№ 470. World War C

This a test.

A test to see if we can rise above our differences. To see if we can unite as one community of nations. The enemy is not the other. It is not China. Our enemy is our selfishness, divisiveness, opportunism, our inability to see what's beyond our closed, comfortable turfs.

Bigger tests are coming.

Winter has come. Global warming is upon us. It is a far bigger challenge. It is planetary in scale. But unlike this pandemic, it directly infects everything we breathe, drink and eat. It's the disease that's creeping into and inhabiting the world we live in. The irreversible consequences are coming.

All our accomplishments are being stress-tested now --- our societies, governments, institutions, systems, rule of law, economic infrastructures and other inventions of human civilization. It's only a dry run.

Bigger tests are coming. We are being prepared.

I hope we can pass the test.

Winter is Coming

№ 387. Rants of a Mad, Underwhelmed GOT Fanatic Suffering from Withdrawal Anxiety

EPIC baddies deserve epic deaths! They’ve earned it. Measure for equal measure.

For example:

1. There is no cinematic poetry when Queen Cersei, who was responsible for the beheading of popular Ned Stark, her counterpoint in GOT’s moral fulcrum, would die whimpering in the arms of her lover/brother. Whimpering was uncharacteristic. It was so not her. This is the same woman who endured the walk of shame head held high and delivered the kiss of death to Tyene. Shame. To be buried under the rubble of the Red Keep was not her lot. She deserved more! For all the pain she caused, it is karmic symmetry for her to have a catastrophic end. That queen b*tch deserved a dire, nuclear destruction! Destruction that’s on the scale of the bombing of the Great Sept of Baelor. Shame. Missandei cried “Dracarys!” before Cersei had her head cut off in front of the Dragon Queen / best friend and her barfy BaeWorm. DRACARYS it should have been!

I can picture it now: crouched in the middle of the Red Keep’s map room, in tight, resigned embrace: the ashes of the lionine twins, dissipating, with just their golden manes floating in the snow of dust. Cue in GOT theme in four voices.

2. Deus ex Arya? Nah! I would have wanted the Night King torched by dragon fire.  Torched by, not one, but two ! (insert Count Dracula laugh track) So ok, fine, Drogon’s wasn’t enough. I get that. He’s too formidable and pivotal a nemesis to kill with just one magical creature. But to shatter because of Valyrian steel? C’mon! He lanced Viserion from the sky then resurrected it from the icy waters north of the wall. He also smirked and walked away from Drogon's pyrrhic breath! He’s surely more unbreakable than death by a simple prick of that pointy end. But with Rhaegal joining in the fun, after disposing of his blue-eyed brother Viserion, the Night King would have made a really toasty zombie! Apocalypse for the mighty undead who marched to annihilate the living with eternal winter. No less. See? Epic death.

3. Arya deserved a literal stab at Cersei’s manipulative heart. It would have been sweet justice. It would even out the score in the first season when she witnessed her father’s beheading. Plus, Cersei was on her list. At least, let her tick the murder off that list. Arya earned it. She trained for it. She bled for it for seven seasons! And then while nearing the top kill on her hit list, only to turn back after being told off by Sandor. Was that a Jedi mind trick, Clegane? And, was the Night King even on her list?!

(To be continued)

№ 386. Gaming GOT

"Next week promises to bring the Battle of Winterfell and plenty of bloodshed; the function of battle episodes is to test, strengthen, and shake up character dynamics. If Thrones’ main couple were more convincingly committed to each other, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” could have given elegant voice to a central question in advance of that fight: When humanity looks death in the face, will they think about love in opposition to destiny, or love as destiny? For Episode 3, fans will have to look to characters beyond Jon and Daenerys to see that tension meaningfully played out."

How the empire of the dead will be routed would be the mother of all battles. Or maybe not. There's still the Iron Throne to be won after the face off with the Night King.

№ 324. Monday Night Virtues

Watched the end of Game of Thrones (GoT).

After the season finale, I realize it's going to be a long wait. 2019. Two years long. Twenty four months. 

And we're counting. Starting now. HBO, quickly now.

"Patience wears my grandmother's filigree earrings. She bakes marvelous dark break. She has beautiful hands. She carries great sacks of peace and purses filled with small treasures. You don't notice Patience right away in a crowd, but suddenly you see her all at once, and then she is so beautiful you wonder why you never saw her before."

~J. Ruth Gendler

№ 70. Ze Map, X Marks the Spot

"There are a ton of fan-made maps out there depicting the world of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series — not to mention some pretty impressive fan art — but this one is by far the best we’ve ever seen. Created by superfan TheMountainGoat by combining books from the maps as well as other fan-made maps, it is as functional as it is beautiful. There’s a larger, zoomable version at his website, plus some other goodies, like a cool animated timeline map and a view of Westeros in Google Earth view. We’ll never get lost on the Dothraki sea again."

from Flavorwire