Episode 12: Year in Review

Happy New Year! Today, we present our final podcast of 2015. Appropriately, it’s our Year in Review Episode covering the many essays, podcasts that we wrote/recorded as well as some of the things that we loved from the ASOIAF community over the year. Finally, we talk about some things in store for the future in movie-trailer voice!

Listen to us here or at:

• Podbean
• Subscribe on itunes!

Here’s some of what we cover in the podcast:

New Developments on Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire

• Nina joined the blog
• The “BryndenBFish” name went the way of the dodo bird
• We wrote 53(!) essays
• 12 podcasts
• We started a tumblr blog
• Stats, baby, Stats.

Some of our Favorite Pieces to Write

• Hamish: Brightflame and Bittersteel
• Nina: Loves of the Dragon, Mothers of Chaos (Part 1, Part 2) & the Winter Queen (Part 1, Part 2)
• Jim: Unlikely, Unwanted Crowns: A Political Analysis of Aerys I and Maekar
• Jeff: Blood of the Conqueror, Part 5: A Conquest That Lasted a Summer

Our Favorites from Each Other

Jeff

• Nina’s “The Merman’s Ambition”
• Jim’s “War and Peace: A Political Analysis of Daeron I, Baelor I and Viserys II”
• Hamish’s “The Curious Case of Domeric Bolton”

Nina

• Jim’s “Unlikely, Unwanted Crowns: Aerys/Maekar”
• Hamish’s “The Great Black Dragon & the Curious Case of Domeric Bolton”
• Jeff’s “The Dragon’s Mercy, Part 3: Blood for Blood”

Jim

• Jeff’s “Blood of the Conqueror, Part 4: The Exile”
• Nina’s “The Ladies of Fire: Rhaenys”
• Hamish: “The Man Clothed in the Bittersteel”

Hamish

• Jeff’s “Blood of the Conqueror, Part 2”
• Nina’s “The Merman’s Ambition”
• Jim’s “Daeron the Pretty Good”

Some of our Favorite Concepts/Theses of 2015

• Nina: The Wrangling of the Wolves
• Jim: The Aegon Doctrine
• Hamish: Aerion’s murder of Haegon Blackfyre and Aerion’s potential as a Blackfyre double agent
• Jeff: Daenerys burns Old Volantis

Favorite ASOIAF moments outside of WaPoIaF

• Nina: Turtle-Paced’s “A Waste of Time”
• Jim: Poor Quentyn’s Essay on Tyrion & Aegon on the Rhoyne
• Jeff: Radio Westeros’: The Lion of the West
• Hamish: BookShelfStud’s King Broken-Smile & Lady Gwyn’s The Boldest Sellsword of Them All

Our Favorite Podcast Episodes That We Did

• Nina: Three Heads of the Dragon
• Hamish: Fan Questions and Answers
• Jeff: The Book That Never Was
• Jim: The Murdered and the Missing

No podcast episode would be complete without a few comedic moments and laughs too. So, we share things that made us laugh this year like:

• Jim doing his best impression of Viserys I folding his royal flush
• “It ain’t easy bein’ green.”
• “Valyria? More like Gary, Indiana.”
• Long Dawn Silver

We wrap up our episode by talking about what’s in store for the future of the blog and podcast and each contributors’ plans for the future.

Follow us on facebook, twitter and tumblr and follow us individually on twitter at:

• Nina
• Jim
• Hamish
• Jeff

Thanks for a great year! See you all next year!

Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire Podcast, Episode 09: Fan-Submitted Questions and Answers

A Song of Ice and Fire is a gripping work of fantasy, but it’s also full of mysteries. Moreover, it’s a series that generates a lot of deep thought and questions. In today’s podcast, we try our best Melisandre impression and look into our fires to give you all the answers to questions you’ve been asking for months now. Thank you so much for all of your questions.  Some of the questions we answer are on the topics of:

• Aegon and whether his true identity actually matters.
• Whether Tyrek Lannister is alive
• A potential live-video youtube Q/A
• The Others and whether the War for the Dawn was resolved peacefully
• Many more!

As a bonus, we are taking question full time now. We didn’t totally get through all of your questions this time, but we’re taking your questions from here on out, and we’ll incorporate them into our episodes going forward! So, submit your questions to us below, and we’ll be happy to answer any and all questions (eventually!).

You can listen to us here, but please feel free to listen/subscribe at the following spots:

• Podbean
• itunes

At the end of the podcast, we talk about where you can find the blog’s social media. Here’s some links to help out

• Twitter
• Tumblr
• Facebook

Additionally, you can find us individually on twitter at the following spots:

• Nfriel
• SomethingLikeaLawyer
• Militant_Penguin
• BryndenBFish

Thanks for listening!

What if Season 5 Was Good, Like Really Good? (Winterfell, Meereen and Dorne) — Corrected!

Part 1 dealt with storylines we thought were the best in Season 5, but for every good storyline, there’s always the bad one (the bad pussy one). Today’s podcast episode delves into the worst storylines of Season 5. From underwhelming battles to poor dialogue to convoluted motivations, we explore:

• The Boltons: the sole Northern House in Season 5
• Stannis’ tell-don’t-show march on Winterfell
• Brienne the Candlewoman
• The Coming Mask Making Industry Bubble in Meereen
• Jorah Connington’s/Varys’ travels with Tyrion
• Dorne…

But instead of criticizing the show, we offer ideas to make it better. At the end, we give a few thoughts on where we think Season 6 might go!

Agree or disagree, and let us know your thoughts on Season 5 and what you would have done to improve it in the comments below!

You can also listen to us at itunes or podbean.