Archive for the ‘Game of Thrones’ Category

He Wants to Erase this World. And I am its Memory.

Posted: April 25, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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We’re past the second episode of Season Eight Game of Thrones, and therefore we’ve seen 1/3rd of the final episodes. It’s going by so fast.

Soon we’ll only have our memories to sustain us. (And rewatches. And unpublished books. And people debating on blogs and Reddit for years.)

But speaking about memories … on the Watchers on the Wall website, I’ve just published another feature article talking about the recent episode, and specifically the exchange between Bran Stark and Sam Tarly where Bran asserts that he is the memory of the world.

The scene offered a lot to unpack and I only scratched the surface, to be honest. But I discuss what it means for the Night King to be targeting Bran, what an endless night might mean in this nuanced context, etc.

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Ten Questions to Ponder Before Watching Game of Thrones 802

Posted: April 21, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
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Tonight is a new episode of Game of Thrones, the second episode of the eighth and final season. For fun, I’ve put together ten yes-or-no questions that will be answered tonight. (This is non-spoilery, I swear. Unless you didn’t see episode 801… I guess.)

No one is required to play, or even tell me their answers/predictions. There is no prize for getting all of them right, or all of them wrong. The reward is just in playing along.

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Winterfell: Coming Together to Fight the Night King. Or Each Other.

Posted: April 18, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Season Eight of Game of Thrones has finally started, and now our watch begins. The fine folks at the Watchers on the Wall are agreeably continuing to publish features written by yours truly, and my latest essay is on the site, talking about the events of the first episode of this final season.

The Night King is on his way, and it looks like our favorite Starks, Targaryens, and Lannisters might be too busy squabbling to resist him. And that’s okay.

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Varys, the Spider in Winterfell

Posted: April 7, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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In exactly one week, the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will be airing. I am probably not ready.

Sneaking in with one week left, the good people at the Watchers on the Wall site accepted a feature essay on Varys, the Master of Whisperers.

It was important for me to get any speculative piece written and published before the show aired and made my feature either redundant or invalid.

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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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