Game of Thrones Message Board older than one year ago

Also, he's wearing a dragon mask and there's a Daenarys look-alike just kind of standing there awkwardly in this video by squiddkidd. ...uh, yeah. I have no idea, although it dawns on me that flaming bagpipes are a thing. Game of Thrones Theme on Flaming Bagpipes and Unicycle - The Unipiper [squiddkidd via The Mary Sue]

Mike Wrobel is at it again: here's a collection of even more Game of Throne characters as bad 80s/90s stereotypes. This time around, we've got Khal Drogo, Cersei Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Bronn, Theon Greyjoy and Margaery Tyrell. When the cast of the show is so huge, there's no shortage of people to pick from, eh? Cersei in this style...I can't even. GAME OF THRONES 80/90s ERA CHARACTERS [Moshi-kun via via Laughing Squid]

Ever want to slap some sense into the king of the seven kingdoms? Well Gearbox gives you the opportunity in the newest Borderlands 2 DLC, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep.

It never will, of course. A show with that much blood and rude bits will never get LEGO's stamp of commercial approval. But oh, with these custom-made pieces, we can dream. Builder Albert "miniBIGS" Hernadi is selling these Game of Thrones minifigs on his Etsy page, with five characters from the show's first season/first book available. Arya and Ned Stark are passable, Daenerys is pretty good, but Tyrion (whose figure is shorter) and Jon Snow are just perfect, right down to their facial expressions. In a neat touch, each even comes in their own special bag, complete with "A Throne of Bricks" logo. Oh yeah, and there's the added benefit of these being LEGO figures, so the heads come off on their own, no special action required. miniBIGS [Etsy, via technabob]

What might those profiles look like? Well, the folks over at Team Pwnicorn reckon they'd look a little like this. Funnily enough, not only do important characters like Daenerys and Jaime get profiles, but so do characters like Hodor and the wall. Yes, as in the wall that's there to keep the white walkers out. That wall. Heh. Anyway, here are a few of the profiles—make sure to check out the ads, too. They're good: Game of Thrones Dating Profiles [Team Pwnicorn]

Violence! Witty banter! Politics! Nudity! Fancy dresses! Lemon cakes! Game of Thrones has just about everything. Everything except an 80's movie training montage. Fixed. If you need to know who that is on vocals, it is Australia's greatest treasure, John Farnham. And it's from this movie. God, this might be the best paragraph of links I've ever got to put on this site. Jon Snow 80's-style Training Montage [YouTube, via Laughing Squid]

Ghost - a character described as your "interactive partner", your "wingman" - will be one of the most important voices you hear while playing Bungie's Destiny. Good thing they got someone popular to do it then. The AI will be voiced by Peter Dinklage, aka Tyrion Lannister, as you can see confirmed in the video below. [thanks Woody!]

It loses a certain punch, I grant you, but it also picks up a certain charm. Most of it just from [Redacted's] grinning face. Uncensored image follows, but be warned, in case you missed the subtle hint, spoilers follow. Red Wedding [diegoboy, via Brothers Brick].

Well-known vocalist Peter Hollens has put together this very nice a cappella version of "The Rains of Castamere" from Game of Thrones. You may recognize Hollens from such YouTube performances as "Game of Thrones theme with Lindsey Stirling," "Skyrim theme with Lindsey Stirling," and recently, "That one song from The Hobbit."

I could see the lighter side of the Jaime/Cersei Lannister cosplay when they were just holding hands. But making out? Come on guys. Gross. Fantastic But Still Creepy Jaime and Cersei Lannister Cosplay [Fashionably Geek]

Game of Thrones is a lot of things—fantasy drama, water-cooler provocateur, softcore porno—but it is most certainly not a kid's show. Someone should really invent a filter, like those gore-filters they have in video games. And hey, what do you know, someone did! SPOILERS FOR THIS WEEK'S GAME OF THRONES FOLLOW ... FOR REAL ... HERE THEY COME, BABY Over at the recently launched (and excellent) TV site Previously.TV, they've put together three outstanding gifs censoring the instantly infamous Red Wedding scene for kid-appropriateness. My favorite one is the monkey, because obviously.

There were two types of people watching Game of Thrones last night. Those who had read the books, and knew what was coming. And those who had not, and inevitably lost their shit. Without getting into spoiler territory, let's just say important things happened that, had you not been previously aware, might have come as a shock. Which probably explains why so many people around the world who had read the books got their cameras out and filmed the reactions of those who had not. Laugh if you want, but I can sympathise. I knew what was coming and was still a little caught of guard, especially with what happens at the very start. You know. The bit that's not in the books but which ends very badly. Game of Thrones: Red Wedding Reactions Compilation [YouTube]

Do you hear that great whooshing sound? That is the sound of a massive spoiler being released into the atmosphere. We've kept it caged for so long, and it's finally out there. Fly free, spoiler! SO, OKAY, FOR REAL, IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S GAME OF THRONES AND SO HERE COME SOME SERIOUS BUSINESS SPOILERS THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UN-SEE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Last night's episode of Game of Thrones, "The Rains of Castamere," finally brought us to the scene fans of George R.R. Martin's books have been awaiting since the show premiered in 2011. I want to do our usual "what did you think?" discussion, but before that, it felt worth observing that this marks the end of what must be one of the single greatest spoiler discrepancies in pop culture history. I'm pretty proud of the Internet at large for keeping that spoiler under its hat these past couple of years. Good job, Internet! From the very first episode of the show, I can imagine that every single person who had read the books had the same thought: "Oh, man, I can't wait until they drop the Red Wedding on everyone." And yet we kept it in check and didn't tell our friends who hadn't seen the show. I'm trying to imagine another time when a spoiler that big has been known by some but unknown by others. I'm imagining if, before Star Wars Episode IV came out, a subset of the audience already knew that Vader was Luke's father. And then, years later, Empire finally came out… All season, there's been this steadily building pressure, like a slowly shaken bottle of champagne. Last night, the cork popped off, and instead of champagne, out sprayed gouts of Stark blood. Predictably, Internet reaction has been as award-winning as it was in season one when Ned was killed. io9 has done a fine job cataloguing amazing tweets from the unspoiled, and the @RedWeddingTears twitter feed is well worth a read. And yeah, it remains amazing to me that this event was something known by half the audience. As this now-famous gif so aptly puts it… I gotta say, it's nice to have that spoiler out in the universe. Granted, we'll have to be careful for a while, since DVR and DVD-watchers won't want to know what happens, but it's nice to hope that we, as a culture, are ready to move on. As for the episode itself, I thought it was well-done. They handled the big scene perfectly, and even though I knew what was coming, I couldn't help but flinch when those doors closed and the band struck up "The Rains of Castamere." The almost lazy way that Frey's men butchered the Starks was chilling, and I can see why everyone on Twitter reacted the way they did. For me, it wasn't so much that I was particularly attached to Cat or Robb or Talisa, but to see it carried out with such brutal efficiency was just... yeesh. I liked the rest of the episode as well, and it was particularly cool to get to see Grey Worm flipping his spear like the badass he is. I've always been curious how the Unsullied fight, and what makes them so fearful, and so I enjoyed seeing him alongside Jorah and Daario, tearing into dozens of Yunkish guards. So, a tricky episode to get right, but get it right they did. I'll be looking forward to the finale, particularly since a bunch of us Kotaku staff will probably watch it holed up in Stephen's hotel room in LA on the night before E3. As always, for a more in-depth recap, check out Charlie Jane's write-up over at io9. What did the rest of you think? If you went in unspoiled, what was your reaction to the climactic scene? Did anyone out there watch it in mixed spoiled/unspoiled company? Talk games, thrones, and weddings, here or over at TAY.

If you watched tonight's Game of Thrones, and had previously read the books so knew what was coming, take pleasure in scrolling through this Twitter feed collecting the reactions of those who did not know what was coming. Needless to say, serious spoilers ahead.

Last time around, we showed you what some Game of Thrones stars would look like in stereotypical 90's fashion. The artist, Mike Wrobel, has returned with some more characters in this style. Excellent. Of course I would think this is excellent, since this batch includes two of my favorite characters. But, c'mon, Brienne as a football player totally fits. Anyway, here they are—enjoy: GAME OF THRONES 80/90s ERA CHARACTERS (Part 3) [Moshi-kun via Laughing Squid]

There was no new episode Game of Thrones this week, but the show's famous opening title sequence—recreated with StarCraft II units in the game's cutscene editor—might ease the pain. We've seen similar attempts before, but YouTube user Tolkfan's video perfectly mimics the animations and spins in the original intro. [Insert Game of Drones joke here.] A Game of Starcraft [YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

Say what you will about Jimmy Fallon's tenure of the Late Night show, when his team decide to do a Game of Thrones parody, they go all out. It was a rough Sunday night without a real Game of Thrones, but if we're going to sit through ten minutes of homage, it could have been a lot worse than this. The band section is pretty terrific. Game of Desks - Late Night With Jimmy Fallon [YouTube, via Laughing Squid]

There's no Game of Thrones this week. How to cope? With a preview of its upcoming Japanese language disc release. While many of the books have gotten Japanese language editions, the series hasn't yet reached the public in Japan in the way Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter have. The show is already being broadcasted on Star Channel, a Japanese cable network. Not everyone in Japan has cable TV, so Game of Thrones really hasn't had the opportunity to find a larger audience in the country. Yet. In Japan, lots of people rent physical media. Thus, the first season's DVD and Blu-ray release is really what could make the Game of Thrones a mainstream hit in Japan, like, say, 24 or Lost were a few years back. There's no reason why Game of Thrones won't take off in Japan. For those living in Japan, the DVD and Blu-ray versions will be subtitled. Game of Thrones [Warner Bros] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

That crazy, epic 1:100 blocky replica of the continent of Westeros from Game of Thrones is so glorious it managed to catch even Time Magazine's attention. They scored an interview with the project head Jacob Granberry, aka pizzainacup, giving us a glimpse at the man behind the madness. We've talked to folks working on the project before, but here we get a glimpse into the real-life of the man behind the project. He has one, and it looks lovely. Game of Blocks: The Man Who Built Westeros in Minecraft [YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

French artist Mike Wrobel has recast the stars of Game of Thrones as stars of sterotypical 90s fashion, with wonderful results. Joffrey's Zapper might be a few years late, but everyone else is perfect, from Jon Snow's flannel shirt to Jaime's "Bad Boys villain" outfit. Game of Thrones 90s era [Mike Wrobel, via Brandon Boyer]

Natascha Röösli works at Rock Pocket Games, the developers behind the very promising indie platformer Oliver & Spike. But that's not why we're here today. No, we're here for her beautiful work on trading card games, like Game of Thrones, and board games like Arkham Horror. You can see more of Natascha's work at her DeviantArt page and CGTalk gallery. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!

Gawker's Max Read takes an excellently in-depth look at what, exactly, is going on with the accents on Game of Thrones.

On the left, the Emperor Caligula, one of the most famous - and notorious - rulers of ancient Rome. On the right, Jack Gleeson as Joffrey in the Game of Thrones TV series. It's a cute likeness if the physical likeness is all you see. But Caligula has long held a reputation - one that, to be fair, is being dialled back substantially by modern research - as one of Rome's most debauched public figures, a man renowned for depravity, sexual excess and cruelty. Just like Joffrey. And yes, before you ask, the bust on the left is real, not a Photoshop job. Here's an alternative angle. Coincidence? Caligula and Joffrey look alarmingly similar. [Reddit] To contact the author of this post, write to plunkett@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @lukeplunkett

Zynga announced that it has established a partnership with Boston-based social game developer Disruptor Beam to bring the studio's popular Facebook game Game of Thrones Ascent to its player base at Zynga.com.

Since its open beta launch in February, Game of Thrones Ascent has attracted more than 500,000 players to its strategy-focused take on the world of Westeros. As part of the agreement, Zynga will handle distribution of the game on Facebook and its own web portal, and will work closely with Disruptor Beam through its Zynga Partners program.

Starting with HBO's third season of Game of Thrones, additional Ascent content will be released after each new episode airs, resulting in what Disruptor Beam CEO Jon Radoff calls "a unique transmedia experience that is not currently seen in any other social game."

Then they'd probably look a little like these digital art pieces by deviantArt artist KaiKoa—also known as Cami Sanders. It's a weird crossover for sure, to mix Pokémon and Game of Thrones, but it actually works! The one above is obviously Charizard, the most fitting Pokemon for House Targaryen. Here it is in full: Tentacruel, representing house Greyjoy: Luxray, representing house Lannister: Sawsbuck, representing House Baratheon: And finally, Mightyena, representing house Stark: If there was a house Tully one, I'm betting it would be Magikarp. (Via Laughing Squid)

Well then. Guess who you don't *crag* with? You don't *crag* with Daenerys Targaryen. That sure was a lot of fun, wasn't it? Of course, those who had read the book were likely waiting for that moment at the end of the episode since we first saw Dany and the Unsullied in episode one, but you gotta hand it to the people running this show: They did a fantastic job with it. My friend and I were talking about how with this show, they might actually have done well to have released the first four episodes all at once, since this episode really did feel like a "season finale" for the first four episodes of the third season of Game of Thrones. All of the dangling plot threads and short-shrift characters came together, and there was a real thrust at the end. I'm looking forward to at least one more big peak like that before the season ends. Before I turn it over to you guys, stray thoughts on the finale, with some mild spoilers about the books: I'm not a huge fan of what they're doing with the Theon storyline, but I guess I understand why they're doing it. (Basically, they can't leave Theon on ice for an entire season, since the actor's gotta work, otherwise he'd leave to do something else.) I'm still concerned about Bran's whole storyline, since it was so abstract in the books that I mostly lost interest, and the show so far hasn't demonstrated that they know how to make it more interesting I very much enjoyed watching shit go down at Craster's Keep, though I'm sort of wondering about Sam and the dragonglass, since he still has no real idea what it does. Maybe they'll write that bit in in a different place, now that he and Gilly are fleeing? But overall, a really strong, super enjoyable episode. For a more in-depth recap, check out Charlie Jane's writeup over at io9. What did you guys think? Feel free to talk Game of Thrones, or anything else, here or over at TAY. Do use spoiler warnings, however, if you're talking about anything from the books that happens after what we've seen. Oh, and dig this performance of the Game of Thrones music on the Carillon belltower at UW-Madison. (via Geekologie.) They had one of these at Indiana University near where I grew up, and I always thought it'd be fun to watch. Turns out I was right!

Well before the first episode aired on HBO late last month, members of Boston-based developer Disruptor Beam had already seen a little over half of season three of Game of Thrones. They flew down to New York City and sat within a well-guarded theater, taking in the aftermath of the Battle of Blackwater and catching up on the progress of the encroaching winter. They know what's happening next week, and the week after, and they're using that knowledge to create the freshest interactive TV show tie-in ever made. Game of Thrones: Ascent, free to play on Facebook and now Kongregate, captures the spirit of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by focusing on the most important elements — politics and the intrigue. You're a young lord, establishing your position in society using your cunning, wealth and force of arms. It's about creating alliances, forging relationships and choosing the right time to burn those bonds to the ground for the sake of power. It's text and 2D art, sending minions on missions, building your territory and harvesting resources to better outfit your agents. There is no gratuitous nudity or excessive gore — these are things HBO puts in the show to keep it interesting for folks that don't get it. Disrupter Beam founder and CEO Jon Radoff gets it. "I read A Game of Thrones ten years ago and fell in love with it, well before the HBO series had ever come along," Radoff told me during an interview last week. "I managed to form a relationship with George R.R. Martin, and he loved the idea of a game that would bring the politics and diplomacy of the Game of Thrones world to life in an online game. We were working with him on a game design for this even before the first season of the HBO series came out. "This was a game that we were going to build one way or another." The success of the HBO series was an unexpected bonus for Disrupter Beam team. Suddenly the game they were creating had a built-in fan base numbering in the millions, and publisher concerns over the viability of a Facebook game that was more than mindless clicking were no longer an issue. "We thought what could be neat about Facebook," said Radoff, "is the idea taking that social graph you've got there and using it as a way to promote new types of gameplay around diplomacy and politics and social storytelling." Despite the game's popular television tie-in and unparalleled depth and complexity (or perhaps because of it), some players just won't play a game on Facebook. So now it's on Kongregate, and one day it could make it to mobile platforms. Radoff wants Ascent to be available on every platform possible, so players everywhere can play with brand-new content every morning after new episodes air. "We kick out roughly three to four dozen quests a week, along with a handful of new items pertaining to the episode and some nice background art," said Game of Thrones: Ascent live producer Rich Gallup, who joined Radoff on the call. The day after last week's episode, "Walk of Punishment", aired, Royal Ledgers, a Valuable Prisoner, Wolf-Shaped Bread, and a blade called Chopper were new items available in the in-game store. The update also introduced dozens of new quests, weaving the players' characters into current Game of Thrones events. This up-to-date content is all thanks to the brave sacrifice of lead designer Tim Crosby and lead narrative designer Jessica Sliwinski, who flew to New York to watch the show before anyone else did. "HBO’s not gonna be like ‘Okay, here’s a YouTube link, just keep it private’ or ‘sure, here’s some DVD’s, rip them and spread them across your team.’ We consumed a little more than half the season in one go," said Gallup. Based on the notes taken by that pair of designers, the team writes up quests, creates items and fresh artwork, packages it all up and sends it off to HBO for approval. Having already created a ton of content covering the first two seasons of the show, it's a relatively quick and painless process. “Because of the great practice we had with creating over 1,000 quests for season one and the weekly drops we did for season two once the game went, we have a really nice cadence and have a really strong bond of trust between us and HBO," Gallup explained. "We know what they’re looking for, they know what we’re trying to do. Now it’s really just slight nudges on any push.” It's pretty damn impressive, when you think about it. A television show airs Sunday night. On Monday morning there's a video game to play that includes content from the show you just watched. SyFy and Trion Worlds are attempting to do something similar with Defiance, but Game of Thrones: Ascent's text-based, 2D art construction makes the implementation infinitely more viable. As Gallup put it, “The immediacy with which we can provide our players with new content that ties into the show, it’s the stuff from the future from when we were kids. I watch it on Sunday, I play it on Monday.” As I write this, patch notes for this morning's update have just gone live. Another several dozen quests have been added, plus players can now equip their noble and Sworn Sword retainers with the weapons of the Unsullied, the slave warriors of Astapor. There are two seasons and four episodes of content awaiting new players in Game of Thrones: Ascent. Next week there'll be more. You've got some catching up to do.

Today, CNN published an article that takes a look at sex workers who use technology, social media and geek interests to attract "well-off engineers and programmers" in the bay area. These men are likely young and have disposable income, making them lucrative clients. To clarify the term, CNN describes sex workers as a term that covers "a number of services, including sexual massage, prostitution, and escort and dominatrix work." One sex worker, Josephine, says she wears geeky clothes—like ones that are emblazoned with phrases such as "Winter Is Coming" and "Geeks Make Better Lovers"—to attract that specific clientele. CNN writes: Josephine says her tech-themed online ads are both a marketing ploy and a savvy business move: They help bring in a clientele she says she genuinely enjoys spending time with. In her off hours, she goes to cons, dabbles in programming, and watches Game of Thrones. "I like to bring in the kinds of people who I like being around," she says. "I'm trying to communicate to them that I understand a little bit what it's like to be techy, nerdy, geeky," she explains. Another sex worker, Kitty Stryker, is a comics-lover who describes herself as a "steampunk courtesan." She charges $350 an hour and has a day job at a local start up. Stryker also "trains" geeky clients who need help in their love lives. "You explain it to them in a way that's like a formula," she stated. "Then they say 'ohhhh, math. It's math. Eventually if I plug these things into the formula, it will work.' I speak geek. It's a way we can communicate that they understand." Many of these women consider themselves geeky/techie entrepreneurs and they heavily use social media such as Tumblr and Twitter as well as technology, as a means of improving their work. One of the sex workers describes her work "very feminist and very empowering." Silicon Valley's other entrepreneurs: Sex workers [CNN] Image Credit: Shutterstock

The creative minds behind the Westeroscraft community —the same guys who made this insane replica of King's Landing— made their next move to recreate the whole world of Westeros from Game of Thrones in Minecraft. After putting up galleries and videos of the main cities, they have released this timelapse video showing every single fort and castle of the Night Watch becoming blocks of reality along the northern part of the main continent. The Night Watch and the Wall Castles Timelapse [YouTube]

It's funny, last week, watching the swordfight that takes place in the episode, I was thinking of Star Wars, because the slow (yet heavy and deliberate) way the combatants were moving reminded me of the battles between Luke and Vader in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Guess I wasn't the only one. Game of Thrones - Jaime Lannister Vs Brienne of Tarth with Lightsabers [YouTube, via Laughing Squid]