Thursday, December 31, 2015

WiCNet’s Top Ten Posts of 2015

Happy New Year’s Eve, all! It’s been an eventful year for Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire—the fifth season of the show rocked the fanbase, rumors about The Winds of Winter continued to fly, and the filming period for Season 6 was perhaps the busiest in the show’s history, in no small part because of the massive interest in whether a certain mopey Night’s Watchman was alive or dead. We’re going to celebrate by looking back at some of the biggest posts from the past 12 months, barring stuff like episode recaps, as determined by your clicks.

One of our biggest posts of the year was also a bit of a downer. Jane Johnson, the editor for the Song of Ice and Fire novels, echoed the sentiments of many fans when she bemoaned how the show is straying from the source material.

Incidentally, she made these comments around the time Barristan Selmy died in “Sons of the Harpy,” so we can only imagine what she had to say by the end of the season.

On the lighter side of things, Game of Thrones isn’t appealing purely for the story—it’s also a marvel of production design, costuming, and makeup. With that in mind, our rankings of the 25 Best Hairstyles on the show went over very well.

Another, more up-to-date fashion post: the 25 Best Looks from Game of Thrones Season 5.

Moving on to speculation about Season 6, there’s one topic all but guaranteed to get A Song of Ice and Fire fans talking: Lady Stoneheart.

Speaking of speculation, we had fun before Season 5 began thinking about whether Griff and Young Griff, two important characters from A Dance with Dragons, would make their debut on the show. Wishful thinking, in hindsight.

There but for the grace of an overactive imagination…early in the year, a very interesting letter surfaced. It was a letter George R.R. Martin wrote to his publisher during the early stages of writing A Game of Thrones, and it outlined how he imagined the series progressing. To put it lightly, his initial ideas transformed considerably over time.

Since it happened, we’ve written a few times on Sansa’s wedding night with Ramsay Bolton, about the event itself, the fan reaction to it, and the real-life dimensions of it. The most popular post on the topic was the first, when Ani Bundel broke down how the community was feeling.

Of course Jon Snow was going to show up on this list somewhere. First, writer David “Razor” Harris’ obstinance in the face of Snow’s apparent death racked up clicks…

…and then there was a revelation about what, if anything, the future holds for the 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.

As I said above, the filming period for Game of Thrones Season 6 was probably the busiest in the show’s history. Check out some of the new characters, including several taken straight from the books, who we’ll be dealing with in 2016.

Who doesn’t love a good Game of Thrones fan theory? This one, on the Grand Northern Conspiracy, proved especially popular.

Lastly, we catalog the 33 Most Stunning Deaths on Game of Thrones, Seasons 1-4. Probably due for an update ahead of Season 6, if we can bear it.

See you all in the new year!

(I realize that there are actually 14 posts on this roundup, but I’m grouping together the two fashion-related slideshows, the Stoneheart posts, the Jon Snow articles, and the Season 6 casting calls. Is that cheating? Probably.)


Via http://winteriscoming.net/2015/12/31/wicnets-top-ten-posts-of-2015/
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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

George R.R. Martin praises fantasy artists, refutes claims about his Winds of Winter progress

Yesterday, George R.R. Martin took his Not a Blog to discuss one of his favorite topics: the Hugos, awards given out annually to honor the best works of science fiction and fantasy.* For this entry, he discussed who he felt should be nominated in 2016 for the Best Professional Artist award. Unsurprisingly, his suggestions included people with whom he’d worked on products related to A Song of Ice and Fire, which seems like as good an excuse as any to dive into their work.

First up is Magali Villeneuve, a French artist who worked on the 2016 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar—that’s the cover in the header image above. Martin recalls seeing the work Villeneuve did on Fantasy Flight Games’ Game of Thrones collectible card game. “Her stuff impressed me so much that I told Random House I wanted her to do the next ICE & FIRE calendar. Magali knocked that one out of the park as well, as all of you who bought the calendar (it debuted last summer at Comicon) can testify…Magali has never been nominated for a Hugo. She should be.”

If the bulk of Villeneuve’s stuff is as good as her work on the 2015 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar, that seems like a no-brainer.

March ASOIAF 2016

Martin also praised Gary Gianni, who worked on the 2014 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar. More recently, he provided the illustrations for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a short story collection that tells the tale of Dunk and Egg, two characters who loom large in Westerosi history. Gianni has also never been nominated for a Hugo, despite producing art like this.

Gary Gianni artwork Night of the Seven Kingdoms

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms sold very well, which can’t hurt Gianni’s chances come nomination time. Hopefully, this’ll be his year.

Martin also talks up John Picacio and Michael Komarck, each of whom have contributed art to the Wild Cards books, a superhero and science fiction anthology series that Martin edits.

George R.R. Martin

Also of note: in the comments for this post, Martin addressed a recent editorial that appeared in The Concourse, which is operated by Deadspin, which is owned by Gawker. Basically, the author of the editorial suggested that Martin had written exactly NO new pages of The Winds of Winter since A Dance of Dragons was published back in 2011, apparently ignoring all the sample chapters from Winds that had been made available in the years since. Nevertheless, the editorial became a viral hit, and the author was quick to dissuade anyone who might believe it

No pages? Really?? Astonishing, the things you can learn on this interweb.

I have learned to ignore crap like that. I was not even aware of this one until your post.

So there you go. Martin has written pages of The Winds of Winter. As for when it might be done, that’s still anybody’s guess, although sonething tells me I’ll be checking in with Not a Blog a little more than usual over the next couple days, what with 2016 around the corner.

*A solid chunk of Martin’s writing on the Hugos this year centered on a controversy involving a faction of Hugo voters called the Sad Puppies. More on that story here.


Via http://winteriscoming.net/2015/12/30/george-r-r-martin-praises-fantasy-artists-refutes-claims-about-his-winds-of-winter-progress/
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News: Statement to MD Theatre Guide from Old Navy about Controversial Shirt

oldnavyartist

Clothing chain Old Navy has created quite the controversy with their T-shirt design for children that reads “young aspiring artist” with the word “artist” crossed out and replaced with the word “astronaut” or “president.”

You would think that the distasteful shirt design is just an internet hoax, but Old Navy has confirmed that the shirts are real.  The “young aspiring artist” shirt, in fact, was for sale for $9.94 in their “Funny Baby T Shirts” section.

MD Theatre Guide reached out to Old Navy for a response about their controversial shirt.  The following is their email, unedited.

Statement from Debbie Felix, Old Navy spokesperson:

“At Old Navy we take our responsibility to our customers seriously. We would never intentionally offend anyone, and we are sorry if that has been the case. Our toddler tees come in a variety of designs including tees that feature ballerinas, unicorns, trucks and dinosaurs and include phrases like, “Free Spirit.” They are meant to appeal to a wide range of aspirations. With this particular tee, as a result of customer feedback, we have decided to discontinue the design and will work to remove the item from our stores.”

MD Theatre Guide “Young Aspiring” T-Shirts for sale:

For fun, we whipped up our own “Young Aspiring” T-Shirts designed to be proudly worn by actors, singers, dancers, musicians, and artists!  All shirts include the “Young Aspiring” statement with full-color MD Theatre Guide logo. You may purchase them from our online store using paypal.

young-aspiring-tshirts-MDTG


See original article at: http://mdtheatreguide.com/2015/12/news-statement-to-md-theatre-guide-from-old-navy-about-controversial-shirt/
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A Song of Ice and Fire novels among the most sought-after in Australian prison

Imagine a life where you have almost nothing to do other than spend time in a small cell, walk around a yard or recreation area, and maybe work a menial job that pays literal pennies. Now imagine living that life for years on end. Would you want to try and find a good book to read, to alleviate what one expects is an unbearable amount of downtime? According to the Canberra Times, that’s exactly what the male and female inmates at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (ACT), a minimum to maximum security prison and remand centre in Australia, have done.

According to its report, in 2015, books from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series were among the most-requested works from the Hume library at ACT, which houses approximately 5,000 books. The same was true of last year.

The blood, power struggles and romance that fill George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books, which inspired the hugely popular television series, were also sought-after.

It’s not just Martin’s works that have enthralled the inmates at ACT. Fantasy fiction in general is very popular among the hundreds inmates who call the prison home. The Painted Man by author Peter V. Brett, which is the first book in his The Demon Cycle series, was also a top pick. The book features blood-thirsty demons who rise at night to feed on the living…so there’s that.

This really puts the waiting for The Winds of Winter into perspective. I’ve often complained that the wait between George R.R. Martin’s books is frustrating, but if I literally had almost nothing to do but wait for it, it would seem like an eternity.


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Should the producers change things about the show because of fan reaction? Poll Results:

No. No they should not, at least according to the people who voted in our poll.

Benioff and Weiss

Stay the course, guys.

If you’re just joining us, this poll was inspired by comments made by Game of Thrones director Jeremy Podeswa (“The Gift,” “Hardhome”). He said that the show’s producers were “responsive” to the intense fan reaction following Sansa Stark’s rape by Ramsay Bolton in Season 5 and had changed “a couple of things” about Season 6 as a result. Most people didn’t think this was the right call.

Mind you, not everyone agreed. This is a slippery question, and one that I was happy to see inspired a lot of discussion. Plenty of people, including myself, thought that there may be times when heeding fan complaints is warranted. The producers shouldn’t try to please everyone—that’s impossible—but being sensitive to the fan base in select circumstances can help ground the show.

This debate played out in the comments. Take this argument from commenter KK, who stumped for the “They shouldn’t change anything” side of the debate:

No, they should absolutely NOT change anything. As we all know, often the people who are happiest with something; they are the most quiet — so… just because (arguably) the minority of viewers that can’t handle the violence have a louder voice, doesn’t mean there are more of them or that their opinion should be one of which the producers should cater. The death of Shireen bothered me far more than Sansa’s wedding rape (both harsh) but I wouldn’t want the show to pull back on ANY of the violence. It moves the story forward, makes it a more powerful and heart gripping show (why I think it’s so popular) and it’s a massive part of the GoT world — and a mirror of our own world in many ways.

At the same time, commenters like Jaqen is Q didn’t think there was anything wrong with the producers using the resources available to them, including fan criticism, to craft the best story they can.

If the producers do something on the show and lots of people say it’s wrong, offensive, etc. and the producers look at it and go ‘Yeah, those people might have a point’ and change it or do something in response, they have every right to do so. It’s not censorship, it’s not backpedaling, it’s not a violation of free speech or free expression; it’s just a change of perspective based on interactions with other people, which is how life works.

But back on the other hand, Nathan made a good point about the authors of a show, in this case David Benioff and Dan Weiss, relying on their storytelling instincts and not giving into the whims of people who may not be thinking very far ahead.

I’d argue that the author, and the ones creating the show, have artistic merits and an understanding of literature higher than the average person. Therefore, they shouldn’t placate the average viewer who may not have an adequate understanding of fiction writing, cultural context, and characterization etc. to have a fully vetted opinion on the story as it stands, nor where it intends to go. In other words, let the artists create, then judge their contribution to our culture after the story is finished, when we can critique the story thoroughly, intellectually, and as a whole.

Then again, the people who make Game of Thrones don’t do so in a vacuum. The ideal of the artist sitting alone in a room and creating a masterpiece is appealing, but it’s not very realistic in this day in age, especially when it comes to something as popular as Game of Thrones. Benioff and Weiss probably can’t help but be influenced by fan reaction a little bit. The best we can hope for, I think, is that they exercise wisdom and restraint when deciding how to handle those reactions.

Then again (I’m saying that a lot—it’s that kind of debate), Benioff and Weiss may have ways of insulating themselves from criticism if they really wanted to. As commenter SF Bluestocking said:

I, personally, think that the show would benefit from, if not necessarily more engagement with criticism on the part of the showrunners, definitely more eyes on things. It’s a show with a pretty small writing room and very few people in positions of actual decision-making power. The good news is that this means we basically always know where to point fingers when things are bad. The bad news about this is that, with so few cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, and all with so much power and control over the process (and with basically free rein as far as HBO is concerned because $$$), there’s really no accountability unless D&D choose to be accountable. So far, that hasn’t been their style. This would be helped by just having more (and more diverse) people in the decision-making room.

And then there are people like MF, who’s normally in favor of an author sticking to her vision but might make an exception in the case of Benioff and Weiss, who are supposed to be channeling someone else’s vision (that’s the idea, anyway).

I’d normally say no to this, but the things viewers have reacted negatively to were not things that were in the actual books, but made up by the writers of the show. I felt like last season went out of the way to make everything lurid and unpleasant…I HOPE, anyway, that this backlash against some of last season’s events might make them question their assumptions about why people are watching the show.

I don’t think these questions are going to be solved anytime soon. There are too many competing views. For the moment, all we can do is sit back and see if the decision bears fruit come Season 6.

 


Via http://winteriscoming.net/2015/12/30/should-the-producers-change-things-about-the-show-because-of-fan-reaction-poll-results/
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Flashback, Flashforward: What Could Bran Be Seeing in Season 6

It’s not even 2016 yet, and already Entertainment Weekly has dropped a bomb about Game of Thrones Season 6. Not only is Brantree c0nf1rm3d, eleventyone, etc, but Isaac Hempstead Wright is promising us that Game of Thrones‘ first foray last season into flashback land was only the beginning. This coming season, Bran will be making like he’s on Lost, flashing, forwards, backwards and perhaps even sideways. All from the comfort of his own version of Westerosi living room, “like a detective…almost as if he’s watching the show.” Who knew weir trees got HBO?

So what could Bran possibly be flashing on about? With certain scenes confirmed as happening this season (which we’ll get to in a minute), we do have some ideas of which direction we may go. But we also have quite a long list of visions that Bran is supposed to see via his greenseeing powers that are listed in the novels. Spoilers and speculation ho!

—-SPOILERS, NOTHING BUT SPOILERS—
—GIMME THOSE SPOILERS, DON’T LET THEM END—

Isaac Hempstead Wright Game of Thrones

In A Dance with Dragons, we see Bran have several visions via his tree bonded state. In order, they are:

  1. His young father praying with a bowed head “…let them grow up close as brothers, with only love between them, and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive.”;
  2. A girl and a younger boy play fighting with branches;
  3. A pregnant woman coming out of the black pool praying for a son to avenge her;
  4. A slender girl on her toes kissing a knight as tall as Hodor;
  5. A pale, dark-eyed youth cutting three branches from the weirwood and shaping them into arrows;
  6. Other lords of Winterfell: tall, hard, stern men in fur and chain mail;
  7. A bearded man forcing a captive down on his knees, and a white-haired woman killing the captive with a bronze sickle.

Now, we know that child-aged versions of Ned Stark and his brother and sister were cast this season. So it’s a good chance that a couple of these visions, specifically two and five, will probably be in the offering. Though the first one, of Ned Stark praying that Jon and Robb grow up as brothers, would be nice, it’s also unnecessary. We know Ned wanted them to grow up a family and that Cat never did forgive or forget. The sixth one is also a bit of a throwaway–it would be easy enough to do as part of a montage, but also easy enough to cut. It’s the third, fourth and seventh ones that I want to see included this season, if nothing else than to confirm what they show. I have always assumed that three is Lyanna Stark, having just learned that Robert killed Rhaegar at the Trident, and that four was her and Rhaegar’s first kiss. But that’s not to say it’s really what those visions are, that’s just one theory. The final vision, on the other hand, is a total mystery to me. There are quite a few theories floating around as to which past event it is, but considering the promises of futurecasting, perhaps this one is a chilling vision of things to come? I certainly could see Dany wielding an arakh (which Bran would see as a “bronze sickle”), not to mention there are several candidates for the “bearded man” by her side.

Other flashbacks I’ve been dying to see ever since the show began: Melisandre’s visions of Azor Ahai and Dany’s visions in the House of the Undying. The former is unlikely to be shown to us in that format, and the ship sailed on the latter long ago. But that doesn’t mean Benioff and Weiss couldn’t backtrack and/or reassign. Have Bran see Azor Ahai and the first battle of the Long Night way back during the Age of Heroes. The “all this has happened before/all this will happen again” aspect is too good to be lost. (And wouldn’t it be nice to let TV show viewers understand why the first Brandon Stark all those generations ago felt it necessary to build The Wall?) Pair that with some flash forward visions of the ending fight that coming between the Night’s King and those humans who will stand and fight him, and you’ve got a doozy of a scene for Season 6.

(By the way–so you know how there’s this spoiler about a certain dead character having been seen on set, and that’s the proof we’ve been looking for that they’ll be some Red Priestess Resurrection action this year? What if we’re all wrong, and those are just Bran’s visions of things that neverwere? /trolling)

Meanwhile, though some of Dany’s visions are now out of date, like the vision of the dwarves playing out the War of Five King’s at Joffrey’s wedding, or the image of Robb Stark wearing his wolf’s head post Red Wedding, some are still highly valuable clues, as well as insight to all that has come before. “A dying prince with rubies flying from his armor whispering the name of a woman with his last breath” isn’t just the longed for vision of Rhaegar’s defeat at the Trident, it’s also seriously cinematic. Who wouldn’t want to film that? “A blue flower growing from a chink in a wall of ice” is just a lovely shot, and one that could be reused and remixed in many of Bran’s trippy visions. Heck, he already got the “blue-eyed king with a red sword in his hand who cast no shadow” reassigned to him back in Season 4, with the first weirwood tree vision. But the real one that I want Benioff and Weiss to go back for is the following scene that gives the entire series their title:

…a man who looked like Viserys, but taller and with darker eyes, who says to a woman nursing a baby, “Aegon…What better name for a king…He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire”; and when the man’s eyes meet Dany’s, he says either to her or the woman with the baby, “There must be one more…The dragon has three heads”, and he picks up a silver harp and begins to play…

Now, I know that the show has (so far) cut Young Griff aka Aegon, much to the confusion of books readers, who have to wonder if this is proof he really is a False Dragon, and therefore as unimportant to the main plotline as, say, Lady Stoneheart. But this vision of Dany’s has, to me, always been proof that Aegon, though a late arrival to the dragon party, is probably the real deal. And if the show is streamlining his story into something less out of the blue, or at least less convoluted, this would be a good introduction. And hey, who knows–maybe the show could decide that instead of a random extra Targaryen throne claimant, the baby that Ned Stark named after his mentor and father figure Jon Arryn was to be named Aegon if things had gone very differently, and this is a vision of what his birth should have been instead.

But no list of flashbacks would be complete without the twin original sins, as it were, of the Tourney at Harrenhal, and the Tower of Joy. Now, we know from filming spoilers the Tower *is* on the docket this season. That means we have a Lyanna, we have a Young Ned and we have several important players from that time period cast. How much more would it take to add in some Year of the False Spring scenes interspersed, since they’re already on payroll? As I’ve said before, that story, which is told and retold via memories, myths, and tales over the course of the later books, has clearly been cut because having characters stop the action and recount this random story of a thing that happened twenty-plus years ago out of the blue would never work, especially when the show is a jammed for time and storytelling space as it is for the events of the present. Though I did appreciate the truncated version from Littlefinger last season–not to mention that LOOK he gave Sansa when she tacked on the false ending that Robert insisted on spreading as fact after his victory over the Targaryens–I want the show to find a way to show the events of this incident. And if Bran sitting around watching A PreGame of Thrones on his Weirstation 4 (or is a WeirBox One?) is the way to get to see Lyanna as “the Knight of the Laughing Tree” go out and kick some ass, I’ll take it. Especially if it ends with Rhaegar riding right past his wife and crowning her with a wreath of blue roses, and naming her the Queen of Love and Beauty to boot.


Via http://winteriscoming.net/2015/12/30/flashback-flashforward-what-could-bran-be-seeing-in-season-6/
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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Join us in farewell to 2015 and A Storm of Swords

stormcloud2

The Wall has been watched, gifts have been given, and Six is coming. This week leads us into the year’s tenth episode, one final occasion to celebrate a dedicated community’s journey through A Storm of Swords.

We have one last batch of Owns to collect before the year reaches its close. Join us in this revisitation of boundless feels, chills, and excitement. This special episode (with a few special guests) records Wednesday night!

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Let this collection (of some) of our favorite moments from A Storm of Swords serve as a guide to your submissions. This is but a shallow list. Will you help us fill it?

There and back again

5

Jon turned his cloak, and lived to tell the tale. Are we numb to the height of tension and drama this story reaches? Climbing the Wall aside, he made a series of seriously bold moves.

Lads, gents, good sers

10

Thanks to this brotherhood of loyal men for some of GOO’s strongest and longest pauses for laughter and song. But to meet them again at the end with our new friend, it’s almost too perfect.

Hand of the King

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From a salty, lonely rock to a dungeon of pitch black, Davos became the One True Hand of the King. Yes.

The new Warden

22

Roose Bolton lied, cheated, and subverted his King to replace the Starks as the North’s great power. He’s a dirty bastard.

Mance’s vast accomplishments

25

Mance Rayder united the free folk. HE MARCHED ON THE WALL.

Tyrion and Sansa get married

28

This really happened.

Arya left it all behind

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Beautiful weasel soup. Best friends. Bad dreams. Real adventure, real change. Arya leaves Westeros, an incredibly cruel cliffhanger is born.

The Red Wedding

37

….

Poor guy

39

Jon wins again. He is your Lord Commander, Thorne.

Murdered at his own wedding

40

Tough break, Joff.

The plot thickens

47

Lysa tells all. We learn (just at the end) of all that Petyr’s done, left to imagine what he’ll do next.

Redemption

51

With Storm, the podcast experienced a true change in Jaime Lannister. He did it.

The Nightfort

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Bran and company crossed into the real North through a magical passage beneath the Wall.

The One True King

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Stannis, the One True Mannis, turned his attention from usurpers to the North and the Kingdoms’ great enemy.


We’re saying bye, once and for all, to a book we’ve traveled together for so long — in the final episode of the year. If you’ve read the book (or followed along), tell us your favorite moments from A Storm of Swords!

Thanks for an amazing 2015. It’s been an awesome year with the lot of you.

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The post Join us in farewell to 2015 and A Storm of Swords appeared first on Watchers on the Wall.


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