Westeros

Due to a combination of oversight on my part and just being rather busy, I have realized that we’ve not posted about the fact that we’ve actually put up our review of the finale of House of the Dragon a few days ago…

... and for that matter, that we’ve posted our review of Game of Thrones: The Mad King as well, rather belatedly. There may be a future video about it as well, if there’s interest, to discuss in more detail but presently we’re adhering to the RSC’s request that we don’t say too many specific things about the plot points. Suffice it to say, it’s an incredible experience, and we hope there’ll soon be news about additional performances.

We’re barreling on towards the end of the third season of House of the Dragon, and Elio and Linda are back on Youtube to discuss the penultimate, 7th episode. You can see their thoughts below!

The fifth episode of House of the Dragon has come and gone, and Westeros.org is back to discuss it in detail. They go over what they liked an disliked, deviations from the source text, and speculate on some of what the events of this episode mean for the show’s one retelling of the Dance of the Dragons. You can see the discussion video below!

We’re half way into the third season of House of the Dragon, and this episode leaves us with a lot of thoughts, suffice it to say. The shape of where they’re going this season—and, more importantly, how they’regetting there—is largely coming into focus now. You can see our extensive discussion below!

Some housekeeping: we may or may not manage to film the review for the next episode prior to going on vacation, but if not at most it will delay the review a bit as we sort out filming it while away from home (much as we did for the first episode).

Another evening, another episode of House of the Dragon. This one may be a surprise for many, as it shifts almost entirely (besides the cold open) to Rhaenyra’s story as she tries to get a grip with King’s Landing, the city she finally claimed at the end of the previous episode. Suffice it to say, there’s quite a lot to untangle about this episode.

We’re back one last time (almost!) to discuss the finale of the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and we certainly have some thoughts about the episode.

As we discuss at the end, we are considering scheduling a live stream to go over the season a last time, but we’ll see how feasible that is—been quite a few years since we last did a live stream.

The penultimate episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has aired, and Linda and Elio are back to discuss their thoughts on the episode, go over changes from “The Hedge Knight”, and discuss a bit of world-building:

See below for additional videos from HBO—the final episode trailer and the “Inside the Episode”—plus a link to the translation of Ser Arlan of Pennytree’s Dothraki(!) song from Dothraki language creator, David J. Peterson

We’ve posted our review, discussion, and book-to-screen commentary for episode 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “Hard Salt Beef”, over on Youtube! You can see it below:

Next Sunday’s episode is titled “The Squire”.

After a very long break from making use of Youtube, Linda and I have put together a video reviewing and discussing the premiere episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. We cover some notable changes from the text (very few, all considered; it is incredibly faithful), share some thoughts on the use of humor, and more.

Unfortunately, we did have some notable challenges with audio when making this video, but we think we’ve figured out the problem (RF interference from hell caused by a wireless connection) going forward. Apologies for any issues!

We’ve just posted our review of the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms over to our Features page. Here’s the start:

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the new show from HBO set 90 years prior to the events of A Game of Thrones, takes that setting’s focus on the high lords and ladies of Westeros and turns it on its head. It brings viewers into a narrow focus on the life of a lowly hedge knight, Dunk – or Ser Duncan the Tall – and his young bald squire, Egg. Adapted from George R.R. Martin’s World Fantasy Award-nominated 1998 novella “The Hedge Knight”, the much-loved story and its characters are brought to life with real warmth, while adding some new elements that at times work very well and at other times… well, mileage may vary.

I have a very vivid memory of when I first encountered “The Hedge Knight”. Linda and I had already become fans of A Game of Thrones and were eagerly awaiting A Clash of Kings. But before that, Robert Silverberg’s anthology Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy came out, and among the stories from many big name authors was “The Hedge Knight”. I remember picking it up at my university bookstore as soon as it was released, and quite literally walking home (in sweltering, humid August heat) while turning the pages of this massive book at the same time. The characters popped from the page, the spectacle of the tourney was vividly rendered, and it made the expectation for the next novel all the greater. I’m happy to say that in most ways (especially those that matter), this show is exceptionally well-adapted.

To read the rest of the review, follow the link!

Peter Claffey as Dunk and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg

Occasionally, we like to recommend works of fantasy to our fellow fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, and the upcoming release of All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay (hits shelves on May 17th) is something we’d like to bring to our readers’ attention. Thanks to Kay and his publisher, Linda and I had the chance to read the novel early. Below, you’ll find Linda’s review of the novel (consider it co-signed by me!), but in brief: a compelling, beautifully poignant work from one of the finest authors working in the genre (and one of our very favorites in any genre!)

The episode guide for the fourth episode—titled “The Last of the Starks”, according to HBO—has been updated with Linda’s post-episode livestream as well as the “Inside the Episode” for the episode. You can see the livestream below:

The second episode of the final season of Game of Thrones has aired, and Linda has put together some information on the Episode Guide including links to post-episode materials such as the pleasntly surprising release of Florence + the Machine’s rendition of “Jenny of Oldstones” (we’re big fans). Below, however, we’ll link Linda’s post-episode livestream in which she shared her thoughts and answered questions from viewers:

You’ll find the the preview for next week’s episode below:

We have updated our episode guide for this week’s latest episode, “Second Sons”, with our usual complete recap, analysis, and book-to-screen break down. Enjoy!

This week’s extra video over at our Youtube channel may be delayed a day, as we’re a little short on time for recording.

UPDATE: We’ve now posted the recap and analysis of “Kissed by Fire”.

As HBO only provided us the first four episodes of the new season, from here on out our Game of Thrones episode guides will get update only after the initial airing. We hope to be able to get at least the analysis and book-to-screen up by the time the west coast airing is completed, but the extensive recap tends to take rather longer than that, and will probably not appear until later on Monday.

Until then, however, we’ve now posted our book to screen information on the episode guide for “Kissed by Fire”.