Anna Gunn has a character issue

Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler White on the TV series Breaking Bad, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times, complaining about the hate that she receives from fans for depicting the character. This hate seems mainly driven by mysogeny, which is all the more reason to make people aware of the problem. Read the article.

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, part 39

I still have no internet. I could murder the company guys. So I still can't post regularily.

This is the thirty-ninth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.

Prepare for part 39. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, part 38

Sorry for the long delay. As I wrote, we moved, so no time and no internet connection. The latter will remain an issue for at least a week, so stay patient. :)

This is the thirty-eigth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.

Prepare for part 38. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 

A Flight of Links

- Write Faster George gets a smack over the head
- Anakin Skywalker's hometown is useful today for scientists
- Why Microsoft is like Avon Barksdale. Brillant.
- Creepy abandoned asylums.
- Sean T. Collins writes about Wolverine 
- Extended io9 interview with George R. R. Martin

Slow time

Sorry to all my readers for not updating anything beside the Flight of Links, but we are currently moving and preparing our new home which takes up all available time. Since I also have to change internet providers, this may take a while, so please stay patient. Nothing has been forgotten, least of all the Theory Day, but I simply can't do it at the moment. Hope I meet you all again when I'm back.

A Flight of Links

- Reactions to the premiere of The Newsroom Season 2
- Citizen Kane, Ebert and Gaming Industry's inferiority complex 
- What went wrong with Lone Ranger? Johnny Depp. 
- Why gameplay and comedy are often at odds. 
- How Man of Steel should have ended
- 12 years a slave seems good
- Game of Thrones CoK-Diary, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- State of Decay seems decent enough.
- Ever heard of  "Edge of tomorrow"? Me neither.
- Fifth Estate looks interesting.
- Penny Arcade: Games of Yesterday
- More BSG newbie recaps 
- BSG Cylons were a result of budget constraints. It's amazing how the series managed to be so good with so little coherent planning.
- First glimpses of the WarCraft movie, as it seems. 
- And for Godzilla. 
- And there will be a Batman/Superman-movie in 2015.
- Edge of Tomorrow looks good. 
- LEGO movie looks great. 
- X-Men looks great. 
- Theories about Captain America's new costume.

A Flight of Links

- Why Pacific Rim doesn't look like a summer blockbuster. 
- How America could have ruled the world 1898. This is so crazy it's funny. 
- Chris Roberts explains Star Citizen.
- MovieBob explains which movies we should see.
- 10 movie flops that totally deserved it.
- WoW gets micro-transactions. 
- Extra Credits talk about touchscreen design.
- Idris Elba and his "cancelling the apocalypse" line in Pacific Rim.
- Sean T. Collin's brillant list for a Sansa-Small-Council.
- So true.
- The songs in the soundtrack of GOT. 
- There's a trailer for the new remake of Oldboy, and when you're not afraid of spoilers, you get them. I'm interested in that, having seen and liked the original (and read and not much liked the manga).
- This trailer looks so astonishingly bad, I'm reminded of Dungeons&Dragons and Dungeon Siege.
- Wertzone reviews Company of Heroes 2, and I can wholeheartedly agree.
- If you somehow missed what all the "Hitler reacts..." is about, Memecenter explains it. 
- Does Animal Crossing promote Otaku citizenship? (Yeah, I didn't know what this was about in the beginning either)
- Yahtzee reviews Deadpool.
- Miracle of Sound - The Best of Us
- Pretty much. 
- Newsroom sucked, can't wait for the second season.  
- We get a pop-up guide for Westeros. 
- Two reviews for Pacific Rim.
- Why we better not contact alien races.

Podcast about counter-factual history

Together with my colleague in the field of academic historical research, Steven Attewell, the author behind the brillant blog "Race for the Iron Trone", I talk about counterfactual history and its impacts on our culture. We discuss the tripping wires that surround this field and why it is so attractive to Science Fiction authors as well as some examples of where counterfactual history is applied with a real gain and where it simply delivers nonsense. You can download the podcast here as an MP3. If you speak German, make also sure to check out my blog about history.

 Be sure to uncheck the "Sendspace Accelerator" box to avoid downloading useless software.

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, part 37

Thursday is theory day.

This is the thirty-seventh article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.

Prepare for part 37. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 

A Flight of Links

- Pacific Rim's monsters sure look cool.
- Meta about the Faith Militant. 
- MovieBob about whether or not Man of Steel is too dark. For me, it's not. 
- Former WoW developer thinks WoW ruined the genre. 
- A unicycle riding dragon plays the GOT theme on bagpipes breathing fire.  
- Wertzone reviews Tudors, season 3. 
- Tutorial Torture 
- Zero Punctuation: The Last of Us
- This review of "Lone Ranger" is hilarious, check it out. 
- More BSG newbie recaps
- Christian Bale will never play Batman again. 
- Bran II reread by Slynt.
- Movie Defense Force: Transformers3
- This interpretation of Ducktales is a little bit over the top IMHO.
- Angry Disney fans create black princess. 
- Yes, Mad Men is a soap opera.
- The Lone Ranger sucks. 
- Sansa II by Race of the Iron Throne. 
- Real SciFi in games.

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, part 36

Thursday is theory day. But this week, I fucked up. Again. Sooooo, friday.

This is the thirty-sixth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.

Prepare for part 36. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously.

An analysis of Sansa Stark

A guest essay by Mitchel Tweedie

Sansa, like Catelyn, who I have already analysed here, is probably one of the characters people are most partisan about, and it is understandable why this is. For starters, first impressions die hard, but perhaps more importantly is Arya (and the rest of the Starks + Jon I suppose, but Arya mostly).

A Flight of Links

- Major plot spoiler for Walking Dead season 4 revealed. Don't know if I care.
- This guy really has it backwards with the trial by combat. 
- That's creative GOT cosplay. 
- How to make Remember Me into a better game. 
- Why Return of the Jedi was the best movie of the trilogy. I disagree.
 - Scott Pilgrim author says movie was "too white".
- I'm still of the opinion that there are no "old gods", despite what any other meta might say. Like this one. 
- Yahtzee reviews E3.
- Man of Steel concept art shows the civil war for Krypton.
- How our visions of cyberspace changed in the last 40 years.
- Difference between geeky and nerdy in one chart.

- MUST READ FOR EVERYONE: Robert Rath about Modern Warfare games. 

- They remade Leisure Suit Larry. 
- Is Superman the antichrist? 
- Meta about Brienne and Jaime.
- Captain Planet is becoming a movie. 
- A short history of recent PC gaming. 
- The manliest movie ever.
- White House Down review. 
- Meta about Shae in book and show.  
 

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, Part 35

Thursday is theory day. And this time, for real.

This is the thirty-fifth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.

Prepare for part 35. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously.

Becoming monsters - the insurgency of New Caprica

This post contains spoilers for the first half of season three of Battlestar Galactica.

When the people of the rag-tag fleet of survivors were conquered by the Cylons and occupied, not everyone complied with Baltar's decision to give up (which I have discussed here). Most people reverted to a sullen acceptance, cooperating only to the minimum extent, but cooperating, some cooperate more willingly (especially the New Caprica Police, NCP), while some few chose the path to direct resistance. Led by the inevitable Colonel Saul Tigh, these guys formed "The Resistance", with the goal of "hurting the Cylons". It can't surprise anyone that the Resistance was heavily comprised of the old Caprica paramilitaries and military personell. When your enemy possesses not only superior numbers and equipment, but also the ability to respawn at any time, the damage you can actually do is rather limited. So, before we can assess what ramifications the insurgency of New Caprica had, we need to analyse its goals first. 

We're coming in peace.

An analysis of Catelyn Stark

A guest essay by Mitchell Tweedie

Catelyn is probably one of the characters people are most partisan about. Whereas Joffrey is universally hated, Arya universally loved, and Samwell universally fat, Catelyn, like her daughter Sansa, divides people. Some people go so far as to say “Catelyn Stark is perhaps the most despicable character to have set foot in Westoros” (http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/69094-catelyn-stark-a-denouncement). These people, the Catelyn haters (like the Sansa haters), seem to lack empathy. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the way they criticise some characters, Catelyn especially, only serves to emphasize that they cannot empathise. Furthermore, many of the haters (and lovers for that matter) commit cognitive bias and draw improbable assumptions and conclusions as they try to express why a particular character or action should be hated (or loved).

A Flight of Links

- This is not even my final foam.
- Extra Credits about difficulty in games. 
- They are making Lego the Movie and it has a trailer. Seriously. 
- Meta about Tywin and the Red Wedding. 
- Meta about Davos' diplomatic skills.
- Game of Thrones uses Qarth gate as table
- Yahtzee reviews Remember me
- BSG Newbie Recap continues
- Will Spiderman come to the Avengers universe?
- What good can games do?
- A look back at the Sopranos 
- 5 things games can do better than any other art form 
- Movie Defense Force: Alien4
- Meta about Jorah Mormont.
- Martin comments on the white savior trope. 
- And the winner is you. 
- Independence Day 2, really happening
- Escape to the Movies: Monster University
- Review of CoH2 Single player
- The Rock plays the new Terminator 
- World War Z kind of sucks 
- Review for Flight of Sorrows
- Sexism in video games - really interesting presentation 
- When and how did military shooters get brown?
- How to dominate Monopoly using math 
- Wertzone reviews the second half of GOT season 3.

The character behind the god - reviewing Man of Steel

In a superhero movie, you either destroy a little town in small-town America to show how grounded your story is in everyday life and what is at stake in the relatable lives of the earth&salt-people, like in Thor, or you opt to destroy New York City to show that even the mightiest cities might fall, like the Avengers did. Superman, of course, because he is super, does both. Smallville, your stand-in little Kansas town full of honest-to-god-farmers and workers, and Metropolis, the New-York-stand-in, get almost entirely destroyed in a battle that can only be described as excessive. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

This scene is not CGI. Beliiiiiiiiieve me.

My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, Part 34

Thursday is theory day, but Friday's the charm this week. Again.

This is the thirty-fourth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.

Prepare for part 34. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 

Pic: This is Yunkai!

Since requested. Pic after the break.