about concerns over the looming “identity crisis” when the old site announced the change in structure… and whattya know. Things did indeed change. I was worried about where to go to hash out ideas and geek out on all things GoT. And then WOTW was born. I really just want to say THANK YOU mods for all the hard work, keeping this place real, relevant, and full of integrity; and thank you fellow watchers for just bein so damn cool. By the old gods and the new, rock and roll.
Cheers!
I started reading the books just before AFFC was published and lurked on GRRM’s Not A Blog while waiting for ADWD, following show news there when it was announced. I think I started regularly reading WiC during S1 or between S1 and S2, and jumped here to WotW as soon as it opened. This is definitely the best GoT fan community in my opinion, so thanks everyone!
In those early years before S1, my biggest worry about the show was that they wouldn’t find anyone good enough to play Arya (my favorite character). Fortunately my fears were totally unfounded. Perhaps in an alternate universe without Maisie Williams I’d be a disgruntled troll nitpicking everything about the show 🙂
It’s amazing how time seems to just crawl when you’re waiting for a new season, yet the years seem to fly by.
Lyanna_Targaryen,
Gee ,I can so relate to that! Have not been able to finish Lotr or Hobbit without falling asleep! My kids think that’s hilarious but I don’t have that problem with Got?. Got hooked by “mistake” when taping reruns of first 3 seasons for husband and son
God damn, this article makes me feel old…
Just to give you an idea. I started reading the books in 2005, just slightly before AFFC was released… before my son was born….
As to when I discovered WOTW. It was after the end of S4. Someone told me this was a great place for those who like the show.
And now it has become a daily routine to check out the news here.
Long time lurker since Season 2, I’ve only ever posted about 6 comments. I love this site, it’s the first thing I look at every morning. I loved WIC, but began to fear its demise as it declined and became enveloped in adverts. Then, on the night of the long knives when all the commentators defected, I fell into despair. I felt a sense of loss, WIC had become terrible, I didn’t know where to turn. But then, by sheer chance, I read about this site and my life was restored once more. Keep up the good work everyone! 🙂
Lyanna_Targaryen,
I’m so glad I’m not the only one! LOTR is not my thing. I watched the movies as if I were in school again and reading some unpleasant novels which I wasn’t interested in, but were on the list for literature class. I love reading and watching movies, so it’s frustrating to waste time on something you don’t like when there are so many other things to enjoy. Imho LOTR it’s too fairytalelike for me. I heard that the books are dark and have a philosophy lining, but why read the books if the films were not my cup of tea?
Mihnea,
Lots of us admitted to be not so young anylonger (I won’t call myself old 🙂 ). I think this is great compliment to ASOIAF/ GOT: it appeals both to mature and young people. And I think one needs maturity to enjoy this complex world and characters.
Oh, my gods (old and new), you’re so right about daily routine! It’s explained by sheer enthusiasm and joy, I haven’t been so passionate for something in a long time. This site is magic, it has the power to reach us in a wonderful way.
Lurker from day one.
Commenter from the period of the casting clues for the pilot (the craziest few weeks of the community IMHO).
Half-time Fabio s assitant on collecting tweets.
Remembering all the gates: false snow, mismatched colors on Baratheon guard custume, “notorious” chair, NCW s ugly nose…etc
Remebering some good discussions and speculations, some trolls as well 😀
It has been seven years WOAH!
found WotW at the end of season 5. regular visitor since then.. Love this site…… Thanks to all…..
Congrats WotW and to another 7yrs! Up until last spring I didn’t even know this site existed. So when I 1st came here I was thinking that this site was covering material in the books that we have available to us right now. U kno, covering a certain topic of this huge world GRRM has created, and dissecting it. To my surprise that was not the case. Instead this site functions more like the TMZ of the GoT universe. Nothing more than spoilers for upcoming seasons. I get how that would generate a lot of attention, but not what I was expecting. I stopped coming to this site bc of it. This next season is totally uncharted waters for the most part and this site has already given me more info about next season than I’d care to know. I see the same 20-30 commenters here in the boards coming to get their fix like cheese heads lining up at the trap house waiting to get their fix. More power to u guys. I for one don’t want to know anything about what’s in store for next season. Sh!t, I’d rather have found out about Jon snows fate from the show/book instead of hearing it thru a leak. Oh well, the digital age we live in today makes things virtually impossible to keep under wraps. Ppl here foam at the mouth for info/leaks like a meth head combing the carpet looking for some dropped crumbs off their meth pipe. I wonder what this site will look like after the books/show are finally finished. U know, when there’s no longer any more leaks/spoilers to report on. Games of owns doesn’t look like it’ll carry the site by itself. Rant over!
I got into GOT sort of backwards. Some friends had recommended the show so watched S3 when it was on freeview TV in my country, about 3 months before S4. To say it was a bit confusing at first is an understatement! 😀
But I was hooked right away, got S1-S3 on DVD, binge watched before S4, then S4, then the looong wait for S5. Read all the books between S4 and S5 and started reading that more book-focused fan forum.
After S5 I was having serious withdrawals. I love the books but I also love the show, and that other forum isn’t a good place for show fans. I was so happy when I discovered WotW! (Last summer.)
I love all the articles, spoilers, and gossip. WotW is a really quality site. One of the main draws is the BTL comments, everybody is so knowledgeable, funny, respectful. It’s a pleasure, and I come here every day.
Thank you
Shy Lady Dragon,
The book is 1000 times better than the movies
Moles town bastard,
Which Tolkien book would you recommend for me to better understand his world and philosophy?
The_Rabbit01,
Hi, Rabbit! 🙂
I binge watched seasons 1 and 2 just after season 2 ended then bought all the books and read them in 2 ½ months. My wife was amazed because I hadn’t read a fiction book since college, which was a very long time ago (see below*). I soon discovered WiC and lurked there until WotW came online. I’m mostly a lurker but have posted occasionally. My friends and family think that I’ve totally gone off the deep end because I recently finished my basement man-cave and instead of a sports theme it has a GoT theme. Posters, figurines, direwolves, jigsaw puzzles – I seriously need help. 🙂
Anyway, huge congrats and thanks to the folks who run WotW. Also, thanks to all the posters who provide me with hours of GoT reading material every morning (and afternoon and evening).
*GRRM is only 6 months older than me so not only do I share the hope of many fans that he finishes the books before he suffers a premature death, I have to also hope that I don’t meet the Stranger before the show ends and the books are published.
Wall Builder,
You’re an inspiration for me, ser. You are really a proof that a person’s soul has nothing to do with the age recorded in their ID. I hope to have such an inquisitive mind when I am your age and to be able to find new exciting things. I wish you to be as young as today when you enjoy A Dream of Spring.
I’m a relative newbie here, having backed in from WiC, which I didn’t discover until it became an app. Prior to that I was just Googling ‘Game of Thrones news’ a couple of times a day.
Not knowing how WiC was before it went through whatever it was that it went through, I find myself a little puzzled by the hostility to WiC that I sometimes find here. They are always polite to WotW over there, as far as I can tell, and unfailingly give this site credit for the news that they pick up here. Granted, they’re considerably less scrupulous about publishing unsubstantiated rumors; but caveat emptor, right? And they do publish GoT-related humor, which this site doesn’t bother with. I enjoy both and don’t see why it’s necessary to declare loyalty to one versus the other. just sayin’.
Firannion, if you want to know why some Watchers are hostile to the old WiC site, please read these editorials from Oz of Thrones that were posted last year.
Problem With Giants And Mammoths
Problem With Giants And Mammoths, Part 2
Thanks!
Mission Accomplished! 🙂
The_Rabbit01,
Those first casting clue discussions were EPIC. If I remember correctly it was two different posts of over 900 comments each. And of course we got them all correct. 😀
The_Rabbit01,
Nice to see you’re still lurking around!
I am new to the WOTW website and only started posting not too long ago. It has been a good experience so far. This is the only place where I can talk about the show and the books. I love the fact that I can geek out about everything. I like hearing the news about the show. All of you at WOTW make a great site. Happy 7 years!
I fondly remember coming across WiC.net randomly online, it must’ve been just before Season 1 aired.
And then I sort of forgot about it, and watched the Pilot on HBO when it aired and I was like HEY that website! I’ve been lurking about ever since…. Can’t believe it’s been THAT long already :/