Thursday, December 31, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 110

Thursday is court day! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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: If you want to be a judge, please email us! 
Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 
And now, up to ruling 110! Our guest judge this week is Romain Thirion, who hails from France. He is 30 years old and a journalist, currently working for a magazine called Après-Vente Automobile and its website, www.apres-vente-auto.com. It's a professional review about automobile aftermarket, economic analysis of the business of spare parts and repair. Years ago, he wrote music reviews for a Metal website called Nightfall In Metal Earth. He's a big fan of George RR Martin's writing, loves it beyond ASOIAF and his first take on GRRM's work was Fever Dream. Then, he started reading ASOIAF in French, before definitely switching to English because the French translation is so pompous that it makes it, from AGOT to AFFC, a nightmare to read. "It's an assassination of Martin's clear and natural style, which is entirely focused on storytelling, not on petty using of a sophisticated lexicon.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 109

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: If you want to be a judge, please email us! 
Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 
And now, up to ruling 109! Our guest judge this week is Marcus Roberts, a director at YouGov, the international polling company. He has previously ruled on the Wall's collapse, the Holy Hundred and the return of Jon Snow.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Boiled Leather Audio Hour #43

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or Episode Seven Kingdoms

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Sean and Stefan discuss the new Star Wars movie! Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Jedi mind tricked us into dedicating this episode of our A Song of Ice and Fire podcast to an entirely different fantasy franchise. How did the film fit in with larger saga? How did J.J. Abrams’s direction differ from George Lucas’s? Is Rey a Mary Sue, and if so, how does that impact the film? What the hell was up with Starkiller Base? We answer all these questions and more, including a discussion of the film’s cinematography, the performances of its actors, the pros and cons of the characters, and even a few connections to the world of Westeros. I’ve got a good feeling about this…

Download Episode 43

Additional links:
Mirror.
Stefan’s review of the movie.
Tasha Robinson’s essay on Rey.
Previous episodes.
Podcast RSS feed.
iTunes page.
Sean’s blog.
Stefan’s blog.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens review

This review definitely contains spoilers. 

Only weeks ago, I have written about Star Wars and Me and stated that while I do like the Star Wars movies, I'm not anything like a superfan for the stuff. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII from here on out) therefore wasn't something that got my blood pumping like, for example, Game of Thrones did in 2010. I was curious and reasonably excited to see the movie, which I did yesterday. So, what did I think of it? You're dying to know, I'm sure, so let's get into it. 

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 108

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: If you want to be a judge, please email us! 
Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 
And now, up to ruling 107! Our guest judge this week is Fredrik Fischer, a migrant and wordwright who has liked A Song of Ice and Fire almost half his life at this point.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 107

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: If you want to be a judge, please email us! 
Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 
And now, up to ruling 107! Our guest judge this week is Joe Schafer, who first became aware of the series in 2009 while he was in college when he heard that HBO was adapting a fantasy series for TV. A fan of most things nerd he posts on Westeros.org as Ser Joe the Unknighted and he is on Twitter @joetwheets where he frequently tweets about ASOIF related content.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Is it ethical to exterminate the Aliens?

I got into a weird discussion with a friend of mine. He argued that when Ripley in Aliens encountered the Alien queen and threatened her eggs, the queen backed down, so this proves that she was ready to let Ripley get away and therefore burning the eggs and nuking the complex was essentially unwarranted aggression. The argument then developed into the general question: is it morally permissible to exterminate the Alien race, given the chance? Or is it some misguided application of anthropocentrism gone genocidal? I should be going to bed right now, so naturally, I have to delve into this question. 
We come in peace.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 106

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: If you want to be a judge, please email us! 
Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 
And now, up to ruling 106! Our guest judge this week is Jim, who is a contributor at Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire and a regular contributor at Tower of the Hand. He commonly goes by SomethingLikeALawyer.