A Feast for Crows – How to throw a Game of Thrones Party

About a month ago we said farewell to Game of Thrones and in honor of the last episode, I decided to throw together a GOT PARTY – at last minute. With GOT coming to an end and my partner’s name day all falling on the same date, I thought it would be fun to have a little party to celebrate.

The only problem was – I decided this in the middle of exam season and as always the restraints that come with a student budget were present but this did not stop me. Oh no, once I’ve an idea planted in my head it only grows.

So let me tell you the tale of how I successfully executed a GOT party that my guests loved without having to ask the Golden Company for a loan.

First I decided on basic food that I’d usually have at a get together- Nothing too extravagant. I then decided on what I’d make and put together a rough draft of ideas. Some didn’t make the cut like Sansa’s lemon cakes due to time but I’d love to try those in the future.

My final menu looked like this:

Ned’s head potatoes:
For the potatoes, I roasted a bag of baby potatoes in olive oil and garlic. I then attached a few potatoes onto skewers. This was in reference to how Ned Starks head was display after it was chopped off.

Kings Landing:
This one was a bit of a cheat. A party at my place always has cheese puffs and around a year ago I realized frying instead of baking them adds a different flavor. I fried the cheese puffs till golden brown and placed them in a dish with a dragon next to it. This was a reference to S8E5 where Dany burnt down Kings Landing.

Little Chicken Fingers:
These were easy to accomplish. I made my own chicken fingers by cutting chicken breast’s into strips, spicing them and finally dipping them into breadcrumbs before frying.

Onion Knight Rings:
Were bought at Spar.

Army of the Unsullied:
The unsullied were done by cooking up some store-bought sausages and meatballs.

Dragon Deviled Eggs:
These required a little more effort to them. I first hard-boiled the eggs and cracked the shells but didn’t peel them off yet. I used ziplock bags to dye them with food coloring. Once dyed I peeled off the shell to reveal a cracked look which was perfect for dragon eggs. I then cut them in half, popped out the yolk and made a regular deviled eggs recipe.

Dragon Fire Pit:
This was my favorite. I decided the night before I wanted a fire pit. I thought hard about how I could achieve this and decided a flower pot would work. The flower pot was deep and I wanted the fire to be elevated so I fashioned a bowl out of a pie dish, placed it inside the pot by folding it around the rim. I then placed charcoal in the bowl purely for aesthetics and used a piece of some firelighter to create the flame. And it worked!


The decoration and finishing touches:


For all of the foods, I made labels using a font I downloaded here: GOT Font on MS word.

As for decoration. The table cloth was a maroon bed sheet which fit the colour scheme. I added some Dungeons and Dragons dice and character pieces like dragons around the table. I also bought a blowup sword for the occasion and if I had more time I would have made a throne with swords but I’ll leave that for the future.

I also printed out my favorite house banners as well as ‘happy name day’ just using A4 paper to decorate the wall.

And it was a success! My guests were blown away. And I was happy I could throw together a GOT party without needing crazy expensive items.

Have a look at the final result in the video I made:


___________________________________________________________

Please let me know if you enjoyed this post, by commenting down below.

Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to do great things despite the little means I might have. If I waited for the right time or exuberant amounts of coins to put something like this together I probably never would. I’m seizing the moment!


Disneybounding – Princess Jasmine

Disneybounding – where I can pay homage to my favorite characters with the clothes and accessories I already have in my closet! It definitely is a dream come true.

Where it originated:

I discovered Disneybounding a little while ago while watching a Buzzfeed video. This trend originated from the Disney theme park ban where anyone above the age of 14 is not allowed to dress in costumes.

The ban makes sense though, as Disney cast members are kitted out in costumes and this eliminates any confusion that might occur. Fans, still wanting to dress up as their favorite characters without violating the park rules came up with Disneybonding.

What is Disneybounding:

Disneybounding alludes to your favorite character through clothing and accessories that use the same colours or garments related to a specific character. Items like a purple top, green leggings, and shell earrings as to reference Ariel is an example of this – I have actually been Disneyounding before I knew what it was. I wore this combo for a Disney on Ice Show back in 2016 or last year, when I went as a low budget mermaid (Trident incl.) to Comic Con Africa.



The awesome thing about Disneybounding is that you can do it on a budget. For me cosplay has been so out of reach due to my student budget and Disneybounding has allowed me to be part of that world, without needing splurge. I use what I have in my closet and it’s nice to get compliments from other fans who know which character I am trying to emulate.

Disneybounding Jasmine:

With the screening of the new Aladdin movie I knew I wanted to use the opportunity to dress up like a princess. I luckily had a blue Indian skirt my mother got me a few years ago (that I had yet to wear.) I paired this with a simple white top and a blue and white cardigan. I choose to wear a gold pair of pumps that matched the jewelry.

For the jewelry, I went with a headpiece that I bought a few years ago when it was in fashion – this is why I never throw anything out you never know when it will be useful again! I also used gold earrings and necklace. I added body jewels, the same ones I wore to CCA last year to complete the look by placing them on my chest.

Finally, if I can’t bound I make sure that my makeup hints to the character but because I was already looking like a princess I wanted to keep it simple.

I extended my eyes with Ashes from my UD Naked Heat palette, to make it look more almond shape like Jasmines. I then used Fierce (Bad Habit Athena palette – the gold shade) over my lids. Jasmines makeup seemed quite simple in the animated movie but I wanted a pop of gold to complement the rest of my outfit. I highlighted the corner of my eyes with the AB Glow palette to make it stand out, before placing Daring (Athena) over the top.

I then swiped Epic (Athena) from the corner of my eye to midway above the gold just for added sparkle. The final touch was Jasmine’s striking eyeliner, I also added some kajol under my waterline and a hint of blue under the corners of my eye for a little bit more colour.

I was quite pleased with how my outfit turned out. I received a lot of compliments on it and le boyfriend also joined in by wearing one of his kurtas.


Disneybounding has allowed me to join in on the fun without having to spend too much and I feel less left out. It has shown me I don’t need epic cosplays to be noticed or have a good time. Bounding also doesn’t have to stop there – you can pretty much bound any character out there.


Have you done any bounding? Tell me in the comments below or let me know what characters you would like to bound

Thanks for stopping by!

Game of Thrones – Thoughts on the finale

I’ve had a little while to let this all settle in and to be honest I’m still left with an empty feeling after the finale aired two weeks ago.

In a Facebook status the morning after I watched the show I said this :

And after a lot of thought, I still stand by my sentiments. When Game of Thrones first graced our scenes with its intricate storytelling, shockingly dark themes and a lavish feast for the eyes; everyone was mesmerized by its charm. It took television to new heights back in 2011 (2012 for me when I binged it along with season 2.)

One of the things that drew me in was the shock factor from many of the scenes. How blunt and to the point, it was with its portrayal of sex, nudity, and violence. It had the ability to make you mad long after watching an episode. And when Ned Stark was beheaded in S1E10 it shook the seven kingdoms and thensome.



Storytelling like this increased the audiences emotional involvement in the narrative and subsequently closed the aesthetic distance between viewers and the show.

Eliciting strong emotions to character arcs such as Jon Snow – who never wanted anything more than to be called a Stark or Daenerys Targaryen – a girl who was once sold as a bride, but became the breaker of chains. Through use of these techniques the writers drew the audience in and decreased the aesthetic distance between the viewers and the characters.

Game of Thrones has always set itself apart from anything we’ve seen before. It also forged a narrative where no character (despite the amount of character construction) was safe from being killed off. It built itself on evoking emotions from its audience only to tear them down – but this is what made the show.

I remember so badly wanting Joffrey to meet a gruesome demise and wished Sansa would just shut the hell up. I hated Jamie for the longest time, but began to warm up to him only to roll my eyes and hate him once again when he hit it and quit it with  Brienne of Tarth.

After years and years of conditioning its audience in the world of GOT – Where could it possibly go from here? Downhill that’s where.

Just kidding, but to many fans, this is exactly what they are feeling. I, have a different opinion and a few things to point out. First, I want to talk about the ending. – what was expected and what we got were slightly two different things.

For all the horizon of expectations and some real ‘that doesn’t make any sense at all,’ moments I’m still not mad at GOT. And here’s why:

As stated earlier GOT has prided itself on the unexpected, taking fans on a ride that could keep even casual viewers up at night. With years of building up an audience perhaps GOT never wanted to be predictable.

The forerunners for the throne were definitely Dany, Jon, and Cersei. Tyrion even had a hat thrown into the dragon pit, with fans hoping if the other 3 killed off each other he might make a good king.

With fan theories spreading like wildfire it could have been easy to predict an ending that also emphasized fan service. However, what I feel D&D did was true to GOT’s narrative.

It evokes emotion. Maybe not happiness, glee or relief but it evoked something. Many, feel it wasn’t a rightful end and I can sympathize with that, but what most fans might be missing is the mere fact that it left us feeling. The final season of GOT  triggering an emotional response from its loyal fans  (as it has always done) is what makes its narrative powerful.

We may not be ecstatic about the outcome but we are still left in an emotional state. But despite this, it still didn’t make a lot of sense and its not something I can ignore.   

Every generation establishes a framework within which to understand, interpret and evaluate film and tv series. This includes a familiarity of certain conventions and expectations regarding style and genre. This is referred to as the horizon of expectations.

GOT having shattered many of those conventions and expectations still seems to have failed in its last season. The reason for this failure comes from the violation of its aesthetic distance.

Unrealistic dialogue, questionable character deaths, the fast pace of it all even bad lighting in S8E3 all contributed to the increase of aesthetic distance in the last season.

This created a defamiliarization with the narrative of the show and weakened the emotional involvement by fans – as a result, this left many upset and some disappointed (like me) with the culmination of GOT.

I am not mad with how my beloved series played out in the end but I do however wish they had taken more time to complete it. The season felt rushed, with little to no build up to pivotal moments – is what disappointed me.

I had no problem with major plot points such as Jon’s heritage not holding a larger stake in the grand scheme of things, I actually admired the deviation from fan service or expectations. The bottom line is that the show could have quite possibly been better, but this is what we’ve got, and it leaves a lot of us feeling empty.

_______________________________________________________________

What did you think of the ending? I would love to know your feelings about the last season and how it should have ended.

My screening of the last episode fell on my significant others birthday so I decided to do a small GOT themed party with friends (including a tabletop dragon pit for roasting marshmallows of course.) Keep a lookout for my GOT Party post and how whipped all the food up in a future blog post.