Thursday, September 24, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 96

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.
Casting Call: If you want to be a judge, please email us!
And now, up to ruling 96! Our guest judge this week is Craig, a long-time geek and ASOIAF reader, starting when ACOK came out and currently on the fourth re-read. When not drinking coffee from his Targaryen stein, or searching the web in hopes of a secret TWOW release date, he listens to Excel podcasts (and BLAH, obviously) and occasionally comments on ToTH as "Tyrion".

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

My favorite YouTube channels

I have stopped watching TV well over a decade ago, but recently, I started to watch YouTube a lot. Subscribing to channels I like and checking updates on them has become part of my routine leisure time activities, much like reading up my selection of magazines and newspapers. Since many YouTube channels thrive on mouth-to-mouth-propaganda and you can gain new insights with new channels, I thought I'd share my favorites so you might find new stuff that interests you and can point me to stuff that might interest me in the comments. In the following, I'll give you a quick introduction to each channel (in alphabetical order) with a little commentary. Let's have at it. 

Monday, September 21, 2015

A Flight of Links

 - Will Rebecca Ferguson play Captain Marvel?
- The emptiness of George Lucas
- Star Wars Ring Theory
- I loved the ones of Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret and of course the Wing Commander series
- The history of epic fantasy, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12
- Will The Winds of Winter come out in 2016?
- Legacy of the Void opening cinematic
- The German Spiegel has a piece about Emilia Clarke's distate for HBO's sex scenes
- How Sons of Anarchy got bad
- And what a fucking mess Kurt Sutter's new show is
- Low Winters review
- Sean T. Collins rips some more into Fear the Walking Dead
- Why Mad Max should gain a screenplay oscar
- Polygon has a feature about Verdun
- Jon V
- StarCraft II Legacy of the Void release date announced. Do you care? I don't.
- Mad Max review by Yathzee
- Why do games take up so much space on the hard drive? 
- Mandatory love for Metal Gear Solid?
- Fall TV: the best and the worst
- Sansa in the Vale
- The Women of Aegon IV part 2
- The Hungergames trailer sucks
- The politics of Aegon IV
- Varys and Aerys II, good speculation
- Pacific Rim 2 cancelled. Sad news indeed. 
-World of Warships review
- Why Metal Gear Solid plays stealthy

Some more Poor Quentyn meta. Will he ever stop churning out great stuff at that pace?
- The endgame of the Riverlands storyline
- Jaime and Brienne in TWOW
- Lady Stoneheart and Aerys
- The Others and otherworldly influences
- Cersei raping Taena
- Did Doran purposefully abandon Quentyn?
- More Deep Ones
- Littlefinger
- Quellon Greyjoy
- Theon
- What if Tywin hadn't found out about Tysha?
- Roose Bolton's plan for his own endgame
- Why is ADWD called that?
- The TV show vs. the books
- The Prologues of TWOW and ADOS
-  Margaery

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 95

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.
Casting Call: If you want to be a judge, please email us!
And now, up to ruling 94! Our guest judge this week is Michael, a member of the community who also serves the court as a clerk, checking our questions and helping us with keeping it all straight, for which we are immeasurably grateful.

Monday, September 14, 2015

A Flight of Links

- Hateful Eight first trailer
- We come as friends review
- How crappy SciFi movies get made, an example
- Another trailer for glorious looking "The Martian"
- Queen of Earth review
- I so hope that this will become reality
- MacBeth also looks nice
- Some stuff about West Side Story
- Interesting long-term-perspective on Superhero-movies
- The visuals of Earth Defense Force
 - If I read stuff like this, I always feel that D&D is lightyears behind many other RPG in, you know, roleplaying. 
- Great meta about whether or not Cersei is a sexist character
- Steven Attewell stomps over a lame attempt to defend Ironborn culture
- Adam Withehead's series on the history of epic fantasy, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8
- First trailer for HBO's Westworld
- The new Hitman ripoff
- King's Quest and the demise of the Adventure genre
- What does the end of Moore's Law mean for video games?
-Yahtzee has another take on the death of the Adventure genre
- As does Phil Hornshaw.
- Yahtzee takes a shot at King's Quest as well.
- Blood of the Conquerer, first part of a series about Aegon's plotline in TWOW 
- The Ladies of Aegon III 
- An analysis of Daeron I, Baelor I and Viserys II
- The ladies of Aegon IV
- More about Star Citizen
- Speculation about the future of the MCU

New round of Poor Quentyn meta:
- Robert raped Cersei
- Origin of the Pink Letter
- Why The Mystery Knight is great
- A bit of Cersei characterization
- READ THIS JON CHARACTERIZATION BECAUSE IT'S THAT GOOD
- I should stop recommending because you need to read all of his stuff, but check out this Theon meta in particular
- And more about Cersei, Tyrion, Tywin and empathy
- Little nugget about the Greatjon
- Shit I'm doing it again: READ THIS
- I agree on the casting.
- The future importance of Tormund Giantsbane
- Good points about Feastdance being "bloated"
- Was Jon sending his buddies away a mistake?
- Doing it again: MANCE RAYDER META TO READ
- Yes to these thoughts about Daemon...
- ...like this one...
- ...and this one.
- Great meta about Beric Dondarrion, the Hound's helm and identity
- Thanks
- Sarella meta
- Donnu if I linked this Bran meta before
- Varys' fall
- What's the endgame for Oldtown?
- Bran and Winterfell

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 94

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.
We're rapidly approaching the 100th episode! If you have brillant ideas about what we should do with it, now's your chance!
And now, up to ruling 94! Our guest judge this week is Sean T. Collins, co-host of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour. He writes on his blog All Leather Must Be Boiled and is a pop-cultural freelance writer for many outlets including Rolling Stone and Wired.

The Dark Eye: The World

After my introduction to The Dark Eye (TDE), which you can check out here, I am today covering the world in which it is set. I am not planning on giving you a detailled overview over countries and cultures because you can read all of that up yourself if you are interested (which I hope you are by the end of this series), but rather to give you a sense of how it all feels in the end. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the world of The Dark Eye. 
2) The World. You are here.
3) The Rules. 
4) The History (of the system)

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Still no country for Old Gamers

Exactly a year ago, I jumped onto the Anita Sarkeesian bandwagon with both feet. I had encountered her "Tropes vs. Women" series roughly two weeks prior, which got me to really challenge some of the beliefs I had held previously, and when in late August 2014 the #gamergate scandal fully broke, I wrote an article called "No country for Old Gamers" to stake out my position, which is pretty deep in the Sarkeesian camp. This position, I have to say, was a personal break for me in many respects and a harbinger of my turnaround on other related issues in social policy as well, and it produced some serious stress in friendships in which the other guys weren't making the same turnaround, and it still is. In the discussion that I had with some readers in the original article, I had an argument with an anonymous reader about whether or not Sarkeesian was hurting the case, how the #gamergate movement's proclaimed issues ("ethics in video game journalism") and how it would play out in the medium term. He challenged me to take a look again after a month, and I said that this was too short a time and we should make it a year. Well, today it's a year. So, let's have a look how the situation is today, but first, the last bits of the discussion for context: 

Friday, September 4, 2015

The Dark Eye: Introduction

In early 2016, Ulisses Spiele will publish an english version of the German roleplaying game "The Dark Eye" (TDE henceforth). You might now stand there and ask yourself: "Why the fuck should I care?" And of course you don't need to, but if you by chance remember my article about my best RPG experience, well, it was with TDE. The system might be worth a look for you because it's most likely not like the fantasy systems you know, especially if you are familiar with D&D. And if you're not and/or a novice to tabletop RPG, consider starting with TDE, because it's awesome. I want this to be the first in a series of articles that introduce you to the system, so let's start, shall we? The outline for the series is as follows: 
1) Introduction. You are here. 
3) The Rules. 
4) The History (of the system)

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 93

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.
Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 
And now, up to ruling 93! Our guest judge this week is Steven Attewell, author of Race for the Iron Throne and co-author of A Hymn for Spring. 

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 92

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.
Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 
And now, up to ruling 92! Our guest judge this week is Fredrik Fischer, a fan of all things literary with a long history with the Ice and Fire works and an even longer one with curiosity and speculation.

Friday, August 21, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 91

Thursday is court day! Late a day, sorry! 
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.
Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 
And now, up to ruling 91! Our guest judge this week is James Ranson, the founding director of The Master Wordsmith, a literary business group that provides masterpiece services for entrepreneur authors. He is also a Wall Street Journal bestselling editor, ghostwriter and revision coach, and his first book Your Own Best Editor will be available on Amazon later this year. James first discovered A Song of Ice and Fire in 1998, when he found A Game Of Thrones in the late lamented Davis-Kidd Booksellers store in Nashville, TN. He has since been an inaugural attendee of Ice and Fire Con, a moderator of the online community WesterosSorting, and really confused and disappointed with season 5 of the HBO show. After a year-long road trip covering 38 US states, James now lives in St. Louis, MO. Connect with him @themasterwords and on themasterwordsmith.com.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 90


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.
Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 
And now, up to ruling 90! Our guest judge this week is Jim Ward, fan of all things Ice and Fire, an adopted Texan who never finished his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science and now manages programmers for a financial firm.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 89


Thursday is court day! We're late this week, sorry!
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.
Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 
And now, up to ruling 89! Our guest judge this week is Alex, a communications consultant in Washington, D.C. He has studied politics and history and is an anguished member of #TeamStannis.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 88


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.
Casting Call: We need more judges! If you are interest in being judge, even if you have been already, please write us. 
And now, up to ruling 88! Our guest judge this week is Dom Tartaglia, a PhD student at Indiana University in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. He studies traditional foods and digital folklore, and in his free time he reads tinfoil theories on r/ASIOAF.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Boiled Leather Audio Hour #40

Women of Westeros, Part V: Arya, Lyanna, the Sand Snakes, Arianne, & Ygritte
It’s ladies’ night once again for the Boiled Leather Audio Hour! We’re resuming our irregular series on the women of Westeros after over two years for an episode on a bunch of characters who break the world of Ice and Fire’s gender mold: Arya Stark, Lyanna Stark, the Sand Snakes, Arianne Martell, and Ygritte. Our topics of discussion are as diverse and varied as the women themselves: why Arya is too complex for the hero, victim, or monster labels; how Lyanna’s larger-than-life reputation suits her potential prophetic destiny; the Sand Snakes as Dorne’s answer to the #CarefreeBlackGirls movement-cum-meme; what Arianne has in common with another rebellious scion of a dynasty, Jaime Lannister; how seeing Ygritte exclusively through the eyes of the man who loves her shapes our experience; the true meaning of “strong female character”; and much more. Drop your Needle on that mp3 and tune in! 


Additional links: