Fire and blood, the blood of Old Valyria, the three heads of the dragon. In Westeros, the Targaryens are the pinnacle of dynasties; they made kings surrender their ancient crowns or die screaming in dragonfire. Aegon the Conqueror made a mockery of even the most powerful king, Harren the Black, ending Harren and his line […]
Continue reading →Interpersonal bonds tend to be, uh, fraught on Game of Thrones, to say the least. In a show famous for its complexity and brutality, we’ve watched plenty of (fairly) conventional relationships break down over the course of seven seasons. In this video essay, however, I take a look at the bonds that have survived thus far and, more specifically, examine how hitting […]
Continue reading →Through seven seasons, Game of Thrones has boasted a huge ensemble cast of memorable characters, and though many of them are fan favorites or integral to the plot, the most important of them all (the ones the “Song of Ice and Fire” surely alludes to) are Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Both of them had humble […]
Continue reading →“Violence is a disease. You don’t cure a disease by spreading it to more people.” “You don’t cure it by dying, either.” The world of Game of Thrones is a brutal one, there is no denying. It is a consequence of George R. R. Martin’s portrayal of a fantasy world that is more realistic than […]
Continue reading →When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground. Cersei Lannister said those words midway-through the very first season of Game of Thrones, after Lord Eddard Stark revealed his suspicions about Robert Baratheon not being the father to Cersei’s children. Suspicions that the queen decided to confirm […]
Continue reading →When people talk about Game of Thrones, they often leave off the “s” in thrones. They think only of the Iron Throne in King’s Landing, the King of the Andals, Rhoynar, and First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. There is more than one throne in their world and more […]
Continue reading →We finally get to the episode in which Cersei says the show’s name … yet we don’t discuss that subplot of Game of Thrones much. Instead, we talk a great deal about Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s game plan and (as you can see in the thumbnail) I make my feelings on the subject clear.
Continue reading →In our latest The Kraken and the Squid video, we celebrate Viserys’ delicious crowning and Nolan finds a few more characters that he … doesn’t dislike. Hey, slow progress is still progress!
Continue reading →The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones is still a year away at least, but in the meantime we have plenty of material to theorize about the endgame for the surviving characters of the series. Heroes, villains and innocent people have died in a plethora of different ways: poisoned, cut down, burned, stabbed, […]
Continue reading →When you step back and take in Game of Thrones’ cast of thousands, you can really appreciate how exceptional Grey Worm and Missandei are. It’s not just that they’re one of the few couples to have survived this long (though holy moly the mortality rate for romance is high on this show), but rather because their […]
Continue reading →