Westeros

The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain

Features

Interview with Ryan Condal

An interview long in the making, we finally got to sit down with Ryan Condal, lead writer, executive producer, and now sole show runner of House of the Dragon last week to talk about the show. After Linda had a chance to say hello, she headed off to keep an eye on our very rambunctious puppy Lancelot, we started the interview. We open up with a question on post-production, and then get into the weeds on favorite book characters, depictions of violence, heraldry, a forgotten Valyrian house, the change from book canon when casting the Velaryons, whether Ryan will continue with the show after completing this particular story, and more.

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Ryan Condal behind the scenes with a maquette of Caraxes. ©️ Ollie Upton/HBO

Violence at Tournaments in Westeros and History

A lot of words have been spent on discussing the tournament in the first episode of House of the Dragon, especially in regards to its incredible levels of violence and how that seems to be received by the audience of spectators in the show. A new video about the tournament scene—focused on the work needed to bring it to the screen—reminded us that we had some thoughts we wanted to share, expanding on some things we said in our “Not a Review”.

 

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Interview with the DracARys Developers

The release of the DracARys augemented reality app was a fun approach by HBO to market House of the Dragon, letting anyone with a mobile phone have their own pet dragon. While we were never stirred by Pókemon-mania, we’d each had Tamagotchi when we were young and playing with the app definitely inspired some nostalgia. So much so, that we check in with our dragons several times each day, and rush outside whenever there’s a notice of something interesting (such as the first visit by a dragon from Westeros).

Given our interest, and seeing that there’s a small but active community for the app, we reached out to HBO to see if we could talk to the creatives and developers behind the app. HBO led us to Victor Piñeiro and Samantha Garrison from HBO Max, as well as Kevin Young at The Mill, who kindly answered our many questions.

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A dragon soars over Bohus Fortress

Thoughts After Six Episodes of House of the Dragon

We’ve had the opportunity to watch the first six episodes of House of the Dragon, and we certainly have some thoughts about the show. Maybe too many thoughts.

Why This Isn’t a Review

First, a disclaimer: Linda and I have discussed a fair bit about how exactly to write about the show. The fact is that we have a connection to the Dance of the Dragon material that is unique. George first wrote the material, almost precisely as it is presented in Fire and Blood, for The World of Ice and Fire. A book we co-authored with him. And when it proved, as with most of the Targaryen material, well beyond the size we could publish in that book, we used it to summarize very, very concisely the events of the Dance, giving readers some of their first looks into that period. And now we’ve done it again, at George’s and Random House’s kind request, in the forthcoming The Rise of the Dragon (out on October 25th!)

 

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A Visit to Belfast

Earlier this month, I posted about our experience at the Dublin Worldcon and the Belfast Eurocon. But in Belfast, I had the opportunity—courtesy of Northern Ireland Tourism, who’ve invited us to see the “Game of Thrones Territory” twice before; the first of these is recorded here—to do a bit more than just convention events. Not only did I get to visit the Belfast leg of the Game of Thrones Exhibition and the Glass of Thrones stained glass monuments placed at notable locations within the city.

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I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a similar exhibit once before, four years ago in Stockholm, but that was at an entirely smaller scale than the touring exhibition as it now exists. An incredible range of costumes, armor, and other items like larger props were on display. The weapons and armor in particular always strike me as particularly interesting, so I’ve focused on those in this collection of images. Here, you see a close-up detail of Heartsbane, the Valyrian steel sword of House Tarly.

Finn Jones Behind the Scenes in Chicago

Copyright HBO 2016

We’ve a special feature today courtesy of a fan, Christine, who attended the Game of Thrones exhibit in Chicago the weekend before last (there’s one more coming to Los Angeles on December 9th and 10th), with a look at all the neat stuff HBO has put together in celebration of the release of the Season 6 Blu-Ray... as well as an exclusive new interview with Finn Jones, who portrayed the late, great Knight of Flowers… and is now due to star in the Netflix Marvel series, Iron Fist. Read on to learn what Christine saw, and what Finn had to say about Game of Thrones and what he’s been up to since filming wrapped on the previous season!

To celebrate Game of Throne‘s sixth season and the November Blu-Ray release, HBO created a pop-up theme park, showcasing an interactive world of the special featured content, allowing die-hard fans to traverse Westeros as a Khaleesi, stave off a horde of wights north of the Wall, train as a soldier in the Night’s Watch, claim the Iron Throne, or get caught in a wave of deadly chaos in the Battle of Bastards. Plus, as a special treat to early arrivers, Finn Jones â`“ also known to fans as Sir Loras Tyrell â`“ was on site to meet and greet, sign copies, and spare a few minutes of his hectic schedule to talk music, politics, and of course the burning question â`“ how will Game of Thrones end?

These events, held in New York, Chicago, and this upcoming weekend in Los Angeles, recreate some of the most iconic sequences of season six and offer hands-on sneak peeks of the Blu-Ray bonus content. Set up by location, fans navigate throughout Westeros and Essos faster than if they were on dragonback. Each location replicates the set design on the show, with a treasure trove of memorabilia and fun inside.

Game of Thrones Territory: Visiting the Steensons

On the final day of our visit to Northern Ireland we were taken to Glenarm (on the beautiful County Antrim coast, which we will be doing a video on soon) to see the store & workshop of Steensons who have produced some of the iconic pieces of jewellery seen on Game of Thrones such as Joffrey’s and Margaery’s wedding crowns and the lion pendants worn by Cersei, Myrcella and Sansa. Most recently, they made the crown donned by Cersei as she takes the throne in the final episode of season six. Some of these pieces are on display in their store, which allows for a very close look at them. As the store is also their workshop—and a so called économusée, where you can see craftsmen at work—you are also able to view their goldsmiths at work. Also available in the store—and in their store in Belfast—is their newly launched Game of Thrones collection, with necklaces, pins and cufflinks using elements of the designs they produced for the show. In our video below you will get a closer look at this collection as well as some of the unique pieces made for the show.

The Game of Thrones collection is as of yet not available on-line, but if you contact them via their website or via facebook, they can send you a catalogue showing the pieces and arrange for an order that way. Or you could take it as (yet another) reason to visit Northern Ireland!

The Doors of Northern Ireland: Ballygally Castle Hotel & the Dark Horse

The final stops on the tour of the Doors of Northern Ireland, alas!

Ballygally Castle is a terrific place, situated on the beautiful Antrim coast and featuring one of the oldest still-used buildings in Northern Ireland. Its garden was a real pleasure, and made us wonder a bit about how palm trees could grow in Northern Ireland (answer appears to be that prevailing ocean currents make Northern Ireland somewhat more temperate than the equally-northern reaches of the Nordic countries). We were warmly greeted and found that there was a large wedding reception going on, but that didn’t phase anyone as we were smoothly led to the dining room (it may have helped that our waitress recognized us from Thronecast!) We were treated to their menu for the Game of Thrones banquet they do, though with a variation: their Westeros-inspired tomahawk steaks were served as the main. Never had that cut before, and certainly never with that amazing presentation of a long, long rib bone jutting out. Absolutely delicious!

Belfast saw the unveiling of the final door at the Dark Horse pub, and this was quite the party with over a 150 people packed into the bar and spilling into the courtyard outside where fans could meet Odin and Thor, two of the dogs that were the direwolf puppies at the start of season 1 (they were Grey Wind and Summer, specifically). Their owners happen to have been extras on the show as well, and run Direwolf Tours in association with the Winterfell Tours based out of Castle Ward and its demense. Really handsome dogs, I have to say.

That’s more-or-less the end of our adventures in Northern Ireland, but as you’ll see in the video embedded above, we have a couple more videos planned thanks to our visit. One will be a video about the gorgeous Antrim coast (we’re both quite fond of beautiful coastlines!) but using that to springboard into a discussion of the coasts of Westeros (yep, ASoIaF geekery is coming), and one will be about our visit to Steensons jeweller’s store/workshop in Glenarm where we met Brona Steenson and her husband Dan Spencer who not only make beautiful jewelry, but specifically have made a number of the jewelry props for Game of Thrones (including Cersei’s latest crown!)

The Doors of Northern Ireland: Gracehill House & Mary McBride’s Bar

The road goes ever on and on, as the song goes, and our road took us to the lovely estate of Gracehill House and then the quaint, seaside Mary McBride’s bar to visit the 7th and 8th doors!

Gracehill House has a long history stretching back to the 17th century, when King James I of England (also James VI of Scotland) made a grant of land to a kinsman of his, a James Stuart. The man had the misfortune of drowning while journeying to take posession of the land, but his grandson inherited it and in time his descendants began building the house in the late 18th century. The famous Dark Hedges were in fact originally a part of the estate, the beech trees planted along the drive to make a suitably impressive path to the home. In more recent times, Gracehill House has changed hands and has been developed with an eye to becoming a premiere golf resort in Northern Ireland. It’s definitely a beautiful stately home, currently in the process of renovation to establish a number of well-appointed rooms for guests.

Mary McBride’s Bar is a very different experience as one goes to the eastern coast of Antrim. It’s a small town, and Mary McBride’s is (as so many of the pubs in Northern Ireland seem to be!) an institution in it, a place where the locals gather and share the news of the day. For Game of Thrones fans, the Caves of Cushendun is where Melisandre gave birth to a shadow in the second season, to the shock of all the viewers.

Tomorrow, we’ll have our final video on the Door Tour, heading to Ballygally Castle Hotel and the Dark Horse in Belfast!

The Doors of Northern Ireland: Owen’s Bar and the Fullerton Arms

On our third day in Northern Ireland, we left Lough Erne after a delicious breakfast at the hotel and embarked on a journey that gave us a wonderful tour of the amazing shores of the North Coast.

Our very first stop was in Limavady where we visited Owen’s Bar and were introduced to its current owner, Garry (his father, Frank, passed away at the age of 99 this April) . We had a great time talking about his bar with Garry and we got the sense that, like many other pubs, is a true social centre of its community. Owen’s Bar is the host of the 5th door, or as we nicknamed it, “‘The Door’ door”, which makes it a definite must-see for anyone interested in glimpsing at least some of the doors while visiting the country.

Much of the rest of the day was spent taking in the breathtaking scenery of the North Coast, seeing such sights as Ballintoy Harbour and the Giant’s Causeway. The 6th door can be found at the Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy and here we found that they had set up a whole Game of Thrones room with shields, display armor, and more in a nice space made for a quiet chat or for some gaming thanks to the stack of board games in the room.

The Doors of Northern Ireland: Newcastle and Enniskillen

Continuing our journey through Northern Ireland in pursuit of the Game of Thrones doors, our trip took us to Newcastle on the coast and then across the southern reaches of the country to gorgeous County Fermanagh and the lovely town of Enniskillen:

After a lunch and a bit of a gawk at The Percy French with Slieve Donard and the Irish Sea in the background, the trip to Enniskillen was long and rewarding. As Linda explains in the video, Blakes of the Hollow is quite remarkable: the original pub in front still retains much of its original charms, including a stone countertop from the era. However, it has grown over the decades, and a regular at the pub volunteered to lead us around to additional bars, function spaces, and a very well-regarded (and quite beautifully appointed) restaurant called Café Merlot beneath it. One regular wanted his picture taken and when I said that it’d cost him a pint, he ordered a Guinness up directly (alas, I don’t drink beer and had to put a stop to it—though the devotion to Guinness in Northern Ireland made me tempted to at least give it a try!)

 

Game of Thrones Territory - Castle Ward

Following our visits to the Game of Thrones doors at The Cuan and Fiddler’s Green, we found ourselves making good enough time that we could stop by at Castle Ward where we were given a little taste of their “Winterfell Experience”. Various parts of Castle Ward have served as Winterfell, hosting such memorable scenes as King Robert’s arrival and Bran’s archery practice. Indeed, one of the activities offered at the site includes practicing your own archery in the very same spot where Bran and Theon practiced their archery in the first season.

The Northern Irish weather was not smiling upon us when we reached Castle Ward â`“ there was a steady drizzle which saw fit to increase in intensity while we were there â`“ but the greyness added to the (pardon the pun) stark experience of the site. Our guide, Dee Morgan, drove us down to the heart of “Winterfell” and introduced us to William van der Kells from Clearsky Adventure Centre who run the “Winterfell Experience”. He had been at Castle Ward since well before Game of Thrones came there, working for the National Trust which owns the site.

A Visit to Northern Ireland - Game of Thrones Territory

Our readers may have noticed we were a bit quiet last week after the airing of “The Winds of Winter”. For those who watched Linda’s review video, you’ll know why, but for those who didn’t it just so happened that we headed out early Monday to the airport to get ourselves over to Northern Ireland, the home base for much of the filming of Game of Thrones.

At the invitation of Tourism Ireland, Linda and I spent the better part of four days seeing the sites, traveling around much of the beautiful Northern Irish countryside and coastline to see locations as diverse as Ballintoy Harbor (which served as Lordsport and the Iron Isles), Castle Ward (Winterfell), and the Dark Hedges (part of the Kingsroad). At the same time, we were able to visit the ten Game of Thrones-themed doors installed in various noteworthy pubs, restaurants, and hotels throughout the country. These doors draw on the bountiful imagery of the series, and happen to have been made from beech wood reclaimed from two of the ancient trees of the Dark Hedges that had fallen thanks to the storm Gertrude.

Below, you’ll find our very first video in the series, discussing our trip and focusing on the first two doors which can be found at The Cuan in Strangford and Fiddler’s Green in Portaferry, right across the lough.

In the coming days we’ll be highlighting the rest of the doors in pairs, as well as some of our other adventures in Northern Ireland (which includes the result of a conversation with an ewe and her lamb, watching Linda try out her archery skills and get beheaded, and wolfing down enormous steaks fit for King Robert’s own table, among other things!)

Reviewing The Ice Dragon

The final chapter in Telltales Games’s first Game of Thrones episodic game, “The Ice Dragon”, has been released, and we’ve played it through to the (rather bitter!) end. BEWARE: Spoilers follow!

Suffice it to say, Telltale takes a cue from its source materials to pull no punches… and to leave quite a lot of loose ends for potential future seasons. But we have to say, certain aspects of this finale left us a bit puzzled on a number of fronts, not least the sense that this episode felt somewhat rushed and not as fully produced as previous installments. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the game’s taken rather longer to come to its conclusion than originally intended by Telltale Games. Whatever the reason, facial animations felt rather broader and less convincing than in previous episodes, and certain segments seemed to show somewhat lax animation.

Reviewing Game of Thrones: Episode 4

The fourth entry in the Game of Thrones series, “Sons of Winter”, provides a terrific jolt of energy to the proceedings after the third episode’s flagging pace and lack of depth. That episode, which we didn’t review largely because of a lack of time, felt quite flat and left us concerned that the writers of Telltales’ adventure game had run out of steam after the first two episodes proved solid and interesting. This concern proves unfounded with this episode, which includes several excellent set-pieces which advance the story, each in their own way.

Of the four focal areas of the narrative, Ironrath and King’s Landing are the most enjoyable as the narrative plays with the byzantine machinations that take place in the “game of thrones”.