A Flight of Links

- Vox reviews Gotham. 
- Netflix has its own spoiler site. Enter at your own risk. 
- GOT set of Winterfell
- Details about the new X-Men. Without Halle Berry.
- Please Marvel, don't do a Hawkeye movie
- This is the most insane hacker scene in a movie ever. I laughed my ass off and facepalmed in turns.
- Destiny review by Yathzee
- Consider this a pretty definitive statement on Gotham. Plus the one I added to my infamous list. 
- The Equalizer review 
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ayn Rand edition
- An open letter to Sam Pepper. This even rhymes, sort of.  

Video: Laci Green about Sam Pepper

Laci Green, who I think I never recommended on the blog until now but have been watching quite some time, made a video about the Sam Pepper prank stuff (she explains it, don't worry) which I can only recommend to y'all. Watch it after the break.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 46

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 46 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is Michal H, a Show-watcher turned book reader, forum member of Podcast of Ice and Fire and speaker on Vassals of Kingsgrave.

A Flight of Links

- Should every game allow you to choose your gender? 
- Oculus Rift: first impressions. Very interesting.
- Why should we overanalyze stuff?
- Bran II, great read
- Sexism in comics rebuked
- Snyder and Abrams battle hilariously
- 10 webcomics that should be TV series
- Is Indiana Jones a bad archeologist
- Is Pirate speak a myth?
- Mazerunner review

Discussing Sarkeesian with 16-year-olds

Today, I used Anita Sarkeesian's "Women as Background Decoration" in class. The pupils are 10th graders, which in Germany means they're about 16 to 17 years old. The class is small, consisting of ten boys and one girl. Much testosterone to fly around, I can tell you. Since I know that all of the ten boys are playing video games, asking them whether they heard of #Gamergate, I expected some positive answers. In fact, two people had heard of it, and two others joined in once they understood what I meant. The term itself was new to them. We watched the aforementioned video together, with me pausing several times to explain some of the heavier vocabulary, but refraining from taking sides. During watching, they constantly shouted out their disapproval, citing that men get beaten and killed in these games, too, and that it's just "normal", and that if Sarkeesian didn't like it she should stop playing. Two pupils grew a bit more thoughtful after a while, pondering the arguments, but didn't get on Sarkeesian's side. All pupils stated how dismayed they were at the fact that Sarkeesian countered all their own arguments in advance, calling it unfair.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 45

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 45 of the Supreme Court of Westeros! Our guest judge this week is J Alex Keene, a member of the community.

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.