Another mummer's farce gone by (and more rumors of wogs and dragons)

I overheard an old guy ranting something in what sounded a lot like the common tongue of Westeros (Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones). Readers of the books, at least, if not possibly watchers of the show, ought to be able to follow his curious ravings as well as I recall them. Maybe he was just telling tall tales. Who knows? I'm pretty sure this is what he said:

Source: Konrad S. Graf (on our Earth, called Vaduz Castle)Now that they've done with their mummer's farce, they'll be expecting the rest of us to bend the knee. Stags, lions, it makes no matter in the end. We've heard much and more of kings of late, but the wolves and crows have the right of it: winter is coming. Most like, this time, we'll be walking hip-deep in royal pieces of paper! You can't feed a babe with paper, whatever they're like to tell you in King's Landing.

I also heard tell that the new king doesn't even use a headsman anymore. Now he's turned to sorcery! His wogs enter the spirits of dragons, swoop down and burn the king's enemies, anyone, anywhere. Just give a nod to a wog is all he has to do. Aye, a fearsome thing if true!

Nothing good can come of it though. I remember Ned Stark always swore that if a lord were going to execute a man, it ought to be by his own hand and only after hearing the man's last words with his own ears. Nowadays, just a nod.

REVIEW | Liberty message in Hunger Games book much weaker in film

My review of The Hunger Games audiobook was published at Prometheus Unbound recently. I also commented on Mathhew Alexander's review of the film by adding some comparative perspective to the book. Tying all of this together, I just noticed Sam Staley's comments on the film versus the book over at the Independent Institute blog.

The executive summary of all of the above is that the book brought across a much more radical pro-liberty, pro-individualism message than the film does. Traces are still there, but the deepest messages and themes I found in the book, such as the quest for natural win/win cooperation even in the face of the state's artificial win/lose and lose/lose games, have been weakened considerably. The exteriors have been recreated quite skillfully in the film; not so much the interiors. It is still a decent film, but much beyond it, especially in terms of deeper moral and political content, can be gained from the book.