Posted on 03/30/2014 6:51:27 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Having recently learnt of his father’s beheading, the adolescent — dashing and charismatic and descended from the old kings of the north — vows to avenge him. Despite his youth, he has already won in the field and commands the loyalty of many of the leading families of the realm; he is supported in this war by his mother, who has spirited away her two younger boys to safety. Pitted against them is the Queen, proud and strong-willed, and more of a man than anyone around her, battling for the inheritance of her sadistic young son.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.co.uk ...
Nice perspective. I don’t think modern people are aware of the code of knightly chivalry (Geoffrey de Charny).
Nice perspective. I don’t think modern people are aware of the code of knightly chivalry (Geoffrey de Charny).
Yes, there is gratuitous sex and violence. But beyond that, it is a fascinating display of politics - the study of power.
I have since begun reading the books and just completed book 2. I greatly appreciate Martin's style of writing, his command of the English language. From a literary standpoint, it is first rate.
For those of you who are too turned off by HBO's excesses, I would highly recommend reading the books.
“Gray” is a color. “Grey” is a name.
Yeah Black Sails is a dud. Vikings is better, and I’ve found the new series The Musketeers to be fantastic.
Grey is an alternate spelling of gray.
Grey is the color in the UK and commonwealth.
Yes, it felt true to life with some fun embellishment and extra sleaze of course.
The murder of the closeted lesbian GOP candidate for Governor's (who was running for the office for a 4th time!) girlfriend, ruining her campaign, was a prescient embellishment of the Rutherford gubernatorial campaign.
The rat State Treasurer character who ran for Governor had shades of real life rat Comptroller Dan Hynes. His wife was the typical social climbing wife of a serial adulterer, countless real life examples.
The pious Catholic RAT State's attorney who couldn't bring himself to actually cheat on his wife so he just forced his hot assistant to diddle herself in front of him instead. First Lady of Chi Connie Nielson selling herself to some old pervert friend of her father who knew her since childhood. Mayor's Grammer's illegitimate son knowingly hooking up with his half-sister (who didn't know). LOL.
Another example was King John. Many modern historians are somewhat flummoxed by the great hatred for him among Englishmen of the time.
By modern standards he was a pretty good medieval King. Hard-working, reformist, etc.
But by the standards of the time he was the worst of all English kings. He didn’t really do a great deal that his father and brother hadn’t done, but the way he went about things was seen as dishonorable.
He provoked his barons to demand Magna Carta, and eventually to revolt and call in the French King’s son to replace him, obviously not something English barons would do except under extreme provocation. The French/English coalition was in the process of winning when John suddenly died, leaving his nine-year old son as heir.
Once John the dishonorable was gone, support for the French claimant evaporated, and he was pretty quickly chased out of England. The obviously weak reign of a young boy was seen as infinitely preferable to the strong but dishonorable rule of his father.
“Such men certainly existed”
Yes they, and they were called the Knights Templar.
I'm not trying to say men of the Middle Ages were better than those of today. Human nature is eternal.
But in a society based on honor and vows, those who were perceived to be dishonorable paid a very steep price indeed.
What bothered me about GOT was the open disdain of characters for honor. A very unusual attitude indeed for the Middle Ages, where even the most dishonorable actors attempted to portray themselves as honorable.
And none of the wildly and openly dishonorable behavior in GOT seems to phase their followers, who are themselves dependent on their lords' honor.
Reminded me of one of the Batman movies, where the Joker is constantly murdering his minions, yet always seems to have a fresh crop of loyal henchmen on hand whenever he needs them. That just doesn't work.
There are family trees and maps at hbo online and in the books.
Fyi
He who has not read the books is doomed to watch in ignorance.
In GOT there only long term honor which shows up in some characters unexpectedly (even to them). You have to read the book to get it. The most honorable human is a whoring dwarf who murders _____.
I think I got partway thru the third book before baling out.
The dwarf was indeed the most interesting character. I’ve seen a very few segments of the series, only one entire episode, I think. The actor playing the dwarf has GOT to have the best role ever for a “little person.” He’s not just a peripheral character, a comic relief, a sidekick, or a way for other characters to demonstrate their nobility. He’s an actual pivotal character in the story, and without a bunch of PC nonsense to justify it.
My problem is that for me to get involved in a story there has to be at least one character I care about what happens to him/her. And it’s really hard for me to care about characters with no redeeming traits. That makes a lot of recent movies tough. I think, for instance, of the movie Chicago, which had great singing and dancing but despicable characters.
I get that LOTR is quite unrealistic in its black/white, good/evil dichotomy. But GOT to my mind goes WAY too far off the other end of the scale.
I don’t know where I originally found this, here is one link. Hmm, interesting lists on it, and other links.
http://marshall.freeshell.org/chivalry.html
The Ten Commandments of the Code of Chivalry
THE CODE:
Thou shalt respect the weak and constitute thyself the defender of them.
Thou shalt love the land to which thou hast sworn fealty.
Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
Thou shalt make war upon evil without cessation.
Thou shalt scrupulously perform thy noble duties be they not contrary to the laws of the land.
Thou shalt be generous and give freely to everyone.
Thou shalt never lie and shall always be faithful to thy word.
Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.
THE MEASURE:
A Knight is sworn to Valor;
His heart must know only Virtue;
His Perfect blade must defend the helpless,
And his might shall uphold all weak.
His breath shall bring a word that speaks only truth.
His justly wrath shall undo the wicked.
We saw “Grand Budapest Hotel” last night; typical quirky Wes Anderson flick. Good acting, especially Ralph Fiennes.
Worth watching if you’re an Anderson fan.
“Boss”:
Kathleen Robertson nude? Google time!
Connie Nielson - wall victim.
Wall victim ? Que pasa ?
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