Old Reeky McKilljoy. Even when Ramsay Bolton was hacking bits off of
him, it was hard to generate much sympathy for Theon, so loathsome is
he. Theon's not evil exactly as much he just always
makes the (often obviously) wrong decision
(for evil cf. Ramsay Bolton). I actually sided with Theon
once when he came back and saved Robb and Bran from the
Wildlings. Robb was a total douche in that instant. Theon's one
undeniable talent is as an archer (recall him nonchalantly shooting
down Frey ravens on the wing), so the notion that Theon would have
"accidentally" shot Bran when he had a clean shot at close range was
almost worthy of getting Robb's ungrateful outburst put on
the GoT
WTF page.
As bad as Theon has been, he's been slowly coming around
and at least is aware that he's done some sketchy things, especially
his killing and burning the two orphan boys in Bran and Rickon's
stead. Once profoundly self-centered, he's increasingly suppressing
his self for others, as when he supports Yara's claim to the throne
and fights to rally Yara's men to and save her.
Yet, for all of the hints that the good may come out, Theon can
never quite seem to get the redemption thing down. I expect him to
redeem himself just enough in the end to survive, but he's still
Theon Greyjoy with a little stench of Reek about him and he'll have
to live with that.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
Game of Thrones is a great show — great
characters, complex and compelling plot, rich and detailed costumes
and sets in dazzling scenery, and dragons done right. But! (What was
that thing Ned Stark used to say?) But, they threw into a couple of
unforced errors which I will review here.
The "Death" of Syrio Forel
When the Lannisters started rounding up or killing all the Starks in
King's Landing, Arya was training with Syrio Forel, First Sword of
Braavos and Master of the Water Dance, who says "not today" to the
God of Death. Meryn Trant shows up with four or five Lannister men,
who promptly get knocked out by Syrio with his wooden sword. Meryn
Trant, disgusted by the Lannister performance, moves in and after
trading a few swings, cuts Syrio's sword in half. Syrio tells Arya
to flee. He's staying because "The First Sword of Braavos does not
run." Cut to fleeing Arya and you hear some screaming in the
background, presumably Syrio's death cries.
"What's wrong with that?" you ask.
"Every damn thing!" I answer.
Syrio Forel is the First Sword of Braavos. Meryn Trant is a
trumped up bum. The Hound dismissed Trant thus: "Any boy whore with
a sword could beat three Meryn Trants." Bronn to Trant's face: "And
you're a grub in fancy armor who's better at beating little girls
than fighting men." You watch Syrio Forel mow down four or five
armored men in seconds with a wooden sword, and you're supposed to
believe the First Sword of Braavos loses to that grub Meryn Trant
broken sword or no?
There are theories that Syrio Forel actually beat Meryn Trant, but
Trant didn't confess out of shame in the defeat. You never hear him
boast of his victory or tell the fate of Syrio, so I suppose that
might feed into that line. Alternatively, it's been suggested that
Syrio is really Jaqen H'ghar, which might have been cool. But a late
reveal of either of these two scenarios would beg for
yet-another-rant about unforced errors in Game of
Thrones. No, we just have to be cranked and shaking our damn
heads. Dadgumit.
Jaime Charges Daenerys next to Drogon
After the most amazing battle maybe ever in the history of shows,
Jaime Lannister has the "cunning plan" to charge Daenerys while
she's pulling the Scorpion bolt out of her fire breathing dragon
Drogon. Well, maybe, that would be OK in some other story line. But
it wasn't. It happened in the story line we got, which followed with
a WTF-fest.
Bronn to the Rescue!
I love Bronn. He's one of my favorite characters, maybe only behind
Arya and the Hound. Hell, he may be ahead of the Hound. He's up
there. But there is no way in seven holy hells that Bronn
is going to fricking charge Drogon and risk dragon fire after seeing
the better part of the Lannister army burned to a crisp. OK, but say
he has some secret loyalty that would cause him to risk dragon fire
for Jaime (where he wouldn't fight the Mountain for Tyrion), what
was the plan after knocking Jaime out of the way. Drogon has plenty
more where that came from, and he can walk over and bite you,
too. OR, did Bronn actually know in advance, that unlike most
other lakes where the bottom slopes away from the shore that
in this lake it's really fricking deep right up to the
shore and it was his plan to knock Jaime into the water and avoid
the dragon that way?
Really?
Walk/Swim across the Lake in Armor
OK. So Bronn knocks Jaime into the deep part of the lake that runs
right up to Daenerys was tending to Drogon. Now what? Screw that!
Let's just have them walking out of the lake a half mile or so from
where they got in. It's hard to swim in clothes with shoes on. It
can't be done in armor. So, did they hoof it along the bottom? If
they could actually hold their breaths for three minutes while
running at 10 miles an hour underwater in armor, that would "work",
I guess. Or maybe Bronn just happened to bring a couple of Braavosi
underwater rebreathers along with him, just in case. Maybe Westerosi
can breathe water. Aquaman can, maybe they're like him? I mean
seriously, WTF?
Arya is the most over-the-top and non-traditional character in Game
of Thrones. That is, unlike Jon Snow who is theHero with a
Thousand Faces, Arya is an anti-hero who happens to have a
thousand faces who is running around kicking ass and taking names
and then crossing those names off her list by killing them,
sometimes by the score. She is the High Priestess of the God of
Death and she seems to enjoy her job. As such, I really have no idea
what is going to happen to her.
If she can bring the world back to some sort of karmic balance by
reducing her list to length zero, I see a couple of
possibilities. One would be she gets whacked by Jaqen H'ghar or goes
back to Jaqen H'ghar and is finally able to renounce her ego. Or,
maybe killing Jaqen H'ghar and taking his place e.g., becoming Jaqen
H'ghar. I just don't know how satisfying any of those would be, and
it's not all that interesting. Another would be to take over
Winterfell if Sansa were to die (which I think
is unlikely)
or move elsewhere like to Casterly Rock or King's Landing. She's a
Stark and the only Stark left that both has the Stark name and her
estranged but still living direwolf Nymeria. You know the
Arya-Nymeria reunion at Winterfell would be a tear-jerker, although
Nymeria has already turned Arya down in their last encounter. The
one ending that would be satisfying and in character would have her
into the sunset with Nymeria, Bronn, and Yara Greyjoy looking for
fun and adventure. But that's not going to happen.
To date, Arya has really only been about learning to fight,
perfecting her skills, and exacting retribution from her enemies by
assassination. It would be disappointing if that's all there was to
her, but I don't think we'll be disappointed on that point: she's
going to be put on a quest to take out someone formidable. She's got
some big names on her list — including the Mountain and Cersei
Lannister — but I'm thinking even bigger: the Night King or maybe a
dragon?
Once her task is done, however, she'll be expendable. As my favorite
character, it pains me to make this prediction: Arya is going to
die. It's likely to be Cersei and by some treachery. If Brienne
can't beat Arya, she's not going to be beat in single combat, but
maybe she goes down swinging like Syrio Forel? Well, the Syrio Forel
exit was kind of bogus, how about like Benjen Stark? I'll be
watching Arya with particular attention and hoping this prediction
is off base.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
Winter is coming for Robin Arryn. We can only hope. This is a
lighter post (I'm not predicting here, only wishing), and if we're
lucky, we've already seen the last of Robin Arryn, the insufferable
son of the batshit crazy Lysa Arryn, who Petyr Baelish mercifully
(for us) punted out the Moon Door. If we're really lucky
we'll get to see the bad boy fly, too.
One of the things I think anyone has to admit, is
that Game of Thrones (GRRM and the HBO folks) has provided
some of the most creepy, crappy, loathsome, hideous, hate-worthy
verminous characters in the history of stuff that's (still) legal to
watch or read. It was tough watching Sansa in the crush on
Joffrey days, turning on Arya and Ned. She was terrible, but after a
fashion she showed backbone and endurance that demanded respect even
if it didn't foster affection. I'll take Game of Thrones
scrogtoids for a thousand, Alex. Answer is: That thing that Robin
Arryn contributes outside of creepy shithead annoy tf out of me
factor.
NOT A PREDICTION, but it seems if you want to see
Robin fly out the Moon Door, you should have a "theory" of how it
comes to be. OK, the Seven Kingdoms need stability after the mayhem
they've seen with the War of the Five Kings and the war against the
Night King and the Army of the Dead, and whatever mayhem comes after
the Daenerys gets or doesn't get the Iron Throne. House Arryn and
House Stark could be united if Arya marries
Robin. Heh. They get married. When the revelers think the marriage
is being consummated, Arya has Robin in the High Hall of the
Eyrie. She drags him up to the throne and attempts to throw him out
the Moon Door, but misses with the first shot. She hops down, drags
him back up and hits the shot second time around, after which she
can go roam Westeros wild and free like Nymeria. Varys claims the
throne, which he immediately renounces to set up an
Anarcho-Capitalist arrangement between the Hill Tribes and the
people of the Eyrie and everyone lives happily ever after.
A summary of all original and current predictions (but not this one,
because it's not a actual prediction) with pointers can be found at
the WBC
Prediction Status page.
Tyrion wins by just surviving. I think he will, and I think that
will leave him Lord of Casterly
Rock. As
I said earlier, Jaime's road to redemption can only go so far,
but Tyrion is one of the most consistently honorable characters in
the show, especially if you come at it from a libertarian
perspective which sees his debauchery as non-coercive and thus at
the very least karma mitigating. He twists arms, but that's limited
to using his rivals' and other scoundrels' mistakes against
them. The only real ding on him — and this isn't small — was killing
Shea. In the karmic logic of tragedy, though, it was required and he
has atoned for it by killing Tywin and being exiled. I think Tyrion
is pardoned and restored to Casterly Rock in the denouement although
what a twist if he remarries a Sansa who is happy to do so.
Might it really end with Tyrion married to Sansa? IDK Westerosi
jurisprudence all that well, but their marriage might only be in
need of consummation. Anyway, they were married once, and they could
be married again. Moreover, it would make sense. What
better way to end the conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters
by marrying a Stark to a Lannister and joining the houses? I don't
why I think this, but I think that if Sansa and Tyrion do wind up
married, they will either be at Casterly Rock or Winterfell, and
someone else will be on the Iron Throne.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found at
the WBC
Prediction Status page.
Jaime Lannister has developed into one of the more interesting and
complex characters in Game of Thrones. He was introduced as
an amoral, smug, over-confident, self-satisfied prick, but through
the story he reveals that part of that is an affectation covering a
conflicted man with a code of honor he tries to cleave to even as
love and irreconcilable duties pull him in different directions. His
Huck Finn moment came before the show started when he violated his
oath killing the Mad King for the moral aim of saving the people of
King's Landing from the King's wildfire. Jaime was fleshed out
further through his adventures with Brienne of Tarth. Saving her
from the bear pit showed his potential when he was at his heroic
best, even if he's one handed.
It's possible, I suppose, that Jaime throws his that in
the Game of Thrones ring — he's the elder son of Tywin
Lannister, heir to Casterly Rock and the most powerful house in
Westeros. He's had a change of heart about Cersei, and it appears
that as with the Mad King, he's ready to turn on the person seated
on the Iron Throne in service of what he sees as a higher moral
purpose. But that doesn't seem to be in keeping with his character
up to this point — he's never had any interest in the throne and the
responsibility it requires. He's not playing the Game.
Jaime's fate is not to win and even if there is a happy ending for
his path of redemption he's been following, his redemption can only
go so far. I think the best thing Jaime can hope for is to be taken
of Arya's list by some means other than death, but I don't think
that this is likely. His longer term prosepects, though, may not be
good if the story is to have him go out of the world with the person
he came into it with. Jaime kills Cersei, the Mountain kills Jaime,
the Hound kills the Mountain? That could go down pretty quickly, but
I think it will be very late in the series, possibly the final
episode.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
Ah, Cersei. To date, she's been the ultimate player of the Game, but
this is a streak that cannot last. I guess if they wanted to go full
tragedy, they could wreck all of Westeros and let her rule, alone,
over a dead continent in ruins. If Cersei wins, then it surely has
to be a Pyrrhic victory, as other victories of hers turned out to
be. But I don't think she will win, because she just offers too many
great opportunities in her departure. Arya really wants to
off her, but I think either Jaime will take her out or she'll have
to endure watching Sansa ascend to Queen and be stripped of land and
titles, etc., and have to go live in a nunnery or something like
that. It may actually be a combination.
Way back in Season 2, Daenerys has a waking dream of sorts in the
House of the Undying where she walks through the Great Hall of the
Red Keep — its roof destroyed and snow falling — with continuing
service to a room with an alive Drogo and non-scaly baby Rhaego. The
latter event never happened, so is it a "this is what would have
happened" to contrast with the vision of "what she's going to get in
return?" It's easy to imagine that King's Landing and the Red Keep
get destroyed through some combination of Army of the Dead, dragons,
Dothraki horde, self-immolation via wildfire, etc. Remember, too,
that by killing the White Walker, you can automagically kill all the
zombies the White Walker raised, so they can kill every damn body in
Westeros, and still dispatch the Army of the Dead if they can just
kill the White Walkers and the Night King. If Arya, with her
Valyerian steel dagger, can wear the face of a White Walker, then the
Night King is in some serious deep shit. Just sayin'.
If I were writing the story, Cersei would "rule", alone, over a
largely depopulated Westeros — ashes covered in snow. But, I'm not
writing it, and America doesn't do tragedy. Alas. This is how I
think it plays out — Jaime kills Cersei at some point after having
sided with Tyrion in some sort of act of redemption.
Cersei's Baby
Cersei is pregnant as we go into Season 8, presumably with Jaime's
baby. Even though she shagged her cousin Lancel when Jaime was on
the road, there's no reason to think the kid's not Jaime's and to
have it mysteriously not would be (what Qyburn?) some
pretty crappy writing, but, hey, they did the whole Jaime charges
Daenerys next to the dragon (WTF?) and Bronn knocks him off
his horse before he can get incinerated (WTF?) into the lake where
the deep part runs right up to the shore (WTF?) aaand they swim a
mile underwater in armor (W the seriously T the seriously F?). That
was shark-jumping badness, so, anything is possible, but I
think that was just an aberration, not a symptom of impending
suckitude, in an otherwise pretty awesome episode.
Time is tricky in GoT, so I think Cersei's baby is
definitely in play. A boy, that's taken as a ward into Sansa's
court? Or, adopted as son to Sansa and Tyrion? They wouldn't have a
pregnant Cersei if the baby didn't have a role to play. What would a
daughter mean? Early flier guess — boy turned into a White Walker by
the Night King.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
Jon Snow to Sansa Stark: "You almost sound as if you admire her [Cersei Lannister].
Sansa: "I learned a great deal from her."
Sansa Stark is the stalking horse in the GoT race. For a
character who started out painfully irritating and naive, she has
through great suffering and abuse acquired wisdom and cunning. Jon
and Sansa have an uneven understanding, but each now hold the other
in esteem and with respect. There is space for this relationship to
develop (I don't think there will be any romance, just aligned
interest and loyalty to the Stark family) and the woman for whom
being the Queen of Westeros seemed all but certain in Season 1 may
have a shot in Season 8. Lots of interesting possibilities
especially if Queen Sansa has a hand in how Cersei Lannister is
disposed of.
Sansa is not an easy pick, as she has some serious karmic flaws
against her, including the loss of her direwolf Lady who by her
lying she unwittingly sacrificed in the stead of Nymeria. Does that
absolve her, or does that doom her? Hard to say. One of the signals
that Sansa is going to play a role is her nuclear bomb of a sister
Arya has returned to Winterfell with a hit list that doesn't have
Sansa written on it. So, Sansa has means (Arya, Brienne of Tarth,
Stark banner men (presumably)), motive (revenge at the very least,
but she was queued to be queen Season 1), and now needs opportunity,
which comes after the final clash with the Night King and the Army
of the Dead or in whatever scheming and alliance building required
to initiate that clash.
So, if Sansa does win, does she ascend to the Iron Throne
alone? And if not, who stands beside her? She was married to Tyrion
Lannister once — might she marry him again? That would go a long way
toward cooling the hot blood in the Stark-Lannister conflict,
especially if Cersei gets taken out. I think the Tyrion angle could
actually work considering that almost all of the men she's dealt
with have been schmucks to downright evil (looking at you dog-chewed
corpse of Ramsay Bolton). Two that she (almost certainly) has come
to see are not are Sandor Clegane aka the Hound and Tyrion
Lannister. Despite the karmic drawback of not having a direwolf,
Sansa is my early flier bet to win it all. Will hold off on the
marriage to Tyrion for now, but recognize that it's really not all
that crazy of an idea.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
The above table contains pointers to my original predictions as well
as any updated prediction based on new evidence as it rolls out
during the new season. Explanation for the different fields:
Character
Name and link to original prediction
Will survive?
Current guess and link to updated prediction (if any)
Alive?
Is the character still alive as of the current episode
Will win?
Current guess and link to updated prediction (if any)
Won?
Final outcome
The Will win? entry needs a little explanation, as I have
overloaded its meaning. For some characters, winning means winning
the Game of Thrones, and as Cersei Lannister says, "when
you play the game of thrones, you win or you die." However, not
everyone is playing the same game. My
early take is that Jon Snow is not playing, even though it
kinda looks like he is as he's fiddling around on the edges, so as
gamers might say different players have different victory
conditions. Many of the characters "game" is just making it through
the winter (they may not know of the Army of the Dead — yet!), so I
won't call them out.
The table order is oldest post descending to the most recent
which roughly corresponds to descending order of importance
to the story as I intuit it. Not too much should be read into that,
however, since some of the characters are grouped due to some
association in the show.
Jon is the most traditional hero of all of the characters
in GoT: noble youth separated from family, goes on quest,
gets a mentor, receives a boon (Longclaw), dies, comes back, yadda,
yadda, yadda, right out of
the Joseph
Campbell playbook. Moreover, it will be widely revealed in
Westeros that Jon Snow is really Aegon Targaryen the lawful son of
Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Targaryen neé Stark, which would put
him in the front of the line for the Iron Throne if that's the way
you want to see the situation (e.g., Robert Baratheon would not
have, and Daenerys might not either). Certainly the neatest way to
wrap it all up is just to follow
the Campbellian
Hero's Path leading to a restored Aegon Targaryen on the Iron
Throne married to his aunt Daenerys (because that's what Targaryens
do) and we are back where we started.
Back where started, here we go 'round again…
Problem is, it's too pat, and as much as fans love Game of
Thrones, I don't think the GoTeratti would be cool
with aunt marries nephew and lives happily ever
after. Again, GoT cleaves to conventional themes even if it
uses over-the-top exhibition. Inbreeding consistently gets punished
through out the arc of the story (e.g., Mad King, shrinking dragons,
Cersei's children all dying horrible deaths, etc.). No, I find it
more likely that Jon will have to turn on Daenerys, and Sansa Stark
may be involved. Moreover, Jon doesn't need to sit on the Iron
Throne to complete a hero's journey and "win" if he's not playing
the Game, but is on a different quest.
When predicting, it's incumbent upon one to predict. OK, we'll get to
that, but we have things to consider first. A spanner in the works
is Beric Dondarrion. Jon wasn't the first to die and come back. If
you're not the only person to die and come back, then resurrection
loses some of it's awesomeness, especially when it's just whatever
the Brotherhood without Banners watches whenever Beric Dondarrion
gets cut down and Thoros "Stinky McStink Breath" of Myr brings him
back. Jon's status as "alive" is not entirely clear.
Consider, too, Maester Aemon's enigmatic "kill the boy, and let the
man be born" advice given to Jon Snow. (HT Sistopher) This could be
read different ways, the simplest being "grow up". But then Jon
literally dies for saving the Free Folk/Wildlings. Jon is definitely
a major hero, but is he Aragorn or Frodo Baggins? Or, is he Samwise
Gamgee? The easy out is Aragorn — Ranger of the North, leading the
Men of the West(North) against the armies of Sauron(Night King) and
reuniting the Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor(Seven Kingdoms). Aegon
Aragorn — a set up or a Tolkien rewrite with lots of sex to distract
you from the fact?
Before we can get to the punchline, there is another factor we must
consider: Ghost. Of the original six direwolves, only Ghost and
Nymeria are still alive (Sansa is the only Stark alive whose
direwolf is dead, but more on that in later post). Does this mean anything?
I don't think you gum up a story with direwolves with psychic
connections to each other and their humans to have it all not really
mean anything. The fate of Ghost will be a tell.
As I mentioned in the
Daenerys
post, I don't think the whole Jon and Daenerys thing can
stand. Moreover, I think it ends in tears. In fact, Daenerys may die
by Jon's hand. Think about it — the whole damn show is about Jon
doing stuff he really doesn't want to do, and what would be more
tear jerkier than Jon "I already had to watch Ygritte die in my
arms" Snow having to kill aunt Daenerys and watch her die
in his arms while making some weepy confession. Jon's may already be
dead, so he doesn't need to die again, but I guess that depends on
the as of yet unclear definition of death
in GoT. Prediction: Jon's fate is to ride into the sunset
Man With No Name style after some "mission accomplished" event. I
don't think it is to sit on the Iron Throne. Better said, Jon Snow
will not be the last person to sit on the Iron Throne at the end of
season 8. The end of Jon's hero's quest wouldn't be to have to
continue to do stuff he doesn't want to do like rule over
Westeros. Jon wins by not having to do any more crap. Jon is Frodo
dressed up as Aragorn.
Ghost
So goes Jon Snow, so goes Ghost, and vice versa. However, the story
heaps all sorts of bad stuff on Jon, so I could see them killing
Ghost and bringing him back to fight with the Army of the Dead, and
Jon has to rekill his own direwolf. In this case, that's not
necessarily the end of Jon — it frees him from being a Stark so he
can ride off into the sunset.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground. -- Cersei Lannister
As season eight of Game of Thrones approaches, it seems
appropriate to review the prospects of the different characters,
provide some analysis, and guess their fate. Westerosi Body
Count will be a series of these analyses that I'll roll out as
blog posts, followed by analysis of the hits and inevitable misses
after the season starts. The only predictions I make with
take-this-to-the-bank certitude is that there will be a significant
body count and Theon Greyjoy won't win the Game of Thrones,
though I think he's got a good shot at surviving. More on that in a
future post.
One of the things that struck me about GoT as I thought
about it a little was how conventional it is in some ways. That it's
not obvious is a tribute to Martin and the HBO crew — they execute
the familiar tropes very well. The two biggest conventions
are you'll pay for your mistakes and what goes around
comes around. Ned Stark isn't dead because he was a good or
honorable man — he's dead because he incompetently threatened Cersei
Lannister with no means of following through (after he squandered
them). Big mistake. He didn't even know what the game was that was
being played. Arya annihilated House Frey because those who would
kill guests under their protection don't deserve to have or be a
House. I would bet there is some Norse Edda that covers this in
gruesome detail. I have not read any Game of Thrones sites
that might reveal spoilers, etc., so if I guess right, it was just a
guess, not something gleaned from a leak. So with that said, let's
dig in. Thoughts and discussion welcome in the comments, but please,
no spoilers.
Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys seems to be the odds on favorite to win the
Game. While like Ned Stark, she makes mistakes, unlike Ned,
she usually corrects them. She's got dragons, 40,000 Dothraki
screamers, 10,000 Unsullied, and her team of Tyrion, Ser Jorah, and
Varys. On paper, that's unbeatable in typical Westerosi terms, but
Winter has come and with it the Army of the Dead, so all bets are
off. It's going to come down to whether they are going to finish it
off as a comedy or tragedy, and if most of the season finales have
been guides, it may be the latter. I think Daenerys is the fan
favorite to win. If she does win, they're going to need some decent
twist to make it not too pat. And if she does win, I'll go out on a
limb and say it won't be with Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen as her king.
As of today, my guess is she's going to die in Jon Snow's or Ser
Jorah Mormont's (maybe Daario Naharis'?) arms, getting Jon
out of his aunt-on-nephew karmic conundrum. It may be of wounds
sustained in battle or assassinated by Cersei Lannister, but it's
too early to make any guesses about that. At least, for me. If there
is some detail I've missed, please LMK. An early tell will be if
Varys gets uneasy feeling that Daenerys is not serving the realm.
BONUS: Your Game of Thrones Name
It may not obvious to people who only watchGame of
Thrones that you can turn an ordinary name into a GoT
name by changing an instance of i to y. Name Tim?
Your GoT name is Tym. IDK why Daario Naharis doen't have
a y up in there somewhere, but that's an exception to the
rule. If I had to guess, it's because Daario Naharis only does what
Daario Naharis wants, and if there are no ys in Daario
Naharis, it's because Daario Naharis doesn't want them there. Rules
don't apply to Daario Naharis.
A summary of all original and current predictions with pointers can
be found
at the WBC
Prediction Status page.
If ever there was a time to get back to ye olde blogge, it is in the throes of the collective mass psychosis that characterizes the Age of Trump™. However, something more important than the Mueller report is bearing down upon us, and it calls for action—immediate action—and that is Season 8 of Game of Thrones.
I'm planning on rolling out some predictions and possibilities for our heroes and villains in subsequent posts, but right now I'm not really what I think about this no spaces around em dash convention that's all the rage outside AP.
I installed Fedora 12 and I can't get the mouse to behave properly. WTF?
Frustrated in Ft Collins,
Foo
Dear Foo,
Allow Dr Aybabtu a Clintonian moment without blue dress collateral damage: I feel your pain. Dr Aybabtu will not editorialize about the reasoning behind Fedora 12's removal of access to the One True Way of dealing with WIMP interfaces, namely that the focus follows the mouse. And no, focus does *not* mean changing the stack order, raising, or anything other than focus. Fortunately, you can put it back. From the mighty command line, issue:
yum install control-center-extra
You may need to sudo that, or do it as root. Then, navigate the Gnome menu thingie at the top of your desktop (or wherever the hell you've put it):
System->Preferences->Windows
Check the box labeled:
Select windows when the mouse moves over them
Under *no* circumstances check the box labeled
Raise selected windows after an interval
Surely madness and damnation lie down that path.
Whatever you do, do not seek advice about this on slashdot or other places on the interwebs, because you'll get answers like "use blackbox" or "I have Steve Jobs' sweat on my iDork and I will never ever wash it!", which may be interesting enough, but not the answer to the question.
