[Ursa major]

I was joking, but there was a serious point to the comment (as always?). In the following, I'll try to avoid spoilers as this is the TV section, not GRRM's author section.

One of the reasons this site, and many others, is filled with speculation about A Song of Ice and Fire is that no-one (apart from GRRM, we hope) knows the ultimate shape of the story. It is known that the first three books - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords - were initially meant to be the first book of a trilogy, but the story expanded in the telling. And without giving too much away, those three books between them mostly do describe the fight for the Iron Throne. However, as the prologue you've seen showed, various other things (no pun intended) are afoot, which may or may not - and I say this not because I'm trying to avoid giving spoilers - be seen to be the true focus of the story GRRM is telling.

Withing the books, various story threads are born and come to fruition, whilst others eke their way through every book in the background. That's what I meant by not knowing what's going on. I won't be seeing Game of Thrones season 1 until the DVDs are issued (though I have seen the 14 minutes of Episode One that's on the HBO site), but I don't think I'm giving too much away in saying that plenty of things will be resolved within the season, while other threads are still going strong by the end of Book IV (and, probably, beyond). The vast cast of characters are the result of the breadth of ASoIaF; you can be reassured that we readers of the books have had to work just as hard as the new viewers in placing everyone in the story (and we're still having to do this, as GRRM delivers plot twist after plot twist).