Girls Gone Canon Cast - House of the Dragon S2E6: Smallfolk

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

SPOILERS: ASOIAF, F&B, KOT7K, TWOIAF, ETC "He should have stayed in Dorne. He should have stayed a frog. Not all men are meant to dance with dragons." We're soft launching a lot in this episode - but hard launching the smallfolk! (had a couple technical issues on audio this week so please bear with us. rowr. bear.) Check out our patreon where all members get early access to House of the Dragon episodes during the season @ patreon.com/girlsgonecanon Sound Effects from Pixabay "Night Vigil" "Big Drumming" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ THANKS KEVIN!!

Hello. Hello, and welcome to Girls Gone Panic. Watch this House of the Dragon. Season 2, Episode 6, Small Folk. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. You might know me as a great-great-grandmother to Seth and Darklyn. Ariana, Targaryen princess. They really skipped on you in the annals, dude.

Yeah, right. I do try to skip the annals. That's so true. Get it? Anal. Princess Ariana is not into anal, is what I'm hearing. Welcome back to civil disrupt, supply chain issues, and no one knows who is driving this bus. It's not the United States.

It's Westeros. It's something. Something is happening in these. Eliana, tell the folks at home what our spoiler policy is. We are open to talking about everything that has been published from the Asanga Vice and Fire world. And so that means if you don't want to know what's going to happen broadly in this series,

like major spoilers about who dies, who lives, who quote unquote wins, we'll see you some other time. But we are going to talk about anything and everything from Fire and Blood, World of Ice and Fire, and A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as the show that A Song of Ice and Fire is based on, Game of Thrones. Yes.

So adios if that's not what you're into. But if you are into it, welcome aboard. Quick housekeeping up top. Patrons over at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon, C-A-N-O-N, are getting these episodes early. Early. If you are a member at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon, that's C-A-N-O-N, are getting these episodes early. Early. If you are a member at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon, that's C-A-N-O-N. Exciting, thrilling, and that's not the only thing that patrons can get

because at the end of this month, any day now, patrons in the stranger tier and above, five bucks and up, will see an episode hit their feed. It's so exciting, so exhilarating. We don't even have a title for it yet, but we have many working titles and that episode will be on Rhaenys the Conqueror and perhaps a little bit of theory crafting

about the prophecy we talk about from this here show. Yeah, but all about Rhaenys the Conqueror and the theory that her bloodline and not Aegon's is what the current Tar her bloodline, and not Aegon's, is what the current Targ bloodline comes from. I'm really hyped about that episode. Me too. I've been like sitting people down like in my real life and like, listen, listen, I'm a Rhaenys truther, everyone. And I'm explaining it. The truth is out there, folks, and we're gonna find it for you in this episode. And that's not the only thing you'll get over at our Patreon. If you're a Thunder tier member and above, what are you going to get, Eliana?

If you're a Thunder tier member and above, you get access to our Discord. And that includes our monthly brunch slash happy hours, aka maybe brappy hour, which once a month we all get on the Discord, like video chat and hang out. And sometimes there's fun in games sometimes i mean yo there were some there were some like news dropped like right at the start of brunch this month is all i'll say i'm sure you can all piece it all together it happened on july 21st of 2024 at 2 p.m eastern so you can all like put that together anyways yeah so this coming month in august our brunch slash happy hour is going to be on august 11th that is a sunday who

knows what'll happen then i don't know anything could really happen i really need a break dude i really need a break please don't let it be new. I don't need like an atomic fireball hitting the earth. I just need like a break for a couple weeks. Oh, I got- Very exciting. We are getting towards the end of the season. Uh-oh, we're in the second half here, the latter half of the season. We have episode seven, episode eight to go.

I will be with Eliana. Whoa, for episode eight, shenanigans will ensue. But brunch will be after Eliana. Whoa for episode eight. Shenanigans will ensue, but brunch will be after that finale. You know, not the day it airs, but a week later to give us a little breathing room. Yeah. We're also going to give you some of our unprocessed thoughts soon after that

season finale. Stay tuned for that announcement. I think we need to finalize a few things, but I believe we are going to be joining some friends live right after the finale airs. Yeah, and for the penultimate episode, I will be on our good friend

Sanrixian's Twitch on her Warm D episode right before the penultimate. Ooh, foreplay. Yeah, yeah, Warm D. Hell yeah, hell yeah. Yeah, well you gotta warm the D up before you unleash it, Eliana. That's very true. That is how it works.

Hey, Eliana, where can people send their thoughts to us about the episode if they have some? Yeah, if you have thoughts about this episode, you can send it to us on twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon. That's C-A-N-O-N. Or you can always send us your emails at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com and if you get them in on time they might just make it into the episode or i mean sometimes we'll we'll bring it in even afterwards like this great one here from lydia that we're gonna go over in a sec thank you thank you this one from lydia is a great email and something that

i totally i didn't know the depth of. Lydia is a longtime listener and has written in to say that the theme that we hear episode five open up on with Corliss is referencing the It's Always Summer Under the Sea theme and even some loose lore they remember from the wiki that may come in to mean something. Lydia says, there's a significant story and lore that goes back to Patchface. That's who teaches the song to Shireen and who learned it from his crash at sea and all that amazing magical mermaid shit

Patchface survived and how he ended up on Dragonstone. It's an element that connects House Velaryon to the Merlin King, which is supposedly where the Driftwood Throne came from, as you know. Anyway, feel free to fact check any of that real mood. But also, make sure to go back and watch the episode We Light the Way

when the Velaryons do their epic Durmstrang strut into the hall before the wedding. You'll never not hear Shireen singing the chorus of It's Always Summer after that. Thank you, Lydia. Thank you so much. I was so delighted to read this email, actually. lydia thank you so much that was um i was so delighted to read this email actually and i didn't think about the the magical patch face mermaid prophetic kind of connection for house valerian with that in mind that's something i honestly didn't really i don't think about it that much so that was awesome especially considering we have some new members of house valerian in the latter half of this season. And one of them, Adam,

takes a little magical trip in fire and blood, maybe, quote unquote, to the Isle of Faces. So I almost wonder if there's some sort of depth that prophetic sea theme and the Isle of Faces and Adam Velaryon. We'll admit I don't remember what it's always summer sounds like so i love that all of you caught it and i just rely on you kind of to like chloe will catch some of these music things thank you for that and we also got a couple of things that i want to share from our friend lo long time listener and interactor of girls gone, who, thank you so much for this. Last week, you all might've heard me struggling, trying to remember,

trying to remember someone who was acting as like the master of coin, kind of like unofficial master of coin for her husband. And that was Florence Fosway of House Fosway during the reign of Jaehaerys I. And she was married to Martin Tyrell and Martin was like kind of the like master of coin but in name only it was very much uh Florence who was doing a lot of a lot of the work there so thank you for that um Lo also wrote in again this week with some thoughts about uh Rhaynira discussing wanting to be a man and gender

and i know chloe you've got some other thoughts that go into this as well but lo has reminded us that in the ragman's harbor house of the dragon season one recap they discuss uh reynira's reynira similarities to queen christina of sweden, Lo, for your email. And to be fair, before Sam Tarly, nothing existed. So the first Sam Tarly, not Ace Woff Sam Tarly talking. You know, you know. Do you ever think about how we don't call it, like we call it Fire and Blood or FNB, but we never just call it Fab?

It doesn't work for me. Fab? I don't know. I'm gonna make Fab happen. Fab! Oh my god so fab i gotta say miscellaneous up top words of the day we had words of the day this episode stalwart and steadfast bro tell me why i was fist pumping on my couch when they said stalwart i was like they said stalwart i don't know it was really exciting again the dialogue is being written obviously they

read the books they understand how people in george's world speak to one another they understand all these unnecessary little words that like build the dialogue uh but hearing stalwart and steadfast just really threw me yeah i mean there were some some great words like you know salubrious i think is one that people have been doing i I think, you know, when they bring in fucking nuncle, like, and I know we've, we've got true A Feast for Crows. Give me a nuncle, Ryan Condal. Nuncle? No, he can't be both my nuncle and my child. He can be your- Yes, he could. Your Princess Ariana Targaryen. That's true. The family could be a wreath. Something that stood out to me this episode is the director, Andri Parak, who did some

of my favorite episodes in succession. That's cool. Yeah, some of the earlier eps. I know at least Shitshow at the Fuck Factory and Lifeboats, which I love Shitshow at the Fuck Factory. Which one's that? It's literally like episode two or three of the whole thing. Kendall's buying Walter and then his dad is in the hospital.

There's the article that comes out about them all saying there's a shit show at the fuck factory. But he did a handful of scenes from a marriage, five episodes of that miniseries, limited series. So really love that andre was on this and you can tell obviously that there's some succession going on anyone that could direct succession could probably effectively direct hot d because of the toxic poisonous family dynamics true so bravo andre hope to see you back yeah needs more cousin greg but less chicken chicken uh yeah i love that um we're also going to be discussing some of the other like fantastic i think directorial choices throughout this episode but let's jump into it let's start

off i mean let's start off where we start off right the westerlands i loved opening at the golden tooth i didn't know what it was going to be from the trailers i figured it was something I mean, let's start off where we start off, right? The Westerlands. I loved opening at the Golden Tooth. I didn't know what it was going to be from the trailers. I figured it was something in the Westerlands. And it is. Go off in your armor, Jason. Wow, looking like a right douchebag. The Lions.

Oh my God, when I saw The Lion, I did lose my shit a little bit on the couch. Like, I imagine my roommate does not want to deal with me during this show. Because I got, like, visibly excited. Go Lions. Go Detroit Lions. Geographically, it makes a lot of sense for the armies to mass at the Golden Tooth instead of Casterly. We see some of that in Aeswath in the main series as well because they don't really have sea power right now. It's called out, right? Dalton Greyjoy is waiting. He is taking his time, biding it. The gold from the golden tooth is actually what made the Lannisters powerful, right?

So kind of interesting to show the golden tooth and not Casterly Rock, which they really need to show us better, stronger, sexier than what Game of Thrones did because that was a fucking disappointment. That and Highgarden. I want to see Casterly and Highgarden in all of its hot D glory. Absolutely. Money glory. VFX, CGI, busted up on the hill.

The Golden Tooth commands the hill road and it is a very large, strong keep. But not that strong keep. Great place. Not that strong. Not that strong. But not that strong keep. much has the haughty air and very specific uh pronunciation that Dinklage kind of delivers in his performance I I ask you all to listen to it again close your eyes like I always tell you all to do and listen to it again and tell me that I'm wrong because I feel like I'm right uh I feel like I'm right I'll have to give it another listen like I definitely hear the haughtiness right and I love

how he creating that difference between Jason and Tlen though you know if you ask me lindsey lowen could play both jason and tylen lannister but jefferson hall could not do the parent trap that's the take um is it the gauntlet has been thrown it's been thrown i mean oh i also love that we get this because we were actually literally hearing about this last episode so you're really seeing how the decisions that are made or discussed in the small council are manifesting on the board right yeah and it's really well sewn how they're doing that it's like soft launching each episode we had the riverlands right in e2 that was the open of episode two they soft launch the riverlands they started with that big feud and now we're getting to a place where like like what red lake um fish feed which i think you're going to talk about a lot today at

some point but like there are all these little battles that are kind of straddling what the finale and premiere season two season three could be yeah make an eyebrow at me saying straddling what the finale and premiere season two season three could be yeah make an eyebrow at me saying straddling i said that dirty dirty minded yeah agreed but actually what you've said is it makes a lot of sense because it's i'm seeing we're seeing now like how this is impacting the whole kingdom right like the only one that we haven't seen is dorn pretty obvious reasons but like right up the top the north the riverlands now uh we've seen the veil but we haven't seen like en masse right like everything there and now we're seeing like how it's impacting the westerlands so great point you're getting like a full a full view and i

mean the crownlands of course so well it's yeah the crownlands we're getting fed all of the kingdoms honestly but it's well on the boats little gift boats wow just like renera good queen renera yeah the construction of the plots are really well done little little hints then soft launches and then all of a sudden full blown and it's a plot even though they really do need the two episodes i agree i could really see them taking two more i don't feel overwhelmed which is good yeah this is actually really interesting because um i've been added to one of my friends group chats uh with him i don't know one of his friends i don't know just to send memes about the show and they were asking about like do we feel as connected to the characters as we do in game

of thrones and they don't right and they don't feel that same connection to the smaller characters that they did in Game of Thrones. They love the Hound. But I have, I think, a biased perspective in that I just don't feel connected to the Game of Thrones show characters because they're so wildly different from the characters I know in the books.

Whereas this is a different perspective. But I do think that we do need those two extra episodes and that time to spend more time with all these characters. Yeah, for several reasons. Like number one, I personally deserve it. Yeah, I yes, I agree. We deserve it. You, especially all the viewers, but you especially. And I just i just i mean i'm gonna just tied in first place if we keep like saying it you know please if if you are listening to this any of the showrunners you may use us as um what is this leverage with whoever's fucking funding you and be like give us more money for more episodes it is what the people want. It is us, the people. Girls Gone Canon said so.

GGC! Yeah. Excited about the Westerlands. I like you. Back to the Riverlands. Back to it we go. Eliana. I'm really worried. I'm so worried. Every episode I'm like,

I mean, I know he's not going to die yet, but like things are getting real bad for Simon. Like they were already bad. These workplace conditions were so bad for him before. They are even more so like fucking Damon. I was talking with a friend and they were like, do you think that you think that Larry's was a better boss? Like than Damon or like,

do you think like not, not, you know, flabbergasted? I'm like, yeah, I you think that you think that Larry's was a better boss like than Damon or like, do you think like not not, you know, flabbergasted? I'm like, yeah, I legitimately think Larry's wasn't there fucking shit up choking Simon, right? Like some people want that from Damon, but Simon's not one of them. And like, Damon's all like, perhaps you resent me being here. And I'm like, yeah, you're a terrible boss. And this acquisition hasn't been the worst for this poor man until, you know, the next acquisition. I mean, so far at least Damon hasn't lit them on fire.

That's true. I mean, it will get worse. Let us say this. Things will get worse for Simon in the next acquisition, but there's going to be some people laid off of life but crazy about uh the the stuff going on with these river lords the tensions are bubbling and the tollies yeah man tollies are gonna be prominent still this season it looks like i'm excited to see like we got a little bit of a teaser right uh for next episode's trailer of what we'll see there uh i will say i still feel robbed of kermit and elmo like give me the camp god you know the hope is that they just have big bird sorry rename lil pidget and put him in this one it's now big

bird i agree and then also uh i don't know if anyone else feels this way but i'm sorry but the rest of the people like here at harrenhal who sit around simon's table do they do they just like feel like they're about to go on a journey to like destroy the one ring like i look at them and i'm like it's giving mary and pippin just their vibe looks like they're about to play dnd yeah i don't know or maybe they've been playing a very long dnd game at this i think it's their hair i think it's the bangs i think it's the bangs that like feel like the lord of the rings movies to me anyway hey i'm so glad they're still keeping these guys around as uh extras as important extras right because they gotta die you know we gotta have that stream of blood to that weirwood of all the nephews and boys of the stronghouse well big sad speaking of that trail of blood, Damon and Alice,

maybe it looks like next episode, Damon's going to be pushed toward chop, chop, chopping off the Blackwood, Willem Blackwood's head. Shouldn't be that hard if he just thinks about how Willem was into Rhaenyra. You know, like I'm sure he can work up a good bloodlust for it, but the River Lords don't seem happy in the preview and i'm sure that blood will sate that uh and alice probably will help because in this episode she was very she's very involved right very hands-on damon still doesn't get that she is um poisoning

him he's like someone poisoned me who could it be we're all trying to find out how does he not know she's the one who handed him that first weird cup how do you not know a he's out of it okay like first and foremost from being poisoned and having his mind like fucked around in constantly like he's got to be just exhausted mentally physically emotionally because he hasn't had this many emotions at once in a long time that's true also i think he's just very self-absorbed and it's like how he doesn't know that the brackens in blackwoods have a feud how he doesn't know that he's being poisoned like i just imagine damon just goes about his day dot da da da da shoving his sword and stuff walking around i don't know not to be like weird about it but and not to victim blame damon about it but like is this

because he was never taught when you go to bars watch your fucking drink you know like well yeah because a lot of men they don't think about that so like is that what's happening here maybe god all i can say is alice rivers is single-handedly pushing the god's eye to happen like what is that and i like magic and a suave as you know about me i'm not like too involved in the details but knowing everything i care about with brand chapters where i am kind of sure the details and how much it applies here probably i don't really ever care about the battle above the god's eye like oh god the blondies shoved their swords into each other sad now they're all dead but the show's kind of making me care about the battle above the god's eye like oh god the blondies shoved their swords into each other sad now they're all dead but the show's kind of making me care about it and and if you

think about it alice's major grand scheme kind of seems like she wants to feed this ancient burial grove of weirwoods with the world's most cosmic blood sacrifice good for her yeah right like sometimes that's what girls want to do two dragons one year out i mean amen and damon like that's a lot of blood and magic um i don't know i don't know that there's something about sacrifice in this season yeah that i've been noticing over the last handful of episodes even in dialogue right like we start off the entire season in the north where cregan is explaining the choosing ceremony of men that sacrifice their lives to go to the wall. In the tapestry, the new intro, you have that kind of view of what looks like potential blood sacrifice for bonding with a dragon in Valyria in the old days.

The good old days in valeria we have that line from otto to aegon when he said with your child's blood we bought their approval with your mother's tears we made a bitter sacrifice against the deprivations to come or renera sending reina to the veil uh during the previously on i noticed this that when she says do this sacrifice willingly bear your breath for me nisa nisa do this for me willingly. It has that similar kind of vibe. And then this episode with Stefan Darklin. I am but a man. I understand the

risk and I accept it with gladness. I've swore to ward my queen with all my strength and to give my blood for hers. Him being open to the potential death. And of course, Erik and Arik, right? There's another one. lots of framed sacrifice going on in front of the old gods or in front of old gods not just the any uh in front of

dragons which could be considered an old god in a way i mean they are literally discussed in the language of gods this episode you know that's what stephen darklin says of them so i i really like this i haven't thought about you know alice having that sort of like much longer game than anyone else has except for like rainera right thinking about the long night essentially but yeah i mean it might very well be like a sacrifice thing like i'm also thinking like full metal alchemist stuff so yeah interesting wow interesting well and you think like heron hall began with a huge sacrifice not just of the weirwoods i guess that's one then two the entire building roasting alive well a lot of those buildings probably i mean they really might have and then yeah that and and as well as like, what, the hammer, the waters and things like that. And yes. So what is alice says to damon that's like you know

there are something powers like older than you or i or living memory and i think that part about we know obviously older than alice or damon but like the living memory i thought that was kind of like a fun line because i'm like oh living memory but what about uh as old as dead memories which are kept in the weirwoods by the old gods, right? And everyone who's just like become part of the Weirwood network and what's past. So kind of fun. Even you look back to Brand 3 in Udawara, A Dance with Dragons, and you have that vision, right? Where he sees the different visions of historical people at a weirwood and he sees one of a woman heavy with child emerged naked and

dripping from the black pool knelt before the tree and begged the old gods for a son oh interesting who knows if that's alice right but uh in fire and blood we have that passage when she's found at harrenhal inside she found only alice rivers the wet nurse and purported witch who had warmed prince amon's bed during his days at haron Hall and now claimed to be carrying his child. I have the dragon's bastard in me, the woman said as she stood naked in the godswood with one hand upon her swollen belly. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. They definitely have that chemistry and I'm like, are they going to bang or is it like

one of those things that was made up in fine blood or not? But this one's what you have here would make sense and i read your note before you read it aloud before you said it so my oh interesting my very excited one was just like a little too early for the audience sorry everyone i get a i get i'm the special patreon early release when it comes to recording the episodes early release whoa warm d straddle warm d unleash it let's go I came early you deserve it anyways I like Alice and I like what they're doing with Harrenhal a lot also I'm probably feeling a tiny bit of burnout of Hot D, not like in a terrible way yet, but like I'm glad it's eight episodes this season

for personal reasons. Valid, valid. Alice is a little on the nose for the audience, which I get because doing magic for the audience is, I've unfortunately been on the internet, as some of you also may have, and I've just seen some asinine stuff about Harrenhal and about its magic and I want more of it but I understand that you need a character to say out loud sometimes

the things that are happening for the general audience and so Alice is getting a little bit of that and it can feel abrupt to me and take the mystery away from her in some aspects. There's this whole conversation with Damon right of those who don't want power can be trusted with it, which as you and I have talked about in our main podcast many years, we've talked about this repeatedly, probably too much. That's not true. Sometimes it's true, but sometimes it's not. It's not a constant. It's not like people that don't want anything to do with the throne are actually not usually great on it. Take Robert. Yeah. That doesn't mean that what she's saying is true, necessarily. This is something she's saying to Damon,

and she's getting under his skin constantly with the things she's planting in his head, the things she's planting out loud to him. So I also see it kind of as a through line, right, with the conversations with Alicent, Laries, and Misaria. An ascetic ruler is what these characters kind of want, right? Kings and queens who don't want that power, they can be ruled by others around them much easier. And in some parts, that's, I guess, closer to a democracy than they'll ever get in real life. At the same time,

it's not always good, right? You open the books in A Game of Thrones with Robert just totally fucked. Fucked, man. And he calls Ned as a last ditch effort. And guess what happens to Ned? So I don't know. Interesting. Yeah, I agree. I think there's kind of like a double-edged sword. You have the people who like are thrown into it, like Robert, who don't want it.

And then you have people who are thrown into it, like Ned, who kind of rise to the occasion for it because they're not being power hungry. And I think there's like two sides to that. And just like to bring everyone up to speed about the things that Chloe and I have discussed in the past if you are new here it's a combination of what you

were saying right like the rulers who don't want it have no passion for it and therefore have like never studied it never really like took to it right and you see that to an extent with even like Agen II right he ended up wanting it when he realized, oh, this is maybe what love feels like. And, but you also have characters who like, for example, Daenerys, Tyrion, or like other

characters who, and also in real life, Rhaenyra. No, hold on. Take that out. Take out the real life because I, you have characters like Daenerys, oh my god, you have characters like Daenerys, Tyrion, and we're seeing this with Rhaenyra as well, right? Like, perhaps Rhaenyra did not necessarily want it but has, like, grown into it, but when you are denied power the way that Alicent, Laery, and Mazaria are as well, anything that you do in order to gain an ounce of power

and agency is going to be seen as grasping, right? Like, you have to be a little ambitious if you're going to be given anything in this life, and Rhaenyra may not have wanted it, but in order to actually get that thing, like, she's going to be painted as and has to become ambitious to get it and the ways that you get there aren't necessarily always great we'll discuss that in a bit but that's this is this is a thing we've discussed in the past so thanks for catching up with us yeah i think it's one thing to have a lack of ambition right like robert who was a figurehead for a rebellion and the only reason he did it was to get the girl and he didn't really want the girl yeah he wanted the idea of the girl yeah just like he didn't want the throne at all he

wanted the idea of it and other people behind him all put him on that throne because they wanted something else and it's very interesting very interesting like having a little ambition or a little passion for working for the people is usually usually that's what you want out of a politician yeah you want them to care at least a little you know and like know the things a little subject change here for a second but there's this line that i liked about that alice said like rivermen are made of mud and it wasn't necessarily like calling them it went the way that i didn't think it would go in terms of you know they like to stick to their ground and i was kind of surprised

about that i like that i that tickled me as opposed to like being you know mud is gross and boring but it does make me think of quentin quentin martell who some of you might know from the book series and he's not a riverman but he is described as being of mud by Barristan Selmy. And so I thought that was kind of fun. And I don't know. I guess he's not. Yeah, he's not a riverman. But you could argue the Rhoynar.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Interesting. Not really. Oh. I also thought of house mud with it, right? You know, the muds were once kings of the river and the hills. So not far from some of the queens of the Rhoynar.

The queen. I actually think what you're saying is a reference. You're right. Yeah, I do think it's about House Mud who once ruled as kings of the rivers and the hills. From the Blue Fork, the ruins have become Old Stone, right? You have that exceptional chapter with Catelyn and Robb there. They were the end of the first men ruling the trident they reigned for like a thousand years allegedly so that was it the end of their succession and there's other muds in history

but that was uh the big one so i wonder if there was a reference if it had two d's i was waiting in the captions for it to have two t two d's but the captions failed me a couple times this episode hbo usually does pretty good with their captions compared to anyways yeah usually there's a lot of like secrets in the captions if you don't listen yeah that's true watch if you don't watch with the closed captions you might miss out on some of these things and i'm a closed caption girly. It's just easier. Sometimes I hear things and it doesn't process because of like auditory processing issues

because I'm a girly, just a girly. So I like my subtitles. My subtitles like me usually. Yeah, I do the same and not because I'm a girl, but because I'm an old hag. And my hearing is going in my old age. and also because i went to too many concerts growing up wear earplugs if you're young wear earplugs and don't blare your music learn it yeah it's actually kind of funny i went to a i went to another show yesterday and uh our neighbor

busted out his earplugs i was like oh you're like at this point there's there's no point it's over for me eliana let's talk about our favorite ship damon and gil oh your favorite ship i don't know i don't know do i have a favorite ship yet i don't know let me think about it but i'll support you thank you well it's a good ship. He's constantly being guilted, guilty, seeing things, seeing his guilt played out on his mind's projection screen. It's terrible. Discuss. It's kind of interesting because I guess he gets to this point because Alice has been giving him what? Has been dosing him and walking him through therapy at the same time of like stop running away from things and like there is a form of therapy i forgot which substance i want to say it's either mdma or lsd

where you like rehash can like re rewire your brain and emotions that are tied to certain memories with it so it's kind of like that maybe but like wow he's uh learning to just stay we'll see if it fucking sticks we'll see how everything goes but um i i think they did a great job like i love that they redid that scene with patty considine like with the exact same lines as in that first episode and just like so good i love he him sobbing though was such a great like him just shaking and sobbing on the throne i think that gave it such a great, like, him just shaking and sobbing on the throne. I think that gave it such a great horror, like, haunted house kind of experience for Dane. Yeah. I think for it to really hit for me, though, like, where's Rhea Royce?

I think this is probably it, too. Like, I don't think you're going to get a lot of visions after this. I think, because, I mean, do you you closed out with the big guy which i expected them to do i mean as soon as they did young reneara i was like oh so they're gonna go all out yeah i don't know it just like for it to be real for me you know ria royce but maybe he like just didn't care about her so she never shows up i guess he doesn't feel guilty about that because he's like i don't't know, she was an NPC to him. Which is pretty fucked up.

Pretty fucked up. Hey, we did get the woman that played Emma, Sean. I don't know her last name off the top of my head. But Sean, I believe. She was BAP. And that was a bummer. I wanted more of her. That was great. Yeah, I wasn't sure if, like, they were gonna show something. Like, did they

have some sort of relationship? Because, I were also related but i mean i think a lot of people were thinking that was what was in the previews when he was fucking his mom and all those like in the coming weeks and you see him banging someone people thought it was either raniera or emma uh which could have been interesting like showing him like this is the woman that you should have had and that would have made you a better match than raya royce or something you know like jealous of the match that his brother got and he did not yeah or like fulfilling the fantasy right like in terms of like you know like it was all meant for brandon or things like that and i mean it makes sense like for him i guess he was just like, I don't know. I never think about Emma, I guess.

Which is fine. But y'all are related too. In multiple ways. Well, who isn't he related to? Valid. Well, Alice, maybe. Well, I don't know. Anyways. In-laws, kind of.

Paddy Considine, like in the behind the scenes in the House of Dragons build. I don't think anyone loves playing a Targaryen more than patty considine like there's that clip of him from last season where he's like it's giving targaryen realness he had like another one this one he's like i'm like here like targaryens be or something like that he's so excited to be house targaryen yeah like unapologetically and i love that i love that hey you know who's another person that damon probably doesn't think about there's so many please narrow it down for me his daughter reina in the veil yo he thought about her for two seconds i think when lena's ghost memory was like are you taking care of our girls no it's like oh fuck who who

there might be some some damon to discuss of it all here there was a little rumor that was circulating on the internet at the beginning of the season slash before that there wasn't going to be medals. I'm saying this now out loud so we can put it out there. We can discuss it. We can move on, whatever. It's real, it seems. I mean, why would you introduce Sheepstealer

and have Reyna and the Veil dragonless? And I think we're running out of time in some aspects. We've condensed the timeline. Even if we can get a mini time jump in the next bit of time, after whatever the finale is, maybe, or maybe mid-season, there might be another

time jump at some point, but it's still not enough to grow mourning. I mean, there wasn't enough time in the books either to grow mourning, so that didn't work out for them either. I just don't see a world of plot for reyna which sucks but she doesn't really have much plot during the war in the book either so i think it's a great way to keep phoebe campbell on board give them something actually to do i don't hate it i hate

like i mean it's hard we've lived in a world of adaptations where fucking badass women get removed all the time. Game of Thrones alone, right? Ariane Martell, Sansa Stark. No, I'm just kidding. And Lady Stoneheart and, you know, tons of characters that their characterizations were removed. There was no Asha Greyjoy, you know. and, you know, tons of characters that their characterizations removed. There was no Asha, Greyjoy, you know. It's a bummer, and I think that it really does a disservice since there are a lot of themes that they are introducing. I'm like, you guys are doing the story, you're doing the themes, but no Nettles. I think it would be funny if they did throw in Nettles and was like, steeled.

Sheep steeled sheep steeled right and not but it doesn't seem like it would make sense considering we've been introduced to the other dragon seeds um and i mean there's a lot of reasons why i would love for nettles to be there because just like how it throws into question all of this stuff regarding blood and dragon riding, which Adam Valerian kind of starts, like, inching towards that when we think about, like, the lineage of what we do know about House Valerian, though it's argued that Daemon Valerian from way back then could have married a Targaryen, but who knows?

Anyways. There is some sort of humor in, like, the Vale never being adapted close to its plot though like i find that really fascinating right like sansa and reina girl i'm so sorry the soft femme characters in the veil don't get their um soft femme arc they have to be a lane stone whatever i do love they're giving jane some like snippy almost Liza-esque dialogue in some ways right where it's so brusque and blunt and somehow very involved with society and appearances but also like above it and separate from it and she's just very that haughtiness I really love it yeah I like

that the nobles are like yeah a little caricature like haughtiness going on with them I love that this is drama this is prime drama. And there are some good character beats here when you think about what we've been introduced to already in season one. Reyna has been here like a few days and she's instantly being sent away to the man who already didn't see value in her the one time because she didn't have a dragon yet, right? Prince Reggio. So within a week,ane is like bye bye barbie see you and off reina's supposed to go with these kids uh and of course reina doesn't have the collector's items dragons so she doesn't have an invitation to stay in the veil because she has to go take

beautiful baby storm cloud and teraxes and the baby boys. The baby boys. On the gay abandon. Yeah, I was like, oh God. Dude, I was dancing in my seat. It was like the SS gay abandon all aboard. I was like, is it this season? It might be.

I'm wondering if it'll be a beginning or cliffhanger and finished in the next season. Pretty wild. Pretty wild. I mean. And I think giving Reyna a dragon helps that unfortunately yeah i think it would really complicate things um in a good way reina's arc so far it would have been great to spend more time with it and how it's an exploration of how when you don't have that sort of martial power the ways that you become even more disrespected in a family that should be holding all of this power right like she's i mean she's a targaryen

princess right and and being treated this way and i mean jane erin though i mean i would be pretty mad if i were her though and asked for protection and was given like here's a fucking lizard good luck and I will say that like Phoebe Campbell does this great like very slight motion as they're getting ready to talk when Jane Aaron enters before uh Campbell does start talking talking in regards to if reina ends up with the with the dragon with sheepstealer which likely yes um it kind of like canonizes this role then as like daemon's daughter in a way like which i think i mean nettles very much might have been and like fab slash gildane i'm making it happen misinterpreted it i don't think it's gonna catch on um but it does like create then a really interesting dynamic between reynira and reyna they already have a very strained relationship compared to the one that reynira has with bella which is

like really interesting and uh reyna has had to like kind of bow to her stepmother in ways and like that means what is what's going to be put on her what's going to be blamed on reina when it comes to the gullet right and the gay abandoned exactly that's what i was thinking yeah and like is it going to create an even bigger rift between them as there was like a rift between nettles and rainier but for different reasons and like then it creates this character conflict for Damon of like who are you going to choose to defend your daughter or your wife yeah and not only that but then you have Damon's current arc right where he's somewhat acting of his own leave saying Rhaenyra can come

to him what happens then when she hears something happened to her children right and Rhaena was supposed to be protecting them like you said i mean depending on reneara's emotional state and whether or not her heir has fucking died uh as well as losing her youngest children including the one she'll never see again by the way viserys uh and the other one who will see her burn alive and get ha ha this is a fun story yeah i could see her emotional state and some of the manipulations that she might be beginning to go through from people taking hold yeah uh in our dance with dragons episodes you know we kind of also liken it to jamie cersei brienne and sansa in a lot of ways of choosing, you know,

Jamie choosing Cersei or choosing the good side or the Sith side here. Going back to his sister and patterns of this cyclical toxic relationship, abusive relationship that they mutually have, or choosing Brienne's cause, doing something good, saving Sansa Stark, etc. And what that means, right? And I think that's how you get to that end of the path of Daemon caring about something and all that guilt that Laena was in his vision saying. Yeah. Right?

What about our daughters? He could do something good. He could still do one last good thing because people aren't good or bad what they do is good or bad you could do good or bad things yeah and he's on a humanization arc not a redemption arc definitely and i mean we'll see what happens it'll be interesting i it's interesting i mean the story is very much about how do people grow. This and everything that George writes. Pick one. Actually, that is true based on what we've been seeing in a lot of these short stories.

But not all of them. I'd say Sand Kings, maybe not. But Meet Houseman, it is in a way, how does someone grow? Grow doesn't always mean good, you know? Yeah. Well, let's talk about Dragonstone and Driftmark all those watery

fucking places yes over on the aisles with Rhaenyra I do want to address the elephant in the room though I'm not saying that Ariana is named as a subtle reference to me but I'm not saying she's not named as a subtle reference to me but I'm not saying she's not

named as a subtle reference to me hmm and you don't think that if there was a reference to you in this show by your only child Ryan Condal slash my nuncle you don't

think that maybe he would have named you like Eliana like a e we maybe to reference you or no george already did that with eliana there's like an e-l-y-a-n-a it wasn't eliana i think fray so i mean okay everyone's got their own spin on it you know i love this from you would know best it's your reference in the story yeah really like what they're doing with raniera's story here raniera and jace fighting is interesting i know you and i have discussed it to death but I kind of expected Jace to have conflict with Damon this season, but he does not. He is like, you need Damon to get you back in line.

And she's like, what the fuck did you just say to me, son? Yeah. Rhaenyra is doing a lot of stuff with prophecy in mind, I think, and I think it's tearing at her bit by bit. We see her reactions strained, tense, and her practicing with the Valyrian sword, as you can see those Damascus swirls upon it. Yeah, that's right.

It's giving, it seems I must be a warrior, Rhaegar vibes. Rhaegar's in this episode quite a bit. Actually, very true. Also even in last episode if we if you remember yeah and yeah especially like the fact that she picks up the sword in the library so rhaegar coded and i will say i really liked the way that this scene was framed like in terms of the visuals and like when we see that the camera's kind of uh further out so you see reynira framed

between these like two columns and she's well lit she's facing to the right of the screen and holding sword as she's you know in this moment what's going on with her character she's trying to gain power outside the confines of westerosi society when it comes to her council right like the people in her kingdom and then you contrast that visually with like a few scenes later you have alicent also between two columns but facing in the opposite direction facing towards the left silhouetted against like a much more wallet background so that she and the columns are in shadow and that's what comes to the foreground and she's she's looking down right she's been rendered powerless, especially as she comes from the room of like the one son

that she could almost semi-control, but not really. Isn't it crazy that like we have Alicent in the front of the season, somewhat still powerful, declining a little, but also engaged in prophecy as well, trying to loot through Viserys's books, right? And now she has lost all this power. She's on the decline

and Rhaenyra's kind of on the rise to power. Or climbing there slowly, trying to figure out a way but Rhaenyra's still got moves left to her and Alicent's moves seem to be just dwindling. The doors are all closing.

Rhaenyra's Riz is on the rise. It's actually true. And Alicent's Riz is not. And it's true. Yeah, the confidence is there. I'm serious though. Like the confidence that she gains in some ways is great. We see that her confidence has been shot

these last handful of episodes. She feels powerless. And that's why you have that slap, right, when it comes to Keltigar, which we'll talk about. There's this line, there's this line at the front from Stefan Darklin about getting Alan, right, with Corlys, Mizaria. Even the slap from Keltigar there, that moment, like, I think there's a big air of, you have this queen you want to support, and this queen herself, like, wants to be a good ruler. She wants to be equal. She wants to be fair. She wants to be a queen of the people.

But no one fucking respects her. No one cares what she wants. So now she's going to take back that power and become a respected leader. But does that mean necessarily loved? That's a hard, trepidatious line that she's crossing now. we're seeing Rhaenyra um you know when we went through this book we kind of talked about a lot of the Catelyn Stark and the the Cersei Lannister in some of these mothers of the dragon here and Rhaenyra is entering her Cersei era hardcore this season I'm very much loving it. The slap really reminded me of this line from Feast. She was tired of Jaime balking her. No one had ever balked her lord father. When Tywin Lannister spoke, men obeyed. When Cersei spoke, they felt free to counsel her, to contradict her, even refuse her. It is all because I am a woman, because I cannot fight them with a sword. They gave Robert more respect than they give me, and Robert was a witless sod.

She would not suffer it, especially not from Jamie. I need to rid myself of him and soon. Once upon a time, she had dreamt the two of them might rule the seven kingdoms side by side, but Jamie had become more of a hindrance than a help. Yeah. You could just replace some names in that paragraph if you wanted, and it's a new POV from Rhaenyra.

Absolutely, except I think Rhaenyra would make more competent decisions than Cersei, but we'll see how everything else shakes out. I mean, yeah. Like, slapping Lord Keltigar in front of everybody that could see it in the hall or sending off the man that she has the most friction at council with to her husband who doesn't respect her and is saying that maybe he'll steal her throne or something. That's a good point. They're not great decisions. I think...

I like Rhaenyra. Yeah. She's a great example of a character that might be doing things not right in the long run that you can like still. That's a good point. I mean, I just, like, she just comes off as in many ways smarter than Cersei,

Book Cersei, which, you know, Book Cersei wasn't trained in the way that reynero was like given an education because tywin was like i don't what am i gonna do with this i don't know what to do with the daughter and the series is like i only have a daughter and there's something about that slap that's so interesting to me because it's so like, I don't know, I remember when I learned you could just slap a man. You shouldn't.

Yeah, you shouldn't. That's true. Yeah. I was 11 years old. It was a boy in my class. It was around the same time that boys in my class learned you could say the word slut about a girl. Right. in my class learned you could say the word slut about a girl, right? So in response, I chose to slap, which was, I feel like it might be equal. Hopefully that boy, Zach, his name was,

hopefully he doesn't feel the need to say that word anymore, right, to young girls. But I don't know, there was something then, like, it is a piece of armor like that was all she had right in that moment she had nothing else she was broken to the point of slap and probably not good probably um that warning shot is probably not good for her reign later I mean obviously we're about to lose some council members one way or another Alfred Broom will defect and uh Massey gets eaten by a dragon I'm guessing slash burnt alive so I don't know we'll see what happens with Mr. Kaltigar on this show yeah and I agree like so growing up I was often like raised alongside boys right like those were like the children of my parents friends and we would roughhouse and then for a while like we would all roughhouse and then like

one day i was told like they're they can't hit you back and i was like i don't understand of course they can hit me back um i was i was really young okay i was gonna heal um wow what an exchange societally that we have decided that women you cannot hit women because they suffer enough injustice already like is that like it would be unfair to add this injustice to a woman because societally she suffers well there's that and also I mean like we should just not perhaps be hitting people, I guess. And like, as you said, this was not a smart, this was not a smart decision on Rhaenyra's part. But at the same time, this is not a defense of violence. This is not a defense of violence. But there is a kind of an inherent violence, right? When it comes to the way that the kings wield power if you think about it like agan being upset granted someone did kill his kid agan being upset and therefore hanging a bunch of rat catchers right or viscerys as well like and i think this is interesting because, like, when Jace comes up to Rhaenyra and she says, like, she, it, Bartimus is lucky that he did, that Rhaenyra did not have his tongue.

Like, this is actually a thing that Viserys would threaten for people who would say that the, the Valyrian sons were strong bastards. And in fact, one man was executed for it right vaymond was without a trial though he was kind of worn but or how damon just goes around like i don't know killing random ass people he goes out there and he like is choking simon strong right like and and that's the thing like the regarding that dichotomy between fear and love. And a lot of the times, studies show, it's funny that you talked about Rainier as Riz earlier, which is, you might not know this, people, but Riz, short for charisma. My highest stat. like my highest stat short for charisma but uh cycle like studies show that when it comes to what people look for in leaders they're looking for strength and they're looking for warmth there

are actually a couple of other like factors that go into what constitutes strength and what constitutes as warmth but they don't necessarily need warmth to follow a leader always right like and women leaders tend to be seen as warm but not necessarily strong and therefore therefore will get no respect and keltigar is out here just criticizing reyniera and doesn't ask me do i have your leave to speak your grace right like he's just speaking not asking for permission and i think that's part of why she's like i'm not being respected here and i don't think that the slap was right but i think that in their society violence is very much a way in which they people understand what is respect and this is this does not inspire like strength or confidence right but it inspires fear i don't even know if it

inspires fear right like it it makes because she's untrained and has the slap like she has her dragons and that is a way that she has been able to command power in the past right she did that when she treated with damon and we'll talk about that in a sec um and the high towers yeah i, I think we're going to see a more action-forward Rhaenyra following this slap, so I think it's more what the slap predates. Yeah. This is just the beginning that was the crack of a woman that had, you know, been pushed. Yeah.

And I do think it's interesting that Rhaenyra is discussing needing to be the sword and the shield in terms of ruling. That feels very Sansa and Arya coded. Like, she has to have both the courtesy and the physical power behind it. It's very hard to have both. Not everyone can do it. not everyone can do it I mean there's a reason that I don't expect many of my leaders to be fucking good at literal fighting I don't send them into a boxing ring and I'm like alright how good are your policies

go fucking punch but maybe we should anyway anyway maybe we should speaking Anyway. Anyway. Maybe we should. Speaking of some power dynamics that we're going to talk about,

the White Worm, Lady Misery herself, and Rhaenyra. Yeah, and quickly before we get into it, sorry, I just wanted to say, like, the discussion of waging war abroad, that, because, you know, there is a big thing to discuss about Rhaenyra and Misery, but they had this conversation about waging war abroad while trying to keep peace in your land and i think i i love that that's called out it's a dilemma faced by many of the rulers in a song of ice and fire like rob stark that's pretty obvious i'm not going to explain it stannis but he's probably going to give up on dragon stone let's be real and then denarii's having all those fronts in slaver's bay and then marine and then probably going to have to make a decision regarding heading back to Westeros at some point so

yeah really relevant in the main story as well as here indeed especially because a broad will be involved whoa whoa this this is a story about being broads as we know I didn't actually mean that but once it came out it came out speaking broads, someone on a podcast said something about Mazaria and Rhaenyra giving off, I think they said Tyena and Cersei vibes, this person. I can't remember what podcast it was that I listened to. Did you listen to this? Yeah, I think I might have. I think they're called Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-n-n-o-n no I'm joking there's only one

n in the middle uh no it was me I'm sorry I just had to be annoying for no take your flowers one hour and whatever take your flowers it's also like when it happened I was like oh chloe called it wow we saw it i mean look there was so much fucking tension between them it was wild welcome back tiana merriweather and cersei lannister um amazing that you're here to join us in this episode welcome back danny too right as a bisexual queen um yeah there's something very interesting too about that kind of uh lustful exoticization fetishization of these women from other countries that have come into their lives it does remind me of Daenerys and Dorea as well a little bit and like besides the handmaiden part of it i will say even like there were those scenes of reynira and mazaria like standing at dragon stone that reminded me of even like daenerys and john overlooking dragon stone i don't know if it's in that exact same spot

but it's a similar enough spot at dragon stone you know them talking policies but also you know getting closer to one another in game of thrones because they haven't met in the books i've been waiting a long ass time policy more like in her never mind warm d um yeah i i didn't think about that i don't know if maybe like i just didn't absorb the Dragonstone scenes as much with them. And I don't plan on rewatching. Maybe I'll rewatch like a compilation YouTube clip. A fan cam? But I don't plan on going back to that.

A fan cam? Yeah. But I gotta go look at that. That's interesting. Oh, those. It's crazy because Dragonstone's evolved, right? So much in Hot D. We've seen so much more of it like

obviously when danny took it we saw a lot more than what we'd ever seen before with stannis who was like there and then he was not uh but now that there's budget and set evolution i love getting to explore all of the different areas and halls like that hallway where the slap took place. I was like, wow, what a hallway. Something as we watch them kind of come together, Misaria and Rhaenyra, ha ha, come together. Something as we watch Misaria and Rhaenyra, you know, start to get to know each other, their bodies, their minds, all that.

They're mirroring each other in hair and dress. Misaria specifically is mirroring Rhaenyra when we first meet her in general. Her hair does not look like Rhaenyra's whatsoever in season one, throughout season one, and in the beginning of season two. But now that she is on Dragonstone, she has a similar braid and ponytail combination, and her dress is slowly becoming slightly more in that valyrian style with collars and angles and sweeping sleeves so i thought that was kind of interesting that for those of you that have seen the office andy bernard is big on mirroring people's exact words

and personality to try to get them to like him so either that or she's also being made in raniera's image right yeah i don't know i can't tell still sometimes and it could be like a we're close so i'm dressing like you or it could be as you said right like is it a way to get in someone's good greases there is something like i think very earnest about their relationship which we'll discuss in a bit but at the same time i'm still like un unsure but it also could be like that's just the clothes that they have there at dragon stone sorry like you don't have your custom-made like white dress also like that probably took a lot of time to take care of and keep as white you know as a person who has to hand wash and get stains out of my white clothing i love white clothing but what a chore you do wear it well for what it's worth yeah that's why i love it but it's a fucking chore i'm also kind of reminded of like serala of mir

right the lace serpent from duskendale interesting in the 70s the 270s uh to be precise way back when and how you know westeros is a little xenophobic and she ends up with a very horrible just a little bit a lot a bit very uh she ends up with a awful death and a huge blame towards pushing aries to um do a tax lien for duskendale right so she ends up with the blame she has a horrid death and you know who else ends up with a lot of blame and has a horrible death rego draws exactly rego draws yeah but also uh mizari yeah i mean there's just so many you mentioned earlier like the power dynamic between mizari and reynira and that is something that i am kind of wondering about here like is this because it was something that came up in discussion when it came to reynira and kristen cole last season the camera focuses on reyniera's reaction to that

embrace but not necessarily mizaria's but but sonaya mizuno was saying that like this is something that actually wasn't in the script it was something that felt natural to the actors and so they pushed for it to be included so i i i'm not sure yet and i don't know especially because it felt awkward for it not awkward but it was an interesting choice to have it come after a discussion about like i mean we know you know a discussion like about how she's been used sexually yeah i found that interesting too that it was after she divulged that and i will say that if you watch to me it looks like she's the one kind of initiating okay yeah i just couldn't tell that mizaria is it looks like mizaria is and that she nuzzles in and then kind of like nuzzles

against her neck uh and i think there's a lot to be said about like with the power dynamic like I obviously I think that Misaria can do what she wants though also she's with a lonely powerful queen you know I do also see that she's thrown her lot in there so I'm not saying oh she was you know had no other choice but it was definitely a more advantageous move especially after being vulnerable to her to get into her graces and secure protection in that way as well yeah or like there's that power dynamic between what doria and denarius as well and i'm not even sure that george is thinking about that to be honest uh but doria is technically the one who initiates but it's still yeah it's still uncomfortable even

more so than like mizaria renero which i think actually feels as mizaria points out like she feels that they're equals renero was just pictured slapping somebody also true in front of the entire castle for not agreeing with her so tensions aren't doing great there no after stephan darklin died but what about the sexual tensions what about the sexual tensions also in general whatever happens with this it was good because they were gay and beautiful yeah i mean i'm not asking for no i'm joking i'm asking for a lot in a lot of things but i did appreciate kind of that follow-up on mizaria's origin story in a way that quite obviously damon wouldn't give a fuck because damon doesn't even care what's happening with like the weather obviously as we discussed but with somebody who

has also gone through a traumatic childbirth and has had their own kind of traumatic experiences surrounding their body and children. So I think that was interesting and pointed in some ways of Misaria to kind of bring that conversation to Rhaenyra, who's had some experiences not totally dissimilar. Yeah, that's a really good point of how they contrast and they're like, this is how I've approached, you know, to pull something from what Lois said before, like this assignment of gender, right? This is how I've approached that assignment. This is how I've chosen to reject it or not reject it. And when it comes to, yeah, bearing children, and as you said, right, like, that she felt that she could share that with Rhaenyra and not with Daemon. Part of it is like, it's giving

not with Damon part of it is like it's giving Kurosami first of all um two exes and also like I said I'm still like trying to navigate this and process it it's been like you guys we we record these like 24 hours after an episode comes out all right there are shades there that I think are kind of fun that are pulled from what Shay's backstory the one of the things that Shay tells Tyrion and Tyrion's like wow it turns out I don't give a fuck about that but I think that's kind of fun that that's shown there and also like it makes me wonder like how often has Mizaria ever shared that story with literally anyone right not just with Daemon and I think I feel like Mizaria maybe truly feels regarded as an equal because she wasn't just listening to Raymira's pain she shared her

own back there's that reciprocity there and that assume having that reciprocity assumes that the other person also sees you as a person right and like the kiss does show physical intimacy which sure but I think they were already they already were being intimate in that moment right there are different kinds of intimacy they were already being very vulnerable and emotionally naked with one another hot take because of how they've pulled it in which i mean this is like implied in the book so all of this is sure uh so i'm glad they kind of went with it for that purpose because it's fun to explore the dynamic But also what if

Hot take Hot day take Misaria is also part mushroom Whoa In the way that I know I'm going to blow your mind on this one In the way of Rhaenyra's loneliness and confidence in mushroom And that mushroom constantly claims

Well I was the closest to the queen And I was her confidant And she would that mushroom constantly claims well i was the closest to the queen and i was her confidant and she would tell no one but me these things uh so maybe mazaria is getting a little bit of mushrooms arc adapted into her arc boom that's pretty interesting okay now i have a tinfoil of mushroom never existed and this was a pen name kind of like i'm thinking george elliott the english author george elliott of middle march uh and several other novels who used this pen name but was mary ann evans in order to a fucking make money and get published so what if bro i'm here i'm here to fucking garden your miseria more like masharia mashara ashara day whoa we did it good night good night that's it i mean actually we actually gave you a lot this is practically this is a whole episode in and of itself there's just more stuff

to discuss um reynira there there's also some great contrast with the way that Rhaenyra and Mazaria is, well, kind of actually not contrast, but this scene with Rhaenyra being told that a dragon has been quote unquote stolen and then flying off without anyone's permission versus that time that Rhaenyra was told that a dragon egg has been stolen, then flying off without anyone's permission in season one. And like that latter moment when the dragon egg was stolen is actually the moment that she first met Mazaria. So there's poetry. It rhymes.

Wow. Yeah. That's well spotted, Arianaana thank you princess you're great yeah these are my relatives if i was you i would say it was fab but i will never say that stop trying to make fab happen i love that and i also think with what we've seen from the previews too, we might see a little bit of a parallel for Vhagar being quote unquote stolen and Rhaenyra now about Seasmoke, feeling that Seasmoke was stolen in a way, come to play.

Oh yeah, I was just thinking that like, I don't know, Dragonegg and Daemon's like, I don't know. I just wanted my brother to notice me. Which, hey, it connects really well with all the themes of Daemon's visions. True. dragon egg and dame's like i don't know i just wanted my brother to notice me which hey it connects really well with all the themes of dame's vision true all right dragon seeds wow exciting poor stefan rip uh really impressive work if you haven't watched house the dragons built uh please watch it we keep telling you you keep not watching it what are you doing you should watch it it's really good really quick it's a 30 20 30 minute watch so highly recommend it after the episodes you can

also learn the episode title there that is the first place the episode title drops directly after the episode on sundays yes wow the prosthetics and stunt work that they did for lighting not just stefan but the valyrian dragon keeper on fire holy crap that was so cool it reminds you how cool this show is and like what a treat it really is like we can complain about plots all day long but whoa they lit people on fire for this no they literally lit people on fire you guys they literally lit them on fire for this no they literally lit people on fire you guys they literally lit them on fire they were all like you know cg is just not there yet which true but damn real fire uh emma darcy saying that they don't want to be lit on fire after watching that because they filmed it all

together behind the scenes i was like well well emma let me tell you they must know right god stefan you just got a little too too soon i don't know if you agree it's okay it's like not a big deal but i do think we're moving like stefan as being the one who fled king's landing with viserys's crown does take away a little bit from the impact of Stefan being like, yes, absolutely. I'm so honored. I will try to ride this dragon. Yeah, I understand the adaptive choice to change it just because like you need, you need a foundational thing for Erik and Arik's big battle.

Sure. Like it has to be something beautiful like the songs. But to that same end, yeah, I didn't give a shit about stephan darklin he they should have maybe even played him up a little bit more at the council about his family all dying i agree in that battle or like aftermath because he was loud in that council about it but the aftermath i was like where's the aftermath like that's sad that he is a darklin that has served the cloak many times the Darklings have and given the crown a lot and no one gave a shit that he's gone and then now also his whole castle of his folks is

gone like how sad is that like this is just the beginning of the end for the Darklings as they go through time it's true yeah I guess we saw another Darkling beheaded a few episodes ago so yeah things are not good for House Darkling this season um i don't know it was also like a little premature of him to say like i've done it i'm like personally i would not say it until i was on the back of the dragon but that's just me yeah and i'm not getting on the back of the dragon unless that dragon's real like showing his belly he's rolling around he's like yeah get on me that was real premature that's true i'm like very hesitant like every now and then i get to touch a cat belly but i'm hesitant i don't assume that it's done until like we're making contact and they have not moved but i'm ready

to take my hand away at any time granted you can't show fear um big quentin Martell energy though here being like I've done it and I'm like bro have you and then he began to scream yeah also uh shout outs to like a the one dragon keeper singing her heart out and this guy slitting his throat makes me think a little of them being like yeah getting burnt is like the worst way to go and And what Rattleshirt and Jon being like, let's just, let's just kill this poor man. I was kind of like, you could have at least taken out Stefan. Like you could have like, exactly like, just like that. Just like fucking throwing the flame and just like that. And just like that, Stefan Darklyn burned to death.

I began to think that if Stefan Darklyn stuff in darkland was burning for the queen why shouldn't why wasn't anyone burning for me well wait yeah i don't know i i thought maybe he could just have put him out of his fucking misery like obviously the guy knew nothing about dragon riding or dragons you could have just reached over and stabbed him before stabbing yourself yeah damn yeah but that's also so cool with the prosthetics how they did that like and that he was straight up like very on fire like he was a pro compared to stefan's actor you know had to wear his michael myers right which i mean that's fair but damn this guy was just in there on fire my favorite is that they were like, yeah, we learned from Game of Thrones lessons on lighting people on fire.

Like, let's cover the back of their ears because the ears are the parts that get burnt first. So they were like, we can burn people even better this time. All right. Eliana, I think you're going to be really happy because we're going to go to Spicetown. I'm going to take you to Spicetown, baby girl. Come on down, Spicetown clown. It's Alan and Adam. What the fuck?

I don't know. I don't know. I've had a long life, okay? Alan's silver hair. Bro, that was amazing. I loved that scene. I loved when Adam said, you're not fooling anyone such a nice touch such a small scene this episode really had a lot of those small scenes that were able to affect much

i felt like very egg in the fifth right very i could be unlikely out there on the road shaving his head from another story a night of the seven kingdoms absolutely when i saw that i like turned around i was like this is a reference to duncan egg he's like okay also from the also from the behind the scenes stuff um you know they discuss how like abu bakar who's playing alan like had to perfect the shaving scene and like didn't really know how to do this because most people don't bring like just a blade to their head all the time and how they had all these different people doing it and like how he had to like

get the sense of like being able to act that this is something that this person has done every single like day like ritually for their whole life and I love that he used the term ritually and doing it since he was young and like it's kind of really sad but they never got to live like as their whole self in that way like they speaking of intimacy they could never show their true selves to anyone else in their

life their fathers their father isolated them it's like what rainy said right like they don't deserve to be hidden beneath the sea yeah they had to shave that stain of bastardy off every day of alan i did love seeing how they had one extra who had a similar enough head because the problem was they couldn't grow enough hair in enough time to dye silver to shave off right over and over again and it's so short they couldn't really yeah so this scene was uh just that it happened was very magical they all said which i loved that i thought that was cool it really is some movie magic because like it's not just another head right the close-up of them shaving it's another head and then a third person who's actually like a barber

who's doing the shaving or something and they make it look like it's alan doing it on himself there's someone else shaving that person's head to give it that so wild um also i just love there was like even though it was a cynical laugh i just really love i was like oh my god i haven't gotten to see that before alan laughing what a precious moment and i have to say his actor is so sweet. I love him. He's on Twitter. And he's so hyped about the whole experience. And he's constantly reposting and responding to fans. And I'm just so happy for him being in this series.

Yeah, bro. That guy gets to live. That guy could get his own other fucking series after all this. Oh, shit. Yeah, dude. He could at least, like, have voice work. Yeah. Good for you. Good for him yeah well and he and adam are going to become fan favorites very quickly for the general audience

i know it especially after the adam and sea smoke scene which i loved it i loved the way that they filmed it that sea smoke claims adam adam. Adam doesn't claim Seasmoke. My roommate had me, like, cackling dying because last night he was like, fuck, now you got Seasmoke all worked up after Stephen Darklin, and now he has the zoomies. Oh, my God. And he's just up there. It was the zoomies.

I was dying. I was like, I haven't gotten to watch that scene unmarked by my roommate because every time he says something fucking hysterical about it and I just burst out. But I'm really interested in the connotations for what this means that Seasmoke claimed Adam. And I think we're learning a lot that these dragons are much more the powerful part. Like they do the choosing. Like think of Arya and Valyrian, right? Arya thought that she claimed

valyrian no honey valyrian claimed you and took you to valyria that's true that's not choosing daemon yeah that's a good point yeah the the dragons wait for like i don't know someone who vibes with them or as you said like this was a very this was a very aggressive claiming on seaspoke's part and actually the aggressiveness of it makes me even think of the scene in which Daenerys finally mounts Drogon in a dance with dragons. It's very

sexual. Higher. Yes. Yes. It's so sexual. I have two thoughts on like when they come face to face. Seasmoke being like get in loser and also just the opening of charlie xcx's song vroom vroom of let's ride let's ride that's the song that plays for me in my head for this scene that's so funny because i literally have a charlie xcx um reference

interesting bring up but wow i love that i will say that the show really visually has made clear laner and adam's similarities not just by blood already right of being corliss's blood but as much as i really hoped that maybe it would be like laner and a mustache and like with big glasses on right and a fake nose it is me adam valarian that would have been very funny uh jean parmesan oh jean parmesan i will say like animals kind of know if you're related to someone like my roommate's brother one of my cats jaharis who's very scaredy cat he's super comfortable around him and i think that's because he's sexist just like his namesake but he likes men more but also i don't know it

doesn't surprise me that c smoke chooses adam right and i think that blood bond and like that bond he had with laner and just like being similar could be part of it we see some of these bonds kind of choose with patterns uh but some don't obviously it just really depends and all right you and i have talked this to death in season one honestly but there was a line that raniera says that sea smoke misses his bond felt like a cop-out for saying what's happening to Laner. I don't know if we're going to get clearer information in the next episode or like her admit and say, I think he must be dead. Or it just be that he's far away and they work like Bluetooth

and he can't access his dragon. And so Seasmoke is bored and wants a new person because he's never coming back because of the plot. I don't know, but it left a nice loophole there. I just do hope that they straighten it out. I'm definitely okay with it never being announced whether he's dead or not, clearly, because I came to terms with it last season. I told myself they just weren't going to address the dragon elephant in the room and that way so far they can stumble over the bar and i'll praise them you know i convinced myself already in the last two years yeah i think it would be really interesting for the lore if it wasn't if it there could be

like two simultaneous living riders maybe it's just like one at a time did they like have a breakup emotionally somehow as you said like bluetooth or you if you lose your targaryen-ness or like your connection to what it means to be the dragon that part of yourself we've talked about like death figuratively in terms of characters right and then laenor's just living a different life different person now i don't know it could be interesting but also like i'm gonna give like the avatar response to jet you know it was really unclear what happened to wayne but that's fair it was really unclear and also i this i'm realizing now like no wonder corley's also tried to pass them off as lane wars not just like rainier has

acknowledged them as laneors because she has to be like yeah laenor totally had sex with a person like with with a person who can bear children and so forth but also like is it to maintain the facade that it only passes through the targaryen line because it seems as though in fire and blood with the exception of what we know about maybe Daemon, it feels like they were very cautious about not having Targaryens marry into House Valerian that way. I don't know. That's interesting. That's interesting. I have to think about that.

Yeah. I guess when you look at the pattern, yeah. I mean, there were obviously some like Rhaenys, yeah. But Rhaenys wasn't considered you know it was like staying within like that targaryen family still so like they're they're like very guarded about that's why laner was normal you know to have her marry lanor was also kind of almost expected because it was an easier match yeah and they had dragons they were marrying the dragons but yeah after alissa i feel like the main marriages to the Valarians kind of waned a little.

Yeah. There's something about them trying to consolidate power there and balancing it with House Valerian's power. Yeah, I mean, as we see, Corlys Olney becomes more and more powerful, too. That's true. Too bad his family's dwindling. All right, King's Landing to other dwindling families, Eliana. So true, so true. Let's talk about Aegon and Larry. They're so interesting. I love

this scene. I thought Matthew Needham just crushed it. He's been doing a fucking amazing job this season. He's really eating good. Let's be real. He's got some great killer stuff being given to him and he's just knocking it out of the park.

I love that we have a Bastard's Broken Things angle going on here with this conversation with Aegon. Interesting little bit about Alice potentially witchcrafting him. I was like, really? Okay. I don't know. Some say. Got that line from Tyrion.

He was doing some good Tyrion, Varys, kind of giving a lot of a, you know, the worst person you know is right vibes. And you have the Tyrion line of never forget what you are. For surely the world will not. Make it your strength that it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it and it will never be used to hurt you. So he tries that with agan agan is like please give me my morphine and leave and of course this is great setup for him getting agan out of king's landing true i mean i i i want to echo what you were saying about matthew needham like i think

that he's doing a great job of delivering all these lines and, like, it's earnest counsel for everyone, right? Like, whatever he's doing. And I love that we are getting Booktarian in this show. Like, this is Booktarian, right? This is Booktarian trying to give counsel, not fucking being, like, acknowledged by anyone, but also in terms of how the father reacted when they were born which is fascinating because we don't see their interactions but i mean he he gives pretty good advice same as how like his dad did right and also book tyrian i think we're going to see become more of like a character similar to iago to othello whispering in denys's ear and I think that's kind of what

we're getting here with the way that Laerys is is interacting with Aegon so I love that god really wish we had those two episodes because I just feel like they could have really built this up and had it been so powerful yeah um also what you're saying of Aegon's like bro just let me take my morphine you know Laerys telling Aegon that all you have left is his of Agen's like, bro, just let me take my morphine. You know, Larry's telling Agen that all you have left is his mind. And Agen's like, I don't want to fucking be smart. Right? So he goes, no, no.

When he's like, they're going to underestimate you. He's like, I don't care about being underestimated as like my advantage. I'm fine being dumb. I'm fine. He's like, I'm barely alive, bitch. I'm fine being dumb. Just let me take my milk of the poppy.

Holy shit. And I will say even this lecture that Larry's is giving Agen also sounds a lot like what people were telling Bran, right? Like, you will never be whole and you will never run again. I'm like, bro, chill. Damn. Yeah, cutting him off before he even starts again. Yeah, but I mean, you will never run again, but you will fly. Except Agen, you're not.

Actually, wait, he literally will. He will fly again. Interesting. I love that these conversations all happen for Agen a little after the Agen and Aemon stuff, right? Because quite plainly, he knows what happened. He might be a little groggy, but I'm pretty sure he knows his brother tried to kill him and the best defense is to say you do not at this point and hope you stay alive a little longer until larry's helps poison you uh i i don't know this is some great deep betrayal between him and amand and these scenes are very uh talk about a power dynamic upside down right like amand has never

had this power dynamic over his brother that's true um this kind of reminds me of a conversation that we had during our patreon brunch of the way siblings interact and blame things or not blame things on one another but you know how george likes to take you know mundane things turn it up to 11 amand being like what what do you remember? Are you going to tell mom and dad? Dad's dead. But are you going to tell anyone? Nothing. Nothing. I'm going to take the fall, literally. Fuck, dude. Is this what siblings is like?

Isn't Orweil coming in? That was so sad. I'm not doing anything. I'm not touching him. I do not envy Grand Maester Orweil. He's like, what the fuck is going on here? Do I heal him? Do I not heal him? I have to do my job but also like the regent fucking scares me and also i both of them their injuries are on the same side of the the face slash body for them now yes they really lingered on that eye right that now they have the eye issue for both of them and yeah it's uh as allison asked like will it be enough is this not enough the indignities you suffered as a child to now do it to everyone you meet and

more but it's not apparently not and i i think that's a really great way of uh setting up that character for amand right he's got a chip on his shoulder since andre did direct a couple episodes of succession i have to say it reminds me a little bit of kendall purposefully busting roman stitches in season four of succession yeah you know and as we kind of uh go through my favorite characters team green because they're so toxic right i love that shit uh i want to quote charlie xcx from her hit song from brat apple right verse three i think the apple's rotten right to the core from all the things passed down from all the apples coming before yo apples rotten right to the core guys that's fucking right to the core it is

this poor family we'll talk about the other ways their family's fucked up in a sec too something coming back to that like discussion of ascetic rulers and figureheads amand gives agan his ball not that ball right his king ball not that not that king ball um those are in his purse but amon gives agan his speaky king ball from the table and like uses it to hurt him while he does right as kind of a threat and making that ball and the point that you are powerless you have no power here i am basically the king in all but position now uh and from here on you can still be a ruler is what he's saying when he puts it in his hand you really aren't because i have the raiments you can have the burden of the trappings of power the scars of power but i will rule and yeah yeah

rough it is interesting because i think he has does he have more incentive to keep aegon alive if maeler had been alive or something i don't know because he could have been maeler's regent but it's kind of like there's more incentive if it's aegon yeah i like what you're saying here about the power dynamic because amand not only does he have true power in this way, he has kind of like the most power, I think, of many of the characters in this story, not just as regent. The one thing, he doesn't have his title of king, but people are listening to him based on his position.

He's got a dick. We've seen it. And also the biggest dragon, right? Like he is in demand. People will not move because they are afraid of Vhagar, whether it's like moving to take Harrenhal or moving to not take Harrenhal and defend it. They will not do it because they are all afraid of what Vhagar will do. He's got ultimate power. And he is meeting that resistance, right? Of people not wanting to move without Vhagar on his own side. We'll see how that goes in the

next couple episodes. I'm definitely interested in this Harrenhal campaign that totally won't backfire on him and isn't a trap. Speaking of the trappings of power, no. Let's talk about Alicent and her brother and her kids and holy shit getting fired by amand that was a bummer for her though i can't believe she was still there honestly like even during agan like i thought agan would have fired her ass after a while but i guess his burninating came first so fired by amand very cold because it's the baby boy she really hoped she could do the most for. And yeah, he just did not turn out very normal. He didn't.

And like, that's another way, like he has absolute power of what? Even over his mom, right? Like, he's like, I don't gotta listen to you, mom. And I'm surprised she was allowed back in before. Yeah, I'm like, Agen was about to fire her ass, but then he got a little busy dying. Yeah, I don't know. Interesting that he doesn't feel that she belongs there in that room with the powerful men and feels she did good, but that she shouldn't be in that position. I find that fascinating. And I'm curious to see, as he's now away from Madame Sylvie, which we'll talk about, like, how does that manifest when he meets Alice Rivers and how he treats her? Oh, interesting.

How will she speak to his darkest desires, especially when, you know, we talked about Damon and fucking his mother last week and his vision and Freud and how, like, taking that position of fraternal power right like where your father once stood and now you feel you have to be that figurehead in the family in some ways but in the most toxic way ever I feel like that's happening for Eamon as well yeah that's a good point it makes me think like is it a more toxic version of Robb Stark telling Catelyn like I can't have you chastising me in front of or like going against me in this way in front of people and like Catelyn like i can't have you chastising me in front of or like going against me in this way in front of people and like catelyn also knew that so she would withhold until like they were in private to discuss things but yeah you see her practicing like a lot of restraint saying i cannot say that in front of his council but rob was also like way more with it than amen

except for that one time where he got married. I don't know. His wolf, too, was a little wild once in a while, you know, just like Vhagar, out there just doing stuff. Inside of you, there are two wolves. Betraying his true emotions. The Aegon scene was another perfect kind of moment for Alicent. It's like she spent

her day walking the castle looking for love and all these places that she couldn't get it it's very sad and then by asking gwayne about darren right after that might be my favorite scene of the episode and i think it's a really understated scene but it's a very good example bravo of how they can write darren into the plot believably not only were they giving a character introduction and talking about his personality which in the trailer it looks like they're going to talk about tessarian taking wing so exciting we're really again another soft launch of darren we're really

soft launching darren when he shows up next season yeah y'all might remember him but i think they did a really good job of it by making this a character beat for alicent and gwayne right yeah for alicent it's so relevant to what she's feeling that she's the problem that all of her children have turned out fucking weirdos because she's a bad mom and who's to actually say that she did do the best she could as a teenage child bride and mother who popped out children repeatedly and her father was emotionally abusive as well as in some aspects kind of physically abusive in controlling her body right and her agency and what she did with it um and who's to say it's just that as those circumstances because that throne is poison. Like the Targaryens and their dynasty is also poison in some aspects.

I wish I could just like meta analyze stuff with you all the time and say, wow, that's so this be the verse by Philip Larkin coded and like everyone understand what I mean. But this be the verse, right? Like they fuck you up your mom and dad yeah they do not mean to yeah yeah absolutely like I do like that Gwaine gives her an out and it's like I mean it might just be this place which is not untrue if you're raised with absolute power I mean we see what like a little like the modicum of power that is given to people under patriarchy and how that warps their sense of entitlement right like now multiply that by a bazillion was it was how much of it was within her hands and how much wasn't you know she probably could have done better but anyways um but also like as you were saying, her father wasn't great to her. It's all cyclical.

And Gwaine alludes to how he himself is also trapped by the system as the eldest son. And Allison acknowledging, like, dang, yeah, that's right. You were forced to grow up at eight years old without parents. And he was like, yeah, we just have to get on with it, right? That's just what we do. And he grew up maybe even just as alone in regards to their family, just as isolated. And, yeah. So sad when he says, well, you were dad's favorite.

Yeah. And, like, wow, dang. Imagine, like, that's how he treats his favorite child. Like, pretty fucked. Logan Roy shit. Oh, true. Underline or crossed out. True, true true true and

god you think about amand and his urine vibes you know that's true being chosen means cyclical abuse yeah yeah the crown is a death sentence also uh side note in regards to the way that they were talking about darren love that he was described so much like rhaegar as well oh yes yes yeah like yeah he's fucking perfect also he loves the loot and the sword i kind of wondered if helena's cricket thing about the cricket like stopping singing was a reference to that to darren like putting down his loot and picking up his sword oh that's interesting. I don't know. Oh, yeah, I guess it's because they're the three sons, it could be.

I wasn't sure, like, I was like, is it even about within this storyline, right? I was like, could it be about Daenerys or, like, I don't know. Sometimes the crickets, it probably does fucking mean something because it's Helena, but, like, having done science projects with, like, crickets and shit like they just they just fucking die sometimes well and that's the other thing I'm like is it just about her crickets because it could be it could be that's true something that might just be about the crickets briefly I do want to admire the metal working on the horse's armor um it differs from the other soldiers horse's armor and like i think it feels as though some of the pattern that's on it like within the actual like imprinting of the metal looks a little like what's used for the green dragon and some of

the advertising so i just thought that was neat yeah i loved gwen's armor too yeah the the the richness of the green doublet and the scale mail and all of the inlay on his armor really beautifully done really enjoying the costume and set design too i love that specific shade of green me too so that deep rich it wasn't focused on long and i won't focus on it with that in mind but i was kind of sad for Kristen and Allison because I don't think they'll see each other again and whether or not it's a toxic relationship like they still you know a goodbye might be something

but no goodbye is exchanged sometimes you just never see the person you know that you fuck ever again it'd be like that and they die yeah it does be like that they die that it does that has happened a few times for me now and it's not a pattern so don't investigate it mother okay jesus christ um let's go back to the

small council man otto's about to come back and get his head chopped off. I'm like, he's gonna walk into King's Landing and I'm gonna be like, you should walk right back out, granddad. What a clusterfuck. Not just that, but then Thailand, dude. This is the beginning of the injustices against Thailand. He's gonna go mud wrestle in Tyrosh, it looks like, possibly, or Penthouse. And get his ass thrashed. I'm like, poor Thailand.

You can see him in the previews in the mud there. Yeah. I love that Aemond doesn't fuck with Larry's and does not speak that language, does not fucking play with it. He says, no, we don't play that motherfucking game anymore. I don't do your fancy little fucking words and your dance. Get out of here. Go call my dad or granddad. Yeah, I guess I wonder, will he even listen to Otto? Right? Is he just like the kind of person who only wants yes men? Because he used to listen to Kristen. And

now he doesn't listen to Kristen, right? Now that Kristen says things that he doesn't want to hear, is Otto going to tell him something he doesn't want to hear? He's gonna be like, actually, I don't fucking like that either. He doesn't like what larry's like he's gonna just push every single person away i think that otto he'll be happy to let otto manage day-to-day okay king's landing affairs because all he wants to do is war otto true he wants to maybe a he wants to have power over him i think too in some aspects interesting think of it that way interesting um put him in his place a little bit but also b he wants him to deal with like for example the riots and what's going on with the riots he wants him to take care of that he is good at pr deal with that stuff auto

is good at that apparently so yeah he's like chris jenner come back to King's Landing also during the scene where I guess Eamon's dressing down Larry's little I just love Jasper Wilde's side eyes what a weirdo oh my god I noticed that on rewatch and he was just like Iron Rod's like yeah he's like it's my time but also

such a dramatic bitch I'll miss him when he's dead i'll miss all of these people when they're dead dude like this council goes real fast real fast thailand suffers so much you know who's really suffering in westeros the small folks that's the title of this episode eliana hugh and mrs hugh are hungry we didn't see their gray-faced child so jury's out if she's still alive they probably would have had a bowl of brown utilizing her if she was just kidding that's cruel um i love the brothel where madame sylvie slash sylvena and diana are you um resigned to agreeing with me on madame sylvanna now yeah yeah i think she is sylvie yeah yeah it's gonna be sylvie and diana unfortunately i don't think we

get essie and uh sylvie but that's okay that's okay but so funny that these three characters just all happen to be in the brothel at the same time i thought that was very funny madame sylvie very much was stirring shit like i think that she pays a good amount of attention to her patrons and learns things about them and knew that she could stir some shit with ulf yeah because he's a he's the kind of person who knows everything and knows everyone right like so it was good to target him also very interesting that we see that sylvie has no loyalty to amand i interesting because he was like a protector of the realm right but not of his favorite sex worker he fed her to his brother in the agoons like easily he said i don't care about her do what you want with her

and left obviously because he was protecting his image against his brother his ego and also probably having a little trauma and his brother just storming in on his most intimate vulnerable place but yeah it does feel like a betrayal maybe to her you brought up shay earlier right when we talk about sex work and a song of ice and fire and amand was there every single night getting vulnerable with her and him leaving her to her own defenseless does probably feel like a betrayal. And it's interesting to think about in these arcs with characters like Mazaria, what could bring about betrayal there. Yeah, and as you pointed out, he was vulnerable with her every night,

but she was never vulnerable with him. It's not like he gave her the space for that. He's like, no, no not now right he it was they weren't equals and she knew that and he's created this competition too right like you think about the competition of who gets food and who gets money etc when he comes in like true yet they aren't funding them fully or etc like there's just some interesting I want a bigger understanding of the economy here but I can tell you that I'm sure Amon isn't really tipping well after taking business away and not feeding and etc yeah agreed I mean we're

getting a better sense of the economy I think here than we did in Game of Thrones but also there's a lot of smart people in these uh writers and directors rooms but they're that's there's a reason that's their job and not being economists what you don't mean Aragorn's tax policy Alia I'm just there's a reason George is a fantasy writer and not making tax policy because I read Fire and Blood and I was like well let's talk about the ramifications in the in the economy right like this this riot yeah I actually Fire and Blood and I was like, well, let's talk about the ramifications in the economy, right? Like this riot. Yeah, I actually was kind of, and it's not the scene's fault. I think, again, I'm just starting the burnout slope. And I was kind of almost underwhelmed, though, in totality of the riot, because I felt everything else in this episode was so strong. Okay, like,

interesting. Everything. So I still liked it. But I was kind of sitting there like, what? Okay, we're rioting now. Cool. Makes sense. They have built it up. Like, this is no fault of them. I just think that every other scene in this episode maybe overshadowed it for me. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think it was still good. I liked it. That's interesting that you felt that way. I didn't really consider if I how it hit for me, it hit fine. And prior to the ride, i actually really admired the way that they used color in the composition of the scene where the food is sent right like you have these muted colors of the beach at dusk the cloth that's on the boats and then you have this like he opens the sack and like

it's just this vibrant saturated colors on like the fruits and vegetables like those are some of the best looking fruits and vegetables i have ever seen all right like especially contrasted with the food that they've been showing that's been spoiled but like even in my own real life like it makes the food feel magical i really did love the ships though now you bring that up like i loved the first and then i loved like the many as they came. Yeah. Though, I'm not going to go into this, but it's very nice of them to feed King's Landing when they've been starving it. No, I think we should, I mean, I was ready for a step, we can go into it a bit, I wanted to. I just forgot to put the note, that's why it's down here now at the bottom. But, no, I think, like, it's a great, it's great that they, like, reminded us in the small council that they're like, wait, Rhaenyra's the reason they're fucking starving, to an extent.

But this is that PR effort, right? Like, this is, uh, you're being fucking played. It's advantageous in something that Misaria, like, that's the thing, is Misaria's the one that convinced her, hey, what if, as a big big joke you sent food to king's landing to really like a total prank like that's the thing like this is not something she came up with on her own they just figured blockade they have to give up eventually when it does affect king's landing so this is the kind of manipulation we have nazaria doing to begin which is good this is great and i want them fed. I just am like, wait a second. Are we not going to talk about the elephant-sized dragon in the room of like, who's starving

them? Well, it's also, it's not even just that. It's actually like, there's that layer of not only is it, it is good that they are feeding them, but they are not only doing that, right? Because Nazaria is planting those seeds with Madame Sylvie and stoking the fires of a riot. And you know who suffers in a riot? I mean, sometimes, yeah, to an extent, the nobles. But a lot of the time, as we see in this riot, the small folk are the ones who are very much hurt by the riot.

Yeah, I love that bit where Alicent calls them to call down their swords. You know, like, no, call down your swords. But it doesn't, like, I mean, they'll get torn apart and they are one man against 30 unarmed people. Also, there was a lot, I think, being set up for the dragon pit later. Absolutely. Seeing how the Kingsguard themselves were being ripped apart by these masses of people and how Alyssa and Helena barely escaped off of the very spiky wall that Helena was pushed up against. And I wasn't very happy to see these things near my daughter, my favorite. But yeah, to see them barely escape with their lives. And the man that had his arm chopped off, there's a double reference

in there, right? The shepherd. Probably. Who's going to begin preaching yeah i'm pretty sure they made the shepherd today and not just that but there was a little nod to sanza and sandor in the king's landing riot right when sandor cut off a man's arm that tried to pull sanza from the saddle and how she has that shock and she's like he cut off his arm and she realizes it after the fact yeah interesting very interesting yeah big and like i'm actually liking it even more just talking about it so that's good good news i think i just need like you said earlier you guys it's a day after you know i need things to bloom this was this episode had some thinker moments i had some big moments i had some greater moments. It had some big moments. It had some great contextual moments. Stuff that I thought about.

I thought about writing it down and didn't even. There's a lot going on up here. But I don't know. Worst of all, one of the eight goons is down. Eastermont was struck. So he might be dead. We might get another Kingsguard guy there. Oh, interesting.

Good point. Yeah, i think you were talking about allison telling them to lay down their swords and i don't even think like on one hand it's a little like jesus being like peter put your fucking sword away stop chopping off that guy's ear but it's not even just like a peaceful thing it's like you cut off one person's arm you start yeah you start tearing down people they will feel they have nothing to lose and they will escalate as well so like for their own sake um loved alicent using her own body to shield helena's and try to protect her daughter um they the only thing she has left pretty much they they're throwing fish but not

actual fish they threw some like cellulose or whatever they said mixture but they made it a point that it was the fish because the people are fucking tired of eating fish they want vegetables they want they want the sheep right there's too much sheep stuff in this episode for that to not be the shepherd right the burnt sheep the sheep in the carts it's it's the shepherd and like so there's a reference to that i also wonder if this the fact that they're using the fish and throwing it is is it also referenced to fish feed later on, which is the battle of fucking the battle. They are setting it up. Yeah, the battle by the lake shore, which is especially because at the beginning of this episode is the introduction of Lord Humphrey Lefford as well. So I'm like, is it?

It is. Justice for Beesbury beesbury fish feed shit so yeah especially because we got the lannisters at the front exactly we're beginning to develop with the lannisters at the front and red lake is supposed to happen soon in canon before the fall of king's landing and right after kind of the fall probably beginning or mid next season should be fish feed and it is one of the most terrible battles. We spoke about the sheep for a second, but I will say I like that they are carting the like, the dragons will eat what they want, instead of showing that this is a legitimate dilemma that George is interested in exploring, that the story should be interested in exploring

in terms of balancing ruling and balancing the resources that you put into taking care of the people that you rule, as well as your weapons, right? I'm speaking of the dragons as a weapon here. Yeah, I mean, you think of a grown sheep, so like an adult female sheep. I do, all the time. I love sheep. Is anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds. Really?

So think of how much 100 to 200 pounds could feed people. Yeah. And to like contextualize that the Targaryens and their choice to have these giant fiery winged animals. I mean, to be fair, someone has to because otherwise they just, you know, are chilling in Westeros eating your sheep, I guess, on their own. Like at least the Targaryens are like, we're taking your sheep now. That's nice. It's a courtesy. It's a courtesy when you think about it but yeah that's a lot of meat and contextualizing the Targaryens as gods contextualizing them as above other people both physically literally up in the

air but also in status and of just being different than the people especially in an episode called small folk that we just watched. I think that adds so much needed color to watching a show about the Targaryens and something that we didn't have in Game of Thrones. It adds stakes that seem really low but are actually not low, right? Like these are stakes that are building to be medium, then high stakes. Like people are dying at the beginning of the season. We start to see it. We see the molding vegetables. We see that it's incoming, it's

imminent. And here we are. Yeah. I mean, you were talking about sacrifice, right? The sheep are being, sheep are typically, or lambs usually typically, are stand in to mean a sacrifice in a lot of stories as a symbol of sacrifice but also the people the people themselves are being sacrificed through their hunger through their bodies etc yeah yeah well now i'm absolutely thoroughly hungry yeah i was gonna be like are you hungry you just talked about steaks too but you weren't talking about that kind of steak. And I was like, dang, steaks. Steaks. You understand me. You read me like a poem, Ariana. You read me like a poem.

We can grill steaks when you're here. Can't wait. I can't wait. We're gonna eat sheep. We're gonna roast them with our own fire. No, I'm just kidding. We can do not, I don't know, I hear mutton's not great. I haven't had that much mutton in my life. We can do anyways.

Maybe lamb. We'll come back to it thank you so much for listening to our sixth episode of season two house of the dragon had a blast chatting tonight with eliana to you all we will be back next week for episode seven the pen ultimate episode you can catch these episodes on an RSS feed near you I suggest patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon you can join for free as well there's a free membership you can get a couple sneak previews

and maybe some early episodes during hot D season yeah and you can also get bonus episodes and other perks if you decide to you know if you decide to give a little more than just free right if you want to join any of you decide to give a little more than just free right if you want to join any of the tiers they're they're fun they're horse themed always horse related always except for this episode which is cheap i have been one of your hosts chloe i have been

another one of your hosts eliana oh you thought i was gonna it. I saw it on your face. I thought you were going to say it. I thought I was subverting expectations. Stop trying to make fab happen. That is not going to happen. I mean, I feel like if it was going to happen, it would have already happened. But if you think about it, Aswath, that pronunciation, it took like what? Multiple years, like 20 years after the series came out for it to start being called that. Well, we've got what decade in four four years till it's been a decade since fire and blood so try to make it happen goodbye