Westeros

The episode guide for “The Iron Throne”, the 6th and final episode of Game of Thrones, has been updated with Linda’s review (currently livestreaming). We’ll embed it below:

HBO has yet to release it’s behind-the-scenes extras, but once they are they’ll be added to the guide!

The episode guide for “The Bells”, the 5th and penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, has been updated with the “Inside the Episode” from HBO—more extras sure to come—and Linda’s review (currently livestreaming).

Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin’s history of the Targaryen dynasty that grew out of The World of Ice and Fire, is among the finalists for the 2019 Locus Award. Hosted by the venerable Locus Magazine, the award has a large body of voters between its subscribers (whose votes are given extra weight) and the public who also take part in the vote, and is considered one of the three most significant awards in the genre alongside the Hugo and the Nebula.

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:

In his most recent Not a Blog entry, GRRM ran over various items of note—including Fire and Blood in getting back into the NYT bestseller list, the successful release of Starport (and the possibility that follow-ups may indeed be a possibility, which we noted  in our review of the graphic novel), and even a touch of politics at the end—but for the Game of Thrones fans what must have turned out was his update on the status of various Game of Thrones successor shows.

The latest episode, titled “The Long Night”, has aired and our episode guide will collect some Linda’s commentary and HBO’s extras as they come out. However, for those who can’t wait to see the review, as usual for this final season Linda is livestreaming her commentary:

With all the attention on Game of Thrones, it seems this great talk at the Jean Cocteau Cinema between George R.R. Martin and noted literary novelist (and now fantasist, with his Black Leopard, Red Wolf) Marlon James, moderated by Dr. Andrea L. Mays, slipped under the radar. While we’ve added it to the So Spake Martin collection, it’s worth having a post of its own so we’ve embedded it below.

The amazing Unseen Westeros art exhibition, which we reported on and which I attended during its preview opening in Berlin, has in collaboartion with Adobe decided to provide a unique VR look at just a fraction of the gorgeous artworks created by the talented professional concept and matte artists (many of whom have worked on Game of Thrones). You can see the VR experience here on Youtube:

Below is the press release as well as details for the nine images shown:

Pyrrha, who have held a license to produce Game of Thrones jewelry using its unique wax seal technique since 2014, are celebrating the final season of the show with the release of four brand new talismans.

You can see the press release below:

The Glass of Thrones campaign website has launched, and it’s quite an impressive thing featuring 3D renderings of the stained glass monuments inspired by the houses of Game of Thrones. It’s a nice way to experience them virtually, but it sure seems like nothing beats actually seeing them in person.

The first monument, dedicated to House Stark, is placed outside of Belfast’s City Hall.

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:

Linda’s just finished the first ever Westeros.org livestream review, and we’ve updated the episode guide for the episode—titled “Winterfell”, per HBO—with that video as well as the extras HBO has released. Linda will add more to the page at a more sane hour, but until then, you can see the review video below:’

After that, you can check out HBO’s preview

Given the momentous final season (and the fact that Linda is booked up with a bunch of interviews the morning after the show airs), we’ve decided to do something new: a livestreamed commentary by Linda on our Youtube channel shortly after the episode airs (she thinks she can get going about 15 minutes after the episode airs.

We’ve tested out the tech and think we’ve the kinks worked out. It’ll be pretty bare bones to start with, but if it’s a success we’ll see about sprucing it up. One thing that we’ve brought out of retirement is our Sony camcorder, which we used for many of our early videos as well as our segments on Sky Atlantic’s Thronecast—turns out it outputs an excellent image for streaming compared to our DSLR!

Linda’ll post the stream here when it goes live, but if you want to hear about it as soon as possible, be sure to subscribe and request notifications over at Youtube.

With the final season of Game of Thrones just around the corner, Tourism Ireland is again teasing what has become a yearly tradition as they invite fans the world over to think of Northern Ireland as the “Game of Thrones Territory”. Carved doors scattered among historic pubs, limited edition stamps, an enormous pictorial tapestry—each of them has been a spectacular way to promote tourism for those who are interested in visting the land where the series has been based from the very start. This new campaign seems to be no less interesting, as this teaser video suggests:

The video may seem a bit mysterious to start with, but we think by the end what they’re hinting at is clear as glass.

(Disclosure: Linda and I have known Raya Golden since she she gave us a ride to and from the Chateau Marmont for a party during the 2006 Worldcon in Anaheim. Surviving the inevitable L.A. traffic jam and wondering who that starlet who passed us at the entrance was was a bonding experience never to be forgotten.)

Starport, a massive 272 page graphic novel, is Raya Golden‘s adaptation of George R.R. Martin‘s unproduced pilot script of the same name. Featuring the travails of Chicago’s police force and the many different alien species who come to visit its starport (one of three built on Earth by the league known as the Harmony of Worlds). Martin himself pitched it to studios as “Hill Street Blues meets aliens”, while Golden has suggested more contemporary pairings—“Brooklyn 99 meets Babylon 5... the cast of NYPD Blue on acid, playing laser tag with Alf,” and those are all pretty apt comparisons for the tone of this adaptation. Humor comes first, but as with all of Martin’s work there’s other elements—drama, romance, and even a wee bit of horror.