Girls Gone Canon Cast - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — Season 1, Episode 1 — "The Hedge Knight"

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

**SPOILERS ALL** Dive back into the Seven Kingdoms with us, once more, with Dunk and Egg as we cover their first adventure together (again, once more). It all starts with a grave, a tree, and a tourney. ----- Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro "Folk Round" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon watches A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 1, The Hedge Night. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Yes, welcome to our coverage of A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, the latest show from HBO in the Game of Thrones universe. And if you don't know us, usually we do a POV by POV reread of the Asong of Ice and Fire. main books. We're taking a little, a little hiatus from that for now. We will be returning with

that reread after Night of the Seven Kingdoms with our very last POV Tyrion. Yeah, we've been doing this since, well, technically our love story began back in 2017 when Eliana and I, one very cold day sat on Skype, potentially drinking and talking about the Hedge Knight. So this has come full circle. You can look online for that if you search drunk-a-swaffe history. We won't link it. You can Google it. You can figure it out.

So if you didn't know, this story of a Night of the Seven Kingdoms actually is a complete short story based off of George's novella, the Hedge Knight. And this is actually our third time

covering this exact story. We just finished a a very in-depth reread of the Hedge Knight, like right before jumping back into this series. For those of you, if this is like your first time, we might even like repeat, or if this is like your, I don't know, very subsequent time listening to us, you might hear us repeat some of these points for people who maybe are like a little unfamiliar with the short story. But because of that, please keep in mind, this is a spoilers all podcast. We are going to spoil everything that is going to happen this season.

things that are going to happen probably next season in the second iteration of these Dunkin' Egg stories and the third season. Beyond that, we don't know. Only Ira Parker maybe knows. I mean, I will also say we do know there is a finite end historically to dunk and egg. Right? They do die historically. So we will likely reference that death.

Yeah, we all die. So yes, as Eliana mentioned, this is going to be a spoilers all podcast. That means that we will be talking about the Night of the Seven Kingdom novellas. We will be talking about the show. We will be talking about the bad show, Game of Thrones, the Good Show, House of the Dragon. Whatever, I still like it. I still like it. And I'm brave enough to say so.

I will stand in the middle of a crowd and say, I love Hot D. And of course the books that these shows, inspired to be written. That's a quick little overview of what we're doing here. If you don't want spoilers, we'll see you another time. Lock off, babe. Yeah, yeah. This is your chance to leave. We'll jump right into it in a second, quick thing. You can find us on any of the platforms that you listen to these podcasts. We are releasing a little later than we would like to this week, and apologies that's because I had a wedding to attend on Monday evening when we probably would have been recording and doing these. So in the future, please expect these towards like, you know, the beginning

of the week, probably like earlier on, earlier on Tuesdays of every week. And we also have a Patreon. And this month we are covering, we are continuing our coverage of how Doran became part of the Seven Kingdoms, which does actually inform a little bit of the setting of a night of the seven kingdoms. Yes. Patreon.com slash girls gone canon C-A-N-O-E-N-O. is where you can find us on Patreon, and patrons in that $5 and up tier, the Stranger Tier, every month get bonus episodes like the Folding and Dorn series,

and patrons that are in the Thunder Tier, you might recognize that name from this episode. Thunder Tier patrons, $10 and up, get access to Discord, where we do a monthly brappy hour, brunch and happy hour that will be happening. this weekend on January 24th, 2 p.m. E.T. We'd love to see you there and chat about Duncan Egg with you all at Brappy Hour. Otherwise, you can join the Discord and chat with tons of other fans who are so excited about this. They are yapping away in the spoilers channel for Duncan Egg, so I can't wait to get into their conversation a little more after we're done here. Also, please feel free to give us a tweet, a blue sky post. more affectionately known as a skeet, for those of you that were on Blue Sky,

the first, like, month of Blue Sky. And we also would love to hear your thoughts via email. That's Girls Gone Cannon at gmail.com. You can always send us what you're thinking about with these stories. We would love to email you back or bring it on the podcast. Yeah. What was your favorite part of the whole entire episode, Eliana? Oh, okay. Wow.

I know. I don't know. I know. Heavy header. Heavy header. I think my favorite part. of the whole episode was when Dunk leaves the rest of the tourney ground to go try and find where he's going to post up for the night. I just thought that was like a really beautiful kind of atmosphere shift

of like, oh, this very like busy, crowded place. And then we move into like this, this peaceful, like, almost like glade. I don't think that's using the term glade, right? But, you know, and then like the music shifts too. And like, that's something that I actually really love. the way that they're doing the series, I like the use of the whistles in the music because it gives it such a different tone. It's really playful. And we haven't heard it used, like, as an instrument in any of the other Game of Thrones shows. That's so great. I love the whimsical kind of nature that it brings. It brings, like, whimsy. It makes it light and fun and airy. And Dan Romer is who's doing the music, I think, leading the music for this. Those of you,

missing Ramin, he actually did co-write. He was doing the Barathean dance song during the tent. Yeah, I can hear that. There's still Ramin, yeah. You can definitely hear it. So I think it's great that we still have a little bit of Rameen and still have those touches, but it definitely feels like it's in the neighborhood. It doesn't feel exact, which I really love. Yeah, it's got this playfulness. And Rameen, if you are missing any of his music, you can hear him on season two of fall out, which we're not covering, but I'm very much enjoying. I don't, I really have been having fun with it. And yeah, it's, that's his music on there. You can tell as you listen to it. So, if you miss him, he's there. It's kind of fun. Dan Romer also did like Lilo and Stitch.

Oh, really? So it's interesting, right? Like very different lighter tone in some ways. Also did, I want to say he did some of the composition for the dear Evan Hansen movie. Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah. I thought that was kind of interesting, too. I was like, oh, wow, dear Evan Hansen. But so definitely a little bit different, Station 11, and a couple other shows, like the Good Doctor, too, I think he did.

So definitely a guy that's been around musically, but interesting to pair him with Game of Thrones world, and I think it's working out well. Yeah, I did love that. Yeah, I've started it, but I need to continue. And in case you guys, couldn't tell we just jumped right in with our favorite moment. Well, we started with mine then. We'll go to Chloe's like favorite moment, but we're doing kind of like, we're just doing our chat, a discussion of the episode. This is vibes. Yeah, this is vibes. Yeah. Chloe, what was your favorite?

Problematic queer Lionel Baratheon. I mean, yeah. Well, it's one of them. Yeah, that's one moment. I mean, it's hard. You can't just say that. That's true. I can't just say that. That's everyone's favorite. That was incredible. His cunty little earring. That was my favorite. Um, I love, I mean, I really I didn't, I know people are mixed, but yeah. Oh, I don't think. I haven't seen anyone mixed, which is funny, but I think a lot of the cute little nods and winks to the main story without, like, I like the ability that it's having to make fun of itself and other things.

I think there are a few like nods and winks to the main story and a couple middle fingers in like not a mean way, like in a fun way. I don't want to call it this. It's not punk rock, but like it has, has the air of, like, oh, we're punk rock, we're cool, we're young, we're kind of like a little rowdy in some aspects, which is kind of fun. It's a different pace for the show and a different tone. But I also really love, I think, the intimate moments, right? I mean, I didn't necessarily get too teary-eyed until the very end with him and egg, and having egg awake for that scene and having

egg be the one to point out the star to him. We've talked a lot about the imagery of that star and what that star means for dunk, and so much so that he uses it to shield himself. Literally, he puts it on his shield, but also like the burning out of a star and what that means for their story, right? And what that means for Dunk and Egg, not just at the beginning of their story,

but also then again, at the very, very end together, when they burn out together. So I thought that was very beautiful and it brought a tear to my eye, and I don't want to talk about it, but that part at the end did bring a tear to my eye too. I don't know.

I did like most of it. I did like most of it. I think it was a very strong episode. Yeah, I actually really enjoyed it, but I kind of wonder, do I enjoy it? Because I also, like, just reviewed this, like, short story, like, very in depth. And I was like, yeah, wow, it's totally that. And also, I am, I am ready for something, you know, that is like, and because I know it's going to be a different tone than the main story. Like, I'm prepared for that mentally, and I expect and embrace it. And I know I think some people didn't.

And that's so true because we talked a lot like, like I very much put low expectations on this intentionally, not because I thought it might not be good, but because I didn't, A, I don't know that I have it in me. Yeah. Every year we do a thing, right? So like House of the Dragon, when we do House of the Dragon, it feels like the fucking Super Bowl for us, right? Like, we like make an, we're like the TV shows on and I'm taking notes on my phone and the next day. I'm building an outline when I'm supposed to be like doing an actual things for the job that pays me every day. And then we record the earliest week and record on Monday night and get it out Tuesday morning. And I very much didn't want to feel that way with this series. I wanted to enjoy it for what it is when it happened. And it just so happens that we're talking about it passionately every week.

So I think that was good to not build up my hopes in advance because when we do Hot D, I feel like it's a little, it becomes less fun to make sure you're catching every single detail in comparison to this was nice to have 30 minutes of my friends on the road. Yeah. You know, just go into the tourney at Ashford. So, no expectations. Just brain empty. I think some people still like, especially if they're unfamiliar with the Dunkin'ang stories, like, expected to be like really, you know, in the same vein and tone as like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. and I don't expect that from the series

and I don't want it to be because it's not supposed to be and I think one of the ways that it really leaned into that at the beginning and of course that everyone's talking about so like in some ways it is successful because everyone's talking about it is what do you think what do you think about the opening and the quote unquote opening song not song? Oh my gosh. Yeah, the shit take. Yeah.

So first of all I think everybody like I get the idea of that being like a, like, oh, rip off the band-aid baby, it's not the same. And I do want to like also rewind. I think it's really important that this show happens and is tonally different than the other shows because it also adds to the longevity of the world of Westeros on the screen. To your point, I don't think we can just do hot D all the time. It is exhausting to have a a jillion hot d's and it is I know I know I'm always taking hot d I'm taking hot d all day long

all night long when I take hot d yeah it's just like exhausting and like my mouth is just sore and tired from all of hot d as we anyways so I'm sorry oh god I'm so sorry but I really did like

the shit take and also I mean like everyone's like you the poop jokes and I do think like that's it is what it is whatever game of Thrones had poop jokes too but I think it's important to change the tone and I also think that everyone's consumed with the shitting part and like ha ha he shit on the game of Thrones theme I don't necessarily think that because I also think the more important part of the shitting scene is that he looks up at the bird in the trees when he shits which I thought would be really funny if they had had the bird die by the way like that would have been funnier or the bird pass out from the smell.

Singing and then explodes. Like Shrek. Like Shrek. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. I'm so glad you're aligned with me.

There was so much Shrek in this literally that we'll get to. But everyone's like consumed with the poop. Consume the poop. But I'm consumed with the bird because he looks at the bird and then when he's talking to the steward a couple scenes later and the steward's like, was anyone there to see your knighting? That was his knighting. That was like him becoming.

Oh yeah. And he literally says, no. just a songbird. So like, that's the connection for me that he looked straight at the songbird. And then when he was with the steward, he's like, uh, a songbird saw me get knighted because your knighthood is shit. Like quite literally, your knighthood was literally the shit you took this morning. Yeah. I mean, because that's the moment that he decided, all right, I'm going to like do that. And yeah, I just think like, you know, as a podcast where I added an episode very recently, within the past few months. I was like, and I had to like stop and pause as I was editing it.

I was like, why did we talk about poop so much this episode? And I like, I can't pass judgment on that, you know? I'm like, okay, yeah, of course I'm the person who's being like, yeah, that was fun, right? And apparently people don't think it was fun. And so I'm like, oh my gosh, not for that to set the tones for everyone of what to expect me, we will bring you very great insights and analysis on this. But, you know, I'm sure it's like everyone's talked about it already by now and also, like, it's obvious. But I do think it was a good signal to break. that iconic theme and what you're used to. And I think that's something that they're able to do because of the success and how famous. Not only like that song, but like in general, like,

Game of Thrones was like they're doing like a lot of really meta things with that format. Like the way that they did that intro wouldn't have worked if not everyone in the world already knew that theme song. Knew it. Yeah. And I think I think that like they're being very, as you said, not even just time, they're being very creative with this is a format, this is, this is a story and like being clear

about how this is a story and playing with the conventions of it. If anything, my critique would be that and so like there was so much in this episode that is crazy because I was like, wow, we're so smart because we literally said all of this over the last

three episodes we did. First of all, but we'll get into that. But then And second of all, like, I wish maybe they leaned more into the humor. Yeah. I felt that maybe they were scared to commit to the humorous tone because they still want to be taken seriously as the story ramps up in the next episodes because the beginning of the hedge night is very light. It is very airy.

It's very do-to-do. We're on the road. Whistle while you work. But also, then it becomes horror. It becomes a nightmare. It literally, like, you're going to go do this thing of your dreams. And then it turns out that the prince is. are evil and the knights are evil and nothing matters, right? And like, Dunk has to matter.

He has to be the one to really lead that. I felt like the little mini scene, the take of him getting hit by Arlen, I was like LMAO, because that's what we've been saying forever. Like, Dunk, you got the shit beat out of you. Generationally, was that right? No. I don't think the show is trying to tell us that either. But I did feel that like some of the humor that they leaned into wasn't enough to pull it off, but also, like, that shouldn't only be funny. Like, you should have be laughing very hard, but also like, oh, shit, that's horrible. So I'm excited to see how they lean into the violence in the next couple episodes with that, because, like, there will be some humor, but there is a lot of violence, and the life of being a knight is very much violent.

That's true. The job is violence. Yeah. The job is literally violence. So I think I love some of the slapstick, and I wish they had just committed a little bit more. I wonder. if they'll do it more in the next few episodes, or at least like in two and in three, just because they are still kind of like treading that line of trying to keep a sort of like continuity and expectations of what it means to be a Game of Thrones show. So I don't know. I hope that's true. I'm kind of like interested in hoping we'll see more of that sort of levity in the next few episodes.

I mean the, the tense scene, right? Like coming back to like your fave, what is now like canonical your favorite Lionel Baratheon, And like, that had a lot of levity to it. No, absolutely. That was very fun. You know, I love that they're smelling the roses a little because six episodes, I think, I've seen a lot of people say this too. I actually wouldn't have minded it being a feature length movie.

Yeah. Now, like, seeing that first episode, I was itching. I did want more. I did just want to binge and keep going. But I do think the levity and the tent and, like, introducing dunk to that world and not just introducing him, but then as POV, introducing the viewer to that world, right? Dunk has never been allowed in. So I love the, I love Lionel.

I short-kang energy, honestly. I guess everybody is short-kang energy next to Dunk now that I say that, because I'm like, is he short? What is his height? Daniel Ng's height. Six foot, so he's not short, but next to dunk at all. that's actually hilarious. But I don't know, like, a lot of guys tell me they're six foot, and then I stand next to them,

and I'm like, I don't know what you are. So, we'll see. The internet adds 10 inches. Well, I'm just kidding. Also, like, I mean, like, it would make sense for him to be six foot because, like, canonically, right? Robert Barathian was quite tall. Yeah.

And as we know, as we know, Gendry is also tall. So it makes sense for him to be fairly tall. It's just, like, as you said, everyone's short compared to dunk. And then they did a great job with that, honestly. He did feel larger than life. They did a great, like, you can tell they did a lot of vantage point and like made it so they're filming so he looks even bigger than he already is because he's like six foot five in real life, Peter Claffey is.

And my good friend, Dunk, he's six five in real life, but he's much taller. He's six, seven, six eight, ish, or six nine, somewhere in that range for Dunk. He's supposed to be taller. So they did a great job making him feel bigger than life. Well, that's actually a really good point because we have to do, you know, we had some of those gags where he's like going and finding the Master of Games, aka, like, that's the stewarded, the Hedge Knight Plumber. And we'll come back to him in a second.

But like they have him hitting his head against the door. And as you said, a lot of great vantage point shots. Because when we're first introduced to dunk at the very beginning of this episode, we have he. No comparison. Yeah, we have no sense of like scale for how tall he is. compared to everyone else, he is just a man, right? Which is kind of the point of like the story, which is a knight is just a man.

He's just a man. Tall or not, like, it's about what's the character of your soul. So it's only once you're put into, I mean, we all, we exist in a society, everyone, you know, who we are. That manifests when you have you in contrast and like jostling up against everyone else. How do you draw those lines? And so to get like all existential and shit. Yeah. I guess Lionel wasn't short King then, so I take that back. But I love that we have the Stormlanders and they're just freaks, right? They're just straight up freaks. Like,

Manfred Don Darian is into necrophilia. That was insane that the girls were getting each other prepped so he could have sex with them while pretending they're dead, which they included the eyeball stones that we saw in Game of Thrones used for John Aaron, used for Joffrey's Dap, used for Taman and Tywin. We saw all these deaths in Game of Thrones that used the eyeball stones. So really good continuity, actually, from the got-se-you. Yeah. I hate my life. I can't believe I just called that.

I know, right? Got you. I got you. Oh, my God. Chew. And I did like that. Well, first of all, part of it. of me was kind of like, wait, why is she dead?

I was like, is she actually dead? And then she pops up. I did think, speaking of moments of humor, I thought that was a fun one. And also speaking of continuity, I like that they made sure to keep the Dondarian red hair, right? Like that. Yeah. I guess Berwick was kind of red-haired in Game of Thrones, but he definitely is in a song of Ice and Fire that is absolutely like a signature, like, trait of his. So they kind of played that up, I think.

and also his encounter with Manfred Don Dyerian, like we see it in the Hedge Knight, but it hits somehow like so much worse in terms of we've forgotten men who took much more than a wound, like when he says it as he's like just going off and just sort of like flippantly, you know, brushing dunk off in front of people just to go get laid. Like it really, a lot of things in this episode are kind of telling you the themes, but it also really shows you the dynamics at play in this story. Yeah, I really love that focus of like the we've forgotten men who took much more than a wound. Like this is, that's kind of one of the big themes.

And we talked about this a lot in our last couple episodes when they actually stole our episode. Like when they actually stole the words that came out of my mouth in part two, I think, of the Hedge Knight that we did, a few weeks ago and put it into the script for this show, the sex workers, right? The sex workers that are in Don Darien's camp, which first of all, we see them doing actual camp follower jobs, which rocks, they're fixing people's clothes. They're not just hired for sex work, but they're hired also for other work with their bodies. But we literally get this entire discussion from them of what it means to waste your body for a lord what it means to be a knight what it means to service other lords i don't mean that sexually but i do like in some ways like you are spending your

body like how many men did like grew up and worked for gm and then worked on the line at gm making cars for decades and breathing in like metals and plastics that have ruined their body destroying their back because they're standing on cement that isn't supportive for you, destroying their hands because they're working with them every single day and putting them into potentially like threatening situations if you hurt yourself with machinery. Like that's just a job. That's a job. We all do that with our bodies. We all choose who to spend our body on. And someday when you're old, like Sir Arlen got to, right, you'll have spent your body and will you have spent it wisely? what parts of your body that still work, if you're blessed enough to have parts that are working,

like, how will you feel when that balance comes to when you cash all your checks for your bodily autonomy? And that's really what the sex workers highlighted with Dunk. And it's great to have watched also. I love the very negative and cynical view that they give him, right? That they're like, oh, stupid fucking hedge night. He's not going anywhere. And then he like calls it out. He's like, hey, like, I'm right here and I'm trying and they're like, oh, when she says, I'm sorry, Knight, be good to your body. Like, she's calling out. Yeah, the system.

Yeah, the system has fucking made me cynical. The system has that I've been in working and spending my body on these assholes in. It has made me cynical and I don't believe someone can change the world. And it is hard when someone's in front of you and says, I'm going to change the world that you're able to support that, right? Like, their first view of dunk was stupid motherfucker. Yeah. Like, what does he think he's doing?

And he is very naive, right? Like, we've talked about this in our past couple episodes, but he's very Sonsa and Ned of the POVs that we get introduced to in the first book, for example, for a Game of Thrones. He has those very honorable chivalric ideas about the way the world should be. And that even though the world is not that way, he plans to idealize it and those around him should follow suit. And they should. So, yeah, this is the first challenge for Dunk.

Like, he's coming across that they won't. And he has to either keep moving against that or become the broken man. Well, it's also like, so you're talking about to kind of like bring a bunch of those things together. Like, you're talking about how they discuss him taking care of his body. And it's not even, A, there's like absolutely the layer of what we've discussed in terms of how knighthood is kind of the other side of that coin of using bodies. The others are about that. The others with capital O, aka the White Walkers, however you wish to refer to them.

It's something, it makes explicit. It brings into text versus subtext, and it didn't work out exactly the same way in Game of Thrones, but in a Song of Ice and Fire, when Tyrion feels so. when you contrast and compare like Shea's servitude to Tyrion versus Braun's servitude to Tyrion, right? That both of them end up coming up at the same time when he's like, will you do this thing for me? How will you protect yourself versus not protect yourself? How will you serve me and what is at stake for you? Because you are in my service when it comes to Shea, the sex worker, and Braun.

And Braun basically in some ways, like he doesn't do it in as explicit of a way, but he doesn't protect him. He's like, I want a lordship, right? Like, this is just, I'm in this, this is my job. Same with Shea. She's like, this is my job. If I'm going to break my life. Yeah, she's like, this is my choice. I was threatened, right? And likely she was much more threatened in the books as well as we see, like, with the way that she probably saw what happens to like, Alayaya. So again, the question of like, what are you doing with your body as well? Like, and what is it worth? Especially when later on he asks himself at the end of the story, Well, I think about how I punched Aryan.

Couldn't I have given up a hand or a foot? But he was just told to take care of his body. So there's conflicting messages that he's getting here. I mean, he does come off. And the value and worth, right? Exactly. What is a prince worth against him? What the fuck has Aryan contributed to society lately?

I don't know. I don't know. Stimulating the economy? Sass. I don't think he stimulated the economy much. But. Cunty cheekbones? Yeah, I guess so.

But we have Lionelbrath in for that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm full up on Conti Cheap phones. Yeah, we've got that. The market's covered. And I don't know. We're talking about how Dunk comes off as naive. And I've seen, and it's not wrong, right?

They're kind of trying to portray him like as a hymbo. But to an extent, like, after rewatching it, there's a sure there's naivety, but also it's like, is he naive or is he just nervous in the way that anyone would be nervous when you have to abide by unremembered. written social rules that you weren't raised in. Then this is something that we talk about, especially in contrast to, like, you know, Tom Wamskans of succession. You know, you're in a new place. You don't know anyone. So actually, this is something I kind of like.

It seems like he's starting to make friends. Dunk seems so lonely in the Hedge Night, other than, like, egg. But, like, you don't know anyone. You're going to doubt yourself. You're going to be nervous. You can pretend to be confident in front of other people, but in private, you're going to be nervousness and that's going to bleed through. Like, insecurity can make you seem dumb,

but maybe really we just need to stop framing confidence as intelligence because I see a lot of dumbass people come off as intelligent just because they're confident. There's this line about Orpheus in Hades Town, the musical, the Great Broadway musical, that reminds me very much of Dunk where basically that Orpheus sees the world the way that he wants to see it in spite of the way that it is. Yeah. Right.

And so in the entire story, by the end, doubt sets in for Orpheus and he no longer is seeing the world the way that he once did. He's starting to see it in that cynical manner. So Hermes speaks. This is an all I've ever known in spite of herself intro. And Hermes says, Orpheus was a poet. poor boy, but he had a gift to give. He could make you see how the world could be in spite of the way that it is.

And then Euritacy on the other side is the opposite in the musical. She has had to scrounge for herself and she has had to provide for herself. And so that has kind of made her colder and cynical. And by the end of the musical, spoilers, they find themselves in kind of the opposite place.

So it's interesting because dunk starts to kind of come to that in this, right? Like, he takes seeing the world the way he would like it to be or the way that it could be, and he starts to see it somewhat the way that it is in pondering that. Yeah. And kind of re-inspires everyone else to that, too. Yeah. I'd like to pull up a very important tweet this week from our good friend Glides,

who tweeted a photo of dunk with a whisk in his hands. And it says, no, dunk, what are you doing? He doesn't deserve it. Oh, beating him. Because he's an egg. Beating the eggs. Yeah. It was very funny.

I just had to share that. It felt important. It is a point in our dock. There aren't a ton of the changes, obviously. There were only like two or three really big changes, in my opinion, in this episode. And one of them was introducing Lionel Barathean's tent early. I think that was great. I think actually it will be a great connecting tissue for audiences that maybe aren't

familiar with the story. They gave you a something you know from the past. If you're a fan of the series or of Game of Thrones, you know Barathians. But also, it'll draw a good connection for when he stands for Dunk. Maybe not necessarily needing to. Like those of us are like, yeah, yeah, sure, he's a wild card. But now he can go be jousting and drinking and tourneying while Dunk does his stuff. And then when he stands up later, we will remember him, which is good. I mean, like visually, it is a very great key for anyone not super familiar with the story. And I mean, you also have fans, like, of all grades, right? There are fans that have not read these novellas. There are fans that love the main series, but haven't gone that far yet. There are fans that watch the show and like everything

Game of Thrones and are ready to consume a new spinoff that they don't know anything about necessarily yet. So, I don't know. I think it's good. It's a story that it was kind of cute that there is an article, I think it was in the Hollywood Reporter piece that came out recently. It's a massive piece. And I did really like that George talked about how he thought about trying to sell this to Showtime, which is interesting. Yeah. HBO, please continue dumping your dump truck of money at my door, but don't listen to this HBO. Like, oh, George was like, what if I just gave it to someone else? Fuck them, bitches.

Love that for him. But he would have had to change. There could be no Targaryans, no mention of Kings Landing, no mention of dragon, the stuff. Like there are all these things that he could not mention. So they would have to change the story so drastically. But also it could have been done, crazily enough. It could have been done. They could have. It would be a different kind of story without some of the meaning. But it's a story that can stand alone if it needs to. That is interesting. And I guess like the rest of it, but I think that the context of it, but maybe that's just because we're big fans of the series. I don't know. I'm like, the context of it makes a number more. We'll never, know. Yeah, but. We will always be biased. I find that so fascinating because I think it too.

Like, I'm like, would I have liked any of this? No one will ever be able to know. Yeah. I don't know. And for me, like, the context is interesting, right? It does make it good because like when you look at Lionel Barathe and you kind of see, you know, George sometimes works within these archetypes of characters as what we've discovered after reading a lot of his other short stories and other novels and whatnot. but there's an aspect of Lionel that you can see like this is what Robert could have been if he was like more functional. Right? Yeah, like this is like you can see what people loved about like Robert before. And I think there's also like we're going to get to a point one day in Duncan Egg's lives, not maybe even in our lives of when one of Egg's children will be betrothed to Brathian. And seeing how close Lionel and like Duncan could.

be. Like, this strong connection gives a lot more weight. This is something we were talking about also in the Hedge Knight. Like, yeah, no wonder Lionel was fucking offended when he, like, lost the ability to marry into the royal family, right? Like, a Targaryan does marry into the Barathians. But let's be real, it's not the same. And seeing, like, how it starts from this at the very beginning and how it, like, goes forward. Yeah, you can see, again, as we've said over and over, how this was such a big betrayal.

And... Staunch support that he gave them. Yeah. He was like literally day one. He was a day one. Also you have, so this is something that I'm kind of thinking. Like Dunk, I almost kissed you that one time. Like, and now we're going to fight.

Yeah. Well, that's also, you're saying Dunk is very Ned-like. That's so Robert and Ned too. I was going to say it very much reminded me of like, so dunk was the quiet guy on the wall at the party, just like Ned, and Robert comes over and lifts him up and brings him into the social world. He's like, what if a kiss? That's how they balance.

Yeah. They balance very similarly to that duo. There's also, yeah, there is. And like, it's really fun. And there's something here too where like you have the streaks of white hair in Lionel, Barathean's hair. I don't actually know. Maybe that's supposed to be like, oh, he's got that salt and pepper hair, like age thing kind of. Like it's just happening.

It does make him look cool and distinguished. But part of me is like, oh, is that actually a little bit of that Ori's Barathean Targaryen heritage showing through. Interesting, because we are getting that. Also, like, Alyssa Valerian, right? Alyssa Valerian also, as well, maybe. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And then also, like, to that point, I wouldn't write it out of being a possibility, honestly, because Valar is going to have his white streak. Yeah. So, like, this is here. This is here. They are paying attention to that. And as a reminder, we're talking about how Ori's Baratheon

was supposedly the bastard half-brathian. half brother of Egan the first Targaryen. So. Yeah. That's good to give context because we're just reading each other's minds. I remember, I'm trying to be better this time. I'm like, remember, like, maybe everyone doesn't know what the fuck. I love when we like, I do love when you mind mel with me and I like have to try to push you back.

I be like, okay, Eliana, can you contextualize that? I understand what you're insanely talking about, but maybe they won't understand Carly Ray Jepson, Egan the fourth, and whatever else the fuck we're talking about. I mean, if they don't understand the Carly Ray Jepson part, that's like on them, you know, skill issue. Yeah, they should go. I'm trying to remember. Other people are here in this bedroom with you and me. Yeah.

And I should tell us our pillow talk. Something, okay. Something else that I thought was kind of like interesting is when Dunk is in this tent, we're kind of shown he's not here for glory, right? Like, that's something that we were talking about, like the discussion the sex workers have with him. They're all like, oh, you're here for Dunk isn't here for glory. He's just trying to make a living.

Right? He's like, I need to make money that isn't just fevery. And again, reminded that of that in the Barathean tent, he's not looking to curry favor because Baratian, like, Lionel's like, why the fuck are you here? And he's like, I just wanted to eat. Like, that's what anyone

wants. They just want to be able to, like, put food on the table. He's just trying to eat. There's a couple of other, like, cute things too. They have that weird stepping on the toes dance, which I guess could be like, oh, maybe that's something of like they accidentally step on each other's toes later on, right, with that rebellion.

Yeah, I was thinking it's somewhat foreshadowing in the end too, but also like, I think that was great. Yeah, like, it's clearly a dance, but there's like kind of this violent, like, not violent, but like martial aspect to it. And I'm like, oh, that works great in terms of how like dance has been used throughout the series, right, to be equated to fighting. We see it with Aria first to an extent being a water dancer,

but a water dancer is a type of warrior. And then we're watching that now in House of the Dragon, we're going to watch a civil war called the dance of the dragons, right? So we kind of like bring that metaphor back up to the front and then also. Watching his descendant too, Brienne. That's true. That's true. With her dance, with Jamie.

Yes. His other descendant. Maybe, possibly. I don't know. Like maybe. They don't know. I don't think they're tall enough. Somehow that seems to be a dominant gene for him.

No, I don't either. It'd be so funny though. Yeah. It'd be hysterical if also because, you know, incest. Oh. That too. Also the incest.

Oh my God. Yeah. Finally. Good for Jamie. Oh, he's ever wanted. Getting out of the sister and moving to the. I do love to be, um. I like that when you're in the tent in the Barathean tent with Dunk.

Everyone does become an equal in a way. You know, you have that really funny scene where he's trying to tell everyone. Lionel is trying to tell everybody about how jousting was started by stags, right? And everybody is not listening. No one gives a fuck because in that tent, everybody is there for the free meal, the free booze and the dancing and the fucking and like all the things that come from attorney. That's why they're there. They're not there to support him.

Yeah, they're there to fucking party. It's Coachella, as we've discussed. the past. And then also that tent becomes a great equalizer. And then their dancing becomes a great equalizer, right? Because any other day, as we'll see, raising your hands to a lord or a royal, does not equal good things, usually. But in this tent

where everybody is kind of one tonight, they're all getting fucked up. They're all eating. They're all dancing and fucking and being, making merriment. Like, everyone is one, right? So it's like his dance with Lionel was proving he's an equal, which is also what the story's about, right? Of like, what's equality? Like, is a Hajanai equal to a Lord?

Yeah, I would say so. We're all made of the same fucking shit. Some of them arguably better than Lords or princes as we're going to see. And I mean, to your point about like kind of that equality and that slipperiness of it all, this is meant to be a funny, and it is funny because I kept being like, oh my God, dunk, why are you wearing the antlers? Why are you wearing? Lionel's crown.

They're so good. I need them. And then the scene where... Like, viscerally, I need these. It's so cute. I need the antlers. I love them. And when he hits them on the fucking...

On the fucking chandelier. It's true. It's so funny. And then like also when Lionel's are like, give me those back. He doesn't say that, but he just like pops it and he's like, that's just so, that's so party. Like, you put these on.

Oh my God, they look so good on you. Like, they don't show that scene, but you can imagine. I wonder if it has. happen like funzies. I didn't watch the after after thing. Usually again, that's how chill I'm being. I am being very chill and I'm trying to be less type A. I didn't listen to the afters because I just wanted to vibe. Yeah. But anyways, I wonder if they reveal during that if it is because I'm like, is it for funsies and they left it on and they thought, you know what, fuck it. Let's film it. Because I think that's adorable. And I wonder if it happened while they were fucking around on set,

which is like how some of the best magic really does happen in my life. opinion, so I would love to find out more. This is like a random thing. I think they're doing some other fun things of like, again, setting up that sort of like continuity of the world building where Lionel Barathean's talking about how he's like sailing into that storm. And like the fact that he does so, and he's like, this is what we're supposed to do. If you're like a lunatic person like us, it makes me think of the standing up against

the storm like during God's grief, right? who were the Storm Kings prior to the Baratheans. And also, you know, tells you a little bit of like how he got that name, The Laughing Storm. So like really, really fun, like, lore there. Great characterization. A lot of people have pointed out as well. I think Manu pointers is going to be pointing it out if you're listening to their podcast

this week too over at the boys gone canon. We call them. You can find them at Boys Gone Cannon at Patreon.com. I was going to say Boys Bon Cannon. That'd be very funny. But then I was like that it just actually would have, if you just switched letters, it just says boys bone cannon. That's terrible.

One of them does when you think about it. That's true. So true. Whoa. Yeah, I love that. But also like Daniel, our friend Daniel who played Lionel Barthes. Maybe he is my friend. I wish he was.

I know. Come on our podcast. No, no, no. He's just an actor. That was his job. Maybe he's completely horrible. You know what I mean? Like, we don't know.

He could be the opposite. I'm just kidding. Wait, still come on. Still come on our podcast. Wait, I don't know. I don't know anymore. I don't know. Also, if you have the ability to be able to like fucking bring that energy, you probably

are fun. You know, like, it's like me. You know me. I can be really energetic. I can be a fun time too. I'm just like my friend Daniel. I'm just like my friend Daniel. Yeah.

My paris social relationship is Daniel Ng. I digress. All that to say. Menon mentioned this too. But he did have very Peter Dinklage energy. He does. He does. Very Peter Dinklage about him.

He, and the positioning of the character and the bits of advice, but not giving actually helpful advice, but giving enough that Dunk could parse through. And like the comedic timing and the sarcasm and the silliness, it all was very Peter Dinklage coded too. Well, which is fun. But A, I think it must be a bone structure thing, but also the hair, like the hairstyle. Yeah. The face, the chin, the hairstyle.

all the bones, the cheekbones, yeah. There's something about the cheekbones. Yeah, but there's something also like that you're talking about like the advice that is helpful but not helpful, but it is a little helpful like in terms of. Yeah, like it is, now that I think about it, when he's telling Dunk to, you know, why do you slouch, be tall. And it made me actually think about some of the discussions we had during his dark materials of like, you know, wanting to be invisible in order to avoid trouble but like in the authorities and it makes sense for dunk you know being raised as someone from

flea bottom right never wanting to be noticed yeah not wanting to be noticed because like it's it that's how you get in trouble unfortunately and yeah but also there's something like there in terms of like it comes back around with him at the end being like i'm sir dunk in the tall then you see him like stretch his body out it gives a good like sort of character arc and growth to this one episode, but it is actually very Tyrion-esque, right? In that Tyrion, in the beginning of Game of Thrones, tells John, armor yourself in it. Be who you are. And that's exactly what Lionel does here with Dunk.

He's like, armor yourself in it. The world will never let you forget. I'm butchering this quote, but you all know it by heart. So it's fine. A very tall man can cast an even taller shadow, et cetera, et cetera. Which I also thought was interesting when Raymond calls him half man because that is what Tyrion is called as well, right? He's called half man, especially at the Battle of the

Blackwater, and here, like, Raymond is saying it's because you're half giant. And, like, that is another way that Tyrion is characterized. Some do it, like, in a mean way, calling him giant, but then we see the way that, like, varies talks about it, of him, as you said, casting a giant shadow. Very interesting. I forgot

what the name is. There's a name for that. You know, like, it's a form of antifrasis or, like, irony. But there's a specific term for it, and I can't think of it, but when you call something the opposite, you know, of what it is, like, you call somebody big that is small, et cetera. There's an actual term for it that's not antifrasy. Latotis. Maybe.

I don't know. Well, this one's like a affirmative, which is expressed by the negative of its contrary, but whatever. There's like 80 terms for it. There's like 50 million euphemisms, I guess. A misnomer. It is, it is that, like a little. For a tyrian.

The actual definition. For Tyrion, yeah. Yeah. Very, but same with Half Man for Dung. I really, yeah, the focus on that is very interesting to bring out. I was accidentally making more fuel to Tyrion as a, to the Lannister's as Stunk descendants, JK. I don't actually believe that, but you said Jamie and now I'm like, oh, Tyrion.

Now it's too late, yeah, now it's too late. We're not serious. That depends on which ones come from ERIS, though, you know, so like, let's not get crazy. Well, Joanna's also a Lannister prior to marrying. Oh, from her blood. Yeah, from her. Not just, yeah. From her blood.

Oh, ha-Dee. Everyone listened to our Patreon episode about Rainies as being the one who's blood. Yeah. You guys have actually like about, what do you think? Like maybe 1,000 hours to get caught up with Girls Gone Cannon any time soon. We really recommend just doing that so you can understand the jokes. Honestly, yeah, you should. Think of how much more lore.

Our lore. Not a song of Ice and Fire lore God Yeah Can I just talk about What I really want to talk about And I've actually been very well behaved About my favorite character

Yeah I feel we should have gotten more But yeah let's talk about him Darren Targaryen Mee Mee me me me me me Meee

Meh me me That was great What a scene having him From his cup That was beautiful Yeah looked great I watched the scene four times and the Giff a few dozen times and we don't have to talk about that.

But yes, very much enjoyed Darren's rendition. Henry Ashton, his actor, did a great job with his like three or four lines. I am sad that we won't get much of him now until literally the mid end of the story, but that's just how things go when you have a character you really love. And they don't want to show it to you or give you anything about them. I was kind of like, I was kind of hurt. They really cut that a little bit. Yeah, I was kind of hurt at how little we got of him.

I was like, what the fuck? What is this crime against Chloe? And us, I was just like, I don't know. I just kind of wanted more. Yeah, I did too. I did at least like the whole like coinage thing where he leaves that dragon and that we zoom in on like what the currency looks like because, you know, as many people.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah, I have discussed the Targaryans are linked. to the coins in general, but then also then contrasted with the penny at egg speed. But yeah, also wink, wink, wing, nudge, that's a dragon. Why is someone out here just giving money? Yeah, big old gold dragons. Nobody's got those. And I will say that tied in very well with the in-owner.

Yeah. She, the way she acted, that was interesting. So almost as if he had paid her off already. Yeah. We see in the story often where somebody says, like, here's extra money. I'm not here. you know, like people do that in the story. So I thought that was a great road to take it to be like,

oh, the in-owner probably knows that he's a Targaryen or that something's up and he's giving her money not to say shit about him. And she straight up looks at Dunkett. She's like, don't worry about it. Yeah, that's true. She was very sheepish about it. And also, it was, though, exactly, like, as you and I were saying a little bit during our coverage of the Hedge Knight

where the penny is thrown at X feet. And then we get a reminder that this is what a penny is, right? when Dunk shows Arlen of Penny Trees Hilt. So really, like, all that penny stuff. But, yeah, him being like, don't worry, I know you'll scoop it up when I leave. And I'm like... I'm like, like, what the fuck? He's like, what does that mean?

He's like, what is this? I've never seen this before. He's never seen such small currency. I don't know what to do with it. Is this worth anything? that's that's what does it do yeah I only have my daddy's credit card to reuse my jokes exactly he's got the black card

black fires have a red card oh my gosh oh my god I'm going to gloss over this note that I wrote which is redacted objectifying dunk because when you talked about the glade I was looking at a much different glade Anyways. Lots of, yeah, White Boy Game of Thrones

But on HBO between industry with Kit Harrington and Peter Tlaffey. You know what? Where was the Dong? Hang Dong, you cowards, is how I feel about the entire thing. Where is the Dong? Hang it. Okay, I heard from someone

and I will like not, I heard that there is a non-zero amount of Dong. I won't say whose, but there is Dong at some point in the series. If they had real, hypothetical balls, you know? They would have shown me Dong. You know me, I'm a big fan of HBO

hanging Dong, and I'm going to be honest that the righteous gemstones did it, and they did never shied away from it, and they over did it, and that's how a show should be. It is, yeah, it's interesting. It shouldn't be so jarring, but I guess it is, yeah. Hang it. Also, glossing over the hanging of Dong, chestnuts actor's name is Shrack.

I love it. I love it. I'm sorry. And I heard that I was like, no, I have to tell my friend Eliana that one. What? Chestnut is the horse in case you guys don't know. And you should. You should know. Yeah, you should know.

It's chestnut, sweet foot, and thunder. Yeah. And there are friends. So a friend, okay, same friend who told me that there's going to be dong like hanging. Said that there were like a lot of horses also. And I'm glad to see that this is true. I was told there's going to be a lot of horse content. But now I'm just like, if there's a lot of horse content, is my heart going to like

break. I don't know. I think it was really smart of them to bring Dunk's interiority into a filmable format by having him speak to the horses. That was really cute. But also at the same time, me whispering, liar. Like, in my home with the people we were watching when Dunk says he'll take care of the horses, I was like, liar. Dude, legitimately, I was so angry and I thought of you, So I was like, that's bullshit and you know it. And that's going to probably be one of the most heartbreaking parts of the whole thing. In fact, that's going to happen next episode. If there's a lot of horse content, then yeah, I'm about to fucking have my heart.

They look so good together, all three of them too. They're so shiny. You know, I will say there is a master of horse for real, for real. It is the same horse master that worked on Game of Thrones. So Camilla Napris is a French horse master. and stunt master and she's doing, I believe, the horse mastery, as well as I believe her father was the horse wrangler for Game of Thrones in the first season episode, in a bunch of the first seasons, and also it was a stunt performer in the second season. And I think her mother might

also have been involved, or no, I'm sorry, her brother. This is a family business. Yeah, it's a literally family business. He, oh, so her brother is a stunt performer. doesn't necessarily do that, but he was in season four of Thrones as Ozenek-Zopal. Oh, okay. Interesting. Mm-hmm. He also played Darth Vader alongside another actor, Spencer Wildling, who was also in Game of Thrones. They shared the role of Darth Vader in Rogue One. With horses?

Just some crazy connections. The horses, no, of this guy, yeah. There's so many jobs out there that I never would have thought existed, such as Horse Rangler. It is crazy too. Like when you're in the biz, you know, you're in the biz. Like, dude, we really need someone to play this job and do this thing. Yeah. And they're like, your experience with horses.

Yeah. There's like so many things I would never thought existed. It's really good to hear, though, like that there's a family that does it that is like decent about it. Like Camilla Knackers, like, I read some really terrible horror stories about medieval fun time land. Medieval times. Medieval times. I knew we'd get there. I was about to be like, no, not medieval fun time.

Worldland, which actually, I don't know, maybe that would have been a plot line in that movie. How dare you call it that? Yeah. But I've heard like some really sad things that are very correlated with capitalism about the treatment of horses at other things like that. So it's good to hear that somebody is on the job taking care of the horses in real life. Yeah. And so don't can't take care of him in the story.

He doesn't. I guess he retains like two of the horses, but we have like a line here which I'm like, is this something that's going to come back to in one of the other Dunkin'nege novellas? It says, a knight without a horse is no knight at all. And so something that I think we could expect is like a question, right, with how fractured the Targaryian dynasty is like, so then what is a Targaryen without a dragon if a knight without a horse is no knight at all? A man, just a man, guys.

He's just a dude. Just some guy. Or girl. Yeah. Or are they them? Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah.

They're not that important without the big dragon, apparently. That's sad. Everyone's important. Yeah, especially the horses. But, like, you know, regarding them just being a man, you know, it's very much knights are built the same as other men. They tell you that up front in the tavern, coming back to that. And then also, like, it is an interesting contrast with Egg, though, saying that,

I don't know any knights that look like you within, like, just a few moments. it's like so then our knights built the same as other men or not that is a question that is posed here and i don't know a lot of like other nice moments that i like towards the beginning for example like i do think it is an interesting gag with the way that they've been showing arlin so far right he has very few speaking lines other than the like why you like when dunce like i didn't deserve to be hit during that time you know they're making it like kind of comedic with like the repetitiveness of that and also i don't know like if this is the correct comparison but I was like oh it reminds me a little like

those little Wes Anderson like small vignettes and flashbacks as they're like dictating like something maybe that's not the right director I don't know you tell me Chloe because he does a lot of like delivering themes through like whimsical. Yeah. Irony? Yeah, like Moonrise Kingdom is coming

to mind here right like Moonrise Kingdom. Yeah, I've seen a movie. Everyone please clap. Yeah. I'm proud of you. Thank you. And like, I mean, it's interesting because clearly he loves Arlen and we're not seeing it yet through this. So I'm kind of wondering, are we going to get a contrast in those later on? I don't know. But it really kind of highlights something, you know, where, where Egg asked Dunk, are you an orphan? He's like, I was once. And I think that's really beautiful, especially having read the short story of showing, like, how important Arlen was to him

that he would see someone who just took him, like, to be his new parent. And also from there on, like, as Dunk is deciding, you know, which seat can I take? Now, Carly Ray Jepson, Rebecca Black reference today on the podcast. Oh my God. Wow. I just thought this was some, like, fun, like, supporting visuals where he's like, I could do outlawry or beggary. And then, like, from there, you see, like, suddenly Dunk looking at the shovel, right,

showing that that way lies death. Then he turns towards and looks at the sword. So we know this is what he's going to take. Oh, interesting. Kind of makes me think. of like Stoneheart, like, what do you two? Sword. Oh, yeah, with one of a Dunk's descendants for Ian.

Like, actually canonically, that's confirmed by George. Quite literally, yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Um, yeah, puppetry tent was sick, bro. Bro.

Bro. Yeah. It was. I was kind of like, I was a little surprised. It was not at all the way that I imagined it, because I think I was imagining, you know, speaking with Shrek, something like the dolock. intro, but with people

who are actually making the puppets. Tiny puppets. Yeah, that's what I expected. Or even like, you know, we saw some kind of I guess little performances as well in HotD, but I was very impressed with the technology. I was like, oh my God, it's a big dragon. It is just like when I watched Shrek the musical recently with a big dragon,

but no pirate techniques. They did have like a fiery display, but not with actual fire. So, you know, speaking of Shrek. And it's different, you know, like, In that, Tansell isn't using her hands to do the puppet tree. She's kind of leading it. Feels like bigger. It makes me wonder, like, you know, how well now it's going to hit with the contrast of

Arian going after someone of such lower station. But it does a really good job of setting the scene in terms of like, Coachella. Public art this way. I love that. And I have two things about the puppet show I have to have to spit out of. One, they were doing Sirwin of the Mirror Shield. Yes. Right?

He's age of hero's hero. but singers claim that, well, in Brand 3, some singers in Brand 3 Agat claim that he was a knight of the Kingsguard, and he's favored by like the small folk love him in his songs, and he served the ancient kings of the reach. So he, like, slays a dragon, he saves a princess at one point. He's haunted by all the ghosts of the knights he killed, and legends have him basically putting him in the Kingsgars.

under Egan, but he was supposed to be from the first men, and he has a great reputation, right, for being so great. So we don't really know, but also that some people say he was a legend. Some people say he was in the first Kingsguard. Kind of reminds me of like, dunk becoming a legend, right? And relating Serwyn of the Mirror Shield to him. And Tyrion compares Barriston's infamy with the small folk to him, right? So we do get kind of a reference to Sirwin with the Kingsguard in the main series.

So I don't know. I thought that was fun. And then I actually really love that Tan Sal is telling the story. So it's almost like she's telling the eventual story of Dunk of the Great Kingsguard Dunk in the Fall and Away. But also then that she is the storyteller. Because you know who else is a storyteller, Eliana. This is so good. Old man.

Oh, my God. This is so good. Wow. Thank you. I saw at some point, I was like, oh, my God, she's brilliant. I was like, oh, my God, she's brilliant. Yeah, I did think that they, smooch, smooch. Anyways, I do literally think that's maybe why they did it.

I do. I'm delusional, though, so, like, who knows? No, I believe you. I think you're right. Exactly. Exactly. No, I think so. Two dumb bitches.

No, but I actually do. No, I think so. I think you're absolutely right. It makes so much sense as to why she knows all of these and like as passing that down. Because she's the storyteller. She's the puppeteer. That's what she did. She told the stories and then she went on to do it eventually in Winterfell after she leaves Dorn someday.

Well. Pregnant with Dunk's child. Because he left her. Deadbeat Daddunk. No. Deadbeat Daddunk is my favorite. Canonical. Maybe.

Maybe. Well, but I mean, what does A-Man tell John, right? And Agat, like... Yeah, that's true. What is a brother's smile, holding your son, wind in words, Eliana. Yeah. All they are. All must choose.

As other men. And... Yep. So, I mean, same as other men, right? Like, that's the theme. Yeah. In regards to... Homey.

Also, when we're talking about class and class mobility, which we never shut up about during the Hedge Night and are never going to shut up about here. You could have just ended that at we never shut off about. Yeah, that's true. And you know, you've probably heard us make these points

if you listen to our coverage of the short story, but to bring it up again, we have the Master of the Games, the Steward Plummer, and I actually, like, thought when we were reading his interaction with Dunk in the Hedge Night, I was like,

he might not have actually been smirking. Like, he actually might have been rooting for him a little or just, you know, just smiling. Because like, it does seem in this interaction, he's not really against Dunk. He's a little difficult to read. He's just kind of like interesting sort of deadpan, funny dude. We hear him even say something like, imagine the poor farmer charging down Lionel Barathean

in the list, which is like a fun setup for when you see him later down there. And then he goes down this checklist of everything that someone would need to be able to enter the list. And then also reminds Dunk, like, you're going to need to ransom back your armor if you lose. And he doesn't say it in a constant. descending way. He says it in a quite concerned way. Like, you know that this is what you're risking, right? It's not snooty. It's just the reality of it. And I think that there's an aspect of it that is respectful being like, this is what the, to be clear about that, right? And it also goes to show you, like in this, it's showing, not telling that this is an inequitable system, right?

This poor, a poor farmer, no matter how talented, has no hope of moving upwards in terms of station and money. Like, this is not an avenue for class mobility. there are very few pads. Also, like, what happens if we kill him? We can't have that. That would look terrible. And it's like, they understand. They see, they know that is how the cookie of Westeros is crumbling.

Like the sex workers, they're all amused by him. They're amused at first because they're like, oh, here's that corn fed tall bitch. And he's going to come and change the world in one day. And you know what? takes a few in them many years, but I think he does. He does. And I think that more people, you change the world more with more dunks than you do without them. And maybe that's also the themes.

Yeah, it is. And like, I think, I'm excited to see what it's like when he does stand up and, like, when everyone comes out to see him because they're like, whoa. Yeah, whoa. Bro, he did it. Yeah. Damn. I hope it gets me. Because now I'm getting it again.

I'm getting it again. That's what I love about this story. I'm like, when you start thinking about it, it really starts. It makes your heart go, man. It's good shit. Fucking George, dude. I know. He's good shit.

Every time. I don't know. Yeah, and Ira. All right, Ira. All right. I was unfamiliar with your game, Ira. Of Thrones. Fuck.

So two small things. These are like not important. These are just things that I thought. I'm going to share commentary from my friends of being like, Like, they were confused. They were like, wait, so Dunk didn't even eat at the tavern. I'm like, no, no, no, no. He did.

We just, like, kind of skipped over it. So I will say, I wish they showed us the food at the tavern just because you and I discussed it in dabs. It sounds so good. Okay, I love, and I actually made an herb crested rack of lamb the other week. Oh my God. Yeah, and I guess, like, what, they also had duck. I've been trying to. Yeah.

We tried to find, like, some cheaper duck, but, like, was unable to. But, yeah, duck, I saw a recipe. Usually I make it with, like, a fruity. like either wine or bourbon sauce, like depending on like what I have on hand. I'll do like maybe like a cherry like red wine sauce with the duck. But I found something recently with like a much more like creamy peppercorn sauce with a duck. And I want to try it. I want to make it and try that.

So that was important to me. Thank you. And also. Also did feel like they were in the tavern. Like I loved that. Like I felt very immersed in the tavern. Other than that, like I did want the food. that would have just made it an A plus.

It was only an A for me, unfortunately, because of that. Like, that would have given them the plus. But her pouring his wine or his beer and then, like, him drinking it down and her immediately being like, all right, here you go. And, like, that was normal, you know? Like, of course. And a big fellow like him, as she points out, makes sense. Like, that felt very, I did feel very immersed in the tavern, though.

Like, I was very into that. It felt realistic in a way. Like, that's different. because usually when we see all these taverns in every, like, medieval, it's like all, like, joyous and stuff. But they saved that loud moment to be in the Baratian tent. They let the tavern be like, yeah, I don't know. People aren't always here. Sometimes it's quiet.

Sometimes business ain't booming. And which also makes sense by Darren would have chosen it out of the way, not too many people. Yeah, yeah. This is small. I just like that there was a small detail of, like, on one of the cards, you could see, like, what looked like, I think a Tyrell Lance, because it had that beautiful, like, golden rose. And I was like, oh, there it is. It just, it just looked cool. I saw that too.

No, I loved that. I also loved the, um, the Ashford colors were so vibrant and so beautiful. Yeah. Like, I really loved that. And the, the, the Faso Way armor was really cool because it wasn't too gaudy, which I wouldn't have minded if it was gaudy and like classic. But I actually loved how it was leather worked and it looked very cool. The Fossoway thing.

And I think we'll talk about the Fossoways a lot more in the Nog. next couple episodes. We have a lot more time to talk more about them. But I liked Raymond overall. Can't wait to see how he keeps developing and what more they give him. Yeah, I'm excited to see him. I think they did a good job introducing those characters that was fun. And like one short thing on the Faso is with Raymond saying like, I'm his blood regarding why Stefan doesn't hurt Raymond in that way and injure him. And Rosales, A, obviously he's not a night and can't enter, but also it reminds us of the rule of like, oh, maybe you're not supposed to hit your, your family members, part of it is because of like the beliefs of their systems in Westeros and, you know, kinslaying, but he wouldn't be kinsling, just hurting.

But I'm his blood, and it sets the stage for later Targaryen on Targaryen crimes, but also past Targaryen on Targaryen crimes in terms of the Blackfire rebellion. And I mean, look, of course, you've all watched the other show, Hot D. Same shit, different day, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. True, true, true, true, true. True. Overall, really strong start. Yeah, I'm enjoying it.

But also, like, I don't know. I'm just, I'm here for the ride for a lot of the times now, and I enjoy most things. Yeah. The one thing I didn't enjoy, this is stupid of me, and it was, like, actually a beautiful scene. I was like, oh, okay, so Dunk sees the star with him, too. I didn't, I don't know why. I didn't like that change, but it's still nice. It actually is still nice.

I don't, like, that's my irrational. opinion. Interesting. Weird, right? Okay. I don't think it's that irrational. Really? Okay.

I think it's not that irrational. I don't know. I think you're allowed to have that opinion. Okay. For now. Yeah. You know, the world changes every day that we live in, so enjoy it while you can. Enjoy having that opinion while you can.

Maybe I'll hate me for having that opinion. Maybe future me will hate past me having that opinion. Yeah, maybe you'll cancel her. Cancel her. Girls gone canceled. Oh, no. Stop. Stop manifesting it.

I think the next episode is called, is it salt beef? Oh, that's actually like really interesting. If it is. Hard salt beef, which is what knights live off of, and that's what he has for them to eat. So excited. Banger, like low-key kind of a banger idea for a title. So can't wait to watch E2 with you. Indeed.

Indeed. Man, now we'll be back. Now I've got the gear spinning, but we'll save it. What? I'm ready. to jump into just like just this fucking episode title. I know. I'm hyped. I'm hyped.

Ira Parker. Unfamiliar with your game. A Thrones. Excited to see what you do. Yeah. Oh my God. I'm never going to stop it when that happens. That's fair. I don't either. And usually it's me. So I'm really glad that you took it this time. Well, thank you for listening. We will be back next week.

Expect us. Subscribe if you don't yet. Subscribe. Yeah. We love to read a Spotify comment too. I know we mentioned a couple places but every platform we're on you can leave a comment. There's a chance we'll read it. So leave them fast. We'll record this on Mondays

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that give you many, many perks. We will return. As always, I've been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your host, Eliana. Thank you for joining us here at this kicking it off. Oh, my God, dunking it with egg. Oh, yeah. Dunk.

Slam. Slam. Goodbye. Oh, that's what someone else is going to do later on. Goodbye. Oh, my God.