The Cliffs of Insanity: Game of Thrones And Summer Stuff

This weeks’s adventures climbing the cliffs of insanity include my obsession with Game of Thrones, as I found some cool tidbits on the web, and the continued controversy over a Wonder Woman movie being “tricky.”

But, first, a quick personal writing note.

If you’re interested in my romance writing self, I’m running a contest to win ecopies of all three books of my superhero hero series, the Phoenix Institute, over at the All Romance Cafe, along with the story of how I ended up writing my the Gotham City-inspired story, Luminous.

And back to television viewing.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t completely cut my cable cord. I looked around at the alternatives, found Direct TV no cheaper than what my current company, Cox, was offering, and didn’t have the cuts to simply go total Netflix and Hulu Plus.

One of the big reasons? Game of Thrones on HBO. I have to see it as it airs. Apparently, that’s worth an extra $15 a month to me.

And one of the reasons I have to watch the next season? The casting. So far it’s been nearly perfect, and that streak seems to be continuing with the news leaking out about the casting of the Martells. For those who haven’t read the books, the Dorne crew has some of the most fun, charming, and cunning characters in the entire series. King’s Landing is going to be the place to be, with the Lannisters, Tyrells, and Martells all plotting against each other.

Earlier this month, Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper, one of the most popular characters in the series, was cast; Chilean actor Pedro Pascal fills the role. And just yesterday, Indira Varma of HBO’s Rome was cast as Ellaria Sand, Oberyn’s lover and confident.

I’m not familiar with Pascal but I know Varma. She was terrific in Rome as the alluring, haunted, and long-suffering wife of Kevin McKidd’s Lucius Vorenus. Varma seems perfect to me as the alluring, smart, and sneaky head of the Sand Snakes from Dorne. (Just how many Sand Snakes we’ll get remains an open question but given HBO’s propensity for gratuitous female nudity on this show, we might get the full contingent.)

Geeks may know Varma better as Suzie Costello of Torchwood, one of the former members of the team who went in the wrong direction. And I found this great race-bending tumblr which re-cast her as the villain from Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Yet more fun from Game of Thrones:

College Humor has this handy map of the United States re-imagined as Westernos. Texas as the land of the Dothraki makes so much sense.

And some Hall H residents at Comic Con International were lucky enough to see this deleted Game of Thrones scene from last season featuring Tywin and Pycelle. I adore Charles Dance in this role and while I’m bummed to know this was cut, it’s great to see it now.

And now from one “tricky” adaptation with complicated backstory to another….

Hey Warner Bros.–Shut Up and Take My Money!

The same week Wired’s Underwire blog was saying we didn’t need a Wonder Woman because, you know, bondage or something, Forbes broke down the financials for a Wonder Woman movie and countered this whole “tricky” business with numbers and facts.

My favorite quote: Which means we need to understand that merely asking young teenage and college-age male comic book fans is NOT the right way to accurately gauge Wonder Woman’s potential cinematic success.

Will Warner Bros. listen? Your magic eight-ball is as good as mine, which reads “try again later.”