005

Game of Thrones: Part II

So in my last blog, I started watching the last episode of Game of Thrones, never having watched the show ever. Not one episode. I left off with a pretty blonde arriving at a palace on a dragon. Now, she’s addressing a horde of warriors gathered in front of the palace. She’s giving a victory speech in some kind of conlang. She’s basically thanking them for being loyal to her and helping her take down a tyrant, so maybe she isn’t evil after all. However, in her speech she’s talking about continuing the war and basically conquering the world, so she may be a tyrant too. Beats me. I guess I’ll just have to keep watching to find out.

Ok so now our little man is walking up to her. So I guess they’re on the same side. Maybe he’s her brother or something. Either way, he doesn’t look too happy to see her. She tells him she knows he freed his brother. So his brother must’ve been her prisoner at some point and the little man let him go. Oooooh, that must be the guy buried in the rubble! That’s why he was so sad. He admonishes her for destroying an entire city, then he takes off this pin in his jacket and tosses it away. So I’m guessing he was an advisor to her or something. She calls him a traitor and has her guards arrest him.

Now, our little man is sitting in prison. Then he gets a visit from none other than Handsome, who looks very sad for his friend. The conversation is very gloomy. Apparently, he’s going to be executed. Oh, and Handsome’s real name is Jon Snow. I assume Jon Snow is close to the blonde because he’s defending her and saying that at least the war has ended. But the little man, who’s name is Tyrion as it turns out, makes it clear that her reign of terror hasn’t ended as far as he’s concerned. And he goes on to list the horrors he’s committed in his life: betraying his closest friend and watching him burn, strangling his lover, killing his own father with a crossbow, betraying his queen... You could knock me over with a feather. Anyway, he basically tells Jon Snow that what the “Dragon Queen'' did to this city is nothing compared to the horrors she’s going to visit on the world if she’s allowed to continue. And even though it looks like Jon Snow isn’t buying that, Tyrion has obviously given him a lot to think about. He looks very conflicted as he leaves the prison.

Now, we see Jon Snow walking up to some castle. Maybe it’s the same one as before — I’m not sure. Oh my God! An enormous dragon just popped its head out of the snow. It gives Jon Snow a sniff and goes back to sleep. Phew! I thought it was going to nuke him. Jon walks into a room with no ceiling, where the Dragon Queen is standing, looking at a badass throne made from swords. Aha! He calls her Dany. He asked her why she killed so many people and murdered children. She basically tells him they’re going to build a new world together and they kiss. Ok, so they’re lovers. That clears that up! He tells her “You’ll always be my queen…” <gasp!> Whaaat?! He just pulled a knife and stabbed her! Talk about a plot twist! So she’s lying there in a pool of blood and the dragon flies up. I thought it was going to burn Jon Snow up, but instead, it blows fire on the throne and melts it to nothing. Then it grabs Dany’s corpse and flies off with it. What a scene!

So now, I guess it’s the next day because it’s sunny out. We see the mean-looking guy leading Tyrion to some kind of council. Among them is a young man in a wheelchair, who they elect as their king. And he, in turn, asks Tyrion to be his advisor. Tyrion tells the king that he’s not a good choice because he’s done horrible things, and the king tells him that he has done horrible things, and he’s going to spend the rest of his life paying for them. Now, we see Jon Snow has been sent off to a cold, snowy place — obviously his punishment for murdering the Dragon Queen, and as he rides off into a wintry forest, the episode ends.

So there you have it! My reaction to the final episode of GOT. I have to say I really enjoyed it and I’m definitely going to watch the whole series from the beginning. And I’m glad it has a lot of seasons because by the time I get to the final episode, hopefully I’ll have forgotten everything I saw today. Thank you all for joining me. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

conlang

This is a combination of two words: constructed language, and refers to a language made up by someone, an artificial language like Esperanto or the languages spoken in Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

Beats me!

This is a colloquial way of saying I have no idea. More emphatically, you may hear Beats the hell out of me! The origin of this expression is unclear, and there’s no shortage of theories online. As with any idiom, the best approach is to just take it at face value, know what it means and when to use it.

You could knock me over with a feather.

This is an expression of absolute shock and surprise at hearing something. The idea is that your body becomes so stiff that if someone as much as touched you with something as light as a feather, you’d fall over like a tree. Note that when we express this reaction in a past scenario, we use the perfect:
“During the race, I only concentrated on my breathing and never looked at the other swimmers. When I heard the whistle and got out of the pool, I didn’t know I had won. When I heard the announcer say “First place — Eric Powers!” you could have knocked me over with a feather.”

to nuke

The slang verb nuke comes from nuclear and refers to using nuclear weapons to destroy a target. We normally use the slang version in the sense of heating something up or cooking it in the microwave as opposed to the stovetop or oven. In this story, I use it in the sense of the dragon burning Jon Snow up completely.
"If you're going to watch Game of Thrones, I want to watch too... let me nuke some popcorn for us."

crossbow

If you'd like to receive notifications when new blogs come out, email "sign me up!" to

New Words and Phrases

to leave off

This phrase is used to refer to the last place where someone stopped speaking, reading, teaching, singing, playing an instrument, etc. If you want to go back to the last thing someone was doing or the last thing that was happening, you use with…-ing: I left off with a pretty blonde arriving… If you want to go back to the last place you stopped, you use at/on/in, etc.:
[teacher] “Good morning, class. Yesterday, we left off on Chapter 3. Let’s do a quick review of Chapter 2 and then continue with 3.”

as far as he's concerned

An idiom is a phrase that can be confusing if taken literally, word for word. This idiom is a little confusing because although it contains the word concerned, it has nothing to do with worry or concern. It just means in his opinion. I sometimes see English learners use it in the sense of as for me, which is incorrect. "I heard you're going to be teaching at another school. I hate to see you go. You're the best Spanish teacher we've ever had, as far as I'm concerned."

I guess

Believe it or not, there’s a difference between I think and I guess. When you start a statement with I think, it expresses a doubt; you’re not sure and you don’t want to be responsible for the accuracy of the statement. However, I guess is used to express a conclusion that you’ve made based on what you’ve observed. For instance, in paragraph 2, I observe the little man walking up to the Dragon Queen, and I come to a conclusion: “Aha! Obviously they’re on the same side!” As such, it has a nuance of «obviously».
"Eric was supposed to join us for a couple of beers after work. He still hasn't come. I guess he's still at the office."

However, note in paragraph 2 that I say I’m guessing he was an advisor to her… Here, I use the progressive because I’m actually guessing, so it doesn’t have a nuance of «obviously»; it’s just a guess and I may be wrong.
"Eric was supposed to join us for a couple of beers after work. He still hasn't come. I'm guessing he's still at the office."

council

In our last blog, we had the word horde which refers to a group of warriors. Here, we have another group of people; this time, some kind of formal gathering of important people who came together to make some important decisions.

That clears that up!

We use this expression when something comes out that explains all our previous doubts, with a nuance of «Great, now there’s no more confusion!».

to not be buying that

In 004, we saw the phrase to not be having it when Jon Snow and Tyrion tried to reason with the mean-looking guy about to execute some men and he absolutely refused to listen to them. Here, we see the same use of the progressive form of to be to express another type of refusal. Buy in this context means to believe what someone’s trying to convince you of. In other words, to “swallow” what someone’s trying to “sell” you. Tyrion wants to convince Jon Snow that the Queen's a tyrant and a monster, but Jon refuses to believe or accept that — he isn’t buying it.

Talk about a …!

This is simply another, very emphatic way of saying What a X! where x equals an epic example of itself. In other words, when you react to a good book, for instance, and say “Talk about a good book!” it means «There are good books and there are good books, but this is the king of good books!» (Read more)A plot twist is an unexpected turn in the storyline of a movie, show, book, etc. In this case, Jon Snow killing Dany is the king of plot twists! An unbelievable plot twist!"This year, we went to my daughter’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. She just married a professional chef. Talk about a feast!"

Study Notes

Paragraph 1never having watched | Also having never watched | Here we have an example of the perfect used to express experience. Note that in this case, the modal having is in the progressive to refer to a state rather than an action. Phrases of this type are used to describe the state or conditions in which an action is performed. In other words, in this example, it means that I watched the last episode «in a state of not having the experience of watching the show at any time before» or that I started watching the last episode «as someone who’s never had the experience of watching the show at any time». “Last night, my sister took me to a Japanese restaurant. Having never eaten sushi, I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised!” This type of perfect phrase can also be used affirmatively to express that one does have experience.“My friend Ron had the nerve to ask me if he could date my sister. Having seen how he treats women, I told him over my dead body.”isn’t evil | [ɪ́zɪnìːvʟ]after all | This phrase can be pronounced áfter all or after áll with no change in meaning.just have to | [ǧs.hæftə] | Note that just is often reduced to [ǧs] in normal to fast speech, and have to sounds like [hæftə].Paragraph 2on the same side | In the sense of being allies in a movement or war.either way | Regardless of which of the two possibilities is correct...freed his brother | [frìːɖɪz brǝ́ðʀ]so his brother | [sowɪz brǝ́ðʀ]at some point | at one time or another; at some unspecified time in the past or future:“I know you’re embarrassed that you lost your job, but you’re going to have to tell your wife at some point.”advisor to her | [ɛdvái̯zʀ.ɖǝhʀ]has her guards arrest him | We use the form to have someone do something when we ask, instruct, hire or otherwise arrange for someone to do something for us. In most cases, it means to simply ask them to do it, but that’s not important. The main thing is that you somehow prevail on someone to do something for any number of reasons… you can’t or won’t do it yourself, you don’t know how to do it, you don’t have the time, energy or money to do it, etc.Paragraph 3Now, our little man… | Here again, we switch scenes and contrast what’s happening now with what was happening in the previous paragraph, so we use our strong, contrasting-now.Apparently, he's going to be executed. | Apparently is an adverb used much like I guess in that it prefaces a conclusion reached from what you’ve observed. Here, I came to the conclusion that he’s going to be executed from their conversation; they never actually said the words “you’re/I’m going to be executed”, so I use apparently to imply that it’s only my impression and has a nuance of «from what I’m hearing/seeing, I assume…». In this context, apparently and I guess are pretty much interchangeable.I assume Jon Snow is close… | Here, I don’t use I guess because this isn’t obvious to me. I’m going on an assumption based on what I’m hearing, but I may be wrong. He’s defending the Queen, which leads me to believe that he’s close to her, but it's just a hunch. …and he goes on to list… | Yes, to go on can mean to continue doing something and is followed by a progressive verb: “She went on singing despite the loud thunder.” But when used with an infinitive, it expresses a transition from one action to another within a sequence of actions, with a nuance of «and the next thing he did is…» especially when that thing is unbelievable, shocking, horrible, wonderful or otherwise significant. "My aunt studied in the US and England, worked as an editor for 10 years before publishing her own first book, and then went on to become one of the most prolific authors of her time."strangling his lover | The word lover isn’t the same as boyfriend, girlfriend, sweetheart, etc. It implies a sexual relationship and should thus be used with care. When we don’t want to use the word sex or sexual to describe a relationship, we say that they’re lovers and leave it at that. the horrors she's going to visit on the world | We all know the word visit in the sense of going to see someone in their home or at the hospital, but it has another usage. We use it to speak of inflicting punishment, torture, pain, etc. on someone. It’s a bit literary in this sense, and you’ll probably never hear it in conversation, but it’s very effective when you’re being dramatic or speaking about someone’s actions on an “epic” scale — as in my example in this story.as he leaves | [ɛzilíːvz]

Paragraph 4some castle | Using some instead of the indefinite article a(n) has the opposite effect of this in narratives. As we’ve seen in other blogs, this is used to refer to someone or something that’s going to figure in our story. Some has the opposite effect; it marks the person or thing it modifies as random, unimportant to the plot of the narrative.Aha! | This exclamation is used to preface a sudden realization. In this case, I didn’t know the Queen’s name and had been listening out for it, and when Jon Snow finally said it, I thought “There it is!” Ok, so they’re lovers | In 002 Mahinarangi, we used Ok, so… to play down the fact that the teachers had shortened Mahinarangi’s name and make it sound like the mother was making too big a deal out of it. Here, I use it to confirm that I just got an answer to a lingering question with the nuance «Ok, now it's clear to me that they’re lovers». And again, the word lovers implies an intimate, romantic, sexual relationship. gasp | A gasp is when you suddenly and audibly breathe in in shock.pulled a knife | You were probably expecting me to say pulled out a knife. But no. When we talk about someone suddenly producing a weapon of some sort, we say they pull it.stabbed her | [stæːbdʀ]she's lying there in a pool of blood | You may wonder why I use both there and in a pool of blood. The thing is, there goes with lying. Sometimes, we use unstressed there after verbs like sitting, standing, lying to mean something like just sitting, standing, lying, especially if they’re motionless or not responding or reacting in any way. This there can also be used in conjunction with just to emphasize it.“I don’t think Angie liked my gift. When I gave it to her, she just sat there looking at it.”Paragraph 5I guess it’s the next day | Again, I use guess here because this is a conclusion based on the fact that it's sunny out in this scene: «Obviously, it’s the next day».it’s sunny out | When we talk about atmospheric conditions, we more often use the adverb out than outside: “What are you bringing that flashlight for — it’s still light out.” Paragraph 6going to… | As we all know, there are two future forms: going to and will — and they’re not interchangeable. When we speak of our intentions, for instance, we use going to to express concrete plans. For instance, in this blog post, when I say I'm definitely going to watch the whole series, it implies that I've made up my mind to do this — it's a definite plan (reinforced by the adverb definitely). In this context, will would be too weak. We normally use will when we offer to do something: "If you want, I’ll watch Game of Thrones with you. I’ve already seen it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.” However, when we’ve already decided to do something and consider it a concrete plan, the only option is going to. series | This word is pronounced [siǝriːz]. I hear a lot of English learners pronounce it just like serious [síriyɪs], which is incorrect.and I’m glad | [ɛnɑmglǽːd]I’ll have forgotten | [ɑlǝv.fʀgɔ́t̚ɴ] | This is an example of the future perfect tense, which can be quite tricky for some learners. This simply refers to an action that will be completed at some point in the future, but with a perfect interpretation. What does that mean? In Present Perfect, we see all the interpretations of the present perfect… one of them is a nuance of «already», and that’s how I use it in this example, except in relation to the future: I hope that by the time I get to the last episode, I will “already forgot” — or, in better English: already have forgotten — everything I saw in the last episode today.

If you'd like to receive notifications when new blogs come out, email "sign me up!" to

Google Sites

Report abuse