Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 16

Thursday is court day! But we're one day late.
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 16 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Kyle Maddock, who is best known as a co-host of A Podcast of Ice and Fire. He’s also an actor and full-time geek. You can follow him on Twitter.

A Flight of Links

- This GOT season 3 advertisement is ballsy. 
- Ripoff Cop
- What has Nintendo done right? 
- Irrational Games is closing. Shame! 
- Guardians of the Galaxy full trailer
-  GOT season 3 deleted scenes
- 5 famous filmmakers who ruined their dream movies
- Everything you need to know about the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer
- Dark Souls review 
- Super Mario Bros. Movie Defense Force
- 22 obsolte technologies that we thought would be around forever
-  Worst plunders by people who invent alien worlds
- Kevin Costner comeback? 
- Pompeii seems to be bad. Poor Kit Harrington.
- New Captain America 2 trailer and spoilers.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 15

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 15 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Thomas , who has the tumblr Stannisifthefury and covers Game of Thrones for esquire.com.

A Flight of Links

- Wertzone reviews the Lego Movie
- German court rules that Valve needn't allow the resale of Steam games. Shame. 
- Five big anticipations for GOT season 4. 
- There is an entirely stupid debate going on in the States about whether or not the Lego Movie is anti-business. 
- Meaningful gamification. 
- Free to wait
- Cast of Frozen sings live, and why it is a good thing
- Why Robocop still rules 
- 10 secret of 80s movie making 
- More about the stupid discussion about the Lego Movie 
- I can get behind this explanation for geekdom mysoginy.  
- Star Wars carpet
- Sex in GOT is necessary
- New Season 3 Blue Ray clip
- Why the game industry is Citizen Kane
- Alan Sepinwall reviews the first four episodes of House of Cards Season 2, and boy is he right. 
- George R. R. Martin explains weddings
- Robocop review
- Another one
- Jason Momoa stars in a werewolf movie
- God's 12 biggest dick moves in the Old Testament
- George R. R. Martin interview, a good one
- Middle Earth in orbital pictures, link 1, link 2, gorgeous stuff
- This article is a must-read for everyone.  
- New GOT season 4 trailer
- Heroine
- Dr. Horrible 2 is moving along

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 14

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 13 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Seth, a social worker and father of two daughters in Portland, Oregon. He first discovered the book series a year after ADWD was published. After a full read and a few re-reads of the series, he went looking for places to ponder the many subtexts to the series and speculate about what will come next. He discovered APOIAF, Boiled Leather, Nerdstream, BLAH, Meerenese Blot and others in search of more obsessed fans with which to discuss this amazing world. He recently began writing his own blog at blogthatwaspromised.wordpress.com to expound on a few of his theories that haven't been written elsewhere.

First thoughts on the Game of Thrones special

You find the 15-minute-video here. Just some random thoughts. Spoilers ahead.

- Holy crap, Arya's quote about nothing! They are really setting up the Braavos storyline, aren't they?
- Holy crap, that money-shot of Meereen! The city looks freakingly awesome. The pyramides, the Harpy...man! Nailed it.
- Brienne bites someone's ear off and spits it in his face? Some storylines got seriously mixed up. Whose will it be? Can't be anyone in King's Landing, I guess, so I expect her journey into the countryside from AFFC to start in season 4.
- Oberyn is build up intentionally as a long-term major character. Will be a nice surprise for the Unsullied.
- Man, Bran looks OLD now. The clear disadvantage of child-actors. Isaac Hempstead-Wright is aging much more visibly than any of the others so far.
- Jaime's part in everything gets beefed up a bit, but as it seems to me with minor consequences for the general plot.
- Why did Ramsay have all these wounds on his body? Sado-Masochism?
- The Hound is also portrayed as a major character, so no Braavos this season for Arya, instead beefed up Riverlands.
- Jon and Sam interactions will become interesting. Love Kit Harrington complaining he doesn't get badass quotes. Yeah, that's Jon Snow in a nutshell.
- Hazzeah bites the dust in this season. Episode 10?
-  So excited about this!

A Flight of Links

- MovieBob comments on the new Transformers. 
- And Winter Soldier. 
- Clark Gregg hates you. 
- Best and worst of Superbowl trailers.
- Coca Cola ad, somehow enraging the right.
- Rejection
- In Defense of Ewoks. I call bullshit.
- The Governor will be back for visions with Rick. Hurrah.
- Roast Joffrey compilation
- Yes. The lack of Targaryen background and the few Bran chapters really were my main letdowns with ADWD.
- Yes. 
- Oh, yes. 
- Bryan Singer tries to explain Superman Returns. 
- Yes. 
- 33 facts about famous people you might not know. 
- Devil you know part II
- The Magic of old Adventure Games
- The Wolf Among Us Episode 2 review. Episode 1 was great, eager for two. Another review, and by now, I played it (great wirting these over the course of a week, ain't it?). I agree with it. Oh, and I found another interesting take.
- It's time for The Walking Dead to kill off Rick. Oh boy, do I agree.
- Might and Magic X review. 
- The Thick of It review
- Race of the Iron Throne gives us Catelyn X. 
- 29 movie adaptations who left out the best parts. 
- 6 awesome theories that totally change the story. Scar raped Nala? Seriously? Wow.
- Steven Moffat about Sherlock. 
- Kit Harington info
- Assassin's Creed 4 gets a standalone expansion
- Hilarious fake Superman vs. Batman trailer
- 5 dreaded movies that turned out good
- Zombeavers is a thing
- Knights of Badassdom finally comes
- Avengers Age of Ultron has a teaser, and Paul Bettany plays some guy
- The Lego Moview review, and another one
- Monuments Men review
-Photos from 80s Moscow. Oh my god.
- "Sabotage" Red Band Trailer. Looks utterly uninteresting to me. Are there still Schwarzenegger fans? Does anyone believe a 70-year old that he's a police elite guy and family guy?
- More stuff about LEGO Movie
-  Deeper explanation of the "Jaime has no redemption arc thing". I totally agree.
- 5 superheroes who should have gotten movies before antman

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 13

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 13 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Christina, who left grad school so that she could live in Greece full time as an archaeological illustrator. This means she spends a lot of time in basements and dusty storerooms surrounded by artifacts and listening to podcasts. She has guest hosted a few times on A Podcast of Ice and Fire, and has generally kept up with all the fan theories and various blogs that have to do with ASOIAF. She stopped watching Game of Thrones after the second season because of nerd rage.

A Flight of Links

- Warhorse The Game, essentially. 
- Escapist most anticipated games of 2014
- Review for Pirates! Gold. I bought it and I'm playing it currently.
- Steven Attewell has written about Obama and GOT. 
- Early evidence of Roose's betrayal. 
- I can understand why they are angry, but the critique is utterly stupid. Shows were we're going reinforcing bad cliches all the time. 
- New picturs of the Turtles. I'm pleasantly surprised.
- The Devil in pop-culture, part 1
- 10 baffingly incompetent evil companies
- 5 big answers for Movie Geeks in 2014
- Why do we love Survival Games?
- Superheroes that should be in games
- 4 reasons why Star Wars is better than Star Trek
- 5 movie heroes who caused their own problems
- Broken Age review
- Stormsongs has Davos IV
-15 new GOT photos. 
- Ninja Turtles footage, continued
- Escape to the Movies reviews "That Awkward Moment"
- Lego Movie spot rocks 
- 6 nuclear sub myths 
- Game theory crack wins Jeopardy 
- Chip&Dale is coming back
- Philipp Seymour Hoffman dead
- Dungeon Keeper Mobile sucks

Boiled Leather Audio Hour 26

Meereen Streets: Talking Daenerys & Jon with The Meereenese Blot’s Adam Feldman

One of the brightest stars in the ASoIaF fandom firmament joins your humble hosts this week! Adam Feldman is the author of The Meereenese Blot, and the blogger whose essay series "Untangling the Meereenese Knot," a revisionist take on Daenerys’s storyline during A Dance with Dragons which argued that her attempt to forge a durable peace would have been successful but for her own unhappiness and the perfidy of a locust-poisoning Shavepate, is one of the finest in-depth analyses of these books I’ve ever read. He’s followed up with a provocative take on Jon Snow’s actions during Dance as well, centered on the political effects of his penchant for well-intentioned risk-taking. In this episode, Sean and I explore the essays with Adam as our guide, tackling everything from oathbreaking to audience identification. Read and listen and enjoy!

Mirror here.

Previous episodes here.

Podcast RSS feed here.

iTunes page here.

Sean’s blog here.

Stefan’s blog here.

Adam’s blog here.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 12

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 12 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Sean T. Collins, blogger at All Leather Must be Boiled, co-author of the "A Game of Thrones Annotated Edition" for Subtext with Elio Garcia and co-host of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour with Stefan. He also blogs at Attention Deficit Disorderly and freelances for numerous sites, including The Rolling Stone.

A Flight of Links

- Charles Dance: "Dare I say, bloody well actors." You dare say, mister, you dare say. 
- 39 not so innocent gestures. 
- 5 animals refusing evolution
- 6 actors who thought they made a whole different movie. That's so bad.
- Much GOT meta. Donnu whether I linked it already, is worth the look in any case.
- Good post about Westerosi warfare.  
- C&C Renegade X is coming out, it seems. The original was crappy, but what it could've been interested everyone.
-  Good article about Kickstarter. 
- New 300 2 trailer. 
- Stormsongs rereads Catelyn IV. 
-With great power... Couldn't agree more.
- Big Picture about the Bechdel test.
- StarCraft 2 is essentially free now. 
- HBO CEO likes you to share the HBO Go! password. 
- Where are superhero movies finding all that new elements?
- Survival Special of Yahtzee
- X-Files gets an HD update
- Call of Home - new Miracle of Sound song
- 5 recent movies I'm not sure I want to rewatch
- Does Pixar make a Star Wars movie?
- TMNT does look not bad
- Review of Wing Commander II (!)
- Quentin Tarantino axes his next movie because the script was leaked. Wtf? 
- Sean T. Collins collected his thoughts on BSG and Lost; here are some of the of the most interesting IMHO.
- 5 ways life in Iran is nothing like you think.
- If 33 movies were made into trilogies
- GTA V doesn't give you agency. Go figure.
- I Frankenstein review 

Assassin's Creed 4 review

To be honest, after the debacle that was Assassin's Creed 3 I didn't really want to play part 4, especially since it seemed like the game would only reinforce the mistakes of its predecessor back when the trailer came out. My fears all came true, and they didn't. While they definitely got ahead and used the pirate-setting as a background for all kinds of ridiculous action and adventure, further making a mockery of the assassin parts of the story, this works surprisingly well in some respects. Steering the Jackdaw through the waters of the Carribean is as fun an experience as one could wish for. I disabled and entered one ship after the other, upgrading the Jackdaw and enjoying myself to the shanties the crew sings whenever you have to cover a stretch of water without getting shot at. 

Essentially, we have Pirate-Ninjas now.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 11

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 the 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 POIAF-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 11 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Mark Adamec, Boiled Leather and Nerdstream Era super fan. 

House of Cards, Season 1

I finally finished watching House of Cards, since everyone and their moms is recommending it. Here in Germany, the leader of an opposition party even went so far as to recommend the damn thing for the subject of politics in school. Being a teacher of said subject, I couldn't abstain from watching any longer, obviously. Having finished it, my thought regarding on exactly that comment can only be the question whether or not somebody shat in his brain. While House of Cards is certainly very entertaining at times and provides some very compelling topics to discuss, it possesses no educational value for politics lessons, that's for sure. 

Varys crackpot

Varys is in truth Larys Strong, the lord of Harrenhal, who has survived the ages through magic tricks.
There, I said it. Not that I believe it. But I said it. Heh.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 10

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 the 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 POIAF-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 10 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Matt Hezel, a proud member of House Manwoody and since discovering A Song of Ice and Fire in 2010 finding great pleasure in baking and eating pies. He contributes on the APoIaF forums and VoK podcasts as Eiffel.

Did Martin drop the ball? - A contention between Stefan Sasse and Remy Verhoeve

Since the publication of “A Dance with Dragons” in 2011 there has been a major discussion going on in the fandom about whether or not the book and its immediate predecessor, “A Feast for Crows” (2005) can live up to the undeniably high standard that the first three books “A Game of Thrones” (1996), “A Clash of Kings” (1998) and “A Storm of Swords” (2000) set. Talking about this today are Stefan Sasse (The Nerdstream Era) and Remy Verhoeve (Stormsongs).

Stefan Sasse: A Dance with Dragons is out for a while now. While many people were disappointed initially at the lack of dragons dancing, the reactions differed more later. Many came around and found reasons to like the book (and, in extension, “A Feast for Crows” as well), while others turned their disappointment into resentment. Do you have a theory why “A Dance with Dragons” divided the community in a way that “A Feast for Crows”, which shows similar structure, didn’t?

A Flight of Links

Wow, this must be the longest link post I ever did so far. 

- Best Dowager Countess quotes, collected by Sean T. Collins
- Top 10 memoral scenes from bad movies
- Top 10 worst movie accents
- Thor is the new superman
- The hard life stunt people have
- 5 things I learned from being a cop
- 5 movie happy endings that will end terribly wrong
- The movies of 2013
- Game of Thrones propaganda
- Katee Sackhoff wants to play stuff
- New Game of Thrones casting
- Jog begets anger. Couldn't agree more. 
- 10 bizarre correlations
- Man of Steel 2 information. And more of it.
- Guardians of the Galaxy info.
- True Detective seems terrific.
- 4 hilariously silly comic book scenes
- 6 fan ideas so good they were put in the real thing
- Alien: Isolation actually looks good. 
- Serious Game Fatigue. I seriously disagree.
- Junk Drawer
- BSG Newbie recaps Finale
- Alien: Isolation, still more info
- There's a Witcher Boardgame coming out. FFG is making a boardgame for a change. About time. But I'm sceptical about this one, I have to admit. 
- 5 HBO sneak peeks to season 4
- Dhoom3 review
- You have to know history to teach it. Oh hell yes.
- The most stupid Japanese game shows
- A Japanese air force pilot that rules
- How Aliens ruined the franchise. Man, do I disagree. 
- The 13 best short films of 2013 
- 1600 year old Viking game
- Michael Douglas plays the Ant-Man 
- Stars, Worn
- Review from Marcus Roberts about Crusader Kings II. I have my issues with the game, but it's the best available GOT strategy game so far. 
- HBO renews Newsroom for a third season
- Booth babes hinder sales. Knew it! :) 
- 22 mistaken viral photos explained
- 4 comic book fan theories cooler than the truth
- Concept art of the BioShock movie that never was, sadly.  
- That hurts 
- Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit review
- And another
- Remy Verhoeve reviewed the Princess and the Queen.
- Of Dragons and Ruined Cities
- News about Man of Steel 2
-  HeroQuest, again
- Knights of Badassdom, another trailer
- The Plan recap
- A 1984 remake with Kristen Stewart and an angle as a love film is a thing now,
- Jack Gleeson about Celebrity Culture
- Stephen Dillane doesn't like the GOT nude scenes. German porn of the 70s? You can't make it unseen.
- Amazon wants to ship before you order in the near future
- The difference between 12 years a slave and Passion of Christ
- Alyssa reviews Desolation of Smaug 
- 7 hillariously predictable sex trends
- 7 scientific reasons a zombie apocalypse would be easy to defend

Stalingrad 3D

This is a thing. Russian filmmakers produced a movie about the battle of Stalingrad in IMAX format. Real 3D. And not only that, they also took a full swing at the asthetics of "300" with it, including the soundtrack. Have a look at the trailer and don't mind the Russian text; there's no dialogue other than the contemporary monologue in the background anyway:

Yes, this is really a thing. And it cries for some analysis after the break.