Thursday, August 28, 2014

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 42

Thursday is court day! 
Welcome to the Supreme Court of Westeros! Every week, three pressing questions from the community will be answered by the esteemed judges Stefan (from your very own Nerdstream Era) and Amin (from A Podcast of Ice and Fire). The rules are simple: we take three questions, and one of us writes a measured analysis. The other one writes a shorter opinion, either concurring or dissenting. The catch is that every week a third judge from the fandom will join us and also write a dissenting or concurring opinion. So if you think you're up to the task - write us an email to stefan_sasse@gmx.de, leave a comment in the post, ask in the APOIAF-forum or contact Amin at his tumblr. Discussion is by no means limited to the court itself, though - feel free to discuss our rulings in the commentary section and ask your own questions through the channels above.
One word on spoilers: we assume that you read all the books, including the Hedge Knight short stories, and watched the current TV episodes. We don't include the spoiler chapters from various sources in the discussion, with the notable exception of Theon I, which was supposed to be in "A Dance with Dragons" anyway.
And now, up to ruling 42 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Alex Smith: co-founder of Tower of the Hand, one of the contributing authors to A Flight of Sorrows, and repeating guest host at A Podcast of Ice and Fire.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Sounds about right, True Blood

But despite all these spinning plates, there's been a lack of pace and a cloud of boredom in Bon Temps. There may just be too much scar tissue from seasons past for anyone to get too excited about a show that once promised excess. The show mistook simple for lazy, convoluted for interesting. In trying to tinker with and continually redefine its vampires, the show ended up gumming up its own motor. And along the way, it lost all the excess, and we lost all the fun we were having.
- Vox

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Mini-Review: Wanted

Not even characters.
In our last post of the Supreme Court of Westeros, I made a comparison with the comic book of "Wanted", as well as the movie, stating that I actually liked the movie more than the comic. To make this clear: I don't think the movie is a good movie. It's passable, and it has some interesting ideas, but ultimately it isn't really innovative or interesting enough to be remembered. The comics, however, outright suck ass. In my mind, they are only an excuse for a lengthy juvenile fantasy of boundless gore, violence and swearing. There is no deeper message in them, no meaning, no criticism, nothing that gets you engaged or thinking. It's just a violence fantasy. Worse, its violence is also directed at people for the expressed reasons of being ugly, of being annoying, of being female, of being in the way, of being just there when it suits you, of being fat, and a myriad of other reasons bullies usually use for excuses to torture people. Only this time it's put in a comic book. So, fuck "Wanted". I don't know why they even used the licence for the movie, whose convergence with the comic is minimal at best.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 41

Thursday is court day! 
Welcome to the Supreme Court of Westeros! Every week, three pressing questions from the community will be answered by the esteemed judges Stefan (from your very own Nerdstream Era) and Amin (from A Podcast of Ice and Fire). The rules are simple: we take three questions, and one of us writes a measured analysis. The other one writes a shorter opinion, either concurring or dissenting. The catch is that every week a third judge from the fandom will join us and also write a dissenting or concurring opinion. So if you think you're up to the task - write us an email to stefan_sasse@gmx.de, leave a comment in the post, ask in the APOIAF-forum or contact Amin at his tumblr. Discussion is by no means limited to the court itself, though - feel free to discuss our rulings in the commentary section and ask your own questions through the channels above.
One word on spoilers: we assume that you read all the books, including the Hedge Knight short stories, and watched the current TV episodes. We don't include the spoiler chapters from various sources in the discussion, with the notable exception of Theon I, which was supposed to be in "A Dance with Dragons" anyway.
And now, up to ruling 41 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Jimmy McCullough. He has been heavily interested in “A Song of Ice and Fire” since his sister introduced me to GRRM books. Sadly, she lives in Australia now and they do not get to discuss them often, but hopefully she will return before “The Winds of Winter” is realised. He works for Bupa, a PMI company and is starting an MA in History in October.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 40

Thursday is court day! 
Welcome to the Supreme Court of Westeros! Every week, three pressing questions from the community will be answered by the esteemed judges Stefan (from your very own Nerdstream Era) and Amin (from A Podcast of Ice and Fire). The rules are simple: we take three questions, and one of us writes a measured analysis. The other one writes a shorter opinion, either concurring or dissenting. The catch is that every week a third judge from the fandom will join us and also write a dissenting or concurring opinion. So if you think you're up to the task - write us an email to stefan_sasse@gmx.de, leave a comment in the post, ask in the APOIAF-forum or contact Amin at his tumblr. Discussion is by no means limited to the court itself, though - feel free to discuss our rulings in the commentary section and ask your own questions through the channels above.
One word on spoilers: we assume that you read all the books, including the Hedge Knight short stories, and watched the current TV episodes. We don't include the spoiler chapters from various sources in the discussion, with the notable exception of Theon I, which was supposed to be in "A Dance with Dragons" anyway.
And now, up to ruling 40 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Remy Verhoeve, who has his own blog "Stormsongs" and wrote several books about "A Song of Ice and Fire", including "Waiting for Dragons"

Friday, August 8, 2014

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 39

Thursday is court day! I declare this a Thursday, naysayers!
Welcome to the Supreme Court of Westeros! Every week, three pressing questions from the community will be answered by the esteemed judges Stefan (from your very own Nerdstream Era) and Amin (from A Podcast of Ice and Fire). The rules are simple: we take three questions, and one of us writes a measured analysis. The other one writes a shorter opinion, either concurring or dissenting. The catch is that every week a third judge from the fandom will join us and also write a dissenting or concurring opinion. So if you think you're up to the task - write us an email to stefan_sasse@gmx.de, leave a comment in the post, ask in the APOIAF-forum or contact Amin at his tumblr. Discussion is by no means limited to the court itself, though - feel free to discuss our rulings in the commentary section and ask your own questions through the channels above.
One word on spoilers: we assume that you read all the books, including the Hedge Knight short stories, and watched the current TV episodes. We don't include the spoiler chapters from various sources in the discussion, with the notable exception of Theon I, which was supposed to be in "A Dance with Dragons" anyway.
And now, up to ruling 38 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is James Broxton, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He became a huge fan of the series right after the HBO show was announced, at which point he burned through the books and almost got through an entire re-read before the show started. He listens to APOIAF regularly and is a member of many of the popular forums, but hasn’t had much of a chance to be active yet. He is currently waiting patiently for his girlfriend to finish the series so they can talk about it (She’s only on ACOK!). Fun fact: He just started playing the Sims and most of his characters are from ASOIAF. Davos and Arya are dating and both work at the courthouse. Stannis and Margaery are also together and are firefighters.