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
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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.

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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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May 2015 #MicroStory Collection

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

May2015Micro

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. May 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 »

Donner Party! All the Party, None of the Cannibalism!

Posted: May 30, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Music
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Last night, my wife, daughter, and I attended a House Concert in lovely Columbia, Maryland. We were fortunate enough to hear the talented Sarah Donner perform.

CatCropped

I have a legitimate reason for showing this adorable 1-week old kitten. You’ll just have to wait for the explanation.

(For those of you wondering why I have cannibalism in the title of the post, feel free to educate yourself on the Donner Party.)

Sarah is an entertaining musician and renowned cat lady (she once had an Ask the Cat Lady advice vlog where people would send her questions and she would answer them in the form of a song. For an example, you should check out her Can My Pregnant Cat Have Catnip? video.)

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