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Is Bran Robertson another Bran Stark? (TSG vs GOT)

Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to an end, and “Game of Thrones” is, sadly, no exception. The most viewed show on HBO aired it’s final episode just a month ago. The TV adapted version of George RR Martin’s epic fantasy finally ended after nine years with season 8’s episode 6 named « The Iron Throne ». The episode had mixed reactions from fans, especially over who won the ‘Game of Thrones’ in the end.

ATTENTION (SPOILERS AHEAD)

HBO – Season 8, episode 6: The Iron Throne
https://weheartit.com/entry/330638722

Bran Stark (played by Isaac Hempstead Wright),was the one to claim the throne in the end. He received the title ‘Bran the Broken’ from Tyrion Lannister and named king of Westeros or now “the six kingdoms” instead of “seven” after his sister gave the North it’s independence again. The ending left fans furious and some have now come up with theories of their own as to how “Game of Thrones” should have ended.

HBO – Bran Stark, is in many fan theories assumed to be the Night King
https://www.insider.com/game-of-thrones-bran-night-king-theory-explained-wrong-2017-8

One fan said Daenerys and Jon, as the last two Targaryens in the world should have found their way back to each other, destroyed the Iron Throne with dragon fire -the same way it was created- and by doing so « the wheel would be broken » and they would end up ruling together. Another fan would have liked to see Bran « warging » into the Night King after being named king and eventually transforming into the White Walkers’ leader.

“The Spawning Grounds” a novel by the two-time Giller-shortlisted author Gail Anderson-Dargatz about a family living in the Thompson-Shuswap region of British Columbia hovers beautifully between past and present, between the ordinary world and the world of spirit, all shattered by the human and environmental crises that have united the white and Native worlds together in love, hate and tragedy for 150 years.

After reading this beautiful piece of literature, and binge-watching the #1 show about an epic journey of despair and even more despair, I realized that their plots are similar and I now have my own theory that links them both together thanks to fiction and symbolism.

Here’s a list of why I think Bran from TSG is another version of Bran from GOT:

#1: They’re always in a chair

Bran stark in his wheelchair contemplating the weirwood tree in the godswood of Winterfell.
https://boards.fireden.net/tg/thread/65843546/

Whether it’s Bran (TSG) looking out the window, or Bran (GOT, who ironically is crippled) looking into someone’s past -or just looking at someone in general- they’re always sitting in a chair and they freak people out.

#2: They both have signature animals and are spiritually embodied by them

HBO – Bran and *“The Three-Eyed Raven”*
https://www.popsugar.com.au/celebrity/What-Bran-Three-Eyed-Raven-Powers-43965470

Bran (GOT) eventually becomes the successor of “The Three-Eyed Raven” and now holds the title, on the other hand, Bran (TSG) was dominated by “The Salmon Boy” who’s spirit embodies multiple animals like crows who are very similar to ravens. Both black birds symbolise the mystery of creation and personal transformation, which could reflect on multiple elements in the lives of both Brans.

#3: Both their mothers died a devastating death

HBO – The death of Catelyn Tully-Stark
“The Rains of Castamere” is one of the best GOT episodes because of the horrific “Red Wedding” scene
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-4-catelyn-stark-lady-stoneheart-arya-brienne-duel-scene-ghost-a7887786.html

Bran’s (GOT) mother is tragically betrayed and killed after watching her firstborn son and his new pregnant wife die in the hands of their allies. In addition to that Bran’s (TSG) mom, Elaine passed away after the spirit of “The Salmon Boy” -who took control over her- realized that her body wasn’t strong enough for him to complete his mission. In a sense it’s like he used her for his own good, betrayed her, and killed her.

#4: They’ve both seen the past

HBO – Bran stark « warging » into history
https://giphy.com/explore/bran-stark

As “The Three-Eyed Raven” Bran (GOT) is capable of accessing the past, he can easily « warg » into any historical time but cannot change anything. Altering the past can create time loops and effect the future in a very negative way. It comes with a very big responsibility because he is the memory of Westeros (continent). Bran (TSG) was able to get a glimpse of his ancestors’ lives through the mind of “The Salmon Boy” since they were sharing a body when he was still not completely « possessed ».

#5: They are not Brans anymore

Bran meme
https://me.me/i/my-brother-died-for-you-hodor-and-summer-died-for-18252879

When Bran (GOT) became “The Three-Eyed Raven” he started loosing pieces of himself. The more he used his powers to gain experience and knowledge the less space he had for himself within himself. He was not Bran anymore. He was just a big computer filled with data and no space for anything else. Imagine being able to record every second of every minute of every single person in the world, store it on a computer and still have space for a folder of emotions. He has all the past stored in his mind and that is his priority as “The Three-Eyed Raven”. Same goes for Bran (TSG). “The Salmon Boy” took control over his body slowly, so there was still a little bit of him fading away. Hannah started realizing he wasn’t her brother because she couldn’t feel the connection she had with him anymore.

#6: THEY WERE BOTH GIVEN THE SAME NAME

How the heroes journey fits into the movie »Platoon »

To start off, the movie Platoon is about a man named Chris Taylor who volunteers for military service for combat in Vietnam. This movie follows his story as he is witness to an ongoing struggle between two sergeants over leadership of their Platoon. To set the story we will look at the 4-character types to give you more of an idea of what goes on in specific in this movie. We have ‘’The Hero’’ who In this instance is the main character: Chris Taylor, we know this because the story is about him, he is narrating his life and experience at war. We have the character of consequence (who the hero is doing something for), which in this story is more complicated because he joins the army for himself to prove his worth to his family heritage even though his family went against his decision of going to war. Then we have the antagonist: sergeant Barnes who is portrayed as a mean and selfish as he goes to limits beyond extreme such as killing the other sergeant as a way of taking control of the platoon, he constantly demeans the others and divides the members of the platoon against each other. The sage in this film would be the other sergeant, stg Alias. Through his screen time he takes a father like mentor role over Chris by helping him through his tour in Vietnam and by giving him advice and teachings in the everyday life of a soldier.

Now to the story arc a how it applies in the hero’s journey. 1 At the beginning of the film we see the hero at rest as our protagonist Chris Taylor and another recruit arrive at Vietnam at the base camp air base. 2 Next up in the call to action we have Chris getting signed to the platoon and having his first hands on experience in Vietnam. 3 The reluctant acceptance is when he realizes joining was a mistake but accepts the fact that he is stuck in what he likes to call living hell. 4 The intro to the villain is done briefly through the first 3 parts at the start but we really start to see him and his negative affect on the members of the platoon and the other sgt while they argue over who takes command when, how and why they order each other on a pointless dangerous mission that ends up killing one of Chris’s first friends in the group. 5 The first battle would be the second actual battle in the film because it is the first battle there is actual physical conflict between Alias and Barnes. After Barnes’s half of the platoon ransacks an innocent village, Alias confronts him and threatens to release him of command when they get back to base camp which leads to Barnes killing Alias in an isolated firefight with no witnesses so they he has nobody to testify against him. Chris having a feeling Barnes had something to do with his mentor’s death confront him and Barnes beats him and says that next time he will kill Chris which ties into the hero’s defeat at number 6. 7 There is no real montage, but Chris man’s up through a series of helping out his friends through a small battle and tries to find a way to bring Barnes to justice. 8 The second big firefight of the film and leading to the second battle, what’s left of the men in the platoon are spread thin through a defensive perimeter around the base camp as they are surprise attacked and out matched by the enemy soldiers. Chris and the other soldier he is with in his fox hole (Francis) leave the defensive perimeter as it collapses and the rest of the base falls due to the enemy attack, the remaining men fight all night out matched against all odds. As daylight breaks Chris walking among the bodies on the floor spots Barnes as he confronts him and kills him with no witnesses and the villain is defeated 9. 10 The hero returns changed by the events in the film, Chris and the survivors of that terrible night get evacuated by a helicopter and brought to the hospital where he is after discharged and set free to go home for his service. He leaves Vietnam changed, proud, battle hardened, and with a new perspective on life.

Chris Taylor (battle hardened) after the second battle right before killing Sgt Barnes

The perect ending

https://s18670.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-2.45.42-PM-e1521578798201.png

From the beginning of time stories have been a part of human history. Through stories people can convey life lessons, wisdom and their philosophies about life. In Gail Anderson-Dargatz The Spawning Grounds, she gives the story an ending that ties up loose and solves it within reason of the story. However, the ending left a lot to be desired by not playing with the reader’s emotions enough. If you ask me an ending to a story should encompass three things, it should tie everything together, make the reader satisfied or wanting more and be solved within the boundaries of the world.

When reading a story, the reader is drawn in by the problem that occurs, and any unusual or eccentric elements introduced in the story. And making use of everything introduced in the story is very important to the reader. Although, there are many mysteries still in The Spawning Grounds for example what why the spirits of forest didn’t really help the salmon boy spirit in his endeavours overall, I can applaud Gail Anderson-Dagatz for tying up most loose ends in The Spawning Grounds.

In addition, to tie everything together in The Spawning Grounds she solves the story within reason of the story’s rules. The author didn’t miraculously introduce anyone to solve the forthcoming main problem of story and she gave everyone a purpose in the story for example hinting that Stew would find Bran by causing him to only think about Bran in earlier chapters. I again applaud for Gail Anderson-Dagatz not pulling anything out the air in the story.

Despite the praise I gave the author she missed a great opportunity to make the reader feel something with the ending of the story. In The Spawning Grounds the ending was way too predictable with almost not lost in the story. Imagine the author only implied the ending or had a character die like Jesse saving Hannah which would have been unexpected and would’ve made him be seen in a new light.

As a whole, I think all stories the three mentioned rules to obtain a perfect ending.

From the beginning of time stories have been a part of human history. Through stories people can convey life lessons, wisdom and their philosophies about life. In Gail Anderson-Dargatz The Spawning Grounds, she gives the story an ending that ties up loose and solves it within reason of the story. However, the ending left a lot to be desired by not playing with the readers emotions enough. If you ask me an ending to a story should encompass three things, it should tie everything together, make the reader satisfied or wanting more and be solved within the boundaries of the world.

When reading a story, the reader is drawn in by the problem that occurs, and any unusual or eccentric elements introduced in the story. And making use of everything introduced in the story is very important to the reader. Although, there are many mysteries still in The Spawning Grounds for example what why the spirits of forest didn’t really help the salmon boy spirit in his endeavors overall, I can applaud Gail Anderson-Dagatz for tying up most loose ends in The Spawning Grounds.

In addition, to tie everything together in The Spawning Grounds she solves the story within reason of the story’s rules. The author didn’t miraculously introduce anyone to solve the main forthcoming problem of story and she gave everyone a purpose in the story for example hinting that Stew would find Bran by causing him to only think about Bran in earlier chapters. I again applaud for Gail Anderson-Dagatz not pulling anything out the air in the story.

Despite the praise I gave the author she missed a great opportunity to make reader feel something with the ending of the story. In The Spawning Grounds the ending was way too predictable with almost not lost in the story. Imagine the author only implied the ending or had a character die like Jesse saving Hannah which would have been unexpected and would’ve made him be seen in a new light.

As a whole, I think all stories the three mentioned rules to obtained a perfect ending.

The Predator (movie review)

Director: Shane Black

Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Trembley, Keegan Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Jake Busey, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Sterling K. Brown.

Synopsis: In this 6^th installment of the franchise, Boyd Holbrook stars as an elite military soldier, Quinn McKenna, who has an unfortunate run in with an alien creature (the predator) which causes his family to take possession of a dangerous device that the alien species do not want humanity, mankind, to have. This turn of events leads to a feud between the predators, the aliens, in the film which causes McKenna, the military officer, to team up with a new squad of ex-soldiers to keep his family safe and to secure the one predator’s gift to humanity.

Review: It is an amazing film that is heavily inspired by Shane Black’s experience in the first movie, as an actor in the introduction to the franchise he understands both sides of a film from the director’s point of view as well as an acting fan. He brings in many references from previous movies that allow the viewer to have that amazing classic feel of nostalgia, but it is done in such a subtle way that it doesn’t confuse people who have never seen a film from this series so nobody is really missing out because the references do make sense to the story’s context and create meaning to new viewers. Exp.: As one of the rogue predator runs after McKenna and his new team after it escapes the lab, Nebraska says “get to the choppers” making reference to when then main character in the first film yells out “Go! Get to the chopper!”.

A thing that this franchise does often in its movies including this one is portray an almost invincible hero who can outsmart and make a match to a killing machine that is supposed to know no equal, but he survives the inevitable basically because of plot armor. It is fun to see the character stay alive if he is your favorite but may seem unrealistic depending on the circumstance in the movie, but it is science fiction after all.

One thing I don’t really like is that this film changes the original story behind the predator’s reasons for coming to earth and hunt. The original idea was that the predators hunt for sport and take the heads of their victims as trophies, knowing earth has many vast species they hunt here. In this film, they still hunt for sport and take the trophies, but it is elaborated that they claim the victims head and spinal column to collect human spinal fluid to use it to combine themselves with human DNA so that they can adapt to our planets climate change so that after global warming makes the earth uninhabitable for humans, they can claim the planet for themselves. This only really affects fans that have followed the franchise for a large period of time but changes nothing for a new viewer which to them would make sense if it would be their first film.

In conclusion, The Predator is a very well-made film that has some very good acting from an amazing comedic cast that make the movie fun to watch for any viewer of age to watch the film. The action and visuals are superb and make the movie very nice and easy on the eyes. The all-around story behind the predator is a little different which might upset fans, but it does bring the story in a different direction we haven’t seen that might be interesting. However, it doesn’t change much, the film is still equally enjoyable and worth watching and possibly getting into the series.

Infinity war

At first glance you might not suspect Avengers infinity war previous record holder for the highest opening weekend gross, the fastest film to ever gross 1,5 billion and became the highest-grossing film in 2018¹tobeinterpret as having anenvironmental message but it surely does.

Spoiler alert!!!! In infinity war we witness Thanos snapping his fingers which kills half of existence in the universe. Watching are beloved heroes turning to dust made most of us tear up, we couldn’t believe what was happening 19 years of the MCU phase four finally coming to an end. In theory this is a good thing if you take some time to think about it. Presently there is 7,714,576,923² on planet earth so if half the population vanished into dust, we would be left with 3,857,288,462 humans left on earth. The average carbon footprint of an American is 21,5³ (21,500 kg) metric tons of CO2 according to University of Michigan I’m using Americans as my primary examples because they pollute our planet more than anyone else. So, if we do some math, we are producing 165,863,403,844,500 kg of CO2 witch we can assume isn’t the best for the atmosphere. By dividing that by two we get 82,931,701,922,250 which is still a big number but much smaller than the previous. Witch would help climate change because there is less CO2 in the air.

Weve been so focused on making changes to help slow down climate change have we ever thought to realize that we just need a genocide to solve our problems?

^Sources

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_box_office_records_set_by_Avengers:_Infinity_War

²https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

³ https://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/What_Is_the_Average_Carbon_Footprint

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

From left to right: Zac (Jonathan Ward) & Crysta (Samantha Mathis)

Crysta, a fairy living in a rainforest called FernGully, has never seen a human before. Until a logging company comes near the rainforest, she believes they are extinct. After accidentally shrinking one of the workers, a boy named Zak, Crysta learns that humans truly do exist, but for what seems is a dark purpose. Now her size, Zak now also sees the damage the company he works for inflicts. Crysta and Zak embark on an adventure to stop not only this company, but an evil entity named Hexxus, who feeds off pollution.

In this classic film, perhaps one of my childhood favourites, pollution and destruction are invading Ferngully using a tree cutting machine. The machine cuts down the trees and turns them into lumber while puffing out many harmful gases and polluting the air and the waters with toxic waste. Obviously it is far too evident for me to explain how pollution is a theme in this film.

One of the major problems facing the rainforests today is logging. The rainforest disappears at a rate of 6,000 acres an hour. Oiling, in the rainforests is also another problem. When these oiling companies go into our rainforests they present a threat not only to the environment, but to the people.

The animators did a lot of their sketches on location in the rain forest, which explains the family pleasing visuals. This film, a story that tells a useful lesson and its amusing jungle inhabitants (particularly Batty Koda, a deranged bat straight out of a biology lab, voiced by beloved actor/comedian, Robin Williams) might not be such a masterpiece, but it is an all around fun film for its humor and sweetness.

Is Tom Brady Truly a Leader?

Tom Brady, quarterback for the greatest football team on earth for the past 17 years, has been called a leader by most of his teammates, he’s had quite a few of them in these past two decades. He has brought the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowl; no other player current player has been to four. If you know me at all you will know that I am one of the biggest Brady haters, but I know when to acknowledge greatness, so it really pains me to say that Tom Brady is the greatest leader in all of football.

Tom knows how to take a team to the Super Bowl, he is a leader that knows how to get the best out of every single one of his teammates, whether that is a Pro Bowler like Rob Gronkowski or a bench warmer like Chris Hogan. Tom has a work ethic rivaled only by Kobe Bryant and the confidence of Wayne Gretzky in a pickup game of shinny. He will be inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame as soon as he retires, for the sake of all the other teams I hope that the time is soon.

Tom studies and understands the game, along with coach/dad Bill Belichek, better than any player or coach that we have ever seen, and that skill, work ethic, confidance and will to win will allow him to stay into the league for a long time and it will definately lead to more Vince Lombardi trophies.