The Burden of Secret Keeping in HBO's Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones - Varys and Tyrion Lannister

Game of Thrones is full of secrets. Characters keep secrets, exploit secrets, and reveal secrets to build alliances. New research by Columbia Business School Professor Michael Slepian reveals the extent that Varys and other characters in Game of Thrones are encumbered by secrets—both their own and others'. 

As HBO's blockbuster series airs its final season this spring, Slepian's scholarship suggests that one of the greatest burdens its characters have carried through the eight-season mega-drama is not physical, but the mental weight of secrecy.

Slepian, who has used examples from Game of Thrones to illustrate negotiation principles in the classroom, says this scene of Varys promising to keep a secret for Tyrion Lannister underscores the upside and the downside of keeping others' secrets:

"Secrets are worth more than silver or sapphires," says the character Varys, who trades in secrets as the official "master of whisperers."

"Rest easy my lord," Varys says to Tyrion Lannister in an early episode, "I am very good at keeping secrets."

"Your discretion is legendary, where your friends are concerned," responds Tyrion, realizing that he is trapped under a burden of secrecy with Varys.

On the one hand, says Slepian, Varys is taking on a burden because he will have to think about, and conceal, Tyrion's secret. But Varys is also creating a bond of confidence and trust, which is something in short supply among the dueling personalities of Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones - Lord Varys  (image via Zimbio)

Slepian's research shows that secrets are not all equaling taxing. Across four different studies, Slepian, along with co-authors James Kirby of the University of Queensland and Elise Kalokerinosof the University of Newcastle, reviewed 1,000 participants keeping more than 6,000 secrets and found that we think more about secrets that cause us shame than those that cause us guilt.

In one study, nearly 200 participants were asked to recall a secret as well as the associated feelings of either shame or guilt on a rating of 1 to 7. Participants then reported the number of times over 30 days they spontaneously thought about the secret or felt the need to conceal the secret.

"When a secret evoked feelings of shame, the secret was more likely to intrude upon one's thinking in irrelevant moments," according to the paper. This consuming nature of shameful secrets might give new context to season five of Game of Thrones, when a humiliated Queen Cersei—who has long hidden a shameful secret of infidelity—must walk through the streets of King's Landing while a clergywoman cries "Shame! Shame! Shame!"

Game of Thrones - Queen Cersei (image via Wrath Of The Geek)

Secrecy can have an upside, however. In a separate paper, Slepian and Katharine Greenaway of the University of Melbourne measured the burdens of keeping our own secrets versus others' secrets—and the potential benefits to intimacy.

According to the research, at any given time, we are each keeping an average of 15 secrets for other people. Across three studies with more than 600 participants holding more than 10,000 secrets, the researchers found that the burdensomeness of others' secrets is a function of how often one must actively conceal the secret on their behalf due to an overlap in social circles.

SOURCE: Columbia Business School

Related Stories:

• Game of Thrones: imagined World Combines Romantic and Grotesque Visions of Middle Ages
• Forget Jon Snow, Watch The Young Women To Find Out How Game Of Thrones Ends
• The Red Woman: The History Behind Game Of Thrones' Mysterious Mystic
• Let's Fact Check The Game Of Thrones House Words

#FarscapeNow: The Hit Sci-Fi Series Farscape Available On Amazon Prime Video On Tuesday, March 19th

Farscape (Image via YouTube Farscape Official)

Beginning Tuesday, March 19, The Jim Henson Company's groundbreaking sci-fi series Farscape will be available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Nordics, and several other countries around the world on Amazon Prime Video. 

All four seasons in HD (88 x 60'), plus the Emmy-nominated mini-series finale – also newly remastered in HD - will be available. 

Die-hard fans and sci-fi aficionados can binge, watch, and re-watch the entire award-winning cult favorite that has earned its place in science fiction canon.

Throughout the coming year, fans will have multiple ways to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Farscape, which first premiered on March 19, 1999. In addition to the launch on Prime Video, enthusiasts can expect fan events and various licensing initiatives including a special edition vinyl soundtrack release from Music.Film Recordings and Varèse Saraband this summer.

Collectors can look for products from Chronicle Collectibles, Toy Vault, and Trevco in the coming months. 'Scapers' (Farscape fans) are encouraged to follow the official Farscape social channels using the fan-created hashtag #FarscapeNow for specific Prime Video territory details and any upcoming announcements.

"Farscape is one of my most favorite productions, and I am so honored by the 'Scapers' who continue to love it and share it with other sci-fi fans. Premiering the series and the beautiful HD remastered mini-series on Prime Video is a great way to celebrate the 20th anniversary with the Farscape community," said Brian Henson, chairman of The Jim Henson Company and executive producer of Farscape.

Fusing live-action, digital effects, and state-of-the-art puppetry and prosthetics from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Farscape has been hailed by TV Guide as one of the 25 Best Cult TV Shows. 

Emmy-nominated and winner of two Saturn Awards, Farscape, created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, was the first original series to air on SYFY. It went on to gain a loyal international fan following that has propelled multiple ancillary products including comics, collectibles, games, and publishing. 

Farscape (Courtesy of the The Jim Henson Company)

About Farscape:

Farscape follows astronaut John Crichton who, during an experimental space mission, is hurled across a thousand galaxies to an alien world. In his quest to return to Earth, he finds himself aboard a starship populated by escaping political prisoners from a variety of alien cultures. 

Crichton must rise to the challenge of surviving in a world he barely understands, keeping one step ahead of the pursuing Peacekeepers, a race of deadly mercenaries who will stop at nothing to capture him.

About The Jim Henson Company:

The award-winning Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 60 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics, and digital animation. 

Best known as creators of the world-famous Muppets, Henson's most recent television credits include Dot., Word Party, and Doozers, and the Emmy-nominated Splash and Bubbles, Sid the Science Kid, and Dinosaur Train. 

Television productions include Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller, and the sci-fi series Farscape. 

• The Company is currently in production on the upcoming Netflix original series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio.

SOURCE: The Jim Henson Company

How an X-Men writer inspired binge-worthy, character-driven TV from Buffy to Game of Thrones

An early comics book writer inspired today’s TV writing. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), based on the comic book by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, tops binge-worthy TV lists this month. Mary J. Blige plays Cha-Cha, an assassin that can travel through time. (Christos Kalohoridis / Netflix)

A quiet revolution has occurred within all of our homes, one that has fundamentally altered the way we watch television.

Given the North American love of television, it is not hyperbole to say this revolution has had a notable effect on our lives, our culture and our identities. It is strange to consider that we might owe a great deal of these cultural changes to the work of a single X-Men comics writer.

This writer played a significant role in developing the long-form storytelling techniques that have since found their way into everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Game of Thrones to Stranger Things.

In the 1960s, X-Men comics were a failure for Marvel, despite boasting the creative pairing of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. After 63 issues, the series was effectively cancelled and left in limbo for five years. Then in 1975, a 24 year old editorial assistant named Chris Claremont took over as the new writer of X-men.

The First Issue of X-Men.

Claremont expected the job to last six issues, but he instead wound up writing the series for 16 consecutive years.

In that time, X-Men went from a B-list title to the best-selling comic book in the world, and Claremont holds the Guinness World Record to this day for the bestselling single issue comic of all-time: X-Men (vol 2) #1.

All of this is established comics history. What does it have to do with television?

A seismic shift: Casual to dedicated audiences

By the late 1990s, television had begun a transition. According to culuralist Jimmie Reeves and his colleagues, TV started “programming forms that inspire devoted rather than casual engagement.” Prior to this, TV was dependant on broadcast scheduling and had to be designed to be accessible to casual viewers. This was simply because there was no way to guarantee audiences would be in front of their television the next week at the exact same time to see the next episode.

With the rise of VHS or DVD boxed sets, personal video recorders and later, streaming services, television was set free to use long-form continuity-based storytelling. Those stories featured more complex character dynamics within more continuous, open-ended plots and structures.

As a result of this transition, the way most of the globe consumed television changed within a very short period of time. This shift led us from self-contained, non-continuous stories to the very concept of being “binge-worthy.”

This same type of transition is exactly what Claremont contributed to comics, decades prior.
When Claremont started on X-Men in 1975, comics were also written for a casual audience. Stan Lee is famously quoted as saying: “Every comic book is someone’s first.” Casual engagement needed to be woven into the books. That was the status quo and creators were not allowed to drift too far from it.

But Claremont was not interested in telling the same stories over and over, and because he wrote X-Men for 16 years, he covered a lot of stories. This necessitated a new approach to writing, one that allowed for change: new characters and new directions. In light of this, Claremont’s X-Men were constantly changing and growing in a way that did not conform to Stan Lee’s mandate.

X-Men #136

Claremont’s growth of writing style was rooted in an interest in character over plot. Comics historian Sean Howe noted: “All Claremont cared about were the emotional relationships of his characters.” As a result, X-Men became, as Howe put it, “the soapiest soap saga ever put forth by the House of Ideas, filled with agonized romances, self-confidence crises, lectures on morality, psychic scars, and worrying.”

If these elements sound familiar, they should. Most of our current television programs use the same components to build their devoted followings.

From Kitty to Buffy

The most direct successor of Claremont’s work is Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. According to cultural critic Geoff Klock, Claremont’s influence “looms too large for many to see. A lot of folks don’t know that Joss Whedon would not have created Buffy or Angel were it not for Claremont’s X-men.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Similarly, comics historian Jason Powell believes Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer is “an avowed Kitty Pryde [a character Claremont created for X-men] analogue, and an entire season of Buffy riffed on Claremont’s ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’.”

The same can be said for an entire season of Whedon’s Angel, which used Claremont’s Illyana Rasputin character as the basis for a long arc about Angel’s son, Connor. Whedon is quite open about how Claremont inspired him, and Buffy is frequently cited as a touchstone moment in the development of long-form storytelling in television.

A broader absorption

Beyond this direct influence, Claremont’s techniques are widely visible among the best-loved television series within this current golden age: nested story structures, drawn-out mysteries, character melodrama and dysfunctional collectives that have to put aside their differences to defeat a common foe.

The only thing missing is the yellow tights. Perceived as a whole, Claremont’s work constructed a sort of long-form storytelling toolbox, one that our TV creators have been dipping into ever since.

Claremont’s X-Women.

Additionally, Claremont’s use of women in his stories was, according to Powell, “ahead of its time 30 years ago, and modern comics are still catching up.” His cultivation of strong female characters like Storm, Carol Danvers, Rogue, Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, Phoenix and Psylocke set a new standard for action heroines in popular culture as a whole, one that manifests readily in some of the great, badass heroines populating our screens today.

In the end

When Claremont was finally pushed out of X-Men comics, he was the No. 1 comics writer in the world.

He wasn’t pushed out because he was failing at his job, but because he refused to comply with an editorial mandate that requested a return to status quo, to casual engagement all over again.

His greatest accomplishment — developing ways by which a character-based story could unfold slowly over time — was, ironically, what cost him his job. But if our current television landscape is any indication, our culture has profited greatly from the choices Claremont made, and from the ingenuity that followed those choices.

About Today's Contributor:

J. Andrew Deman,, Professor, University of Waterloo

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Miami Vice Original Filming Boat Goes Up for Sale

Miami Vice Original Filming Boat: "a Picasso of boats"

An eye for design runs in the family. The late fashion designer Larry Martino created and designed clothes for Hollywood stars but his son, cut from the same cloth, David Martino, 41, of Iconic Premier, has applied that artful eye to collectible vehicles. 

Among them is the most recognizable, iconic pop culture boat in the world, a Wellcraft Scarab 38 KV driven by Don Johnson throughout the 1980s international hit TV series Miami Vice

Calling it artwork in motion, Wellcraft told Martino that Don Johnson himself helped design the boat's finishes and choose the color; there are more than 130 hues in the paint scheme. 

With its beautiful lines and a graceful arch mounted on the boat, the Scarab has a very distinguished look and style making it a perfect museum piece. 

This famous boat holds an illustrious place in television history.

"Owning the original Miami Vice boat has been a lifelong dream and it's an honor to own such a powerful international status symbol," Martino said. "But it is time for the original Miami Vice boat to go to a new home, maybe to a studio such as HGTV, Universal Studios, Vin Diesel, an art museum, casino, sports figure, even a fortune 500 company that will greatly benefit from the 30 years plus of branding or someone who just is a die-hard fan of Miami Vice."

But the worth of such a legendary, beautiful vessel is a mystery. Unlike collectible cars of which there are hundreds, the only boat that comes to mind is the original Miami Vice filming boat, by far the most recognizable boat in the world.

"It is hard to put a value on such an iconic collector's piece," Martino said. "I view this as priceless and irreplaceable. It's unique, and highly collectible, a true masterpiece. It's definitely a Picasso of boats, so we've priced it at $20 million on eBay." All offers will be welcomed.

International Superstar David Martino Cruising with his pal the "Legend"

Martino will give away the very last Miami Vice Daytona built by renown car builder Carl Roberts.

"That would be a fun two-for-one, wouldn't it?" Martino said. "I'd be willing to do that; if someone bought the boat, I'd throw the Daytona in free. They really need to stay together."

"We all remember Don Johnson playing Detective Sonny Crockett on the show," Martino said. "Some lucky person will carry the Miami Vice legacy with pride of ownership. There's 30 years of branding behind the original Miami Vice filming boat, which became a household name and a character in the movie."

Miami Vice: Don Johnson as Detective Sonny Crockett

The Miami Vice boat can be viewed at iconicpremier.world along with Martino's other Hollywood collectibles including the Original Bandit Trans Am, the car that stared The Smokey and the Bandit phenomena.

SOURCE: Iconic Premier

Related Video:

EC Comics and Hivemind Bring "Weird Fantasy" to Life with New Film/TV Partnership

WEIRD FANTASY Cover Art by Al Williamson & Frank Frazetta (Courtesy: EC Comics)

Hivemind today announced a new partnership with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., the proprietors of EC Comics, for a number of film and television projects based on the hugely influential – and often controversial – comic book publisher's groundbreaking legacy and library. One of the first endeavors of the partnership will be WEIRD FANTASY – a new television show inspired by the shocking and subversive sci-fi/fantasy series that collided visionary genre storytelling with socially conscious themes of racial and gender equality, anti-war advocacy, nuclear disarmament and ecological preservation to create some of the most impactful and hotly debated comic book stories ever produced.

"The EC library is a timeless literary achievement that deserves to stand alongside the works of Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, and H.P. Lovecraft," said producer and Hivemind Co-President Dinesh Shamdasani. "WEIRD FANTASY is a truly historic property that shattered many barriers, and our goal is to make the television series just as fearless and forward-thinking as the stories that inspired it."

Changing the industry seemingly overnight in the early 1950s under the stewardship of publisher and writer William M. Gaines, EC Comics quickly became the dominant force of the era's booming comic book industry, selling tens of millions of copies annually and generating intense, nationwide controversies with taboo-smashing, confrontational stories in series like TALES FROM THE CRYPT and MAD MAGAZINE. EC's unique formula eschewed superheroes in favor of science fiction, fantasy, war, horror, and humor – redefining comics storytelling with a newly sophisticated and artist-driven approach that would pave the way for the ascendancy of both Marvel Comics and the counterculture underground in the decades to come.

A lynchpin of the EC line during the publisher's creative watershed, WEIRD FANTASY produced dozens of seminal stories that intersected razor-sharp social commentary with epic science fiction, high adventure and dark fantasy by some of the most celebrated comics creators to ever work in the medium, including Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and Harvey Kurtzman. WEIRD FANTASY's defiantly rebellious sensibility is perhaps best exemplified by "Judgment Day" – a history-making story by William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein & Joe Orlando that championed the then-burgeoning Civil Rights movement and provoked a showdown with the Comics Code Authority, the pro-censorship organization that policed and sanitized the comic book industry for more than 50 years.

JUDGMENT DAY & OTHER STORIES Cover Art (Courtesy: EC Comics)

Following in the footsteps of TALES FROM THE CRYPT's smash-hit, seven-season run at HBO (and subsequent three feature films), the newly established partnership represents the first time that WMG Agent Inc. has made WEIRD FANTASY available for adaptation in more than two decades. WEIRD FANTASY's jump to television will mark the beginning of a new era for EC Comics – cited as "one of the great explosions of vox-pop literature" by TIME Magazine and frequently noted as a central influence on the work of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, and many others.

The new partnership is also slated to include a feature film based on the life of William M. Gaines, the former EC Comics publisher and self-styled comics provocateur who challenged the rigid moral code of 1950s America with shockingly innovative and deeply subversive tales of fantasy, horror and humor that sold in the millions...only to find his company investigated by Congress and his books burned in the streets in the wake of EC's staggering success. Chronicling one of the greatest untold chapters in American history, the film will follow Gaines' transformation from a staid, New York publishing impresario into a counterculture hero, guardian of artistic freedom, and champion of the First Amendment as his darkly humorous journey through the troubled birth of the comic book industry reveals the Red Scare-era witch hunt that nearly doomed an American art form, through the subsequent founding of MAD MAGAZINE and eventual rise of Marvel Comics in EC's wake.

Both projects will be produced by Gaines' daughter and grandson, Cathy Mifsud and Corey Mifsud, for EC, alongside Dinesh Shamdasani, Sean Daniel, Jason F. Brown, and Hunter Gorinson for Hivemind. The projects will mark Gorinson's first for Hivemind, where he also has joined as VP Brand & Content Strategy. Prior to joining Hivemind in mid-2018, Gorinson previously led marketing and communications as an executive at Valiant Entertainment, the acclaimed comic book publisher whose much-publicized relaunch will culminate with the release of Sony Pictures' BLOODSHOT feature film, starring Vin Diesel and adapted from the Valiant comic series by director Dave Wilson and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer, in early 2020.

"The story of William Gaines is the secret history of American pop culture," said Gorinson. "The ideas he presented in the pages of MAD, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, WEIRD FANTASY, and so many more would inspire and incite revolutionary countercultures – from comics to comedy to film and music – around the globe for decades to come. As a veteran of the comics industry myself and a lifelong fan of EC, it's a tremendous honor to be working alongside the Gaines family to help bring his story – which has an immense amount to tell us about our own modern moment – to a new generation on the big screen." 

"It's very important to us to be able to find a partner that truly understands the significance and influence of Dad and the world-class creators that made EC Comics legendary," said Cathy Mifsud, Gaines' daughter. "We're incredibly excited to have found just such a partner in Hivemind and to embark on the first of several projects that will embrace the company's legacy in ways never before attempted."

WEIRD FANTASY and the untitled Gaines biopic mark two major new additions to Hivemind's rapidly expanding roster of film and television projects, which currently includes THE EXPANSE for Amazon Studios (where it also holds a first-look deal for event television), the highly anticipated adaptation of THE WITCHER starring Henry Cavill for Netflix, and CBS Films' upcoming SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK feature film from producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toroand director André Øvredal. Most recently, the company announced that it had won an intense, multi-party bidding war to bring the hit Image Comics series GIDEON FALLS, by Eisner Award-winning writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino, to television as an hour-long horror-drama.

SOURCE: Hivemind

New Mary Tyler Moore Biography Published to Coincide with Second Anniversary of Her Passing

New biography on Mary Tyler Moore

Two years ago – January 25, 2017 – the world lost Mary Tyler Moore at age 80. Unknown by many today, Moore was one of the most celebrated actresses of her day, receiving over a dozen major awards, and an equal amount of additional award nominations. Among these, Moore won two Emmys and a Golden Globe Award for her role as Laura Petrie in the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, and three Emmys, plus a second Golden Globe, as Mary Richards in her 1970s series The Mary Tyler Moore Show. 

In 1980, Moore surprised many critics and fans by turning away from comedy and challenging herself with a stark dramatic role in the Robert Redford-directed drama, Ordinary People. For her performance, she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Oscar. Moore also won an Emmy for another dramatic turn, in the 1993 TV movie Stolen Babies. 

However, of greater importance than the awards Moore received are the two iconic characters she played on television, which have had a lasting impression on millions of people.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show, premiering in September 1970, made Moore a symbol and role model for the Women's Movement. Her portrayal of an independent working single woman challenged traditional female roles in television. 

Former First Lady Michelle Obama said about the character, "She wasn't married; she wasn't looking to get married; at no point did the series end in a happy ending with her finding a husband – which seemed to be the course you had to take as a woman."

A decade before, Moore's role as Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show confronted conventional wives and moms as seen on television with the warm chemistry between her and Van Dyke. 

Moore said, "We brought romance to [TV] comedy, and, yes, Rob and Laura had sex!"

While celebrating Moore's life and career, noted author Herbie J Pilota explores in great depth Moore's personal and professional struggles. Pilato narrates the many TV and film productions, stage plays, and personal appearances that spanned the actresses 50-plus-year-career, but equally delineates as never before Moore's issues with childhood sexual abuse; alcoholism; diabetes; cosmetic surgery; and her near-obsessive fight for animal rights. Also examined in candid detail are Moore's troubled personal relationships with parents and spouses, as well as the tragic deaths of her son, her brother, and sister; and difficulties with a few of her co-stars, such as Rose Marie (from The Dick Van Dyke Show).

In covering the gamut of Moore's personal and professional life, Pilato's new biography features exclusive interviews with many of the actress's co-stars, including Ed Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Larry Matthews, and the late Carol Channing, plus recollections from several writer/producers who worked on many of Moore's television productions. Among these is television journalist and breast-cancer survivor Betty Rollin, whom Moore portrayed in the groundbreaking 1978 TV biopic, First You Cry.

Despite the many personal challenges throughout her life, MARY: THE MARY TYLER MOORE STORY documents how the multiple award-winning actress achieved a level of stardom and lasting admiration experienced by few – a fitting reminder of how Moore's Mary Richards could "turn the world on with her smile."

SOURCE: Jacobs/Brown Press 

Wrebbit Meets Westeros: New Line Of Game of Thrones 3D Puzzles Is Coming...

Wrebbit 3D Game of Thrones - RedKeep 3D Puzzle (CNW Group/Wrebbit Puzzles Inc)

Wrebbit Puzzles Inc. is proud to announce a new two-year, worldwide licensing agreement with HBO Licencing and Retail to produce and market puzzles of some of the most beloved landmarks from the blockbuster Game of Thrones television series.

Internationally renowned for their Wrebbit 3D puzzles based on the Wizarding World (Harry Potter) franchise, this new deal brings exciting new business to Wrebbit's already-booming production facility in eastern Montreal. 

All Wrebbit 3D puzzles are 100% designed and made in Quebec, with the Game of Thrones agreement expected to further bolster business with the company's annual sales and international market penetration. 

⏩ Additional economic benefits are also slated to effect Wrebbit's suppliers, 90 percent of which are also locally based in Canada.

"We've always enjoyed a significant presence on the international market, especially in Europe. Now with the CETA agreement and our logistics hub in Antwerp, Belgium, this will ensure a wider and even timelier distribution of Wrebbit 3D Game of Thrones puzzles worldwide, prior to upcoming Season 8 of the series", explains Jean Théberge, President of Wrebbit Puzzles Inc.

Wrebbit is in the design process for the first two Game of Thrones puzzle models of Winterfell and Red Keep, slated for market in early 2019, just in time for the lead-up to the much-anticipated final season of the series later in the year in April. 

These models will include Wrebbit's trademark high definition graphics, featuring the striking realism that has become the new standard for visual quality, within the company's acclaimed tongue-and-groove technology that allows the pieces to interlock and assemble effortlessly.

Game of Thrones - "Winter is Coming" (Via LoupDargent.info)

About "Game of Thrones": 
(Via Wikipedia)

"Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is A Game of Thrones. 

It is filmed in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Scotland, Spain, and the United States. 

The series premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and its seventh season ended on August 27, 2017. The series will conclude with its eighth season premiering in April 2019.

Set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, Game of Thrones has several plot lines and a large ensemble cast but centers on three primary story arcs. 

• The first story arc centers on the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms and follows a web of alliances and conflicts among the dynastic noble families either vying to claim the throne or fighting for independence from the throne. 
• The second story arc focuses on the last descendant of the realm's deposed ruling dynasty, exiled and plotting a return to the throne. 
• The third story arc centers on the longstanding brotherhood charged with defending the realm against the ancient threats of the fierce peoples and legendary creatures that lie far north, and an impending winter that threatens the realm."

⏩ Click here for more information about "Game Of Thrones"... ⏪

Harry Potter Hogwarts Collection

About Wrebbit Puzzles Inc:

Montreal-based Wrebbit Puzzles Inc., one of the jewels of the Canadian toys and games industry, designs, manufactures and markets Wrebbit 3D puzzles.  

With the expansion of its Harry Potter Hogwarts Collection in 2018 and the release of a Diagon Alley Collection, now coupled with the upcoming new Wrebbit 3D Game of Thrones puzzles, the company will have 30+ different models on its list by the end of 2019, including fan favourites like Wrebbit's Classic, New York and Urbania collections.

Wrebbit 3D puzzles are available in over 40 countries around the world, and can be found in department and bookstore chains as well as independent bookstores, arts and crafts stores, specialty toy stores, mom-and-pop, game and hobby shops, and they are also offered by numerous online retailers.

SOURCE: Wrebbit Puzzles Inc

Game of Thrones Related Stories:

• Game of Thrones: Imagined World Combines Romantic and Grotesque Visions of Middle Age 
• Forget Jon Snow, Watch The Young Women To Find Out How Game Of Thrones Ends 
• 'What Is Dead May Never Die': The Secrets Of Resurrection In The Bible And Game Of Thrones 
• The Red Woman: The History Behind Game Of Thrones' Mysterious Mystic 
• Let's Fact Check The Game Of Thrones House Words

Wrebbit Related Video:

NBC, Universal Brand Development and LEGO Unleash Two-Part 'LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit' On November 29

LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit premieres on NBC November 29, 2018 at 8pm local time.

NBC has partnered with Universal Brand Development and The LEGO Group for the upcoming debut of a two-part animated special: "LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit." The all-new animated special – inspired by the blockbuster Jurassic World franchise – will air on Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

⏩ The story takes place before the adventures of Jurassic World in 2015. 

In the special, Simon Masrani has an idea for a new attraction that is guaranteed to keep Jurassic World at the forefront of theme park entertainment. It's the greatest thing since the discovery of dinosaurs, but in order for it to succeed, he needs his right-hand can-do problem solver, Claire Dearing, to get a trio of dinosaurs across the park to the new, super-secret exhibit. 

Reluctantly teaming up with newcomer Owen Grady, the animal behaviorist she hired sight unseen to deliver the dinosaurs, the duo set out on a fun-filled adventure across the island. 

⏩ Unfortunately, delivering the dinosaurs to the new attraction is not as easy as they thought.

"LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit" - Owen Grady and Claire Dearing

The two-part special will be available to stream the morning after the NBC broadcast, Nov. 30, across multiple platforms, including the NBC app and NBC.com, where it can be viewed without a login, as well as on Hulu and On Demand. It will also be available for download from major digital retailers. The DVD, with exclusive bonus content, drops Jan. 15, 2019.

For more information, visit nbc.com.

About LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit:
With the grand opening of Jurassic World's new super-secret dinosaur exhibit just days away, only one thing is missing - the dinosaurs! In order to get the job done, Simon Masrani enlists his newly-hired assistant, Claire Dearing, to ensure the new attraction opens on time...or else. Unfortunately, Owen Grady, the animal behaviorist Claire hired to deliver the dinosaurs, is late. Things aren't looking too good for Claire...or for Owen, who just wants to deliver the dinosaurs, collect his paycheck and get off the island.

But the mission to deliver the dinosaurs turns out to be far more difficult than anyone could have imagined. From a runaway Gyrosphere, hang gliding with a Pteranodon (how did they get out of the Aviary?!), to a high-speed game of chicken with a T-Rex, Owen will earn his paycheck and then some. And Claire may just get promoted to Assistant Manager of Park Operations. 

"LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit"

Along the way, we get the first inklings of why Owen and Claire drive each other crazy, but despite their differences, they succeed and make a great team. Oh, and Owen meets Blue for the first time as he discovers he has a way with dinosaurs he never knew about!

SOURCE: NBCUniversal

The Trailer:

Game of Thrones: imagined World Combines Romantic and Grotesque Visions of Middle Ages

Winter's coming (HBO)

Take the dragons and the zombies away from the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire novels and you are left with the seemingly authentic portrayal of a pseudo-medieval world. Indeed, Martin was inspired by historical events such as the Wars of the Roses, the Crusades and the Hundred Years’ War.

It is no surprise that Game of Thrones is being used to stimulate interest in medieval studies. Westeros is replete with medieval staples such as knights, queens, broadswords and castles. It’s packed with recognisable medieval characters, including Machiavellian schemers, brutal warriors, noble heroes, paternalistic lords and power-hungry aristocrats.

Of course Game of Thrones is fundamentally ahistorical, taking inspiration from popular myths about many different periods and places. But while it illuminates little about the past, it reveals much about how we imagine that past.

The grotesque
Medieval scholar David Matthews suggests that modern views of the Middle Ages can be categorised as either romantic or grotesque. Game of Thrones features both elements in spades.

The likes of vicious, spoiled king Joffrey Baratheon, his scheming mother Cersei Lannister and psychopathic warlord Ramsey Bolton signify the grotesque. They represent the idea of the Middle Ages as a violent and lawless era. That notion was created by the literati of Renaissance Italy as they sought to rediscover the learning and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. Such views were reinforced by the Reformation, which equated Catholicism with medieval folly.

These attitudes were strengthened during the 18th-century Enlightenment. The “light” of modern reason and objectivity was contrasted against the superstitious “darkness” that had supposedly characterised the medieval period. In this way, the Middle Ages became a foil against which to measure the achievements of modernity.

If the Middle Ages have become a shorthand for brutality, they can also highlight the supposed inadequacies of non-Western societies. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, it has become routine among Western officials and journalists to label Islamic extremists as “medieval”. In 2015, US Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina even claimed that her degree in medieval history would help her fight Islamic State.

Such attitudes can be identified in Game of Thrones. The brown-skinned slave-trading Dothraki are portrayed as a Mongol-esque horde whose primary characteristic is primitive savagery. Daenerys Targaryen, a claimant to the throne of Westeros who liberates thousands from servitude in the neighbouring continent of Essos, is portrayed as a white saviour bringing freedom to oriental slaves.

Mother of dragons, liberator of slaves: Daenerys Targaryen. (HBO)

Meanwhile in Westeros, where the central story unfolds, slavery was outlawed centuries ago. The underlying assumption here is that societies progress towards civilisation over time. The imagined land of Westeros borrows much from an earlier period in Western development. But the eastern continent of Essos is home to societies bearing cultural hallmarks aligning them with the Middle and Far East. Some of them are presented as more refined than their Western counterparts, but also more amoral, thus echoing Western views of the east that have been powerful in our own world since the Crusades.

The romantic
There is also much to admire in the protagonists we root for. Daenerys, the heroic Jon Snow and the honourable and doomed Ned Stark are examples of the “romantic” Middle Ages. They are brave, honourable, noble and just, sitting within a vision of the medieval past informed by ideas about chivalry and morality.

Such figures hark back to older views of the Middle Ages as a heroic age in which individuals could make their own moral choices. Think of T. H. White’s Arthur, Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, and the numerous retellings of the Robin Hood legend. Looking further back, we see these same tropes in Thomas Mallory’s Arthurian romances, themselves composed at the very end of the medieval era.

In all cases the main characters champion the oppressed and challenge established authorities which lack moral legitimacy, just like our heroes in Game of Thrones.

But the aristocratic status of the Starks and Targaryens also represents social order and cohesion. These rival families do not seek to tear down the existing hierarchy in Westeros, but rather to remodel it along more just and benevolent lines. This tallies with an image of the Middle Ages as a golden era of stability, when everyone knew their role and had clearly defined responsibilities towards one another. For 19th-century thinkers, including John Ruskin and William Morris, the medieval period was a model through which humanity might from escape from the cruel vicissitudes of industrial capitalism.

Character development: Arya Stark. (HBO)

Yet the powerful women in Game of Thrones are indisputably modern. Daenerys, Cersei Lannister and Arya Stark, who has grown from tomboyish daughter to deadly assassin, are symbols of feminist empowerment, taking on roles traditionally reserved for men. Interestingly, the only character truly adhering to knightly ideals is Brienne of Tarth, who dresses and behaves like a knight but cannot actually be one, because of her gender.

That said, the degradation and abuse that many female characters endure – which sparked accusations of misogyny – is of course grotesque rather than romantic.

Achieving balance
What Game of Thrones does so well is balance these elements. Too much violence and many fans would turn off in disgust. Too much high-minded moralising and the show would feel sanitised and lacking a genuine sense of peril. Perhaps that is why the adventures of characters such as Arya, Cersei’s brother Jaime Lannister, their enforcer Sandor Clegane and above all the charming and Machiavellian Tyrion Lannister make for such compelling viewing. They operate in the borderlands between the “grotesque” and the “romantic”, making them admirable and repugnant in equal measure.

Tyrion Lannister: scheming, charming, charismatic. (HBO)

More broadly, the series tells us something about how its audience may feel about society today. Most of us are glad to have advanced beyond the barbarism we associate with the Middle Ages. But many also feel that values of duty and social responsibility have been lost along the way.

How we conceptualise the present is inevitably influenced by how we imagine the past. In terms of selling a story, therefore, the accuracy or otherwise of the medieval vision that Game of Thrones presents is irrelevant.

About Today's Contributor:
Richard Marsden, Lecturer in History, The Open University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Game of Thrones Related Stories:

• Let's Fact Check The Game Of Thrones House Words
• The Red Woman: The History Behind Game Of Thrones' Mysterious Mystic
• Forget Jon Snow, Watch The Young Women To Find Out How Game Of Thrones Ends

Related Videos: