The Faith of the Seven is functionally the Catholic Church in Westeros. The "Seven" are like the Trinity, they've got a pope and a college of cardinals, monasteries, etc. The current High Septon is essentially a "what if Martin Luther became pope" situation.

It wouldn't really make a lot of sense to me that he'd refuse to support his "loved" brother, and even murder him, just because he hated one of his brother's supporters.

Given that he took Daeron's side, I would tend to think it was him.

Blanchett and Hawkins' characters are the story, really (particularly the former). Everybody else is just there to support them.

They've already used all of Bran's Book 3 chapters (apart from his second one, the Knight of the Laughing Tree story, which was elided because it wouldn't really make a lot of sense adapted), so they really don't have any choice but to get into his Book 5 story…which has a grand total of three chapters, which are…

The show has so far been operating on the premise that each season is approximately a year, so that's not a huge deal (also, don't ever try to work out how this passage of time actually works within the show, because it's completely impossible; you just have to accept that months are passing somewhere).

both had a brother they hated

I currently call Kingston, Ontario, home.

I can only really think of three movies about the Gulf War (those two and Three Kings). Courage Under Fire is very underrated.

When I went to see Killer Joe there was an 80ish lady in the cinema. I spent the whole movie wondering whether she was genuinely interested in seeing an extremely explicit black comedy, or had been misled by somebody's involvement in the project (McConaughey? Had she been a fan of Friedkin since The French Connection…

To bring up music, after that Bruno Mars music video featuring Freida Pinto came out, I started listening to the songs on his most recent album, which I had otherwise not paid attention to. Mars' previous album produced a few songs that I liked, but others that I really didn't — particularly "Grenade", which is both…

I've been thinking about reading more Munro in the near future, so I'll keep that volume in mind as an option.

It was never really intended to be a hard rule, either. It was a conversation starter. It's useful to point out how few films pass it, on average, which is not statistically justifiable on grounds apart from gender bias in storytelling. But it's not inherently a verdict on any given film, and I'd pity anyone who…

Hey, we're big on guilt. "Catholic guilt" is even an expression. The film's depiction of religious hierarchy also registers.

At present it feels like it'd be either Bullock or Blanchett for the win. Bullock would definitely win if she hadn't already won. Since she did, harder to say. Bullock's got the bigger film, but the voters love them some Woody Allen, and particularly actors in Woody Allen movies, and Blanchett definitely has more…

I'm Catholic, so I found it easy to identify with a lot of the aspects of Jewish religious culture that inform A Serious Man (plus, I've read a ton of fiction by Jewish authors, so I feel about as immersed in this stuff as you can without ever having actually studied it formally; three volumes of Isaac Bashevis Singer…

I read Shame some time after reading Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. I think you really need to read it in tandem with the former, because they're such important contrasts.

The Bling Ring: On some level, making a movie about these guys is the worst possible thing you could do for them, because even if the movie in question is one that portrays them as vacuous, irresponsible druggies, you're still making a movie about them and calling attention to them (and casting extremely attractive…

Poor Shang. I guess he's out of luck.

Yay, FOX is underperforming so much this season that America's shitty taste won't (immediately) sink one of TV's best comedies!