The North remembers.

In the universe of Game of Thrones, scenes’ before the opening theme are constant for the first episode of every season. For example, two great scenes that come to mind are the three Night’s Watchmen hunted down by White Walkers in season one or Tywin Lannister melting down house Stark’s sword Ice for Jamie and Geoffrey, season four. On the other hand, the opening scene of season is just plain horrific but awesome at the same time. Nothing is more satisfying then watching all the men of House Frey choke on their own blood after being reminded of the Red Wedding. It was an absolute grand-slam and took off perfectly from where we last saw Aryain season 6.

The North remembers.

Right after the credits we get a quick reminder of the army of the dead, and with more bad news; Giant white walkers. But thankfully we are intercepted by Bran warding into one of them which seems like a very useful ability (what’s next dragon’s or an ice dragon?). He is now with
the Watchers on the Wall and back in the mix, hopefully heading for Winterfell where he can inform Jon he is a Targaryan (This will be hype! I wonder if he can be burnt by fire!). Bran’s story has taken a back seat to other prevalent Starks but it’s nice to see him in the mix, demonstrating his power.

Most importantly, this episode, we get a steady dosage of Jon Snow. He is right where he left off in the great dining hall of Winterfell pardoning the remaining kin of the Carstarks and the Umbers making the North a larger, more united force. But taking two steps back is Sansa, questioning Jon in front of all of his followers, telling him to reward loyalty and punish traitors. Jon obviously is right, not punishing children for their father’s crimes (referring to himself as the mistake of Ned, which he’s not). After the meeting in the dining hall, we see a quick glimpse of Sansa’s transformation into a Cersei, talking as if she admired her cunning, murderous tactics (Jon’s words, not mine). But I do think that Sansa will stray away from this dark path of ruthlessness with so many great, and admiral characters surrounding her  (Sir Davos, Brienne, Jon and Lady Mormot). Hopefully she can avoid Little Finger and still keep the Knights of the Vale in tact at the same time (might be impossible). What I could see happening is Little Finger forcing Sansa’s hand in marriage to keep the Vale in the fold, but the other Starks (Jon and Arya) won’t take easy to that.

Next, we have psycho Cersei and her sane, lover brother Jaime. I still can’t forgive him for pushing Bran from the tower but I am starting to come around. The disapproving way he has been looking at Cersei dating back to last season says it all. From confronting her about
Tommen’s suicide, to questioning her about the enemies created (Targaryans, Tyrells, Starks, Dornish, and Half the Iron Borne) and the lifeless dynasty they will continue. He keeps his position with Cersei discussing what allies they have left but Jaime is clearly becoming distant and realizing the extent of his lover/sister’s delusion. I forecast a remake of the tale of “The King Slayer” retitled “The Queen Slayer”. In the mean time, the diabolical Yuron Greyjoy, the new king of the Iron Islands rekindles the bond between the Lannisters to move him into a prime position to become King of The Seven (three at this point) Kingdoms. He is presented as a lot more cunning and rounded character kissing up to the Queen and promising her a gift, whether that be Tyrion, and/or a thousand ship armada. What will be interested is how Jaime responds to a marriage between them, because Cersei and Yuron have a demonistic chemistry. She even abides by him making hand jokes and death threats (killing his brother, telling her to do the same). This was a fantastic scene all the while, and it really shows if Cersei get’s close to Yuron and isolates Jamie she will create yet another enemy.

We then get to a short snippet of Samwell Tally’s horrific, grotesque life as a server at the Citadel preparing to become the maester of Castle Black. There is a massive scene which shows him preparing food, cleaning and handling old people plumbing. What’s intriguing is the un-thrones like comedic cut between him doing his daily work; It’s funny and it’s not a bad idea to lighten the tone up because Tyrion used to be the comedy for us in the earlier seasons. Samwell helps the archmaester with the dissection of a corpse where he confirms his thoughts of the White Walkers. What was kind of cheap for me was his simple way of finding dragon glass through a book in the restricted section. It seemed too easy for Game of Thrones, like something you would see Hermione Granger find in the “restricted section”. Hopefully there is more too this but it was kind of stale and forced

Oh wait, Ed Sheeran? I didn’t see it coming, and I thought it was weird but acceptable. It was obviously him having an in with the producers and wanting a cameo role, but he has pure, angelic voice and creates a sympathetic feeling for the Lannister troops that brings out the non-assassin in Arya. She tells them she’s on her way to kings landing to “kill the queen” and it’s not taking seriously which shows how dangerous she has become. But what I see from this is season two when Mellisandre said there is a darkness in her. This darkness has come to fruition and it will be interesting to see how this is received by the remaining Starks. Besides the randomness of Ed Sheeran, I thought this really grounded Arya.

Sandor Clegane and the brotherhood without banners are now at a place he would rather not be; an old victim’s house where Clegane took their silver and resources. They find the father and daughter dead, holding each other. This almost creates an epiphany for the character, asking why the child dies, and fellow brother Beric Dondarion should be brought back. Then the flames get him, showing him the army of the dead and the reality of the larger issue at hand. I think we will see a more compliant hound the rest of this season. I’ve loved this character from the beginning and his arch is getting much broader for the better. I predict a positive change in attitude for the hound.

Finally, the Queen of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Denarys Stormborn is finally home. From season one this is the only thing she has wanted. But now, she has an army of unsullied, the Dothraki and there gigantic Dragons. The final scene of her tearing down the Baratheon banner and taking her spot among her ancestors war table was breathtaking. It was a long, drawn out scene but the character deserves this and it has been a long time waiting. Fire and blood seem to be the strongest motto of any house right now, and it will for sure be enforced upon the Lannisters. My prediction although is that she won’t penetrate King’s Landing because of Cersei’s ruthlessness and George R.R Martin curveball tendency. Whit I think everyone is looking forward to is the meeting with Jon Snow that will eventually happen. It will be interesting if she commands him to bend the knee (he better not, he’s the rightful heir of the Taragaryan house and not a usurper like Daenarys)! This episode was a great starting block for the season while still providing notable and exciting action.

A beach/horror episode? I’m in.

Spoilers ahead.

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I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when the latest episode of ‘Masamune-kun’s Revenge’ started. Great. It’s the stereotypical beach episode that most anime have. Hooray.

But I’ll give Episode 7 the credit that it’s due. It takes several interesting twists that I didn’t see coming.

Masamune convinces Aki to take him and all of their friends to a private villa on an island. Talk about an awesome summer vacation.

However, Yoshino informs Masamune that if he doesn’t make any better progress to win over Aki, she’ll rat him out. This of course freaks Masamune out, and he takes action by declaring in front of all their friends that he and Aki are dating.

He manages to get away with this, as there’s a secretary for the Aki family present at the villa. Midori is an interesting character since she’s so gorgeous, but is constantly being dumped by men.

Anyway, much to her disappointment, Aki decides to fake her relationship in order to please Midori. Meanwhile, Masamune comes up with the elaborate plan of taking his friends to a supposedly haunted building. He asks Yoshino to help him scare Aki so that he can come in and save the day like the good “boyfriend” that he is.

But of course, someone else decides to get involved in the scaring as well. I won’t reveal that here. Needless to say, the plan doesn’t work, well, as planned. Yet thankfully, Masamune’s goal of dating then dumping Aki for realsies is still a secret.

So I think I’ll go ahead and up my rating a bit to a 4.5 out of 5. ‘Masamune-kun’s Revenge’ took an interesting twist on the stereotypical beach episode by adding elements of horror. I also find Midori interesting, and I hope that this episode isn’t the last we see of her. Meanwhile, I’m slowly losing faith in Neko. Because as sweet as she is, she’s still trying to interfere in Masamune’s plan, and I’m going to fight her on that.

 

“Realpolitiks,” a streamlined modern-day grand strategy game from developer Jujubee S.A., knows how to make the player feel helplessly powerful.

Upon launching a new game, players choose any country to lead for 80-or-so years, leading up to the year 2100. From there the country is subject to global events, war, stock market crashes, political falling-outs and revolutions (and more, of course). In true grand strategy tradition, there is a complex ruleset both at the forefront of gameplay and behind the scenes. Everything from managing tax rates to employing a one-child policy can affect a country’s population growth, unhappiness, GDP, militaristic potential and global relations.

“Realpolitiks” does a terrible job of explaining how all those systems play into each other, with a few hint windows explaining what stats and effects there are, but not what exactly they do. There is a tutorial that runs quickly over a basic how-to scenario, but it is presented without highlighting many consequences your actions have.

Large countries with a good economy and population are definitely the easiest to rule, with smaller countries offering a much greater degree of challenge but giving a better chance to learn the ins and outs of many systems without adverse effects. Countries run primarily on money and action points, both of which are required to implement policies, send diplomats and spies, and foster industrial growth. Individual policies easily snowball and lead to crushing debt or lack of resources, making “Realpolitiks” an incredibly unfriendly game to newcomers despite its “streamlined” intentions.

Random events can include opportunities to improve or damage relations with other countries, assassinate political opponents or send spies to destabilize entire alliances.

Naturally, I chose to plot world domination as ISIL—maybe morbid curiosity, maybe a bad joke. ISIL had a weak economy, was surrounded by staunch enemies and had few citizens to recruit into its army. After waging war with Iran early in my conquest, I took a few provinces. Neglecting to moderate my “Warmonger” statistic, the UN declared war on me and sent Japan to take care of my fledgling country. Japan gutted my little nation, stripping me of my spoils of war and leaving me with less territory than I started with. I fell into debt and had to cut back many social programs I had implemented; unhappiness was high and my subjects were calling for change.

ISIL ended up changing to an authoritarian state rather than totalitarian during the next election. I worked hard, eventually bringing my policies back in line with a warmongering authoritarian state and began building an army. I won wars against Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The Turkish war in particular was difficult because there were riots in one of my provinces, forcing me to divert half my forces to quell the uprising while going on the defensive against Turkey. That war lasted about 10 years; I made many technological advancements such as laser tanks, stealth bombers and more before I proved victorious.

“Realpolitiks” had me scheming like a real dictator. Once I understood all the systems the tutorial and hints glossed over, the game became much more manageable. I actually spent a gleeful four-and-a-half hours straight (my longest uninterrupted gaming session in several years) ascending the world ranks. Settling in the groove of running the country took a while, but it was rewarding once it finally all clicked. 

Some random events are a bit far-fetched, such as one that struck a year before my campaign ended. This event instilled global chaos, causing every single alliance in the world except for mine to split up and crashing every stock market. The United States was knocked out of first place in the global leaderboards, allowing the United Kingdom to step in and myself to take second place. I had been climbing the ranks for decades before that, and had gotten to second place, where I stagnated for years trying to catch up to the U.S. Despite my own country coming out on top of the disaster, the U.K. came out of nowhere to rob me of my victory.

A lot, such as that event, happens out of the player’s control. You can be powerful, but there is no surefire way to hold onto that power, which can make for some truly frustrating scenarios. However, there is always a way to clamber back to your previous position.

“Realpolitiks” is not a pick-up-and-play game, nor is it one to play in short bursts. The careful, methodical gameplay requires a period of time to sit down and concentrate, but is rewarding all the same.