Deadliest Fighter in ASoIaF?

Today I am happy to introduce you to the other half of Frey Pies for Skagos, my old friend Ser Greenstone. In our first video in which you can hear both of us talking, we debate the eternal question of the deadliest fighter in ASoIaF is.



Stay tuned for the encore, in which we will talk about some more fighters who did not quite make the list!

Link to Tower of the Hand (and new video)

Since YouTube doesn't let me link to Tower of the Hand directly, here is the link.

And here's the new video:

Back from our little break ...

After taking a little bit of a break after the finale of Game of Thrones season 6, we are back with a new video. Here are our first thought on seasons 7 and 8, probably rather 8 and 7, actually.

Breaker of Theories

Just a very quick post, because it's late here in Germany ...

The North remembers?

It turns out that all the talk about the North remembering amounts to ... nothing. I can't really imagine that was the plan all along judging from season 5. There's good new, however: Dany seems ready to leave Meereen, Ramsay Bolton is dead and we got a pretty good episode.

StoneHound?

As season 6's finale approaches, we wonder what the show is going to do with the Hound, now that the Cleganebowl hype train has run out of steam.

Unleash the Hound!

People don't seem to have enjoyed The Broken Man all that much. I don't really see why. Did we really get less enjoyable material than last week? What did we get?

1) Blackfish
2) Lyanne Mormont
3) Ian McShane
4) The Hound

Is that really so bad?

Here's this weeks review:

The dead don't rest

Not exactly a very good episode, especially because there were no very good spectacular scenes to draw the eye away from the flaws. Here's our take.

Time travel

This week's episode was great ... and messy.

PAYBACK is a BITCH

This week it is time for reunion and revenge!

Da fuck's a Rickon?!

It's review time!

Review² 2: Giants and the Living Dead

Here comes the second installment of our episode review.



This episode did raise a lot of questions, especially concerning Aeron Greyjoy, the High Sparrow, the dragons and, of course Hodor. Check put the video!

Melisandre's identity

So, here is a quick idea.

Melisandre is Daenys Targaryen.

Okay, let's talk about the facts:

She is roughly 400 years old, if Carice van Houten didn't lie back in 2012. (http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/04/game-of-thrones-melisandre-how-old-season6-episode-1-red-woman)

She is connected to fire, Dragonstone and prophecy.

We don't know if of how Daenys the Dreamer died.

I mean, Melisandre seems to be extremely important. Is she just a random 400-year-old person? Or is she a historical figure? If we decide that she is most likely not just a random woman, Daenys seems a pretty good guess, no?

It has begun

The new season of Game of Thrones has finally arrived, and now we are also right in the middle of the action. Life of Brienne is the title of our most recent video. It is the first part of what we call "Review²", the review that also takes the internet and the media overall into account. We hope, you like that approach.

Season 6 preview

As season 6 draws inevitably closer, we focus further on the show. This time, as a little preview, I am making seven bold predictions (in honor of the Seven, of course).

New video on GoT trailers online!

Here is our first video strictly concerned with Game of Thrones. We have a look at all the seven trailers/teasers/promos or whatever else they are sometimes called. See below.

What's wrong with Euron Greyjoy? (Last episode)

Here is the third and last episode of What's wrong with Euron Greyjoy? If you want to know, how we see Euron's actual plan unfold, look no further!


Special thanks - as usual - to Sir-Heartsalot for his great artwork!

The real Varys

Broadly speaking, there are two camps: Those who believe when he says that he supports Aegon Taragryen, sixth of his name, and those who think his protégé, Young Griff, is not really who he claims to be, but rather some kind of Blackfyre spawn. That's all well and good, but it is not the whole story.

No matter which of these two camps you are in, the last we see of Lord Varys in the epilogue of A Dance with Dragons raises two questions that need to be answered, if we are to from a valid opinion on the eunuch. I try to give answers to these questions in the video below.


Special thanks, as usual, go to Sir-Heartsalot for his incredible artwork, especially, this time, for his fitting and also hilarious version of Varys that you can see below in all its untinkered with glory.

Varys the Spider by Sir-Heartsalot

Article on Tower of the Hand

Since I forgot to post this at the time: I have written an article on Bittersteel for Tower of the Hand. You might like that!

http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2016/01/12-influential-characters-9/index.html

New video online!

Have you been waiting for the second episode of our What's wrong with Euron Greyjoy? series? The time for waiting is over! Here it is:

This time around I especially focus on what roles Daario Naharis and Daenerys Targaryen play in relation to the Crow's Eye. There will be at least one more episode in this playlist in the future. I have not yet decided, if I will break the script down into more than one piece or if I will try to wrap it up in episode three. Keeping up the suspense, I suppose.

What so you think? Is the connection between Euron and the Stormcrows real? What's his connection to Daario? Does he want Dany for more than her dragons?

House Teasers for Season Six out

HBO has given fans another minute or so of actual material to get all crazy about. Here it is (in three pieces):

"Winterfell is mine." #GoTSeason6 premieres 4.24.16 #GameofThrones https://t.co/UCA8qF0I65

— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) 22. Januar 2016

“Queen of nothing.” #GoTSeason6 premieres 4.24.16 #GameofThrones https://t.co/TeSFwowwTy

— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) 22. Januar 2016

“Together we can overthrow an empire.” #GoTSeason6 premieres 4.24.16 #GameofThrones https://t.co/YAV9Uo3S3W

— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) 22. Januar 2016

The idea seems to be that all three houses or dynasties, we could say, are in peril. Of course, the parallels between the three houses are not as huge as one would think from simply watching the three little trailers. House Stark is basically destroyed. It only lives on in hiding and through Jon who can't really be of House Stark anymore as a Lord Commander. House Targaryen has been gathering power, but Dany (as the only official member of the house in the show at this point) is in danger right now. House Lannister, however, still controls the Iron Throne, even if King Tommen is officially a Baratheon. The parallel doesn't go much deeper than: "All three houses are in bad shape."

What I find most interesting here is that the three teasers don't seem to lead up to a fight between any of these three houses that the showrunners seem to consider the most important ones at this point. Jon will face House Bolton, seemingly led by Ramsay Bolton, who seems to be an ally of the crown only in name, really. Dany will seemingly face Dothraki, slavers an probably krakens, while House Lannister will have to deal with the Faith and House Tyrell. I am curious of how the show will try to not let these three story arcs diverge even further. Will they be able to show that this is still one epic story?

Season 6 of Game of Thrones starts on April 24, 2016!

Finally there is an official release date. Season 6 of HBO's Game of Thrones will be bach on 4/24/2016. That's three months, two weeks and two days from now. Are you exited, yet? We are somewhat, I guess. We are knee deep in speculation season, anyway. Let's see if mainstream media can go any more crazy about Jon Snow's fate with arguments that have been wielded by people in the know for years. Must be an awesome job.

12 reasons why Jon Snow will live

1. Ned was never the hero. Therefore, Ned’s death, while having brought home – together with his eldest son Robb’s death at the Red Wedding – the point that (nearly) no one is safe, doesn’t mean that Jon isn’t safe, but rather that he is. Ned was never the hero, and Robb certainly wasn’t either. But Jon is, in a way. Nobody is safe. But Jon is, somewhat. He is either the Ice in Ice and Fire or he is both Ice and Fire. He might not get his happily ever after, but he will be right in the middle of the endgame of both the books and the show.

2. Melisandre. On the show even more so than in the books, Mel has moved on from Stannis to Jon. Jon is the savior that she imagined Stannis to be. Why on earth would she not give him the kiss of life? If Thoros can do it, why not her? Is there anything she would not sacrifice to save Jon? I guess no. Stannis is most likely dead on the show and nearly as likely dead in the books. What place in the story is there for Melisandre without Jon Snow?

3. Ghost represents Jon’s other possibility of cheating death. We have seen it in Varamyr Sixskins’ prologue in A Dance with Dragons, where his body dies, but he lives on in the body of his wolf One Eye. A dying skinchanger might survive in a different body, especially the body of his own pet. The author chose to show us that this is possible in the same book in which Jon dies. A coincidence? Nah. Don’t think so. Why would Jon not instinctively try to escape to Ghost’s body before he dies?

4. The teaser trailer that HBO released recently is nearly all about Jon. If Jon were really out of the picture, why focus on him so much? It’s not that there are no other important characters to focus on in the teaser. You just don’t produce a trailer that shows you what you enjoyed the first five seasons just to rub in the fact that you are not going to get any more of it. A good trailer shows you something that you want to see more of and that you are going to get more of. The teaser trailer basically says: There’s going to be more of Jon.

5. There have been snapshots of Kit Harrington on the set of season six and it is basically clear that he is still part of the cast for now. Of course, this could simply mean that there will be flashbacks with Jon in it or that Harrington will “play” a corpse or a walking corpse. However, the leaked images of Jon Snow in alleged Stark attire certainly don’t look like it.

6. Keep your tinfoil hat at hand for this one: Jon’s death might have been planned by people that do not want to actually see him die. Who might that be, you ask? Probably Mance Rayder, who also just might be Jon’s father, who might just happen to be Rhaegar Targaryen. You don’t have any clue, who that is, Unsullied show audience? Sorry, I can’t help you here. Probably none of this is true, anyway. Well, probably the last part is. And Mance probably wrote the Pink Letter. You don’t know what that is, either? Probably you want to consider reading the books?

7. This is connected to number 6. If Jon were to die and not come back in any shape or form, the whole mystery about Jon’s mother (or father for that matter) would most likely amount to nothing at all in the end. The most famous ASoIaF theory would just be left hanging, never to be shown to be true or false. R+L=J would be a non-issue, because everybody interested in the truth would be dead. There have been way too many hints throughout the books and the seasons of the show for that to happen.

8. It has been said that ASoIaF and, by extension, GoT is about Rhaegar Targaryen. A man that died more than a decade before the story even begins. If that’s true, Rhaegar can’t be out of the story from this point on, but he would be if Jon is indeed dead. On the show, he is most likely Rhaegar’s only offspring and, therefore, the only person who might fulfill the prophecies that Rhaegar held so dear. If Aegon VI is indeed fake in the books, as most people seem to think, the same is true there.

9. Bloodraven. The fashionable answer to all questions concerning ASoIaF or GoT nowadays. The equivalent of attributing anything that can’t be readily explained at first glance to “aliens”. But in this context, Bloodraven might actually make sense as an answer. Bloodraven has been in contact with Maester Aemon and, at least through the former, with Rhaegar. It’s reasonable to assume that both were fighting the same fight at some point. Bloodraven is with Bran, so he is linked to Jon in at least two ways. Bloodraven and Bran are most likely keeping an eye on him with some weirwood magic at the ready.

10. There might not be very strong plot armor in this story, but maybe there is something like prophecy armor? Most people seem to assume that somebody will have to fulfill all these prophecies, especially four of them: The prince that was promised, the Last Hero, Azor Ahai reborn and the dragon has three heads. Jon is a likely candidate to fulfill or at least be a part of the fulfilling of these prophecies. Who will fulfill these prophecies if Jon is no more?

11. Jon has another possible way of cheating death and it is the strangest one: the Others/White Walkers. Some fan theories claim that as a Stark, a warg and/or as a Targaryen the Others/White Walkers might turn Jon into an Other/White Walker himself and he might become their leader. The show has already shown that turning People into Others/White Walkers is a thing and Crasters sacrifice of male children to them also occurs in the books, so Jon might actually become an Other/White Walker, if it is ice instead of fire that saves him.

12. This last one might apply to the show more than it does to the books. Kit Harrington is probably the most hyped actor on the show, he is the face of the franchise, so to say. He has been the center of action during season 5 and he is the king of GoT memes. They would not write him out of the show, even if George killed Jon in the books, I’d say. The Rubicon has been crossed. The show has become an entirely different beast after following the books’ lead relatively closely for a while. The showrunners simply cannot have any interest in getting rid of Kit Harrington at this point.

Thoughts on GRRM's New Year update

So, here it is. The part that everybody wanted to know about, for that matter. It's the last part of George R. R. Martin's New Year update.

1) The Winds of Winter is not yet done.

2) It will not be out before season six of Game of Thrones.

3) The book is close, but it might just stay like that for a while longer.

4) There will be spoilers, but we will probably not know what's a spoiler, until we have the book in hand.

5) There will be no more deadlines because deadlines don't seem to help the writing process.

What's news about that, really? All of the above is actually just confirmation of what used to be the most likely interpretation of events anyway. For me the real news is this: George has really been feeling the pressure and he is trying to find a new approach that puts him in a better position mentally do get more progress. Part of that approach is giving more information on his writing progress and not having deadlines anymore.