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With Game of Thrones only a little under 4 weeks away from returning, anticipation is starting to skyrocket. This is mainly because if season 7 had the same schedule as the last 6 seasons, we would’ve seen the whole thing by now. Regardless, here’s a look at the big players of the upcoming season 7 and what we can expect to see of them.

***MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD for the first 6 seasons of Game of Thrones and the new trailer. Read at your discretion***

The first and probably biggest faction we should look at is Queen Cersei and her Lannister army. After having Queen Margaery and the High Sparrow killed with Wild Fire, her son King Tommen committed suicide. Thus, Cersei has lost what little humanity she had left and has become the Queen of Westeros.

You’d think that would mean she has a great deal of power, but it’s significantly less than even Tommen, who was seen as a joke by citizens of Westeros. In the Game of Thrones season 7 trailer, Cersei reveals that she has enemies on all sides which confirms that, besides her own family, she’s on her own. Even then, Jaime is probably going to leave her for another faction due to tension between the two.

Cersei describes enemies in all directions, and the faction to the East she speaks of is Daenerys and her Targaryen army. Not only has she finally crossed the Narrow Sea after 6 seasons of Game of Thrones, she has many more supporters than Cersei. She has an army of Dothraki warriors, her Unsullied legion, and the Second Son mercenaries. The Second Son is holding down the fort back in Meereen thus serving as backup and keeping the wealthy citizens of Dragon’s Bay on her side.

Dany also has many other supporters as well. Despite having Tyrion and Varys defect from the Lannisters and half of the Iron Fleet joining her, she has the Martells and the Tyrells as well. Shown off as Cersei’s enemies to the South, the Martells of Dorne are seeking revenge against the Crown for the death of Oberyn in season 4. With Prince Doran murdered, the Sand Snakes who were extremely loyal to Oberyn are now in charge and they have made a deal with Varys on behalf of Dany. The Tyrells joined in on this deal after Cersei blew up the Sept of Baelor with Margaery, Loras, and Mace Tyrell inside.

To the West, Cersei’s biggest enemy is the Greyjoys. They lost a good chunk of their fleet when Yara and Theon left to join Dany and escape their uncle Euron’s wrath. Now holding one of the various thrones of Westeros, Euron is planning to find Dany and seduce her into joining his army. She most likely won’t due to her hatred of men like Euron, which will most likely turn into a battle or a shuffling of alliances. I can see the Greyjoys teaming up with the Lannisters, considering they’re all the villains this season, or even potentially with Jon Snow. I don’t imagine the Starks and the Targaryens will get along well considering their history and the Greyjoys may take advantage of that.

Speaking of the Starks, Cersei’s enemy to the North is led by Jon Snow. Dubbed the new King of the North, Jon Snow has taken back his ancestral home from the Boltons and wiped their family off the map. He has an army of Wildlings from beyond the Wall and the help of Littlefinger and House Arryn of the Vale as of right now. I say this because Littlefinger looks to be conniving as usual behind the scenes against Jon Snow and could easily betray him. The North is a bit unstable in this way when it comes to leadership and the fact that they’re busy with other threats. Jon Snow’s White Walker and Night’s Watch enemies make him hard to predict.

Easily the hardest faction to predict here are the Walkers. Their story has always been shrouded in mystery but at the very least has always taken place beyond the Wall. With Jon, Davos, and Tormund most likely spending their time building alliances to fight the Walkers, they’ll most likely be left alone this season. I can see the season ending with them destroying the Wall with the Horn of Winter or Sam finding something at the Citadel to fight them. However, Cersei is the main villain this season. Thus, the walkers will probably have their usual big scene and then be left for Game of Thrones season 8 to go all out.

 

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I spend most of my days working towards my Writing and Rhetoric degree at the University of Central Florida, but I spend a lot of my down time keeping up to date on the best TV, movies, and video games the industry has to offer. Here I put all of that extended time to use discussing each of them in-depth.

Gaming

Orlando Bloom and David Harbour Share the Gran Turismo movie’s first trailer

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Well, this movie has certainly come together quickly, just like the automobiles the franchise is centered around. In truth, Gran Turismo adaptation directed by Neil Blomkamp has already wrapped up filming and is in post-production ahead of its global theatrical release on August 11, 2023. Do you want to see a brief teaser? To view the trailer, click above.

Orlando Bloom and David Harbour provide some comments in this 60-second clip, which also includes a few brief film snippets. In essence, this is based on the real-life experiences of Jann Mardenborough, who won the 2011 GT Academy competition and later found success as a racing car driver.

In the few photos that were displayed, the cinematography seemed amazing, therefore it is obvious that this would look stunning on a large screen. During Sony’s CES press conference, Blomkamp briefly discussed how he is employing the company’s cutting-edge cameras to not only get stunning close-ups from within the car’s cockpit but also to imitate some of the game’s angles, as shown in the trailer.

 

 

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Geek Culture

“An imposing, spectacular, supersized movie,” according to the review of Avatar: The Way of Water

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James Cameron was king of the bigger, better, and more contentious sequel blockbuster before he was crowned King of the World. Avatar: The Way of Water comes near enough to retain that reputation, even if his eagerly anticipated return to Pandora can’t rival Aliens or T2 for targeted tanker-weight efficiency. And it certainly knocks the flying fish off of Piranha II.

Will it become a $2 billion club member as Cameron suggests it must? We’ll see, but it’s undeniably flawed yet full of flavor (to paraphrase Guillermo del Toro(opens in new tab)). “MOVIE-MOVIE” is a sometimes strange, always magnificent sensory hit with a thematic thrust that is pleasingly genuine with an undercurrent of soft feeling. Untangling some of the story lines might require numerous viewings and three more movies. But Cameron is the best person to make the case for going to the movies again and again.

Cameron doesn’t spend much time setting the scene because the majority of people have already been to Pandora. The first scene quickly parachutes into Pandora’s rainforest, where Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who have turned completely Na’vi, are now raising their growing family. They have three biological children: Tuktirey, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), and Lo’ak (Trinity Bliss). Then there are the adoptees: Spider (Jack Champion), a feral human orphan orphaned by war, and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), a type of offspring of Grace’s avatar (from the original Avatar).

Jake feels that defending his family gives him meaning. The Sully family seeks safety among Pandora’s sea clans when the evil Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) reappears in (completely explained) “Recombinant” avatar form seeking “payback” for his demise. Jake hovers firmly over his tearaway brood in this instance. But how long can they evade Quaritch’s new blue marines? And isn’t knowing how to manage risk an important learning curve?

While Cameron’s bare-bones setup showcases his pulp punch as a writer, it also demonstrates his astounding skill as a world-builder. This time, Cameron doesn’t give much opportunity to pause and take in Pandora’s plant life. The lush jungle suddenly seems inhabited and alive. However, the RDA (Resources Development Administration) has grander plans for Pandora, even though life on Earth is hardly sustainable at this point. Their base of operations is a small metropolis with cutting-edge technology like robotic spider “swarm assemblers” that can create structures in a matter of days. Cameron makes sure you can sense the destruction left behind when humanity arrive on Pandora.

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The Way of Water definitely has the WOW factor in terms of CG. Thirteen years later, Avatar’s spectacle-cinema upgrade has been surpassed. Hair and skin gleam; flames and dust particles transfix. The great revelation this time is the reef, which is home to the Metkayina clan, just as Avatar took time to introduce viewers to Pandora’s funky wonderland. The aquatic realm is vivid, sensual, and tranquil. The sense of weightlessness immersed in the waves reveals a new, sensitive grace in Cameron’s direction as the 3D visuals shimmer in time with Simon Franglen’s ringing score. He instills respect for the ocean in addition to entranced love because the waves are both seductive and hazardous. And the sensation of anguish is overwhelming when their residents are mistreated.

Cameron expertly balances thematic, narrative, emotional, and character strands while dazzles your eyes. Jake’s instinctive need to save his children creates danger as a thematic pattern; from the opening monologue on, Cameron treats the theme like a dorsal fin to cling to through stormy story waters. This is somewhat reminiscent of Finding Nemo.

Casting-wise, Saldana and Kate Winslet (as Ronal, the co-leader of the Metkayina tribe) are a little too much in the background, but Worthington shines as the former Na’vi trainee turned training-on-the-job father. Weaver bridges the age gap between actor and character by touchingly projecting Kiri’s feelings of exclusion and sulky eye-rolls through the mo-cap. Dalton, one of the fantastic young actors, gives bonding scenes with the whale-like Tulkun heart when they otherwise may have seemed a bit Free Willy. Additionally, Champion dispatches the Newt-like Spider, whose subplot expands on Cameron’s family-related ideas.

Although it’s unfortunate that his toxic spiel (“science pukes,” etc.) sounds familiar, the returning Lang adds explosive wrath. Cameron doesn’t spend any time brushing up on Avatar, but he occasionally uses well-known beats. The Sully clan’s water-training reworks Jake’s previous Na’vi training, while marine animals like the “ilus” are reimaginings of the “ikrans” from Avatar. When a character moans, “Can’t believe I’m tied up again,” you wonder if a little editing could have been advised. Cameron even repeats himself a little bit within the movie.

Another minor issue with the plot’s stop-start nature is how some characters’ difficulties seem to go away for long lengths of time. Cameron, though, harnesses prior career highs into a blast of full-bore, high-stakes extravaganza at the film’s climactic point to remind you who’s in charge. The Abyss’ strange wonder, Aliens’ kid danger, Titanic’s aquatic horror show, and T2’s technology are all there and have been enhanced for tension, action, and emotion. Some loose tale threads leave more questions than answers when the fire is out. However, there are three scheduled follow-ups. Even after three hours and more, Cameron’s return leaves you wanting more.

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Geek Culture

Here is the second advertisement for The Last of Us on HBO

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUke5mdoac0&ab_channel=SkyTV

A brand-new trailer for HBO’s live-action take on The Last of Us from PlayStation has just been released.

The program, which will debut on HBO Max on January 15, 2023, and on Sky in the UK the following day, will star Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as its main characters.

The Last of Us is the first TV show produced by PlayStation Productions, a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment created to create film and television adaptations of its own game franchises.

The first game’s events will be covered, and there may even be The Last of Us Part 2-related material, according to Craig Mazin, the creator of Chernobyl, and Neil Druckmann, vice president of Naughty Dog.

The show’s main protagonists, Joel and Ellie, will be portrayed by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Sarah, Joel’s daughter, is portrayed by Thandie Newton’s daughter Nico Parker (Dumbo), while Tommy, Joel’s brother, is portrayed by Gabriel Luna (Agents of Shield).

The Last of Us’ debut trailer was released by HBO in September.

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