Girls Gone Canon Cast - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — Season 1, Episode 6 — "The Morrow"

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

And so ends this tale of A Knight of the Nine Kingdoms. Help us say goodbye to Dunk, Egg, Sweetfoot, Ser Arlan, and a bunch of other characters who actually aren't coming back for the third time. ---- Reminder: You can and should still contact your congresspeople to not only add guardrails around ICE but to defund (and dismantle) them. Find and call your congresspeople by phoning the Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121 All you have to do is say the name of your Senator or Representative, and you'll be directed to their congressional office. Not sure who represents you in Congress or how to find them? You can also find more of their contact information and their name on this site: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member Besides calling Congress, if you're not sure what you can do, here are some more actions you can take, in no particular order: Get involved with mutual aid (this will differ depending on where you're based, so we didn't include any links) Donate to mutual aid or to organizations such as the ACLU, RAICES, National Immigration Project, Legal Aid Justice Center or local orgs that may need more support. Find a local rapid response effort and save their number to your phone. Know what to look for and what to report. Protest. Attend a bystander training or response training. Pressure local officials, employers, and landlords to refuse to cooperate with ICE. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Other actions you can take exist. Please do what you can. ----- 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 6, The Morrow. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. The Morrow, the Morrow, Duncan Egg, The Morrow, you're only a season. Oh, wait, oh, I don't know. No, sorry. I mean, no, it's okay. I really liked where you took that, Eliana.

Thank you. beautiful, sad rendition of tomorrow to words from Duncan Egg by Eliana. Welcome to the final episode of Season 1 of a Night of the Seven Kingdoms. I did enjoy this episode. We have had a really good time covering this series with you. We look forward to season two next year. They're filming season two right now. It's happening.

The Checky Lion is coming roaring our... way. And we will also be returning this summer with another TV show in the Westeros world. But first, for those of you who are tuning in for the first time to our Night of the Seven Kingdom series question mark, here is our spoiler policy. Everything, published, produced, etc. If it exists. Yeah, speculation, definitely a lot of a legend. Things Dexter Sol Ansel has told us. Yeah. We're going to spoil it all on our podcast. You should assume that like 75 to 85% of the time with us, quite honestly.

After this season is wrapped up after this episode, we are taking one week off next week. And what's next for us after that is we will return to our A Song of Ice and Fire, P-O-V-R-Reed, I should say. A Song of Ice and Fire, POV, reread. We will be returning to cover. our final published POV Tyrion, starting with Tyrion 1. If you're interested in some of the other series that we're running, we're also running a Mockingjay, the Hunger Games read on Patreon. We'll be finishing up, folding in Dorn, maybe, question mark, this month on Patreon.

And we will cover House of the Dragon when it comes up in June. We're excited for that. Of course, there are other series. that we're working on on our Patreon. We have a free cities series that's still happening. We do. But we have a couple of other series as well

that we have done, such as on the Kingsguard, which is kind of fun, perhaps, if you enjoyed this regarding a knight of the nine kingdoms. You've probably gleaned this, but we do a POV by POV, we chunk up all the POVs and the Asang of Ice and Firebooks

and go through them one by one. It's crazy. We're on the last one. We're going to be starting that. And yeah. Your move, George. Yeah, I, like, actually was kind of confused because I was looking at an ad or, I don't know, some sort of graphic of like Duncan Egg will be back in 20207. I was like, dang, that's a while from now.

That's two years from now. And then as we were starting this episode and talking about, I was like, it's 2026. I was like, I got so confused about where I am in time. right now. I was like, oh, 2027's next year. That's crazy. You know, we might get lucky. We might get Egan the Conqueror's movie as well. Have you heard?

It might be a movie. I have heard that it might be a movie. I just like don't remember, I don't know how far enough they are and everything, but yeah, I mean, we could get theoretically even, maybe more Duncan Egg novellas. It sounds like that actually might happen. Or speaking of, like,

you hinted that perhaps are folding in Dorn series, like this might not be the last episode, because listen, if they put out blood and fire and I get more about this, about the Blackfire Rebellions, and how Dorn becomes part of the seven kingdom slash nine, because technically I guess it's eight and then it becomes nine, right? Because seven, eight, nine. Yeah. They did eat Dorn in a way.

We are going to obviously revive and come back with even more of that information. So, yeah. Can't wait for blood and blood. fire, look under your chairs. Yeah. Just kidding. I actually do. Yeah.

We've been saying it. I do want it. I could. I do. You know, if you have not already clicked subscribe, go ahead, click it right now, whatever platform that you are listening on. If you haven't checked it out, head over to patreon.com slash girls gone canon. We have so many more perks.

You can get bonus episodes if you are in the stranger tier. That's the $5 tier and up. C-A-N-O-N-N. Girls Gone Canaan. And we also host a brunch slash happy hour. We call that Brappy Hour where we are from, which is the Discord, over at our Discord. That is happening this month, February 28th at 1pm E.T. We have already chosen our March brunch as well.

And that is on Saturday, March 14th, 1pm, ET. I don't know why I thought the 14th was a Sunday, but yes. We look forward to seeing our patrons. in the Thunder tier and up there. And of course, please leave reviews and comments if you enjoyed this episode of Girls Gone Canon. It helps other people find us. It puts us on their screens and their algorithms,

and we would love that for them to have as much joy as you're having. Indeed. So, I mean, like, it also brings us joy, three comments. Unless you hate us, then it brings me only grief. Oh, she's gorged on grief. Yeah. Well, I've softened on season one, episode five. I will say that we have a listener who mentioned I was sitting online and I was like looking at the notifications and somebody had blue skyed, skated us and said, oh, Chloe at Girls Gone Cannon opened the like critique levy for me.

Like I feel like I'm allowed to critique it. And I'm like, no, don't put my name in your mouth. Be brave on your own. Yeah. Be brave on your own. I mean, like, obviously, everyone's entitled to their own opinions. Absolutely. I have, like, some crazy opinions about things, as you all know.

And, yeah, I think be brave. If you dislike something, do it on your own account. Don't let us be, give you permission. Give yourself permission. This is meant to be empowering, but also, again, don't make me sad. No, no. And this person had great intent. And I actually appreciate and enjoy interacting with this person.

So it was funny because I was like, no, don't put my name in your mouth. That's all. Be brave. Be brave on your own, yeah. I rewatched the last episode with some like more casual fans, a casual fan household. One fan who hasn't read the books, one who has casually read them. We actually binged like the entire season up to one episode five, finished that up. And I don't want to ever apologize for my behavior because that would set a precedent that I don't really like.

It would maybe make me feel, yeah, like, that's a nasty precedent. I would never apologize for being myself. However, you know, it was actually really, really good all is one. The pacing was way better watching it, one, two, three, four, five. The fifth episode I definitely had better perception of and felt better about. I even liked the flashback a little more. I still feel like there are essences of the critiques that I made in the last episode that are reflected throughout the series,

and we can talk about that as we go. But overall, it was fine. It was really good. Now I want to rewatch all of them and the sixth episode just to really lock it in because I just think the pacing turned out so much better that way. I caught, not caught, but there were different things that I felt, you know,

oh, that's a great parallel, and that plays well, and it ties in well. And, oh, nerdy, I love that. Just things that stood out a little better as a whole, when I watch it as a whole. And I'm not like a binger like that. I'm usually a one one episode of night binger. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to come too soon.

I'm going to build up, you know, till I get that great TV release. I'm a binger. I would absolutely watch four to five episodes of something or more all in one scene. Well, you're going to love this. So get ready. I have done crazy things, you guys. You fucking have so much so that I just like assume that you'll binge something if it's out. I'm just like, what do you mean you haven't watched it yet?

There are certain things that will prevent me from doing so, usually structural. And by that I just mean streaming wise. Yeah, that's fair. In terms of access. But, uh, yeah. No, I think this series is absolutely meant to be, A, either rewatched all at once or, be like bingeed all at once afterwards. I feel as though it's

kind of made to do that. Yeah. It was great to, it was, I feel like I absorbed more watching it all at once, which usually I feel the opposite way. So, and maybe that comes to some of the emotional resonance that we'll talk about of things that didn't stick before

versus things that stuck. No, literally. Some stuff stuck better this time for me, especially on binge than before. I don't know, yeah, it was good. It was decent. I like the episode overall.

I think they did nail the ending mostly. And I'm excited to get into some of the quick messages and emails we got. We'll rapid fire them off from all of you at home. A couple comments from Spotify and a couple emails from friends. We really appreciated it. So, to start off, we have a message from our friend Sarah. He says, hello, lovelies. I've been catching up on your Night of the Seven Kingdoms.

coverage and I'm bursting with so many comments slash questions, but I'm still a little behind, so I apologize for my outdated unload. One, thanks for keeping me company late into the night while I was smoking Chinook salmon in the cold dark night. I binged your episodes one through three, then I was catching up on episode four today. Two, salmon turned out awesome. House Tully would be proud, a huge sigh of relief. I want to know about how you were smoking this.

Were you hot smoking it? Were you cold smoking it? Please tell me more. Please tell me how I can do it as well. Because I've only hot smoked salmon and I'm like interested. Okay, three, thanks for the political uprising encouragement. Of course, I yelled at my reps double time. Heart, love that.

Four, yes, I bought half the superb owl allotted avocados. Yeah, avocados have been quite on sale now, I guess. I'm in, I've been making bread again. thanks to Chloe's mom's help, so avocado toast is so back in the household. And laughed knowing, Shelley must have given you some shit about the New York Patriots. She hasn't yet. Don't remind her. I don't think she's listened yet.

Don't remind her? It's on. It's on. Okay, your move, Shelley. All right, four, I think you discussed which one of you was egg versus dunk. I want to know which Darwolf or Dragon you are. I kind of forgot what we landed upon. I mean,

Dyerwolf-wise? Oh, no, I meant Deg versus Dug. Oh, I think you dunk, even though you're shorter than I am. Oh, yeah, that's what it was. Me, egg, because I would burn a Nate with countryside. Okay.

Also, I have big kitten-like eyes that I go, ooh-woo with and get what I want. You know, I get it. Dyer-Wiff or a dragon, though. Dyer-Wolf, I guess. Lady, because I am a lady. You are a lady. And like, what?

Are you saying you died? I wish. I don't know. I guess Shaggy Dog. Because you're feral. Yeah. That's the closest I can think of. I'm like, do I know about the different direwell personalities enough?

Shaggy dog? I don't know. For dragon? Dragon? I don't think I know them enough. I don't think I know their personalities well enough. What dragon do you think I would be? Hmm.

Dreamfire? That was such a good answer. I'm so glad. That's because it's my moon, you know? Pisces mood sign. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. You probably told me and I just don't remember. No, I'm definitely a dream fire. Yay. I think part of me thinks, gosh, I would say you're either sea smoke or your caraxies, mostly because the noodle neck.

I feel like you might have something like you might be a little goofy looking and both of them have some goofy features in a good way. Also, I love noodles. I didn't even think about that connection. And I like that idea. I do love noodles. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of just noodle it.

Like, when I think about you, I think about when Pokemon are too high of a level when you don't have enough gym badges and they're like, they're loafing about. I'm like, Eliana is loafing about. Yeah. You know what I've been hilarious if I said cannibal, but I don't think that it is me based off of my subconscious. My subconscious does not actually want to eat people, you guys. I found that out in dreams. I'm like, I don't know. I don't think this is a.

a good idea, you guys. Okay, so Sarah ends the email with The Biggest Burst of Love and Connection from Episode 4 Pod. Eliana dove into why she loved that show Aryan doesn't come across as pure evil and how important it is to know that regular, quote-unquote, Joe blows can do evil things. Yesterday, I watched Darkwind Season 3 in prep for the new season, and this tenant is a central theme. Leaphorn grapples with very real visions of an evil monster and has to dive deep into his past to learn the lesson that there are no real monsters, just bad humans.

The serendipity of this rewatch and listening to this episode of GCC is so cool. Very cool that George is heavily involved with Dark Winds. Season three has some heavy-hitting substance to it. Not sure how much George influenced that, but just thought it was an awesome connection. Loving your takes, deep dives, and silliness. Thank you so much. Heart, heart, heart, heart. We appreciate you, Sarah.

Yeah, thank you, Sarah. Actually, I'm about to be like very embarrassing here. I don't think I know Dark Wins. Really? I don't, I haven't watched yet nor engaged, but it's a thriller to my knowledge. Yeah, and it has an okay cast to it from what I'm heard. I think it's on, I don't know what it's on, but it's not on like something that everybody has to my knowledge. But it's in the 1970s southwest to Navajo police officers.

are like parsing their own spiritual beliefs, searching for clues in a double murder case. That sounds actually really cool. I bet it's good. I think it's on like AMC or something, so I don't know what has AMC, but... Something. All right, cool.

I'll have to look into that. Thank you, Sarah. Yeah, we've gotten some Spotify comments. Thank you to everyone who's been leaving them. Yeah, I love them. This first one comes from Viola and says, I love Dunk being nice to the rat. Poor thing.

just wanted shelter from the rain. Dunks decency by default towards animals and most other beings is endearing. It reminded me of Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, which also features this motif with one of the characters. I agree about Maycar, not surprised by people giving him a pass when so many in fandom absolve his series of his lack of parenting and blame everything on Alicent. I really enjoyed Fashion Hour. Thank you, Viola. A hot take also going to add everyone absolving Robert Verathian of parenting I think that that tide has been like

turning more lately and like it all on Searcy but I'm just like Geoffrey wanted to be like you Robert I think this comment also is really crucial considering this episode right where Maker himself basically admits that he's a failed dad

and that's what I like about him I actually like that I love you try popularizing the term fail dad in contrast to fail son well you wouldn't have fail son without fail dad. That's generational trauma right there.

God damn right. We got a comment from our good friend Jason on season one episode for Night of the Seven Kingdoms and he said yeah, Sir Stephen Fasaway of House Fassoway of Cider Hall might be an oath-breaking jerk, but by gods does his armor look like something

out of Eldon Ring. Yeah, for real. Fashion Souls, real fashion souls moments here, everyone. And Dan from Also, this one's also on season one, episode four, says hello again to my favorite podcast, badasses, thank you. While I strongly disagree with Chloe's outrageous views on the Kingsguard armor, wow, there's a... I'm honored to be a Gigi fashion punch dummy. I will say you've got it all right about Mr. Appleman's armor.

Such beautiful detail, but not as functional. But can we talk about Daddy Barathe? functional and equally sexy gear. That has to be at least top three, right? I can't give the costume team enough praise. Give them all an Emmy. Give yourselves one two. Kay, thanks, bye. We did it.

We egotted. Ego. Oh, my God. Eliana Game of Thrones. We just got our EGOT. Thanks, Dea. Eleonahyote. It tickles me every time.

Yeah. The Barathean armor, there's a lot of great behind the scenes. photos coming out. Looks amazing. The Beesbury armor also looks really cool. Yeah. Black and yellow. Black and yellow. Oh my God. So, thank you, Dan, and agree to disagree, and I like that about our friendship. Moving on to Reddist on Spotify, who said,

speaking of Orpheus and Eurydice, may I recommend Stray Gods the role-playing musical? Need convincing, listen to the throne from the soundtrack. It's coming. Now that show season is done, I have something new to get upset. with thanks reddest. Have you heard of this? Have you heard of this? No, not till this comment, so it's meant to be. Yeah, because I'm like, I, Chloe knows so many things about musicals. She's always like up on it and then she tells me about all the musicals happening and whatnot.

I'm like, okay, word, word. Yeah, I finally am not cool. This is the first time it's ever happened to me. So just give me space degree. Oh, I didn't say, I didn't say that. That's what I heard. Thanks for telling me how you feel. Talk. All right. Our friend Warren sent us an email. It's pretty thick, so we're giving you the highlights.

He said, this is the episode where most of the adaptation debate is living. He's not trying to be an Ira sympathizer, but he kind of is at the same time. Don't bullshit me, Warren. I know how much you like Ira Parker. Warren's the kind of guy right now to buy Ira Parker a round or two

at the bar. Because Warren loves dunk. He loves the Hedge Night and this is his shit. So cheers to Warren. Warren felt like the long flashback shifted the tone, but it was a little too long in the moment, not long enough to fully land emotionally. He thinks flashbacks could have maybe been used a little more strategically across the season, shorter recurring moments building dunks past and the get-up theme. So when it pays off here, it hits harder. He did also feel there's a missed opportunity to deepen Baylor and Makar, maybe explore how

some of the violence-shaped Dunk growing up. And because the trial stays so tightly in Dunk's POV, he thinks Baylor's death maybe didn't get quite the emotional weight it deserved. But that said, he thought the violence itself felt necessary, not just violence for spectacle,

and really loved the dog reenactment with Egg and Dunk. Egg's little woof moment. Oh, woof, woof. Really captured the heart of their relationship. for him. He ended by saying he's sad that we didn't love the episode the same way he did, warts and all, but he's hoping the finale wins us back. Yeah, I didn't dislike last episode. It just didn't like, it just, I was thinking about this today.

And I have to like rewatch the whole thing at once to see how I truly feel. But I think even though some people, like, I have this one friend who was like, did not like the earlier episodes because he didn't like that it had like a lighter fun tone versus the later ones. But I think it was like also just really fun for me in those earlier episodes to see someone do something different with the universe. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. In terms of like how it's portrayed and how it's adapted and kind of take these creative choices. So that was actually like really fun for me.

Whereas this, the episode five was really good and I still enjoyed it. I think it just like wasn't, I don't know, as hard hitting for me. No pun intended. Yeah. There were a few moments in this episode that gave me a lot of trust in what they're doing, but a lot of kind of emotional moments that I wish had had a few more beats to build them up. Absolutely. So we'll jump into those as we go.

We weren't mad and we weren't disappointed, disappointed. We were just, you know, it was fine. Yeah. No, I absolutely agree. And I think like watching this episode cemented that same feeling for me. And don't get me wrong. Like overall, I love it. But I think you and I actually have similar misgivings.

Okay. Cool. Well, let's dive into the givings and the misgivings then. Thanks, Warren. Thank you so much everyone who emailed and commented, et cetera. All season, if we didn't get to your note, we did read them all. and we do love getting them, so hopefully we can get to them another time. And if not, keep sending us your thoughts.

We do love to read them. Without further ado, let's jump into The Morrow, starting with Lionel and Dunk. Oh, Lionel and Dunk. I really did love this scene. I love the opening with the jazz music. It really sets the tone that this is going to be a little zanier, which it was in some ways. Like, structurally, this episode has some zaniness to it, I would say. say, just a little bit of quirky.

Yeah, I thought that was like an absolutely brilliant choice. I think it was a brave decision that I love to bring in like a completely different genre like that. And then also the way that they treated music, especially in this episode, also feels very much to an extent, you know, they brought in songs that have, and we'll talk about it, but that existed prior to the series that are already existing songs. And I think like it almost brings it into. the same, again, like conversation, it already is in the same conversation as a knight's tail.

But like, I think like the way that a knight's tail used music is so fun. So I love this choice. And then even like the framing, as you said, like the way it was like looking at them. And it also, it's a good tonal shift, especially as you're coming off of the previous episode. Because we are going to get heavy. But I think that is needed. This was the first episode where I felt like they had a total balance. between the tone, the humor, consistency of that.

And I think a lot of my critiques probably, honestly, in the wide brush, longest run can be painted as more budget. Could it got us there? I think that's really the truth at the end of the day. So I'm trying to temper some of those critiques because, like, needle drops aren't cheap, right? True. I think about it's not just cheap for needle drops, but how much fun would it?

have been if 50% of the episodes had a different musical genre song, even like a punk song in the credits, or, you know, I just feel like there was a certain inconsistency of tone. And when the show chose to go ambitious and chose to be bold and do something against the book of Game of Thrones, of Hot D, et cetera, like when it went against the book in that way, it was actually very good. And I think I respect showrunners and directors and writers that go outside that book and push those limits in a lot of ways. Yeah.

But I do like them keeping it here for the sixth episode, for the last episode, right? And I assume we will see more of them exploring different genres in the other seasons. But they needed one more thing that would kind of tie it together with the way that they've been breaking the form of things. things in this IP, this intellectual property. So I think that it was really good of them to save that choice for the sixth episode and to open it up with. And more of that is what I'm saying. I want more of that. I mean, be confident, stupid.

Yeah, be brave. That's the lesson for this episode in general. And it's not the theme in the actual episode. Maybe it is. That's the theme of the whole story. But that's what we're telling all of you. in regard to your opinions. Be brave.

Yeah, be brave. Have them. I mean, just have them. My God. Don't fuck around. Where's the bravest women? We know. No, I'm joking.

So, this scene is so fun. It's so, like, last day of the convention kind of energy. Last day of Coachella. Everyone's burnt the fuck out. Coachella, yeah. Dunk is dead from partying too hard. Ha ha. And Lionel is like, I do this all the time, dude.

still has half his cosplay on, he's still drunk. You know, like, Lionel's, like, laying on the tree. He's like, so are we going to do that again sometime? That was pretty fun, man. Totally, last day of Khan energy. I have seen this film before. Yeah, it is interesting to liken it to Coachella, right? You've sucked out all the serotonin from all the X you did.

The drugs have stopped. Ever in my life. Neither. But, uh, I have. Yeah, partying too hard is one way to put, I guess, what happened to dunk and true. Lionel's spry full of energy, but he also did not get stabbed seven times. No, he was having the time of his fucking life, twinkle-toes on that field. There's a great bit of context around this that dunk, I mean, he's opening this entire story up with,

I want to serve for a highborn family, get my payday, and now here he is, he has that. He has everything that dunk at the beginning of the show wanted, but he wants nothing to do with it. He's disillusioned. He's beat the fuck up. He's disheartened. He's learned how the world works. He learned that he wants nothing to do with nobles. It's crazy to now flip the script, and here he is in the season finale, just completely disenchanted with the whole idea.

Yeah, and it's great that you see that kind of creep up, and I like that they have Lionel offer that. to hammer that home. Also, no pun intended, regarding Barathians, but I'm... And I think that also the closing song that they choose does a good job of showing that theme as well, and we'll do a deeper dive into that at the end. Yeah. Where closing themes go. I love the TARTH mention where he's like, oh, have you ever been to TARTH?

And they've been playing with that. Like, okay, Ira, I'll take your fan service. I'll give you a little prop here because you keep saying even fall. Set it a couple times this episode. Tarth. I see what he's doing. I see that he is playing games with our hearts. He is.

Good for him. And I do feel that this entire episode, I mean, this episode's kind of framed around the broken man. Yeah. Right? You open it and that's who Dunk is. He is the broken man. He's had a taste of that life of serving.

the nobles and being their dog and, you know, the battle breaking and holding someone as they die in your arms and the guilt of surviving that in the whole world around you, crumbling. And of course, they frame that with the flashbacks of Arlen throughout the series. And later we'll see with the Arlen scene, right, where Arlen explains the penny tree, the very beautiful penny tree story that he tells Dunk. All of that becomes kind of the actualized example of that. of that speech, right? Knights that are broken. Knights that are giving up their values, their ethics, their morals, and no longer following them because they've broken.

That's like kind of the subtle risk, right? The threat that looms over. All this storyline. And I think you can kind of see the broken man happening a couple different ways, right? Like Macar's a broken man. Egg is on the precipice of being a broken man. His two brothers, his two older brothers, Kuea Darren and Kuea Aaron, they are both broken men and, but like, you can see eggs like kind of there because he's only a knife, but um,

Dunk is also, he's on the precipice of it both physically and emotionally, and I think maybe something that now that you bring this up with the broken man makes it work in the previous episode, but episode five is like Arlen, I guess, was kind of like, maybe he was even on the cusp

of being a broken man, but he comes out of that because of of Dunk, right? And dunk, he might be on the brink of being a broken man, but he comes out of it for his best friend child, younger brother, egg. Aw. His soulmate. Sorry, I just finished Dawson's Creek. So she's emotional about Dawson's Creek. About soulmates. There's also something interesting about that kind of edge of Barathean versus Targaryen, which is interesting.

if they are really an offshoot branch, cadet branch of them. Yes. But Lionel is right. The other guys fought and died for Dunk. Baylor's risk was much less than anyone on that teams, but Baylor did still choose to do that, which is the bigger thing. Like, it's interesting because Lionel's saying, you know,

oh, he was doing the bare minimum. But if everybody did the bare minimum, if everybody even, like, embraced one tenet of being a real true knight, the world would increase by like 2% at least, even just one tenant, you know? That's so true. Agreed. It's a numbers game. I think like when Lionel said that, part of me, like, viscerally reacted.

I'm like, how can you say that? Like, that he risked less? I'm like, I mean, didn't he risk all of it? To an he said? Because he's dead. Yeah. I'm like, what do you mean he risked less? He's literally dead.

And I don't know. So are the other people. It's true. And I guess, I guess part of why I was like, I don't know. That feels like a little dramatic. Lydol was because Yeah. Like nothing certain. Yeah, I don't think. And, okay,

they didn't include their like football huddle planning, right? They didn't put that speech into the show, but it is in the book, novella. And because of that, we kind of see like Baylor's strategy. And I feel as though

Baylor had intended to help protect the others from that risk, shield them from that risk because he's like try to avoid it, I will take the King's Guard, right, and so forth, because he knows that they can't hurt them by their vows. So, like, he was trying to protect the others from being hurt. And also, side note, I do think it's hilarious that Lionel didn't remember Raymond's name and calls him the Appleboy.

Right, like that kid I knighted, the Appleboy. No clue. I was like, oh. Going back to what you said about Lionel, I had to think of his fucking name for a moment, who likes to lie. The dear boy. Yeah, that little stag. So there was that line right where he's like, oh, and he basically implying that Baylor was a fraud, right?

The gods saw that he died, so maybe he was a fraud, which is interesting, especially with the context of Baylor's look. He looks like his mother. He looks like his Dornish mother. And the slight implied, you know, fraudulence of what a brunette airtight. to the throne when you are a blonde Targaryen means. In some aspects, too, like thinking of the dance on top of the Blackfire rebellion, like there's just some interesting context of life. Well, whatever, maybe he was a fraud.

It's just like such a crazy thing to actually imply and say. You never know who's listening, obviously, but treasonous. And we've had bastards with dark hair that were heirs to the throne, you know? Yeah. I also was like, what's going on here? I know that some people took, and I don't think this is the case. case. Some people took the whole, like, the line from

episode five where Lionel talks about, like, fighting and brothers and whatnot as, like, a racist comment from him, and I don't think so, but his, uh, his vehemence against Baylor. Baylor.

Fiel's kind of a little, like, is this a little, is this a little bit of a, like, is this a Dornish thing? Like, anti-dornish thing? Yeah. I do think So I think it, I feel that way about it because, I don't know. I mean, it's right there. So literally geographically speaking to Lionel, like the war back and forth and the

territory and conquest of the Dornish marches, right? And the stormlanders feeling they have a right to that land. Yeah. An eternal cassis belly to that land even. Like, that feels very targeted. So it would be interesting if that's being set up considering we're going to have a more and more Blackfire stuff in the next couple of seasons.

True. True. Well, we go from Lionel and Dunk and the maister, poor bitch, bless his heart, over to Baylor's funeral, which was very brief. It was kind

of surprised. Also, in the background, there were random cast members who may or may not be Targaryens. Right? Who knows?

But there was, you know, like a darker-haired Targaryen, so we're like, maybe that was Regal. There's the older man who could have been Aries. Eleanor, Alice, it looked like it could have been even, like, I don't know. Who are they? Or E-lora. They're all, like, old, so it doesn't really make sense. But I don't think any of them are really one-one.

But also, I did think the... I really liked the kind of... comparison between all of the big awe and spectacle of the tourney, even like what we get in the Beesbury tent, for example, for the funeral for Beesbury in comparison to Baylor's funeral, which was small and quiet and not overbearing and there's no sort of like warmth going on whatsoever about it, right? Like I went to a event this weekend that was a funeral for a friend, and it was not really a funeral. It was like a party for them. It was like a celebration of their life. And like Beesbury's funeral is a celebration of life. This is grim. This is very dismal.

There's no love being felt here. It's just grief. Yeah. It was it was just kind of, I like the way it was filmed and visually framed, especially because like we've seen other fun that look like this before, so it's fun to do in contrast. Seeing this one so small compared to like maybe the example of the funeral, right, for Emma Aaron, which has a dragon doing the funeral pyre. because they don't have dragons anymore here. And it was small and intimate. Maybe it was like a family thing only. I think like, you know, I kind of was like, who the fuck are these other Targaryens?

And I will say sometimes I'm like, is this Targaryen older or do they just have white hair? And they're not actually old. No, like legitimately it gets me sometimes. No, that's legit. They're not old. Maybe they're just Targaryen. Anyways. Yeah.

So I wasn't, maybe it was like a smaller, solid. them, like, it's mostly just the family, especially because they're like, whoa, you went to that when Doug's like, I was at the funeral, and they're like, what? Yeah, it was like only the intimate small family and then the murderer. I mean, technically the murderer was also there in a way, too, because the murderer is in the family. That's fair. Both of the murderers attended.

I like the quiet sadness that Valar had about his father. It wasn't interesting because I took like the. novella to be a little bit more full of vitriol, a little bit more anguished and angry. This was, you know, a little quiet and small. I like that we kind of get to imply what we want to take from Valar, question mark, I guess. But I would have liked maybe one more scene for him to have a little bit of character. He didn't really get much about his characterization, and we don't get much of him in the novella, and it's, I think it's intentional in some ways, right?

Like, we know every single bit about the character of Makar's children, which is funny because Macar is like not the likable character of the brothers, right? Like, I would say Baylor was the likable one. However, Baylor's children are blank slates unmemorable intentionally. They have no traits about them besides they're also heirs to Baylor. And we know their physical traits. We don't know really much about them besides, like, Valar was protected kind of in the tourney and no one wanted to go against him because he was a prince.

That's about the only thing. And he's like a normal, skilled man at arms. He's not like anything exceptional in the field. That's like what we know about him. Yeah. Like we see him briefly and we know people are going easy on him. And I agree. I think this is the scene where some of those cracks in the series adaptation started showing for me in terms of those critiques because it did get me kind of down on the pace.

the show overall, as you said, like, would have loved another scene. It could have been even between him and Baylor or something so that we can see, like, why this matters for him. I actually did, like, this is something we had discussed. I was like, oh, wait, what if, like, Valor's, like, not that mad? Like, there's, like, this grief, right? He's like, why you? Yeah. And not my dad. Like, because that's a normal, that's absolutely a normal bargaining stage grief shit to me. And- Yes, yes. So I really loved this portrayal. And this is one of those things where it's like, Yeah, we have this space. Instead of doing one-to-one, this is one of those things that, as you said, should have been flushed out because I don't know that, like, George necessarily chose not to flesh out Valor's, like, character or things like that, so much as we've discussed and as George has shared on his not a blog a bit ago, he was just not a deadline that he just barely made.

And so... Had he had more time with a slightly longer deadline to it, you know, still some pressure, he like might have added a few extra things. He likes to add a few extra things. He likes a little extra thing. Yeah, not to mention that, like, for example, with fire and blood, we saw, like, some of the relationships that got the most, like, we come back, we came back and, like, added more stuff into specifically, like, the familial, like, parental child relationships.

So, I don't know. Big. I also really like the idea of. of Baylor having a scene with Valar and maybe it would be semi-repetitive, but like, you know, seeing him parent-egg, Uncle Egg, is

interesting, but it would be nice to see him with Val-R and Val-R say something about Makar's kids and him, like, that relationship and what he tells him and what he tells him is okay to say is, like, something I would crave to see. I don't know. Interesting. It's like we have Dunk walk into a lot of things

or like even if we saw it in front, like on the field, right? Like, we saw Valor on the field, like, in his tent. What if, like, Baylor was talking to him about things too? I don't know. Dad, coaching son on football or whatever, but the football is jousting. Let's not do Quickey. There's too much incest than the Targaryens. Let's not add that one.

Oh, my God. Okay, a quickie. It was like a great read, though. I just, I think Valor is a character not to be very attached to. considering the big plague to come for him. Yeah, as a person, I don't know. Some people, yeah, kind of forgot. They're like, maybe Valor was, I don't know, whatever,

because he gets sick and we see a lot of other Targaryen stone. And like, it's because of the dragons. I'm like, I don't know, because there are, there's the shivers, right, that take a previous denieries in fire and blood. We see other Targaryans get sick, y'all. Like, they just, they also do get sick. The dragons don't have any. They just aren't always around common people to always get sick.

But when you have COVID, maybe everyone can get it. As someone who's lived through, you guys, like, you know, we're not stupid. We have all of us in collectively, you listening, me and Chloe, the world, we all live through a big sickness. We know how it works. We're still living through it. True. It's out there. Yeah.

Shit's out there. Yep. So it's coming for them is what we're saying and they're going to die. Yep. That's okay. You know, there will be other Targaryians. to get sad about before they die. That's true.

That's so true. Chloe's got one. She's about to be real sad in a bit. Oh my God. Okay. Raymond's goodbyes first. Aw. Cute.

I like that Raymond took care of Dunk and Dunk took care of him. Dunk's such a protector, right? Like he, the novella gives you a little more that he's a little bit, you know, he also is attracted to the underdogs. It's funny because I think of season seven. of Game of Thrones when they go to get the white and take it to Circe. I'm sorry that I'm bringing this up right now, by the way, as I say these words. I never thought that I would say these words, but here we all are.

I just want to see where this is going, yeah. When they go to the north, to be on the wall to do that very smart trip, they have this moment where they're all like kind of spun out in a circle and it reminds me of the beginning of the trial in the last episode, right? When they're all kind of in the circle with the aerial shot before the trial starts. It's very similar to that. And it's also similar in like, we've assembled the Avengers. We've assembled the underdogs of the story, right?

Yeah, that's true. And that's kind of the guys that go beyond the wall. Like, these are the last dudes left in the story that D&D haven't wrongfully killed off yet. And they're about to. They're about to kill off, like, half of them. So, you know, there was that kind of vibe. vibe with the episode, like the underdogs, the sea team. Like, here's the guys.

Like, your random guy, this guy, this guy. And I liked that. I thought that was kind of fun that dunk gravitates to those kind of guys, that group of guys. It's a fun kind of group of guys, I guess, for him. He's like, I see fellow guys that aren't as cool as the cool mean kids. You know, the cool losers are cool, too. Yeah.

You know, we've got like a twinkie barathean. We've got the guy that speaks about. about himself and third person with the eye patch. We've got the guy with the bee all over him who just brought like fucking all sorts of bees with him. Bees? He's kind of a weirdo. Bees?

You know, like we got weirdos. We got fucking weirdos on this team. And I love that. Raymond's that kind of weirdo, you know? He's also a weirdo. Yeah, he is. It's kind of like Joseph Gordon Levitt's character and his friend in 10 Things I Hate About you when they introduce Heath Ledger.

Not to bring it back to Heath Ledger in a Knight's Tale because I'm talking about the things I hate about you. But yeah, it's, and he's like showing dunk the ropes and yeah, Raymond was a great. Love the Raymond moments. Everybody loves Raymond. Oh, my gosh. We got Raymond's Shield too. We got Da Shield.

Loved that. And I was thinking of you, as I often do. while watching this show. Believe it or not. Wow. Okay. And wow, this got intimate. I know you were thinking of me too

because we got the sweetfoot happy ending art. Oh my God. Oh my God. What kind of anime arc is that, Eliana? I don't know. This was just the stuff of dreams. I was like, I was shocked. I was shocked.

This was actually like, this was a huge surprise. I said it before, like the moment. that Sweetfoot entered the screen, I was like, oh my God, Emmett. Oh, my God. I was freaking out. I was, yeah, I was in shock. I cried. I was a shock. I was so moved. Aw. Oh, you cried. I, too, like, you guys know. I'm a little bitch. I am a little bitch. And like my partner, like, Lauren, because I explained to him, like, the reason I was so moved is because I've been sad about Sweetfoot for like a decade or so, you know?

and as he heard me say that, he's like, I'm going to start a Sweetfoot fan group during my rewatch. But I was, okay, you know, and like, I'm going to keep my criticisms about other things, but like, should I forgive it all just for this sweetfoot happy ending? Just for Sweetfoot? I mean, maybe. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. Should we bring back the Sweetfoot to your own country on? I mean, maybe. We just send people apples. I don't know. Like, Sweetma gets to retire with apples. Like, what a dream. What an absolute, like, perfect.

It's so beautiful. What if we did? We could. And, like... We literally sent up, like, a bag of apples. Oh, yeah. This is part of what convinced me also, besides the Coachella thing. I was like, maybe Ira Parker does listen to us.

J.K., J.K., unless... Unless. Ira, is it you? It's us. It's us. I'm sorry. I said, like, things.

But again, it's just because Chloe and I are very brave. And I think you want us to be brave. And you were very brave for your choices as well, Ira Parker. I mean, I could sit here and just glaze it and just lick the show's butthole. I could do that. That's easy to do. But like, all these other people are going to do that. And you don't listen to us because we do that.

That's not who we are. So I think Ira Parker would respect our art. Okay. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, and I respect the sweetfoot. I was so moved. That was great. I was really, I was really, I was like, like this, like hands on my chest the whole time

and just like tearing up. And I was just like, oh my God, it's sweetfoot. I was like, in disbelief. I was like, oh my God, this better not be like a dream. This better not be like a fake out or something. I was like, oh my God, it's Speedfoot. Sweetfoot's going to get happy a day. They remembered Sweetfoot.

Yeah. That was crazy. That was how I knew that Ira Parker knew ball. I was like, okay, Ira, I can respect you. Yeah. I could come to respect you. Uh, you know who else I respect? Lady Fasaway.

Yeah. I support and respect that she is baby trapping Raymond. I think that's great. I think that she should do that. And I think that's great. No, I'm just kidding. Ha ha, ha, anyway. But unless I liked him and Rowan.

but also, and maybe this is a stupid thought and it's thinking far too much. Feel free to be like, no, silly. But I have to ask, is that going to be confusing to people next season? When we introduce a redhead named Rowan, who will likely maybe wear jewelry and nice dresses? Like, I don't know, they won't remember her name,

but they might, I'm just saying, is this confusing? Will this be confusing? I don't know. It's not important. I don't know. I'll be fine. Either because part of it is like, I know I heard someone think before that like, oh, maybe

this will be like the same character and then something happens and then like it'll be her and doing stuff and whatever. But I'm like, no, but we know what happens with Rohan Weber. Plus she's casted now. We know what she looks like. She's cast. But then that's my next question is will there be any connection? I don't think there will be, I hope not, but like, I also am just like, it's just strange

because I'm like, she was also very sassy with Dunk, right? Because she had kind of a rapport built up with him throughout the season as fellow laborers. And so she had a sassy little rapport with him. And I'm like, that's funny because he ends up with a sassy rapport with Rohan or Rohan, however you want to pronounce it, who also, makes some interesting marriage choices in her life. So, I don't know. I just was like, oh, that's interesting because she's like a Rohan light character in some

ways. Yeah, I don't know if she's meant to be like foreshadowing. Or I think like this could be another example of again, not to, you know, Glaze Ira Parker, as you said, as the kids say, you know, like, this could just also be an example of him being very brave in writing things in George's world the way George what if because George loves putting in characters that have the same name and you're like, yeah, yeah. That's true.

No, that's true. No, that's true. So maybe it was a like nod to that. I don't know. But also, I think, yeah, is it baby trapping? I don't know. I think, like, Raymond wanted to be. Yeah, he wants to be baby trapped.

I think they're happy. They, like, seem quite happy and, like, just accepted. It's fine. They're going to have fun. And actually, their interaction. She just wants a place at a Lord's house. Yeah. And a hot wife who's smarter than him, which is like the dream.

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely outfoxing in several ways. And I do like that he has kind of like, you get the Podrick, obvious Podrick vibes and the Her Her Her, Her, Game of Thrones, despite his 13-year-old stature in the books. And you then get kind of a Sam Gilly vibe, right? like an unlikely relationship kind of vibe or some shit. I don't know how to explain it, but these are just the vibes. I'm just giving you the vibes that I was vibing off of the characters, like, character work.

I guess I just don't see this super unlikely either because I'm also like, of course she'd be like, this guy fucking rocks. Like she saw that he was willing to, you know. I mean, Raymond Fosway is like absolutely proven himself in many ways. I'm going to ride that train to the top. Good for her. Well, not, I mean, he seems like a... It's an emerging market.

He took dunk under. his wing all this time went, got fucking knighted just so he could risk his life protecting his friend's honor, even though his cousin betrayed everyone. Like, damn, like, if that's not hot. If she was going to accept a job offer

and a lifestyle and like a man that would work for her, he's the one. He's going to keep her safe. He's a cutie. He's a lord. And he bought his friend's horseback, right? And then accepted the horse even though he could have been like, why did I

spend all this money and he loves the horse, gives him apples and wants to like have a cider business. Like honestly, seeing someone who would, A, stand up for their friend like that, literally put their life on the line, all this shit, even though he's not as trained. Support small business. I'd be wet. Fuck it. You know? Like, absolutely.

Wood drop for that. Anyways. Their interactions, though, at the B funeral did make me think of another Fossaway woman. This one's born into the Fossoways. Does not marry into the Fossways, but a Fossway. And I kind of think, like, is this a little bit of. that, you know, this Fossaway lives during the time of Jehary's the first. Her name is Florence Fossaway.

She is the wife of Martin Tyrell, who was made master of coin. But he was made master of coin because Jehry's was like, I really hope his wife just does his job for him. She was the one who actually apparently might have been running the treasury because she also proved her ability. When she took charge of High Garden and she increased the income by over a third, This is just like Chloe. This is Chloe at her current job.

I heard the reports. You're the same. Wow, it is the same. I am Florence Fossoway. I was going to be like, I love her music. I love Florence Fasway's music. Yeah, that's an interesting connection. I love that.

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I look forward to reconnecting. Like, I'm like, this show invention I'm into, I'm into it. Good for them. Good for Ira. Okay. Make R and dunk and then egg and dunk after. You know, I got to hit you with the pleading emoji eyes again.

So get ready. I'm like, I couldn't give that boy nothing. Like, he would pop those eyes on me. And I'd be like, of course you can have wildfire, sweetheart. Of course you can blow up the ancestral summer seat. Of course. I'm almost going to let you have whatever you want, baby, baby kitten. Do crimes.

Do murder. Whatever. Do crimes. Do murder now. Yeah. like make ritualistic sacrifice of your kin. That's fine. Good for you, sweetie.

Yeah. Anyway. Me and my friend that we were watching with explaining to my partner, wait, you don't know what happens to egg and dunk at the end, telling him all about Summer Hall and be explaining everything. How is your partner taking that? He's like, how do you not know any of these? Wow.

Yeah. I wish I could have been there to hear that happen actually. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to be a fly on that wall and just be amused by that conversation.

You would be a fly. You would help me. Duh. Yeah. Maybe you'd do it in like a little fly in voice like, yeah, baby, me, baby, me. Okay. Why don't you know about several? And then egg birds everything. Anyway.

Can't wait. Can't wait till I'm visiting. Yeah. I like that we get the confirmation of Arian going to the east right away. Also interesting. Maybe we'll keep tabs throughout the story lightly, right? Maybe we'll hear about maybe we'll hear about it when he does his buzzball shots. Sorry. Buzzball, wow. That was quite a thing to drop.

Thank you. Some people were like, I don't know why Maycar thinks sending his son to Ibiza is going to fix anything. I was like, that's so true, he's just going to go there and like, I don't know. It's going to make him worse. Yeah, he's going to go and like, do blow. What is, what was the thought behind this? I didn't even think about it like that before. He's going to snort his inheritance, literally.

Yeah, we've discussed it, though, of, like, could it have been, like, not the worst idea and that, like, Aryan would seem less special in the free cities because everybody looks like him. And so he doesn't get to be like, I'm different than special and royal. They'd be like, I don't know, you're just another dude. But no, like, everyone can be another dude. dude and you blow. So like, whatever. When the snows fall and something, something, something, something.

Snow lands on top of your nose. John Snow, that's who he's going to go meet. Oh, my God. Amazing job by Sam Spruill. He's incredible. The size of his hands is also incredible. Can I just say that for a moment? I'm sorry.

I didn't look. I don't listen. Regrets. How could you have missed it? They were on screen. I don't know. I'm going to go look again just for that. When he grips, I'm like, oh my God, what is going on with your hands?

He has daddy hands. He's like a father of six. He's definitely a father of six is all I'm telling you, literally. It's going to be less. Great, great scene, but I do wish that there were dragonflies and they were outside. I liked that it was outside in the novella because it took Maker out of his environment. This could have been a scene like on Dragonstone that we saw, right? Like this felt very much like in May Gar's environment where before he had to stoop to come to dunk in his pavilion, so to speak, with the trees.

And then of course, a heartbreaking, poor egg, poor egg out there listening to every single thing being said, knowing no one wants him. No one wants egg. You are very wanted egg. I want you egg. We'll adopt you. I love you egg White and Tender Surround the center

To the Chili Show I love you Fresh Egg Chloe's face covering her pace in the Piercewood She's like What is happening

This episode Unhinged He absolutely like Adorable With Dunk Being like Re-listing He goes

No I'm like That kid just loves to lie I'm gonna put an Instagram video In here for all of you From Recess Therapy These two like

tiny little girls. It's the cutest funny's thing being like, hi, liars. I think I've talked about this before. They're so funny. That's egg energy right there. The lying. When Make Our Ass because Dunk, this sounds a little different, you know, like the way that they did this scene as well and he's like, you know, I was thinking

at the tree, blah, blah, blah. Why did this happen? I paraphrase it. And then Make Our Ask, what answer does your tree give you? I was like, what interesting wording it feels so old gods. Yeah. Old gods coated. Yeah, it does feel spiritual. Yeah.

A suave spiritual. Agreed, though. Brilliant performance by Sam's role. The way that he delivered that entire... Oh, what a perfect delivery of this entire scene. Really balancing those complex emotions. Because I think, like, in the book, if you read it a certain way, he just comes off as, like, very haughty and stern.

But here you see that vulnerability, like camaraderie, that he and Dunk are tied in this sin. and it shows Makar's grief, like perfect, stannis delivery, kind of. And you were talking about the broken man earlier, and you see, like, Makar, he's a broken man. He's a failure as a father. He's a failure as a brother. And he knows these things, and he knows that people are going to say these things about him, but he also knows he's like, it doesn't matter what they say because I know, I love my brother so much.

And we see it in this performance, like, really, really well done. And he's just like, like, Dunk, you're my confidant now. Yeah, Dunk does get therapyed by people this episode, or he does the therapy. Yeah, I was like, I think he's doing it for them. He's like, but fuck. But that said, yeah, he learns a new valuable skill performing therapy for the rich people. That's why they're all trying to hire him. I'm definitely, I love Makar.

I am a Makar girly and a Darren girly. Those are the characters I now care about. That's who I am now. That's who I am now. That makes sense too now that I think, I mean, Darren, that is truly his father's. That's truly his father's son right there, you know. My roommate and I, we talked about this in previous episode more recently, I think, before the show. We talked about how, you know, I love failure characters.

Like, my roommate was like, let's make a list of your male characters. that you like, so we can figure out what's wrong with you was really the context of the query and why we were doing this thing. So it is saved in a Google Doc called Chloe's Favorite Men, and it includes like Tom Wamscans from Succession. Gaius Baltar from Battlestar. Cyril Karn from Andor.

Okay. Amos from the expanse. Sandor from A-Swaff. Andy, I mean, well, you know, stupid emotions. There's a little line between all of them, you know, it's not perfect. Andy Botwin from Weeds. I mean, just like fucking failure kind of pathetic characters are my favorite. Darren, Targaryen, Maycar.

These are the characters I like now. I still, I'm not into Stannis, though. I've already been there. I'm not going back to an X. I'm not, yeah. I would never get back with an X. He is actually being stern in those. He does have a different mood than Mekar.

And you should get into Dawson's Creek with... I think you would love Pacey. My God. Okay. I've heard I can add a pathetic man to my list. I don't know what it is, but I love when they fail. So I think you would be... I'm curious.

I would love to hear your takes. Well... Yeah, let's get another flashback on. Like this one with Arlen, going back to Arlen and going kind of back to part of the flashback we get at the front of the story, right, before Arlen dies or somewhere near that. And we have the back and forth of dunk kind of as Arlen is dying, crying out and saying, you know, why didn't you unite me? Was it because you were afraid I'd go away? I'm not going to go away.

It was very sad. It did get me in the emotions and does. I did feel that this, you know, tied back to the broken man's speech because I think there's a lot unsaid here. Arlen doesn't really respond, respond, obviously. It's semi-ambiguous, but I still ride now because I've been a changed woman. I mean, I don't think it's that ambiguous. Like, he didn't knight him.

He probably died before he could knight him at this point. And I also don't know if Dunk in this flashback really is actually asking him that, like, as if that is what happened. I think it's Dunk in his head remembering it. I don't think Dunk actually got the chance to ask him. Like, I think just, like, Arlen dies. And I don't know. It's very sad especially because, like, Arlen, in a way, didn't want to lose him.

But Dunk thought he meant it in one way. But Arlen didn't want to lose him in the way that he lost his nephew, like death. Exactly. Yeah. And Dunk never understood that until now. Now he understands it. Yeah. Agreed.

because I never really thought about, like, why? Because I also was of the opinion. I was like, I think Arlen just never got around to it. Like, he was gonna. But now, now, like, through that lens, I'm like, oh, he was trying to protect Dunk from being called to war. But you're going to be called to war anyway, I think, if your lord tells you to, they send the fucking farmers out there.

That's what we learn next story. And it's very, next story is very training montage from Mulan. I'll make a man out of you. That's dunk with the cold mode. Anyways. Oh, the penny tree. Man, that got me. This, again, these are the moments that I wanted. I wanted all these, like, feelings. So they did get me. Yeah. That was, I think that was, like, perfectly done. I actually really liked a lot of the other Arlen flashbacks, too, in the earlier episodes as well. Like, I thought those were fun. People were like, I don't know, I don't like this tonal shit. I thought it was good. I loved the use of,

how they do the like vignette style camera thing you you dug into that more before i don't know i think they also made some like fun like framing choices throughout the whole series like again the funeral we've talked about like little west andersony but um i like yeah the tradition of the nailing of the penny on the oak tree i don't know if we've heard that before right like this is our first introduction to it i presume it might be from who for all we know it's like given to us in another of the short stories that haven't been published yet. But it makes me think a lot about the song Tie a Yellow Ribbon

Round the Old Oak Tree, which is a song of a special personal significance to me, but also especially because he's talking about an oak tree. This is an oak tree. Oak and iron gardening well. And the song itself, if you've ever heard it, it's a great song. Go listen and like

Ty a ribbon round the old oak tree. It's been three long years. You still want me. The song itself is about a prisoner telling the woman He loves to tie a ribbon around the old oak tree if she still wants to be with him when he's finally freed. And if she doesn't tie a ribbon, he's going to stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me. If I don't see a ribbon around the old oak tree. But there's a happy ending, he comes back, and there's a hundred ribbons on the old oak tree.

She loves him, she wants him. Uh, anyways, the song is based, maybe you're inspired by a rumored tradition that may have its roots in women wearing a yellow ribbon. when their husband or sweetheart was serving in the U.S. cavalry. And it's not one-to-one with Ireland's tradition, but you do have the oak tree there and the thing, like the token on it waiting for people to come back. And it is interesting in regards to it being about the war, being called to fight.

Same way with the cavalry. It also fits Dunk's story as well when you think about, like, being a prisoner because Dunk also imprisoned. Uh-huh. And he's also embarking on his own story now, serving only himself, so. Interesting. I love that.

Oh, interesting. What a great little connection. Have you listened to this song? I love this song. I don't know that I have. I think I've just been educated. It's very, it's, I'll be listening to it after this.

Very significant for Filipinos as well, yeah. Try a ribbon round the old oak tree. You know, I'm marrying in, so I need to start getting more adjusted to the culture than I am. a little adjusted. You know, I really, really thought that was beautiful. I have a lot more thoughts to come back to that when we get to the end to end here.

So I'm going to save it for that. But I do think saying the quiet part out loud of not getting knighted, dunk not getting knighted, is probably necessary for the wider audience. You know, not everyone has read a song of ice and fire. Not everyone has then read Fire and Blood Pardon me Not everyone has been read Fire and Blood

Sorry Not everyone has then read a Night of the Seven Kingdoms Not everyone has then read the World of Ice and Fire Now you know like not everyone is going to read this shit A lot of people have watched Game of Thrones Read some of the books Maybe never finished the first book And have watched the show

And I're just like yeah I'll try it out You know, and I'm like, that's fine. That's totally fine. Not everyone is crazy. Not everyone is obsessed. That's true. Not everyone is experience. Not everyone is brave and knowledgeable.

Not everyone has it going on like we do. Not everyone has no other life. Like we do. Yeah, exactly. That too, whimsy. Whimsy and no life. Romance. That said, I understand why you would want to put a more clear question.

out there. Like, to me, it did feel like a reveal. I do think it was semi-ambiguous in some ways, but, I mean, I also think it was, like, telling us. Like, the show is screaming it at us. The show was saying this guy was not knighted. And that's why Make-Arse's finishing your... Because he was a little more direct.

A couple of the words in the dialogue, not too much different than the... I mean, a lot of this is just from the novella. But he was pretty direct about, like, I know you're not a fucking knight. so I will get that fixed so we can fix the scenario which is why as we're going to talk more about

why Dunk couldn't accept his offer right? Because Mekar was putting the fix on he's like look I'll make it all legitimate I'll sign all the papers no one will know that you're a poor kid from Flea Bottom but like he is also that he is he is and yeah

I think it's still like it is still like a little ambiguous but it is definitely less so now. I felt pretty confident it was telling us. I thought it was going to tell us for sure until like Arlen came back to life, which I guess, oh, now that I think about that's a parallel with Dunk, right? Being literally fucking dead in the, on the field and then being like, get up. So, wow.

Parallels, but. And also like this tweet from at Dunk text, Vic, their name is, Sir Arlen, real as fuck for choosing to die over answering an uncomfortable question. That one was good. That one's so funny. Real. Me, guess I'll die. Relatable, yeah.

Guess I'll die, meme. I feel that way all the time. I love also that Dunk immediately stops crying when Arlen makes up like, I was like, I'm fine. I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure. I might be reading too much into this line of a true night always finishes a story. I'm like, um Hmm

Um And I'll just leave that there for all of you Um Hmm We all know Anyways Movie gone Fucking bee magic

And Darren So at the bee funeral I love all the fucking B movie jokes that came out of it Wait weren't you and I'm supposed to fucking cover like ants And then a Bugs life And then a B movie

This might actually need to become real now this might actually need to be real. It's just us reading B-Movie Night of the Seven Kingdom's memes out loud, and no one can see them, which we know is really effective, as you've realized. Because Chloe explaining memes is the worst category on this show. I love that Rowan was like,

all that fighting's turned your brain to applesauce to Raymond. It was the funniest fucking shit. I was losing it. I was like, what a great joke, because of apples. Yeah. It's turned your brain to applesauce. They got that witty banter. So good.

Yep, so good. And then the little girl's playing and the one was like, calling her a dragon horn was like, eat shit Sarah. Hysterical. I'm going to say eat shit Sarah every day of my life now. I'm going to just, to everyone, eat shit, Sarah. It's great.

Incredible. I'm going to complain quickly about a thing that's not about the show. I'm about to hot D defend right now. I mean, There's nothing to defend. Glides, like, quoted the eat shit, Sarah in response to something on Twitter. I don't know. Maybe it was like an all-shift accent.

Someone was like, as in Sarah Hess. And he's like, no, it's a quote from the show. What the fuck? He didn't say that, but he said, like, someone he or someone else pointed out, it's a quote from the show. Yeah. Anyway. That's so funny. That's so, oh my God.

Everyone. Leave Sarah Hess alone. Please be like a little less. unhinged about like Sarah has Christ. I thought that was funny. I love the use of the name Sarah because we have a couple of Sarah

Targaryens in the book. So I was like, these are Targaryen children? Because same as like as you brought up during the funeral. I'm like, who are these also Targaryens? I wish we had seen all these people. I thought that those

were the same girls that were next to Agat the puppet show actually. Oh, I don't know. If you have blonde hair, what do you think I'm supposed to think about you, you guys? I didn't even think they both had blonde hair. One of them was like brunettish, I thought. No, I think you're right. I'm going to explain something about being a person of color.

Oh, no. I found out that, like, so for example, so I have friends, like, that I've thought were blonde or people in my life, I've thought were blonde. And they're like, Eliana, I have brown hair. And I, like, look at them closely years later. I'm like, I guess you do have brown hair. But I'm not the only one who thinks that they're blonde. I ask my other friends who are also not white, hey, do you think this person is blonde?

And they're like, yeah. Or I'll be like, what color of hair do you think they have? They'll be like, they're blonde. And I'll be like, no. Other white people think that they're brunette. And so this is what I'm explaining. Oh, my God. All right.

Got it. So you have a blindness when it comes to, is it blonde? Is it brown? What's going on with? it. So that could be explained by that. Also, it was like a very quick scene and they were in the background. So they were like not focus, focus. But yeah, I don't know. I just thought they were the kids from there because this isn't, you know, this is the Beesbury funeral. So it's not as popular to warrant Targaryen royalty attending. If that's who they are. I mean,

except for that one guy. Look, it's just weird to me that they cast or they showed Kiara of Tyroche, for example. Right. So like they showed a. her, which means like they intentionally thought about who she is. So to me, I'm like, did they intentionally think about who any of the other ones are too, which to me they might have. But also it's like, you know, extras. They're cast with a featured extra role, but not necessarily someone who will see again. So I guess it doesn't matter. I don't know why I'm thinking about it still. No, I agree with you. I think that as you said, they thought about it, but you had brought this up at the beginning of the episode of

it's a budget thing. You have to pay people if they get speaking lines. So maybe they were like, we simply do not cannot afford for the people to speak. That's why that scene is so short. Yeah. That's probably true too. There might be a thing around like amount of time on screen. I don't know. Or like there.

Anyways. Agreed there's like a very big difference as well regarding the tone of this like wake funeral. For Beesbury. Beesbury versus Baylor. And I don't know. I do like that there was laughter and community and people talking, but very contrasted right with the heavy grief and solemnity of Baylars, which was out in the open, but it wasn't

emotionally open. Absolutely. Absolutely. One was a celebration of life quite literally, and everyone was like making merriment, and, you know, it was going to lead to, like, fucking and more life, probably. And the other one was like, holy shit, we are the most doomed family alive, dude. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, different vibes.

Speaking of the most doomed family alive, I love that we get an extra Darren, the dreamer scene, especially because I, naysayer was being so negative last week. It was like, I'm never even going to see him again. But I did it to see him again. And I did it to see him again. Just like he was with two foot.

Yeah. In fact, he fed me twice. He fed me twice. He gave me Darren. here with this chunky nice little baby scene. And then he gave me Darren riding the horse later. So I can't, he was drinking and driving, as people have pointed out online. I can't be upset about it, especially because this was a great short scene with him.

I think there was some great dialogue and some really great poetic stuff talking about the madness and like, is it madness? Is it not talking about something you and I talk about a lot in relation to Aswaf of, you know, is it nature? Is it nurture? What's the truth of how we become people who do bad things or people who do good things? How does that happen? And he says about egg when Dunk says he can't take him with him. He says, no doubt we'll make a man of him too. We Targaryen brothers, we Targaryans. After everything we've witnessed here this entire weekend, of Faunic Coachella, right? After we witnessed Baylor, stand up for the innocent against his brother and his brother, the failed dad, as we've been discussing,

who has made many mistakes, but through seeing his character up close a little more intimately, you can kind of see he's not a bad person. He's just made some bad choices. He's just made some non-choices, really choices he didn't make, which is how they've influenced his terrible,

fucking children. We see what being a Targaryen does to a motherfucker, quite literally, what the crown, the stress, the fathers, the grandfathers, the crown, the throne, the impossible standards. And you don't even have dragon eggs or dragons around to hatch, necessarily, right? Like, the pressure is on.

The pressure is worse than ever. Before all you had to do was, like, mount a dragon and be like, see, I'm a normal Targaryen. now it's something different. I agree. I think that was a really good scene. And I think I love that they point out that Aryan wasn't always like this. Because people kind of take it for granted, they're like, well, Aryan was like this. So there must be a bit of nature.

Like, I saw that in something. And like, this is pointing out that's not the case. Right. And it comes back to like, I mean, I think Maycar is a great sympathetic character. But there was culpability there, right? And as we've been saying it, but also there were other things too. like I think you and I, as you said, we discussed the whole madness thing. I don't, they're not mad any more than like, again, like this is like kind of a power thing as we see when it comes to

Arian and why he felt he could do all these things and how he wields it. I also think it's interesting that the particular word, I wish, I actually wish Darren hadn't talked about the madness thing, but I guess like it makes sense for him to because if everyone was saying it about you and your family, of course you're going to use the word madness. You're going to just say the elephant in the room. That's the language everyone's. Everyone's else is using to talk about you. You would say it especially if you're having crazy-ass dreams too. And you just have to name it.

And I do love though, particularly that he used the language of monster, of making a monster of Aryan, and then Dunk insisting that Egg is not a monster, just a boy, when Darren was talking about his brother. But leads into the implication. Your monster, Brandon Stark. Exactly. That and also, like, it's, I think, a very. pointed choice of words because it ties together with, you know, the Targary and we all know best,

Denaries, because from Adawada, Danny 2, and by that I mean a dance with dragons, if you're not familiar, I guess, with the parlance, a dance with dragons, DeNaris 2, that chapter, it ends with, Mother of Dragons, Denaries thought, mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones and it rests on. on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Marine, much less windback Westrose? I'm the blood of the dragon, she thought.

If they are monsters, so am I. And we see that question come up a lot with other characters in the Song of Ice and Fire of Where's the Line of Monstrosity, where is it not? And regarding, especially gender, that's something we talked about a lot in regards to gender outcast. but Denaries, as we discussed in our most recent readthrough, like, she's like, same way as how Egg is just a boy, Denarius is also just a girl, right? Yeah, and there's something going back to the actual books themselves. That's a great, like, the Danny quote is really great, and I'll see your Danny quote, and I'll bring you a John quote from a Dance with Dragons. A double-ed-a-John. I'm going to John-er-is-you.

Now you're like all in it. Now you guys know, Adaweda. If you've never heard us say that before, welcome. Welcome. Yeah, you need to listen to our Adawada chapters so that you can get in on it too. But we have a quote in John 2 to complete the Janaris, where he goes to speak with maister Amen. And Amon tells him, allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel, the same counsel I once

gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three and thirty when the great council chose him to mount the iron throne. A man groaned with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the wall. It takes a man to rule. An agon, not an egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born.

Well. You know? Well. Yeah. And that's, I guess, what we're going to see. Wow. Wait. And that's going to go right into the next section, too, by the way.

Yeah, if we get the other novellas, we'll get that. And, you know, quick last thing before we go into that next section, I did think it was kind of fun that Darren said that Aryan liked fishing. That's the only thing that he gave as characterization. But it made me think because one of our first moments seeing egg is him with a fish. With the fish. Was Aryan the one who taught egg to fish before he went off the deep end? Hmm.

Maybe puberty does that to a motherfucker, though. Hormones are crazy, you know? Egg, Aryan, and Makar. We transitioned into that scene with egg and the knife and Makar with his large hands. I don't know why they're so big. Anyways, um, there are notes in this. this document that I heard just for Eliana. Egg has his little peach fuzz, his kiwi fuzz of blonde hair coming back.

So cute, so fuzzy. The thing that connects him to his innate Targaryanness is coming back though, right? Like the thing that he cut off, the thing that he couldn't get away from, the terror his brother brings to his life. Agon stepping towards Arian sobbing, sobbing, he takes another step with a knife in his hand, thinking he could end it. In some ways, like, his own darkness consuming him, his own madness for a moment. And his father there holds his shoulders and says everything that he's never been able to say out loud to him, let alone any of his brothers.

Yeah. That scene was also interesting, too, with Arian, so as well broken, right? He's just... Yeah, pathetic. Yeah, absolutely fucked up there. And Dunk says to Makar that Egg just needs a stern hand. And I'm like, oh, a stern hand, the hand on his shoulder. But even beyond that, you know, it also shows egg's desperation, right?

Like, his decision by deciding this and to run away and also, like, just his grief in hearing dunk doesn't want to take him. He doesn't show it to dunk, but like, eggs. so clearly just feels trapped by his family, by his brother. He wants to escape no matter what, even if it means killing his brother. And like, this is his, dunk is his way out. And I will say, like, low-key when the knife first disappeared and, like, Egg was there. I was, I didn't think right away that he was going to go to Arian until we were shown it, him walking. At first I was like, hmm, egg's going to do a bad job of trying to shave his head with this knife.

Huh. Maybe Iber Parker is the man for the job, is all I'm saying. Stick to Broadway, Eliana. You need to stick to Broadway with your Egot. I like that we get the final dunk in Makar conversation. Yeah. Love Gwen Ashford. Love that she's like, someone made like a comrade Gwynn meme.

It was so funny. Love that he's changed her. life, love her, still love when she threatened to punch him. My favorite. And I love that because that's also foreshadowing for next season, right? Just kidding. Dunk likes women who might threaten to punch him or hurt him. Yeah. This is true.

I think he likes men who do it too, though, so. I think that's true, too. Yeah. I mean, that'll go well, I guess, in the third novella adaptation. Yeah, I was like, I don't know. Someone's like, I hate Gwen. And she's like mean, and she hit him. And I was like, first of all, clearly you didn't watch very well because she didn't hit him.

She just baked him out, like a silly little 13-year-old. I'm like, Gwen Redemption. Fucking stupid. Yeah, hell yeah, because I was like, I believe- She could have hit him, but she didn't. Yeah, and I believed in her. She's a real one. And also, she's an absolute show-stealer.

Also, her dress was amazing there. I liked the gradiating from the orange to the yellow. It was very much like a flame. Yes. Like a fire. I also really like. really like that one and I really like the one with like the what should I call it the beautiful stitching with the astrological stitching all over it basically with the star I'll have to look at it

oh it's so cute you got to look at it yeah she was a fashion icon I know she was and the little flowers in her hair and like her jewelry I'm like oh little gwyn love yeah love I love the dunk A gets the great book dialogue right in here a lot of this was word for one word, they did it right, and also that Dunk wants to do it his way, that he knows that make ours way isn't the right way, that it is like easy mode and that it's not going to end well if he has to go do it, make ours way. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I will say, like, I didn't really thought about this until now.

I was like, I don't know. I don't know, like, Dunk that you can say Darren's never slept in a ditch. Like, as a person who's been drunk, as a person who has many friends who have been drunk, and knowing that Darren loves being drunk, like, I don't know that he's never slept in a ditch. Sometimes people just wake up outside. I mean, he literally slept in a ditch, like, last episode. Yeah. True. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he slept on a ditch, like, on the way to this tavern where he found them and whatnot. Like, I think, I think Darren slept in a ditch before. Did you ever see those videos back in the day when YouTube videos were like a big thing of narcoleptic dog? YouTube videos were still a big thing just in a different way, but no, I have not.

Well, exactly. So I was speaking of a very specific era of YouTube. Oh, like the shoes era. Yeah, exactly. It was around back then. It was definitely maybe even before then. Who knows, but old school. We're old.

But that like pretty much is Darren when he drinks is what I'm saying. I also saw this really great. If you are still on the health site that is Twitter, I am doing quite a bit of retweeting of the Darren community because they're all great. And a handful of people were comparing. So pictures got released of his armor with a little green feather coming out of the helmet. So fun.

And it makes people are comparing him to Pickman. That's perfect. Like, I can't even get through that sentence without cackling. Yeah. So you got to go check it out. I retweeted them on my feed. There's a handful of different ones. Please go look.

I have special interests, which is Darren Targaryen. Bye, Darren. Bye. And that brings us kind of to the very last scenes of dunk, nailing the penny on the tree, which got me. I was like, oh, you got my goat, Ira. Really beautiful, beautiful and special to me. personally and only for me, not for any of you. So if you enjoyed it, I'm going to need you to return that enjoyment, send it to me.

Ira wrote it for her because he listens to her podcast. Stop, you got to go. This is the kind of non-canonical, like, addition or piece of emotion. And maybe it is canonical because it's pretty, I think it's planned. I think it feels like a Georgism. But all that said, this is the emotion I've been looking for. This is what I wanted. This made me feel, yeah.

Donk talking to the horses, wondering where Arlen would go, and then leaving his mark on the tree that gave him shelter, which is like a tenant that he felt about in the novellas very strongly. Especially given the next season is going to really cover a drought of sorts. So interesting. And then also flashing forward to the same. scene where you have Arlen in his memory kind of, you know, there is a ghost, there is a force ghost or a shadow, him going off on his own path and way while Duncan Egg keep trotting towards what presumably looks like the Red Mountains in the background. I don't know, I think it was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. Yeah, I think, I guess we haven't really seen

them do it like this, right, where you have a kind of more symbolic scene in that way. And it was, It was absolutely perfect. It cried. And then I think earlier this episode, as you and I were recording, when we were talking about it, I was like, I think my voice, like, cracked a little because I was about to start crying, thinking about it again. Like, this was, I'm sorry, it was so. What a perfect scene. Yeah. Thank you, Ira Parker.

It got me. Just amazing. Like, truly amazing. I loved the whole story. The passing of the torch to dunk. Yes. Oh, my God. I'm going to hold it together.

Hopefully, you know, like, Arlen's soul can finally head home. And I was crying again, just thinking about it when I wrote these notes. Okay. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. It was so good. Sorry. That scene, that scene really, that got me.

And that scene of little liar egg saying that he could come with him. I have permission. In the fucking green cloak. Interesting. Yeah. It was a cute moss green. I just like that color green, that's all. And him saying, I hear there's good puppet shows in Dore.

And I'm like, oh, that kid just loves to play matchmaker. Wingman. Yeah. And then him saying Nine Kingdoms. So, like, and a friend told me that Egg would, like, say this in my immediate response when I heard that. I was like, he's right. Egg's right. I've been saying this for years.

Egg is also absolutely a well-actually kid. And then also, I think it's, that was actually a really nice touch that the closing slide becomes a night of the nine. Kingdoms. That was funny. That got me. It made me smile. It was, again, this is where things got a little quirky and zany, and it was good because it brings the emotion up so you're not lingering on it too long. Very funny. All of us nerds were really appreciating that, I think. Actually, I think like super nerds and like casual nerd fans alike could appreciate that because that also feels like something that someone would ask, right? Like, well, isn't it technically nine kingdoms now that I've watched the series.

But all of us nerds have always asked that in some ways. I think that's always a little mini question people have thought about. Like, huh, there's more than that. It's nine. Yeah. And interesting, because I wonder if it'll be covered as they used to call it the seven kingdoms

including Dorn, even though Dorn wasn't included. Like, will that ever come up? Very presumptuous, yeah, of them. I think something fun about this is that clearly they take themselves seriously in some ways and not at all in others and see if it sticks and I like that. And the post-credit scene of Makar freaking out, it ain't that deep.

I think it's fucking funny as hell. I was just cackling my little ass off watching that. I think it could even serve a good narrative purpose. I could see a starting season two with like flashback slash flash forward like montage. of them going to Dorn and going to Vath and being chased out of Castle Vath and then they go to Old Town

and Amon measures them in like a quick reference of Amon like in his robes with his first links measuring egg and then like them fast forwarding until they get basically to the start of the season like I could see them doing like a fun little rocket roll soundtrack whatever while they do a montage

you know something fun something cute So I don't know, especially because, like, adding this fun slapstick humor in of Megar, like, freaking out, and of course losing egg LMAO because that's his talent. Like, how often do you think this happens to him? I think my biggest complaint about the show has been the pacing with the tone and the humor. Yeah. And if they had kept some of this slapstick humor in a little more consistently and kept the pace moving and then maybe had some of these moments full of emotion, that would have really improved for me. I don't think it's always hit or been consistent,

which sucks because it's really fun when they do hit it. Like here, I could see that. This is just like, it cracks me up. Like every time I just want to go watch Make Our Freak the Fuck Out. I think it's so funny. Yeah, I think I agree. Like, I don't know. The pacing, as you said, what was the last episode of,

just give a little bit more of the, what, 10% of the breathing time that a hot D has, right? Digging into those moments to a Night of the Seven Kingdoms and then I guess a little bit of the pacing some of that as well from a night of the seven kingdoms hot D. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I just absolutely agreed. I will say, I don't know. I don't know, though, I guess. Like, I appreciate the humor of it, and I think that is fun. But I don't know that I love it in terms of Make Gar's character developed. of, you know, I think the... Boo.

I'm in, like, ambivalent about it, because I am like, I do love what it means of, like, Meccar making that acceptance as a parent and be like, oh, fuck. And letting egg go. I would also argue, like, it shows that he has no control over egg whatsoever, though. Also true. Yeah. And it also gives a reason, which he's said in an interesting. reviews, he's not coming back, but he doesn't know. Maybe they will ask him back for a reshoot for something and say, can we just have you do this and blah, blah, blah, I don't know, who knows?

No one knows what's going to happen, but it leaves it open so we can have some sort of Makar if we need in the future. Yeah. Plus, I mean, like, obviously at some point he does give his permission, I think, because of some of the other stuff that we see in the novellas, or at least that implies it to me. Yeah. So, anyway, I would say I loved, like, loved loved the usage of 16 tons as the ending song. This is like Ernie Ford's version, I guess, but was written before by Merle Travis,

and it's written about the debt bondage system where workers weren't paid in cash, but instead of credit vouchers, you could only spend in some places, which is kind of interesting. Y'all should go read Parable to Sower if you're in the mental space for it. And this one is about truckers.

Unions helped end this practice because people couldn't afford to save up the cash to get themselves out of debt bondage. And the title 16 tons refers to a miners, as in like coal miners initiation, right? Not like people below the age of majority. And I think it's really great in the context of the show.

You know, we've talked a lot about like, especially during our reread, which you should also listen to those episodes precede our coverage of this season. Yeah. Right before, like literally in the weeks leading up to it, about the class system, the lack of mobility regarding entering the list and how privilege impacts justice and of course the lack thereof

in Westrose and especially, you know, again, with the justice system. We talked a little bit about it during our coverage of this show as well, but I think it's really interesting in how it like, you know, we were talking about how Dunk doesn't want to serve, make ours household or Lionels anymore after all this shit. Like, it really helps contextualize that

because if Dunk agreed to serve at Summerhall, it's kind of like the line in the song of I owe my soul to the company store, which is a line. from a letter from Merle Travis's brother to him. And it's very much the same motivation for him not wanting to go to Storm's End to be like Lionel's man. Like either of these paths, Dung's still going to belong to someone, he's going to serve them. And we see there is someone he's willing to do that for.

He was willing to do it for Baylor. Because Baylor showed that he's a leader who would put his own life on the line for his men, which I think plays really well, again, in the context. of that Arlen flashback, he opens a story of when a lord calls his banners and sends us boys off to war and it doesn't say that the lord fights with them, just calls his banners and sends you off to war, sends you have to go fight for it, and that's the bargain that dunk is risking that he doesn't get to choose what he does, his jobs, when he's sent to war or not, and like, sure, we'll probably seem get conscripted into stuff, but like by choosing to stay a hedge night, it's a harder life.

He's got a harder life, but he gets to decide where he goes. He gets agency that he would not have, especially with Makar or Lionel, who's like, I'm going to send you to war. Like Lionel Street says like, he's his own man. Yeah, he's like, we're going to do a war. Don't you want to come find a war after you just fought and almost died? Dunk belongs to himself, except for when he's hired for a job and he gets to choose that. And that makes it all the more meaningful, I think, when you think about much later on,

when he becomes a lord commander of the king's guard he joins the king's guard first he has to do that first right that's the career path and it's a great honor and we always assume that like this must have been a very easy decision for dunk and like a great honor because look finally you were night you were yourself all the way up there of course you're going to accept it but now we're like thinking about it seeing everything with all this like and with this song it's made me realize that actually might have been a very difficult decision for Dunck, besides the whole part where he's got a bunch of kids that he's not going to be a dad to, I guess.

But, and also besides the whole was he knighted thing, like, I think it makes it have a lot more weight because Dunk at the last only trades away his freedom out of love for his best friend. And that's what leads him to have to follow his friend blindly down a path that Dunk might not have chosen otherwise for himself or anyone else because now his soul belongs to his friend. Yeah. He did it his way. Or eggs way at the end. Yeah.

Yeah. You're not supposed to sing that song. That is the change. I don't know if you've heard about this. You're not supposed to sing my way at karaoke in the Philippines. People like start fights about it. Wow. And people die.

I'm learning more about my culture every day. Oh my God. Yeah. I could have just gotten ejected from life. From life. Yeah. Thank God you protect me. I'm so lucky.

See, you are Dunkin and I am ag. Until you put me down, like a rabid dog. Oh, shit. When I light it up. Scrimpled. Yeah, I think that's really beautiful how you've connected that into, you know, what it means to lose your soul in battle. you know, Lionel basically saying like, oh, nice, you like war?

Well, I would pay you to come do war. Yeah. The stipulations, the strings that are attached, and choosing his friend, even in a way choosing blind faith, a leap to faith, right, by choosing his friend and saying, no, I would do this for egg. I would do this for Baylor. These are the people I would do it for. That is very beautiful. And that is like, well.

Why it's the story of friendship. That's why, yeah. It's a beautiful story. It is. It's, um, or a tragic one, I guess, considering, so I guess we told people we would talk about it. Do you want to talk about Dexter Sol Ansel's spoiler? That's a great way to end this episode, right?

Let's talk about what Dexter Sol Ansel said in an interview where he and Peter Claffey were making puppets, sock puppets that you put on your hand. Oh, by the way, it feels important to contextualize this. Cute. Oh my God, it's hysterical because Peter Claffey is trying to stop Dexter from spoiling this. He's like, you're not supposed to say that. But Dexter says that dunk survives Summerhall. And this was on a very, like, not, it wasn't like a fandom popular interviewer.

anything. So this was like a random TV show kind of broadcast interview podcast thing they were on. Very different niche. So like it just so happened that this, it wasn't like they were marketing it with like clickbait titles or anything. They could have maybe even had this lie low and no one would have found out. You know what I mean? Like they could have even like they didn't know the treasure they had is what I'm trying to tell you. The people that ran this, they did not know what they were told. but what Dexter said is that Dunk survived Summerhall. Because we are a very hungry fandom, people have taken it and torn it apart at every single angle. Why this is a big deal is kind of interesting, right?

Because I think the majority of people assumed Dunk got Rhaegar and Ralea out, and then he died doing that pretty much, or his wounds took him or whatever. What this suggests to me, oh my God, it implies a lot of things. I have a lot of thoughts. What are your thoughts, Eliana? Yeah, I think I was confused because I thought like we were told it already. I was like what? But clearly, sometimes I just dream and make things up.

I like it. I think it really hits for me in terms of the thematic resonance. Oh my God. I do too, though. Like, John Snow. Yeah, John Snow, but also like, I'm curious how it might mirror. even here, even with a hedge knight, right? Being like, why did I live and not egg?

Him burying his friend. Yeah, and also just like, you know, what happens? What is their relationship even like by the end? Because it could be kind of strained and might not. I don't know. I don't know. There's also, so there's also like elements of Jamie and Circe too in there, right? Of like faded friendship slash lover, but different.

but, you know, he's devoted his life to egg. So, yeah, soulmates, exactly. Fated soulmates, exactly. So I love that. First of all, but then second of all, there's something interesting of like, there is a precedent for people making it out alive already, because we know that the ghost of high heart was there and she made it out. True.

Ragar was there, yeah. We also know that Ragar would go to Summer Hall all the time and play his sad harp alone, quote unquote. But was he alone? And did he meet Dunk who told him about Egg and told him about their travels? Like, did Ragar hear these things from somebody from the old hermit who lived in the ruins of Summerhall? I'm just putting that out there. Just like how the ghost of Highheart roams the Riverlands and is found around the Riverlands,

like an NPC was Dunk a fucking NPC at Summer Hall. And then also, because of this giant fucking, like, bomb being dropped, not the wildfire, the bomb. But because of this, like, it also makes me rethink earlier in the season with the Tavern woman, who we then see as also the seer, the prophecy woman that gives them the prophecy. That's the same woman, I believe, people have pointed out. Oh. So it's interesting to me because it's also then. opens it up for like rampant fucking debate like were those real prophecies is that woman does she

know something more she seemed like she knew more obviously at the tavern about those being Targaryen boys so like what does that woman know who is that woman these prophecies seem real clearly or at least the egg one was pretty real yeah and i don't know there's just like a lot going on there. Like, I'm not saying she was ghost of high heart, obviously, but I am saying, like, but could it have been? Blood Raven. Could it have been?

Like, I don't know. I don't fucking know. Was it? Is Blood Raven everywhere? That's another thing that I didn't really pull apart as we watched this as much, but, like, I did question it a couple times. He was in the mist last episode. He was in the mist.

I thought we discussed that. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Lots to digest. I also just realized, like, if Dunk stays there, he kind of escapes... I don't know that it legally works that way. He escapes his vows, right?

Because he's a Kingsguard. Usually you just get carried into the next regime. He died to get out of his vows, quote-unquote. It comes back to, like, how he wanted... He didn't swear himself to House Targaryen when he swore to Baylor. He was like, just your man. I'm your man, Baylor, right? I won't serve the other ones.

And it's like, did he swear... only to egg. I mean, obviously, that's not how the fucking Kingsguard works, but he's like, in his heart, he was like, I swore to protect Egg, that he was my squire, and my king, I was supposed to protect him. And with Egg gone, he's like, well, I'm sworn to no one. But at the same time, because he's a Kingsguard, this first story, which again, like, you know, that was mistaken. That didn't mean, people loved him. The small folk loved him because he was a knight who remembered his vows. And for him to not come back

makes him a knight, a Kingsguard, who broke his vows. Who forgot. Broke his vows. Yeah, I love that. Definitely, like, the breaking of the vows feels important. And also then the entire pathology

that, like, if you follow it along, like, he was a true knight before that, but then with each honor that was given to him and each title that was bestowed to him and he became the Kingsguard and he became the head of the Kingsguard. He was the original Kingsguard that we are seeing through the lens of like

it doesn't work. Yeah. This manufactures broken men from him to Jamie Lanister, right? Like, it's, they make you swear and swear. And like, I don't know, there's something really great that George is driving home in all these end games, right? Of like exile, people going into exile, people forsaking their, ah, exile.

Well, that's egg and the seventh, right? Y'all don't like it. True. True. That's egg the seventh. Doing the same shit, different day. I don't know. There's something in that.

There's something thematically resonant about it that I look forward to parsing on with you in season two when we cover the sworn sword. Very excited. Same. I'm really excited about next year and that it's not in two years because I was like, man, that's a long time to wait. Crazy to think about the future. Crazy to think about what novellas will get and what we'll see and how ambitious they take it in season two. It's obviously being filmed right now, so it's renewed through forever, I'm guessing. We'll see how far they can milk this shit, but let's do it.

Keep milking it. Keep giving me something to watch every year, guys. Let's see what other bombs Dexter Sol Ansel drops. He did exactly what they were always afraid of Tom Holland doing in every interview. He's just too damn honest. How could you be mad at him? Ironically. Puss in Boots eyes.

Oh my God. Because he plays a liar. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my guy. He should have been Lyra. Oh, that's been funny. Yeah.

I love it. Well, thank you so much for listening to our Night of the Seven Kingdom's coverage. Please feel free to parse the cast. catalog, go listen to some of our other episodes. And if we don't see you till next year, we look forward to next year with you for season two. Yeah, true, true. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I'm another one of your host, Eliana. I guess we forgot to tell you all, I don't know, you can find us anywhere the podcasts are. If you do want to keep listening to us, you should. Yeah.

Or Patreon. Absolutely. Patreon.com slash girls gone canon. Goodbye. Oh, we are the ones on the horses going the other way now. Wow. It works because we named our tears after those horses. Until we need again, sweet foot.