The Fool is strong in this one

“A wise man knows when to save his strength and when to destroy his enemies.” But that also means that he would not provoke someone into a fight, which he has already be told that he cannot win. Lord Umber told Ramsay, that the wildlings could take Winterfell, if Jon Snow were to be leading them, and how does the television genius of the month go about facing this problem? He is doing what every sensible and logical person would do: Trying to gather allies or diffuse the tension. No. Ramsay does what Ramsay does best. He issues a threat. Much to the pleasure of his runaway wife, Sansa, who has been trying and failing to convince Jon to fight her husband, until said husband was kind enough to deliver exactly what was necessary to push Jon into leading said army to take back Winterfell: He threatened his brother, his sister, his home, Jon himself, and by threatening every single wildling, man, woman and child, also made sure that Jon had that army behind him that Ramsay’s Lords warned him about. And even if Ramsay really has 5000 men to throw at 2000 wildlings, the odds are stacked against him. Let us do a head count, shall we: Jon Snow has recently come back from the dead, which gives him legendary status within his soon to be army – see Tormund’s remark “They think you’re some kind of god.” Which is always useful. No matter what the odds, armies fight better and have a better chance at winning if they think a god on their side. The best example of that would be the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in September 9 AD, where the weather played a significant role in helping the Germans throw out the Romans for good. In Germanic mythology thunder and lightning signifies Thor laughing, so they fought on believing their god was pleased with them, while the Romans cowered before the fury of Jupiter, while they where decimated. Secondly, he has a witch on his side, who might have lost her faith for a while because she put it in the wrong man, but she did bring him back from the dead, so she is still a force to be reckoned with. Adding to that he has his sister by his side, who can rally the loyal northmen to the Stark banners, after all, there should always be a Stark at Winterfell. Not to forget, that he knows Winterfell better than Ramsay or any of the Bolton Bannermen. He has a reason to win this battle that concerns more than his own life, he needs to save his brother, his sister and his friends. And lastly, if Jon coming back from the dead has shown us one thing, it is that this world is not done with him yet. What does Ramsay have to match that? 5000 men. Comparing to historic events: In the Battle of the Teutoburg forest the alliance of five of the then fifty Germanic tribes under Arminius was up against three Roman legions, three alae and three auxiliary cohorts, in total around 20.000 to 36.000 men. The casualties on Roman sides are estimated at around 16.000 to 20.000 men, although one cannot be entirely certain of the exact number, since the part of the forest where the battle took place has yet to be discovered. So get yourself a warm coat Ramsay, to throw your own words back at you: “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” Snow is coming for you Ramsay, do you know what that means? Winter is coming.

Another thing that this week’s episode has taught us, is that if you have a marketing scheme that has worked once already, it will probably work again. Daenerys Stormborn, you should used that one again sooner. No one opposes someone who can walk through fire and/or cheat death.Well, no one except for Ramsey, that is.

Hans Zimmer Live

Yesterday, on Friday the 13th of May 2016, I had the pleasure of witnessing another event of “Hollywood in Vienna”: “Hans Zimmer Live”. It was a truly unique and breathtaking experience,sometimes literally. I received the tickets as a Christmas present and I had been looking forward to seeing one of my favourite composers of Film music perform live on stage with his orchestra. Looking at the stage before the show started, it seemed a bit disappointing, because from what was visible of it, it seemed too small to fit the entire orchestra and apart from the drums and a large piano-like construction with lots of electronic dials, there were no instruments of any kind to be seen. But then the lights dark end even more, the show began with a drumming rhythm and Hans Zimmer entered the stage. He sat down at the piano-construction and started playing a tune. The music was good, but I still missed the orchestra, so it came as an especially pleasant surprise, when the sound of a tuba entered the concert hall and, one by one, the musicians mounted the stage, already playing their instruments. Then suddenly the music grew louder and fuller, as the curtain lifted to reveal a second part of the stage, where the local orchestra was already seated, as they joined in with the others. And finally the choir was revealed behind them in the third sequence and I was beyond stunned. The unseeming stage was now three times its size and effortlessly provided the room for the orchestra I had initially missed. They opened with the title sequence of “Sherlock Holmes” and then Hans Zimmer picked up the microphone and told us about how he came to writing the music for “Crimson Tide”, back in a time when nobody seemed to know him, and how he and Tony Scott tried to persuade the producers to let them use a choir during most of the movie, something that was unheard of in contemporary film music. They then played a sequence of “Crimson Tide”‘s soundtrack, and even without having ever seen the movie, if I closed my eyes, I could see waves clashing against each other during a storm. “Crimson Tide” then morphed into the theme tune from “Angels and Demons”. After that Zimmer announced “Gladiator”, saying that when he told his wife he and Ridley Scott were doing a gladiator movie, all she said was: “Oh, you boys.” As soon as that ended, there was a loud “Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba” from he right entrance, as the original voice of the Lion King entered the stage, to vocally accompany Hans Zimmer’s Lion King theme, very much to the joy of the audience, judging by the screams. Following the performance, Zimmer told the female lead voice, that every night she made people happy and then continued to amaze me by informing us that he wrote the Lion King for his daughter Zoe and subsequently shouted into the concert hall “I love you Zoe Zimmer”, which I couldn’t help but find adorable. He then announced Inferno, which he initially called “I don’t know the title.” It was great hearing he soundtrack, before the movie was even released, but it did sound suspiciously like “The DaVinci Code”, which taking in account that “Inferno”is the four book to Dan Brown’s “Langdon-series”, to which “The DaVinci Code” is the second, reoccurring themes can be expected. The last performance before the break was a chello suite, played by Zimmer Chinese Chellist, who started playing at the impressive age of three years. Zimmer did not tell us what movie it belonged to, but as it turned out he did not have to, since after the first few tacts it was evident that it was Pirates of the Caribbean. Which out of all I found the most amazing, since that was the soundtrack that first made me fall in love with Hans Zimmer’s music.
After the break things were a bit less clear. Zimmer stopped doing announcements, which for me meant that I had no idea what I was listening to about 90 percent of the time, except for one piece, “The Dark Knight”, which I would not have recognized, had they not started the performance with hose exact words. But even without knowing what movie it belonged to, the music was still exceptional. They finished off the show with Zimmer’s “Aurora-Suite” and left the audience to applaud for a good ten minutes before someone turned the head lights back on and swiped beams of light over the concert hall, while making threatening thunder noises, that sounded like something between an air raid during WW2 and a UFO-landing, for another five minutes of ongoing applause until Zimmer and company finally returned to the stage for an encore. After which they received a well deserved Standing-Ovations.
Sadly it was Zimmer’s last concert in Austria for his 2016 Live Tour and the next show will be in Sofia on the 16th of May. The Tour itself will end in Orange on the 5th of June and there are still tickets available. Further details on upcoming concerts can be found on the website http://www.hanszimmerlive.com.
If you can still go to one of the performances, I can only recommend it, because you are certainly in for a treat. In case of sensitive hearing, I would advise the use of earplugs, though.

Who is Jon Snow?

George R. R. Martin has confirmed that his series “A Song of Ice and Fire” is loosely based on historical events. However, some of its characters are easier to place in the ranks of history than others. So what about Jon Snow? At this moment, we are still left in the dark, about his parentage, or at least those of us who manage to stay clear of spoilers are, but Sunday’s episode gave me an idea as to which historic character he might be based on. At the end of this new episode Snow leaves Castle Black with the words “My watch is ended”, after abdicating his post of Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. The Night’s Watch is an Order much like the Church, proclaiming themselves “the shield that guards the realms of men” and obliging its members to vows of celibaty and poverty. Going with the assumption that “A Song of Ice and Fire” is set around the time of the Wars of the Roses, then that gives us the years from 1455-1485. But while the main plot can effortlessly be traced back to the Wars of the Roses in England, some sequences of the plot like battles of characters could represent some other historical events of that time.
The Starks for instance are evidentally scotsmen, but Jon is not a Stark, he is a Snow, a bastard and bastards usually make no history. However one simply cannot shake the feeling that this bastard might. So let us have a look at the bastard sons of powerful who made history in the early modern age and left a position in the church: Finding illegitimate children who did well in the Europe of the modern age is already something special. The last most famous example of the Middle Ages for instance was William the Conquerer, who is already named in “A Song of Ice and Fire” as Aegon the Conquerer – I know, obvious conclusion, is it not? The next famous bastards in the lines of history that are remembered for more than the fact that they were illegitimate were the Borgias, the bastard children of Pope Alexander VI. His oldest son Cesare originally joined the church at a very young age and was made a bishop at 15. Jon Snow was made Steward of the Lord Commander at 15. While Cesare became a cardinal at 18, following the death of Pope Innocence III. and his father’s ascention to the throne of Sankt Peter’s, and at the age of 22 became the very first person ever to resign this office. Following the death of the former Lord Commander, Jon Snow became Lord Commander around the age of 17 – estimated from Arya Stark’s age, since the books stop mentioning Jon’s age – and also became the first person to resign that position.
Cesare Borgia is also rumored to have consorted with cut-throats, bastard sons and thieves, leading them in an alliance to vanquish his enemies. During his time at the Night’s Watch, Jon Snow also joined a group of wildlings, and in this weeks episode Lord Umber says in a conversation with Ramsay, who, legitimized or not, remains a bastard in all senses of the word, that the wildlings would become a force to be reckoned with, “If they get Jon Snow leading them”. And after we saw how Tormund Giantsbane led the wildlings back to Castle Black to fight for his dead body, I think it is safe to assume that they will remain allies.
And anyone who still needs more proof that Jon Snow could be based on Cesare Borgia should look no further than their family background and fellow politically important characters. Cesare Borgia began his military career after the (unsolved) murder of his brother Juan, as well as Jon Snow will now probably claim back Robb’s Winterfell. But the probably most interesting relation is the one to Cesare Borgia’s youngest brother Jofré or Gioffre, also a Borgia bastard who was married to Sancha of Aragon, Princess of Squillace, as an alliance between the northerly Papal States and the southern Kingdom of Naples. Does that not sound familiar? This was what the engagement between Sansa Stark, Jon Snow’s halfsister, and Joffrey Baratheon, the bastard son of the Queen, started out to be, a political alliance between the north and the south.
Assuming, of course, that this assumptions are correct, what can we expect from Jon Snow in future episodes? Cesare Borgia is best known for his alliances to France, defeating the “Tiger of Forli” Caterina Sforza and unifying the Romania. So as well as Jon Snow defeating Ramsay and taking back Winterfell we can perhaps look forward to an alliance between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen and the defeat of not a Tiger, but the Lioness of Casterly Rock, Cersei Lannister. After all we were promised a “great battle in the snows” and Melisandre does admit that “Stannis was not the Prince who was promised but somebody has to be.”  The Prince, the title of the famous novel by Niccolo Macchiavelli, that was inspired by Cesare Borgia. And who does Melisandre direct that sentence to? Who is that Prince she speaks of? It is none other than Jon Snow and if that is not a great big neon sign, then I have no idea what is.