Robert’s Rebellion
…and we're back!
Some things have changed, some things are very much the same.
We're still rough around the edges: our audio isn't perfect, and we're still sourcing our music and sound effects from open-source libraries. But, as before, we hope you'll find that part of our charm. Like Redux, this podcast is entirely a labour of love: without budget or professional production, these episodes were only possible through the hard work and commitment of our wonderful cast. Some new, some returning, every one a star.
Writing Robert’s Rebellion was an entirely different prospect to writing Redux. There, the challenge was picking up a story seven-eighths told and finding a way to tie off those final dangling threads of the story in a logical, entertaining, and emotionally satisfying way. Here, we began with the barest of bones: off-hand allusions and dry historical reference sourced from existing ASOIAF publications. Sometimes illogical, oftentimes contradictory, and always frustratingly scant on detail. The challenge was connecting these bones into the skeleton of a narrative, and then packing on the meat and muscle of interesting characters, intriguing conflicts, and all the twists and turns that make any story worth the telling.
For many listeners, this will be their first real exposure to this period in Westeros’ history, with new characters, new relationships, and new intrigues to discover. We have endeavoured to make the show as accessible as possible to the casual fan, while being stuffed full of nods and winks for those already initiated in all things ASOIAF. Fans of the book series will recognise that we stick pretty faithfully to established lore, excepting one or two minor adaptations in chronology and characterisation. In every instance of artistic licence, we strived to maintain the established tone and trajectory of the history we do know in order to provide us a foundation from which we can best spin the most entertaining narrative from the history we don’t.
Finally, a huge thank you to all our Redux listeners that have been waiting patiently for the new series to finally arrive. Before and after cast recordings, this is very much a one-man operation, and writing, rewriting, editing, and mixing make for a lot of plates to keep spinning. If nothing else, our delayed release is at least keeping in the Martin tradition!
Call
July 2024
Game of Thrones: Season 8 Redux
Hello and welcome! My name is Call and I wrote and produced Game of Thrones: Season 8 Redux, a ten-part fanfiction podcast, presenting an alternative final season to the HBO show Game of Thrones.
This all began in early-2021 when I decided to use the downtime of the latest lockdown to get back into writing fanfiction. I'd written a few bits and pieces previously, but never anything that made it beyond my laptop's "Documents" folder.
I chose to write an alternate Season 8 not from a place of negativity or an attitude of "I can do better than that", but rather as a way of crafting my own sense of closure on a series I love, in a way that more closely aligned with my own understanding of the characters and their story arcs. To paraphrase a late cameo in GoT:S8R, this pod is not how I think the show should have ended, just "one of" the ways it could have ended.
When I finished writing GoT:S8R in late-summer 2021, I realised I wasn't ready just yet to leave the Westeros sandbox, and began reaching out in various forums online in the hope of finding like-minded people to join me in seeing how far we could carry things beyond the page. The internet can be a scary place, especially when you're putting yourself out there with any kind of personal and creative endeavour, so I was hugely but pleasantly surprised to receive a response that was almost without exception positive, enthusiastic, and encouraging. Within a few weeks I'd put together a wonderfully talented cast of professional actors, amateur-dramatics enthusiasts, first-time performers, and Game of Thrones die-hards. Special mention has to go to Nikki Swift, the pod's Daenerys, and my multi-talented and invaluable "right hand woman". Actor, audio engineer, artist, social-media explainer, soundboard, and emotional-support Lannister lion, this series wouldn't exist without her being the very first onboard and the very last to sign-off.
A few things I'd never done before I started this project: produced anything, directed anyone, used audio editing software, solicited actors on the internet, commissioned a piece of art, built a website, spent an hour deciding between three different "squealch" sound effects, released a podcast. It's been a fun, frustrating, exciting, and exhausting experience, but I couldn't be more proud of the final product and grateful to the talented people that gave their time and creative energies to help bring it to life.
Finally, I'd like to say an enormous "thank you" for coming here and checking out the pod. We have tried our very best to reach as high a quality of production as possible with zero past-experience and next-to-zero budget: instead of a recording studio, we had Zoom; instead of an audio tech with top-end gear, we had me and Audacity. I hope you'll be forgiving of our rougher edges and imperfections and engage with the pod on its own terms. If you enjoyed the series, we'd all be so grateful if you could help us reach as wide an audience as possible by passing word on to your friends and sharing us across your social media.
And please stay tuned! Remember: there's always another winter…
Call
May 2022