Girls Gone Canon Cast - House of the Dragon: Unleash the D E5 ft. PoorQuentyn of NotACast ASOIAF

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

Associate, Colleague, Catdad Emmett joins us (it's been quite a bit!) to break down the HOUSE OF THE DRAGON  TRAILER - because  it's OUT baby, it's unleashed, the d has been UNLEASHED - just a bit ahead of the House of the Dragon panel @ SDCC SPOILERS: all the books, the show, a couple small production photo notes, spoilers spoilers spoilers Watch the trailer along with us at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DotnJ7tTA34 Follow Emmett and Manu at: https://notacastasoiaf.podbean.com/ https://poorquentyn.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/PoorQuentyn https://www.patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF/ https://twitter.com/ManuclearBomb https://www.patreon.com/ManuclearBomb  

Hello and welcome back to Girls Gone Canon, or should I say Girl Gone Canon while Eliana is out. I am one of your hosts, Chloe, here today with Unleashing the D. Oh, the D is very unleashed right now, but Unleashing the D, episode five, the hot D official trailer breakdown featuring my coworker and associate, Poor Quinton from the Nauticast podcast. Oh, am I not, Eliana? I was pretty sure that I am. No, I'm pretty sure I'm Eliana. I'm pretty sure you got a banner in the mail that said you are now a girl gone canon. And I'm very proud. Very proud. I'm pretty sure I'm Ileana. I'm pretty sure you got a banner in the mail that said you are now a girl gone canon. And I'm very proud.

Very proud. I'm excited to have Emmett here today. Some of you may know him from the Aeswaf podcast, where I call him the man I live with. Others of you may know him from the wonderful podcast, not a cast, A-S-O-I-A-F podcast, the one true chapter by chapter podcast, and of course his great writings over at Tumblr or on his WordPress, porkminton.com. It's been a long time since we actually got to work on something together. It's been a few years, but what better occasion for it than House of the Dragon?

I'm starting to get the horrible sinking feeling in my stomach that this show might actually be good. Oh my god, I know. It's terrifying it's like falling in love for the first time which is you know last time we recorded an episode it was so bad that i had to marry you that's how you know folks what are we gonna make fun of if the show turns out to be good that's just the worst case scenario ever the trailer really today so the trailer just came out if you're living under a rock if you

aren't wildly checking your twitter notifications like everyone else uh the trailer came out today the real deal not just a teaser and it looks i mean it looks pretty solid the effects look good especially because we know they're not finalized really yet you know you're close but you're not final final you're like running you're running the clock right now it's getting over the bar i always had for this show which is that it it has to not look cheap as long as it doesn't look cheap i'm gonna be on board which it really yeah even even in this non-finalized form it looks legitimate you know i've seen a lot of people kind of comparing it to the other things happening like the rings of power right coming out people comparing it kind of to some of the stuff coming out from there which is apples to oranges in my opinion um i mean i like both apples and oranges i just eat them

differently not together usually but i'm i'm seeing also a lot of people talking about what was it rome yes is that the people are comparing it to rome or comparing like some of the the scope right of of the battles and the war and the history and the lore to like watching the sex the sex which there's going to be less of question mark i'm hearing fewer sex which fine but when i think of the targaryens you know not exactly chased that family yeah well to be fair in that first teaser we what we got the blood dripping down the face of a Valerian wedding in that one teaser shot of Damon and Rhaenyra. So I'm sure it'll be...

I'm there. It'll be dark and sexy when we get it, hopefully. And it's HBO. What else is the point? It's not TV. It's HBO. Exactly. It's HBO.

Well, we did get that beautiful trailer today what were your highlights what were what were your fave bits I think uh seeing Matt Smith just put on that armor and reminisce about all the designer drugs he's taken that has led him to this point definitely a highlight for me I think anytime Eve Best speaks is always wonderful I love her and Nurse Jackie and getting to watch her be a character director again is a thrill. And I love the look of the sets. I love the fact that people are now on

Dragonstone. Can you even imagine that? Both with Stannis and Daenerys on Game of Thrones, Dragonstone was always a place where it was just a room for one person to be sat in. So having a bunch of people there. And I'm just very curious how they're going to manage the group dynamics among so many characters because it's there's there's just dozens of

important people here but so far so good yeah i think there are a couple big pros from the trailer especially that kind of reiterated how they have to keep all these characters somehow together we'll go into it kind of shot by shot, a shot for a shot, an eye for an eye today at some point. Don't tell Amon that. He'll learn. He'll learn the hard way. Spoiler, he does not learn. He does not learn. God.

And I mean, they didn't hold back. You know, you can see he's got that eye patch on and good in the trailer. You see there's a before and an after, which for people that might not already know, they're like, why does he have an eye patch on and good in the trailer you see there's a before and an after which for people that might not already know they're like why does he have an eye patch now this young lad this strapping sweet kind good never would hurt a fly and so chloe stands amand we always knew we were getting here eventually folks no i don't know i yeah what'd you like? Okay, I love, you know, I love the costuming. You've heard this of me. Loving the costuming.

Allison's costumes and Rhaenyra's costumes are extravagant. With all the interviews that have been coming out this week and last week, like the Hollywood Reporter interview or the EW exclusive, we've kind of gotten to see some of the insight that these actors really have on the characters too and what they're taking from it. and they really seem to love the story so seeing some of the dialogue coming to life and seeing because i mean there's not a lot of dialogue right for us to use with them since originally you have princess and the queen rogue prince and fire and blood which isn't told really that first person or that point of view i should say isn't shown from the point of view character uh so dialogue is kind of like whatever mushroom said right or whatever septon you know

says or whatever gil dane says happened you imagine it in voiceover more than dialogue when you're reading these stories as they've been told to us so far a chronicle a history exactly hearing them actually like say things to one another and the chemistry between the actors and knowing what they think of their characters uh it's kind of cool right like i think we actually have more from them already all of these actors on their characters in just these couple interviews than we got you know in one season for game of thrones i feel like agreed i'm very curious they seem to be taking things in a more queer direction matt smith has talked about unearthing a more kind of sensitive, even androgynous side to Damon that's not necessarily present in the text at all. But I think that's very interesting. And same with Rhaenyra. I'm very curious how they handle that. And I'm especially curious about the dynamic between Rhaenyra and Alicent. And I think that could end up being a more kind of mournful,

sorrowful, what could have been dynamic than we necessarily get from the text. They look sad as fuck and mad and angsty. They're like, there's definitely some underlying tension, right? HBO was really going to get the girls this time with the sexy, sexy girlfriends turned to enemies thing going on here because they aged

Alicent and raniera to be even aged which is kind of different than the story which is fine i don't really give a shit i don't care about the ages i think it makes sense though in terms of having them see each other as opponents i think that kind of works what do you think about the fact that they're going to be aging people up throughout the first season that we're going to be seeing these these time jumps that strikes me as something that could work very well or not well at all i think i mean the trailer itself did a great job of showing that in some aspects in some others like the amand aspect no i think that one i almost didn't catch you and i were talking offline before this and i was like but why is reneara by vagar

and i'm like oh shit that's amand that is not raniera that is amand as a kid and then there's amand with the eye patch so like i almost missed the amand reveal which was heavily focused in this trailer uh but raniera young raniera and older raniera millie alcock is young raniera and emma de arce they look perfect like they look that looks really good alicent looks pretty good uh you know no actor's gonna look exact but they did a great job on them i i find it really interesting it's kind of a brave thing to do too to kind of take this on but flushing it out showing the steps the stepstones instead of just saying oh yeah damon was there uh showing that and showing Corley's getting to like kind of expand his character with Damon and it seems Lehner's gonna be there so with Lehner as well

uh that's a smart adaptation agreed giving Lehner something to do would be actually valuable because you want to have his uh his loss in the story carry some weight and also agreed about giving some time to the step stones because in the text as it exists that's very much you know get damon off page for a little while give him a place to work out his his emotions and that tends to be something that happens frequently with that archetype for george you see that with oberon you see that with euron these very ambitious second sons they don't have the opportunity to rule some cases they don't even necessarily want to rule as with Oberyn. And so they go into self-imposed exile and they explore and they take in different influences from all over the world. And then they kind of bring those crashing

back into Westeros. So that's going to be interesting to see a version of that with Daemon. Yeah. Hell, Jaime Lannister and the Riverlands, right? Like you wouldn't have given a shit about Jaime Lannister without his POV throughout the book. When you finally get that POV, you might still think he's kind of a cocky, awesome, whatever. But like when you get his POV, that's when his character really develops. And so Damon seeing the stepstones for him and getting kind of that picture of what it was like growing up as Viserys's brother, and even getting, you know, what I know will come with the Nettles stuff. I think seeing that and seeing the actual, the POV play out, you know, seeing what a character is thinking by how they set up the scene and actually showing the emotion is going to be really interesting and much more, I don't know, maybe a little more enriching and fulfilling than just, here's the history. And then this happened and Sheepstealerer and nettles flew off into the night and i think that has its place especially within the context of thinking about how people in robert's era would be looking back on these people and how they influenced the the main branch of the

story and uh the difficulty of finding any truth to the situation and i think that that kind of twisty a self-aware fourth wall breaking approach approach is very interesting on George's part because it is such a contrast to the POV structure of the main series where everyone is the hero of their own story and you're kind of trapped within their head and the information they provide. And as you say, it's very different getting inside Jamie's thoughts. So now getting that kind of approach to these characters, I think it could potentially pay dividends. Yeah, I wasn't excited about what the kristen cole stuff and the alice and renear stuff i didn't really care and now even from just this trailer i'm like oh okay this could be really interesting how they're gonna finally show us and play it so maybe sometimes answers are sexy we just don't know so let's take a look what do we got here in

this trailer of ours chloe yeah let's dig into the house of the dragon trailer that dropped today ahead of sandy you comic-con they got us i didn't think it was dropping so we open up and we immediately have two beautiful noodley dragons one with a very long neck which tells me it's probably caraxis and then we get a shot not um not dissimilar from like season eight at winterfell with the dragons going upwards right climbing upwards into the sky and the men all kind of bowing beneath them great shots to open with majestic shots i love their long worm necks you know dragons have the association with worms historically w y r m s and i like even dragons and stories that don't necessarily fly, but tunnel

beneath the earth and that long, stretchy, snake-like atmosphere to them. That's something I always enjoy about the creature design. And it's just wild to be dropped into a world where people are used to dragons, and yet still there is something frightening and otherworldly about them. You know, you never quite get accustomed to them unless you're one of the people who ride them. And that tension, you know, this is the last time the Targaryens are going to be normal, are going to be unchallenged, and you're just going to be fine with a set of dragons around.

After this, there's always a bit of tension because everyone will remember when they destroyed the continent. Ugh, yeah. I mean, why do you think all the dragons are gone? It couldn't have been the Dance of the Dragons where dragon fought, dragon fought, dragon fought, dragon. No, it's Aegon III's fault. I'll cut to Marwyn the Mage's YouTube channel with his like 64 part conspiracy of the dragons.

I would love Marwyn the Mage's social media. I would follow every account, but he would probably only have a YouTube account and maybe a Twitter and maybe like a truth account or whatever that bullshit is. He would get a blue check and like lose it within three weeks and then have a series of videos ranting about how he lost his blue check. He would end up on truth social or whatever Trump's thing is. Yeah, exactly. The truth. That's what I thought it was. Okay, good. Yeah, exactly. On accident. Really? Oh, poor Marwen, you sucker. That's the dragons themselves right so even you know throwing back to the ring lord right lord of the ring uh i know him that lord has though those dragons are very different but still have some similar fantasy elements that george is playing with and uh these dragons you

know there was this great part of the ho the Hollywood Reporter interview that came out today saying that all these dragons are different. There's going to be a bearded dragon. Maybe Vermithor is my thought, I hope. There's even going to be like a bearded dragon. There's going to be so many different types. So it gives such a great opportunity to break that barrier of fantasy dragons on screen and what we know. Like there's actually an opportunity here to really expand dragons for the general public and uh yeah i love the concept of the bearded dragon have there maybe someone could

tug on their beard a little bit give dragon groomers you know just like shaving and getting all the lice out and get a shampoo in it's a whole thing it's capitalism exactly well that's one of the things that ryan condell the showrunner said in the one of the recent hollywood reporter articles i thought was very interesting which is that in this era, there's a whole infrastructure that goes with dragons. And I very much like how dragons are handled in A Song of Ice and Fire where they're extinct and then they come back with Dany and it's a miracle and she doesn't know how to handle it and people aren't sure if they believe it necessarily. That's wonderfully done. But it's also very interesting from a world building aspect to think about what goes along with dragons what are the what are the structures and institutions that gather around these creatures who takes care of them who makes things for them and what what is

it like when they are just part of the status quo and you just have to walk around with them there's a there's a bit i remember in watchmen when one of the characters is talking about meeting dr manhattan and he says at first your brain just like screams and wants to shut down and can't accept that he's right there and then eventually he's still just there talking to you and you just have to kind of accept it and that's the kind of this era for dragons that's so awesome like it is just magic it's so exciting to see so much of it on a screen near us and there's even like you said there's a whole economy kind of built around it right like this is a prosperous time in king's landing when the dragons were there

as fierce and scary as they were it also was a time of great prosperity for the people uh you have people making dragon saddles because guess what folks there are saddles in this trailer you can see saddles on the dragons and people sitting in the saddles that are on the dragons. There is harnesses up in the dragon's pit in King's Landing. There are like harnesses that they have with the Targaryen sigil on them. You'll see it in Caraxes in this trailer if you have not watched it yet. A whole infrastructure built around dragons. How you navigate with dragons right like jaharis probably

thought when there were roads being built and places being built he had to think you know it's my city's skylines coming out and playing a lot of city skylines lately everyone but jaharis couldn't just play city skylines he had to add dragons to that he had to be like all right so these towers you know you can't build your land like this, my lords and sirs, you got to build it like this for these roads to happen from now on, because that was the world they lived in. And that's where the nuclear weapon comparison that George himself and other people have made before comes to the fore, because the contradiction of nuclear weapons during the mutual assured destruction era was this idea that they could

enforce peace, but if you ever use them that peace is immediately destroyed so that it's this odd mix of power and passivity where dragons are this this symbol of power until you use them and then when you use them people are still afraid of them but you've kind of you kind of played your hand and that's kind of what happens with the dance is people see dragons in action they see dragons turning on each other and even as so much destruction is wrought some something of the mysticism is lost because you recognize them as just instruments of war and not religious divine symbols and that's going to of course climaxes with the dragon pit when people kind of realize en masse hey we can kill them i mean they're going to kill a lot of us first that's gonna be like really violent oh god and

it's terrible and it's it's as frightening as dragons are and otherworldly as they are they are just animals and that we say that with danny when she treats them like her pets and they don't know like do dragons even know that they're in charge of things or they just like wake up one day like i hope i get fed i wonder if my master will come talk to me they don't know about the seven kingdoms in the Iron Throne. They're just animals. And that contrast is something so powerful. They just want a boop snoot and a couple sheep, dude.

Right, exactly. Give them the sheep. But they can also destroy cities. And the age of wonder and terror, to borrow from A Song of Ice and Fire, dragons symbolize that so well. Drogon, so so stressed out approaching a town please i just want a sheep and if you don't have any i'll take a child one or two or 12 or all of them 37 will do it's like it's like jurassic park like how the the dinosaurs aren't like going mwahaha let's go get people they're just animals living out their nature living out the

the way they eat. And it's how we handle them that makes them dangerous. And that's the same thing here with the Targaryens and their dragons. And, you know, we have that very famous line by a very famous man in A Song of Ice and Fire that, you know, every time a Targaryen's born, the gods flip a coin. And there's something interesting about that quote that I don't think that it's more about the 50-50 aspect right like I don't think it's about the 50-50 aspect it's about that the coin is flipping in the air and coming down and coming down until the choice is made right and it seems that the choice of using your dragon as a weapon of war of mass destruction against the people it is a problem I've just been told this sometimes by

some people other people think it's fine but some people have told me this is a bad thing that like using a weapon like that against a lot of people it's probably not great probably not great for a rule a reign of you know generations of people to to live off that, that fear, that falling. Well, I mean, it's, I think they're, like I said, they're valuable unless you use them. They're really useful for instilling fear. And you can use that fear to create a large polity and get people to do what you want. It's a, you know, carrot and stick situation. And there's, you can do some real politic with that. We see that with the more successful Targaryen politicians. You can do some real politic with that.

We see that with the more successful Targaryen politicians. But it's, yeah, once you unleash them, you inherently create resistance to you. And that's a very difficult balance. And, you know, the Westerosi nobles would all use them if they could. There's that line I love in A Song of Ice and Fire when Stannis is considering sacrificing his nephew to create a dragon. And he's looking at the map of Westeros and he says to himself, dragon wings over Westeros, there would be such a... And that's when Davos interrupts him. And that's perfect because you don't know exactly what he's going to say,

but you kind of do. And he's saying like there would be such an overwhelming notion of fear, but also awe. And that, you know, I could get everyone behind me. And that it's the targaryens can't kind of can't help that and there's like almost like a moth to a flame aspect to this and it doesn't just apply to them it also applies to a character like cersei or a character like stanis or euron grayjoy it's just like the targaryens kind of set the standard and now we're

we're seeing them do that something i really thought i didn't really realize this the very first line of this trailer someone saying war is afoot and we're staring at this at the face of matt smith this demon targaryen uh we're staring at him in his gold cloak down in the city hanging with the boys you know how he does but laner valerian is actually the person saying war is afoot, according to the captioning from HBO officially on YouTube. So that's an interesting kind of shot, right? That you have Damon, his face with the gold-cloaked boyos behind him, and then you have Lainer who, maybe I'm reading too much into it,

but was Damon involved with the death of Lainer Valerian? I just don't know. What possible motivation could he have? Chloe, I don't know what you mean. He has a hot niece to fuck. I mean, I don't know if you've read this story. Very relatable. Oh, gosh.

We get a shot of a cave. There's Dragon ahead shrieking and throwing fire. I'm guessing it is the backwards version of Matt Smith looking at the dragon in the cave from the first two teasers as Damon. Maybe? And it does cut straight

to him fighting then in the streets with his helm. His little dragon-y looking helm. His very medieval helm. What is up with that helm his little dragon-y looking helm his very medieval helm what is what is up with that helm i love it yeah that's a nice touch i love the quick editing between him and the dragons because part of what is going on with a character like damon is at some level he wants to be a dragon like this is his self-conception this is how he wants to be treated and that that desire to become something both more and less than human is something that

drives a lot of these characters and even as they climb that fiery ladder they tend to fall from it we see that care something with like a we see that also with a character like brand too who becomes something more than human but also less and there's this idea that if you if you become like a god again a character like dr manhattan and watchman you have access to power and insight but also basic human things start to become just like mysteries to you and something you don't understand and that's the power of something like with damon and nettles where like you get since damon is going oh right human bonds and connections that's the thing i left behind that's what i don't have anymore as i turned myself into a dragon and maybe that's what i'm missing in my life yeah especially

when it's thrown against the backdrop as ranieraenyra is, you know, rightfully, in many ways, losing her mind. Right? Like, is everything in her life is just crumbling to shit? Because she's like, what do you mean? None of you are actually really supporting me like you said so, like, this many years ago. And then everyone's turning against me. And ha ha ha ha. Words are wind.

Now I'm killing everyone. But, like, that is kind of the story. What's that fucking meme from that show? Oh, The Good Place, right? Jason. Even Jason got it. Damon. Even Damon understood.

Even Damon figured it out. That's how it feels that he like suddenly was like, oh shit, dude, you know, I love violence, murder, incest, sex, you know, all this great shit I've been doing this whole book. i love it but also damn am i gonna have a soul after all this this war gets that bad so that's the fiery ladder you disappear at the top just like what happened in karth i mean again jamie lannister right just when he's at the bottom of the bottom there's something very much like you were saying that daemon just wants to be power embodied in in that scaly thick skin like the dragons can fly away you talked about them being like worms like wyverns like being able to just tunnel under the ground but

also being able to emerge like a fucking fiery scaled dinosaur phoenix and go to the sky and escape right how many great scenes did we get in game Game of Thrones of Daenerys on her dragons escaping when things were a little stressful? Just the idea that you and your BFF can, okay, like four, Emmett, like four, don't count them. It was like Dasnax pit. What else? The a thousand years in the cave fucking Ygritte callback.

When her and Jon go to the caves or you know her and her dragon that's true very romantic okay so too so too but how many times you know you get these moments of that intimacy like you talked about with her and her dragons that they are more than just you know they are animals but also to her they're they're her own people and that transcending the body business you know you have bran transcending his own body and you have jamie kind of transcending his own body in many ways first with throwing himself into fighting right that while he can't really deal with his emotions for his sister about his father the battle fever that's true that's a good comparison yeah the

battle fever i mean even before he loses his hand, he is trying to escape himself, right? And I see a lot of that in Daemon of that escaping himself and escaping kind of his station in place. And Rhaenyra too has that, right? We're seeing a lot of that in the interviews pop up of her. Like, she doesn't want to be tied down. She wants everything that the kings have access to, the boys club they have access to, but she doesn't quite have the right shaped key to fit in.

Good point. Yeah. Lots of dragon porn in this trailer lots of dragon porn not not actual dragon porn don't watch it alas it's not furry it's like scaly what is that is that is there a thing for that if not there should be amphibus sex i don't know i don't know i love that we haven't gotten the shot revealed fully until now but we have renira entering the throne room and it is damon on the throne you can just see it in the trailer very jamie on the throne when ned shows up in a way right you get a little of that or danny looking at the empty throne at the end of season eight imagining herself there renira stares at damon i don't see anything at all one of my favorite things kind of from the trailer that that is probably there in the story

especially because i think all targaryens have it is the dragon dreams right because the first big thing we open on post that little daemon blip and the laner blip is viserys saying the dream it was clearer than a memory and we get him in front of the flames i love that comparison of dreams and memories because they're they're trying to project themselves into this future that they can potentially create that would be clearer than anything from the past and it's but those dreams end up not being fulfilled or not being fulfilled in the way that they want and they just want to be able to make them real and there's a it's that ties into the politics because of ours is great riddle of the shadow on a wall and the idea that power isn't something you can actually lay your

hands on it's something you make up and you agree and you get other people to make it up with you and the dragon dreams are kind of like a mystical example of that but i think it's it's it's wonderful that they're tying the dragon dreams into this. I wonder if that might be the opening of the show as a dragon dream of Viserys's. Yeah, they did say, you know, we're getting at the very front of this show, we're going to get that great council 101. We'll see Jaehaerys. We've seen kind of a promo picture with the great conciliator, Emma Arryn, isn't it? I think we might get a little more Emma Aran in this first episode.

And I think she might be involved with this kind of prophetic dream sequence. And the dream sequence goes on and Viserys is giving us a voiceover throughout and he says that he heard the sound of thundering hooves. The thunder of her hooves. And it looks kind of like it's Rhaenyra maybe on horseback with someone I think it could be Kristen Cole his he will whoever it is does look like it's a male presenting figure with maybe some armor white armor so it could be Kristen Cole and he says splintering shields ringing swords which is overlaid with Damon and Kristen Cole beating the shit out of each other at the tourney at Viserys's ascension this is where of course Damon's shield gets smashed to smithereens by kristin cole

that's when you know it's a real feud by the way it's so good i love the the armor the armor is good the helm there are helms in this show again not just the hound helm like there are real helms for everyone a little peacock feathering going on for damon very appropriate to his character very Very medieval, you know, very good. And we do get a scene with Kristen Cole where he is taking, you don't get to see Kristen Cole, the top half. You see the bottom half, him taking his sword out of his sheath. Wink, wink.

Wink, wink. Not that sword. Put it away. My God. My God. Tell him to put it away. Seems you're getting excited about Kristen Cole. Is there something you'd like to admit to the crowd do you love kristen cole you people are trying to

get everyone to admit to being kristen cole fans i don't know why i'm not i'm not i'm not like invested in that way in any character in this show because they're all detached assholes let me just establish that right away i hate them all which kind of makes it a good show oh absolutely succession right like it's like dragon succession we love dragon succession and surely we do chloe says that like she hasn't cried multiple times for kendall roy i don't know who she thinks she's okay well maybe because i'm more emotionally invested in humans in stories humans and stories not in real life just in stories my god real life only only only rich assholes only rich fake rich assholes first of all i don't like the real one of course or the people that get

rich off of making fake rich you know this is gone anyways so i really like that the kingsguard armor is in the background i almost like at first when i saw it because you know when you first watched the trailer you have this overwhelming surging layer of hype, almost, or like of emotion, maybe a feeling something that lays over it. So you have to watch it maybe twice. So at first I was like, I think it's Kristen Cole, and I didn't even notice the Kingsguard armor, but the Kingsguard armor in the background is great. And we actually come back to the scene later in the trailer, when Rhaenyra asks Kristen Cole, you know, do you think they'll accept me as a queen? is great and we actually come back to the scene later in the trailer when raniera asks kristin cole you know do you think they'll accept me as a queen uh showing we're gonna get some good

kristin cole and raniera kind of information slash explanation slash confirmation i don't know we're gonna find out what maybe happened or what ryan condell asked george if it was okay if he could put on a screen that happened and that i'm interested in i'm interested in that and viserys goes on as we see him sit upon the throne and says he placed his heir upon the iron throne nicely ambiguous he does not say i placed my daughter raniera on the iron throne he says i placed my heir on the iron throne yeah and i guess if you really look closely there's a little blood on that throne and on viserys's hand from where he's cutting himself on that throne what could it mean the throne feeds on blood you're you next, Viserys. You're next. Constant blood sacrifice.

And then we get the shot of a dragon over King's Landing with someone riding it in. Oh, amazing. And he says, and all the dragons roared as one. And that dragon is going towards the dragon pit. There's a dragon pit. That beautiful dome looks like St. Peter's. It's connected with the next shot in King's Landing where there's actually, I mean, this is a beautiful set piece. Emmett, will you tell us of it?

Because it's kind of just gorgeous. Yeah, I love bustling crowd scenes. You know, what I love best in shows and movies is a shot I have to pause because there's like a dozen different things to look at. And I can focus on what someone in the background is doing and think about what they might be motivated by as an actor. Like, I have to show myself doing something. And just different layers of set design, all the great decorations. So I look forward to, I mean, that's one of the appeals of seeing a show about the Targaryen regime at its height, is that, you know, when we get to A Song of Ice and Fire, Westeros is a shitty place to be.

And very appropriately and well done so. Like, I like that Westeros is just basically a backwater on this planet compared to everywhere else. But it is nice to see the full flourishing of a place in all its details. And that's definitely something we're going to see is King's Landing under the Targaryens at its height when they were, I mean, what the dance is about is, I think in large part is about this family regime going, you know, we might be around forever. I think we got it. I think a lot of what the dance is about is about the Targaryens going, you know, guys, I think we got this. I think our regime might really last

forever. It might just, this is the end of history and we're going to be in charge forever and then about them realizing that that's not the case and so it's there's the the great tragic irony i think built into this when you see a bustling king's landing scene of knowing how this is all going to go there's like this awesome statue and it's black it looks like it could even be obsidian it could be dragon glass maybe who knows i could just be getting excited it's not that deep it ain't that deep it ain't that deep everyone and maybe it's not it could be that deep though what if it's that deep i won't let myself love again so there's a great statue of a dragon right right in the square and there is a carriage which there was some production shots that surfaced last year where you saw uh i want to say it was emily carey right the younger

allison's actress was getting out of this carriage and it seemed that renero was greeting her possibly so i think the last scene where we see a dragon flying over king's landing it might be like Rhaenyra is racing her BFF Alicent to King's Landing and maybe we're gonna see them kind of greet here in King's Landing at a younger age. And I don't know it's so cool there's like a chick with a parasol walking around all cozy comfy you know duh duh duh I'm walking down King's Landing and there's merchants everywhere. It's alive. It's alive. And of course, we got a council scene. What is Game of Thrones? I mean, House of the Dragon

without a council scene, right? And we have Otto Hightower saying that the succession is pretty urgent. We also have what looks like a strange little ball thing. It's like a marble ball have what looks like a strange little ball thing. It's like a marble ball that Viserys is toying with. And it almost looks like Corlys has one as well. I think it may be for voting purposes. The septons there looks like there may be a strong lord in presence. And some other bloke in a, I don't know who this guy is, but he looks like a guy, right? Some guy in an outfit. Some guy in an outfit. And Rhaenyra thoughnera though is there renera is in the background serving as cupbearer which is canonical to her father and listening while he holds his counsel and learning to rule much like aria at harrenhal that's kind of what this scene reminds me of is aria being in the background of those scenes and yeah it's essential to be present in the room because that's, you know, when you have the king as the

center of political power, being in the room with the king is what matters most. And it kind of doesn't even matter what your role is. Like, you know, historically being the king's cupbearer, even the king's, you know, privy advisor, simply having physical proximity to the king, being present for the information, being able to advise him, slip a word in his ear share his jests that's that's more critical than in something like a more bureaucratic system something we see emerging like with a character like little finger who in many ways embodies what the future of power in a world like this is going to be when it's like you know little finger doesn't have to go around talking to everyone he influences. Littlefinger has set things up so he doesn't have to do that.

Like, that's kind of the point is that Littlefinger can leave King's Landing for multiple books, and it doesn't matter because he has set up the incentive so that the machine keeps working without him. Don't make me come down there is Littlefinger's mantra. It keeps going without him. But this kind of more, you know, it's an agrarian, pre-industrialized society, heavily influenced by the individual of the king. Rhaenyra simply being present in these meetings is how you establish that she's going to be the heir. And everyone who comes into that room sees Rhaenyra there and goes, oh, she's there for a reason. Sam talks about that in the main series.

He says, I knew that my father was replacing me when he started having my brother present in the room for these meetings and stopped inviting me. Yeah. And listen, you know, I work in an office environment in corporate America. So I also understand this. You know, if you're in the room, even if you're not speaking in the meeting and you're in a meeting, you probably shouldn't be in. You know, that's a good thing. You take that info, you put it in your pocket, you learn from it. And that is what I'm so glad you brought Harrenhal up because I was thinking that it's very much like Nan in Harrenhal, like Arya with Tywin scenes in Game of Thrones where this is perfect.

And especially because this is such a saucy topic to bring up while she's in the room because, you know, it turns out she is the only child that Viserys has. And they're talking about, you know, who Viserys' heir is going to be. And Corlys himself is like, he has an heir. What about Daemon? Daemon's his heir. I fought with Daemon. Daemon's great. What's wrong with Daemon?

Smiley face. Is someone saying that something's wrong with Daemon? And it's establishing Otto Hightower, right? Being kind of a, kind of an instigator. Lionel Strong at the meeting, who's there, says, who else would have a claim? And it changes into a scene. Slow-mo, handsome motherfucker, Matt Smith on his horse being saucy. And Otto says, the firstborn child would have a claim. And that's when Corliss says, what about Damon? child would have a claim. And that's when Corlys says, what about Daemon? At the tourney, which is huge. That tourney is beautiful and huge. So much of this surrounds Daemon because the politics of

the dance are built around basically the idea of, well, we can't let Daemon be king because he's obviously a problem. So what do we do? Are we going to go with Rhaenyra? Are we going to go with Alicent's children? That's so much of the struggle here, because as charismatic as Daemon is, he clearly has this problem where if you cross him, he's going to kill you in a very, very public, violent way. And it's the same thing, like I think about, as I said, Oberyn is an obvious parallel to Daemon Targaryen in many ways.

And Oberyn has this line he tells Tyrion in the main series, that a septon in Dorne said that the fact that my brother Doran was born first and I was born third is a sign that the gods are good. Because if they weren't, I would have been the one who was born first. And that would have been huge trouble for everyone. That's like the perfect line here, though, because that is what this is. And I know Daemon is like, I got it. He is another Oberyn-esque character, right? Dark Star didn't work.

Let's do it again. It never works except for Oberyn. George has tried so hard. You feel for him. Oberyn, I think, was like, he's like a Han Solo character who just, it just kind of happened. It was just magic.

It was just a lightning in a bottle situation. And you keep trying to recreate it. Like Dario also was an attempt to recreate that magic. And it just doesn't work with anyone but Oberyn. But you know, Daemon's a strong contender. Like, I don't agree as we know I'm not a noted Damon Targaryen hater um I'm just kidding he's fine he's a fine character he's just not like the one I care about you know when I read these books so whatever I'll I'll be fine with him and to be fair Matt Smith is him is like it's bullshit because it's like me noted Damon Targaryen hater. Oh, you're going to put one of my favorite actors as Damon Targaryen?

Now I'm legally contractually obligated to give a shit. So I have to explore that in a little deeper manner, I guess. But Damon is like the prototype that almost works. So many fans really like him. They think he's a badass. Whether it was just Princess and the Queen, Rogue Prince, or Fire and Blood, which did expand a lot on him. I think Matt Smith's gonna bring kind of, you know, both of those, like you were saying, that kind of more vulnerable Daemon Targaryen that the crowd wants, but also the violent, murdering, you know, all-kin-slay-whoever

kind of attitude is kind of, I think he'll bring that psychoness too uh and i think the trailer is being not like misleading necessarily but there is a little bit of misdirect right that you're really you're watching and if you don't already know i think you think damon and renera are gonna battle like it's gonna be a sexy battle between them yeah absolutely no you don't get any sense from the trailer if you don't already know that they end up as allies and more than allies. You think they're being set up as the two potential paths forward. Yeah. And I mean, we get that to the extent where we see

Rhaenyra and Laenor together in the trailer and later in the teaser trailer, though they do a great job of having this anti-chemistry, I feel like. Right? Like this very obvious job of like oh this is literally a setup and we don't want to be in this setup but our parents say we have to in order to keep our air status uh it's interesting because then it's all intercut with Damon who again we see Damon in Flea Bottom with the boys all over again throughout this trailer. And he looks a strong heir. I mean, he does look solid. He looks sturdy.

What's the problem? Do you think Corlys is being not coy, but like, you know, he's trying to instigate a little by being like, you have an heir. It's Damon. Well, Corlys knows he can gain from it. And Corlys is always looking to advance his position. And Damon is someone he knows he can gain from it and Corlys is always looking to advance his position and uh Daemon is someone he knows he can get in with uh as opposed to the Hightowers his rivals the one thing I will say is yes that but also if he is instigating if he accidentally helps

make Rhaenyra the queen you know in this moment he gains a lot he has Laenor possibly lined up to marry her. It doesn't undo necessarily Rhaeny's being looked over, but it does kind of say, hey, you guys were right. Sorry, you were right. It turns out our ancestors before us here made poor decisions. Sure. Well, this is before Rhaenyra and Daemon get married, though, right? He's just working on behalf of Daemon at this point. Yeah, it's Stopstone's time when Daemon is really just you know surveying trying to get his in back in the city

besides down in the the flea bottom region the district the flea bottom district it feels like you know there's a lot of viscera says like i won't i don't want to choose between my brother and my daughter tough that's your job man that is your job like that's the one that's the one thing you have to do maybe you shouldn't have been lord of winterfell ned i mean maybe damn it is he gonna die in episode nine too you don't say yeah he uh those are the big decisions and indecision seemed to be the big thing for viserys and i mean that was just the way his character came across ascetic and maybe that's just lack of POV. So it's good to kind of bring it to the forefront. Something I'm really excited about, again, is all the heraldry that's showing up and all of the

stuff, especially the tourney stuff going on at the front for Viserys's ascension. And we actually get a scene where Rhaenyra is up up it looks like with harold westerling of the king's guard standing over on the balcony area in i'm guessing uh god what the map room what's the map room now in the red the map room pre-map the pre-map when it was just room before cersei and jamie fucked all over it no i'm just'm just kidding. That was in the High Septon. The High Septon, yeah. That wasn't even there yet. That was in the Great Sept, yeah.

That's an anachronism, my god. But I'm sure Jaime and Cersei fucked on that map. It might not have been on the screen. Too irresistible a metaphor. So were a lot of things not on that screen. I meant, okay, there were a lot of plots that didn't make it to that screen. So let me have this one. But in the pre-map map room, a bunch of dudes with some flags, some banners show up. And I was kind of excited. You and I were zooming in. We were like, enhance,

enhance, enhance. There's definitely a Corbray, a Malister, a Karen. I think a Hightower I'm not really sure what that back one was let me I think it's uh what the Crake Hall one no there's definitely a Crake Hall one but there's one all the way in the middle back that you can't really tell it just is a flat color uh but there's like a Kingsguard banner maybe it might just be it might be a flat white banner for Sir Kristen Cole here in the front and of course there's a Tarly banner and? It might just be it might be a flat white banner for Sir Criston Cole here in the front and of course there's a Tarly banner and a Crake Hall banner but as we get kind of a Romeo

O'Romeo shot back and forth between Criston Cole and Rhaenyra I'm pretty sure this is during the tourney for Viserys's you know being kanged post post the last king if you've ever heard of him but it's him being king crowned coronated his tourney and this is where kristin cole swears his favor to renera and there's

a quote from fire and blood let me pull her up during that same fateful year sir kristin cole was appointed to the king's guard to fill the place created by the death of the legendary Sir Rhyam Redwine. Born the son of a steward in service to Lord Dondarrion at Blackhaven, Sir Criston was a comely young knight of three and twenty years. He first came to the attention of court when he won the melee held at Maidenpool in honor of King Viserys's accession. Well, maybe it's not this one. It's probably the next tourney. What was the next tourney? 106? Is this not when Rhaenyra was named Realm's Delight? Yeah, this is when she had to-

Oh! Rhaenyra wasn't born when Viserys was made king, was she? She was in the belly. We see her in Emma's stomach. You're right. In the final moments of the fight, Ser Criston knocked Dark Sister from Prince Daemon's hand with his Morningstar to the delight of his grace and the fury of the prince afterward he gave the seven-year-old princess renera the victor's laurel and begged for her to wear in the joust now because they're

aging renera up i'm thinking yes this is though yeah so i think actually this is still that turny because they're aging her up at this but in the list he defeats prince damon unhorses both the cargyle twins sir eric and sir eric and then falls to lord lyman malister so we have a malister i'm pretty sure corbray is there at this time and we the tarleys are there i mean they're hanging out they're all over this plot in that book that was crazy to me actually that they're so prominent in this book but this is definitely him asking for her favor and because she's aged up she's got to be like 15 16 here i guess i don't know yeah i mean it's the same thing as they did with the starks and game of thrones it makes sense but it's it's

important to have the heraldry presence all these lords present because it gets at this tension of who's really in charge of westeros whether it's house targaryen or the lords who have bent the knee to them because one of the tensions that comes out with the Dance of the Dragons is the lords of Westeros going, hey, wait a minute, this is still on us, isn't it? Which of these people are in charge? Because maybe they need us more than we need them. And that's something the Targaryens are constantly having to deal with

in the wake of the Dance of the Dragons, is how to deal with getting the lords on your side. We see that happen with the Blackfyre Rebellion, where the lords are dropping things as much as the Targaryens. And that's why Aegon V, a.k.a. Egg, that's everything he's working on, is like, how do I get past the lords? How do I communicate directly with the people?

How do I kind of do an end run around this class here? Because I'm sick of dealing with the nobles, and that's this real tension for the Targaryens, is they have set themselves up above the noble class but they really do rely on them it's something that you start to see with jaharis too right when he has too many children to know what to do with and starts to just marry them off left and right and realizes well i guess we should start marrying the normies instead of just each other only it starts to kind of be a problem he's like oh fuck this is gonna i should start broadening our reach here a little bit which is reach viserist should broaden that reach

which is politically wise but then also you're taking yourself off the pedestal and the pedestal is the whole reason you're in charge in the first place yeah it makes you impure that's the that's the real difficulty with the targaryens is the whole idea of them as being above you. But how long can you be above people before they start thinking you as completely alien to them? Yeah, which, and that's what they always were, right? They're these incandescent gods, right, upon their dragons in the skies. And now they're falling very slowly. Now, but I meant you say something interesting of thinking

of someone above you and i want to point out in this trailer the most important thing in the world as kristen cole is like on his knees being like baby girl venera will you please wear my favor will you please girl girl will you wear my favor if you look in the corner of this shot, there's a woman up in a kind of a windowy framed area above Rhaenyra. Next level up. Sure does look like it's Aunt Rhaenys watching all of this go down and being like, mm-mm, that's how those boys get here. That's not even Rhaenys.

That's just Yves Best. That's just Yves Best herself getting drunk and roasting the entire situation. Roasting not in the traditional Targaryen sense, but in the comedic sense. If you haven't watched Nurse Jackie, what are you doing, right? Because she is so funny in Nurse Jackie. She is like the best character. And she's always just so sly and kind of like sarcastic and cutting.

And it's kind of great that Rhaenys is already doing that in the trailers. Like, good. Which is good because one of the problems this story could potentially run into is being too stiff and self-serious and somber and not having funny characters. And I think Eve Best will have a kind of wry, sardonic attitude because a character like Otto Hightower or Kristen Cole are just very, they just take themselves very seriously. And, you know, there's no kind of, you need kind of a loose-limbed character you would want to hang out with. And I think Rhaenys is more in that direction.

Yeah, Rhaenys and Corlys both are kind of like, they seem like they will have, they seem like they're going to have some of the lighter moments of the whole thing, right? Like, but also some of the worst moments of of the whole thing right like but also some of the worst moments like the most terrible moments of their children dying and their grandchildren in danger and raniera you know threatening their family and lives and livelihood and then of course dying for her war you know the whole rainies dying thing that's gonna be

a bummer so it's like it's kind of the best extremes of characters because you're gonna have kind of the comedy gold you're gonna have uh the best kind of backstories the best love they both have talked in interviews already both the actors Steve Tussaint and her have talked about you know like how they just have the best love story and the best characters and relationship and I bet their chemistry and I bet everything about it I think it's gonna be such a great arc. You got to have the all the extremes of happiness, sadness, love, drama, comedy. I kind of forget a little bit about the very beginning events right of the dance like Harrenhal and Missaria. So much stuff happens that the White

Worm, speaking of worms, the White Worm and Daemon, I almost forget about all their plot, and I think there's a lot of potential to kind of, not, not make up stuff per se, but adapt and expand some of the stuff that was happening at the time and give Misaria maybe more of a role, uh, because she sticks around for a while. And we do get more shots of rainies and corliss in the trailer uh we have rainies warning him reneara's claim is going to be you know questioned you know like mine was and then overruled completely no one gave it a second or third or eighth thought uh and then we get damon returning in in semi-glory from the stepstones where he managed to claim his own

kingdom but uh you know it withers when he returns home and has to put that into context when westerosi power something that i think you know euron had in mind when he he returned home and made sure his brother was dead and he can immediately take charge didn't have to deal with this kind of situation probably probably read his histories and learned from daemon targaryen's example i hope in the histories they talk about the crown damon's wearing in this scene though because it is straight up a driftwood crown like it is euron 2.0 like i feel like this is season 8 season 7 i'm watching euron walk into the throne room he's getting a sword thrust into his chest uh he has this like driftwood crown that he made from the stepstones on and i'm wondering if

there's going to be kind of a adaptation change you know of him offering his crown to his brother it's kind of a greater insult that his crown kind of looks like this instead of the burnished nice gold that uh jaharis's crown has i do like in the books that you're on immediately mocks the driftwood crown and as soon as he wins the kingsman, he's like, yeah, throws it into the sea. I got my shark tooth crown that I picked up overseas. This is much cooler. I hope Damon has that. I hope he's got like some sick crown in his back pocket.

Like, here you go, bro. Got you this. Throws it like a Frisbee, like he's disc golfing. Exactly. It's the forehand with the two fingers. Oh, Damon would so disc golf. He'd probably be obnoxiously good at it too yeah that's all he tweets about there are some really gorgeous shots of allison both young and

old uh she kind of looks like michelle fairly in this trailer in a couple of moments which i think is interesting i wonder if it's intentional because you know i've been probably not you're right but all the main shots of her that we get that are just her have these great bathes and lights quality and maybe this is our friend Maddie who was on recently on the podcast maybe it's because of her uh but I do see her as more of a a Catalin character in some aspects right a lot of people including the actresses themselves are kind of comparing alicent to cersei which i can see in some ways uh but i see a lot of catalan in her and protecting her family and going with the flow and then being told oh thanks for doing what you were told you were

supposed to do but you still don't win congrats uh following the rules right the hierarchy so i see a little bit of that. So that's an interesting thought. And we get kind of a great shot of her that goes from young her into older her, right? First with real light and then by the fire. And then we have Rhaenyra in the background voiceover to Viserys saying, your duty, you know, you must take a new wife, father, as alicent and viserys hold hands that's well and now they're aged up right so now they're aged up it makes it so i guess what raniera was

alive when jaharis died then no if they're the same age then then yeah i mean alicent was a teenager there alicent was chilling straight chilling with him. So I guess that works out in some aspects to kind of, I guess, align the ages. That's interesting. There's a great scene where Viserys is sitting on the throne and says to Daemon, you know, I've decided on my heir. Daemon's like, yo, wait, what the fuck? I'm your heir. What do you mean I've decided on an heir? And Damon has Legolas hair here, so that's how you know it's the beginning of the season. Yup, Legolas hair. And we flash back to, god, Harrenhal.

It is, it looks good. It's gonna be great to see Harrenhal. As a proper big and overgrown. Ghastly. Empty. Gonna be burnt down. Can't wait. Can't wait to watch that shit.

I'm excited to see some of the tension between Damon and Otto, too. That's really good, because Otto really cannot stand the guy. Really cannot. For good reason. It's the one sympathetic aspect of Otto Hightower. Again, that's what I sympathize with Otto and the green side about, and with Viserys about, is that it's

really hard to solve the problem of Damon other than just killing him. Because you really can't he's like you know as you said people have said yes he's charming and charismatic that's the problem the problem is that he can get people on his side and then use them to do horrible things and it's that he's he's like you know i love oberyn's self-awareness that i'm I'm the guy who really should not be in charge of things. Because I'm a disaster. And that's Daemon too. He's just a hot mess.

He should not be in command. That's why I love the whole, like, you know, Viserys basically puts him in charge of the City Watch to get him out of the way. And then Daemon's like, private army? Yay! I'm going to go around shaking people. I'm going to be the mob of King's Landing. I'm gonna be a mafia leader. It's like, you can't.

You can't have this guy. Exile him, murder him, send him to the Citadel, chop off his dick and send him to the Wall. Like, you can't have Daemon. If Daemon had ended up the king, the Targaryen regime would have burnt down long before Aegon IV or the Mad King got there. He's just a problem. And so much of the story of the dance is built around everyone kind of realizing that and

not knowing what to do about it. You know, Emmett, listen, redemption, sure. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, there's even, it's not like shy in Fire and Blood, right? There's this great passage. Though the king did not wish damon to succeed him he remained fond of his younger brother and was quick to forgive his many offenses princess raniera was also enamored of her uncle for damon was ever attentive

to her whenever he crossed the narrow sea on his dragon he brought her some exotic gift like a necklace on his return the king had grown soft and plump over the years viserys never claimed another dragon after balerion's death nor did he have much taste for the joust hunt sword play where prince daemon excelled in all these spheres and seemed all that his brother was not lean and hard a renowned warrior, dashing, daring, more than a little dangerous. He's a good recipe. I mean, give him that widow's peak, you know, for Arianne and Oberyn to fuck in her dreams. I mean, sorry, Rhaenyra and Daemon to fuck in her dreams. Well, that's the contradiction is the kind of person you like for those reasons is not the person you want in charge of making decisions.

Yeah. That Byronic model is just is no good for actual power. we see that over and over again in the main series too it's just no good we get a great shot of renera's uh air coronation what's that called is there a name for that is there a name air coronation the thumbs upping of an heir? Exactly. Society voted and they said yes. No, I'm sorry. They actually didn't. That's the whole show. Society actually didn't say yes.

All the while we watch Rhaenyra being, you know, thumbs-dupped by these dudes. Rhaenys is saying, a little expansion from the last teaser trailer, where she's saying a woman would not inherit the Iron Throne. That is not the order of things. or that is the order of things sorry because a woman cannot and raniera says when i am queen i will create a new order because raniera is not trying to what is it bend the wheel break the wheel whatever she's doing with the wheel raniera is not doing that she's here to break the wheel she's gonna burn it down the femme stanis energy is strong with this

one yes yes but thankfully it goes to a dragon which it looks like syrax it looks like it's possibly reneara on syrax uh with the saddle so exciting and then we get moved to the stepstones where we get a voiceover from regio haratus which must be someone in the stepstone saying your family has dragons we get a little shot of the dragon eggs being served for dim sum i love hot pot with you babe exactly and i love viserys admitting yeah the dragons are a power we never should have trifled with because they make us bigger than ourselves and we're bad enough on our own i mean that's the thing i don't think the targaryens are categorically worse than any other royal family they just have dragons if you gave the starks

dragons disaster if you give the baratheons dragons disaster no one should have them they're just too much we're too we're just too we're too weak and we're too easily led in the wrong direction and we're too flawed to have this much power yeah and again humanity does win in some ways not all and loses in a lot of ways throughout this but like that humanity is a good thing to keep and your soul is a good thing to keep and maybe murdering everyone and burning down the countryside is not the way to do things does ring true in some ways even even Damon got it this time my god and I'm so excited for the dragons I'm not like okay you know I'm not a dog person you know this about me uh I like dogs it's just I'm a cat person because they are you know small and they don't move as much like sometimes they do but sometimes they don't for like eight hours in a row and that's what I'm into

but these dragons which are much more like dogs in my opinion than cats dragons are more like dogs than cats I think um the general jowls and the the scaliness and the uh they're cute as fuck like the scenes of Damon with uh Caraaxis and like just petting him and booping his snoot that's gonna be heartwarming shit and it better be for how much the cgi will cost but it's gonna be some heartwarming expensive shit yeah and i love you know that connection with them because it's again the contradiction of the dragons is that they're their sources of power but also just animals and they're again they make a great comparison to human rulers in that way is that you you know give a human a crown and a throne and suddenly they start thinking they're

something more than a flawed creature but they always are yeah some great shots of the dragon pit in general or of the areas of the dragon pit where the dragons are being held and of course the amazing shot of vagar biggo chica with the huge fucking talons and amand looking up in like holy shit shock at vagar that is a great shot that is scary that little motherfucker is gonna climb that dragon that's a brave kid i don't know that i could have done that looking at how big that thing is that's scary i wouldn't have gone near it i mean there's a reason i i named myself after quentin no thanks yeah dog we're not meant for it locust um scary we get another shot of that's kind of an interesting cut right you get that next shot and

it's matt smith all over again i think damon all over again with the cave and the dragon trying for a comparison there yeah yeah something that i know we were kind of talking about is there's a shot of alicent and raniera in front of the throne and there's a voiceover from alicent at the time talking about if raniera comes into power she'll you know shut down any challenge to succession that if reneara comes into power she'll shut down any chance to challenge her succession uh violently i think is being implied but before we see a shot of maybe who alicent is talking to i gotta talk about alicent's outfit. Alicent's outfit, it's very Cersei season six, season seven, right? With the faith outfit.

Yeah, it's got this collar, this high collar and these shoulder pieces. And it's also kind of, you know, similar to Tywin's garb almost, but in dress form and similar to a lot of the Targaryen garb also from the modern Game of Thrones series. It's going to be called the Ace of Wands series, the modern game of thrones series it's gonna call it the a swap series the modern game of thrones series and raniera seems to be wearing one of her beautiful black dresses it's very severe with some shoulder stuff going on but alicent is wearing a chain on her dress it's called a chatelaine and it is really interesting it was used basically as almost these chains that you could attach things to. So even back in like Rome, ancient Roman ladies would wear them with ear scoops, nail cleaners, tweezers, attach them everyday life things they needed to utilize.

And they've been found in graves of women from the 7th and 8th century in the UK with artifacts like wire rings, beads, knuckles, knives. Watch out for that cat spa dagger, and tools. And they were worn by housekeepers, right, which again, thinking of like Catelyn, for example, who was told you need to keep a man's house, raise his babies, you know, put them out, raise the babies, get them married to a good family, and keep it moving. She was very much in charge. The first episode of Game of Thrones, you see her, you know, charge around Winterfell, getting things ready for Robert to arrive and kind of commanding what's going on in the household. So I do think there's a little bit of that

for Alicent here. Like that is part of what she's trying to do is keep Viserys's house neat, but also Viserys's heir is Rhaenyra, so that's a problem. That has conflict. But, they're in front of the throne, looking out with a confused, upset face on, and even just from, you know, it's the older versions of their characters, so I'm just trying to figure out where this would be if this is...

Where would this be in the timeline? What's going on? I'm honestly not sure. I'm'm very i'll be very curious to see what the reverse shot of this is of who's walking into the throne room yeah especially because of the blocking right alicent is in front of the throne like directly in front of the throne almost i mean metaphorically speaking just from looking at you know blocking raniera's passage but now they're looking at something else right raniera is lower they've been interrupted in an argument yeah yeah that's interesting and whatever it is Rhaenyra doesn't

look as surprised but Alicent looks like befuddled surprised worried which makes me think Daemon yeah yeah Rhaenyra does have kind of a face on that they look like they got the mouth open you know the like oh maybe there's a little sexy vibe, who knows, but Alicent, no sexy, there's no sexy on this face in this moment. I mean, she's sexy. She's very beautiful. Beautiful. And of course, we actually get Alicent saying she can cut off any challenge to her succession to someone with some, you know, mid length, blonde, curly ish looking wavy ish looking hair, possibly Agen. I think this might be our second shot because we've seen kind of a shot of Agen in some

of the teaser videos that have come out this week. Young Agen, I should say at the time, though. So this might be a little older Agen. Maybe this might be her saying, hey, bitch, you have to take the throne. We're gonna die which i yeah i love in the text that he is not interested at all in it at first and has to be coerced like on the second not not not super interested yeah i love that you know we look at the influences on raniera right the grooming surrounding her the different people that are, you know, using her claim, exploiting it in different ways and not just for good,

which we see a lot in the main series as well. And it's kind of interesting that they both are coerced in some ways or influenced in these ways to take this. And at the end, it's nothing that the others wanted. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, good point.

Yeah. The gold cloaks are going to be such a big part of season one. I'm really liking the actual gold cloak. It's got a really cool like interlocking chain almost pattern on it. Really nice fabrics, the fabrics they're using. We have some friends of the podcast that do not believe in Michelle Clapton from Game of Thrones' costuming skills. Now, I am partial to some of her stuff. Not all. However, I'm not. Maybe I'm not as far as to call her the war criminal, quote unquote,

that sometimes gets passed around about her costuming. The later seasons were devoid of fun and color. But these fabrics are nice. I mean, these textiles are like, they're heavy. You can see they look nice. There's color. The bannermen of other, you know, houses here that we're seeing have color. The scene at the tournament with Rhaenyra there, accepting the favor of Criston Cole,

all of those guys that showed up for their houses to represent them, they're like wearing their house colors. And it's not in an obnoxious, cartoony, superhero, Marvel way. It's like in a, they're wearing it like in a, it blends well. It looks nice, but it also shows like their house. And I'm like, yeah, that's what I wanted. That's what I wanted. Hell yeah.

That is what I wanted. We have a great shot of Rhaenyra looking at the crown. The crown Jaehaerys's crown which does have all the sigils of the seven kingdoms on it much like Rhaenyra's air coronation outfit so kind of a nice touch depending well you know depending on whether Dorne counts we just like to wink and say Dorne it's got an asterisk next to it it's ours technically once they give it up to us you know once they give up once they see the light so to speak, they'll see the light someday. Just wait for Darren. She's saying she will inherit the Iron Throne.

And then it flashes to Rhaenyra speaking to Daemon, saying that she will block my way and that she, of course, flashes over to Alicent looking distraught, looking dismayed, looking beautiful. We like her. And then we get Kristenisten cole training amand um and you could actually see i think this is harwin strong in the background that is the outfit that the strongs wear that's a good call i didn't notice that good catch yeah um looking at some of these background people, I think Harwin Strong is in the background with his little stripes on and Aemond is getting trained with his eye patch. So it is post-Dragon Pit. He's got Vhagar.

Now he's getting the muscles and the skills from Kristen. Uh-oh, uh-oh. You know, they call him Kangmaker, but I'm like one-eye boss maker, apparently. Jesus. Oof, oof. Wild training, breaks the Jesus. Oof. Oof. Wild training. Breaks the shield. Really great. And we actually cut back to a younger Rhaenyra

and Alicent praying over some candles. And Otto Hightower says, our hearts remain as one. While Alicent responds, our hearts were never one. And we take that cute, close, adorable friendship babysitter's club photograph of those two girls,

and we move to the adults, the photo, the black and the greens photo. And they're literally farther apart. You go shot to shot of them being close together with the praying when they were younger, and then there's a big yawning space between them in the next shot, just to show how they've literally grown further apart. It's gorgeous. It is, like like perfect, especially the use of candles. I'm really appreciating the use of candles in all of this because I feel like it was underutilized in Game of Thrones.

Like every shot in these trailers and these kind of quarters, right? Closed quarters or more confined quarters or halls. There is like just a huge amount of candles lit. The scene where they're praying, I think they must be in a sept and they are actually praying. So the candles make a lot of sense. But even here, there's far fewer candles lighting them now in between them than there was in the back scene. So it's just this great contrast of what's happened.

So you can really feel the emotional breakdown. And it's the dress and the dress. I mean, it's the black and the dress i mean it's the black dress the green dress the dress is okay we got to talk about corliss's helm we talked about how there's cool helms corliss's helm rocks with the seahorse on it and yeah that looks great and the scales almost there's like some metallic scales there's armor um again this is costuming like greatness there is actual armor and helms based off of the sigils and based off of the houses and the battle scene in general is insane there are just people everywhere there's so many

extras for the stepstones feels real some gorgeous lighting in some of these shots. What I assume is the great sept. Yeah. Before Bay. The first sept. And we have a voiceover where Rhaenys. This was surprising to me. Rhaenys is speaking to Alicent.

We get a shot of it. And Alicent looks so upset. And Rhaenys says, have you ever imagined yourself on the iron throne and she gives her this look this sad look like of course but I could never have it ever I mean who hasn't my god everyone's imagined themselves there Jamie Lannister hot pie mushroom uh I didn't really expect a Raineyenys-Alicent interaction. That's going to be an interesting... I want the context there. I'm guessing she's kind of saying, you know, can you just take it easy on Rhaenyra for a little bit, man?

Can you lay off? The girl's had a troubled life. We return to Harrenhal with a great shot of a dragon again flying up into the sky, and then we actually get a cut to a shot where a horse is coming down, and this horse has a figure on it, and the figure is obscured by a Baratheon sigil shield. So if this is from a tourney from the front of the season,

does this really make us think we're going back to storm's end by the season's end i think that's a great idea that that might be the climax of the season i think that would be very powerful that is one of the more dramatic and intense parts of the dance story that that clash over storm's end i mean even like the final shot just being luke the final shot being a strong boy crumpled dead on the ground showing the war has really fucking started like that's you don't kill one of the strong boys those are my sons uh they do though they like die all the time that's their whole thing in the books the that that really does make it serious i think and it's i mean we obviously are gonna get some great scenes at the stepstones

with the dragons but i think that's a set piece you want to utilize right like having the chance to do a huge dragon battle as your finale of your first season of the goth spinoff yeah that that is smart i mean end it big go big or go home. You're adapting George R.R. Martin. We have a shot of a dragon at the Stepstones that initially I thought might just be Damon on him, but this doesn't look like Caraxes. There aren't any fins on the back legs. Looking at him, I think it might be Seasmoke, and I did hear something about L Lehner's actor being there on set

in the Stepstones. So I think we're going to get a little adaptation with some Seasmoke involvement. Again, like we said, Lehner should have something to do before he gets killed. Thanks, Damon and Carl. So that'll be cool to see. I mean, Seasmoke

this early. That's exciting. Not waiting for the second claimant. There's a scene that, I don't know, you and I have been discussing it. And especially with the dragon dreams, it doesn't look like Rhaenyra. It is at a funeral pyre. Definitely maybe a funeral pyre or just a huge fire. And I think it might be Viserys. I don't think it's Daemon.

I think you're right about that. It's hard to judge from the back damon i think you're right about that it's hard to judge from the back but i think you're right the woman that's with him doesn't really resemble renera uh and it could be alicent i was thinking maybe it's him and alicent however honestly it doesn't have matt smith's build i think from the front it might be the dragon dream speech it could even be emma erin depending on i think that's a good bet yeah i think that's a very might be the dragon dream speech it could even be emma erin depending on i think that's a good bet yeah i think that's a very good bet the first wife i mean he's talking about his air right in in the overture at the front there and about what he saw in his air so maybe his dragon dream happened with his first wife and of course the cat scene, we get Alicent with the knife, which cuts straight to Amon with an eye patch on.

So there's a little misdirect as well. You're like, why does she have a knife? What's she doing with the knife? Oh, God, what happened to Amon? Is it because of the knife? Oh, that's a really good call. That's an interesting cut. And yeah, Amon, he looks a lot like Matt Smith in these scenes for a second.

I was like, wait a minute. Why is Amon? Oh, right. That's not him. It's just the names that Emmett, that are mirrors. Just put the switch around. Exactly. Exactly.

Isn't that clever? Do you see what I did there? That Damon and Amon fight over the god's eye? Or is it the dog's eye? Who's to say? Alicent Hightower with a knife in her hand trying to get at renera this is girls girls girls girls settled out settle down this is getting a little sexy and angry for my tastes i say ready to watch another erma vep tonight with you allison hightower says where is duty where is sacrifice

and as she's saying where is duty where is sacrifice? We get a cut of Damon with a necklace in his hand, giving it to Rhaenyra, snapping it away from her. That's a metaphor, right? And then a shot of Rhaenyra's dress and Damon with her naked shoulders, his face near them. What could they be doing? This seems inappropriate. As she says, where is sacrifice? And then a shot of caraxis caraxis with the big boop snoot and back to allison with her knife at raniera's face

and raniera says as we get the overshot of everyone fighting and everyone being like no stop stabbing each other raniera says now they see you as you are so it's all happening in public and they're all playing for the Lord's appeal. Like I was saying earlier, this is all the world is a stage for them. And they have to appeal to people who can see them as a potential ruler and not as someone who's going to lose control. Yeah. And seeing Alicent protect, you know, immediately her first reaction is, I'm going to go kill that bitch. I never thought I'd understand. But now I'm like, damn, OK, Allison.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I don't know. Am I becoming a green? This is really bad. What's going to happen during this show? Is this household going to be divided? I don't know.

Who, you and me? Yeah. What's going to happen? I mean, you don't care about any of them. Yeah, exactly. So that's going to be hard to divide. This household is going to be divided between me. Divided between the person who. And me. Yeah. What's going to happen? I mean, you don't care about any of them. Yeah, exactly. So that's going to be hard to divide. So this household is going to be divided between me. Divided between the person who.

And me. Exactly. Me and the other me. Me eating popcorn. It's going to be great when they die. Me wearing a green shirt. I'm just going to take green and black shirts and cut them down the middle, sew them all together, and just wear them every Sunday.

I love it. I love it. Well, I mean, that's what, in the main series, the equivalent is Stannis versus Renly, where you're supposed to watch them go and both, maybe neither of you. That's why Catelyn's perspective is great on Stannis and Renly, which just goes, you, my children are more mature than you guys. And same deal here, except there's no Catelyn. The Catelyn is just us

in this scenario. Yeah. I'm really excited about some of this tension they're bringing for Alicent and Rhaenyra there. I think the aging up helps. It does make it less, not like power imbalance, but like, you know, I mean, Alicent was kind of just like the older girl that used to read to her grandpa she doesn't know, you know? Yeah, I think having them on an even playing field actually makes more sense, especially because Aegon second purposefully is kind of a non-entity

like it's even though he's the one they're putting forward it's not really about him and he's not really super invested or involved so if you're going to make alicent the dramatic center of the greens which you should you kind of want to have a sense that her and raniera are on an even keel and a generational divide between them might make that harder to pull off like alicent would just seem like the evil stepmom which i think i think lessens the drama so i think it's i think it's a good call yeah and i love it because so far it seems that alicent's like but the rules and renear's like i have a dragon there are no rules like it doesn't matter because i have a dragon like laws i will burn them down i will just burn the laws down. Like it doesn't matter. And Allison's like, well, I wasn't just born with the power to hold an egg in my arm and birth it, you know?

So I think, yeah, gods and men. It's going to be an interesting show. And I'm really glad that they're already describing it as Shakespearean because it should be, right? That to play the drama up, you want it to be. You want that drama to be heightened and the tensions heightened. And I felt the tension. I felt the drama. I look forward to Fire and Blood.

Oh, Fire and Blood. In all its glory. You mean the books that they are writing about the show? Yes. Yes. Adapted from the award-winning show. It's amazing the time travel they can pull off with this. HBO. It's not tv

it's hbo emmett thank you so much for swinging by the studio the girls gone canon studio which is our table uh that you my housemate that i know from a place knows of but thank you so much i want you to talk about some of the exciting stuff going on at not a cast because while there are many adaptations we can talk about you have been talking about some of the greats like star war a star war that's true so i've been talking since i've been on my own recently as a host on the not a cast i've been doing episodes on star wars for patrons that you can find over at patreon.com slash not a cast a s o i a f i've also been doing episodes on lord of the rings but i'm going to be jumping back into a Song of Ice and Fire with my new co-host Manu. We're going to be starting that up in mid-August.

So you can check us out at Podbean, at Spotify, at Google Play, and Apple Podcasts. Just check out NotacastASOIAF. You can follow us at NotacastASOIAF on Twitter, and you can follow me at PorkQuentin on Twitter. Yes, I'm so excited for you and Manu to jump into it. D-S-O-I-I-F on Twitter. And you can follow me at Poor Quentin on Twitter. Yes. I'm so excited for you and Manu to jump into it. When are you guys going to be doing Hot D episodes? Are you doing Hot D episodes?

Is the D coming? Are you unleashing the D together? That's kind of interesting. Always. Always. Yeah. We're going to be doing weekly episodes. I'm going to be releasing them every Tuesday.

So probably recording them on the Monday after each episode and then putting them out on Tuesday. Probably very chill, very casual, less kind of structurally rigid. I like setting up my, my beautiful, meticulous, flawless episodes for a song of ice and fire proper for hot day.

We're just going to be winging it. And I think that'll be, it'll just basically be episodes of hot ones. The, the wing show. Yes. The wing show. It's just going to be that.

You guys should just eat spicy food and talk. Maybe I'll do that. Don't take that. Yes, the wing show. It's just going to be that. You guys should just eat spicy food and talk. Maybe I'll do that. Don't take that. You heard it here, folks. Well, I can't wait to listen to those episodes. I have had a pleasure having you here again at the studio. You know, our executive producers are behind us waving their little paws. So thanks again.

And we will link below every place you can find Emmett and Manu. Don't forget Manu, friend. Manu, host. Manu. And of course, you know where to find us, Girls Gone Canon. You're listening to us right now. If you have not subscribed,

please subscribe at a podcast platform near you. And if you have the time, a review eliana as we know is off in distant foreign lands doing the lord's work you know she's on the stepstones she's conquering she beat me to that by half a second the words were forming in my brain and then she said it which happens all the time eliana is fighting the triarchy and you know they just really have to be stopped so she's out there she's conquering with fire let's all imagine eliana and that matt smith helmet for a second shall we yeah that was my reaction too that was the best gift i could have been given eliana we'll be back

we'll be back hey we will be back next month there are two final house of the dragon unleash the d primer episodes coming your way. I haven't solidified one of the guests. They are trying. We're trying to make our schedules line up, but it's a good one. It's a cool one. And the other guest, it's a big surprise. You are not going to see it coming, and I cannot wait to bring that one to you. So stay tuned. We will have a couple episodes out in the next couple weeks, and Eliana will be back second week of august we should return with brotherhood without manners our prologue episode for pate get back on the road which i know emma is ready to get back to a swath too yes my one true love and i'm so happy to that

you're gonna get back to the prologues and everything after that because i've been really looking forward to to hearing you on on pate and on Varamir's prologue. It's going to be great. And everything after. Everything after. Hey, stay cool. Stay good. We'll talk to you folks later.

And thanks for listening to Girl Plus Semi-Girl Gone Canon. It's like honorary. You could be like an honorary. Until she comes back. You know, until she comes back from the stepstone. I identify as a semi-girl. Interesting. A semi-girl God canon.

I'm sorry. Goodbye.