Girls Gone Canon Cast - House of the Dragon: Unleash the D S3E3 featuring GoT Thrones? Podcast

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Hosts of GoT Thrones? Podcast, Alexandra August and Johnny Kolasinski, join us to talk shop about what goes into TV production, reality TV, queer-coded villains, and what we're looking forward to in season 3. Want to hear the four of us talk dive into the new players in season 3? The girls joined GoT Thrones? for a roundtable discussion on their channel. Listen here >> Where to find GoT Thrones? Instagram Apple Podcasts YouTube "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon. Unleash the D, Season 3, Episode 3. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I'm series regular, Eliana. Thank you so much for being here again and for continuing to watch My Rise here. This is my suffering. This is my suffering. We are so excited to continue to bring you special guests each week.

week. We have a twist. We have a twist. It's evolved. It's transformed. We have special surprise. We have not one. We have not one, but two guests. Two guests this week. We have our very good friends, Alex and Johnny from Got Thrones, question mark. Podcast. Hello. Hi. Oh, my gosh. It's so good to be like back in podcasting about Game of Thrones with Game of Thrones people. Yeah. It is exciting. And we are both happy to be here. Thank you for joining us. We have like such a beautiful history amongst us four friends, I feel like, of knowing each other in the Asong of Ice and Fire community for, oh my God, like over a decade. For cat conventions, for knowing each other and going to cat conventions. I'm so grateful.

San Diego Cat Comic Con. I mean, San Diego CatCon. I mean, whatever it's called. That was the best. That's where I got Artemis, the one who's been interrupting all of our. pre-show conversation. Oh, at CatCon. You went this year? Oh, that was Del Mar. Yeah, we went to a cat show. It was a two event year for me.

We went to CatCon, which is in Pasadena. And I have now been twice and you don't need to go probably more than once. FY if anybody was curious. Yeah, it was it different this year? Not enough. Better? It's fun. It's really like you pay $50 to go shopping for some very, very, very, very good cat art.

They got free churru. Samples. Yeah. Like those are a big deal. Whereas like it was like a Costco membership, you know. The cat show was like more at Delmar and there was a cat show. Like there were all these different booze with people like put you'd walk by and like somebody's like shoving up a cat next to a ruler being like this is great. And the cat is like obviously okay with being there because like you know if you can't bring a cat to a show like that.

So clearly. Yeah. And that's where Johnny got Artemis. And Alex was there. Wow. So you've been down. You've continued to dabble in cat shows. Cat life events.

That's actually the once House of the Dragon finishes, we are pivoting into a pure cat show review podcast. Cat content. Okay. There's a lot to discuss. Yeah. You guys are so auto coded. I like the footage of like when they'll like show like at the other other kinds of cat shows and they'll just like look at that. And then they'll like just show this giant fluffy like thing and like make everyone look.

and behold. Yeah. It's like a thesis about how good the cat is too. They're like, and that's why I'm telling you that this main coon is the best in show ever.

10 out of 10. Exactly. Yeah, they do it like that or like they'll hold them and then they'll like lift the tail and be like look at the cat. Look at the coat. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like her bit tutes.

Yeah. Look at her hindquarters, which are taught. You know, they're like real weird, but I'm jealous. I kind of want to. to how they say it too. It's very interesting.

I can't wait to go to one with you now. It's going to happen next time I come to the coast. There was a little cat agility course. It was just for jokes because you obviously can't trade a cat to do that. But or like there were people like lined up around a thing to wait for. We couldn't see it the first time we tried because the crowd was too deep. It was really cute. Okay.

We got to stop talking about it because I miss my cat so bad. They're literally two rooms away, but I miss them. I want to go hold them. My baby dragons. One hour later. We're here to talk about the Dragon Show. Yeah. See what I did there about Cat Show and Dragon Show?

I just watched the trailer for the first time. And the thing that most annoyed me was that I'm supposed to accept this like Ormond High Tower, whatever, after I spent season two. Just loving Gwain so hard and wanting to just like ride on his shoulders, please. and like tell him he was doing a good job and loved how like exhausted he was and his line reading of I've got to go with Sir Kristen. Like, and where is Gwain? I do not stand for Gwain erasure and I don't give a fuck about this new guy. He's very handsome. Real meathead hours. He looks like a meat head. What I'm confused about Ormond Hightower is is he going to be like a very big character this season like almost main because he was at so prior to this one of the ways I've had to see with the

marketing. Yeah, with the marketing, he's been in it. He's been in that like, that like roundtable dinner where they ask everyone, like, who would you invite to a Targaryen dinner, dead or alive, blah, blah, blah. And he's in there. And they didn't have what, what is, what is that name of the man who plays Amon? Amid. Eamon, Ewan Mitchell. I only know Tom Glencardi's name, Emma Darcy and Olivia Cook. Those were the three names I think they're merging Garmin' High Tower with Hobart and his kind of plot during Fire and Blood. And I think he's becoming kind of the catch all for the High Towers. But also, I think if they're going to show any aftermath,

they have to introduce him because spoilers, by the way, for this podcast, we do spoilers, pretty much everything published on TV or in a book. So if you haven't read Fire and Blood, The World of Ice and Fire, the Song of Ice and Fire series, or watched Hot De, Game of Thrones or a Night of the Seven Kingdoms. Yay, new spoilers. Right, exciting. Gotta love it.

If you haven't read any of the Ace Woff universe, you got to go, unless you really want to be spoiled, and that's fine, then listen, but this is your warning. So Raina marries Garmin Tye Tower, right? So is this a mashup? Are we introducing him? Is this going to be who marries Raina in the end of this iteration? And we see that end up being how it ties together. like peace, right?

Especially because like, will Jahara really make it through this show? Yeah, I don't know. Unless they like reage her, if it's like a so rast, like so proper reaging syndrome type of thing or unless there's another time job. I think they might

I actually am starting to think De Nera Valerian is really practical and that they will actually show that Agen marries DeNara Valerian because it kind of gives Corliss the win quote unquote at the end right that like he had the long game he did in the end get the credit that his house married house Targaryen at the end what cost at what literally though I don't know by hounding your wife about her crown again I'm just you know happy to finally see a man

get ahead on television oh my god hot D is feminist totally feminist lesbian propaganda so that's true I've never seen it happen it's I it's I it really is. Like, I keep, as we're doing this rewatch, one of my main notes for every episode, I'm like, well, the men are insane and stupid. And the show really seems to be painting that with a brush, like, which in a way that I love, but I'm sort of surprised by. And I'm like, in terms of all the ways this series is like a knee-jerk response to Game of Thrones, that's, I think, my favorite one. Because they're executing it pretty well. And, yeah. We have on our rewatch, we've got a tracking board.

we call it. And one of the things that we've been going to is basically a, who fucked everything up this episode? And I think the only non-male that has been brought up has been Alicent. Otherwise, it's a dude with white hair. No, that's sex. And that's not right. Because bottoms deserve some grace. I will say like, quick question. So we kind of jumped into the cat show. But what are like, so you talked about this rewatch. that you're doing, what are your plans for the season? Yeah, what are you all doing for the season? What are you, how sort of coverage are you doing? We're going to finish our rewatch. We've got one more episode. And so if you want to listen, we made them short. We like, we capped him at 30 minutes as best we could just so kind of we could give ourselves a brush up and when listeners could go through, go ahead and listen at 1.5. I think that you'll enjoy it. And just to cover kind of like the base notes of like, all right,

like how many dragons do we have on which side? Who was introduced this episode? Who got down this episode, who died this episode kind of thing. And then I think we were just going to go back to doing week to week, maybe like something on like a TikTok live on Sunday night, just because I feel like I want to talk about stuff. But then I think we did two episodes a week for a night of the Seven Kingdoms, and we found that that was kind of a lot. So I think maybe an immediate react somewhere where we don't have to record it and then like a deep dive later in the week. So weekly episodes is what you can expect from us. Johnny, did I miss anything? That's accurate. as far as, sorry to, I'm not crapping on the show, I promise.

It was more fun to have that immediate reaction to Night of the Seven Kingdoms because there's moments of levity and joy. And House of the Dragon has, oh, things got worse and worse. And that's more of a let's sit with it and then talk. How about those dragons, though? Wow, I'm like, you are not a true tragedy maxer, Johnny. You don't be tragedy maxing, got it. I'm like sitting in my grief every day.

I'm like, make it worse. Yeah. Make it worse. In my 20s. That's why Chloe and I have a podcast together. Spiral together. Yeah, we love the spiral. I love the spiral.

Girls go on trauma bonding. We spiral in different ways. That's fair. So this is actually, this is my first time watching House of the Dragon all the way through because when it, when season two aired specifically, I was not in the headspace for it. There are a few shows that like in, basically in the pre, hello, Oh, there's my cat, sorry. In the pre-COVID era, I would have been like, yes, let's get darker and darker and darker and darker and darker.

And then I have pivoted towards joy. No, that's so right. And what I'm watching. Good for you. Like the boys is another one that I loved the first season, watched the second season, and then put it down. Yeah. That's really fair. I finished the boys last week.

I finally just sat and like bingeed it. I've loved that show in a weird New York Comic-Con kind of way because I think that's where I first like learned about it and learned about. that series and that comic author. That's like if I were to like in an alternate universe where I actually read comics or my mom encouraged that, I feel like that's exactly where I would go. But I don't recommend it as a binge. And then I like I did that. I watched like that series finale and then right back to backwatched Euphoria the last

episode. And I don't know why I did that to myself. Lots of Grimdard. And we couldn't record a hot D episode because you were not in the headspace. Honestly, I haven't been able to do it because I've been. bet in that world, we were just talking last episode with our friend Alex about, another Alex, about like Sundays, like HBO Sundays, right? HBO Sundays are like a tradition.

They're like a time tested. You got to have a little something to do on a Sunday. HBO reinvented Sundays mattering in a lot of ways, I feel like. What's the Simpsons stop me? Yeah. Because before HBO was as prevalent as it is now, there were, I feel like Sunday night was a pretty big night for TV for a while too. Like I grew up, that's when mom watched Mother.

Like, that's when I grew up watching murder she wrote. And then what was like the X-Files thing that would have been on a Sunday? X-Files sometimes was on Sunday. X-Files was Friday? Yeah. When was Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Was that Sunday? No, that was like that was weekdays.

Was it? Every night? I think it was an every single night thing. TV has changed. Yeah, there used to be things. Okay, you know what is every night that I will be watching? currently with Hot D. The news?

Not only has Love Island's USA started, but also I just found that Love Island UK is also going concurrently, and I'm about to double fist both of these. Are you watching? Love Island UK is? Yes. Well, okay, so I've been trying to watch because I've been fucking around on social media in like a Brava reality TV spin. And so I'm like, well, obviously I should just be an expert on this so I can comment

on it and like garner my pop culture punitry. And you love Vanderpunfrews, right? that's yeah are you the one that I think when then I'm thinking of who likes fans their pop yeah and Ariana and Ariana kind of yeah it's on every night which makes it intimidating but I have heard Love Island UK is actually like way messy or way funnier which I fucking believe because anytime I watch rule out like listen trash television is trash it's why I love it but um I like to wash my brain but the UK does it like with a violent like with a vocal violence that is maybe just their accent or something but they are just

not delicate about it at all. And it's, it always strikes me so much funnier. I think, yeah. Eliana was just explaining that to me. Things are starting to shift. This episode four already, I'll have to see it and compare it with UK this season. I got, I got my partner actually into both of them last year. But we are, uh, yeah, Love Island US.

We're only on episode four. And the season has started. Things have happened already. And we're like, whoa. Okay. So it's going to be interesting. They actually, they got people this year, I think, who, I mean, everyone probably goes on to the show a little to be an influencer, but they're not necessarily. I think they don't feel influencery, right?

Like, they're actually normal people, I think, to some extent this time. And they are messy, just like the Targaryans. I'm sorry, I really wanted us to talk about Love Island. Well done. But also, I was going to bring it up. I'm like, maybe you two should do that on a podcast together because. I think Eliana and I have to come to a really hard truth that it's not going to happen for us. You know, I did try and I got yelled at.

So I was in trouble because I didn't watch the right thing. I didn't watch the right thing. I watched the wrong season. I watched a season in an episode and she goes, well, you shouldn't have watched that season. That's not the right season. Okay. I should just be a psychic. So clearly she should get married and have a podcast.

I was so excited. So that I can discuss with her what's happening now. I was really proud of myself last week or like two weeks ago when I posted a Summer House of the Dragon post on Reddit and like several people liked it that I didn't know. I saw you are watching Summer House and I'm not sure what it is, but I keep getting like commercials for it as I'm watching Love Island. See, Vanderpump is something in the stars for me. I've tried it once and it wasn't right that day, but it's in the stars. So that one will happen for me someday.

I look forward to it. I look forward to that for you. I think I got technically banned from their restaurant in Vegas. Not myself personally, but my entire company got, at that point in time, got. This is not the only place that I am possibly uncomfortable showing my face. There are charter boats here in San Diego that I am not allowed upon because of. We are harboring. It's so big and I'm excited about it.

That's so, again, the second absconding of you. Yeah. We should talk about this season. What? We don't have to. Johnny, what's your whole thing, right, in relation to hot? Do you talked a little bit about how, you know, you didn't come back to it till now. Now you're back to it.

I didn't come back to it till now because in, I felt like in the first season, I felt like things dragged. Things were always, everything was just getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. I stand by that second opinion. Things get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. It is a much tighter show that I remember. And I am appreciating, even in the first season, which I had seen before, I'm appreciating the tightness of the writing and the way that the pieces are moving where they need to be in a much, much more than I did before.

I honestly wonder if some of that is coming off of season eight and it being a little bit of a darkboard. Having rewatched this and now really, really appreciating that just like how big a bite they are taking to try and adapt and just how like you're separating your jaw to try to fit everything in and how well they're doing it. Like how well this is executed nine times out of 10. I just the more I come back to like it was just too dense. Like we just needed a break from eight. I think and I think also. Yeah. And it's really, I think ultimately it was never going to have the commercial appeal that Game of Thrones had and not be incredibly fucking expensive because to have that commercial appeal, you need the dragons and the dragons are really,

like, it's just kind of, I see a lot of, I see a lot of men at HBO being like, well, we got have to have the dragons, like, what, which you have to leave, like, listen, people love the dragons. we have to give them more drag. Like, nobody knows in like corporate entertainment how to understand that like creative satisfaction does not mean audiences want the same thing over and over and after they have been deeply satisfied by a narrative. Like, you have to take a breath and, like, take a different speed.

And so I really love Night of Seven Seven Kingdoms. And I'm curious to see how season three holds up, or not holds up, but I'm curious to see if Night of the Seven Kingdoms doesn't spark. If anything, just for, like, continuity of attention, like, every time Hot D has prepared, there's been, like, two years. From here, there's been, like, two years since Hot D and Thrones content. And that is now not the case for season three. So I'm curious.

I feel like, and maybe it's just because my side of the internet is my side of the internet, but I feel like there was a lot more excitement for Night of the Seven Kingdoms than Hot D season two as it was airing. And so, as Alex said, I'm really curious as to see whether or not that same side of the internet is super excited about Hot D. Also, I wasn't watching it, so I was missing a ton of things. Let's be honest here. I can say one thing that I really enjoyed that I probably wouldn't had I've been watching it live the first time is seeing Damon Targaryen epitomize the male loneliness epidemic. Yes. All the time.

Not even just in one arc, like all the arcs. Yeah. But specifically, specifically though, in season two, seeing him almost kind of sort of maybe recover from being in. I say in-cell, but an in-cell who was going to brothels and had like four wives over the course of the series or whatever. But then meeting his manic pixie dream rivers and recognizing, wait, I can ask for help. Oh, my goodness. The way Damon learned the therapy speak that Damon learned in that season. I feel like I remember vaguely the internet not loving Damon being on his emotional journey because it was just like, okay, well, what is he doing but taking mushroom tea and having visions?

Yeah, and to be fair, like, fine. It's a very plot-driven show. And to have Damon just kind of hanging out there and like delighting Sir Simon Strong, I get that. It was my favorite part of the show because it was just so clear that she was running this silly man all over this haunted castle. And I just like it when like the manic pixie dream prince is just like showcased for what he is and doesn't get to like have all of his bravado. I hope that Damon discovers peyote this season. I think he will He is going to have an interesting arc

I feel like Yeah I read ahead a little bit A friend Gray feels that he will Yeah But inside him The peyote inside Well it is interesting to take him from Bachelor Playboy to what we get at the end of Fire and Blood of him

Right Or of his arc I mean in Fire and Blood Right Like how do we get from point A Bachelor Playboy You know fucking around Finding out Damon Targaryen And then get him to

I've seen some shit Jamie Lannis wore a Feast for Crows, Damon Targaryen. I would say that's, he's probably my least favorite character in season one because the character developed, like, he's just, it's too much character development to the point where like he just doesn't have a center. And I'm like, okay, like, do you give a shit about your children or your wife in the way that you kind of seem to or you just wildly selfish? Like, you were like, he just couldn't center on the type of kind of, yeah, like, he couldn't.

And then, like, you know, he just like straight up like murders. Rayor Royce and I'm still not over it in terms of like he was very hard to forgive and to be to root for him at all and more than just him being an anti-hero and then the second season I don't know just really fix that right up now here's your punishment honestly I feel like a Damon Targaryen is the one comedian that moved to Austin and turned out okay right like maybe actually leveled out right yeah I do really love his Heron Hall, Weirwood Paste, Reckoning Arc, where he's like, oh,

not everything is about me, question mark, and that's okay, question mark? I guess. I never really thought of it that way. I always thought of it the opposite way, but huh. And then, you know, now that he's done that, he's like, okay, something to do,

something to, a reason to live before he didn't have a reason, a motivation. I also think it's going to add more complexity for him with his relationships with his daughter, both daughters, I guess, right? Not to Viseris him, right? Not an only child have her. He's got two. And those boys, don't forget about these children he has.

Yeah, we were like, we only remember his daughters. And we're like, oh, that's right. Jay's hasn't. Oh, my God. Yeah, he's got Egan and Viseras too. Don't forget. These will come in handy later. I know.

They're interesting. Because we need alive children to carry on the throne. I'm really excited to see him get home. I assume they're going to give us this service, but I'm excited to see him get home. I haven't rewatched the season finale of two in a minute, so I'm sorry, it's already happens, but see him get home and see that his mistress and his wife are now a couple, and he's welcome to participate if he wants, but that's the way think they're. Is he?

I don't think they shut him out. It seems like it's going to be a tension, right? The trailer has that moment with Visaria and Damon in the Small Council, and that feels full of tension. Love it. Like, what are you going to do when your wife is having threesomes with your ex and the ex queen? There was something about their kiss in, before at the end of season two in episode seven.

I remembered it a different way, but what I took away from it this time was like the very ominous music because it's kind of a beautiful thing. Like, there are women who have this, like, they really have this beautiful meaning of the minds and that relationship is given some really great ways to breathe. But again, like, women are great leaders. Look at this. And then they, like, make out. And the music is like, uh-oh.

Yeah, because once you start making out and looking each other's, you know, like, it just starts to get a little doomed in TV. So, yeah, I don't know. I feel like Misaria is going to have an interesting arc because I think being, out for herself and making money is not going to be enough for her soul in the long run. So if Rainira pushes her away at some point and if Damon keeps pushing at her, like, Nazaria could have an interesting arc. Maybe she will, you know, clearly she's going to end up turning against Renira eventually.

Or maybe she won't and Renira thinks she will. Who knows? But something's got to happen there. It's like how we're saying that Ryan Condal is giving us a feast for crows. And he gave us just a little taste of Circey and Tena, Marriweather. It's a little, a little, a little, Circey Tana. All over, all over. Circe and Tiana, absolutely.

I'm excited to meet Sabitha, or Sabith, or however we're going to say her name. I'm excited to see more of her because I kind of stopped reading Fire and Blood because it was really depressing. But I'm not like, I'm kind of spoiler verse. I read about it in Morals of Ice and Fire. So I have a good idea of a lot of what happens. But Alice Rivers is like my avatar. And so I was like, what does happen to Alice Rivers? It was like, oh, bummer.

I mean, like, maybe. But it did make me up like, all right, though. Like, we did get introduced to Sabatha over here. I'm excited to see her. Yeah, I hope they give us the real Yuri, right? Like, Sabbath and Allie and Sam and all these characters. Like, real toxic Yuri with Sabatha and Sam. Going back to it.

So you are much more book first than me, and I'm going to say Alex, too. Do we know what happens to Masari? Do you want to know because it might hurt you? It's not a good ending. Okay. Wait. In this show? I mean, is it worse than Reneiras?

No, I mean in the books. It's actually arguably worse in a lot of ways. She was a woman who made her own money and by herself. So she's worthy of the most punishment. I didn't know how much weight she had in the books compared to what we're seeing here. I think it's about similar. What do you think, Eliana? Yeah, I think it's about the same.

Like, she's definitely a little more, I mean, everyone's a little more mysterious in Fire and Blood because they're all like, what really happened? I don't know. And can't, you know, roll back the footage. It's not actually reality TV. And so we... Should be, though. I got the reunion.

I do think, I do think to, like, she holds a similar amount of, like, story impact because she definitely does things that move characters and actions that people take in certain ways. Yeah, she has a lot of effect on the plot. Like, in a way, she's very much the veris character, right? Whispering in the ear and saying, this is happening, this is happening. And she has that power that she's listened to. But I do like that they focused in season one so much on the small folk angle with her and that they've introduced other characters like Sylvie, Madam Sylvie,

Sand maybe hashtag Silvana Sand. It's going to happen. But like they've already kind of introduced the building blocks to show some of that revolt that happens in Kings Landing and fire and blood. And Mizaria kind of has the cards to be able to do that. Right. Like she can play those cards. We see that with season one with her having power to either hide Agan or give him and make money off of it. But eventually that money doesn't fix everything. The way Otto wants to get with Masaria the way he is so into her. Like I'm shipping repression at least for like wow man I like it when Otto like you see Otto when somebody like surprises him a little bit because

so he's just so weighted down all the time by like the fact that he knows better than everyone and like kind of does a lot of the time. I got that. I always like them together and I'm curious yeah. I feel like there are three monogamous

men in all of the world of ice and fire. And it's Otto High Tower, Kristen Cole, and Ned Stark. Oh. Okay. I would say Jamie Leicester for a while with like one notable exception. Yeah, I was like, I think Jamie. Jamie is still, I think, arguably monogamous. It just like, he just took that one bath that one time.

He had a breakup. Like, they didn't say it, but they had a break up. They were on a break. They're on a break. Yeah. They're on a break. And he's like. out there exploring and, you know, maybe Catlin Stark came onto him a little in the dungeon.

But he said no. No, he didn't. That actually happened. This is just a head canon. But like, he's still monogamous. It's just like a different person. Yeah. Yeah. That's sort of the problem with it is that he is monogamous to his sister, to a fault. Right. And everyone else who's banging their sisters and or relatives. Which is a lot of them. Yeah. They kind of step outside on occasion. Do you guys think Eric and Arick we're enjoying each other. Interesting. Yeah, that is interesting.

I don't know. We don't know that I necessarily think I've thought that. They built a high tower if you know what I'm saying. Actually, it'd be the twins. I'm sorry, it would be the twins. Johnny, why are you this way? Why are you like that? So much trauma.

There's something I like, I like, I like Missaria as a character so much. I like her presence, like standing in juxtaposition to Renera because you really do see and kind of like can't unsee just that like nobody has it easy in this world. It's a shitty, shitty world unless you like live in a small town in the region even that you don't have a social contract that helps you out a lot if you're by yourself. So the fact that she is there staring or sitting across from Renera with all the ability to go and disappear and have whatever life she wants within reason. And Renera does it is so interesting to me. It makes their relationship so interesting. And I also like that she and Varys are in the position they are, in part because

of sexual differences. Like, I think we sort of, it fits with Varus' character that the fact that he is not motivated really by money, by land, by nobility, but not by sex, but with anybody. He is very hard to manipulate. So he is somebody who, he's very, that person is really, really valuable, especially, and like, especially the way that he plays it. And same with Mysterio. She cannot get pregnant. She knows how to weaponize her sexuality and she's done so in a way that protects herself and allows her to see spaces that nobody else can really see into and that people know she can't. She doesn't really live. Her little army of people is sort of evident, like they sort of hide in plain sight. Like you kind of would just take it for granted that like, oh, she knows all the prostitutes,

but which prostitute, you know, which prostitute is the one giving all this information? You don't know. Whereas Various, I think, had to operate a little bit further in the shadows, because everybody kind of knew he'd be up to something if you saw him like obviously treating with someone whereas Misera sort of like lives in her community enough that she's harder to pin down. She's so cool. Like that game of throne scene right,

where you look out and you're showing like who Littlefingers people versus Varus's people in season one and like seeing like that guy's paid off by Littlefinger, that guy's paid off by Varis that Ned has to see. And it's like, oh, you have no clue the game before you. And so Misaria is the spider. in that she absolutely is in that web and controlling that web. She doesn't have to do all the remarkable disguises.

She doesn't have the bandwidth for that. She doesn't need to. Game of Thrones didn't have Varies do that as much, right? Like, we didn't gene parrish on like varies is enough. Gene! We didn't do. I think that was the thing it kind of watched. We should actually, they should make that.

They should make that spin-off series of Varies. Just like one-off episodes of Vary is doing like Gene Parmesan shit. Yeah. Yeah. I like that with like he's like it's a procedural like an NCIS. Every day is a different flavor. Ooh, or the Pretender. I don't know if you guys watched that NBC.

I like the pretty. Yeah. On before the profiler starring Jerry T. Wyss. Oof. And Andrew Parker. Love it. Love it. Good shit.

It's good shit. Jod it down, Eliana. It's on your list now. It's like lost. It was kind of, or kind of alias before alias. Yeah. Yeah.

But very serious, even more serialized. Alias wasn't really serialized. Or it wasn't really, standalone. Right. Yeah. Much more standalone.

Yes. Yeah. Speaking of Varis and Masaria, and I want to add in Larry Strong. Yes. One of the things that, yes. Yes.

That I take an issue with across the board is that all of these manipulative characters are also heavily queer coded. We've got Masaria, who we are both seeing her being the white worm and the moments with Ranira. We have various who, eunuch, yes, but really how are they playing him? Right. Little bit of stereotypes. And Larry Strong, same thing.

Plus disability representation is kind of a big thing that bugged me about season one. I know that this is all coming from the books as well, but it definitely kind of gives me a weird little ick of, well, yeah, if somebody is playing in the shadows, then obviously they're the queer one. Interesting. I do think there's some of that. And I think that's like media today, right? Like how much of today the way media is portrayed and where we are in society is the

framework of that, right? because Larry's on the contrary we see of course him trying to take power in Allison which is interesting to play to put him in that same category so I think there's some like

a little bit of nuance there but I can definitely see where it's interesting that like the other category of House of the Dragon characters being somewhat queer coded and somewhat I mean other coded especially when you have the two main teams being team black team green

yeah and I guess like it kind of I'm about to sound down when I say like yeah Rainier is also queer code because she was the other person in that yeah very true so there's that as well as like you know her relationship with Allison which everyone like discusses as there was like very much attention there I think something we discuss a lot in our coverage of the main five books is this idea of like gender outcast and gender abomination something that our friend Lowe who studies, gender has introduced us more

to that kind of theory and I don't know that it's necessarily like, it is something that I think we should like question like how are they developing this in House of the Dragon and approaching it but it's also like to an extent like does society push you to choose

these other like paths? You don't get access to the typical path when it comes to like influence and power through what is societally sanctioned when you are outside the bounds of what's acceptable. I don't know if I said the same word like five times and like made like actually a very redundant like self-circular like argument, but who knows.

I think it's always a balance on shows watching, especially in modern era where like you're trying to portray the value systems of the of the actual like time in which the show takes place. And then, but also it's like you got a threat like how much do we really need to watch? I think Sonsa's rape is one that I found watching on TV. I'm like I can see how this is not gritty. Like I can see a possibility in which it wasn't a bunch of like men in a writer's room violently talking about how they were going to make this happen kind of thing.

I think it was something that narratively needed to happen or that like kind of narratively obviously would and that sex is so like this has been so important to Sonsa and that he is such an evil character that yeah, of course he's going to do this. And of course this is something that he like it just made narrative sense. in a really gross way. And so like, and I can see that not being gratuitous, but at the same time it was also like, wow, it was specific to,

it was deeply unpleasant to watch. And I think that we saw people being kind of socially critical of something that was very, very unpleasant. And like, I think that's tough when you're a television writer to be like, all right, well, this is good, but ultimately are people going to want to watch it? Because I don't think that line is,

I think of that what I think about Glad and the Walking Dead. I'm like, see, I think the real big, the kicker, that was a comic. thing that was not a TV thing. Yeah. It was already written. And I don't know how you make a show for the Walking Dead fans and not put in something so definitive and also not expect that backlash.

So it's just. Yeah. There's gratuitous and necessary. And sometimes things are both. And sometimes they aren't. Sometimes they're one or the other. And to that point, like in the books, like we don't, I don't think fire and blood necessarily says anything about like

Misaria and Rainier's relationship being what we saw on screen in House of the Dragon, right? Like, it's suggested it could be, but it isn't as as implied. It isn't as strongly implied, I think, and same with Larry's. Like,

Larry's is definitely like, I don't know, what's that guy doing in the books? He's being, he's just being weird and Walden out, and then, I don't know, he has a really interesting ending, I will say, and I am. And I am curious where they go with that. But to your point, like, is it gratuitous if it's not as explicitly?

They added it. If it was something that was added on to from. Yeah. And also to that point, it's difficult when there are only seven paragraphs about some characters adapting them into big players. And then, of course, the commodification of art, right? I think there's a big tradeoff that the moralization of, like, well, they shouldn't do this because of this is great.

But, like, you're also taking a tradeoff. by having CGI and putting something on a screen and having something like 30,000 extras and like prop makers making X amount of pieces and all this shit. Like there's all these tradeoffs that happen in actual production and actual writing. And like the writer's strike for season two is so apparent on rewatch. It's like as a person who forgives season two of heroes, which is like the craziest thing I can say out loud where hundreds of people might hear me say it. So I'm brave. I'm so brave. I'm the bravest person in the world. But like when you

get something like that has all these constraints based on everything and all these tradeoffs. And then also the source material is like seven sentences sometimes about something that happened. And also then half of those sentences is like, but we don't know if that's the truth. Let's kick it over to the next person who's going to tell you some lies. So like I have a little forgiveness of like, we have to fill the time and people have contracts. And we have. we have to pay them and give them enough screen time. So I'm like, there are some things. I'm like, all right, bring on the next thing.

But I think this season is especially something that I'm curious to see now that they have a lot more freedom to do some changing and to do some different things. You know, like they could. And you guys know as much as I do, right? Like there are certain things you can't do in the middle of a writer's strike. And you very much will suffer to your production because of them. The degree of like over the last like, years of working in fandom and getting an opportunity to like be adjacent to some of the companies that are making this stuff and just see getting a peek into how the sausage is made a little bit also

while watching the ways audiences respond and how you market the and how like the commercial and just really having my eyes kind of like zoned in on that you know intersection of art and commerce I have become a lot less fun on the internet I guess because I'm just like I didn't love that there's 80 million reasons I could think but that shock was picked over another one or that this version made it in or something like the amount of layers of review and of complexity there are and how dedicated everyone fucking is to their job like I don't watch shitty movies for sure but like it's just it's all a little bit gray now and I keep like I don't know it's fun to get in the mud like with the characters and sort of argue within that world but

also because like I'm not a I'm not a television critic this is not something that I even like I wrote about a lot of stuff but I don't know I don't I consider that to be much more academic and a little bit more intellectual than my approach has ever been. So, like, that's also, like, I don't want to get mad at these shows as much. And I don't find that, that was sort of starting with everybody. That was sort of starting with the final seasons of Game of Thrones where I was like, okay, well, the production value is good. The writing definitely, you know, is thinning out. I can see why they don't have enough. They're not the writer's George's. They had a dense text. Now they don't. It's pretty clear. It's not. And everybody got

so mad about it. And I just, I felt like, I can't even play at those arguments. more because it's not about me. It's not personal. And I feel like that's the fun of those internet arguments is that the TV producers are doing this to make you mad. And I don't want to get in somebody's way. That's fun. You'll have fun.

That is something that's very difficult with this fandom and show, I think, because there's a very, look, the people we were during COVID, we were insane people as a people. And a lot of our people have not come out of that. Some people are going to be that person forever, right? Like, some people are forever going to be a little. insane. I'm probably a little insane forever. There's a certain insanity to me that will never leave because of COVID. I think we were all locked inside our houses and the reality of the world

was very grim and it was very easy to absorb and the way that we now interface with media as a people is interesting and has become very, you know, not good in some aspects, right? and there's some art that's like, you know, I don't know, sometimes it really is just someone saying, this is what I have for you that's inside of my soul that I'm trying to put out there. And the corporate world of America has also like put it through the garbage disposal first, but this is all I have and this is what I have for you and you can take it or leave it. And like to what you said, it's not a personal attack. They did not go out with the idea to piss everyone off.

They went out to say, this is what I have. it or leave it. And I try to keep that in mind. Seven of Star Trek Voyager, namely a certain couple that erupts at the very end of that season, that I feel like was fucking personal because the dumbasses on that show didn't understand how powerful female viewership was, but whatever. But overall, that was in high school. But you know what? Like season five of Game of Thrones, that was personal. That was absolutely personal. I blacked that entire year of my life out. I mean, that's the season we started. Yeah. I'm trying to think of other things that are like personal.

feel like Star Wars episode, whatever like the Rise of Skywalker was, that was personal. Yeah. Yeah. That was personal. That was fucked up. I've come to the like conclusion. And I don't know if this is just sort of as I like shift away from working in pop culture as much or just, you know, I've been doing this for, I feel like Johnny and I

at this point and with knowing you guys for like upwards of a decade. And so I don't know if this is just part of evolution for me. But like now looking at like my life watching you do Star Trek and stuff as a kid and where genre television and genre movies through. of, you know, existed in this small, low production value space. And then now that they are so much more mainstream, and in ways that I feel like space that they deserved to take. I have, I loved watching the MCU. I loved Harry Potter. Like those zeitgeis despite the deep, deep problems that surround all of them, including like Star Wars and Star Trek and Game of Thrones and

oh my and all this stuff where nerd stuff has become really given like the love and the production value and the talent that growing up never in a million years would you expect adaptations like this. Like the reason I started watching Game of Thrones was because I had never seen something like the scale of the wall executed that well on television and like you got me with that special effect. But the stuff like it cannot be at that heightened stage all of the time. And I preferred it, I think, or like I am ready now for genre based television or kind of stuff that's like at the comic cons to sort of fade a little bit or like I don't know. I'm happy for that for not for that market not to depend on what is necessary or not to need what is necessary. Or not to need what is

necessary for like being a mainstream thing which is like you are simply not we don't need anymore Star Wars movies for a while like you're just never going to feel the way you felt like you're trying to recreate for people the way they felt at in a time in their life that will simply never be recreated and I just hate seeing like I hate seeing artists like Ryan Johnson and I hate seeing people like such tremendous amount of work for like stuff that we would never dream of getting only for audiences to be so just like so vitriolic because we're all like. asking for something neither one can like provide. Give.

Interesting. Yeah. I'm going to actually counterpoint that. Oh, yeah, do it. My 18 year old niece just moved in with me last week, which means I'm getting exposed to an entirely new side of YouTube. Oh, she's my age. Yeah.

But so at the same time that we're seeing things like House of the Dragon cost it. I don't know off the top of my head how many millions per episode. We're also getting things like the back rooms, which just started as. a teenager making YouTube videos and made what is, if not this week than last week, the number one movie in America on a little bit, on a early Kevin Smith budget, it's not genre in that like it's what we kind of think of as immediately science fiction, fantasy, whatever, but it is the exact same mindset of the people who are getting attached to it and getting excited about it. And they are doing it from the ground up as opposed to from Comic-Con, which is now a multi-million dollar endeavor.

That is something like everybody has been, I've been listening to, I listen to NPR kind of all throughout like just as back when I started today. And any time there's entertainment coverage talked about for the last two weeks, it's been like, oh my gosh, these movies, these movies, small budgets are doing insane. Like, is it good? Are we going to like, is horror the next thing to bring people back to theaters? And there's like, oh, gosh, studios are not plumbing YouTube for these things. And I'm just like, this fucking happens. it's all, like every fucking generation. Like it was year of the independent film when we were in junior high and it was the year,

Jerry McGuire was the only studio feature nominated and they were all these independent films. And it's because, yeah, well, yeah, Commerce, when you squeeze all of the money out of it, you make shittier movies. So when your distribution system, when your pipeline fucks up the art for people, people don't want to make fucking art with you anymore. And so they go and they make it on their own. And it's always fucking better.

And it's like, I just, it bothers me because I just know there's a lot of men in charge with MBAs who are at fucking layers of the, like, well, we have to please our shareholders and the data says that you need. I just watched like the devil worse prodig too, which was wonderful. But I was watching. Oh, my God. I just watched it today. People didn't like it, but I actually really liked it.

I, the only part that I didn't care for, it didn't bother me that much was her relationship, her boyfriend. And I'm like, this somebody said there needed to be a fucking romance in this movie. Yeah, yeah. And they got, yeah, you could have sliced it. There was not a single arc. They go on one date. They love each other.

they every once in a while they cut back from the main story to show her like looking at a apartment with him and like at no point is he ever somebody who is not pleasantly making jokes and wait um was Caleb Heeran's two minutes in the whole entire movie good was his small appearance good good because I love him so much Caleb Heerun someday we're going to be friends I just know it if you're listening Caleb Heeran and you're into House of the Dragon he's not I will use my first yeah I think it's like a friendship that would have been if we had yeah it would have worked out But that's my reason to watch The two minutes he's in the movie. I can't wait.

But yeah, what is it? Yeah, yeah. What was the connection? I'm sorry, that you're making between... Men with MBAs and that decide that because the data says this, that we should do this, and that's what art should be. And the commodification of art. Well, and I see like Ted Serrano's talking about how people don't go to theaters anymore because they just don't want to. We have to evolved beyond that. I'm like, no, no, no, no.

No, you're fucking capitalists. They don't go to movies anymore because it's really expensive for a product that's not very good. And then in order to have any experience, you're going to spend twice as much money. Like, it's a bad product, and you keep raising the price. I think of it also,

another one that, like, it makes me think of, this is like, we've just been meandering on all of these, but it's like how Paramount has absolutely no idea whatsoever what to do with the Avatar universe, like the animated series, not the other T-WOW,

which is the way of water. You're not excited for the new season? No, it's not that. Like, Paramount, once upon a time, they were going to release the new movie in theaters. And they're like, no, like, I don't understand. Why would anyone go see that? So they, like, put it back on Paramount, then it leaked.

And they're like, oh, my God, but they're like, just release it now. And then they apparently also cut, I think that they cut a video game that was like in progress or something that people were excited about because they have no idea what to do with this IP. just like the first time around Nickelodeon, they were like, I don't know what to do with this like legend of Quora. We can't like sell toys the way that they thought they had to sell toys back then when it was first coming out.

So they're like, well, let's just keep giving it the worst time slots. And then be like, oh, no one's watching it according to the data. We're also not marketing it. And then we keep changing the time that it's airing and then moving it online and then is it online? And this is when Nickelodeon's player and a lot of streamers were still like getting in the game. So it wasn't working reliably. And now Paramount's like, I don't know. We clearly saw that people wanted Avatar, but I guess they don't want Avatar.

So we'll just not invest in it. And I'm like, you didn't market it. You didn't do anything. Yeah. You didn't do anything at all. Not even a tweet or two. Cut and replace Star Trek for Avatar. And that's Alex and I about Paramount.

And like that's the weird thing. Star Trek clearly has legs. Though it's such an odd thing. I feel like my impression of that franchise under the Paramount banner has always has been too many cooks, too many cooks, too many cooks. And now Alex, and like, Alex Kurtzman is in charge of it. And I don't know him well. But like, I, every time I've seen him and, like, spoken to him, he's, he, this is like his ride that he's taken to the moon. And not that I, like, hate that. But I also, I just, they make decisions that I don't

understand. And I'm happy that, and I, like, was, and I just really want Star Trek to, like, go to sleep for a decade and just take a breather. Because, like, I love, I loved lower decks. And they canceled it. Strange New Worlds is also getting, they get getting these short seasons. So I just don't. And then they invest in stuff that like, I don't know that you have data for like, I don't know that there's any data saying that young people wanted a Starfleet Academy thing. And there's just so much new stuff. And it's I it just, the strategy is just so much like throw everything in the wall and see what sticks. But then stuff sticks and it gets canceled. And it so and not just like this, this doesn't, I don't mean it to sound judgmental.

because I truly, I don't know what it's like to manage a franchise with this many, you know, with this much influence at a multinational corporation where you have financial goals that have nothing to do with creative. But God hope I never do. Yeah, seriously. But yeah, like, that's kind of why I've just like, just put it away. Yeah, give it a break. Like you were saying about Star War, right?

Like my roommate and I have had this joke where he's like, oh, they're not going to make a movie. They're not going to make a movie. and every time there has been one in production or being in pre-production or talked about, it gets canceled and he's like, told you, told you. And then now there's one that's not, right? So I'm like, oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. Not counting Grogu because that's not real.

That's just not a real thing. I respect you if you think it is, but I don't. But so that said, like the Ryan Gosling one, right? Like that one that's supposed to happen. I'm like, that might happen. And they might actually let that see the breath of day. So I might win this bet because I said they're going to drag it out. They're going to beat the dead horse.

They're going to bleed it dry of the streets. All for money. Godless America. I think this system is going to collapse itself. Like, I think eventually it'll all be owned by Netflix and YouTube. Netflix or YouTube or maybe Apple TV. And anytime there's development in media, it usually just means new people will make new kinds of things. Like, I don't think we're going to see shitty.

I don't think like all media is just going to turn out to be shitty. But yeah, I think it's sort of a great culling and a resetting. It has been for a minute. I can't wait. You know, the big ideas, the big idea of space is going to be flourishing eventually. We just need it all to crash and be terrible. Er. Terrible er.

I have, I will say like, I like that HBO and I think this is, I think Casey Blois has been the president of HB or whatever the leader is for like, at least since the end of Thrones. So I think definitely before the beginning of Thrones, but at least since before the end of Thrones to now. And I've an HBO has like, have navigated this like pretty well considering the amount of like just total instability from going to like, they were owned by AT&T and then they got like bought out by Zazlav and Discovery and it

was going to be like, we love art. And Zazov was like, just kidding. And it's like fired everybody. And it just through all of that instability, HBO has maintained like a decent amount of consistency of hits of different kinds of hits they've maintained their like standards for what premium content is um i've good for them yeah i agree with tv and dropout are the three networks that i trust implicitly right now what tv they're willing for all three yeah dropout baby game changers i guess i do pay for apple i'm on my friend's apple family account and i do send him money Yeah, I like a little Apple.

I will say, you know, Apple TV does feel like they're doing money laundering very much with everything they're doing. However, really good quality when I do watch them, even with the money laundering. I feel like they're throwing money. I feel like their strategy of like throwing shit at a while to see what sticks is like makes more sense to me than the sort of what I perceive as like the Star Trek strategy. Yeah, agreed there. Agreed there. Well, okay, so since my hysteria persists in House of the Dragon, my question to you both is, first of all, which dragon are you?

And then second of all, what are you looking forward to seeing the most this season? Has Johnny thought about it? Is that why you're like, Johnny, you go, tell her your dragon. So I'm going to say dream fire because I just want to kind of stay out of it and, you know, maybe tell my friends about what's going on as opposed to being involved in everything that is going to go wrong this season because as excited as I am for this season now, I'm not excited for things to be on an upturn for anyone. Things will get worse for everyone. The thing that I'm genuinely a little bit concerned about is that, like, I loved, I think we all like Game of Thrones when Obama was president. And it was good for it that it ended when Trump was president. And now that it's like Trump on steroids and drugs and a bunch of like, oh God, I don't, yeah, like, I don't know.

I wonder if like how it looks like things like could get bad and get pretty bad for heroes that we've grown to like in the last season, which ended on a fairly victorious note. And I wonder how that's going to be received by American audiences. What is Zora Mamdani's plan for Renira's triumph? You know, like, what is his plan for House of the Dragons ending? What is going to happen? Why has Zora Mamdani not told us, you know? Starting to question. Everyone's bar tab is free.

What is his plan for House of the Dragons ending? His plan is the Knicks are going to win, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, that's what he says. I think that's the plan. Allegedly. It's actually, it's the opposite of his next plan where bedtimes are canceled. Bedtimes for everyone for the House of the Dragon finale are 9 p.m. 9 p.m. 9 p.m.

Be in your house. I don't mind it earlier. But kids go to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As far as things that I'm excited about, tongue-in-cheek answer is Amon gets a glass eye. That's representation for me.

And as a cis white male, that's something that's sort of. lacking. Amazing. As a like semi real answer, I'm weirdly looking forward to Egan and Laris and there. Yes. Yes. Like after everything I said about him being villainous and both disabled and queer coded or kink coded and the shady guy.

Like we had the last two episodes of season two where I felt like he was yes, acting in Laris's best interest because he doesn't. doesn't know how to do anything else, but also was being genuine. And so I'm really interested to see where that goes. And if they are going to keep it a... Non-toxic. Not, yes, exactly, non-toxic. Like if his end game with him is actually sad instead of evil.

Like, that's one change I might like that, like, their relationship and, like, because also right now, Larius is in a position that, like, he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, like, great, protect the king and maybe things will go well or give him up and he dies and things go well. Like, I'm going to come out on top for now. Interesting. Interesting. I said last time, like, yeah, that is one of the things I'm also most interested in, and our friend who is also named Alex pointed out, like, together, like, we were discussing how there's something about Larry's that feels a little like, and I'm going to say this in like as least creepy way as possible. Like, that is like the relationship between Littlefinger

in Sonsa where like he he sees like a kinship like a caring for Egan but also as like Egan being as well like a representation of Allison in a way maybe but also like a highly valuable piece

a how a valuable pond piece who's also a player it can be a player but also like maybe yeah parental and so I don't know it is it is really interesting their relationship and I didn't think about it as you said like Larry's is being very genuine and like I think it's for once like Egan

Agin is in a position where Lairies doesn't have to pretend to be a different person to him Agan gets it now That's like I think that I almost You almost don't want to believe it Because a character like Leris He's not even three dimensional but he is He's not three dimensional but he is a villain

The show has been very clear about that So seeing him be authentic in this way Almost I kind of almost like Don't want to look at directly in the face but it really is like beautiful in a narrative way because Laris could not have expected this opportunity. So we kind of understand. So like it makes it easier to believe like, wow, he's in a plague. This is a guy who is thinking 18 steps ahead. And it's fun to see someone like that get handed something that is neither good nor bad. It simply represents a way to move in a certain way, like depending on which choice you make.

And it represents potential power, but also, but is that power emotional? is like maybe Laris having a relationship with someone in a way he never thought he could. So I just, it's going to be interesting to see like what these experiences, how they grow with the enrichment of these experiences. Is it, yeah. I mean, I don't have any illusions about Laris or Egan having like great happy endings, but I'm excited to see the little journey on the way. And I never thought about Egan as a stand-in for Allison in in Lerries's mind.

So that's really interesting to me. Yeah, there's something there interesting, an extension of her on the road with him. And, yeah. Or like, yeah, it's something, because he, a thread that I feel like we didn't, we didn't talk about enough just because we didn't, we weren't getting that in depth. It was just how kind of annoyed he is with her relationship with Sir Kristen and how she kind of doesn't really clock that or she just does not consider it. She's, Alison's like, not an up, like, homie, my list of shit to worry about is so long. It's not even in the top 20 that you're mad about shit. you don't even need to know about.

But at the same time, like, it's obviously very important to him. And I hadn't also thought of, like, that thread where that he is looking for a way to have access to her that otherwise he simply does not have. And kind of looking for a way to give her a fuck you because she's sort of a band, like, to his perception or to a lot of people's perception, she's very much, she does believe what Viseris believed, which is that Agon is simply not cut out for this, which is like so totally fair. Like, poor Agon.

Don't absolute monarchy, guys. Did Vissarys not believe, did he believe that Agin, like, wasn't cut out for it? Or did Bissarys just straight up forget he had a son named Agan? The world will never know. How can anyone ever know? This is just our running thing of, like, Vissarys only thinks he has one child. Yeah, just one.

Like, that's the thing. Like, had there been, like, kind of a scene or something when Viserius had been, like, listen, okay, like, listen, I get that it's going to be problematic. but ultimately she's going to be better at this. We all know she's going to be better at this. Like he could have just said that to Allison, and I feel like Allison would have found a way to, she's a people pleaser and he would have done that young.

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, she's been talked into it at this point, so it's fine. It could have worked out, but no. Well, what about you? What dragon are you, Alex? This is very important for science. And what are you looking forward to both?

Yeah, that too. But most importantly, the dragon. I gave different names to all of the dragons. because it was fun. And I'm either Vagar, who I named Regina George, or Vermithor, who I named Dura Flame. And I'm just really proud of those jokes. So that's why I love that.

I like Dura Flame. That's fun, cute. Okay. Vagar. I love that because she is everything. She's the moment. And she knows it. And, you know, Regina George, going to Regina George.

Yeah. Regina, Regina. I'm excited to see, I don't know that I'm most excited to see all of it because these really, because we've, Johnny and I have just been like mainlining this for the last like six weeks. So I'm just like revving to go. But all of these relationships are so like carefully pieced together. I find myself just sort of like waiting to see how I want. I really want like, I don't know if this is going to happen, but I would really like Kristen

Cole, Allison and Renera all in the same room. I would also like just for some kind of like little reality show type reunion. I know it's not going to happen. But I just feel like they have a lot to talk about it. It's my favorite love triangle. And I also, it reminds me of some kind of story. I don't know if it was like a Sweet Valley High or something or some story where like some do. Oh, it's kind of gone with the wind.

But Chris, where like Kristen is sort of scarlet and Reneer is Ashley Wilkes and Allison is rep Butler. Yeah. Kind of. Remix. Or like, yeah, or like Allison is Mellie Meadows and Renera is Scarlet and Kristen is Rett. Maybe. Maybe that. Maybe it's a better mix with the Rett as Christian. Yeah. Yeah. So that, but I think for, I think ultimately I am excited to, I want more Alice Rivers. And I am excited if we actually get to see Amand get to Heron Hall, how they play that out, how just their relationship. because I kind of, I wanted, like, her and Damon to kind of get down.

I was sort of surprised they didn't. I'm glad they didn't because it just, I don't know, that whole, I don't know, that whole story doesn't need to change at all. But I'm curious to see her further development because I, we'd love a witch in the Riverlands. She's really, I'm excited to see the old Northman because as a Sons of Anarchy fan, Tommy, like, just the fact that we had a throwaway line at the top of season two where like the starks are like, listen, I mean, we've got warriors.

They're just gray beards. But, like, you know, they're like stark gray beards. And, like, you don't. know like how impactful that actually is and how much that means until they fucking hired Tommy Flanagan to play Roddy the Ruin and the first fucking picture you see of him is like mid-killing somebody and he's already exhausted but you're like oh right the northern men are like the old man don't sleep on the old guys it's not like the reach old men it's like these guys that's what I'm excited about yes no actually like the fan services for me of the north like

bringing the North into it and actually giving it time this season will be really nice considering we didn't get so much last season. It'll be really nice. I kind of like that. We're going to, I kind of would like the North to kind of just sort of stay on the side and just be like the consistent player that made Ned's death so tragic. And just to be like, the North is what it says it is. The North shows up.

The North remembers. The North does not like, the North like, what you see is what you get with the North. But this isn't their story, not today. Yeah. And I kind of like them just sort of. and sort of not really like just going from point A to point A and being very consistent static characters but just being like awesome. You're looking for remember the north as opposed to the north remembers.

Like, oh yeah, they're here. Shit. They're here. Yeah, that's a good one. That's really a good one. Okay, Eliana, wait, what dragon are you? You asked me this last time and I like, or like, two years ago. And I don't remember what answer I gave.

And I don't know that I know. Well, I mean, it could have changed. I mean, what do you feel in your heart of hearts? Today, today I'm feeling sheep stealery or cannibally. I love that for you. Maybe we don't know. We don't know. Or that cannibal was even real.

We just don't know. Okay. Okay, that's how I'm feeling today. But this past quarter, let's talk about this past quarter. This past quarter, I've been feeling storm cloud. Oh, that's very morose. That's a little grim. I know it's on the way, Chloe.

Who do you feel today? Jesus Christ. Overarking? Usually moon dancer, bright. Your team. Young. Rock and roll. You know, bright.

Usually, but like, ooh, bad ending. So moon dancer, I got a little dream fire in me as well. I'm with Johnny on that. I like a little dream fire. You know, I'm a Raina girl. So got to love Dreamfire. Got to love Raina the Black Bride. What a queen.

I think that's probably. me probably moon dancer with a dreamfire moon moon moon dancer sun wow write that one down uh with a dream fire moon like that peaceful you know peaceful till it's not till it's not till they all die moon they really are gonna all die i know right my favorite part about moon dancer is moon dancer sounds like a toy like i would have been given in the like the sky dancers yeah i think about it Fire and Moon Dancer are like Skydancers. Our like Skydancers. He was like named some

dragons and they did and he was like I'm that correct. Absolutely. Do moon dancers exist? No sorry. Do Sky dancers exist again? Like you know how they brought back Polly Pocket? Did they bring back Skydancers? And if they did we should get some and like paint them and outfit them to look like dragons.

That's tonight's take. I think they may have come back. I just don't want to like use the old ones because I feel like the old ones we have to preserve art in society. And so we have to put the old sky dancers that anyone has still in a museum. Like that has to be preserved for future generations to understand our society. So to give you the facts before we close out, they were launched in 94 and they were really successful. They actually had a similar toy line.

Aimed at boys called dragonflies, believe it or not. So that already exists. So you should look up. Dragonflies with a Z, Eliana, and see what you can find for us. The Prince of Dragonflies? Yeah, the Prince of Dragonflies. The dolls, despite having foam wings to help prevent injury, over 100 injuries were reported, including temporary blindness, facial lacerations that required stitches, and the manufacturer

of the toys, Galube, had to recall them in June 2000. They were less than six years on the... market, about 10 million of the toys were recalled. They were re-released in 2005 with an adapted design by play-along toys, a different manufacturer. There also was an animated series,

so the more you know, they were longdarts. I believe it as a person who definitely got hurt. Shit. I believe it. I mean, like, I wasn't that level of hurt, and I was like, user error. Oh, but I was hitting myself in the head. Yeah,

hitting myself in the head with these things. the time, dude. Or my cousins, just boom. I had actual lawn darts, like, as a kid, because my mom had them. And so, like, we, I didn't know they were dangerous. Like, you don't throw them at yourself. But yeah, I can see how other people would misuse them. We haven't discussed how I lost my eye. Was it a skydancer? It was, in fact, a skydancer. Wait, really? No. Oh, I don't think you understand. That would have come up. I believe anything. That would have come up When they came up

Gullible Oh my god Can you imagine like if House of the Dragon Instead of like Luke Like stabbing me It was a sky A model dragon

How do you think I got these scars There is no clearly Canadian We're Yes No Clearly Canadian Seriously? Not the soda water

Like the It's not that clearly Clear to me I guess No. No, I don't know. Good one. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I'm so sorry for you. It's no, it's just flavored sparkling water. Like, LeCroy was sugar before any of that existed. And then it kind of, it went away. And I didn't realize you could do this. But somebody I, a friend of a friend got the rights to that brand and fully brought it back and like sold it for a couple million dollars. And now is just like, trying for the next one. And I was just like. Okay. Because I've met this guy and I was not super impressed by him and I was like, all right. So keep it in mind if there's something that you really like and take notes. The rights are available for a reasonable sum. What is this? Catch me Googling tonight. Yeah, what should we bring back? What should we bring back, y'all? There's an episode in itself. Exactly. Exactly. I don't know anything. I can't think of anything. I'm too dumb. We are going to have you guys on a roundtable on our own kind for anybody who's listening and wants to hear. more of this. We will be duplicating it somewhat on our feed on Got Thrones. So stay tuned. Folks can head that way and check it out now after. Where are the best places that people can listen to your podcast? Everywhere you'd get podcasts. We are available. We are what I like to call now

a faceless podcast. So you can find us on socials at TikTok at God underscore Thrones and on Instagram at Got Thrones. And you can find us on YouTube at Got Thrones podcast, but only on our socials do we have video on our YouTube, which you can please go to YouTube, but that's where you like to consume your podcast. I just put a screen record of our transcript up there because the files are too fucking big. Rendering is hell.

And I don't want to have to put on makeup every time. And I'm fine with that for socials. That's real. Absolutely. Everybody make sure you're subscribing because they will be releasing episode, an episode, a episode. Weekly, it sounds like, during the season.

So you'll want to subscribe. to hear that. And we're so excited for that. We look forward to the roundtable on your channel as well. We will be back with House of the Dragon episodes. Every single week, look for them within one to two days of the episode. They should be hitting your ears. We're still figuring out if that's going to be a Tuesday release consistently or a Wednesday

release. Jury is out. We will be back after House of the Dragon this year with. with Tyrion in a clash of kings as we round out our final published A Song of Ice and Fire, P-O-V. Sounds terrible every time I say it, but yeah, we'll return to men's rights shortly. Good. I know you guys are friends that I'm going to talk about.

I'm sure that by the time you finish Tyrion, George will have new content for us. He's been so reliable. That's what we've been saying for seven to eight years. He's going to have blood and fire out. He's going to have a fire and blood volume two out. I'm going to find out what happened to the rest of Egan the Third's reign. And I'm going to find out about my new, like, passion in life, which is what, what's the deal with the rest of like the series, the seconds, like, reign? What's the deal with the War of the Nine, Penny Kings.

And we have a new passion. We had a new passion that we like got from our Dorn series. Was it Baylor or something? Oh, I love Baylor. I'm like a Baylor. Interesting. The Blessed. Okay.

Also, new. Not like Stan, but like that era Stan. I'm excited for like, as much as I am like really annoyed that HBO is like, we're going to give you more Game of Thrones content that nobody asked for it with those movies that are happening. I am a little excited to see Agon's Conquest mostly because like I want to see how the myth is born and I want to see Heron Hall before it was. Like there's some stuff that I will absolutely, I hope they kind of hope they put it in

theaters. I would use my AMC steps for that. I would go for sure. I would go. And I'm in it for organ. Dara Duranden and for Rangies. I think it'd be really cool if they continued it past the conquest too and we got some Magor content.

Like I think it could be really interesting if we got some feminist king, Magor. And like we found out if like, so Chloe and I are with the opinion that there's no magic from like that Agen was sterile. So like if we get more Magor and Vesnia, I think I'd be really interested in that era too. Yeah, I would definitely be. And you know me. I'm like, why not push it? Why not keep going?

Give me, I want Raina for sure. So I would love to see Aeney's Magor show. I would love any of that. So HBO, if you're listening, please. Then we get Raina. I know, that's what I'm saying. Think about it. And Dreamfire again.

Yeah, I'm playing the long game, folks. I'm playing the long game. We'll be back with weekly episodes. Thanks so much for tuning in to the shorter season of Unleash the D this year. You never know when the D will be unleashed. I've been one of your hosts, Chloe. I've been

serious regular, Eliana. Thank you so much. Thank you so much to our friends here from Got Thrones. And again, I'm a featured extra Alexandra. You know the actual terms. There's like real like different like payment like slides. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I said you're regular now. I couldn't get away with making you a guest

for that long. I'm just here for craft services. I'm here for the luncheon, you know? Here for the uncrust of us. If you want to hear more of this discussion, don't forget to go check out Godthrowns, where Chloe and I have joined them once more to discuss. Yeah, check it out in the description. Thanks, y'all.

See you soon. Bye. Bye, folks.