GAME OF THRONES SEASON 7: JON SNOW AND DAENERYS TARGARYEN MEET

Tonight, I finally got to see Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow meet face to face. Aunt and nephew are reunited and the blood of the dragon is whole again. As their conversation progressed, I saw signs that Jon and Daenerys are meant for each other. Clearly, Jon Snow learned some bad habits from the wildlings by refusing to kneel no matter what. Like real dragons they were at each other’s throats the whole time, but the more they resist one another the more they desire one another. The signs are subtle, but they are there. If they marry it would be very fitting because House Targaryen has been practicing incest for centuries. At the end of their interactions this episode, Daenerys said a line that reminded me of the wildling Ygritte, who was the woman Jon Snow loved, which hints something big is going to happen between the last of the Targaryens. Only time will tell as the Season progresses.

LUCKY FANTASY BASTARDS

Imagine having at least twenty illegitimate children. Now imagine giving them all their own wealth, titles, and lands. I got this idea while researching such medieval bastards from both kings and lords. A prime example of this was an illegitimate son of Henry VIII, Henry Fitzroy, who was named Duke of Richmond and Somerset. I am thinking of including something similar in my fantasy series, but on a much larger scale. If a group of illegitimate children were given their own wealth, titles, and lands, then they have the ability to form their own cadet branches of the main bloodline. That way if anything happens to the main bloodline one of the cadet branches would take over. I will research the upbringing of Henry Fitzroy further to see how this can happen in my fantasy series.

WRITING UPDATE: SECOND FANTASY BOOK (CHAPTER 1)

I have just started the first chapter of the second volume of my fantasy series and it is already becoming more socially strange and complex. The reason for this is because the opening scene takes place inside of a brothel, which was a type of location I never expected to write about. I am including a brothel in my fantasy series because brothels are as old as human civilization itself and people in medieval times frequently used them. Due to the privileged lifestyle of royalty, I can imagine members of royalty visiting a brothel often. I am incorporating this trait into the main characters of the second volume in order to give them more complexity as characters. What do you think?

MY EVOLUTION AS A WRITER

I started sharing my fantasy series with some of my beta readers and they said that my writing has greatly improved over time. I began my career as an author with a self taught writing style and trouble with tenses. Now, thanks to my creative writing classes in college and my writers group meetings I have grown and evolved as an author. With my fantasy series, I am feeling a lot more confident as a writer and look forward to sharing it with all of you when the time comes.

GRADY P. BROWN’S JOKE #1

Why did the anvil go to AA?

GRADY P. BROWN’S RIDDLES #1

What is red and bad for your teeth?

INSPIRATION: BATTLES OF FULFORD AND STAMFORD BRIDGE

The main war in my fantasy series will be fought on many fronts from land, sea, and air. Because I am modeling the main protagonists after Henry Tudor and William the Conqueror, I will be modeling some of the battles they fought after historical battles Henry and William fought. For example, during the Norman Conquest of 1066 A.D. ten thousand vikings under Harald Hardrada invaded England around the same time as William the Conqueror. In order to stay true to my viking roots and draw inspiration on Hardrada’s raids, I am thinking of including some sea and coastal battles in the second volume of my fantasy series. The first of Hardrada’s raids was the Battle of Fulford, where the vikings won their first and only victory in the Conquest of 1066.

While the Battle of Fulford allowed the vikings to conquer and sack Fulford and York, their victory was short lived. Soon the vikings wandered too far away from their ships and became trapped behind enemy lines. This misfortune really hurt their war effort when they fought the Battle of Stamford Bridge. By this time King Harold Godwinson of England raised an army to beat back the viking host and he had them outnumbered two to one. The losses the vikings took were so severe that only two dozen of their three hundred ships made it back to Norway.

However, while Harold Godwinson defeated the vikings in the north, William the Conqueror and his Norman army landed in the south. After landing, William and his Normans wasted no time in consolidating a foothold on their future kingdom. In an attempt to defend his crown from the second invading army, Harold and his English army ran south to meet William in open battle. By the time they reached Hastings, Harold and his men were exhausted from running from one side of the country to another. William and his Normans, on the other hand, were well rested and ready for battle. This was one of the factors that ultimately led to Harold’s defeat at the hands of William the Conqueror. This chain of events ultimately led to crowning William king of England and establishing a dynasty that has lasted for almost a thousand years.

In the second volume of my fantasy series, I am thinking of depicting a similar series of events, but with several unique changes of my own. This collection of battles and skirmishes will be even more intense and epic than what happened in real life.

INSPIRATION: BATTLE OF TOWTON

For the second volume of my fantasy series, I am planning on depicting a very epic and bloody battle that will pit two armies that are each roughly one hundred thousand strong. To make the battle as believable as possible, I will be drawing inspiration on the Battle of Towton from the War of the Roses. The Battle of Towton was the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil where sixty thousand men fought one another. Of those sixty thousand only half of those men survived the bloodbath. This skirmish was a crushing defeat for the Lancastrians and also consolidated Edward IV’s position as a strong and charismatic leader, which would eventually crown him King of England. While I will be basing my battle on some of the tactics of Towton, I will also be making it even larger and more epic as new weapons of war are deployed.

HOW THE WHITE WALKERS WILL CROSS THE WALL

I think I found out how the White Walkers are going to get past the Wall. In the Season 7 opening credits, we got a clue when we saw the Wall. If you look closely, you will see that the ocean on the eastern side of the Wall is completely frozen. Due to this, the White Walkers are not going to attack the Wall directly. Instead they are just going to go around it by crossing the frozen ocean on the eastern side of the Wall. This is similar to what happened in 1940 with the Maginot Line, which was designed to halt the Nazi’s military offensive in France. However, even though the Maginot Line was impregnable, the Nazis simply went around it, which led to the evacuation of Dunkirk. I think the White Walkers are going to take a similar approach with the Wall. This might be one of the reasons why the White Walkers waited until now to reveal themselves. They were not just biding their time to rebuild their strength. They were waiting for a winter that was cold enough to freeze the sea on the east side of the Wall so they can go around it. If the Night’s Watch finds this out, they will be so cross that they defended the Wall ultimately for nothing.

GAME OF THRONES SEASON 7: SEA BATTLE

Tonight, I got to see the epic sea battle we were promised in Season 7 of Game of Thrones and it was epic! Euron Greyjoy (who I nickname the Mad Kraken) is definitely closer to what he was in the books. His insanity and ferocity in the battle was so crazy that it was easy to like him as a villain. The Sand Snakes have also been improved in this one scene after their character was ruined beyond repair by the producers. Also it was interesting to see the psychological issues the battle was giving Theon Greyjoy because it looked as though he was regressing back into Reek. Overall, this was a VERY satisfactory first battle for the season and I am more than eager for more. On a side note, Euron Greyjoy and Cersei Lannister may have won this battle, but the War of the Five Kings will belong to Daenerys Targaryen even though this one battle destroyed her alliances with Dorne and Yara Greyjoy.