Tower of the Hand

Via the official Twitter account, HBO today unveiled three stills that give us our first look at the House of the Dragon cast in action.

First up is Emma D'Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Matt Smith as her husband-uncle Daemon Targaryen:

9 Voyages, 10,000 Ships, and 1 Flea Bottom. We've got some new spinoff announcements, courtesy of Deadline:

Bracket Madness 2021. It's Selection Sunday! After a year off, one of the most popular tournaments in sports officially returns tonight with the announcements of which NCAA teams have made the cut. Then it's up to us to pick our favorites to win (and maybe regret the upsets we knew we should have picked). If you're interested in filling out a bracket and squaring off against fellow Tower of the Hand members, please join us in the 6th Scorchiebeanie Memorial Bracket Clash.

Everyone is invited to participate. There's no money involved -- just bragging rights. If you'd like to join, send an email to [email protected] with your email address and your TotH username, and our league commissioner pharout will email you an invite. Brackets must be completed before the opening tip-off of the first game later this week. If you have any other questions or problems, feel free to leave a comment here.

Consider this the official thread for this year's NCAA Tournament. Feel free to discuss your brackets, the games, and all things March Madness here.

Super Bowl LV Open Thread. It's Super Bowl Weeknd! This year, the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Who has the advantage? The Chiefs are the favorites and the defending champs, but the Bucs have the home field edge and Tom Brady. And yes, the Weeknd will be headlining the halftime festivities.

This is an open thread to discuss all things Super Bowl related. Let us know what you're doing this year for the big game, who you think is going to win, and which commercials left a mark, for better or worse.

Hundreds and hundreds of pages. In a new post reflecting on 2020, George R. R. Martin offers some thoughts on the pandemic, politics, and a year filled with personal losses. But GRRM points out some good things about 2020, and in particular highlights progress he made on The Winds of Winter:

Hundreds and hundreds of pages done, with hundreds more to go. It's not the announcement we were all hoping to hear, but it remains far better than the alternative.

Potential animated spinoff in early development. Once again, we've got news about another potential Game of Thrones spinoff, but this time it's in animated form. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

So that makes two shows reportedly in early development, plus House of the Dragon, which is considerably further along; it goes into production this spring and should be ready to air in 2022. The article goes on to say that plans to expand the Game of Thrones universe existed "long before" Disney announced its massive television slate. It's true that HBO had as many as five spinoffs under consideration during Game of Thrones' final season, but I don't think it's a coincidence that HBO is just now mentioning the projects that are in early development (not to mention rumors about a new Harry Potter show, too). Disney flexed and HBO had to respond.

What could this animated show be about? Unlike the proposed Dunk and Egg spinoff, we have very little to go on. Perhaps this is a way to repurpose some of the ideas from the abandoned Long Night show, with animation being a more cost-effective way to tell that story. Perhaps we could get an animated retelling of Aegon the Conqueror, since House of the Dragon seems to be focusing on a later period of Targaryen history. What are your thoughts on a potential animated show? Do you think there are even more Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works?

Update: Via Tweet, HBO Max confirms not only the Dunk and Egg and animated shows, but a previously unreported Robert's Rebellion prequel is also in development:

After Dark, Talent Shows. Tower of the Hand "After Dark" invites you to mingle with other members and chat about all things off topic. Here's a two-part ice breaker for you all: 1) Name a talent that you had to show off (or an act that you had to perform) when growing up. 2) Name a new skill that you've developed in the past year.