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.

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.