WesterosCraft (King’s Landing)

The world-wide popularity of George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and HBO’s Game of Thrones, has spawned a dedicated and ravenous fan-based community. From websites such as WiC, to fan-made YouTube videos, the ASOIAF/GoT community continues to grow every day. As part of that wonderful fan-base, a group of Minecraft players, have been meticulously constructing the continent of Westeros, and in the process, have grown their own community, as well.

See the video, narrated by Issac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark),

after the jump.

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Yesterday, as part of the marketing hype for Game of Thrones in IMAX, we got a video of Benioff and Weiss having just watched “The Watchers on the Wall/The Children” on the big screen. I was focused on what they were saying in the video, and their emotional reaction to seeing their work writ large, and completely missed something.

That something (which is spoilery!)–below….

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Bigger! Lavish! Bloodier! At this point the only thing the cast of Game of Thrones hasn’t said about this coming season is that it will be more “EXTREME!” Emilia Clarke is no exception, though her tack while talking to Access Hollywood was probably a little more telling. After all, “bloodier” doesn’t tell you much, except maybe that the prop depart worked overtime. “Lavish” doesn’t tell you much except that when the budget numbers are released for this season, they’ll probably be higher than usual. But this?

“You know how you can watch the YouTube reactions to the crazy stuff we do? There’s gonna be a bunch of those this season,” [Clarke] said. “Like, a couple.”

“Unsullied Watch Game of Thrones” videos are something of a cottage industry on YouTube. With perhaps the sole exception of Season 2, every year of the show has had at least one major shock!death, from Ned in “Baelor” to Oberyn last year.

We’re going to delve into some spoilery speculation below. Beware!

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Yi Li is a London student studying public policy. She previously wrote on teenagers in Game of Thrones, and is a member of our Small Council.

Game of Thrones is so rife with ethical dilemmas and dueling political philosophies that it’s awfully tempting to see its characters as stand-ins for a particular point of view. Being someone who’s studied a good deal of political and ethical philosophy, I’ve often tried, as Jake Emen did in his piece earlier this month, to find in the musings, decisions, and declarations of Ned and Dany and Jon and all the rest, a consistent worldview that I could find mirrored in philosophical texts.

But here’s the trouble: Well-drawn characters, like most real people, are not armchair philosophers. They’ve not developed their own systems of ideas about the nature of the good and right. They don’t devote time thinking about the underlying principle that underlies their beliefs. When presented with a moral decision, they just do what seems right to them in that particular situation— even if sometimes, they don’t exactly know why it seems right.

In fact, there’s really only one well-developed moral theory in Westeros’ cultural milieu: The idea that what’s right is what’s honorable….

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Game of Thrones debuts in IMAX tomorrow night. Even though IMAX executives admitted that they hadn’t expected it to do that well, tickets are selling out. Meanwhile producers Benioff and Weiss got an early look, and EW has their reaction.

“I’m still kind of in shock,” Weiss said…. “It’s a completely different viewing experience, one that’s so immersive and so superior.”

Check out the screen grab above–they look in shock. Non-spoilery details below.

ETA: Video now embedded below.

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Box Office numbers are not yet available, but word is ticket sales for the IMAX screenings of Season 4’s last two episodes, “Watchers on the Wall/The Children” has exceeded industry expectations.

According to EW.com, the people at IMAX only expected an initial burst of fan interest when tickets went on sale. Then they would “hit the wall” and decline….Sources say an average weekend take for an IMAX theater is $4000-$5000 per screen, but Thrones is tracking like it’s going to easily exceed that.”

More after the jump….

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Speculation about Game of Thrones Season 5 is quite literally everywhere. From every corner of the internet, to talk shows, and even at my dentist’s office, where the dental assistant wanted to discuss with me, the intrinsic nature of dragons being locked away in a vault, compared to that of one who is freely flying around, eating sheep and probably people, at will.

Season 5 is not that far off (April 12th), and said speculation tends to increase in pace and nature, rather exponentially, as the days tick down to the premiere. With that being said, I’ve been part of a very interesting and thought provoking thread over at Reddit’s /r/Gameofthrones, where the speculation of Season 5’s episode titles are being discussed.

Join the discussion and see the speculated titles, after the jump.

Warning: SPOILERS abound

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Dubrovnik, Croatia has become an tourist destination in the wake of Game of Thrones filming there these past few years. Now The Dubrovnik Times is reporting that the Tourist Board has arranged for a bevy of international journalists to take a gander at the city that this year split it’s time between standing in for Braavos and King’s Landing.

A press group of journalists visited Dubrovnik this weekend in cooperation with the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Embassy Films and HBO. “Dubrovnik was born to be King’s Landing,” commented Tom Butler a journalist for Yahoo Movies. The group of journalists,  from MTV, The Sun, The Daily Star, Yahoo Movies, Metro News, The Radio Times, IGN and E Talk, amongst others, visited all the locations in Dubrovnik used by the Game of Thrones serial.

Remind us to get international passports and press badges so we can go next time too!

More details of the journalists’ trip below the jump.

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IMAX Game of Thrones Season 5 trailer gets an R rating

History will be made this Thursday, as Game of Thrones will be the first ever television program to be shown in IMAX theaters. The final two episodes of Season 4, “The Watchers on the Wall” and “The Children”, will be shown in all their epic glory across IMAX screens. As part of that experience, attendees will get to view an exclusive first look at the Game of Thrones Season 5 trailer.

More about the Season 5 trailer, after the jump.

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Pedro Pascal escorts Amanda Peet on the SAG Red Carpet

It wasn’t the best of nights for Game of Thrones at the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards. Television is a competitive landscape nowadays, and the show lost their big nomination–that of “Outstanding Ensemble”–to the PBS juggernaut Downton Abbey. Peter Dinklage also left empty handed, losing the Male Actor in a Drama Series to Kevin Spacey. (It looks like he as tipped off he wouldn’t win either, as Dinklage did not appear on the red carpet.) The show wasn’t completely shut out though. Continuing its impressive streak in the Stunt Ensemble category, Game of Thrones took home their fourth win in four years.

Unlike the Golden Globes, which few cast members bothered to attend, there was a solid showing from the cast on the red carpet for the SAGs. We’ve got pictures, plus the few tidbits they let slide about Season 5, after the jump.

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We seem to be inching along toward the April premiere of Game of Thrones Season 5. We won’t get to see the official Season 5 trailer until Thursday the 29th, when it airs in IMAX theaters, but luckily there is always Reddit, to which a picture was posted by user Legazpi_ which shows another angle of the chaos from the floor of Daznak’s Pit.

See who is in the picture, after the jump, and beware of spoilers.

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Hello, readers! I’ve made some slight adjustments to our About page–you can check that out at the top of the screen. Most importantly, I’d like to call attention to the Contribute to Winter is Coming page.

As we get closer to Season 5, we’re looking to get more, better content here at WiC. So if you’re a writer, editor, podcaster, video essayist, and you’re interested in appearing on WiC, click that link and give us an email. Thanks!

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