MJM
An interesting case study. Her spirit
animal is an over-caffeinated sloth. She doesn’t exactly suffer from split
personality, she enjoys it: Mostly foul-mouthed, immature hooligan and
sometimes a sweet Mother of 3 doing her best.
In The Game of Thrones, You Die
Friday [September
20] was George R.R. Martin's birthday. He is the author of, among other
things
(believe it or not,) the book series that HBO’s Game of Thrones show is based on. One
of the best book series of all time. IMHO. Obviously.
Like I tell my
family, these books are the greatest thing that has happened to me in my life.
If you love to get lost in a story, look no further. This series takes you to
another world, paints beautiful (and horrible) pictures and the characters are
so real, they are good, they are bad, they are fiercely, wickedly evil and
super-human noble.
George R.R. Martin
He is a fiction
writer, he writes a blog called "Not A Blog"
click there for the link, and to get a closer look at his writing, and the man
as a person. He is NY Jets fan apparently. Who knew? It is more than a little
amusing, to think of this man watching football, but I have to remind myself he
is human.
Whether I like it
or not, he is allowed other interests and activities besides writing our
favorite books. *sigh*
The HBO series is
how I discovered the existence of the books. Both the books and the show are
beyond fantastic. I don't like most of what is on television currently, and we
are insanely cheap, but we will pay for HBO just for this series. We don't have
channels like USA and TBS, but we do have HBO, just because of this show.
I have a hard
time reading more than a sentence a week right now, so I'm listening to the
audiobooks. I highly recommend them. The reader's voice is like warm, buttery
toffee flowing through your ears to gently massage your brain, whisking you
away to a world of fantasy. And all the violent killing.
JK Rowling is the top, Harry Potter author
from Johnesmith.com
If you watch/read
the series, you know. If you don't, let me just say....you know how you're
reading a book or watching a show, and one of the main characters comes to
his/her conflict, and you're worried about the character, but not really worried, because usually no
matter what they have to face, you know this character is going to be all
right?
Well, forget all
that shit. One of the key phrases is:
“In the Game of
Thrones, you win or you die.”
With 7 kingdoms
at war, many, many die.
Character Serial Killer. He keeps you guessing. Always.
This author makes
you question everything, take nothing for granted, and you begin to be afraid
to make assumptions, or get attached to anyone or anything. You just have to keep reading.
The story and
scenery are glorious, set in fictional medieval times, my absolute favorite.
The books are full of delicious sword fighting and olde timey speak like:
"She is a young, high-born maid
of three and ten."
There is much
talk of royal blood lines, and bastard high-borns and mead and wine and
dragons, but not talking dragons like
that BBC show (barf.) Adults like medieval stories, too, and we like to get
lost in the fantasy of it. Nothing pops a nerd boner faster than a friendly,
talking dragon.
The characters,
the good, the bad and the ugly. They aren't literally ugly in the televised
series of course. Because television. Unlike a lot of one-dimensional fictional
characters, which are often written either all "good" or all
"bad," and the author decides for you, these players are written just
like actual people. The good ones can
be bad, the bad ones can earn your respect, you decide for yourself, and you
will change your mind. They are people, they are complex, and all are great in
their own way.
Below is THEE Royal Family of all seven kingdoms in the Game of
Thrones, who despite being royalty, aren't the medieval Brady Bunch loving
family. This picture is hilarious because their characters are nothing like
this.
Left is Tyrion Lannister, hated by his family
and most others. Renowned mother-killer (not a spoiler, she died giving birth
to him, and no one has forgiven him for it,) and self proclaimed god of
"tits and wine," who reminds us with his schemes and plots (same thing,)
that even in a time when the strongest man can claim all, brains always win
over brawn.
Even though as
many say "Words are wind," there are so many phenominal
quotes from this book, my favorite are Tyrion's. He tells Jon Snow:
“My brother has his sword, King Robert
has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs
a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much."
Oh, those wacky Lannisters. One for the mantel at Casterly
Rock.
from m.tapiture.com
The woman is the
famously beautiful and golden Cersei
Lannister, determined to change her destiny, and next to her is her twin, Jamie. They have a.....special bond.
Feelings about
Jamie range widely from pity to outrage, to a strange sort of respect.
These 3 struggle
to impress their barely-human tough-as-nails evil father, Tywin Lannister. He is a powerful battle commander, who has worked
his whole life to make the Lannister family
rich, famous and feared. There is a saying throughout the seven kingdoms that
"a Lannister always pays his debts." This holds true of more than
just coin.
These 3 children
seem to be made of pure, molten evil but in moments of weakness, they reveal
their human, redeeming qualities and make you question your initial opinion of
them, and of all people.
If these
pathetic, power-hungry seemingly hopeless disappointments to their father can
even have good qualities, can all a-holes?
Can I? can you?
We can, says Martin.
Here is Jon Snow and Samwell Tarley, two average Joes who become unlikely heroes, as the
Men in Black.
from kulfoto.com
These two have
sworn to "take the black," or join The Night's Watch. This means they
give their lives to protect The Wall, and live at Castle Black, take really
long creepily-specific oath swearing off women and having their own families.
The Wall was built to keep the white walkers, basically zombies, from going
South and bothering the rest of Westeros. These zombies are fierce, fast-moving
zombies. Thankfully, they never refer to them as zombies, so you're not
immediately sick of them.
Jon shows us how
we can become more than our mere station in life, with hard work and a fierce
fortitude to keep your word, that anything is possible. Sam is not good with a
sword, his sworn brothers think he is weak, but he is smart, he reads many
books and despite his father's low opinion of him, he makes himself very useful to his brothers and all the
Seven.
Up North on The
Wall it is always snowing. That is why Jon Snow has his name. All fatherless
children born in the north are given the last name of Snow.
A forecast for Westeros, where "Winter is Coming."
Always.
|
The women
especially, they are strong and fierce. One is fire-born, literally, in one of
the best things that has ever happened in my life, on television or not. She is
the Mother of Dragons. She overcomes the terrifying savage people her sniveling
brother have pawned her off to like property, to become their fierce, fearless
leader.
from
serenity2bliss.tumblr.com
Their unlikely
love makes you question every thought you have ever had on love and loyalty.
Drogo calls
Daenerys "Moon of my Life" and
Daenerys calls
Drogo "My Sun and Stars."
I am the opposite
of romantic, but if you can watch this show and not start saying that, you are
probably dead inside.
One of my
favorite characters is a child of 9, Arya Stark. Her family is high-born, but unlike her
sister, Sansa, a noble lady who says and does exactly as she is supposed to,
Arya likes sword fighting and would rather play with her direwolf, or Needle,
the knife her half-brother Jon Snow gave her, than learn dancing or lady needlework.
Arya is a warg, she is able to enter the mind of her direwolf, which is just a giant wolf. Arya is a survivor, overcoming great adversity and adapting to every unimaginable thing the author throws at her. I hate to give anything away, but trust me you will love her and start calling all strong women Arya.
Arya is a warg, she is able to enter the mind of her direwolf, which is just a giant wolf. Arya is a survivor, overcoming great adversity and adapting to every unimaginable thing the author throws at her. I hate to give anything away, but trust me you will love her and start calling all strong women Arya.
from awoiaf.westeros.org
Her sister, Sansa, becomes an unlikely hero as
well. As most characters in this world, you start out feeling one way about
her, that she is a whiny little girly-girl, and soon her actions change your
opinion of her.
Sansa is a proper lady, and like all girls of her station, she only wants to marry a high-born Lord and raise proper, well-mannered children. She goes on to shine a whole new light on survival, without swords and fighting, and shows a different kind of inner strength. At one point Tyrion Lannister tells her:
"Lady Sansa,
you may just survive us yet."
Another amazing
Westerossy woman is Brienne.
(Pronounced
Bry-een) A warrior in a time when women were ladies. She
is awkward, over six feet tall, and in the books very unattractive, mockingly
called Brienne the Beauty. Thanks to HBO she is played by a beautiful woman
with short, messy hair. I can't explain why these characters are so amazing
without giving things away, but she kicks major man-hams when she needs to, she
is very honorable and loyal to her own detriment, you come to love her and root
for her.
Yes, you will LOVE Brienne the Beauty.
from the gothamist.com
Let’s call this
post “Part One”
because that
sounds better than “If I’m starting to get a little bored you definitely are.”
The other
characters are as amazing and complex and multi-level, I just haven't have time
to get into them. Mayhap I will come back and finish, but probably not today or
"on the morrow."
I hope it was informative and you got a chuckle of out it!
Joy
I hope it was informative and you got a chuckle of out it!
Joy