If you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.

I don’t usually watch much TV… I know it’s surprising, somebody with the massive absence of a social life not watching TV but it’s true. In between masturbation cycles, random arguments and crying myself to sleep, I generally don’t watch very much. That’s not to say I don’t watch any TV at all though. I am a massive fan of House – having watched it since the beginning – and will watch the odd episode of whatever else may be on at the time. There’s one thing I do a lot though, and that’s read. It’s true, apart from touching myself and planning world domination, I read a hell of a lot, and have recently finished the first book in George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones from which the show took its name (book review imminent). I was taken in by the book in a way I cannot properly explain, but the characters, the setting, the story and everything else sunk its hooks into me and wouldn’t let me go, so I decided to give the show a look and watched it at the same pace as I was reading the book.

Book to TV adaptations are nothing new, shows such as Dexter and True Blood have built up cult followings, but the Song of Ice and Fire books are something totally different. They are truly epic novels and there was likely going to be significant difficulty in adapting these novels for the small screen, even being made for HBO, an adaptation that kept loyal to the original material would have been an immense task. Any reasonable person would understand that there were going to have to be changes made from the books in the process of bringing it to TV, but these changes did nothing to change my original views of the book and may have actually improved upon the story from the novel at certain points.

“Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men… all will play the Game of Thrones”

The begins with Lord Eddard Stark, Lord of the North who is invited to become the Hand of the King to his long time friend, King Robert Baratheon, following the death of the previous Hand, Jon Arryn. Lord Eddard a man of immense honour, loves his family deeply, but shamed himself many years ago when he fathered a bastard child, Jon Snow. While he is serving as the King’s hand, Lord Eddard begins to grow suspicious about the death of Jon Arryn and begins to investigate the crime. As he does so he comes to discover more than he bargained for, which leads to revelations of treason, murder and incest. Back in Winterfell, Lord Eddard’s son, Bran an enthusiastic climber, discovers the Queen and her brother, the Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister having sex. Jaime pushes Bran from the window, intending to kill him, yet he survives, but is crippled. It is discovered, after an additional attempt to kill the child by a hired assassin, the Houses of Lannister and Stark clash in what is both a war of honour and family. An additional story, taking place alongside but totally separate from it is that of Daenerys Targaryen, heiress to the Targaryen throne, the family which was overthrown by Robert Baratheon to take the throne, forcing the surviving members of the Targaryen family, Daenerys and her brother, Viserys into exile. She has been arranged to marry the Dothraki king, Khal Drogo, by her brother Viserys in exchange that he shall receive an army with which he may reclaim his rightful place as the King. During her time as Khaleesi, Dany grows stronger and more confident as she realises that she has the blood of the dragon within her.

I don’t want to give too much away at the risk of spoiling the story for those who have not read the books, or have had the pleasure of watching the show, so I shall say no more on the story itself. The first season I have found to remain largely loyal to the first book in the series by focusing on the POV characters in the book; Lord Eddard, Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. There were additional scenes created which weren’t a part of the actual book, yet these worked well in fleshing out the non-POV characters and tying certain scenes together so that the book may work just as well on screen. While each actor worked superbly in his or her respective roles, special mention goes to Sean Bean who played Eddard “Ned” Stark and Peter Dinklage as the “Imp”, Tyrion Lannister. Bean’s portrayal as Eddard Stark is exactly how you’d expect him to be if the character were real, his honour and his love and compassion come across superbly as he delivers a character most would want as their father, or at least a close relative. Dinklage’s portrayal as the “Imp” Tyrion Lannister has won him significant mainstream recognition, and rightly so. Like Bean, his character is exactly how the reader of the books would imagine him to be in real life in both his mannerisms and his voice. It’s said “A Lannister always pays his debts”, but where the circumstances will benefit Tyrion, he will pay any price to get you on his side and to do what he wants. This does not mean he is cold and uncaring. We come to know that Tyrion has had a horrid past, and with his dwarfism, he is looked down upon – both literally and figuratively – and will never amount to anything significant and this in many ways, warrants his close and growing friendship with Ned Stark’s bastard, Jon Snow.  

Such an adaptation is an ambitious project, even for HBO but there are times where the show does fall short of what one would expect. An example of this would be the scale of the battles which take place in the book that are either scaled down for the sake of the show or don’t take place at all. For budgetary reasons, one can sort of understand why that would be the case, yet there are some instances during which the battles, or a characters involvement in them I felt to be crucial to the way in which that character appeared. An example of this is late in the book and series where Tyrion is reunited with his father after escaping Lady Catelyn’s capture following accusations that he was involved in the attempt on her son Bran’s life. Upon his reunion, Tyrion is told he must lead his men into battle against an army of the North. In the book, there are a few instances where Tyrion is involved in direct fighting, actually bringing down a knight. In the show, however, Tyrion is knocked down by an enthusiastic stampede of his own men and is knocked out, only waking when the battle is over. The scene in the book portrays Tyrion as a quick thinker who perhaps may be tougher than he appears, yet the show portrays the dwarf as clumsy and overly weak by being taken down in such a way. While I understand that earlier in the season Tyrion is involved in some fighting, this scene stood out as unnecessarily and damagingly altered, though knowing George R.R. Martin’s close involvement in the show, such changes are forgivable. The beautiful and sometimes expansive sets are too something with which HBO should have immense pride in achieving. While the channel is known for its big budget TV shows, one has to ask whether they have broken a record in its competent adaptation of an epic novel into an epic television series.

Seriously, I cannot recommend this enough, though I would recommend that you pick the book up first. There are a lot of characters to get to know in the series, and being familiar with them by reading the books first will help with that and prevent you from getting lost. George R.R. Martin’s involvement in the show is undoubtedly one of the primary reasons David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have kept the show to such a high quality. Martin is one of our finest fictional writers, and this show is one of the finest television adaptations of a fictional novel series I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Season 1 is out on Blu-Ray and DVD now, which I’d strongly urge you all to go out and buy.

 

Were Carole Malone's stupid comments an indication of the danger of class resentment?

On Friday, newspaper columnist and general right-wing crazy person sparked 'outrage’ when she claimed that the Philpott fire, in which 6 children lost their lives, was “an accident waiting to happen”. This fire, the result of an arson attack on the family, led Malone to make the claim that they had drawn attention to themselves and in a sense, it was inevitable that something like this were to happen. Now if we’re to forget for a moment that Carole Malone is one of those right-wing columnist fools who say controversial things in order to get attention and thus more work for themselves and are to actually take her claim seriously, is the level of class resentment at a point where it would lead people to committing acts of murder?

There’s no question that for the longest time the right-wing idiotic columnists have been spouting vile hatred toward those who have lived on benefits, without any real consideration for the individual circumstances of claimants or their reasons for living on benefits. It’s been said that recently there has been a growing, ‘out of control’ hatred, toward those who claim benefits, due to the manipulation of the government and the media painting those who claim such benefits as ‘scroungers’. Such a media and public perception has been accused of leading to abuse of the disabled, and in my view, if such things aren’t nipped in the bud quickly, can only get worse.

There is no question that local authorities are under pressure to save money and make cut backs, with some areas deeming that two-thirds of incapacity benefit claimants are fit to work, yet we must consider the wider implications of such hard and fast cuts and the affect they will have on the most vulnerable in society. Perhaps those who are regular readers of my blog will point toward my libertarian politics as a means of claiming hypocrisy in what I’m saying. As a disabled person who actually receives DLA (Disability Living Allowance) I know the vast benefit that such benefits can provide in not just improving an individual’s quality of living, but giving them the financial means by which they may improve their own lives so that in the future they may offer a greater benefit to society.

I have written on the subject of welfare a number of times, firstly considering a more realistic approach to the purpose of welfare and considering whether welfare was compatible with libertarian philosophy. In both of these I have concluded that some welfare state is acceptable, yet I have argued that the general approach to welfare should be changed, moving it from a redistribution of wealth principle, to an assistance principle. Our government and the mainstream presses have failed to see this distinction and in its place they have created an acidic divide between those who claim benefits and those who do not. They have failed to recognise that while I agree that the present welfare state is vastly overblown, one has to question the motivation behind removing more than 500,000 from disability benefit other than the claims of trying to reduce fraud.

The claims by Carole Malone, while moronic, and while it’s obvious that the culprit of these horrible crimes was nothing but a psychopath, her statement does ring true to an extent. I do not mean in relation to the Philpott family or the crimes committed against them, yet her callous disregard for human life on the basis that they were somehow asking for trouble by claiming benefits and living in council housing does provide us with a terrifying insight into the minds of those on the far right.

The question to be asked is simple. Could such class resentment really push someone to murder? It saddens me to say that my answer is “not yet”. We are unfortunately moving in that direction, and while we see the left wing presses lynching the bankers for doing nothing but simply being rich, we must also look in the other direction, and consider that there is a huge section of the population which are being targeted and their lives destroyed by government cuts justified by creating a hatred and resentment toward those who claim benefits. While there have been protests on the streets against the billionaire bankers who were bailed out at the expense of the taxpayer and not punished for their recklessness bringing the global economy to its knees, they are not affected by the economy they helped and benefited from destroying. The welfare system absolutely has to be reformed, the public sector reduced and the deficit reduced, but if one is to feel resentment about the current economic troubles and wishes to target their resentment, do so against those in Whitehall and the big banks whose backhand dodgy deals are the real cause of all the mess.

We must not be distracted from the true menace of corruption

Most will likely have heard of the arresting and charging of former News International Chief Executive, Rebekah Brooks for trying to pervert the course of justice by concealing evidence from those who were investigating the phone hacking and bribery allegations. Many people will have celebrated (including me) at the news that finally someone has been formerly charged regarding these crimes, even if it is a crime totally separate from those currently being investigated, but my cynicism never fails me and I have come to the conclusion that this is nothing but a mere distraction. I’ve not written much on the phone hacking scandal, partly because the shoddy conduct of the tabloid presses is hardly a surprise, but it’s just not a subject that interests me. While my ears my pick up at the sound of hearing Rupert Murdoch display he has the worst memory out of any human that has ever lived, or the odd image of James Murdoch where I’ve casually thought “wouldn’t mind waking up to him in the morning”, it’s generally not been a subject I’ve followed. There are a few reasons for this:

 

·      None of it is really surprising: When I heard about the phone hacking saga originally and all its following revelations, I reacted like you’d expect most people to. I acted with revulsion at the revelations that they had hacked a dead girls phone, and all the other morally questionable things they had done, but none of them took me by surprise. These are the tabloid presses we’re talking about, not the “high brow” broadsheets that will claim to be more ethical in their journalism, but the unashamedly low brow bullshit red top presses that, when they’re not shoving borderline illegal images of young girls with their tits out in your face, they’re telling you about a “paedo” that lives on your street corner who should be “strung up”. I don’t read the tabloid presses at all, but I know what to expect from them, so it was laughable when the majority were reacting with some level of surprise at their conduct. So while the idea of hacking a dead girls phone or bribing the police may be sickening, it’s not surprising.

·      Nobody of worth will find themselves in jail: Let’s just get over the bullshit. We know that those in News Corp, including Murdoch and pals, knew about the dodgy dealings that went on regarding police bribery, phone hacking and other cuntery. Their memory may elude them when being questioned by someone, but we know that they knew about it, and they’re going to keep denying it. Sure, Brooks has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, but if this arrest hadn’t occurred, are we really to say that we’d expect any real criminal prosecutions of those higher up in News International to come from the hacking or bribery allegations?

·      Even if News Corp is destroyed by this, somebody else will take their place: Anybody who’s read my blog before will know that I’m a pretty cynical person, so forgive me if that comes across too prominently in this short piece. Let’s face it, the truth is that yes, News Corp has been severely wounded by the hacking scandal and may never recover from it, but even if it is mortally wounded and does go under, something else will simply take its place. The whole scandal is not the result of a lack of press regulation, as I’ve argued previously, but is more an issue regarding our own political and social climate. The hackgate scandal and all the other “revelations” about backroom deals between politicians and Murdoch is more a problem with our own political system and legal framework regarding the rights of individuals. I’m not going to go into anymore detail, as this is another subject for another piece, but under our current political and social system, even if the Murdoch empire is destroyed, something else will quickly take its place.

Regardless of my interest or lack thereof in hackgate, Leveson and all that, we must not become distracted by the potential prosecution Brooks faces under the current charges. They are merely a distraction from the real problems and the real criminals within this whole thing, which include those in the police force, various arms of the media, and even Whitehall. The entire scandal has something very sinister about it, and Brooks’ arrest risks distracting us from the real problem here, and it is not from an unruly press with questionable ethics. It is from an unruly establishment which is easy to corrupt, and when we know that fact, are we really to say it’s acceptable to hand them more power over our lives and our information, when they have been proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted? Even those who have been employed to be our protectors are gradually revealing their true colours. 

The Avengers: AMAZING!!!

I refuse to call it by the English title of "Marvel's Avengers Assemble" which was a result of some type of legal bullshit that I don't really care about, but pretty much everybody will refer to it as The Avengers, so I'm going to continue that trend. I’m a relatively new comic book nerd, having only really started reading them on a regular basis over the past few months, and although I’ve only written one comic book related review, I can assure you I’ve been doing A LOT of reading, with the majority being Marvel, focusing around the main Avengers characters such as Hulk, Thor and Iron Man (never really been crazy about Captain America) and the idea of an Avengers movie was exciting for any comic book fan, or even any fan of movies adapted from Comic books. There’ve been a ton of comic book movies with varying levels of success; from The Dark Knight to Green Lantern or Spider-Man to Spider-Man 3 and I’m happy to say that The Avengers ranks highly on the list of the greatest ever comic book movies. 

WARNING: This review may contain spoilers.

Loki, the Norse God of mischief, exiled from Asgard has returned with a plot to take over the world using the unlimited power of The Tesseract, which will open a portal to another world, allowing an army known as the Chitauri into this world to do Loki’s bidding. Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. must bring together a team of extraordinary people who are the only way that Loki’s plan may be defeated. These extraordinary people consist of Captain America: Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Iron Man: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk: Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow: Natasha Romanov (Scarlett Johanssen) and Hawkeye: Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner). In order to defeat their enemy, they must learn to set aside their differences and their egos and learn to work together for the good of Earth.

Never before has a film like the Avengers, where numerous characters have been well established in their own individual films and brought together in an ensemble piece, been done. A task such as this requires someone with great talent, knowledge and commitment to the universe in which these various characters have been established. Joss Whedon has done a fantastic job in bringing all these characters together, creating sometimes intense and witty scenes through simple and brilliant dialogue which perfectly reflect the characters engaging in any particular conversation at any point in the film. Some of the Avengers characters have been established in their own individual films, so it was naturally a task for Whedon to keep the souls of the characters established in their respective movies, and transferring them to the bigger stage of The Avengers. Whedon manages the perfect mix of intense and epic action, with intimate and enjoyable dialogue between the characters. 

Some reviews have commented that the film would have been just as enjoyable if there was none of the action and it was simply filled with dialogue between the characters and this is something with which I do not disagree. Robert Downey Jr. who is perhaps the most familiar with his Tony Stark character (having played him 3 times in the first two Iron Man movies and the end credit scene of Incredible Hulk) delivers once again an incredibly enjoyable performance as the arrogant playboy millionaire, Tony Stark. Downey Jr. has made this character his and it’s hard (almost impossible) to see whether anyone could have done as good a job with the character as he has. Mark Ruffalo, now the fourth person to play Dr. Bruce Banner gives possibly the best performance as the brilliant scientist with the unfortunate ability to turn into an angry green giant. It’s hard for me to explain exactly why he works so well in the role, but you will know what I mean when you see it. He just fits the role perfectly, and the excellent way they have done the CGI for Hulk means that Ruffalo is also playing the Hulk through motion capture adds an extra layer in believability in him as a human, and in Hulk as a super-human. Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov are given a bit more screen time to flesh out their characters, but I think a solo movie for Hawkeye should at least be considered to allow Renner to give the role focus and provide a greater insight into his relationship with Romanov.

While each and every performance was good in its own right, Tom Hiddleston as Loki stole the show. He delivered a sublime performance, creating a truly menacing villain who not only wanted to rule the world, but also wanted the world to worship at his feet. The scene in Germany where Loki actually forces German people to kneel before him gave an excellent and chilling image of the true intentions of Loki. A particular scene, sent chills running through my spine, as he coldly and confidently described to her what he would have Clint Barton do to her while he was under the mind control of Loki. It is yet one of those scenes, which you simply have to see for yourself to truly appreciate what I mean, but trust me when I say that you will love every second of it.

I don’t really have anything to be critical about the film, as it was exactly what I was expecting, and then some. I’m sure the most hardcore of comic book nerds will not be satisfied, but you can’t please everybody. Whedon did an excellent job of bringing together these characters and giving them each their own time to shine. It was particularly enjoyable when we saw Banner hulking up for the first time, and needless to say it did not disappoint. Let’s just say that a lot of things got smashed. I loved this film. I really did. I plan on going to see it again at some point, and I hope that it is a massive box office success so we won’t have to wait long for a sequel. Go see it. NOW!!!

"His body was found padlocked in a holdall. Maybe it was suicide"

"Yeah maybe. No, wait. What?" I hope I wasn't alone in my reaction to the absurd turn of events regarding the inquest into the death of former MI6 spy, Gareth Williams. I mean, I get there was no real DNA evidence at the crime scene, but the man's body was found in a holdall which was padlocked. While this particular evidence at the inquest concluded that "Mr Williams was either placed in the bag unconscious, or he was dead before he was in the bag." but to even consider that this may have been his zany way of committing suicide has me asking "Are you people fucking crazy?"

I get that he was a bit weird with the stash of women's clothing and the claims of him being a tad on the eccentric side, but how eccentric would you have to be to make you think "I'm going to end my own life, so I'm going to strip off and lock myself in that holdall, but I'm going to place it in the bath, now that'll show the bastards". I was driving the car when I first heard about the "we're not ruling out murder" and I nearly crashed into an oncoming car as it dawned on me that they're talking about the man whose body was found padlocked in a bag. A bag, really. They really thought it might be suicide. I know, right?

While the idea of this being suicide is totally absurd in itself, one can't hide from the fact that there's probably something more sinister which is being hidden from the public. If that is the case, then why is this idea of "suicide" even being given time, would it not be simpler to just assert that there is evidence which cannot be revealed to the general public for national security reasons, and continue the investigation behind closed doors? The logical conclusion to this points toward the idea that perhaps the more sinister element involves MI6 directly, and something is not being hidden from view for national security reasons, rather the family were right in that there is potentially instances of evidence tampering at the hands of MI6.

While we can all put our conspiracy hats on and claim this or that as the motive and the murderer of Gareth Williams, with great certainty even a child could answer one question regarding this and that it wasn't suicide.

Actually the most retarded thing I've ever seen