House of the Dragon - S02E06 - Smallfolk

[00:00:01] Okay, David, this is where we're supposed to choose a side. Green or black? John, my soul is as black as night. Your turn. I am black for life! So, we're not fighting? I thought this is where HBO wanted us to, like, pick sides and fight and stuff.

[00:00:24] Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find plenty to disagree about on the pod. But we seem to agree on one thing. We both really like this show. The politics, the drama, the lore! It was made for The Lorehounds.

[00:00:35] And since we just finished recapping season one, we couldn't be more ready to defend our black queen in the Dance of the Dragons.

[00:00:42] And with the season pass option in Supercast, listeners can get early ad-free access to each weekly scene-by-scene deep dive, plus our custom show guide with all the characters and connections. See you in The Lorehounds podcast feed each week for our Dragonfire Hot, but probably positive, takes.

[00:01:00] The Lorehounds' House of the Dragon coverage is also safe for team green consumption. Side effects may include a deeper understanding of dragon lore, a heartened conflict with itself, and an inescapable urge to read the book Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin. Dragon seeds may experience burning.

[00:01:18] Welcome to the House of the Hounds. We're the Lorehounds, your guides to the Dance of the Dragons. I'm John. And I'm Alicia. And this is our coverage of HBO's original series, House of the Dragon, season two, episode six, titled Small Folk.

[00:01:47] We're going to start off with our hot takes for the episode before we get into a scene-by-scene breakdown. And we have started recording a second podcast just for feedback. Hand of the Pod, Nancy M., is going to be collecting and organizing the feedback for us.

[00:02:01] You can send an email to hotd at the lorehounds.com. And don't be surprised if you get a thank you reply from Nancy.

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[00:02:19] You can support the community on Supercast or Patreon, join the conversation on Discord, or take a listen to any of our affiliate podcasts with the link tree in the show notes.

[00:02:31] Now, we have a couple other features this season that we're trying out with House of the Dragon, but I think are going to be mainstays of the network going forward.

[00:02:39] We have a season pass, which is just ten bucks flat. It is not a recurring subscription. It is a one-time charge where you get to get all the Patreon Supercast benefits of just the House of the Dragon podcast.

[00:02:52] You will get the show guide, which has visual guides to all of the characters, the episodes, the locations, dragons, etc. You'll get early and ad-free access to the House of Dragons podcast.

[00:03:03] You'll get the bonus hot takes on Sunday nights, but you won't get anything else besides House of the Dragon content. That's the tradeoff. You can either go recurring and get everything or you can get the season pass for just House of the Dragon.

[00:03:15] The show guide is also picking up steam. We've got six episode recaps in there plus a season one recap. We've got new locations every week. The family tree.

[00:03:24] The family tree, yeah. It's a collaborative effort. We've had Aaron and Brian8063 helping with things like sigils and alt text and things like that. We try to keep it nice and accessible. I'm very proud of it, and I hope people are enjoying it.

[00:03:40] It's an impressive piece of work. Thank you, thank you, Alicia. Now, this was going to be your first time on the Hot Tea podcast here. Right. It is not now because I got sick last week.

[00:03:52] Yes. Yeah, I'm glad I got to talk about the episode last week because then I feel a little better about maybe having a slightly lower opinion of this one than last week's. Oh, this is the weakest episode of the season by far, I think.

[00:04:09] Wow, okay. I wasn't going to go there, but all right. I thought it was still really good. We're talking about good in a realm of great, I think.

[00:04:17] Yeah, I mean for me, like I said, I struggled a bit especially at the beginning, but it's also I have the same problem with both seasons of this show where this is a show where I'm most guilty of writing the thing in my head.

[00:04:32] But I went on a whole journey with this episode. We had lots of discussion on the Discord, and I think, yeah, I've definitely come around on a lot of the things I wasn't sure about.

[00:04:44] The one thing is I defended last week the Damon dreams of Harrenhal, and this is the week where I'm finally like, I'm so glad Patti Constantine's back, but we could have combined that with, you know. Yeah, it's dragging a bit.

[00:05:00] I'm done with that now. Even as a witch lover, I'm like, okay, next. It's also unclear to me if the two are related or if she just is sort of a witchy woman who knows things about what happens at this place.

[00:05:16] I think that's part of the point. And I do like that aspect that, you know, sort of that fantastic where you aren't sure whether it's is it magic or is it just coincidence? You know, that's because for instance, we're full spoilers, right? Yeah, yeah.

[00:05:31] For this episode, obviously. Yeah. Yes. If you've not watched the episode, go be gone and watch the episode come back. But yeah, the whole thing I heard you and Maya talking about like, did she or did she not kill the guy? You know, The Tully.

[00:05:47] The Tully. Yeah. And she said, obviously before that in three days time, something big is going to change. So that seems to imply that she did. But then it's also, yeah, there's always that fine line like where they could say, oh, but it's witchcraft or be like, oh, this is just ignorant people talking about a woman who uses herbs.

[00:06:07] Right. And the question is, did she poison him or did she just have a have a feeling, have a vibe check that he has been sick a while and this is the time?

[00:06:19] Exactly. And with Damon, like, is she giving him is she like slipping him psilocybin or something? Or is she you know, is it just the circumstances of his guilt and, you know, being in this ominous place and her suggestions?

[00:06:39] Yeah. Yeah. A lot of other things happened in this episode, too. We had, you know, the Lannisters starting to march. We had Cordless finally being hand of the king and the queen. Excuse me. The whole siblings are starting to really come to fruition. What are they going to do? Seems like we're actually getting action there. We have new dragons being introduced. Not quite named yet. So we had a lot of development. I think just not a lot of action.

[00:07:07] Yeah, I mean, I don't mind there being not a lot of action. And there were things that I really liked. I liked the whole let's send the boats to King's Landing in the middle of the night tactic that Raniera and Massaria did. I liked I liked. I wasn't sure how I felt about Seasmoke chasing Adam down at first. But then afterwards, I was like, you know what, I like it. Like someone one of my friends, Gio Gio.

[00:07:33] He commented on Twitter like, yeah, go get your girl. Yeah, he got ghosted and now he's you know,

[00:07:42] there was a really good there was a really good meme that was like, Seasmoke going, Do you have a girlfriend? And Adam goes, Not yet. And she goes, Well, you do now. Really, really pursuing a rider. It's interesting because this is the first time we've seen a dragon pursue a rider rather than the other way around.

[00:08:03] Right. And so there was we had the whole discussion on on on discord, like why, Adam? Yeah, like, why not? And of course, yeah, okay, salt and sea. Got it. But it's got to be a combination of salt and sea and fire and blood, you know, as as Bela stipulated the other week. So then why not Alan? And my thinking is that it's something about Adam spirits like he has a similar boyishness spirit that Adam has.

[00:08:33] Yeah, I think so. And does he does he even have the salt and sea because we don't see him do a lot in the shipyards? I think most of the work. Well, yeah, I guess I'm just assuming that they've been sailing together this whole time.

[00:09:05] Yeah, he's all salt and sea. He's salty. One other thing I wanted to say, what do you think of the whole sequence of the the small folk uprising? Because that's the name of the episode. So clearly, they want us to focus on that at least a bit.

[00:09:21] Yeah, well, I mean, I think it's the it's about that. But I also think that it's about the dragon seeds, you know, that it's the small folk are getting a way to put their foot in maybe a very burned and charred foot, but a foot in the door. Right? Um, I yeah, the I like I said, I really thought it was clever of, of Raniera and Miss Aria to do the thing with sending the food in the middle of night, you know, first start the rumors like,

[00:09:49] Oh, they're feasting up at the palace all this time. But we have rotten fruits and oh, look in the middle of the night. Here's some fresh fruits with Raniera's flags on it.

[00:10:02] Yeah, yeah, I did move a few characters to team black this episode. Yeah, we're in no allegiance. I moved Sylvie and Diana. Right black because I think I think we can firmly place them under Miss Aria and Miss Aria is team black firmly. Yes. She's quite firm for team black actually.

[00:10:23] Yeah, it seems like it. So yeah, the kiss was another one that I had to come to terms with because at first I was like, wait, this where did this come from? Is it Miss Aria playing games, but then this is one of the cases where it's like, I listened to the interviews with them and with the producers and writers and stuff. And that convinced me more that it was earnest. And that it was apparently

[00:10:51] quasi improvised. Not really. But you know, it was the actors who came up with it. Or I think Emma Darcy, especially. Well, you know what I'm gonna say about showrunner interviews, right? Hey, these are the actors. So

[00:11:06] well, I don't care. I don't listen. Show me don't tell me that's my whole point is with this whole thing. No, in this case, I agree with that more.

[00:11:14] I just think that, you know, I'm gonna put aside all the bad faith criticism of like, we don't like women kissing on screen. Right. And just say, I did not get a single hint that they had attraction until this episode.

[00:11:26] Right. And earlier in the episode, she was complimented. Yeah, they know they were getting close. Like, you know, as confidants. But yeah.

[00:11:33] Yeah. But it also falls into the trap of like, every close relationship needs to turn romantic. And I think that that's silly. No matter no matter the genders involved. It is silly to be like any close relationship needs to turn romantic.

[00:11:45] I mean, I guess, you know, Raniera from her perspective, she's feeling pretty abandoned and lonely right now. So I can see why she would want that. But that's why it was also from a serious perspective, especially after she just told this story, this horrible story. It was like, I don't know, is that really what she's feeling? Or is that like a way of manipulating?

[00:12:09] I actually saw Raniera as pretty predatory in this scene. Yeah. I thought Masaria started it with the neck kissing.

[00:12:16] I mean, to me, if you put if you put a man in Raniera's place, then somebody making a move on somebody who has just confessed their like victimhood and sexual assault history. And I just think that that's like a really gross situation.

[00:12:34] Yeah. I mean, I do think that Masaria is the one who started with the canoodling. But I disagree on that. I think there is a roll it.

[00:12:47] Okay. Yeah. I mean, watch again. But Masaria first is kissing her neck before she she kisses her in the mouth. But it is still an inherent power disbalance, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Regardless.

[00:13:00] Yeah. It's a little it's a little gross to me. And I think this show has done a really good job. I've been really complimentary out to it about how it has made sexual and romantic encounters meaningful and like mean something to the plot. And I think this missed the mark on it. That's all I'm going to say about it. I don't want to litigate it the whole episode, but I do think that they missed the mark on this one.

[00:13:20] Well, I'm curious where it goes from here. Yeah, it's it's a little bit of an awkward situation now, isn't it? They work together. I mean, yeah, it's definitely going to come back up. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Shall we get into the main breakdown? Let's do it.

[00:13:36] We start off with the Lions March.

[00:13:39] Jason Lannister marches his host to the Golden Tooth to collect the forces of its Lord Humphrey Lefford. Though Humphrey is ready for battle, Jason tells him to send a raven to Amon informing the Prince Regent that they will not march to Harrenhal until the next day.

[00:13:56] And then he tells him to go to the castle without Vagar. The Lannisters make themselves at home. What do you think of this scene?

[00:14:02] Yeah, I mean, it was it reminded me of I like a thing in fantasy, more realistic fantasy literature like this is something the Wheel of Time does well where they just really show how horrible it is to host an army.

[00:14:15] And then you just hear he's like, oh, well, I have 500 is like, well, I have 1000. And then there's just like lions in the background. Like really? Really? You're taking your mascot with you. But it did make me wish that George R. R. Martin would write in his books, like because they're not going to do it on screen because they don't do the dire wolves justice.

[00:14:34] But I want to fight between a lion and a dire wolf. And then I want them to team up, team up and turn and eat the Lannisters instead. I like it. I like it. I'm always down for a Lannister to get eaten if it's not Tyrion.

[00:14:47] Right. Or arguably Jamie, I guess. Jamie before season eight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, anyway, I very much enjoyed watching them parade around the stupid circus. Jason is delightfully an imbecile. Love to hate him.

[00:15:06] Yeah. Yeah. He's like Thailand is such a props to the actor who plays Bo Jefferson Hall for making me be like pretty, pretty neutral on Thailand. And then I see Jason, which is the same exact actor. And I'm like, fuck you all the time.

[00:15:23] He's just so annoying. And then, yeah, I saw I was watching like a heavy spoilers, recover something. And they showed a clip of him from the first season. I was like, oh, yeah, you were even more infuriating then. Right. Right. Yeah. He's not great. He's not great.

[00:15:41] But then Eamon gets the letter. He holds a meeting of a small council and angrily rejects Jason's demand for Vhagar. He sends Thailand to treat with the triarchy and help to break Corliss' blockade.

[00:15:53] Then he sends Kristen Cole to Harrenhal to aid the Lannister army before Daemon can raise an army of his own. Finally, he dismisses his mother, Alicent, from the council. He has rid himself of dissenters.

[00:16:05] Yeah, that always goes well. See, OK, one thing that I liked about the first or just the way that they were setting Eamon story up until in. Yeah. Through the end of the first season is that he wasn't just like this caricature monster.

[00:16:24] And now I worry that he's veering a little bit that way. And I hope that they do something to humanize him a bit again. Well, he did have his Homelander moment, you know, when he had his milk, his hot steamed milk with his mommy sex worker.

[00:16:38] Yeah. OK. Yeah. I mean, he's definitely got some mommy issues because I already I said last week, I think he is her favorite least favorite child. Her favorite least favorite child? No, her least favorite. OK.

[00:16:53] OK. You were just correcting yourself. Yeah. It's it's very much Lucille Booth going. I don't care much for Job. Right. Yeah. It's but then also Alicent puts her hand on his cheek and really like talks to him.

[00:17:06] And we actually see her stand up for him more than anyone else. Really? She literally stabbed Raniera for him. Yeah. But the way she was talking to him was very like she had to know that that was going to piss him off.

[00:17:20] Like it was very condescending, very like, haven't you let go of your childish pains? Oh, yeah. That was to hurt him. Yeah. Yeah. So I think she's I think she's awful to Amen, but I think that he increasingly deserves it.

[00:17:36] Yeah, it's really interesting to watch her sort of reflect on her life throughout this episode and the last one, she kind of did it, too. But this one, I think even more she's like, oh, my God, I might be the problem.

[00:17:46] Yeah. Q Taylor Swift again. I'm not even a Swifty. I don't know why this this show keeps making me think of Taylor Swift songs. I'm going to have a I'm going to have a sidebar here. Taylor Swift is not a girl's girl.

[00:17:57] And I'm just going to come out and say it. Taylor Swift has recently been timing her release of bonus tracks. And when I say bonus tracks, I mean alternate versions of songs that are already out. Not new music, but alternate pressings of songs that are already out.

[00:18:12] She's been timing them to keep new and upcoming women who are artists from topping the charts. Really? I did not know that was a thing.

[00:18:22] This has been a thing. She did it to Billie Eilish, Chappelle Rhone and I think somebody else to Sabrina Carpenter, I think, to all these people who are up and coming. She's like deliberately like the first time it happens, you're like, OK, maybe just bad timing. Right.

[00:18:36] But it seems to be deliberate at this point. It's multiple artists now that every time they release a song, they're like, OK, maybe I'll just do it.

[00:18:42] And every time they have a new release, she puts out another version of one of her songs that accounts as a separate chart. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't maybe I should bite my tongue because I don't want to get all the Swifties riled up.

[00:18:55] But I just do have a feeling from her. I'm not into pop music in general, per se. And she just when she sings her songs, sometimes I like them. But like I watched her concert movie and it just felt so superficial.

[00:19:08] I get you. I get you. I'm not I'm certainly not against Taylor Swift as an artist. I think pop music is its own art. And and I've enjoyed many of her songs, but I'm just I'm just here to speak.

[00:19:19] I'm here to speak for the Chappelle Rhone's and Billie Eilish's of the world who will speak up for them. Yeah. No, I just yeah. She doesn't have the soul of Billie Eilish. And yeah. Anyway, sorry, Swifties.

[00:19:33] All right, Swifties. Enjoy your music. Tell your girl to stop messing with my girls. Anyway, I just I really liked Eamon walking around the room and just being like, so we're all agreed then, you know, just just really intimidating every single person.

[00:19:50] I caught a couple of shots here that I I put in the show guide where he's just leaning over somebody's shoulder and just menacing. Right. With his aim and spreading always the arms wide. Yeah, he's a he's a funny dude. He's a funny dude.

[00:20:05] What do you think of his strategy here of let's go to Harrenhal right away? Let's go take it. It's kind of the opposite of what Kristen Cole was doing. And also he is withholding Vagar now. Also, he's withholding what? Sorry, I'm a cigar.

[00:20:22] Vagar. Yeah, I think he is being very cocky and short sighted and thinks like, you know, oh, I've been the clever one, but doesn't it's OK. I've talked about the what's it called?

[00:20:39] The Dunning Kruger curve where basically when you learn something new, you're like, OK, now I'm learning to be a leader. And like at first you're earnest and then you're like, oh, now I've learned a bit. OK, and now I've learned absolutely everything.

[00:20:55] I know everything and I am the best. But that's actually when you're standing on top of Mount Stupid. And then something after that happens where you realize, oh, I know nothing. You fall into the pit of despair and then that's when you actually start learning.

[00:21:09] And he's definitely on the top of Mount Stupid right now. He he got a little cocky, I think, especially this triarchy business. I think this is this is really dangerous what he's doing. Yeah, well, I mean, I can understand, but I think how old he was.

[00:21:25] He was just a child when they were fighting with them before. Right. So the first war, he wasn't even born. OK. And the second war, he was a child.

[00:21:36] Actually, no, they had just finished the last war like just before the war, just before the Dance of Dragons started. Because remember, that was why they were all in King's Landing. They were. Corliss was mortally wounded. Yeah. And they were debating the succession of Driftmark.

[00:21:51] So I think that Aemon's fatal flaw, though, is that he's the case of the, you know, bullied child who grows up to be a bully himself. And he just completely forgets that, you know, you need other people to be your allies, whether it's Larris or the small folk.

[00:22:10] You need these people to like you and you can't just be a dick because you're fake king. Right. Right. And he is sending his dissenters away. That's one thing I wanted to mention is reminds you a lot of R'hneir sending away Alfred Broom, huh?

[00:22:27] Yeah. Well, it just reminds me a lot of of real world examples and it never ends well. Yeah. I mean, we've we've certainly seen in recent years certain politicians be like, well, I'm just going to fill people with loyalists.

[00:22:42] I'm going to fill my whole group of advisors with loyalists. Right. And that's exactly how you just get it stuck into bad ruts and going the wrong way. Right. Yeah. Any other thoughts on this scene? No, just yeah.

[00:22:59] That it was it's just I want to see him soft soften up again. Just biting my tongue to not say book things. But anyway, that's fine. That's fine. Alicia, before I got sick, I was planning on asking you if you wanted to do a book spoiler section.

[00:23:16] But I think let's just save it till the end of the season at this point. Yeah. Two more episodes. So let's go on to Corliss's first day and Stefan's last.

[00:23:25] Corliss tries his on his new hand of the Queen pin while Rhaenyra summons Sir Darklyn and to inform him that he has Targaryen blood and may be able to claim a dragon. He accepts the challenge. Oh, I mean, not a lot to say here, right?

[00:23:42] This is kind of just a setup for later. Yeah, I knew he was going to die. But I yeah, maybe that was that was also part of the problem, too. Like I wasn't really in suspense for this, even though.

[00:23:53] Yeah, well, we'll talk about the dragon part when we get to it. You know, it's funny because I forgot his name from the book and I was like, wait, I don't remember him riding a dragon. But but so that probably means he dies.

[00:24:08] But I can't quite remember. And then, yeah, of course, he died. Viserys scolds Daemon in his dreams. Daemon dreams himself into the throne room again to find his brother Viserys waiting for him.

[00:24:19] Viserys delivers the same monologue he did to Daemon in season one after he caught rumor of Daemon calling Viserys's son the heir for a day. Viserys removes his crown as Daemon tries to escape, only to fall forward as the door is opened by Simon Strong, whom Daemon threatens.

[00:24:35] Can I tell you what did make me happy about this scene? OK, well, I did say Patti Considine being back, but specifically watching the inside the episode Little Mini Ducks they put on YouTube and just watching him in his Viserys costume with the wig and everything.

[00:24:55] Talking as Patti Considine, like with this mannerisms and the accent. It's just such as such like a disconnect and delightfully like unhinged. It felt like. Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:07] Yeah, I enjoyed that. And and the one interesting detail is he takes his crown off, which was not, as I recall, in the original scene. No. So what's that about? I mean, I guess his crown is gone. He's dead.

[00:25:21] OK, I'm just I'm just curious if there's any prophecies. There's another thing later that I thought was perhaps prophetic. And yeah, this show is really messing with my head on that. Are they trying to foreshadow something later with that?

[00:25:36] So and then you have him threatening Simon Strong, of course, poor Simon. He just wants to sit and eat his peas and he's got a dagger in his face. And if you look at that screenshot I took, man, Daemon is unhinged.

[00:25:48] He's like laughing in the face of Simon as he holds a dagger like at his nose. Yeah, yeah, no, he he was definitely had. Yeah, I mean, I think how long has this been going on?

[00:26:01] And I guess it makes sense that we don't really know from his perspective. But with this, like where he can't tell if he's awake or asleep or having visions or nightmares or talking to Alice. Watch and be like, Damon, you've been here three days. Yeah.

[00:26:20] He has no idea where he is and what he is. Some people can't handle Harrenhal. What can I say? Yeah. Alice then outside soothes Damon as he flee as he attempts to flee Harrenhal on Caraxes. Alice calls him out on his running away.

[00:26:39] She speaks as if she knows his mind and says Ranira's lack of desire for the crown makes her a better ruler and a better heir for Viserys. She calls the crown a burden to be born, not a prize to bear.

[00:26:53] They speak of Grover Tully's failing health, and she tells him in three days time the winds will shift.

[00:26:59] First of all, I need the costume designer to call me immediately and give me that whole look with a, you know, a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of a. Like the gloves going into the sleeves and everything. You want the vibe, huh?

[00:27:14] I like the vibe. And yeah. And an owl, obviously, to go with it. I'll have to negotiate that with my cats. But. Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean, she's Alice is, of course, as a witchy woman, one of the wisest people in the show.

[00:27:31] Damon Targaryen asking me for advice. Counsel. My God. Semantics. Yeah, exactly. The whole thing with Grover, I think we kind of talked about a little bit in our intro, but the reluctant hero trope has now been invoked here.

[00:27:52] And in defense of tropes, which is a series that I'm going to try to do at some point. Right. An independent podcast I'm going to try to do at some point. I think it's a very effective trope, right?

[00:28:01] Is this idea that the most effective leaders, the ones who are the kindest, the ones that are the most effective at, you know, keeping people happy are the ones who didn't want the job in the first place.

[00:28:11] Right. Well, yeah. You want a leader who's not in it for the power or whatever in it for the wrong reasons. For the realm. I always liked how Varys would say that. Varys is one of the most underrated characters in this entire universe.

[00:28:28] Oh, they botched him in season eight. Well, I mean, fine. I don't even remember what they did to him at the end, to be honest.

[00:28:35] They just burned him alive because he like all of a sudden, I don't want to relitigate this. Anyway, the point is, I think they botched his character arc.

[00:28:45] But yeah, he had like the best quotes, you know, the riddles, the, you know, the I'm here for the realm, not for the leaders.

[00:28:53] I just appreciate it because I was thinking like, especially when I was thinking Miss Aria was, you know, making, trying to take advantage of trying to manipulate Rhaenyra.

[00:29:03] And then I was also obviously thinking about Larys, I was thinking these whispers always seem to be in it for themselves and just trying to manipulate people. And then I was like, but you know what, Varys, I really did believe that he did it for the greater good.

[00:29:17] I think you're right. So then we move on to Stefan making an attempt. He attempts to claim Seasmoke with the help of the dragon keepers. He believes he has succeeded when Seasmoke burns him and some dragon keepers alive.

[00:29:32] Yeah, I was I mean, obviously, I knew I would be curious to hear if people who didn't know he was going to die were surprised by that, because I was just like the whole time.

[00:29:43] I was like, stop looking back and run near a look at the dragon. Oh no, man. Come on. I think Seasmoke was like, this guy got cocky and I will not suffer that.

[00:29:55] Yeah, it did seem like Seasmoke almost went for it, but he was just like, no, I pick my own date. Yeah, I didn't think it was a fake out. I thought it was. He changed his mind based on the way that Darklin acted. Maybe. I don't know.

[00:30:10] I need to I need some better definition of like the dragon bonding. I hope that we get that in. It looks like I mean, obviously, yeah, this is just the beginning of dragon bonding theory, as they say in the episode. That's not a spoiler.

[00:30:27] Right. And see a pattern emerge about how it works. Yeah. And did you notice the way that they died was quite different between Stefan and the dragon keepers? Stefan, he's rolling. He's rolling all day long. He watched the safety videos in kindergarten.

[00:30:43] The dragon keepers slit their own throats. Yeah. Yep. Because they at the point that the dragon fire hits him, they're like, yeah, I'm done. I'd rather not burn alive.

[00:30:51] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they were prepared for it. They seem apparently they have these knives just for that. These dragon glass knives. Yeah. Smart. Tragic, but smart. I guess that's a risk of the trade. Yeah. Shall we talk about hats?

[00:31:07] I think you're going to talk about Alan's hat. I sure am.

[00:31:11] I mean, I liked the whole scene. It was cool to see in the behind the scenes thing how they like faked him having white stubble on his head and they got like a head double from one of the extras. Oh, that's funny.

[00:31:28] Yeah. And they like sprayed it with stuff and they had like this fake, fake razor. And they really went to great lengths to to make that scene happen to show how he's trying to hide his, his, his body. He's hiding his face.

[00:31:45] Okay. I'm almost afraid to bring this up because it got heated on the discord about this. But do you have any feelings about the fact that they changed Adam's hair?

[00:31:57] His, um, yeah. Valyrian is his, you know, Targaryen is, um, okay. I'm almost afraid to bring this up because it got heated on the discord about this. But do you have any feelings about the fact that they changed Adam's hair?

[00:32:15] Because they both the brothers have white hair in the books and that's kind of a plot point. And now, uh, Adam has black hair and combined with that they're aged up. So they can't be Lanors sons like the rumors in the book.

[00:32:31] I think they leaned so far into Lenore's sexuality in the show that was not as prominent in the books that like, I think it would be silly to try to sell the audience that he was that they were Lenore's son.

[00:32:43] But I don't think the, the idea was to sell the audience because even in the books they're like, well, yeah, this is what somebody saying, but I, we don't really think that because Lanor was famously into dudes.

[00:32:54] Um, but then, you know, I could see them trying to pass it publicly off as that because they didn't want to embarrass Reynese.

[00:33:04] Right. Yeah. Yeah. I see what you're saying. I mean, I don't have a problem with them doing that. They got rid of a son of, uh, you know, Helena and, and Agon that I think that's a, which I think caused, I mean, I think, yeah, that caused a big problem with the blood and cheese situation.

[00:33:20] But right now, right. Yeah. That, that I would say is a much bigger and more important change than this. I, I'm totally fine with them not having black hair. I think, I think, uh, you know, the, the discord conversation. Yes, you're right. Got a little, got a little heated because I think people get really passionate about this world and I get that.

[00:33:38] Um, for me, I'm just like, George is not a God. He's every now and then he's just gonna do something that feels like a rule. And then he's later just going to change his mind and be like, you know what? I don't like that as a rule. That's going to cover everything in my world. I'm going to do something different. And then what was previously thought of as a rule, maybe he didn't explicitly say it right. It's not necessarily a contradiction, but what was before thought as, as a rule is proven not to be a rule.

[00:34:06] For example, Daenerys being able to survive burning alive. Right. That is something that no other Targaryen has done.

[00:34:12] That was supposed to be a one-time thing. And then the show really ran with it. Um, but no, for me, it wasn't even, it's not even about the inconsistency of like, sometimes he really tries to make it like, do you get it? They're bastards because of the hair. Do you get it? You get it pointing very hard at that. Um, but it's not even about that for me. It was just my point on the discord when we talked about it earlier was just about the fact that, um, you know, I, there was a theory that maybe see smoke was mistaking him for a Targaryen.

[00:34:42] For a Lanor in some way or something like that. And I was like, well, wouldn't that be make more sense if he still had the white hair, like Lanor.

[00:34:48] But I don't think the dragons are that dumb. You know, like I don't, I don't think he thinks it's lean or I don't think he would have thought it was lean or even if he, no, I'm more of like a reminding of like, yeah, there's obvious. I mean, they're half brothers. Yeah, they are. And I just think that it's more like, um, you know, rather than being, rather than being like almost exactly like Leonor.

[00:35:12] It's like, he's kind of a kindred spirit. And I think that that's cool. I think that's something that see smoke vibed with as he looked down and saw this guy looking up into the sky, watching the dragons should be working.

[00:35:23] Well, I have to assume because you know, just when they make, they changed Renisa's hair the other way too. Um, but then that, that immediately made sense. You know, there's trying to really show her dragon rideriness. And in this case, I have the feeling maybe they made, um, Adam's hair black just to show that.

[00:35:42] Yeah. That even he feels more distant from it. Like he was saying like to Alan, why aren't you claiming our birthright and getting us closer to, to our birth father and the privilege? Um, and now it's showing that he has that much harder to work just because he doesn't wear it on his sleeve until this moment at least.

[00:36:03] Right. Right. Yeah. And I think, I don't recall the exact phrasing, but I feel like Adam said something in that line that was basically like, at least you are, you know, one of them. I'm not, we're not even sure about me technically. We don't have ancestry DNA here. Um, we're not totally sure if 23 in Westeros me now.

[00:36:23] Yeah. Uh, 23 and targ me. Um, yeah. But anyway, the point is I think they're very sure that Alan is of blood. They are not so sure about Adam until perhaps the end of this episode.

[00:36:39] Yeah. Maybe that is a thing where the book like makes it a little harder for me to step away from what I already know. Yeah. Well, I am going to go with it. I am going to go with it.

[00:36:51] I, yeah, no, that's, I'm going with it. Um, so I always would get the, these two brothers names confused and you know how I keep them apart now I can say it. I keep them apart because Adam is D for dragon.

[00:37:05] That's funny. I like that. So, um, all right, let's take a quick break. When we get back, we will resume. We'll be right back with more house of the dragon. And we're back with more house of the dragon.

[00:37:29] The servants stir the empty pot. Well, Wolf, Oh man, it's hard to say. I feel like for some reason, like it really gets you in the glut in the glottal. I don't know. Epic lattice.

[00:37:43] Well, all of complains about the lack of food at a local pub, Sylvia and Diana put on a public performance under the guise of casual conversation in which they talk about the lavishness of the greens in the red keep while the small folk are starving.

[00:37:55] Sylvia says Viserys is rightful heir was denied her seat. People are getting a little cranky, huh? Yeah. I mean, I think this was very clever how they set it up.

[00:38:06] I have a random aside question about Ulf. Do you think I have the hardest time telling his and Hugo's faces apart? And I just have to pay attention to their hair. But do you think they intentionally cast them to look alike?

[00:38:22] I don't know. I don't I've never had a hard time telling them apart.

[00:38:25] Okay, so I think the first time we saw him from the back, the first time we saw him from the back, I was like, Oh, is that Hugh? And then he turned around and said, No, definitely not.

[00:38:33] Oh, I get well, the hair is the one thing that looks different to me. But their faces look so similar to me like their builds and stuff. But anyway, no, I think that this is I prefer this type of plan that Rhaenyra and Viserys were doing with like, let's, let's just get let's use propaganda instead of nuclear bombs.

[00:38:53] So you know? Yeah, yeah. Well, I think Sylvie is doing a great job selling the casualness of the conversation. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe not necessarily but it doesn't matter worked on all fin a bunch of other people. I think she's doing a good job.

[00:39:10] I know. I think Sylvie did a good job. But the other one what's Oh, sorry. No, sorry. I actually thought Diana did a better job and Sylvie was being more obvious.

[00:39:20] Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. I'm really surprised that were you surprised to see Sylvie as part of this plan? Because she's all in with a man and she seems to be all into like trying to, you know,

[00:39:30] yeah, do you think she just feels slighted now after what happened that one night? Maybe, maybe or maybe she was with it all along. Maybe, maybe it's something where like, okay, maybe we have our shifting loyalties. But if if Mother Massaria calls, then we answer.

[00:39:44] Yeah. Or what if she was spying on him the whole time? That's a good question, too. I mean, he's been going to her since he was what like 13. He said, right? Which is gross for me. But then again, yeah. How much choice did she get in this life?

[00:40:00] Oh, yeah, I'm not blaming her. She she definitely did not have a choice there, which is awful as well. My point is, I think perhaps Miss Aria would have recruited her early as an as a window into the Royals. Absolutely.

[00:40:16] Maybe that's why she ended up with her own house, right?

[00:40:20] Mm hmm. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that could be how she she gets ahead. And she also I noticed that there is at least one white blonde dancer in her house to who I assume is another Targaryen. I don't know. I'm wondering if the people we've been seeing in the backgrounds. I'm wondering if they're gonna try to claim dragons now to

[00:40:42] to claim Dragonstone, you said to claim dragons. Oh, I mean, dragons now. I was like, wait a minute. Dragonstone, I feel like that's no, you don't get the whole island. Yeah. And I feel like Dragonstone is like the most overrated territory ever. If you take out the dragons.

[00:40:59] Hmm. I mean, I guess it is. It's it's in between like the Westeros and and Essos. And you are protected by the sea.

[00:41:10] So as long as you just like have a good stock of ships to get in and out and enough Navy to hold it open, then it's a good it's a good seat. Fair enough. Sir, fair enough. Well, we know all of a sudden happy.

[00:41:25] They really sell this whole episode like everyone's mad about the food situation, right? Like nobody is happy about this. Yeah. No, I mean, that food looked gnarly and what little there was. And he's got to wait now. See, now I forget.

[00:41:39] So Hugo's the one with the dying daughter, right? Hugh. Hugh. Right. I'm sorry. I don't know why I said, you know, she was the dying daughter. Ulf is just a bachelor going out, right? Telling stories, getting drinks. He's having a great time. Mm hmm.

[00:41:52] So the next scene I've titled Lord Keltigar catches hands. Show Lord Bartimos Keltigar follows Raniera while lamenting the loss of Stefan Darklin and insisting his plans are better. Raniera slaps him and says, I think it's my fault that you've forgotten to fear me.

[00:42:11] I hate to see her have to do that, but you have been seeing over the last episodes this building of the questioning her and trying to undermine her.

[00:42:22] And yeah, I can see why she was like, no, I need to take this step and just like put people in their place again. Yeah, I think I think she was kind of in the right to do it right.

[00:42:33] It's like they're all they're all like, you don't have the guts to have a sword and all that and go to battle. Meanwhile, none of them have fought a war ever. And so I kind of think she's justified here.

[00:42:45] And she was doing it for her and Allison's both because, you know, Allison's would love to slap some people, but can't. Well, didn't she slap Kristen Cole like two episodes ago? Well, he deserves that guy up. I guess that wasn't private, though. Yeah.

[00:43:01] And I love that also that looks like they're in private here, too. I guess there's two people in the back. I was looking at the screen shot just now because for me, I was like, wait, did Keltagor just like go around? Drag and show me what she did.

[00:43:17] Is it bruising? Did you hear what Raniera did to me? I had to take two ibuprofen. I put ice on my cheek. You're lucky you have ice. Well, it looks like there are witnesses in the background, so I can I can back off a little bit.

[00:43:33] They said the servants saw it. Yeah. Well, Miss Saria brings advice while Raniera complains to Miss Saria about her failure of a plan with Stefan Darklin, who says who she says had the strongest claim.

[00:43:46] Miss Saria says they have laid the kindling for their plan involving the hunger of the King's Landing and that tonight they will light it. We cut to Kat in King's Landing, unable to get food for her family. Well, livestock are brought to the Red Keep. Ulf loudly protests.

[00:44:05] Yeah, I mean. I had the idea that when the women, Sylvie and Diana, were talking in the bar that maybe they were like embellishing things to anger people. But then they did not arrange for the sheep to be carted through like this.

[00:44:26] So and of course, yeah, it is for the dragons. They did say it's for the dragons eat while we starve. Yeah, I mean, at first I thought it was for the Red Keep.

[00:44:34] And then, yeah, you see the sheep and you're you're you're understanding that this is all for the dragons. Like they are just it is 100 percent war effort. Right.

[00:44:44] You can bin this whole thing like more than you can in like modern politics where you say, well, we should be taking care of our own before we go fight a war. This is literally we're feeding the war machines right before we feed our people.

[00:44:55] And I was just thinking, you know, going back to the beginning of the episode, Jason Lannister, he's asking his host to host an army of a thousand and lions. But then not only that, he's like, plus, I want to call the biggest dragon over here.

[00:45:09] So like, just just empty your fields. Oh, it's so bad. It's so bad. It's just all the people eat. And Cat, of course, is tragic because she's got the dying daughter. Yeah, I I don't have a good feeling that daughter is going to make it.

[00:45:26] Has she even I guess she has spoken. I guess she was awake. I think she was for a brief moment, but I mean, I think she's pale. We are leading towards a radicalization moment for those two. And I'm not talking about spoilers. I'm talking strict, strict show.

[00:45:42] It seems like they're they're pointing me in the direction of these people are going to get radicalized. I mean, I'm pretty sure Cat doesn't. Well, never mind. I yeah, I just don't think we get a lot of information about you in the book is what I can say.

[00:45:54] Yeah. So Eamon rejects Laris. Laris informs Eamon the unrest of the small folk. He puts himself forth as hand of the king and Eamon tells him to go get Otto instead. Orwell arrives to report on the king's impressive healing progress. Yeah.

[00:46:14] So I have a feeling that Eamon was like basically told Orwell to keep Agen sicker longer, like that was the impression that I got in the episode. Yeah. Orwell's like, OK, not necessarily sicker, but less conscious. Right. Like, right.

[00:46:33] Give him as much milk of the poppy as he can stand. Right. Then again, yeah, if I were having all of my skin burned off and like going through that of intensive of a recovery, then I might want to sleep through it as much as possible. Right. Right.

[00:46:49] Yeah. I wouldn't blame Agen. And his mother asks the question later on, you know, if he recovers, what will he be? And that's really tragic. And I don't want to start defining people by the amount of pain that they live with or defining people by their illnesses.

[00:47:04] But I do think that she raised a good question is how much pain is he going to be in for the rest of his life? Well, I think it's also what what Lara says later that the way people are going to treat him. Yeah, that's true, too.

[00:47:16] I think Allison has shown herself to be quite superficial. Mm hmm. Well, yeah, I did. I really did enjoy watching Laris get his took us handed to him. Now, I mean, the way this screenshot I got where he's looking like, oh, I messed up. I overplayed my hand.

[00:47:34] Really, really made me laugh. Yeah. Well, this is also he realizes like, OK, I got to get this other baby king back out of bed and on my side. I mean, he already left the loyalty of Allison. Now he's loyal to to Amand.

[00:47:52] And now he's going well, he went from Allison to Agon to Amand back to Agon. Yeah, I feel like with Allison's we're just seeing the patriarchy closing in around her and her realization that she enabled that like she basically built this prison for herself. Yeah.

[00:48:12] And I said something on the bonus take last night, but I'll say it here because that's for subscribers only. I think Allison's remaining power, because I saw there was some some chatter on the feedback and I didn't finish your feedback episode yet, but there was some chatter in

[00:48:26] the feedback of like, well, we're David and I write to say that Allison's out of power. And they said, well, you know, she has her dad over here. She has Kristen Cole over here, all this kind of thing.

[00:48:37] And I was like, everything that you've listed here is something that she relies on a man for. She doesn't have an independent base of power that doesn't rely on a man doing her favor. Right. And the opportunities she had for that, she squandered. Right. Exactly.

[00:48:51] Because in favor of her father or her sons. Yeah. Right. And if she ever tries to insist she has power, then all they need to say to her is, well, Mama Allison, you're the one who said a woman can't sit the Iron Throne.

[00:49:06] You're the one who put your son on the Iron Throne because it was ridiculous that your your childhood best friend could ever be queen. If I didn't watch his first thing in the morning, I would make it a drinking game to

[00:49:18] take a shot every time they said, Dowager Queen, Dowager Queen. Oh, they're really they're really I didn't even put it in the show notes. But remember, they they said before, like, oh, maybe we we marry off the Dowager Queen to the right. To the great joys. I am.

[00:49:33] Well, OK, biting my tongue. It's it's a dark suggestion. The great joys don't have a reputation for kindness towards women. No, no. But I am curious, like they've portrayed the great joys, interestingly, in the prior show. So I'm curious if they like continue that or.

[00:49:50] Yeah, I would love to see more great joys. Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean, in general, I wanted to see more of Winterfell, I think next season we might. But I thought we were going to get more this season. I want more. Yeah.

[00:50:03] Do you think it's kind of shocking that we only have one more season? Wait, is it? I I thought that they were talking like four. I've heard three this entire time. Oh, I know. I've heard like four, maybe even five, but mostly four is what I've heard.

[00:50:19] OK, maybe I'm wrong because I feel like we can't possibly finish the story in one more season. No, I was assuming for when I because I was I took the book and I like blocked out the part that I think that they're going to cover.

[00:50:31] And it's well, it's like 200 pages. But I think like the first part goes really quickly. I think we went through like the first. But yeah, no, I thought four seasons that. Yeah, I don't know. All right. I hope I'm wrong.

[00:50:46] I hope I'm wrong and it's not three seasons because I just I think it's going to be really rushed if they try to do it in one more season. So the next stop for a man is, of course, a visit to his lovely brother.

[00:50:57] He interrupts the treatment of a gun to deliver his counsel orb and cause him great pain while asking what he remembers. Amen insists to Grand Maester or while that a gun has a long recovery in front of him. Pretty. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:51:14] I mean, they yeah, they zoomed in without like peeling that skin off of him like ooh. I hated it. I hated it. It was a lot. I hated it and I don't want it again. And keep in mind, I watched this first thing in the morning.

[00:51:29] Did you even have coffee yet? I mean, yeah, I was watching coffee while doing it. But then like thinking about the coffee burning the top of my mouth like a. That's pretty that's pretty. Yeah, you don't want that. You don't want that.

[00:51:42] It really did sell how horrific his injuries were. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, I just it's hard to be alive with that. Yeah. And then the way that that Amen leans in on the injuries is so brutal. Yeah. No, he's really going like full like villain mode.

[00:52:02] And I need just I need him to pull back just a little bit just because I liked that extra complexity where you know, the whole thing with with loose was like an oopsie. But then yeah, it off because it was it was all an accident. Yeah.

[00:52:17] And we kind of got that at the beginning of the season even when he's right and what Sylvie's like, I feel badly that I did that. Mm hmm. But the guy hasn't stopped mewing since like 2005. I did not know what mewing was. And I do it 24 seven.

[00:52:33] It's just a thing that and a lot of people do I realize like it's just a normal way to hold your mouth. Yeah, they just they just made up a funny name for it because that's how the years are. Right?

[00:52:44] Like and then someone was telling me like, well, you shouldn't do it all the time because it's I was like, what I don't understand. Like I just I closed my mouth. And my tongue is touching the roof of my mouth.

[00:52:54] Like I don't understand how other people's mouths work, I guess. That's pretty funny. That makes me laugh. So Reina, I'm sorry. Now I'm now I'm feeling sassy with even maybe I'm trying to maybe I'm mewing too much.

[00:53:11] Reina discovers the seat, she gives a pep talk to Joffrey before they come across clear evidence of a dragon attack on sheep upon their return to the Erie. We see the two youngest sons of Raniera playing with toys while one of their

[00:53:26] dragons stands by Jane Aaron arrives to inform Reina that Reggio Horatis has agreed to shelter them in Pento's. Reina calls her out on withholding the information about a large dragon in the Vale, Jane claims it is large, formidable and wild.

[00:53:45] Now, I've not added this dragon to the show guide yet because it's not been named and you need a name to be in the show guide. It's I mean, it's been I don't know, killing sheep, stealing sheep, something there's sheep involved. I'm just going to say this.

[00:54:01] George was not the most creative with this. Hey, it's that's how human language works. I know it's funny. Like people make fun of talking with Mount Doom and like, right. Look at the world. Like, that's just kind of how like literally I've gone to Bear Mountain with

[00:54:17] my family. Like that's just that's just what things are named in the I mean, we burn things in a fireplace. Like, come on. Right. Right. You know what gloves are called in Dutch and German? What? Handshoes.

[00:54:31] But then why do I drive on the parkway and park in the driveway? Now I'm bothered. Now I'm hot and bothered. Oh, no. Here's a way more important question. Where do I get a baby dragon that never grows up? That's a great question.

[00:54:45] They are they do look great. You do see why Jane would be pissed at this dragon coming to protect them, right? Yeah. No, I mean, but then also Raina's like, well, wait a minute. You didn't mention there seems to be a very large dragon around here somewhere.

[00:55:01] You didn't even mention that that was here, which is, by the way, not how it is in the in the book. This dragon is not in the veil. Yeah. And I think there's gonna be a big book change regarding this. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

[00:55:15] They've they've set it up and I'm on board with it because I think we can say that there is a popular book character that it's been speculated is not in the show and they're combining storylines, which makes sense. That's what happens in adaptations.

[00:55:31] And in this case, I can see why these two storylines do particularly dove together well, dovetail together well. And one of my complaints going back to the first season is I just think that Lena and her daughters have gotten a short shrift except for Bela got to be

[00:55:49] awesome recently, but overall, like I feel like they haven't been able to be developed enough. Instead, we're spending forever in Damon's dreams and Harrenhal with characters from last season. So I think that this is a chance to flesh Reina out more.

[00:56:07] Well, also, Jace, I think has gotten a leg up in his in his role, too. I think that all the kids are really getting more, which makes sense, which makes sense. But I still think that the girls have been short shrifted. And, you know, yeah.

[00:56:21] This could help fix that because Jace is going Jace is getting a lot more screen time now. But did we we didn't even see Bela this episode? No, no, no. I think you're right. I think they are still getting short changed more than Jace's Jace.

[00:56:34] Jace was short changed as much as they were last season. But now. Right. He's gotten a lot more more screen time. It's the hair, right? They made the hair better. You see, do you see Tick Tock? Y'all are disgusting. Just just thirsting after this man.

[00:56:48] How old is he? He's too young for me. They just say he's serving face in every scene. Yeah, sure. I mean, sure he is, but he still looks like a teenager to me. There they keep saying that him and Amand are like Zoolander and what's the character?

[00:57:03] Owen Wilson's name? Yeah. What was his name? Oh, shoot. See Hans or something. Yeah, it is Hans. Anyway, he can't turn left. Yeah, it's just like Jace's Zoolander. It's very much like him. Oh no, Zoolander can't turn left anyway. It doesn't matter.

[00:57:19] But yes, yes, this is so true. Just two people have an immune contest. That's what the show has become. Blue Steel. Blue Steel. Yeah, people are Photoshopping him onto Zoolander doing Blue Steel now. All right, let's move on. Alan gets a clean shave.

[00:57:38] He shaves his blonde hair that looks awfully like Valerian hair. Adam encourages Alan to seize his opportunity to get a haircut. Alan insists they will never be recognized and should stop waiting. We kind of talked about this before, but do you have anything else to say about

[00:57:51] these brothers? No, I mean, yeah, I think it's interesting how they're being set up to that. Alan is the one that Corliss keeps reaching out to, presumably, I guess, because of the hair. That must be why they did the hair change.

[00:58:05] And but Adam's the one who wants it more. So that's an interesting dynamic to set up, especially now that we throw a dragon into the mix. Just toss him in. I bet you could toss the Targaryen baby's dragon somewhere. You know, you could toss him.

[00:58:21] No, into my lap. I mean, look, they have wings. They have a soft landing, you know, they'd be fine. I think they'd love playing toss them up. Now I'm imagining like how they would get along with my cats. I don't know.

[00:58:35] I mean, they're basically like the size of a Chihuahua. So yeah. But if they like, you know, they're like, oh, I'm going to get a little but if they like burped is fire come out. I don't know. I don't know. I'm thinking it's like Pip in the accolade.

[00:58:49] They're kind of that personality. Sure. Yeah. But Pip only likes spits oil sometimes, but he doesn't like a house on fire. We're not reacting enough to oil being shot into their eyes. You think he only did it to one person, the other to Basil? He's he shot water.

[00:59:10] He only shot oil at me. OK, fair enough. Raniera complains to Jace. Jace affirms Raniera's dual identity as his mother and his queen before doubting the ability, their ability to win the war without Damon. Miss Aria informs the queen that her gift is sent.

[00:59:27] Raniera hopes for clouds over the Blackwater tonight. We cut to a struggling fisherman receiving boats of food, carrying the black banners of Raniera. Genius plan. Great plan. The one thing I noticed here is that Jace seems to have been

[00:59:46] he felt cut out of the planning and then, you know, he asks about it. And maybe once they cut away, she told him. But it seems like they're setting up something there where he's like, you're not even letting me in on the plans. Yeah.

[00:59:59] But at the same time, Jace didn't tell his mom about the twins. Right. So kind of. At fault there, too. I don't know. He told her after he got back, at least. Yeah, and she might have told him after she did the boats when they arrived. Right.

[01:00:14] My hope my whole point is I think there could be a little bit more communication in this family generally. Yeah. But I did really enjoy when he goes, look, my mother is my queen. And that's cool. Like, that's awesome.

[01:00:26] And that's something that I think that it honestly speaks to. And speaking as a white man, it speaks to something in in current feminist discussions where it's like, especially with women in the workplace kind of discussions, right, is can I be a powerful

[01:00:44] executive while still being a mother? You know, they're they're told if you're not at work enough, you are choosing motherhood over work. If you're at work too much, you're a bad mother. And it's this dual identity that these these people are forced to hold

[01:00:58] that keeps them you know, it's like this quiet oppression. And I think Raniera has really been feeling that recently. And I like that he goes, you don't have to choose one. You are both to me. And I love that.

[01:01:10] I mean, she also just had to send, you know, most of her remaining children away. So that's that's hard because then she's doing it to be a good mother, but also becomes a bad mother by doing it because she's not there to raise them. Right.

[01:01:25] And, you know, we did have I think we had a piece of feedback and I totally agree with this feedback that, you know, we always talk about Raniera being a good mother, Allison being a bad mother. Who's talking about the fathers? Great question. Great question.

[01:01:38] I think the problem is in this world, in this song of ice and fire world, the fathers are just assumed to be absent most of the time. Yeah, yeah. But you would think that it could be a plot point that they you know, somebody gets frustrated about it.

[01:01:54] I feel like Lenore was a good father, even though he wasn't really like. Yeah, I think him and him and Harwin were good brother husband. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was going to say is that actually those those kids, the

[01:02:08] strong boys, they got the best of all worlds. Yeah. Yeah. And that's probably why Jace is so level headed now. Right. Right. Meanwhile, Bill is like, I might hate my dad. I'm not totally sure about that. Yeah. I mean, even she's got it better than well, yeah. Hmm.

[01:02:29] I don't know. I don't know who's worse. I mean, because Damon, he likes Bela at least. He was more into Bela than Raina because Bela is a dragon rider. Right. They would they would go hang out.

[01:02:40] He wanted he's the kind of dad that shows up when you're 21 and can drink. Right. Like that's right. That's just a trope. That's just a trope. And I think it's a true trope, unfortunately. Yeah, that's OK. Raina, just go get a dragon and daddy will love you again.

[01:02:54] Exactly. Exactly. Fly down to Harrenhal. He'll be like, Raina, come help me convince the river lords to bow down to me now. Yes. He'd be like, did you poison me, though? I don't know. Anyway, I really like this whole plan with with the with the food.

[01:03:12] And that's going to really come to fruition later. Yeah. Or while gives the company line under threat of Amond. Or while Intel informs Allison that while he hopes a gun will live, the recovery may be slow and painful.

[01:03:29] Allison asks what he will be if he lives and or while dodges the question. He tells her he cannot reach Otto and that the reaches at war due to the death of Lyman Beesbury at the hand of Kristen Cole. Right. Good callback. Yeah, I really love that.

[01:03:45] Like Kristen's rate. And she gets it right. Like she's like, oh, man, I have given these stupid, stupid men all this power. So for anybody who forgets, Beesbury was the guy who got one of those council balls to the head from Kristen Cole last season.

[01:04:00] Yeah. Kristen took him. He shoved him. Actually, did he get it to the head? I thought he got shoved into the chair. Oh, sorry. OK, so he got a head to the ball. I thought he I thought his neck went through the spike of the chair.

[01:04:13] No, didn't you get the ball in his face? Well, we're going to have to look up the gorilla. All right. Because maybe somebody write it. Somebody write it. How did Lord Beesbury die? Conspiracy theories only. Yeah, wrong answers.

[01:04:26] I think in the book they said like some people said Kristen Cole shoved him into the chair or Kristen Cole killed him. Other people said he was in the dungeons and he died accidentally.

[01:04:36] The what we can agree on is that he was the first that first death in the war. I was like, that's that's a nice way to put it. George knows how to write what he wants to when he wants to.

[01:04:46] I mean, I think, yeah, I think he's a superlative writer and everyone needs to leave him alone. I don't know. He he's due a little pressure after 13 years. Anyway, this whole thing with the the war of the reach,

[01:05:02] of course, we see the Greens sort of causing their own problems yet again. And Allison clocks right away, right? She's like, this isn't what you told me before. Why is he like this? Why is he like this? I mean, yeah, I would.

[01:05:19] Why why is a gone so completely out of it when you told me he was fine like three hours? Right, right. Well, this was what made me suspect that maybe they're intentionally making it worse for because Eamon said to.

[01:05:35] Yeah, oh, I thought so right away, right after Eamon says, hey, he has a long recovery ahead of him, don't you think? Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Wink, wink. Yeah. Yeah. He absolutely was just telling him, go, go take care of my problems for me.

[01:05:50] Also, I just want to call back to David. Wig watch was off this season, this episode on him. His wig line was so visible and I was disappointed. Oh, I didn't notice. I mean, I know.

[01:06:02] I mean, it looks wiggy in his hair was like must because he's having his dream panic, but I didn't notice the wig line. Well, I was on Wig Watch this episode. I know the ringer does that every week.

[01:06:15] I don't usually do that, but this time and and here's the problem. If it stands out to me, then it's really noticeable because I don't really notice. Right. That's fair. Well, anyway, Allison is having a hard time dealing with what's going on with Egon.

[01:06:31] So Allison then goes to another person to ask about her father's whereabouts. Allison offers her blessing to Gwaine, who confirms he's not heard from their father, Otto. Darren, perhaps the most neglected son of Allison and Bessaris, finally gets a mention.

[01:06:47] Gwaine says he is 16 stalwart, clever, adept with loot and sword and the fancy of many a young lady. Above all, he's kind. Allison wonders if that is because of his placement in Old Town or the lack of her presence. Yes, Allison. Yes.

[01:07:04] And I mean, her father wasn't there either for most of this. So that's got to do something, too. Oh, yeah. Otto has traumatized everyone. And she she helped with that generational trauma for sure. Yeah. I mean, I was really glad this scene that Allison and Gwaine

[01:07:19] got to have this conversation because I have the feeling this is the type of conversation they have very rarely been able to have in their life. And at least they got to do this before he, you know, marches off to war. And of course, noticeably crispy.

[01:07:37] Just they just exchange sad, betrayed looks. And yeah, we'll nod. Do we buy a little nod? I mean, and and she says that he was eight when he was left alone in Old Town. That's right. So she'd barely seen him since he was eight. Right.

[01:07:56] Yeah, I mean, I think that's her fault. That's probably why she wanted to do like everything her father wanted, because this was basically the only immediate family presence in her life. Right. I I'm so glad that they finally had like a good conversation

[01:08:11] about Darren, because I was worried. I mean, first of all, it's just so weird that he wasn't mentioned at all. Not even once in season one. But and then he just got like one kind of name drop

[01:08:24] that I think most people wouldn't pick up on earlier this season. So I was worried that like he was going to show up and people who didn't know the book were going to be like, who is this and why should I care?

[01:08:34] So I'm glad we had this conversation. He's going to you know, that meme where like there's there's something driving past and it's just like a car with the music blasting. It's like the dad.

[01:08:45] I feel like that was going to be Darren on his drag and just coming in, coming in hot. Yeah. Well, I like I like that he's he's kind of there. He's kind of here now. Right. In spirit. Yeah. So I mean, presumably they keep mentioning him.

[01:09:00] Presumably he's going to show up on screen. And now I have a much better feeling that people are going to actually know who he is and care to see him. Right. Right. I mean, I'm sure they'll be like, look, it's Darren.

[01:09:11] Darren, Darren, like they're going to they're going to end up one son that doesn't suck. Oh. Yeah. And I really do like that. This is I said this in the beginning, but I really like that this batch of episodes has forced Alison come.

[01:09:27] Into confrontation with her past. Mm hmm. And be like, hey, could I have been better? Like, did I create these monsters? Because she understands now that she's put monsters in power. And I think I think if she got a do over, she might just let Ranira be queen.

[01:09:43] Oh, yeah, for sure. Because I think she sees that like this whole thing didn't really work out like this was a whole bad idea. I did it to support my son, but he sucks. And now well, and I think the worst of it is now that

[01:09:58] the son that she did it in support of who didn't really want to be king in the first place, now he is debilitated because of it. And this whole war and that wouldn't have happened. Right. Right. Yeah, I think the war has caused her nothing but pain.

[01:10:17] And that's really tragic. But also it's just like and it's interesting because you're like, yeah, get your get your justice right. Like the fact that she's now suffering from all her stupid decisions. But at the same time, you're like, OK, but she's still a mother with children.

[01:10:30] And I don't know. Like you do feel badly for her that she has to watch her children be in pain. Yeah. No matter how awful they are. Yeah, I mean, Agan, they made me feel surprising sympathy for this season. Yeah. Certain moments.

[01:10:46] Not all the time, but now and then. Yeah, he's definitely a complex character. I mean, I don't I don't think he's any. Well, he is. It depends. It depends. It's he's on a similar monstrous plane as Jamie. Hmm. In early Game of Thrones.

[01:11:03] Hmm. Yeah. I mean, because I think the natural inclination for a lot of people is to want to compare him with Joffrey. And I do not feel like he's a Joffrey. I think Amon's being much more of a Joffrey now. But even Amon is not Joffrey bad.

[01:11:17] No, no, because Joffrey was like a cartoonish villain. I think Amon is less cartoonish. He's more just like. You know, I'm pretty good with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's getting a little cartoonish, but hopefully like you said, hopefully they balance that out a little bit. Yeah.

[01:11:34] But and I think Kristen is probably the most realistic villain they've ever had. Is this this incel who just failed up? I hate him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's why he that's why he resonates with so many people is like people have known Kristen Coles in their life.

[01:11:50] They may not control armies and be able to break the world, but they've known Kristen Coles at work. Right? Right. They might like control the thermostat in your office or something like that. You know, Kristen Cole might be an energy vampire. Colin Robinson or Colin Robinson.

[01:12:09] I've been meaning to rewatch that show. It's so good. So Helena speaks in riddles now, this is this is a scene I really want to dig into for a minute. Alison invites Helena to light candles for Agon and the lost souls.

[01:12:25] Helena talks about her bug saying this one stopped singing. Isn't that strange? Yeah. Yeah. So I put a little so notion lets you put out these little call out boxes. So I did a little question mark and I said, is this another prophecy? Like who stopped singing?

[01:12:42] Because the thing is her prophecies thus far have been pretty clear to book readers and this one. Yeah, I have no idea. No. I mean, I guess like my first thought is like someone's going to die. But it was like non spoiler alert. Everybody's going to die.

[01:13:01] I don't know. Yeah, this one stops singing. I mean, the what's his face who plays Otto? He said he was interviewed and they're like, who are you? Team Green or Team Black? He's like, I think they're all horrible and I can't wait to see them die. Okay.

[01:13:18] So whether on screen or centuries later, everybody's going to die. Every century later. Okay. Decades later. Right? Yeah. I don't there's, well, Hey, Alice Rivers, there's rumors. Yeah. How old is she? That's a great question. Yeah. I don't, I don't know what's going on here. I wonder.

[01:13:37] Could it be like some, a lot of people are wondering if Lanor died because you know, I was thinking about that too. Cause in, in the book, they haven't established this in the show though. So this could just be book lore,

[01:13:50] but a dragon shouldn't be able to bond while their previous writers alive. I think that they have very strongly implied that Lenore is dead at this point. And maybe that's when, but then why would, cause I thought that that was maybe why see smoke was like freaking out,

[01:14:06] you know, when Raniere was like, I don't know, he's been upset lately. Um, but then yeah, this seems later. So I guess this would be something else. This seems more like a prediction. Yeah. That's the stuff we've seen for her has been future focused.

[01:14:21] That's true. That's true. I wonder, I wonder if somebody is going to like lose the ability of speech or something. All right. I guess let's go to Ulf who feeds his family. Oh no, it's wrong.

[01:14:35] I have to change this in the show guide right now. Hugh feeds his family. Hugh. See, I told you they're easy to confuse. I made this whole big deal before and now here I am. Everybody can at me later. It's fine. It's fixed now already.

[01:14:52] Now I see Hugh has more of a beard. I'm looking at the photo. Yeah. Hugh looks more like a Viking to me. Yeah. He gets a bag of food that was sent by Raniere and fights through a mob before he's almost trampled by Alison and Helena's escort.

[01:15:12] Yeah, I really wanted to make an avatar of the last air, but airbender my cabbages meme just didn't have time today. Good tick tock. Yeah. My cabbages. I, I, I love that show can do no wrong. Yeah, no,

[01:15:27] I'm enjoying it and I heard you talk beef about rewatch podcasts recently. I can't remember where I heard you say that, but I love the avatar avatar, the last airbender rewatch podcast. It's with Janet Carney who played Cora and Dante Bosco who played

[01:15:45] Zuko. It's so good. Okay. All right. Wasn't Zuko also he was also in hook, right? Roofie. Oh yeah. He was Rufio and hook. That's like, you know, the great that's got to go on a list at some point. Yeah. I like that.

[01:16:02] I bet you David hasn't seen it either. No, he has a gap of like 1990 to 2005. That's what I've, that's what I've surmised. I think. Okay. Yeah. All right. So not a lot about the scene, right? They,

[01:16:15] he's just getting pushed off to the side. So let's go to Alison. He's getting mad. He's getting mad. He's getting ready to so mad that he could. So mad that he can get radicalized. Let's say. Right. Okay. So Alison and Helena flee.

[01:16:30] They're forced to flee the stepped when a pro black riot breaks out. They call Alison the queen of fishes and throw one at her. One of the Kings Kings guard slices a hand off one of the small folk,

[01:16:42] leading to increased violence and the death of some of the Kings guard. She Allison and Helena narrowly escape. She the swords and then they all pulling them out. Lady, they are all coming after us. And the behind the scenes thing,

[01:16:58] they said that, that she said that when that fish went in her face, it wasn't real fish. It was a prop, but still it was thrown so hard. Her head went three 60. She said, Oh my gosh. But she was also like, you know,

[01:17:12] just do it. Just go for it. I got to really act it out. You got to really hit me in the face with a fake fish. Oh man. I loved that shot of them running across the courtyard with Helena holding her

[01:17:23] mom's. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It was a, it was cute. The actress, I don't remember her name who plays Helena. She was like, I never get to do the running stuff. Yeah. Never gets to do the running stuff. That's funny. Yeah.

[01:17:34] Fia Saban plays the current iteration of Helena. She said it was a fun scene because it was, she got to do a little action for once. Yeah. I'm sure it looked like a lot of fun.

[01:17:45] Did you recognize any of the Kings guard who died or are we just going generic Kings guard here? I mean, did they, are we sure they died or they just were being mean? I thought I saw a couple of Kings guard on the ground. Okay. Well, I mean,

[01:17:57] I have to assume that it was some of what did you call it? Like the bro guard? I don't know. I don't know if they're with them because I thought they were like sworn to protect the King directly.

[01:18:09] I don't know. We haven't seen them hanging around his bedroom. That's true. But what are they going to protect him from the maesters? Hmm. Well, fair enough. His brother. Yeah. But okay. Yeah. Let's watch them take on a man. Shortest fight ever getting out of there. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:18:29] Laris finally chooses a side. He stops the maesters from giving a man milk of the sorry, a gone milk of the puppy and gives him his backstory. He mentions his father's belief that someone of their household bewitched his foot.

[01:18:43] He tries to align their struggles and insists a gone must keep his mind clear. He says they will underestimate you and this will be your advantage. He also informs a gone that Amon's rule means he is in danger. Now my question here is, is the witch,

[01:19:00] is the person accused of witchcraft on Laris's foot Alice rivers? I assumed yes. I think that's good lore. That's canon now. I mean, but I think it's intentionally vague because then you're like, wait, wow. He was a child. So how old is she? You know?

[01:19:19] Yeah. She has to be a mystical non-aging entity now. I mean, yeah. And also just the fact that she, I, I, and I think the actress is Scottish, but they do seem to be specific about what accents they have people do.

[01:19:35] So the fact that they have her in her Scotch Jackson implies maybe she's from north of the wall or somewhere else, somewhere with the old gods. Yeah. She definitely seems to be in tune with the where would there. She's like the ghost of the where would maybe.

[01:19:51] Yeah. No bird lady standing next to trees like this. This is my people. No. You notice that Laris gave a similar speech to Amen earlier that he gave to Agon in an earlier episode where he's like, Oh, you had, you know, your dad had a hand in auto,

[01:20:07] but now you're a new king in town and you need a new hand. And that's how he ends up with Kristen Cole, stupid choice. Now he goes to Amen and goes, Hey, you need a new hand someone to align with your cunning and whatnot.

[01:20:21] And that's how he gets shut out of town. They're like, bring back auto. Now he's over here and he's like, let me try a new plan because we've already tried this twice now today. And he says, listen, I've got foot. You've got burns. Let's ally here. Hello.

[01:20:41] Yeah. I, it's interesting that he, the way he does it approaches it though, is like withholding the drugs rather than he just, Laris can't help but be creepy even when he's trying to ally with someone, you know, like if I were doing it, I'd be,

[01:20:58] I would take it and immediately say like, I just want to talk to you quickly first while your head is clear. Not like I'm withholding your drugs so that you are forced to listen to me. Yeah. Yeah. He's always very dark,

[01:21:14] always very dark. And yeah, it's a big problem. Big problem because he has trouble winning people over on the merits. I think, I mean, he does kill people when they get in his way. So I would be a little afraid of him anyway. Right. I mean, yeah, he,

[01:21:29] I will never forgive him for killing his brother when they could have just been happy. I know, I know. I think that was, that was probably a formative event for the strong. And I don't think Raniera ever gets with Damon if Harwood strong stays alive. Right. Right.

[01:21:47] What would have happened to Damon without Raniera? Cause I feel like she also grounded him, you know, and gave him also an, like an outlet for the fact that like another way to think about the throne until he started to cover it,

[01:22:01] covered it more for himself. At least he was closer in that way. I just think he would have been so much more unhinged if they hadn't married. Yeah. I think he would have either drunk or ward himself to death.

[01:22:13] You know, we got, we got him picked battles and SOS, or he would have, or just party. My fears are more destructive for other people. Oh really? You think he would have straight up attacked as well. I don't think he ever would have attacked.

[01:22:25] I don't know about attacking Viserys, but just, um, he would have been the enfant terrible with a dragon and to, in a way that ended up pulling down his whole family more or less. Interesting. Interesting. Cause he never wants to make a move against Viserys.

[01:22:44] And Viserys is always like, well, that's my little brother and I love him and he can do no wrong. Yep. Except he consistently does. So. Right. Right. He only deals with Viserys had a thing where he would only deal with the problem when it became huge.

[01:22:58] Right. Right. He, he can just like, uh, the Dutch call it looking through your fingers, you know, where you choose what you see and he chooses not to see the murder cloak. Did you notice that, uh, that, uh, Eamon uses the word lick spittles this episode?

[01:23:18] Do you realize who's the only other person we ever heard say that was a Damon? It was, it was Viserys. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. He says I'm trying to get the, uh, the actual quote. My family has just been destroyed,

[01:23:33] but instead of being by my side or Rhaenrys, you chose to celebrate your own rise laughing with your whores and your lick spittles. And, uh, yeah, I just think it's funny that like Eamon picked up something from his dad. It's a very specific word to use. Yeah.

[01:23:49] That's true. Good point. I wonder if the same writer works on both episodes. Yeah, we should, we should check that out. Um, shall we talk about Viserys a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, um, I think I was glad to see him. I think that, uh,

[01:24:06] there was more emotion in it this time, but I think it would have been better if this whole hallucination of him and hallucinating of him and his family had been more this whole hallucination of him and a hallucination of young Rhaenyra were combined personally. Okay. Yeah.

[01:24:26] I see what you're saying. Like, like mesh them together a little bit, do a little weaving in and out. I think give Damon something else to do. I'm with you on that. I think Damon has been sitting at Heron hall a little bit too long sitting at,

[01:24:38] sitting at haunted summer camp. I think Maya said last night on the hot takes, she said, uh, he's taking LSD in a spirit Halloween. Right. I loved, I loved Maya's takes last night. She, she had fun. I think she,

[01:24:52] she was nervous to come on the air for the first time, but I think she did a good job. Oh, I didn't come across. She was perfect. Well, thank you. Um, so yeah, so Damon is on top of a Emma's body holding Viserys as they both

[01:25:05] cry. Damon tells Viserys he should have been there with him. And then Simon strong wakes Damon from his vision and informs the King consort that Grover Tully has died after Alice Rivers assisted with his treatment. Damon is relieved.

[01:25:22] Yeah. I mean, that feels pretty murdery to me. Oh, just wait three days. Oh, she volunteered. And then he just, you know, she did her bestest to kill him. Right. Right. And do you think that,

[01:25:37] because this is the first time that Alice has ever been referenced by anybody, but Damon, right. Do you think that he was relieved to that? She was a real person. I did see that theory going around that like maybe she wasn't. And I was, I mean,

[01:25:53] I had to bite my tongue because I just had, then I would have questions about other things if that were the case. But, um, I was kind of relieved to at least put that theory to rest. Yeah. I, I kinda like having her be a fake person though.

[01:26:07] And I know I'm a little spoiled by the book, but even the book is a little bit vague about what she is. Well, I mean, I, I have one specific question that I cannot ask if that were the case, but.

[01:26:18] Okay. We can, we can do it on a spoiler pod. That's fine. So now we have Oscar Tully in charge of the Riverlands. I had to update a bunch of the geography pages. Uh, what do you think? Is he going to pledge to Damon now,

[01:26:32] or is he going to do his own thing? I feel like I need to rewatch their last interaction because he said like his hands were tied, but, um, I, I mean, yeah, I can't speculate too much about who's going to take what side, but, um,

[01:26:47] I just wonder what he thinks of Damon. I, the last thing that Damon said to him before the, you know, the confrontation that he showed up at, but didn't really do anything at, um, the last thing that Damon said to him was, well, then what use are me?

[01:27:04] Are you to me that if you can't, if you can't kind of diggish. Yeah. He was, he was not very nice to him at all. So we'll see, but maybe, you know, young man, maybe he wants to feel important and maybe that'll be enough. Right.

[01:27:16] Yeah. I mean, I guess it just depends. I think in a lot of cases it's like, who's going to get there first. Yeah. We shall see. I mean, I'm sure seeing a dragon, he might be like, okay,

[01:27:29] yeah, I'll just, I'll just do what you need me to do. Which dragon? Well, that's why I, I can't believe that Amon's not just like out there riding around. It's like, it's like, look, I have Vagar, everybody lined up behind me and let's just get this over with.

[01:27:46] Get the tape measure out and let's have a dragon measuring contest. And also just like, like how, I don't actually know how long does it take for him to fly from King's landing to the West, you know,

[01:28:00] to go tell Jason, like get your shit together and let's go. It's a good question. Wasn't there a thing when like Ja'Harris first took power that he chose to have like a procession or progress through the whole kingdom and he wouldn't go

[01:28:15] on dragon? It would take, it would be too quick. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is supposed to be relatively, I don't know if we ever get like an exact, uh, how, how fast does a unladen dragon fly? Yeah. Is there like an equation? Like, you know,

[01:28:31] this is the load on the dragon. Here's how much the rider weighs. Here's how much the dragon weighs. Here's the wing circumference. And I don't know what to the Westerosi kids learn in physics. Exactly. It's the, it's the, uh, it's the Valerian theorem. Yeah.

[01:28:47] They take their physics classes right after their psychology classes, referencing our conversation earlier. All right. Let's go to Adam meeting. See smoke. Speaking of dragons, Adam sees, see smoke flying above the beach. He works on, he runs, but see smoke follows him bringing his face close to Adams.

[01:29:07] What a great shot we got of see smoke finally like a nice, really nice full on headshot. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, what's his face who plays Adam is, it was very impressive. He did all of his own stunts for this. By the way, Quentin Liberty. Thank you. Um,

[01:29:24] he apparently like did take after take just did not lose his breath like a Supreme athlete. But for me, what really impressed me was, you know, he's scared because his dragon suddenly chasing him out of nowhere.

[01:29:37] And then he's at this point that you have pictured here where he's up against the rock and see smoke is like leaning down and getting more in his face. And you saw Adam's face, like the fear wiped away and was replaced by wonder.

[01:29:51] And I thought that was really great acting because also knowing he was looking at like a green, like a styrofoam thing or whatever. Yeah, that's true too. I mean, it's always really impressive. I always think back to that,

[01:30:04] that footage of Ian McKellen sitting in a green screen room that's supposed to be back in both Hobbit and he's just miserable. He's just, he almost quit. He said, really? He said it. He said it was the worst filming experience he ever had. And he almost quit. Wow.

[01:30:19] And, and Peter Jackson had to like get him a gift bag and like go and try to woo him over because he was, he was really mad about it. He's, he said this is not my craft to talk to an empty room. Oh, well,

[01:30:34] if you're in a fantasy film. Yeah. But I, I see what he's saying. Right? Like, because in the, in the Lord of the Rings, they were all like, Hey, let's do all these perspective shots. That way we're actually interacting.

[01:30:43] And it's weird to pretend you're at a party with a bunch of dwarves and a Hobbit and and have that in. I think it's different if you have this little scene that is just staring at a dragon rather than like a half hour, a scene with Hobbits.

[01:30:57] He gets to run around like real landscape, you know? Yeah. He's not just in like a sensory deprivation room. Right. Okay. Now I'm excited about this. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's going to be awesome. I think it's to be really awesome.

[01:31:10] Cause I knew like once we had the Sir Stephan Darklin failure, I was like, okay, this is happening early enough in the episode. We need to have a success by the end of the episode. Otherwise nobody's going to want to try this dragon thing.

[01:31:25] Right. And I liked that it's an accidental success. They didn't try to write somebody else on it. Very cool stuff. And also because, you know, the thing with, with Sir Stephan Darklin is he is noble born and that's was their first

[01:31:38] inclination. Is there not like, let's think about what blood is strongest. They're like, let's think about who has the titles. Which is stupid because, okay, there's two stupid things about it. One is don't you think it would be harder for a bastard to take power with a

[01:31:55] dragon than it would be for someone already with a title? Like wouldn't you want to take somebody with low birth? So that you could control them a little more. But also, but the optics of, you know, then it's like,

[01:32:07] if there's no difference between low birth and high birth, then how do you hold your position? It's a good question. It's a good question. The other question I have is Raniera, you fucking know you have bastard sons that are dragon riders.

[01:32:20] You know that that works. Right. Go find some bastards. Yeah. But they are her sons. So, you know, yeah, that's true. That's true. Shall we do the final scenes? Yes. All right. Raniera gets action before taking action.

[01:32:37] Raniera and Massaria discuss Damon before Massaria reveals the abuse of her father. The two begin to kiss but are interrupted by the news that Seasmoke has been spotted over Spicetown with a rider. Raniera seeks the rider on Cyrax.

[01:32:52] Okay. I mean, I already said my piece about the Raniera Massaria thing. I do definitely, I read an interview in Variety and I listened to the official podcast and that made me feel better about it. And, and I agree like, you know,

[01:33:08] you should feel better without having to have interviews, but it doesn't matter. That's the mental evolution I've been on. I'm onboard interested to see where this goes. I did get a little frustrated about where they cut off at the end.

[01:33:21] It reminded me of like the conversation that we had about the acolytes at the end of where I was like, no, but then, you know, the next part's going to be the fight that's going to go on the whole episode.

[01:33:33] And I know that this is going to be something similar. It's going to be some big scene, but I just wanted to like see them circle each other in the air or just something or her to be like, who are you? Yeah. I think it would be,

[01:33:44] it would have been nicer if they had that meeting just before the end, you know, cut out, cut out like one of the two Damon visions and give me that. Thank you. Exactly. Like, can we please get a bailer scene instead of, I mean,

[01:33:58] I'm glad Patty comes to nine's back, but is that this the best use of him? I don't know. I think that the acolyte and house of the dragon this season have had a bit of pacing issues.

[01:34:08] Whereas some episodes have been like total bangers and others have just been really slow and well, that's okay to an extent. I think it's better if you can give me something chew on every episode. So you haven't found,

[01:34:20] I thought if the acolyte had pacing issues, it was on the fast side, which makes sense given the run times. Okay. All right. Fair enough. We can agree to disagree. Yeah. I've given my thoughts on this, this shipping of Miss Aria and Raniera. I'm,

[01:34:35] I'm not saying I'm against Raniera falling in love with a women woman. I'm not against that at all. I don't like it with this woman. I don't think they had chemistry. No. So, okay. So last season,

[01:34:48] one of the things that I wrote in my head that did not come into fruition, but is based on book stuff is I thought that there was going to be like a something between her and Lena and Damon, because there are hints in the book in that direction.

[01:35:02] And then I just really felt my biggest, one of my biggest issues with last season, maybe the biggest one was, I just felt like Lena's character got short shrifted. She didn't. Yeah. I wanted more time for her.

[01:35:15] I wanted her to get to do more of her book stuff. But anyway, so when I first saw this kiss, I was like, are they just throwing a bone to people who are upset about that? Um, I'm convinced now that that's not the case. So yeah,

[01:35:28] I don't, I don't know. I don't know what the motivation is between behind putting this in and I'll say you could probably convince me of the storyline if it goes somewhere interesting. It's just at this point, I'm like, ah, just feels a little lazy.

[01:35:42] I mean, I guess it's just Raniera is mad at her husband. What is the worst thing she could do then hook up with his ex? Cyrus on the discord quoted Sadie also on the discord and said, uh, is Miss Aria the first to ride two living dragons?

[01:36:05] That's kind of funny. Miss Aria has done well for herself in many ways. Yeah. Right. Good for her. Good for her. Anyway, it's certainly not a show breaking thing. I don't prefer it, but that's fine. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's true.

[01:36:19] It certainly fits within the confines of the books because you know, nobody was in Raniera bedroom mostly writing. Yeah. Oh yeah. Listen, I am not the person that's going to be like, whoa, it was different in the book because we're already far past that. Right.

[01:36:33] I just want things to make sense within the show. Right, right, right, right. And to me they did not sell me on this. They had one compliment earlier in the episode and that was the only inclination that there was anything like this.

[01:36:44] I also think that we should just let someone have a close friend every now and then without making it be sexual. Right. Anyway, like I'm, I'm 99% sure Damon is being suggested as going to become sexual with Alice rivers at this point. And it does feel like that,

[01:37:06] that again, that I would be like, ah, I see, I see more chemistry there actually, but I still don't want it. No, I felt like that from the moment that she walked in when he first

[01:37:16] showed up at Heron hall, I was like, Oh, that was kind of like a, I, yeah. And I'm biting my tongue, but um, he has no patience for the lick spittles and she is not one. Oh yeah, this is true.

[01:37:29] But could she also just be purely manipulating him to tear apart this whole war? That is very possible. It's very possible. All right. Well, that's it on the episode. I think any other thoughts? Um, I am once again, like,

[01:37:50] I feel like I'm in the same place where at the end of the last episode, I was like, Oh, I'm so excited. We're finally getting to the part I'm really excited about. And now I'm like, okay, no, well now I'm so excited.

[01:38:00] We're finally getting to the part I'm really excited about. So, uh, next week. Yeah. I, why I want there to be more dragon seed action. And, um, I want Damon to do something new. Um, but overall, you know, this is a great show. Like we're just,

[01:38:16] I nitpick it because it's an IP I care about so much. Like anyone who doesn't know, I have a pet named after this universe, you know, like, uh, this is one of my favorites.

[01:38:29] It's a very good universe. I went fan bankrupt after game of Thrones, but I, uh, I came back for house of the dragon and he put some money back in my account. I even don't hate the last season of game of Thrones.

[01:38:41] And that's it for the episode folks. All right. And new announcement, at least she's left. All right. Let's talk about what's coming up on the lore hounds network. Of course you just put out the accolade season one, episode eight feedback. Right.

[01:38:59] Where I finally showed up to work and uh, we had a, we had a good time with a long feedback episode, but it was fun. Yeah. Well, we also, we had some long deep conversations about adjacent things like the nature of social work and yeah.

[01:39:14] That's true. I thought it was a good, a very good conversation as it always is with you, Alicia. And we had to catch up also on your takes since, uh, since you, since I did the, uh, the recap solo. Right. Well, it was a good episode.

[01:39:28] And then tomorrow you and I are going to record with John and Marilyn and maybe David, I don't think so though. No, not David, but I'm, uh, hopefully going to work out something where he can like pre-recorded little thing that we can use.

[01:39:40] Okay, cool. Well, tomorrow we're going to be recording the, uh, the season wrap up of the acolyte. And I just, I know you have plans because you asked me what the maximum amount of sounds you

[01:39:50] can have on soundboard was. And I was like, Oh God, what is she doing here? But the thing is like, we already take up four slots just with the intros and outros and middle music and stuff. So yeah, I think you can leave six.

[01:40:04] I'm sick of hot lore summer so you can get rid of that. Oh yeah, no, that's there. There's no room for that because I have, I have to bring back the sounds that I have and maybe make some new ones. Fair enough.

[01:40:15] So we have a feedback episode for house of the dragon this week that you'll also be on and we have to figure out when we're recording that too. I don't remember if we set a date already and a second breakfast,

[01:40:27] I'm finally going to edit it. It was recorded last week, but it'll be out this week on international breakfast. That's for subscribers only. So if you're not a patron or supercast subscriber, get on there. You have another week to get on as a $3 a month member.

[01:40:42] And if you get on is that price, you will always have that price. We will never raise the price on you, but only one more week. And then it's going to be $5 minimum. So definitely check that out in the link tree and the show notes.

[01:40:54] And then yeah, you can check out last month's the fifth element. Yay. And next week's karate kid. Yay. I'm looking forward to the karate kid. I, my only issue with the karate kid is it was supposed to be the the brat pack

[01:41:09] pick. That was like the least brat pack film on the list. I know, but it's so topical right now. Yeah, I know. Cobra Kai is out. We got the, the, the new entry into the movies. It's, it's,

[01:41:21] it's right in the news. We gotta do it. And as far as affiliates, Alicia, you have a new book club episode coming out for your subscribers over at shift dust. Yeah. Third shift. So the third and final parts of the second book in the trilogy, the breakdown.

[01:41:40] I got to listen to that cause I did actually listen to, I did actually read that book. Okay. Well the first two parts are out. Very nice. Very nice. Um, and then star Wars kind of timeline podcast, same deal feedback for, uh, for the, uh, the acolyte.

[01:41:57] And don't forget you can only get the wrap up on the lore house feed because it's spoilery. Yes. And it's going to be, it's in the cannon pound one, uh, feed as well. Nice. But you can get it for freezes on the law. All right. And then lastly,

[01:42:11] I just want to mention rings and rituals is doing a feedback episode this week. So that'll be out on Wednesday. You will be able to hear answers to all your questions for Marilyn and Sarah on the rings of power season one. So get pumped.

[01:42:26] And next week we're doing a Deadpool and Wolverine. I know I just had to move my ticket, but I'm seeing, have you ever heard of screen X? I think that's what it's called. Oh, um, I, you know what, I've seen it. Like when I go to buy tickets,

[01:42:42] there's not one in Amsterdam, but I think there's one in another city nearby, but I don't really know what it is. Okay. Apparently I had to look this up because they were multiple things. And I was like, Oh, that looks interesting. And it was like the same price.

[01:42:53] So I look it up and it's like they, it's like IMAX where, you know, IMAX like vertically expands a little bit, but they have like projections on the sides of the walls so that you can, you get like a little bit of a,

[01:43:08] I think it's a two 70 degree view. It's like a, yeah, I don't know if it's good. I'll report back if it's bad. Then if it's a gimmick, then I'll report back to. Yeah, no, I'm curious. You know, what's fun sometimes is the 40 X.

[01:43:22] Like the first time I went, well, it's been such a mixed bag when I go. One of the times I went, I saw one of like the, uh, what's it called the magical creatures, the Harry Potter thing. Um,

[01:43:33] and it was raining the whole movie. So it's just like raining on us, the whole movie, even though it was also raining outside. It was like, what am I doing here? Oh my gosh. The, um, I remember being, uh,

[01:43:46] very small and the rug rats go wild movie came out. Remember that one? Yeah. They, I think it was at like Burger King. If you got one of their kids meals, they would give you a scratch and sniff that went along with the different

[01:44:01] scenes in the movie, right? Including like, it was disgusting and, and the whole movie theater, I got one and then I went to the movie theater and the movie theater smelled like ass the entire time. And, uh,

[01:44:15] that was the only time I ever had a scratch and sniff with a movie. Oh, my sister was really into rug rats. All right, Alicia, I'm going to play you sea breeze for C smoke. You want to do the shout outs?

[01:44:30] All right, here we go. Oh, our discord server boosters. Thank you. Narls, Aaron K. Tiller, the thriller dork of the ninjas, do 71 captain Gingy 56 and Athena Adelaide. And thank you also, especially to our lore masters, some Martian, Michael G. Michelle E. David W.

[01:44:57] Brian P S C Peter O H. Betina W Adam S Nancy M do 71 Brian, 80 63 Frederick H Sarah L. Gareth C Eric F Matthew M Sarah M DJ Miwa Andra B Kwong U Jedi Jedi Bob Nathan T Alex V Aaron T sub zero Aaron K Dali V Mothership 61

[01:45:27] Narls Cathy W Stuart B Jeffrey B News Loremaster Elisa U and always last, Adrian. Namaste. I almost put on another one because I was like, this is this is too ridiculous. And then I was like, should we go into in the arms of an angel?

[01:45:55] Yeah, that is what it sounds like. Spend all your time waiting. All right. All right. It's been a night and I hope everyone had a great time with us. You can, of course, come and send in feedback.

[01:46:10] HOTD at the lorehounds dot com or go to the lorehounds dot com slash contact or go on our Discord server. Nancy M, our hand of the pod will help us get your feedback into the document. We'll be recording that later in the week.

[01:46:22] So for now, we'll see you on the other side. Ciao. The Lorehounds podcast is produced and published by the Lorehounds. You can send questions and feedback and voicemails at the Lorehounds dot com slash contact. Get early and ad free access to all Lorehounds podcasts at Patreon dot com

[01:46:41] slash the Lorehounds. Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities. Thanks for listening. OK, David, this is where we're supposed to choose a side, green or black. John, my soul is as black as night.

[01:47:04] Your turn. I am black for life. So we're not fighting. I thought this is where HBO wanted us to pick sides and fight and stuff. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find plenty to disagree about on the pod. But we seem to agree on one thing.

[01:47:18] We both really like this show. The politics, the drama, the lore. It was made for the Lorehounds. And since we just finished recapping season one, we couldn't be more ready to defend our black queen in the Dance of the Dragons.

[01:47:31] And with the season pass option in Supercast, listeners can get early ad-free access to each weekly scene by scene deep dive. Plus our custom show guide with all the characters and connections. See you in the Lorehounds podcast feed each week for our dragonfire hot, but probably positive takes.

[01:47:49] The Lorehounds House of the Dragon coverage is also safe for team green consumption. Side effects may include a deeper understanding of dragon lore, a heartened conflict with itself and an inescapable urge to read the book Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin. Dragon seeds may experience burning.