Author: stevenattewell

I definitely see why Patchface is likely the prophet of the Drowned God; he seems likely to have been a prophet even before he encountered the Drowned God when the ship went down, and went a little nuts after looking the God (demon?) in the face. I’m a little mystified by Thoros though. What did he do to draw R’hllor’s attention, and what led R’hllor to bestow his gifts on Thoros, who by all accounts was kind of a drunken lunatic before joining the Brotherhood Without Banners?

“he seems likely to have been a prophet even before he encountered the Drowned God” – how do you figure this?

As to why R’hllor worked his will by the Mummer’s Ford, I think it was a miracle. And as GRRM the recovering Catholic well knows, a miracle is cloaked in mystery and ineffable, inexplicable grace. Thoros notes that it has nothing to do with Thoros himself:

“I have no magic, child. Only prayers. That first time, his lordship had a hole right through him and blood in his mouth, I knew there was no hope. So when his poor torn chest stopped moving, I gave him the good god’s own kiss to send him on his way. I filled my mouth with fire and breathed the flames inside him, down his throat to lungs and heart and soul. The last kiss it is called, and many a time I saw the old priests bestow it on the Lord’s servants as they died. I had given it a time or two myself, as all priests must. But never before had I felt a dead man shudder as the fire filled him, nor seen his eyes come open. It was not me who raised him, my lady. It was the Lord. R’hllor is not done with him yet. Life is warmth, and warmth is fire, and fire is God’s and God’s alone.”

Now, there are some arguments that people have made that the spells and prayers that Thoros had been taught are secular magic hiding behind a religious wrapper, and that now that magic is coming back into the world, the spells are working again. (After all, the old priests never brought anyone back from the dead either.) After all, Melisandre often cloaks secular magic as reliigous in nature. 

However, I disagree. While it is possible that Thoros and Melisandre were trained in secular magic that they learned in the Red Temples as novices, Beric Dondarrion wasn’t. And yet Beric turned his blood into flame (the true version of Thoros’ old trick) without uttering a syllable or a spell, and brought Lady Stoneheart to life with a kiss that did not require filling one’s mouth with fire first. 

So I think it had nothing to do with Thoros, and solely to do with the ineffable plans of the Red God. 

The Venture Bros. Podcast: Season 7 Ep 7: The Unicorn in Captivity

elanabrooklyn:

Steven Attewell ( @racefortheironthrone) examines the episodes’ commentary on sci-fi genre paradoxes via Warren Ellis and Fantastic Four comics. 

OSI is no longer just a spoof of GI Joe, it’s a critique of the military industrial complex!!! 

So join us! Here or on Graphic Policy Radio’s iTunes or find all of our Venture Bros episodes on this playlist (plus Episode 6 which is here). And comment or tweet me here https://twitter.com/Elana_Brooklyn if you have thoughts about this week’s format. We went long this week. I promise you it’s worth it.

The Venture Bros. Podcast: Season 7 Ep 7: The Unicorn in Captivity

A bit of an odd question, but do you think that it was possible that Arthur and Rhaegar were more than just best friends?

Of course it’s possible, but I think it’s unlikely for two reasons:

  • First, if that was the case, what exactly is the point of having Jon Connington’s pining, unrequited love be such a big part of his backstory? If nothing else, you’d think that Rhaegar would be somewhat less oblivious to all of the cues that the young Jon Con was giving off. 
  • Second, I don’t think that’s the direction GRRM wants to go with when it comes to romance and Rhaegar. While we can disagree as to how successful GRRM was in the execution, I think his intent of having R + L = J as the central Romantic tragedy is pretty clear. 

Do you think that GRR failed to pay enough attention to religion as a political and cultural factor in the earlier books, so he had to rush bringing it under the spotlight for AFFC? He wouldn’t be the first fantasy author to underestimate the role of religion in a medieval setting, so it’s weird to see him falling in one of the most common clichés of the genre.

I don’t think that’s actually the case. I would argue that we see GRRM laying the groundwork with the street preachers who turn up in King’s Landing in Tyrion V and Tyrion VI of ACOK, and the way they prefigure the riots that explode in Tyrion IX and literally rip the corrupt High Septon to pieces. 

What I would say is that I think GRRM missed a trick by not having the religious element be there in the background in ASOS. Now, there are good reasons why that’s not the case – ASOS is a massively over-stuffed book already, with more chapters than any other book in the series – but I do think he could have had some background elements when Jaime and Arya are criss-crossing the Riverlands, or on the streets of King’s Landing with Sansa and Tyrion.

The Venture Bros. Podcast: Season 7 Ep 7: The Unicorn in Captivity

elanabrooklyn:

Steven Attewell ( @racefortheironthrone) examines the episodes’ commentary on sci-fi genre paradoxes via Warren Ellis and Fantastic Four comics. 

OSI is no longer just a spoof of GI Joe, it’s a critique of the military industrial complex!!! 

So join us! Here or on Graphic Policy Radio’s iTunes or find all of our Venture Bros episodes on this playlist (plus Episode 6 which is here). And comment or tweet me here https://twitter.com/Elana_Brooklyn if you have thoughts about this week’s format. We went long this week. I promise you it’s worth it.

The Venture Bros. Podcast: Season 7 Ep 7: The Unicorn in Captivity

Have you ever done an extensive post on Spider-Gwen and how that reimagines both the character of Gwen Stacy, and also the Spider-Family in general?

You know what, I don’t think I have. So, fair warning, I’m really not current on Spider-Gwen – I read the first trade, then read the Spider-Verse stuff, then fell behind five issues into Vol 2.

I would argue that Spider-Gwen is one of the best uses of the multi-verse AU concept in the past few years: it started with the idea of taking the very first Dead Girlfriend and turning her into a superhero in her own right, the costume design was top notch, but equally good was taking the AU concept and running with it to recontextualize familiar Marvel characters. Gwen plays in an all-girl rock band called the Mary Janes, Frank Castle is a rogue cop instead of the Punisher, and so on; my personal favorite is an evil Matt Murdock as the Kingpin’s lawyer and right-hand-man.

Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to Into the Spider-Verse.