A Song of Ice and Fire: Honor vs. Morality

What is the difference between honor and morality, and is one superior to the other? Before reading A Song of Ice and Fire, I didn’t think there was any real, clear answer to this question—after all, wouldn’t a moral person also be an honorable person? Furthermore, if someone has honor, we make the assumption that their honor must be based on the morality of their character. In other words, the two of them should go hand in hand.

Honor is a major theme within the books, and while a character’s honor may be praised, we can see throughout the course of the series that having honor doesn’t always mean having morals. And in some cases, having honor can be downright selfish or harmful to other people.

Fanfiction Fridays: So Many Vows by MotherofFirkins

MotherofFirkins might not be my favorite fanfiction author, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy her stories. What I really like about this author is her ability to take the world from A Song of Ice and Fire and make it less dark. I already reviewed one story by her, The Treaty, and there were two big things I liked about it: it was a Jaime and Brienne centric story, and everyone got their happy ending. Those same things hold true for So Many Vows, which explores yet another way for Jaime and Brienne to fall in love and be happy.

Fanfiction Fridays: Yet to be Lived by julesoftarth

With Game of Thrones starting up again next month, I figured it was about time to get back into things in Westeros. For some, this would mean marathoning the previous season. For me, it apparently means reading AU fanfic. While I wanted to read a story starring my favorite player of the game, Margaery Tyrell, when you give me an AU where Jamie Lannister is an author and a Brienne who is over him before she knows him and it’s a ship fic, how can I refuse? Plus, look at how Jaime is introduced!

Jaime Lannister has run into some trouble in Tijuana and his manuscript is going to be a few weeks late. Jaime Lannister has broken all of his limbs skydiving in Jamaica, please extend his deadline just a little bit more. Jaime Lannister has contracted malaria on an African safari, but he assures me his manuscript will be ready six weeks from now.

I had to make an exception. I simply had to.

Stares into the camera like she’s on The Office.

Trailer Tuesdays: Game of Thrones Season 5

Well, everyone, it’s that time of year again. Game of Thrones’s fifth season is almost upon us. Beware, book readers. Inconsistencies are coming.

Many of us are already aware that the television show is quickly catching up to where the books are, so it comes as no surprise to me that Game of Thrones is going to start heavily deviating from the source material. We’ve already started learning about things that haven’t even happened in the book yet—such as what the White Walkers are doing with Crastor’s babies. And quite obviously, the show has done things the books haven’t. Certain characters who are alive in the books are dead on the show, other characters have been cut entirely, and then there are the characters on the show who have no book counterpart at all, such as Ros.

Game of Thrones is going to end after the seventh season—and let’s face it, the last book in the series will not be out by 2017—and as such, this season is going to mark some pretty drastic changes from the source material. It’s also going to start killing off characters who aren’t supposed to be dead yet.

Spoilers ahead.

A Song of Ice and Fire and the A+J=C&J Fan Theory: Ace’s Favorite Theory Ever

Well, now that Game of Thrones’s fifth season has a release date, I figured it was time to revisit the book series and talk about another theory. I mean, hey, it’s going to be a few more years until the sixth book comes out, and maybe another decade before the seventh, so at this point, yeah, discussing theories is about all we can do to pass the time.

via fanpop.

So let’s discuss my favorite A Song of Ice and Fire theory. Though it is by no means popular among the fanbase, there is a theory that King Aerys II Targaryen and Joanna Lannister, not Joanna and Tywin, are Cersei and Jaime’s real parents. This theory, commonly shortened to A+J=C&J, is one I desperately hope to be true. This is, however, probably not a popular opinion, since from what I can tell, most book readers hate it.

Spoilers for ASOIAF and a trigger warning for rape and sexual assault after the jump.

Fanfiction Fridays: The Treaty by MotherofFirkins

Have you ever imagined a version of A Song of Ice and Fire where rarely anybody dies? Except for Joffrey? If you have, then look no further than The Treaty by MotherofFirkins. In this fic, when Robb Stark sends his peace terms to King’s Landing for the North to be declared a separate and independent kingdom from the South, the Lannisters agree. Unfortunately for Jaime, the terms also state that he is to remain in the North as a hostage for the rest of his days.

Official banner for The Treaty by Ro Nordmann (via ro-little-shop-of-wonders).

Also in the terms, Robb Stark demands ten additional Southern hostages—two will be returned every year—in order to further cement the peace. So Jaime finds that he will not be in captivity alone. As the years pass, he has to manage his guilt over Bran’s fall, his despair at his sister’s remarriage to another lord, feelings of betrayal due to his family accepting the peace terms, as well as his growing friendship with and desires for Brienne of Tarth, one of his fellow hostages.

When You Play the Game of Thrones, It Turns Out We All Lose

So this week’s Game of Thrones, huh? How about Pod being the best squire ever? Or, uh, Tywin talking to Oberyn? That was pretty cool, right? Or you know, the producers assassinating the entire arc of one of the most sympathetic characters on the show in favor of once more perpetuating the misogyny so prevalent in a good portion of popular television today?

Yeah. That? Not so rad.

Side-eyeing you so hard right now, Game of Thrones.

Spoilers for Game of Thrones under the cut, as well as a trigger warning for discussions of rape and incest.

Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon): 2014 Edition

This Valentine’s Day, as all Valentine’s Days, will not succeed in bringing our city down. This Valentine’s Day, as all Valentine’s Days, will soon recede into painful memory, fading with time, until another foul Valentine’s Day is upon us again.

—Welcome to Night Vale, “Valentine”

It’s that time of year again, nerd friends. That awful time of year known as Valentine’s Day. Once a year, before Valentine’s Day, our authors nominate and then vote on ships for our Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon) list. It is during this time that the LGG&F writers go from peaceful coexistence straight into full-blown anarchy as each writer battles for their favorite ships to make the list.

So now, blood-stained and bruised, it is my job as Supreme Overlord of LGG&F to bring you this year’s Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom.

Sexualized Saturdays: Twincest

You know, for living in a society that generally disapproves of incest, there are a lot of incest pairings in nerddom. And incest between twins, or twincest, even more so. So this Saturday, I’m taking a look at a few different examples of twincest and whether or not these relationships are actually healthy. Buso Renkin, Game of Thrones, Saiyuki, and Ouran High School Host Club after the jump.

In Brightest Day: Jaime Lannister

You know, you really could take anyone from Game of Thrones and do an IBD. We’ve already done one focusing on Tyrion and another on everyone’s favorite psychopath Joffrey, so today I’m going to do a different one. Fairly spoiler-ridden after the jump.