Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

Kingsguard Identification: Here’s the Thing (Hair’s the Thing)

Posted: March 25, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Last week, as part of my Westeros Wednesday series (filling the time between now and the House of the Dragon season three premiere) I had a long blog post (sorry for the ridiculous word count) talking in-depth about the big Judicial Jousting the happened in the penultimate episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

In that post, I took pains to try and track (mostly) the fourteen combatants in that trial. Part of that account included tracking the three Kingsguard involved, who are largely indistinguishable in their identical white armor and feature-covering helms.

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Some Misty Morning Exercise in Ashford

Posted: March 18, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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One of the major events of HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ first season was a dramatic Trial by Combat.

Hold on a moment, I should really have put out some spoiler warnings before I started getting into details.

You should watch this terrific HBO show before reading this blog post. Go watch right now, we’ll all wait. It’s roughly a three-hour time commitment – a very short season of television.

Everyone, take five while people get caught up on the show.

Okay, now that they’re gone, lets talk about the Trial of Seven, and maybe another related (sort of related) melee from George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

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A Knight of the Nine Kingdoms

Posted: March 4, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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HBO has recently finished up a season of its latest A Song of Ice and Fire offering, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

The six-episode season largely covered the events told in The Hedge Knight, the first novella from George RR Martin detailing the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his diminutive and bald squire Egg. There are three written novellas of Dunk and Egg stories, currently collected in a single volume called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I recommend it as reading material for anyone who would like to enjoy some stories that are set in Westeros but that aren’t quite as grim (for various levels of grim) as the narrative that kicks off in A Game of Thrones.

I used to blog heavily about Game of Thrones and slightly less-heavily for House of the Dragon. I won’t make any promises on insightful content, but I do want to write some essays over the next few months about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and a reasonable place to start is with the end of the final episode. (Look, I do what I want to do. Anyone can start writing about the beginning of things…)

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Looking Up at Superman (2025)

Posted: July 27, 2025 by patricksponaugle in Comics, Movie Review, Opinion
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Recently (as of this posting) my wife and I got to see the latest SUPERMAN movie, in the theaters (as Rao the Sun God intended for it to be seen.) It was very satisfying seeing a good Superman movie, where the movie is good and Superman is good.

Caption: Superman! Now 47% less broody.
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Batman Day 2024 – Batman Onscreen, Offscreen, and Occasionally Offworld

Posted: October 2, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Comics, Opinion
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International Batman Day for 2024 occurred on September 21st – I was too late to get something written up for it. (But maybe me posting this just a bit over a week late will be okay.)

I started writing blog posts about Batman, to celebrate International Batman Day, back in 2015. (How the time flies!) I was pretty consistent – I followed up in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. I had established a tradition, or so I’d thought.

Then 2020 happened, and I think I just had a hard time for awhile. I’m not making excuses: Septembers just came and went and I’d forgotten about International Batman Day. That’s on me.

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Writing MicroStories: The Rules. (There really aren’t any.)

Posted: February 2, 2020 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Opinion, Writing
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Warning: I’m not a writer, but I occasionally do write things. For 6+ years I’ve tweeted microstories, trying to fit something like a story into the length of a tweet. Some are more successful than others.

Recently on Facebook, one of my friends who reads my Twitter-length stories asked me what the rules were for writing microstories. (He sees mine on Facebook because I cut and paste from Twitter to Facebook – something that I didn’t have to do back in ye olde days because things used to be connected for cross-posting. But that’s not relevant here. I just like complaining.)

So, I gave him my rules for writing microstories. And I thought I’d share them here, for no real reason.

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The Stark Political Situation in Westeros

Posted: January 12, 2020 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Game of Thrones is over, but that shouldn’t stop us from talking about the show or the logical consequences of what might happen going forward in this fictional universe. Particularly in regards to politics, because the political situation in Westeros was a topic that we could all (mostly) discuss with our family at Thanksgiving, without fear of being written out of the will or something.

Arya: Cowards! Challenge your Republican relatives to Trial by Combat!

The final storyline in the show, after Season 8 dealt with the White Walkers (Arya took care of business by stabbing the icy Night King), dealt with the treacherous Lannisters (Daenerys Targaryen brought the Red Keep down on Cersei and Jaime Lannister), dealt with a Daenerys who was tired-of-not-being-taken-seriously (Jon Snow took her seriously and pulled an Arya on her), was the show dealing with the question of who would be on the Iron Throne at the end.

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Tired: King Stannis. Wired: King Bran

Posted: January 9, 2020 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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While Game of Thrones was on the air, I was fortunate enough to write about the show over on the excellent show-centric website Watchers on the Wall. But, even though the show has concluded, there are still books due to be published. Over on the WotW site, I have a new feature that largely involves book speculation. Sort of.

In the post, I speculate that Bran Stark’s book storyline might act as a reference to the failed ambitions of his grace, King Stannis Baratheon.

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In Defense of the Witcher

Posted: January 1, 2020 by patricksponaugle in Opinion, TV
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This post will be about the Netflix show The Witcher. Full disclosure, I’ve only seen four episodes, and I will totally be dropping spoilers about what I’ve seen roughly halfway through this post. I will give a warning when things are going to get revealing.

I’m calling this post In Defense of the Witcher, but there’s very little that needs defending in my opinion. It’s a good show; but your mileage may vary. And early on in its release, the show might have needed some defending.

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When Words Fail: Trial by Combat

Posted: December 19, 2019 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion
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The legal system in Westeros leaves much to be desired. There is no dedicated feudal analog of a judicial branch, ideally guided with fairness, objectivity, and the concept of justice. Instead, legal disputes are adjudicated by lords who often have vested interests in the outcomes and the overpowered ability to settle disputes by fiat (and with the martial support to have their decisions enforced.)

Tyrion is not impressed with this episode of Law and Order: King’s Landing

One would hope that disputes aren’t entirely decided arbitrarily by feudal lords; that local customs, precedents, and traditions might hold sway. But that’s not a given when the common-folk are facing the sharp end of Westeros justice.

Although the smallfolk of the Seven Kingdoms have less flexibility when it comes to facing legal issues, those with more status and privilege do have the option to take decision-making out of the hands of overlords and into their own. If they can accept the risks of Trial by Combat.

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