Melifeather

Is anyone watching The Winter King? I saw the first two episodes on Amazon Prime. If I want to watch more I have to buy a subscription streaming service with MGM+. I don't know if the series captured my interest enough to do that even though the stated membership was like $5.99 per month. I just unsubscribed to a bunch of streaming services this summer! You pay for one and pretty soon you have like 5 or 6 different ones! Speaking of Amazon Prime...I have watched a number of good series, among them The English (only 6 episodes) which I highly recommend, and The Wheel of Time which is nearing the end of their second season. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart was good too. The Wheel of Time series is more interesting than the books ever were, at least in my opinion. Every time the Min character is on screen I think of LynnS . She's not quite how I imagined her, but she's very good - all the characters are good. I've read complaints about the storyline being confusing on other forums, but I'm not lost. I think they've done a good job of telling the story.

Thank you Seams! It's nice to be missed even if I am in the crazy group!

I misread your post and thought you said The Last Kingdom series was based on the Warlord Chronicles. Totally missed “who also authored “.

As a Bernard Cornwall super fan that has read both book series I have to correct you! hahaha The Winter King is part of a trilogy called the Warlord Chronicles told from the point of view of Derfel who started out as an orphan raised by Merlin and later becomes a warlord himself. The show The Last Kingdom is based on a 13-book series about Uhtred son of Uhtred, a fictional character loosely based on the author's own ancient ancestor and family home - totally different from the Warlord Chronicles. If anything, Jon Snow is more like Uhtred than Derfel in that the Viking and Saxon religions as well as the more famous battles and conflicts of the time inspired much of ASOIAF. Uhtred lived during the time of the Saxons and the last kingdom of Wessex that was ruled by a real world inspired king named Alfred. Derfel comes to know Arthur and spices his POV commentary with opinions and clarifications that I think the author learned while researching for this series. He attempts to differentiate between the real Arthur and the mythical legends. Cornwell believes that Arthur was a real historical person, but not an actual king. That he was a warlord that helped protect a real world infant king, Mordred or "Medraut" hold onto his kingdom during a time period where both Saxon and Viking invasions occurred in ancient Wales. Many people encouraged Arthur to steal the kingship for himself, but Arthur was duty bound - a theme that is always highlighted in all the Arthurian stories. I especially liked how Cornwell gave Guinevere a more, not quite sinister, but certainly a dark and secretive Isis religion of her own drawn from the Egyptians. Derfel too was trained like the Roman soldiers to worship Mithras which had secret initiations and restricted membership to honorable warriors. I also like that Corwell portrayed Lancelot as a complete dick! LOL The Arthur story is older than the Uhtred story if you think of England's timeline from the time of the Romans invading the Britons and Welsh, to the Roman departure and the Saxon rise to power, to the Viking invasions. Arthur lived during a time after the Romans left and during the invasion of the Saxons. Uhtred is 100's of years later, and of course Saxon born, but raised by Vikings, yet protects a Saxon king from Viking invasions. If the new Winter King series has Arthur as the main character with Derfel as a minor one, I will be severely disappointed!

I read Nine Princes in Amber and was similarly unimpressed. *yawn*

The garden is just starting to produce. I was able to make a small batch of spicy pickled green beans. I am trying a new variety developed by Gurney. It’s a bright scarlet orange tomato named Vivacious. It’s shaped like a Roma and is supposed to be high in beta-carotene. I grew them from seed. I’ll let you know if they’re any good! I watched an interview GRRM did recently. It was a discussion where they were supposed to talk about a favorite book, but the interviewer snuck a few ASOIAF questions including, what caused the Doom? GRRM simply said, “volcanoes” and then laughed. So, I think that’s confirmation that these ancient events are naturally occurring.

Yes, we have had many days with Canadian wild fire smoke affecting air quality in Minnesota too. These days I’m checking for air quality alerts when I’m looking at the weather forecast for the day before heading outside.

I enjoyed season 2. Was a bit surprised by the reveal that Natalie was the Antler Queen, but I guess it makes sense. She hates herself so much and must have been haunted by her role. The survivors to the present partook in the hunts which took the lives of all of the missing characters that we don't see in the present. Natalie's insistence that she's "not supposed to be here" hints that even she believed the wild chose her. If she remains dead, and I really think she's going to pull a Jon Snow here, going into season 3, then I wonder if the survivors choose a new Queen? Shauna seems ready to shed the "tribe", but the rest seemed almost eager to fall back in. If Lottie had actually caught up to Shauna and stabbed her, I don't think they would have prevented the killing.

The Reach: Oldtown The origin of the Citadel is disputed, but House Hightower is generally considered to have played an integral role in its foundation. Most accounts on the Citadel's origins credit its foundation to Prince Peremore the Twisted, the second son of King Uthor of the High Tower. The curious Peremore invited numerous scholars, including wise men, teachers, priests, healers, singers, wizards, alchemists, and sorcerors, to Oldtown. After Peremore's death, his brother, King Urrigon, granted land alongside the Honeywine to "Peremore's pets", who developed the tract into the maesters' Citadel. House Hightower continues to be a strong patron of learning. A Feast for Crows Appendix House Hightower The Hightowers of Oldtown are among the oldest and proudest of the Great Houses of Westeros, tracing their descent back to the First Men. Once kings, they have ruled Oldtown and its environs since the Dawn of Days, welcoming the Andals rather than resisting them, and later bending the knee to the Kings of the Reach and giving up their crowns whilst retaining all their ancient privileges. Though powerful and immensely wealthy, the Lords of the High Tower have traditionally preferred trade to battle, and have seldom played a large part in the wars of Westeros. The Hightowers were instrumental in the founding of the Citadel and continue to protect it to this day. Subtle and sophisticated, they have always been great patrons of learning and the Faith, and it is said that certain of them have also dabbled in alchemy, necromancy, and other sorcerous arts.

A Game of Thrones - Jon V "That's stupid," Jon said. He took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. "I remember once I asked Maester Luwin why he wore a chain around his throat." Maester Aemon touched his own collar lightly, his bony, wrinkled finger stroking the heavy metal links. "Go on." "He told me that a maester's collar is made of chain to remind him that he is sworn to serve," Jon said, remembering. "I asked why each link was a different metal. A silver chain would look much finer with his grey robes, I said. Maester Luwin laughed. A maester forges his chain with study, he told me. The different metals are each a different kind of learning, gold for the study of money and accounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft. And he said there were other meanings as well. The collar is supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn't that so? Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can't make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people." Maester Aemon smiled. "And so?"

Lets hear it!

Man, you guys are a tough audience! I'm enjoying the second season, but I do agree that the teen versions are more interesting than the current story and the scenes in the woods are very obviously a stage, not to mention the fake snow but I really don't dwell on the imperfections.

Shauna's labor was a tipping point of a sorts. It even got Taissa on board with appealing to the spirit of the wilderness. At that point it became a very real entity that has affected all of their thinking into the present day. If the show writers have a specific message that this whole show is about, it's how mankind had created god(s) and not the other way around. This is sort of how I view the show Westworld. It's my belief that this series was the writers allegory (or commentary) on the real world theory that our world is actually a highly advanced, sophisticated simulation. Dolores is the creator of a simulated reality where people project themselves - their spirit selves - into a human life experience. She gets to decide if the simulation starts over one more time. When the train starts moving and eventually arrives in Westworld, it means the simulation has been restarted. In Yellowjackets, I think the writers may be making a different sort of commentary that an all supreme being is the invention of the human mind.

By the time of Dunk and Egg, there are no dragons. That’s kind of the whole point. Egg thinks if he can hatch dragon eggs he can keep the peace. He started the Targaryen obsession with egg hatching and all the secretive experiments which led to the tragedy at Summerhal. If the show expands the behind the scenes maneuvering and inserts Dunk into situations he’s oblivious to and yet foils the plotters, it could be very entertaining.

I suppose you could wait to come on here and read!

Taissa has been tied to Van, but there have been incidences where Van has woke up and found Taissa gone. You couldn't possibly document every single day. For example, how many episodes has Shauna been pregnant before going into labor?

It's kind of difficult controlling what AI creates. I have a version of the link I'm about to share with a large pole through his thigh! LOL. Also, arms that end in weird, unnatural weapons. At least I've had a good laugh this morning! LINK Here's some of the weirder results. Not to mention that he seems to be seated inside the horse!: Unnatural Weapons

How about this? DUNK

When Javi finally spoke he said "she", so I think Taissa's "alter-ego" (for lack of a better word) told him to stay away and he's been surviving by stealing the bear meat.

I wrote a descriptive command in the AI Discord program Midjourney for the character and it came up with these: Dunk

He played Dickon Tarly??? Ya, I think he could do it.

His Thor character is pretty goofy, but David Michael Bautista Jr. would be better because Duncan isn't deliberately goofy like Chris Hemsworth usually plays. I could see Bautista as being a more subtle doofus. I think Vincent Philip D'Onofrio would be good, but too old. What about Liam Hemsworth?

I'm looking forward to that. When the story is narrow like House of the Dragon was in comparison to Game of Thrones, then the series can stick closer to the books. Any casting news? I wonder who would make a good Duncan?

Ben's aversion to eating Crystal seems like foreshadowing that he's about to share in that same fate. The dream about staying behind is an hallucination caused by severe starvation. Tailisa may be behind all the weird carvings. She probably has a severe and violent form of parasomnia as indicated when she bit her girlfriend's lip while asleep. The show is making it seem like there's paranormal activity going on, but I think everything will have a natural and real world explanation including the snow steam of Crystal's corpse and the birds falling to their deaths. Travis's accidental hanging ended up having an acceptable explanation. He may have thought that he could induce a connection with the supernatural and not realized that Tailisa was behind some of the weirder events. Lottie's explanation to Natalie revealed how it actually happened. There was no murderer just a tragic delusion.

I will continue to disagree that the rock was obsidian, because the text does not state that, but if it were obsidian, it would be too brittle of a substance to do any real damage to Waymar's sword which shattered after repeated contact with the white walker's magical, blue-ghost-lighted crystal sword (as the text states). This is nearly a direct parallel to the tale of The Last Hero which describes his sword as shattering too. Rather than use exact temperatures, let's just imagine that the Others bring a cold likened to liquid nitrogen. Temps that cold can shatter metal whether it's bronze, iron, or steel. The power of obsidian lays in its molten form, because it's brittle when cooled. Obsidian is basically glass. Could glass shatter a sword? Presumably, the reason why obsidian breaks ice magic is because its frozen fire. Sam used an obsidian blade to break the ice magic that held Ser Puddles together. It's a complete contradiction to assert that an inhuman life form created with ice-magic used obsidian as a weapon. How do you explain the white walkers that attacked the Fist of the First Men and then followed Sam and Gilly? The shards of Waymar's sword rained down like needles, bloodying his face. One shard pierced his left pupil turning it white, presumably from the extreme cold. An obsidian shard would not have frozen his pupil, but a metal cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures would. I'm in agreement with referring to this shard as needle-like, so what distinction are you trying to make with regards to the needle in the eye?