Posts Tagged ‘Game of Thrones’

In Triple Aspect: Witches of Macbeth and A Song of Ice and Fire

Posted: November 1, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
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Here’s a special treat for Game of Thrones fans and Shakespeare lovers – an essay discussing witches and their significance in A Song of Ice and Fire. (Everyone should be aware of the work Shakespeare Of Thrones is doing. She’s the best.)

shakespeareofthrones's avatarShakespeare of Thrones

Witches.

One of the most easily recognizable archetypes in literature, yet transmutable into so many varying forms. Old, young, wise, prophetic, repulsive, tempting, ugly, beautiful–for every one witch characteristic, there seems to be a corresponding opposite.

Macbeth’s three Witches are old and ugly hags, endowed with the gift of prophecy. They begin and end the play—indeed serving as a centerpiece of the story—as they feed Macbeth’s ambition.  Lady Macbeth is, likewise, a witch figure. She is young and mortal, bereft of prophetic powers, but aligns herself with the Witches and has seductive power as she impels her husband to do wicked deeds.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, there are many more types of witches. Melisandre comes to mind  as the most prominent, plot-driving witch in the story, but there is also Maggy the Frog, Mirri Maz Duur, Ghost of High Heart, Lady Stoneheart, and even Cersei.  Quite…

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Double-Crossing Devils and Mocked Gods

Posted: October 6, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Happy October everyone! Over on the Watchers on the Wall site, I have a new feature that hopefully is in sync thematically with this spooky, Halloween-focused month.

My feature talks about haunted Harrenhal and the blood-soaked bargain forged between Arya Stark and the mysterious and mercurial Jaqen H’ghar. One of those two was getting in over their head – and I suggest that the one out of their depth wasn’t Arya.

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Defending Dead Direwolves: Part 5 of 5

Posted: September 23, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This is the final post in a series talking about the direwolves on Game of Thrones (with some references to their analogous narratives in the books of A Song of Ice and Fire.) For more info on what this post is about, you can check out Part One. I tried to constrain myself to a five-part series, but part four was split up among two separates posts, because I was too verbose.

Nymeria hates verbosity as much as she hates Lannisters.

If you’ve wandered here without having read any of the previous essays talking about the direwolves, here’s the Too Long; Didn’t Read summation.

The direwolves on Game of Thrones appear to be an endangered species, and though it might not be correct to say that I’m okay with that, it is entirely fair to say that I’m not not okay with that. If there’s weakness in the adaptation of the direwolves’ narrative (which is hard to say definitively since there are more of the books to come out) then that weakness is probably on par with the other shortcuts taken in adapting A Song of Ice and Fire.

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Where’s Ghost? Defending Dead Direwolves Part 4.5

Posted: September 19, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post is part of a continuing series on the direwolves in Game of Thrones. I’ll also be discussing the books so if you’re not up on either versions, this is your spoiler warning.

I’ve been discussing the various fates of the direwolves, and had planned on writing a single post about pairs of direwolves (so, six direwolves would be covered in three posts) with an intro post and a wrap-up post making for five posts total. This worked well with the dead pair of direwolves (Lady and Greywind) and the dead-on-the-show direwolves (Shaggydog and Summer) but when I started writing about the still-living Nymeria and Ghost in the last post, I wrote so much about Nymeria I had to split my discussion of that pair into two posts.

So this is the second part of a fourth entry in a five-post series. And it will be all about Ghost. Or rather, mostly about Ghost. (I reserve the right to refer back to other wolves.)

But there will be no more math, I promise.

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Nymeria and Ghost: Defending Dead Direwolves Part 4

Posted: September 15, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This is the penultimate post in my series of articles talking about the direwolves on HBO’s Game of Thrones (and the literary source A Song of Ice and Fire.)

I’ve mostly been defending the fact that the majority of the direwolves are dead and that the showrunners are probably doing a reasonable job with them in the adaptation, although that’s not a popular fan-held position.

Just a reminder, I’ll be talking about the show and the books. So spoilers abound if you’re behind on your viewing or watching.

Two posts ago, I talked about the Stark direwolves Lady and Greywind, and the most recent post in this series featured Shaggydog and Summer. Up next are the last two wolves in the story, Nymeria and Ghost.

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Shaggydog and Summer: Defending Dead Direwolves Part 3

Posted: September 2, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This is the third post in a five-post series on the direwolves in HBO’s Game of Thrones (with corresponding plot details from the books of A Song of Ice and Fire.) You can get more details from my initial post – basically I’m discussing the Stark direwolves with a speculative eye on what might be happening in the remaining episodes and unpublished books. (And I might be defending some decisions that the showrunners have made.)

Them good doggos.

The last post was about Lady and Greywind, the two direwolves whose stories are faithfully recorded in the books and show. This post will be about Shaggydog and Summer, the wolves that belong to Catelyn Stark’s youngest sons Rickon and Bran.

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Lady and Grey Wind: Defending Dead Direwolves Part 2

Posted: September 1, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post is the second in a five-part series talking about the direwolves on Game of Thrones (with some comparisons expected to their analogous storylines in the source epic A Song of Ice and Fire.) For full details on what I’m all up about, feel free to skim Part 1 and then return here. No sweat – whatever you want to do, it’s cool.

As I asserted in my lead-in post, I’ll be talking about pairs of direwolves, and the first pairing to be featured will be Lady and Greywind, the direwolves of the two eldest trueborn Stark children, Sansa and Robb respectively.

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Defending Dead Direwolves (Part 1 of 5)

Posted: August 28, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post (and the four to come after, sorry) will be discussing not only HBO’s Game of Thrones, but the book series that it’s based on. If you’re not up on the show, or are holding off reading A Song of Ice and Fire (until all the books are completed in the 22nd century) then maybe this series of essays isn’t for you.

I mean, I can’t promise that this series of essays is really for you even if you are up-to-date. I’ll probably say some dumb stuff.

Jon says dumb stuff too, according to Everyone.

The Puppies That Were Promised

In the pilot episode of Game of Thrones, immediately following an exercise in Northern justice, direwolf pups are found – one for each of the children of Ned and Catelyn Stark (and one for Jon Snow.)

“Lord Stark,” Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. “There are five pups,” he told Father. “Three male, two female.”
“What of it, Jon?”
“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said. “Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord.”
— A Game of Thrones, Bran I

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Con of Thrones 2018: Shakespeare and Psychedelia Influences in Game of Thrones

Posted: July 1, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Music
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Just over a month ago (at the time of this post’s creation) Con of Thrones 2018 was in full swing in Dallas, Texas.

In the past weeks I’ve shared a links to audio from panels that I was fortunate to be a presenter on, but I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite panels that I experienced as a member of the audience.

Two in particular are of note since they were the first two panels I saw at Con of Thrones and shared the similar theme of exploring the influences of other bodies of work on George RR Martin and his epic series A Song of Ice and Fire.

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Con of Thrones 2018: Lord of the Rings influences in Game of Thrones

Posted: June 13, 2018 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
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More audio from Con of Thrones 2018 has become available (and helpfully put on YouTube by panelists other than me.)

Featured from right to left: Brad, Lauren, Matt, and some random guy who snuck up onto the dais. Security was nowhere to be seen.

I’ve included a link to the All That is Gold Does Not Glitter: The Connections Between Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire panel’s audio. I was a participant on the panel, along with /r/asoiaf Reddit moderator Matt (aka Joe Magician), Lauren (aka Joanna Lannister on Tumblr) and convention-running Mischief Management bigwig Brad Ausrotas.

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