Greenlight!

To GRRM: we must know
Is this series thing really a go?
Even if we must wait
'Til 2008
We all now must get HBO

There's a Limerick I posted over at westeros.org in about 2005, when the news first broke that HBO was optioning George R. R. Martin's fantasy series (and official Best! Books! Ever!) A Song of Ice and Fire for a potential series. It wasn't the favorite of my ASOIAF-inspired Limericks. That would be a tie between:

Having harried the Harrenhal host
Brave Beric breathed boisterous boasts:
"We wither like wind
And attack once again
Gallant Gregor is gunning for ghosts!"

and

Lady Cersei, well she's quite the prize
(Though she's never been overly wise)
She's gaining in girth
But at least knows the worth
Of the weapon she has 'tween her thighs

and

King Robert, the monarch of steel
To whom all Westerosi would kneel
Said "Ruling is boring,
I'd rather be whoring.
Just give me a wench and a meal."

The first because of the gratuitous alliteration, the second because it's a good encapsulation of the character of Cersei Lannister and because, like all the best limericks, it turns dirty at the very last word, and the final, because it again perfectly encapsulates the character of King Robert without making any sacrifices to the metre of the poem.

Now the first one is my favorite, because HBO has now officially motherfuckin' greenlit Game of Thrones for a full season. The one Production Still they've released so far looks like everything I thought it could be - you can feel the cold radiating from the picture, of the forests north of the Wall, where Ser Waymar Royce meets his unfortunate end in the prologue - even though you know that the extras on the ground must have been unbelievably warm, as nothing is more uncomfortably hot for an actor than bundling up in warm clothes and lying down in fake snow, which is essentially like being underneath a blanket of styrofoam.

I want to see Bran climbing outside the walls of Winterfell, to stumble on Jaime and Cersei; I want to see Tyrion in the sky cell at the Eyrie, contemplating the jump; I want to see the duel between Bronn and Ser Vardis Egen; I want to see Daenerys, scared shitless on her wedding night, surrendering Khal Drogo's touch; I want to see Viserys Targaryen crowned with molten gold; I want to see Arya in the cellars of the Red Keep, stumbling upon Illyrio and Varys; I want to see Littlefinger deliver the line "I did warn you not to trust me, you know." As a particular girlfriend would communicate to me when a particular activity was about to commence, "I want."

I've been giddy at the news for the past several days now. I can't ever remember being this geeked out.