Ran

Interesting! Just did some database changes but we saw no issues, so assumed it's fine. We'll see what's needed to fix it.

Yeah. The Red Mountains. They appear in Tolkien's sketches for First Age matter, and I believe they're mentioned in The Silmarillion as the Valar raised them when Morgoth destroyed the Two Lamps.

Interesting that they're using a map featuring the Orocarni mountains. They don't appear on the standard LotR map. Could mean nothing, could be a hint. If it is a hint, I'd guess it'd be the theory that the focus is on Aragorn is right. We know he traveled widely, into Rhûn, into Harad, and so on.

Enough, folks.

The description sure does sound a lot nearer Abercrombie than it does GRRM, but GRRM is far more well-known, ergo GoT is the apt comparison. Sounds very imaginative from that review.

I'm guessing Tom is first interrogated before being killed (probably made to look like a suicide), and that leads them to Dan. Then West and Hays realize enough of it that Harris James ends up being killed by them (or possibly just by West). Something like that, I guess.

The Hustle looks awful to me. Hathaway's affectation doesn't work in this era, and Rebel Wilson being an Aussie loses the humor around the crass American vs. the sophisticated Brit that has been central to this concept since Bedtime Story. I suppose the subsection of the 24.6 million Aussies of the world who will be interested in this film will appreciate the change-up. Quite a vote of confidence in Wilson in landing a role originally played by Steve Martin and Marlon Brando, though. (In more interesting Hustle-related news, Stephen Chow has apparently said in interviews that Kung Fu Hustle 2 is in the works!)

No, folks mentioned the scene ended with Janos actually hanging. IIRC, wasn't the crack of his neck supposed to have been heard? I don't think it's any of the above -- fanservice, getting sloppy, forgetting, irony, whatever. I suspect it's more straightforward: George was quite taken with the idea of Janos dying a commoner's death by hanging and Jon being cold enough to order it in relation to "Kill the boy and let the man be born", and initially figured that he could work it against all the other factors. Whether he was already debating to change it to execution or not at the time he read it, I do not know, but the response to his reading may have shifted the balance. Or simply in reading it out loud he realized he didn't like it as much as he thought. George has read other draft chapters before and ended up making significant changes to them by the time they published. We know he'll have a pen in hand and make notes to himself as he reads. GRRM has been quite open that his writing is an evolving process, with many drafts, with many dead-ends. Sometimes he finds his way out on his own, sometimes his editors provide a useful idea, sometimes his colleagues and friends do, and sometimes his readers do.

The Ewoks are predators! They were going to eat Han!

Huh. feels like that explains what was going on in Culver City when someone photoed a room with whiteboards and photos clearly breaking down Joe Abercrombie's books for some "not-a-movie" adaptation.

Those images are still too small for me to figure out what the issue is supposed to be.

I think the post in question may be lost to time, but I definitely remember someone who attended saying that they talked with GRRM afterward at a party or BWB event and the point was made about whether Jon should have swung the sword rather than used a noose.

The first season was a mess but it was a lot more ambitious than this season. This season has been okay in trying to pull the nostalgia strings, and doing some very "Trek-y" one-offs, but the fact that it's basically mediocre while also being much less ambitious feels like this thing was simply ill-starred from the get-go.

Check out Inside Llewyn Davis for more of Isaac. A Most Violent Year is also quite good. Gleeson was great in the Black Mirror episode "Be Right Back"

Huh. I had no idea that Poe was supposed to die. I like Oscar Isaac a lot -- great actor, and he has real charm in the role -- but I suspect his early death would have contributed positively to both TFA and TLJ.