In this episode, Nav and Harmat discuss what they are spoiled on in regards to the book series. Turns out, Nav is a total impostor and Harmat knows nothing, Jon Snow.
Episode Transcript
Time Markers:
Harmat's Predictions in this episode:
Discussion Page: https://popculturesymposium.tumblr.com/connect
Website: https://popculturesymposium.tumblr.com
Email: popculturesymposium@gmail.com
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Music by Maria Mihaylova
In this episode, Nav and Harmat discuss what they are spoiled on in regards to the book series. Turns out, Nav is a total impostor and Harmat knows nothing, Jon Snow.
Episode Transcript
Time Markers:
Harmat's Predictions in this episode:
Discussion Page: https://popculturesymposium.tumblr.com/connect
Website: https://popculturesymposium.tumblr.com
Email: popculturesymposium@gmail.com
Facebook: @popculturesymposium (https://www.facebook.com/popculturesymposium)
Twitter: @PopSymposium (https://mobile.twitter.com/PopSymposium)
Instagram: @popculturesymposium (https://www.instagram.com/popculturesymposium)
YouTube: Popculture Symposium (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzESt8ZMCYbnTea8jUk2c1g)
Music by Maria Mihaylova
Nav 00:00
Welcome to A Song of Ice and Fire Symposium. My name is Nav.
Harmat 00:04
And I'm Harmat.
Nav 00:05
And this is Episode One. In this episode, we talk about everything except the books themselves.
00:14 *Music*
Nav 0:30
Welcome to the podcast everyone! Thank you for tuning in. We are very excited to be starting this. Tell them how excited you're
Harmat 0:37
Yay! So excited. That sounded really unconvincing, but did not mean it that way.
Nav 0:44
To me, it sounds like this is the worst thing you could possibly be doing with your time right now. But tell them how much you love me and how much you love doing this and how much you love this series despite knowing nothing about it.
Harmat 00:56
I... I know nothing about it. I feel like... I feel like I'm not entitled to an opinion yet, because I know nothing.
Nav 01:03
That is a very smart stance to have. Okay. I have notes, but they are a mess. So we're just gonna wing this. First episode. Let's go everybody!
Harmat 01:15
*laugh* Le's do it.
Nav 01:16
Okay, we only get one go at this because after this episode you will be spoiled on some things. So this is as pure as it's gonna get. All right, so why don't you give us a quick synopsis of what you know about A Song of Ice and Fire Symposium or Game of Thrones.
Harmat 01:32
Okay, I think the biggest things I know are those names. I know that the first book of the five books series that is called A Song of Ice and Fire Symposium. So the first book is called...
Nav 01:47
You just found that out three minutes ago.
Harmat 01:50
Yes.
Nav 01:51
Because you thought that A Song of Ice and Fire Symposium was the name of the first book.
Harmat 01:56
Yes. Which just goes to show you how unspoiled I am. I think half of the things that I know, Nav has actually spoiled for me. So thanks.
Nav 02:04
Yeah, but I never thought that we would be doing this. Um, also, you had the book in your possession and you still didn't know which one was the title of the book.
Harmat 02:15
You okay? You know what she did when she gave me the book? She put sticky notes everywhere to prevent me from reading essentially everything. So I just didn't look at it because I was afraid to spoil myself.
Nav 02:27
Now you just need to do that for seven years.
Harmat 02:31
Perfect.
Nav 02:31
If we do this once a week. It's supposed to be 6.597 years if we do it once every week.
Harmat 02:38
Yes. Love that.
Nav 02:39
So yeah, you gotta stay like that for seven years. Hopefully, we won't get bored and like, stop doing this. But yeah. What else do you know?
Harmat 02:48
Okay, so, first of all the things that Nav has spoiled for me. So I saw...
Nav 02:53
Okay, don't put it like that.
Harmat 02:55
I'm just... I'm just categorizing them. I remember last time, we were calling and there was a tab that said Iron Throne ceremony. So I know that that exists. I have no idea what that is.
Nav 03:08
Okay, you know what? It didn't actually say ceremony.
Harmat 03:11
Did I just assumed ceremony?
Nav 03:13
Yep.
Harmat 03:14
Wow. Okay, well, I spoiled myself for that one word.
Nav 03:18
What does "Iron Throne" mean to the book is called A Game of Thrones.
Harmat 03:22
Yes. So Iron Throne. It's, it's one of the thrones. Throne to me means royalty. It could be, like, one of the families that are like royal.
Nav 03:34
Okay, so there's a family throne?
Harmat 03:37
Yeah, yes, there's a family. Going off of all the dystopian stereotypes here. There's a family. They're bored. They started game of thrones,
Nav 03:48
But how do you know this isn't a dystopian series?
Harmat 03:50
It's not. I don't know if it is . That's just... I'm just going off of the first assumption in my head. I'm predicting that it's a dystopian series. That's my prediction. I don't know that.
Nav 04:02
Okay.
Harmat 04:02
Um, I have no basis for that because I know nothing other than the word throne. It shows up a lot.
Nav 04:09
"Ice and Fire," you know those.
Harmat 04:11
Yes. Ice and Fire, two elements. Oh wait, no, ice is not an element.
Nav 04:15
Well water is.
Harmat 04:16
Yeah, a form of an element and then another element. They don't seem very compatible. You know those two things.
Nav 04:24
No, they don't, do they?
Harmat 04:26
So that's a little suspicious...
Nav 04:30
Okay, why don't you tell us what else you know. You know about some of the music.
Harmat 04:30
Uh-huh.
Nav 04:34
What else do you know?
Harmat 04:35
I know that Sophie Turner plays a redhead. Yes, that's all I know. I know that she is in the show.
Nav 04:42
Do you know if the show is live action or animation or some other form?
Harmat 04:46
I'm assuming it's live action, but I don't know that.
Nav 04:50
All right. Do you know any other names or places or any quotes from the books?
Harmat 04:55
No, I know nothing. The last thing that I know is that have heard, from one person, who spoke about it as though it was a common belief that apparently the TV series went downhill after season five or six or something like that, after someone goes to an island. That's all I know.
Nav 05:18
Do you know how many seasons there are in the show?
Harmat 05:21
No, but I know that it's over now.
Nav 05:24
Yeah, it's a thing. Um...
Harmat 05:27
Maybe you should be a little more enthusiastic.
Nav 05:29
Well, if... yeah... Okay, moving on. Do you know what genre this series is?
Harmat 05:37
I don't know.
Nav 05:39
You guessed dystopian... something.
Harmat 05:42
Dystopian horror?
Nav 05:44
Oh, I like that. I like the idea of that. Anything else to add? I think we've covered the main points, but is there anything else somebody should know?
Harmat 05:54
I know that there's a knife on the cover of the book. Other than that, I know... Oh, no, that's a sword.
Nav 06:00
I was just gonna say your idea of a knife is... um, quite extreme.
Harmat 06:04
No, that's definitely not a knife.
Nav 06:06
Okay, so as you know, there are five books. There are, in total 344 chapters in the published five books. By the way, the series has not been completed.
Harmat 06:19
Oh, the books series?
Nav 06:20
Yes.
Harmat 06:20
So the show's finished but the book hasn't finished.
Nav 06:24
Yes.
Harmat 06:24
The books have not finished. Yet, the books are the original.
Nav 06:28
Yes.
Harmat 06:29
So the series isn't based off of the whole book series. It can't be. It can't be!
Nav 06:37
The show is, in many ways, its own thing.
Harmat 06:41
Okay. I don't... I feel like I don't like that. But I don't know yet.
Nav 06:46
Well, George RR Martin. He began writing the first book in 1991.
Harmat 06:54
Okay.
Nav 06:54
It was published in 1996.
Harmat 06:57
Okay.
Nav 06:58
And the last book, the fifth book, was published in 2011.
Harmat 07:03
Okay.
Nav 07:03
So it's been nine years since the last book came out. And there's, we still don't have the sixth book.
Harmat 07:10
So is the sixth book supposed to be the last or...?
Nav 07:14
This series was supposed to be, I think a trilogy.
Harmat 07:17
Okay.
Nav 07:18
Then it turned into five books. Then it turned into seven books. And now there's talks of it being nine books.
Harmat 07:26
How much... how do you just, and these books are long, like, how do you just keep going?
Nav 07:32
Um, the thing is, I don't... I'm not sure if Martin is still going because the last book was published almost a decade ago.
Harmat 07:41
Was it published in a way that like it could be the last book or does there definitely need to be a next one?
Nav 07:47
Um, the story's not complete. I'll say that.
Harmat 07:52
Okay.
But yeah, um, so it's still ongoing. Hopefully, my hope is that by the time we finish going through this whole process, the next book will be out and then we can dive right into it. That is the hoping against hope because most people have given up hope. Okay, what do you hope to learn, to find? What do you hope for in this series?
I hope to understand the hype. This, so people are still like, this isn't a, "Oh, he stopped writing, okay, whatever. I don't care anymore," like people still are actively obsessed.
Nav 08:32
I think the show, you know, contributed. The show came out in 2011. So, I'm not saying that the series on its own doesn't merit excitement. But I'm saying that the show picked up right where the last book left off, kind of, like in terms of in terms of like publication and new content out there. So the show definitely revived it right. I found this series and this community through the show. In fact, I just realized I should tell people what I know and whatt I don't know. So Harmat here, knows nothing. As you can tell. I came to the series through the show. I binge watched all of it a couple years ago. I wasn't in on it from the beginning. I can't say I was but you know, I was interested. So I came to the series through the TV show, but I haven't actually read the books either. I have, however, listened to every podcast out there. I have read all the chapter summaries. I have watched theory videos, I have read other little novellas.
Harmat 09:34
So you've never read any of the books?
Nav 09:37
Um, I started the first one, but it was honestly, for me, if I'm spoiled on something, it's really hard for me to be interested enough to keep reading. It's just really hard. So part of the reason why I'm doing this is as motivation to push me to read the actual series, but I am spoiled on everything. I'm sure there's like some tiny details that nobody ever covered in their coverage of the series, but on the big plot points and like a lot of the minor things even I am spoiled. But I haven't read the books themselves. So I'm interested to see what Martin's like style of writing and everything is like, I started the first book and I got to like chapter two. At that point I gave up.
Harmat 10:19
That's not very far!
Nav 10:19
It is really not, which is why we're doing this, we are committing. Okay? So what we're going to be doing is reading the entire book series, one chapter at a time. Next episode is going to be the prologue. And then we're going to read a few chapters and at some point, we're gonna look through the appendix. I personally found it very helpful. Reading the appendix, it really helps clear some things. That's everything I have. Do you have anything to add?
Harmat 10:40
I don't think so. I'm just... I'm excited.
Nav 10:53
Are you now?
Harmat 10:54
Oh my God.
Nav 10:54
I don't know why I'm being weird like this. So thank you to anybody who was listening. Tune in next time for when we read the prologue. I mean, we'll have read it, but we'll talk about it. That's everything I have for today. Thanks for listening. Farewell, my friends.
Harmat 11:12
Talk to you later.
11:14 *Music*