This is the fifth time we’ve featured ComicBookGirl19 and her “Game of Thrones: Epic History” videos explaining the Houses of Westeros. This one is the second part of the House Stark stuff. We post these cause we think they are really well done and informative. And we’re obsessed with the whole mythology…
The just of this video is that I’ll never be half the man Ned Stark is…and he’s not even real.
Continue reading Game of Thrones: The Epic History of House Stark (Part 2 of 2)
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Another season of Game of Thrones behind us and a whole plethora of kills for us to make a top 12 list of. Like last season, we couldn’t narrow things down to 10, but this season was by far the bloodiest. Like the Blackwater episode before it, the Red Wedding episode; The Rains of Castamere will definitely being filling multiple spots below. Enough chit chat!
Start the list!
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Before we knew the sick bastard was Ramsay Snow, he played a little game with Theon. He assisted him in escape after being tortured at the Dreadfort, seemingly saving him by killing his pursuers and then returning him to be tortured some more. As he finishes off the last of his men who chased Theon, Ramsay firmly plants a bow shot into the unfortunate man’s head at point blank range. Brutal.
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Rickard Karstark, or Rickard I’m-Such-a-Negative-Nancy, did some crazy stuff. He began doubting his king as he traveled to his grandfather’s funeral and let his lust for vengeance get the better of him by killing Lannister hostages. He was in direct defiance of his king, Robb Stark, not to mention the Lannister hostages were boys who had even reached their teens. Lord Karstark paid the ultimate price for that one by getting a good old fashioned beheading by his boss, spewing insults until the very end. Good riddance. Although that move didn’t help Robb in the long run.
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Ros was a character who only showed up in the Game of Thrones TV series, but she was a mainstay throughout the three seasons, having minor interactions with a number of characters. I was just as dismayed as the next person when Littlefinger informed Varys that he found out she was spying on him. Then to add insult to injury we get to see that Ros was used as a plaything for Joffrey and his crossbow.
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Here’s a kill we can all get behind. Sure it wasn’t inventive, but it was surely deserved. For some reason, Craster decided it would be a great idea to invite a large group of seasoned warriors who are half starved and frozen into his home. Then get this, he lords his food and women over them without expecting some sort of backlash.
Unfortunately he doesn’t take kindly to being called a bastard by the more mutinous members of the Night’s Watchmen, and takes a dagger to the throat. I would say I was sorry but this is a guy who had sex with numerous daughters and probably granddaughters and then sacrificed his sons to the White Walkers. Real class act there.
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Jeor Mormont, or the Old Bear as he’s known in the Night’s Watch, was a casualty immediately following the death of the old bastard Craster. Mormont was a great character who I was sad to see killed off by Rast who I’ve hated since season one. At least Mormont was almost able to choke Rast to death before he finally succumbed to more knife wounds.
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It’s hard to believe that Samwell Tarly had one of the coolest kills in the season. After being chucked a good 25 feet by a White Walker, Sam rebounds to use a dragonglass spearhead on the icy jerk resulting in him shattering into tiny little pieces. Sam the Slayer in the house!
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When Beric Dondarrion fights the Hound in trial by combat everything seems to be going his way. How can he lose? The Hound hates fire and Beric has a flaming freakin’ sword! But lose he does as the Hound cuts not only through his flaming sword but half of his upper torso resulting in one of the most gruesome deaths of the season. Then Dondarrion is almost immediately resurrected by Thoros of Myr, but he was killed nonetheless. Well done on both accounts.
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Talisa Stark wasn’t queen for very long, and was not able to be a mother at all after the Freys savagely murdered every Northman in attendance at Edmure Tully’s wedding to Roslyn Frey, which would later become known as the Red Wedding. It was truly brutal that they murdered an expectant mother, but what were they expecting naming him after a character played by Sean Bean.
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Robb Stark was the second major casualty of the Red Wedding, being filled with crossbow bolts before he watched his wife and unborn son die in his arms. You would think it would be enough that his bannerman Roose Bolton killed him with a knife to the heart in front of his mother but even after the events of the wedding the Freys parade his decapitated corpse outside on horseback… with his direwolf’s head sewn onto his body.
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Catelyn Stark’s death was quite haunting as her eyes went vacant after a scream that could only be that of a mother watching her son die right in front of her. The cutting of her throat seemed miniscule in comparison.
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Arya’s first intentional kill was quite a sight as her and the Hound rode by a small encampment of Frey men bragging about killing her mother and brother at the Red Wedding. In a “your shoe’s untied” moment with a fatal endgame, Arya shows the Hound that she has what it takes to pull the trigger… err swing the sword.
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Master Kraznys of Astapor by far made up my favorite death this season. After a couple episodes of insulting Daenerys in High Valyrian, Kraznys has an “oh shit” moment realizing that it’s actually her native tongue. He frantically orders her killed but only succeeds in getting extra crispy in quite possibly the most bad ass moment in the series.
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The Direwolf would have seriously owned some Freys had he not been locked away in the stables and riddled with arrows by them. It was truly heartbreaking watching his last moments as he made eye contact with Arya before closing them forever.
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So in the wake of devastation left by last week’s Red Wedding, and in eager anticipation of the next horrible thing to happen to the noble Stark family, I’ve assembled 5 of my favorite GoT related parodies from the interwebs, where there was no shortage of things to choose from. As of late Thrones has become a phenomenon, supplanting The Sopranos with HBO’s highest rated season ever, and just last Sunday delivering what many have called the most brutal episode in the history of television. We saw Jimmy Fallon dedicate 10 minutes of his late night show for his Game of Desks, YouTube has given us the 3-episode School of Thrones webshow, and ComicbookGirl19 has made a real name for herself simply talking about the show. And while those videos are all worthwhile, what follows are the ones that in the midst of my ASoIaF obsession, I deemed the best.
Continue reading Game of Thrones: Our 5 Favorite GoT Parodies…
This is the fourth time we’ve featured CBG19 and her “Game of Thrones: Epic History” videos explaining the Houses of Westeros. This one is the first part of the House Stark stuff. We post these cause we think they are really well done and informative. And we’re obsessed with the whole mythology.
Continue reading Game of Thrones: The Epic History of House Stark (Part 1 of 2)
George R.R. Martin has reluctantly put forth 2014 as a potential deadline for the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire, according to an article from International Digital Times:
“…the sixth volume won’t be released in 2012 or in 2013. I really look forward to publishing it in 2014, but I am really bad for predictions… when I finish this saga I will be judged for the quality of the books, not for the speed of my writing.”
The site speculates that, although the wait time between books has been excruciating in the past (up to a whopping five years for the last two), a 2014 completion for The Winds of Winter could be feasible, noting that “A Dance With Dragons came out on July 12, 2011 at the pleasant easy reading length of 1,510 pages. At that point, Martin supposedly had 200 pages for Winds of Winter already complete, chapters originally intended for Dance but pushed ahead for story and pacing reasons.” In addition to the 200 completed pages, Martin’s revealed that at least another 200 are written in some capacity. This would mean nearly a third of the book has at least been put to paper with TWOW’s predicted total count sitting at 1,500 pages. Personally I wouldn’t get too caught up in the specific dates or predictions – fans who have in the past have been burned repeatedly – but take some relief in the notion that 2014 is even being considered as a possibility; I’d add a two or three years to that just to be safe, and just know that by 2017 there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to read the next instalment.
The 2014 deadline would also serve as a buffer between the HBO series and the source material. The TV show is now hot on the heels of the novels despite the 15 year handicap and 1,500 new pages would prevent the show from overtaking the books for at least another year or two, but this is an issue Martin is very conscious about:
“I am aware of the TV series moving along behind me like a giant locomotive, and I know I need to lay the track more quickly, perhaps, because the locomotive is soon going to be bearing down on me. The last thing I want is for the TV series to catch up with me. I’ve got a considerable head start, but production is moving faster than I can write. I’m hoping that we’ll finish the story at about the same time … we’ll see.”
Martin has to be sick and tired of the constant poking and prodding about The Winds of Winter. I feel for the guy. If you are one of the many who have reached the end of book five and can’t take the wait anymore, there is an excerpt from TWOW available at The Winds of Winter Release (Spoiler warning inside. Duh.). Read that rather than bother the poor man with your insatiable demands. Aside from that there is a wonderful 25 minute interview HBO conducted with GRRM himself and the TV series’ executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. All that, and if the episode nine trailer is any indication, we’re up for one Hell of a finale to the third season.
Welcome back to Westeros!
We’re nearing the end of the season already…these seasons fly by too fast, and each episode seems to occupy the shortest hour of the week. After last week’s ‘The Climb’ it was time for this Sunday night’s ‘The Bear and the Maiden Fair’. This episode was mostly a collection of moving pieces, clearly waiting to be set in place before some impending big event, which is sure to fill out the end of the season. And if this show has taught us anything, that end is sure to be gut-wrenching.
Continue reading Game Of Thrones Review: 3.07 – The Bear and the Maiden Fair
Grizzly Bomb 