Bros & Shows - Daemon's Mom Has Got it Going On (Part 1 of 2) (House of The Dragon s02ep05 Full Recap)

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

What's up Bros? In part 1 of our recap, the cast is dealing with the loss of Rhaenys. Corlys finds himself alone at Driftmark, Rhaenyra struggles with allowing those around her to fight her battles. The smallfolk in Kings Landing are facing food shortages and a bad omen as Criston Cole continues to suck and parades a decapitated dragon head through the streets of Kings Landing. Aegon appears to be alive but only barely and the Iron Throne sits vacant for the time being. Criston Cole is struggling to find his way after realizing just how irrelevant he and other foot soldiers are when it comes to dragon war. Rhaenyra feels as though her council is not following her and is doing her best to maintain control over her people. Jace flies to the Frey after frustration boils over from him not being able to contribute to the fight and ends up enlisting the Frey's at the Twins in exchange for Harrenhall. Meanwhile, Daemon sets the Blackwoods on house Bracken to get them to fall in line in an attempt to gain a toehold in the Riverland's. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex, Plathom, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best hapice in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca.com. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is an eight-episode Hulu original limited series that blends gripping pacing with emotional complexity, offering a dramatized look as it revisits the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox for the tragic murder of Meredith Kircher and the relentless media storm that followed.

The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is now streaming only on Disney Plus. As there is a drive in a deep left field by Castellanos, it will be on. man, it's 8 o'clock. And so that'll make it a... Good morrow, good brethren, and welcome back to thy favorite podcast from thy brethren for thy brethren. I am your co-host, Sir Steele of Lafayette, joined as always by the one and only, Sir Goots of Fairmount. how art thou this fine moan? I struggled through that.

Yeah, that was good. It was a lot better. You didn't call anybody small folk this time, so that's good. Well, we are all small folk, aren't we? We are. We are smaller than dragons. We definitely are smaller than dragons. Yep, except for the dragons that Lady Aaron got.

Hey, oh, sick burn. But there's a lot to be said about the smaller than dragons thing. We'll talk about that when we get into it. But welcome back to another House of the Dragon recap. This week was a little bit more. I will not call any of these filler episodes. This is important exposition. This is things that we need to address.

There needs to be some of these sprinkled throughout. It can't be action all the time. No, it's going to happen as soon as we get our first dragon fight. It's not like we're going to get a second one right away. So everybody hold your horses. Hold your dragons. Hey now. Rar.

But this is all important plot. There's a lot of things. It's more of a set-up episode. That's what it is. Yeah. Don't call a filler. It's a setup episode. We need all of this information.

We need to see the psyche of everybody. This show is more than just dragons and fighting. It's nuanced. You've got to see how the people are operating, what pieces are being moved, what the mental state of your team might be, whether you're team green or team black. I'm curious if anybody out there is team green.

There's got to be some contrarians. Yeah, there's definitely some contrarians out there. As you sit here with a green shirt. Wait a minute. I thought it was yellow. Whoops. My bad. Shooter's colorblind.

if you guys didn't know, like, really colorblind, not like half colorblind, like super duper colorblind. But he also doesn't care for when people go, what color is this? Yeah, it's, it's one of the worst things ever. That's why I don't tell anybody. Really, your colorblind? What color is the sky? Shut up.

It's blue, but it looks purple. Yep. That would be kind of sick, actually. What color is the sky for you? Blue? Oh, it is? Yeah. Okay.

That's not fun. No. What's something, like, big that you see? Anything in context, like, I know the grass is green. know that. No, no, I understand that, but does it look green? It's not really how the brain works, I don't think. I know that it's green, so yeah, it looks green. Oh, yeah. You can beat colorblindness by knowing the color of something? Yeah. Wait a minute. And then you apply that to other. It's, it's, it's, it's,

House of the Dragon. Let's talk about that. No, no, no. Anywho, I enjoyed this episode a lot. I think that something that House of the Dragons does and Game of Thrones does so particularly well above so many other shows is actually allowing you to feel the tone of the episode. They're able to portray it in such a way that you understand the feeling that they're trying to go for. This is supposed to be restless where you're uneasy, you're figuring out what's next, who's moving, who, who's going to attack who. And I love that they're able to do that so well that you actually feel that. the tension throughout the episode, or at least I did. Yeah, nothing gets you going and nothing makes you feel a little tense and uneasy, like a little Oedipus action.

A little Oedipus action. Very, very, very, discreet eipus action. Arguably too much, especially when they, I thought that's who that was, and then they say that's who that was. I was like, no, gross, George R.R. Martin, you dirtbag. I don't even know if that's really his fault. I think HBO took some liberties there. That is, no, no.

That is George R.R. Martin. To a T. This would be good. Yeah. You got to bang his mom. Shock and all. Yeah, Targaryens. That's what they do.

Everybody knows it. But it's funny that we have no issue with Damon and Renera being married. Well, I actually, it's funny because I saw a meme that, like, had the breakdown of what we find gross and what we enjoy and we go for. At the bottom, obviously, as you get closer to the bottom, it's Jamie and Circe. And you're like, oh, no, absolutely not. I still remember that scene of them in the tower when Brom falls off. Yeah. Bram?

Fuck. I thought I was so confident. Brann? Damn. I was like, I got this one. It's been a while. Ran and Bronn? Yeah.

And throw an M in there somewhere. Damn. I was so close. I was so proud of myself. You know how hardness for me to remember names? Samsa Stark. Swimmy. Sansa and Sam.

Salonite? Samsonite? I was way off. Bron. Damn it. Brann. Damn it. You're still off.

Ah, you know what I mean. My point is I still say. that scene in my head because I remember that was the first time watching that show. I was like, yeah, now this one's a new low for incest. Truer words, never spoken. But let's jump into this episode. And we're starting out with multiple characters, Morning Rainies. And we started with Corliss, who is standing at Drift Mark.

And there's just nothing there for him is the vibe that I got. Like, that was his everything. And we saw their relationship throughout the last two seasons. they were closer than anybody on this show. It was an actual loving relationship. They lived and died for each other. So it seems to me that that scene signifies there's nothing left for him in Drift Mark. I don't think he cares anymore.

Well, it's really interesting, too, because obviously this is a civil war between the Targaryens, and no one has lost more than Corlis. Yeah, he has nothing to do now. He has nothing to do. His wife's gone. His kids are gone. His grandchildren are kind of scattered, and they have different purposes that just don't align with what he's doing, which is a big part of this episode.

So he is completely alone. And obviously last week we got to see Alan, who is his bastard. Love Alan. Love Alan. We know his brother Adam, probably another Coralist bastard. Maybe he'll bring them into the fold to just try to fill out Drift Park a little bit because there's no one there. You have to.

I think that was the nod later when he says to Bayla, I want you as my heir. And the response there was, I'm blood and fire. You need was sea and salt. Yeah. So I think that was nodding to Adam and Allen Where it's like those guys literally are playing in the sea Every time we see them

Or next to a boat that makes more sense So I think we're going to get a lot more of that We also get Reneira talking to J. Slater And they're talking about all of the blood lines That still have Targary and blood in them So I think that's what this episode's alluding to Is there's more players about to enter the game Dragon Seeds

I still don't like that No, it's not cool Okay. I think that it sounds cool to you. To me, it sounds gross and yucky. Yeah. And then you said snake seed. And I really didn't like that.

Yeah, that was too much. I took that one too far. I'll take that one back. But we move on to the market at King's Landing, and if you notice, the fruit's rotten, they're rationing out, like this nasty stew or whatever, just showing you the state of the realm and what it's in right now. And you get Malesce coming through the town, the head of Males's cut off. they're screaming that Agon killed him

and Kristen Cole is leading the charge this was his idea clearly like oh we're going to parade around a dead dragon everyone's going to love this they're going to hoist me up they're going to hoist up Agon they hate it everyone sees this as a bad omen they forgot that Males was once a friend of the realm

a friend of Kings Landing so seeing her dead well I'm going to I'm going to pump the brakes on that one the last time that Males was in Kings Landing she broke through the fucking and could have killed Agon could have killed Aegon but did kill a lot of small folk. Sure.

Okay, fair. But still, Males was a friend in the Kings Landing for the most of her life, yeah. You understand what I'm saying. The point being, they thought this was going to be some shining moment where it's like, oh, we won. We won this big battle. As we saw, nobody really won. Both sides suffered great losses there.

We found out they lost 900 men during that battle. So this, to me, just shows you that the stability of Kings Landing, the support in Kings Landing, as faltering. Yeah. Not only that, but it also obviously sets up something that we know

from Game of Thrones where we heard a story. I think it was maybe Robert Barthian that was telling this story about how towards the end of the Targaryen dynasty or actually they went for another hundred years

but the end of the dragons, the last dragon was the size of a dog. And that's because they stormed the free people, stormed the dragon pit and killed all the dragons. Right. So now you're seeing,

hey, of a dragon, so they're not gods, as one of the guys says to Hugh Hammer, oh, I thought they were gods. They're not. They're just meat. You can kill them whenever you want to. You just have to have the numbers to do it, or another dragon, obviously, hiding under a castle. That would be helpful to. But they're starting to see now that, yeah, this is a really dumb move by Kristen Cole, because you're showing that dragons, the biggest power in this entire land, they're vulnerable. They're vulnerable, which leads people further to say, well, they're vulnerable. Targaryans are vulnerable. So we are not as protected as we once thought, or they're all omnipotent

power that we believed this bloodline had is not real. You're losing the guise of they are untouchable by showing a dead dragon. Now, I would have liked, and again, I mean, you can't say enough about Kristen Cole's hand of the king. Dude is having a historic run right now. Oh, yeah, I know. An absolutely historic run. I still would have loved if maybe some of the people that were watching the procession pointed at the box and was like, hey, what's in there? What's that box? What's that box? Who's in there?

Somebody? What's in the box? What's in the box? Come on. Show us the box. It's Agon. It's a guy. He's not doing well.

No. His armor is melted to his skin. And that's Valerian steel. Yeah. Must be hot to burn that. It's probably not easy to get off a skin as we see. It was not that difficult. It was, I could have done without the subtitles saying pus squelches.

Oh, I didn't see that. I didn't see that. It happened a couple times. That would have bothered me. Yeah, it did bother me. But to counter you, I thought that it was really, the guy took like a dagger off the shelf. I was like, like, popped it off.

That wasn't that hard. Yeah, that's a good point. I thought they got to like, you know, I thought we were going to have a really gross scene with like, like, cutting it off. They have to like reheat it to get it off. And squelching is squelching. You know what I'm saying?

I'm glad we didn't get overly squelched. Yeah. But let's keep trucking. And we get Allison and Amand. And Allison notices that he's carrying Agon's dagger. and the Kingsguard carries Agon in and that stupid thing. And they open it up and that's where we start to see the damage that was done, the fused armor to his skin.

And initially, it was interesting because I feel like they're showing Allison is struggling to figure out who she is, where she stands. And we get more of that later at the council. But while she stands there, initially she seems somewhat indifferent by the whole thing. And as they start pulling the armor off and she sees how much damage was done, she starts to elicit some kind of emotion. And I think this whole episode for her is who am I? I think that's a lot of people in this episode, honestly, the more you think about it, a lot of people are confused about what their role is. And for her personally, am I a mother? Am I the

queen? Am I supposed to be tough? Am I supposed to be motherly? I don't know what the hell I'm doing because I've never been good at this. Yeah, and it's also one of those. I have to take responsibility in some way, at least internally, because I set this in motion. Yeah, that's a good point. This is all me. I put my son in this position where now he is burnt to a crisp and may never wake again. He's a little crispy, but a little soggy. Little crispy and soggy. How about that? Soggy.

Top layer is crispy. It's like cereal. Top layer is a little crispy. Agon is cereal. That's what we've gotten to. See, you came here for the deep analysis. Agon is cereal. There you go.

But Aymand immediately steps up, and I don't want to pat myself on the back, but I have been saying all season, he wants to be king. He steps up immediately and says, someone's going to have to rule in his stead. So setting up what happens later. But we get to Kristen, Colin, Allison, and that's where we get the rundown of Rook's Rest. You know, we took the castle, 900 men died. What do you want to know? Like, why are you talking to me about this is pretty much the vibe? And I said, well, what about Agon?

He's like, you fought valiantly. What about Aymand? Couldn't say, don't know. Yeah, as if that doesn't point to all of the answers that you already have, right? because Allison this entire season has been saying things to Reneer and to others, you know, or I know what Amid is, you know what Amid is.

So you know what Amid is. And now when something like this happens, you start to question yourself. And if Kristen Cole's not going to say, Amund is the reason that we won, which he is. Otherwise, he wouldn't have won. You could have said something like that.

Instead, he just kind of shudders. Like, ooh, I can't do it. My guy had a menti brie. Menti brie. Menti Brie. Menti Brie? Menti Brie. Menti Brie.

Menti Brie. I like, actually. I'll say menti brie. Yeah. Menti Brie. Menti Brie. Mr. Cole is suffering right now. He just watched, which is the same thing that we saw in Game of Thrones at Jamie Lannister.

Dragons are on a completely different level. He just lost 900 men in like 10 minutes. There was a huge dragon battle. The Kingsdown. I don't know what the hell's going on. What am I doing here? I'm cleaning my sword with a lemon right now. Yeah.

Which actually is accurate. That's what they do. That's not surprising to me. But it was just the funniest image to me. It's like, I don't know what to do. I'm going to cut this. You can't even look at you in the eye right now. Do you think he cut the lemon with his sword?

Probably as a dagger. That would be a funnier scene if you just see this big sword like and then he cleans it off. I wish we got that. I imagine it would take a couple lemons, right? You can't just use the juice of one lemon. That depends how big your sword is. I'd like to see like a medieval juicer, like a handheld like squeeze. I imagine it's fairly similar to what we have today.

That's not like, we really haven't moved that much, have we? Really haven't moved that much. I don't actually seen a medieval juicer. That's just my thought. and feelings on the matter. But we keep going. And Reneira is at Dragonstone, and they're recapping everything, trying to figure out where they stand what the fuck's going on throughout the realm.

And the biggest dragon that they have is gone. Kristen Cole is continuing to sack the Crownlands, although he's back at King's Landing for now. So I don't know if his army's still out doing his bidding. Yeah, I mean, he did say that he left a small garrison of men at Rooks for us. He made it seem like it's... And Sunfire is still there, which is important. Sunfire is still there.

Sunfire can't travel. They believe, Reneer believes that Sunfire's dead. Not dead. Not dead. Just very wounded. Sunfire's still chilling there. That'll come back into play later, I believe.

I imagine it would, yeah. But Sir Alfred has had a chip on his shoulder from day one. And Renira asks him flat out, like, you got a problem? What's your problem? And he says, look, I don't have an issue with your wit. I'm not questioning your capability. but the gentlest sex is not privy to military strategy. Good rebuttal, you've seen no more battles than me.

So this is all just about the fact that she's a woman, and it all really ties into the fact that Damon is not there. Yes. There's a split between you and Damon, and I think everybody understands that this war will not be won while you two are not on the same team. Someone needs to step up and take control of this situation, or you guys need to come back together.

Yeah, and it's funny, too, because they all know, which is very interesting. Well, I guess they kind of know now, but they do all know that Reneer is sending Ravens to Damon, and he's just not answering. Yeah, he's not replying. But nobody's saying, is Damon even alive? What happened to him?

Why is he not responding? They have to know, right? Yeah, you can't. Well, they would have seen it, right? Yeah. It's the number one rule of Game of Thrones. Yeah, you've got to see somebody die if they're going to die. But, yeah, it's very funny that that's what they're blaming.

And obviously, they know that they're clearly just not on the same page. Damon's doing whatever the hell he's doing out there. And I feel like a lot of these guys, especially on the small council, they obviously are sticking to their oaths because either they have to or they wanted to, but without Damon there, that's not what they signed up for. No, they're not, they're still pledging allegiance, if you will. Yeah, because, look, they can't leave. No, but they're not being very understanding or helpful. Everything's met with resistance. They're not giving her the respect that a queen should get in that kind of situation.

So it's an interesting dynamic. And she just wants to, and I think that this is true for all of our main characters for the most part. All she wants to do is step up and I think part of that is she feels like she's left out of the fight.

She's sending people out to die in her stead. But I think another part of it is let me show you what I'm capable of doing. You guys all question me and by doing that by stepping up and burning a thousand soldiers and coming back alive, maybe then you'll stop questioning everything I'm doing.

But again, we just saw what happens when the head honcho rides in the battle he gets scorched and we can't allow that to happen because if you go down this whole thing's for naught yeah so no you can't go you got to stay here you're the queen yeah you don't do that and she's doing too it's really funny too because she wants to go yes but then when jace offers to go she won't let him go right and that's probably just a reflection of her because if i'm stuck up here there's no way that I'm going to let you go. Obviously, Luke died the last time that somebody left, but I'm not going to let you

go with people dying left and right, but I'll go. It's like, no, you don't realize that like if you die, it's over. Nothing really matters. It literally is done. I mean, you still have Damon, but he's walking around the halls of Heron Hall lost. He's having visions of his mom. I'm getting to the point now where I'm

done with the Harren Hall thing. I think that we're entertaining and it was good and I know this is how Game of Thrones operates and Game of Thrones universe operates. They do tend to draw things out for a little longer, we're just seeing him delve further into madness. And yeah, he starts talking about other things, whatever. But I don't need it anymore.

I need him to get back in any normal situation after what just happened to Rainis. He would probably figure something out and get back. Yeah, and I think I understand the artistic approach to it, if you will, is watching this fierce warrior who is feared throughout the entire realm. Like everyone in Westeros is scared of Damon, watching him be made to be completely irrelevant. losing his mind and not and not acting as we've seen Damon act in the past. His responses to people are different.

He's in this big spiral. He doesn't know what the hell he's doing. So I understand what they're doing. And I agree with you. This one's a little drawn out. Yeah. But I will say this about Game of Thrones. When they do draw things out, the payoff tends to be massive and almost makes all of it worth it.

Yeah. So I'm looking forward to when he gets back into the fight. There's no way that he doesn't. I bet he's there the entire season. No way. I bet you the finale, something happens and he comes back. I don't think so. Or the penultimate or whatever,

because they tend to do like big battles and stuff before the episode before. But I guess we'll find out. I don't know. I don't know. I hope. No. My bet is he comes back next week in some capacity. I hope so.

Because Sir Alfred's going there. Maybe that leads to a meeting with Reneer and then the following episode. Who knows? I don't know. Speculation's dumb. During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures and see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace

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Accords. Mutine is not a statement, but a knowing glance, a sweet rebellion, lighthearted and laced with wit, a gesture made for oneself. Discover the new fragrance, Mutine, now available in Canada. But we get Bela and Jace, and Jace is headed to Heron Hall to affirm that Damon is still Team Reneera, and also he wants to get into the fight. He's sick of being put to the sidelines. I will say my, and obviously this is important because, again, what I just said before, Reneer is not letting Jace go. Jace really wants to go. He's going to go behind her back.

Bala's going to support him as his betrothed, of course. And they're doing it the right way, I feel like. They're trying to figure things out and they team up and I like it. They're a good power couple. My one big gripe, I yelled at my TV, kiss. Yeah. Kiss. What the hell?

Kiss. I don't want to watch Damon and his mom. I don't watch this. Yeah. Or a smooch. Well, yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, a smooch. I want to watch this.

I like to watch this. watch you fucking creep but you're right i mean he just wants to act and he's headed to the fray because as the graybeards march from winter fell they'll have a direct path in if they can go through the fray so they we know yeah just don't marry anybody yes but head that way so he's going over to try to see if he can find a way through for the army so that they can start to get an army they don't have anybody yet no i know that's what i keep thinking to is Yeah, you've got, last week, we're like, oh, yeah, rooks for us, there's a bunch of people.

Yeah, you can bring a dragon over there and probably squash them, sure. But if you ever have to meet them in the field, who do you have? Literally, literally zero. Just have a Kingsguard, which is even funnier. Why has Amon's not just gone to Dragonstone? Why isn't anybody just gone? I guess the dragons. The only, the way is the dragons.

It's Vagar. So, like, if you just pull up on Vagar, like, yeah, maybe you have to deal with Syrax and Vermax, but like. Caraxis would come back But he wouldn't get there in time They know that Damon's in Harenhall That's interesting You don't have to worry about the ones under the Because there'd be no show

I know Why don't you shut up I know I'm just you know Military mind Just shut out oh yeah No I was talking about Amon Amon's the military mind He wants to go do things over here

And prepare for battle You can just squash him right now That's fair I thought you were saying you are a military Yeah Okay cool Yeah But we get Damon

Addressing House Bracken And Lord Bracken He's sitting with on Caraxies trying to persuade them to join the fight or I'm going to burn you to a crisp. What we've learned about the Riverlands as a whole, and this was touched on the after show a little bit as well, it's a very stuck in the old ways kind of place. Like they still believe in the old gods. They don't really give a shit that you have dragons.

It's not really that imposing on them. And that shot, I thought that was such a cool shot as he turns around and says, we'll take fire. You can just burn us because we're not bending the knee. Go fuck yourselves. You get that shot of him riding away, and Kraxis is just his face is right there. You're like, are you going to Jerk Harrison? Is it coming?

Nope. And no, it's not, which is restraint on Damon's part. A show of respect. But this is what you're seeing with his madness run in Heron Hall is a different person in a lot of ways. Because there's a lot of moments in this from like, okay, Damon last year would have killed you. He would have killed the team of brackens that come in later to talk at the council. to try to figure out, we'll get there. But the restraint he shows in not lashing out,

and then further when he's talking to Lord Blackwood after that and recapping what just happened, he's like, man, I really thought that they would, you know, come aboard. They're not scared at all. And Blackwood's like, well, you should have just torched him. He's like, well, we need an army, not corpses. That again shows that he's thinking further ahead

than any moment that we would have seen him in the past. So I think that the Heron Hall Madness Trip is annoying. It's annoying. and I do think that we're getting more out of him. And I don't know when he says certain things if he actually believes it, if he's going to go back to normal Damon or what he's going to do from here on out.

But I think that this was actually a stroke of, okay, I need people like that. Those are exactly the people that I need. I don't think that's going to work, though, because the Brackens in the Blackwoods have been fighting for hundreds of years, they never team up. So I don't really understand

how you think that's going to work if you listen to anybody that's been talking. Send them to different battlefront. Yeah, I guess that could work. I guess there's only one battlefront right now, and it's at Harenhal. Yeah. Well, it's seemingly what he's saying is, at least in my mind, if I don't get them both, we're not going to win. Yeah.

Like, I need both sides. I need just Numbies. I need Numbies, but he's in his Bob the Builder era right now. He's not doing it. Oh, he literally. I thought you'd mean, like, building the Army. No, he's building. Harenhal, yeah, which is hilarious, and I get it that you want to, like, garrison a bunch of troops there.

But if Vagar comes over, he's just going to undo all the work he did. matter what's the point yeah you're and also what you're splitting firewood and sending it up what are you going to build with split firewood he's like take it up i'm like that's legit going up to his room is that what light the fire for him so he can sleep better it was just weird it's like if you're building things you needed to have a shape you split up a log and send it up in a bucket you should be destroying the the bed that you sleep in you stop sleeping in that bed out of a weirwood yeah it's not doing good things for you maybe he's enjoying the trips yeah maybe this is like a little Aaron Rodgers ayahuasca trip. I think he's enjoying it, yeah.

Yeah, who knows? But we get to the Erie and Lena and Lady Aaron, and she's pissed because she was promised dragons and in return would give 15,000 soldiers, which is a solid number that they desperately need. The argument being, well, I did bring you dragons. There's two of them right there. They're the size of a dog, as you pointed out, but the other dragons. Yep. Technically speaking, okay, and politics. they use technicalities here. You got your dragons. You got two.

They're going to grow. It might take a while and a lot of sheep. No dragon riders necessarily. Well, Joffrey, but yeah. Yeah, but you got two dragons. They did technically hold up their part of the deal. But there's a seemingly some kind of bond between these two, between her and Raina, because as they sit there and discuss it, it's like, I hate feeling powerless.

It's like, yeah, me too. It's like, oh, interesting. Like, this could be an interesting relationship here. I'm imagining that we're going to get some kind of massive fight here because they made the point to say that the year he's impregnable that you can't get in here. Unless you come over head. What?

You give me a few good men. We'll impregnate the bitch. Oh. Yeah. Remember that Game of Thrones season three? No. My brain doesn't work. I call them Bram.

That's why she said it's impregnable. That's the whole. Oh, that was a callback. Have a good callback. don't remember them because my brain stinks but I'm here for. That's what you're here for. Somebody asked after we had answered questions, I think last week, they're like,

Steele, do you get mad when shooters pretentious about his Game of Thrones knowledge? And I would have responded with not at all. I'm so glad that you remember all the lore because I forgot so much of it. But this scene with Masaria and Raina,

this scene with Masaria and Rina was super interesting because this is a different type of war and a very important part of war if you're able to spin things. And it's Masaria talking about how there's more than one way to fight a war, implying let's go spread some rumors and shit. Propaganda. Yeah, let's go propagandize these idiots because they're not doing well with the small folk. They're all scared. They're running around. They don't have any food. They don't have any answers. Agon just fell. They just paraded a dragon through the

streets and Masaria doubles down and says that was a huge mistake on Kristen Cole's part because now they're all uneasy. There's a bunch of unrest. Now's the time, let me do my thing. And she, Reneer is again saying, like, I don't know what my part in this whole thing is like, what am I supposed to do? What Masaria says here, I think, is really important. Let others do for you, things you cannot do. Reneira is so stuck on, I need to get in the fight that she's not directing people, really. right you need to point your army or what you have at your disposal in a certain direction all we've seen her do in the beginning i gave her credit for showing restraint now it's like all right the only thing you've acted on was sending rainies to rooks rest which was arguably a mistake and instead now you're back to what should we do i don't know what to do let's do this and that make a decision send your people to do your bidding stop trying to get into the fight to prove that you are as tough as everybody else we saw agon do this that. And yes, Renera is more capable than Agon. But that's what happened. Yeah. Agon went through the same

thing and it ended up with his mom telling him to do absolutely nothing. Right. Because he doesn't take the time to read the books. And every scene that we see with Renira, she's reading one of the books. Now, I don't know. I assume they're just Dragonstone books. I don't think she stole them from her father. I thought they're like Mad Magazine. It could be Mad Magazine. But she's taking the time to figure it all out. And she says something in this scene where she's talking about her father like yeah her father didn't teach her how to fight but there's two reasons for that one obviously you're a woman in the realm so you're not going to learn how to fight you're not going to have a sword in your hands as soon as you learn how to walk like she says but two viseris also ruled over a peace time yes

so most of these people don't actually know how to fight they're just trying to figure it all out as they go along and how many times we have to have christin cole say you don't have any battle experience but i do like okay yeah i get it whatever you've been in a battle before nobody really knows what they're doing, but she's trying to figure out what she does, and obviously she's getting restless. So it's really tough to see, and obviously at some point, she's going to have a breaking point where things aren't going to work, or she's just going to get on the back of Syrax and just go into battle and just do something because she's getting stir crazy there. Yeah, I agree. And they're trying to set that up, and I think that everyone in her camp

is trying to avoid that, which is, again, you don't send your president to go fight a war. Yeah. Like, it just doesn't make any sense. So, yeah, you should sit tight and let it happen. But I think, again, an underlying thing of this entire season and these characters on this show specifically is because their parents fucked them up so bad in different ways. It's all of this I need to prove myself to everybody to show that I'm as tough. I'm as smart. I'm capable.

And that's getting people into a really bad situation. It's going to get you burnt to a little crisp. Yeah. And I'll still give Reneer a little bit of credit for, at least listening to people now we have messaria is her council away from council her secret council if you want to just to try to figure things out and she learns more in just the one-on-one meeting with masaria than she does sitting with her entire

entire small council who's getting restless who wants her to do something go do this talk to damon do this whatever she's being a little more open when she's talking to missaria which is good because we actually get to see how she feels and she gets to talk a little bit more plainly so we understand what she's going through and where she's trying to go. But she's really just trying to figure it out, at least. And I think that'll work out. I think so. I think it always, and I think that they do it intentionally throughout the entire season is show you both sides operating in very similar fashions. But when it comes

to the crucial decisions and listening to your camp and making a pivotal move, Renera tends to err on the side of caution and listening to those around her, whereas on the other side, it's a lot of impulse. So I think that's important to note. The light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer And the perfect pairing for your game time When Miller Light set out to brew a light beer They had to choose great taste or 90 calories per can They chose both

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price, while paying your people what they're worth too, so your business can stay unfazed. Learn more at SAP.com slash uncertainty. Oh, hi, buddy. Who's the best? You are. I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. Moving on, we get Ranira and Bela and they're talking about Rainies and how she got Maly's to bend the need of her. and not her dad and all this other shit, but Reneira sends her on a mission to give Corliss this little box,

which is the hand of the king medallion, to try to get Corliss on her team, and you could argue that it was slightly opportunistic or just a really smart move at that time to get him to buy into it. Both. Both. Definitely. But that's what a good ruler does.

You've got to take advantage of a good situation, bad situation, and make it good. Sorry, RFP. Rainis. But that's what she's doing. She knows that Coralus. is lost right now. He lost everything as we find out his words. But yeah, I thought that was a good move.

That was a smart move. Also very smart to send Bela, his granddaughter. Going to pull the heartstrings a little bit more. Got to do it. Yeah. Little gross. Maybe. Great move. Definitely. You don't have much family left. Yeah. What do we get?

Damon? Oh, Damon. Oh, George R. Martin. Oh, Game of Thrones. God damn it. We're watching this fairly explicit. sex scene. Very. And, yeah, that's his mom. He's banging his mom. Didn't need it. You should have been born first. You were my favorite son. You were my favorite son whilst

in her. God. I didn't need to say that either. No, you didn't need to do it. You're making it worse. I hate it. I hate it so much, but snap out of it because you're sitting at the dinner table. What? Oh, you don't like the ducks. I love that they did the delayed thing where it overlaps a little bit, and Simon Strong walks in while he's banging. his mom. Oh, don't mean to interrupt, but your duck's code, sir. Yeah, is the duck not to your liking? We got goose.

Oh, God. Yeah, what a scene. What a moment, but he snaps out of it and Simon Strong is sitting there and talking about how both sides suffered such a great loss and how do we move forward from here. And again, they're sitting at a dishevelled castle with no army trying to make pivotal war moves

when they really don't have a lot of hands to play. Yeah. And the response from Damon is it's time for a show of strength it's like okay well how like what are we doing here he sent lord blackwood to go get house bracken under control which that was cryptic to me it's like you know what to do what there's some things that the crown can't be seen doing it's like what are you going to do i don't know and that clearly lord blackwood takes that and we find out later as i'm going to go pillage and plunder and ruin kidnapped children and wives whilst flying the banner of the Targaryens.

Yeah. So interesting move. I'm sure that's going to go over well. Yeah. Definitely not going to lose a bunch of support there. But that's where we cut to the castle getting fixed up and Damon's doing carpentry. And by carpentry, I mean, literally splitting logs, putting them in an old-fashioned wheelbarrow and sending them up in a bucket.

Yep. I need to know what those logs are for. Structurally speaking, that doesn't make any sense. Are you making spikes? I have absolutely no idea. what he could possibly be doing. Is it spikes for a trapdoor? I think it was just busy work

just to say he was doing something. And what's wrong with your hands? I don't know. Why are your hands all bloody? What do you? Do you train with a sword forever? That's what I mean. Get some calluses, you bitch.

That's not tough. I don't know. I need him to be tough. He's bleeding from his palm from chopping wood. That's another thing. A castle's made out of stones. Yeah. What do you need to fix the room?

Maybe he's making a bed. So you don't sleep in that wear bed anymore. That's a possibility. That's all I can think of it. Yeah, but let's trust Alice to clean my hands off. Yeah. She probably didn't slip any poison or eating weird near. You walked into this castle and said,

I'm not going to eat this venison that you have or the peas because you could poison me. And that's the easiest way to kill a dragon rider. Everything that Alice Rivers does, he's like, yeah, sure. Do you think that's intentional? Do you think that's to say, like, for whatever reason, she has this pull over him that he just trusts her? Yeah, maybe. Some sort of wizardry.

Witchcraft, wizardry. The school, Hogwarts. She's Hogwartsingham. It's Hogwartsingham. Interesting. Yeah. Then Harry Paul is going to join the fight in Vodimo. You must be, not.

I still think there's a crossover there. There's dragons in there too, yeah. That's what I mean. Bring it in. What's the dragon's name from Gobble to Fire? Yep. The Norwegian Ridgeback. That's actually true.

I know. Harry Potter. I used to listen to Harry Potter book on tape. I had the CD set to fall asleep all throughout middle school. That I can remember the lore for. Not House of the Dragon, but that I can. Anyway. But in this scene specifically, I jumped the gun a little bit.

This is when Simon Strong shows up and Damon's trying to rally support. He's talking about payment. We need money to do that. And Alarice took his entire Nestig and shipped at the King's Landing with himself. And hey, maybe we can, you know, maybe we can ask for her help. Absolutely not. No. She's not getting involved.

That's going to happen. Heron Hall's mine. And this comes into play much more later because his plans are not. not clearly mapped out. He doesn't know how he wants to proceed. Is he going to do it himself and claim the throne for himself? Is he going to pledge fealty to Reneer again? He doesn't know. So no, we're not getting her involved. I'm doing my own thing here. Heron Hall's mine. Call me king. Call me Daddy. King. Call me daddy. Consort. Yeah, bitch. You're not the king. But he's not the king. He's the king consort. It is what it is. Simon Strong is growing on me. I like Simon Strong a lot,

actually. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom. You want to tell them or you want me to tell them? No, no, no, I got this. People out there. People, lean in, get close, get close. Listen, here's the deal. We have big news. We got monumental news.

We got snack, tactical news. After a brief hiatus, my good friend, Michael Ian Black, and I are coming back. My good friend, Tom Kavanaugh and I are coming back to do what we do best. What we were put on this earth to do. To pick a snack. To eat a snack. And to rate a snack. scientifically, emotionally, spiritually.

Mates is back. Mike and Tommy is Max is back. A podcast for anyone with a mouth. With a mouth. Available wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from the league, Veep,

or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We love movies, and we come at them from different perspectives. Yeah, like Amy thinks that, you know, Joe Pesci was miscast in Goodfellas, and I don't. He's too old. Let's not forget that Paul thinks that Dude, too, is overrated. It is. Anyway, despite this, we come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, must-season, and case you miss them.

We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. We've done deep dives on popcorn flicks. We've talked about why Independence Day deserves a second look. And we've talked about horror movies, some that you've never even heard of, like Ganges and Hess. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to hit the follow button.