In Defense of Olly the Conspirator

Posted: August 18, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This is the third part of a series, defending Olly of Game of Thrones from a variety of charges. (I kicked off the articles here.) If you don’t know who Olly is, haven’t watched the show, then I don’t know why you’re here.

Last article, I talked about Olly and his role regarding Ygritte. This post is about Jon Snow.

GoT_Jon_Snow1-600x338

Wait! WHAT ABOUT ME? IS SOMETHING ABOUT TO HAPPEN TO ME?

Quick Disclaimer: We can assume that people who haven’t watched the show deserve to be spoiled for reading this, but I wanted to warn people that I’ll be referring to some book details in regards to Jon’s story. Just wanted to warn off people who want absolutely no knowledge from the books (even if it’s not all *that* spoilery. Trust me, warrior.)

Jon Snow and the Conspiracy. The Jonspiracy.

I’ve already mentioned that people were hating on Olly even before the end of season 5.

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In Defense of Olly the Killjoy

Posted: August 18, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This is the second part of a series, contemplating the charges against Jon Snow’s steward Olly and if he deserves all of the Internet abuse he gets. This was somewhat explained in more relevant detail in my last post. To summarize: I say he doesn’t. Maybe?

GAME OF THRONES S04_E09.mkv_snapshot_41.56_[2014.06.09_22.11.06]

How do you like me NOW?
Oh, not very much?
Oh.
😦

Disclaimer: this post will be giving some plot details from the battle at Castle Black from the books (from A Storm of Swords, specifically.) If you’re not a book-reader but one day want to be, what I’ll be telling you won’t be super spoilery – but I wanted to give you fair warning.

Ygritte: the girl kissed by fire, killed by a child.

Near the end of season 4, things weren’t looking too good for Jon Snow. An overwhelming force of Wildlings were assailing the northern face of the Wall, but a more immediate danger in the form of a Free Folk raiding party was dangerously close to capturing Castle Black and securing access to the tunnel through the ice.

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In Defense of Olly: Opening Arguments

Posted: August 18, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This article will kick off a series of posts defending Olly, the farm boy and raid survivor turned Night’s Watch recruit in Game of Thrones. If you’re not up to date on the series through the end of season 5, you probably don’t want to be reading this article.

If you really really hate Olly, I assume you’d not want to read this article either. Poor Olly.

olly

Everyone knows how to read. But me.

Things seemed to be a bit simpler a few seasons ago, when nearly everyone was on board hating Joffrey Baratheon. (The team that runs The Joffrey of Podcasts would no doubt say otherwise.)

But with Joffrey’s death in season 3 by poisoning –

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In Defense of the Sand Snakes

Posted: August 4, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be covering details from the fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones (and therefore all the seasons leading up to that as well.) Should you be behind on your TV watching (you troglodyte) then I recommend you not read this post.

(Others might recommend you not read my posts for other reasons. I do try to be entertaining, though.)

SandSnakes

He had better be entertaining. Or a spear might be thrown into his face. Which would entertain us…

Specifically, this post will be talking about Dorne, the southernmost of the Seven Kingdoms and possibly the weakest storyline in the fifth season. Or was it? (It probably was.)

I’m taking a pro-Dorne stance, or at least I’m going to try and find the silver lining in that dark cloud. It’s what I do.

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July 2015 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: August 1, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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It’s August, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of July.

MooreaLandscape

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 129 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only tweet Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. July 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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In Defense of the Unsullied

Posted: July 21, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be discussing plot elements of HBO’s Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up, then this post will be fraught with peril. Dark and full of terrors, or at least spoilers. If you wish to remain unsullied (whether or not you happen to be Unsullied) then stop reading, and start watching the show.

Go on, get out of here!

game-of-thrones-season-5-episode-4-unsullied-patrol-scene

We’re going! We’re going!

Fine, let’s start.

This post will be talking about the Unsullied’s fighting reputation and how Season Five didn’t do much to support their vaunted rep. Or did it?

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White Walkers and Wights: Not Watertight?

Posted: July 7, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be discussing certain plot points from HBO’s Game of Thrones. In particular, Season 5’s excellent episode “Hardhome.” Let this be your spoiler warning. But if you’re not caught up, you really should do so. Hardhome was amazing.

KarsiWaterfront

Damn it to Thenn!!! SPOILERS!!!!!!

In the eighth episode of the most recent season of Game of Thrones, the show delivered on something that had been hinted at in the first season and teased at the end of the second season: an attack by an army of the dead.

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June 2015 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: July 1, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
Tags: , , , , , ,
5

It’s July, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of June.

Yuko-MicroStories

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 129 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only tweet Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. June 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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Valyria: Doom, Dragons, and Steel

Posted: June 23, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This article will be talking about Game of Thrones, HBO’s adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series. There will be spoilery details if you’re not up to date on the show.

drogon-in-valyria

That’s either a dragon or a very large spoiler. If this was the Internet, it’d be a matter of debate which is more feared.

For five seasons of Game of Thrones, there had been occasional references to things that were Valyrian. Mostly weapons that were made of Valyrian steel, although Xaro Xoan Daxos had a Valyrian steel safe deposit box door. Daenerys dramatically schooled a slave master in Astapor by speaking the High Valyrian language.

But what does “Valyrian” mean? It took five seasons, but finally the show presented the noun from which the magical adjective was derived from: Valyria.

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Now My Season 5 Watch Has Ended, Now My Season 6 Wait Begins

Posted: June 17, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Blogging, Game of Thrones, TV
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It’ll be a long wait until Season 6 of Game of Thrones starts up again…

GoT_Jon_Snow1-600x338

The season’s over already? I hope this doesn’t have a negative effect on my loyal and obedient comrades…

So my watching of Game of Thrones has ended (for this year) but the resumption of my Game of Thrones blogging has just begun.

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