A Flight of Links

- DCU asthetics
- Superhero fatigue
- Gwen Stacy
-It's really that good.
- 100 favorite reviews
- DCEU
- Supergirl movie 
- Free State of Jones 
- The Making of CoH
- New Star Citizen info

ASOIAF meta
- Aeron, Urri and Euron
- Moqorro
- Jaqen
- ASOS pacing
- Moral complexities
- ADWD greatness
- Conan and Bloodraven
- Homosexuality
- Tywin and Stannis
- Varys
- Crow's Eye
- POVs
- Biggest flaws of each book
- Best parts of each book
- Bloodraven and Varys
- Sack of King's Landing
- Bronn's rise
- Westeros before the Dawn of Days
- The invasion of the First Men

Boiled Leather Audio Hour #54

We’re turing the podcast Upside Down this episode with an in-depth discussion of Stranger Things, the hit summer thriller series from Netflix and the Duffer Brothers. Wearing its many, many genre influences on its sleeve so proudly that said sleeves might as well have had “STEVEN SPIELBERG” and “STEPHEN KING” directly embroidered on them, the show gave its fans an ‘80s nostalgia fix like few others. But is there more to the whole than the sum of its parts? Sean and Stefan explore that question at length, touching on related issues such as the nature of horror, the hegemony of nerd culture, the ever-increasing prominence of the ‘80s in contemporary entertainment, and of course the show’s similarities with and differences from the approach to genre taken by A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. Grab your D&D dice and roll for initiative with us!

DOWNLOAD EPISODE 54

Additional links:
Sean’s essay on Stranger Things for Vulture.
Emily Yoshida’s key tweet about the show.
Chris Ott’s Shallow Rewards podcast, featuring a two-parter with Sean.
Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour.
Our PayPal donation page (also accessible via boiledleather.com).
Our iTunes page.
Mirror.
Previous episodes.
Podcast RSS feed.
Sean’s blog.
Stefan’s blog.

What "Stellaris" told me about the dangers of technology

In case you never heard of "Stellaris", you're either living under a rock or really aren't that much into really complex and heavy strategy games that need real effort and time to learn. Damn, that came out wrong. So, I'll take it you don't know Stellaris. It's a game by renowned studio Paradox Interactive (Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, Skylines, among others) in the 4x genre, allowing you to guide a civilization from its earliest FTL days to a sprawling intergalactic empire. As you marrily colonize new planets, research new techs and observe strange phenomena, you're range of options grows and your empire gains in strength, eventually resulting into First Contact with other civilizations and even war. So far, so good. But the game also has some really interesting other features, among the "crisis". And that one's a real bitch. 

A Flight of Links

- Deus Ex Mankind Divided reviewed by Yahtzee
- WarCraft Adventure source code has been released, game tested
- And Wertzone
- 6 historical details in Battlefield 1's beta
- Masters of Orion review 
- Chris Metzen leaves Blizzard 
- FFG and GW divorce
- Stellaris gets its first real expansion

ASOIAF meta
- Sansa I
- Jorah and Lynesse
- Bran's assassination
- Arianne
- Dorne troops
- TWOW prologue
- Shadow babies
- Jaime
- More Jaime
- Robb and Oldstones, great meta

A Flight of Links

- Obsidian's Tyranny preview
- Battlefield 1 impressions
- Imperialism 2 looking back
- Red Dead Redemption PC version in the works?
- ASOIAF writing problems
- Richard Madden to star in Strange New Things 
- Movies and patriotism in pop culture after 9/11 
- Spiderman
- Preston Jacob's ASOIAF YouTube channel
- More Spiderman

ASOIAF meta
- The Others
- Quentyn and Aegon
- Theon
- Storylines in TWOW
- Prequel story
- Stoneheart
- Westeros Drunk History
- Barristan
- Stoneheart, again
- Jorah
- More Jorah
- Most Jorah
- Unsullied
- Jaime
- More Jaime

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 144

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.

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 144! Our guest judge this week is Ryan Hodges. He goes by Kinglayer on Tower of the Hand and sardonicsmirk on reddit and the Nerdstream.

A Flight of Links

- Star Citizen Alpha 3.0
- Yahtzee reviews No Man's Sky
- Adam Jensen sucks
- Oh yes I did
- Worms WMD
- id Software and the first seven stages of man
- Masters of Orion review
- Kill Box
- Harald Bilz died
- Is Firely overrated?
- Godzilla Resurgence review
- GOT Season 7 NEws

ASOIAF meta
- Aegon and Arianne
- Eddard
- Sam
- Melisandre
- Men's Lives Have Meaning 2
- Aeron's vision
- King imagery
- Masterplans

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 143

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.

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 143! Our guest judge this week is Beat_Train, who started reading the books upon a recommendation from a lanky friend with the goal of staying ahead of the show, which he finally convinced his wife to watch. Mostly a lurking member of the community, Beat_Train has taken part of the TOTH re-read series and has been a two-time guest judge before for the Court. His Beat_Train pseudonym comes from his time as a runner at the University of Notre Dame.