The Bard of Banefort

See, I don’t consider it nitpicking because to me it’s part of a larger pattern. But I suppose we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this. While on the subject, what are some big changes you’ve noticed within the fandom over the years?

The gold cloaks are the main wrench. None of them went out to the pub after the Hand was dramatically arrested and started gossiping about it? Daemon calling Baelon “heir for a day” got out immediately, and everyone knew that Tyrion and Sansa never consummated their marriage. Not to mention the defectors (Barristan, Sandor) and exiles (Janos) who witnessed the arrest. There’s no reason that, realistically, Littlefinger’s betrayal wouldn’t have been widely known within a matter of days, if not hours. As for age gaps, House Velaryon are probably the most noteworthy offenders (aside from Walder Frey). IIRC Corlys was only one year younger than Rhaenys’ father, and the age gap between him and Marilda was even greater. Then you have Alyn seducing young Elaena Targaryen, the youngest daughter of his foster daughter. The ACOK graphic novel aged up some of the kids, like Jon and Sansa. The scene with her and the Hound was also toned down considerably (i.e. he doesn’t pull a dagger out on her).

I took ages, but I finally tracked down my old comment explaining why I believe that Littlefinger is the most illogical character in the series: George may have intended for him to come off as a genial man that no one views as threatening, but that's not how he's written. He's a little shit who mocks people straight to their faces and openly betrays his supposed allies, yet is still somehow not considered a danger as late as AFFC, after he was made Lord of Harrenhal, Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, consort to the Lady of the Vale, AND Lord Protector of the Vale. He has too much plot armor: somehow him putting a knife to Ned Stark's throat in front of the whole court doesn't get out, he randomly produces a bastard daughter the same age as Sansa and betroths her to Robert Arryn's heir in the matter of a few weeks without anyone in King's Landing finding out, and then there’s the whole matter of Tyrion not chopping his head off the second he became Hand. Apparently he was too important to get rid of. . . because no one else in Westeros (or Essos) has any understanding of economics, I guess? Who manages the finances for Casterly Rock then? But on top of that, what’s the narrative purpose for keeping LF around after AGOT? He negotiates the marriage alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells, which is such an obvious move for the Tyrells that any minor lord from the Westerlands could have been given the task and gotten the same result. Olenna’s the one who actually poisons Joffrey, not LF. For two books, Littlefinger’s main objective has been to abduct and creep on Sansa, which he was only able to do because of absurd plot logic. Maybe his greater purpose is still to come (probably re: Aegon, since Lord knows the show provided no reason to keep him on), but given that we’ve been waiting for fourteen years now (twenty since AFFC), I don’t understand what the point of keeping this stupid character around is.

Ehh you guys are just kind of proving my point. There’s no point in me even trying to defend any of the romances in the books because people are so hellbent against them. I’ve resigned myself to the joylessness of it all.

The YouTubers have nothing on the bloggers/redditors of a decade ago. We got a lot of great theories and content back then, but also a lot of gatekeeping and snobbery. There were certain accepted narratives that people simply didn’t question. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started to see people push back on the idea that Littlefinger was a Machiavellian genius and argue that he’s actually a rather nonsensical character. That was an argument that really resonated with me. At the same time, I think the fandom has gone too far in demonizing Tyrion—no, he’s not the St. Tyrion of show-lore, but he’s not the monster that Tywin and Cersei believe he is, and that some fans have unironically accepted as canon. The fandom’s relationship with GRRM has also changed considerably. I strongly believe that most fans still admire and respect him, but he’s no longer regarded as an expert medieval historian and 5-D chess tactician expertly crafting a story within a story within a story. He’s a human being now. One major change that I personally dislike is the extremely moralistic approach people take to the romances now. It’s a huge part of the story, and is something that people used to enjoy talking about at length, but now every relationship is considered too problematic. There’s nothing wrong with not liking a pairing or expressing why you don’t like it, but it has unfortunately reached the point where there’s no sense in even bringing it up, because you’ll quickly be drowned out by people trying to shame you for enjoying something they are uncomfortable with. People can’t separate fiction from reality. (On a side note, it really boggles my mind that most people appear to be more bothered by age gaps than incest. I remember once seeing some complain about Baelon and Alyssa’s wedding night because “she’s only fifteen,” but never mentioning that she was also sleeping with her brother.) Give me time, more will come to me later.

I thought that was Jessica Simpson?

Independence Day is schlock. You have to enjoy it for that. I’ve been surprised by how many non-Americans I’ve met that really enjoy that movie.

Man, imagine growing up in that household. . .

Update: Nope, definitely not intentional lol. Oh, well. I’m torn between wanting to see what happens next and cringing at the overall silliness of all of this. I forgot to mention that Harry Lloyd (Viserys) is on this show, and Alfie Allen’s father plays the sheriff (and ho boy, is he hamming it up!) Funnily enough, the only new (to me) stuff I’ve watched this year has been British programming. I watched Adolescence because for a hot minute there, it was all anyone was talking about. I liked it, but mostly for the performances. I actually found it less heartbreaking than I expected to, mainly because the kid struck me as somewhat sociopathic (he never once expressed remorse for killing someone). The others were A Very Royal Scandal and Scoop, which I decided to watch after reading a bit about the Prince Andrew debacle. It was one of those things that I was vaguely aware of while it was happening but hadn’t really been paying attention to. I thought A Very Royal Scandal was the better of the two (it reminded me a bit of the Fox News movie, Bombshell), although I thought Scoop captured the essence of the interview itself better after finally watching it online afterwards. At first I thought they made Andrew seem too overtly sinister, but honestly, that’s the way he came across in the real interview. AVRS made him seem much more lovable and harmless.

Yeah, Robin Hood has a limitless supply of arrows. What really caught my eye was the heavy make-up the women all wear. You can see the eyeliner on their lids. Based on what I’ve watched of it so far, I think the love triangle is going to be a major drag. The chemistry just isn’t there.

The Hedge Knight is a bit of a sausage fest, so I’m guessing they probably invented a few new female characters to help pad out the show (beyond the obligatory brothel scene they’ll find some way to squeeze in). It was never announced who any of those red headed actresses were playing. I can’t see them introducing Rohanne early—the Red Widow’s young age is meant to be a twist in TSS.

How funny would it be if George does a rant about how much he hates screenwriters at every con he goes to now?

That’s not the Merlin with Katie McGrath, is it? I only just started RH and some of the editing is so bizarre, like slo-mo combined with excessive replay lol. I’m not far in enough to really judge the writing yet, but so far I’d say the casting is very good. The thing about BBC shows though is that they often use theater actors, so the performances are often a little over the top (in the US, the theater and TV world are almost entirely separate. Very few actors can bridge the gap. Even someone like Indina Menzel is more of a voice actress). So far I’d say it feels a bit like a CW show, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The better CW shows are very entertaining and easy to rewatch. Despite being the hero and caring for the commoners, Robin is also . . . kind of an arrogant prick? Whereas Guy, the evil henchman, often doesn’t seem that unreasonable. I think that was probably intentional on the writers’ part, and it’s pretty clever if it was. If not, well . . . Some of these hairstyles are so out of place. One of the guys has an early-2000s era David Beckham-style fauxhawk I don’t believe I’ve ever seen any of the other Robin Hoods. I know my brother used to love the Carey Elwes version.

I recently stumbled upon the BBC’s Robin Hood series from like fifteen years ago. Have any of you seen it? I figure if anyone out there has, it’s someone on this site lol.

Sapkowski can probably be in part chalked up to cultural differences, but yeah, I thought that was rude as well. George hasn’t been blogging much lately, so I’m guessing the writing isn’t going well right now. I wish we had some kind of inkling what’s been causing him so much trouble beyond our own speculation.