The 2013 Emmy nominations were announced today and Game of Thrones walked away with 17 total nominations! The biggest surprise had to be someone other than Peter Dinklage finally breaking through in the acting categories. Emilia Clarke garnered an Outstanding Supporting Actress nom and Dame Diana Rigg scored an Outstanding Guest Actress nom. Peter got his usual nom too, of course.

David Benioff & D.B. Weiss returned as nominees in the writing category after being left off last season. Unsurprisingly, “The Rains of Castamere” was the episode that did it. The series secured an Outstanding Drama Series nom, for the third year in a row, and is the only HBO show in that category this year (Boardwalk Empire was bumped out, presumably due to House of Cards‘ debut). Lastly, the show raked in a ton of technical nominations, as it always does.

Seventeen nominations in total, the most the show has ever received, and tying American Horror Story for the most this year!

After the break, the full list of nominations for your perusal, as well as some of my reactions.

Outstanding Drama Series

Emilia Clarke as Supporting Actress

Peter Dinklage as Supporting Actor

Diana Rigg as Guest Actress

Writing in a Drama series for The Rains of Castamere (David Benioff & D.B. Weiss)

Art Direction, single camera (Valar Dohaeris, Kissed by Fire)

Oustanding Casting for a Drama

Cinematography, single camera (Mhysa)

Costumes (Walk of Punishment)

Editing, single camera (The Rains of Castamere)

Hairstyling, single camera (Second Sons)

Makeup, single camera, non-prosthetic (Kissed by Fire)

Makeup, prosthetic (Valar Dohaeris)

Sound Editing (And Now his Watch is Ended)

Sound Mixing, one hour (And Now his Watch is Ended)

Special Visual Effects (Valar Dohaeris)

Interactive Program for GoT S3 Enhanced Digital Experience

The winners will be announced live on CBS on September 22, with the technical awards being awarded a week before that, on September 15, in a separate event.

Winter Is Coming: What a haul! I know, I know, the wrong actors were nominated. Many people think Michelle Fairley and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau should have been nominated over Clarke and Dinklage. But getting ANY sort of acting recognition is a huge deal. So I can’t complain too much! The rest of the nominations are all deserved, I think. It would have been nice to get at least one directing nom. And the Academy continuing to ignore the excellent work that Djawadi does on the music is a travesty. Maybe one of these years they will correct that. For now, I just want to congratulate all the hard-working folks who have made this show, and these nominations, possible!