Le Journal

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for One Piece chapter #1171]

HBO’s latest Game of Thrones spin-off, the appealingly small-scale prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, has author George R.R. Martin back on the interview circuit, talking about the show, revisiting the seemingly endless process of writing The Winds of Winter, and mentioning that he wants to write several new novellas about Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ protagonists. That last one won’t come as a surprise to longtime fans who’ve followed his past updates on his work: At one point, Martin suggested he might have as many as a dozen stories about down-on-his-luck hedge knight Dunk and his 10-year-old squire Egg in the works… just as soon as he finished The Winds of Winter.

Until the day I die, I’ll never forget waking up in the middle of the night as a kid to see From Dusk Till Dawn flickering on the living room TV. I came to right as the Fuller family was being kidnapped by Seth (George Clooney) and Richie Gecko (Quentin Tarantino), two fugitives racing toward the Mexican border in the family’s motor home. I knew instantly I was watching something I probably shouldn’t have been at that age — between the nonstop cursing, sexual undertones, and sudden bursts of violence — but I was completely hooked. A few scenes later, the movie pulled the rug out from under me.

Warhammer 40,000 is a beloved sci-fi franchise that, unlike other space drama IPs like Star Wars and Star Trek, looks at the concept of hope and laughs. Tragic and "grimdark" before this term was cool, Warhammer 40k is set in a future where humanity first conquered the stars and then, collapsing under the weight of its own pride and the dark influence of evil forces beyond reality, retreated into an age of decadence and constant warfare against alien threats and demonic foes. With a setting like that, you would think gender would be the last thing on everyone's minds, but not this time.