And Now My (Season Four) Watch Begins…

Posted: April 4, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Writing
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Or it will in a few days, on Sunday April 6th. Season Four Game of Thrones!

3EyedCrow

Wanted to thank everyone who visited my blog and checked out my various Game of Thrones related posts. (Collections found here and here.)

I’m relieved that the season is about to start up, not only because I want to enjoy another ten hours of A Song of Ice and Fire adaptation, but I can ease off on writing about the show.

During Season Four, I won’t be posting any of my weekly Game of Thrones articles. I’ll be too busy:

  • watching YouTube reactions
  • reading recaps
  • listening to Game of Thrones podcasts

Starting in July, I’ll try to put out two posts a month related to Game of Thrones, and in 2015 I’ll repeat my challenge from this year and crank out a GoT post every week until Season Five starts up. Unless my math is way off, that’ll be 24 articles; coincidentally I have a list of 24 topics ready – it’s hard not to start working on them right now.

Best regards, and I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming season.

Photo courtesy of the greatest father in the Universe. There’s no need to debate this.

© Patrick Sponaugle 2014 Some Rights Reserved

The Targaryen Candidate

Posted: April 1, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be discussing plot points from the third season of HBO’s fantastic series Game of Thrones. If you are not caught up on the show and don’t want to be sullied by spoilers then stop reading. Go watch the show. Then come back. DO IT!

Dany-Happy

Vote For Me, Smallfolk! (That is, If I Grant You a Vote!)

 

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March 2014 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: April 1, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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It’s April, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of March.

MarchMicro

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 130 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

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

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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Defending Magic in Game of Thrones

Posted: March 25, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be touching on magical plot points covering the first three seasons of HBO’s excellent series, Game of Thrones. If you are caught up with the show, there won’t be any spoilers here.

got-game-of-thrones-30674575-500-580

Although HBO’s Game of Thrones was relatively light on magical elements in its first season, the show is undeniably a fantasy as we approach its fourth season.

Dragons, witchcraft, curses, illusions, face changers, resurrections, and creepy bald headed warlocks have all made their way on screen.

The question is, are all these elements good for the show? Game of Thrones operates masterfully as a quasi-historical epic, without magic. If magic can be used to dramatically change the equation of power between the competing factions, then doesn’t this lower the stakes? How can we become invested in the story if magic can be used, a la deus ex machina, to slay or save one of the characters without warning?

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By the Old Gods and the New: Religion in Game of Thrones

Posted: March 18, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
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This post will discuss the some of the faiths presented on HBO’s Game of Thrones. I’ll try not to drop any plot spoilers, but in general I’ll be talking religious observances and possible miracles shown during the first three seasons of the show. If you are not up to date on your Game of Thrones watching, I have no idea why you’d be reading this, but it won’t be super spoilery. (Just slightly spoilery, I guess.)

nedAndTree

Don’t Sit Under the Weirwood Tree, With Anyone Else But Me… With Anyone Else But Me… With Anyone Else But Me.

George RR Martin doesn’t do things halfway.

His stories are populated by dozens of major characters and hundreds of secondary characters who represent many cultures, speak many languages, and worship different gods. Some of the faiths appear monotheistic, some polytheistic, some with organized rituals, and some with hardly any dogma at all.

Why do we care? I don’t know. I’m just looking to write about something Game of Thrones-related and I’ve already covered helmets and crowns. But I’ll try to be entertaining.

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Breaking Bad Season Five – We Just Finished the First Half

Posted: March 16, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Breaking Bad, TV
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I’m going to be talking about Season Five of AMC’s excellent crime drama, Breaking Bad. Specifically, the first 8 episodes which left Breaking Bad fans desperate for the final 8. Since everyone had to wait during the Breaking Bad hiatus, I decided to blog my impressions on the half-season before continuing my watch of the show.

As always, if you’ve not seen Breaking Bad, this post will be spoilery, yo.

Breaking-bad-season-5

The King in Yellow.

Usually I breakdown a Breaking Bad season in more than one post, doing a recap in one post and observations in another. Since I only have a half-season to talk about, I’ll provide both a recap and observations in this post. If you’re not interested in my recap but mysteriously are interested in my thoughts, feel free to skip down. You animal.

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In Defense of the Warlocks in Game of Thrones

Posted: March 11, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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If you’re up to speed on HBO’s Game of Thrones, at least a few episodes into Season Three, then this post won’t be spoilery. 

pyatpree

Too Magical For Eyebrows!

I want to state up front that I’m not siding with the Warlocks of Qarth against plucky Daenerys Targaryen. I can’t defend their nefarious plot to abduct her in order to draw power from the Silver Queen and her dragons.

Instead, I’m defending them against allegations that they are an over-powered drama-breaking element in the show.

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Defending Theon Greyjoy

Posted: March 4, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be covering events from the first three seasons of HBO’s excellent Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up on the show, I recommend you skip this post, unless you don’t mind spoilers.

There are tons of characters with shades of gray in Game of Thrones. Some we like, some we hate, some we love to hate.

theonfancy

Dad’s Totally Going to be Impressed With Me. Sharp Dressed Man!

Theon Greyjoy is one of those characters who generates diverse reactions. I know people who are sympathetic to him, who downright hate him, who are fascinated by his journey, or who find his journey so awful that they hope he dies. The sooner the better, they would say.

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February 2014 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: March 1, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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It’s March, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of February.

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 130 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only throw out Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. Because I don’t need my parents to get confused if I start writing dramatic relationship Flash Fiction. I broke that rule this month.

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 »

In Defense of Joffrey Baratheon (Yes, JOFFREY)

Posted: February 25, 2014 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be touching on the first three seasons of HBO’s excellent series Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up on the story, be forewarned that I’ll be dropping plot spoilers for the TV show.

joffrey-baratheon-1024

Bring Me a Puppy! A King Has a Schedule to Keep!

There isn’t a lot of good things that can be said about the eldest son of Queen Cersei…

  • Executing Ned Stark? Bad move.
  • Torturing Sansa with severed heads, having her publicly humiliated? Extremely ungentlemanly.
  • Killing Ros? There’s nothing that I can say that would adequately express my horror and disgust.

But, and as odd as it sounds, I’m not here to condemn Joffrey Baratheon (although he is worthy of condemnation.) I’m here to defend the one time he was solidly, entirely right. And as a bonus (or the opposite of bonus) I’ll try to cast some reasonable doubt on some of the atrocities attributed to him.

Even the Mad King 2.0 can be surprisingly correct on occasion.

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