Game of Thrones Season 5 Trailer

Post by Game of Thrones.

TBH I don't love this trailer. The music is almost U2-like.

Game Of Thrones. So excited.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Trailer!

Game of Thrones Season 3 filming in Essaouira, Morocco!

Yesterday, I was watching this behind-the-scenes trailer for the upcoming season of Game of Thrones and about 30 seconds in, something caught my eye.

Wait - I've been here!

I knew Game of Thrones often films in Morocco (for Daenerys' scenes mostly I believe) and this looked strikingly similar to the ramparts in Essaouira, one of the stops on my trip to Morocco last January. 

I did a little Googling, and sure enough, the GoT team was filming in Essa in October! So cool! Here are more set photos from their time filming on the ramparts. 

Will be cool to see those scenes in the show and know that I was there too!

Click here to see more pictures and read about my trip to Essaouira!

Sunday TV Dilemma: Game of Thrones and Mad Men

Sunday Is Coming - watch more funny videos

Reminds me...
I miss LOST parties.
And I need to update my TV schedule.

Game of Thrones Season 2 Trailer

Season 2: Preview - You Win or You Die

Knights of Badassdom

Yes, that is the actual movie title.

Dinklage. Zahn. Kwanten. Pudi. And LARPing.
I love everything about this.

Is it just me?

Or does Khael Drogo look kind of douchey in real life?

No Joke. Emmy Nominations.

Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Justified - I love you all. And even the shows I don't watch, I'm confident your nomination is well-deserved (except that Beau Bridges' Brothers & Sisters nod. Seriously?)

Ok. Drama cataegories, you can go sit over there in the corner. You're good. I've got beef with the comedy nominations though. MAJOR BEEF.

There are more comedies besides Modern Family, The Office and 30 Rock. And Glee wasn't even that funny this season.

Have they ever seen Community or Bored to Death? I literally LOL every single episode. And don't all my friends love It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia? Curb Your Enthusiasm? I mean, people even like Cougar Town, but Courtney Cox's buddy Matt gets nominated for playing himself on Episodes? Really? Even newbie Happy Endings has caught a spot on my DVR!

I get it. The shows that were nominated are good. But geeeeeeeez I am so sick of seeing Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey at every stinkin award show. I'm rooting for Big Bang Theory by default.

I Feel Cheated.

I'm obviously obsessed with Game of Thrones. And I'm not going to stop watching it just because a certain someone got killed off. However, following the season finale on Sunday, I do feel a bit.... well, cheated. 

Everything I was supposed to care about and know about this season didn't really matter. Cersei and Jaime sleeping together- which got me hooked in the first episode!- hasn't been mentioned really. Drogo and Dany getting the troops together to sail across the sea. The mystery around Jon Snow's mom (why wouldn't Ned just tell him about her?!). The whole 'Let's get the Lannisters for trying to kill Bramm thing', which doesn't really matter now anyway because they have tons of reasons to be mad at those blondies now. The Mountain. The white walkers we saw in the very opening scene! Even Joffrey not being the real son of King Robert (which I'm sure didn't die with Ned. It's gotta come back, right?). 

I'm sure a lot of this will matter in the long run.... but still. Things I'm looking forward to in Season 2. (Remember, I haven't read the books...)

• Sansa (sp?). She looked fierce when she threatened Joffrey. She was annoying all season, until that very moment. Joffrey killing her dad (hopefully) unleashed something in her. Good thing she has Cersei, the best villainous around, to learn from....
• The Hound. Did I sense a bit of sympathy for Sansa? Is he going to turn out to be less of a scary creep and more of a nice guy to watch out for her?
• Arya (sp?) pretending to be a boy and becoming BFF with the anvil kid... King Robert's real son, right?
• Rob Stark as the King of the North. Probably the kiss of death for the kid.... but I'm starting to like him more and more in these last two episodes. 
• Anything Tyrion does. He's brilliant. And now he's the hand of stupid Joffrey? YES. 
• Dragons. What? That's sort of a unfair advantage....
• Whatever is beyond that wall. It scares the shit out of me, but I'm done with all this mystery. When is winter actually getting here?!

Game of Thrones Cast: I'm Obsessed.

Sorry for turning this blog into a Game of Thrones vehicle only.... I'm obsessed. Saw this little set of interviews in TV Guide today and had to share some of my favorite answers from the cast...

Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon, aka "The Usurper"
Sigil: It would be a gryphon, a creature with the body of a lion and a head of an eagle. I don't know why, but to be attacked by one of those would be pretty horrible.
First ruling: Free beer for everyone. Absolutely!

Sean Bean as Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, aka "The Hand"
Sigil: Two crossed swords because it represents my football team, Sheffield United. That's their badge. The team has been relegated, by the way.
First ruling: Sheffield United gets promoted next season.

Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, aka "Boy"
Sigil: A turtle because they can go on land, they can go in sea. They're my favorite animal. They're really cute and they can grow up really big. They've got different types of turtles, there's snapping turtles and really cute ones, like, tiny ones. There's a good variety of them, and you never get bored.
First ruling: I would ban school uniforms for everyone, all over the world. They're so frustrating. At our school we have a thing called summer uniforms, and you're not allowed to take your jumper off when you're outside so you get really, really hot and our school uniform is black, so it's horrible. If you ban school uniforms then everyone could wear what they wanted to wear and you wouldn't get hot.

Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo, aka "My Sun and Stars"
Sigil: A lion. It's the king of the jungle. Have you ever seen a lion up close? Drogo walking with a gigantic lion. It's pretty rad.
First ruling: Free beer and free sex for everyone -- free love that is. Back to the '60s, man. And no clothes ... except for Mark Addy!

George R.R. Martin, author, aka "A Cruel and Savage God"
Sigil: Probably something like a quill pen for a writer or something like that would be appropriate. But way back in the 1980s, I won the Hugo Award which is the biggest award for science fiction fantasy and it's shaped like a silver rocketship. I won two of them in a single year which no one had ever done before. And so for a while, my now wife, then my girlfriend, Paris, would make me these sigils of two crossed Hugos instead of crossed swords.
First ruling: Everybody has to get HBO.

Game of Thrones. OMG.

Serious Game of Thrones spoiler alert. I'm not joking. If you haven't watched it yet, STOP READING.

Even Entertainment Weekly issued this warning on their recap post:

Warning: The following story discusses a major plot point from tonight’s Game of Thrones…

It’s a big deal. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, you should do that and come back. This story will still be here, I promise. Sure, the spoiler was in the novel and has been on the Internet forever, but if you’re only watching the TV show, you probably won’t see this coming, and we don’t want to ruin it for you.

Anyway, moving on. Don't say I didn't warn you....

I cannot believe they killed Ned Stark. Seriously. 

Sometimes I feel like the guy who watched the final season of Lost after having not watched any of it before, because everyone else seems to know these things are coming. They were in the books, which, I hear, the series is following pretty much exactly. But still. I did NOT see this coming. 

I pulled this quote from Sean Bean's (Ned Stark) interview with TV Guide and think they totally sum up my feelings...

'"Nobody can believe it, even the characters who are corrupt," Bean continues. "The Queen and Littlefinger and Varys are looking around in astonishment because they can't believe that this guy, this young king has done this. He's gone against everyone. It's a big step to actually take, to chop off Ned Stark's head."'

The hero is always saved, right? Arya (sp?) would have done something to distract them from killing him. Cersei or someone would tell Goffrey he's dumb and can't kill Ned. The younger Stark kid would show up at just the right time. And where are those god damn dog/wolves when you need 'em? All of those things were supposed to happen and didn't. WTF.

My thing is.... why watch now? Ned was the only character (or 'team') I was really pulling for. I'm not saying I wanted him to be king, necessarily, but I wanted his side to win. I wanted him to get the Lannister's out, get Robert's real son on the throne, protect him, live happily ever after with Arya and Catelynn up in Winterfell..... But who am I to root for now?

Here's a snippet of some fan reaction:

“Most of you who think this was some sort of brilliant move or something don’t understand the difference between a book audience and a TV audience,” argued EW reader Tamcamry. “TV audiences need to invest in characters. Most of the other characters I don’t care much about. While the show will probably still appeal to the ‘wow’ crowd, it’s mass appeal just got beheaded.”

It all reminds me of the producers of Lost pitching for Jack to die in the beginning of the series (he was supposed to be snatched up by the monster in the plane, instead of the piliot). The network said no way. You can't let people fall in love with a character and then take them away.

I did love his death scene though. The show has been littered with violence from the beginning (in fact, we're first really introduced to Ned stark with a beheading of his own.), but this scene actually wasn't violent. Sean Bean had this to say, and I completely agree with him (again. We're totally on the same wave length today!):

"It's a big moment, not so much about blood and horror, but more about human emotions and sadness and the tragedy and shock of it."

Next week is the season finale and I seriously don't know how I'm supposed to live with out this show for a year or whatever until it comes back. Good thing summer TV is starting up... Pretty Little Liars, True Blood, Hot in Cleveland, here I come.

Yes, Hot in Cleveland. 

Who The Hell Are All These People On "Game Of Thrones"?

My feelings exactly. Check out this awesome infographic via Fast Co Design.

Is 'Game of Thrones' worth watching?

I don't know yet.

The premiere was good enough... I won't give any plot details away, but I'll tell you it starts off slow (and violent), stays slow (and violent) and then the last minutes really set up the direction of the series.

I've never read the books, but I assume the show is about four different groups competing for power. The current king and his Lord of the Rings buddy Ned; the king's pretty wife, her pretty blond brother and their dwarf brother; a super blond brother and sister that seem to be in exile or something; and these massive 'savages', who actually seem to be joining forces with the blond siblings for the time being. Oh, and there are these 'white walkers' in the woods that are creepy as hell and brutally kill people. No big deal.

I just did a quick Google search for an image to use and stumbled on two articles (from EW and USA Today) about the women on the show. Are they really weak and 'second-class' to the men? Or is there room for them to grow? Is Game of Thrones a boys club? Or will we see these ladies do more than cry and and take their clothes off have their clothes taken off of them?

I think there is promise there- You have an evil, power-hungry queen. You have a mother that is no doubt going to want revenge. You have a young girl, thrust into a culture that is not her own, bring pushed around by her brother and now husband. You have a little tomboy that, I have a feeling, is going to steal the spotlight.

I've only seen the pilot, and I see promise that the women on the show aren't going to be pushed aside. (And Jen Armstrong from EW who has seen more of the show and read the books echoes that as well). Oh, and did I mention there are adorable wolf puppies? Probably my favorite part of the whole show so far.

I'm giving Game of Thrones a chance... at least until I have True Blood to distract me.