House of R - ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Episode 1 Deep Dive

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Mal and Jo are back in Westeros to dive deep into the latest ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoff series, ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’! They talk about everything from Dunk’s attempt to enter the tourney, Dunk meeting Egg, and the introduction of the incredible Lyonel Baratheon. (00:00) Intro (09:48) Opening Snapshot (41:12) Dunk Buries Ser Arlan of Pennytree (48:02) Dunk Contemplates His Future (01:05:25) Dunk Meets Egg (and a Mysterious Stranger) At the Inn (01:13:57) Dunk Arrives At Ashford Meadow to Join the Lists (01:28:40) Dunk Seeks Ser Manfred Dondarrion (01:35:24) The Fossoway Apples Enter the Chat (01:42:11) Ser Manfred Really Needs An Alarm Clock (01:44:23) Tanselle Too-Tall Is Not Too Tall For Me (01:50:44) Bonding With Raymun (01:51:50) The Laughing Storm Dances His Way Into the Story (02:12:11) Ser Manfred Rejects Dunk (02:13:39) Dunk Takes on a Squire! (02:23:15) Book Spoilers! Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greetings and welcome to House of our, a ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin. Joining me today, now that she's had a profound thought, if anyone would care to listen, it's the biggest Lionel Barathean fan. We know Joanna Robinson. That's me. It is. I had to start with a Lionel reference for you.

Thank you. It was the only way. We are here to dive deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep into the season premiere of a Night of the Seven Kingdoms, and we will do that right after this. This episode is brought to by Borris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Borishead just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means

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How do we cover a Game of Thrones television show? The cornucopia of content that we have available. Sunday night. Yes. Talk the Thrones. Wow. With candles. There are candles. Tapestries, like mini crowns. Love that for us. Some dragon eggs. And of course, most importantly of all, Chris Ryan. The best set deck of all, Chris Ryan. true. It's true. Talk to Thrones will be available immediately after every episode of a night of the Seven Kingdoms. And then we will be here in the House of Our for our deep dives. Typically,

end of the night on Tuesdays, those will be available for you to begin consuming in full. We were a little delayed this week. Appreciate everybody's patience. The watch. Checking in on Mondays. The Midnight Boys. Poo! Peeoo! Check it in on Mondays. Check out what Riley McAtee is writing on The Ringer.com. What a great website. As always, we are all thrilled to be back in Land of Ice and Fire. Spoiler warning. Let's refresh on how we handle that as well. The bulk of this pod is a spoiler-free, spoiler-safe experience. We, of course, incorporate book quotes and book materials, and we will shortly refresh everybody on what we are adapting here, what Ira Parker and Co. are adapting here as we go because we're providing

contacts and insights, but anything that happens in the future of the novella, we're not going to be talking about it until the end of the podcast in a book, spoiler, look-ahead section, and there will be a warning. I don't know what Carlos has in mind this time. Will it be flashy, loud? Sirens? Something that terrifies people as they're driving? Drop the sponge while you're doing your dishes sort of moment.

Probably. Perhaps. You will be warned before we get into the book, spoiler section. Everything until then is safe, hospitable. hopefully entertaining and informative space. Yeah, bread and salt for everyone. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

That always goes fine. Joanna. Yes. How can everybody follow along? What a great question. So glad you asked me. Listen, why don't you just subscribe to the podcast? It's a great idea.

What does that mean? You can listen to it. That's something that people still do with the podcast sometimes. Or you can watch it. We're on YouTube. We're on Spotify. There's a number of places where you can listen to us. Subscribe to our social channels.

There will be breakouts from Talk to Thrones. from House of R throughout the season for you to check out on TikTok or Instagram or wherever you get your social media. We are not in charge of you. You can do what you want. And then email us. Yes. The inbox is open.

Hobbits. And even though there are none in this show, Dragons at gmail.com. Hobbits and dragons at gmail.com. So you're not updating the inbox to Hobbits and puppet dragons at Gmail.com? No. As much as I love a puppet. It doesn't really roll trippingly off the tongue the way that Hobbits and Dragons. Okay. The inbox is the same. The inbox is open. Thank you for emails for this pod.

And we look forward to hearing from everybody throughout the entire season. We do. We love the bad babies. Anything else on the programming reminders front, spoiler warning front, how to follow, how to email, anything else? I don't think so. You know, our release cadence will be what it is around again. We're figuring some things out. Yeah. Yeah. We're figuring some things out. I guess I'll explain why. Yeah. I'll try. Forgive me, be patient with me. We lost our cat Halo a few days ago. And, you know, anybody who knows us, but also anybody who knows us through the pods who has listened over the years knows that Halo was the most important thing in my life. And the most important thing in our family and in our lives for me and for Adam. and, you know, we are honestly just, like, shattered and devastated and really, like, struggling. We're having a really hard time and we're struggling to cope. And I needed a little more time before coming in to do this today.

And I appreciate everybody's patience. And, like, I wanted to try to come do the pot today because, like, for a few reasons. I just don't, like, anticipate a day anytime soon where I feel fine and good. You know, I just feel like so heartbroken and my home and life, like, just feel empty without him, honestly. And, you know, we've heard one of the things we really have talked about a lot with each other and have found, like, such gratitude for is the people we've heard from over the years who have reached out to us. To tell us that, like, when they're going through something hard or painful in their lives, the pod has given them some joy. Yeah. and like a brief little reprieve from the grief.

And, you know, I thought maybe I'll try that. Like, maybe I'll try to pull myself out of my despair for even just a couple of hours. And, you know, I just ask everybody's, like, forgiveness. I don't think I'm at my best today. This is not going to be my best podcast. But, you know, I wanted to try. And, like, I also just, you know, I posted about Hale on Instagram. And, like, I was just so touched to hear from.

so many of the bad babies and the binge heads about how, like, they loved him from afar, and they felt like they knew him from, you know, hearing me talk about him so much over the years. And so I wanted to, like, be here to share in all of this with you and with everybody, like, because of that. And, you know, Thrones is, like, we talk a lot about how, like, we love sharing this world together. We love sharing these stories together with other people who love them too. And, like, you know, Halo was 16 and a half years old. And Adam and I had him for 13 years.

And the fictional universe that I visited with him in my life the most often, without question, was Game of Thrones. I rewatched the show and seasons and seasons and seasons and seasons of the show so many times with him curled up in my arm nook or on my lap, cuddled up on the couch. with him under a blanket. I reread the book so many times with him cuddled up, cozied up with me. And, you know, talking about Thrones over the years, I would talk about him all the time. Like, when I would talk about John and Ghost in that relationship, I would always bring up halo. Something that I used to love to do, even, like, going back to the Grantland days when we would do the weekly, like, Game of Thrones precaps, and pick a little thing to highlight. I would just love taking pictures of him with my favorite Game of Thrones merch.

I have so many pictures of him with like my dire wolf pups or a little ghost Funko Popper. You know, I would have a full-sized sword and we would get him. He's like a little letter opener. Yeah, yeah, the little opener. A mini sword. And, you know, I just loved sharing this world with him as I loved sharing everything with him. And this is, Night of the Seven Kingdoms is the last show I watched with him. You know, it's the last show I watched with him in the novella.

The Hedge Night Novella is the last thing I reread with him, still with me. And so, like, it just felt important to, even though I am just a complete wreck and just like a hollow husk, it felt important to me to, like, try to be here today and to thank everybody for their kindness and for loving him and recognizing what a beautiful, special soul he was. And, you know, I could, like, talk about him until the breath left my body and never find a way to, like, fully articulate what he meant to me. So, yeah, just thank you to everybody. And I miss him terribly. So I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad I got to meet Halo.

Same. It's very, very special. And something that our listeners talk about all the time when they write in is how much they relate to how much you, how deeply you care. and how passionate you are about things. And this is just a perfect manifestation of how open your heart is. And we love you. We're so glad you're here. But also, I know that everyone is very understanding for whatever time you need to.

Yeah, I appreciate it. Just like, yeah. We'll get to the hype track eventually. I needed a beat before we did that. I am sorry. I'll be here when we get to her. But, yeah, I love you. I love you too.

All right. I'm going to go wipe my eyes and then we'll resume. Okay, we're back. We're back and we're going to try to make a podcast. And we're going to start with the opening snapshot. Joanna. Mallory, if anybody did not watch Talk the Thrones. Sure.

If anybody did not consume our, if memory serves five total hours of trailer breakdown podcasting. Normal, fine. Very normal. For us, it's normal. What is the television series, a night of a seven kingdoms, based on. These are the tales of Dunkin Egg as as they're more, you know, colloquially referred to three novellas. Yes. So far. So far. Asterisk. The Hedge Knight came out in 1998 and that's what this season of television is, is the adaptation of the first novella of the Hedge Knight. Yes. Sworn Sword, which they are currently filming. Season two is going to be the sworn sword. That came out in 2003. And then the mystery night is the third novella, hopefully the third season if all, you know, goes well, which was, published in 2010. So three novellas, at least three seasons.

Knock on this particle board. You know what I mean? Yeah. Not on some pole wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's appeared to be wood. Yeah. Every day I check on the internet and I wait for casting news for season two,

Sworn Sword. Like, who will be playing Venice in the Brown Shield? I stand by my suggestion from years ago. David Tennant. Let's get David Tennant in there to play Venice. Why not? You know, increasingly, I'm of your mindset. How amazing would that be?

You're a very convincing an influential person. Thank you. Thank you. The novellas, like the show, rooted in Dunk's point of view. Right. We're not moving as we are in the Song of Ice and Fire primary book series through dozens and dozens of narrators. Increasingly sprawling and unwieldy points of view. Yeah, we are rooted.

We are rooted in this relationship between Duncan Ag and Dunk's perspective on the world. George says, as recently as the Hollywood Reporter cover story that came out last week, that he's writing more. He's working on it. Here is what George told James Hubbard. The big issue is that I have only written three novellas, and I have a lot more stories about Duncan Egg in my fucking head, Martin says. Looking a bit shamefaced. I actually made me really sad.

George, we believe in you. I've got to get them down on paper. I began writing two at various points of the past year. one is set in Winterfell and one set in the Riverlands. Well, that's thrilling. That's so exciting. He's talked over the years about like, I've got 12 at least Dunkin Egg Tales that I want to tell. And we know at least historically sort of like how far in the future this could go. We won't be talking about specifics until the book spoiler section. But like, we know a logical endpoint to these stories. And it would be so cool if the TV show could get there. It would be really,

really cool. Thrilling. I've been saying for years, George, put down winds of winter. It's not working for you. Why don't you just like loosen the jar with some Dunkin Egg, get those juices flowing, and then maybe you come back to Winds Winter, but probably he won't. Why not all? Why not all of it? I'm with you. I would love to just get some new Dunkin Egg tales, especially now that we've seen how

faithful this adaptation is in a really wonderful way, to have more canonical source material for Ira Parker & Coe to adapt and develop, I think would just be like wonderful. And one of my hopes, we're going to talk shortly here about our initial opinions of the show, the overall kind of reception to the show so far. My hope is that, because I think we both agreed on that. And we've said it over the years and there's a little bit of a like, maybe this is a straw man point. I don't know. But there's like a little bit of a, how dare you even put that out into the world?

Wins, wins, wins. My hope is that once everybody sees how wonderful in the Seven Kingdoms is. And more people fall in love with Dunkin' Egg, maybe there would be like a wider. embrace of, that said, book readers have loved Duncan Egg since minute one. These are hugely popular about us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think everybody who has read the stories would be thrilled to get more and maybe the wider Thrones fandom will invest in and embrace this show and then just be excited to have more of it.

Anything else on that Hollywood reporter piece that you want to hit before we move on? I just want to talk quickly about this sort of cycle that George seems to be going through with his relationship to the people adapting his work. Because though he was not quite as vocal with it, things got a little chilly with Weiss and Benioff and co at the end of Game of Thrones between George and the folks behind that show. He has gotten quite frank and public about his parting of the ways with Ryan Condal.

But if you'll remember when House of the Dragon started, he was like, now Ryan gets it. And it's like my chosen man. Ryan is my guy and this is it. And now he's like, Ryan out. Ira Parker in. Right? So this just seems to be sort of like a cyclical thing

where, and it's the same. issue seems to be coming up again and again. This is a quote from the same piece. George said, then we got into season two about working with Ryan on House of the Dragon. He says, then we got into season two and he basically stopped listening to me. I would give notes. Nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn't doing it. Other times he would tell me, oh, okay, yeah, I'll think about that. It got worse and worse. And I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes. So George has a very specific POV.

of how he wants his books to be adapted and he wants them to be adapted as faithfully as possible. What Weiss and Benioff and Ryan Condal are struggling with is that not everything that exists in the imagination of George R. Martin will be legible in a TV show. It's just like you cannot adapt it one to one. George, rightly so, is like very married to his own vision. And so then there becomes this parting of the ways. Like what is functional? What is within the concept of like a budget? Have you heard of it?

like what can we do and what is part of George's imagination? What I'm really hopeful for for this project is that the scope is so small for at least these three novellas. Like these are very contained stories. We are telling about the tourney at Ashra Meadow. Yes. Right. And Aram Parker has talked about, already about season two.

And he's like, we don't have a bigger budget for season two. We're just making do with what we have. And that's, first of all, like necessity being the mother invention when it comes to sort of film and television is always really exciting for me. When you have constraints on your budget, people get really creative, which is very exciting. And then also, I don't think there will be as much of an opportunity for George to be like, but I have this huge thing envisioned in my mind because these are very like small, humble stories. That's the nature of them.

And so I'm hopeful that Ira, who clearly has shown that he wants to adapt this story very faithfully, and it's not the kind of story that will be impossible to adapt very faithfully, that we will have a copacetic relationship between George and the show going forward. That's what everyone, everyone wants George to be happy. Absolutely. Everyone wants us to have a good time at home. And everyone wants these showrunners

to not feel like they have impossible tasks. So I'm really hopeful for this project. And I'm also still really supportive of Ryan Condole in House of the Dragon. Like I'm really excited for House of the Dragon season three. I think House of the Dragon season three is going to be a banger. You know, House of the Dragon, I mean, even compared, obviously, with Thrones, we went all.

book at some point, and that was a quagmire of historic proportions. And, you know, I think there were some post-book moments like Winds of Winter. The season six finale is like my favorite episode of television ever. It was possible to achieve something great, obviously, a knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the second episode of the final season, is an episode that we both cherish and adore inside of a, you know, a season of television and a conclusion of a series that is still one of the great wounds in our collective arts and psyches. It was just, you know, The End of Thrones is a genuine shame still. You know, adapting fire and blood, like, it's a challenge even compared to the other challenges.

This idea of the competing narrators, you know, we're not going to spend long on this because that's not what we're here to talk about today. But it's an enemy-bable task as getting to make a Thrones show seems fucking cool. But it's an uneniable task because, like, there's not such a clear roadmap and this idea of, like, well, part of the mission of the television show is to say, here is actually the thing. Yeah. It feels, in hindsight, maybe inevitable that we got to this point. But I agree, it's really a shame. And, you know, like, one of my favorite T-shirts is in the Thrones font.

Like, that wasn't in the books. You know, I'm obviously, like, my... Same. Yeah, instinct is, like, the source material is precious for a reason and let's adapt it faithfully. I think we both agree that faithful is still a pretty big word. And it doesn't necessarily mean letter to letter word to word. about the spirit of it and understanding the heart of it. I think what's also true is that it's so interesting when George R. Martin is self-aware and

when he's not. Yeah. And there are many ways in which he is like self-aware of his own foibles and we all have foibles. For sure. But like the fact that he can't connect the fact that, uh-oh, this story has gotten so sprawling that I'm having a hard time writing for winds of winter and Weiss and Benioff saying, hey man, you've done this whole side plot with like Lady Stoneheart or fake Agon or whatever the case I be. and we can't go down that path because we need to keep it focused. And it's like, actually, George probably should have kept his story a bit more focused.

And if he had maybe Winds of Winter wouldn't be such a big lift for him. You know what I mean? And I'm sorry for the Lady Stoneheart. I mean, I wanted Lady Stoneheart. I mean, I wanted Lady Stoneheart. I sat on pot after pot and I was like, give me young grief. But yes, there is a reality to making a show. And it's tough because I, my heart, like, I feel such empathy and tenderness toward George,

especially because of the way Thrones ended, which I think. think obviously is like a source of PTSD then for all adaptations that follow, undeniably. Absolutely. Not to like psychoanalyse. It just seems impossible that the reaction to what's happening with Hot D isn't informed by the end of Thrones. I mean, he's like saying as much, right? So to continue to have the work adapted invites the continuation of this feeling. And that's like a pretty thorny thing.

I'm thrilled that we continue to get Game of Thrones adaptations, and I want us to, you know, with intention and methodically continue to expand and build in the world. I'm just really excited for novellas as a source of show. Because I've said for years and years and years that novellas are some of the best things to adapt because they're flesh out. You know, there's great dialogue that's just airlifted directly from the page into this show. Yes, quite a good. There's a little room to play and expand.

But you're not massively cutting things in order to make it. work on the screen. So like novellas and short stories, I think, have always been like a really interesting place to go. And so here we are. Yeah, this first episode is such an interesting little microcosm of that where the departures from the very faithful adaptation are adding, pulling up, expanding rather than saying we needed to call, we needed to clip, we needed to cheat, we don't have room for this big moment or this relationship. It's, well, what if we took somebody like Lionel Barathean who is a figure of consequence in the story and gave you one of the most memorable, scenes in Game of Thrones history episodes before book readers would have expected to spend time with

that character. So let's get into just the table setting like a little amuse-bush. Again, if anybody didn't hear us talk about the story, I'd be on Talk to Thrones, or they did and they're back for more. Sickos, we love you. What did you think of this first episode of a Night of the Seven Kingdoms as a lover of the novellas and a lover of the story? I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I'm so excited for this season of television. It's been interesting to me to hear I expected that everyone who watched it would love it. And that hasn't been the case necessarily. The critics are all really high on it.

The general audience is a little bit more mixed. And that's fine. People are allowed to have their opinions. But I actually like, I was like, if people give it a chance. Yes. I think this is so winning. Yeah. So charming.

And maybe it'll just take a couple more episodes for it to get there for people. Or maybe it won't get there for people. But I just, I loved it. Hedge Knight, written by Ira Parker, directed by Owen Harris. Owen Harris directed your favorite episode of Black Mirrors. San Juan DiParo. San Juan Apparo. He also directed Holy Flying Circus, which is a Monty Python documentary.

And you can just, like, really feel the Monty Python influence inside of this. Like, a lot of the stuff that's additive is, like, quite silly. Yeah. And I enjoyed that silly. As for chair, hive, rise. Yeah, rise up. Or lower. Or lower.

Right up to be lowered. Off that's like, I often have like a bit of an allergic reaction to like stuff that's too doofy and I just thought this like really like walked the line. I really loved it. I think also that idea of like to do more with less budgetarily is really important to find your tone. Yes. We talked about this a bit in the trailers. Sandwich between these two giants of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. What is the tone for this more humble show? Yeah. Is it dramatically shitting literally on the theme on the Game of Thrones theme? perhaps, but just sort of like, I feel so consistent and assured in what it's doing, despite the fact that Ira Parker is, you know, quite new to this role inside of this world. Yeah. And we can get into this a little bit more, but like, I'm so excited in terms of like what's here at the beginning and what will be tracking throughout, I really am excited to talk about the brand of tarth thread.

This is something that readers have been well aware of for a very long time. But Brian and actually it's not just Brann and Jamie. For sure. Both of them, yeah. And Padrick are so present inside of this episode and so present inside of this story. And I mean, I don't know about you. That's my favorite part of Game of Thrones is Jamie and Brian. And so the fact that this is like built on that DNA and there are so many illusions and references and moments to it is just absolutely.

there's no way I wasn't going to love this. And also, one last thing I want to say. Then back to you in the studio. Back to you. It's one to say back to you in the studio. We're in the studio. But like, I have, there are sometimes when I feel like positively high when I hear a creator talk about something and I'm like, that's exactly what I got. When I heard Ira Parker say, his inspiration for the dancing in this episode was fiddler on the roof.

I like levitated because I was like, that's what it was. It was like, it was Lechayem. It was the bottle dance. It was just like, he just tapped into one of the, like, best movie musical moments that has ever existed and just, like, gave that emotion to me. And I felt like on Cloud 9. So I said Fiddler before he said Fiddler, but when he said it, I felt seen and heard and known. And understood. Yeah. I love that. I'm with you, man. I thought that this first episode was wonderful. I, like you, adore these novellas. They're among my favorite things that George Nes. has written. They're among my favorite aspects of life in Westeros, Duncan Hagar characters I adore, some of the other characters who we will be meeting in this season of television and at subsequent seasons of television are, I think, among the most indelible creations of

Georges. And I'm excited to share that with more people. I think that the tone, like you said, just like nailing. I love that you use the word assured because that feels really not just right, but crucial. Like the show knows what it not only is, but what it wants to be. First of all, how meta. Yeah. You know, there's this aspect of like, well, what is my place in the world for Dunk? And for a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, like, what is my place in this larger throne's tapestry? And I think that my hope is that more people over the coming weeks, I mean, it's only six

weeks. This episode was in the 42-minute range. Most of them are going to be half hours. You know, it's a bite-sized zippy experience. If you load up the audiobook or you load the novella on your Kindle, three hours, or you buy a book from the store, it's going to take you three hours. Yeah. Like this is a tidy, tight little tail, and it is wonderful.

And so the scale, not only in terms of scale and scope of the text that is being adapted, but like of the setting, you know, we talked on Talk to Thrones with Chris about, like, what tourneys represent in Westeros, and it's a chance to prove yourself, right? and work your name into song and earn some coin or maybe risk some coin, but also like the fact that we have the Hans Turney early in season one of Game of Thrones. We have the Saris's tourney for his heir

at the beginning of House of the Dragon. We have the great tourney at Heron Hall is this like fabled, elemental event that sparks with Ragar and Leanna, sparks Roberts Rebellion. Like these are meaningful places for characters to gather and they're huge in our consciousness when we think about thrones. But it's also a way to shrink and say we are in one place and we are focused around one thing.

And it is a tidy, handy way to get a bunch of people. Sigil spotting, what a time to be a sigil spotter, right? Just right here as Dunk is scanning the banners out of the attorney field and the pavilions. It is a way to bring so many people into the fold while still anchoring us and rooting us in. Ashford Meadow, here we are at this moment. at this place. So I love that. That tone of the hopeful nature of the story while still being quite intense because it's a Game of Thrones story, right? But this idea of like what is on offer to us through a relationship like the one that we're starting to see Forge here between Dunk and Egg,

you know, this odd couple pair. And one of the things that I've really liked hearing Ira Parker talk about about like his draw not only to making this show to adapting this story, but like what he's loved most about Thrones. You know, he will often cite in his interviews or like the Comic-Con panel and stuff like that. Arion the Hound or Potterian, like he loves these duos, these surprising relationships that forge, right? We love, we're Tolkienheads, we love to talk about like a chance meeting, right? And an inn at the cross-birds. I mean, like talk about extremely our shit. So all of that is here, this idea of like looking at something like a key question inside of this first episode, shortly in this season, in the novella, as we know, what makes a night

a night. Like, what is a night? What does it mean to be a night? You know, what does it mean to be a true night? What does it mean to be a hedge night? Where are the parallels? Where are the diversions? It's just such a thematically rich story. And to pair that then with the charm and the heart and the humor that was imbued in this first episode, I think was such like a smashing start to a world that I was really eager to see brought to the screen. And I hope that as, if there are people out there who are like, maybe this is a little like smaller than I want out of throne. or goofier than I want out of thrones that as word of mouth continues to spread and build

and episode after episodes comes out and we just move through the plot of this first tale that by the end more people are like, I could catch up in this in a hurry and I'm back and it becomes like a... I think this will have like a mid-season like... That's my... And I think that like...

So without spoiling anything, a tagline for the show is a tall tale that became a legend, right? And so like... Yes. And inside of this episode we watched Dunk, go from Dunk to Dunk in the Tall get his name from Lionel or from Egon. How else will his sort of like identity be formed by his experience here? And there's a tourney at Ashford Meadow. Like what will the attorney of Ashford Meadow become? Yes. When we think about

when we hear the stories of the tourney at Heron Hall, like they're they're mythic, they're fabled. There are mystery knights. There's just like all this sort of stuff going on. But what was the truth. What was the humbled truth of what happened there? And that's sort of like what House the dragon has tried to like get to is like what is the truth behind right? The mythos, right? And so like what, who is dunk actually who becomes Dunk in the Tall, who becomes whatever? Right. Like who was he? He was a we got a ton of emails from listeners. Like many emails from them comparing him to Samwise Gamji, which from the bad babies, I think there's like no higher compliment. But there was this like Samwise to him and I just love that. This idea that like, Dunkin the Tall and Samwise Gamgee and

like that those realities can coexist inside of the story is just very exciting. Peter Claffey bringing Dunk to life in such an instantly memorable way. The cast is electric. Really, really good stuff. Dexter is a just sensational egg. It's just fun to see these characters brought to life. You mentioned that the larger reception, critically, quite positive so far. A little bit of a dip in the reception among the audience, at least based on the very imperfect metrics out there

on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB or whatever the case may be. So hit at the ringer. We love it. That's fun. It's always fun when the ringer hive is like, I love this thing. Inside of my bubble before this episode premiered, I was like, this is the most adored show. The most adored show that ever existed. That was my experience with it too. Every critic I talked to, like, especially people who like didn't care that much about Game of Thrones or

didn't or really don't care for House of the Dragon or for the case may be. We're like, oh, this is amazing. I love this. And so I got very excited. And like, people like it, but they don't love it yet. Yeah. It's interesting because I had a, I had not encountered anybody who did not think this was dynamite. And then I looked at, again, deeply, deeply flawed, imperfect. Yeah. The, uh, the old popcorn meter did like the real in person thinking phase emoji like, huh? You know, because the, the critic score is like 94% and keeps rising. And the audience score every time I look is like a little lower. And, you know, there are various things that you can contribute to that.

It is what it is. At the time of our recording, which again is a little bit later than we would be typically recording these in a given week. It's Wednesday morning here. Carlos is going to do the Lord's work from the old gods and the new to try to get this up by the end of the day on Wednesday. At the time of the recording, we have not seen any viewership data yet, which is not a great sign because if it were like a huge hit, ATOB crowing about it.

But HBO has a lot going on. Right now there's the pit and industry. So there's a lot competing for attention, right? Boy, are there. Yeah. So, you know, Kit Harrington's doing a lot of work over on industry this week. Henry Moff. So, but yeah, if it had been a huge premiere, HBO would have told us and they're not telling us.

I miss more transparent ratings. I really do. Now we have to wait for the streamers or the networks to tell us. And are they telling a truth? We never know. Well, here's what we do know. Yeah. We know where we are in time and the history of Westrose. We do.

So we will, this will be our last bit of kind of like opening context here before we dive into. And we are going, of course, chronologically through the episode in the deep dive as we, as we love to do here. Beat by very beats. By my fucking beat, folks. Beat by beat. Each individual luggy that plumber hawked will get its individual analysis. Here's where we are in time. We're in 209. A.C.

If you at home are like, I don't know what that means. Why are you telling me a year? Why are we doing the BBYs? We will contextualize it further. This is in essence between the two prior television shows. We are like 80-ish years after Dance of the Dragons, a.k.a. the House of the Dragon story. And we are 100 years before Game of Thrones.

And that is the timeline, the 100 years before Game of Thrones, that the novella really hammers as you're picking it up and you're like, where are we in time? And there are a couple key bits of historical context that we want to make sure people are aware of in terms of just like the state of the realm, right? The state of the world. The first one is no dragons. Puppets. Plenty of puppets.

That dragon puppet. I know we said this when we talked about the trailer, but my God, that dragon puppet looks great. I know. Looks great. I double down on our trailer take of like, CGI seems like it takes a lot of time. Let's just do it all of puppets. Have you considered a puppet? Think about it. We're just offering up ideas. Just consider puppets. I'm just throwing it out there. No dragons, aka the heart of the Targaryen. Power is absent from the realm at this point in history. But crucially, dragons existed within living memory, which is different. When we start Game of Thrones, there are no dragons, so that part's the same. But they're like out of memory. I mean, they're legend.

They're the stuff of legend. Stuff of legend, but nobody alive at the beginning of Game of Thrones has seen one. Not so at the time of the Hedge Knight in Season 1 of the Nine of Seven Kingdoms. Here's a passage from the past. We'll note if it's a, we'll note if a quote we read today comes from a different text. If we don't specify, assume it is from the Hedge Knight, the first novella. Not that Dunk had ever seen a dragon. The old man had, though.

So this is Sir Arlen of Penny Tree, the knight for whom Dunk squired. Dunk had heard the story half a hundred times how Sir Arlan had been just a little boy. when his grandfather had taken him to King's Landing and how they'd seen the last dragon there the year before it died. There's another quote early in the novella. The summers have been shorter since the last dragon died and the winter's longer and crueler. People are measuring the changing nature of time and that feeling, you know, and one of the things we're trained to understand early in our throne's experiences, the association between dragons and magic in the realm, et cetera, right?

They're gone, and some people, Sir Arlen, among them, can remember what it was. like when they weren't. And I don't know if folks remember this tremendously good, a bit of marketing from HBO, but as they told us, spring is coming this winter. And as they said on industry this week, spring is coming. So like it's raining when Sararland dies. Yes. But spring, the long winter is over and spring is around the corner.

That rain looked nice. So did the like beautiful morning, the following morning. Yeah. But the rain, the rain looked nice. This is just a beautiful show. It's beautiful. Love an outdoor expanse in The Reach. You love looking at the outdoors on your TV.

I love commuting with nature. You know this about me because you once saw me on the streets of Chicago. Look at a pigeon passing us on the pavement and said. A filthy city pigeon. Nature. You're like, oh, nature. I love nature. It's the same.

King Darren the second, aka Darren the Good, sits the Iron Throne. right now. Yeah. And there are a couple things that are important to know about that. One, this guy brought Dorn into the fold, fully into the fold. Not everyone's typed about that. Into the fold. He married to Martel. Into her folds. Quite, quite right. Under her folds. Don't say that in front of dunk. He's going to blush. He's going to blush. His ears are going to get pink. We're going to talk more about that next episode when we meet the Targs who are going to be in this season of television and we talk about the family tree and the Martel blood.

The good thing is you don't need to know that much about what's going on politically with the Targaryians. That they don't have dragons is important to know. That they, the ruling Targaryians just successfully, like, won a civil war is important to know. Yes. But, like, George gives a lot of rich detail about what's going on on the street level here, you know, in the attorney in Ashford. Meadow. But he's not as concerned with the larger geopolitical state of the world. Yeah.

Mostly because he hadn't written it yet when he wrote this story. He hadn't figured out what was going on with the Targaryens, really. Yeah. So this first novella came out between the first and second, The Song of Ice and Fire Books. It came out shortly before Clash of Kings. And you had noted this on our trailer pods, our preview pods. It is interesting to revisit the first novella and not confront constant allusions to and reminders of the Blackfire Rebellion, the first Blackfire rebellion. Because when you get to, you get to, you. To the subsequent novellas, it's all anyone's talking about. Yeah. Really inescapable and seismic way. This was 13 years ago. And most of the people at this tourney would have fought on one side or another inside of that rebellion. So they should be talking about it.

But so far they're not really because George hadn't written it yet. And that's okay. You team Red Dragon. You team Black Dragon. You're not prepared to say. Red Dragon, Darren the second and the Loyalist. Black Dragon. Damon.

David Blackfire. You usually love, I mean, they get you with the monikers. Damon, Blackfire. Blackfire is just, it's, Damon Blackfire is a sick name. When we get to this on the moniker front, when we get to the laughing storm, I mean, how are you not in right away?

There's another great moniker coming this season as well. We'll get to that when we meet some more characters soon. Just a great time. Great time to have a cool name in Westeros. On that point that you made about just like, what do you need to know, though I thought, I liked the way that Ira Parker put this on the official pod. Shout out Jason. Shout out Greta now and always.

He was, Ira was talking about just kind of the circumstances of what Dunk is embarking on here. You know, you've lost the one person in the world who knew you. Where are you? What does that mean? What are you seeking? And he said, there's not a lot of information you need to have in order to understand that very simple problem. Right. And I think that's a great way to build off what you're saying and to sum up that aspect of how accessible this story can be. If you're interested in learning more about the Blackfire Rebellion, you like the lore, sweet. That's probably like why you're listening to this podcast, right?

We'll talk about it. We're definitely going to talk about all of that stuff and how all of these aspects of the world connect to each other. But there is something that is so core about Dung's journey. Yeah. Are we going to write the lyrics to the Hammer and Anvil song, do you think? You've been kind of, I would say, like, promising it might be a little strong. but you've been on Song Corner for a minute here. So, yeah, that said you refuse to recreate the Laughing Starves episode one dance refused.

So far. I mean, no enticement dear enough yet. But I think that, like, Dan Romer, who I like, as have mentioned, I don't know, but I know someone who knows him. And I'm like, Dan, do you have lyrics to the hammer and anvil in your back pocket? I would like to hear them. The score on the Dan Romer front, the score is so good in this show. It is so good. and so specific to the sensibility and ethos of this show.

I really, really, really love the score. I agree. Great stuff. Anything else on the kind of like opening snapshot, table setting, big picture front before we dive into the scene by scene. Before we start our podcast, 45 minutes in or whatever? We like to set the table. We like to set the table.

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Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99-79 or visit Zepbound's This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Colehous are returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait

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It's time to do the deep dive. We're going scene by scene, and we will begin where the episode begins, which is sweet dunk, burying Sir Arlen of Penny Tree. And we are like, in the novella as we start. Thunder, Sweetfoot, Chestnut, our beautiful horse. They're on the hillside. They're looking down at Dunk as he digs a very shallow grave. I am. I really, there's so much, like, heart to lean into here. We'll do that in a second. Dunk is very tall and very strong. And this grave is too shallow. I'm sorry.

This is too... What does he mound the dirt over on top? He kind of does that, but I just think he should have dug a little... He doesn't know the right words. That's true. And he doesn't know how to dig a deep hole. That's what's... Well... Well, He has a lot to learn in many respects. Oh, my God. In many respects. You said he does another right words.

That is what we hear from Dunk. And I love this as an opening note. Obviously, this is a crucial pivot point in Dunk's life. Squire to Sir Arlen. He has lost, Sir Arlen. But the fact that we open on this note of doubt, we see that Dunk is not sure, that he's going to have to feel his way through all of it,

that everything that's about to happen to him, the glory, the grief, all of it, the decisions, it's all new. And the person who used to answer those questions for him is gone. And the horses are beautiful, but they cannot answer his questions for him. You say that? And yet, later in the episode, when he's like, you know, I'm not sad and talking to Sweetfoot. And then lady, you know, is talking about, oh, dare I hope, you know.

And Sweetfoot gives a little response, I think. And Dunk feels compelled to reply to that response. So I think they're having a pretty active conversation. It's a dialogue. I also will say that in my notes, I noted. And I don't know who cuts the horse's hairs. But they all have bangs, and it all seems like they're all matching Dunk's bangs. Is this your way of formally announcing that Wigwatch TM with Joanna Robinson, TM will be about the horse mains this season?

It might be. Are those real bangs? I don't know. What do you think of Dunk's hair in season one? I think he looks great. It's great. Yeah. It's great. But I'm excited that he's growing it up for season two.

The season two hair, based on what we've seen from the, you know, the premiere and press store is going to be spectacular. But like, Dunk having basically one person he knows in the world. And then all he knows is horses, you know, for a while until he meets egg, et cetera, et cetera. But like, talking to horses, we talked about this on Talk to Thrones. It's such a good device to get us inside of like all these things that Dunk says inside of his own head. Yes. He now says some of it to horses. Yes.

Great stuff. It's fantastic. And as I mentioned in the tree. trailer, I think, I think I said this in the trailer. One of the trailer breakdowns, the fact that, like, Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty, who's one of my favorite Disney princes of all time, has this, like, great, just talks to his horse all the time, and I'm a big fan of it. So, like, we're immediately endeared to him.

He talks to horses, but it also just, like, reveals that he doesn't know anybody. He had one person, and that person's gone, and now he has horses. He's alone. We talk a lot when we cover Thrones about the idea of a Targaryan alone in the world. It's a terrible thing. What about a Hedge Knight alone in the world? A dunk alone in the world. Sweet little dunk alone in the world. Crucially, not alone, obviously. The horses are here. I think the word you used in Deering is, it is so perfect. It is such a

warm and welcoming initial bit of exposure to dunk. Obviously, the fact that he's weeping, as he tells Sir Arlen, that he wishes he didn't die. And you just feel not only that lack of clarity about how to navigate life, but the fact that he's sad and he's lonely. And then genuinely, like, the sweetness of the way he's engaging with the animals, will he momentarily the next, momentarily in the show and the next morning in his life, say to the horses, like, can he like a king if I sold you? He will. But we know that he cares about them and that Sir Arlen cared about them and taught Dunk to care about them. And that's good, genuinely good shorthand for a readership or a viewership to show you what kind of a heart a person has. You know, something that we learn about

Sir Arlen through Dunks and our monologue as he's saying goodbye and reflecting on him in their life together is he had always been generous in his praise. It was all he had to give. So it's always been one of my favorite lines in the novella because it tells you so much. Now, we'll get in a second to these like flashbacks that are intercut into the episode. Don't seem full of praise to me. It's honestly, it's a different tone. Seems like a backhand is what he had to give. The cloud in the ear is very present, very present. But another passage is the old man always said that a knight should never love a horse since more than a few were like to die under him. But he never he did his own counsel either. Dunk had often seen him spend his last copper on an apple for

old chestnut or some oats for sweet foot and thunder. And this idea of whether it is taking on a squire like Dunk, a lost boy who needed to find a place in the world, or caring for these animals and giving them sustenance or whatever the case may be, if you don't have a lot in life, the thing you have is the choice you make, right? And that's true for everybody, but the choice to give another person a place by your side. You have your honor. You have your honor. You have your decency, right? You have your capacity for goodness and care. And so what we learn in the novella about how Dunk views that aspect of Sir Arlen and what we can see on the dunk front there is lovely. And like, you know, what he says to him, this I, this, you were a true night.

The cut to the flashback, that kind of humorous now is, is, is it humorous that he is hitting dunk? No, of course, but the tone inside of the flashbacks and the way that the editing is functioning here is undeniably the intent is to like disarm us and there is something there there is an irreverent spirit to the way that the flashbacks are deployed this idea that's central of like you were a true night and what that means and then what we are saying i also thought just like we had talked about whether we would see flashbacks the fact that sir arlin was like listed among the primary cast right was interesting to us we figured that meant we were not just going to see as we had in the trailer dunk carrying this light little body to his needlessly shell

I think just in this first episode, the way that these flashbacks are deployed is like really smart and deaf. Yeah, and it's really funny compared to like all the agitation that both Thrones and Hot D had around the concept of a flashback and here, they're just used like fast and loose in a rubber and that's really fun. It's like show you something quick. Yeah. Root you in some truth or some bit of dissonance. Yeah. Quickly. And it's also a smart way to, you know, still honor that core principle of we are in Dunk's point of view. Those memories are his as well. while introducing just a touch of variance into literally where we are or what we are seeing. The next morning, it's a beautiful day.

No more rain. Spring is coming this winter. Spring is coming this winter. I have heard it before. Yeah. And I will hear it again because we're never going to let anybody forget. Somebody put that on a lot of posters. Oh, man.

That comment that he makes to the horses about, you know, I could eat like a king. It is an interesting early way to, I think, establish this core aspect. of Dunk's life, which is like the hedge night's calculus, right? You don't have a place in a household all the time consistently. You're called a hedge knight because you sleep under a hedge sometimes. Under a tree canopy, it leaks in the hedges. You move from spot to spot, job to job, but you don't have a permanent place, right? And so this idea that we glimpsed a little bit in this episode and that is very kind of prominent throughout this first novella of like, how do people in the realm think of hedge nights and see hedge nights? We got a couple

good scenes and exchanges in, you know, Sir Stephan's very dismissive, like matters of the hedge, I'm sure, right? You know, the scenes with Red and Beoni, et cetera. Well, for dunk or for a hedge knight, like, you know, there's this idea of, well, many hedge knights turn robber or outlaw or beggar, right? And like, that's a path that dunk is always actively thinking about how to avoid, right? A risk he is conscious of and aware of and a path he does not want to go down. So then he has to navigate what is a present desire. I want to improve my circumstance, right? With, I want to do the honorable thing.

You were a true knight. You taught me, like the, I swore that I would. The way he says that to plumber with his chest later, to quote Chase Serrano, say it with your chest. Like, I swore that I would. That's the calculus for dunk, the push and pull of how to stay true while also seeking to better his life. We get a little taste of that right away. Where should he go, he wonders. The city?

Stop raping. Wild scene. Wild moment. A little bit of sword play there. Lannisport. There's a lot of lanisors there. I wouldn't want to go there. Kings Landing?

Yeah. City watch? Yeah. When he's a signing, this is one of my favorite lines, right? Okay. When he is holding Sir Arlen's sword. Yes. Which is Castle Forge Steel.

It's not a. ancestral valeri. It doesn't have a name. It's not a big fancy sword. This is just like it's got the penny on the pommel. But he says, it fits my grip as well as it ever fit his. And there's a tourney in Ashford Meadow. There's a trick my brain plays on me every time I read this line that there's something about the way this is written. And I think it's just the starting the sentence with the word and that it takes on this tone of the like poetic device, the like anaphyra. the poetic device of repeat, you know, and miles to go before I sleep. Like, it tricks me to thinking that he says, and there's a tournee at Ashford Meadow a bunch

of times. He doesn't. It only comes up once. But it just sounds like this repeated sort of like, and there's attorney at Ashford Meadow. And I could do this or I could do that. And there's attorney at Ashford Meadow. And I just like, and then it has this like ring of destiny to me because it's like pronounced that way. The other thing he says in the book about the, about the sword, quote, Dunk knew how sharp it was, having worked it with wet stone and oil, cloth many a night before they went to sleep. And I just love this idea that, again, this is a castle ford steel. This isn't, you know, this isn't ice.

This isn't long claw. Right. But he has carefully and methodically over the years honed it to a sharp, sharp point. And this idea of like, dunk as the sword. Like what has he been honed into by Arlen or by his own practices and beliefs? But this idea of that just sort of like careful. patiently, humbly, by the fire, before we sleep. I have honed this blade and it is all that I have. Later, he will say it is mine by right. What a weird thing to say? Sir Stefan, not a great guy, but... Accurate. Asteer observation. That was a really weird thing to say. But this is what he has the sheet, the battered shield and this sword. And these are the two, like, very tenuous claims he has to Sir Arlen's legacy and two knighthood. And so I just like love that idea of like,

you know, the shield hasn't seen a lot of upkeep, but the sword has been kept sharp over a long period of time. I love that. That's just give me a chill. I like, you know, there's the kind of like literal aspect for, we get a little bit of this in the scene with Plummer where Plummer sort of says to Dunk, like, hey, you know how this works, right? Like what you will forfeit if you lose? Right.

And this idea that every possession, everything that Dunk has to his name, like what you is a what is a hedge knight worth, the horses, the armor, the weaponry, right? That is all at risk here. But that symbolic representation of what those things mean to dunk beyond the literal like coin and currency it takes to acquire them or lose them and ransom them back. And that like kind of, again, literal aspect of like, could you function as a knight without those things? Like, no, it would be hard as Lionel says, Sam later in the game.

be like, can't be a knife without a horse, right? You know, there's something tangible on the line there, but there is something to your beautiful point bigger on the line there. And then to think about what that sword represents then as an inheritance and like a graduation. You know, there is the mantle that is passed down from knight to squire, but also, I also love, I love what you said about the end. And I love both parts of that. The end, there's attorney at Ashtra Meda, but I also fits my grip as well as it ever did his. I've always loved so much. I love that we got it, you know, basically beat for beat in the show because like this idea that you've waited and you've trained and you've glimpsed and tasted. And when you get to the moment of taking that next step,

it's scary, but it's thrilling. How could it not be? Even in his grief. And the idea that maybe Dunk is better equipped for the thing that he helped care for for someone else, especially as he is about to, by the end of this episode, take on a squire. There's a, you know, and we've noted it. You've noted it several times. And egg notes it the fact that, like, he can't put on the scabbard. The pommel fits his hand, right? Yes.

But he can't put on the belt. He's too big. He's too big. So he has to, like, attach the scabbard to rope, hemp and rope. And I, he's too big physically, but also like, is he destined for bigger things than Sar Island was ever destined for? Yeah. I just like love that idea. Ugh.

Ugh. It gives me a chill. And again, it's like, I think the fact that dunk, like any interesting character is, in some ways, dunk is like simple, right? But in, in other ways, like anyone, he's complex, right? And he contains multitudes. And so he has this, like, nobility inside of him and this quest for some, pure, right? And this draw to something pure. But he also is, he's driven by desire and ambition. Yeah, he has ambition, but I feel like it's more like a Disney princess kind of. It's like,

it's like, Ariel, I want more. It's like, yeah. Pocon is just around the river bend. Like, basically he needs an I want song right here, right? You know, like, I can go the distance like Hercules, like this moment of like, what is bigger out there for me? Right. What adventure ways for me? But it's not like, it's not like. It's not like. It's not. It's not like what can I grasp, what can I hold over other people. It's just sort of like, how can I make the world even bigger than it already is? Yeah. And for like a little boy who grew up in Flea Bottom as an orphan and is able to think about the desire that drives him while also holding on to something a little bit that has there's like a sanctity to it.

I love about Dunk. And I think that feels to me like I love the. Disney comp, like, I don't know, it feels honest and true and human, that he's not just like, like, he takes the idea of what's a true night seriously, but he's also like, I was a kid, and I dreamed about what it would be like to, you know, when he walks past the whitewashed, fat-roofed in the novella, like the town of Ashford, and he's like, you know, I used to wonder when I was a kid what it would be like to be there. When we get to the scene at the inn, one of the things that in the novella he thinks to himself is like this is what it means to be a night he told himself as he sucked the last bit of meat off the bone good food and ale whenever I wanted and no want to clown me in the head do do lamb and the duck god damn it and like I love those little details because it's okay to want those things right you know and the fact that dunk is able to pair that with these ideals that he holds true is part of what makes him so memorable and I think so real and relatable a hedge knight must hold

tight to his pride. Without it, he was no more than a sell sword. I must earn my place in that company, he thinks, in the novella. If I fight well, some Lord may take me into his household. I will ride a noble company then and eat fresh meat every night in a castle hall and raise my own pavilion at Ternies. But first, I must do well. Inside of this very episode, the fact that he doesn't have a pavilion will be actively embraced, right? And we will get one of the best moments in the episode in the novella as a result of that with the falling star. Trees leak. Trees leak. But first I must do well.

It's that word again, humble. There is something so humble about that idea of the next step, even though the task is so big and so daunting. When you compare it to like the ambition of the Lannisters or something like that, which is just sort of like us above everyone else. There's everyone else is an enemy and it is only us. Like we are the only ones who can succeed. Yeah.

You know, and that's, dunk is never, I'm putting myself, you know, he's physically above everyone else. But he's like, I'm not putting myself above everyone else. It's not about oppressing anyone around me. It's just like, what can I? What doors can I open for myself to walk through? Yes. And bring in people behind me.

And hopefully not hit my head. He probably will. As we get that, and there's an attorney in Ashford Meadow line. And there's attorney at Ashford Meadow. We get something else. We get a musical accompaniment in a couple forms. We get the Game of Thrones theme. The classic theme kicks in.

And then we just hard cut to dunk having explosive diarrhea by a tree. Chris and I on Talking the Thrones both pick the things. This is our favorite moment of the episode. I was dying when I saw that George. It's like, who largely has been just full of praise for this season. And again, how faithfully adapted it is. This was something he cited. It's like, I left a note on that.

I was like, do we, should we? Do we need it? That killed me. I thought this was so perfect as a way to, as you alluded to earlier. shit on our expectations of what a classic Game of Thrones experience is going to be and going to bring and to do it with humor and to do it with love and like a deft hand and deft care, this idea that we're back in Westeros, but it's going to be different. And I thought Chris's point on Sunday Night's show was exactly right.

Like, if you fuck that up, you really maybe lose people and almost insult them with it. And some people didn't like it. I thought it was dynamite. Yeah. Dynamite. I think it's a stressful time and maybe, you know, some stuff in the diet that we could look at. It's the hard salt beef. It's not sitting well, clearly. So I feel for him in that respect. Right. But I just thought this was genius. And then he looks up and sees the chirping Robin that he will. Later claim looked over his knighting. That's my favorite part. The fact that the Robbins there and then later he's like, yeah, when I was knighted.

There was just a Robin in a Thursday. There was just a Robin there and it saw me. That juxtaposition of the shitting versus the nighting is very good. Incredible stuff. This is also just a great. We like, you know, we like a close caption. We like a subtitle here on House of Arr. What did we hear? This was like... What was it?

It was like liquid splatting. It was just wild stuff. Wild stuff. That's really great. So it's time. It's time to set off. You mount sweet foot, swing Sir Arland's wing chalice shield over his back and sets off. The score here from Dan Romer.

I mean, the whistling throughout was... That is just dynamite. but this bit of scoring here, there's like a swinging call to adventure aspect of it in this moment that I just was like, let's go. I want to take this moment to shout out. So Dan Rummer, who I mentioned, did the music for Station 11. Yes.

And there's this song in Station 11, like a campfire song they sing called Wandering Under the Moon, which I absolutely was one of my most, I think it was the same year as Wandering Day. And they were both on my like Spotify most play. Like I just played them over and over again. And I will not bore everyone. with like the entire thing. But like, I was looking back

of the lyrics and the way that it links to Dunkin' Egg under the tree is so good, right? Like, because this is Station 11

if you, if you have not seen, what are you doing? Finish the pod. Then immediately, immediately go watch it. But it's about a sort of a post-pandemic.

The technology of the world has been ravaged and people are in these like wandering bands, this wandering troop of players, right? So some of the lyrics are phones and tablets.

They won't be back soon. so we can go wandering under the moon. There ain't no movies on a silver screen. Ain't no television playing scene after scene. There ain't no metro with a rock and roll band. But come on, darling, grab my hand. We can go wandering under the moon. The stars are brighter now after the doom.

And I just like, love that. They're just sort of like, what do we have? We have the stars. We have the moon. We've got each other. And I just thought that was such like a Dunkin Egg under the tree sentiment that I just thought was so beautiful. The luck is ours alone. Dan Romer.

Damn, I love that. Yeah. I really loved he, Jason and Greta had him on the official pot as well after the IRA interview. And I loved hearing him talk about how he thought about crafting the score. And like he described it as brawler middle class music. He said, how do we make this sort of feel like a Western but not sound like a Western? I think in this part of the episode, you really feel that. But then to connecting to what you're saying, I wanted most of the music to sort of feel like people could be making it on the side of the road as dunks walking by.

And that is like, that's different than Light of the Seven. Oh, yeah. You know. Have I told you, did I in any of our trailer breakdowns talk to you about my time in the SEA? Have I talked about this? I don't think so. Maybe I've never admitted on a pod. So SEA is the Society for Creative Anachronisms and it is basically like rent fare camping. And this is something that I would do in my like 20s and early 30s where you would like go with your friends and like put up people put up like canvas tents and then they dress and garb for like. like the weekend. I love this. And we did it before Game of Thrones. Like, I'm sure it's much bigger post-game of Thrones, but we would do it like pre-thrones and then through Thrones as well.

But, and people, they have like battles and jouss and like all the less jousting, more brawling. But like, what do you think swelled the ranks more Thrones or the larping aspect of Hawkeye? Oh, tied. Toss up. Total tie for cultural influence. But the music and like especially him wandering into camp.

Like it's such SEA feelings that I just like, not just, I mean like a lot of people are in the SEA. And so, and that's just like because I think the way they talk, Ira and George talked about it was like we wanted to feel like Bernie Man or whatever. And I think that was just because they were too chicka chit to say we wanted to feel like the SCA. They wanted to feel like war, which is what these events are called. So they crushed it, I think. They really crushed the assignment. But the music especially is like giving it. I love knowing this.

I love that you shared this. There are photos that exist if you ever want to see them. If? If I ever want to see them, you know I want to see them. I owned many bodices. Oh my God. I'm expecting a text right after the pot. You got it.

I had a horn that I drank out of, like a long, like. What did you drink out of? Ale? Mead. Mead, of course. I mean, I should have known. Why did I even ask? How are the meats doing?

And then like also rock star and vodka because I was 20, whatever. So, you know. Rockstar. Rockstar and vodka. Was that the go-to? Rockstar and vodka? I hate to say it, but yes, it was. Don't do that at home, kids.

I have a lot of regrets. You're the best. Rockstar and vodka. You could pour a whole bottle of wine in the drinking horn that I had. Oh, damn. Yeah. You weren't like a handle of Captain Morgan's or like a Malibu. Malibu is for like college.

We should get back on track. I could talk about this for a long time. about my Malibu choice. Great stuff. That I actually think we might have talked about before. That sounds from... Malibu memories, for sure. Okay.

Dunk has contemplated his future. He's decided to set off, and he has made his way. To a charming little in. End at the crossroads, baby. Not the end at the crossroads, but... But N-N-N. En, at A crossroads. He sees a bald little youngster.

He takes for the stable boy and says, attend these horses. I could if I wanted. I could if I wanted. It's so good. And he says the same thing later. It's just like such a good egg. I could if I wanted. Just pitch perfect egg right away giving us that. Insulence is the word that is like most often used to describe egg. And it is right here immediately. We already mentioned this idea of like a chance meeting. This is something that we love. It is a very Tolkienian idea. You have been upon somebody and then your circumstances are entwined. And what a cool and interesting and wonderful thing to think about how these chance meetings can shape your life. There is a meal to have first, though.

The lamb and the duck. The inn is empty, save for dunk, who was entered with an appetite. The inn keep. daughter sitting on the stairs watching. And one very drunk man. The in-keep, I just feel compelled to observe, takes a sip from Dunk's cup. Yeah, this is fine. Westeros, susceptible to a vast and sweeping plague every so often. The alcohol perhaps burns off the germs. This is not a practice that I endorse.

Just going to throw that out there. Mallory doesn't wear her outside pants inside doesn't improve. I could never have thought. Would you let this in-keep take a sip from your horn of mead while filling it for you? Depends how much meat I've had. Fair enough. I mean, fair enough. Dunk does, you know, we get a lot of like, oh, that thick, nutty brown ale. He likes the feel of it on his tongue.

He's just, Dunk enjoys an adult beverage. Sure. He does. He's very tall. It takes a lot to fill him up, I would say. It's true. Aged up in the show, we should say, Dunk. But even in the novella when he's like, don't really know my own name and don't know how old I was, like, you know, like's an adult beverage. this guy. All of this is important. I think the most important thing that the innkeeper says, right, when she's like, it's mostly empty here. I'll tell you why. And there's attorney at Ashford Meadow, right? She says, I swear I couldn't tell you why. Knights are built the same as other men and I never knew a joust to change the price of eggs. And when we covered this in the trailer, we talked about this Jora line that we absolutely love, quote, the common people pray for rain, health, and a summer that never ends. They don't care what games the high lords play.

the Game of Thrones, right? So, like, what does this have to do with the price of eggs? Right. Like, what are we talking about here? And that's, like, the POV of the story is from Dunk's point of view. When we get to Ashra Meadow, in the book, Dunk is describing, like, the various sigils that he's spotting, the various pavilions that he see. What the show shows us is the butchers and the fishmongers and the milkmaids and the, you know, all of the small folk. Yeah. Right. Right. George's word not mine. you know, who are busy making this thing happen. That's the point of view that we're in.

So what does this have to do with the price of eggs? Right. What does that have to do with me, you know? They don't care what games to the High Lords play. I love that. I love that desire to be among the small focus, something that George really wanted to explore in these stories and that Ira is obviously very focused on as well.

And that dunk is a character who has access to that experience and that reality as he sets off on this new adventure. The ink you're not the only one who has something to say, though. This drunk man lifts his head and he tells Dunk, unprompted, I dreamed of you. Stay the fuck away from me, dagger in hand. First, inauspicious. Secondly, Jamie and Brann, I dreamed of you. Here they are.

They are everywhere. They are everywhere. They are everywhere. This man's name is not given here. He, we can observe, you know, he's got, again, the dagger in his hand. He's talking of dreams. He's got sandy blonde hair. He's, you know, he's got some nice clothes on.

Bedectin finery. Mudd's battered. It needs to do some laundry, for sure. Puts down a dragon, you know, he's got some coin. Got some money to his name. Gold dragon, silver stags, copper pennies. So this is, you know, he's got coin to his name, a full coin purse. Dunk is of course like what the what right?

Sips his ale eats his lamb, eats his duck. Sounds like it was delicious when it's described, the cherries, etc. Then he heads back to the stables and he hears and sees egg a top thunder this war horse

wearing the mail and the helm and the armor. And I love like not only are so many of these lines just pulled right from page to screen, but the visuals, because, I mean, there are full graphic novels as well, and those are super fun. But, you know, vellas have illustrations in them. And, like, this is just a visual that is pulled right from the page. That was, like, really, really fun to see.

What I love is that what Duncan says here, for all that he threatens to beat Egg, I will, you know, give you a clout in the ear, same as was done to me. Right. What he says to Egg here is take that armor off you now and be glad Thunder didn't kick you in that full head of yours. He's a war horse, not a boy's pony. Yes. be glad Thunder didn't kick you in that like you could have gotten hurt.

Take care of yourself, kiddo. Yeah. Not I'll hurt you, but you could have gotten hurt. I was thinking a lot about Joel and Ellie. Yeah. As we do. And this idea of like doing a bit better than what was done to you. I love that.

Yeah. Is Dunk wearing a watch? And he talks about what Arlen did for him and what he can do for Egg. But like, is he going to do it the same way that Arland did it? I don't think so based on what we've learned about Dunk in this episode. Yeah, I agree. I like that we can see Egg's spirit of play. Okay.

Young kiddo, right? Thirst for adventure. He gives some lip as he tends to do. And Dunk's like, hey, you little shit, I'm a knight. I'm a night. You don't look to be a night. Egg says, what, all lights look the same. Do they know?

But they don't look like you either. Your belts made of. rope. There it is, the hemp and rope. So long as it holds my scabbard, Dunk says, it serves. So this is just a great little exchange and moment because, you know, on the egg side, we can see right away. Not only is he like a match for Dunk, he's more than a match for dunk in how their exchanges are going to go. There's that just like spark and spunk. But Dunk's humility, you know, sure with the like it is so long as it holds my scabbard, it serves. There's a element there of, um, justifying what he doesn't have. Yeah, justifying

what he lacks. But like, he's, there's, there's grace. There's grace in that humble state. And it's not just about the coin or the glitz and the glam, but about purpose. And Dunk is learning things about egg too, right? Like, he thinks that, that, uh, the innkeep is egg's mom and, and egg says, my mother's dead. And you can see just right away instantly hearing this. How it softens, Dunk. Right. And Egg asks, take me, take me with you. You're going to Ashford. Take me. I could squire for you, sir. Every night needs a squire and you look like you need one more than most. And you look like you need a good cloud in the ear. So, Dunk says no here. Now this will change over the course of just this premiere, right? But we get in this intermodelogue and the novella a little

more insight, right? It's like, he's got a good life here. He almost thinks it wouldn't be fair to take egg. To be with someone like me. Yeah, into his service and into this life, this life of unpredictability in the unknown circumstances. And so he tosses him a copper on the ground and says, I know you'll pick it up. I know you'll pick it up when I'm gone. Dunk sets off to Ashford Meadow to seek to join the lists. And this tourney town, it's just robust, right? It's bustling. Yeah, yeah. The statues of the nights, I thought was like a really interesting shot. this idea. So like George has talked about the quote conflict between ideal and realism, right? That this is at the core of what this show is about. And I thought it was really interesting.

Formerly of this parish, Alison Herman, currently of variety, made this great comp between Dunk and Sansa, right, like as two characters who were like brought up on the like the stories of chivalry and stuff like that. Or you think about Bran. Like these sweet summer children who were brought up on these dramatically, emotionally, romantic tales of chivalry and et cetera, et cetera, only to come face to face with the likes of Manfred Dundarian and the Fossoways and et cetera, et cetera. And so looking up at these like these stone knights,

these like this like static ideal of like what a knight is, right as he's about to confront some hard truths about what knighthood is. I thought was really cool. Can we sigil spot really quickly? Love to sigil spot. Boy, is this a rich text here. Okay. The Dundarians are here, right?

They sure are. How's Beesbury's here? I mean, what a time to be you. Shout out. A time to be this podcast. The Lannisters are here. But we didn't meet one in this episode. The Lannisters are here.

Hasparathian, obviously, here. Making quite an instant. Antlers for a day. We see the House High Tower. Yes. Hotto High Tower, not with us, but House High Tower is here. House Fossoe, of course. The apples. Tyrell's, of course. This is the Reach. So we see the Tyrell Rose. And House Ashford, which is the sun. I just want to shout out House Ashford's dumb, dumb house words, which is our sun shines bright.

Yeah. It's not the best. It's not growing strong. I do like, you know, as a, a, an Oriole Syracuse and McLaren fan. I like the orange. The creamsical orange. Yeah, I like the orange. You know, when Dunk is heading up to seek out the steward and Master the Games plumber and we get the dropping of the banners over the... Nothing gets you in the throne's mood quite like that.

Now, is it dropping the Stark Dyerwolf back over the walls of Winterville after the Battle of the Bastard? No, it's not. But... Our sun shines bright. It's our shines. It's more like... Winter is coming. Yes, spring is coming.

Our sunshine is bright. The fact that we have so, so the Ashford's, they serve the Tyrells in the reach, but this is like not a house of severe consequence, right? There's a reason why you've never heard of House Ashford's our sunshine's, right? There's a reason that Plummer is kind of like mocking his own lord to dunkers. He fancies himself. He's like, hot shit, you know? This is attorney for his. daughter's 13th name day.

And what a great excuse to feel important and have all of those sigils flocking to your yard. It seemed as though every lordly house of the west and south had sent a night or three to Ashford to see the fair maid and breathe the lists in her honor. Everyone is here. And George calls her the fair maid because he forgot to give her a name. They gave her name. It happens. It happens. It's her name day and George did not give her a name. We do get several names. named female characters in this episode, and that is more than the novello really does. Many introduced to the television adaptation, and that was, that was welcome. But yeah, it's fun for, you know, Thrones fans to see so many familiar sigils and family names while. And, like,

we have spent time in the reach before, but Ashford, you know, Ashford Meadow, it's a, it's a new place. And just the idea, too, of, like, attorney field, this particular setting. We're not in the small council chambers. We're not in the throne room. Like we're not in these holes of power where we are more accustomed to spending our time on the television program. And so there's something really refreshing about that. And there's attorney at Ashrammadow. Familiar sigils? New spot.

Fun mix. Beesbury. I carve out as much time as you want for your Beesbury dancing commentary when we get to Lionel's Pavilion later because my God. What an impression. And the mustache too? Oh. Holy shit. My God.

Team Beesbury's living. So we talked about this on Talk to Thrones, but the way that, you know, Dunk, when he enters to speak to Plummer, hits his head. Anything else you want to say here about the way that the physical, the sets, the filming angles, the size of other members of the cast, like Lionel being sized down, etc., help us feel Dunk's heft? Perfectly. We talked about it on Talk to Thrones. Not 611, given.

Yeah, Peter Claffey is not as tall and not as young as Dunk is in the book, but they did a lot of work around him. You see it as most especially, I think, in the puppet scene when he's surrounded by everyone's just like a head shorter than him. And the tent is like bumping against the top of his head as he's watching tents all too tall. Tall enough for some things. But like tens all too tall and her puppets. You know. But yeah, they've done a really good job sort of making him look like. And everyone's constantly commenting on his half man, half giant sort of commenting on his size.

I loved when Raymond did the half giant thing. It always, any excuse to think of the, ooh, that's a big man. Giants blood or I'm the queen. Oh, that's not what I was thinking. I was thinking of Argyat Tyrion, of course. That half man. No question. And then Tyrion makes us think of pod and Raymond makes us think of pod.

It's all connected. Wonderful stuff. Plummer. Once don't to know, this is attorney for knights. Do you care to retract any of your Ebony Ma takes over the years, given how great Tom Von Lawler is in the scene? Not only. Tom von Lawler plays Ebony Ma in Avengers and is the best.

Not only doing not character track, the opposite. Yeah. Further proof that that fucker Ebony Maugh is a blight on our shared Marvel cinematic experience. Plummer, meanwhile, stealth MVP of this episode, obviously Lionel the actual MVP. Okay. But Plummer made a run for it. He did a great job. With Ashford Chair?

Really good. It's iconic. Unbelievable. Dunk, Sir Dunk. I was squire to Sir Arlen of Penny Tree since I was a boy. He knighted me before he passed. with his own sword. Let's hear and see, Carlos, if we can.

Something else that Dunk says that we then get a quick flash to the past paired with. He always meant for me to be a knight one day, as he was. I might to be a night one day, sir. As you are. That was an incredible use of the flashback. Incredible stuff. Were there witnesses? This is where Dunk mentions the poop robin.

I think the poop robin needs a publicist because you had called him the poop robin several times in our notes and I think he deserves a better name than poop robin. You want to workshop it in real time? What do you want to go with? Not poop robinson drag is gm.com if you would like to reclaim the legacy of this poor bird who was just sitting in a tree, not pooping. I'm sure that Robin pooped at some point while sitting in the tree. Never. Lots of stuff of note here. Of course. This is on the Brian and Jamie front. One. of the most wonderful moments to call upon our time with them and think about them. Plumbers, any night can make a night. Any night can make a night. Obviously is going to make us think of

our beloved Jamie and Brian, as is, of course, dunk talking here about the vow, the pledge, right, charged me to be a knight. He says some of the words that we are now familiar with from watching the nightings, and I swore that I would. That language, that moment, that idea, any night can make a night. They make you swear and swear, would you say? They make you swear and swear. So many vows. I have a task for the bad babies. I fell down a pod prep rabbit hole for an hour and then I had to stop. Because, so George has these great and consistent words that he uses for various knighting oaths.

And I, there's like the Chevalier coat. I just like went down the history of like what we know about. Like where did he get this language? Like perhaps he just made it up whole cloth. George does that. But oftentimes he's pulling from historical like sources. I could not find any historical language because there are, there are, full codexes and books about chivalric oaths throughout history.

But I could not find one where the language mirrors what George is used here or what he will, what, you know, Dunk will later say to egg. And so I'm curious if any of the bad babies are better versed in nightly history than I am, hoppice and dragons at gmail.com, if you know sort of like some of the origin. What would you like the bad babies to spend more time on that? Or renaming the pooper. Or ending the bootropping? Or do you want them to try to make time for both? Why not both? Okay. Try to make time for both. We go, hi and love.

Yeah, I mean, it's fitting. It's fitting for this episode of TV. A Night of the Seven Kingdom is that beautiful episode featuring that scene that is one of our shared favorite moments in the history of story. Correct. It's named for these tales. Any night can make a night. A Night of the Seven Kingdom. So what a beautiful tie. What a way to inject such heart and such a rich emotion. connection for us. And a scene that is full of a lot of like rivaled blue humor and embarrassment and other stuff. It's a great scene for like the totality of what this show is trying to do tonally. This question of Dunk's knightly status, you know, this is something that fans have talked about for

eons and years and we will talk about, of course, over the entire season, as people ask Dunk questions. Like, I've not heard of you. Who are you, Sir Who? Sir Arland? Does anyone know him? Etcetera. You're going to have to go find somebody who knows who this is. You're going to have to fine, a lord, or a knight to come vouch for you if you want to enter the list. The genius of this story, this key element, is that characters like Plummer might be asking dunk these things. We are thinking. We are also asking these things. But we are pairing that with a bigger question, which is, why should it matter?

Right? Why does it need to matter? Like, because the heart of this tale is this question of, well, what is truly knightly? And that also, of course, is an association we have with Briand. Now, Brienne will literally be knighted and become Sir Brand by Jane. But before that. On the road. Exactly.

Swearing fealty to Cat. Swearing fealty to Renly, swearing fealty to Sansa. The truest night we could know. Just sitting for a season looking for a candle in a window. You know what I mean? Like just faithful, loyal, honor, true. And shouldn't that matter more? Go on do your duty.

You know what I mean? That matter more. Ashford chair. Thought this was incredible. Genuinely great stuff. I appreciated the mocking Dunk for showing up looking like a farmer, telling Dunk he smells. I think of all, you know,

dunk will take a bath shortly. I think of all of the adaptive changes. The fact that Dunk is like pretty stinky is up there. You know, Arlin was really like, you got to bathe, man. Once a month. You got to bathe. And Dunk's like too often. Great stuff.

So Plummer says there are princes about, which we talked about, We'll talk about Targaryens more when they actually show up here. But I think this, you know, instructions that he gives to Dunk as he's walking out, he turns around the, we see the back of the shield. And, you know, Plummer gives him instructions of like what to do. Dunks, you know, this chance will never come again and I must risk all, right? But what I love about this, and this is an email we got from our listener, John Michael, but like this idea of like in the book we are so firmly in Dunk's.

of Ian. Ira Parker has really stayed true to that. Yes. But it's still a visual medium. And so we can see how people look at Dunk when his back is turned when he's not looking and setter. And we get a number of instances inside of this episode. Plummer being one of them. Yeah. Of someone who's like face reflects sort of something that they've seen in this person. Yes. Yeah. And there's an opportunity for Dunk here that doesn't exist for Brian. Because like for Dunk he's like tall and there's something just like sort of humble and odd and charming about him. And for Brian. And for Branne, And her tallness and her oddness makes her an outsider. But for Dunk, it makes him kind of endearing to people.

And so when we see Plummer or later read one of the sex workers or whatever, like look at him and just be like, there's something to you. This is something that like we're getting to see that Dunk isn't even necessarily seeing. And so we got this great email. The books in the show is clearly from Dunk's POV. What he isn't noticing that we viewers get to see are the ordinary people that take notice of him. Even though Dunk the Lunk, as he's called, in the book thick as a castle wall, maybe an unreliable narrator and a bit oblivious or naive,

we as viewers are seeing people like the innkeeper, the games master, whore, and even Raymond, quietly take note of Dunk's true spirit in contrast to the usual gilded, I love this phrase, gilded disappointments and deplorable waste rolls. They are all subjected to on a daily basis. The thing that we know for certain is that Dunk is not writing his story or singing his own praises,

so we get to watch the people in these little unassuming moments, a very nice touch that only TV or film could give us. I loved that observation. And so it's going to be a fun thing for us to watch. As much as we are, we're never in a room without dunk. Yeah. Who's looking at him when his back is turned? Right.

And what are they saying? And what are they saying? I love that. I love, I think that's a really brilliant observation and a great way to think about what TV can do. I think it's also fair to say that it's not just that people are seeing, right? Like Plummer is maybe seeing, oh, well, what could you do? But he's making fun of Dong.

He's mocking him. There's a dismissiveness. No, but it always starts there. Yeah. And then there's like a turn. Yeah. We're like red and, uh, are like making fun of him. And he's like, you don't have to make fun of me.

And then they just sort of like, yeah, ease off. And then there's the pity. You know, there's this evolution. Like the in-key, I was interested that actually like the, you know, she, there is the moment in the show that's in the book where she observes his shield and is like, oh, so you're going to the attorney too. Right. But the way that it's described in the book is more like, you know. you think you're like really you're really like you're going to the tour yeah yeah and so to work through that

into a different uh level of of consideration is is that that's a great observation great email um not somebody who's ready to give dunk any observation sir manfred dundarian dunk is seeking him out because sir arlin fought for sir manfred dundarian's father in dorn and he is sure that he will remember him now as throons fans were like great Dundarians? Barak Dondarian? The lightning lord? We love Dundarian. Wonderful. This is a failed Dundarian.

This guy sucks. This guy sucks. Really quickly, I want to shout out Friends of the Pod, the folks at the History of Westros pod because they are always keeping their eye on the larger family tree. And something that they pointed out is that Manfred Dundarian has close ties with Targaryens because Phaler Breakspeare, who is a Targaryen who will be. in the show, his wife is Jenna Dondarian. So this might be the brother-in-law to, like, one of the main Targaryens. So this idea of, like, and he sucks. Yeah.

But, like, does he suck because he is, like, has even higher opinion of himself because he's, like, so closely associated with the Targaryans? Or is he a good person to have vouch for you because he's so closely tied to the Targaryens? But just that that, like, close family association, I thought was really interesting to think about. Do you think that has anything to do with his gouty toes? Um, further indulgence. Never met a royal who didn't flirt with gout, I should say. I also think this idea that, like, one of his defining characteristics is that he likes

to fuck other people's wives. Yeah. Makes us think of one of the, like, most famous chivalric knights of all times, which is Lancelot. Lancelot, like, Lancelot. So noble, so pure, so honorable, fucked Guinevere, the queen. You know what I mean? And it's just like, yeah.

This is, you know, this is a thing that knights do. Need it to sheath that sword somehow. You know? There are so many, like, Guinevere and Lancelot tales, but one of my favorite ones that I I forget, I took an Arthurian Legends class and I forget who wrote this particular one, but there's one where they're sleeping in different beds and he's, like, wounded and they've put like flower on the floor as a sort of, like, chastity belt of, like, there's flower on the floor. So, like, if they see footprints in the flower, they will know that Lancelot.

went over to her bed. But don't worry. They're so chaste. But then he is so horny for her that he leaps from his bed to her, like bypassing the flower. But he drips blood on the floor because he's like wounded and bleeding. And that's how people know. So he fucked her. So I'm just saying, Tales of Nights are just great and really fun. People should read them more often. Incredible stuff. Seems like if you left some footprints in the flower, you could just like, you know, the way you hide footprints in the snow. flower's tricksy though Trixie. You've got to pack more flour

Just like extra flour to sprinkle on top of your footprints Yeah To mix with the blood Yeah back up to make a paste To change the consistency a bit Speaking of red things We've got some blood in that tail We have red hair here

On when I use the word horrors I use it because it is true to the canon Yeah Very much from the Raws school here Of introducing new horrors to the tail who are not in the text, but are going to be here to really do a lot of wonderful work. Give us characters with names. Characters with names.

That's great. Chargers. Humor. Charm. Actual information and insights through conversation into certain key happenings, including that Sir Manfred has gouty toes and is napping. The fact that

there are, referring to dunk as it is very tough, very tough indeed. What I love about the it though. We talked about the it a bit on Talk the Throne, so it's like dehumanizing on the one hand. But on the other hand, it's like he hasn't named himself yet. That's right. Dunk. He's dunk.

Plummer's like dunking his like bread, donut, whatever it is like into his ale, whatever it is. You think he ever mixes off his? The phlegm cup with the ale cup. It's a risk. I hope not. But like, he's still dunk. It's in it. He's not so dunk in the tall yet. He will be by the end of the episode.

I love when he actually makes himself taller. Just wonderful stuff. So what is a hedge knight? We have a couple different definitions that we can share. And everybody's free to pick from there. So something that we learned, Sir Arlem, this is what we learned from dunk in the text. A hedge knight is the truest kind of night dunk. The old man had told him a long time ago.

Other knights serve the Lord to keep them or for. from whom they hold their lands, but we serve where we will for men whose causes we believe in. Every night swears to protect the weak and innocent, but we keep the vow best, I think. And we will get the show's version of that shortly when Dunk is consulting with Sweetfoot after leaving their company and says, says something else we'll get to in a second, but he says, Sarlin always said that a hedge knight was the truest kind of night, this other side of the robber night risk, right? You're a champion who's free to fight for what you believe in, right? You're not working for someone else's agenda.

So that is like a beloved and crucial passage and a key idea. I'm going to offer you up another definition, though, and it has provided to us in this scene by red. You have to do the accent, though. I don't think I can. It's like a night. Butsada. Which are you going with? Which of these definitions are you going with?

Kind of both. Kind of both. Dunk's blushing in this scene, the nervousness. It's so precious. You can't even figure out which way to turn, which way to look. Dunk had never been with a girl, we learn in the novella, and they made him nervous. And you can tell, and it is really sweet.

Very sweet. We should say that, like, there are no named prostitutes in this tale. There is one red-haired. a woman that he's like love to look at the way her breasts bounce under her tunics. So like he's noticing women. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

He's also like they could steal my coin. Yeah. You know? Great stuff. Tans out. Too tall. Tall enough or something. Certainly. The other thing that Dunk says to sweetfoot

as they're heading off is we're not sad. Certainly not rising to the level of a comment sad, which I thought was one of the lines of the episode. Really funny. So funny. Certainly not rising to the level of a comment sad. We're about to meet some other characters, though. Two apples? The Fosuays have entered the chat. Two apples fighting? The Apple Wars, what you said? What could be more possibly us? Sir Stefan Fosway and his cousin, Squire Raymond, are sparring House Fosuay of Cider Hall. Another house of the Ritch who again served the Tyrells. We get some Fosway action throughout a song by some fire, but this is. like the most Fossoi-centric television time that we have spent so far. Sir Stefan just an instant, clear, undeniable dick, right?

He calls Raymond a useless rat. He calls dunk a blue-eyed cunt. He again dismisses this mentioned earlier, the matters of the hedge. Oh, yes, Dunk's like I have matters to attend to. Matters of the hedge. He is not a chill, nice dude, but he is looking to spar. And as we will learn later from Raymond, he wants to study, but also back. and diminish his potential

tourney foes so that he can gain an edge. Not very honorable. No, not very sportsman like. Not very sporting. Their housewords. Yeah. A taste of glory. That's good.

It's pretty good. That's good. They love an apple pun and they put one in their housewords. All right. So let me, on the apple pun front, ask you to power rank some of what we get in this episode here. All of which we should say are right for the book. Ripped.

Plucked. Like an apple from the tree. Plotched from the tree. Not ripe yet. Rotten to the core. Knock the seeds out of him. Senior branch of the apple tree. Is this too much on the apple pun front?

Are you loving every second on it? For me, it's clearly knock the seeds out of him. It's good. Here's what I love. They're almost like Alice in Wonderland characters. It's almost like meeting Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Like the way in which they're talking in these like dumb, dumb, but I love Apple terms about each other.

And if you think about like all, you know, this wide-eyed, like he's dressed in light blue, like wide-eyed adventure that he's having. He's meeting someone called the Laughing Storm and these like Apple cousins who are basically twins and stuff like that. And this is just like very Alice down the rabbit hole with our guy Dunk being the Alice. The like, I don't understand the way this world works. Everyone's talking in riddles and I have only my horse to talk to really. If I had an apple, I would give it to my horse because that's what Sir Arlin taught me. He really would.

But he definitely would. I agree. Knock the seeds out of him, probably the best one. Oh, the fastways. What would you like to say about the podra coding of Raymond? Right down to the outfit. I mean, we talked about this a lot in the trailer breakdowns, but if you spared yourself those like five hours,

we should just say, like, from the jump, we've been like, this guy looks so much like Daniel Portman, the actor who played. And, like, actually, if you look at this actor outside, so Sean Thomas is the actor who's playing. If you look at him, like just his headshot, he doesn't look that much like Daniel Portman. So they just like, they potted him up.

They honed the hair forward. They like ruddyed his cheeks. They just like, and then the like, of course, the maroon like sort of outfit. They just like, wearing pods close. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. But that makes us think about Bras. And that makes us happy.

It sure does. This is where the, that's an odd thing to say sword moment is. And our dunk is just the imposter syndrome is very palpable for sweet. It's sad. It's sadder. Again, we talked about this on Talk to Thore. Thrones, but, you know, when Dunk is making his way through the field and the grounds, in the novella, he's like, this isn't where I'm going to, I'm going to stay, right?

Either people would be, right, they'll make fun of me. Yeah, they'll be openly, like hostile, or they'll be kind and that'll be worse, which is a really heartbreaking idea. Which we don't see anyone do, but the fact that they give us Stefan here and also, it's like a night, but sad. Like all of that is like showing us what Duncan tells us in the novell. Yeah. Which is, there are so many little deft ways that they take a bit of internal thought and either through dialogue or actions presented to us in the show.

Say it to a horse. What in doubt. Please. Say it to a horse. We'll take it. So he sets off here for quieter accommodations. Sure. Trees.

And we make our way to the iconic Elm, Dunk's Elm, this private, beautiful. I'll be it buggy. I'll be a buggy spot. But missing the dragonflies. I know. I was really on the lookout when he swatting it by his neck. I'm like, that's not a dragonfly. I was hoping for like one little dragonfly to land.

I know. What did you think of this bathing technique? It's not the bathing technique. It's the laundry technique that you have notes on, right? If you're beating the garp, the clothing, and then sniffing and recoiling in horror at the stench in the seat of your pants, after we have witnessed your explosive. On ceasing diarrhea

I would spend a little more time Is there Is there a get really submerged The fabric? He needs a soap. He needs egg. Does he say This is why he needs a squire.

Does he, he says like what the fuck? I forget what he said. Yeah. Yeah. But earlier when he hits his head on the door where he says seven fucks and it cuts away. It's just like seven,

and it like cuts away. It was really, really funny. Not seven hells. Seven fucks. Really good. Great stuff. Dunk would like seven fucks. He'd like just the one.

Just the one. This is a place to start. Canonically virginal. Speaking of, it's time to go seek out Sir Manfred at Evenfall as instructed. This fucker, Sir Manfred. Evenfall? Still asleep. Evenfall?

Yeah. The name of Brand's home. It sure is. It sure is. And of first. Yeah. Our favorite. Evenfall is the name of the,

the hall. The tarth they're from. Miss Brand. Really do. Remember when Thrones was great. I do. Man, that was the best. I would like,

there's a few spin-offs. I would like, none of which they're floating currently in HBO. John sends ghost off. One of the, my least favorite sentences I have ever read.

Let me tell you that right now. Kit Harrington's like, I'm really going through it. Should we put that on the screen? industry guys are like yes. And HBO's like, it's working there? Game of Thrones is like, maybe not. Sir Henry, Henry Buck has me riveted.

Going through it. Anyway, a brand spinoff. Oh my God, that would be incredible. Yeah. She has to leave the castle in the, that's the thing. That's a thing. It's like they don't want to have to.

No brand. They don't want to do anything that tells us this meant anything about the other characters' futures. No, thank you. Sir Manfred's still asleep. So Dunk follows right into a tent where a nude woman is lying prone on a slab, stones over her eyes. So we've seen this visual, this is a death ritual. She also has a name.

Daisy does also have a name. Daisy Bay and you, right? They've all got names. Great work, guys. Great work, team. So this idea with the stones, right, you close your eyes in this life and you open them in the next. You open them in another. applicable to dunk in a few different ways, how he feels looking at naked breasts, certainly,

but also this next phase of his life, this journey. However, it turns out this woman is not actually dead. She is just preparing for a very specific taste that they are prepared to cater to. Great. Game of Thrones, folks. And I regret to inform you, and I don't know if this says something about me. When three women are in a room together, I have to think about Macbeth. Like, this is giving very, like, weird sisters, the three fates, to me. There's like an element of prophecy here, right, when they're talking about... Definitely. Be careful about your body, man. From one whore to another. Yeah. It's the only one you're like to have. For one whore to another, the way that that starts as an implication and then just becomes overt text one whore to another and how Dunk is so wounded

by that. And then the moment where they are like chastised and soften and basically explained him like we've seen a lot of boys who have a lot of hope in their hand but like not a lot of tangible achievement to show for it at the end and protect yourself choose a safer course uh i really loved that as well and then the way that dunk says perhaps i will be different and they looked at him with i just thought such pity and like that really captures a lot of this dunk experience but like tenderness I really do think the last shot we get of read later when Manfred is like showing his like absolute pinnacle of dickishness. And she looks back like sort of like sort of like a softness and a warmth. There's something to you.

Definitely. Definitely. Speaking of something to you. Hands out too tall. Not too tall for me. Boy. We love a tall woman. We love a tall woman.

Okay. So when I did rewatchables last week. And Kyle Bram met me for the first time in real life, he was like, wow, you're tall, you know? And Craig was like, the women at the ringer are tall. And he said it with pride. And he was like, Liz is tall. Craig's wife is very tall. He's like, Liz is tall.

He's like, Mallory's tall. I was like, I'm not that tall. And he was like, yeah, but she's standing next to you. I was like, yes. Anyway, the pride, he said, and he's like, the women at the ringer are tall. I love it. There's a lot of tall people here at the ringer. We've talked about this before.

Yeah, great stuff. Sir Joe the tall. I love it. Not too tall. Not too tall for me. Not too tall for me. Dunk has wandered. He's wandering through the market, and he happens upon Tansell's puppet show.

Mm-hmm. You could just see the look on his face. He's got a crush and he got it quickly. Heart eyes. Yes, real like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is she performing? We are actually going to hear and see a little clip of this. Carlos, if you will.

A brave hero forces on. leaving all he knows behind. A father and a friend may seem the world unkind. Fate has set his lonely path through corridors of chance. A boy from nothing risks at all, ignoring looks of scars.

And then here's the rest. Yeah, yeah. Perhaps he's only stupid, holding fast his mirror shield. Great honor, his ambition, must keep a truth concealed. For if his... humble sheep is bared a foul and fiery demise, should the dragon discover none but a man in

great disguise. Now, this is dope. First of all, it's a little on the nose, I would say. It's too, it's too on the nose. It's like a little. We love in Thrones when we get like a mummer show, a public show. We love the theater. We're connoisseurs of the theater. Love the theater. When Arias and Bravo and sees Lady Crane and that, and that true performing, and now that's obviously very painful, right, what they are performing. But this idea of, like, how is history conveyed in the world in real time, right? In Thrones or in House of the Dragon in Hot D, we get to see Runeira confronting the way the people of King's Landing are talking about her through these shows.

So this story here, Sirwin of the Mirror Shield, that language, as you noted, it maps on quite clearly to dunk and is chosen deliberately here for a reason. We're going to be talking about Sirwin of the mirror shield when we cover House of the Dragon again. But who is this person of what is this legend? So this Age of Heroes, an Age of Heroes myth, right? Not the last time the Age of Heroes is alluded to in this episode. To be really clear, it's Sir Wyn is like, that's his name. Yes.

Like his name was Irwin, but it's Sirwin. Yes. But it's not Sirwin. Right. Sirwin. Should the poop robin be any? named Sir Space win since it's available? Yeah, he stays winning.

Sir win. Of the poop robin. A Night of the Reach, House Gardner, who slew the dragon. Go? No, I just love that, like, Tanzel and the troop are like, we're going to the reach. You know what they're going to want to see? They're going to want to see Sirwin. Give them the mirror shield.

They love that shit. Hide behind the shield. High of the reach. It's polished so that. The dragon can only see its own reflection. Dragon's a little dumb, though. And then this allows Sterwin to trick, deceive, and slay the dragon. Right.

And so he's disguising himself in order to win the day. Yes. And could anyone else here be disguising themselves in order to win the day? We'll see. This is a tale beloved by the small folk that, like many myths in this world, a tall tale that became legend, grows and evolves and changes over time, aspects of how people talk about Sorwen and what they associate with him. Cannot chronically all be true and match based on timing and stuff like that.

So it's an interesting glimpse into the way a myth unfolds. Can I add like another layer that Tenzel does not make literal text here? But I'll just say, and this is, I don't think it's a spoiler, but if you didn't watch any of the trailers, you can just hop ahead a few seconds. This isn't a spoiler, but I would say in the trailer sort of quite notably, Doug says, are there no true knights among you? Right. Like this is a thing.

So like there's an aspect in which Dunk is here to hold up a mirror to like the entire night class of Westeros. Who is noble here? Who has is their honor among you? What will this mirror reveal about yourself? And will that help him or hurt him at the end of the day? Yeah. And do the people care to look into it at all? They don't.

Great question. The role of the myth and the idea of the myth in the wider realm and the world, but also in Dunk's life, you know, the way he thinks about these great stories and the aspirational nature of them. This is the passage we both love. He thought back on all the songs he had heard. Songs of blind Simeon Star Eyes and noble Sirwin of the Mirror Shield, of Prince Amon the Dragon Knight, Sir Ryan, Red Wine, and Florian the full. Your guy. They had all won victories against foes far more terrible than any he would face. But they were great heroes, brave men of noble birth, except for Florian. And what am I? Dunk of Flea Bottom?

or Sir Duncan the Tall. He supposed he would learn the truth of that soon enough. And so this idea, which is going to be very present in the Lionel Barathean scene that we talk about, and I love that that's like a share. There are many differences between them as Dunk will observe, but that this is kind of a shared aspect of their characters, like how they think about history and how they think about myth as something to aspire to, fascinating as a measuring stick.

But again, like invoking Florian here has to make you think about Sansa. Absolutely. If only we had a lemon cake. You were talking about lemon cakes before. Lemon cakes. You love lemon cakes. Raymond. Dunk exits the puppet show and Raymond's like, I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have encouraged you to spar against Stefan. He just wanted to fuck you up so that he could have an easier time beating you. My bad. When Dunk asks Raymond, are you going to, are you entering the list? What are you up to? What are you thinking? And he's like, no, I'm just a squire. I can't. Dunk. He goes, like, full on head to toe.

He goes, what? You're a squire. You fight so well, though. If he is only a squire, the passage goes, what business do I have being a knight? One of us is a fool. Florian. I love the part where there's the like, you know, well, who do you plan to challenge? You know, and Ducks like, well, matters not. You know, and they're like, that's what you're supposed to say. Which is right out of the book, but like interior monologue that they just gave to Raymond, which I love. It's great stuff.

Yeah, it makes all the difference in the world. And then Raymond's like, I'd like to lead you somewhere. Are you hungry? I'd like to lead you into a scene that's not in the books. And I would like to say thank you to Raymond for this. It's the best. The Laughing Storm is dancing his way into the story way sooner than we had any reason to expect, except for the fact that the laughing storm was basically the star of the first trailer.

Right. And that led to some wonderful House of Arrising from you about what role I know might play in the story. That is like, incorrect. Well. Well, but, you know, he's here trying to share history with his assembled guests. Okay. And that is a version of what you were saying. No, let's be honest.

My theory was that Dunk would like tell him the story of Ireland and that's how we would get flashbacks. That's not what happens here. That's okay. I don't mind because we hold our theories loosely. A and B, this scene is a bad. to me. Would you like to hear, or perhaps you already know, because you watch all the behind the scenes like I do, the description of Lytle Barathean that Daniel Ings, who like, people are loving. I thought this was great. Yeah. Jack Sparrow mixed with Ernest Hemingway is what he

got. And like he's, like, when he's on the dance floor, he's like basically doing Orlando Bloom doing Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. Like, I was like, I wrote Jack Sparrow on my notes at a certain point. So I was like, you crushed it, my guy. How much of that is about the eye makeup specifically. Or like the forelock? I don't know. Dangling earring. My really good friend, Katie Rich, texted me and she's like, what can you tell me about this salt and pepper?

Oscar Isaac looking motherfucker. And I was like, lovesick. Watch it immediately. And I tweeted about this. And I mentioned on Talk to Thrones. Chris mentioned Daniel Ings who plays Lionel Brath in here that he was like really good on the gentleman, which came out. What is time last year or two years ago? or whatever on Netflix. He was.

He's in the first season of The Crown. He plays one of Phillips' like, Nerdywell Friends, right? Yes. He's like often a corrupting influence when he like shows up and things. But he's so good on Love Sick because he is like caddish but with this like deep soul. And I just, I love that show. I will like

stump for it forever. You should watch Love Sick. But I'm like really excited. Like a lot of people loved him here as Lionel Barathean. And that just like thrills me. I'm just so excited. Also, I saw some people note that, and we mentioned this Tyrion comp in On Talk of Thrones because he's like poetic in his cups, right? He's drunk, but he's got this like lyricism to him and this and this and this soulfulness to him. But a lot of people were pointing out that like between the curly like wig and the way his beard is shaped that he's like styled to look like Tyrion as much as Raymond Fossoy is style to look like pod. Yeah, which I love.

I enjoyed what he said on the inside the episode, a little feature right at the end. of the premiere. I'm not afraid of looking like an idiot. This was about the dancing. And just in general, I was carrying himself in this scene. And it's a good opportunity to show just for a wild man

this guy is he wants to elevate things into a storm. Now, he understands the assignment. Playing the laughing storm and is incorporating that language right into the description. Broadly here. We'll go through the scene

and how wonderful it was. But broadly, what are we gaining by moving the laughing storm's introduction up. And increasing his scope. It's hard to talk about it too much without spoiling anything. But I will just say that it's like he's a dynamic figure in as much as like a Wikipedia entry can ever be dynamic inside of a story. Like he's called the laughing storm. We get a couple like sentences about like why he has that moniker.

Is it like that? Like all of that is fun. But he's not a fully fleshed character. And like without saying anything specific, like he has a role to play in this story that like, Like, it will just benefit us to have an emotional, like, investment in the choices that he makes. Yeah. And it will benefit the story for him to have some sort of relationship of any kind with Duncan. Yeah.

You know. Yeah. And I think just in general, obviously, just totally and in terms of the... I mean, we get more Raymond, too, in this episode. Yes. I think, the energy and the charisma that Lionel brings is, distinct and just kind of breathtaking. Yeah. I think in expanding those scenes for Linal and Dunk and Raymond and Dunk in this premiere,

the tales of Dunk and Egg, like we know our core pairing. Right. And that relationship is elemental. But I like that we are expanding time with Dunk and other people too. That just feels beneficial for like flushing out the total. totality of who Dunk is. Right, because there's a difference. And there is just such a clear difference between the way that Dunk conducts himself when he's talking to Egg. He's trying to model himself on Arlen and he's like saying like a boy and like certain things. I'll give you a

cloud around the ear. But who is he when he's on the back foot around Lionel and is like, you're chaotic and scary and hot and fun. And you know, and like, all of the above. And like, who is he with Raymond who feels like a little bit more of an equal to him? You know, like where is he in all of this? So I love it. I love it. I love. it. Laughing Storm, just sick, sick name. The costuming here, incredible. We'll talk about the

crown in a second. The dagger. All of it is fantastic. The pavilion. I mean, this is basically a manse, this pavilion. I like when he's at the very end of the scene tells Dung guy, you know, I don't know, I'm drunk and he kind of moseys off and the crown points get on in the chandelier. And he apologizes to the chandelier.

His pavilion, of course, as a chandelier. With allers on it. I toss this, not to keep coming back to Disney, but I toss this, like, guest online. I use antlers and all of my decorating on Talk the Thrones. But I just want to say that, like, I use antlers and all of my decorating inside Beauty and the Beast and they, like, cut to something and you're like, those are some antlers. Lionel Barathean really understands the assignment of, like, there are so, like, I, they're everywhere.

I don't think the production design people talked about the way in which we saw, like, some concept design work and stuff like that in the sort of making of. that they put up on YouTube. But, like, I just am envisioning the production design team with, like, a hot glue gun and a mountain of antlers. And they're just, like, glue it to every – glue an antler. Like, put a bird on it. Put an antler on it on every surface. It's great.

I love it. An inspiring bit of direction. And I think it's working. You mentioned the notes in the book about, like, where this name comes from, this idea that he just laughs at the – people he's besting He knocks off their fancy helms, tosses it to the small folk

and laughs at them when he beats them. Incredible stuff. He's a very important person. It is just the best. The full crown here. The full crown. Barathians love their crown staggs,

as we know. And, you know, the Storm Kings of Old, the future rulers, of course, in our Game of Thrones primary timeline of the Seven Kingdom. Shout out Bobby B. Always. Shout out Renley. Shout out Stannis.

Is that a ham? Love to think of our faves. A reminder for the bad babies that Egon the Conqueror's best pal. Best pal. Best pal. First hand. Brother. Baster brother.

Oris Barathean, the founder of House Barathean, who slewed the Storm King. Orgelak the arrogant, talk about a sick moniker. That's incredible. George is really good at this, honestly. And to the bastard brother point, many, many, many. Many people believed. Many people are saying. Many people are saying that Oros was Egg on the Conqueror's bastard brother, Ariens bastard son, meaning Braithians through a dragon seed.

Drop a targ blood. And guess what? They've never forgotten that. I said I was using sort of shorthand on Talk to Thrones because I didn't think it was worth getting into all. When I said they were like one of the oldest great houses. On Talk to Thrones, we have 50 minutes here. I knew all of that history. but like it's true that like when you talk about the great houses of Westeros, like the Barathians, even though they stole the sigil and everything else from a different house that was at Storm's end before them,

like they are one of the oldest great houses. And because they have this association with the Targaryans, they have heirs that they put on that other people don't. I mean, the Starks kind of do, right? Because, you know, they're the Starks. But, you know, the fact that Lionel Barathean, who's not even head of his house, right is wearing a crown is incredible it's nuts it definitely helps to be let's dunk wear it later do you think he wears it once the targaryans get there or does he like put it away in a box that's like a good question he should be he should not wear it when they're around but then if you don't

you risk the whispers of oh you know what you do you know what he does when you're not around He was a fucking crown that is so tall. It hits the chandelier that he insists on putting in his pavilion. Just an incredible character. He wants to regal all of his assembled guests with a tail, but they won't stay quiet long enough for him to talk, so he calls them all cunts. Again, Thrones.

Remember when one of the trailer pods, we were like, you know, what will we see boobs? Will we, how thronesy will it be? Will there be sex? Did we sit there saying, will we see boobs? Oops. The first episode. Ashford chair.

We're going to lower you down. Right. Here we are. And he speaks of the first joust. The first joust. Four thousand years ago, a field right outside. And he's talking about this idea that men could not have devised. Wait, but of such a thing.

I have a really, I have heard a really fun theory about this. Tell me. Drop it. That he's alluding to the way in which stags joust with each other. Hmm. You know? Because, like, I thought, like, oh, he means, you know, the gods or he means, you know, like, the Andles or whatever the case may be. But he's like, no, my crowns sigil.

The stags invented jousting. I love that. Isn't that awesome? Great shit. Again, Lionel fucking rules. We believe that this is a reference to Maris the maid, Garth Greenhands' daughter, this tourney. The first tourney was in the reach. Yes.

The first tour. This is where it was located. This battle for her hand. And it'll shock everyone to hear that in classic Westrosy fashion Didn't go exactly the way that everybody Attorney went wrong? I know, I know. But more of this.

Will there be moves? Yes. There will be always. More Age of Heroes stuff. Interesting. You know? Again, this idea of like what is a hero? What is a knight?

What is a legend? What takes on the status of myth and heft? very present throughout and how do different characters, Dunk, Lionel, whomever, talk and think about and invoke those ideas. And I like establishing Lionel not only as a character with, you know, certainly a flair for the dramatic, a desire to have fun, a command of the room, he's not uncomfortable. A gay time. Gay time. He doesn't have imposter syndrome. He's like, this is who I was born to be in every respect. But he's a philosopher, too, and he's existential, and he's thinking about how to prove that to himself, as we're about to hear, and he's got to feel for history.

So there is, even though he and Dunk are so different, there are these common strands at sort of like a cellular level that I thought were very effectively conveyed here early. Do you think Dunk is existential and philosophical? Dunk the Long Island is a castle wall. I think Dunk is like, what does it mean to be a knight? What does it mean to be? Yeah, yeah. I think in a much maybe more distilled and contained fashion than Lionel, certainly. Sure. Just everything about the scene. So the call for a feasting and dancing. And then the call for Dunk to come to Lionel.

Dunk's like, me? Halfian pastry in hand. We get a little glimpse of Beesbury dancing in the mustache. Anything you'd like to say about that? What a legend. Just iconic. What an icon. Incredible stuff. House Beesbury is here. Get used to it. We always like when House Beesbury is here. Dear me. God's be good. Here are some of the things that line all ass dunk. Have you ever been punched in the face? Why do you slouch? What gift have you brought me? Are you here for my help or my head? What's your name? And if he likes to dance. Which of those, if any, would you like to talk about more?

Why does he slouch? Where I grew up, you learned to go and notice is all. The seven above gave you tallness. So be tall. I'm going to take that advice. I'm going to try to work on my posture and just like, The women of the ringer are tall. Be tall. So what you're saying is Craig Horlebeck is your Lionel Barathe. Kind of. Do you disagree? Spot the lie. Do you disagree? Spot the lie.

I've never seen him dance, though. That's interesting. I could see him wearing this crown, though. I absolutely could. Dunks or dunk. That's ridiculous. Right. So be tall, giving him part of his name.

And also sort of like the second response to like, dunk. Are you sure, buddy? Right. You know, which will, like, poop robin. Right. Yeah. So like the third go round. Yes.

When egg's like short for Duncan maybe, he's like, yeah, that's it. Duncan. Duncan the tall. Be tall. Be tall. Be Duncan. I got it. I got an egg.

It's like Lionel is so sure in his skin and dunk just, you know, isn't and having different people help him navigate that. So this is great. They have electric chemistry. These two. They're so good. You know who else loves a gay Baratheon? Brian of Tarth.

That's true. With a deep and abiding commitment. Ran and Dunk once again. They see a gay Barathean. They're like, let me at it. Let me at him. They sit and speak after the dancing. By the way, I just want to say,

I understand that not everyone who listens to Watches House of Ar is a musicals fan, and that's okay. Ira Parker is a huge musicals fan. But even if you're not and you've never seen, Fiddle on the roof. Listen, you should watch Fiddler on the roof. It's incredible. But if you don't have time to do that, then you can go to YouTube.com and you can look up. Thanks for saying.com. You're welcome. Yeah. And you can look up Lechayem or the bottle dance. Like those are part of the same sequence. And just like really enjoy some of the coolest shit you've ever seen. It's just like really, really good shit. And they just like really captured it here. I'm just like so surprised and delighted. The swinging and circling from Lionel here. The like shoulder shimmying, like all of it. It's really good.

Fantastic stuff. The little, the toe stomp contest. Just remarkable bit of television here. Truly great. And then we kind of shift to like a quieter moment of conversation and reflection. And Lionel is telling this story about driving into the storm to test his metal, to forge his legacy to measure himself against the past. And Dunk asks if he was afraid.

Carlos, can we hear what Lionel says in response. Within every man, there are many men. I had to do Stormlanders had always done. If they had done it, I could do it too. There are some really great lines in this episode. We're going to talk about another one that we love that concludes the episode. Within every man, there are many men is, I think, the line of the episode. And I went on a wild Google chase.

A little Kindle searching. To try to find, like, where. in Georgia R. Martin's, Texas is, it isn't anywhere. There are other things that Lionel says. Like, he says the thing about a night without a horse is no night at all. That's from the sworn sword. Like, that's from a later novella. Like, they lifted some lines and gave him to him. But, like, within every man, there are many men. Gorgeous. Is original to the show. Yeah. Incredible.

It's so good. It's perfect. I mean, it's a perfect encapsulation of Dunk's conflict, this idea of embracing all of the aspects of what a hedge-d Knights' noble pursuits can be and what he's learned from Sir Arlen and the truth that he still holds in that respect, but also the desire for forging his own path and making decisions for the first time. I got such a kick out of George being on the official pod, the preview episode that they did. And he talked about, you were, you know, alluding earlier to the what is the ideal and what is the reality and the conflict. And then he literally did invoke the Faulkner quote that we always reference as a core Georgeism. What is the Faulkner quote we always reference just in case

people are new to the pod. Conflict in the human heart. The human heart and conflict is the only thing worth writing about. And this is like, I hope people who were listening heard you thumping on your chest for a few seconds before he started talking. It's basically like Georgia's North Star and just how he thinks about interesting character and interesting dynamics. That and what's arrogant. Aragon's tax policy. What's what the little, even the little throcks in their little cradles.

So this captures something that is just kind of like essential to how to, George thinks about story in general, an interesting character in general, but certainly Dunk and a lot of the characters in this story in particular, and I thought this was like really, really great. And also this idea of like finding inspiration and courage through those measuring sticks of history, that tall tale that became legend idea again, hearing it from Lionel right before Dunk gives him the like, yeah, that's easy for you to say. Right. To put us in a common space before the source. or the circumstances and realities of their existences peel them apart again in the next exchange.

I just thought it was really smart. So this was a great bit of acting, great bit of writing, and thematically very rich. The thing that's most top of mind for Dunk here, though, is like, what chance do I have? Right? What chance do I have, truly? And Lionel says, real talk. Oh, you have no chance. Oh, you have no chance.

But it's a great honor to test oneself against a worthy foe. In a feast for crows, here is the passage. Seven, Brian thought again, despairing. She had no chance against seven. She knew no chance and no choice. She stepped out into the rain, oathkeeper in hand. So the Brianne and Dung stuff is just like constantly knitted together. Inextricable.

She's just always there. Yeah. I fucking loved it. I love it. The scene was great. Seam was great. Genuinely no notes. Oh man. Dunk was strong and quick and his weight and reach were in his favor, but he did not believe for a moment that his skills were the equal of these others.

Sir Arland had taught him as best he could, but the old man had never been the greatest of knights, even when young. Great knights, this always makes me sad, great knights did not live their lives in the hedges nor die by the side of a muddy road. That will not happen to me, Dunk vowed. I will show them that I can be more than a hedge knight. pair that with What chance do I have? What a special character? What a special character? No chance at all.

He sees Sir Manfred, who I think should not be allowed to kiss people in public or frankly in private. This was revolting. This was revolting. I thought you were a Dornishman. I thought you were hung like a Dornishman. No, I said I've hung Dorses.

Oh, what a piece of shit. It's like eating their faces. I really hope that actor was given a note to kiss badly or else you've just crushed his spirit. He was like, I'm doing my best. The best of God. I think the direction was definitely repel everybody here. Seriously?

I think so. I got the ick. Okay. Yeah, I got, exactly. I got the ick. For sure, I got the ick. Sir Manfred does not, Joanna. Remember, Sir Arland of Penitree, who took a wound in his service, nor does he give a shit. And he doesn't even try to pretend that he remembers.

Could not care less? And he's like, why should I fucking remember Sir Island of the Penny Tree? This is, Dunk's entire future hangs on this exchange and Sir Manfred. And all of that, just like, Dunk's entire identity of like, I was in service to a night and that matters. It mattered. And Manfred's like, it doesn't matter. And giving something of yourself, your blood, your time, your service matters. Right.

How could you have forgotten him? Right. And read earlier saying, like, protect your body. Only got the one. Right. And Arlen, like, watching that flashback of, like, ripping that giant bolt out of his abdomen and all the blood. That's a lot of blood.

Yeah. I would say freely bleeding. Sir Manfred, not a fan. What a hot take. I'm just going to be brave enough to say it. Not a fan of Sir Manfred Dundarian. So Dunk defeated. Heads back to his peaceful elm.

His little pool. Someone's there. A little pool. There's a roaring fire. He's caught some fish. His only wish. Gallum would not want the fish to be baked. Nope.

Raw and wriggily. Egg is here. He has arrived in a lamb cart. An enterprising youngster will say that. And he found dunk here in this spot. And he has tended the camp. He has done all the work. The only thing he couldn't do, he says, is put up the pavilion because he couldn't find one.

Pavilion, sir, but I couldn't find one. Trees leak. Trees leak. Will there be poops? Will there be poops? It's a reasonable question. I mean, we shouldn't have ever doubt it. A lot of people wanted to know, will there be boops?

Many people were asking, will there be poops? Dunk threatens to, like, take egg home, right? I should just put your hours, take you home. Like, you'd got to eat. Were you worried that there would be no boobs? Because Ian McShane once said Game of Thrones was tits and dragons and there are no dragons. So you're like, what if there are no tits? I was like, maybe we'll get puppet boobs.

How realistic are those puppets? Just curious. Egg is like, you'd have to take me back to King's Landing, man. And just like the, well, she's dead comment that Egg made about his mother earlier at the inn, you can see how this changes something and dunk about how he is looking at Egg. what he is thinking because it makes him think of himself. He's from Pleasman. Another wretch from Flea Bottom, like is not.

And who can blame him for wanting out of that place? Now, in the show, he's like, are you from Flea Bottom? And Egg's like, no. But that association, right? That tenderness, that sense of seeing himself here in Egg, leads to a change from Dunk's earlier position. And they exchanged names, Joanna. And I just was like kind of a master.

watching this scene and then the subsequent falling star scene made me so emotional to see this pairing that is so beloved to us come together in this fashion what's your name dunk so dunk so dunk that's no name for a knight is it short for duncan yeah yeah the women at the ringer are tall be tall so duncan the tall would you care to read this passage that we both love from the novella about dunk not knowing his own name dunk dunk he said sir dunk That's no name for a knight. Is it short for Duncan? Was it? The old man had just called him Dunk for as long as he could recall, and he did not remember much of his life before. Duncan, yes, he said. Sir Duncan of... Dunk had no other name nor any house. Sir Arland had found him living wild in the stews and alleys of fleas bottom.

He had never known his father or mother. What was he to say? Sir Duncan of flea bottom? Did not sound very nightly. He could take Penny Tree. What if they asked him where it was? Dunk had never been to Penny Tree, nor had the old man talk much about it. He frowned for a moment, then blurted out, Sir Duncan the tall. He was tall.

No one could dispute that, and it sounded piscent. I love this passage. He pronounced that word. He says pussent a lot, and I'm just like, that's an awfully big word for dunk. I think that on the audio book, Harry Lloyd says puissant. Puisant, but who knows? Puisant.

Anyway, love this. So good. You know who has been to Pettetry? Jamie Fulken Lanister In a Dance of Dragons Jamie Fulkin Lanast It's in the Riverlands Dunk If you want to know

If you want a more convincing lies In the Riverlands Jamie Lanister has been there At Dunstan Dragons Just thinking about Jamie and Brian always Now and always Never heard of them Yeah

Do you know every night In the Seven Kingdoms then The Good One Have you got a name Thief? Egg Egg From the book

Egg He said Dunk did not laugh his head does look like an egg. Small boys can be cruel and grown men as well. It's just so sweet. Dunk is just so sweet. He's wondering, will there be boobs?

But he's just also so sweet. And so Dunk decides to make Egg his squire to take him on to accept this offer and to accept egg into his life, to accept this companionship and to do for egg, to try to do for egg what Arlen did for him. And he makes this pledge to egg. And Egg's eyes go wild. wide and his smile is wide and there's hope and there's glee and there's excitement and there's anticipation and I was just really moved by this and like I love that the what dunk says here

the sweetness of the pledge that there's nothing in it to your to your point earlier about how dunk thinks how his own desire manifest this isn't about like great heights and glory and what they'll the people to walk over to get where they're going it's about care right food salt beef and salt fish a place to belong what Arlen gave to him we passing that on tag. You and I both wrote this in our notes and we had a listener right into it, but I think it's worth contrasting the actual language, right? Yeah, absolutely. So what Dunk says here, and our listener Cosmic wrote in with this sort of compare a contrast, Dunk says, I don't have much, but if you prove you're worth your keep, you'll have clothes on your back

and food in your belly. The clothes might be rough spun and the food salt beef or salt fish, but you won't go hungry. I promise not to beat you except when you deserve it. And this is what Sansa and Catlin starts said to. brand both, I mean, Catlin to brand in the book and then both Cat and Sansa to brand in the show. I vow that you should always have a place by my hearth and meet and meet at my table.

I pledge to ask no service of you that might bring you dishonor. I swear by the old gods and the new. So this idea of like placed by my heart and meat and meet in my table and like the food, salt beef and the salt fish, but you won't go hungry. Like there is this sort

of like, it's the same, they're saying the same thing. Yes. The same So Brienne, once again, is here with us. Catlin and Sonsa are here with us. How lovely. And there are many boughs that have been sworn inside of thrones. What are some of your favorites? I think Brianna is obviously most top of mind for me here as well.

And I love with Brianne thinking about both sides of it. Like when Brienne is taken on by Kat and Sansa and then when Brienne takes on POD as her squire, you know, and the way that that relationship are you serving and helping is. Are you taking somebody into your service? Dunk is on his version of that journey. But even something like John and Sam taking their Knights Watch Val by the Heart Tree, like just the way that whether it's a lady and a knight or a knight and a squire or two sworn brothers, the way that that pledge and who you share it with becomes this turning point in your life is just such a kind of core aspect of Thrones to me. So I love thinking about that.

For so many, those vows are broken. Yes. And for Brian. They make you swear and swear. Brian, however, is an oathkeeper, right? And what I love when Catlin says it's to Brian in the book, like this ends with arise, which is what you say when you knight someone. So like Catlin, like, you know, brings Brianne into her service.

And she, Catlin can't, a knight can make a night. Catlin can't make a night. But she says arise. Right. She doesn't say arise sir Breanne. because she can't make her a night. But like, arise. Yeah.

You know, you are, you know. Exactly. I bequeath this honor and duty to you. It's beautiful shit. It's really good. Beautiful shit. Also beautiful is sitting under the ailment night when the shooting star streaks above them.

And Ag says, The falling star brings luck to those who see it. But everyone else, they're in their fucking fancy pavilions. Look at up in silk. They've got chandeliers, man. The stars are brighter after the doom. man. Dunk threatens another cloud in the ear, but then he takes a moment and he thinks and kind of looks

to the side of egg and says, so the luck is ours alone? An egg has curled up and he smiles. And it is just perfect. And so this idea, we talked about this a lot on Talk to Thorns because we both were very moved by this, not just moment and idea, but slight adaptive tweak that is bigger an impact than than an exact execution here. It's a very tiny tweak that really carries a lot of weight.

This idea in the novella take the thing you lack, this fancy pavilion, shelter, the money to have acquired it in the first place, the confidence to put it up in the field with everybody else, all those other things, right? Find your edge in the thing that you lack, this classic wear it, like, armor idea.

But they do something else here, which is they take an internal monologue line from dunk in the book. A falling star brings luck to him who sees a dunk thought, but the rest of them are still in their pavilions by now, staring up at silk instead of sky, so the luck is mine alone. And they have egg say this to him instead. Because egg isn't there yet when this happens in the book. So he's learning from egg already. But what else is he doing, Joe? He's sharing a destiny. It's ours. The luck is hours alone. It's not will I see boobs? It's will we see boobs? Will we see boobs? Will that be boobs? Will we say boobs?

Perfect end note for the episode, but it's not the end note for the podcast because it is now time for the book Look Ahead. Rapid Fire, baby. We just have a few things to hit today. We'll do this every week. Spoiler, look ahead. If you do not want to hear about things that are going to happen later in the novella, later in other texts as well, later in the story. We'll see you. We'll see you for Talk of Thrones on Sunday.

be back for Chris will be here. He will. Will there be boobs? Probably. Okay. Probably. All right. Sirens have gone here. Sounds, you've been warned. Did you go? If you want to go, go. Okay. Book spoilers. Eggs identity.

Do we want to start with dunk? Sure. Okay. Dunk as a knight. So we're kind of alluding to it because the show is kind of alluding to it. And like everyone who's covering it is kind of alluding to it. So it's hard not to talk about it. But like, though it's never. confirmed confirmed in the book there are enough context clues to make us the reader believe that that sir arline never knighted duncan and that even though he is a very honorable forthright upright

upright young man he is lying about this particular thing he is not a knight yes seems clear from the textual it really does so him saying like you're a squire oh man like what the fuck do i do learning right ears the monstrous lie quote on and on on the list goes um Also on the poop robin front. I just love that juxtaposition. Like, if he's full of shit when he's talking about the nighting, the fact that he actually saw that Robin when he was taking this massive dump is like pretty funny to me. Secret grant stuff.

That juxtaposition of like, what was the Robin looking at? You getting knighted or are you taking a massive dump? Actually, it was a massive dunk. Also, would you care to engage with the theory that the poop robin is actually blood raven? A thousand eyes and one. If you have a thousand eyes and one, you're going to see a lot, including some diarrhea. It's going to happen. Okay, so the poop robin is like, actually call me Blood Raven, please.

It's a cooler name. Then poop ramen, blood Raven. Oh, man. Thousand eyes and one. Great stuff. All right, eggs identity you were saying. I just so, okay, we talked at length across the trailer pods about how mystified we were by this decision to keep this mystery. that is what it is at this point.

Yeah. I will say I am newly baffled, though, after watching the This Season on trailer, which we had not seen when we did Talk to Thrones. Correct. The this season on trailer, at the end of this episode, I would say reveals almost everything

about the events to come, including... I wouldn't watch it, personally. What Arian does, the fact that they're going to be facing off, They've got Baylor saying trial by combat. Some of the particulars of what a gunfold from there are not obviously revealed. But like a lot of the stuff that they were holding back in the preseason trailers was revealed in the season on.

And yet Egg's identity remains a mystery despite the first sentence of the Wikipedia entries about the show, about the novellas, about egg, about anything. People are so close to having this spoiled for them no matter what they do. And also, people are making the point that like when you're reading the notebook, As you said, you can read it in three hours. So even if you're, like, confused when he meets a young stranger with purple eyes, which is a dead giveaway in the book, but like whatever, even if you're like, oh, a young boy who got lice and had his head shaved or whatever. You're only, you're just reading the book for three hours and then you get the reveal, like, halfway through this. We're playing out over weeks with like all of the internet talking about it. It's very tough.

Anyway. Strange. I did appreciate, though. First of all, just broadly, the way that Egg is speaking. The accent, the polish. Yeah. I love I could if I wanted. So good.

You know, which is such a, like, egg never lies, right? Like, you have to take me back to Kingsland. Yeah. Please, body? Nope. Yep. Are you an orphan? Are you an orphan?

Right? Like, he's just sort of like dodging questions, right? And so, but like, you know, I could if I wanted, but she says a couple times. Just sort of like, yeah, I do what I want. I'm a prince. And also, I do what I want. And I did want to be a squire. And my fucking drunk brother Darren, now I can't be.

so I'd like to be yours. But his like polished speech is such a contrast to Dunk said it's, it's interesting that Dunk even like misses that, basically. Come to accent watch with me. Dung, you've got some stuff to learn from Joe. But Egg does, and I'm sure many, obviously everybody who knows who egg is probably clock this, but I suspect that people who don't know who egg is possibly also clock this.

I don't think so. I don't think anyone who doesn't know who egg is will not remember. The Taiwan, the Taiwan, Arya, my lord. And it's like, my lord. Yeah. Proper princeling. Yeah. No.

I don't think they're like, oh, in season three of Game of Thrones. I guess I am always thinking about Taiwan and Arias. Sorry. Yes. But I think anyone who has watched Game of Thrones that closely knows who the fuck Egg is. That's what I think. A couple of things I want to say. How does Egg know where Duncan's tree is when he doesn't even have a pavilion to guide him?

Like, how does he find the tree? And is there some sort of like targ magic to him that he found it? Also, and this really got me. Once again, shout out again to the history of Westrose folks. Once again, remembering the family tree. Egg's dead mother, Diana Dane, House Dane, the falling star. That's right. And the first Dane is said to have raised starfall on an island at the mouth of the Torrentine,

having tracked a falling star there and found a stone of magical powers. His descendants became kings of the Torrentine and lords of starfall. So this idea that Egg, whose mother was House Dane, is talking about the luck that the falling star brings is like so extra incredible. You know, meaningful. Shout out Dawn. Shout out Sword of the morning. Sure. Talk about some good names.

Evenfall, Starfall. Obviously, the many-man idea applies to Egg as well. Correct. Good stuff. I liked to the... Also, a lot of the Sirward of the Mirror. Yes, should the dragon discover one but a man in great disguise? Good stuff there.

On the Laughing Storm front. I loved a few bits of foreshadowing that were incorporated here, some of which applies to the events of the Hedge Night and this season of TV, but in a bigger sense, more so what awaits in the future of the canon. One of the novellas that George hasn't written yet. Yes, exactly. Just like, you know, a sentence here, a sentence there in the history tombs. certainly Lionel's draw to history

in the way that he is engaging with history in this pavilion scene good setup for the fact that he's going to be like I'm not missing the first trial of seven also let me at the Kingsguard worthy foe let me fight those white cloaks motherfucker absolutely on the crown front

and also the toe smash dance contest in particular just and again don't listen this part of the pod if you don't want to hear this stuff. We already spoiled egg. We did already spoil egg. But this is spoilers within spoilers here. You know, egg becomes king, right? He's not just egg on Targaryen. He becomes Egg on the 5th Targaryen. Egg becomes a fourth son of a fourth son. Never should have happened, but it did.

And egg, a egg, I dreamed I was old. Egg. I can't wait to be able to freely on the pod say, a egg, a egg, a mystery am a nod. The Dreamt I was old kills me every time. Um, Milo's going to rebel. Against egg. Yeah, that crown sits pretty, pretty solidly on his head, right? Egg's son, Duncan. You love it, folks.

Wonderful. Betrothed to Lionel's daughter. Yep. And Duncan's like, actually I'm in love with Jenny of Oldstones. Kingdoms and singing about Jenny, my God, it really is. This is really just for us. Dragonflies, baby. And the trial that Lionel and Dunk have.

Guess who wins? Dunk! The toe smasher himself. Yeah. Also, I just thought this was great set up for that. Also, I was wondering if the toe smashing and Manfred's gouty toes were like, we're thinking a lot about footstuff, right? I know you're always thinking about footstuff, you and Tarantino, but also,

famously. Will there be boobs? Is the question I ask. Will there be toes? Not really a question I asked. Will there be shoes? Yeah, exactly. And Tarantino's like, no.

Anyway, dunk's foot. That's right. So toe smashing, gouty toes. Talking to Prince's life, be worth a foot. Maybe the realm will have need of that foot one day, Joe. May have. May have. Speaking of, Darren.

Okay, yeah. So the muddy lordling at the inn who's got completely sandy blonde hair, not ice blonde hair, is a Targaryen. It does allow for TV viewers to mistake him, I think, as a Lannister for a bit, especially especially in the red. The red and black. Sure, sure, sure. Darren the drunken, Darren the dreamer. I dreamed of you.

You talked me off the edge of a cliff with this one in our first trailer pod because Darren was nowhere to be seen. And ultimately, in either trailer. You're like, what if there are no boobs, but more importantly, what if they're so daring? But if there's no dragon dreams. Darren the Daring. Because there was also at the same time that Ira Parker comment during New York ComicCon about like, this is the magic in this show and I was panicking.

Yeah. Because obviously not just in this story with Darren's dream and what he will tell Dunk later in the movie. this is just a setup in a taste. He will reveal the dream in full to Dunk later in the novella. And it is a very important part of this story, but also of subsequent stories for Dunk. Damon II, our guy, the fiddler, John the Fiddler,

and the Mystery Night is also like, I dreamed of you and Dunk is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, deja vu. The Targs love to dream of Duncan. The Targs in general love to dream of Duncan. These brothers, these targs, these targs, this slice of Targaryian history, this slice of the timeline, we both love that Mr. Eman quote to Sam and a feast for crows. My brothers dreamed of dragons too and their dreams killed them everyone. Obviously that's very much about Summerhole. Yeah, but let's also

be clear, Darren died of venereal disease, not of dreaming. I think there are just maybe one in the same because look what his dreams have driven him to. Look what his dreams have driven him to. Look what his dreams have driven him to. One of our listeners wrote in about this, like, in a way that a little bit confused me because Amanda wrote in it was very clear that she knows the plot of this show but was like confused about the dreaming and so the dreaming the dream that Darren has is that um a dreamed dragon fell on you dead yeah and fell on you but you got up and the dragon didn't right and so uh bailer breaks spear etc like this is these are the events of the show that we will be watching yes um

But yeah, in which the dragon stands for Targaryen, etc. But Darren's like, I was worried it was, I was the dragon, you know, could have been me. Yeah, often the case with a great Targ dragon dream and a prophecy of any sort, the misinterpretation, the interpretation. A little loosey-goosey. What do you fear? Do you then bring it about? What applies in this woman in time? What applies in a larger sense moving forward?

We talked about Darren the Dreamer when we talked about House the Dragon Season 1. We talked about Vassaris drunk by the fire and talking about his dragon dreams. And so this like, this idea of like the weight of it. Drinking yourself through your dreaming. Yeah. I like in. And then fucking and then getting a venereal disease and then dying. Bring the maggots in.

I was really thinking of you. The pit. When I saw the, when I caught up on the pit and saw the maggots. Boy, that was gross. Boy, that was gross. You know, egg telling Dunk, because obviously in the mystery night, the John the Fiddler, dream conversation with Dunk is really central. But Egg talks about, you know, the dreams to Dunk in the Mystery Night too, right? That he believes dragons will come back one day because his brother Darren dreamed it.

And there's all just a lot of we're just, we are marching towards Summerhall everywhere. And how sick would it be if season 12 of Another Seven Kingdoms was Summerhall? I deserve this. Tell all of your friends to watch this show. We need, we need it. I actually had a sad moment this morning thinking, I think Peter Claffey could play dunk till the end. Dexter can't. I know. Egg has to get way older.

I know. They can string it along for a while because they're filming in rapid succession, so they're trying to, like, you know, outrun the... But he's going to have to be recast at a certain point. At some point. I know. I was thinking about that too this morning. Wow. Okay. Puppets. Puppets. I wish they hadn't shown this in the season on. I know. It would have been like, I know. That bummed me out. That said, it's fun to set up Aryan is a cool villain. Dragon must never lose. Yeah. Okay, anyway.

Yeah, that's all. We get the dragon slaying set up and the fact that we're going to see that happen in the puppet show and Ariane's going to freak. Love struck dunk. Certainly set up here. Hard eyes.

Tanzell, too tall. Not too tall for me. Just the right height. Not too tall for me. For puppets. All right. Dunk's new sigil, right? So the elm and the shooting star

we get in this episode, the sunset, which is why he buries Sir Arlen on the side of the hill, because Arlen like to watch the sunset. So the sunset field, the tree, the star. Here's a quote, Brian and her father's armory,

running her fingers over the greenleys of the tree and along the path of the falling star, end quote. So though it is never explicitly said, it is implied that Brian finds Sir Duncan's shield with this new sigil with the elm tree and the shooting star in the sunset field in evenfall, her family home, which then makes people believe

that Brianna Tarth is directly descended from. That and the fact that she's very tall. You know? Excited to find out. Women are the real tall and are we all descendants of Sir Duncan the Tall. Who did Dunkin-Procrate with? According to some theories, everyone. I can't wait to see it all.

According to some theories, like, is that why, you know, there are tall, various tall figures around Westroves. Did he make the seven is the question? Oh, my God. I love it. I thought that the, speaking of fucking, I thought that that line from Red about his body and taking care of it and the last one you're like to have was just, the sheer volume of titanic bodily harm that Duncan Kurz, not only in the first novel, but across these stories. Routinely, we are amazed that he is alive. And he is amazed that he is alive. So, you know, we're going to see this guy go through it, for sure.

I had one more thing I want to tell me. we're here with the new sigil, right? So Dunk gets a name. He gets a sigil. He gets a sort of like legendary origin, right? Like, but what's, what are the other trappings of the night? Like a legendary sword. Duncan doesn't have a legendary sword. He does not have a Valerian steel sword. He does not have a named sword. There isn't like a famous Duncan the Tall sword. We don't know necessarily that he hangs on to Arlen of Penetree's sword for all of his life. Right. But he could have. Entirely possible. Because there's no famous sword associated with Duncan the Tall. So this, this HILS that we see with the penny in it, like could be his sword through all of the seasons up through Summer Hall if they decide to do that.

That would be— That would be really cool if, like, all the deeds that made their way into the Book of Brothers. It's like with that sword in hand. With that humble castle forged steel that he carefully honed by the fireside. Should we end with fucking Manfred Dundarian? Probably. Feels appropriate. Yeah.

Manfred does not remember who Arlenna Penningtree was. Yeah. But Baylor Targary and Will. Oh, yeah. And that's so important. Baylor who has even less of a reason to remember Arlenna Penny Tree remembers him. And that speaks so much to Baylor's quality. It's just part of why, as you know, one of my favorite characters and part of why I just instantly right away.

It's just like this guy. This guy. I can't wait to spend time with him in the show. We did it. Love it. We did it. Thank you to the squad today. Carlos Chiroboga, as always, our Juno Ramga Powell, Jomiadena Doneron.

What a crew. Everybody else who helped us out in studio getting set up, the lighting, camera, the whole squad was here today to help us out. We will be back. Sunday night. Talk to Thrones right after episode two. So however long episode two is, a couple minutes later. head to YouTube.

You can watch it in real time on YouTube and then it'll be up for you everywhere. You can watch it on Spotify. Listen to it where we get your podcast. So much. Thank you, my darling. For joining us. Thank you for being here with me.

Letting me laugh. We love you very much. I love you too. It was wonderful to be here with you and with Duncan with egg. Bye. It all. Pay off your home.

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