So news broke yesterday that the creators of Rape of Thrones are creating a new series called Confederate. It essentially reimagines the South winning the Civil War and slavery continuing.
Because in the age of a Trump presidency, Dylan Roof and #BlackLivesMatter, white power fantasies are exactly what we need.
Continue reading “Konfederates Keep Koming”
Just in time for tonight’s hotly anticipated season 7 premiere of Game Of Thrones comes a musical romp that takes our favorite characters into a much more light hearted spin. Coming off a successful run in Los Angeles earlier this year in February, the musical is now heading to San Diego Comic Con from July 20 to 23.
Continue reading “Game of Thrones The Musical: The SDCC Version!”
by Andrea Tang
This weekend, between bouts of story-editing, I meandered my way through the first four episodes of Netflix’s Iron Fist, which I’m actually quite enjoying so far, probably for the same reasons I’ve seen Vampire Academy three times. I’m pretty sure the writers pitched this series as, “What would happen if you put a goldendoodle puppy in the body of a WASPy ten-year-old blue blood, then traumatically dropped him off in the Himalayas for Fifteen Whole Gap Yahs? Probably, he would die, but that is boring and untrue to comics canon, so what if we made kung fu magic happen along the way in a manner most likely to bring the wrath of Edward Said’s ghost down on our heads? LET’S FIND OUT.”
For the last eight years, my president was Black. More than that, he was a Black Nerd, a Nerd of Color, the Head Nerd in Charge. After today, we aren’t going to see the likes of someone sit in the Oval Office as intelligent or intellectually curious as Barack Obama. His record in office speaks for itself. Because of President Obama’s leadership, 20 million more Americans have health insurance, marriage equality is the law of the land, and nerds of color were finally represented in the White House.
Continue reading “8 Times President Obama Proved He Was Our NOC-in-Chief”
Last night, NOCs Alice (House Stark) and Julie (House Mormont) assembled to live-tweet the Season 6 Finale of Game of Thrones!
Here is a round-up of our tweets as well as some of our favorite reactions from the Twitterverse.
Continue reading “NOC Tweets Game of Thrones: She’s a Killer Queen”
This week’s reveals from Doctor Strange and Ghost in the Shell are further proof that it’s hard out there for an Asian actor who wants to be in a genre film. Fortunately, there are a few AAPI actors who have claim to the coveted “Nerd Grand Slam;” that is, they’ve starred in a superhero franchise, a Star (Trek or Wars) vehicle, and an epic fantasy. But who is the nerdiest? Dominic Mah, from YOMYOMF.com, joins Keith to decide which actor is the One Nerd to rule them all.
Continue reading “Which AAPI Actor Deserves the Nerd Grand Slam?”
Gods of Egypt is a mess. You can look at the myriad of reviews trashing it and see it for yourself. Heck, you can look at the trailer — or its box office receipts — to see how much of a joke it is. Have you seen such bad CGI in the modern era? But even more insidious than the CGI is that the film went out of its way to cast white actors in an ancient Egypt-set story. This is the second film within two years that showed audiences a white Egypt. You might recall how spectacularly Exodus: Gods and Kings failed.
Technically, Gods of Egypt had all of the ingredients necessary to make a fun “swords and sandals” fantasy. It’s a fantasy that’s not just set in ancient Egypt, but involves gods and goddesses interacting with their human subjects. Who wouldn’t want to see Ra and Horus get into it on the big screen? But where the film’s team went wrong is that they treated it like a “traditional” fantasy. What’s a traditional fantasy, and why was that the wrong approach? Let’s find out.
Continue reading “How Gods of Egypt Adheres to Racist Fantasy Rules”
Despite a months (née years)-long campaign to have Marvel and Netflix consider Asian American actors for the role of Danny Rand in their upcoming Iron Fist show, it was announced that Game of Thrones star(?) Finn Jones had been cast in the role.
Honestly, is anyone actually surprised?
Continue reading “So Much for #AAIronFist: Marvel Casts Finn Jones”
Two of this year’s big Emmy stories split the difference between our PoCness and our nerdiness. You’ve probably heard about the Game of Thrones’ record-breaking wins, and it helps that Viola Davis’ historic win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama is a NOC favorite due to her upcoming role in the DC Cinematic Universe.
Continue reading “In a Typically Weak Year for Nerdy Emmy Noms, NOCs Still Garner Big Wins”
by Lexi Alexander | Originally posted at Lexi-Alexander.com
“All my life men like you’ve sneered at me, and all my life I’ve been knocking men like you into the dust.”
Imagine being a female TV & movie director trying to make it in an already competitive industry and the first thing that comes across your news feed at the beginning of the week is the sad fact that the most talked about show on TV failed to hire a single female director on its last season.
Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault and Rape Survivors
When I worked as a reporter for a local paper in East Tennessee some years back, a story arose about a young woman who had been sexually assaulted at her high school. When the issue was brought to the school board’s attention, they moved heaven and earth to shame the young woman and to vilify her and her family.
No one denied the attack happened but nothing was done about it because the attacker was a star athlete and the school’s administration was beyond corrupt. When I tried to follow up and get the family’s side of events, the story was buried due to local politics and my publisher’s wish to stay in good with the Powers That Be in the county.
Continue reading “Rape Culture: From Grimdark Fantasy to Reality”
Last week on Game of Thrones, most of the attention was focused on underground extremist movements in various parts of the realm. This week’s episode, “Kill the Boy,” turns the lens again towards those in power, especially Daenarys Targaryen and Jon Snow.
However, we at NOC know what’s on everyone’s mind:
Nah b, unsullied Obama can't be dead son… Nah #DemThrones
— Joseph Crack (@iamJCrack) May 4, 2015
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Dicks and Stones”
It feels like each episode of this season of Game of Thrones features an exploration of a different theme from week to week. Unlike past season, when plot machinations were paramount, season five has been able to be a little more artful in how it sets up each episode. Maybe that has something to do with the show finally diverging from the books in significant ways — I wouldn’t know having never read the books. If anything, this episode, “Sons of the Harpy,” was about how a select few radicals can bring down a whole kingdom.
Let’s start in King’s Landing.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Enter Sand Snakes”
More than any other series on television, an episode of Game of Thrones can often feel like 48 minutes of watching players set up a chessboard wherein, to paraphrase another classic HBO series, “all the pieces matter.” Last night’s episode, “High Sparrow,” was no different. And in the case of the dueling queens — Margaery and Cersei — they were literally moving a pawn around the chessboard in the form of King Tommen. But despite brief detours following the Lannister siblings’ plights in both King’s Landing and Volantis, the episode was mainly about (three of) the surviving Stark children and each one’s struggle to accept, reject, or reclaim their name.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: What’s in a Name?”
Last week on Game of Thrones, we witnessed various examples of people dealing with their demons, either literally (as with Dany and her dragons) or figuratively (Tyrion dealing with his new role as Dadslayer). This week’s episode, “The House of Black and White,” continues the first episode’s pacing and purpose: we pay visits to the characters we hold dear, but we also get treated to new glimpses of new countries and cultures.
If I had to guess at one overarching theme of this episode, I would say it was the struggle for female empowerment. Arya, Brienne, Cersei, and Daenerys took huge steps this episode into taking a seat at exclusively-male-dominated tables. Ellia Sand seems eager to lead an army to war. Even Gilly is learning how to read! It is becoming very apparent that the future of Westeros, no matter who comes out on top at the end, can very well rest in the hands of a woman.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Arya Gonna Go My Way?”
Or watch it control you.
“The Wars to Come,” the season five premiere of Game of Thrones, simply showed us the state of things. It set the scene for where these characters are and set them each on a journey. After watching the episode, I kept thinking about Daenerys’ dragons and her lack of control over them. She is now afraid of her own “babies.” Many of the other characters similarly have their own dragons: sources of personal power that they have lost control of. Cersei, Tyrion, Jon, and Brienne all need to regain control of something in their lives that has the power to destroy them. We’ll check in with those characters, then briefly discuss what else we learned in the premiere.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Control Your Dragon”
When Love Actually premiered in cinemas over a decade ago, who knew it would be one of the most influential — and divisive — holiday movies ever made? You might think I’m being hyperbolic, but this movie is consistently one of the best selling DVDs and blu-rays every year1 and gains legions of new fans from multiple airings on cable and Netflix — though not for much longer. It’s also responsible for spawning an entire sub-genre of similar romantic comedies like Valentine’s Day and the equally awful New Year’s Eve. Love it or hate it, this flick evokes extreme feelings either way.
So why am I writing about Love Actually? It’s not like romantic comedy is a topic that’s covered on the NOC. Well, for one thing, most of the movie’s sprawling cast of British actors have gone on to become icons of the Comic-Con set. The stars of today’s biggest genre properties can trace their lineage back to this flick, and it’s amazing.
Continue reading “‘Love Actually’ is Ground Zero for Geek Icons”
So my version of a nerd is a person who passionately and purposefully seeks out the way- more-than-necessary knowledge about a strangely specific subject1. There are barely-there nerd memories of inventing my own Pokémon with their successive evolved forms, obviously, Toonami afternoons of Dragonball and Dragonball Z, explaining The Adventures of Lois and Clark to my grandmother, and losing my elementary-aged shit when Hercules and Xena had their first crossover.
Continue reading “NOC Origin: If I Had a Horcrux, it’d Probably be My Terminator Boxset”
Episode Two: “Rebirth”
Team Avatar (minus Mako the Brooding Teenager) is ready to set off for Operation Air Nation. Pema, Kya, Ikki, and Meelo are staying on Air Temple Island in order to receive any potential pilgrims. But first, two words: HOLY AIRSHIP.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Legend of Korra: Gotta Catch ’em All!”
[Ed note: The season finale was so epic, we couldn’t contain our thoughts in just one post! So to accommodate all the thoughts and feels from the Season 4, Episode 10 “The Children,” we’ve called on the heroic trio that led us the last ten weeks — Anna, Julie, and Alice — to each share their thoughts on the finale and the season overall. Part one is here; part two is here.]
With a heavy heart I write this re-cap of the Season 4 finale of Game of Thrones: “The Children.”
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones Part Three: It’s Not Easy Seeing Green”
[Ed note: The season finale was so epic, we couldn’t contain our thoughts in just one post! So to accommodate all the thoughts and feels from the Season 4, Episode 10 “The Children,” we’ve called on the heroic trio that led us the last ten weeks — Anna, Julie, and Alice — to each share their thoughts on the finale and the season overall. Part one is here.]
Wow wow wow wow wow! Best season finale ever!!!!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones Part Two: Valar Morghulis”
[Ed note: The season finale was so epic, we couldn’t contain our thoughts in just one post! So to accommodate all the thoughts and feels from the Season 4, Episode 10 “The Children,” we’ve called on the heroic trio that led us the last ten weeks — Anna, Julie, and Alice — to each share their thoughts on the finale and the season overall.]
And now my watch (for book six and season five) begins. What a finale. Online, I read mixed reactions from hardcore fans but I found plenty to enjoy about the finale.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Game of Thrones Part One: All Seasons Must End”
Keith (@the_real_chow) brings on #GoTNoC recappers Julie (@JulieKang) and Alice (@SFdirewolf) and Jamie Broadnax, the founder of @BlackGirlNerds, prepare for Sunday night’s season finale of Game of Thrones and all issues concerning the seven realms.
Continue reading “Game Recognize Game… of Thrones with Jamie of Black Girl Nerds”
