Game of Thrones and the End of Character Arcs

A lot of Game of Thrones Fans were disappointed when the Battle of Winterfell seemed to be somewhat anticlimactic, particularly since most people felt that the fight between the living and the army of the Dead would be THE BIG BATTLE of this final season of the show.

Well, then last night happened.  Season Eight, Episode Five: The Bells.

If there is ANYTHING you can say about last night’s episode with 100% certainty, it is that the episode was decidedly NOT anti-climactic.  And it was one of those things that you just couldn’t stop watching.  Like the Red Wedding, but orders of magnitude worse.

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My two cents on the GoT Season 7 trailer

So the trailer came out for Season Seven of Game of Thrones, and of course it has already broken records for viewership.

First I checked out my friend Pat’s blog to see what he thought of the trailer and get his input.  If you want the opinion of another person who has read all of the books and is a fairly obsessed ASOIAF/GoT fan (like myself, and in a good way) then go check him out.

So here’s my thoughts.

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I think Cersei is the Trump of Westeros

It’s been a while since I have written anything about Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.  I have been struggling to figure out what to talk about.  Then the other day Kelly and I were talking, and it occurred to me that Donald Trump and Cersei Lannister actually have quite a bit in common.

Separated at Birth? Wait, no. That's just gross. Never mind.
Separated at Birth?  Wait, no.  That’s just gross.  Never mind.

Follow my logic, if you will.

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Season Six of GoT continues to explode heads

Well, this show is known for its shocking moments (especially for non-book readers, known in fan circles as the Unsullied) and Season Six has frankly had more than its share so far, and there are still four episodes left to go in the season.

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Some GoT/ASOIAF theories on the other Targaryens

So an obvious question being asked by fans of GoT/ASOIAF is this: since the sigil of the Targaryens is a dragon with three heads, and since Daenarys Targaryen has three dragons, who are those other two heads?  In other words, who will be riding the other two dragons?  She’s the last known Targaryen, after all, especially after the deaths of her brother Viserys and her great, great uncle, Maester Aemon.

Truthfully, most people already have a pretty good idea whose those two people will be.  I feel something like 90 to 95% certain that I know who they are.  So let’s talk about how, at least in terms of the TV show, we will discover that these two individuals are in fact the other two Targaryens.

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GoT, ASOIAF, and the two paths to the end

Well, one of the things that happens when you don’t do a lot of blog posting is that you fall WAY behind on your GoT/ASOIAF commentaries.  My bad.  Our friend and fellow GRRM fan Patrick is way ahead of me on all things Season Six, and frankly he has helped motivate me a bit (thanks man!).

So, now that life seems to be getting a bit more under control, it’s time for me to start catching up on all that.  After all, Season Six starts six weeks from this Sunday.  And there is all sorts of stuff to talk about.

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Still plenty of villains left in Westeros

I am a big fan of The Young Turks, and I really like the What the Flick? reviews of Game of Thrones.  I have been watching their reviews of the Season Five episodes, and one conversation intrigued me.  Cenk Ugyur made a comment that he missed some of the bad guys that died in Season Four, especially Joffrey (whom he particularly loathed) and Tywin Lannister.  That led to an interesting debate over who was more evil, and they even asked in the comments, “Who is more evil: Tywin Lannister or Littlefinger?”

That got me thinking about my own views of who the most evil people are in Westeros now that Joffrey, Lord Tywin, and the Mountain are dead.  And there are definitely some good candidates.

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

If you missed Game of Thrones last night then you’re probably going to be confused by the title of this post.  That or you’ve already been spoiled by the internet from some other source.  Either way sorry/not sorry.

Geoff and I have read the books, in some cases more than once, so we know the general story line despite what Benioff and Weiss might do to it to streamline for TV.  That being said, the title of this post isn’t in and of itself a spoiler, it’s  tradition.  Either way, if you don’t want to know more, don’t go past the jump.

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Heraldry, history and ASOIAF/GoT

As dumb as it sounds, one of the things I love about George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the heraldry.  Specifically, the house sigils, as they are more commonly known, are some of the most iconic things about the show.  Of course Martin based this on medieval heraldry practices that, at least technically, still exist to this day.  Plenty of families have coats of arms, as do cities, towns, universities and colleges, etc.  And the central part of any coat of arms is usually a shield of some sort.  In the world of ASOIAF these tend to be fairly simple (the direwolf of House Stark, both the HBO version and book-ish version) although a few do get more complex (like House Tarth, HBO version and book-ish version).   And GRRM goes to a lot of trouble to describe the sigils of a great many houses in ASOIAF.  To give you an idea of the sheer amount of creative calories burned, check out the Heraldry page at the Citadel website and this awesome Westeros map some uber-geeks put together.  I totally geeked out about both of those.

Well, Kelly and I decided a while back to make our own sigil (in true geek fashion) and now I will share it with the world via the Intertubes.  A lot of people did something similar with the “Join the Realm” promo web page done by HBO for Game of Thrones.  But I wanted to do our own, with symbols that meant something to both Kelly and me.

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