Not speculation in my case, I've seen through ep 4.

I read the white font because I'm teetering on comprehension anyway and I don't think it will ruin the show for me. I'm glad to read it because that makes things a bit more interesting.

LeN, if you have questions, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be happy to explain/expand stuff.

part of the problem is that I have a problem with character names, so I really just need a picture book next to me. The first season, I read the wiki, which spoiled me but because I can't keep stuff straight, the spoilers did not matter.

I feel you on the difficulty of keep characters straight. "Aw, fuck. Which middle aged dude with brown hair and a beard is that?"

I was just so excited to see Dragons and Astapor and Ciaran Hinds as Mance Raydar is kind of just everything which I wasn't expecting because usually I'm just kind of freaked out by his too big head but it works here and Davos, my lump of an Onion Knight that I enjoyed the whole thing immensely. Margery Tyrell is one of my fave female characters in the book and I agree with those positing that she's kind of like Cersei if Cersei's growing up circumstances had allowed her to be at all functional rather than so supremely fucked up. But I did miss my Arya and my Brienne of Tarth and the Kingslayer. Bring it.

I feel you on the difficulty of keep characters straight. "Aw, fuck. Which middle aged dude with brown hair and a beard is that?"

Relatedly, Game of Thrones running out of unkempt old men to cast.

I never finished the second book, so I still don't know who Mance's ginger-bearded friend was.

And was it supposed to look like Davos lost the ends of his fingers on one hand?

Amy, he did. Stannis Baratheon was of the opinion that the good he had done (smuggling food to the city under siege) did not wipe out the smuggling he had done his whole life, so he cut off the ends of his fingers. But he also knighted him, as the bad doesn't wipe the good out, either.

Ginger friend's name is Tormund Giantsbane.

Davos smuggled food into Dragonstone for Stannis during a siege. As punishment for the smuggling, Stannis cut off the top joints of Davos' fingers on one hand, and as reward for keeping his men alive, he made him a knight. Davos carries the bones from his finger joints around in a pouch around his neck (hence Salador Saan's crack about delivering Davos' bones to his wife so she can wear them around her neck) because he thinks Stannis is Just That Awesome.