WRITING UPDATE: GRAPHIC NOVEL SCRIPT (PART 1)

As I continue to write the graphic novel script for my sequel series, I decided on the amount of pages will be invested into each volume. This current volume I am working on will consist of around 150 pages and I am more than a third of the way there! I am planning to finish the script for the first volume by the end of the year. Even though I am still relatively new to writing graphic novel scripts, I can easily imagine the story unfolding with each panel. I am planning to have editors my friend knows take a look at it once I get a certain amount done and the start pitching to various graphic novel companies. Among the companies I will be targeting will be Image Comics, which created Spawn, Witchblade, and The Walking Dead. I hope I will get results by the time my product is ready. Fingers crossed and wish me luck.

GAME OF THRONES SEASON 7 PREDICTIONS: DAENERYS’S CONQUEST

My mind is consumed with various thoughts and predictions about what we could expect from next season of Game of Thrones. This post will revolve around how Daenerys’s conquest will unfold when she lands. As I mentioned in my previous post, Daenerys now controls an army that is at least a quarter million strong, consisting of her Dothraki, Unsullied, the armies of House Tyrell, Dorne, and half the Iron Islands as well as three full grown dragons. She now commands more soldiers than the Starks and the Lannisters combined. With those numbers, resources, and dragons, no one would be stupid enough to challenge her (except Cersei).

As for where she would land, I hope she does not land in the Stormlands because the storms will rip her fleet apart. It would be preferable for her to land in Dorne because it is an ally and the closest kingdom from her current location. Daenerys should rendezvous with the Sand Snakes to integrate the Dornish armies and resources to her legions. Then move northwest to the Reach to meet up with House Tyrell to add their armies and resources to her own. Once Daenerys consolidates her control over Dorne and the Reach, then she would be ready to march north.

The regions that would be the easiest for Daenerys to conquer would be the Riverlands and the Stormlands. The Riverlands were already in a chaotic state when House Frey took over, but with Walder Frey dead it will become even more chaotic. The reason for this is because Walder Frey had so many children and grandchildren that he never set a clear line of succession so the Freys are going to tear themselves apart as they fight over who will take over their family. With no stable leadership, the Riverlands will easily fall to Daenerys’s legions. The Stormlands were the lands of House Baratheon, which is now extinct. In addition, the Stormlands’ military was lost both in the Battle of Blackwater and the first Battle of Winterfell. With no leadership or military to protect it, the Stormlands will also fall to Daenerys with ease.

The only regions that would put up any resistance are the Westerlands and Crownlands. The Westerlands are the territory of House Lannister, but its defenses will be relatively lax because it was weakened throughout the War of the Five Kings and the loss of House Tyrell’s support. The Crownlands is where King’s Landing is and since House Tyrell withdrew its support, the people of King’s Landing will be starving and weak and taking the city will be a relatively easy task for Daenerys. In either the Westerlands or the Crownlands, Daenerys will be able to wipe out Lannister forces in droves with her overwhelming numbers attacking from the land, her fleet attacking from the sea, and her dragons attacking from the air.

After Daenerys secures central Westeros, she will turn her attention to the Iron Islands to keep her promise to Yara Greyjoy. By this time, Euron Greyjoy will have completed his new Iron Fleet. Whether if the new Iron Fleet will be as big as Daenerys’s seems unlikely due to the Iron Islands’ limited natural resources. But if it is, it will be of little consequence because Daenerys’s dragons can incinerate it without breaking a sweat. This will secure the Iron Islands and make it an ally to Daenerys’s empire under Yara Greyjoy’s leadership.

All that would remain would be the North and the Vale, which have been reorganized into the newly resurrected Kingdom of the North. Even though House Stark has rebuilt its military with the aid of the Vale with an army of around 26,000 men, they don’t have the numbers or resources to resist Daenerys. After she secures southern Westeros, the Starks’ only options are either be conquered, swear fealty to Daenerys, or arrange a political marriage between Queen Daenerys and King Jon. Knowing the Starks, they would not risk the lives of their countrymen, but they would also try to defend their kingdom’s newly found independence. Therefore, their only real option is for Jon Snow to marry Daenerys, which would allow her to secure northern Westeros without bloodshed. Because Tyrion Lannister was sympathetic towards Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, and Bran Stark, he would probably persuade Daenerys to be gentle with House Stark. It would also be all the more fitting since Jon Snow is really her nephew and House Targaryen would be whole again.

Overall, I expect to see a virtually one-sided massacre next season when Daenerys lands. It is going to be juicy!

GAMES OF THRONES REVIEW: SEASON 6 FINALE

I was very satisfied with the season finale of Game of Thrones Season 6 for a variety of different reasons. To begin with, Cersei Lannister’s wildfire plot has pretty much destroyed House Lannister’s reputation and future. The reason for this is because her plot annihilated House Tyrell’s line of succession, leaving Olenna Tyrell the sole survivor of her House. Due to this, House Lannister’s hold on the Iron Throne is hanging by a thread with the loss of House Tyrell’s support. At the start of the War of the Five Kings, House Lannister had an army of 60,000, but after several defeats at the hands of House Stark, their army is now about half that. With House Tyrell’s support, House Lannister’s army was increased by 100,000 strong. Now, without House Tyrell’s support, House Lannister’s army is severely weakened to just 30,000 men, the Tyrell’s money is gone so they can’t pay back the Iron Bank anymore which will cause economic chaos, and without House Tyrell’s support there will be famine in King’s Landing. With hunger and hatred from the wildfire plot spreading, House Lannister will not have the numbers or resources to survive an uprising.

Cersei’s children were always the lynchpin to her humanity, but now they are all gone. Due to this, Cersei is going to get far worse next season, which will compel more of the Seven Kingdoms to rebel against her. She is very much like her son Joffrey in that she is politically incompetent, easily controlled by her emotions, and slightly insane. Her rule won’t last long especially with the odds that are stacked against her. When Jaime finds out about the full details of the wildfire plot, it is likely he will kill Cersei for what she has done to their family and son.

I am pleased that we got confirmation about Jon Snow’s parentage in that he is the son of Lyanna Stark and possibly Rhaegar Targaryen. If Lyanna did not love Rhaegar, she would not have begged Ned Stark to protect Jon Snow and if Jon was truly a bastard, Rhaegar would not have assigned two of the best Kingsguard to protect him. With these facts, Jon Snow is neither a bastard nor a Stark, but a true born Targaryen with a stronger claim to the throne than Daenerys, the true King of the Iron Throne. The Starks are going to be surprised when Bran reveals that the true King of the Seven Kingdoms has been living with them all this time. Now that Jon is the new King in the North, he is one step closer to becoming what he was born to be. I just hope he does better than Robb Stark. Since Daenerys will be looking for a political marriage when she lands, Jon is the only eligible choice available to her and Tyrion will vouch for Jon.

I am very pleased that Walder Frey is dead and Robb Stark is finally avenged! It was only fitting that he would die at the hands of a Stark. I thought it was perfect that Arya Stark tricked Walder Frey to eat his own sons. A man like Walder Frey deserves no mercy for what he has done in the Red Wedding. With Arya, a fully trained Faceless Man, on the loose, no one on her death list is safe, except Gregor Clegane because he is undead.

Finally, I am completely pleased with Daenerys Targaryen’s current position for a variety of different reasons. The main reason is because she is finally on her way to follow in her ancestor’s footsteps and conquer the Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys’s army was roughly 110,000 strong, but now that she has gained the loyalty of House Tyrell and Dorne, her army has more than doubled to roughly 240,000! The reason for this is because House Tyrell is capable of amassing an army of 100,000 men because they rule the most populous region in Westeros while Dorne has remained neutral throughout the War of the Five Kings so their military is at full strength at around 30,000. House Tyrell in particular is a tremendous boon for Daenerys not just because of their massive army. In addition to having the largest army in Westeros, House Tyrell is the second richest family in Westeros and govern the most fertile land in the country. Due to these factors, House Tyrell can fund Daenerys’s entire campaign while feeding her growing armies at the same time. So even before she begins her conquest, Daenerys already controls southern Westeros! Everything is going her way so far. I just hope she keeps up the momentum next season.

MANGA REVIEW: BATTLE ROYALE

I have read the first few volumes of Battle Royale and I must say that it reminds me of a far darker version of The Hunger Games. Every one of the characters have demons and checkered pasts, which make them complex and believable individuals. The violence in the story was extreme and exaggerated, but details the characters’ fates. I am glad that Shuuya and Noriko were able to maintain their humanity despite the madness they were in. As for the darker characters such as Kiriyama and Mitsuko, even though they committed monstrously unforgivable things I pitied them because of their dark pasts. If Kiriyama and Mitsuko did not undergo through so much psychological trauma, they might have been better people and The Program would have turned out differently. I am still reading the series and I hope Shuuya and Noriko escape from The Program’s madness.

INSPIRATION: ANIME AND MANGA

I am such a fan of anime and manga that I wanted to give my writing a similar feeling that anime and manga gives. As a writer, I noticed that both anime and manga gives the viewer a story that thinks outside of the box. In many anime and manga I have seen, I have seen things that the average person would not imagine. The characters are complex, the action sequences are sometimes brutal and elaborate, and the setting often takes place in unexpected locations. With these elements in mind, I decided to draw inspiration from the emotional rush I received from the anime and manga genres to give my books characters that are complex, intense action scenes, and a setting that evolves at a rapid rate. As I write, I play music from my favorite anime because it helps me concentrate and better envision the story unfolding.

PIT BULL LOVE

Here is my family’s third pit bull, Macy Mae Brown. She is every bit as loving, loyal, and protective as Wally and Fitch. Like Wally and Fitch, she serves as a source of inspiration for me with my writing. While developing the character that will be based on my beloved pit bulls, I am thinking of adding aspects of her personality into the character. Essentially, this character will have Fitch’s discipline, Wally’s free spirit, Macy’s protectiveness, and all of their loving hearts. I look forward to getting to work on this character.

INSPIRATION: ROBOT FIGHTING

I have developed an interest in robot fighting because of the all-out carnage the robots inflict on one another. There have been so many technological innovations with each robot in the competition that I often wonder how much more robot technology will advance in the distant future. With this in mind, I am planning to draw inspiration from modern day robot fighting to create a sport that will take place in the interstellar government of my sequel series. Since one of the main characters is an android, this would be an ideal competition for him to participate in.

GAME OF THRONES PREDICTIONS: DAENERYS’S INVASION

Ever since I started watching and reading Game of Thrones, I have been head-over-heels in love with Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen. I have long waited for her to cross the Narrow Sea and reconquer the Seven Kingdoms with fire and blood. Since George R. R. Martin has fallen behind on the books, I will have to make do with the show for now. After watching Daenerys unleash her full power on the invading slavers in the latest episode, I look forward to the moment when she lands on  Westeros’s shores and brings her dragons and legions.

After watching Daenerys’s progress throughout the series, I have calculated just how large her army is. After sacking Astapor, she acquired an army of over 8,000 Unsullied infantry. After sacking Yunkai, she acquired the allegiance of 2,000 mercenaries. In this season, she gained the loyalty of over 100,000 Dothraki warriors. After defeating the slavers once and for all, she acquired an armada of at least 200 ships armed with siege weapons and then gained 100 ships from the Iron Fleet. Since each ship requires a crew of 100 men to operate, this adds at least 30,000 men to Daenerys’s army. This gives her a grand total of at least 140,000 men in her army! That is more than the current combined numbers of the Lannisters and Tyrells. In addition, Daenerys’s dragons, Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal are now fully grown and each a living weapon of mass destruction.

Still, despite having one of the largest and most powerful armies in the known world, Daenerys still has to think about the hundreds of thousands of slaves she freed. The slavers may be defeated for now, but the possibility exists that they will return once she crosses the sea. People like the slavers don’t change and as long as the freedmen are on Essos’s shores, they will always be in danger of being enslaved again. There is only one place in the known world where they would be safe from slavery forever: Westeros, where slavery is banned. Hopefully, Daenerys has enough ships to carry both her army and her freedmen followers. In Westeros, her freedmen can start again without fear of slavery.

Then there are the Red Priests who were spreading propaganda about her throughout Meereen. Because they believe she is the Prince Who Was Promised, they would be bound to serve her wherever she goes. This would be like Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre, but on a much larger scale. We all saw how much damage one Red Priest could do through Melisandre. Imagine the entire Lord of Light religion following Daenerys to Westeros. That is going to greatly complicate things with the Sparrows and Faith Militant in King’s Landing.

Also, word of Daenerys’s final victory over the slavers will spread throughout the known world, eventually reaching Westeros. When that happens, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms will panic while Targaryen loyalists will gather around her when she lands.

I have only one concern about Daenerys Targaryen. While it is true she has gained so much power and influence, she is lacking the one thing every ruler must have: an heir. Unless Daenerys finds a way to produce an heir to carry on her legacy and name, House Targaryen will die with her and everything she built will fall apart. I hope she does and House Targaryen’s future will be secure.

Overall, I look forward to the day when Daenerys Targaryen crosses the Narrow Sea and begins her conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. Long may she reign!

VIDEO OVERVIEW: GRAPHIC NOVEL CHANGES

Here is a video of me discussing changes that I plan to make in my upcoming graphic novel series.

WRITING UPDATE: GRAPHIC NOVEL CONTINUES!!!

I have finished writing at least two or three issues of my graphic novel script! The stage is set and the heroes are about to be recruited for the wars to come. The supervillains who represent the Seven Deadly Sins have been awakened and set their sights on the new world that replaced the old one. The interstellar government is on the brink of civil war! Overall, the script is developing nicely and the words are flowing like a river. I will keep you updated on any further developments.