The Real Events That Inspired the Greatest Show on Earth
The lines to pay last respects to Richard III’s body circle the block, standing in line up to four hours. By early Monday morning, nearly 3000 people had seen his body. After all, you don’t get to see a king’s body lie in state every day. The internment starts tomorrow at 10:30 AM UK time. Apparently, you can watch it on BBC Channel 4; this may be tricky from overseas. There is an official site for the burial here and the…
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Oxford University’s debating society, the Oxford Union, asked Kit Harrington, John Bradley, and HBO showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff everything we want to know: how they feel about sex and piracy, when the show will run out of book runway, and why John Bradley wants to play a eunuch. How important is sex in the way they tell the story? The showrunners noted that when they pitched the show to HBO they included A Song of Ice and Fire‘s steamy scenes…
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Was Game of Thrones was robbed at Monday night’s 2014 Emmys — the American award show honoring television excellence? Despite being nominated for 19 Emmy awards, Game of Thrones scored no telecast awards for its writing, acting, or directing and only received four or five awards in the creative arts category: Art direction for a contemporary or fantasy series for the episodes “The Laws of Gods and Men” and “The Mountain and the Viper” Costumes for a series “The Lion and The…
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Is academia embracing Game of Thrones? And, if so, what does this mean? Does it mean the world is changing or simply that Game of Thrones is worthy of analysis? Recently, I learned from David Levesley’s great Mic.com article that the University of Virginia is offering an English summer class on Game of Thrones. The course aims to use literary techniques to teach students how to analyze television. Instructor Lisa Woolfork describes Martin’s work as follows: “Literarily speaking, it’s very diverse and rich text….
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Right before Season 4 started, Rolling Stone ran a rather intriguing list about who the “top” characters are on Game of Thrones. They defined “top” as “memorable.” Now that Season 4 is over, things have changed. As a result, I don’t entirely agree with Rolling Stone and I suspect you won’t either. But, before we look at their list, it’s worthwhile — not to mention fun — looking at which scenes on the show are the most memorable. After all, in the last season…
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As George RR Martin noted on his blog, on May 2nd, near southwestern Siberia, a 47-year old man named Cairo Nurmagambetov found a missing two-year old girl by noticing a flock of crows circling over a field. Despite manning a search force of 400 police officers, 200 volunteers, and 15 dog handlers as well as using thermal imaging equipment, it wasn’t the man power or the technology that saved the day but rather a Game of Thrones fan. Two-year old…
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It’s going to be hard for HBO to top last week’s “Watcher on the Wall” episode with tonight’s season finale. As Kit Harrington told Access Hollywood, last week’s Battle at Castle Black was “as big as Thrones has gone” and it was the “most expensive episode that they’ve ever made.” (As I said in the recap, it’s my personal favorite episode ever.) In terms of expense, the CGI to create the giants and the Wall itself helped that cost soar…
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Not since the Red Wedding has the fan reaction to a Game of Thrones death unleashed such a torrent of emotion, humor, commentary, and news articles. (Some great reactions from the Tweetosphere.) That split second when Oberyn smiled at his paramour Ellaria – instead of focusing on his own safety and killing the Mountain – changed everything. Why are we sad that Oberyn is gone, or, for that matter, shocked that he expired fighting a goliath of a man like…
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Recently Esquire UK named us one of the eight best Game of Thrones websites. (Admittedly, the “best” part is in the article’s URL.) Seriously, this is quite the honor — we are in rarefied company on that list. Thanks to everyone for reading, commenting, and contributing (especially Olga Hughes, Clare Cherry, Ross Wittenham, Steve Isaacs, and others for writing great articles). And, thank you Esquire! Check out Esquire’s article here to see the other fantastic websites.
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Is a seachange brewing in Westerosi power politics? The Iron Bank may have foreclosed on the Lannisters as they turn on one of their own. Yara finally sails into the Dreadfort to rescue her brother. Across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys struggles for control. Who is the Titan of Braavos? The tides are about to change in King’s Landing and the changes commence as a ship sails through the massive legs of the Titan of Braavos. Braavos is the largest of the Free Cities on…
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