Heaven’s Gate – A Near Death Experience at 6:22AM

“What a bunch of whackos,” we could be forgiven for thinking. We’ve had over 25 years of brainwashing, after all.

CW: Today’s post discusses mass suicides, cults, child harm, and other unsavory things. I will not be inserting any upsetting pictures. Please proceed with caution!

So, I joined a gym.

That’s not the purpose of this post – not fitspo, not weightloss or bragging about reps or gains or anything else. It is, however, necessary for setting the scene.

But let me back up.

So Wednesday the 22nd, I watched the new WACO documentary on Netflix. I had been looking forward to it for a while – I am old enough to remember when it happened, although at thirteen only recall the beginning and ending, while the weeks in between shootouts didn’t register. In the years since, I’ve become mildly interested in it and read or watch things when they come up. This documentary I found disappointing – it was a lot of sensationalism, some interviews with eye-witnesses, but no analysis or much expert commentary. I have watched other docs on Waco – Ask a Mortician’s examination of it was particularly compelling as she pointed out the failures of law enforcement and how they led to so many unnecessary deaths. The disappointment led me to want to revisit a pretty good one on a true crime show I saw on HBO last year, but I couldn’t remember the title or particulars so I just searched ‘documentaries.’

Which is how I found the Heaven’s Gate: Cult of Cults doc. I didn’t notice the release date and thought it was something from a while back, so I decided to watch.

In short: it is good.

VERY good.

OBVIOUSLY IT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE.

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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Game of Thoughts: The Dragon and the Wolf (7.7)

Hello and welcome to Game of Thoughts! I’m still alive and carving time out of my busy weeks for some Game of Thrones goodness. These posts WILL contain spoilers. They are nothing more than a recap and chance for GoT fans to have a bit of a natter and react as situations permit. They were inspired by the incredible, in-depth and insightful posts of Patrick Sponaugle, except his are intelligent and mine are just squeeing.

Well… well… well…

…GOSH.

Continue reading “Game of Thoughts: The Dragon and the Wolf (7.7)”

Game of Thoughts: Beyond the Wall (7.6)

Hello and welcome to Game of Thoughts! I’m still alive and carving time out of my busy weeks for some Game of Thrones goodness. These posts WILL contain spoilers. They are nothing more than a recap and chance for GoT fans to have a bit of a natter and react as situations permit. They were inspired by the incredible, in-depth and insightful posts of Patrick Sponaugle, except his are intelligent and mine are just squeeing. 

Got-DAM that was some good stuffs! Let’s dive in!

Continue reading “Game of Thoughts: Beyond the Wall (7.6)”