Kissed By Fire: Game of Thrones S03E05 (Review)

Maisie Williams rips our hearts out and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives the performance of his career in an episode that delivers three of A Song of Ice and Fire’s most titanic scenes (The bath scene, the cave scene and Sandor Clegane versus Beric Dondarrion), interspersed with beautifully-acted smaller scenes from the capital and from Essos; events…

What Arya would have done in Sansa’s place: being the ramblings of a young lady who adores both Stark girls and is rather sick of the above notion being used to favour one at the expense of the other.

Let us imagine for a moment that Arya hadn’t been so fortunate as to be picked up by Yoren at Ned Stark’s execution (well, how fortunate this event actually was is debatable). What if she’d been taken by the Hound instead, or denounced by someone in the crowd, or even recognised by Joffrey, who is…

Valar Dohaeris: Game of Thrones S03E01 (Review)

Let us grieve, for winter has indeed come on the day this blog has anything bad to say about Game of Thrones. Regrettably, in comparison with the consummate artistry of last season’s finale Valar Morghulis, this season’s premier, Valar Dohaeris is no response at all. Much like the books, the show is beginning to suffer…

The Most Unconventional Pairings in Westeros

About a year ago, a highly imaginative vidder named Coolcia produced this little diamond in the very, very rough of a fanvid. Set to Muse’s outrageously erotic Time is Running Out, its goal is to imagine what the ‘most unconventional pairings in the whole Westeros’ would be. The consequently crazy result is the hooking up…

The Swordfighting Women Conundrum: A Study

The issue of the swordfighting woman and whether or not we should be rolling our eyes at her is something that we’ve only touched on briefly on this blog. In order to get a more interesting conversation going, let’s refresh our memories on what we’ve said so far, notably in the post For the love…

A Frivolous Flying-Through of the Third Game of Thrones Season 3 Trailer.

There’s nothing like waking up first thing on a Monday morning to a new Game of Thrones trailer. Let’s discuss the healthy doses of new footage to be found in our latest fix, many of which boast the same strength of previous trailers in that they show key moments without giving too much away. This…

Sansa, Arya and creepy older men: why people need to calm the fuck down.

If A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones have taught us anything, it’s that one can never truly define or anticipate the complexity of human relationships, or what one person means to another. In Westeros, as in life, affinities spring up between the unlikeliest of people, and this chemistry, which causes many…

Thoughts on the new Game of Thrones Season 3 trailer

Last season’s gorgeous set of trailers were about high politics and the eternal quest for power. In this first trailer for season 3, we’re left in no doubt that we’re now dealing with the desire for ice-blooded vengeance that has come to possess almost all the characters. The trailer swoops masterfully through every angle of…

Remembering Game of Thrones Season 2

Having once again been seized by the gripping conviction that I will go off my head if Game of Thrones season 3 does not arrive RIGHT NOW, I shall content myself with nostalgically recalling the greatest moments of season 2 in anticipation of many more great moments to come. ‘Those are brave men knocking on…

Why Arya Stark and Tywin Lannister was a really good idea

So here’s my major complaint about Game of Thrones so far. The first season was so faithful to the book it had most fans spending the better part of each episode dancing jigs of joy on the couch. The second season made so many changes to the book that there were just as many people…