Vassals of Kingsgrave

VoK 58: Blade Runner [1982] (DVD Commentary)

Posted on January 23, 2014 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

The Vassals dream of electric sheep in this audio commentary for Ridley Scott’s 1982 science-fiction classic Blade Runner (The Final Cut). Join Katie (Lady Griffin), Bina (Bina007), and Duncan (Valkyrist) as they debate whether or not Deckard is a replicant and (maybe) drive off into the mountains for a happy ending.

The movie should be synced from 7:00 to 2:05:00, and the commentary itself will begin exactly 1 minute into the movie, due to minor recording issues.

Credits:
Edited by Katie
Audio clips owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

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Posted in DVD Commentary, Movies, Podcast, Science Fiction

Tagged Bina007, Lady Griffin, Valkyrist

VoK 57: Theories of Ice and Fire (Vol.1)

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Valkyrist | Leave a comment

The Vassals gather around the fabled roundtable of Kingsgrave, this time to discuss theories both serious and crackpot. Join Michal (inkasrain), Nadia, Duncan (Valkyrist), Peter (Shellfish), and Dan (witless chum) for a fiery debate over what is really going on in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. This is hopefully the first of many episodes on House Manwoody’s “Theories of Ice and Fire”.

Because of the episode’s length, each segment has been time-stamped with a short musical cue:

2:25 – Stannis is the Third Head of the Dragon [concerning Stannis Baratheon’s destiny, and why he doesn’t even get to be the star of his own theory]
19:08 – Arya is Batman [concerning the character development of Arya Stark, and the true function of the Faceless Men]
47:38 – Brandon + Ashara [concerning the relationship between Brandon Stark and Ashara Dayne, and the child who never was]
1:16:32 – House Stark is descendent from the Others [concerning the arcane origins of the Kings of Winter, and their knowledge of ice magic]
1:54:54 – I(lyrio)+S(erra)=A(egon)B(lackfyre) [concerning the ancestry of Aegon-called-Targaryen, and the source of Ilyrio Mopatis’ “western ambitions”]

Warning: Contains spoilers for all published works in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Various tracks owned by Song Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive.org] View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Mirror] Download from mega.co.nz
[Forum] Episode Thread
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Posted in A Song of Ice and Fire, Books & Novellas, Podcast

Tagged inkasrain, Nadia, Shellfish, Valkyrist, witless chum

VoK 56: Amadeus [1984] (DVD Commentary)

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Valkyrist | Leave a comment

The Vassals soak up some culture with an audio commentary for the 1984 period drama Amadeus (Director’s Cut). Join Bina (Bina007) and Duncan (Valkyrist) as they dissect the tragic rivalry between Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The movie should be synced from 1:50 to 3:02:07, and the commentary itself will begin around 50 seconds into the movie. This was due to some slight audio wrinkles, which thankfully iron out after the first few minutes. Also, don’t forget to nominate this episode for the “Most Niche VoK” award 😉

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Audio Clips owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment

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Posted in DVD Commentary, History, Movies, Music, Podcast

Tagged Bina007, Valkyrist

VoK 55: A Flight of Sorrows – Collector’s Edition

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Valkyrist | 3 comments

Duncan (Valkyrist) welcomes the newest member of the VoK family, Silvana (silvaubrey), for an in-depth discussion of Westerosi justice, vengeance, ethnicity and conspiracy. This episode focuses on the fabled “Collector’s Edition” of A Flight of Sorrows, specifically the four new essays added to the compendium:

7:02 – Savouring the Taste? On the role of revenge in songs of ice and fire (by Stefan Sasse)
24:09 – The Prince is Riding: Rebutting the identity of—and the aim of the conspiracy around—Aegon Targaryen (by Miles Schniederman)
36:13 – A Feast of Vipers: Ethnic diversity, personal identification, and fandom theories in Dorne (by Amin Javadi)
58:27 – The King’s Justice is Mute, Not Blind: Why trials in Westeros are not what they seem (by John Jasmin)
1:12:43 – Other Essays in A Flight of Sorrows (edited by Marc N. Kleinhenz)
1:24:27 – Game of Thrones news and discussion
1:36:28 – ????

Warning: Contains spoilers for all published books in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist

Links:
Follow “Westeros Indonesia” on Twitter
Tower of the Hand: A Flight of Sorrows
The World of Ice and Fire: The Official History of Westeros and The World of A Game of Thrones (released October 28, 2014)
A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook
Tower of the Hand: A Hymn for Spring (released June 14, 2014)

3 Comments

Posted in A Song of Ice and Fire, Books & Novellas, Fandom, Podcast

Tagged silvaubrey, Valkyrist

VoK 54: The Hunger Games – Catching Fire [2013] (Review)

Posted on January 7, 2014 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

Vassals of Kingsgrave tackle the soon-to-be Highest grossing movie of 2013, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

In this aleged ‘movie’ review show, we spoil the hell out of the next (two) installment(s) ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’, fawn over Johanna Mason/Jena Malone, discuss the trend of splitting the final installment of a movie to cash in, the ill-fated ‘bitch slap’ from the movie, and that adorable cat (Buttercup).

Dagos_Rivers is joined by two new VOK Hosts: Claudiometer and saad164.

Credits:
Edited by Dagos_Rivers

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Posted in Movies, Podcast, Science Fiction

Tagged Claudiometer, Dagos_Rivers, saad164

VoK 53: The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug [2013] (Review)

Posted on January 5, 2014 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

Happy New Year Listeners! . Fortytwo is joined by LordManderblee, Bina007, Shellfish, No True Lady, White Raven and Scilens to rate, review and discuss Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).

Credits:
Edited by Fortytwo

Links:
Tolkien Professor on Hobbit 2
Elf Lore Comic
Thranduil in 1977’s Hobbit
Golum in Wellington Airport

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Posted in Movies, Podcast, The Lord of the Rings

Tagged Bina007, fortytwo, LordManderBlee, No True Lady, Scilens, Shellfish, White Raven

VoK 52: LOTR ReRead (Part 2) – The Fellowship of the Ring

Posted on January 4, 2014 by bina007 | Leave a comment

Join our doughty Fellowship of Podcasters as they level up and discuss Tolkien’s high fantasy novel at almost as slow a pace as Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring.

In this second episode, Teddard, Nadia, Shellfish and Bina007 discuss the events of Book Two of The Fellowship of The Ring: The Journey of the Nine Companions / The Ring Goes South.

Beware of Spoilers: This podcast discusses Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and the Silmarillion in detail.

02:00 Nadia leads a discussion on Books 1-2, Many Meetings and The Council of Elrond, in which we debate whether:

The Elf Bard is the “asshole of the year”
Sauron shows his hand in sending an emissary to the dwarves
Gandalf sends Balin into Moria for no reason at all

47:45 Shellfish leads a discussion on Books 3-6: The Ring Goes South, A Journey In the Dark, and The Bridge of Khazad-Dum, in which we discuss

Which fantasy sword has the coolest name
Whether Legolas is a jerk (Shellfish has a beef with Elves)
Frodo’s hobby of “getting stabbed by new and exotic things”
Whether the Balrog has wings

1:13:55 Teddard leads a discussion on Books 7-8: Lothlorien and the Mirror of Galadriel:

“there seems to be this bird called Galadriel, and she seems to be quite important”
Is Sauron drawing Frodo toward the Mirror of Galadriel?
Is Nadia the Samwise Gamgee of Vassals of Kingsgrave?

1:23:00 Bina007 leads a discussion on Books 9-10: The Great River & The Breaking of the Fellowship in which we discuss:

Tolkien clearly not caring as much about food as George R R Martin
Yet more Legolas hate from Shellfish
And accusations that Elrond is basically incompetent in how he sets up the Fellowship!
The nature of Boromir’s corruption.

1:40:00 Closing thoughts on Book Two and a special song for Shellfish.

Credits:
Edited by Bina007 using music from the Brobdingnangian Bards’ album Memories of Middle Earth.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[Archive.org] View this episode’s page on Archive.org.
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[RSS] Podcast only feed.
[Forum] Podcast Forums.

Links:
Tom Shippey’s book Tolkien: The Author Of The Century

VoK 50: Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of The Ring – Book 1 (vokpodcast.wordpress.com)
VoK 43: The Hobbit, an Expected Podcast (vokpodcast.wordpress.com)

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Posted in Books & Novellas, Podcast, The Lord of the Rings

Tagged Bina007, Nadia, Shellfish, Teddard

Happy New Year VOK! (Podcast Announcements)

Posted on January 1, 2014 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

HAPPY 2014 VASSALS! It was almost 7 months ago that the first VoK was released, and since then we’ve organised and recorded 51 episodes, comprising over 70 hours of original content. Mother have mercy, just imagine what we’ll have achieved in 7 more months. As always, a big thanks to Amin and the Podcast of Ice and Fire crew for their lovely support, and of course to you guys (listeners and hosts), who make it all worthwhile.

In case you wanted to get VoK a (late) Christmas present, then we would be super appreciative if you could leave us a positive review and rating on iTunes, and (if you haven’t already) follow us on Twitter and YouTube. It should only take 30 seconds (a minute at the most), but we would be eternally grateful! Seriously, it would really help us out in terms of iTunes visibility. Anyway, that’s enough grovelling 😉

Here is a list of all of the “Call to Arms” threads currently active on the forums. Feel free to get involved in any of them… or, if you’re feeling brave enough, even start your own!

Movies & TV:
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (review)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (review)
Amadeus (fan commentary)
Sherlock (BBC series)

Books & Novellas:
The Lord of the Rings (full reread)
ASOIAF Crackpot Theories
Real Word vs. ASOIAF History
A Flight of Sorrows (Collector’s Edition)
The Gentlemen Bastards series (by Scott Lynch)
Discworld series (by Terry Pratchett)

Video Games:
Fallout series
Dragon Age series

The full VoK Topic List is located HERE, and is updated frequently.

Finally, while it may be 2014, as Quaithe says, “to go forward you must go back”. Accordingly, all of the character discussions from our epic FeastDance reread have been neatly edited and indexed into a convenient YouTube playlist. For example:

So you can check out the full playlist HERE, and peruse individual character chapters at your leisure. We’re also hoping it will drive a bit more traffic to the podcast.

Anyway, that should put you all up to date. Happy New Year and long live House Manwoody! 🙂

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Posted in Announcements

VoK 51: FeastDance (Part 6) – Dornish Drawls and Northern Conspiracies

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Valkyrist | Leave a comment

The Vassals ring in the New Year with the thrilling conclusion to their FeastDance reread series. Join Duncan (Valkyrist), Bina, Nadia, and Zach (Alias) as they delve into Pate’s prologue in Oldtown, Ser Kevan’s epilogue in King’s Landing, and all of the chapters that take place in Dorne.

And make sure to stick around for the Aftershow where they wrap-up FeastDance with an in-depth discussion of the Grand Northern Conspiracy. Unfortunately, the most important question of the night remains glaringly unanswered: who would win in a fight, Darkstar or Ser Pounce? Have your say below! 😉

1:46 – Pate
20:14 – Kevan Lannister
46:07 – Areo Hotah, Arys Oakheart and Arianne Martell
1:28:48 – The Grand Northern Conspiracy
2:12:02 – ????

Warning: Contains spoilers for all published books in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Various tracks owned by Sony Music Entertainment, the Warner Music Group and Karliene Reynolds

Links:
The Grand Northern Conspiracy
FeastDance ReRead (Part 1)
FeastDance (Part 2): Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
FeastDance (Part 3): All Roads Lead to Essos
FeastDance (Part 4): Another Brick in the Wall
FeastDance (Part 5): We Remember the North

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Posted in A Song of Ice and Fire, Books & Novellas, Podcast

Tagged Alias, Bina007, Nadia, Valkyrist

VoK 50: LOTR ReRead (Part 1) – The Return of the Shadow

Posted on December 25, 2013 by bina007 | 1 comment

Join our doughty Fellowship of Podcasters as they level up and discuss Tolkien’s high fantasy novel at almost as slow a pace as Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring.

In this first episode, EastTexasDirewolf, Teddard, Nadia, Shellfish, Eiffel and Bina007 discuss the events of Book One of The Fellowship of The Ring: The First Journey/The Ring Sets Out.

Beware of Spoilers: This podcast discusses Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and the Silmarillion in detail.

00:00 Introductions – how we got into the books

08:00 How we rate Fellowship compared to the other two volumes and whether we faff about too much with Tom Bombadil

12:00 EastTexasDirewolf leads a discussion of the The Prologue and Chapters 1-6 (Frodo finally leaves the shire and runs into elves, black riders and Tom Bombadil). We debate:

whether Tolkien’s directions are a bit Quaithe-y;
whether pipeweed is in fact weed;
the endearing xenophobia of hobbits;
Gandalf as the Doran of Middle Earth;
whether Gollum eats babies;
the alleged creepiness of Sam and Frodo’s friendship;
whether Fatty Bolger is bonkers or a badass;
and the nature of the evil in the forest.

41:00 Eiffel leads a discussion of Chapters 7-12 in which we discuss:

the nature of wights;
Tom Bombadil’s mad pick-up lines;
how Gandalf is susceptible to the Ring;
how the Black Riders are weaksauce;
the misremembered tactical idiocy of going to Weathertop;
how far Frodo has free will;
the insane badassery of Glorfindel;
how Elves are kind of Cylon-y – hobbits not so much;
what’s the use of gods anyway?

1:20:00 Final thoughts on Book One.

Credits:
Edited by Bina007

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[Archive.org] View this episode’s page on Archive.org.
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[RSS] Podcast only feed.
[Forum] Podcast Forums.

Links:
The Tolkien Professor

Tom Bombadil: A Joyous Freedom (sagaandspirit.wordpress.com)
Polish ‘Gandalf’ stops Warsaw tram in Fellowship of The Ring prank (thestar.com)
VoK 43: The Hobbit, an Expected Podcast (vokpodcast.wordpress.com)

1 Comment

Posted in Books & Novellas, Podcast, The Lord of the Rings

Tagged Bina007, easttexasdirewolf, Eiffel, Nadia, Shellfish, Teddard

VoK 49: Perceptions of Historical Events

Posted on December 21, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

The following podcast is about historical perceptions and how they are changed based on the culture you live in. It is by Stefan from Boiled Leather podcast and Steven from Race to the Iron Throne Blog and podcast. It was first published on Dec 2013 on Stefan’s nerd stream era blog. We thought u might enjoy it , so Stefan and Steven let us borrow it.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[Archive.org] View this episode’s page on Archive.org.
[Mirror] Download from mega.co.nz
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[RSS] Podcast only feed.
[Forum] Podcast Forums.

Links:
Stefan’s Nerd Stream Era Blog
Stefan’s History Blog in German
Steven’s Race to the Iron Throne Blog
Boiled Leather Audio Hour

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Posted in History, Podcast

Tagged Stefan, Steven

VoK 48: Counterfactual History

Posted on December 21, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

The following podcast is about Counter-factual history or What-if history. It is by Stefan of Boiled Leather podcast and Steven from Race to the Iron Throne Blog and podcast. It was first published on July 2013 on Stefan’s nerd stream era blog. We thought u might enjoy it , so Stefan and Steven let us borrow it.

Links:
Stefan’s Nerd Stream Era Blog
Stefan’s History Blog in German
Steven’s Race to the Iron Throne Blog
Boiled Leather Audio Hour

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Posted in History, Podcast

Tagged Stefan, Steven

VoK 47: Mass Effect series (BioWare)

Posted on December 18, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

To Discuss Bioware’s Mass Effect Series , Katie (Lady Griffin) is joined by Zach (Alias), Eddie (Teddard), Matt (Eiffel), and Peter (Shellfish).

2:00 Introductions and Icebreakers
11:00 Trilogy Highlights
34:00 Mass Effect 3 Ending
58:00 Multiplayer, Paragon and Renegade, and The Future of Mass Effect
1:08:00 Aftershow – Snakes and Scorpions, Badasses and Dumbasses

Warning: Contains plot spoilers for all Mass Effect games and downloadable content. Minor spoilers for the novel Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn.

Credits:
Edited by Katie
Intro: ‘The Old Machines’ by Rig
32:40: ‘I’m Proud of You’ by Sam Hulick
58:36: ‘Staggered Injection’ (Purgatory Bar Music) by Ekstrak
Outro: 1:09: DJ Harbinger – Surrender Shepard!
All Mass Effect clips belong to Bioware and Electronic Arts, Inc. All fanworks belong to their respective owners.

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Posted in Podcast, Science Fiction, Video Games

Tagged Alias, Eiffel, Lady Griffin, Shellfish, Teddard

(Poll) Ideal Podcast Duration

Posted on December 16, 2013 by vokadmin | 6 comments

Hey Gang,

I’m curious on what you all think is an ideal podcast duration. If you can answer this quick poll it would be valuable.

http://strawpoll.me/876117

Thanks.

Fortytwo aka Vikram

6 Comments

Posted in Announcements

VoK 46: The Princess and the Queen (by George R. R. Martin)

Posted on December 15, 2013 by vokadmin | 4 comments

Vikram (fortytwo) is joined by Bina (Bina007), Nadia, Michal (inkasrain), Thomas (FTWard), Leigh (LordManderBlee), and Duncan (Valkyrist) to review and discuss George R. R. Martin’s latest novella “The Princess and the Queen”.

Beware of Spoilers: This podcast discusses the novella in detail.

Credits:
Edited by Fortytwo

Links:
King Stephen and Matilda of Boulogne

4 Comments

Posted in A Song of Ice and Fire, Books & Novellas, Podcast

Tagged Bina007, fortytwo, FTWard, inkasrain, LordManderBlee, Nadia, Valkyrist

VoK 45: Alien [1979] (DVD Commentary)

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Valkyrist | Leave a comment

Have you been dreaming of a Red Christmas? Join vassals Duncan (aka Valkyrist) and Katie (aka Lady Griffin) as they delve into the blood-splattered, chest-bursting masterpiece that is Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). This is the third entry in a potential “Sci-Fi Classics” audio commentary series.

The commentary itself runs from 6:36 to 2:01:26, and the opening production logos will be played at full volume in order for the listener to sync up their copy of the movie correctly. We used the Director’s Cut edition of the movie, released in 2003.

Warning: Contains plot spoilers for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Audio Clips owned by 20^th Century Fox

Links:
Alien (1979): All Deleted Scenes
Original 1976 Screenplay (by Dan O’Bannon)
Dan O’Bannon and The Origins of Alien (by David Konow)
Alien and the Monstrous-Feminine (by Barabara Creed)

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Posted in DVD Commentary, Movies, Podcast, Science Fiction

Tagged Lady Griffin, Valkyrist

Donate to Archive.org

Posted on December 9, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

Hey Guys,

It seems there was a fire at one of Archive.org’s scanning center. They are trying to rebuild and so are asking for Donations.

VOK, BOK and now even APOIAF rely heavily on archive.org to host and distribute our podcasts. I’m very grateful to them for this service.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format

They have a noble mission. So this holiday season, if your feeling charitable , think about donating to archive.org.

– Vikram aka Fortytwo, VoK curator

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Posted in Announcements

VoK 44: Fight Club [1999] and Truth-Procedures (audio essay)

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Valkyrist | 3 comments

In this mini-episode, Valkyrist discusses the philosophy of ethics within David Fincher’s Fight Club. Specifically, how Alain Badiou’s theory of the “truth-procedure” is manifested by the characters.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Fight Club, and some explicit language.

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist

Links:
Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (by Alain Badiou)

3 Comments

Posted in Movies, Philosophy, Podcast

Tagged Valkyrist

The Evenarian by Julia P. Dickinson

Posted on December 3, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

Julia aka No True Lady a VoK Regular is running a Kickstarter to help get her original fantasy novel “Evenarian” published. Check it out:

Here’s the Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theevenarian/the-evenarian-part-deux

The book’s website: http://evenarian.blogspot.com/

And an excerpt: http://evenarian.blogspot.com/p/evenarian-excerpt.html

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Posted in Announcements

VoK 43: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey [2012] (Review)

Posted on December 1, 2013 by vokadmin | 2 comments

Approached out of the blue by the wizard Eiffel the grey, fortytwo finds himself joining the company of forum dwellers LordManderblee, Shellfish, Easttexasdirewolf and Teddart to review Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit 1: An Unexpected Journey. Their journey will take them through treacherous spoiler filled territory of Hobbit the book, LoTR trilogy and other Tolkien Lore; lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs, Sorcerers and sexualized dwarves !!!

Beware of spoilers, the following podcast discusses the movie Hobbit 1, Hobbit the book and Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Credits:
Edited by Fortytwo
The Misty Mountain by Howard Shore