Game of Thrones Mid Season 6 Recap

Mid Season Recap
Wow what a season so far and we are only halfway through.  HOLY COW.

The North:
Sansa has grown up and is FINALLY taking charge of her own life and not depending on someone else.  It looks like Theon might grow his balls back as well.  Theon helps Sansa escape Winterfell as we saw at the end of last season.  He helps her run through the woods and then when Ramsays men catch up to them he tries to save her.  It is at this time that Brienne shows up with Pod and saves the day.  Once again Brienne tries to persuade Sansa to accept her loyalty.  It is only after Theon gives a nod of approval that Sansa accepts.  In a a kind of interesting twist of fate, Brienne swears her oath of loyalty using OathKeeper which was originally Ice, Ned Starks sword.  Kind of like Ned is there too.  Awwwww

Once Sansa has accepted Brienne,  Theon decides it is time for him to go home to Pyke, home of the Greyjoys.  We see his uncle Euron push King Baylon over a bridge and then be voted in as king of the Iron Islands.  There is a not-so pretty reunion with Theon and his sister Yara.  They flee the Iron Islands once their uncle Euron is crowned and it is a good thing too.  Once he is crowned , Euron is off to kill his niece and nephew.  Alas, Yara and Theon took some ships and have already left. YAYAYYY

Roose Bolton is pissed off at Ramsay for letting Sansa escape and for torturing her.  When it is announced that his wife, Walda Frey has a baby boy, Ramsay kills his own father.  He promptly feeds his step-mom and half brother to the dogs.  Lovely guy, don't ya think?  We find out that the Karstarks have now pledged their loyalty to Ramsay.  In a weird twist we find out that house Umber does also.  To prove it, the Umbers bring Rickon Stark to Ramsay and the head of Rickon's direwolf, Shaggy Dog.  This is the first major shocker to me.  To be honest, I cried.  I still think there is hope that this might be some plot to betray Ramsay and overthrow him. But, I am not so sure.  I still have hope though.  Osha a.k.a. Tonks from Harry Potter tries to seduce Ramsay and he ultimately kills her.  Some believe that with her death this is for sure the end of any thought that this might be some plot to save the north....still I hold out s twinkle of hope.

Jon Snow died and was resurrected. There have been many surprises this season and some expected surprises.  Jon Snow...if you really thought he was dead long term you are a smidge of an idiot.  Once alive again, he is a bit melancholy and does not want to fight anymore.  One if his lasts acts as the Lord Commander is to hang the traitors.  One of them tells him to let his family know he died fighting the wildlings.  His family is in White Harbor, house of the Mandarlays.  This is a pretty important family in the books and I wonder if it will come into play later in the season.  His last act as lord commander was to take off his cloak, give it to Dolores Ed and say "My watch has ended".    As Jon is packing to leave we see Sansa, Brienne and Pod coming to the wall.  Wonderful Reunion.  YAYAYAY This is the first time since season one that separated Starks are reunited.

Now Davos, I have to say he is the poo.  WOW!  Not only did he persuade Melisandre to try something she had never done in the midst of her personal crisis of faith and try to resurrect Jon, he then stopped the Night's Watch from coming and taking Jon's body away.  He is providing good counsel and is all around kicking bootay.

King's Landing

Cersei and Jaime are being their usual selves.  However,  there is Kevan Lannister and Lady Olenna Tyrell in the mix reminding Cersei that she is not in power any longer since her walk of atonement.  I think there is going to be a temporary truce between Lady Olenna and Kevan Lannister on one side and the other being Jaime and Cersei.  They both have a common enemy.  AAAANNNDDD the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Right?  I think they will work together long enough to free Margaery and Loris and bring down the Faith Militant.

There was an interesting exchange between Loris and Margaery in the cells below the sept.  Loris is just a mess and willing to do almost anything.  He wants to die... What a wimp.  Margaery is strong and talks to him to help him out of his funk.  Kind of interesting and I will get into that more in a bit.

Tommen is a total pushover and floats in the wind.  Tommen had a discussion with the High Sparrow and totally bought into what the High Sparrow was selling.  Tommen then goes to Cersei and tells her of the discussion and what she says is now right.  Whomever he talks to currently is all knowing until he talks to someone else and then that person becomes the omniscient one.  UGG!

The East
Dani, Jorah, Daario, Missandei, Grey Worm, Varys and Tyrion are all still in the east.  Dani is with the Dothraki with Jorah and Daario in hot pursuit.  There is a great bit here with the leaders of the Dothraki.  She shows Daario what it means to be the Unburnt.  YAY!

Tyrion and the others are trying to manage Meereen without Dani being there.  Tyrion frees the remaining dragons.  Why you might ask?  Well it is because of a few things: 1) Dragons do not do well in captivity. 2) Because Tyrion drinks and he knows things.  LOLOL  I think Tyrion is doing well managing the mess that Dani left in her wake.  Tyrion is not liked by the free people of Meereen, the Wise Masters, or by his allies.  What he is doing is what needs to be done though.  He is making a bartered peace.  When Dani comes back she needs to see what all Tyrion has been able to accomplish while she has been gone.  Not just take everything rashly and do what she wants...it is time for her to learn to be a bit diplomatic and to learn what it means to be a Queen and not a dictator.

Two More Starks
Arya is still fighting with the waif although she does now have her sight back.  She has been given another chance and another mission.  I believe this is some sort of a trap on the part of Jaquen but I am not sure to what end.  You do see that Arya is still in there and they have not completely beaten it out of her yet.  Thank goodness.

Bran, woah Bran. Since he took a break last season he has come back in full force.  Of all of the characters we see this season by far Bran is the most impactful.  We see him in the tree with the Three-Eyed-Raven and we begin with a long awaited flashback to a time with a young Ned Stark, Howland Reed-Meera's father and the Sword of the Morning, Ser Arthur Dayne.  They are somewhere in the south and Dayne and another man in Targaryen armor are there waiting for a battle.  Roberts Rebellion is now over and there is discussion why these two men are here and were not fighting in the war.  They reveal it is because they were told to be there by Prince Rhegar.  There is a battle and to be honest this is the best battle of the show so far.  It is six men fighting two and then it is five on one and Dayne is the biggest badass we have seen so far.  Dayne is wielding two swords, the infamous Dawn, and another unkonwn sword.  He kicks the absolute butt of these 5 men.  Due to a stab in the back by Howland Reed, Ned is able to be victorious.  Honestly this is BY FAR the best fighting sequence we have seen to date.  For book readers, this is known as the Tower of Joy.  We do not get into the tower but we do see Bran call out to his father and Ned turned as if he heard.  This DID NOT please the Three-Eyed-Raven and he takes them out of the flashback.  For those who have read the books here is a link to a theory that very much explains what we hoped to see up in that tower.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHqzFwodZqQ

We have a few more random flashbacks to Winterfell and we are introduced to Bran's Aunt Lyanna.  About time.  She is a youngish girl on a horse and totally reminds us of Arya.  In the most recent set of flash backs Bran messes up big time.  He tries to enter a flashback without his guide in the Three-Eyed-Raven.  The most important flashbacks are the three most current.  The first is of the Children of the Forrest.  We watch as they create the Knights King by pushing a Dragon Glass dagger through a mans heart.  HOLY SHIT?!??!?!?  Why did they do this?  The answer is quite simple really.  They needed someone to help them fight off the first men who were decimating the Children.  Alas, this plan backfires and we have the issues with the Wights in the current day.  The next to last vision of Episode five "the Door" Bran sees the White Walkers and the Knights King.  The Knights King touches Brans arm  leaving a mark.  Apparently this is the key to the cave where everyone is at. HOLY CRAP THEY ARE COMING they have to get out of the cave.  The Three-Eyed-Raven pulls Bran back into a vision to try and upload all of the important info he can before the Wights get into the cave.  He Takes us back to Winterfell.  Simultaneously in the cave Meera is trying to wake Bran.  The Children are fighting of the Wights and all hell is breaking loose.  Hodor is Hodor-ing and Meera can not get him to help.  She is screaming at Bran to warg into Hodor. In the flashback Bran hears this and sees young Hodor across the yard and wargs into Hodor.  Hodor and Meera take Brans tranced out body and run.  Summer tries to defend them and is killed.  =(  They get to the back door and Hodor breaks it open.  Meera toting Bran tells Hodor to hold the door.  She keeps saying it and now in the flashback Hodor starts screaming "HOLD THE DOOR" over and over and it finally whittles down to hold door and then the end of HO-DOR.  Hodor is taken and we believe killed by the Wights.  I bawled like a little baby.  Summer AND Hodor!?!?! WOW!

There..... we are up to date.

I have to say to all of the people who think that this show is not for women and is all about women bashing,  Look AT WHAT HAS HAPPENED THIS SEASON!!!  Dani kicks the ass of the great Khals and comes out once again unburnt and all of the Dothraki are now hers.  Margaery shows Loris what it means to be strong and she is NOT falling for the good cop routine that the High Sparrow is feeding her.  Cersei and Olenna are the VERY dominant forces dealing with what to do with these bat shit crazy Faith Militant that Cersei armed.  Theon back to himself proves that his sister Yara should be queen of the Iron Islands and he will follow her not the other way around.  Sansa puts Littlefinger in his place.  She also awakens Jon Snow from his melancholy and gets him to ride south to find an army to defeat Ramsay.  Brienne finds a man who is interested in her.  WOOT!!! GIANTS-BRIENNE!!! WTG Tormund who seems to think she is the bees-knees.  It is about time for someone to take an interest in this absolutely amazing woman!  So far this is a season of women kicking serious ass.  I hope they keep it up!

There are zillions of theories out there on what has happened so far and what is to come.  I agree with many and have come up with many on my own.  Turns out I am not the only one who has come up with the same ideas though. There are many theories about Bran.  One I thought of  (and so has everyone else) is that the Bran we know is also Bran The Builder who built the wall centuries ago.  He travels back in time and actually builds the wall.  This also could mean he is all of the Brans throughout history.  I am a bit worried about all of this time travel paradox stuff and hope that it does not get too wibbley wobbley timey wimey.  This season so far has been absolutely amazing.  We are wrapping up stories and getting things done.  The last season was much more of a set up of what is to come.  YAY Season SIX!

There is so much more to come.  I am so excited.  I have all sorts of hopes for what happens but not really predictions.  I will predict Jaime does not tell Cersei to eff off  no matter how much I want him to. I predict there will be some variation of the Bastard Bowl (not really hard to predict that one) and that the North will rise to bring down Ramsay.  I predict there is WAY more to the story of Bran and even Jon Snow that we have been lead to believe.   I believe there will be some sort of battle in King's Landing with the Faith Militant.  I believe that the High Sparrow will be de-throned or killed this season.  King's Landing has to get off of their asses and see what is marching towards them from the North.  In order to do that, I think Tommen and Margaery will have to stand up to Cersei.  There is soooo much more.  I hope there is a Clegane bowl (http://bit.ly/1TOIn1N) I do not necessarily think it will happen.  Who knows, though.  This is the season for fan lip service so it might happen after all.
I hope you are enjoying this season as much as I am.

Happy Watching!

Something Personal

There is something I have been fighting off for awhile.  A smidge of depression.  Am I clinically depressed?  No.  I do have one subject that depresses the hell out of me, though.  I thought I was over this. Like 3 years ago over it.  In fact, I started this blog to help me get over that funk, and it worked.  Then out of the blue, WHAMMO!  I thought I was so over this.  I received some great news for a friend of mine and it triggered this shit storm.  Apparently I am not over it yet.  Will I ever be free of this mental nightmare?  Without getting into too much detail,  I just needed to vent and perhaps purge some of this yuck that is permeating my head.

I just remembered that tonight is Game of Thrones.  That will help clear the slimy sadness out of my head.

Thanks for reading.

I am Back

OMYGOSH it has been a long time.  Who knew moving was so distracting?  Life sure does get in the way of fun.  I am so sorry for the interruption.  This past summer and fall there have been a lot of new shows that have come out.  Some have been great and some not so much.  There are new shows this spring too.  I am so excited.  Agent Carter is back and the fact they brought her back at all is an accomplishment.  New shows include the Expanse, Shannara Chronicles, ShadowHunters, Lucifer, Supergirl, Heroes, Limitless, Mr Robot, Jessica Jones, Legends of Tomorrow, and oh so many more.

There seems to be an endless amount of shows these days and so limited time.  I can barely keep up.  Not to mention the movies that have come out.  I have decided that I will do some bit by bit to break up my back log.

I am finally caught up on Arrow and Flash.  YAY!  Now they have brought in the Legends of Tomorrow.  This is growing on me.  I am not sure about it.  I will say I love Wentworth Miller as Snart.  He makes this show.  I think this show would be drab and boring if he was not there to provide comic relief.

Game of Thrones

Tonight begins season 6 of Game of Thrones.  I am so excited.  This is the first season that there is not a book to came first.  I have to say the producers Benioff and Weiss have done a very good job keeping with the themes and tone of the books.  They have taken many liberties as well.  I understand why they have made some of the decisions they have.  Time, and to help avoid additional confusion to the casual watcher.

There are many predictions and theories about what is to come this season.  I enjoy listening to them and reading about them.  I have come up with some up with of my own.  I can not wait to see some of them proven correctly and proven wrong.  This is going to be a great season.

Recently I helped a friend out on a podcast.  A Storm of Words. It is a podcast dedicated to Game of Thrones.  I had a blast helping out and I hope I get to do it again sometime.

Maclane

I am a cat person. I have been so my entire life.  I recently had to put my cat to sleep. Once we moved into this house we decided to get a dog.  HOLY BANANAS how much one has to go through to get a rescue.  We went through the Rocky Mountain Cocker Rescue and got a half Cocker Spaniel half Basset Hound.  We tried several names before he chose the name Maclane.  Who knew a dog was so all consuming?  Sheesh.  With Cats you just make sure there is food and water and a clean litter box and you are done.... Not a dog.  Maclane is the sweetest most loving dog in all of the land.  LOL but doggone the dog wants love 24-7.  It is either food, love or poop.  All day long ...food, love, poop.    We have only had him a few weeks and I am totally in love.  Once he is fully settled, I think kittens are next.  WOOT!!

Deadpool

With all of the superhero movies out there I am getting a bit overwhelmed and kind of bored to be honest.  I went to see Deadpool because of all of the hype.  I usually run and hide from movies that are hyped up.  I took a chance and went.  When the movie was done I sat there I said "Did that just happen?"  I was so surprised at what I saw.  I loved every minute of it and it is about time that  a superhero movie has more than the superhero being 100% good.  I loved everything about this.  Everything.  The swearing, the sex, and the total irreverence.  AMAZING.

Pitch Slapped

I found this totally random show on Lifetime.  It is a show about A Cappella groups who go head to head to see who is the best in their division.  There is the team who is the obvious underdog and the team who is the obvious front runner.  They are coached by two coaches one who yells a lot and one who hugs a lot.  I of course rooted for the underdogs with the huggy coach.  I will not spoil the show but it was very entertaining and something out of my normal sci-fy/fantasy related shows.

I will be back more often now that all the real life drama is under control.

Thank you all for reading.

50 Days of Dragon Con 2 Weeks Later

The Con Itself

HOLY COW!!! There is so much to tell and I hope I can remember it all.  First my Sexy Sandwich.  So there has been a change in the general location of Froggy's.  It is still in the basement of the Marriott but in a different room with a bit of a different set up.  I get to the room that they are queueing up the lines for the photos.  It is very hot down there and there are a zillion people.  My op time was 2:15.  They did not call people for my pic/time for awhile and 2:15 came and went.  They did announce that Stephen's plane was late so he was going to be a little delayed.  After awhile they called us to get in line.  Off we went to a smaller room.

John Barrowman in a blue Tardis dress

YAY.  Once in the room John Barrowman got up on a table and told us that Stephen was on his way. He was up on that table for probably 10 minutes or so just entertaining us.  WOW.  What a cool guy.  My parents used to talk about entertainers and how my generation is missing them.  Think Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, and Johnny Carson.  For the first time in my life, I have had an encounter with a true entertainer.  John Barrowman, wow, you are amazing.  He did not have to do that for us.  He could have gone back to his room, sat in a corner reading a book, anything, but no, he entertained us.  A true Treat.
Once Stephen gets there, they file us in.  I was the third in line and wowie.  He is BUFF and all muscle.  Cool Guy too.  Friendly and kind.  I was so lucky to have met them both.

Next on Friday was my ultimate fan-girl moment.  I have never really had one.  I get pathetically shy when I meet celebrities so I usually just turn red and put my head down.  No fan girl here.  That was until I met Caroll Spinney.  Caroll Spinney has played Big Bird and Oscharsince the characters inception.  He has been with Sesame Street since the 70's.  He is now in his 80's and still plays this character.  WOW.  I went to his table to have my books signed and while in line I was trying to not get fan-girl.  I failed MISERABLY.  I get up there and I start to cry.  He and his wife are the most awesome people.  They were snuggling at the table and I could not even speak.  While he was signing, his wife, Debbie, asked me questions and all I could do was nod and cry.  Totally embarrassing, genuine, but embarrassing.  I was pretty much a mess the rest of the day.  I went to several panels and late night stuff.  FUN FUN FUN.

Saturday and or, was it Sunday?
I went to the Carroll Spinney panel on Saturday and I cried through the whole thing again.  At least I am not the only one there in tears.    The rest of the day was spent panels.  I loved a lot of them and then there were a few I was confused on.  I went to a panel on mature themes in genre tv and it became a rant on the whole incident with Sansa and Ramsey.  Like 3/4 of the panel was about this.  Kind of annoying.  The track director spoke up from the back of the room and told the panelists to get off of Game of thrones.  THANKS!  I went to one on Dark Matter and there was so much giddiness over the whole thing it was great.  Some time on Saturday, things started getting jumbled and I do not really remember what happened on Saturday vs Sunday.  I do know Saturday night was the Voltaire concert.  It was as wonderful as always.  I love going to the concert and dancing with everyone.  I do not get the people who sit in the back of the room not bopping along, not singing and just looking bored.  There were lots of panels both days some good some not so much.  They all kind of bled into one another.  I really liked the LotR panels with Constance J Wagner.  She is awesome.  Saturday night was the annual Match Game in the 25th Century with Gil Gerard.  The guest panelists this year included Sylvester McCoy, Trenna Keating Garrett Wang and John Barrowman.  The guests are not generally announced until the game starts but apparently Gil tweeted out who they were going to be. The guests were amazing and I had a great time.

Monday
Monday was so weird.  Normally this is the day that people go home.  I get it.  This year it seemed almost abandoned.  There were so few people left.  Also, there seemed to be ALOT less programming Monday.  What happened?  Is it because so many of the track directors and staff want to go to the Dead Dog Party?  I do not get it.  I thought the con was supposed to be four days.  Instead it is more like 3 and a quarter.  I hope we get more programming on Monday next year.

All in all this was a wonderful time and I am already prepping for next year.  Thank you again to all of the volunteers that put the show together.

50 Days of Dragon Con Day 1 HOLY CRAP IT IS HERE!!!!!!

Heaven,

I will lose my internet at noon so I can not do a recap of the days events.  Instead,  I will do a pre-Friday Friday recap.  LOL.  Today is the day I get to meet Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird.  HOLY SHIT!  I get to meet the man that has made these two awesome characters come to life, Carroll Spinney.  I am so in awe.  I am nervous and excited all in one.  I am sure I will be a blathering idiot when I go to get the pic and autograph.  I absolutely know I will be.  Still, I have to do this.  I am also getting a sexy sandwich and for those of you who do not know what a sexy sandwich is, it is a pic with you between two hot people.  In my case the sandwich I chose is John Barrowman and Stephen Amell from Arrow (along with other things).  WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! Again, I will be the blathering idiot but I do not care as I am sure I will not be the only one.  Hopefully I will not get teary eyed because I am so excited.  Tee HEE.  Thank God I am not a pee-er.  Can you imagine getting so excited/nervous you pee all over yourself?  That totally has to suck.  How have the rest of you handled this kind of excitement/nervousness?  I know I will turn red as a tomato, but hopefully that is the worst. 

Well, I am off to have a SPECTACULAR day at con.  I will have more for you when I get home.  Thank you for reading and I hope that I have kept you interested at least a little bit.

50 Days of Dragon Con Day 2

Thursday

Thursday before con is a bit of craziness.  Yesterday the Marriott had a bit of a snafu and started taking their furniture away from the common areas a day early.  It was kind of cool since there were obviously so many more con attendees here than there were last year.  Wednesday is the new Thursday, I guess.  Anywhoo, they put the furniture back for yesterday and then took it away late last night.  Since arriving here I have already walked more than 10 miles and it is only Thursday, what the heck?!? LOL I knew I would walk this much.  I got up early and headed down to the Hilton lobby where I got in line to register for my room next year.  I stood in line for over an hour and got to meet a really cool chick from Nashville.  HI, Melissa!  We chatted about this and that for over an hour.  I learned that she likes to make her own hooch- apple pie- and I have put in a request to buy some from her next year.  I got set up for next years room and was off to registration to pick up my badge.  WOO HOO this line, while kind of long took less than 15 minutes and then I was off to the blood bank.  Here is the thing, I usually figure I will not be done with the hotel, badge pick up and the blood bank before 2.  I was not only done, I had stopped in a sit down restaurant for lunch and was in the game room playing Fluxx before 2.  HOLY COW!  This was the fastest Thursday of chores I have to do that I have ever had.  Thank you to all who made this go so fast!

I hung out in the game room for a few hours played some games then went to the food court and got an absolutely dreadful cheese steak.  DO NOT GO THERE.  The sandwich was cold, my soda was half full and it was not good at all.  Now what to do?  I still had a few hours before the sing-a-long began.  I hung out under the pulse lounge and people watched.  This is always a good time.  Especially in this location.  You are out of the way and yet you can see 3 floors below you.  WOO HOO.  Great place to watch my people.  I have to say there are a lot of Jurassic Park costumes this year.  Kind of disappointing though.  They are not hard to make or assemble so meeh. 

The sing-a-long is next and was put on by the American Sci-Fi Media Track.  They played all sorts of songs and we sang, I think it is kind of self explanatory, honestly.  But we had a blast.  Jeff even had fun as I heard him singing along.  I was the dork singing at the top of my lungs to songs I had no idea what the words are and was dancing in my chair.  WOOT fun times.  Thanks Kelley and Gary.  It is now midnight and I have to get to bed because my first panel starts early tomorrow and I am so excited.  WOOT!

50 Days of Dragon Con Day 3

Arrival

I arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday.  WOO HOO.  I am home with my peeps.  We got to the hotel and checked in and were instantly given a voucher for next year.  YAYYYYYYY  I took my things up to my room and I have to say it was a little weird, my room had a Murphy bed.  It is a great room but still kind of strange. 

Once I settled in a bit (yes, I am an un-packer) I was off to check everything out.  There were some changes but not many.  The first was the concern of many, the change in the Marriott carpeting.  I get the sadness over change.  I was one that was sad to see the pretty swirlies go away.  That being said, when walking into the Marriott, I could see how worn and thread bare the carpet was in very many places.  There were other spots that were bubbling and just nasty.  I think folks will soon come to love the new carpet as much as they did the old.  So far they have only changed it in a few places.  The Atrium level and a few of the smaller conference rooms on other floors. 

The other thing I noticed is that there were so damn con goers here already.  Usually on Tuesday there are a few lone peeps and the rest are there for other conferences.  It was so strange to see my peeps this early.  Totally AWESOME but totally strange.  Off I went to CVS to buy my water bottles for the weekend and a few munchies.  Nothing much had changed.  Everything in the hotels seemed pretty much the same old same old.  One thing I did find that was different was Gus's Fried Chicken in the lower level of Peachtree Center.  OMG it is some good fried chicken.  I totally recommend it.

I have such an odd feeling.  I feel like I have never left.  I am at my home away from home.  It is like the outside con world does not even exist.  This place, and this time is mine.  In some ways time is standing still and in others I can hardly believe I have already been here a day.  I spend 300+ days per year looking forward to this one week.  Now that I am here I am in pure heaven.  This is my place, these are my people, and I am in a world that will not judge me for singing out loud, dancing in my chair, or liking what I like.  I love these people.  All of them-even the ones I do not like.  I feel so free.  Thank you.  Just thank you.