fantasy – Page 10 – Late to the Theater

Game of Thoughts: S8.E2 – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Hello and welcome back to Game of Thoughts, our sweaty, breathless recaps and discussion of everyone’s favorite fantasy TV Show, Game of Thrones! Now we’re down in it, the end is in sight, so grab your House Banner and hold you smallfolk tight, it’s gonna be a long night! As always, spoilers will appear behind the cut, because I WILL NOT be that person.

Are you sitting comfortably? Are your neighborhood dogs barking because of all the yelling coming from your house like mine are? Then let’s begin.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a character and story-driven episode with no action to speak of, and yet it was one of the strongest episodes because of all the fantastic performances. Functioning as a ‘calm before the storm’ installment, it gave several characters time to bond, to smooth over rough history, and to have poignant and important meetings. There were also several salient book references: Jenny of Oldstones is sung, and Brienne of Tarth’s lineage is reference right there in the title.

There were a few small surprises but mostly a lot of big, emotional payoffs that have been years in the making.

Interestingly, all the action centered in Winterfell and we saw no other locations. Fitting, and reminiscent of Season 4’s “The Watchers On the Wall,” which was also centered completely at Castle Black.

Now, let’s dive in! Spoilers below the cut!

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Game of Thoughts – Winterfell (S8E1)

Hello and welcome back to Game of Thoughts, our sweaty, breathless recaps and discussion of everyone’s favorite fantasy TV Show, Game of Thrones! Whew, it’s been a rough 18 months but finally we’re getting some answers after the ending of season 7. As always, spoilers are below the cut because I can’t do that to people, I just can’t. Most of these recaps are just excited gabbling, so for real critical discourse, please find some adults.

Folks.

FOLKS.

FOOOOOOLKS,

Do I have your attention? And also the attention of my poor neighbor who is probably wondering why his single female neighbor sounds like an entire sportsball bar on Super-sportsball Sunday?

Then let’s begin!

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Jen In England 2018 – Part 2: Driving and Dining in a Babysnatching Kind of Place

First, I found Oxford University. I found it 4 times in fact, because I kept missing the damn turn on the roundabout.

Recently, Jen took her first ever trip outside the United States. Please enjoy Part Two of this multi-part series chronicling her tale abroad, along with the requisite musings. Part One can be found here.

Note: The internet is full of posts by smart, photogenic people taking meticulously staged selfies at famous landmarks, so this travelogue is restricted to actual personal thoughts, including things I found fascinating and/or hilarious. This entry contains baby snatching, naked arthouse mannequins, and a brief moment of uncontrollable public sobbing. Off we go!

Oxford Bound

Thursday I bid adieu to London and my Airbnb, and headed to Marylebone train station. After walking probably 30 miles the previous few days, I was looking forward to a train ride.

Oxford_marylebone — Pictured: Thursday Morning Bustling

Along the way, I people watched.

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In the Name of the Monster, the Robot, and the Bleeding Ghost ~ An Art Installation

No reviews today, but I did want to share this fantastic art installation in LA.

Gallery Nucleus has a limited art event inspired by the works of Guillermo Del Toro – hence the titular reference to the monster, robot, and bleeding ghost. The artworks are created by fans and artists and come from any and all of Del Toro’s works, from the most recent Oscar-nominated The Shape of Water all the way back to The Devil’s Backbone. The media run the gamut from charcoals to sculpture and represent a wide variety of styles. And all of them are gorgeous! I wish I could go.

If, like me, you can’t get to LA let alone drop a grand on art, you can enjoy the offerings online through this link. I’ve included a few screenshots to give you a taste, with the artists credited. As always, I wasn’t paid to write this post, I just thought the installation was neat.

artgalleryshapeoflove — ‘The Shape of Love’ ~ Nathan Anderson

artgallerythreetasks — ‘Three Tasks’ ~ Carly Janine Mazur

I love how in this one, Ofelia is split by the labyrinth motif, invoking the duality of her life. Even her skin tone varies a bit – a nice touch.

artgalleryprophecywilliamox — ‘The Prophecy of William of Ox’ ~ Tomas Hijo

I think I love this one the best – I love works that evoke illuminated manuscripts while putting a clever spin on them (I have one of The Hobbit). Translating Del Toro’s name into that of a monk is a masterful touch. I bet the colors are amazing in person!

artgallerypaleman — ‘A Thousand Children Eaten’ ~ Rebnor

Bless the artist who came up with this and the person who bought it. I appreciate the artistry, and the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth is one of the all-time great disturbing monsters of cinema, but this couldn’t hang on the wall in my house. Me + too much wine one dark night x walking around a corner too fast = – artwork. Art shouldn’t be accessible to high-strung drunk people. I applaud the artist and the buyer for being much braver than I am.

If you are in LA and love art based on cinema, I highly encourage you to check it out. Then leave a comment and tell us all about!

In the Name of the Monster, the Robot, and the Bleeding Ghost closes January 28th, so you’d better hurry!

Conversations: The Shape of Water

shape-water3

Good morning! This week my co-author Achariya and I were able to attend an advance screening of The Shape of Water. We loved it and we had thoughts. The following are those thoughts. The section here is spoiler-free, but spoilers do appear in the discussions below the cut. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in!

JEN: Let me get this right out of the way – I loved it, I want people to support it, but I also recognize it’s not for everyone. Also there were three movies that I couldn’t help but think about: Amelie, for the love story, Splash, also for the love story, and The Creature From the Black Lagoon, mostly because of the Amphibian Man but also because that latter touched on concepts of loneliness.

shape-water1 — Breathe water or breathe air – get you a man who can do both.

ACHARIYA: Last night when I left the theater, I called my dad, a cinephile from way back. I told him the bare outlines of the plot, and he said, “Oh, obviously Guillermo Del Toro is a student of film, and has also seen Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein — he’s likely well versed in the genre of the relatable monster.” And yes, I also loved it.

JEN: Also I can’t help but think of this as Del Toro thumbing his nose at Universal’s failed attempt to launch a Dark Universe franchise; I read that he was offered the Dark Universe and turned it down. Had he taken it on we would be seeing a Creature From the Black Lagoon remake very like this, along with all the other well-loved monsters. Here’s a man who can’t write an unsympathetic monster, who will always see layers to every villain but most of all to the ugly, unloved, and broken. It’s a damned shame we won’t see those from him.

ACHA: I would argue that the introductory lines of the movie pointed to the true monster — and Del Toro was absolutely able to write an unsympathetic villain. It just wasn’t the one that you’d think. (More about that in spoilers!)

JEN: One more thing before we get into the spoilers – I found the movie brilliant because of the complete removal of its universe from reality, while still managing to feel believable. All the questions I had stemmed from situations that were created within the movie – there was never a moment where I thought ‘Well that can’t happen because X.’ The story had my complete buy-in.

ACHA: And I’d posit that this is in part because the audience has been given a perfect character through which to react to and question the movie, the main character’s best friend, Zelda (played by Octavia Spencer). Her responses throughout were exactly what mine were: “What?” “You did what??” “I — what?” And then, her ultimate sympathy and acceptance for the main character: “Okay, whatever works for you.”

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