A Flight of Links

- Hilarious Sin City 2 review by MovieBob
- Dumbsday, part 1
- The Imitation Game review
- Video Game visionaries
- Daikatana review. Yes, THAT Daikatana.
- Star Trek takes the Bechdel test
- You'd be surprised to hear that the official GOP game for the Midterms sucks. 
- Dumbsday part 2
- Why Robert Rath is tentatively excited about the new Call of Duty. I'm not. 
- What made Gone Home so good?
- What made Silent Hill 2 good? 
- Why game journalists not necessarily reflect the opinions of the masses
- Grand Unifying Theory of Storytelling
- Walking Dead Season 2 Finale Review
- Arya IV 
- HBO remasters the Sopranos and The Wire. Yeeeeeha!
- More D&D copyright fights
- Great analysis about Tywin Lannister, recommended!
- Boardwalk Empire season opener explained
- 4 ways of losing Robert Downey Jr. for the Marvel universe

The connection between Open-World-Games and misogyny [UPDATE]

When I talked about my relation to Anita Sarkeesian's videos last week, I found something curious: the "Women as Background Decoration" trope that she talks about and that so infuriates gamers is especially prevalent in open-world-games. GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Kane&Lynch, Hitman, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 3, Watch_Dogs and others popped up with alarming regularity (and yes, I know they're not all technically open-world, but they give players more freedom than your average Call of Duty). I think there's a connection between this fact and the sexist scenes that Sarkeesian dissected in her video, and it has to do with the mechanics of open-world games. 

Yay, freedom for the player!

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 44

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 44 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Thomas Fichtenmayer, who has the tumblr Stannisifthefury and covers Game of Thrones for esquire.com. He was already a guest judge in ruling 15.

No country for Old Gamers

Bringing feminism to a gaming console near you

I have never liked feminism. Then I watched Anita Sarkeesian. This may sound melodramatic, but in the light of the developments that loosely run under the tag of "#Gamergate" these days, melodrama is called for. I won't bore you with the details of the conflict, for which you can turn to the trusted explainers over at vox.com. The reactions from the community of people calling themselves "gamers" has been so much out of proportion that "melodrama" isn't beginning to cover it. When people are forced to ask the police for protection and flee their homes, you know that something has gone terribly wrong. The hatred that Sarkeesian, Quinn and others are receiving bars no relation to the quote on quote "provocation" they are posing to the gamer community at large. I guess I'm too old to ever have named myself a "gamer" (the term didn't exist in my really active days), but I certainly would've. Now, I can only try to make a firm stand, rebuking the stupid attitudes of my teenage years and agree with the many who came before me in renouncing the term.

A Flight of Links

- Yahtzee reviews the new shooter MMO "Firefall"
- GRRM on influences of Brienne
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt on why he's a feminist
- This is really cool looking 
- How True Detective and Twin Peaks tell the same story
- Swedisch politicians battle in StarCraft 2
- Yathzee more about Firefall. I didn't like the game btw.
-  What the Duck?
- Expandables 3 review
- Assasssin's Creed Rogue does what Assassin's Creed 3 should have done in 2012
- Sacred 3 review
- This looks that bad
- This
- Sin City 2 review
- What would happen if the earth suddenly stopped spinning?

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 43

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 43 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is K-K Bracken, the writer of the Game of Thrones Comedy Show in Columbus, Ohio and an attendee of the Ice and Fire Convention each May at Ravenwood Castle in Ohio.  Her personal tumblr is http://zombee.tumblr.com. 

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 42

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 42 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Alex Smith: co-founder of Tower of the Hand, one of the contributing authors to A Flight of Sorrows, and repeating guest host at A Podcast of Ice and Fire.

Sounds about right, True Blood

But despite all these spinning plates, there's been a lack of pace and a cloud of boredom in Bon Temps. There may just be too much scar tissue from seasons past for anyone to get too excited about a show that once promised excess. The show mistook simple for lazy, convoluted for interesting. In trying to tinker with and continually redefine its vampires, the show ended up gumming up its own motor. And along the way, it lost all the excess, and we lost all the fun we were having.

- Vox

Mini-Review: Wanted

Not even characters.

In our last post of the Supreme Court of Westeros, I made a comparison with the comic book of "Wanted", as well as the movie, stating that I actually liked the movie more than the comic. To make this clear: I don't think the movie is a good movie. It's passable, and it has some interesting ideas, but ultimately it isn't really innovative or interesting enough to be remembered. The comics, however, outright suck ass. In my mind, they are only an excuse for a lengthy juvenile fantasy of boundless gore, violence and swearing. There is no deeper message in them, no meaning, no criticism, nothing that gets you engaged or thinking. It's just a violence fantasy. Worse, its violence is also directed at people for the expressed reasons of being ugly, of being annoying, of being female, of being in the way, of being just there when it suits you, of being fat, and a myriad of other reasons bullies usually use for excuses to torture people. Only this time it's put in a comic book. So, fuck "Wanted". I don't know why they even used the licence for the movie, whose convergence with the comic is minimal at best.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 41

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 41 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Jimmy McCullough. He has been heavily interested in “A Song of Ice and Fire” since his sister introduced me to GRRM books. Sadly, she lives in Australia now and they do not get to discuss them often, but hopefully she will return before “The Winds of Winter” is realised. He works for Bupa, a PMI company and is starting an MA in History in October.

A Flight of Links

- Jon II by Race of the Iron Throne
- History Respawned: Valiant Hearts
- First teaser for Better Call Saul
- Guardians of the Galaxy's satire of the sad origin story
- Why we dug Atari
- Why Marvel wants X-Men to fail
- Playing like a pro
- Dungeons and Dragons saved my life
- Why the ending of Mass Effect 3 is enraging people. Good observations without talking about the plot.
- AC Rogue preview
- AC Unity demo 
- Sean T. Collins writes about the history of the Ninja Turtles
- White straight dudes should stop playing themselves 
- Awe me with the lightsaber Katana
- GRRM on why there's no gay sex in the books
- Usagi Yoyimbo gets its own movie! I loved the comics, have to check them out again. Long time since I read them.
- The USS Enterprise is shut down after 50 years of service. 
- Great Blizzard trailer. I don't particularily like their style, but they excel in it for sure. 
- Turtle Power: the older, better movie
- Is Disney releasing the original Star Wars cut on Blue Ray? (No)
- Is the AAA concole market headed for a crash?
- Some really good thoughts about chance in competitive games

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 40

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 40 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Remy Verhoeve, who has his own blog "Stormsongs" and wrote several books about "A Song of Ice and Fire", including "Waiting for Dragons"

A Flight of Links

- Why's Howard the Duck in the Guardians post-credits? Vox explains.
- More Howard the Duck explainer
- Guardians of the Galaxy and the soundtrack
- Why Blade Runner makes men cry
- Yahtzee vomits on isometric games
- XCOM the Boardgame is totally a thing now. 
- Benedict Cumberbatch can imitate Jar Jar Binks. Why, what an useful trait to have!
- Race of the Iron Throne has Danaerys I.
- GOT casting news
- ET The Worst Game Ever
- Ever wondered what the first X-Men were like?
- Video games are healing depressions better than anti-depression meds (German)
- Game of Thrones as a subway map
- How Captain America Winter Soldier should have ended
- GRRM discusses racial diversity in ASOIAF
- Drunk history: Japanese Division
- Vox about Guardians of the Galaxy
- 10 lessons from Guardians of the Galaxy
- Why living in Bioshock's Columbia won't work
- D&D movie critique 
- Reviews for the godawful new Turtles movie: here, here, here, here,
- Batman v Superman vs Captain America 3
- SIERRA returns!

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 39

Thursday is court day! I declare this a Thursday, naysayers!

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 38 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is James Broxton, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He became a huge fan of the series right after the HBO show was announced, at which point he burned through the books and almost got through an entire re-read before the show started. He listens to APOIAF regularly and is a member of many of the popular forums, but hasn’t had much of a chance to be active yet. He is currently waiting patiently for his girlfriend to finish the series so they can talk about it (She’s only on ACOK!). Fun fact: He just started playing the Sims and most of his characters are from ASOIAF. Davos and Arya are dating and both work at the courthouse. Stannis and Margaery are also together and are firefighters.

A Flight of Links

- Race of the Iron Throne: Theon I 
- Star Wars Biodome planets realistic?
- 4 Science Mistakes Star Wars VII should avoid
- New TMNT title song isn't half bad
-  How a succesful Kickstarter tanked
- Two TMNT scenes were shown at Comicon
- And a glimpse of Superman v Batman
- Don't know whether or not to get excited about a Godzilla sequel. Will there be soldiers as protagonists in it?
- Miracle of Sound's new song
- The Fall of Kevin Smith, part III
- Why bare breasts are more offensive than severed limbs
- Walking Dead 2.4 review
- 8bit cinema Avengers
- Epic Meal episode 1
- Mad Max sequel trailer. Did you want it? Perhaps not, but there it is anyway.
- Yes.
- Ridley Scott makes a movie about Moses. 
- Guardians of the Galaxy review.  
- Poor Stormtrooper. 
-  FilmSchoolRejects reviews Guardians. 
- New Interstellar trailer
- Five ways to make the Huntsman sequel
- This looks so bad it hurts
- Tom Hiddleston super nerd
- Rethinking Dinosaurs
- Rethinking Jungles
- Has EA's Origin improved?

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 38

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 38 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Jim McGeehin, a contributing writer to The War and Politics of Ice and Fire and regular essayist for the Tower of the Hand.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 37

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 37 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is David Getty, who runs his own Game of Thrones inspired site A Game of Thrones Guide.  You can also follow him on Twitter.

A Flight of Links

- The Fall of Kevin Smith part II
- Lazy storytelling in military war games
- Power Rangers gets its own movie
- Speculation about Planet of the Apes 3
- Shovel Knight review
- Fighting Fookin' Legends
- How EA made Dungeon Keeper a fiasco
- How long would Batman last in the real world? 
- I'm sorry for coining the phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl
- Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert cosplay Star Wars for charity
- Two reviews for The Purge: Anarchy
- Two actors who kept their characters alive. Shatner is hilarious
- Middle East Friendship Chart

Boiled Leather Audio Hour 33

We Want the Dunk: Discussing the Tales of Dunk and Egg

Ser Duncan the Tall gets his turn in the spotlight in an episode nearly as big as the man himself! At long last, Sean and I turn our attention to “The Hedge Knight,” “The Sworn Sword,” and “The Mystery Knight,” the three (and counting) A Song of Ice and Fire prequel novellas starring the inexperienced young hedge knight also known as Dunk the Lunk and his precocious, princely squire Egg. Taken together, these stories contain some of George R.R. Martin’s best writing — and his most tonally varied, too. Sean and I go deep into the secret-strewn stories of Dunk and Egg themselves, the politics of the Blackfyre Rebellion and the aftermath that overshadows the stories’ events, the genre-pastiche elements of each story, the chemistry between the characters, our favorite and least favorite installments of the series, and what it takes to be “a true knight.” It makes for an episode thick as a castle wall, and, we hope, entertaining as a Dornish puppet show. See you at the lists!

Mirror here.
Previous episodes here.
Podcast RSS feed here.
iTunes page here.
Sean’s blog here.
Stefan’s blog here.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 36

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 36 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Greg, a member of the Podcast of Ice and Fire forums (claudiusthefool on the forums) and a podcaster with the Vassals of Kingsgrave (VOK Book Club discussion on Neil Gaimain's "Ocean at the End of the Lane" is his next project). He is a bookseller and spends a lot of time at work trying to convince customers who say "I don't like fantasy books" to give ASOIAF a try and they usually thank him for it.