1) I think part of the reason I haven't posted anything is because I feel odd about posting without having any art at all to show. I've been having a lot of trouble with drawing lately, it seems? I finish something and then just decide I don't like the picture after all. :| It's a little worrisome, because I feel I should be using this summer to draw as much as possible, and I'm failing spectacularly at it. so, tl;dr: I feel bad about the lack of art
2)
I watched the entirety of the Game of Thrones adaption - and wow, it's actually really faithful to the book and quite good in general! My main complaint is probably that some of the fanservice was... rather gratuitous? I mean, it was worse than the second season of Code Geass. That's when you know there's way too much fanservice.
Overall, I thought the casting choices were good - the Targaryens, Littlefinger, Loras, Robb, Caitlyn, Jorah, Bran, Joffrey, Sansa... the list goes on and on, but they were all great, imo. On the flipside, I'm disappointed in Jon Snow's actor, not because I feel he doesn't look the part (though admittedly, I imagined him looking very different when reading the books, but still), but because he just can't act too well.
I think this about sums it up. I'm sure he'd be a fine actor if it weren't for the fact that his expression was all :O the entire time, though. (... lol Jon was one of my favorites in the books, so please excuse the rant.)
Oh, and speaking of actors, can I just add that Bran and Arya are absolutely adorable? ;A; I don't really mind the fact that Arya looks quite different from what George R R Martin probably intended, given that she was constantly described as "horse-faced" in the books while in the show, she's... not. At all. She's just incredibly cute. And I think I'm kind of shocked that all the children acted so well, too. That really impressed me.
It's kind of fun to watch this knowing exactly what will happen beforehand, though. When Joffrey made his "I'll never hurt you again!!!" speech to Sansa I actually laughed out loud, because
well
sure you won't, Joffrey
And I'm sure this makes me kind of terrible, but... I wasn't really affected by Ned's death? At all. His obsession with being honorable feels so out of place in Westeros, too. Mercy isn't going to get you too far, unfortunately.
Also, the show is making me feel a little silly because the Renly/Loras subtext flew completely over my head when I read the books. But then again, I think that's the case with most subtext in books in general. Still... when I got to the part with the rainbow armor I basically just went "oh, that's an odd color for armor isn't it? I sure wonder why it's rainbow-colored". Oops, I am slow
I have to admit that Renly and Loras were very cute in the adaption, though! I think I sort of ship it, a little bit. And Dany/her handmaiden. I-I don't even remember if she has a proper name, but it's crack either way, sooo
By the way, since I am obsessed with comparing everything to FE,
I made this. Feel free to judge me.
3) Um, the thing on the anon meme about elitism... I'm not sure what even happened there, to be honest? When I hear the word "elitism", I think of serious competitive Pokémon players who feel the need to force people to not use certain pokémon because their stats are bad (oh, this sure sounds familiar, doesn't it. I wonder what other Nintendo RPG has this problem)
Obviously that doesn't apply here. Though it does remind me of one other thing I've been meaning to rant about, sort of: I don't really like it when people claim fluffy and/or shippy fan fics don't have any artistic merit. I think they do. People will generally define "art" as anything meant to evoke some kind of emotion in you, but honestly, the more common way people approach things involves only classifying something as art if it's a) beautiful, or b) angsty. But personally, I'll often seek out fics that make me happy (be it through romance or comedy or something entirely different), and I don't think that makes them ~worth less~ than other kinds of fiction at all. I know this is a really bizarre tangent, but... yeah.
Edit: oh, and apparently today is supposed to be international kissing day? I guess I'll celebrate by reading fan fiction ♥