Fantastical Musings

So, the other day I was listening to some 'best of 90s' playlist on YouTube when I'm Too Sexy came on. As soon as I heard it, I was like: "Oh, this is Jaime Lannister's song". While I think this may have had more to do with Prince Charming singing this song on Far Far Away Idol from Shrek 2 then anything else (come on, Prince Charming and Jaime look exactly the same!), I still decided to do a list of Game of Thrones character theme songs. Because, apparently, that's the sort of person I am. Arya - Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran:   Arya is on the hunt and she's after you. Well, she's after you if you're on her list, which is getting longer every day. She's got a needle and she's not afraid to use it.  Robert Baratheon - Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin and Sorry for Party Rocking by LMFAO: Robert is one of many characters who really needs two songs because he changes so much. Before the series starts, Robert i

So, the other day I was on Facebook and I saw this article from Entertainment Weekly, in which an artist did drawings of the cast of Game of Thrones in 80s and 90s clothes. Needless to say, I was quite entertained. Anyway, it got me thinking, what sort of lives would the Game of Thrones characters live if they existed in the real, modern world? I think it would be something like Superman's bizarro world. Everything would be the same except their would be Starks and Targaryens walking around and Voldemort would have a nose.   That is the parallel universe I want to live in. I mean, can you imagine a world where Tyrion Lannister is an actual person ? I think he would be either the Secretary of State or the benevolent dictator of a small country. Modern Day Tyrion The rest of the Lannister's though...I don't think they would be so successful . Like, being all murderous and bloodthirsty is okay when you live in a medieval world where you're running the s

A lot of people seem to be asking this question: who will ride Dany's dragons? There's no doubt that whoever gets a chance to ride one of Dany's dragons is going to be a hugely important to the series. That is, of course, provided that the dragons don't all develop grey scale and die (because GRRM would do that) and that every dragon has a rider. Although there seems to be some disagreement about this out on the forums, I am of the opinion that each dragon will only have one rider - if they have a rider at all. It's been pretty well established in the books that the bond between dragon and rider is very special; each dragon has only one rider and each rider has only one dragon. Which, of course, means that both Dany and Drogon are already spoken for (which is interesting because Drogon's name comes from Drogo, as in Khal Drogo, Dany's husband; which has profound implications for the intensity of their relationship; I see what you did there, GRRM). I

If you've read A Dance with Dragons , this question has probably been on your mind: Is Aegon/ Young Griff the real deal? If Aegon Targaryen did, in fact, survive the sack of King's Landing it would create some ambiguity as to who is the true heir to the Iron Throne. As the son of Rhaegar, Aerys' heir, Aegon has a better claim to the throne than Daenerys Targaryen. Of course, there have been many theories put forward stating that Dany with rule jointly with the other two heads of the dragon, but it seems that Dany's ascension is GRRM's endgame. Conversely, the supposed "Aegon" may just be a red herring to throw reader's off. There is significant evidence for both arguments. Personally, I want to believe that Aegon survived, but at this point, there's just not enough information to go on. Let's start with the evidence that supports Young Griff as Aegon: 1. Young Griff looks like a Targaryen; although not all Targaryens have the trademark wh

So, Game of Thrones has been off the air for a couple of weeks, so I figure that now is a good time to take a look back at season four. From the Purple Wedding (AKA the death of everyone's favorite psychopath) to some pretty serious philosophical discussions on the nature of gravy, season four was certainly eventful, if nothing else. I feel like Game of Thrones is starting to hit its stride, they've finally found the balance between CGI dragons, gratuitous brothel scenes, and good old fashioned chopping people's heads off. I think we all missed the beheadings from Season one. Anyway, like I said, there were some really good aspects to this season, but there were also some not good aspects. Let's review the good, the bad, and the dragons. The Good:  Sansa's Story Arc - As I've said before, I'm partial to Sansa Stark. But let's be honest, she's everyone's favorite ginger. Her arc this season was right on the money as far as I'm concerne

Warning: SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Wow, I can't believe it's over! I feel like we just started Season 4 and we're already done! Not cool! I can't wait another year for Season 5! Oh well, at least True Blood starts next week. That being said, let's talk about the finale of Season 4. In general, I thought that this was a really great finale, but after they said "this is going to be the best finale EVER", I was sort of expecting more. I just felt that it lacked a good cliffhanger. Let's break it down. Favorite Moments: Longest Episode Ever - First off, I was really excited that this episode was longer than usual. I think they should make that the standard for finales. Game of Thrones just has so much material to cover, so I think it's great that they gave us an extra twenty minutes to get some extra material in. Happy Father's Day, Tywin - The fact that this episode aired on father's day was brilliant. It was not a good episode fo

Hm. Not gonna lie, this wasn't my favorite episode. I just don't like the episodes that are all set in one place, and The Wall isn't even my favorite place at that. I mean, this is television, I don't have the attention span for that. Also, I tend to zone out when there's a lot of long fight sequences. So, this episode review is a little biased. That being said, I still think it was a pretty decent episode. Favorite Moments: The Giants - I loved the giants in this episode! Loved them. I mean, whoever designed them should win a Dunkin' Donuts gift card (the highest of honors) or something, because those giants were great. I mean, they were riding mammoths; that's crazy! Plus, they had those giant bows. So. Awesome. What Does Leadership Mean - This is a great scene between Thorne and Jon about what leadership means. I think there's a lot of truth to what he says, besides, it helps humanize Thorne (because no one likes Thorne anyway). Also, Thorne sa

The Viper and the Mountain. Wow. This was an amazing episode! I mean, I knew how it was going to end, but it was still great. The whole scene was just so stunning. I was stunned. Favorite Moments: It's Not an Owl - The Mole's Town scene was great. I loved it when Gilly was standing at the window with that other woman and the other woman is like "that's just an owl" and Gilly's like "it's not an owl". You should listen to Gilly. Always listen to Gilly, she knows what she's talking about. It was just great. I especially love when the Wildlings are killing everyone and Gilly is hiding with her baby and Ygritte finds them and is just like "hush". Ygritte is tough, but even she isn't going to kill a girl with her baby. And then after that you just see blood running down the wall. Only on HBO guys, only on HBO. Sansa's Playing the Game - To everyone who ever thought Sansa was stupid, HA! I don't know when, I don't kn

So, I recently bought this Game of Thrones t-shirt because I really love this phrase. 'I do not have a gentle heart', that is such a great and descriptive phrase. In case you don't know 'I do not have a gentle heart' describes Dany Targaryen and it's sort of her motto for season 4 of the TV show. Anyway, I got to thinking about what exactly this phrase means. One of the reasons I like Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire so much, is that the characters are so realistic and well rounded, especially the female characters.  So often in fantasy novels that take place in a medieval world, the female characters take one of three forms: the tough but noble  do-gooder, the evil queen, and the locked in a tower princess. I think this is partly because  medieval writers had an extremely limited vocabulary when describing women, so fantasy writers who look back to that time period think that only two types of women existed in the medieval age: t

So, as I've been watching Game of Thrones this season, I've been reminded, overwhelmingly, that everyone hates Tyrion Lannister. And, when I say everyone, I mostly mean his family. And, when I say his family, I mostly mean Tywin and Cersei. And when I say Tywin and Cersei, I mostly mean Tywin. I mean, Cersei's hatred for Tyrion is sort of understandable; she believes he killed her mother and killed her son. Even though both those ideas are incorrect, one can understand why she feels the way she feels. Tywin doesn't have that excuse. Tywin is a logical adult, perhaps one of the most consistently logical people in the series. Cersei was a child when Tyrion was born, so one can understand why she felt that he killed her mother (for the record, in case you didn't know, Joanna Lannister did die in child birth with Tyrion and Cersei thinks that this was somehow Tyrion's fault). Tywin, however, was an adult and as such could understand that Tyrion wasn

Out of all the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire , Sansa Stark particularly intrigues me. I know that a lot of fans of the books think that she's a bit of a wimp, totally naive, and a little slow, but I disagree. Sansa is one of the few characters in the books that develops and changes. Like, I'm not saying that the other characters aren't now in very different places than when the books started, but for the most part, they're all still the same people. Sansa is different; in the first book she was this annoying little brat with all these nonsense ideas about chivalry, but she's grown a lot since then. As the series goes on, she learns how the world works and how people behave and she puts that knowledge to good use. One thing that Starks tend to have a problem with is not learning from their past. I mean, the Stark family is constantly doing things that they should know better than to do. Trusting the Freys? Trusting the Lannisters? And what pa

Wow. Just wow. I think that was the best episode since the Purple Wedding! Mockingbird just killed it! It was so, so good! This was one of those episodes where you're watching and you're watching and you don't even realize that the episode is about to end and then it ends and you're like: "what??? that's it????". That was basically my reaction to this episode. Here are some other reactions: Favorite Moments: I've Only Loved One Woman...Your Sister - Wow! I knew this was coming, but it was still a major wow . Let me just say that Lysa Arryn was asking to be pushed out of that moon door. I mean, if you thought that Joffrey was crazy it was only because you hadn't meet Lysa Arryn yet. And this episode was not a disappointment. What I appreciated about this was that it was exactly the way it was in the books, right down to the last line: "I’ve only loved one woman, I promise you. Your sister". That's a great thing to say to someon