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Not shipping. Not shipping. NOT SHIPPyaaaarhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggh
(via fuckyeahgameofthrones)
So today, in class…
I was discussing the weather patterns of Monsoon Asia when I started off my sentence with:
“Winter is coming…”*
And I had to pause because for one second there I wasn’t teaching a class of sophomores, but somewhere in Winterfell running with direwolves.
Awooo!
*The entire sentence was actually: “these days, winter is coming to the northeastern parts of Asia at a much earlier time frame.”
Viserys
It’s difficult to sympathise with such an abominable character — what with his abusive behaviour towards Dany — but you don’t grow up with the moniker “Beggar King” and survive with your wits intact.
The short period of Viserys’ life that we do see in the book (and in the television show) reveals little more than anger, frustration, pride and a burning desire to become more than he was at that point: a beggar.
There’s no going around it. Viserys was a hateful, hateful man. But at that moment, portrayed by the beautiful Harry Lloyd, where he believes that he finally gets the army he deserves, for that brief instant Viserys is human.
Not a caricature of stupidity, arrogance and empty pride.
But a person.
He simply wanted to go home.
Winter is Coming
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a medieval fantasy novel.
They were the books of my youth, really, along side the occasionally insipid but always entertaining “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.
Back then I suppose the “Dungeons and Dragons” scandal (yeah, I can’t think of a better word for the whole “the game is an express ticket to hell” melee) took its toll. Medieval fantasy books were left to rot in the bargain bins of National Bookstore — then pretty much the only bookstore worth noting.
Anyway, there really isn’t much to say about George R.R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” — the first book in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” collection. It’s hack-and-slash alright. People are dropping like flies, the blood pretty much reaching out of the pages and spraying readers left and right.
It’s good, is what I want to say.
Truly.
I haven’t read such an interesting fantasy novel in a long while, and although the length can be daunting, I think it nevertheless makes up for it with a beautifully woven story with varied characters and the trifecta of entertainment: blood, babes and… more blood?
Beyond the blood and gore, however, is a story that truly fleshes out its characters as best as it can, giving life and personality to each and every one of them. The personal point-of-view style of each chapter is helpful, I suppose, but more credit lies in Martin’s masterful ability to render each character sympathetic, no matter how slimy or repulsive they may prove to be in the long run.
Intelligent, moving and so bloody entertaining.
One down, four more to go.
Winter is coming.
