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

Source

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.