'Game of Thrones': A catch-up guide for newbies to the TV show

Never seen an episode but hoping to catch up? Here's what you need to know to start watching 'Game of Thrones' now.

2. Tyrion Lannister

Helen Sloan/HBO

Tyrion is the younger brother of Cersei and Jaime Lannister and was gratified when his father, Tywin, who he believes dislikes him, chose him to serve as Hand of the King to Tyrion's nephew King Joffrey. It was mainly due to Tyrion's planning that the Lannister forces held King's Landing, the country's capital, during an attack by the forces of Stannis Baratheon, the king's brother who wants the throne for himself. Tyrion was knocked unconscious during the attack and when he woke, he discovered that his father, Tywin, had returned to the city and taken the post of the Hand of the King for himself. Tyrion and his mistress, Shae, consider leaving the capital, but ultimately decide to stay.

2 of 9

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.