I’ll just leave this here.
http://ewtvrecaps.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/tyrion_250_1303738859.gif (no spoiler, don’t worry)
Look at the Hound 
He is so totally indifferent. Warms my heart
If you know what I mean…
It wasn’t just horse riding that made her sore, also sex.
Hey, thanks! That helps a lot, especially with the correction by Allesan. I never would have counted.
Drogo = hung like horse
Dany = Horse riding 24/7 
I think the show has missed something in not expanding on the bond the kids have with their wolves. Sure they “show” it but you never really get a sense of how central the animals are to their humans.
First show it was like, “Oooh…wolf puppies! You each get one!”
In the next show it was like one scene walking with her wolf then crying over the wolf’s demise.
Even Bran’s rescue by his wolf really felt like a Deus Ex moment (on TV…not in the book).
I am disappointed in the show on this count (although enjoying it overall).
You are absolutely right, the mistake lies in that the Riverlands and the Iron Islands used to be one kingdom but since they sided with the wrong side during the conquest they lost most of their land.
Ah, “The Hound” is a person. I was trying to remember a royal dog last night.
A stupid question but I’ll ask anyway: Ned calls the mute executioner “a butcher” (saying the wolf deserves better than a butcher). The kid Joffrey attacked was “the butcher’s son”. Was this kid the child of the executioner or just a chance using of the word butcher more than once? (If it was the executioner’s son I’m guessing that will cause some problems.)
To clairify: The Riverlands had been conquered by the Isles for a (relatively) brief time when the Dragons showed up. The Riverlands are kind of the Poland of Westeros, rich land but not very defensible, surrounded by other regions that are.
There’s also King’s Landing and the surrounding area, which isn’t considered one of the Seven Kingdoms either, dispite being pretty large.
Nifty map Yes, we know it looks like a giant England.
Edit: No, it was an actual, non-political butchers son, not the executioner’s. No, it wasn’t a stupid question, either
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Of course, since the first Tygarians unified all of Westeros except Dorne, (which has a more complicated history) they did actually conquer seven kingdoms. Just not THE Seven Kingdoms.
Ned was using butcher as an insult, in the north they take pride in that the person passing a death sentence carries out the deed. The kid was actually a real butchers son.
Was he referred to as “butcher’s son” or “butcher’s boy”? If the latter, it meant he was the butcher’s apprentice, not his necessarily his child.
(Not important at all, but he was “boy” in the books, and I was wondering if they changed it)
Where are Khal Drogo’s lands on the map?
They’re not. They’re off to the east. He’s on a different continent. I’ll see if I can dig up a map.
Westeros is supposed to be about the size of South America. For scale.
I think he was both, I seem to recall the butcher being upset when they brought the body in a sack. He thought it was a meat animal. Brutal.
Boxed spoiler requested:
Is Jon Snow the black haired son that Cersei said she lost?
Almost certainly not. He looks a lot like both Ned and Arya, he is without question a Stark.
Timeline doesn’t really work out either. Jon was born during the war, Robert and Cersi were married after it.
In case you’re curious, the mute executioner is Ilyn Payne, a noble vassal of the Lannisters and the King’s Justice.
On the show? I don’t remember any scene like that. The only scene where we saw the body was when the Hound rode in with it and passed Ned Stark.
HBO is running an excellent website (IMHO) in what is probably an effort to address viewer concerns regarding the complexities.
Here are the family trees of the major houses, all linked to one another where appropriate. I suspect that portraits on the tree will fill out as actors/actresses are introduced throughout the series.
The interactive map is well done as well.