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If you love yourself a little romantic tragedy, you will enjoy Sector IV

24/9/2020

By Faith Yeega

Sector IV is set in a village called Achara in Eastern Nigeria during the Biafra war of 1967-1970 and spanning through months after the war into 1971, Abigail Anaba's SECTOR IV, is a historical romantic tragedy which explores a woman's search for happiness and the near illusiveness of ‘happily-ever afters.'

Structured into four parts, Revelation, Exodus, Chronicles and Genesis with a backstory and flashbacks, we are drawn into a suspense filled tale which revolves around Onyinyechi, a young secondary school student set to be in her final class who aside her father's dream of her going to Cambridge University, also wishes to travel the world and write about her exploits, but a war is ongoing and her life soon takes a turn she never envisaged.

From the disclosure (Revelation) to the heartbreaking departures (Exodus) through the (Chronicles) in search of an elusive safe haven, the reader journeys with Onyinyechi while relating with other characters and their own story within the story during the war, and after the war ends, a quick backtrack is taken to the (Genesis), a beginning which leads to another end.

Without leaving out the tradition and culture of the Igbo people, this intriguing story of love, war, pain, loss, family, marriage, deceit, betrayal, loyalty, sacrifice, greed, survival and self-preservation narrated in present tense with a third person viewpoint narrative which resonates with the reader and employs a gracious use of imagery, is a subtle reminder that most people never wished for a war, but got caught up in the reality of one and in spite of all the destruction and devastation that war bears, we can always find room to hope, for solace can always be find in Love, Friendship and a Family that is ours to cherish.

It comes with a map, in case you decide to embark on a search for Sector IV, after reading.

And keep a tissue close...you might need it.

You can buy a copy or more of SECTOR IV at Bookville in Port Harcourt, Ezimgbu Link Road (Mummy B road), Roving Heights 28 Ogunlana Dr, Surulere, Lagos or online via www.rhbooks.com.ng/

Coming from Insanity may just be one of Nigeria's best movies

21/9/2020

I am not a fan of Nigerian movies or movies produced by Nigerians and this is because I have been burned a lot of times.

I agree that the Nigerian movie industry has improved a lot from the poor story lines, bad picture quality and acting that a lot of times views like a secondary school group, but it has almost been a no- no for me until, well, er, Monday, September 21, 2020.

The hype around Ibidolapo Ajayi's “Coming from Insanity made me peek into it and for a few reasons too.

First, I know the fellow, Ibi Ajayi and I needed to see what he had up his sleeves.

Second, it was on Netflix so I wasn't going to lose much, well er, except about ninety minutes of my time and a few hundred mega bytes of data if it went south. Finally, every one I knew who was a movie buff was talking about it and WhatsApp groups were on fire so I did not want to be left out.

If at this point of you reading this, you are not thinking of going to watch, “Coming from Insanity” then you must be a different breed.

I loved its opening scene, and for a finicky person that was a good start and in a nutshell, what I just saw was a well written script, top notch acting and beautiful production, but let me take it step by step.

I thought it was a slow start after the first scene before it picked up momentum and I wondered about a few things.

I thought the transition from wanting to print fake dollars to the actual success of the racket was too swift. But then again, maybe because I am used to TV series where there is a lot of time to play with.

How intelligent was this house boy? His success was quick as though he was a natural at criminality.

But then the movie begins to come alive. I loved the twist of Toye, who had history with Kossi being the one investigating him. The printed dollar bill falling off the book shelf reconfirms that nine out of ten times investigators are just lucky with careless mistakes made by the Unsub.

The penultimate scene or the last fight as we would call it (If you watched movies in the 70s and 80s) was good, very good, but one will ask questions- Was the body guard ex-special forces or military? Had he been to the mansion before because he seemed to know his way around. He was too good and swift at his game.

The money changers came to a gun fight with swords? Hmmm! Well it comes with their nature, doesn't it?

And the very last scene of the movie got me panting. It was as epic as they got and it also reiterates the fact that the downfall of a man with quick money in his hands is usually a woman. Lots of examples abound.

This is a love story, a thriller, and a suspenseful movie filled with action and adventure. Did I enjoy Coming from Insanity? I sure did, and you should too.

Now I should watch more movies by Ibidolapo Ajayi while I expect a sequel.

Did “Coming From Insanity” disappoint me? Certainly not. Did it meet my expectations? Yes, it did. That was top notch movie making that deserves a second viewing from me and you.

You will hardly hear, or read me say this, but I am doing that now. Please go and watch, Coming From Insanity, then thank me later.

Book Review: A broken people's playlist

7/9/2020

by Faith Kordoo

Chimeka Garricks' A Broken People's Playlist is a collection of 12 beautifully written tales all inspired by songs.

Set mostly in Port Harcourt, the stories which border on love, grief, pain, forgiveness, trauma, dysfunctional families, broken homes, survival, deep rooted friendships, injustice, corruption and other socially relevant and relatable themes are told from the first and second person point of view.

The diction is simple and very unapologetically Nigerian as each witty, bitter-sweet story transitions seamlessly into the next with dialogues that give life to the characters, engaging the reader, invoking multiple senses and stirring up some solid emotions.

Through each story Garricks reminds us that we are all broken in some way and are all on a search for some sort of redemption which if we are attentive enough can be found in the most unlikely way, time and in the oddest places - and even in things like...the power MUSIC!

12 fascinating stories in one hand and a playlist we didn't even know we needed, ‘badly', in the other!

Thank you, Chimeka Garricks.

You can purchase Chiemeka Garricks' A broken People's playlist at Bookville World, Ezimgbu link road (Mummy B Road) in Port Harcourt, online at www.masobebooks.com, at Roving Heights or at The booksellers in Ibadan and Abuja

Why Queen Precious is staying away from men to fulfill a dream

9/2/2020

When Precious Chioma Nwosu went in for the Nigeria Next Beauty Queen, she probably did not know she would eventually end up one of the winners, though it had always been her dream.

It was a struggle, as unlike most of the other girls, she had no sponsors to help with the voting but at the end of it all, she won the award for the Nigeria Next Beauty Queen Tourism.

Chioma Nwosu spoke with ChinaAcheru.com as she revealed the highs and lows of her journey to stardom, plus the fact that her parents still do not know she won a beauty pageant. Did we also mention that she is staying off men for the time being?

Why a pageant?

I have passion of it. It is something I have always wanted to do, but time and my parents not being in full support of it slowed me down. But now I am of age and can do what I want. I also want to help people achieve their dreams. Since this platform has given me a voice, I also want to help give people a voice

Has being a Queen changed anything in your life?

I have been in this office for about three months and I know so many things have changed. Before I couldn’t even present some projects to prospecting clients and partners, but now I can. I have learned a lot and am much bolder and outspoken now. I have been able to meet people, corporate organisations and event managers as I plan my own big project for my reign as queen.

Big Big project

I have a big project I am working on. “The future holds more: Queen of Hearts project” is what I am planning and this is because I have had it in mind for so long until this platform gave me a chance to do it and I hope it is going to be a huge success and so many people will learn and benefit from it.
It is all about young girls who get pregnant outside wedlock. This happens because our parents shy away from giving us the right sexuality education. When it happens, then society casts them away.
It is not like I am encouraging premarital sex or pregnancy out of wedlock, but I am here to show them there is a way out after that mistake and that there must be a solution to it. When it happens, what is the next thing to do. That is what this project is all about.
They need to now the future holds more for them
It is not really a national event because I am based in Akwa Ibom right now. So, I believe it will be mainly for people in his state and maybe the neighbouring state

So, do your parents know now?

I am 21 years old now and my parents still do not know I went for the pageant and won.
But if they know I do not think there will be any reaction from them. They will just be surprised that I actually went to do what I had been dreaming of. I believe they will be happy with me and will see many changes in my life.

Staying off the men folk

I am not married and have no boyfriend, but men are all over me.
It is a normal thing because once you are a beauty queen as there will be approaches and attention towards you. I have gotten lots of approaches. People give me their numbers and want to invite me to go out with them but I am really not interested.

It is not that I am not interested in a relationship, it is just that most of them feel insecure in a relationship. And they feel I won’t have time for them. The last time I ventured into a relationship there were too many problems so I decided to stay away and build myself
I still want to be on my own and focus on my future so no men for me now

What is the Future?

I see myself up there, like really, really up there. I have a lot I want to do so in the next four years, people will really hear about me
The thing about pageants, is that once you win, you make use of your time well in the one year you are Queen then move to a bigger pageant. So, after my one year I will be looking at entering a bigger one

The difficulties and pains

Well, pageantry is not easy as you will be tensed and frustrated. So many things go on, but one thing the brand is looking for is determined people. They know those that have the passion and can bring smile to the brand. That is what they are looking for.
I really wanted this because it is what I had dreamt of and I am really happy I won it.
I almost gave up during the voting. A lot of the girls had sponsors who were able to push them. I didn’t have that luxury. We needed at least five thousand votes to win so it was really, really frustrating.
It was also during my exam period too, so I thank God for what happened.

Advise to younger generation

I will tell them to always know what they want because if you do not know what you want you will be completely lost. Go for what you want. Be prayerful and never let your past situation stop your light from shining.
If you know what you want just go for it and always put God first.

Chioma Nwosu may just be Nigeria Next Beauty Queen Tourism, but she has her eyes out for the bigger pie. What? Miss Nigeria? Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria? The clock is ticking.

Oyinka Braithwaite's My sister, the serial killer, a book review

5/10/2019

By Faith Yeega

The story is set in the city of (modern day) Lagos with 75 short subtitles and 225 pages, Oyinka Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer tells the tale of two sisters, Korede and Ayoola who are distinct, but yet very alike.

The novel opens with Korede getting a summon from her younger sister Ayoola who has yet again, killed another young man and needs her sister to help her cover her tracks.

A young man named Femi whom Ayoola has been seeing for barely one month is the unfortunate victim this time.

Following the call, Korede abandons the food she was getting ready to eat and goes to her sister's aid.

The murder took place in Femi's bathroom where he was stabbed with Ayoola's now infamous murder weapon, 'the knife'.

Femi, we are made to understand through Korede's observant eyes was a tidy and meticulous fellow who made sure to keep things in an organized and clean fashion as she noted from the alphabetical arrangement of the books on his bookshelf to the supplies in his bathroom. And also very creative as we'd get to find out as the story unfolds.

Ayoola being a Nurse and a clean freak, who knows how to engage various disinfectants and cleaning agents to get the best out of them, goes on an excruciating 3 hours of thorough clean up of Femi's bathroom doing away with the blood and sweats.

The body is, after the clean up, disposed in the lagoon at the Lagos third mainland bridge where the previous one was deposited.

It's Ayoola's third murder now. The first came when she was 17. Somto, her first victim was killed with the knife and Korede received her first call for help. The body was set on fire in his apartment as Korede was too scared to carry out any sort of cleaning. The second victim, Peter, like the third was thrown in the lagoon.

PLOT and DICTION
The story is told in the first person narrative by Korede, the older sister with a simple diction. Through Korede's eyes we are taken on a journey which explores the darkness that lies beneath beauty and silence.

Korede is the older of both sisters. Though tall, she isn't as physically attractive as her younger sister. A dutiful nurse, whose dedication to work would earn her a promotion to head nurse. Very reserved. Lives in her head and bears the burden of her sister's sinister actions.... She cleans efficiently!

Ayoola is Korede's younger sister. A fashion designer, social media freak with sociopathic tendencies. Blessed with full rosy lips, long eyelashes, an irresistible beautiful face, Ayoola is a near perfect piece of art expect for her small frame(which doesn't really count in the eyes of men) and a darkness which is known to only her victims and her sister.

TADE is the lovely doctor who works with Korede at the hospital. He is Korede's unrequited love interest who to Korede's dismay falls for Ayoola. Tade unlike the ones before him manages to do harm to Ayoola and doesn't lose his life, but he suffers a loss that will change his life forever.

Tade's character evokes a sense of pity and disappointment. Pity for what happened to him and disappointment because Korede did her best to warn him (as he'll realize much later), but he turned out to be shallow and unable to see past Ayoola's compelling beauty instead of the deep and different sort, Korede had envisaged him to be.

GBOYEGA is Chief Gboyega. the married man who paid for Ayoola's course in fashion and provided her with capital for her business. A piece of information Korede will digest in surprise as she gets to find out she's been lied to and kept in the dark by her sister concerning how she got the money for her business.
Gboye's dream of wanting Ayoola to have the best of everything (as he told Korede) is a short lived one, because he doesn't return from the Dubai trip he went on with Ayoola. He died!

FATHER
Korede and Ayoola's father was an autocratic, abusive patriarch and very vain. A business man with connections and a social appearance to keep up. He owned 'the knife' (which Ayoola 'inherited') and met an unfortunate or fortunate (depending on whose side you are coming from) end when he slumped and hit his head against the glass table, fell to the floor with his children towering over him, mirroring his position over Korede before he died!

MOTHER
Their mother, a shallow woman with a high degree of social consciousness. Like her husband, she has a social appearance to keep up and like her children she was physically and 'emotionally' abused. She has absolutely no idea what was really going on in her children's lives and doesn't seem to have lots of inclination to know, as she is more interested in them getting married, than knowing if they were a murderous bunch.

COMA PATIENT
Becoming overwhelmed with the burden and guilt of helping her sister, Korede turns to Muhtar, a coma patient at the hospital (with his own family issues) and confides in him.

SOCIETY LAXITY

Oyinka also throws a little light on some societal lax, especially in the law enforcement agencies. This is portrayed in the subtle 'Traffic' when Korede had an encounter with a road safety official on her way to work and with the police under the sub 'Car' following the 'investigation' of Femi's supposed 'murder'.

WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE
Korede doesn't in any way approve of her sister's action, but she's bound to look after and take care of her younger sister. A charge she was given when Ayoola was born and takes quiet seriously. She wants to put an end to it all and free herself and her conscience, but has no idea of when and where to draw the line between being free and being loyal to the one you love. Instead, as it suggests at the end of the novel, she resigns from trying to free herself and simply accepts her 'fate' as Ayoola's elder sister.

IMAGERY
A generous amount of imagery among other literary device is employed in the work. From the image on the cover page to the pictures painted with words in the pages of the book itself.

CLIFFHANGERS
What really happened to their father?
Why does Ayoola's go after her victims? Self defence? Revenge? Or just an unquenchable thirst to eliminate as many males as possible? All these questions and others left for the imagination.

KOREDE, AYOOLA
Korede and Ayoola in spite of their very distinct physical features, turn out to be alike in various ways. Both raised with anything both 'soft love', had to learn to 'rely' on each other. Though the reliance falls heavily to one side than the other.

Both victims of abuse, its effect and depth beyond what is presented in the story.

They are both 'damaged' and share a subtle, yet very evident melancholy.

Ayoola is the serial killer, but it's hard to say who is worse. The one who kills or the one who 'expertly' covers up the tracks.

Unbreakable tour comes to Port Harcourt

20/6/2019

After the honey moon comes the nightmare... and so begins this epic movie by Buky Campbell, one of Nigeria’s top movie producers.

Unbreakable is a compelling tale, a gripping romantic drama that explores what a new husband (Chidi) does when his new wife (Ikepo) begins to exhibit confusing and conflicting symptoms and it will be showing to a select number of students, entertainment editors and other select few at the University of Port Harcourt.

Buky Campbell is the producer and Bimbo Manuel is the lead actor; incidentally, both are alumni of the University of Port Harcourt.

Unbreakable was filmed on locations in and around Lagos and features stars and frontline actors like O. C. Ukeje, A’rese Emokpae, Richard Mofe Damijo, Ebele Okaro- Onyuike, Wendy Lawal, John Dumelo and Uche Mac-Auley.

The script was written by award winning writer, Sola Osofisan who explores the strength of love in an unusual way through the lives of a mentally disturbed woman and her beleaguered husband and directed by Ben Chiadika.

“We hope this movie highlights the ongoing conversation on the state of mental healthcare in Nigeria and the sub-continent,” producer, Buky Campbell told ChinaAcheru.com.

“It is an endearing love story with unexpected twists and turns. This story gives us an unbelievable perspective into the life of a young, happy, newly married couple who discover that the new bride has a lot more going into her mind than the thoughts of her loving husband.

“As they struggle to untangle her mind and work to get back on track, starting their happy ever after, they discover dark family secrets which threaten to break them, but through it all, they remain, UNBREAKABLE,” Buky Campbell told ChinaAcheru.com.

Unbreakable will be showing at The Crab, Delta Park, University of Port Harcourt on Friday, June 21, 2019 at 6pm.

Unbreakable is in partnership with the Institute of Arts and Culture (Arts Village), University of Port Harcourt.

Non- profit companies, Mental Health Organisations and State Governments looking to add their voice to this important conversation by sponsoring campus and private screenings are encouraged to contact Buky Campbell on 09029098378

Daenerys Targaryen has always been the mad queen- Opinion

15/5/2019

BY TERRI SCHWARTZ

It’s said that when a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land: madness, or greatness.

And in the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, "The Bells," the world finally saw that madness take hold of our purported hero, Daenerys Targaryen.

This character turn sparked instant debate and backlash for the most-watched episode of the HBO series. How could the woman who was set up to be Westeros’s savior, who learned from past tyrants’ mistakes and who outright said she would not burn King’s Landing turn so quickly on all of the morals she held dear? How could the daughter of the Mad King who promised to break the wheel, to be better than those who came before, become the same evil that these characters have fought so hard to destroy?

While I do agree that Season 8 has done a pretty shoddy job explaining its character motivations -- particularly in bringing these character traits in Daenerys to the forefront -- Game of Thrones has been setting up this about-face for its Khaleesi since the beginning. Like with the best and most devastating of this show’s plot twists, from Ned Stark’s beheading to the Red Wedding, Daenerys’s dark side has been in front of us all along.

The Mother of Dragons

The Daenerys Targaryen of Season 1 is an innocent, but one whose entire life experience is colored by an unjust banishment from her home and an ingrained sense of purpose. Because the two most influential people in her young life -- Illyrio Mopatis and her older brother Viserys -- told her from the beginning that the number one goal for any surviving Targaryens was to return to Westeros and reclaim their rightful seat on the Iron Throne, the backbone of her upbringing were basic ideas of revenge and betrayal.

Of course, Daenerys always thought her cruel brother Viserys, who was clearly mad from the start, would be the one on the Iron Throne. It’s only when she married Khal Drogo and he killed Viserys that she even gained the opportunity to one day return to the Seven Kingdoms and sit on that spiky chair.

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss point back to Daenerys’s reaction to Viserys’s death -- when she calmly watched him die in a horrifying manner and rationalized, “He was no dragon” because fire cannot kill a dragon -- as a worrying reaction early on. It’s one of the first instances of the audience dismissing a dark personality trait in a main character because we are rooting for them.

“
Daenerys learned that giving mercy to those who seem vulnerable can be a weakness.

Daenerys became our stereotypical heroine when she walked through the flames, unburnt, with three baby dragons draped around her. But let’s not forget the cold-blooded murder of Mirri Maz Duur that led to the dragons being born. Daenerys initially tried to show the old witch mercy by trying to save her from the Dothraki, only to have that perceived kindness repaid with a curse. In that moment, Daenerys learned that giving mercy to those who seem vulnerable can be a weakness - one that robbed her of her husband and unborn son. Burning Mirri Maz Duur seemed justifiable after what she did to Dany’s family, but it was still a pretty chilling moment for the Mother of Dragons.

The Breaker of Chains

Daenerys’s entire ascension to ruler of the Slaver Cities has left a trail of blood and bodies behind. She killed the warlocks of Qarth and left Xaro Xhoan Daxos (and her handmaiden Doreah) to die in his empty vault. She had the Unsullied kill the masters in Astapor when she became the Breaker of Chains. She crucified the masters of Meereen in response to their cruel use of slave children to mark the path to the great city. She burned all of the Khals alive in Vaes Dothrak when they dared try to make her a Dosh Khaleen.

In each of these situations, we rooted for Daenerys to succeed because we saw the world from her perspective, and these people were “evil,” based on her experiences. Game of Thrones never did anything to dissuade us from the viewpoint that she was a hero, not a tyrant. But Daenerys made a mess in Slaver’s Bay, pure and simple, and she never proved herself to be an effective ruler. In Meereen she attempted to be just and kind, but when it came time to subdue the mutineers that rose up against her, she destroyed the city and left the entire country behind with a pretty weak support system in order to conquer a different continent altogether.

It seemed like Daenerys had learned from her prior mistakes when she did make it to Westeros. She found allies in the Martells and the Tyrells. She helped the North defeat the Night King and save the world. Back in Season 7 in "Stormborn," she opted not to torch King’s Landing when Ellaria Sand suggested it, specifically saying, “I am not here to be queen of the ashes.” She tried to take the peaceful route, tried to do what was right, and where did it leave her? Surrounded by strangers who did not want her as their queen, with all of her friends and allies dead, advisors who sided with her enemies to seat someone else on the Iron Throne, and citizens who do not love her as their “Mother.”

On top of it all, the one truth that had been ingrained in her from as far back as she could remember -- that her brother, and then her, should sit on the Iron Throne -- was challenged when she learned that another person, more loved by the people than she was, had a better claim to rule.

Protector of the Realm

Of course, all of this criticism of Daenerys is ignoring the character development Game of Thrones did to set up her as the hero of this story -- because as with any of us, we are the heroes of her own story. For all these decisions that do seem mad or cruel in retrospect, Daenerys still is the woman who freed slaves, locked her dragons away for accidentally killing one child, and tried to help other nations because it was right, not because it was convenient to her. She wanted to fix the injustices in the world and we cheered for her as she tried. She was our Khaleesi who was promised, and we loved her for it. “
We only saw Daenerys's story through her own lens.

But that doesn’t mean she’s a ruler without flaws, and as much as Game of Thrones is doing a one-dimensional job examining her dark turn in Season 8, it did a similarly bad job challenging her as our hero in previous seasons. By Daenerys being so removed from the rest of our main characters, we only saw her story through her own lens, and those of people like Jorah and Missandei, who were devoted to her. The biggest changes in our perception of her in Seasons 7 and 8 have been because we’re suddenly seeing her through the eyes of our other heroes, specifically Sansa Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and Varys. (Only in episode 5 did Jon Snow seem to let his puppy dog infatuation with Daenerys fall aside.)

It’s similar to what the show has done with Arya Stark, who we cheer on as the slayer of the Night King and heroine who may save the day, without paying much attention to the fact she’s also become a cold-blooded assassin who put aside her humanity for many seasons to murder a trail of people who had slighted her and her family.

Daenerys’s story is now running parallel to itself, with her conquering Westeros instead of Essos. In the Seven Kingdoms, Jon Snow is our Daario Naharis, Tyrion Lannister is our Hizdahr zo Loraq, and Cersei Lannister is a concentrated version of the Sons of the Harpy. Whereas we cheered when Daenerys raged against Meereen, taking out their fleets with her dragons and sacking the city, now she is doing that on the audience’s “home turf.”

There’s no better example of this dichotomy and conflict as a viewer than in “The Bells” when we compare the look on Grey Worm’s face to Jon Snow’s after Daenerys goes in to torch the city after the bells start tolling. For Grey Worm, this attack is revenge, and in previous seasons set in strange lands, we might have been cheering as he got it. But on Jon’s face, we only see horror, as he sees a person he trusted -- we all trusted -- choose violence instead of mercy and destroy the place they were supposed to save.

Queen of the Ashes

Game of Thrones’ biggest disservice to Daenerys in these past couple of seasons has been its decision to keep the audience at arm’s length from these characters. Instead of getting the intimate “perspective” scenes that mirrored the POV chapters in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which really put us in the characters’ heads and allowed us to follow their thought processes, the TV show has opted to keep their motivations a secret until a surprise plot twist that’s meant to shock us. (Exhibit A: Sansa and Arya teaming up to kill Littlefinger after the audience was led to believe they were being turned against each other.)

“
Daenerys accomplished what her father, Mad King Aerys, never could. He wanted to 'burn them all.'

A lot of these plot threads involve dissecting more than just what is shown on the page, and it will be a huge disappointment if Game of Thrones doesn’t dig deep into Daenerys’s psyche to explain her motivations so the audience can understand her violent choice in the final episode. She was treated as a one-dimensional villain in “The Bells,” and the showrunners’ explanation for why looking at the Red Keep was enough to make her choose murder over mercy, even after she’d already claimed victory over King’s Landing, is pretty shallow.

What’s more poetic is the fact Daenerys accomplished what her father, Mad King Aerys, never could. He wanted to “burn them all,” torching King’s Landing and its ungrateful residents with Wildfire before Jaime Lannister killed him to become the Kingslayer. Many years later, Daenerys carried out Aerys’s sadistic wish - it’s just hard to track why, when Daenerys never previously expressed a desire to make the residents of Westeros suffer, only Cersei.

It doesn’t help that the showrunners explicitly said Daenerys wasn’t a Targaryen ruler like her father only three years ago. "I think Dany's been becoming a Targaryen ever since the beginning of Season 1," said David Benioff in the “Inside the Episode” for the “Battle of the Bastards,” with D.B. Weiss adding, "She's not her father and she's not insane and she's not a sadist, but there's a Targaryen ruthlessness that comes with even the good Targaryens." Maybe they forgot a very key “yet”?

Fire and Blood

As IGN’s Game of Thrones reviewer Laura Prudom examined in her review of “The Bells,” Season 8 hasn’t dedicated much time to tying these pieces together, trading character development for shock value and making Daenerys’s sudden cruelty towards civilians seem like a complete departure from her established goals. It’s why Daenerys’s turn feels so out of left field even when the show has been laying the groundwork for a Mad Queen Daenerys from the start. The characters around her might have only started questioning her tyrannical streak this season, right as we’re approaching the endgame, but it was there all along.

It’s interesting how much “The Bells” mirrors Season 7’s “Stormborn,” where Daenerys meets with her advisors to discuss her plan for taking the Iron Throne. Yara Greyjoy and the now-dead Olenna Tyrell and Ellaria Sand encourage her to enact the same plan Dany roughly ends up using in Season 8, torching King’s Landing with her dragons and destroying the Iron Fleet. (Ironically, Tyrion Lannister challenges Ellaria’s bloodthirstiness by saying “we don’t poison little girls here,” when little over a season later that’s exactly what Varys tries to do to Daenerys in virtually the same room.)

Olenna advises Daenerys: “Commoners, nobles, they’re all just children, really. They won’t obey you unless they fear you.” In the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, Daenerys finally chooses fear. Maybe it was madness, maybe it was ruthlessness, but this choice was waiting for her to make it all along. The real question is how she can come back from it -- if she can come back from it -- and whether Game of Thrones was ever about breaking the wheel after all.

Terri Schwartz is Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

Culled from www.ign.com

How GAME OF THRONES Failed Daenerys Targaryen

14/5/2019

by Lindsey Romain

In the finale of Game of Thrones‘ premiere season, “Fire and Blood,” Daenerys Targaryen stands before the khalasar in Lhazar, a lit pyre framing her with red flame from behind. She speaks to them with a confidence larger than her slight frame; she is full of anger, she has recently miscarried, her husband Khal Drogo is dead by her own hand. Her body is sweaty from grief, but her words echo like thunder through the night.

“I AM DAENERYS STORMBORN OF HOUSE TARGARYEN OF THE BLOOD OF OLD VALYRIA. I AM THE DRAGON’S DAUGHTER. AND I SWEAR TO YOU, THOSE WHO’D HARM YOU WILL DIE SCREAMING.”

This quote has been passed around this week, in the aftermath of the show’s most recent episode—the series’ penultimate, “The Bells”—as “proof” that Daenerys has always been hungry for vengeance, quick to kill, and prone to madness. Out of context, the quote may sound alarming. But seen in full, it’s powerful and liberating. It comes after Daenerys offers freedom to any who seek it. And it comes with a qualifier: She will only kill “those who’d harm you.” Meaning slavers, rapists, pillagers. This is the Daenerys Targaryen we have always known; an orphaned girl turned abused woman, whose kind heart always swayed her from her inherited mental illness, and from the trauma that threatened to swallow her whole. She’s imperfect, she’s too idealistic, and her focus on legacy has allowed for much failure. But she was never a monster. And she was never “mad.”

That’s why her turn in the “The Bells” has been such a hard pill to swallow. Because she had secured, through her battle prowess, the crown that she spent eight seasons seeking. She won the battle against Cersei. She proved that with the aid of her advisers and the assistance of her dragons she was capable of what the realm had, to that point, denied her. But instead of steering Drogon to the Red Keep and assassinating Cersei, she did the unthinkable: She targeted the citizens of King’s Landing, deciding to “rule with fear” instead of honor. These are the same innocent people that, two episodes before, she risked her fleet and dragons to protect in Winterfell. In the after-the-episode segment, actress Emilia Clarke explained that it was a rash decision made in the name of “grief.” Grief over the loss of Jorah, Missandei, and her dragon Rhaegal, and grief over her lover Jon and her hand Tyrion’s lost faith in their queen.

But how on earth does that track with what we know of Daenerys? How do we reconcile the woman who two seasons ago locked her dragons in a tomb for burning a child, with the person who would ruthlessly destroy a city of innocent children after winning the only thing she ever cared about? There is a world where Daenerys going rogue makes sense, but this isn’t it. This was an irresponsible, irrevocable undoing of an arc that enthralled and empowered a generation. And it sends a dangerous message: That women who seek power will piss it away the second their emotions kick in. The show might as well as have told us Dany was on her period.

One default answer for Dany’s turn is that her father’s madness—which was referenced in the “previously on” segment of “The Bells”—is coming through in this moment of emotional vulnerability. “Every time a Targaryen is born, the Gods flip a coin,” the show tells us. But what does this mean? The show—and, ostensibly, the books—has always had a flimsy understanding of “madness.” Is Dany a psychopath? A sociopath? There’s no indication of that; her empathy for slaves and innocents, until this point, precludes her from those distinctions. Is she depressed, does she suffer from PTSD, is she bipolar? Those are all modern ways of categorizing mental illness, but they could help us understand her mindset here. And yet, there’s no way of knowing the specific thing ailing her, because the show fails to orient us in her headspace. Is she triggered by something specifically? Is this really her way of processing grief, which she’s suffered greatly in the past without a similar reaction? A little insight would go a long way. Instead, her “madness” serves only one purpose: to punish her ambition.

“I AM NOT HERE TO BE QUEEN OF THE ASHES.”

And she will be punished. There’s no way Daenerys Stormborn, breaker of chains, survives the story now. That could be a tragic ending if the show had found an in-road to her psyche. Or if she hadn’t, for seasons now, displayed an eagerness to improve. Her descent could be chaotic if chaos was ever part of her philosophy. But even at her most tumultuous, past Dany always had a plan. She was trigger-happy in words only, never action. Recall, for a moment, her burning of the khalasar in season six, when she liberated the widowed women from their grieving huts. Vulnerable and alone, her advisers and her dragons far from her grip, she channeled her fiery energy into a revolution. She has never needed the reassurance of others to be strong. So why is it her breaking point? Why, in this moment, as the story is about to end before we can ever contend with the carnage her emotions conjured?

Dany’s journey has always been a mix of highs and lows. She once rode atop a wave of brown bodies, their white savior; an image that was, at the time, played for victory, but left a haunting mark on her legacy. And she has ruled with fire and blood in the past, but never indiscriminately. She burned the Tarlys, but only after she gave them the option to bend the knee. It was a harsh punishment, but in this world of broken honor, no different than Jon hanging Olly or Robb beheading Rickard Karstark. She was never more exactingly cruel than Arya, who killed for money and sport in the House of the Undying. Even Ned Stark executed boys for the sake of an agreement made on the basis of fantasy.

But those actions didn’t drive their perpetrators to annihilation. And Dany’s didn’t need to, either. The show made a decision, likely based on the blueprints of George R.R. Martin’s unfinished story, but it laid the bricks haphazardly. It’s dangerous, what’s been done to Dany. Because it hinges her carefully deployed conquest on the unpredictability of feminine desire. That’s what feels more out of nowhere than her fiery inclinations: The presentation of Dany as not only prone to her worst impulses, but careless in her actions. That’s not the Daenerys who stood before the khalasar and pledged her life to the common folk. That’s not the breaker of chains. If this is what the male-only creators think passes for earned female villainy, one has to wonder the intentions of telling this story in the first place.

Culled from www.nerdist.com

HBO reveals Game Of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2 photos

19/4/2019

BY LAURA PRUDOM

If you don't want to know anything going into episode 2 of Game of Thrones Season 8, turn back now!

HBO has released photos from Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 2 ahead of Sunday's debut. As with the season premiere, the episode 2 title is being kept under wraps until it airs - but we do know how long Game of Thrones episode 2 is, with a slightly longer run-time than the premiere at 58 minutes.

HBO is going to great lengths to obscure any plot details about Season 8 (in addition to hiding the episode titles, the cable network hasn't released any episode descriptions this season), but there are some things we can infer from the new photos.

Judging by the lighting in several of the images it seems that all the power players in Winterfell - including Jon, Sam, Arya, Daenerys, Jorah, Varys, Tyrion and Bran - are gathered around a table in Winterfell, perhaps trying to plan their defense strategy against the Night King and the Army of the Dead.

As we saw in the episode 2 promo released by HBO, Tormund apparently makes it back to Winterfell in time to warn Jon that the White Walkers will reach them before dawn, and it seems that the episode will feature preparations for the Battle of Winterfell, which will likely take up the entirety of episode 3, as it's been described as "the longest consecutive battle sequence ever committed to film."

As revealed in the promo, a photo also shows Jaime Lannister in Winterfell's Great Hall, where he not only has to answer for pushing Bran out of a window and paralyzing him (if Bran chooses to reveal that information to Jon and Dany), but also for being the infamous "Kingslayer" who murdered Daenerys' father, the Mad King Aerys.

And although Jon learned the truth about his real parents, Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, at the end of episode 1, the photos unsurprisingly don't give any indication whether Jon tells Daenerys that he's her nephew - the two don't appear in any of the images together - but we have a theory that the Jon and Daenerys conflict being teased in episode 1 won't go the way people might be predicting.

What other clues did you spot in the photos? Share your predictions for episode 2 in the comments, and for more on Game of Thrones, check out the biggest changes in the opening credits, where we've seen those spiral White Walker symbols before, our theory on Cersei's pregnancy and when we might see Jon's direwolf Ghost again

Culled from www.ign.com

Game of Thrones’ Tyrion was the game’s sharpest player. Now he’s in trouble

17/4/2019

Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones season eight, episode one. HBO

By Alex Abad-Santosalex@vox.com

There are spoilers in this post regarding the season eight premiere of Game of Thrones.

“I used to think you were the cleverest man alive,” Sansa Stark tells Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones’ season eight premiere, “Winterfell.” The line is easily the episode’s harshest burn, as Sansa senses that Tyrion has seemingly put his fate in the hands of Cersei Lannister — someone Sansa has had firsthand evil experiences with.

And Sansa’s right.

The scene follows Tyrion’s announcement to the lords and ladies of the North that his sister Cersei will bolster their forces with an army sent from King’s Landing. But everyone except Tyrion can plainly see that Cersei has no real intention of helping the Stark/Daenerys alliance fight the Night King and his Army of the Dead. Instead, Cersei will let the two forces bleed each other dry.

Vouching for his sister is just the latest blunder Tyrion has made, despite years of being touted as one of Game of Thrones’ smarter, savvier characters.

Tyrion has spent his whole life challenging the prejudices that others hold against him because he’s a dwarf. He’s had to be smarter and more charming than his swordsman brother, more cunning than his viper sister and awful father. And he’s used the skills he’s developed as a result to not only survive but become a trusted adviser to Daenerys Targaryen.

Tyrion is a character who has always known how to play the game.

But as we begin this final chapter of Game of Thrones, it seems like Tyrion has gone from player to pawn. His cunning has dulled. He’s made a few dire mistakes. And now he’s found himself stuck in a terrible situation.

Daenerys has never trusted Tyrion when it comes to his family
The problem with Tyrion’s insistence that Cersei is coming is that it’s put him in a lose-lose situation.

The nagging issue is that pretty much everyone except Daenerys, Jon, and their advisers seems to understand that Cersei isn’t coming (see: Sansa’s reaction of “and you believed her?”). And that’s even though the only person Cersei has told onscreen that she’s not coming is her brother Jaime.

Tyrion did have that one-on-one meeting with Cersei in the season seven finale, but it’s unclear what the resolution was. So all we know for certain is that Tyrion has insisted that Cersei’s army is marching North. We don’t know whether he truly believes it — though, as Sansa points out, anyone who has ever met Cersei should know not to.

However, whether Tyrion believes Cersei’s lie about sending troops is secondary to his lack of awareness that vouching for her will damage his relationship with Dany.

What does Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere tell us about how the show ends?

They’re already on shaky ground because of Tyrion’s strategic mistake in season seven to advise Dany to use the Unsullied to take Casterly Rock from his own family, a move that left Dany’s allies in other locations unguarded. The result was that Olenna Tyrell and her army were defeated by the Lannister army at Highgarden, while Yara Greyjoy’s fleet was attacked by her uncle (and Cersei lackey) Euron Greyjoy, leading to the Sand Snakes and their mother being killed.

Dany was irate:

“Your strategy has lost us Dorne, the Iron Islands, and the Reach,” she hissed at Tyrion at the time, cutting him off when he started to say something about underestimating their enemies.

“Our enemies?” Dany balked. “Your family, you mean. Perhaps you don’t want to hurt them after all.”

It was in that flash of anger that Game of Thrones revealed the core problem of Dany’s relationship with Tyrion: Deep down, she is concerned that he values his family more than her queendom. Instances like these suggest she isn’t confident that he will ever be loyal to her, that she believes he will never be able to choose her over his family — the same family that includes Jaime “Kingslayer” Lannister who killed Aerys Targaryen, but also the same family that looked down on, betrayed, and sentenced him to death.

Tyrion’s loyalty to Dany, and the entire reason she made him her Hand, hinges on the resentment he feels toward his family outweighing his love for his family. And because she’s unsure of the resentment winning out, particularly when he does things like use caution against the Lannister army or advise her into military blunders, she never seems to fully trust him.

Now imagine the hellfire that Dany will spit when she finds out Cersei isn’t coming, and how much more caustic it will be if it’s ultimately revealed to Dany that Tyrion knew the whole time that his sister was playing them for fools. All it would take is Sansa muttering something about how Tyrion should know better than anyone that his sister is a liar to cast doubt on Tyrion’s loyalties.

And things will be even worse if Dany finds out that Cersei is pregnant — a possibility, since the trailer for the second episode of the season shows Dany interrogating Jaime, and Jaime knows his sister is pregnant. If that happens, it will seem like Tyrion is protecting an unborn Lannister heir instead of pledging his loyalty to his queen, no matter his true intent.

Tyrion may be vouching for Cersei to protect her baby

There might be an explanation for Tyrion’s behavior that was revealed last season.

In the season seven finale, “A Dragon and a Wolf,” Tyrion had a one-on-one meeting with Cersei that possibly explains his actions. After they argue with each other about being terrible siblings and about Daenerys, Cersei homes in on her children — Joffrey, Tommen, and Myrcella — and how Tyrion’s actions in killing their father indirectly led to Tommen and Myrcella’s demise.

“I’m more sorry about the children than you could ever know,” he tells her. “I loved them. You know I did. You know it in your heart if there’s anything left of it.”

He then figures out, thanks to Cersei not drinking and clutching her belly, that she’s pregnant. If what he said about Cersei’s children is a true and honest moment of regret and emotion, Tyrion continuing to believe and insist that Cersei will send help to Winterfell may mean he’s trying to protect the unborn Lannister heir in ways he didn’t with Joffrey, Myrcella, or Tommen. He doesn’t want this fourth Lannister child to meet the same fate as Cersei’s other children.

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Game of Thrones’ final season looks extremely bleak for Cersei Lannister
If Tyrion were to tell Sansa and Jon and Dany that Cersei’s forces aren’t coming, that would be a death sentence for Cersei and her unborn child, as Dany would deem her traitorous and probably send a dragon to King’s Landing. By vouching for her, risking treason, he at least gives Cersei a little bit of a buffer.

The crucial problem is that if he really is trying to protect his sister and her baby, he’s risking his life for someone who doesn’t feel the same way about him. Cersei, as we learned in the season eight premiere, has now promised to pay Bronn a hefty sum to kill both of her brothers in the event they survive the Night King’s impending siege on Winterfell. Whether Bronn can actually go through with killing his friends remains to be seen, but Cersei wants Tyrion dead — assuming Dany doesn’t kill him first.

Culled from www.vox.com