The final season of Game of Thrones kicks off this month and you will need streaming HBO to watch it. HBO does release the streaming versions of their shows at the same time as the show debuts on the East Coast, thus you can watch the latest episode and chat about it at work the next day.

Of course, there are a ton of ways to snag a temporary, 1-week free subscription to the service to avoid paying the full cost.  The GoT final season is a total of 6 episodes, thus you only need six weeks of service if you want to hop around in free trials.  (The 30-day free trial offered in 2018 has expired.)

Two caveats: HBO free trials are limited to new customers, typically. Also, you will have to provide a credit card for payment confirmation. Of course, you can immediately turn off the auto-renew in the settings and the free trial will simply expire a week later.

Free HBO Trial Options:

• HBO Now: 7-day trial subscription, $15 a month after trial. (Use HBO Now app on Roku, Apple TV, Android, Amazon Fire, PlayStation, Xbox)
• Amazon Prime: 7-day trial subscription, $15 a month after trial. (Requires Amazon Prime, 30-day free trial available for Prime.)
• Hulu: 7-day trial subscription, $15 a month after trial. (Requires Hulu subscription)
• The Roku Store: 7-day trial subscription, $15 a month after trial. (Requires Roku Hardware)
• DirectTV Now: 7-day trial subscription of entire service, $50 a month after trial. (HBO is included in trial)
• PlayStation Vue: 7-day trial subscription, $15 a month after trial. (Requires Vue subscription, 5-day trial available.)
• AT&T Watch TV: 7-day trial subscription, $18 a month after trial. (Requires AT&T Watch TV sub, 7-day trial available.)

If you are a spoiler-avoiding ninja, you can also just wait until the week of the season finale of GoT, get a 1-week trial, binge the first 5 episodes and watch the finale without paying a single cent.

Other options:

• If you use AT&T for service and switch to an AT&T unlimited data plan, you can get free HBO for life (or any premium channel you choose). That covers up to 10 devices on your plan. Of course, it’s at a hefty cost, $80 per month. And AT&T reserves the right to slow down your data speeds if you consume more than 22GB of data per month (Which is pretty easy when streaming video)
• If you already have premium TV service, call your cable / satellite provider and ask to cancel your service. They will send you to the retention department, who will always offer a discount on service. In addition, they often package a premium channel like HBO into the mix for a 3 to 6 month period.

Game of Thrones is coming. Here are all the free HBO offers

Culminating six months of work, mechanical engineer and part-time digital artist Tim Proby has put together a ridiculously awesome collection of 1080p wallpapers that combines the 32 teams in the National Football League with Game of Thrones house sigils. Taking suggestions for team mottos from the Reddit community, Proby created multiple versions of the wallpapers here.

In some cases, there are five or six versions of the wallpaper for the same team, each with a different motto. In an interview with Mashable, he mentioned that the idea for the wallpapers came to him when listening to a sports talk radio station, specifically the varied opinions of the callers. Proby said, “There’s all these calls coming in, and all this hate from different people. I was like, ‘This reminds me of the Starks and the Lannisters.'”

Check out 32 selections from the collection (alphabetical by city name) with each wallpaper representing one of the 32 active teams in the NFL. You can click on any wallpaper to expand it, then right-click to save the 1080p version of the graphic.

NFL / Game of Thrones 1080p Wallpapers

32 Amazing NFL / Game of Thrones 1080p Wallpapers

We’ve hit the halfway mark in the current season of Game of Thrones, which means alliances are set to be demolished, betrayals revealed in only the most violent fashion. In preparation for the impending soul wrenching, allow yourself the occasional splurge so that you might have some object upon which to gingerly lay your quivering hand while your beloved favorite character meets an undoubtedly early grave.

Remember, you could just head over to ThinkGeek and peruse the Game of Thrones ThinkGeek catalog yourself. But what’s the internet for it not a place to let other people do the research for you?

To Keep it All in Perspective

This season has focused disproportionately on the scuttles of the north, pitching us over and over again an impending battle between the Baratheon and Bolton armies at Winterfell. Despite the inherent importance regarding he or she who sits as the Warden of the North, let’s not forget it’s this bad boy, which is 25 percent off right now, that everyone really cares about:

Tiny Chairs on ThinkGeek

Game of Thrones might suggest plurality in it’s title. Above rests the throne above thrones, so should it rest beside you as you partake in the game. Just imagine caressing those silken steely angles while you watch the Mother of Dragons scheme in ambition of it. We live in wonderful times, when replicas of fictional furniture are coveted and gained through electronic transfers that bounce off space pods orbiting the planet earth.

For Manly Reenactments

Though ThinkGeek features plenty of pointy objects under the Game of Thrones marker, it might be preferable to grab a sword that you can actually hit people with without killing them. Here are two such objects, modeled after weapons held by Ned Stark and Jon Snow. They even have their own names.

Foam on ThinkGeek

One is called Ice and the other is called Longclaw. Frankly, I have no idea which is which. Nevertheless, the packaged pair is discounted 25 percent right now, and won’t cost you anything in medical bills.

For When the Whitewalkers Come

If you are insistent on holding something that actually feels like a part of the Game of Thrones world, look no further than this giant dish plate that’s actually a shield. There’s even a handle on the back, just like the ones the Stark soldiers probably used in important battles that happened off-screen.

Circles on ThinkGeek

It’s also worth mentioning, especially since I devoted an entire header to it, that the shield is most certainly a better weapon when fighting the undead. Not only is it uniquely designed to repel bestial biting, it serves as a great cooking surface when the microwaves are no longer functional, which is a huge potential concern in Westeros. This one is currently 10 percent off.

Something that Isn’t Stark-Related

Sick of the Starks? Celebrate their long and torturous demise with some ale served in this fine Dragonscale goblet, complete a yellow tinting at the bottom to destroy any chance at predicting poisonous intent. It’s a part of the Baratheon’s whole dragon and fire theme going on, save for the occasional naked priestess.

Heavy Stuff on ThinkGeek

This item is not discounted right now, which is just how Stannis likes to treat other people.

For Getting Way too Into It

Those who take pride in keeping up with the geography of it all can use this handy map, complete with markers for each important House, to track the movements of all the relevant players. Just remember that you need to know who and who not to show this thing off to.

Carpets on ThinkGeek

If you ever wondered how epic placing things on a mat can possibly get, please, for your own need, watch the following video. Unfortunately, I don’t think the set comes with background music.

Here’s the Best Game of Thrones ThinkGeek Swag

You might have heard. You might have rejoiced. HBO will be the first cable channel to provide a (sort-of) completely standalone streaming service, granting access to it’s incredible history of TV shows and films, in addition to whatever movies are currently on contract through the service. It’s HBO GO without the cable subscription, dubbed HBO Now for $14.99 a month, starting sometime in April.

There is one strange catch: HBO Now will be exclusive to Apple devices (iPad, iPhone, Apple TV) for at least three months, meaning any Roku, Android, PC or other non-fruity users will have to wait their turn. In that time, though, a choice few HBO shows will matter far more than the rest in convincing new buyers for both HBO Now and Apple’s hardware. They couldn’t be more different.

Game of Thrones

HBO’s most important premier in April is also HBO’s most important premier of 2015, as it has been for the past couple of years. Game of Thrones shouldn’t need much introduction at this point. It’s a show on a never-ending crescendo that, miraculously, scrapes away zero interest of its vast viewership in the routine murdering of main characters and ambiguity of plot direction. Winter is surely coming, but before then a bunch of people are bound to die and some dragons will slowly get larger and only intermittently grace the screen due to undoubtedly high CGI-production costs. Season 5 starts on April 12.

Now gaze into Jon Snow’s eyes.

Veep

Vice President Selina Meyer has risen highest in the ranks. If Frank Underwood’s escalation frightened you, Meyer’s should have you in the fetal position. Julia Louis-Dreyfus uses comedy instead of outright intimidation to make her point, endlessly poking at the vanity and selfishness we all cynical Americans assume is required within our politicians for even a modicum of success. They also curse a whole bunch, since it’s HBO. Expect to laugh at the futility, then maybe cry a little.

Season four of Veep premiers April 12.

Silicon Valley

If Veep takes aim at East Coast politics, Silicon Valley sets its satirical sights on West Coast business, namely the titular tech sector these days regarded with disillusionment as much as envy. Outrageously wealthy CEOs bleed their eccentricities into companies mirroring Google and Apple, while a group of coders do all they can not to lose their identities and sanity on their way up the chain. Mike Judge, responsible for the cultish Office Space, takes the microscope and dies it neon in an effort to burn brightly all the ways our Silicon Valley tears itself down in its purported effort to build society up, and make a bunch of money in the process.

But, if it isn’t industry-encompassing statements you’re looking for, the show is filled to the brim with segments like this, the infamous, and very NSFW, anatomically-focused algorithm. Seriously, take caution, but enjoy. The show’s second season premiers April 12.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

If you didn’t watch the clip above because it’s 13 minutes about U.S. Territories, I wouldn’t blame you. If you didn’t watch it because it’s just that wannabee British guy from The Daily Show, you deserve no points. In either case, give the clip a watch, even if you don’t care about stuff and you’re too cool for politics. You’ll laugh if you aren’t dead-set on being unimpressed.

More importantly, the actual reporting is miles upon miles ahead of anything ever put forth on either The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Both of those shows deserve their prestige as critics of American news and politics, but neither combine that critique with real-world reporting that isn’t obsessed with clips of other news programs. You’ll notice Oliver employs the news-montage trick made popular by Jon Stewart only briefly and only once in the clip. The rest is new information about a topic gone previously under-reported, tied off nicely with quick-draw jokes and hip-hop dancing.

The quality does take away from the quantity, however, at only one airing a week, but it’s a smart trade-off that’s paying out for HBO. Here’s a program that combines the intelligence and immediacy of serious reporting with the wit of the less demographically-challenged Comedy Central offerings. The show is currently running its second season.

Game of Thrones Leads April’s TV Lineup to Boost HBO’s Hugely Important Month

Created by Bristol-based illustrator Ali Xenos, this collection of thirty travel posters combines the retro, art deco design style of the 1960’s with popular fantasy locations from books and movies. Travel destinations depicted within the set include the unforgiving lands within the Game of Thrones series, the memorable locations in the Harry Potter books, the scenic locales in the Lord of the Rings literature and the futuristic worlds developed in the Star Wars universe.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these as prints, you can find the entire collection on Ali Xenos’s Etsy page here. But first, be sure to check out the entire collection of posters below!

Game of Thrones

Harry Potter

Lord of the Rings

Star Wars

30 Amazing Travel Posters for Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Star Wars

If you haven’t checked out the fantastic work of 72Pins, you are about to have a fun time. The company takes classic NES cartridges and applies a new label that’s related to something relevant in the gaming, television or movie industry. Of course, these aren’t real NES games. They are designed to be art pieces to show off your love for a specific piece of pop culture.

You can find these carts for sale on the 72Pins site here. While the majority are currently out of stock, the company constantly refreshes the carts, and updates on new carts in stock can be found on the 72Pins blog here. One of the most recent additions takes on the popular Netflix series Arrested Development with games about the Bluth stair car, Steve Holt, the chicken dance and Buster Bluth’s hook.

Check out some of our favorite shots of the 72Pins carts below:

NES Cartridge Art: Where the Past and Present Collide

Created by the folks over at College Humor, this set of illustrations details the best possible angles to take when attempting to convince friends, co-workers and family members to watch a TV show. Popular shows recommended within the set include AMC’s Breaking Bad, BBC’s Doctor Who, HBO’s Game of Thrones and BBC/PBS’s Downton Abbey.

Check out the full collection below:

How to Convince Friends, Family to Watch a Popular TV Show

Created by designer Andrew Spear for My Little Geek, this collection of high-resolution, 1080p wallpapers combines the major characters from Star Wars with the family mottos seen in popular HBO series Game of Thrones. Characters depicted within the wallpaper series include Boba Fett, C3PO, R2-D2, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Maul, Luke and Leia Skywalker, Wicket the Ewok, Chewbacca and Yoda.

If you aren’t familiar with My Little Geek, it’s a cool children’s ABC book that introduces your kids to common terms in technology while teaching them the alphabet. Instead of teaching you child A is for Apple, you can teach them A is for Android and so on. Take a look at the book here. It can be purchased from Spear for approximately $20 plus the cost of shipping.

Check out the full set of Star Wars / Game of Thrones mashup computer wallpapers below. You can also click on the image, then right click to save the 1080p version if you want to use it on your computer.

Game of Clones: Star Wars / Game of Thrones Mashup Wallpapers

Created by New York City-based illustrator and digital artist Roberto Flores, this collection of artwork combines the popular HBO series Game of Thrones with a standard fighting game like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Characters depicted within the series include Robb Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Khal Drogo, Cersei Baratheon, Daenerys Targaryen, Robert Baratheon, Bronn, Joffrey Lannister and a few helpful dragons.

In addition to more illustrations of the Game of Thrones characters, other pop culture topics within in the Flores DeviantArt gallery include the criminal elements of Gotham City, the Assassin’s Creed series, The Princess Bride, Doctor Who, Street Fighter, Kingdom Hearts, The Legend of Zelda series and the Final Fantasy games.

We can only hope someone at a video game company turns this into a reality. Check out the Game of Thrones fighting game images below and take a look at his DeviantArt page for more cool illustrations.

We Wish This Was Real: Game of Thrones Fighting Game

These days, just about everybody is watching HBO’s Game of Thrones, in addition to constantly debating which character died most undeservedly.

While the recently released iTunes app George R. R. Martin’s A World of Ice and Fire – A Game of Thrones Guide ($0) allows Game of Thrones fans to double-check character back stories, connections and associations with a book-to-book, spoiler-limiting slider, fans are still looking for a stellar level of interactivity that the books and the show cannot provide. But just how can that work with a catalog of characters that is both loved and inevitably mourned by fans?

Let’s face it.  As great as the house mottoes are, “Winter is Coming” and “A Lannister Always Pays His Debt” might as well be “Shut up beloved character and and get busy dying.” Even characters that fans love to hate just seem to be riding the pine until they seem so endeared to the viewer/reader that killing them will be the most devastatingly unexpected.

Fortunately, College Humor is ready to step forward and take the black with Game of Thrones Wish-Fulfillment. Not only can your favorite dearly departed character be saved alongside a heft of comeuppance, but those wishing for a definitive version of the theme song need look no further. Check it out:

Game of Thrones: Revengeance