Episode 4 of the eighth season of Game of Thrones is in truth the opening act in a 3 part drama. The Night King and his White Walkers have been defeated (spoiler alert… too late?) and the world is safe from the threat of the living dead. Bruce Campbell you can put down your chain saw hand you’re not needed. This episode plays out very much like the 1^st of a 3 part drama, with a lot of scene setting, tension building and problem causing. Like the first two episodes of this season set up the battle of Winterfell, this episode felt the same in the sense of resetting the pieces, except this time its different player across the board in the form of Cersei Lannister.

The episode starts how most would have expected with a farewell to the fallen. After a nice scene in the great hall we go to a not drunk yet drunk enough to kiss his aunt Jon Snow and Queen Dany. We see here, not for the first time, Dany’s inability to compromise. She begs Jon not to tell his sisters of his parentage. It was a really nice moment coming from her as we have rarely seen her beg for anything. But Jon’s honour is unshakable, most likely one of the things that made her fall for him in the first place. He wouldn’t lie for her in the face of queen Cersei, he’s certainly not going to do it to his sisters. Now in my very humble opinion if Dany had made any effort to compromise here then relations in the cold north may have been  left less frosty (sorry not sorry). They could have sat them down and told them together. A united front. But like in the past Dany was unwilling or unable to compromise and her way is the only way. Barristan Selmy called for mercy for the masters but she answered with justice, crucifying the masters, which in turn led to the Harpy rebellion and Slavers Bay revolting. She rejected Tyrion’s advice on sparing the Tarly’s who could have proven valuable prisons and may have even joined her once they witnessed the army of the dead. Many times has she been advised wisely and many times she has failed to listen. Sometimes it paid off, others not so.

Eventually Jon tells his sisters as we all knew he would. And as expected Sansa doesn’t hold her tongue for long. Was this Sansa letting her emotions getting the better of her here or has she purposely joined the Game of Thrones? She’s certainly wily enough for it having been taught by the best. Shortly before Jon revealing his parentage we see another butting of heads between the Lady of Winterfell and Khaleesi. I have to be honest here I was team Sansa at this point. In all of season 8 I don’t think I’ve heard anyone speak more sense than when Sansa said ‘we’ve just fought fucking zombies can we have a chance to catch our breath please?’

Eventually everyone heads back south with the intention of taking the Iron Throne. Jon marches straight for Kings Landing with the main force whilst Dany goes via ship to Dragonstone first for some reason. I’m assuming that way is quicker? Dany arrives at Dragonstone when suddenly out of nowhere (literally) Rhaegal is fatally pierced by a scorpion bolt. I was very shocked by this scene. I really didn’t see it coming. Euron Greyjoy had hidden the Iron Fleet in a bay close to Dragonstone and after destroying the dragon took her Dany’s own fleet. Now I have a few theories about why it happened. With two fully grown dragons, Cersei didn’t stand a chance in the big battle to come. So perhaps this was a way of evening the scales. Budget also plays a big part I imagine. Dragons cost $$$ same reason we said goodbye to Ghost.

GHOST! A lot of hate flying in for Jon on the cold reception he’s been giving Ghost. We saw him for about 30 seconds at the battle of Winterfell and then a very unemotional goodbye from Jon in this episode. Maybe it was too much for him after all the other goodbyes but it seemed really icy to me.

We find out eventually that Cersei somehow captured Missandei. I don’t want to get into the probability of that being possible considering they harpooned the entire fleet and she was just one of hundreds who’d been thrown overboard but they got her. We find out Cersei is housing 1000s of innocent citizens in the Red Keep as a deterrent from Drogon scourging it. Tyrion begs Dany to offer terms to Cersei and eventually, for once, Dany listens and agrees not to kill like 5000 innocent people. Thanks Dany you the best.

Dany goes to Kings Landing with like 80 men to offer Cersei her terms. I really think with 20,000 men at your back, and Drogon doing a fire show in the back ground, you would have had more luck. Tyrion and Cersei exchange words and eventually Cersei settles on the decision we all seen coming (I said this like 3 times now, predictable much?) and declines, killing Missandei, Dany’s last friend, via beheading. She did allow her one final word… Dracarys.

There was plenty about this episode I really liked and bits I didn’t. I loved Sansa and the Hound’s scene, however short it was. I’ve been waiting for this reunion since we discovered the Hound was alive and going north. Both in the books and the TV show I’ve been convinced the Hound was in love with her. I think it’s why he originally decided to help Arya, although she earned that friendship in the end. Sansa and the Hound had the most intriguing relationship in the early seasons and so when she final sat across from him in the great hall I was ecstatic. It didn’t disappoint. The Hound pointing out how none of it would have happened if she’d just come with him. The pain on his face as he said it, as if it was his fault. My heart!! And then the reassuring hand and her saying she’d still be a little bird if all that shit hadn’t happened to her and now she’s the bad as lady of Winterfell. Short and sweet and everything I wanted.

I liked Jaime’s little speech to Brienne. How Cersei is a hateful woman and he’s a hateful man. It was a nice reminder of how not nice Jaime Lannister actually is. Kid crippling, cousin strangling, sister sexing son of a bitch. I’ve loved the redemption story arc so far with Jaime Lannister but this scene reminded us he is pretty much unredeemable. He fought for the living and earned his page in history, but he’s going to end the series where he started it. Inside his sister.

I didn’t like the Jaime and Brienne hooking up. But this is a personal preference thing I’m not going to jump on the season 8 hating bandwagon because Brienne got laid. I just preferred the sexual tension unsatisfied.

Verdict for s8 ep 4 8/10

a note on season 8

I’ve seen a lot of people really disliking this season and as always to each their own. But I can’t understand a lot of the criticism aimed towards it. I’ve long been of the opinion that game of thrones has been on a gradual down curve since season 4 (minus a few battle of bastard esc episodes) however game of thrones is only not as good as it used to be by its own standards! It is still the best piece of television out there today. It doesn’t have the repeated story lines of walking dead. It doesn’t have the farfetched, desperate storylines of supernatural. It is a well thought out show with a sublime plot. People are complaining that characters seem to jump everywhere very fast. Do you really want 2 episodes of walking as Jon and Dany gets to Kings Landing? And complaints on the writing and dialogue. Well of course it has seen a dip in quality. We are no longer getting GRRM written word. So the writers have to come up with it for themselves. Doesn’t mean it’s awful, just not the jaw dropping stuff that takes George 10 YEARS PER BOOK to write. You can’t expect Benioff and Weiss to come up with dialogue in 2 years what George takes 10 years to write. Come on! This TV show has given us so much pleasure. Let’s just try and take it for what it is and enjoy.

thanks

It’s been a week and I am still trying to process what happened in season 8 episode 3 of Game of Thrones. Because of that, this review may see me contradict and argue with myself several times before the end. But allow me to start on something I can agree with myself on. In terms of the size, production and ambition of this episode, Game of Thrones has really outdone themselves here. In fact they’ve outdone every single episode of anything that has ever been on television, EVER.  From start to finish it was awe inspiring. Take a bow. Now that that has been said allow me to try and get some of my thoughts down on paper about this game changer of an episode. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW.

As soon as I learnt there would be a battle at Winterfell I called the Night King was going to die. He was never the main villain in the series and this isn’t his story. He was just another obstacle put in the way of our heroes. It was no surprise to me that he died in this episode. Now the last 3 episodes can focus on the mammoth task of closing the story lines of Jon, Dany and Cersei and the fight for the Iron Throne.

I was surprised that Arya got the nod to kill the Night King. I think the whole story so far has been building up to a show down between him and Jon and we nearly had it for a split second! In that scene, where Jon confronts the Night King outside the walls of Winterfell I had a flash back to the battle of bastards where Jon rushes in recklessly and gets his horse shot from under him. And like then the cavalry arrived just in time to save him, only this time in the form of Dany and Drogon. I thought this would have been the perfect opportunity for Ghost to get back in on the action but I guess not. Jon didn’t kill the Night King and I shouldn’t really be surprised. The show has been dropping hints since season 1 that Arya was going to pit herself against the god of death. Syrio’s famous last words gave her the kick up the arse she needed. I loved this scene, where the Red Woman tells Arya that Beric’s purpose had been fulfilled. For a few minutes Arya went back to being a frightened young girl but the words of The First Sword of Bravos reminded her she was NO ONE! It was nailed on after that that Arya was about to do some serious killing.

There was a lot that I didn’t like in the episode. Bran seems entirely pointless to the plot. Yes he has the memories and ability to see everything everywhere. But he doesn’t use it for anything. When the dead start to attack he randomly says ‘I’m going now’ and fucks off into some birds for absolutely no reason. I turned to my brother and said ‘he’s going to warg into some wolves or some shit now watch!’ I honestly believed he was going to use his power to actually do something instead of just sitting there. Another small problem I had with the episode is when the Night King died I really wasn’t that bothered. I felt absolutely no connection to him in anyway. Obviously this is difficult to do when the character doesn’t speak but I just didn’t find myself hating him. When Joffrey died I genuinely celebrated (when I read it). Same with Walder Frey and a few others. These were characters I couldn’t wait to see brutally murdered. The Night King didn’t inspire the same feelings in me and I was a bit disappointed by that. Maybe if we’d had some scenes of him torturing people. Or if he killed a few of the characters himself other than just Theon. After the battle at Hardhome when he raised the dead I thought ‘ok wow! We have a villain on our hands.’ But he really didn’t develop much from there. Finally, Dany really frustrated me during the battle. What was the point in making a plan if as soon as the battle starts she just throws it out the window. And maybe Dragon fire cant kill whitewalkers (who knew?) but nothing stopping the 100 tonne Dragon from biting him and tossing him around like a Jack Russel for a bit.

I wasn’t too bothered by the lighting in the episode. I saw a lot of people complaining about it but again I saw it coming. He’s the Night King after all it was never going to be in broad daylight. The blizzard was a bit frustrating at times but I was wondering how they was going to counter Dany’s two dragons, so again no real issue with it. Lots of people not happy with Sam surviving. I liked seeing the big guy still swinging at the end. Sam the Slayer lives on. Perhaps it was a bit unrealistic but believe me we are going to lose plenty of the people we love the most before season 8 is over so take joy in the fact we get to see Sam on screen for a little longer.

Some of the fighting in this episode was great. Brienne and Jaime in particular were a fantastic duo. Jaime may not be the best swordsman in the kingdom any more but the work he’s put in with Bronn over the years have made him a decent left handed fighter. The Hound had some brilliant moments in the episode too and Arya’s new weapon was brilliant although she didn’t keep hold of it for too long did she?

I thought the Red Woman was brilliant in this episode. From lighting the Dothraki swords on fire (little help that did in the end), to lighting the trench, giving Arya the boot she needed and then just fading away to nothingness Thanos snap style I loved it all. Lyanna Mormonts death scene was a little bit much but she has been an excellent character the last few seasons so she deserved a badass death I guess. It’s hard to take count of exactly who died and who is alive. I don’t remember seeing Pod at the end? Did any major character die in the crypts?

THE CRYPTS! Every other character on the show spent the last two episodes telling us how safe they were! I know Game of Thrones like to go hard or go home on their foreshadowing but some of the bones in them crypts are 100 years old I assumed they’d be too old to be raised but I guess not.

So let’s sum up here. I had issues with Bran being absolutely useless, the Night King not really invoking any feelings in me and Dany and her hatred for carefully placed plans. I really liked the ambition and size of the episode, the battle scenes were often very cool, Jaime and Brienne were great, the Red Woman also excellent.

In conclusion I think this episode was fantastic. I think for some people it was bit of a disappointment and I can see why they may feel that way. But something this big, that we have been waiting for this long, was never going to please everyone. Some people wanted to see the Jon vs Night King super fight. Everyone had their own expectations and you really can’t hit all the notes for everyone at once. On the production alone this episode deserves a 9/10. Just because for me there was a few really frustrating moments and I didn’t get any satisfaction from seeing the Night King die it falls just short of a perfect score.

Verdict for s8 ep3 9.5/10

I’ve been meaning to read The Rats trilogy for about 10 years now. A family member handed me an old battered version of James Herbert’s classic and I remember promising to give it a go as soon as I finished the tome I was plodding through at the time (it may have been a Song of Ice and Fire book I don’t quite remember). Well I never got around to reading it but a certain scene that was described to me always stayed with me so when I came to filling in my Christmas list last year I decided to add it on. Best decision I made all year.

I’m not a huge fan of horror books, preferring dragons and orcs to ghosts and haunted houses. However in recent years I have picked up several books by Steven King and Dean Koontz among others. Whilst for the most I’ve enjoyed them I haven’t felt myself chilled at any point by their writing. So in reading The Rats, I was hoping to be entertained but not expecting to be frightened in any way. I was wrong. This book stands alone as the only book that has ever given me nightmares. It’s not that I’m afraid of rats in general either. But James Herbert’s incredibly submerging writing style fills you with terror. He is descriptive, but in a minimalistic way that allows him to be incredibly fast paced. This book was a real page turner for me and id finished it within a few days.

The Rats has, in my experience, a very unique writing style. The story isn’t told from the point of view of one main protagonist, but instead by many smaller stories, all banded together to make one complete narrative. That’s not to say that we don’t get a hero in this story. Mr Harris, a school teacher, plays the role of vermin slayer brilliantly throughout. He is an intelligent, practical and incredible brave man who throughout the story shows good old fashioned British spirit to fend of the revolting rodents. His is the prominent story arc that the book follows, however it is often broken up by other stories of victory and defeat in the face of our vermin antagonists.

The enemy in this book comes in the form of a new breed of giant rats, with advanced intelligence and cunning far superior to their already wily cousins. These Rats are the size of large dogs, some as large as three meters tall when standing on their hind legs. And they are incredibly ruthless. Within the first few pages of the story we see a homeless man torn to pieces by them. The moments when they stand up on their hind legs and stare at people knowingly, with their unnatural intelligence, are the moments in the story that frightened me most. No amount of gore would put me off, but these abnormal moments of awareness from creatures that I see daily in the woodlands by my home really sent shivers down my spine.

Some of my favourite moments in the story take place away from our main character. One scene on a train, where a small timid man defends to women who earlier had completely dismissed him was a particular highlight. Another, where a small dog valiantly defends a baby was superb. And an incredibly cinematic scene where a zoo keeper sets loose the lions and tigers to face off against the Rats makes me wonder why no film company has tried to make a legitimate swing at this book. It was this Zoo scene, described to me 10 years ago, that got me interested in the first place.

In all I think The Rats is an incredible work of horror fiction. What makes it more incredible is that it was James Herbert’s debut novel, as it is a masterpiece in my opinion. The Rats deserves its place amongst the likes of The Shining and Demon Seed as one of the great books in the horror genre.

The Rats by James Herbert   10/10

Since Game of Thrones season 8 came out I’ve been seeing lots of discussion and plenty of confusion on the nature of Bran’s powers and thought I’d quickly add my thoughts to the conversation.

People’s main problem here seems to be the contradictive nature of Bran’s vision seeing ability. Why did he need Sam to tell him that Rhaegar and Lyanna were married in secret before he could view the event but automatically knew that Jaime would be arriving at Winterfell shortly? I listened to a podcast recently that explained it off as the writer’s lazy way to fill in plot details. I also saw a few people on twitter say that Bran can only see certain events, but not everything. I didn’t see either of these ways. Not at all.

 Bran is currently like one giant search engine. He has all the information available to him, but that doesn’t mean he knows it all at once. Jon’s parentage is a prime example. The Three Eyed Raven was the one who first showed Bran the scene at the Tower of Joy. When he wouldn’t let him see the ultimate outcome he went back on his own accord and discovered that Lyanna had given birth to Jon. Bran had heard the story of Rhaegar and Lyanna 100 times. He had no reason to look further into this. He just assumed Jon was the bastard son of Rhaegar and therefore had no claim to the iron throne. I imagine the only reason he wanted to tell Jon about his parentage so urgently is because he had been keeping a close eye on him during his Dragonstone visit and could see romance blossoming between Jon and his Aunt. Only when Sam prompted him by revealing Lyanna Starks marriage to the Dragon Prince did Bran see any reason to delve back into the past. He always had this ability. But in order to understand why he didn’t do it in the first place is to put it into different context. Imagine all the worlds history was written down into books and those books were being kept in your back room. You wouldn’t just scroll through every one of them, reading every moment in all of history hoping to find something important. You’d need someone to tell you which book to pick up, and which page to start reading from. Bran always had the ability to view Rhaegar and Lyanna’s wedding, but like when you are watching a DVD with a run time of 20,000 years he needed someone to give him the scene number. This isn’t the writers taking the easy road. Think of Bran and his powers more like that one man in every pub quiz who sneaks the bathroom to google answers.

How did he know Jaime was going to turn up? That one is simpler to explain. The Long Night is here. The Great War. Bran sees himself as the main opposition to the Night King. So when he learnt of Cersei and her promise to send men north it would come as no surprise that he was keeping tabs on the Lannisters. He may well have seen the Lannister Lovers big break up and seen Jaime coming north alone. So he’s been watching and waiting for him. I argued this point with myself for a short while. If this was the case wouldn’t Bran have told Jon, Dany and Sansa sooner that Cersei had betrayed them? I don’t think he would have. Telling them right away would probably have had Dany packing up her Centaurs, Eunuchs and Dragons and marching right back south to take that throne she loves so much. Also, if Bran has done his research, he knows by now that Jaime has become a true man of honour. A man that would be invaluable in The Great War with his experience if not his swordsmanship. And I think the news Cersei wasn’t going to be helping out was best coming from him.

So there it is. My thoughts on how Bran’s powers work. I imagine for most they see it the same way. But I have seen the odd few who seemed confused by the whole thing and just wanted to clear it up. For the record I’ve seen the actor himself give some opinion on how the powers work and I think his answer screams that his playing his cards pretty close to his chest. My explanation here is how I think George RR Martin intended these powers to be portrayed. Bran has all the knowledge he will ever need. Time is his only restriction here and so he needs people, like Sam, who will help him find out what is most important.

When I decided to write a blog the aim was to have it up and running before the new season of Game of Thrones started so I could share my thoughts and views on it after each episode. I failed miserably due to poor planning and a touch of laziness. So instead we are 1 day away from episode 3 and here I am doing a joint review of the first 2 episodes. For anybody who reads this I apologise and going forward my reviews with all follow within a day or two of the episode being aired.

Instead of doing a scene by scene review of both episodes I’ve decided to just pull up some of the major talking points and share my views on these. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW.

Firstly let us discuss a relationship so frosty it belongs north of the Wall. From the moment Dany and Sansa met we could feel the tension between them. Honestly am on team Sansa here. We know from watching 7 seasons of Game of Thrones that Daenerys is a pretty good queen. She is fair, benevolent and brave. Sansa however doesn’t know this. Her experience of queens and Targaryens hasn’t been a pleasant one. The last queen she was associated with was Cersei Lannister and all she knows of Targaryens is that one of them killed her uncle and grandfather. The only word she has that she can trust her new queen is from her half-brother Jon Snow who she barely knows anyway and her half-husband Tyrion Lannister. Sansa has trusted people before and been burnt… badly. Littlefinger the prime culprit here. A lot of people are hating on Sansa at the moment, but I can understand her trepidation here and I think it echoes the feeling of her own people. Sansa really only trusts herself at this point and you can understand why. However this has made Sansa believe she is smarter than everyone else. She’s survived King’s Landing, The Eyre and even Ramsay Bolton and it’s given her a little bit of a superior complex. Fair in that not many could have done this but it may get her in trouble down the line.

Dany’s main issue, in the series as a whole and not just in this season, is her inability to accept people have different opinions to her. YES, the Iron Throne is hers by right. But just like her ancestors took the Seven Kingdoms from the Andals and the First Men, King Robert Baratheon took the Iron Thrones from her father. People aren’t going to just give her what she wants because she has Missandei repeatedly scream her titles at them. She can use force to get her way, and with Dothraki, Unsullied and 2 dragons at her disposal she has the force to do it. But she needs to learn a new, more diplomatic way to win support. She still sees the Seven Kingdoms as one united continent when I reality it is as shattered as when Aegon first flew his dragons over to Westeros all those years ago. Stop burning people and start listening to them.

We saw a lot of reunions in the opening two episodes of season 8. Let’s call it for what it is. These first two episodes have been a very slow set up for what is going to be the most action packed Game of Thrones episode of all time. S8 e1 was all about reunions. The showrunners where simply putting all the pieces on the board where they belong. Jon, Dany, Sansa, Bran, Arya, Tyrion, Jaime, Brienne, Davos and Sam all under the one roof, to name maybe half of them? S8 e2 served as a reminder of why we love all these character. Why we have stuck with them for 69 episodes and counting. Before most of them are killed most likely. We saw Tyrion doing what he does best, talking. More of Jaime’s new found honour, Tormund continuing to be creepy and in love, Davos’ wit, Pod being full of surprises yet again and a reminder that Brienne has the biggest dick in Westeros and a Knighthood now to prove it. The Hound showed he had a heart, at where Arya is concerned. I’m still disappointed we haven’t seen a Hound and Sansa reunion. It was to Sansa that Sandor Clegane first showed he had compassion. He risked his head in offering to take her home from Kings Landing all those seasons ago. I’ve said all along I think he has a secret love for her. The irony of a man who fears fire falling for a girl who as the Freefolk say ‘has been kissed by fire.’ I think it’s why he chooses to help Arya in the first place.

Arya has confused me for maybe the entirety of the last two seasons. She switches constantly from cold, deadly assassin to cheeky young stark girl. Last season we saw her at ends with her sister. Nothing new seems they didn’t ever see eye to eye. Then at the end it was revealed they had been playing Littlefinger the whole time. However we didn’t see any solid reconciliation between the two and now we see a little coldness creeping in between Arya and Jon, the member of her wolf pack she was closest with. I’m curious how this will play out. I’ve seen a lot of outrage at Arya getting her kit off and getting it on with the blacksmith. Am not outraged with it. This is Game of Thrones after all. We’ve seen Arya stab a man’s eyes out, poison a room full of people, feed a father his sons in a pie. So why is it so horrifying to consider her having consensual sex? There wasn’t this much up roar when Sansa was raped. However I do think it was unnecessary. Felt like a bit of fan service to me. This had been brewing since they first met in season 2 and think the show runners have just tried to give some of the viewers what they asked for.

Now to address the elephant in the room. NO ELEPHANTS!? This is an outrage. Not really. How did Cersei really imagine they were going to get elephants onto those little Greyjoy ships? I personally don’t think we have seen enough of Cersei in the first two episodes of season 8. It obvious she is going to have a massive part to play in the second half of the season and yet she has been almost forgotten about so far. I can’t see her getting much screen time in the next episode either if report are true that we are to get the longest battle scene in TV/movie history.  It’s often perceived by fans that the main characters that really drive the narrative forward are the big 3 Jon, Dany and Tyrion yet I can’t help but include Cersei in that company. She has been equally as important to the story as anyone. I just hope the end of her story isn’t rushed.

Finally we have seen Jon and Dany’s story move forward at an exhilarating speed. Considering they only met last season they have been rivals, then civil, then allies. They’ve done battle together, became lovers and Jon surrendered his crown to her. Now they’re in the north and Jon has finally learnt the truth of his parentage.  He took it quite well in my opinion for someone who just learnt he’s been banging his aunt. I’m curious why alarm bells weren’t ringing for the both of them when Jon just casually mounted a dragon and flew it around like he was in an Eragon sequel. These dragon’s burnt a child a couple of season ago. Another question I found myself asking is why Jon takes this information so easily. Sansa and Arya have witnessed first-hand Bran’s strange powers. Bran described the scene of Sansa’s rape. I’m not sure why he didn’t pick another memory to share. Literally any other memory would have been fine. He also says something to Arya that makes her realise he isn’t just talking out his Euron (arse). I can’t remember exactly what he says, so if anyone reads this and can help me out that’d be appreciated. Jon hasn’t seen these powers and I find it strange why he didn’t question Bran on it more. Anyway he gives it to Dany after some desperate avoiding tactics. As you can imagine she doesn’t take it well, sensing some sort of play for the throne. She doesn’t even acknowledge the incestuous implications of what Jon is saying but then why should she? Her family have been sleeping together for generations. Her first thought is for her beloved Iron Throne, the inanimate object that she has never even seen, never mind owned. Which makes me wonder has her marching north all just been a political move to ensure she gets the support from the north that she needs.

Let’s be honest. The first two episodes of season 8 of Game of Thrones haven’t been what we had hoped for. We waited two years for this. In fact the story has really moved forward at all. We have learnt nothing new. The two big reveals in the two episodes have been Sam telling Jon of his parentage and Jon telling Dany and this was stuff the viewer already knew. We didn’t even get to see any fall out as both episodes pretty much finished after these conversations were had. I think back to some of the opening episodes of other seasons. S1 ep1, we see Cersei and Jaime humping! WTF moment. S4 ep2 that little shit Joffery finally gets it! EPIC moment. We have nothing of the sort in these two episodes. I am confident that episode 3 will be up to the task of making up for the slow start but I am convinced that with a bit of rearranging we could have had a better first two episodes of season 8.

Verdict for s8 ep1 6.5/10

Verdict for s8 ep2 7/10

We live in a time of writing when to create something truly original is incredibly difficult. People have been writing story’s for thousands of years. Homer’s epic poem the Illiad was composed 2800 years ago and every day since us writers have been creating stories to entertain our fellow man. So it’s no surprise that in Robert Jordan’s beloved Wheel of Time series that there would be some similarities with books that have come before. Here I’d like to discuss a few of those possible influences, some blatantly obvious such as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and other more subtle potential influences in the series. My aim here isn’t to expose Jordan as some sort of imitator but to instead see how he’s paid homage to his influences and quite often improved upon them.

Whilst tempting to jump straight into similarities his books share with other forms of fiction I want first to take a look at perhaps more serious influences. In this case, religion. Jordan was known to be a devout Christian and this shone through boldly in his books. Much of the Karatheon cycle echoes the words in the book of Revelations when talking about the end of the world. Even the last battle Tarmon Gai’don sounds similar to Armageddon when sounded out slowly. One interesting similarity I found with the Wheel of Time and the bible is their reference to a dragon not in its literal sense. Not the dragons that Daenerys is currently flying around atop in Game of Thrones or the traditional Chinese ones we see on the front of most takeaway menus. Even more interesting is that in Wheel of Time the Dragon refers to the champion of the light, chosen by the creator to fight against The Dark one whereas in the Bible the Dragon refers to the Devil himself. Interesting how Jordan has decided to twist it here in his series. Similarities can also be drawn between Rand and Jesus. Jesus is often referred to as the morning star, similar to Rand ‘he who comes with the dawn’. Other references such as the seals holding Satan in hell like the seals on the Dark Ones prison and even blatant ones such as Satan and Shai’tan show that Jordan’s faith rings out in the Wheel of Time.

Another one of Jordan’s major influences outside of literature was history. Jordan was known to be a major history buff and several major influences are more apparent in the series. The most prominent in my opinion is Asian history, more specifically the samurai fighting and blade styles that are such a huge part of the series throughout. Jordan spent two tours in Vietnam as a helicopter machine gun operator and that could perhaps be where some of the interest came from. Of course Vietnam historically would have used the dao sword as opposed to the Japanese samurai but I believe that a wide variety of Asian cultures has been used throughout the wheel of time. A lot of the clothing that Rand comes to wear has a very oriental feel to them as well as the very popular top knot we see a lot of in the books. Historically western Asia (Mesopotamia) was known as Shinar, or the land of two rivers. Is it a coincidence that we see two places in the Wheel of time that bear the same name? The Two Rivers where our heroes set off from and Shienar, a country bordering the blight. Obviously Andor bears resemblance to a medieval style England and the relationship between Cairhein and Andor is very similar to that of England’s and France 1066 and onwards. Their royal line is interlinked by blood and often they try usurping one another with political play. Finally Artur Hawkwing bears numerous similarities to King Arthur or Britain. Of course King Arthur isn’t an actual historical figure but in terms of historical folklore the resemblance is plain to see.

Now onto his influences inside literature and it’s impossible to not start with the elephant in the room that is Lord of the Rings. The similarities between these two book series, especially early on in the Wheel of Time, are massive. To begin with, both stories start very similar, with our main protagonists leaving their quiet little rural part of the world and venturing out in the face of an evil threat. Both have a specific destination in mind, with the four brave hobbits of the Lord of the Rings aiming for Mount Doom to destroy the ring and our three Ta’veren going in search for the Eye of the World. They’re chased out of their peaceful little homes by sinister hooded ghouls (Ringwraiths and Fades) and pursued through their respective worlds by hideous monsters such as trolls and orcs in Middle Earth and a mixture of both, at least in word play, in the beastly Trolloc (troll – orcs?) of Randland. As their guides are the wise magic users (Gandalf and Moiraine) and the grim exiled warrior kings (Aragorn and Lan). To stop here would be more than enough to highlight the major influences that Jordan has drawn from Tolkien’s masterpiece. He’s not the first to do so. In fact you’d be hard pressed to find a single fantasy writer who hasn’t been influenced by the book that might just be the most important piece of fictional literature ever written. Jordan has admitted the huge part that Tolkien’s work had on his own. It’s the similarities that most likely got people interested in the first place, but it’s the differences that have kept readers going for 14 books. How these characters that seemed so familiar to us at first revealed themselves to be far different, yet equally as lovable as the beloved Fellowship. And it’s not just The Lord of the Rings that similarities can be drawn.

James Herbert’s Dune came out in 1965 and is one of the most popular science fiction books ever written. What set it apart from most sci-fi novels are its similarities to the fantasy genre. I see almost as many influences in Dune as do in the Lord of the Rings as far as the Wheel of Time is concerned. The Aes Sedai and the Bene Gesserit are similar in many ways. Both great influencers of the world in-which they operate. Both wield mysterious powers. Even the way they hold themselves and talk, they could easily be different branches of the same tree. The Bene Gesserit goal is to produce a male Bene Gesserit in a world where only women use the powers they possess. Sounds familiar to the search for the Male Aes Sedai called the Dragon. If you haven’t read Dune please do yourself a favour and pick it up. It really is a fantastic novel and if I haven’t convinced you here of the huge similarities between these two school of women wizards you’ll agree after reading it. The other massive similarity between the two series is the Aiel of the wastes and the warrior people of the desert , The Fremen. Hardened by their harsh way of life these people have become the elite warriors of their respective worlds. Their codes of honour and justice go hand in hand and their prophecy of a saviour, in Dunes case the Mahdi  and Wheel of Time the Car’a’carn, are similar also. I’d be very surprised if Jordan didn’t take influence from this amazing book.

One final comparison I would like to make is between the Wheel of Time series and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series by Steven Donaldson. The first book of Donaldson’s classic came out in 1977 and is a fantastic series of books. Whilst the similarities between the stories aren’t as obvious, I did pick up on some that may be just a coincidence, but may not. Thomas Covenant was the first time I remember reading a protagonist that at many times, wasn’t very likable. Here was the main hero who it was very difficult to root for. You wanted him to succeed, but that was because you cared about the other characters in the story and not so much your main character. Rand takes up this role for much of the final third of the series. As his mind deteriorates into madness he becomes a very unlikeable character, much like Covenant in parts of his own series. Another similarity is the two main weapons in the series. Callandor, the sword that is not a sword, and Loric’s Krill are two bladed weapons in the story that aren’t used for fighting at all. Both are integral to the story and both are used as conduits for vast amounts of power. They’re both wielded by are heroes to varying degrees of success. The last similarity I see between the two series is their use of the great evil in the story. Throughout many fantasy series such as, Lord of the Rings, Song of Ice and Fire, Rift War saga and many others the great evil threat that hangs over the world very rarely comes into contact with our heroes. In both the Wheel of Time series and Thomas Covenant that isn’t the case. Often both The Dark One of Wheel of Time and Lord Foul of Covenant interact with the main characters in the story, influencing their choices and actively opposing them. This isn’t an evil threat that, if we don’t act may harm us in the future. In both Wheel of Time and the Thomas Covenant series the evil is consistently trying to thwart their plans. The two evils are very similar. Lord Foul was trapped by the Creator inside the Arch of Time to stop him destroying time itself and in extension, all existence. The Dark One is likewise trapped inside the Wheel of Time and wants to destroy it. See the pattern here?

One series that I am confident hasn’t influenced the Wheel of Time in any way is a Song of Ice and Fire. Both series where released around the same time and the only similarities I see in the books are that they may have been influenced by the same time period in British and French history. That’s it!

I’m a keen reader of the fantasy genre. I’ve read 100s of books and plan on reading 1000’s more. These are some of the similarities that jumped out at me whilst reading the Wheel of Time. However this is simply an opinion piece. I don’t have facts to back this up and am in no way trying to write Robert Jordan off as some copycat who lacks his own ideas. In many ways he has taken some of these ideas and improved upon them. By the end of the series it is so far removed from those early similarities you wouldn’t believe it’s the same book. I merely wanted to point it out as a way of showing us how we can be influenced by everything around us. Some of you may be writers and it’s quite possible that your own ideas where influenced by Jordan’s work. It’s very difficult to write something truly original these days in a world that has been writing for 4000+ years. But what is truly amazing is to write something similar, but so much better than everything that’s come before it and that is definitely what Robert Jordan achieved in the Wheel of Time.

The idea to start putting more into my discussion and analysis on the Wheel of Time series came when I started to listen to podcasts and youtube videos whilst exercising of an afternoon. Tired of the same 30 songs on my playlist I decided to try out the Black Tower podcast on Spotify to see if it would make the time go any quicker on the exercise bike. It worked and whilst having minor success in the keep fit department it also done wonders for reigniting my passion for Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy.

Reinvigorated, I decided to first create the Tarmon Gai’don(@dontarmon) twitter page, to engage with likeminded fans and pose questions and find answers to some of the books most exciting scenarios. However pretty early into the twitter page I became frustrated with the limitations of social media. Sometimes you just can’t get your point across in 280 characters or less. I toyed with the idea of creating my own podcast but chickened out at the idea of all the hard work it would take to set up and the scrutiny I’d be under. So blog it is!

Originally I’d planned to keep all my eggs in one basket and create a blog page dedicated solely to the Wheel of Time series but with a new Lord of the Rings series on the horizon as well as a Game of Thrones prequel series in production it made more sense to branch out and have my finger in several pies at once. Don’t get me wrong, I plan on filling this page Wheel of Time content. My first three articles are all Wheel of Time based and I have tons more in the works. But there will be some Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings content here too, as well as other fantasy books and series.

My only desire here is to engage with passionate fans about books that have kept us all up way past our bed time. To voice my thoughts and opinions more thoroughly than I’m able to do on social media and hopefully hear some of your thoughts to.

Welcome to the Fantasy Attic.

Check out the twitter page for the blog which will soon be full of content but as of the time of writing this is completely empty. @atticfantasy