Emmy Predictions Part Two

Last time I wrote about my predictions for the major programs (Drama, Comedy, etc) and now I will actually go into the depth of the categories (acting, directing, writing, etc) and give my thoughts on who will win.

 

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Who Should Win: Louis C.K. I've heard nothing but good things about his show and it would be nice to not always have to award go to Parsons.

Who Will Win: Jim Parsons. He is the current king of the television comedy world with the number one rated/watched show, so I'm sure he'll win again.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Who Should Win: Amy Poehler. Seriously, she needs some love for all of her amazing Parks and Rec work.

Who Will Win: Julie Louis-Dreyfus. She's an Emmy favorite and has already won in this category 3 times in the last 9 years (most recently, two times in a row). Alternate choice: Taylor Schilling. OITNB is the hot show of the moment and with the win of Uzo Aduba ("Crazy Eyes), this could be her moment to win for the show.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Who Should Win: Jesse Tyler Ferguson. He's been nominated 4 times and has lost to other MF castmates. This may be his year due to his wedding storyline.

Who Will Win: Tony Hale. Veep is a serious favorite for the Emmy voters (see Julie Louis-Dreyfus) and he also won last year so this is a pretty good lock.


Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Who Should Win: Kate Mulgrew. Red has been such a strong force on the show and I would love to see her win.

Who Will Win: This is a serious toss-up. Since Merritt Weaver's upset win last year, Emmy voters have shown they can vote outside the box. So I'm giving to to either Anna Chumlsky or Allison
Janney

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Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Who Should Win: Matthew McConaughey/Kevin Spacey. Either or both of these guys put out some amazing performances and it would be nice to see one of them win over Cranston.

Who Will Win: Bryan Cranston. He won 3 times previously for the first 3 seasons. This will be the final time he is nominated for BB, so this may be his swan song due to the incredible critical and audience acclaim for Walter White.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

This is also a difficult one. Claire Danes has won 2 times in a row and this years episode that she is nominated for, is considered the best of the season. But Kerry Washington has been amazing as Olivia Pope and Robin Wrightis flawless as Claire Underwood. Although Lizzy Caplan did amazing in Masters of Sex.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Yes I'm biased, but I really think Peter Dinklage killed it this year with his trial speech. It'll be a tough race but since he has won it before, he has a decent chance.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

I really want Lena Headey to win as the fabulously terrible (and fashionable) Cersei Lannister. But Maggie Smith has been killing it lately and Joanne Froggatt had an amazing season as Anna Bates.

There are a bunch more but those are the main ones that many will focus on. Tomorrow I will have out my roundup.

Emmy Predictions Part One

As promised, here are my Emmy predictions for the broadcast. I'll put down who I hope will win and who will actually win (a la Entertainment Weekly). For some reason the Emmy's are airing on a Monday (due to football, I guess), but I wont let having to work all day mess with me catching the red carpet. haha Since I haven't read much on predictions and I'm worse at predicting Emmy's than Oscar's, it'll be interesting to see how things out. The night of the show I will take score and see how I did and what I though of the winners/the show in preparation for my round-up blog.



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Outstanding Comedy Series

        Who Should Win: Orange is the New Black. I absolutely love this show. It has amazing diversity and character development and does a great job of showing the prison microcosm.

        Who Will Win: Modern Family. Emmy voters are obsessed with this show and it has already won this award 4 times in a row. I will be happy if I get this one wrong and OITNB or something else wins just to keep this award fresh.

Outstanding Drama Series

       Who Should Win: Game of Thrones, True Detective. In my perfect world, these shows would win with a tie because they both did amazing things with their subject matter. I was raised on Mystery/Suspense as much as I was in Fantasy, so these shows have been amazing for me to watch.

       Who Will Win: Breaking Bad. Honestly they earned it with Ozymandias, an episode people still talk about to this day as being the best thing they've seen. Plus it's their final year, so I'm fine with them taking it.

Outstanding Variety Series

       Who Should Win: The Tonight Show Starring Jmmy Fallon. Despite the criticism, he's put up nice numbers and has some really memorable sketches.

       Who Will Win: The Colbert Report. Fresh off its win last year, I feel like this is primed to give Colbert the crown again as he heads off to the Late Show.

Outstanding Miniseries

      Who Should Win: American Horror Story: Coven. Bassett, Bates, Lange. Need I say more?

      Who Will Win: Fargo. I still think it'll be between this and AHS, but I've heard very good things about this show. It'll come down to which Hollywood heavyweights the voters prefer honestly.

Hmm but I'm torn. Since the Movie/series categories were merged, Asylum and Murder House both lost to movies, so the voters may want to give it to AHS this year to make up for past years and the casts fantastic work. Plus Angela Basset was amazing. So if it doesn't go to AHS, I'm sure it'll got to Fargo.

Outstanding Television Movie

      Who Should Win: The Normal Heart. Critical acclaim and the subject matter fits with previous winners (serious real-life issue/event).

      Who Will Win: The Normal Heart. HBO has been on a serious win streak (they're not bound by the same FCC restrictions) in this category.

Outstanding Reality- Competition Program

      Who Should Win: The Amazing Race. *see below*

      Who Will Win: The Amazing Race. They lost last year due to the novelty of The Voice, but I'm sure they will reclaim their crown.

Summer Break

Since the school year is coming up, I figure it would be a great time to start blogging again,
Since I last posted:

I've been making a costume for a competition (I might make a post about how I made it)
Studying for the GRE
...and trying to do as little as possible when I could.haha

 I'll probably restructure so I'm not super overwhelmed.

Also the Emmy's are on on Monday, so I will try to have my predictions set up.

Going back in October!!!

ConCarolinas Recap Part 1: Travels and Reuniting with the BWB

Nothing like a typical FanGirl recap that's over a month overdue. Anyway here is a look at my experience at ConCarolinas in Charlotte North Carolina.

As I live in Maryland, I really didn't feel up to the drive down to NC, although I do know some people that did do it. My mom picked me and Brian up and we headed to what was supposed to be a simple trip to the airport. That did not happen. There was a crazy accident on the interstate so traffic was backed up. What was supposed to take 35-45 minutes took two hours. The funny thing is our flight was barely two hours and we ended up being stuck in traffic longer than that.

Anyway we made it to the airport (and had enough time for food and a double shot of my amaretto sour) and our flight got underway. Once we finally got to Charlotte, it was a 20 minute long cab ride before we got to the hotel. The hotel was really nice and I was starting to get excited to see everyone from Capclave again.

Mascot of CapClave

*Short Aside*---err...or not, oh well!

Capclave is a small sci-fi-fantasy fiction convention. It's held in Gaithersburg every year, and this past year, George RR Martin was the Guest of Honor, so I obviously had to go. After looking online, I discovered that GRRM had an official fan group called the Brotherhood Without Banners that basically throws epic parties at all the conventions they attend. To join all you have to do is show up to an event. It's cool because you kind of become "vetted" with GRRM and he knows that you're a respectful fan that he can also hangout with (which we did!). I would describe the BWB as pretty "ride or die", meaning that they pretty much have a presence at most things GRRM goes to. Ta give you an idea I met one person from Portland and another all the way from Dublin, so the BWB pretty much has a fairly large span of members.
**

So once we settled in a bit I nervously met with some members that I recognized (since I had only met them once before). We were planning on doing a group costume so it was fun to talk about it and make some plans for the first day of the conventions. We were going to become the (Not-so) Silent Sisters form Game of Thrones. They have actually featured in a few episodes but obviously had no speaking parts (ha!). They are a religious sect/order of women who travel Westeros collecting and preparing the dead. It sounds creepy and off-putting because they cover everything but their eyes and don't speak.

That was basically the end of the travel/preparation leading up to the convention so stay tuned for Part Two: Lunches and Costumes Galore!

Monday Madness: Cosplay Edition

Despite my relief that my busy period was over, it seems I'm still doing a ton of stuff all at once. I'm working full time and attempting to also study for the psych and regular GREs. I'm also currently working on my first ever fully handmade cosplay, which is equally fun and challenging.

I will starting posting all of my progress pictures on here so, so I can see my process. Hopefully I can look back and see howfar I've come in my skills with making costumes. The costume I am currently making is a Weeping Angel from the show Doctor Who.

Don't Blink

When I first saw the episode, I thought they were absolutely terrifying. Imagine if the only way you can survive is to make sure you don't blink when you see them. Anyway I figured this would be a good first cosplay as it has equal elements of crafting and sewing. As of right now I'm done almost all of the crafting which, I'm excited about. So far I've had to make a wig, gloves, balaclava-type cover and wings.

It's so weird that the more I work on this project the more projects I want to do. My list so far includes: Princess Jasmine (of course!), Arianne Martell (asoiaf), Sarella Sand (asoiaf), Patty Mayonnaise (from Doug), Sailor Mars, a GOT spin on Where's Waldo (Walda Frey-Bolton) and a stewardess from the Fifth Element.

So yeah, I'll see how that goes, especially once I start making my dress for my current costume. I'm considering going to a con in September and competing so hopefully evertyhing will work out.

Also I've finally been reading more and even have gotten into a comic book series (Fables) so it's nice to do what I love.

In other first world problems news, I currently can't decide between paying for season 5 of Archer or to wait for it to show up on Netflix. haha Such is my life.

Story Review: The Rogue Prince or A King's Brother

And I'm back! I plan on doing a bunch of posts so just be prepared for the deluge. Anyway, I've actually been reading a decent amount so I figured I can come back with some reviews to get this blog started back up again.

The first is a story from an anthology set in the Song of Ice and Fire universe set nearly 200 years before A Game of Thrones.

Anthology Title: Rogues
Editors: George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

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Story: The Rogue Prince or A King's Brother
Author: George R.R. Martin

Characters:

Prince Daemon Targaryen- the younger brother of the king, his behavior leads to many conflicts and confrontations. A very driven man, he will do whatever it takes to get the crown that he believes he deserves. Caraxes is his dragon.

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen- the would-be queen. She is the only surviving child of her father's first marriage to Aemma Arryn and is the oldest sibling by ten years, leading her father to declare her the heir to the Iron Throne (which may be due to the fact that she has more Targaryen blood tha her half-siblings). Syrax is her dragon.

King Viserys I Targaryen- the firstborn son of Prince Baelon, who died before he ever could become king, devastating the Good King Jaehaerys and throwing Viserys into king hood. He doesn't like confrontation, which leads to a lot of future problems due to his inaction at times.

Queen Alicent Hightower- the second wife of the king. She will do whatever it takes to maintain her power and see her children on the throne/the line of succession. She previously was a caretaker to the Good King and her father serves as Hand of the King.

Setting: During the years 103 AC-129 AC, which cover the period beginning with the death of King Jaehaerys and the ending with the death of King Viserys. The Targaryens are at the peak of their rule and there are numerous dragons (and some wild ones to boot).

Overview: It's hard to describe the plot as this is more of a historical retelling rather than an actual story. Like The Princess and the Queen, Rogues has less focus on the title (meaning the brother) and more focus on the overall conflicts and scandals leading up to the Dance (read: Death) of the Dragons. The most interesting aspect of this story is the fact that we get three different ideas of what could have happened from chaste to salacious which are left open ended, so the reader can decide their own truths. I feel like this was less of a story and more of a prologue info dump but I still found all of the new information interesting. Guidance would be to read this and then read The Princess and the Queen for the most complete story (well...with all of the editing, it'll be the most complete story until we can get the complete unedited version of the entire before, during , after of the war).

FanGirl Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Recap of Ice and Fire: Day 2 of Ice & Fire Con

Welcome back to my second part of my recap of my time at the Ice & Fire Convention May 16-18. I last left off after going to bed after many epic and hilarious rounds of Cards Against Westeros.

After breakfast, I got dressed in my Lyanna Stark  cosplay and headed for the boardgame tournament. I had no experience with the game at all. It was kind of intense, but the guys I played with were pretty patient and nice and the game ended up going pretty well. I even didn't come in dead last, which was nice as well. After this, was a nice packed lunch provided by the castle and then we all set off for the tournament.

The tournament was pretty cool, since almost everyone was dressed up and there were different competitions (foam melee battle and archery). It was really cool to watch everyone get into character and having a good time as well doing medieval-time things. Speaking of getting into character, there were some outright amazing costumes, from Illyrio Mopatis, to Fat Walda, to Lady Stoneheart and the "besties" Areo Hotah/Arys Oakheart.

Since seeing all of this stuff was inspiring me to start making my own costumes, it was fitting that there was a cosplay discussion right afterwards. There was a ton of insight and funny anecdote's from everyone. It inspired me to start working on a costume for future cons, since I've been wanting to make for for while no. Hopefully I can get started this weekend. Anyway, it was a really productive panel and it was nice to hear about all of the ups and downs, instead of just seeing the end result. Thid ended just before the costume contest and their were some awesome presentations from Khal Drogo and Oberyn Martell.

The we had our delicious feast, which had some great conversations and good food as well. Afterwards, we headed down to the pub for some drinks and to play some awesome trivia. It was incredibly difficult but surprisingly, I still remember some answers *cough Wendel Manderly*. It was really fun, but obviously everyone in the room got smoked by Team Manwoody, which consisted of Tower of the Hand and Podcast peeps.haha. After this came the Season 4 discussion, which was fairly civil, but I feel like we all mostly agreed on how we felt about the show's interpretation.

The final event of the night was the dance party. There were some awesome modern-day GOT characters like Flower-Child Tyrell, Party Rock Cersei and the Cheesemonger. Between these awesome costumes and everyone on Team Stag, there were tons of laughs to be had. the middle was pretty cool (shout out to Dead Ned, Lyanna and everyone else who "died" haha) Plus the awesome Red Wedding skit in Plus the afterparty was pretty cool, but I was exhausted so we ended up going to bed around 1am. Saturday was such a great day overall.

*Next up, Day 3 and final thoughts. Thanks for reading!*

Recap of Ice and Fire: Day 1 of Ice & Fire Con

Since my crazy schedule is finally slowing down, I figured now would be a good time to do my recaps for the convention that I went to last month. It's called the Ice and Fire Con and it is held at Ravenwood Castle in New Plymouth Ohio. I found out about it from listening to Podcast of Ice and Fire, where it was mentioned. It's a super small con (around 80 people) in an area with limited internet/service, so it became an awesome experience.

We had an 8ish hour drive through Maryland and West Virginia to get to Ohio, so we decided to leave Thursday afternoon and stay the night in Morgantown. There was a crazy storm and between that and driving up and through mountains, it was kind of a crazy experience. The next day was much more uneventful and we made it to the castle right as the con started.

We were in the Queen Elizabeth room which was super huge and even had a nice little fireplace and of course had the theme of Queen Elizabeth with a Queen bed of course. I didn't know many people so I headed downstairs to meet some new people and decorate my badge. Once there I set up my bar tab and started talking to some people. Once I saw that others were in costume, I decided to put on my Nettles costume. My character is a little obscure (only in a separate story set in ASOIAF universe) but I think I had enough stuff that people got it. Brian went as my (purported lover, Daemon Targaryen.

Soon after the badge decorating was the beer tasting held in the pub. We got to try different kinds of Ommegang beer, ending with their new Fire & Blood selection. I'm not big on beer but I tried it anyway. We even got a bottle of the new beer with the tasting, which was cool. Many events were held in the pub area which was nice and intimate. Plus the bar could make pina coladas, which is pretty much all I had that weekend. The prices were really reasonable and the service was great.

Next I headed upstairs to the Q&A with the people from Podcast of Ice and Fire and one of the creators of Tower of the Hand. it was really cool to meet everyone in person and talk the podcast and all things ASOIAF related. I even got a cool shirt so I can rep House Manwoody anytime now! haha After the talk was the Snark and Grumpkin Hunt, which consisted on using Nerf-like bow and arrows on various targets. I was terrible but luckily Brian redeemed our team and we got some points.

Once it got super dark, we headed inside to play Cards Against Westeros. Like the original Humanity, it consists of hilarious statements and answer options but all were geared towards Westeros. I think there were like 15 people playing so the games went on for awhile, but that was fine because it was really fun.

Overall, I had a really great first day and was starting to get more comfortable with cosplay and getting into character. I got to meet a bunch of new and interesting people and couldn't wait for the next day.

Game of Thrones Recap 4X08 Inigo Montoya

Hello everyone! I'm back after a small hiatus and ready to blog more frequently.

Since I have off work tomorrow, I figured I would start up my regularly scheduled recaps (well for the next two weeks, anyway) about the show while they are still fresh in my head. And boy, this one was incredibly hard to watch.

As a reminder I like to do my recaps by region, since many of the characters are grouped in similar places

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Episode 8: The Mountain and the Viper

Mole's Town/ At the Wall: We get to see more of the raiding by the wildings led by Tormund Giantsbane and Ygritte as they try to draw out the meager forces of the Night's Watch by slaughtering the residents of Mole's Town (and some Crows). We do see Ygritte show some mercy and leave Gilly and her baby alone but poor Sam still thinks that she and the baby are dead. It seems like a minority contingent of the Watch my want to try to do something to deal with the force but I guess we'll find out next week since the episode is Wall-centric.

Moat Cailin: Ramsay uses Theon to "treat" with the remaining (and destitute) force of Ironborn that hold the much needed fort. He offers surrender and though the leader rejects it, he soon bites the dust as the other men are eager to get back to the sea. Too bad Ramsay is a crazy sadist and we're left seeing the flayed remains of all of the Ironborn. We get to see a bit more of Ramsay and Roose's relationship, though Roose embodies the coldness that many parents in the North exhibit towards their children, he (and puppet Tommen, who will sign anything given to him) grant Ramsey his legitimization. Now we see that the Boltons (and Reek) are heading off to reclaim and hopefully clean up Winterfell. Also the end scene with Ramsay's legitimization reminded me so much of the Lion King with all of the "what do you see" stuff. haha

The Eyrie/near The Vale: Littlefinger gets grilled about Lysa's "suicide" and the Lords (and Lady) bring in Sansa to try to ensure his guilt as they do not like him anyway. Although initially it seems as if she is going to tell, Sansa turns into an actress and puts on the whole "little girl lost" act, which the Lords eat up. I can't wait to see her grown even more into a cunning character that not only understands herself and her surroundings, but also the Game of Thrones as well. I have to say it, that dress at the end was Amazing!!

**I forgot Arya! I fully blame it on Post-Con exhaustion. Anyway, we have more of their sitcom-like adventure together ending with Arya in hysterics as she learns her last remaining relative (Lysa) is dead and they came there for nothing ***

Meereen: More of the sweet blossoming relationship between Grey Worm and Missandei. This is contrasted with the destruction of the friendship between Jorah and Dany as she finally discovers that he had been spying from Seasons One and Two. Maybe we won't have as many people call Dany Khaleesi as her real name anymore (wishful thinking). We see Jorah get exiled and have no idea what is next for our Queen.

King's Landing: I have to admit that all of the scenes made he nervous due to the anticipation of the trial. We do get another bonding moment with the Lannister brothers which was nice. The battle ended up being even more gruesome than I could have imagined and some of those images are now ingrained. Now we have to wait another two weeks to see the falling action of our favorite King's Landing people now that Tyrion's fate is decided.

FanGirl Rating: 3/5 Stars. I enjoyed the show but I am still waiting to see how the Butterfly Effect of the many changes from the book (which were made in most of the story lines this episode) will effect how I enjoy the show. Obviously the last minutes were incredibly graphic and jarring. Overall, not bad and I do like the agency Sansa is getting but not my favorite episode of the season.

Cultural Phenomenon: Anti-Heroes in Television

In honor of the summer barrage of super hero movies, I decided to discuss the phenomenon of anti-heroes, how they are treated in their respective fandoms/the culture at-large, how they differ from traditional heroes and what it means going forward.

 

Frank Underwood, Dexter Morgan, Walter White, Tony Soprano are names of just some of the many kinds of anti-heroes that are prevalent in fictional popular culture. An anti-hero can be someone who has more typical "villain" traits (selfishness, greed, envy, lust, etc), but due to the medium/premise of the show, get the traditional protagonistic view. They can also be the main character that has none of the similar virtues/qualities more typical of the hero. Someone like Tyrion Lannister could also be considered an anti-hero as his good deeds are weighted by his (many) vices. Another thing about these types of characters is that they have some aspect that allows for reliability, which probably causes cognitive dissonance. That is achieved in situations where we are rooting for someone like Dexter to kill the bad guy, not really focusing on the fact that he technically IS a "bad guy" himself (well, more homicidal vigilante).

The main point of being an anti-hero is about that moral ambiguity that comes along with all of their decisions/actions. For example the premise of House of Cards is Frank Underwood exacting his revenge on the people that went back on their word after he helped them gain power. Since you are seeing things from the anti-hero's perspective, you tend to sympathize with some of their aspects, while disliking some of the other things they do. Basically, these characters do things in a much more 'in your face' way that typically isn't seen with traditional hero protagonists.

The most interesting aspect of anti-heroes is that they turn tradition on its head and breathe life into stale tropes like the hero doing good, then saving the day. Of the characters that I named above, some consider themselves monsters (to an extent) (ex. Dexter), while others think of themselves as misunderstood or justified in their variety of actions (Walter White). Lately when you ask people about the best shows that have ever existed they mention things like The Sopranos, The Wire, Lost, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead , it's interesting to note that they all contain anti-heroes that walk the line between good and bad. Now you constantly see people saying things like "I am the one who knocks" and wearing the merchandise repping their favorite characters. This that this has become a phenomenon do to compelling writing that takes a character that could easily be turned into an evil character into a complex individual will many good, bad and ambivalent qualities.

I think that from here on out, only more of these morally grey characters will continue to exist and expand what we typically understand about what it means to be "good" or "bad". Their growing popularity will hopefully encourage studios to not play it safe and give us television shows that really challenge what we understand to be right or wrong.

Game of Thrones Recap 4x07: Snowcastles in the Snow

This week's episode covers my recap and thoughts on the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Just as a reminder, the show will be off the air next week due to the Memorial Day holiday, but will return with episode 8's The Mountain and the Viper.

Episode 7: Mockingbird

King's Landing: The episode opened with Jaime and Tyrion  talking about the trial by combat. It was nice seeing the brothers interact again although there was a heavy feeling of doom surrounding Tyrion, as Jaime was hesitant to tell him about Bronn and the Mountain (the latter being Cersei's champion). Bronn does come to Tyrion later and tells him straight up that he got a better offer and that he is choosing his life. Despite his (kind-off) betrayal, you can't really fault Bronn for his reasoning.

Somewhere in the Riverlands: The Hound and Arya are traveling and come across a burnt home and a man dying from a very painful stomach wound. After discussing with Arya about life and living, the Hound gives him water and then mercy kills him. Right then, he gets jumped and bitten by a man who he soon kills. Arya gets another kill (Rorge) and they learn that the Hound has a giant price on his head. Later as the Hound is trying to clean/dress his wound, Arya attempts to help him and he lashes out due to his fear of fire. And just like with Sansa, he opens up, albeit in a different way, about how Gregor destroyed his face and his family.  

Brienne and Pod are at the Inn at the Crossroads (I think) taking a well-deserved rest from sleeping on the hard ground. There we get a surprise cameo from Hot Pie who is still as into food as ever and many funny scenes occur. I'm not sure where they are going with more than just the Hound knowing that Arya is still alive (that wasn't in the books). I guess it will be setting up for something interesting at the Vale, since everyone will be converging there soon (but who knows?). 

At the Wall: No one is taking Jon seriously and they're making him lock up Ghost (wouldn't you want a giant killer wolf to aid against the wildings?). Basically, they are treating Jon as the boy who cried wolf so I can only guess that things are only gonna go south for the Night's Watch.

Meereen: Dany hooks up with Daario but then assures Jorah that she doesn't trust him and is sending him to treat with the new power of Astapor. The show is doing a good job of Dany showing hher zealot-like, black and white thinking and how Jorah and Barristan are needed to reel her in, lest she create too many enemies. Hopefully we hear more about what is going on with the dragons since they are getting fairly big.

Dragonstone: Directly following the naked Meereen stuff, we have Selyse walking in on Melisandre taking a bath for a very long and uncomfortable scene. From the conversation, we can gather that they are finally leaving Dragonstone and that Shireen is important. Anyone else worried since she has King's Blood?

The Eyrie: The episode concludes Sansa-centric, as we get a glimpse into her new life in the Eyrie. It seems pretty lonely, especially since she only has creepy Baelish, petulant Robin and cray-cray Lysa to deal with. It was great to see Sansa light up when she saw it was snowing and then having her build the entirety of Winterfell from her memory. This is an amazing scene from the books, so I'm glad they kept it (although there were changes). Book Sansa would never slap anyone, but I am glad we are seeing her take some control and not just let people say and do what ever they want in front of her. The kiss with Baelish was a uncomfortable as I imagined it would be and Lysa's reaction was absolutely intense. Now we have to wait two weeks to see the fall out and how everyone recovers.

FanGirl Rating: 3.5 Stars. It was a solid set-up episode, but I honestly preferred the depictions in the books for certain scenes. Not too much happened but I do feel like the quality keeps going up, which makes me hopeful for the final three episodes.

Game of Thrones 4x06 Recap: Judgement Day

Welcome to my installment of Game of Thrones recap! As a rule, I don't spoil past the contents of the show, but I do discuss changes from the books and how they could potentially affect the story. Because of how the episode went, I'm dividing up my recap by region.

Episode 6: The Laws of Gods and Men

Braavos: Stannis and Davos came to this famed city to treat with the mysterious Iron Bank to receive support. While at first they get declined, the point gets made that once Tywin Lannister dies, the Iron Throne falls into uncertain hands. Seriously without Davos, Stannis would be completely lost. We also get another glimpse at Sallador Saan and get to see the friendship between him and Davos. We're left seeing the pirates (at least this one) joining the side of the "rightful" king.

The Dreadfort: We finally see Yara (Asha) follow-up on her promise to rescue her brother. Of course it doesn't go as planned as she can finally see that shell of a person her brother has now become. More disturbingly is the fact that not only does Reek/Theon regularly get tortured, he also has to sleep in the kennels with the dogs. This begs the idea that Reek has now become a pet of source to Ramsay, with him even showing a kind moment in bathing him as a reward for his "loyalty" (more like Stockholm Syndrome). Serious props to Alfie Allen for his amazing character growth (or regression in this sense), as he's now playing a completely different character with such realness.

Meereen: No good deed goes unpunished and that is certainly happening with Dany as she starts to settle into the difficulties associated with ruling. Not only does she has to hear of troubling news from her dragons, but she also has to deal with moral dilemmas stemming from her "justice. I'm sure we'll probably see more of this Hizdahr person, since we've now seen him a couple of episodes now.

King's Landing:- Tyrion's trial becomes the talk of the town and ends up being the highlight of the episode. The trial pretty much goes as much as expected, which is to say it is a farce, but with the huge surprise of Shae betraying Tyrion and falsely testifying against him. Tyrion, despite initially considering asking for mercy, angrily decides to ask for a trial by combat after seeing Shae. The acting in this scene was great and all of the characters from Cersei to Tywin to Shae and of course, Tyrion. As an aside, I really hope we get to know more about Varys, since he alluded to his main goal being the Iron Throne. Also his obviously regretful tone when it came to testifying against Tyrion was hard to watch.

FanGirl Rating: 4/5 Stars. This was a solid episode, despite the weaker Dreadfort scenes in the fact that its made-up to reinforce the "relationship" and progress Theon's story. I'm not sure where the whole Iron Bank thing is going either since that goes into the 5th book, but I don't like all of the additions for additions sake. But obviously the trial was on point, and its unfortunate that we can't see the trial by combat until June 1st, but I cannot wait to see what happens to Tyrion.

FanGirl Fridays!

Welcome back to another edition of the namesake feature of this blog. In it, I just geek out over some topic on thing that I am currently obsess about. Lately I have been covering all of the things that I have loved since my childhood. Next up I will be talking about my love for the The Hobbit/ the Lord of the Rings

 

When I younger my dad introduced me to The Hobbit after I finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia . The movie had been announced and he wanted me to get into the series so I could understand the movie. I fell in love with The Hobbit since it was a perfect read for my age range and it had a really great story. I loved Bilbo and all of the 13 dwarves (Fili, Kili, Ori, Dori, Nori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin, Balin, Dwalin and Thorin...and yes I did this from memory). My favorite part of reading this and LOTR was going back to look at the maps to get a feel for where the characters are and how far they have travelled on their journeys. Since GRRM was inspired by Tolkien, it probably explains why I like ASOIAF/GOT so much.

 

So right before the first movie came out, I decided to read The Fellowship of the Ring. As an 11 year old, the books were tough to get through with all of the excess descriptions and all of the songs. It may have been a little advanced for my brain as I couldn't understand that the Hornburg was Helm's Deep and only really cared about Frodo and Sam's story (which means I may have skipped some stuff in the final book). Despite this, I still find things that I like every time I read the series now that I older, which makes me really enjoy it. Some of the best parts of the book are looking at the appendices and the timeline of events after the end of the book. The very last entry always chokes me up (its about Gimli and Legolas and takes place 120 after the destruction of the ring) since it harkens back to the Fellowship.

 

The movies are another thing that I love about the series. I may have problems with the new Hobbit movies, but I absolutely love the LOTR movies and watch them everytime they are on. Everything from the costumes and locations to the character portrayals, I love it all. Even with all of the changes (no Tom Bombadil, etc), I still can find myself getting lost in the story, but it doesn't affect how I feel about the book (hopefully that can happen with GOT one day. haha).

 

This was the story that influenced so many others and solidified the trope of the (orphaned) savior on a quest (Luke Skywalker, anyone?) and will always remain relevant with its looks at war, the environment, friendship and love. 

Thoughts On...Spoilers

For this weeks look at an element in popular culture, I decided to discuss a very popular topic that people have been discussing, spoilers. Now spoilers have always been around in popular culture, but with today's technology, it seems nearly impossible to be Unsullied for a show, book or movie.

Well...not really in this article.

The most obvious example of the craziness surrounding spoilers I would need to talk about would be the show Game of Thrones. Now this has an interesting history, as it is based on a popular book series that has been out since the late 1990s. This means that fans of the series have known about Ned Stark, The Red/Purple Weddings and countless other events for a very long time. I didn't get into the series until the end of Season One airing (though I didn't watch it) when I had accidentally been spoiled for the death the media kept hyping.

Because I was intrigued at the subject matter, I made the mistake of going on the regular Wikipedia page instead of the show-specific wikia, where I then was spoiled for many major events in the first three books. One time I was confused about characters and wanted to know more background, which also led me to be spoiled. I don't mind them too much since I still enjoy the story, but I definitely will make sure that for the next two books I wont be. As a policy, I don't like to spoil people, as I want to experience the same shock and surprise other book readers have gone though, which is why I only talk about the show up to its current spot (episode 5).

This begs the question of how long a spoiler is actually a spoiler and when it is okay to discuss something without ruining the experience for someone else. Common "rules" dictate that anything popular, no matter how long it has been out in the public can still be spoiled. This is fine in theory but it also means people won't let you talk about Star Wars or other movies that have long been spoiled by countless pop culture references ("Luke, I am your Father). I think that a week after airing should be fair game, but sometimes sites like Yahoo news but blatant spoilers on their main headline, which isn't cool. Rule of thumb is to wait 12 hours after the show airing as facebook and twitter shouldn't have as many people talking about the show, but definitely try to avoid social media and news sites as much and as long as you can.

Now with Netflix shows that prevents serious difficulty as all of the episodes come out at once, so it's paramount to bingewatch to avoid overhearing or seeing anything discussing a crucial moment like Episode 1 of House of Cards (Season 2). I also plan on doing this with the new Orange is the New Black season 2, even though watching 13 episodes takes all weekend, but I think it's worth it.

I would say that how you watch a show, read a popular book series or watch a movie is up to you, but if you want to remain "unsullied" you may have to disconnect for just a bit so you can enjoy the experience at your leisure. Most people are pretty nice about not talking about spoilery elements around people so it's best to just let them know that you hadn't seen/watched yet. But do watch out for Internet trolls and be careful for everything you read when the popular thing gets released (ex. I got spoiled for the ending of Allegiant, by looking at the comments section talking about Harry Potter news). But if you do happen to get spoiled try to take it in stride and still enjoy the story as much as you can since some people only focus on the shocking event and ignore all the other crucial moments that truly make the book/movie/show really enjoyable.

Pop of Culture

Welcome back to another week of my pop culture news roundup where I discuss some items from all over the spectrum, FanGirl style.

Orange is the New Black- It was announced yesterday that OITNB was already renewed for a third season. Season Two doesn't even air for another month. This definitely bodes well for the show as a whole, as the higher-ops at Netflix believe the show can bring them continued success. If you haven't seen it yet, the show is about a privileged woman named Piper who had an idyllic life until her past incident of drug running finally catches up to her and she gets sentenced to 17 months in a Federal prison. It hilariously goes through all of the craziness at this person as she adjusts to life on 'the inside', while also dealing with the ex-lover that got her into the mess in the first place. With strong characters like Taystee, Red, and Crazy Eyes, the show is a for sure must see.

24 Live Another Day- In other TV news the beloved show finally returned last night to high critical claim from fans and critics alike. I have never seen more people hyped and excited for protagonist Jack Bauer's return to the silver screen. I think the show is only going to be a limited series, that is, after 12 episodes (all 2 hours each) then it will end again. But I do think if the show gets strong ratings, it could come back full time, or at least maybe show up on Netflix or something. This show is definitely on my Must Watch list (along with the Sopranos and The Wire), so I will try to watch the show for the first time, since I was able to avoid spoilers.

Playoffs- Right now the NBA Playoffs are happening, which is exciting as there have been many rounds that came down to Game 7 (due to a 3-3 result from Games 1-6). When I was younger I was more into the NBA and I have since moved over to enjoying NCAA College Basketball a bit more, but I do enjoy the hype of the Playoffs. One of the cooler things has been seeing previously terrible teams like the Washington Wizards prove their worth. Also it is interesting to note that if the Wizards make it to Game 6, it would be a home game for them at the Verizon Center. This normally would be fine but Lady Gaga's concert is also set to be that same day so this will be interesting to see how everything will work out (or not).

NFL Draft- The upcoming Draft is always exciting as we get to see where college prospects end up and also predict how they will fare. Obviosuly the pundits don't always get it right as it takes around 5 years to truly measure someones impact in the league. This year's class has a lot of hype with Johnny Manziel and AJ McCarron, so it will be interesting to see what teams everyone ends up, how the teams wheel and deal for trades and what surprise there will surely be. The best part is when they show the players excitement when they get the call for the first time.

Manic Mondays

Alright so I'm back blogging for good since class is finally over until August so I have one less thing to worry about other than my other millions of things (ha)

I'm going to look into fixing up the site a bit and to primarily make sure I'm providing a good amount of content a week. Now that school books aren't weighing me down, I can finally start to read for fun again, which will be nice. This also means that I can also start doing book reviews again, which I'm excited for. It also gets me not over obsessing over when the next ASOIAF/Game of Thrones book is coming out.

Let's see.. I have one convention, a bridal shower, class and a wedding down. And still have a bachlorette party, two weddings and two conventions to go to. Suddenly time is flying by so I've just been getting really busy all at once.

I also plan on finally watching/reviewing some of the new summer blockbusters like Maleficient and Guardians of the Galaxy. I seriously haven't seen a movie in theaters since Frozen, so I definitely need to step my game up.

And I may be like 9 years late but I'm now completely obsessed with Battlestar Galactica and definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a good sci-fi.

Also a very special thank you to all of my readers to getting me past 4,000 views in only 2.5 months! (humble-brag, I know). Sorry for the dearth lately and I definitely plan on at least writing once a day.

Game of Thrones 4x05 Recap: Out of the Frying Pan...

Episode 5: First of His Name

Lannisters- Long Live the King Tommen I! It starts with Cersei tentatively making nice with Margaery but something does seem off. Either way Cersei and Twin realize that the Tyrells money is the best option for their money situation, as Robert left them in severe debt. Tywin still believes that Cersei is going to marry Loras which is pretty fun (aka not gonna happen), so it will be interesting to see how it all goes down. I guess the writers decided to tone down Cersei's crazy before she goes completely crazy (presumably) for Tyrion's trial. Either way the next few episodes should have at least one more wedding and maybe a funeral if Cersei gets her way.

Dany- She's finally learning that she can just up-end a 1000+ year culture of slavery without consequences as she has learned her way of destroying a city and setting up something, then leaving is not working for Slaver's Bay. This combined with Jorah's council convince her to stay put in Meereen and become a ruler instead of a conqueror queen. Did anyone notice that it only took 3 episodes for Jorah to hear about Joffrey? Seems pretty convenient even though it should definitely take longer since Meereen's location from Westeros is equivalent to India from Great Britain, but maybe the news spread quickly along the trade routes?

At the Eyrie- Poor Sansa, she escapes from the Lannisters only to have to deal with her unhinged cousin and aunt (which she will now be forced to marry). Littlefinger seems equally unhappy with his situation and seems to only be with Lysa for her power. More trouble is brewing for sure as Lysa's jealousy will only grow. It was nice to see Sansa let her guard down for a little bit with lemoncakes before Lysa manhandled her.

Arya- Still on her adventure with the Hound which serve as some of the more brighter moments of the episode. Not sure why Arya still has the Hound on her list, but hopefully that will change over time. I did enjoy the shout-out to Syrio Forel, who I still believe is alive.I do hope that Arya is learning from the Hound, as though his methods are harsh, he is trying to keep her alive.

Craster's Keep- Bran and the gang are locked up at Craster's though its unknown what the mutineers endgame would be (other than assaulting Meera). Jojen does his "I see the future" thing and then the Night's Watch come and quickly take down the mutineers. Locke finally shows his true colors but Bran bests him by warging (skinchanging) into Hodor who goes all Beast Mode on Locke's neck. I do feel back for poor Hodor who now has to deal with the fact that he was forced to kill someone. Bran at least remembers to rescue his dog before he decides to not reunite with Jon as his drive to meet the 3-eyed crow is too great for him. So it's sad that there was no official Stark reunion but at least the Direwolves got to see each other again (Summer and Ghost).

FanGirl Rating: 3/5 Stars. It had some good moments but all of the deviations from the books meant that the writers had to resolve a lot of stuff. I wish that instead of making stuff up, they just show small glimpses of characters every few episodes. I did have some laughs with all of the Eyrie stuff and am getting excited for whats to come but the information dump was a little much for this episode.

Meltdown Mondays

Welcome back to another week!! I am sooo close to being done this semester with school and back to a completely normal blogging schedule. Class is killing me but since I procrastinated through my free week last week I now have to do everything by Sunday. Oh well.

I can also officially cross off my sister's bridal shower off my long list of things to do so I'm glad I don't have that stress. I still have a wedding this weekend, my sister's bachelorette party and two more wedding by mid-June but it should be good.

Apparently, I've been going too x-core at the gym, which resulted in me spraining my knee. I've never had a serious injury before (just needing 10 stitches when I was 7) so I was thinking the worst, especially with the pain. Luckily, I didn't do anything serious, so I just have to do the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) and take some Motrin.

Also I just discovered Frozen is on Redbox, so I think the time is ripe for another viewing

I'll just leave this here since it's appriopriate for the time...

Game of Thrones 4x04 Recap: Book Spoilers?

Episode 4: Oathkeeper

Dany- She swiftly enacts her assualt on Meereen that leaves the city intact with the aid of Grey Worm (who seems to have a burgeoning romance with Missandei as they bond over their past slavery). With her fighting "injustice with justice" she further proceeds to crucify 163 slave masters as punishment for the crucifixation of the 163 slaves that Dany found along the way. That scene with the Targaryen banner covering up the Harpy was pretty awesome, so I'm actually excited for Dany's character.

Lannisters- Jaime continues practicing with Bronn and then goes off to visit Tyrion in the Black Cells. We then get to see the brothers interact together again discussing the murder and Cersei. Jaime offers to help Tyrion but can't seem to come up with a productive solution. Cersei is still descending into madness/alcoholism as she continues to rail on Jaime about Tyrion's guilt. No resolution on the scene last week, so I guess she's okay? Still it sucks that everytime I saw Jaime I thought of a crazed rapist. We get a little bit more from Tommen this week, which is nice since Tommen is such a sweet kid. They aged him up for the show to have Margaery's overtures not  seem predatory but I do like how they still kept in his love of his cats (Ser Pounce).

Tyrells- We finally learn that Olenna was the person who colluded with Baelish to have Joffrey killed. Between this and the ancetdoe that she gives, she really earns her "Queen of Thorns" title. Surprisingly, Margaery didn't know about the plot but is happy to start working on her relationship with Tommen, since they are due to be married. It'll be interesting to see how she manipulates Tommen, since with Joffrey all she had to due was feign interest in harming others/using weapons.

Sansa- She finds out her unintentional role in the death of Joffrey via her necklace and still is getting creeped on my Baelish. I feel like her story is still ramping up so I hope she can really start taking control of her situation.

Night's Watch- Locke joins up with the Watch under a false story to presumably get close to Jon to learn the location of Bran. Jon's rivarly with Alliser Thorne continues as the Watch tries to figure out how to deal with all of their problems. The plan is set for Jon and volunteers (including Locke) to go out and capture or kill the mutineers at Craster's Keep. This wasn't in the book so I'm not sure what to think about. I guess it is a way to get Bran and Jon close to another and have Bran face some danger that will keep his story relevant.

For some reason, these last few epsiodes haven't been really catching to me. They feel like filler for bigger and better things to come. Plus with all of the changes and the possible book spoilers with the Others/White Walkers I'm getting a little nervous as the show already seems to be moving leaps and bounds.

April Loot Crate

As promised, I will have my monthly Loot Crate un-boxings and talk about the products inside. In case you didn't know, Loot Crate is a monthly subscription that fills a box will all kinds of geeky items that value around $40. Now without further adieu...

 

This Month's Theme:

Dragons!!!!

 

More specifically, this crate featured items from Game of Thrones and Elder Scrolls. They contained a wide variety of items like:

• Dogtags that say "DragonSlayer", which is pretty cool
• Two different kinds of dice which can be used for boardgames/tabletop games
• Two figures: a Nord from Elder Scrolls that comes with an axe and a sword, and Ghost from Game of Thrones. I'm happy with both of these since I feel like they can go together (a Viking warrior and his trusty white wolf) an they are both pretty cute. I don't like the other kind of miniature figures, but these are pretty cool.
• Dragon Jerky: green colored jerky, which I didn't try but my boyfriend said it was pretty good.
• Phone Screen cleaner: it sticks to the back of my phone and I can use it multiple times, which is nice and convenient.
• Loot Crate button that has the theme on it.

FanGirl Review: I really liked this month's theme and the items it came with. I will always love t-shirts, but this stuff is also pretty useful. Plus, who doesn't love dragons?

 

Tired Tuesdays

*100th Post Alert!!!! Thank you all for reading and getting me to nearly 4,000 views in just 2 months!

Since I had an epic fail yesterday, this will take the place of my normal Meltdown Monday for this week. Tired fits since I woke up tired and am still struggling not to think of sleep every minute of the day. I seriously think it's because I have these crazy vivid dreams that cause me to wake up and then I have to start the cycle all over again to get back to a deep sleep. Since I'v started working out my priorities have been taking long showers after the gym, maybe eating, and finally going to bed as early as possible.

Anyway my sister's bridal shower is this week, so I've been keeping pretty busy with that.

I also have my last few assignments to do for class including a discussion board, an outline, a paper and a 20 page PowerPoint. It's times like these that I don't like school.

The end of the semester means that I can start up blogging more which will hopefully mean more books that I read and then review. Also more cooking from the geeky cookbook (I have a Star Wars one now, too) and more recaps/reviews of all of the things I have coming up this summer (Ice & Fire Con, ConCarolinas, and any summer movies I see).

My little girl, Summer Stark

Just wanted to end this post with a picture of my puppy, Summer. She's a 2 year old beagle-corgi mix that my boyfriend got at the Delware SPCA. She's obviously named after Bran Stark's direwolf, Summer, although she has the fiery attitude that's more seen in Arya.

Thank you all again for giving me and my blog a chance and I hope I can continue to give you all the best content that I can make. See you all tomorrow!

Pop of Culture

Welcome back to another week of my melting pot of popular culture news. This contains mostly television news, but that's just how it happens some weeks.

*Slight spoilers for this week's Game of Thrones episode*

Frozen- Yes more Frozen news. I know, it's a problem. Anyway, it's been reported that Frozen is now the sixth-highest grossing film in history (not counting inflation). More importantly, it beat the 3rd Transformer movie that was on there, so that's good. I am getting concerned that it could maybe overtake Harry Potter, but it has to get through Iron Man 3 first, so I think it'll be ok. It does seem strange since the movie is out on DVD but who knows?

Girl Meets World- The first trailer for the show has been released and it looks really cute. Even the logo (see above) harkens back to the old days (ha, i mean the late 90s) when Biy Meets World was on the air. I definitely plan on watching, but all of this news is making me want to rewatch all of the BMW episodes, so I probably will start that up.

Netflix- It was announced yesterday that Netflix would be raising their prices for new customers from 7.99 to 8.99 for monthly use of their streaming services. Current users won't be effected for up to 1-2 years, but eventually the price will go up for everyone. I'm not sure how I feel between this and the huge Amazon Prime price hike, it'll be interesting to see how the consumers will respond.

Game of Thrones- Episode 3 featured a very controversial scene between Cersei and Jaime that, depending on who you asked, differed greatly from the book. I seen arguments from both side and definitely think that the writers, directors and actors completely got through the wrong message. They were tyring to show the conficted relationship and the back-and-forth with consent and all that was shown was Jaime forcing himself for her and Cersei never changing her mind earlier in the scene like it was in the book. This was a scene (before Sunday) that people only talked about for the grossness factor (in the books Cersei was on her period while her and Jaime were having sex by Joffrey's dead body), not to mention the blatant twincest. George himself even called this scene as the result of the snowball effect that came from having Jaime present at the end of Season 3, when in reality (the book) he doesn't show up until after the funeral. It will be interesting to see the fallout of their realtionship happen now that it is so different from how it happened in the books

Thoughts on...Movie Reboots

Now on to my part two on my thoughts about the current scoop of the film industry. Last time, I talked about the issues and strengths of sequels and now I want to talk about my thoughts on reboots. I consider a reboot to be a new take on a previous franchise/movie. They can also be something that changes mediums (like from TV to movies) and can feature a new spin to the series. There have been many great reboots, but now I feel like reboots are an easy way for a studio to not come up with an original idea and cash in on something that was previously popular and is still in the popular culture consciousness (*ahem Michael Bay*).

When I was younger, I remember when the first Spiderman series of movies came out. At the time I had been watching the animated series, so I ended up liking the first two movies. I'm more of a DC person, but I did enjoy this series (I heard the 3rd was terrible) so I was super surprised when they announced that they would already be redoing the series less than 10 years away from the original. I mean, it's not like the series wasn't successful at the box office. I haven't seen those movies but I ave heard that they are better/closer to the original content and a more fresh take, but honestly I don't feel like seeing a movie I've already seen.

Other movies like the Hulk needed a fresh take on the franchise as the first movie was a flop. The second movie was more well received but then Edward Norton turned down doing anything else so they had to go with a third actor (mark Ruffalo) to portray Hulk for the Avengers. Honestly I feel like when reboots are done right, they keep the old fans happy that the original is still that and they can also gain new fans. There have been other plenty terrible reboots like 101 Dalmations (live action) and Godzilla (even though my 8yr old self Loved that movie) that show that there are still a lot of duds amongst the great movies, so I hope movie studios get it together (like possibly with the new Godzilla, perhaps?)

Batman could be the ultimate example of constant reboots from over the years. What began as a campy/dark 80s flick spawned into 3 very different takes on the franchise, with different actors and varying successes. The most successful of the series has been when they are more compelling villains and a grittier/realistic Batman. Many people consider the Dark Knight Trilogy to be the one that other comic book movies are judged against (up there with the Avengers) with its success and it content.

I think what ultimately makes a movie reboot successful is the time passage between the movies and a quality story that pays homage to the original without trying to completely duplicate it. Many times this has been seen with foreign language reboots like The Grudge, The Ring or the Departed. All of them have origins overseas and were able to successfully take the key elements from the originals and make the movie something fresh and unique. Until, of course it get its sequel, but that's a whole different story.

Game of Thrones 4x03 Recap: The Fallout

As always, for my recap I will be breaking down the action (or lack thereof) by family or character. Somehow this post isn't showing up so here is a re-post.

Episode 3: Breaker of Chains

Starks- Sansa managed to get away and it's all due to...Petr Baelish aka Littlefinger. Time will tell if getting out of King's Landing was the best thing for Sansa, or if it was a 'out of the frying, pan, into the fire' kind of idea with creepy, manipulative Littlefinger. This also begs the question of who killed Joffrey and who was working with Baelish (other than Dontos)? Meanwhile Ayra is still on her adventure with the Hound, discovering the lengths he will go to get what he wants, like silver. It does say something that he didn't kill the farmer, just injured him. I'm worried his jaded nature will rub off on Arya, if it hasn't already.

Lannisters- Cersei is still on her rampage to declare Tyrion immediately guilty, even using Jaime's love or her to try to get him to kill his own brother. I've read a lot of debate of their scene together and do agree it was done against what the book had down. We also got to officially hear Tommen speak and see that Tywin sees him as the chance to have a proper ruler (that he can control). Tyrion is of course still in jail and basically broke up with Pod to save his life so that was a sad moment.

Tyrells- Margaery seemed more upset of not being queen than the murder of Joffrey so that should tell us something. Her grandmother seemed optimistic about her next marriage but the question now is who that husband will be?

Night's Watch- Well don't they just have a ton of problems. From the wildings and their double assault to the mutiny at Craster's Keep. I wonder who will step up to be a leader during these difficult times *cough, jon cough*.

Martells- It's know been established that Oberyn is known for his poisons, but it seems as though they are really hammering the point of the Dornishmen's sexuality. It is interesting Tywin is wheeling and dealing to bring the Martells to his side against Tyrion, so we will see how that goes.

Stannis- Still as unpleasant as ever. I feel like in his current state, he would kick a puppy. Anyway, I'm loving the friendship of Shireen and Davos and can't waot to see how the Iron Ban responds to the letter. Also any episode without the foreboding presence of Melisandre is fine with me

Wildings- a very "Two Towers" sequence with the wildings raiding the towns closest to the Wall. We also keep getting teased with the idea of Mance, although he hasn't been seen but the Thenns are pretty terrifying. More Ygritte killing people, so there's that. It'll be interesting to see her and Jon interact.

Dany- still on her campaign against slavery, but this time she's appealing directly to the slaves of Meeren, who likely outnumber the nobles in the city. I can't wait to see the forthcoming battle between the two forces and if the slaves rally to Dany's cause. Still not feeling this new Daario, but maybe his scences will mimic how they are in the book.

FanGirl Special Edition

For my final PAX East themed post, I wanted to talk about the main focus of the convention, something that I enjoy and also something that is also huge in popular culture, which is...

Video Games

 

Now, video games have always been a huge part of my life increasing my love of competition and good storytelling/graphics. As I had older siblings I grew up watching and sometimes playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. As I got older me and my sister played on the N64 and of, course the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Not to mention I've played an endless variety of computer games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, MathBlaster and Myst. I'm probably dating myself, but I still remember the days when only one kid in the neighborhood had a specific game and we would all crowd in his computer or living room to watch. This led to some awesome memories that I have failing at Goldeneye or endlessly using Yoshi for Super Smash Bros. Some other games that I have great memories with : Street Fighters III, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Spyro, Aladdin, Super Mario World, Crash Bandicoot, Carmen Sandiego, Myst, Mario Kart, Zelda: A Link to the Past and on.

I think I had such great memories because the games were both interesting and challenging in their own ways. Later in college I took a Psychology of Video Games class, which got me hooked back on playing games, when I had normally just watched others for a while since I would quit games a lot. Required "homework" for the class would be a minimum of two hours of gaming a week, and although I started doing the bear minimal, I ended up playing for 6,8,10 hours each week. It did help that I had a great game to play (the original Kingdom Hearts) and I was able to remember how much I loved video games from when I was younger, as this game had mature gameplay and stories combined with Disney nostalgia. This past fall, I bought a Nintendo 3DS, which I love and I was able to actually beat games for the first time (The New Super Mario Bros, Pokemon X) and have fun while doing it which is really important for me.

 Recently I started watching the IGN channel on YouTube and getting into Let's Plays to reminisce on older games that I haven't seen in a while. This added to my interest in gaming and was one of the reasons why I attended PAX this year, I wanted to make the switch from being passive to active in all of my interests. Currently, I have been playing Mass Effect, Bravely Default, The Wolf Among Us and the Walking Dead and have at least 10 other games in my queue for Steam. Seriously, once class is over I will get more into gaming and reading, two things that have been lacking recently.

Thoughts on...The Console Wars

Since I had planned to have a video game themed week of topics, I figured I could finally talk about something that has been in the news in the last few years and that reignites constantly; the gamer "Console Wars". I will specifically focus on the current competition of PlayStation (Sony) vs XBox )Microsoft), but others like Sega vs Nintendo definitely started the trend.


Source

First I'll give some background and then I'll discuss the current situation. I'm not sure where this term came from but it probably originated from the media, who love to see two companies battle it out for dominance with similar consumers. For whatever reason it also pits the fans of those systems (disparagingly named "fanboys"-though sometimes in a good way) against each other into a pit of name calling and fact-checking. Something that is outside of the "war" are the people who align themselves with the PC Master Race. These are the people that prefer the aspects of PC gaming over anything else. Their argument is that they don't have to spend as much to get a massively powerful system and upgrades are cheap.  I'm more of a Playstation person since I grew up playing Crash, Spyro, Jak and Daxter and Kingdom Hearts but I'm open to getting into Microsoft, I just have to see what kind of games they offer and if their in my interest range and will always prefer a controller over a keyboard since I'm "old-school" in that respect.

Alright, so back when I was in high school, the Xbox360 and PS3 were released. Back then, everyone hated PlayStation due to the high price of the system and other issues. Not sure if it was a result of this, but I knew more people who had XBox over a PS. We didn't get a PS3 (we're strictly a PS family) and plus I was more of a watcher so that probably explains why I never played Uncharted even though it's something I would love. Anyway, it seemed during this generation that Playstation finally lost steam after dominating the previous two generations (with the PS and PS2). Technically neither the PS or the XBox360 were the winners; that award went to the Wii, who dominated with sales of 100 million units (the others fell around 80mil). Eventually Playstation released some solid titles (but no Kingdom Hearts!) and started to up their sales to the point that they are fairly even with Microsoft. So in a nutshell, Sony "lost" this generation by generally getting too cocky and assuming their consumers would just roll over and buy, no matter the price (it also didn't help that blu-ray was brand-new tech that no one knew what to do with yet).

Flashforward to 2013, and everyone is ripe with anticipation for the new consoles to be announced. I'm not sure who came out with information first but I think they were announced around the beginning of the summer convention time (possibly at GamesCon), so all eyes were on both companies at E3. I actually think Microsoft released info about the One earlier than E3 and it caused a huge backlash for a wide variety of reasons, while Sony only said some basic info so that only added to the tension. E3 proved to be a slam dunk with Sony solidly giving the fans what they wanted tech-wise (more specifically what they didn't want with the XBox) and also by teasing some highly anticipated games (Kingdom Hearts 3, anyone?). They even had a hilarious "how to trade games" video that brought lot of laughs and poked fun at Microsoft a bit. Meanwhile Microsoft defended their tech and explained that their version of next-gen would be an all-in-one entertainment system and also talked some cool games. This only sought to make some people even more angry and the months leading up to the release saw the reversal of nearly all of their controversial policies and the stepping down of their higher-ups. All of these events obviously caused huge clashes between those fans on either side all over the Internet.

Currently, both of the systems have had successful releases all over the world. Sony did announce that they sold over 7 million units since Nov 15, which is over double what has been reported by Microsoft. This by no means bodes the end of Microsoft (ex. last gen when they ended up even) as there are still upwards of 10 years between generations. Overall, I feel that no matter which "side" you are on (if any), the consumers win outright by receiving quality products and getting to vote with their wallets to force the company to adapt. I guess time will tell and in the meantime, I will be playing some video games.

PAX Recap Day 2

Here is my recap of Day 2 (the final day of PAX)

Day 2 ended up being my favorite day of PAX because I was actually able to do more on the exhibition floor, which was nice. We took a hotel shuttle to the BCEC around 9 so we could have a chance to see everything that we wanted to. After waiting in the queue for a bit, we were finally let in to a semi empty area, which was nice. I could actually walk around the floor without getting too overwhelmed which was nice. I'm pretty sure there was a Gearbox Software panel (creators of Borderlands) at the same time, which probably contributed to less people on the floor.

Anyway so I literally sat down at the first empty booth I found because I knew it would last. I ended up at this company called Spryfox who were promoting their game called Road Not Taken (their site here). It was such a cool game with awesome graphics and really cute, cartoon-like characters with an interesting premise. Basically you can only move in on direction at a time (up, down, left, right) on a board-type area, while also having to grab things/people to get them through the the next round by throwing or carrying. The added difficultly would be the loss of energy that occurs when you carry objects to move them to different rows/columns. The people at the booth were really nice despite the fact that I died before I could beat the level (I was so close!) and the game was really fun so I will definitely play it again.

Next I stopped at this interesting booth by a company called Proletariat, with their game World Zombination. I gave it a chance despite my strong dislike for Zombies and I found myself really liking the game (I got to play as the humans shooting up the zombies). Basically I got a set of different kinds of humans with different fighting skills (snipers, axes, etc) to place in 5 or six key locations. It's a turn-based strategy game where you can choose to be either humans or zombies with the goal of either protecting a hospital or trying to take it over. I also really liked the colors/graphics of the game and that it wasn't too difficult for someone like me who doesn't normally play strategy games and I actually managed to beat the first level. I signed up for beta so I cant wait to see more of it.

The final game I got to play was from Bootsnake and titled Deadrock Divide. It's a turn-based RPG that is best described as the love-child of XCOM and Faster than Light (FTL). I felt a little overwhelmed with this game but I was having fun playing something completely different. My boyfriend really loved it since it was right up his alley in games he likes to play. I ended up not making it all the way through the level, but the girl at the booth was really helpful with dumbing things down so I could understand how to play this game. I feel like once I work with this game for a bit I could get the hang of it.

After walking around and checking more things out, I geaded over to the GameOverGreggy Panel. If you don't know GOG is a YouTube show featuring Greg Miller and others from the IGN (game news website) site talking about everything random. It was really funny and I was glad to see the guys in person. Afterwards I even got to meet Daemon Hatfield (GameScoop!, IGN News), which I was excited about. I've been getting more into video games in the last 2 years and have been watching a lot of IGN videos so it was cool to feel a part of the video game fandom. Also while walking around I managed to also see Holly and Jessica from Heroes of Cosplay, which was exciting since they are super talented with all of their creations, plus their work at BioWare.

I also got to take a picture with a background Iron Throne from the Game of Thrones Ascent game which was really cool. I do plan on taking a picture with the real Throne one day but it was still cool to see something Game of Thrones related at PAX.

Note the GameOverGreggy shirt.haha

Finally we packed up and got on the road. The exhaustion from PAX easily kicked in and I knew it wasn't going to be as pleasant of a ride back to Maryland. We stopped at this restaruant called Publick House in Sturbridge, Mass were I got this pesto penne. I regret not get the lobster mac & cheese so I am definitely resolved to get lobster the next time I'm in New England. For some reason the traffic was slow going and we didn't make it up until after 10, where I was hoping to be home to watch Game of Thrones live. I needed a whole other day to recover but I had a great time and plan on going back next year for the full 3 days (also I plan on flying because once is enough.haha).