Westeros

We’re not going to review the show just yet after the episodes we saw, although we hope we might give some vague first impressions soon, but we feel compelled to make a special note to highlight just how amazing the opening titles for the show are. Gorgeously produced, innovative, and best of all completely acknowledging the breadth and scale of the setting. And for our money, it’s much cooler than what the pilot script allegedly described, which was simply a raven flying over a map of Westeros from point to point; that was a good idea, but this ... this is inspired.

Via MSN.com, we now have the episode titles for episodes 5 through 7. Episode 5 is “The Wolf and the Lion”, episode 6 is “A Golden Crown”, and episode 7 (this is a new one for Linda and I) is, “You Win or You Die”. With GRRM’s episode 8 title of “The Pointy End” already known, this just leaves the final two episodes to be titled.

Entertainment Weekly is leading the way among the major media, being what can be considered the first US media out of the gate with major coverage of Game of Thrones, with a featured article in this week’s issue, an open call for fans to submit questions for the cast and crew, and an exclusive gallery of ten new photos. We expect a lot more content is coming in short order.

On top of that, it seems the embargo on reviews is going up in the U.K., because Den of Geek has the very first, spoiler-free review of the first episode and interviews with Alfie Allen and Emilia Clarke, while back in the states the Grand Old Lady of newspapers, the New York Times, features an interview with George R.R. Martin about the series.

Finally, on a very different note, here’s this fascinating article on Mixonline—a website for audio industry professionals—regarding the sound mixing and editing on Game of Thrones. We do love these behind-the-scenes pieces.

Now, as for ourselves, we have something to watch...

Bryan Cogman (Twitter) probably needs very little introduction to the inner core of fans who’ve been hanging on every word of the show, but in brief, Bryan is the right-hand man of the executive producers of Game of Thrones, beginning as an assistant in the early stages of first season’s preparations and moving on to work as a script editor (sort of) and eventually a writer (episode 4) for the first season.

Perhaps his most important capacity, however, has been the “keeper of the mythos”, or as he puts it, “the reference guy,” for the show. That makes him near and dear to fans, and we suspect all the more so when you learn that his fandom predated his involvement with the show…

Read the interview, and let us know what you think!

Not a sneak preview, but something potentially just as cool. The Studio Booth, a company specializing in “multidisciplinary event photography company specializing in customized interactive photo experiences”, has tweeted that they’re going to be at Wondercon in San Francisco from April 1st to April 3rd, and they’re clearly going there on behalf of HBO to promote Game of Thrones.

Looking at the Exhibitor’s List at the Wondercon site, we notice HBO is listed as having booth #341, so we’re guessing where that’s going to be. In the S.F. area, or planning to be at Wondercon? Go check it out and report back!

Edited to add: Someone working at Wondercon—probably in getting it set up for tomorrow—has spotted the Iron Throne!

6 hours left to go in the Suvudu cagematch between Jon Snow and Vin! Vin’s 4,000 vote lead has whittled down to just under 1,000, but Vin’s supporters are rallying more support and the rate of gain has slowed down. Time to redouble our efforts in a final push to get Jon over the top! Despite the current standings in the Quick Ben vs. Perrin match, it seems to us that once Jon contest is decided, WoT fans everywhere will turn their attention to that contest and quickly swamp the wily, many-souled mage…

Which would then mean Perrin could face Jon in the final, a contest so even, so well-matched, that it seems like destiny!

In the first Cagematch, Jaime Lannister only had his wits and his not-very-good swordhand to deal with the Dragon Reborn himself, Rand al’Thor, and that was neck and neck until it ended in Rand’s favor. The following Cage Match, Gregor defeated all the villains ... only for The Powers that Be to decide Rand could go out a second time, and it simply was no surprise whatsoever that the Dragon Reborn crushed the Mountain that Ride.

Are we going to let that happen again? I didn’t think so. Take the black and defend the Wall:  Vote Jon!. Get your friends, family, co-workers in on it—and casual strangers, people you accost at the local internet café, captive audiences in the elevator, and anywhere else you can find them, for that matter…

Vin delenda est... because Winter is Coming.

(Image © Jenny Dolfen)

HBO has been giving fans a lot of new things to look at! First up are these house wallpapers, featuring the Great Houses that figure in some significant fashion in the first season—no Tyrells or Martells… yet. We rather love the Arryn, as it gives us a less stylized design. There’s no moon, of course, where there ought to be, but that’s pretty good; now, if only they’d just do it as George intended…

And besides that, there’s a number of videos at the GameOfThrones Youtube/ that appear to either have been quietly updated or uploaded. Arya and Sansa can now be seen in their full, 720p glory, and most significantly of all, an 8+ minute video on the costumes that’s very insightful regarding the thinking behind Michele Clapton’s approach.

Over at the Daily Beast, George R.R. Martin has been invited to share his top 10 science fiction films. It’s a pretty good list, and at the end GRRM includes a number of honorable mentions. Although calling 2001 boring, and not mentioning Gattaca at all, strikes me as black mark against him! Forbidden Planet is, on the other hand, definitely worthy. As is The Empire Strikes Back, regardless of those who claim that it’s not actually science fictio (*shakes fist*)

Check back to the Beast next week, when George shares his top 10 fantasy films. If Hawk the Slayer is on it and Excalibur isn’t, we’ll have words…

I was invited back to the second “Guys Night Out” podcast from the fine folks at the Podcast of Ice and Fire, along with Apocalypse Dan of the Movie Night Podcast and Winter is Coming’s Fire and Blood (aka FaBio), joining regulars Amin, Kyle, and Chase.

We cover a diverse range of topics: beverages in Westeros, some actual news discussion concerning Cyandie Studio‘s RTS and RPG, various characters and events, the TV show, and ... well, a lot more. Quite a lot more; it ran some 3 hours, I’m told (haven’t dared listen to the whole thing!)

Being a “guys night out”, I suppose it’s fair to say it may on occasion be crass, bawdy, and occasionally juvenile… but all in good fun, and there’s some interesting theories and speculations bandied about.

After having crushed all of his competition, Jon Snow faces his toughest challenge in the Final Four of Suvudu’s 2011 Cagematch… and it’s not going well. Supporters of Vin—rallied by Brandon Sanderson’s Wheel of Time-inspired followers—have surged into the vote, adding thousands of votes in mere hours and swamping the competition in her favor! We’re now chipping away at it ... but we could do more!

Even Sanderson once remarked he would like to see a Jon and Perrin final, which seems very likely to happen as Perrin’s likely to trounce his Final Four opponent. Two heroes, friends to wolves, sword to ax (or is the hammer, at last?), to decide the fate of ... well, the 2011 Cagematch, anyways. Fun, yes, in a pure, unadulterated geeky way? Yes. Yes, it is. Support the dream!

Are you going to let the Wall fall because you couldn’t muster fifteen seconds to go to the page and vote? NO! Good to hear…

... and go vote now!

Videos that were earlier Comcast exclusive are now starting to appear on the official Youtube channel, including profiles for Jon Snow, Queen Cersei, and King Robert, plus a 3.5 minute long “Invitation to Westeros” piece. For those who’ve had trouble seeing the profiles on HBO’s own site, this is an excellent option for seeing them! Unfortunately, some of the latest videos are not in the 720p we’re accustomed to; those are probably exclusive to Comcast Xfinity for the time being.

Via Twitter, @Brandon_Postal shared a word cloud made of A Game of Thrones, which he noted showed quite how significant Jon was ... or at least the word; we rather suspect that many mentions of Jon Arryn added to the imbalance. The font size of individual words show their frequency, with the largest font size used for the most used word (that isn’t an article and other such things).

He provided further word-clouds for A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows, which shows word frequency in each of those novels.

This led me to wonder at a progression series, that could show the shifting prominence of certain characters or things based on frequency of mentions, starting with AGoT, then AGoT and ACoK, and so on until the last cloud covered all the novels published to date. He happily obliged: Books 1 and 2, Books 1 through 3, and A Song of Ice and Fire published to date. Some interesting data can be mined from it, if you stare at it long enough (Robert and Stannis are almost equally mentioned in the whole series, at this point), but it’s mostly some fun trivia.

HBO has heeded the call, and have now placed the main one-sheet plus the additional character posters up for sale at the HBO Store. Want Ned, Dany, Jon, Robert, or Cersei on your wall? This is an excellent way to make it happen. I’d suggest figuring out some order of precedence so that no one’s at anyone else’s throat… which is probably a tall order, all considered. Or is it?

One supposes Dany, Ned, Robert, Jon, Cersei would be relatively uneventful…

Yeah, okay, that was geeky.

Back in September, Northern Ireland Screen, who played a leading role in bringing Game of Thrones to Northern Ireland, had a board meeting where it was revealed that a “2nd series for Game of Thrones was already under strong consideration.” It went on to state that “securing” that season to be produced in Northern Ireland could well depend on the NI Screen hurrying along the process of expanding studio space by Summer 2011.

The fifth and final puzzle of the Maester’s Path has now gone live! With each of the previous puzzles having covered four of the five senses, this one deals with the last sense left: taste. And it ties in, thematically at least, with HBO’s taste experience that’ll be playing out in New York City and Los Angeles over the next couple of weeks, as award-winning chef Tom Cochillio of Top Chef has planned out the menu.

And just in time for that, today happens to be the first evening for the food truck in New York City. At last report, it will be somewhere in the vicinity of Union Square at 6PM. The menu for today is inspired by King’s Landing and features trout, rabbit, and (of course) lemon cakes, a brief video describing it that we’ve embed below, plus the full menus for all five days of the experience… which are necessary to solving the puzzle!

ETA: Steve Coulson of Campfire says to read the clue very carefully. And then he noted that “before the fold” was very important. Which leads one to folding… and look, each menu has fruits, some of which are sliced and some of which are not. And the slices line up pretty well, as if directing you how to fold… Once you have the answer, type it in after the test starts and you should see quite a nice scene!