Free Republic

Can't copy and paste from the article so here's the link. It's pretty intriguing. Sadly this may be the closest we get to having The Winds of Winter, it's been twelve years since the last Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire book. And Martin isn't getting any younger.

Two first-time showrunners who landed TV’s biggest series give THR a behind-the-scenes tour as they navigate challenges even scarier than Mordor — from "patently evil" online trolling to massive industry expectations.“This is where everything happens,” says showrunner Patrick McKay. “The War Room.” The large, windowless room’s centerpiece is a lengthy conference table, but your eyes are immediately transfixed by what’s covering the walls. You’re surrounded by concept art laying out major set pieces for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two. Showrunners McKay and J.D. Payne give a walk-through of the sequences. They plan to introduce...

Over the past several years, I’ve watched WorldCon repeatedly implode. Well, not exactly. It imploded in 2018 in a very spectacular way. WorldCon 2019 didn’t exactly implode, but then again, Jeanette Ng’s “acceptance” speech of the John W. Campbell award (now renamed “Astounding”) was her long awaited stab at a long-dead science fiction icon which spawned more of her displeasure at the “stale, pale, male crowd,” as well as a long list of other award renamings. The irony is that Ng also won a “Best Related Work” Hugo for 2020 because she complained about Campbell the year before. A rant...

The creator and one of the main stars of the hit HBO show "Game of Thrones" feel President Trump is a "petulant" child and called the president a "con artist." "I think Joffrey is now the king in America," Martin told Esquire magazine, comparing Trump to the power-hungry young King Joffrey in the hit HBO series. "And he's grown up just as petulant and irrational as he was when he was 13 in the books." Joffrey was one of the most hated villains in the series and was often referred to as sadistic, egotistical and a spoiled brat.

One has to hand it to the now concluded fifth season of “Game of Thrones.” The season has not stinted on the carnage and the horror. From the rape of Sansa to the ritual barbecuing of Stannis’ little girl, life in Westeros and environs has proven to be very grim indeed, for the highest to the lowest. The atrocities in the final episode “Mother’s Mercy,” which aired Sunday, will set a high bar for season six, no question.

The fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is upon us. Winter is still coming. Millions will tune in for more of Tyrion’s witty ripostes and for some more smoldering romance between Jon Snow and his Wildling paramour Ygritte. Wait, Ygritte is still alive, right? Honestly there’s been so much carnage on this show I don’t even remember. What ever happened to that hunk who befriended Arya? Didn’t Bran have a younger brother? Where did we leave off on the Hound, exactly? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

“Game of Thrones” is returning for its fifth season on Sunday, you might have heard, riding a wave of the kind of intense anticipation usually reserved for royal offspring and new Apple products. Potential snag: It’s been 10 months since the last episode and this story is complicated, overstuffed with oddly named characters and labyrinthine alliances that shift from week to week. So below, in the name of service journalism, we offer a primer on where things currently stand with most of the show’s major characters. Tyrion Lannister Last seen: Crated in King’s Landing. A lifetime of cruelty from his...

With the end of the third season of Game of Thrones in sight (June 9th), a global audience of over 5 million is debating whether or not George R.R. Martin is the rightful “American Tolkien.” I argue that while The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones have striking similarities, Martin is actually pioneering a distinct genre—a new kind of fantasy novel informed by historical fiction and politics. Martin admits that he was influenced a great deal by Tolkien, and mirrored the structure of his novels off of Tolkien’s work: “Tolkien begins his story in the Shire with one...

It was widely reported back in June that the producers of the HBO series “Game of Thrones” deliberately used a gruesome image of former president George W. Bush’s head impaled on a stake during the drama’s season one finale. The backlash was so great that DVD shipments were halted, digital copies were edited, and an apology was issued via press release. Now the author of the books, George R.R. Martin has shown his true colors, blaming conservatives in swing states for what he called “voter suppression”.In a recent blog post titled “Show Us Your Papers”, the avowed Democrat from New Jersey who thinks...