Be Very Very Quiet. We’re Hunting Wights

Posted: February 18, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Season Eight of Game of Thrones is right around the corner. But it’s not here yet. To occupy my time, I’ve been writing feature essays (if I can dignify what I write as “essays”) for the Watchers on the Wall Game of Thrones news site.

My most recent feature is now up on their website, a (long) post defending an event that is not only one of the most derided situations in Season Seven, but the most critical. The decision to go beyond the Wall and capture one of the Night King’s wight foot soldiers.

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The Wicked Witch of Westeros

Posted: February 11, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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In just two months (more or less) we should have all seen a new episode of Game of Thrones, the start of the eighth and final season. The kind people at the Watchers on the Wall site have graciously allowed me to submit features for them, so I can work through my Game of Thrones related issues. Or something like that.

Just published on the site is a feature on Cersei Lannister, who is almost absolutely guaranteed to be regarded as a witch when the maesters write their histories of the War of the Five Kings and the Second Long Night. Sorry Cersei.

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You Are Not Stones But Men: Ned Stark and Shakespeare’s Brutus

Posted: February 7, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
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Another great A Song of Ice and Fire + Shakespeare analysis. I’m pleased to be able to reblog this.

Shakespeare of Thrones

One can almost see the sombre face of Eddard Stark looming up behind these lines:

BRUTUS:

For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

 – Julius Caesar, II.ii

Hailed as Shakespeare’s great political tragedy, Julius Caesar presents the delicate balance between the private and public self; a central conflict for both Ned and Brutus. The parallel is likely intentional, especially considering that George R. R. Martin has named Julius Caesar as one of his two favorite Shakespeare plays. Throughout A Song of Ice and Fire, the conflict of private self vs. public self persists as a vibrant theme–a duality of opposing concepts, much like ice and fire. It is also congruent with Martin’s ultimate conflict; the heart at war with itself.

By examining Ned’s orientation as a Brutus figure, we can identify how Martin incorporates thematic elements of

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The Role of the Golden Company in Game of Thrones

Posted: January 29, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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We are just under three months away from the final season of Game of Thrones!

Mercifully, April 14th is just around the corner. (I’m kidding – it feels like an eternity.) Our favorite (surviving) characters will be returning, as well as new characters among the famed Golden Company sellswords that Cersei hopes will preserve her hold on Westeros.

Good luck with that, your Grace.

Over on the Watchers on the Wall website, my go-to site for Game of Thrones news, I recently published a feature speculatively talking about the Golden Company and the likely story elements that they will bring with them from Essos.

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Tyrion Lannister: Wives, Warfare, and Witness Stands

Posted: January 11, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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2019 is finally here, with the final season of Game of Thrones on the horizon. I’m hoping to write feature articles for the Game of Thrones fan site Watchers on the Wall during the last months of the hiatus and then while the show is airing. (I can put out one a month until the show comes back, but then I’d better go weekly, exploring some insight from each episode.)

Over on Watchers on the Wall, I currently have a feature article speculating on what might be happening with Tyrion Lannister in Season Eight, by looking at significant events that have already unfolded in his narrative and then applying the performance Rule of Threes.

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December 2018 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: January 1, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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It’s January, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all of the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of December.

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 269 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only tweet Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. December was pretty much no exception.

For really great #MicroStory action, please follow @MicroSFF, the Twitter account that inspired me to participate in this minimalist writing exercise. That feed puts out great science fiction and fantasy MicroStories all the time.

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Here Lies Melisandre…

Posted: December 6, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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We’re a month closer to the premiere of the final season of Game of Thrones! Since I’m trying to get something Westeros-related written every month until the show airs (when I hope to have weekly content) – this month I was inspired by the longer and longer December nights to write something about Melisandre of Asshai, for the Watchers on the Wall website.

In her last appearance on the show, Melisandre hinted about a significant event that’ll be happening – most likely – in Season Eight, and I did some exhausting (if not totally exhaustive) speculation on that.

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