Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, brought Lady home after King Joffrey had her direwolf unnecessarily killed in the series.

"Growing up I always wanted a dog, but my parents never wanted one," she told English newspaper Coventry Telegraph. "We kind of fell in love with my character’s direwolf, Lady, on set.”

She renamed the Northern Inuit dog Zunni.

Monarchies during that time often chose to inbreed to ensure bloodlines’ pedigrees -- consider what happened in the Targaryen line, as well as with Jaime and Cersei Lannister.

Martin also says he’s fascinated by the truth in both the glory and horror of war, but asserts that there’s no precise character correlation. Some fans, however, aren't convinced.

Lloyd also wrote his thesis at Oxford University on his famous relative.

Martin visited the wall in 1981, and kept it in mind when creating the 700-foot-high wall of solid ice that protects the Seven Kingdoms.

"Of course fantasy is the stuff of bright colors and being larger than real life, so my Wall is bigger and considerably longer and more magical,” he told SF Site. "And, of course, what lies beyond it has to be more than just Scots."

Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead-Wright -- Sansa, Arya and Bran Stark, respectively -- have the opening theme down pat in these amusing voiceovers.

Last year, Jack Gleeson, who plays King Joffrey, announced that he plans to give up acting after Game of Thrones wraps up because he doesn’t enjoy it as much as he used to. He also wants to make way for other pursuits, including humanitarianism -- last year he traveled to Haiti to help the poor.

"I started acting when I was eight, and really, really loved it," Gleeson told a class at University College Dublin. "But I think when it became less of a recreation and more of a profession, it kind of put more pressure on the acting itself and made it a tiny bit less enjoyable.”

He also plans to continue writing and performing with his own theater group, Dublin-based Collapsing Horse Theatre Company. You can watch the full interview here.

She even wrote a somewhat uncomfortable song about him -- it’s titled "Alfie."

Dreams do come true. Hey, Richard Madden and Jenna-Louise Coleman: What happens in the TARDIS, stays in the TARDIS.

Creative director Russall S. Beattie presents the "Dames of Thrones Burlesque Show," an ongoing and entirely unaffiliated parody production, in Australia.

"Inspired by the stories and people of Westeros, this show is set to light a fire in people’s hearts hotter than wildfire," says live entertainment venue The Vanguard. There’s even a "meal and show" package, complete with a GoT-themed menu.

In one of the series' most unforgettable scenes, a pregnant Daenerys consumes a raw horse heart to prove herself to the Dothraki people.

“That was one of those amazing scenes that you get as an actor that there’s just no acting required -- at all,” actor Emilia Clarke told Vulture. "It was disgusting! They promised me that it would taste similar to a gummy bear and it definitely didn’t."

Apparently it tasted like bleach. She describes it as being similar to congealed jam with fake blood-sugar and dried pasta -- for added texture. Yum.

"We wanted to do something different from the standard tropes for fantasy maps," title designer Angus Wall told The Hollywood Reporter. "So we came up with the idea of a world inside a sphere."

The map mirrors the culture and feel of each kingdom, some more rustic or wintery than others, and its spherical shape came from a 60s science-fiction space station.

The interlocking cogs represent the multi-family struggle for power, and the sequence briefly shows each family’s history. Each season has its own version as the storyline progresses.

"[Fiction] has to have a truth at the core of it," Martin told The Wall Street Journal. "You’re still writing about people, you’re writing about the human condition. I often quote Faulkner, who said in his speech after winning the Nobel Prize that ‘the human heart in conflict with itself’ is the only thing worth writing about. And I’ve always agreed with that. It’s true no matter what genre you’re writing in, even if there are dragons in it or it’s about a private detective or a western gunslinger, it’s still ultimately about the human heart in conflict with itself or it’s not worth reading."

He also still does research the old-fashioned way -- with books. In a modest second home just down the street from his house, he fills two bedrooms with books.

...Except that his mailbox is a castle, complete with its own drawbridge. But other than that, his life in Santa Fe, N.M., is nothing fancy. He drives an old Mazda, dines at local restaurants, is friendly with fans, regularly updates his blog and still allows his contact information to be in the Yellow Pages.

A younger GRRM wasn’t so different -- he had pet turtles, and was editor of his high school paper and captain of the chess team.

Linguist David Peterson started with the culture of the Dothraki people and created almost 2,000 words even before translating the first season’s scripts.

Watch this TED Ed video for further explanation of the language’s inner workings.

Considering the series' popularity, this may come as a surprise. Currently in the middle of a divorce, she says she and her 2-year-old son have been living off credit.