People love pornography. Not necessarily the type you find late at night using the incognito tabs on Google Chrome, but rather graphic and often eye-watering excess. As a society we are addicted to excess - and the anticipation around the fifth season of Game of Thrones is the perfect example of this.The first episode of GoT included a healthy smattering of incest and attempted child murder. Since then it has gradually progressed to rape next to the body of a slain child and murders so graphic that they would make Charles Manson flinch.An overload of boobs and blood is not a fail-safe recipe for creating one of the most popular shows of the decade and the show's creators know that. Game of Thrones is at its most excessive when it comes to plot twists.GoT has made a habit of getting viewers hooked on a particular character then submitting that character to a spectacular death. The Red Wedding brought a morbidly large dose of suspicion back to inter-familial relations and Oberyn Martell's death aggressively reinforced the idea that you should never count unhatched chickens.Season five is set to deliver another racetrack of plot twists. These are some of the characters whose fate will have us gnawing at our sanity:TYRION LANNISTERIn season four, "the Imp" came into his own magnificently, overcoming a potentially fatal relationship, his odious nephew and some severe daddy issues.With all three problems solved by rather satisfying deaths, the runt of the Lannister litter finds himself fleeing King's Landing with the full force of his sister Cersei's rage on his tail. Unlike in his previous narrow escapes, Tyrion no longer has Lannister gold to save him.CERSEI LANNISTERThe murder of her son and father is an unexpected boon for the least lovable of the Lannisters. With the King and the King's Hand dead, Cersei is the de facto ruler of Westeros. If there is one person you do not want in power it is the lady who takes governance lessons from Kim Jong-un.DAENERYS TARGARYENEveryone's favourite justice dispenser seems to have decided that Westeros is not worth it. The plight of all of the recently freed slaves, her horizontal tango sessions with Daario Naharis and her betrayal by the ever-creepy Jorah Mormont are not likely to increase her lust for the Iron Throne. Unfortunately, she is not universally loved in Meereen and her dragons are not helping her popularity among the natives.JON SNOWThe bastard of Winterfell performed admirably in the defence of Castle Black but there are factions on the Wall that have the knives out for young master Snow. Expect him to spend the season with an "insert sword here" sign stuck to his back.ARYA STARKSomewhere on the Narrow Sea is a prepubescent girl on a ship full of sailors, armed with a pointy little metal stick. Her entire family is dead. The question is where is she going, and what will happen when she gets there? The Game of Thrones universe is notoriously child-unfriendly.The Season Five premiere of "Game of Thrones" will be broadcast on DStv channel 102 on Monday at 3am. It will air again next Thursday at 9pmWhat others sayThis season will be one of new alliances and the settling of old scores with the show's female characters very much to the fore Sarah Hughes, The GuardianFor an episode that was always going to be slightly prosaic, to open with a flashback - the first in all of 'Game of Thrones' - was encouragingly bold Benji Wilson, The Telegraph..