to be fair, i think i often snark on people who watch the show and don't read the books. i have a lot of these acquaintances and i have no desire to discuss their enthusiasm for non-canonical nonsense.

however, i'd say a huge percentage of our listeners are devotees of the books who were introduced through the show. and that's great- whatever gets people reading, man. i know my boy dr. augustine was first turned onto asoiaf through the show, and his unwavering enthusiasm for the books is fucking awesome. that's primarily what matters to me. i was really excited in the first season, but realized throughout the course of the second that the show was becoming its own thing and i just wasn't interested in it anymore. it hasn't dampened my love of the series nor my connection with other asoiaf fans. if i were in the habit of treating show fans badly, kyle and i would be at each other's throats constantly. and not just in like a sexy way.

I like the show and I have no problem with Mimi expressing her opinion! I love the fact that this podcast is so focused on the books and has such a wide variety of opinions on the show - it's well balanced because everyone has their 'area' that they love or are more knowledgeable about. I don't always agree with everyone's opinions (I think I am usually closest to Ashley or Amin) but you guys absolutely have a right to broadcast them - it's your podcast after all and you guys have an awesome dialogue. Anyway - I've finished my circle-jerk now ...

Appreciate that Mimi, who doesn't like the show, doesn't watch it just to hate on the podcast and forums. She don't dig it, she don't watch it. Cool with that.

Side note. Does the Mimo nickname reference Adventure Time?

Nah it references a comment response to her essay on TotH that misspelled her name.

Back to the fun stuff. I actually toyed with the idea of getting this right on my chest :
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... symbol.svg
Luckily I didn't do it because I don't like getting scars all over my body.

is a tattoo very scarring? i actually don't know very much about them.

I just meant that if I wanted to have it removed itd leave scars but I never had a tattoo. It's just something that people who had one told me because at some point they didn't want them anymore and they had to have them removed and it'd leave a mark so if I ever got a tattoo I'd want a tiny one.

Episode inspired art: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2653

Not to go off topic, but I was listening to this episode today and it got me thinking when it was brought up that Egg became a "good" Targaryen because of his experiences with Dunk. It would be interesting if there was a correlation in the main story. I have heard several fans including Stefan Sasse theorize that Dany is on the verge of a very dark turn. If this happens, she could represent the "bad" Targaryen and Jon could represent the "good" Targaryen thanks to his upbringing by Ned. Any thoughts or am I trying to force a connection?