One Word After Another: A Week in Links 2/16/14

I want to start by giving a plug to Gamefixt who a fellow St. Joseph's College alumni writes for and Elite Daily for the same reason. Keep writing guys.

     Next I want to plug the latest episode of Speakeasy with Paul F. Tompkins.

     This one feature Tom Lennon who you may know from various roles such as the doctor from Dark Knight Rises and his roles on Reno 9/11. It is not this particular episode I want to plug but the show Speakeasy in general. Paul F. Tompkins is easily the more charming interviewer I have ever seen and isn't weighed down by the promotional bureaucracy that network talks shows have to deal with. His show has had numerous people I am sure you're into if you watch any kind of television so check out his show Speakeasy on YouTube.

     Next is a cover of CHVRCHES' The Mother We Share done by Half Moon Run that I have quite enjoyed for the past week. Going from Electronic to Folk does not to sway my opinion against this song.

     I enjoyed this bit of graffiti hip-hop artist Aesop Rock posted this week. Yes, you should listen to Aesop Rock.

     Now, on to love. This link a friend posted that I clicked on, not expecting much, was surprising poignant. 17 Ways You Know You've Finally Found the One is a bad title but lists realistic boundaries and parameters for a happy adult relationship. It should of been titled 17 Ways You Know You're In A Happy and Healthy Relationship.

     On to television, where True Detective continues to be a bizarre and fresh take on the cop procedural. io9 produced these two great articles on the show. Both the One Literary References You Must Know to Appreciate True Detective and True Detective takes us to the void at the center of meaning explore the bizarre rituals and behavior seen in True Detective's murderer(s?) and detectives.

     How ‘Office Space’ Influenced the Way an Entire Generation Thought About Work examines exactly what made me scared to get a full time job when I was sixteen. I feared the nine to five cubicle, going home to the wife with two kids then getting up again to go to the cubicle the next day. Now, I'd kill for a cubicle job but this article is still worth a read.

     This was a trend started by members of the IGN staff in which Donatello from the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is photoshopped into other images. It entertained me for a while and I hope it entertains you.

     Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon's version of The Tonight Show premiered this week and now our long nightmare of Jay Leno is finally over. To celebrate here is Brian Williams rapping Rapper's Delight.


     Finally, to end the week is by far my favorite breed of dog, the Corgi, running around a carousel. Enjoy your week everyone.

How will A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones end? (No spoilers)

With two books to go by the self-admitted slow writer and the producers of the HBO show estimating the series to end at eight seasons the end game for A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones is far off. Still, I know how it will end, at least I know how viewers will perceive it to end. There will be no spoilers beyond conjecture, and no details of the fates of any characters.

The hype machine is still going strong for this series, with George R.R. Martin’s name constantly in the news, making appearances on Conan and casting confirmations as well unofficial filming footage constantly hitting the sites centered around pop culture. The show’s intention with each season is to build upon the overall arcs of each character with some ending as the seasons go on. The books likewise, because of the way they tell stories using third person limited point of view for different characters in each chapter, tell the stories of said characters as part of any overall story Martin is building towards.

Recalling an article from io9 speaking of Game of Thrones scratching that mystery itch that was left in the wake of Lost brings up the disappointment many felt by the end of series over the ending as it left questions unanswered and the overall conclusion deemed disappointing. Martin himself has said his intention is to avoid a Lost-like ending, proclaiming his disappointment and his hope to deliver on the high expectations of his fans. However, he also expects the ending to be bittersweet.

This is just conjecture but just as the story was inspired by the image of the two dying animals in the first episode and the first book, I expect Martin has had the ending in mind from the very beginning with obvious editing needing to be done as the plot changes and characters are added. While I’ve always expected a bittersweet ending given that the story for the majority a tragedy how satisfying will that ending be to it’s viewers and it’s readers? Let’s avoid questions of a production nature like it’s budget, it’s directing, the cinematography, the acting, etc and just explore it from a storytelling perspective.

Game of Thrones and the even more so the books it’s based on is a world full of characters. With this many characters the odds of satisfying every consumer is slim, but that is to be expected. Every character is someone’s favorite character including the antagonists but not every character is slated to have a complete story-arc as some of the secondary ones are doomed to be metaphorical and sometimes literal causalities to the major point of view ones. If we break it down even further using just the main characters we can expect that when they all converge once again as they did in the beginning of the series that some of these characters will come into conflict. As this is in a sense a political tragedy most of the characters fall into a morally gray area rather than one group being good and the other evil. Therefore, each character probably has a fanbase that’ll be disappoint and one that will be satisfied with how it’ll end overall.

How will it end though? I know how will it end in vague details, just going by what I've seen and what I’ve read from the source material plus Martin’s expectation of a “bittersweet” ending and his hope to avoid an ending like Lost. Here it is in the vaguest terms possible. Westeros will be left completely changed but stable in the political sense, not all the characters people hate will die and not all the ones people like will live. There will be sacrifices, sometimes that means a character’s life and sometimes that’ll mean a character’s power. 

Questions that have had speculation surrounding them will be answered with obvious answers and ones no one expected. Questions people didn’t know they should be asking will be answered, which in hindsight viewers will believe that should of been obvious. Questions that everyone has been wondering about for ages will never be answered because stories, like life, don’t have to answer all the questions. 

There will be love, sadness, tears, triumph, victory, tragedy, loneliness, isolation, and most likely satisfaction. Before it is over surely there will be fire and blood, you will hear some roar and some will pay their debts, there will be fury by some, sharp blades by others, and winter will most definitely come.