Although the Others were the mysterious antagonists on the great television show LOST, this post will be talking about the White Walkers on HBO’s Game of Thrones. It’s probably best if you’re up to date on that television show if you want to read this post and not be spoiled.

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Meet Up at the Glacier, the Night’s King Said. As if there’s Only One!

The winter solstice was a few days ago, ushering in the calendar’s recognition of the winter season (everyone who dealt with snow in November knows that winter’s already been here.) And we’re at that time (depending on your cultural affiliation) that children are being told that way up in the arctic, an old wizened figure is directing his fey minions in preparation for a magical trip away from the pole and into the warmer southern lands.

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What I’m Re-Reading: Bone by Jeff Smith

Posted: December 12, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Book Review, Comics
Tags: , ,

I’m hoping, really hoping, that the next book in George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series comes out this summer. But until then, I’ll be re-reading some excellent fantasy. Starting with the adventures of this little guy.

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Should you not recognize him, that’s Fone Bone, the diminuative protagonist from Jeff Smith’s epic fantasy graphic novel series Bone.

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This post will be discussing plot points from the first four seasons of Game of Thrones. This is your usual spoiler warning. But this is just boilerplate, because everyone’s up-to-date on Game of Thrones. Or at least all the cool kids are.

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Hey! FIRE and ICE!

It’s now December, and Winter, you know, is HERE! (It would have been depressing to say Winter is merely Coming when last month I was walking my dogs in the pre-dawn sub-freezing temperatures. But you guys don’t need to hear all this.)

Anyway, I’m expecting we’ll be seeing more snowfall soon, and that made me want to write about my two favorite Snows in HBO’s Game of Thrones: Jon Snow and Ramsay Snow.

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

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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. November 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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This post will be discussing some of the major plot points of HBO’s excellent series Game of Thrones, a solid adaptation of George RR Martin’s unfinished book series A Song of Ice and Fire. If you’re not caught up, don’t be reading this! Go read those books, or watch the show. You’ll thank me. Or not.

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When Someone Asks GRRM When the Next Book will be Out, He Kills a Stark

George RR Martin, the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series which is the blueprint for HBO’s adaptation Game of Thrones, has been described as a serial killer of fictional characters. It’s also been said that he survives solely on the tears of Game of Thrones fans (according to some meme I tripped over, researching for this article.)

Those statements are probably not 100% correct. I think he probably supplements his diet of tears with liberal helpings of lemoncakes as well, but I’ll concede the point. Certainly, there are two demographics that GRRM doesn’t mind messing with, and those would be his characters and his audience.

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It’s November, and here in the States we just had mid-term elections, so I thought it’d be the right time to talk politics. Relax, I’m not going to blather on about American politics, I’m going to talk about politics in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, as shown on HBO’s excellent television show, Game of Thrones.

Specifically, I’ll be talking about that independent political entity, the Night’s Watch.

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This will include some plot spoilers for people who have not seen the final episode of Season Four Game of Thrones, or haven’t read A Storm of Swords (aka Book Three of A Song of Ice and Fire.)

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Voting In Westeros

Posted: November 4, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
Tags: , ,

 

I have a political-themed post queued up for next week (relax, it’ll be Game of Thrones related) but since it’s mid-term election day here in the States RIGHT NOW, I wanted to share this.

anibundel's avatarAnibundel

If King’s Landing were a democracy…

Lannisters win wars

You have to admit, it’s a pretty good argument.

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

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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. October 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 »

It’s Halloween, when the dead rise. This inspired me to write an article about resurrection for the Film School Rejects website.

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A few months ago, they were cool enough to publish (and pay for) a Game of Thrones Season Four recap I wrote right after the season wrapped up, and they accepted my pitch this month for a  Halloween-relevant article about the dead rising, in Game of Thrones and other shows.

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This post will be talking Game of Thrones, the Television show. It’s best you not read this unless you’re caught up on the current season, or have read the books.  Oh, I guess if there’s anyone reading this not familiar with Lord of the Rings, I’ll be spoiling a wee bit of info about that excellent fantasy series too. Just sayin’

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Okay, Halloween is right around the corner, with long cold nights, demanding children, and the undead. So a perfect time to talk about Bran Stark’s storyline on Game of Thrones.

He’s a Stark, Therefore AWESOME, right?

Hey, I’m all Team Stark. I’ve gone to bat for Ned, Cat, Robb, Sansa, and Arya. And especially Jon Snow. So I’m favorably inclined to Rickon’s older brother.

But, I’m worried about Bran’s future path. There’s some serious dark vibes about a child with mind-control powers being taught magic by a wizened old hermit in a cave littered with skulls. This doesn’t seem to be Hogwarts.

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