A Song of Ice (Buckets) and Fire

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Winter came early for several members of theΒ Game of ThronesΒ cast and crew recently when they decided to take part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

And while participants came from across the realm, from the Wall to Dorne to across the Narrow Sea (and everywhere in between), one thing was very clear: when the cold winds (waters?) rise, they all scream like little girls:

UPDATE: Β Adding Natalie Dormer to the challenge video (edited by Dame Pasty)

Natalie Dormer

Joe Dempsie

Sophie Turner

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Pedro Pascal

Emilia Clarke

Sibel Kekilli

Peter Dinklage

Maisie Willams

Lena Headey, Kit Harington, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

And, last but not least, the man himself, George R. R. Martin

And there are still some outstanding challenges that need to be answered, including: David Benioff, Dan Weiss, and Charles Dance.

Since it’s inception in July, the Ice Bucket Challenge has raised almost 90 million dollars for ALS Association which “provides care services to assist people with ALS and their families.”

You can learn more about ALS, The Ice Bucket Challenge, and how you can help on their official website.

61 Comments

  1. Ha ha Emilia was hilarious! And George was pretty funny too. πŸ™‚ Maisie doing it on the edge of the roof looked a little dangerous.

  2. Where was Maisie standing? Looked like she could fall off the side of a building if she slipped on some ice.

  3. Heres a thought: Why not just donate money to ALS and then bottle up all water and ice that these fuckers are wasting and send it to some African country that has very little uncontaminated drinking water?

    This concept is less about creating awareness for ALS and more about generating a Facebook ‘like’.

  4. Mine is the Furry:
    Heres a thought:Why not just donate money to ALS and then bottle up all water and ice that these fuckers are wasting and send it to some African country that has very little uncontaminated drinking water?

    In a way I agree with you but lots of people are sending small amounts of money in a small way all the time. Events such as the Ice Bucket Challenge help raise awareness of problems, I guess.

  5. H. Stark,

    Awesome! That pretty much confirms that they will indeed be filming certain parts of the Dornish storyline in Croatia.

    WeirwoodTreeHugger,

    I’m a little bit tired of seeing such videos clog up my Facebook and Twitter timelines. But it’s all for a good cause, and for the most part, it’s still fun – especially when the videos as good as these are. The one with Lena, Kit, and Nikolaj is probably my favorite, but Emilia’s was pretty damn great as well. “Mother of crap!” was priceless. I wonder if that exclamation was intentional, or purely involuntary? Oh well, it’s just as charming either way. πŸ™‚

    Dame of Mercia,

    This. Every day, people all over the world – especially the rich and the famous – are swamped with pleas to donate money on behalf of extremely worthy causes. Some of the pleas are earnest, some are aggressive, but most have to be ignored or declined simply out of sheer necessity, because no one person can give money to every cause. But this campaign has managed to raise both awareness and a large amount of money on behalf of a worthy cause that frankly, not a lot of people would have thought about donating to before this. And one of the reasons that it’s been so successful is because it’s fun.

  6. Mine is the Furry,

    Because those are famous people and the more they do this, the more people learn about ALS because people are much more likely to reblog an funny video than a preacher one. Just look up the increase in donation to ALS fund

  7. Mine is the Furry: This concept is less about creating awareness for ALS and more about generating a Facebook β€˜like’.

    Letting a thing go viral, and that includes getting a Facebook Like, is very much what creates awareness these days. I’m not even that much of a fan of all the social media stuff, especially Facebook, but even I can see that.

    Mine is the Furry,

    No offence, but why is that important? It’s a horrible condition that locks people into there own bodies, that’s pretty much all you need to know.

  8. Abyss,

    Because if it is creating awareness and is not just the “in thing” to do now, I am curious to see how many of these demonstrators actually know what it is.

    I honestly couldn’t tell you without looking it up. I only know it as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

  9. Mine is the Furry,

    But that’s my point. Very much like you, I know ALS as Stephen Hawking’s disease. It’s not important for people to know what exactly it is or what ALS stands for. What is important, is for people to know that it exists and what it does.

  10. spacechampion:
    Where was Maisie standing?Looked like she could fall off the side of a building if she slipped on some ice.

    Ms. Williams took the extra precaution of not putting any ice in her bucket.

    Cheater.

  11. Mine is the Furry,

    Amyotrophic laterl sclerosis – but then i can’t prove i didn’t look it up, can i?

    I never knew of the disease before the challenge, even though I come from family of three doctors, not even by Steven Hawking. Now I know and I donated a sum to it. How many more like me are there?

  12. Mine is the Furry:
    Abyss,

    But do they even know that?What it does?

    These are the things I think about when I’m pooping.

    ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It attacks the neurons in your brain and your muscles so that eventually you can’t move or speak. It’s like your whole body is paralyzed.

    Here is the link on Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis

    Here’s the Ice Bucket Challenge link:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge

    Hope this answers your questions.

  13. H. Stark,
    direhound,

    These are interesting. I wonder how much of Dorne will be done in Croatia. That Ireland blacksmith set is interesting too…Good stuff.

    Mine is the Furry,

    I kindof feel the same. That’s why Nikolaj’s reaction was the best, a very unimpressed, “that’s great.”

  14. Abyss:
    That maybe a dumb question, but can someone explain to me, why so much info is required to make a donation? If I want to donate via let’s say Amazon why do they need first name, last name, street, city etc.?
    https://secure2.convio.net/alsa/site/Donation2?df_id=27420&27420.donation=form1

    They are tax deductible donations, so that information is used to ensure you can legitimately write it off. I’d guess they may use it to send out information, or whatever, too.

    TheBerylfly

    Many people are more familiar with it by the name “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”
    That’s how I’d known of it, until someone I knew (a college mentor) was diagnosed. It was only then I learned the “technical” name for it was ALS.

  15. TheBerylfly,

    I knew of it long ago because it is often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” I’m a huge baseball fan.

    Years later, I worked on a PR campaign with Catfish Hunter (former pitcher for the As and the Yankees). Great guy! A few months after working with him he was diagnosed with ALS and died about a year later. Very sad.

    EDIT: Just noticed that Nym gave a similar response.

  16. Great job, George! Now I nominate you to accept the Erickson, Sanderson, and Rowling “finish the series” challenge πŸ˜‰

  17. Abyss,

    Well yeah, but she asked a simple question, that in no way was putting down people with the disease or the organization raising money It stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (aren’t you glad they abbreviated it?) Now if we can just get people not to go up to a deaf person using ASL and asking them if they have the disease (yes, this has actually happened, more then once that I know of)

    edited oh I see several people came up with the same thing. Anyway, I knew it as Lou Gerigs disease and just recently realized that it was what Stephen Hawkins has (btw, there is a bio pic coming out about him, really interested in seeing it). I have also had students in early stages of the disease; really heartrending. a

  18. Nymeria Warrior Queen,

    Well, that makes sense, didn’t thought about that. Just as info for anybody else who would like to donate: You can write what ever you like in the required fields, if the tax thing is not important to you (but I would suggest giving your real e-mail address for conformation).

    ash,

    I didn’t thought he (Mine is the Furry is not a she πŸ˜‰ ) was. That’s why I wrote “No offence” in my first reply and I meant it.

  19. ash,

    Just for the future: You can delete the post in edit mode. Just delete all the text in it and you will get the option.

  20. Abyss,

    I tried to do that but for some reason the delete/edit button was gone! Thanks for helping tho.

    Oh re your earlier post – one of the problems with online communication is not knowing what people mean by a word or phrase. I have seen the phrase ‘no offense but’ used as a way to put someone down. But thats not always the case; I should have just assumed the best and not the worst, I shouldve known better; sorry, my fault.

  21. It’s not a competition, but Kit definitely lost and the win is shared by George, Emilia, and Lena.

  22. WeirwoodTreeHugger,

    No. One of my boyfriend’s best friends died of ALS a few months ago. Diagnosed last year his deterioration was rapid and horrifying. I cannot even begin to express how difficult it was for his family and friends to watch a once healthy and capable man, a firefighter no less, lose all bodily functions except for the ability to think.

  23. Mine is the Furry,

    I hate to be a wet blanket but have you ever tried shipping such things like water or well any material goods to Africa? I haven’t but I know an American woman who runs a charity organization in Kenya. Shipping anything, even pallets of food, clothes, etc, is very difficult and expensive. And once you get it to a port or airport, how do you transport it within the continent? In short there is no practical way to get that water and ice to them. Better to raise as much awareness as possible and get funds. If raising awareness involves taking advantage of the modern tendency toward narcissistic exhibitionism online, so be it.

  24. Dame Pasty,

    You’re right. It is difficult to transport. Well at least those without the ability to waste uncontaminated drinking water aren’t embryos used for research. That would be a far shittier situation.

    Look I’m all for raising funds to cure diseases and I have made donations to this cause and others over the years. I’m just not a fan of what is perceived as shameless self promotion, however fun and cheeky it may be.

  25. Dame Pasty,

    Nah. They want to share your info with other charities. One of the reasons I don’t go for these things. You give to the Special Olympics once and suddenly your mailbox and voicemail are stuffed with solicitations from everywhere. I cut my checks, address them to my charities on the regular and woe to the poor solicitor who calls me who isn’t one of my normal recipients.

    The good thing about this ice-bucket fad is that it is getting people who don’t (or have never) made a habit of giving to charity get into the swing of it. Win.

  26. WeirwoodTreeHugger:
    Is anyone else tired of hearing about the damn ice bucket challenge?

    Yeah… jerks.

    You know, since the challenge has raised nearly $100 million SO FAR of ALS. Last year, they raised less than $3 million.

  27. I didn’t mean to sound like a huge bitch. I’m a bit skeptical of charity stunts though. I admit I didn’t look into this particular one, but a lot of these groups mismanage funds and a lot of donations are eaten up by bs expenses. This is a particularly big problem with breast cancer fundraising.

    Giving money is great but it’s important to look into the groups you donate to and make sure at least 75% is going to the actual cause. This is true even with big name groups. Red Cross doesn’t manage funds well. Jumping on a bandwagon doesn’t always help as much as people think it does.

  28. Good, I’ve had to keep count of which actors have done it already and which ones still have yet to do it. I may or may not have to do it myself tomorrow, since someone chose my boyfriend and he’s likely to choose me X) But if all those famous people can do it, so can I.

  29. Maise is blossoming into quite the beautiful woman. And Sansa wearing a US Army PT shirt? Its never looked better πŸ˜‰

    Couldnt hear Natalie’s or See Shae’s vid

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