Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 88

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.

Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 

And now, up to ruling 88! Our guest judge this week is Dom Tartaglia, a PhD student at Indiana University in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. He studies traditional foods and digital folklore, and in his free time he reads tinfoil theories on r/ASIOAF.

Boiled Leather Audio Hour #40

Women of Westeros, Part V: Arya, Lyanna, the Sand Snakes, Arianne, & Ygritte

It’s ladies’ night once again for the Boiled Leather Audio Hour! We’re resuming our irregular series on the women of Westeros after over two years for an episode on a bunch of characters who break the world of Ice and Fire’s gender mold: Arya Stark, Lyanna Stark, the Sand Snakes, Arianne Martell, and Ygritte. Our topics of discussion are as diverse and varied as the women themselves: why Arya is too complex for the hero, victim, or monster labels; how Lyanna’s larger-than-life reputation suits her potential prophetic destiny; the Sand Snakes as Dorne’s answer to the #CarefreeBlackGirls movement-cum-meme; what Arianne has in common with another rebellious scion of a dynasty, Jaime Lannister; how seeing Ygritte exclusively through the eyes of the man who loves her shapes our experience; the true meaning of “strong female character”; and much more. Drop your Needle on that mp3 and tune in! 

Download Episode 40

Additional links:

Mirror.

The “Women of Westeros” series.

Previous episodes.

Podcast RSS feed.

iTunes page.

Sean’s blog.

Stefan’s blog.

A Flight of Links

- Nerd Culture and its discontents. Very good article.
- What 30 ad seconds cost
- When someone says racism isn't real, show them this video

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 87

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 87! Our guest judge this week is Tara Lynne, who writes for TheGeekiary.com and is co-founder and co-organizer of Ice & Fire Con.

A Flight of Links

- The reconstruction of Lara Croft
- Why do we want to save our beloved fictional characters?  
- Going Green
 - 7 Emmy rules
- Hah. Gotcha. 
- How Hollywood made prison breaks heroic.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 86

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 82! Our guest judge this week is Talha Naushad, a professional researcher working in the middle east. When he is not working, he is dabbling his wits in contemporary history and politics and immersing himself in all things concerning A Song of Ice and Fire. He is a member of the community at JonSnow123 at Tower of the Hand and usually lurks around various forums, blogs & podcasts engrossing himself in the theories and analysis of the ASOIAF material and show.

Stop it with the fun, this looks amazing

The trailers for the upcoming DC flicks "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Suicide Squad" have been released. It's been a while since Superman last stomped over Metropolis, and despite me being a bit harder on it than in my review, that stems mainly from pacing and directorial issues than with the often heard criticism that it's too dark and misses all the fun. I'm still behind Nolan's and Snyder's dark version of the DC universe, and I'm glad that they doubled down on this in their upcoming two new movies. Of course, this being my blog and me, I will elaborate a bit on why this is. 

A Flight of Links

- Wertzone continues the series on the ASOIAF process with ASOS
- And AFFC
- 15 things we didn't know about Back to the Future
- Hatred and the deliberate offense
-  Tips for avoiding the E3 hype
- Open letter to Microsoft re:gaming
- Why the Batmobile is no fun in Arkham Knight
- The Great Council of 101
- The court of Viserys I
- I have no doubt that this Kevan meta is true. 
- More Viserys meta
- Interview with the Militant Penguin
- Apparantly, you can explain ISIS with Tolkien.  
- Arya VIII
- Meta about Roose Bolton and Wyman Manderly

New logo for the Supreme Court

As you may have noticed, our Supreme Court of Westeros now has its own logo, depicting me, our rotating third guest judge and Amin (from left ot right):

The artwork was drawn for us courtesy of Vaarsuvius, an Podcast of Ice and Fire fan formly known as Dickon Mandwoody. Thanks Vaarsuvius, this beautiful peace of art is much appreciated!

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 85

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 85! Our guest judge this week is Alden, an an avid fan of the Song of Ice and Fire, to the point that it has consumed many of his past times. He enjoys studying the world map taking up the entirety of a wall that he pieced together from the Lands of Ice and Fire. He also wrote and performs a hip-hop song in tribute to Septon Meribald’s speech. His dream is to write an entire album based on the series.

A Flight of Links

- Very good meta on Quentyn Martell.
- Really good Shavepate meta
- Steven Attewell's Riverlands development plan
- Attewell also disagrees with Stannis's arc in GOT season 5. I don't; see my essay for more.
- If Disney princesses had mums 
- Random thoughts on Tolkien
- Stuff about the new Spiderman reboot
- Video games without people of color aren't neutral. I'd qualify that statement. 
- Sony can't make a black Spiderman
- World War II posters with superheroes
- "Definitive" ranking of the Marvel movies
- The limits of Marvel's storytelling
- Battle-Lines review. I bought if after reading the review and wasn't disappointed in the slightest.
- Black Widow's smurfette problem
- The Avenger's unseen antagonist is Man of Steel
- A quick history of 4chan and the Rightists who killed it
- Age of Ultron review by Sepinwall

Is Catelyn all bad?

Catelyn Stark is one of the most controversial characters of the whole franchise, and in a side-discussion over at the Tower of the Hand I got into an argument with user mirdad, which merits a bigger response, so I used this to let you all take part if you so desire. His argument, edited for clarity:

My main beef with Catelyn is that she doesn't have political savvy in the "real" world. She is like Sansa with the "well, no one would violate guest rights" style of thinking. I have a great question, who was winterfells master of whispers? Who was keeping an eye on the queen during Roberts hunt? not even to spy, but just as a courtesy? Why were the Lannisters not under close watch the entire time? Why didn't Ned have his agents infiltrate all corners of Kings Landing before he arrived? They thought themselves above the game and they got played. Being the man means you have to get your hands a little dirty, I get that Ned and Cat were noble and trust me I loved them at first. But as the series has unfolded we see how hopelessly outgunned they were as far as intelligence gathering and spycraft was concerned. That's my whole point about Jeyne, yeah that wasn't necessarily Catelyn FAULT but damn northerners get your king a few camp followers. A 16 year old after a battle is going to put his dick in something, they should have controlled the something. It's that fantasy of nobility, the "my son is noble and good, and pure, and he is already promised to another' yeah, cuz Ned would never have done that right? oh wait, you raised his bastard after he did the same damn thing. Alleged bastard anyway. This is all viewed through my lenses of having a mother that guided me through the complicated ugliness that is life and death and politics with a deft hand, so Catelyn has always represented that naïve woman over her head surrounded by sharks and thinking she is going to survive with breathing through a straw and reading the good book. [...] I'm conflicted about my feelings on the matter, but it really has bugged me since my first reading. [...]

So, let's go at it.

Analyzing the arcs of "Game of Thrones" Season 5

When you read the books of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, you will notice that several stories are being told at the same time. The War of the Five Kings is surely the most prominent of them, but the Blood of the Dragon (Daenerys’s story) is another one that everyone knows. The cohesiveness splinters a bit in the two novels constituting the second act of the saga, “A Feast for Crows” and “A Dance with Dragons”, to the point where multiple narrative arcs are pursued at the same time. The same is true for the TV series. And as with the books, the inherent beauty, depth and themes (or the lack thereof) need some examining to be appreciated. In the following, I will have a look at the different arcs in the season and try to submit them to a coherent analysis.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 84

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 84! Our guest judge this week is Daniel Sattelberger, a student of actuarial science and a non-native Texan. A recent addition to the fandom, he is known as Qoburn on Reddit and Tower of the Hand.