Why Kylo Ren is the best Star Wars villain of all time

This post comes out of a new series of writing I do on ASOIAF meta and other topics of popular culture over at the Patreon of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour. If you like to read stuff like this, chime in just 1$ and you get access to everything I write. If you throw in 2$, you even get access to mini-podcasts I'm doing with Sean T. Collins answering questions by listeners of the podcast. Give the Patreon a look! 

I'm going to take the fully objective and uncontroversial stance here. I think Kylo Ren is the best villain of any Star Wars movie. You can't really argue with that, so I will kindly take you through this process so you can arrive at the same conclusion. A service of your Boiled Leather Audio Popculture.

Before we arrive at this conclusion, let us take a look at the contenders. 

My own experiences at gardening

This post comes out of a new series of writing I do on ASOIAF meta and other topics of popular culture over at the Patreon of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour. If you like to read stuff like this, chime in just 1$ and you get access to everything I write. If you throw in 2$, you even get access to mini-podcasts I'm doing with Sean T. Collins answering questions by listeners of the podcast. Give the Patreon a look!

George R. R. Martin is famous for coining the terms "gardener" and "architect" to designate different approaches to storytelling (and also in some corners for the obscure fantasy saga "A Song of Ice and Fire"). I think these terms are just brillant, and rightfully reserve Martin the place in the pantheon of literature analysists that he has.

Game of Thrones Season 8 trailer analysis

This post comes out of a new series of writing I do on ASOIAF meta and other topics of popular culture over at the Patreon of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour. If you like to read stuff like this, chime in just 1$ and you get access to everything I write. If you throw in 2$, you even get access to mini-podcasts I'm doing with Sean T. Collins answering questions by listeners of the podcast. Give the Patreon a look!  

 

The first trailer for Game of Thrones Season 8 dropped! It's THE FINAL SEASON (all in caps). So, naturally, it wants to be examined. Given the time-sensititive nature of this release, I'll do it today instead of in a week, so the next installment of these mini-essays (and, for only 1$ more, the audio version!) will come end of the month, before you're confused about the release schedule.

With that out of the way, into medias res!