House of the Dragon - Season 2 Preview

[00:00:00] This summer, we enter a new era of Star Wars. You mean the dawn of the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast? Yeah, yeah sure, that too. But I was obviously talking about the Acolyte. We've got to cover that on The Lorehounds.

[00:00:18] Oh, but the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast is exactly at that point in the timeline, the end of the High Republic 100 years before the prequel trilogy. We've got to cover it there. Why not both? Okay, deal. It's the first live-action Star War outside the Skywalker saga.

[00:00:37] Nobody can miss this. Listeners, kick off your Hot Lore summer weekends with scene-by-scene breakdowns of the Acolyte, found in both the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast and The Lorehounds' Mother Feed. And The Lorehounds' Star Wars feed.

[00:00:52] Wherever you like to listen, a couple of days after each new episode is released. Hot Lore Summer! Welcome to the House of the Hounds, where the Lorehounds, your guides to the Dance of the Dragons.

[00:01:31] I'm Jon, and I'm going to be doing this quick introduction before our conversation with Maester Anthony, host of the Electric Bookaloo podcast, Double Dragon podcast, and Properly Howard movie review. David and I sat down with him for one last run through season one before we head into

[00:01:48] season two. Anthony brought some really funny questions. We had a great conversation, and I hope you'll enjoy. Be sure to stick around for the show notes so that you can learn more about Supercast and Patreon and all the things we're doing on this podcast.

[00:02:03] See you for season two. We're here, of course, with Maester Anthony. It's very exciting. Welcome back to The Lorehounds. I'm always excited to visit. We're doing a preview of season two of Hot D. House of the Dragon.

[00:02:27] And you guys just finished your rewatch of season one, is that right? Yeah, I think we still have to record our nine and ten episode, because we have to get into the Eric and Aric of it all. I mean, those important details that listeners want to know about.

[00:02:42] If only there were a show guide that would give you visual guides to who those are. Let's talk about that, because I saw a preliminary notation page along these lines. How do people access this? Or can people access this? This is a subscriber exclusive benefit.

[00:03:06] So you got to be on the Patreon or Supercast. How do people become subscribers? It's all in the show notes. It's on our link tree. You can sign up for Supercast or Patreon.

[00:03:18] We're doing a fun new thing now, because a lot of people are really sick of subscriptions and monthly recurring charges. So we're doing a Hot D season pass, where you give us ten bucks and you have permanent access to just the House of the Dragon premium stuff. Nice.

[00:03:32] Nice. Okay, let me tell you what I liked. So you guys have created a notation page that has thumbnails of every character in the show. A little bit of bio about them, just enough to keep people up to speed on who is this person?

[00:03:52] Who are they allied with? What's their deal? Because there's a lot of people to keep track of, for sure. And I found it very helpful. And I think that if people were looking for a reason to subscribe, why not that?

[00:04:11] You've got basically a show guide that I know that you and friends have put hours of time into. There's even a dragon bestiary. So you can look up a dragon. There's pictures of them.

[00:04:28] It tells you who the writer is, and then you can click on the name of the writer, and then you can go to that person's bio page. That's also a really handy thing. I looked it up the other day because I was trying to remember who was it.

[00:04:42] It was Vagar. I was trying to get some info on Vagar. You can even find out about Vermithor, who I think we're hopefully going to see more of this season. I think that that's a good bet.

[00:04:54] Now, how are we feeling about the eight episode framework rather than the traditional 10 episodes that we got in Game of Thrones? I don't want it. I don't like it. So we got one nay. What about you, Jon?

[00:05:15] You know, these showrunners did such a good job with pacing on season one that I'm on board for season two. If they think they only need eight episodes, then do it. I will say we are down a showrunner, right? Since season one, we lost Rhaegal.

[00:05:31] Oh, should I start? No, Ryan Condal's still on. Yeah, there was a whole controversy because his wife was one of the servants in season one and she had a producer credit and she wanted another producer credit this season and they didn't want to give it to her.

[00:05:47] So he stepped down. Sounds like that was part of it. But we don't have to get too into that. But we are now that's some Steve McQueen level drama happening with this show. Okay.

[00:05:59] My feeling is that you got to tell the story that you think you have the meat for, right? So maybe I don't know if I want like fluff episodes that land me at the same place I began with the beginning of the episode. Okay. Right. Right.

[00:06:19] I don't know. I mean, that's just my sense. It would be nice to have would be nice to have 10 episodes. I will say that given that it is Hot Lore Summer and we are covering a lot of things. There it is.

[00:06:33] I was at you're a little slow on the soundboard there. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't have my mouse here on my mobile rig. Okay. That having eight isn't bad logistically speaking for us podcasters, especially since they're

[00:06:49] binge dropping The Bear and that's kind of frustrating in a way because they could really own the middle of summer if they, if they pace that out. That said we, you know, eight is logistically not bad, but I, you're kind of swaying me

[00:07:07] with your argument that if the episodes are as, you know, packed and well put together, then I could, I can, I can see a, I can live with eight assuming that every episode is driving and driving and driving and moving us down the track.

[00:07:25] Cause I, I really don't know what to expect this season. Well, that, that being said, you know, now that I have re-read Fire and Blood, I feel like as far as the full scope of this story goes, we've dipped our toes in and, you know,

[00:07:39] in season one was really just dipping our toes, giving the foundation and most of the main plot is left. So there are a lot of things and I think they probably could do 10 episodes a season and

[00:07:49] we would still be wanting more, but I'm okay with, you know, do the time skips you need to do, do the, do the yada yadas. The only thing I think we'll miss is some of the traveling roadshow scenes like that

[00:08:03] was a flagship thing in Game of Thrones was the Hound and Arya arguing over chicken. I'll eat every fucking chicken in this place. Right? It's, it's, this is the problem with having so many dragons.

[00:08:15] Why would you need to have a long drawn out roadshow when you can fly from point A to point B? That's a very good point. That is a very good point. In 10 minutes, right? No, no jaypacks.

[00:08:29] Well, you got Corlys' ships, you know, you got, you got some ways to do slower travel. You can have more, I, you know, there are some scenes like that even in season one of House of the Dragon, you get, remember Alicent calling Aegon an imbecile in the carriage.

[00:08:42] That was pretty fun. You know, there's, there's some stuff going on, but yeah, I hope they can continue that. Here's what I'm going to be missing on the eight episode run is two back-to-back episodes

[00:08:55] of Eric and Eric and just going into deeper into their stories and understanding this brotherhood, this broken brotherhood. All right. That brings me to my, uh, I thought that was funny. You guys are, you need to review.

[00:09:11] Well, we both know because we've read, we've wrote the other, there's something about those two that we shouldn't say. Okay. Okay. Okay. So all right. We have to be quiet. Very good. Nice. All right. Now listen, we're going to play a game.

[00:09:27] If you guys are up for it, this is a game called yuck, yum or meh. All right. So I'm going to throw you a name and you're either going to say yuck, yum or meh. All right. Okay. So let's start with you, John.

[00:09:40] Let's start with Masaria yuck, yum or meh. Knowing what's coming. Yum. That's all. Okay. Yeah. You know, I look, I know, I know the complaints about the accent. I know the complaints about the accent. I don't, I'm fine with it.

[00:09:58] It's not, it doesn't take me out of it. So I don't want to, I don't want to harp on it. And I, and I will not yuck your yum in this case. I, I will. Well, you can yuck my yum. I don't care. You know, we're all here.

[00:10:09] We're all here. I got the thick skin for hot Laura summer and yeah. So I'm okay with that. Okay. And then David Masaria yuck, yum or meh. Last season I was meh, but mostly because she played a very tertiary role, even though

[00:10:30] she had key component, you know, key moments where, you know, she moved the plot and the story, but I didn't really get a lot from her. They kept her very singular dimensional. And I was just wondering. It's a school, something in season one. Yeah.

[00:10:48] One of the things that she did in season one that I don't think that character gets enough credit for is she brings in the effect on the small folk where she goes to Damon, you're a Prince.

[00:10:58] You can mess with whoever you want, but I'm the one who's going to get fucked over when they get pissed at us. Right. And that's something that this show that's focused on Royals really needs to do really

[00:11:11] needs to say like, this is how the small folk are suffering. Yeah. Right. That's a good point. I just, I just, I liked her in devs. I liked her and other things that I've seen. I just, I don't know. I'm going to say yuck on this one. Okay.

[00:11:27] All right. All right. So I just have a quick question too, because to me it was pretty obvious that yeah, they burned down her brothel at the end of season one, but we saw no bodies. We just saw a burning building. So I'm assuming. Yeah.

[00:11:44] If you don't see a character with a sword through the forehead. And even then maybe, maybe. They can come back for sure. I think Stannis is still alive. All right. All right. Next one. We're going to say yuck, yum or meh for Laris. David, let's start with you.

[00:12:06] Laris, Laris, Laris. I'm looking up the Laris Strong. Laris Strong. He was famously had the foot fetish. That's right. He burned down his brother and father and all of Harrenhal. I am going to say yum because he is going to be a principal agent of drama,

[00:12:32] of dramatic tension. He's going to be. I thought you were going to say because you're a big Tarantino fan. Oh, okay. Well, now I too, I don't, you know, go ahead. Can we define the rules of this? Like, are we saying yum or yuck?

[00:12:46] Do we want to have a beer with them or is it, do we want to see where this character is going? I'm defining it subjectively every single time. Yeah. I think though this is a subjective exercise. Yeah. And it's at its heart. That's fine.

[00:13:01] He's going to be a big. Don't know the rules. He's going to be a big gear turning. Yeah, whatever is happening around his plot is going to be consequential, right? That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What about you, John? Laris Strong.

[00:13:13] I'm going to bypass this, these choices and say jail straight to jail with the feet. And just, just go to jail. All right. I'm going to say with Laris, I'm going to say yuck. I'm not, not a big Laris fan.

[00:13:32] I think you're probably right that there, there will be some interesting intrigue around Laris. Uh, not, not my favorite though. I would rather see other kinds of intrigue. I will say that, uh, Matthew Needham is playing this role pretty well.

[00:13:52] I don't know much about him as an actor, but in terms of what he's bringing the, and the way they're costuming him and doing the makeup, he has that sort of sweaty, greasy hair look that really gives you a nice, uh, Felonies and Fugazes style, uh, you know.

[00:14:08] He does have that, that, that he is a little like, um, like an evil conciliary. Totally. Yeah. Look about him. Yeah. Now his, his name rhymes with Varys. Coincidence? It's a good way to remember. It also rhymes with Ferris.

[00:14:26] So, so we may have a John Hughes themed episode. Laris Bueller's Day Off. There you go. Yeah. All right. Uh, John yuck, yum or meh, Renice. Renice. Yum. Oh yeah. I, I think she's a wonderfully written hypocrite and, uh, she's like, every, everyone's so peaceful.

[00:14:53] You know, Raniere is holding the realm together, bro. You just came up through the floor and killed a bunch of civilians, but like, no, I can't possibly strike the first blow. Yeah.

[00:15:02] You know, I, I just think, you know, I, sometimes I really agree with her and sometimes she's just like doing things because she thinks she's the smartest person in the room. And I don't know if that's always true.

[00:15:14] I think she's a few people can rival Matt Smith's smirk, but she's got a really good smirk. She does. I do enjoy her smirk. What about you, David? Yum all the way. Eve Best is great. I love the complexity. I love the tension between her and Raniere.

[00:15:35] Two people who should absolutely be allies during season one. And yet they can't find common cause and they keep hurting each other for all these, you know, messed up reasons. And, and I just love her.

[00:15:50] She even looks regal to me with her hair, the way she looks, she looks like a dragon. She looks like her dragon, Malyse in a way. And I just love that quiet restrained power that Eve Best puts into her.

[00:16:03] In a show, I'm going to say, yeah, I'm on a show where almost everyone. It either has unrealistic expectations or a somewhat discomfort, some, a little bit of insecurity, um, a little bit, a little bit too self-reflective on legacy or, you know,

[00:16:24] what was not, uh, given to me. She, she seems very secure. Mm-hmm. And even if it is sort of a cynical approach, she seems one of the characters in the show that she, she knows who she is. Agreed.

[00:16:41] She's not going to, um, she's not going to second guess herself. I love that. And go ahead, John. Season one is in a lot of ways, a comedy of errors. And you see that the way she and Raniera end up at odds really is in part, this

[00:17:01] comedy of errors where she thinks, Rani's thinks that Raniera had her son killed when really Raniera did something incredibly kind for him. But Raniera can't say that without causing even more tension because of the deception.

[00:17:16] And so this, you know, a lot of the problem in season one is nobody's talking to each other. I don't know if they're going to continue that in the show. Yeah. And I don't know if they're going to continue that in the show.

[00:17:26] That's something that the show really amped up from the books is these small moments, these small slights that add up. And I'm hoping that there's more of that in season two, but I think the tensions are already pretty much set.

[00:17:38] I love that conversation that Rani's and, and Corliss had at, um, Driftwood is Driftwood. That's their home. Driftmark. Driftmark. Don't add us. Yes. No, don't. I'm looking here. It is Driftmark. It's in the show guide.

[00:17:52] Because we even have a geography section, um, with Driftmark at Driftmark where she's like, dude, I got over it. So stop with your, you know, if you're want to have a naked power, you know, if you want to grab for power nakedly and just do fine. Yeah.

[00:18:09] You know, but stop thinking that you're protecting my honor by, or, you know, doing something for me because it's done. I'm done. Yeah. You know, I just want to look at Corliss with his buttery soft voice.

[00:18:23] I mean, this guy needs to do audio books because I just want him to read me to sleep. But did you for him to finish the game of Thrones series? If George ever writes another word of it. Oh yeah.

[00:18:37] He would be a great choice for that for sure. All right. Next, uh, yuck, yum or meh. Kristen Cole. David, we'll start with you. Kristen Cole. Absolute yuck. The guy is, I'm upending the, my rules too, because whereas Laris, I like, I yummed him

[00:18:58] because it's going to be dramatic. I know that Kristen Cole is going to be dramatic, but he just, oh, I cannot abide. The guy just, his hypocrisy, his self-righteousness, his, um, his wounded puppy dog nature. Run away with me, princess.

[00:19:21] We can go live in a, what's like, you're absolutely going to shirk your duty. Of course, you're never going to live that down. You're always going to be on the run.

[00:19:29] But yet then when she rejects you, then you get all high and mighty and you got to fulfill your duty and all this stuff. Oh man, I cannot stand that guy. Even though he's an amazing character, dramatically speaking, you know, perfect. His fantasy is first incel.

[00:19:47] It is right? Like he's, he's like, well, if I can't have you, nobody can. And also of course he knows that A-Gon is a rapist and A-Gon is an awful human being, but he's fine with that because that person didn't slight him personally.

[00:20:05] Or he's deluded himself into thinking I made an oath and my honor is tied to defending this man no matter what he does. I mean, clearly he's yeah. Clearly he's not keeping other oaths, right? Jail. Jail. Yeah. Yelmer jail. Here's the thing. Here's the thing about this guy.

[00:20:28] It's just about vibes because if it was Jamie Lannister doing all this, we'd think like, yeah, but he's Jamie Lannister, right? Jamie Lannister had a swagger though, right? He had that rich boy, like it's cool. Nobody wears crystal. By that rationale.

[00:20:45] If it's a cool, less swagger, Jamie did kind things sometimes. Jamie did kind things sometimes and Kristen other, you know, after Raniere slights him, he's just done doing kind things. He is all cruelty and blind loyalty to the greens. Yeah, I think you're right.

[00:21:07] Yeah, I'm going to say meh for Kristen Cole. And the reason why I'm going to say Matt is because he's on horseback. All these other guys, these other Lords and ladies are dragon writers. This is, this is the ultimate meh for a show like this. Yep.

[00:21:27] Like what, what is he actually going to bring to the table? All right. This next one, uh, this will start with you, John Corliss Valerian. Yum. Yum. Sing me to sleep. Father Corliss, Daddy Corliss. He's he's a little older.

[00:21:46] He's a little bit, maybe he's a little bit less swashbuckling. Uh, what do you think? I don't know. Doesn't matter to me. Doesn't matter to me. He can, he can read by my bedside. He can Edward Cullen in my room.

[00:21:59] You know, you've, uh, you got them in the corner reading you to sleep. Uh, David Corliss, the sea snake. The sea snake is, uh, he's pretty yummy. He's pretty yummy. I, the one thing that I did miss in season one though, was seeing him in some actual combat,

[00:22:18] like actually kicking ass and, you know, throwing dudes over the side of ships and, you know, you know, standing in, you know, as the admiral of the fleet and directing a battle. Like we saw him basically kind of being stompy, like my wife should have been queen man.

[00:22:34] And okay, fair. Right. And we get it. We had just had that whole conversation about, you know, motives, but we didn't get to actually see him do anything, uh, in, in the world that I would, I would love to see him actually.

[00:22:48] So as a book reader, this is not a spoiler at all, but the vibes that he gives off are like, you know, sort of Han Solo on the seas. Mm-hmm. And I just, he just doesn't come across that way in the show.

[00:23:09] And so I I've been, I've been kind of a meh with this character, but it could be that we'll see, we'll see, maybe we'll see a little bit, a better presentation of Corliss in the show and season two. That is my hope. That's what we need for sure.

[00:23:27] Um, right. Uh, the second of his name, A-gon, King A-gon, or variously known as the usurper. Let's start with you, David yuck yum, or meh on A-gon the second. Big yuck, uh, big Joffrey vibes, uh, big, um, uh, just, yeah. Yeah. He's just yuck all round.

[00:23:55] And, uh, I can't believe that Alicent in all of her, uh, self-righteous self pity, um, is going to promote this kid to the, to the crown, to be the ruler of the seven kingdoms. And they think that they're going to control him.

[00:24:11] Her and Otto think that they've got some ability that you haven't been able to manage him now. And he's up to all kinds of stuff, um, with the fighting pits and all this, this other,

[00:24:21] uh, Meshuggah, you know, I don't, I just have no idea what they have diluted themselves into thinking she should, Alison should have to, I mean, like, uh, Rene said to her, don't you, haven't you ever imagined yourself on the throne?

[00:24:33] It's like, yeah, girl, you should have just taken it. John A-gon the second. I'm going to give him a man. Here's why, uh, I, you know, he's a vile man. He is a rapist. He is a fight ring fighter with his children.

[00:24:49] Uh, but also I really appreciated his work with my chemical romance. Those albums in the early two thousands were really great. I'm missing something. If you Google Gerard way, uh, Helena music video, this guy, this actor looks so close to it. Okay. Just die.

[00:25:11] His hair had not made the connection. Now here's my feeling on this. I think I agree with you, David, on the general yuck. Uh, uh, I did, I was kind of interested in this idea of a, of someone who's in line for the throne actively eschewing the throne.

[00:25:38] Just didn't want it. He, he didn't want it so much. He was willing to run and hide. I thought that's a really interesting problem that we did not see in, you know, any of the game of thrones seasons.

[00:25:54] Uh, everybody was clawing for the throne and yeah, to have someone, to have someone who's like right in line for it, who just doesn't want it. That to me, that's really interesting. Unfortunately, that's kind of run its course. I think he's, he's happy with it now.

[00:26:10] The minute he tasted the glory of it. Yeah. Standing in front of the, everybody in the, uh, in the, in the, in the great, in that big hall there. Yeah. And I have a screenshot of Gerard way from the Helena music video,

[00:26:23] which is also pretty funny that the music video was for Helena and that's the name of Egon's wife. I feel like he should belt it out at some point. Is that, um, that, that pouty emo? Is that emo? I don't know. I, I, emo miss. I missed it.

[00:26:36] I never got the vibe. Emo punk rock. It's, it's all that kind of stuff. Okay. Very pouty. All right. Uh, uh, John, let's get your take on Alison. Yucky. I'm or meh on Alison. Yeah. Dowager queen. Yuck. Yuck.

[00:26:55] I know that they want her to be sympathetic and they are trying to play off this green versus black. And perhaps that will change at some point how I feel about the blacks, but I don't think that the blacks have done anything yet.

[00:27:11] That is as bad as what the greens have done. And I think Alison knows how bad the people around her are, but she turns a blind eye to it because it serves her. Uh, she's a complete hypocrite, right?

[00:27:23] Like she said, she talks to Laris and she's like, oh, well the, the hand is, is, you know, biased towards, uh, the strongs. And Lara says, well, you know, uh, your dad wouldn't be impartial. She goes, yeah, but he'd be partial towards me.

[00:27:39] So it's, you know, she knows exactly what she's doing. And quite honestly, I know that they tried to do the whole prophecy, misunderstanding thing to give some justification to her believing a God speaking.

[00:27:51] But then you, I rewatched the scene for our recap and I was like, it kind of is pretty clear that he's talking about the conqueror. He says the conqueror, like this is not straight up. I don't think that it's justifiable.

[00:28:04] I think she heard what she wanted to hear. It's an interesting take. And he never says yes after she's like our son. It's like, what? And he's talking about a dream. I mean, come on. I bought it. I bought it.

[00:28:22] I mean, clearly she is wearing green colored glasses, right? I've given her a yuck, but not a jail. Fair enough. All right. Now, okay. All right. Um, I will take issue with the, the blacks haven't done anything that's as bad as the greens to Damon.

[00:28:41] Did Damon not kill his wife? He is at the back or is that, but that's not too. Yeah. That first of all, that's Damon prior to this whole thing. Second, that was not in service of this whole feud, right?

[00:28:56] This was, this was just a personal thing like 10 years ago. Did Damon not burn a servant in the house of the Valerians in order to like burn his face off? He burned his face off. That's just normal. And he choked his wife. He choked out. He did.

[00:29:16] He choked out. I mean, yeah, yeah. But Damon's not king, right? And I mean, neither is Alison. All right. I don't, I don't need to belabor this. I just do think that the, there, there is, there is an odd.

[00:29:31] Uh, bias, I think in the fan base toward the blacks. We've got black colored glasses. I know. I guess. All right. So David season will make it a little more even. I will say that. Maybe, maybe David, what about you? Yuck yum or met on Alison?

[00:29:47] She's, uh, another perfect combination of a yummy yuck. Uh, I cannot. She's black liquor. Yes, exactly. That's a very perfect. That is perfect. She is her as I already kind of dumped on her before an IPA, if you will. A very hoppy IPA. She, her self-righteousness, her self-importance.

[00:30:14] I, and I, and I love it all because the poor girl has just been gas lit and used and manipulated and her values have been taken advantage of. And so she's trying to uphold something, which I get.

[00:30:29] And yet she has all of the, all of her methods are a carbon copy of her father's. And so they're, um, this sort of ham fisted, pretty evil stuff. I mean, she's piling around with, uh, Larris strong and Kristen Cole, you know, all the

[00:30:46] best people and, uh, you know, you know, make the greens great again. I mean, she's really bought into her, into the whole hype. And like you were just saying, turning the, uh, ramblings of a milk of the, you know,

[00:31:02] a guy who's just, you know, 18 sheets to the wind on milk of the poppy and literally his dying breaths. And you're going to twist that. Oh, by the way, my husband said that our natural born child should be. And it's like, oh, did anybody witness?

[00:31:14] No, but it's the truth. Right. Right. Also, also, can we add that Agon pushes back on it too? He goes, my dad had 20 years to do this and straight up actively did not do it. Why would he do that? While he was drug addled dying.

[00:31:29] It's a really good point from Agon of all people. Do you think, do you think that she's, do you think that she believes it or do you think deep down inside, deep down in her heart, she knows that she has projected her own desires onto the.

[00:31:45] I think, I think she may be responding to the seed of fear that her father has planted in her mind that if Raniera becomes queen, that her line and her kids and herself are all in mortal danger. And I think so.

[00:32:06] So I think she's bought into her father's and this is where I think Renee's really puts it to her. You're just serving all of these people who are manipulating you and you don't even know it.

[00:32:16] You think you're doing what's right and you're not, you're actually trapped in a hall of mirrors that you can't find your way out of. And even Raniera even says like, let's marry our kids and that will seal the breach. Right. And she still won't go for it.

[00:32:35] You know, there's this, I just want to add one thing quick, which is that there's this idea in feminist literature. I'm just like going deep down a rabbit hole. That's why I'm laughing that when you're, when you are attacked on all sides by fear

[00:32:55] or grief or other negative emotions, we resort to these scripts that are given to us. Right. And Alison is the one who responds by resorting to the script of rules, honor, religion, all of these things that are very rigid. And that's what she wants.

[00:33:10] The King said, these words, this is the law we're doing it no matter what. Interesting. Yeah. That tracks. Well, this is my big yum. Alison's a big yum for me. Best actor in the show. She's one of the most well-drawn characters on the show.

[00:33:31] Even when she's being evil, I'm just enjoying every second. She's on screen. Uh, I, I, you know, I guess, you know, midway through the first season, we saw, you know, the new actors put in these, uh, in these roles and I kind of missed the Raniera, the

[00:33:53] young Raniera actor, Emily Cary, uh, this one, um, would be, uh, Millie. Oh wait, who are we talking about? I was saying that I, I kind of miss the young Raniera. Oh, I see what you're saying.

[00:34:07] But when they aged up Alison, I, I was all in, I was like, it felt seamless. It's this character that I want to see more of. So big yum for me, uh, can't justify all of, all of her actions, but I do think that I understand her motives.

[00:34:27] She, she comes by her, uh, evil, honestly. Fair enough. Um, all right, next one, Amon's John, we'll start with you. Amon's yucky. Um, or me on Amon. I'm going to steal David's yucky. Um, you know, I want to see him do his evil thing.

[00:34:50] I want to see him fall down a hole. I think they made him more sympathetic in the show than the book because they had won the pig thing. You know, he was bullied as a kid, which doesn't give you an excuse to do what you did.

[00:35:01] But, uh, and the accidental killing of Luceris, which is definitely not something in the book. David, Agon. I am, uh, I am very much a yum for Amon Targaryen. I love his haughtiness. I love his, uh, you know, weird gem eye glowing. Oh, it sees through your soul.

[00:35:26] Right? It's so good. And I'm really hoping that we will see Amon and Damon, uh, face off. Because at the end of the banquet scene or the dinner, the family dinner scene, there was a moment where Damon was like, kid, don't even try it.

[00:35:44] And Amon's like, okay, I hear, I don't know. Are they cousin, uncle, brother? I'm not, I don't remember their relationship. Father, uncle. Father, uncle. Yeah. They are, um. No, he's gotta be his uncle, right? Yeah. He's his brother. I'm joking. Yeah. I was making an Arrested Development reference.

[00:36:01] Don't worry about it. Yeah. No, but I was actually just trying to work out in my head for reals too. And, uh, and Damon's just like, don't try it kid. And he's like, okay, but I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you, Unc.

[00:36:12] And I want to see that fight. Yeah. Big yum for me too. Let's go right into Damon. Uh, yeah. Uh, John, how do you feel about Damon? Yum. Here. Yeah. I mean, he's, he's an awful person, but he's a pleasure to watch.

[00:36:28] And I mean, I'm just a Matt Smith fan. I watched him in his original doctor who run. I love him. Great actor would watch his performance any day. David? Yeah. Big yum. Uh, he is a big engine of this, uh, drama of this family drama.

[00:36:46] He's, he's causing all kinds of mischief and trouble. I'm still, I will still never, um, forgive him for killing Rhea Royce because just when we got that character, I was like, oh, this, this character is bad-ass. She's amazing.

[00:37:00] I like, I want to see her doing all kinds of stuff and, uh, nope. So I'm still pissed at him for that. But, uh, I, I love Matt Smith's portrayal of this character.

[00:37:12] He is born to play this role and I just want to see him stir the pot. Yeah. Another big yum for me. I feel like we haven't seen anything yet. I feel like season one, I mean, even, even when he goes after the crab feeder,

[00:37:26] we don't really see anything. Exactly. Exactly. And, uh, he did cut off like the top of the head of Vamond. Uh, uh, so there was that, but I do feel like that guy is a ticking time bomb and he did not

[00:37:44] explode, uh, nearly as, as much as he could have in season one. Good point. Listen, if you click on Vamond in the show guide, the banner for it only when you click

[00:37:54] in is him with half his head cut off, which I, I, uh, I'm proud of that one. All right. Uh, yuck, yum, or, uh, meh, David, Otto Hightower. Ooh, boy, big yuck for me.

[00:38:11] I mean, great character, great dramatic tension, but God, what an evil piece of, you know, why he is the, his manipulations of his daughter, his, uh, his manipulations of, of his position.

[00:38:27] I really, uh, was bummed when, when Lionel Strong, uh, got burnt up cause he was a great hand. Yeah. At the same time, great, great mustachioed twirling evil bad guy. Right. And he's, his characterization, he has this very restrained, my Lord, but my Lord, you

[00:38:48] know, but underneath you can feel just, there is gears within gears turning in this guy. He feels to me like a cross between Littlefinger and Emperor Palpatine. Yeah. Good one. Uh, all right, John, uh, Otto Hightower. Yeah, I think he's a yuck for me.

[00:39:09] I actually kind of think that his narrative arc has mostly run its course and, uh, I, I want to see it passed off to the next generation. It's like Star Trek, right? You need a new cast every now and then, but yeah.

[00:39:20] And, and I mean, the guy really needs a manscaped subscription, which you too could get with code Hightower. I mean, his, his, uh, beard is always looking too scraggly. He really needs it. I think yuck is the only correct answer for Otto.

[00:39:38] Uh, uh, he, he was, he was sort of necessary for season one because you needed, you needed someone who was behind the scenes. That was everything that they did was sort of going to create a domino effect, you know, that would go towards civil war.

[00:40:00] Um, he really kind of is the fuse for the dance of dragons. Right. But if I, if he, if he just never was on the screen again, I would not be unhappy.

[00:40:12] I do really enjoy Reesey Fonz where when Alison comes in and is like, well, the king said a God should be king. And he's like, really? He's like, can't contain his excitement. All right. Uh, final character yuck yum or meh. Ranera we'll start with you, John. Yum.

[00:40:32] I mean, a pleasure to watch. I on second watch, I really like, uh, Emma Darcy better than I did on first watch. I think I was just grieving the loss of Millie Alcock, the first watch.

[00:40:44] But now that I've accepted that this is my new reality, I think, I think Emma Darcy does a really good job portraying her. A really good job portraying this character. And, uh, I'm looking forward to seeing all the Cyrax action this season. David, Cyrax, okay, go ahead.

[00:41:02] Cyrax well-played. Yeah. Big yum. I, uh, I too, I, I'm, I think you summed it up for me nicely as well. Love Millie Alcock. But, uh, Emma Darcy really brings a weariness and an age aged hard one wisdom to the role. And her, um, tutelage at Damon's hand.

[00:41:27] And then her, you know, like he was pretty awful to her right at the end there. And, uh, what is that going to do to her, her sense of safety, her sense of, um, oh, and then of course losing her, her son.

[00:41:42] Like, what are these things going to do to her and how is it going to push her? So I really am interested in watching the, the, uh, what's that little thing from inception? You know, they spin the little top thing. Oh, the talisman. Yeah.

[00:41:54] You know, and it's, but it's spinning, spinning, spinning, and is it going to start to wobble and wobble out of control or, you know, uh, stay. And I think Emma Darcy is doing a great job with that.

[00:42:03] And I just, it's a fascinating character and I love the dynamic between Alison and Raniera. So this is the, one of the few characters that I think is better in the show than in the books. Nice. And I think that she brings a certain complexity to the role.

[00:42:19] I think that she's much better written in the show. And I think that you could easily fall into the, that old trope, like, uh, oh, mama bear, you killed her, her little baby son. And now she's going to come for revenge. Yeah.

[00:42:35] But I kind of feel like with her, there's so much more underneath all of that. The deep sadness, right? Like she doesn't want to do this. She doesn't want to kill everybody, but I think that she's like, you gave me no choice. I think so.

[00:42:51] And I think that there's something about, you know, she, she, she is partially motivated by the prophecy. She's partially motivated by her father's legacy and what he would have wanted. He's part, she's partially motivated by revenge.

[00:43:06] She's partially motivated by, you know, trying to do right by her family. So there's just a lot of, um, different elements in this cocktail. It's not just that one trope. Agreed. So I do quite like, quite like this character. Cool.

[00:43:27] Gentlemen, uh, where do people find your coverage of House of the Dragon this season? On the main Lorehounds feed, uh, you can go to the show notes on this or just search in your, your pod player, uh, for Lorehounds and you will find it.

[00:43:44] And then on the lorehounds.com. Nice. Yes. Forever on our website. And then I will plug again, the season pass. So if you're interested in getting the early access with the ad free and the show guide,

[00:43:56] and then you get forever access to our season one and season two coverage for a flat 10 bucks, never have to pay again, but you can always keep that feed. And, uh, yeah, we just, hopefully it's a thing that can help because yeah,

[00:44:10] like John said before, you know, we're just so nickel and dime by subscription services. And we thought, well, can we do something that makes a little bit of sense where people still

[00:44:19] want to, you know, get the goodies and then, eh, you know, and throw some support our way. Cause you know, we do a lot of work into a lot of stuff. And, um, once Corliss can have a podcast, I mean, come on, come on.

[00:44:31] He's ready for Hot Lord Summer. Who would be a good podcast partner for Corliss? Ooh, I feel like I could just listen to him and Raineese argue about anything. Yeah. I don't like their dynamic. Maybe him and Lionel Strong. Lionel Strong. Lionel Strong.

[00:44:49] It's going to be really hard for him to do that. He'd be the straight man where and Corliss could play up from there. Oh, I just mean, cause he's dead. No, it can be hard for him. Well, I mean, yeah, fair enough.

[00:45:01] So Steve and I are going to be doing a bit of coverage over Double Dragon and I will be having on, um, medieval experts from time to time to talk about episodes.

[00:45:12] We'll also be using that Double Dragon feed to talk about our House of the Dragon Fantasy League. Yes. How's that going? Uh, well, everything is in, everything is set. Okay. And we just have to begin the season and to, for our characters to start accumulating points

[00:45:33] for our houses. How are you going to, how is that going to roll out in a podcast? How are we going to understand like what's going on in the, in the draft? Are you going to do regular check-ins? You can have the folks back on.

[00:45:44] Yeah, we'll have the folks on from time to time. Also, we'll do a little feature every week where we get a little update. Okay. On these things. And then once the season has run its course and you think you're all done with House of the

[00:46:03] Dragon, then Steve and I are going to jump on the Bald Move feed and do a rewatch as soon as the season ends. Wow. So do a search for Hot D Bald Move right after the season's over.

[00:46:15] And then you'll hear Steve and I run through all of these episodes. Talk about, uh, there's going to be so much coverage. It's going to be a flood the zone kind of thing.

[00:46:25] Yeah, it kind of felt like with Steve and I, rather than competing with all the coverage, sort of wait and maybe we have a bit more, you know, we'll have the diehard fans for sure. Sure. People who are like, I didn't get enough. I need more.

[00:46:44] But we'll be, hopefully we'll be the only immediate rewatch in town at that point. Get a little backdraft capitalizing on the… So do a search for Hot D Bald Move for that. Otherwise, you can do a search for Double Dragon.

[00:47:00] And of course, always, always, always check in with the Lorehounds to see what the Lorehounds are up to. And just real quick, how's Felonies and Fegazes going? You've got a few more in the can. Yes. On the Properly Howard movie review podcast. Yeah, yeah.

[00:47:17] We just, I don't know when this is going to go out. Okay. We know when this is going to go out? I was going to put this out next week. We've done a few, you know, we did Pulp Fiction. We did True Romance. We did Tango and Cash.

[00:47:33] We've done… Have you done Last of the Dragon yet? Oh, Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon is coming up. It's not quite, maybe when this is out, we will have completed Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon. Which is a favorite of both Steve and I.

[00:47:50] Yeah, definitely looking forward for that coverage. All right, guys. I'm sure we'll check in with each other soon. Yep, for sure. Thanks, Anthony. But have a great season. You too. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for always good to talk with you.

[00:48:07] That was a great conversation with Maester Anthony. Before we go, I just wanted to go over our Patreon and Supercast benefits for this season. Of course, you can always subscribe to our traditional Patreon and Supercast services. You'll get early and ad-free access to all of our podcasts.

[00:48:21] You'll get access to the show guide for House of the Dragon, which has a dragon guide, a character guide, family trees, maps, and all of that fun stuff. I guess not a map, but it has a guide to all the locations.

[00:48:33] If you want just the House of the Dragon Patreon treatment and you're not into recurring billing, you can sign up for our season pass. It's the first time we're doing this. You can give us a flat $10 on Supercast and you will get permanent access to the ad-free

[00:48:48] early episodes for seasons one and two of House of the Dragon. You'll also get the show guide. Of course, you can also get onto our Discord server where you can have a great time chatting with everyone about this show, about other shows.

[00:49:02] I know we're also covering The Acolyte right now and Doctor Who. We're finishing up the first season of the soft reboot with. But you can find all those links in the show notes. For now, I want to also go over our affiliate podcasts.

[00:49:17] We've got plenty of stuff going on right now. We've got Radioactive Ramblings who are going through a Fallout lore series. They're about to be covering The Boys weekly. And they are just doing a great job, going over everything. They're part of Hotlore Summer.

[00:49:32] Rings and Rituals is going strong. This week we've got episode seven, chapter seven, The Eye, which is the seventh episode of Rings of Power, something that we covered. That was our first show, and now they're going back through it through the lens of Ritual.

[00:49:49] That's Marilyn Arbukila, our favorite Tolkien scholar, and Dr. Sarah Brown of Signum University. We'll Shift Dust is taking a break this week because we've got Star Wars to focus on. So you can catch Alicia and I talking about The Acolyte weekly on both the Star Wars canon

[00:50:05] timeline feed and the main Lorehounds feed and the Lorehounds Star Wars feed. Properly Howard Movie Review is going through their season on Felonies and Fugazes. It's a great time. It's so funny. I hope you'll all check it out.

[00:50:19] They just did a feedback episode, and people are saying it's a great episode to start with. So yeah, check out that feed. Now you can get all of that and more in the show notes if you just follow the link tree.

[00:50:31] I just want to give a quick shout out to our Discord server boosters, Narls, Aaron K., Tiller the Thriller, Dorkoftheninjas, Dove71, CaptainJinji56, and Athena A. Alright, don't forget Doctor Who, The Acolyte, House of the Dragon. That's what's taking us through this summer.

[00:51:32] I also have a Silmarillion story popping off right now with MaesterAnthony that should be out this week as well. And don't forget David did a Patreon exclusive breakdown of the new Alien trailer, so check that out as well. We'll see you for season two.

[00:51:48] The Lorehounds Podcast is produced and published by the Lorehounds. You can send questions and feedback and voicemails at thelorehounds.com contact. Get early and ad-free access to all Lorehounds Podcasts at patreon.com slash the lorehounds.

[00:52:03] Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities. Thanks for listening. This summer, we enter a new era of Star Wars. You mean the dawn of the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast? Yeah, yeah, sure that too.

[00:52:24] But I was obviously talking about The Acolyte. We've got to cover that on The Lorehounds. Oh, but the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast is exactly at that point in the timeline, the end of the High Republic 100 years before the prequel trilogy. We've got to cover it there.

[00:52:39] Why not both? Okay, deal. It's the first live action Star War outside the Skywalker saga. Nobody can miss this. Listeners kick off your hot lore summer weekends with scene by scene breakdowns of The Acolyte found in both the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast and The Lorehounds mother feed.

[00:52:59] And The Lorehounds Star Wars feed. Wherever you like to listen, a couple of days after each new episode is released.