House of R - ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Episode 3 Deep Dive

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Mal and Jo are back with Dunk and Egg to dive deep into the latest episode of ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’! They talk about Dunk and Egg’s morning routines, the cruelty of Aerion, and the reveal of Egg’s identity.(00:00) Intro(04:49) Opening Snapshot(30:26) Two Tickets to the Egg and Thunder Show, Please!(52:40) Ser Robyn Rhysling and His Walking Stick Interrupt(01:09:33) Morning Chores and Sewing Lessons(01:22:47) Top Chef: Ashford Meadow(01:29:45) The Day’s Jousting Commences(01:45:00) Plummer Reveals His Match-Fixing Scheme(01:53:30) Aerion Brightflame Challenges Ser Humfrey Hardyng(02:09:35) Three-Fingered Alice’s Song(02:17:11) Market Town Prophecies(02:24:58) Raymun Serves Cider and Spills Targ Tea(02:34:50) Aerion Attacks Tanselle. Dunk Responds.(02:51:40) Egg’s Identity Is Revealed(02:58:16) Book Spoilers!Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna RobinsonProducer: Carlos ChiribogaSocial: Jomi AdeniranAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Greetings. And welcome to House of R, a ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin. Joining me today to remind us that when it is madness bid, it is madness delivered. Yeah. It's Joanna Robinson. I thought you're going to say I'm here to give you the whole arm bone. If you want to just start talking about Alice right now, we can. You know the phrase like put your foot in it or like whatever? Sure. I think we should just replace it with give it the whole arm bone as a way. You don't need to talk me into it. Great. I'm down.

In case you can't tell, we are here to dive deep into a night of the seven kingdoms. That's right, full arm bone deep into episode three. Yeah. Right after this. This episode is brought to by Borishead. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Boar's Head just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means

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All right, Joe. A quick refresher on how we do this. Talk the Thrones. Normally Sunday nights, right after the episode. This week. The Super Bowl is on Sunday. They're posting in the Night of the Seven Kingdoms, episode four early, like overnight heading into Friday.

Right. Midnight. That's right. Midnight Pacific, 3 a.m. Eastern. So when you wake up on Friday, Talk the Thrones will be waiting for you already. And that means whenever you watch episode four of a night of the seven kingdoms, Talk the Thorns will be there waiting for you. That's true.

Great news. Then we will be back next Tuesday evening for the deep dive on episode four. We're with you on Wednesday this week because I had just a terrible migraine and could that podcast yesterday. Sorry. Thanks for waiting. But here you are. I had one of those like,

can't look in the lights, look at the screen, migraines. Doing great today. And tip top. Yeah. Pelfort. Yeah, I'm fine.

Okay. I'm doing great. Spoiler warning. Case anybody needs a refresher on this as well. Here's how we do it. We're going to sprinkle book information, both from the Hedge Knight novella on which this season of television is based and all of the canon.

Throughout the podcast as we go for context, for additional insights, clarity. frankly just because we like to read. Elbow deep, profound insights. That's right. You might have just asked for a pinky, but we're giving you all three fingers and the whole arm bone. But if it is about future events yet to come in this season of television, in the novel,

that will all be separate waiting for you at the end of the podcast in a book look-ahead, spoiler section. You will be warned before that section begins, so you cannot miss it. the people of the world, the bad babies, they have said quite clearly, Carlos has ensured I can't miss this to the point where I might crash my car. Yep. We did get, I'm afraid for my life when I hear the spoiler warning. But is that better than being spoiled? It's better than being spoiled. We're providing a service.

Carlos is providing a service for the listeners. Thank you, Carlos. How can everybody follow along? Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you asked me that. First of all, why don't you follow us wherever you get. your podcasts. I'm not here to tell you where that is, but wherever it is, why don't you subscribe to House of Our? You've got Talk the Thrones. You've got our deep dives and you've got a bunch of other stuff, including hopefully this week, if all goes according to plan, Buffy Season 3 Part 2 at

long last. That's right. So, you know, there's a lot to love at the House of Our Feeds. You can catch up on the hype draft if you haven't yet? Oh, yeah. I did a great job on that. Everybody did great. Are you winning? Are you still winning? Yeah. Hell yeah. As I told you, I I voted for you. Thank you. I knew I wasn't going to win and it was important to me that one of us won.

So I threw my vote behind Mallory. Not strategic draft but strategic voting. Okay. Also, yes. Why don't you follow us

on the social media platform of your choice? Do it. We're on Instagram at Ringervorverse. We're on TikTok. We're on a bunch of other places wherever you like to

gather and get your information. And then Hobbits and Dragons at gmail. We're all doozy in the inbox this week. You guys are really, really, really viving on Neither Seven Kingdoms. You have a lot of opinions about who knew what, when, and why.

And we're going to get to some of your emails quite soon. What would you say percentage-wise? How many of the emails this week were about Alice? Very low percentage. I knew we had it covered. Most of them were like, hey, Joanna Mallory, not everyone lives online and most people didn't know who the fuck egg was. So we love that.

Fantastic. We love a surprise. Fantastic. That's the program. running rundown. That's the spoiler warning. Yeah. That's where you can find us. Let's get to the opening snapshot. Joanna, what did you think of this episode of television, episode three, the Squire? Oh, thanks. I loved it. Same. Thanks. I loved it. All of the stuff, I mean, the reveal I thought

was done really, really well. And Sarah Deena Smith, who directed this episode, and then I believe is directing four and six, is, was a really fun person to give insight into this episode. I just really loved everything she had to say about it. But I love the way that she talked about all the time we got to spend with Dunkin' Egg together, just being bros, guys being guys, pals being pals. Really, really great stuff. And then the way she talked about the reveal. Because like, okay, whether or not you're terminally online, have read the books or we're completely surprised,

she talked about how they wanted to deliver something for everyone, no matter how you were coming to the show. Yes. And I really love that because I hate when a show is like. Like, aren't you surprised when, you know, a percentage of the audience isn't. Or you must have done the homework. Right. Right. Either way.

And so this is just sort of like a fun, like sort of telenovela almost like the Californians' SNL sketch like, like don't, do, do like reveal really fun. But it'll get a funny way. And then there's just the emotional truth of what does this mean for dunk and what does this mean for egg going forward, the betrayal inside of a heroic act from both of them, you know? So I just loved all of that. I also wanted to ask you about the title of the episode, The Squire. Yeah.

Right. This could be Egg. This could be Dunk himself who was a squire. This could be Raymond Foss away. Like, you know, it could be whatever squire you prefer. But I was thinking about the episode titles we've had so far, right? Like Egg is both a squire and he's not. Yep.

Right? Dunk in the first episode, A Nine of the Seven Kingdoms. Is he? We don't know. that's the question that the show is asking, right? And then salt beef. Is Arlen salt beef or is he not? It's a good question to ask.

But like these titles that are just sort of like a title, a title that is much more complicated. Is Dunk actually offering egg a life of salt beef? No, we get egg sammies and like soft like walk and talk sausages inside of this episode. So like I just, I want to keep. tracking the episode titles and sort of see what they're trying to give us there. I love it. And I think also the idea of perception, right, what not only these characters think about themselves. And we love an episode that applies to multiple different aspects of the story or different character sets. Certainly the way that Dunk, when Egg is off with thunder

and Dunk wakes up to find himself alone, immediately falls back into the rhythm of life as a squire, sewing his own patches, lighting his own fire. You know, this thing. this reinforcement of this transitional moment in his life and the thing that he is trying to lean into and build and forge, but the thing that he left literal days ago, days ago. And, you know, I think that on the perception front, what do people think about Dunk and his stature as a knight or a squire, the way that he looked at Raymond when he was getting to know him? And we talked about the passage in the book for, you know, the additional context and prior episode of like, oh, you're a squire? Like one of us must be a fool. Yeah. But the first title being, you know,

the hedge knight, the fact that Dunk, as Arland did before, carries that with him as both a point of honor and a badge of pride. And that's going to come up a lot as we talk today about the choices that Dunk makes and the way that he thinks about true virtue and chivalry, but the way that plenty of people both at Ashford Meadow and across the realm at large would take the idea of the Hedge Knight and wield it against him, right? Use it as a diminishment or some sort of admonishment. Sad. It is. It's very, very, very sad. I was doing my... It is sad. My impression. It's a good impression and it is sad. So I loved this episode as well. I thought this was wonderful. I think every episode so far has been good, but this was my favorite, and I think they

packed so much affected storytelling into 30 minutes. It's really kind of amazing. I thought this was charming and funny to the point you made about just kind of hanging out. It had real like Avengers sitting around the table eating Schwarma or like hanging out trying to live meal near energy. Like it's important to see your figures of myth and legend and these great heroes and characters of consequence across the canon just like making breakfast. There's something so charming and winning about how that allows us to invest in their lives, the rhythm of their lives. I love that comp and I was also thinking about, you know, when we see eggs say I could be happy in a place like this, like in dreaming of a future, this idea of which we talk about, we talk about

Lord of the Rings, of like, it's important to spend time in the Shire so that we understand what's at risk here. Yes. And what's at risk is not even like Dunk's life or Egg's life or anything by the end of the episode, though Dunk is certainly in a lot of hot water for assaulting a Targaryen prince. Yeah. But it's the fragility of their bond. Yes.

This newly formed bond, we get to see what it means for them to be. like to tease each other, to be brothers, you know, for Dunk to be afraid that Egg has abandoned him in the morning and then just sort of like settle back into this joy of companionship and dreaming of a future together. And so it's important to like understand all of that. Yes. To understand what is potentially lost here at the end. Yeah. Yeah. I love all of that. I love, the other thing I really liked about this episode is, you know, we talked about this a lot, I think, fairly carefully, while breaking down the trailers and then in the early episodes of the season,

this idea embraced by George, actively championed by George is one of the things he loves so much about the story and Ira Parker on the show team. This idea that we are in a story in the world of the small folk, right? And this is a tale of commoners. And I remember when we were covering the trailers

that I had like a bit of worry actually about overstating that simply because one of the, two people in the two-handor is a, as revealed in this episode, a Targaryen prince, right? And so obviously we knew from the beginning that the Targaryens were going to be in this season of television and are in this story. But the fact that royalty is part of this, it's this episode, I think very effectively slightly, ever so slightly, without in any way undermining, recalibrates the positioning of that idea. And yet it is still true. And actually the fact that one of the two primary figures is a

Prince Ling, and yet this is still so fully entrenched in a different perspective and a different kind of energy. Like, we're still not spending all of our time in the halls of power. And the fact that actually we could be, because of who one of the characters is, makes that even more enticing. So I like that we now have like a clearer, that everybody watching the show has a clear understanding of how truly unique that is. It's actually even more interesting than if we were just with, like, Daisy and red

and brany and dunk and egg, egg on Targary and we're not in the mix at all. So it's fun to be at that point in the narrative overall. I think also, you know, there could have been in temptation. We do get, you know, as you and I discussed on Talk of Thrones, we get this sort of premise breaking, as you're saying, moment where, not premise breaking, but like we're in, we're with egg. Yes. Dunks asleep back at camp. We're off with egg and thunder, right? So we're either in Thunder's POV or we're in, we're in, we're not in Thunder's POV. We're not in Dunks POV. We're not in of you, right? Yes. So that was like a sort of like, oh, okay, to your point. But they could have, you know, we got a question from a listener, which we'll get to in a second about sort of like

the fact that this is, this episode has so much DNA from the book, but also has the most departures from the book in terms of like invented moments. And it's just sort of stretching out Duncan Egg's time together, I think, a bit more. And before the reveal. But inside of all of those inventions, there isn't, like, we don't need to see Makar and Aryan in a scene together. We don't need to see Baylor and Aryan in a scene together. We get it just from, like, Baylor rolling his eyes and being exasperated. That's a mild term with, like, what Aryan does in the attorney feels. Like, things are accomplished with glances that another show might feel like, oh, we really

need to establish what an asshole Aryan is. I'm like, no, we get it. Yeah. And our response to what he does in this episode, both with Humphrey Harding out on the list and his poor horror. And of course with Tanzel is how is dunk receiving this and responding to it and processing it? And how is it influencing and impacting and radically altering his perception of what it means to be a person who carries a certain title? Knight, Prince, Targaryen, whatever the case may be.

But then how does the rest of the realm respond? The fact that this episode, and this was another thing we talked about in the run-up to the season because Ira Parker was talking about how Aryan is a character who he likes the ambiguity of, like, like not really saying definitively, this is what's going on in his head. And we do know things about him. And we have extra, you know, insights from the books, some of which we'll talk about today and moving forward. But like, that he is a little bit of an enigma by design. And the fact that the episode is not really like positioning us inside of Aryan's brain so that he is saying to us, this is exactly why I do this. We have enough to be able to deduce and discern that, certainly. But the thrust of the drama comes from how people respond. The people who are in the stands watching him, the people who are saying, this is the thing that you have done, his brother, his brother, his uncle, the crowd that parts for him when he walks into the puppet show, not out of respect, but out of fear, out of terror. And like this episode could have been called the dragon or the dragon ought not lose or something like that, but it's called the Squire.

You know, because it's not, this is an Aryan's episode. This is Egg's episode, more than anything else. Yeah, and like that, you know, that humble aspect of a squire's work is, like, so centered in this episode in a way I love and, like, reminded me of the things that you've been citing across the prior two episodes, you know, the idea of, like, the time that Dunk spent cleaning and preserving the sword for Arlen and the way that, like, what it means to wake up and not only serve your night, but forge this family. That's part of why I love the egg thunder opening stretch of this episode, like really reinforcing this idea of this idea of this. this unit, that you protect and that you. And the horses are part of it. Absolutely. The horses are part of it.

What a great. Well, I can't wait to talk about Thunder's performance in this episode, memorable stuff. Anything else before we get to some of the opening mailbag items on other topics that we want to share from the listeners about just this question of whether people were surprised? Because it really did seem like we got in emails and comments on the, on the talk of Thrones episode, etc. All over the interwebs really kind of round the gamut, like a mix of people saying, well, either I know. I knew and here's my reaction to it. Or I was astonished. Or I didn't have any relationship to the source material,

but I literally Googled this dude once and had it spoiled for me, which that specifically was the thing that was a head scratcher and a puzzler. Not in any way this idea that people have to be mainlining the source text or diving deep into the wikis or anything. Just that you were half a sentence away from having this blown for you. at any point in time over the run-up to the season or the first few weeks. So I'm frankly really relieved that it was preserved for as many people as it seems to have been preserved for.

We got far too many anecdotes for me to relate, but they were all very delightful about people watching with pals who didn't know or like conversations that they'd had at dinner parties leading up to or whatever where they were just sort of testing. That fun way that like, if you're good at hiding a spoiler, which like I think sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not or whatever, but like you just sort of ask your friends like, oh, do you have any theories about who you think, you know, egg is? And like the answers that all these people got were just sort of like all over the map or like, well, he's just a kid or something, you know, whatever. So I'm sure some people clocked it, but plenty of people didn't.

And what seems to be the case for the people who didn't, and that's great, I love that. Me too. The people who didn't, it's a huge surprise. Yeah, like a giant what-the-fuck moment. And that's great. It's just, I think we were just worried. That it was just a big secret to keep. And especially, I think we were especially a little salty when we felt like HBO

was sort of like playing it both ways with some of their social media stuff. But again, not everyone's trolling the Game of Thrones Instagram like I am. And then our listener, Steve, wrote in to say, I miraculously avoided spoilers for Sunday night's big egg reveal. I found big twists hit harder on screen than on page. This brings me to a question, I'm afraid to Google. Are there upcoming show twists that the novella reveals earlier? Or can I dive in while keeping the surprise for the show?

Smaller twists are fine. really just looking to preserve the red wedding slash Hodor level events for Sunday nights instead of you old commute. So I think what Steve is asking is like, can I listen? Sounds like, listen to the audio of the first half. To like up until, you know, dunk's, you know, dunk punching Aryan and press pause and will I be spoiled? I don't think there's anything in that first part. I will say, and I actually don't think, I mean, no, there are big events that happen in the back half of this story, for sure, that I want everyone to experience on the screen if they

haven't been spoiled. But I will say, we had another listener ask, like, in our spoiler section, do we just keep it to the hedge night? No, no, no, no. I know. I was going to say, we don't just keep to the hedge night. We will talk about the Sworn Sword. We'll talk about the mystery night. Like, you know, we will talk about the other novellas. So, like, the spoiler section is just a free fall in case you were like, well, now that I know, I can hop into the spoiler section. I wouldn't do that. So I would say to Steve. and anyone listening, I do think you can listen

to the first half of this novella or read it if you want to and not be spoiled. Yeah. I think that's definitely true inside of the first novella. I think there is still, if you really want to proceed with caution,

and this gets just to get to the larger question of how the show is positioned and not saying this is just who these characters are in the world overall. I think there is still some like risk

of broader like book summary log lines in terms of just like future this is who

these people are proceed with caution I would just open the first page of the hedge night and start there

be careful always I will say page 75 page 75 is a drawing but page 74 ends with

if you if you have the copy the book I cut it off brother said egg I didn't

want to look like you that's page 74 of this edition. There's a nice pause, long, pregnant pause in the audio book there too. Yeah, great stuff. All right, what other opening snapshot mailbag items do we want to hit? We wanted to offer congratulations to Rachel and Dennis on their engagement.

Too bad babies getting married. Two bad babies found each other in the wild. Wonderful. And that's just like really, really sweet. So thank you for that email. I also wanted to send some love to our listener, Amy Lee. I won't get into the details of her email, but it was very touching and I wanted to send some love out to her. We got after the hype draft when we talked about when you asked me, like, I think it was you or maybe Sean, probably you, which translation of the Odyssey I would be reading. And I was like, oh, I don't know, probably the one that I had in college, which actually the one I had in high school, which is the Fitzgerald translation. We got more emails than we have for anything in a long time. From listeners recommending that we read the Emily Wilson translation of the Odyssey, which I went and picked up from a Los Angeles bookstore yesterday. And, oh, Barnes & Noble, you can see. I, meant to shop a little bit more locally, but they didn't have it. But the big box store did.

Thank you, Barnes & Noble. But I still supported brick and mortar. But Emily Wilson, this is a newest translation is the first time a woman has ever translated The Odyssey. And even more than that, I would say a lot of people really praise this translation for its not like modernity in that it's sort of like hip slang language or anything like that, but just sort of like very clean, easy to navigate sort of language. And then there's the Fagel's translation, which I think a lot of people praise for how poetic it is. So that's another option.

But I've also been told by listeners that the audiobook for this translation is narrated by Claire Daines. So that's a fun fact as well. Oh my goodness. Look at. That's just part of our Odyssey Odyssey that that I would like to think. So many of the bad babies for chiming it on. Also, our listener, David.

This is what I flagged before. He said, this episode seemed to have the most original content that wasn't in the book yet. So I'm curious which scenes from the first three episodes is your favorite show edition? Do you have any answer to this? I would say just, like, in general, the choice to move up the introduction and, like, full incorporation of certain characters and to just expand their roles. So, like, as we've been talking about from the beginning, the laughing store, I'm Lionel Barathean. It's just a earlier, bigger presence in the show than he is in the book. He's been in every episode so far.

He's been an impression in every episode so far. Robin, I had always said Riesling previously, rice-sling per egg. That's not how Harry Lloyd says it in the audiobook. So I think we have free reign to say it how we want. Mika. Mika. Yeah, Rizling like the wine or? Yeah, that's my name.

answer, the Ashford Herald, who's here to get this very specific pronunciations. You know, he's with us in a slightly different way. So just, like, learning a little bit more about some of these characters. Yeah, Raymond has, I would say, like, a really dialed up energy compared to what we had been trained to expect from the novella. But then also just, like taking little nuggets and fleshing them out. Like, we got two great full song lyric rundowns in this episode. I think you know my answer is the song. Yeah.

It's all the songs. Yeah. This is like really fun, really great. It adds a lot of texture and vibrancy and just life to the episode, but it also allows us to take something that we know exists and experience it in full. And I think in a way that feels utterly, tonally appropriate and specific to this show, like highly comedic, really lewd. But also you believe that that could have been the case anywhere in Westeros that this,

these lyrics popped up for us. So all of that is like really great. What else? I mean, all of it. It's just been a, it's been like a thrill. The show is so good. So no one thing. You're not going to pick one thing. It's the Harold. It's your guy, the Harold. I do love him. I am a fan of his. No, I don't know if I have just absolutely like one thing. I think just in general, the choices to expand or slide up all feel like purposeful and appropriate to me really have not like missed on that. Really fulfilling the prompt that Ira Parker say, which is just to sort of like deepen and flesh out the world, but not sort of dramatically change anything, which is why George is like Ira Parker, my favorite, you know, sort of thing. Okay, and our listener, and for me it's the songs. And I have a question about what you keep calling the hammer and the anvil, because I'm not convinced that that's like the hammer and the anvil song. Do you know what I mean? Even though they mention it.

Yeah. I feel like there's probably a more stately version of the hammer and the anvil that exists. Maybe. I did ask my friend Jenny, who's friends with Dan Romer, to see if, like, he would answer some questions for me. So stay tuned. You know, that's, like, all I want to know in the world is more about the songs. Okay. And then our listener, Brian, had this question about mystery nights, which I thought was interesting.

How do so many mystery nights end up into attorneys if they aren't able to give their credentials? There are several mystery nights mentioned, but thinking specifically the night of the laughing tree, the attorney of Harren Hall. Keeping things spoiler-free, there are several assumed candidates for the identity. the Night of the Laughing Tree. Yeah. But how would one of these people have been able to enter attorney that prestigious

without having to prove that they are actually a knight? Night of Lafting Tree is described as small in stature wearing pieces of armor that don't fit well or match. Sir Dunk the Hunk, great name.

Being given such a hard time just makes me really curious how this could have happened without King Arias being aware of who the Night of the Laughing Tree really was. Do you have any thoughts on that? Well, I guess,

it's an interesting question. I guess there's kind of like in the most broad and basic sense. It's worth us noting again that attorney rules really vary setting to setting. Like, one of the things we learn actually in this novella is that there are like a dozen different forms that attorney can take. One of the things that we here reinforced actually by Plummer in the show as well here is that, like, Lord Ashford is after a certain type of prestige and credibility, right?

So I don't want to get into particulars and spoiler future things for Dunk Storyline, obviously, but I will say he does not have this problem at other points in the canon in a different setting. So a lot of this is like Ashford and Plummer insisting on a certain level of vetting because Lord Ashford wants to be able to say, Lady Gwen's birthday. Yeah, look who showed up to ride in the list for Gwen. So it really just, part of it is that it varies setting to setting in terms of the form attorney takes, but also what level of, like, rigor, the host is going to insist on. That's a very convincing answer. I also want to say that this idea of the mystery night as a trope is, you know, obviously something that George likes to play with, and it is an iconic trope of chivalric stories. I was just talking to a friend of mine who is working on,

I was talking to her about the Power Rangers and how Tommy the Green Ranger, like something happens and then he comes back as the White Ranger. And it was like this, sorry, spoilers for the original The Power Rangers TV show, but this is like, I remember that blew my tiny mind. And then I went to like, have you been to the medieval times like to go to one of the medieval times sort of like?

Maybe like once when I was a kid, but maybe not actually. Same thing happens, right? My guy, the Green Knight, dies and he comes back as the mystery night. And then he, like, reveals himself as the Green Night. You're like, holy shit. So this is something that happens in Ivanhoe, which is like the clear source for the Hedge Knight, right? Ivanhoe rides under the title The Disinherited Night. And King Richard himself goes in disguise as the Black Knight.

So this is a common trope that it's Royals disguised as Mystery Night so they can comment and tilt on the list and stuff like that. So, you know, it's a, it's a trope of this particular kind of storytelling. I do think that I'm convinced by what you said, but I also think George sometimes contradicts himself inside of these as well. And I think some of it fits into the, actually, I guess this inspires, I'll go back to answer the prior question and say my favorite adaptive change is just putting a lot more Blackfire rebellion in this season of TV, which is very appropriate given the shadow that's going to cast over future events and just this point in the timeline. But as you've noted on prior pods, George hadn't locked in that canon yet when he wrote this novella.

So it's not present in the text for the first novella in a way that it should be and makes sense to be here in the show. On that same front, it is just so thematically appropriate. In addition to just being something George loves historically and wants to incorporate into his fictional universe, it is so appropriate for Dunk to find himself at the beginning of his journey. this place where the idea of needing to prove that he belongs, and it's really hard for him to prove that he belongs, is an appropriate place to find him, and that is maybe less useful elsewhere in the canon. It's a lot more useful elsewhere in the canon to say, who is this figure out there who is astonishing people, whether there is a difference between the master of the games

in a given setting, knowing who is actually behind a given shield or helm, and the masses not knowing is less important than what the point George is trying to make inside of a given story is. Hit tales grow in the telling. Yeah. I don't think as spoilers say, the third novella is called The Mystery Night. It is indeed. This is a trope that will come up in these stories. Indeed. Another great one where a lot of different, we can apply that title to a lot of different parts of that story, can we? Can't wait to get to that season? Fun one. Anything else before we hit to the deep dive? I don't think so. I don't think so. We've got a couple other emails, but we'll hit them sort of sprinkle them as we go.

As we go. Fantastic. Okay, we are going to go as usual scene by scene through the episode in chronological order. So let's get to the... Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimphaya, guselcomab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaques psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur.

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involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. A deep dive. Okay, two tickets to the Thunder and Egg show. Please. Dunk's sleeping in. Egg, he is up with the sunrise. Very familiar morning podcast energy.

Pit of anxiety in his stomach. Thinking about all the prep that await. I don't even want to talk about how early I woke up this morning, honestly. This is, yeah. Same. This is an early. early day. Egg saddle, thunder, grabs the sword, preps to lead him right into the structural departure that you already mentioned today. We're not in Dunk's point of view in this opening

scene. Now, Dunk is very present in this scene because everything that Egg and Thunder are doing is about Dunk. Yeah. And so he is there with us, but we are not in his perspective. We talked about this a little bit on Talk to Thrones. Was just this little taste of a different point of view inside of the show enough to make you want more of that, wish we had more of that, even though obviously being rooted in Dunk's point of view is very true to the novella. I think if it makes sense for the story, that's great. But like, I like being with Dunk as much as we've been. So you're open to the occasional departure? Sure. I mean, if it makes sense. Yeah. And I reserve the right to not like it if I decided it doesn't make sense.

But Sarah, Sarah Dina Smith, the director and her DP were talking about how they felt like this was a chance for them to do something different with the camera. So you get a lot of like swooping crane shots and stuff like that to like really just show us. I just love that they're like, okay, we're going to make the cinematography different because we're in a different POV. Like I thought that was just like a really cool. Because this character is a different height. You sure is smaller. Tiny little egg.

Oh man. Can't wait to just start saying egg, egg freely. Now that we know who egg is and that he's Mr. Raymond's brother, we can say that without. I've said that on a trailer podcast. and then I had to slack Carlos and be like, cut that out to Mr. Aman. Oh, no. I mean, just weeks of panic about accidentally tipping who Egg is now. Egg soothes thunder. Easy boy. He's pushing him. He's encouraging him. Stubbing his old iron. He offers up Maycar, his father, we know now, his opinion on horses. My father told me you should

never talk to a horse and the eggs. Like, I don't think that's true. And not only is this wonderful because Dunk is such a horse girl, as we've talked about, right? And we're seeing that Egg also has this soothing, nurturing, bonding with animals, energy, that same kind of winning shorthand that we've discussed. It's also a great way to show us the fatherly lessons passed down to Egg over the years of his life so far. Let's just move those aside in favor of what Dunk has taught Egg and showed Egg over just a couple days. My dad's lessons created an Aryan. Is that who I want to be? Not really. I wanted to take a second, and I'm going to do throughout this podcast.

So just buckle up buttercups. But I mentioned this on Talk the Thrones that an inspiration for this story is T.H. White's sword and the stone. Wart and egg and their comps. And so like the idea of, even if you've never read T.H. White's books, which you definitely should,

if you've seen the Disney cartoon, you will know that like part of Wart's lessons from Wart being Arthur. So like a royal who doesn't even know he's a royal, which is different than Egg, who knows he's a royal, right? For the sword of the stone.

I'm kidding. But part of Merlin's lessons for Wart is to turn him into an animal and to talk to animals. Yes. So this way in which Egg is like talking to Thunder here, this way in which, you know, because for Merlin, he felt like it was important for Arthur,

who he knows what. what's going to happen to Arthur, even though Arthur doesn't, but it was important for Arthur to, like, learn all of these things, and part of the learning is the doing. Yes. And so a couple things I wanted to mention. First of all, Lev Grossman's credited as a consultant on the first episode of this season of television. And Lev wrote the Bright Sword, as well as the Magicians, etc. But wrote the Bright Sword, which is a great Arthurian retelling book that I read, I think, last year.

a really, really good book. And so I don't know if, like, he was around to say, like, hey, I did all this, Arthur homework or all these nightly homework or whatever. I don't know exactly what his role was on that first episode, but he is credited there. And then T.H. White wrote this story during World War II. So it's very much in the vein of Tolkien, like, taking their experiences in war and looking back at fantastical Arthurian ideas of knights and warriors with a critical, almost anti-war. I mean, definitely in T.H. White's case anti-war. I. And it satirizes traditional elements, and it points

out the more brutish and violent aspects of like chivalric traditions. And so, which is something that George loves to do. I think it's interesting. A contrast I want to point out, though, is like, Wart, young Arthur is this boy who idolizes knights and knows all of the stories and all the legends. So in that way, it's much more like dunk than Egg actually is. And then that puts Egg more in like the Merlin role where he's the more learned sort of teaching. So it's not a mapping one to one.

And we've talked about that inside of this dynamic, how great it is that like they're teaching each other. They're teaching each other that in the classic lone wolf and cub trope, it's, the jaded, grumpy, you know, older figure and the younger, innocent chipper figure sort of chipping away at him, that's not quite what's happening here at all. But, yeah, Wart is called a, quote, born hero worshipper in T.H. White, and that's, like, much more dunk. Who has the scales fall from his eyes, and we'll talk about that a bit more. But I just want to hit two more quotes, and then we can roll on from this.

But this classic Merlin advice to Arthur, which is the bravest people are the ones who don't mind looking like cowards, which, you know, so many people have connected to, can a man still be brave if he's afraid. That is the only time a man can be brave. And then Merlin has a lot of speeches about might equaling right and not.

And a lot of people have connected those lessons to Varus talking about power resides where men believes it resides no more, no less. So like, what is the true source of power? Right. Is it knowledge? Is it money? Is it holding the sword? Is it what is it? Is it a trick and illusion of shadow on the wall? Exactly. Is it reside where think it resides? So like George is, you know, George has cited so many inspirations, real history, all this sort of stuff like that. But he will constantly, when listing sort of like books, that people should read or inspirations that he have. He will constantly reference T.H. White.

And so I just think it's worth thinking about in the context of what he's trying to say inside of this story. Yeah, and I think his affection for these novellas and for Duncan Agnes figures, and, you know, so many of the readers and now viewers' affection for them. The Arthurian influences present throughout a song of ice and fire, but nowhere more than here. Oh, yeah. Nowhere more than here. Love that. Shout out Wart. Wart.

Wart shall return. in Avengers' Dune's Day and also later in this podcast. We should get a countdown clock. Like they have for a Tuesday. For the once-in-future games. Yeah. Very great. On that point, you were making about the connection to animals and that being a part of the training.

I love, too, thinking about, you know, we're going to talk, we've talked a lot across the season already. We're going to talk more than we have yet today about the Targaryians at this moment without their dragons, right? and the vulnerability, the perilous position that that puts them in, ripe for attack and ridicule. This little moment with egg and thunder, it's a great way to remind us. It almost puts you in a like stark direwolf, targ, dragon, the depth of a bond with an animal with a creature moment.

Just for a second. Conrexies, it's just like, I really like that element of it. And it was very fun, too, when I got such a kick out of Dexter who plays Hague on the official pod being like, it wasn't clear to us whether the horse actor who plays Thunder like nodded on his own or whether that was like, print the legend, man. I love this. But it is, I got such a kick out of those couple moments where Thunder really enthusiastically nods along. It just says, you know, this idea that like this bond is meaningful for so many reasons.

but these are intelligent creatures who have an opinion on what is transpiring. I thought that this scene really did a great job of showing us that connection between a writer and mount in a way that, like, Arlen taught Dunk and now Dunk is teaching Egg and this idea of like, you know, when Egg says this thing about Makar about what his father thinks, like, Arlen is there too then, right? because it's like a Hedge knight's view on the world, a Hedge knight's beliefs and lessons, pushing royal schooling aside for a second, this idea that like Arlen taught Dunk something, which we talked about a lot last week in the sweetfoot scene, et cetera. You know, plenty of people would say it's not wise to think about a horse this way, but like Arlen did and Dunk does. They'll give their last copper.

And now Dunk is giving that to egg and he is embracing it. It's like we're going to end this episode on this massive note about who egg has been his entire life. And so how does he reconcile what he is learning, but also what he desires? Yes. I could be quite happy. I think I could be quite happy in a place like this. Taking lessons and leaving lessons and deciding for yourself as you grow, who is the right person to instruct you. And Makar being a person who thinks of horses and people as things to sort of be like whipped and rode and and Aryan.

Aryan thinking of them as things to be stabbed in the neck or snap their fingers, you know? Right. And even Egg in a previous episode, you know, calling, why do you let these royal lapdogs treat you as their betters, right? And so he's just like, I'm a Targaryen. Right. These are my lap dogs, right? And I am their better.

And so, like, even in that, even as he's sticking up for Dunk in that moment, which is something that we like, he's still in this very hierarchical. like, here's, here are the hierarchy and at the top. Yes. My fam, the Targaryans. Yeah. And like, there is something entrenched and true about that for Egg and his life and his experience, but also the fact that he's referred to them, like the judgment. He doesn't love being worshipped. He's like, who are these sicko fans? Yeah. You know, so, but it reminds me of, you know, the way that we've talked about, you know, and I've loved everything you've said the last couple weeks about not only Dunk's name and how he got to the moment of saying Sir Duncan the Tall,

but then the shield, right, this idea of picking pieces and strands and this tapestry that you stitch together of like who you are and who you choose to be is going to be influenced by all of these different people who had some sort of bearing on your life. So like, you know, when Egg is telling Thunder, like, Dunk only has us in this moment that is true. And we will feel how true that is when we see Dunk's face when Egg returns, right? But there was a moment before that was true where Dunk only had somebody else, and that doesn't cease to be a part of Dunk's life because Arlen is gone, et cetera. So I think the show is doing just a lovely job and the story does a lovely job of really, like, leaning into the truth of that, that like part of this is about a journey of discovery and a journey of intention. This is the path that I want to forge.

You don't do that in isolation. You can't. And I also think the most interesting people are the people who are just constantly looking to absorb new lessons from new people that they meet, you know, in the world. No matter your age, you have things to learn. Are you curious? Are you interested? Are you open? Right. Right.

Yeah. I love that. They begin their morning exercises, their training. Thunder immediately takes a shit. We opened episode one with a shit. We opened episode two with Ireland taking a piss. Yeah. And we open episode three with.

a ship. I can't wait to see what episode four brings to continue the pattern, but if you'll allow it. I have been amused by this. We talked earlier in the Diary Adunk episode one moment that some people were like, this is actually not for me, right? I have been very amused by this because I enjoy scatological humor. I just think this is funny, right? When done well. It's not usually for me. I'm not like pissed about it, but it's not usually my thing. Yes. Yeah. And let me channel eggs is Alice three-fingered Alice's song really about honor and hopes. You need a cider in your hand while you're saying whatever you're about to say. Give you the whole arm bone. Okay. So we have certainly dabbled in the bathrooms before, right?

Tywin dies. Spoiler on a privy. His horse in a very memorable moment of- Does not shit gold. He does not shit gold either. Very memorable moment. when he, you know, rides into the throne room. The battle is over. We have won, and, you know, his horses does take it a shit. We've just watched, et cetera. It's not like we've never seen this on Thrones. But I should also shout out, of course, Shea, you know, her iconic, legendary, you know,

cities make me want to fuck moment where she's just talking about how it spells like shit and gum and corpses and everything. It's Thrones. Okay. We've dealt with poop before. These moments really in a night. of the Seven Kingdom so far feel effectively like they are rooting us in a

this is not a story set in the halls of power vibe. Even though Taiwan's horse literally shit in the halls of power. He did. He did and that was like, oh, oh, this is different whereas you could almost expect to see something like that in every scene of this show. Like, we're out in the muck. We are with our hedge knight and his squire and their horse and we're going to hunt for goose eggs

and when we do that we're going to have to mime to try to like explain what we need. need. It just, it really, I understand genuinely why the tone is maybe not for everyone, but it feels to me like a very deft way of saying this is the setting and the sensibility not only of our show, but of the main character's life and experience. He's a hatch knight. He's out among the muck and the mud. I agree with you. I don't think you're even reaching as far as egg reached to get to his Alice's interpretation. Just a part arm bone. Yeah, just half a half up. Maybe just a The three fingers, not the whole arm.

Yeah, maybe like knuckle deep. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. I do know what you mean, actually. But there's also like sitcom editing in these shows. Like the cutaways, the constant cutaways, like cutaways to like Robin Risenings bouncing eyeball, you know what I mean? Or like when he's thinking about Sir Andrew, like, you know, and he's just sort of like

death lance, you know, we cut away to these things. And we mentioned the ending that like, dun, duh, dot. But this is almost like sit commenting, and I don't mean that in a negative. This is like 30 rock or Brooklyn 9-9 or whatever. We're just going to like cut to like something that is going to underline the joke. The episode two opening, very emblematic of that. We talked about that a lot last week with like Dunk saying these very almost like overly sincere in an effort to compel things. And then we're cutting to Arlen pissing, Arlen Horace, Whole Hog indeed.

Let me say of all of the follow-up suggest. Thank you to the bad babies for all of the follow-ups about other things that we could have called Arlen because of this giant cock. I actually saw this one on Instagram. I can't remember where it was a meme. But shout out to whoever came up with the long night. Oh, spelled differently. Very good.

Incredible. I also thought the Giants Lance recommendations from the bad babies was really good and was upset about missing that. I still like sort of the morning. But, you know. It's very good. But the long night is very good. Long night killed me. Yeah.

That was very good. Killed me when I saw that. Oh, man. Joe, we finally, you know, we're getting this go thunder, like this encouragement, thunder's galloping. I just thought this was so winning and charming and sweet. Then we get the, you loved this in the trailer, this overhead shot of Egg and his avatar, Ang, you know, cloak swirling, spinning moment.

The tiny hands, am I going to be able to pick the Lance anxiety that we talked about last week? Great stuff. Guess what? Wart's back sooner than you thought. Wart? egg running with the lance and the sword, take it, so don't take it. You know, how did Arthur pull the sword from the stone in the first place? He was going to fetch a sword for Sir Kay.

Yes. You know, he was squiring his way off to grab a sword for his brother, who's not his brother, you know, the night that he's serving. And he's like, here you go. I pulled it from a stone. Please do. And then Sir Kay's like, Dad, look what I pulled from a stone. His dad's like, did you? And he's like, no, Ward did it.

He's like, well, Ward's the king. So, you know, tough shit. I love the voice that you just broke out. That was great. I disassociated. I have no memory of what I just did. It was closer to the will beppy boob's voice than, yeah, great stuff. I love that connection because obviously what egg, and again, bears repeating, he is a prince.

So he doesn't need technically to prove himself worthy of anyone, let alone a hedge knight, but he is choosing to. He wants to be worthy of Dunk to be a worthy, ready, capable squire. As he said multiple times, I could if I want to. Right. This is what he says when Dunk asked him's question, I could if I want to. And this is like proving. Yes. I can do this. I want to do it. I'm going to do it. That was one of my favorite things in this episode was the subtle but very clear shift in Egg's relationship to that idea where the core idea is still the same but in the first episode

when we and Dunk meet him it's very um the we used the word lot and they use it in the canon this like insolent kind of impudent spunky smart ass energy and all of those same things are true

but like here in this moment later when Egg on the hillside asks Dunk could I like so can I stay on with you after the tourney, can I stay on as your squire? Technically, that is the same thing as him asking in the first place. Can I go with you to Ashra Meadow and be your squire?

I could square for you. But there's a different feeling behind it. There is like a connection and a depth of feeling that has developed between the two of them, but also then something that Egg has learned just in this limited exposure so far to dunk to this life, to Ashford Meadow to the attorney about what feels good and right about this for him. I think I could be quite happy in a place like this. And so this idea here with Thunder and this training sequence of like, I want to be good at this. I could if I wanted.

The pride that he has when Dung says to him later, like, you're a good worker when you put your mind to it. And he's like, you think so. Basking in the praise. It's like so just this is a different thing for him. He wants to be worthy. He wants to be worthy of pulling the sword from the stone. He wants to be a worthy squire. I love it.

And something that Sarah, you know, the director mentioned. And was talking about, like, you know, we'll get to the sort of the tasks that he performs, but like egg discovering the joy of hard work. Yes. Yeah. And also, you know, the sandwich that they enjoy at the end of that, like, hunger is the most delicious sauce, right? And it's just sort of like, we've been working so hard. Right. We've really, really been trying.

All of a sudden, like, we got goose egg. We got some, you know, bacon, essentially. We got some, I think, looked a little dry bread and... Too much bread. That thing tasted delicious because they worked for it. Yes, absolutely. Better than anything, any princely feast. Right.

Any of the... Ooh, lovely food and grapes. The exact kind of meal that without totally knowing how right on the mark he was, that dunk was gently... Yeah, lamprey pie or whatever it was that he had. I think on that front of like what kind of... of meal and banquet and feast was egg just accustomed to as part of the rhythm of life at Summer Hall, at the Red Keep, etc. Similarly, like, you think of what his training must be

like, right? Trained by the master at arms at a great castle, like rigid, strict, formal, this is what a prince learns and when. And you could just see and feel so palpably and tangibly in this opening sequence and throughout this entire episode, he's like, this, I'm free. There's a freedom and a kind of like purity of connection to the experience that clearly he is tasting for the first time in his life, right? So it's awesome to see the impact that it's having on him right away and to think about where that might lead him in the future or what it might lead him to crave or desire. He is interrupted here. By the arrival of Sir Robin. frosty glass of reeling.

Sweet and crisp. I hate a reeling. I like it when paired with an appropriate course, like as part of a tasting menu, can be great. Can it really hit in the middle of the meal. Miss me with the converserremenor. Miss me with any sweet wine.

Miss me with a port. Oh, I love a port. At the end of the meal, a dessert wine? Gross. No? Like a nice cream sherry and nice port. As you know, I live in wine country. Wonderful.

So I hope it doesn't sound douchy to say. I've been to a lot of wine tastings in my life, and every single time they want you to end with dessert wine, and I, like, try to be so polite, I'm like, I don't need that. Thank you so much. And they'll be like, no, ours is different. Well, you'll like ours. When we go wine tasting together, I will take your port, and I will take it happily.

Double port, baby. I love a port. I absolutely love a port. Robin is like, did you steal this horse? Egg has a whole bit of logic that he deploys. I would have just been like, no. I didn't actually. I'm the squire. I'm the squire. This is my knight's eyes. I actually didn't understand that. It was very weird for me like, sure, sure, sure.

Yeah, it was a little clunky in an otherwise really smooth and great episode. But what it does effectively do is remind us once again of kind of the plight of a hedge knight or his squire and his rough, spun, dirty cloak. The idea that people throughout the realm are always going to look at you and think, beggar, outlaw, robber, right? That there's a certain, like, expectation and reputation. Have a d'ar? Quick, egg, bend. Mistaken for a thief. And he's mistaken by a man who is barefoot, wearing an eye patch.

Dirty. Rocking a just very middle-earthy and really, like, incredible walking stick. This is Robin, reesling slash riceling. Not to be confused with poop Robin. We've got more than one Robin in the story. Or any other character who might wear an eye patch inside of the same. the universe. You know, I have been continuing my

Battlestar rewatch, inspired by hooked. Yeah. I had gotten through season two very quickly. Right. And then... Because we watched all of season one for that episode. Yeah. Then I was like, can't stop now. I've got to watch season two. That's my favorite. And then I had to pause for a bit because it was a very busy time. But we've been working through season three, and so I'm on spoilers. You know, Ty has his eye patch now. And it's just a lot of eye patch action in my life lately. Great stuff.

I love for you. I love it for me, too. Thunder won't let Robin take the reins, but he lets Egg soothe him. There's that connection. Just a mini version of the moment, Dunk had with Aryan's horse in episode two, where he's like, I can calm you. Not everybody can. Lovely. Tells us a lot.

Robin's like, what's wrong with your hair? And egg just fires back. What's wrong with your eye? And then he pieces it together. We are aided by the comical flashback that you noted. Here is how we learned about this in the text. One-eyed Sir Robin Reisling. Just feels like it should be re-sling.

A grizzled old night with a salt and pepper beard lost his helm to lure Leo's lance in the first course, yet refused to yield. So this is like the events at Ashford tourney in the text. Three times more they wrote at each other, the wind whipping Sir Robin's hair, while the shards of broken lances

flew around his bare face like wooden knives, which dunk thought all the more wondrous when Egg told him that Sir Robin had lost his eye to a splinter from a broken lance not five years earlier. Leo Tyrell was too chivalrous to aim another lance at Sir Robin's unprotected head. Compare that. Hell yeah, Longthorn.

So why Aaron does be Longthorn. But even so, Risenings, stubborn courage, or was it folly left, dunk astounded? So that last line, stubborn courage or was it folly left dunk astounded. Would you say that all men are fools and all men are nights or women or jowls are concerned? This idea that Robin is a knight who dunk admires and is astonished by is a little nugget from the text that we wanted to mention. But what does Egg say about him? Not a maddest knight in the seven kingdoms. We are a vessel for the warrior.

Robin replies, when it is madness bid, it is madness delivered. I like this idea of like heroism and foolishness, that through line of like Florian, of what dunked. does here at the end of the episode, which Aryan is like, you fool. Yeah. Oh, my God. Why on earth have you done this, right? And there's something inherently foolish in this idea of heroism for Florian, for dunk, for Robin, for Reisling.

And poop Robin. And poop robin. A courageous post that he took on that branch. A buff diarrhea dunk. Yeah. I love that because, yeah, we'll obviously talk about what dunk does at the end, but it is like so drenched in the spirit. of dunk and this story, what makes the night

a night, it is right, it is clearly right, and the fact that he is the only one who will do it, but it is reckless. It is undeniably reckless, and that can all be true at once. I love that. The show, this is another character, where part of this pattern that we've been tracking, is, like, expanding the intro,

heightening something about a character who is put in front of us. So this idea here for Robin of this madness, that this is like a thing that egg and that you get, Anyone would know. Yes, this fanaticism because of this tie to the warrior. There is a, quote, Robin Prade. That's it. It built an entire castle on that grain of sand.

Honestly impressive. People are like, how do you guys do two and a half hour pods on 30 minute episodes? How did we get this madness delivered from Robin Prade? You know, it's all in the same sauce. Okay. Can I hit you with this Incredible Seven theory that I read? Please. Okay. So the Seven, right? mother, father, Smith, maiden, crone, stranger. Stranger, a stranger. This is a comment that I saw

and I'm so sorry, the commenter had a username that I cannot turn into English. But I want to say I am reading this from a comment I saw

so I did not come up with this. Okay. So Robin's saying he is a vessel for the warrior reminds me of my old theory about the book that the seven were present

at Ashford Turney and that Dunk meets them unknowingly. Dunk meets with other personifications of the seven. The Smith being the most obvious, both in book and show, Steely Page. My guy! And the Kroen is also present in the show this episode in the form of the soothsayer who carries her coin cup in front of her like the Crone with her lantern.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more appearances of the seven the remaining episode and on the rewatch. So Smith, Steely Pate. Yeah. Krohn, Fortune Teller. The actress who plays a fortune teller is also the actress who played the Inkeeper in the first episode, which is wild and we can talk about a bit more when we get there.

Azezee from history of Westrose. We're figuring that out. The maiden, I will say Tencel in this episode, has this, like, Virgin Mary, like, light blue sort of head cloth piece, very maiden, in my opinion. Father could be Baylor or Sir Arwen. Mother could be the innkeeper, if you prefer. The warrior, Sir Robin, and then the stranger, you know, we can get to. Yeah. But I like it.

It's not really fun. I think that's great. I love this shit. I think that's great. Thank you, commenter whose name I cannot translate into some, it's like numbers and letters and I can't make it up. But that was very, very, very, yes.

That was very, very second. And so, like, let's keep tracking that. I really love it. That's a fun one to come back to it. Yeah, Hobbes and Dragons and Gmail.com, if you have other ideas of like, but Steely Pate, I mean, as our Smith. That's really cool.

He's here with us always, formalizing it. There are ways in which, if you think about it, like, if you think about, we talked about this, this idea that, like, plumber slightly softens, not even in this episode, but, like, sort of, like, when dunk's back his turn, how do people look at him? Yeah. How does Baylor sort of look at him?

How does a plumber look at him? How does steely paint look at it? Like, I see something in you. Yeah. And this idea of, like, little help along the way, I'll give you a deal on the armor. Yeah. Like, the way in which, speaking of the Odyssey, like, the way in which the gods will show up and just sort of, like, push things in a certain direction. Yeah.

directions for a character. I have things I want to say about this that I will refrain from saying until the end. I have a note in the spoiler section if you want to talk about it again. Great, yeah. We can hit it again there. This is a great observation in theory.

We should definitely track this across the season and come back to it at the end because I think the larger question of the will of the gods is always on our mind in a Game of Thrones story. This one is no exception. Also, it just reminds me of little things that we've been tracking from the trailers and now through the season, like, why is the seven-pointed star in this setting, et cetera?

So there are other little bits of even just like set deck that kind of reinforce. Okay, however actively or subtly, like, have this in your mind. This is a great one. Great stuff. Username, unknown. Unintelligible. Thank you, username unknown. So the warrior, one of those seven aspects.

Let's talk about the warrior for just another second here. As you noted on top of thrones associated with strength in battle. we can think of our nighting vows that we've gotten to witness a few times. In the name of the warrior, I charge you to be brave. Have you watched Hamnet yet? No, actually, Adam told me that it's on demand as of last night. I think we'll finally watch it this weekend. Oh, I'm not here.

Can we watch it together? Absolutely. Can I just sit on the couch and cry with you? That would be great. Anyway, there's a line that's in the trailer, so I don't think a spoiler where Paul Meskell is, Chase or goes, will you be brave? Speaking of just classic text, did you see the Instagram reel going around last night of Jonathan Price giving Paul Meskell his copy of Hamlet from, like, drama school that had like his original notes in it. What makes me think of how far into Wonder Man have you gotten?

Oh, I watched it all in one sitting. Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. When Trevor's like this tradition of like handing down the skull and he's like, and I stole it for Richard Burden. That was incredible. I thought Wonder Man was it. absolutely. I did too. S sensational.

Loved it. You know, I'm, like, the timing is really funky. I loved Wonder Man. And I'm bummed that, like, we have, we might. We always do a seasonal mailback. Maybe in a few weeks, we'll do, like, a winter mailbag. We'll hit some Percy and some Wonder Man's and fall out in, like, one place. But please don't take us not.

We're watching all this stuff. Yeah. Please don't take us not covering it as, like, an indication of quality because it's really good. Wow. Wonder Man was awesome. Just fantastic. Also, like, Tom Hittleston has a story. I think it's like Brana who gave Hittleston his copy of Hamlet.

This is like a. goals. A thing that people do. Yeah. Who would you give your copy of Hamlet to? If you could. CR. I don't think about that.

C.R. has his own copy of Hamlet. I know. CR has given out copies to people, no question. A favorite night. A favorite of many a night. Jamie, our guy Jamie, Barrison Selmy, our guy Barrison, et cetera.

And this is also like an honorific that characters in the world will use to praise, to really make sure that people understand what somebody achieved out in the So there's a great line from the sworn sword, the second novella, where a character who we won't specify, who will be quoted elsewhere in this pod today too, says, Damon, Blackfire, Blackfire rebellion, always here with us. Damon was the warrior himself that day. Like, it's shorthand for making sure somebody knows that he was like a god among men out in the field. I hope people rewatch this season and enjoy, who didn't know the reveal, enjoy like, egg on big. like, you blackfire bastards, like, knowing that, like, he's a Targaryen. Delicious rewatch.

Delicious reread, the best. There is, of course, a more formal tie elsewhere in the timeline between the Faith and the Warrior, specifically, and Knights, the Warrior Son, the Faith militant, not active at this point in the timeline had been disbanded by our guy, Jaharis, Taman and Circee. Hi, Sparrow. Not here yet to bring it all back. And that went fine. Oh, it was totally fine.

But you really see Robin for just like a second here. You're like, he would fit in. We should connect religion and the military more often, I think. Robin would definitely have thrived elsewhere in the canon. That much is clear. I mentioned this on Sunday, but like I got, even though obviously Thoros of Mir is Lord of Light, lore, still a little bit of a Thoros vibe just to use the word, you know, a zealotry earlier. Like this idea of a devout man with a sword in hand who,

is fighting for a deity, and then you pair that with, like, just the, um, the actual grammar and language choices here. You know, Robin's first person plural use of weed, like, lumping himself directly, not only into, uh, the idea of like the army of the warrior, but the warrior, uh, himself, this godly aspect, dangerous. Like, when you do that to justify your deeds, dangerous. New variable to throw into our season long examination of this question of what makes a knight a night. Well, Robin might say it is the fact that I am acting on behalf of. I'm the physical embodiment of a warrior.

Don't worry about it. It's fine. A little confident boast from Egg at the end of this encounter. Your small first squire. I serve Sir Duncan the Tall. He is a large enough for the both of us. We've not heard of him. You will.

First of all, just epic hype man stuff from Egg here, but also, you know, we know how the episode ends. Everyone's about to know who Dunk is, just not for the reasons that he intended. We've not heard of him. Like, you will, there's a bunch of stories about him. You'll hear about him. Oh, man. Every time I see that cover and I see the shield, I just get emotional. I know, here's a beautiful shield.

This is, I mean, it does have this soon to be in an HBO original, but it's not the tie-in. And so I do like that about it. Yes. I always, I can't. So it's a pet peeve of mine as stated many times when they swap in the show art on the cover. Actually, I have a copy that doesn't have this on it, but it's back home and I actually got the copy here. Your road copy with your glitter highlighters.

Yeah, with my glitter highlighters. Nobody needs to know about. I love it. It's great. Do you have different colors for different characters or for different? Yellow is for like quotes taken directly and then green is for like descriptions that are like accurately translated. Love that is green. Love a color coding.

I do it too. And then those highlighters have glitter in them as I told you accidentally. I got glitter highlights and I was, I got them to the checkout. I saw they had glitters and I was like too embarrassed. to like say I didn't mean to. So this is the world we live in. Great stuff. Remember gel pens when we were kids?

Sure do. They had some glittery, like metallicy. That I will really good. Never forget. Did you do, do you like draw on that, you know, the hand drawing? Do the drawings on the back of the hand? That was a big thing in my middle school. No.

Interesting. Trapper keeper? Yeah. Fuck yeah. Carlos, do you know what a trapper keeper is? Jesus. You don't know what a trapper keeper is? No, no idea.

This is our version of a couple weeks ago when Sean and Amanda in this very studio asked Jack Sanders if he knew what a beeper was. And he had no idea. But then at the end, he was like, wait, are you talking about a pager? Oh. So he did know. But like, not really. It's just we're all old, except for you. You're young and you don't know what a trap or keep on.

Have I told you that like when I was a kid, I was like such a problem in class that they made me go sit at the isolation table? Okay. So I went to Montessori school where we all like sat in these like tables where we sat. where we sat around or whatever. And my memory, which is spotty at best, was that I convinced my tablemates to like, we all put our trapper keepers up and we pretended that we were like on the Starship Enterprise.

Love this. This is like our console or something like that. They booted me to a table just by myself in front of a fish tank because they were like, Joanna's too disruptive. And then I would just stare into the fish tank and they put me back at the main table because I was too dim-witted to sit in front of a fish during the class. I would not say dim-witted.

I would say inventive. Sure. Curious, creative, spirit of imagination on full display. They stopped me in front of a television and I made a career of it. So here we are. There we are. There you go. Of a piece.

All of the different people who influence our lives, including those fish, and help us decide who we're going to be. Morning chores. Dunk is sitting by his own when egg and Thunder Return and the look on his face, this vulnerability. There's like the actual if Egg left and took my horse and took my sword. You know, we've heard this over and over again. We've talked about this idea of like, I must risk all. Do you have the coin? No, I need to sell Sweetfoot to get the coin, to get the armor, right? There's the literal, like, if this

happened, if Egg fucked over dunk, he would have nothing. He would not even be able to be a knight, as we've heard him say it many times before. But obviously, there is something much bigger going on here. He trusted him. Trusted this boy brought him into his life and grew attached. And that moment of waking up, I love that. I don't think that Dunk really ever actually thought that egg left, but it's like a moment that forces him to confront. I feel like the fact that he was just kind of like quietly sad versus like really angry felt to me like confronting the vulnerability and this idea that he's gone from only having Arlen to only having egg, not necessarily like I actually thought you did this to me.

I love that interpretation. You thought he, I have a very different one. Here's a couple things, I will say. I've been asking myself, I think Peter Claffey is like so good in this show. I think he's so good. But I have been asking myself, like,

is he a really good actor or did they just cast the perfect guy for this? As you pointed out, like he plays basically the same character in Bad Sisters, right? like pretty much dunk in bad sisters, would you not say, except that he fucks. But like, other than that, very similar. Hmm. Anyway, and then also, like, later in this episode, he's vomiting while Egg is singing, and that is taken from the fact that Peter Claffey vomited in the productions offices when he was auditioning for this show.

They took that and put it in the show. So, like, I'm like, is he a great actor? Yeah. You know, because he was, like, an athlete before. He's not, like, a trained actor. Or is he just the perfect guy? His performance here, I thought, was. was so, and at the end of the episode, too, I thought we're such good acting moments that I was like,

no, this guy can, like, I don't know how wide his range is, but like, he is really doing something here. And it's because I really recognized in, this is how I, in my less emotionally regulated days would react to being really angry about something, is I would get, like, really quiet. Yeah. And just sort of like, it's fine. You know what I mean? Like, kind of like, sniffy and terse, but also, like, I would be angry, but I would be so hurt, too. And that was just, like, all in the brew. And I just, like, felt like a really recognize that in his face where he was like, this is what he was sewing instead of crying is, like, what it felt like to me. You know what I mean? And, like, that just, like, it broke my heart. His reaction here where he was just like,

and he, like, and he gets kind of, like, blustery and mad and, like, tries to sort of act the way that Arlen would have acted. And then he just sort of, like, is able to self-regulate, which is not something that I could do at that age. But like, you know, Dunk is a more emotionally evolved person than I was at like 20, whatever he's supposed to be. So, you know. Yeah, I like the way that in the fear and the anxiety and the hurt and the anger that he falls back on old habits, like the comfort of routine, you know, the things that he knows and can control. Yeah. He's got a squire again. I don't need him. I can sew my own stuff. And in fact, you don't know. No. The why I ask, like, go brush, go brush thunder. That was all great.

And I think the like, okay, well, I want breakfast, we'll eat after. You can, okay, you can eat after. You can eat my fist. Like these learned almost like ticks, right? Well, that's what Arlen would say to me. But, you know, the cloud in the ear through line, that's not actually who Dunk is or wants to be. Right, which is like egg deciding he doesn't want to take Mika's lesson. Right.

Dunk's like, do I want, is every Arlen lesson worth hanging on to? Right. Or should I pick and choose. Our listener Jordan wrote, I know that there are those who have been. and dismissing the Dunkin' Egg story as, quote, just another lone wolf and pup, end quote, tale. But I think this episode made it clear, if the previous said not,

that this is a tale of sworn brothers. The way Dunk teaches egg to sew, make sure he is a proper meal that isn't hardened salt beef, and clearly finds joy in sharing the tourney with the squire, and the way that egg is already protective of dunk drilling in the early morning to make sure that he and Thunder won't let him down the joust. This is a chosen family tale.

The writers have made that even clear when they had egg tell Aryan in front of everyone that he cut his hair off so he wouldn't look like him. Egg may have a family by blood, but they make him a shame, and he wants to put as much a distance between them and him as he can. Dunk had a family once, but he never knew them,

and he clearly longs for a sense of belonging. The only ever had and lost with Sir Arlen. This shows about bringing these two lost boys together and letting them be for each other with their own families never were, and I think that's just lovely. So our favorite thing. I thought there was beautiful in Jordan. I will say a lot of

lone wolf and pup and cub tales are found family tales. found family tales. But I love this idea of like, Swarm Brothers as like sort of a different way to frame this particular narrative. I think that the moment we get actually shortly after this when Egg says,

sir, is it odd that I have black hair growing out of my stones and dunks like, it's odd that you're telling me, was obviously very funny. It's a comic moment. But I think it really hits that too because that's one of the like moments where you feel, okay, Egg doesn't have anybody in his life. Now that Aman, who he does have,

have a love and affection for is off to the citadel. You kind of, you're like, who would Egg say this to? Who would Egg talk to about just growing and changing? Dunk is instantly that brotherly figure for him. Do you think he was most concerned that there was hair or that it was dark hair when he is so blonde? God, he's dornish. Oh, God.

This is just a great story. At a great world. He learns the whip stitch, as you mentioned. And I love the way that they are taking these tasks. learning to sew as seriously as training with sword and lance. It's like, again, that humble, crucial work that we talked about that, clean the sword, scour the mail, patch the clothes, maintain our life and take pride in our life. Can I hit you with a little Young Griff?

Oh, I mean, I'm pleased, because the show never did. Yeah, Young Griff who the show, who people watch the show who, like, I've watched every second of Game Thrones. Who the hell are you talking about? Anyway, Young Griff, a character in the books that never made is waiting in the show, but was like a potential for the throne. And this is what Veris says about him in the Dance of Dragons epilogue, the last thing that George R. Barton has published in this particular narrative many years ago.

Quote, he has lived with the fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swam in rivers and mended nets, and learn to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound. He knows what it's like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. And Veras says all of this as in he would make a great, candidate for the throne because he has done all of these things. Yes. He has grown up in humble circumstances and being among the people makes him an excellent

candidate for the throne. Like everything else in a Game of Thrones story, there are characters who would see that as a virtue and characters who would a peasant king. See it as a demerit. Yeah, thank you. We'll come up time and time again. You know, we talked about this and talk to Thrones, but how can Egg not make us think here in this moment, certainly on the hillside

when he says I think I could be quite happy in a place like this. How can Egg not make us think of Aria? You shared those beautiful quotes last episode, last deep dive about The Hound. We've talked about how Aria and the Hound are like one of the influential Thrones pairings for Ira Parker. This idea with Aria

specifically, I love that like literally we get a sewing scene with a sewing needle here to really cement this connection for us. But the opposite, right? But the opposite side of it because for Aria it's like, okay, sewing needle. No, a needle of my own.

John gives her a sword, and she, of course, her sword's name is needle. This, that's not me idea that Ariah voices to Ned in season one, of course, recurring later, saying to Nymiria, beautiful sweet Nymyria, that's not you. This, like, that's not me idea for Aria that is so core. The thing that I was raised to be, that tradition, that the realm, that society, that norms say I'm

must be, is not who I am and not who I want to be. And for Egg, I mean, the thing that they both have in common is, of course, they are like high lords, right? They're rich. They're from key houses. But for egg, like, this idea of, oh, I'm drawn to the sewing needle. What a perfect way to cement this for us there. Later on the hillside, we'll come back to this and, you know, really throughout the whole episode. But like, with Alice's song as well, you know, Alice and Dunk are really paired in this idea of like, well, do you have to be the thing that you were born into? Do you have to be the thing that your circumstances would dictate? Or wear it like armor? Or cripples, bastards broken things, right? And so their, Dunk and Alice are part of

cripples bastards broken things tradition, a proud throne tradition. Egg is like on the other side of that, right? He's like, I want to lean into this like pure expression of the thing. And shed, much as Aria did, shed the finery and the expectations of my name and my birthright. Will that continue to be true? I mean, that's true for Aria until the final minute that we're with her. Will it continue to be true for Egg? We'll have to keep watching. But it's just a great.

It's a great tie. And I love that we got the literal sewing needle to help us cement the connection there. They brush thunder together, share the load. And then Egg jumps up on his tree branch. he is whittling a spear and he's singing. At least this show's version of The Hammer and the Envill. It's a shame that this aired the same night as the Grammys. Otherwise, perhaps we could have gotten a nomination and a live performance of either this or Alice's song.

Did you sing? Did you do like the Miss Susie how to Steamboat how to Bell? Oh, sure, of course. Yeah. So this is like model after that. Yes, the tone. Yeah, or the meter. I'm not a musical.

Well, that idea of like. Yes, and then you switch to the word. Right. The implied crudity. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have a favorite lyric from this? Did you?

I, boy, this was really great. It's hard to pick. I think that Baylor probably getting the giant bainty. Post-a-dor-Speerman. When your mind is, of course, ready to hear cock. That's, you know, one more reason, of course, from Maykara to hate his brother, you know, song lyrics about his cock, great stuff. That's probably my favorite part, but the whole thing was wonderful. I loved it. Are you going to be thinking more about Baylor's host of Dornish

Spearman or Sir Arlen's host of Dornish Spearman? Why not both? It's a real why not both. In the Sworn Sword later, again, a character who we won't name here says, the hammer in the anvil, the old man's mustache gave a twitch. The singers leave out much and much. So for certain characters, we mentioned Barrison. Selling me last, we were talking about last episode. A hundred years is the future of the canon. They're like, the hammering the anvil. Fuck yeah.

And then there are other characters who are going to say, like, who prints the legend, right? Who writes the history and who receives it? And not everybody. Is it incestuous aliens? Is it right? If you're like, these guys are incestuous aliens and they practice blood magic and they've enslaved our people, maybe you're not going to be humming this tune with Joint your heart. I am hoping that we get a more formal version, like the real Hammer and the Inval song,

either this season or next season or something like that. Like I... So you think there's a moodyer, more dramatic, Reins of Castamere version of this, not like in the spirit of Bear and the Maiden Fair. Right. Interesting. It's a song about the hammer and the, like, I think the hammer in the anvil is like a, yeah, Braun would sing it before a battle sort of song. And this is the pub remix. This is a Pub remix. I love it. Dunk is pukin in the background as Egg sings this tune, and then he kind of musters the courage to come up and say, all right, it's time.

And eggs are like, you can't challenge today, my dude? Are you a night of high birth and high renounce? Sir. We're nearing the egg reveal, but this is like yet another little nugget before that. Like, how does this kid know all this shit? I also love this like how Blazze is like, it's not the rule, sir. Dunk's like, why have I been puking all morning? And then it's a mystery.

Which made me think of Shakespeare in love. Great film. In that film? I don't know. It's a mystery. It's something my family always used to say all the time. I was just thinking the other, like, a week or two ago about rewatching that movie, which I love. I haven't seen in years.

A double feature with Hamlet? Let's think about it. I'm in. Top Chef Ashton Meadow. Our boys head into the market town to procure breakfast supplies. Listen, when we cover the trailer, I was like, is that just a heel of dry bread and you're like, it's going to be a sandwich. Turns out it was, in fact, it was. a breakfast sandwich. Now, I love a breakfast sandwich. I love a, like a bacon, egg and cheese bagel.

One of my go-toes on the weekend especially, I love a breakfast burrito. Not for weekdays. There's only so much time, but that's a weekend go-to. So I'm always, I was very interested in the shared skillet for the goose egg and the bacon. This is great. Are you making? You love to order. Yeah, you look to order. Okay. I have been, though, in recent days, I've been making a lot of just like fruit and yogurt, granola, parfay is at home. Delightful. And then... No free ads, but do you my favorite granola?

I get the 365, the Whole Foods. Oh, okay. Granola, typically. I have been, I have fallen prey to an Instagram algorithm viral recipe. I'm using recipe incredibly loosely. It's put one thing in another. I was served and watched once. And then, of course, this is how the Algo gets you just are served more and more.

You've seen this. video recently of people putting the cookies in the yogurt and then like you put it in the fridge for 12 hours and it softens the cookies and it takes some of the moisture. And everyone's like, it's cheesecake. It's not cheesecake. It doesn't taste anything like cheesecake. But I was like, that looks

pretty good. I got a breakfast biscuit, like a cinnamon tahini breakfast biscuit. And my preferred full-fat Greek yogurt put those in, did the 12 hours

the fridge, scooped it, put some fresh strawberries on it. What absolutely wonderful. So good. Amazing. Again, I would like to say it does not taste like cheesecake, but it is delightful. Cooking I've ever heard you do, so I'm actually very impressed by this. You know, I do wish I, I love to cook. I just never do it because I don't have the energy.

It's not even really a time thing. It's just like the energy, but I make a mean chili. Oh, I believe. One day I'll make you a chili. Okay. Yeah, one day. It's been a minute since I've made it, but I do love to make a chili. Anyway, the Algo got me, and for the first time ever I was grateful. Not the first time ever. I like a Greek yogurt.

I like a Greek yogurt. Yeah. Yeah. Like a thick yogurt. Me too. Do you like a skier, though? Like a Siggy's? I had that for the first time ever because that was the one that I saw most often in these videos. And it was good. I did immediately go back to my preferred. No free ads, but Siggy's is all I eat. Yeah. I did like how creamy and thick it was. I don't know how to pronounce. What's the F-A-G-E? Isn't it? Faya. Fia, something like that. That's my preferred. That's my go-to. Anyway, delicious.

Goose-A. Have you ever had a goose egg? Probably at like a L.A. or New York restaurant, but I've never gone and purchased one. Or done the Sam Cassell, big balls, gif the dunk is doing to try to explain what he wants. Tough moment for Tanzal to walk up and see him doing that. Oh, our listener, Emma wrote it and saying, Not Sir Dunk giving Tansel the old Channing Tatum and she's the, the man, do you like cheese? This was so dumb. My pal Lindsay, my pal Lindsay texted me to say, oh, he got his, I carried a watermelon, which is from Dirty Dancing moment. So there are many versions of this in many stories, but twas an awkward moment for our guy, Duncan.

I got to say, Tansel gave him no help. Like, no quarter here from Tansel. Too bad. Like, be a little nicer. I did enjoy egg coming out. It's like, ooh, ooh. Yeah. Ooh, ooh.

Again, very brotherly. He's wearing his. I'm a secret targ, so I'm covering my head slash we like to make our viewers think of Damon's murder cloak here on the House of Our. I got to say, he's wearing it here, practical. Later, just as in the text when he's introduced to Raymond, he's kind of like downcast. He doesn't want to be recognized. The show, especially given the proximity of where he and Dunker standing at the list and

Baylor like right across. Like I would bet you should be hiding who he is a little bit more. the time in the show. Don't get on dung's shoulders and make yourself even higher. Yeah. Think about a hat. You think you should just like wear a beanie? Yeah. Think about a hat. Yeah. Hats historically have gone very well in House of the Dragon, so I'm sure they'll go well here. But I would get a hat. Remember Kristen Cole's hat? You loved that thing? That's exactly what I'm talking about. You loved it. That's an incredible hat. I love the Dexter talking about the cloak they had him wear where he was like,

the cloak is like seven miles long. And I'm like constantly tripping on it. And, Like, indeed, when they're, like, sort of like, I want to leave, he, like, gathers it up to, like, his shoulders as a wedding dress train. Yeah, exactly. He's a riot, man. He's so cute. I think it was on the Game of Thrones Instagram, maybe just even a couple days ago. I don't know. Time is a blur for me right now.

But the clip of Danielings, who plays Linail, of course, being like, I had to get, like, I'm paraphrasing. I had to get comfortable, you know, saying all these, like, really foul, filthy things in front of this literal child. but like, you know, it's the material. And he was fine with it, is what Daniel said. He's like, I don't like cursing and all. But it's my job. Yeah, but I do. It's my job.

I don't like cursing at all. He's a riot. He's so cute. He's just, he's the best. Protect him. Please. They fry up this breakfast at camp. Unlike in the text, Dunk partakes.

You know, and the text is like, he wasn't going to joust, but still, stomach like a, like a stone. No, he's ready to chow down here. The whole fish. Now this. Of course, we're thinking to the pledge that Dunk makes in episode one to ensure that egg will have food in his belly. This is one of the things he says, Tim. I don't have much, but if you prove worth your keep, you'll have clothes on your back and food in your belly. The clothes might be rough spawn. And food, salt beef and saltfish, but you won't go hungry. So right away, it's like, this is more than that. You know, this desire to, frankly, dry looking, but. Well, I will say, if they keep that... Simpsons Halloween special turkey's a little dry! If they keep that goose egg yolk a bit runny, then perhaps that...

Moistening the bread. Yeah. I think it's a loose yolk in the sandwich for sure. Of course, it's a loose yolk in the sandwich. You don't want a hard-bolled egg in your sandwich, but, like, I would have just... I would have done the noxious trend that I've seen in L.A., which is hollowing out the bagel. Yeah. Don't do that to a bagel.

No, I don't believe in that. I don't believe in that. Actually, what they really should have done is just, like, less bread. Yeah. I think there's just way too much bread. Way too much bread. I mean, I get it. They want to, like, carb load for the day ahead.

But turn that other half of the loaf into, like, toast or something like that. You know what I mean? Great idea. Great idea. You gotta mind your ratios. I really agree. I am not a fan of a dry sandwich. It's time for the day's jousting to commence.

Listen, this is the House of Art. Damn me. Change is the only constant in life, some say. No, you know, there are some actual constants in life. And it's us talking about the Beesbury family whenever we can. Whether or not there's really a reason to. Humphrey Beesbury is a character in this story. And unlike Robin Reisling or Lytle Barathean or Raymond Fosaway,

they have not decided to expand his rolling anyway. Some dancing in episode one, thank God. This was so we got this flash in the trailer of Humphrey Harding and Humphrey Beasbury. They're their lances clashing and exploding. The Battle of the Humphrey. The battle of the Humphrey. The feebled moment at this tourney. We got a flash of the shields, a recognizable sigils in the trailer.

We're like, oh, fuck. We're getting it. We're getting all. Each of them, they bring 12. Humpfries. We're getting it all. No, it was the exact same length. In the actual episode that it wasn't the trailer, it was a flash.

It was a skirmish of Humphreys. Horrible. Sir Humphrey Harding and Sir Humphrey Beesbury, a bold young knight in yellow and black stripes with three beehives on his shield splintered no less than a dozen lances apiece in an epic struggle the small folks soon began calling

the Battle of Humphrey. We love this stuff at attorney, these little nuggets that become... They are. They're brothers-in-law. It's brother-in-law versus brother-in-law. Imagine if you're brother-in-law, if you were named Humphrey and your brother-in-law was also named Humphrey.

That's just wild, George. And then you battle each other. And also you spell your name, Humphrey, that way. Great stuff. You shared some Humphrey Harding bio details last pod, last week, last episode. But let's refresh, in case anybody didn't listen to that, given that he is about to be part of a seminal moment in this story when Aryan challenges him. Let's refresh folks on who this guy is. Do I get to read this quote?

Do it. Let's do it. The fourth pavilion was sewn together from diamond-shaped pieces of cloth alternating red and white. and did not know the colors, but Egg said, because he's a Targaryen, Egg said they belonged to a knight from the veil of Aaron named Humphrey Harding. He won a great melee at Maidenpool last year, sir, and overthrew Sir Donald of Duskendale and the Lord's Aaron and Royce in the Liss. The badass.

He is. He's like real five-star prospect, like all the colleges are making offers. He's got his choice. He could go anywhere. This is why Aaron goes from him. Season three. to go to any school. Can't wait to talk about this.

Okay. He beats if memory serves like four, he wins 14 joust on day one of the tourney in the text. Like, he's legit. So on the one hand, when Ariane challenges him later, he's kind of like, you're the no name of the bunch, but also he's like, you've shown your might. He's going for the badass. Badass. And then he's legit. And then he cheats.

He sure does. To destroy him, he splinters his leg, just like obliterates him in voice. Shut up like a baking dish. Shathing like a baking dish. Wild. So he's delighted when he says that. I'm like, why? But he's just like, he's not like, he's not content to beat him. No.

He has to embarrass him. And like destroy him. It's terrible. Terrible guy. Like Chris Ryan's favorite. And he sanctioned all the methods. Do you know who hated it? Jous.

Merlin, can I read you some quotes from T.H. Please. Merlin, please. H. H.J.S. Merlin grumbled about athletics, saying that nowadays people seem to think that you were an educated man if you could knock another man off a horse and that the craze for the game was a ruin of scholarship. Also, a few pages later, quote, a lot of brainless unicorns swaggering about and calling

themselves educated just because they can push each other off a horse with a bit of stick. They are games mad. So, yeah. Listen, here's my note. to Merlin, you wouldn't like the ringer. It would not be for you. But I do think that we could sway Merlin with time. Not only with the poetry, like, you know, let's make him watch Field of Dreams. Let's talk about baseball. But you hired me to the ringer. I wouldn't say this about sports,

but like. The analytics movement. Let's get him. Let's get some Sabre metrics in front of Merlin, see if we can sway him. You have not, I don't think you've converted me. I don't know if that was ever your intention in hiring me here, but you've, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I I don't seek to convert. I seek to support. You made a Survivor watcher out of me, and that's as close as I think you're going to get. I did share the Snuggut with Riley McAtee recently because he's like, who at the ringer is watching Survivor these days? Because they're, you know, Riley and Tyson are prepping for season 50.

And I was like, let me tell you who has become rabid. I won my petting pool. I told him. I told him. Did Plummer have any arrangements with you on the side? Nope. No comment? No comment.

Yeah, yeah. Just notice how the Nope turned into a no comment. Oh, man. Egg just loves sports, unlike Merlin. Egg fucking loves watching sports. So does George. Guy knows ball. I mean, George, I've said this on so many pods over the years.

The fact that he is invested in both the Jets and the Giants is genuinely to me life's great mystery, but they do support him. And I love when every now and then you go to Nada blog and you're like, is there going to be a wins of winter update? And then, you know, if we go back years to when, I'll mention Sam Darnall because he's playing in the Super Bowl this coming weekend. shocking stuff when the Jets drafted him. It's like crunching darn old tape for the Jets, crunching Daniel Jones' Giants tape back in the day and just blogging about it.

Let him live. Amazing. George, unlike Berlin, would appreciate the ringer. Absolutely. The bro next to Dunk. They're having a blast watching. The Bronex to Dunk offers him his wineskin. Dung takes a sip,

and he spits this out. The only thing in Thrones history that has been spit out of a mouth faster. Well, maybe not the only thing. Real like lock giving a desperately thirsty Jamie horse piss to drink energy from Dunk here. What did he spit out? What was this? Just a home brew, little home brew?

Not the Fossaway. Not the Fossaway cider. Like toilet wine. Yeah. Here's an email from our listener, Tristan. Tansel too tall, not too tall for me. Dunk too tall to stand in front. Tristan wrote, and I really related to this. I find it really interesting that whenever Duncan

Nager watching the tourney, they're always the very front by the railing, you think someone behind Dunk would have yelled at him by now because they can't see behind him. As someone who has been told many times in a theater, can you slouch down? And I do. It's part of like a problem with my posture, I think. There are people who are like, excuse me, actually, I went to go see. Even in a stadium seating, it depends on how steep the rises. I was at the AMC, Burbank, not that one, but the other one. There are three, actually. I went to the wrong one and they're like, you have to go across the street.

You know, there's even another one? But, like, within walking distance? Oh, God. Okay, anyway. I was one of them. And I'm going to see no other choice, the Parktown film. And one must be able to read the subtitles. And there was a man seeing in front of me.

There was barely any rise in this thing. And there was a man singing in front. And it was like, the first time my life that I had to be like, this, the whole movie. And the theater was full because God bless LA, they loved to go to the theater. That's what I was going to ask is, could he not have just moved? Or could I should have moved. But like, I couldn't. There was nowhere to go.

You were in your seat comfortable. He was in his seat comfortable. Well, he's a tall man. He's allowed to be tall, but he was very tall. And I could not see over him. Oh, you could not see over him. I see. Yes.

I. Oh, yeah. No, I was the issue. Or he was the issue. Anyway, point being, I could not read the subtitles. And many times people have been behind me. Yes. Being like, excuse me, tall woman, can you slouch?

And I have. Slobtsch all through Hamilton. Because I'm like, this lady behind me paid really good money for this ticket. I feel bad. The theater. The theater. Yeah, yeah. I, dunk is very tall on his own.

Dunk with an egg on his shoulders exceedingly tall. I do think that constantly in the show people should be shouting at them to. Down in front. Yeah, down in front. Constantly. That should be happening all the time. We should note, like, in the text, Raymond does come up to Dunk and say,

why aren't you watching in the viewing gallery? Like, all nights are welcome there, and it's about how Dunk is more comfortable among the commoners, among the small folk. But still, he could be further back. He could be further back. Also, eggs like, I'm not going there. Let me tell you what.

Yeah. Purple eyes. Purple eyes. Dunk. Come on. This is to stretch another very brotherly bit here where they're poking fun at each other, heart salt beef, lovely food and grapes, disgusting ale.

It's just this disgusting. Disgusting. Formation of something so charming that is about to be imperiled by Dunk's Choice and Egg's big reveal. The morning joust have commenced. There's a little bit of a break for Dunkin Egg. They head to this hillside. And you've mentioned this quote a few times. Heartbreak feels good at a place like that clip.

Incredible. Carlos, let's hear what Egg says to Dunk in this moment and what Dunk says. back. I think I could be quite happy in a place like this. You're in a place like this. I meant for a while. Oh. The gentle yearning of I think I could be quite happy in a place like this was one of my favorite moments of the season so far. Again, just so aria-coded, that positioning of where we get this moment on the brink of the reveal at the end of the episode, Egg's identity, becoming known not only to Dunk but to everybody. Dunk is a character who dreams of,

aspires to something more while still holding on to like the sanctity of life as a hedge knight. He's like, I want to end up above the salt, says to Egg in episode two, maybe the Dragon House would take me on. And then Egg who, Egg, egg, egg, who, that is his life, right? Craves something simpler.

He's like, no pavilion? The lock, ours alone, actually this is lovely. And I find that I like it, and I find that, like, it fits me well, right? And I don't want to leave it behind. We will, of course, learn more in subsequent episodes about what has motivated Egg to, like, do this thing at all in the first place. But very clearly, just living the life of a Targaryen prince is not for him. There is something about this other way that is appealing to him.

when you hear him say the things in this episode that he does about his father, either when he says to Thunder or what he'll say to Dunk later when Dunk's like, did you know your father? And he's like, oh, not really. Of course, he's still maintaining cover there, but also it feels like there's a deeper truth of like, do I really know my father? Like, do I really know who he is? Is there a closeness there? And then you see what his fucking brother does. How know we are to anyone, you know? I don't think you can ever really know another person. That's one of my beliefs.

Don't you think you know me? I think that there is joy and beauty and meaning in trying to know somebody and in getting to them better than other people do. But I don't think you can ever fully, truly know. My fear, one of my, like, motivating, driving anxieties in life ever present is, like, can you ever really know fully what's going on in someone else's head? I think you're a bit unknowable, but I don't think I'm as mystery as. Oh my God.

What? Yeah. No way. Definitely the opposite. Fascinating. You have like, I'm a mystery name? You have depths to you. So do you.

So do you. I've received a lot of text messages from my husband who is listening to the rewatchable's wild thing pod about things I've said on that pod. So maybe I'm in a... I've really put a lot out there about my life his face on this current day. I'm working up to pressing play on that one.

I feel like it's going to be heretofore undreamt of levels of depravity from you and van. Daydreaming about the future from Aguirre. He goes into some specifics, Joe, right? He's like, well, I'll leave a great campaign. I'll come back of war here. I'll get a parcel of land. Horses. Oh, it's peas. Cows. No fucking lambs. That cart ride really scarred him. He's like, I don't want to talk about it. Are you ready to hand to the second most beautiful woman, daughter? Because you get the first. A shared future. Dreaming of a shared future. Oh, my God. Are you ready for Argy Wartt to turn? Absolutely.

Here's Ward dreaming of his future. Are lambs involved? I should have a splendid suit of armor and dozens of spears and a black horse standing 18 hands and I should have called myself the black night. And I should have hoved at a well or a ford or something and made all true knights that came that way to joust with me for the honor of their ladies. And I should have spared them all after I'd given them a great fall. And I should live out of doors all the year round in a pavilion and never do anything but joust and go in quests and bear away the prize of tournaments.

And I should not ever tell anybody my name. And I just, I don't know, these boys dreaming of their future. The one that Egg has in mind is, you know, not as sort of tied up in grand heroics, though he talks about campaigning for his lord and stuff like that. But there's just like a real link there to like this like dreaming of the future of like, who shall I be when I'm grown? Yes, absolutely. I think back to like episode two as well when we, you know, heard egg ask dunk, like, you think I could be a night? You know, which is now in the full context of who egg is, actually shocking thing for him to have to voice

because frankly like you're a prince so you can get whatever you want. Yeah. Right. But that's not what he means when he's asking. It's like, do I have the stuff? You might as well, like, own all of the crabs in Duskendale. You can just nepo baby your way to whatever you want. Oh, man, great stuff. I loved to this on the hand of the second most beautiful daughter, because of course you'll have the first, not only this cementing of the fact that this fantasy that Egg has about the future is already one that he is envisioning Dunk. If Dunk is inextricable, right, this shared future. But also this idea that, like, on the one hand, there is a kind of surprising,

humbleness of behind what Egg says there, given that he is a princeling, but also one that makes complete sense when you think, fourth son of the fourth son, like, he's not used to being first. Yeah, he's a Targaryian prince. He's a prince of the blood. But he's like, not at the top of the line, as we will talk about more later. So that's present here too. This is that moment where we get, where Dunk says that Egg is a good worker, and Egg just seems so, so, so, not just pleased but proud. And then Egg asks if he can stay on after the tourney and dunks. Like, I'm barely going to be a night if I lose. But if you win. And then he's definitely about to say yes. If I win. When Plummer shows up. No question. Plummer is here. And A he knows that.

No question. No question. Plummer is here. Ebony Maher. My guy. That fucker. Tom Von Waller is so funny. He's amazing. Plummer is really, really great character. Plummer and his phlegm have really consistently stolen. Again, another comedy cut from the like hawking to the spitting in the like cutaway. You know what I mean? Absolutely. He has a proposition. Proposition for Dunk.

You know, a little stroll by the stream. I'd just like to talk to some match fixing with you. And, you know, before he gets into any of the specifics with Dunk, he just wants him to know one thing. I believe we are both men of honor. I am king as no true king. You never want to have to open with. I'm honorable. Let me explain to you that I am honorable.

Always a bit of a red flag. He tells Don, you know, not sure if you can tell, but Lord Ashford, he's slightly overspent. It's overextended. It's overextended. He didn't budget effectively. This is not what he thought the Kinsais would be. Gwen.

He's a striver, and in the efforts to strive, he has taxed himself financially. And plumbers working to throw one of Lord Ashford's sons matches. Andro. Andrew. A-N-D-R-O-W. Great stuff. He would like Dunk to be the one to beat Andrew.

In the books, both of the Ashford sons have out of the tourney they've lost, but like acquitted themselves well and there's pride there. Rest assured, here are some of the things Plummer says. I mean, no disrespect. I ask only what you already intend, right, to win. He says later, Dunk says, I do not want a victory I have not earned. And Plummer says, have you. you not are you not? And then he will end with mind your pride, sir.

He also says, I mean not to rob you, but to reward you. I'm not trying to rob you. I'm trying to help you. Very Gandalf, I thought, in that moment. That's a good Gandalf impression. There's a, there's a gravelly depth there that really is. That's perfect. I said this on Sunday.

You did not feel this way about it. We won't linger on this because we don't want to spoil anything about future. events later in the canon. I'm still a little puzzled by this because I think the fact that's a match fixing as part of a future, not later this season, but just future events in the canon, feels like scoop into me a little bit. I'm not bothered by it only because I do think there's a character reason for it to be here. That all worked for me really well.

Well, I think it's not just that Duncan has trepidation and honor around this, but that he's tempted by it as well, that he's still considering it when he talks to Raymond. And I think that, you know, temptation for dunk is a constant theme throughout these stories. Definitely. And so I think that like... The poll. Yeah. His...

I think it paints such a better, more complicated character that he's not just like, I would never, sir. For sure. You know, that he's just sort of like, should I? I'm not sure what the right thing to do is here. But there's moral clarity for him in certain moments. When Tenzel's getting her finger snapped, there's moral clarity for him there. But he's not always clear on what the wrong.

right thing to do is he doesn't trust his instincts in this post Sir Arlen world. He's just like, he's like me when I try to buy a car and I'm just sort of like, I don't want to fuck up. I don't want to fuck up. I'm too dumb to do this. You know? And so like, this is his like, should I do this? And also like, I'm learning so much about what knights actually do and what chivalry actually is and what honor actually is. And so I've had the skills fall from my eyes again and again. So is this just the way the world works? And I should just like get on board? Right. Is that what should happen? Or should I rebel. I hear what you're saying about it sort of like scooping a plot line from a later season,

but I think then it will just sort of resonate more when it comes back. That is the other side of it for sure, and I think completely valid to like prep viewers for the fact that this is a thing that happens in the world. Now, like, of course, early Thrones days, you know, we're watching Little Finger and the, you're betting on the cat's paw blade, you know, as part of like a, you know, gambling on joust is one thing, but the idea of like, what has happened. behind the scenes to influence an outcome. That's obviously more centered here in this conversation with Plummer than what we had seen on the screen before. I think to your point about the character beats for Dunk, I thought it was a brilliant addition to the season one of this show for all of those reasons. I really agree.

I think like it's such a smart choice to have Plummer asked Dunk to win instead of asking him to lose. You ask him to lose, well, like, he'd get some coin in it, but he's worked to get to this way. It's much more complicated test of the thing that Dunk is seeking and the reasons behind it. Like, what is he trying to prove to himself and to other people? Why? What does virtue mean to him? Why? I think to the point about one of my favorite things about it was like to that point,

continuing across the season, and this is a really big way, but it's been present in every episode to, like, chip away it the idealized view of these people who dunk is deified. He's just about to see what Aaron. does. And it's so, like, I can't believe a prince would do that. Sir Manfred and all the lords don't remember who Sir Arlen is. Right. And both Egg and Raymond are like, what do you mean? Right. You can't believe that he would do this. Like, of course he would do this. Right. Like, this is exactly who he is and who the royals can be and who knights can be, actually. So like, and I love that they're surrounded constantly by, you know,

the making of the knight, is that what they call the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, behind the scenes sort of featurest that they've been putting out. Or a knight in the making, maybe, something like that. Anyway, talking about making the tourney field. Yes. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And all the braziers and all the, like, proping that they use and stuff like that.

But they're, you know, they showed, and we've already remarked upon them, but like these night statues, these statues of knights. Yeah. That Peter Claffey was like, reminds me of wizard's chess and Harry Potter. But like, but it matters that these, like, this ideal of a knight is enshrined. and stone. Because that's how it is in Dunk's head. This is what a night is. It's this thing frozen in amber.

You're chipping away. You know, and it's just sort of like crumbling right in front of him. Yeah. I really love that aspect of this scene and this opportunity slash test. I also really like that we and Dunk must, of course, note that Plummer is asking dunk because he thinks he can. Like, because dunk is a susceptible target because he's desperate because he stood in plumber's office and begged to enter the list because he went. But also he could beat Sir Andrew. He could, but he went. Do you ride your horse into battle or does he ride

do you? When the King's Guard come out to keep the crowd at bay, Iraq got through to Ari and said, as we'll talk about, but I was like, man, wish those helms were not on. I was hoping to see my guy's handsome face again. Sad. Anyway. You know, the idea that he has no coin, though, like, that's part of their exchange, right? He's like, Plummer explains to Dunk in the first episode. You know how this works? Like, you know what you're going to lose? What you're going to have to ransom?

I won't lose. Okay, well, so, like, he knows what Dunk's circumstances. Baylor and what Baylor, the grace that he gave to Dunk in the second episode, such a contrast. And of course, obviously, now that we know who Egg is, like eggs embrace of Dunk, such a contrast to the truth, the unvarnished truth that Dunk is seeing. in so many other figures. Now, Plummer is not a fancy lord or a fancy knight, but he's the steward and master of games who is representing this great house.

Not a great house. Ash Lord Ashford would say it's a great house. And this event, and like all of it chips away at Dunk's ideal. I really liked that, mind your pride note, because this is the passage we've shared many times, like a hedge knight must hold tight to his pride is one of the key lessons from Arlen that Dunk has carried with him and thinks about.

So this idea of like the conflict between, the thing that the person in front of him right now who's presenting him with an opportunity in a certain light for upward mobility. That's what costs. At what costs?

The cost to your soul, the cost to your sense of honor, you fill your coin purse. Interesting moment for dunk. Aryan Bright Flame is here. He's back. The horn sounds, the jousting is sent to resume,

and the Bright Prince is here. This is actually why I have my copy of the Seven Kingdoms here. I realize I've held up some book stuff. This is a video podcast sometimes. So you have to be watching this in order to see this.

But I don't know if we can, like, zoom in or maybe we'll just like insert this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But before, you know, Aryan barely sort of like acknowledges Baylor. Yes. After a pause to dip his lance to Prince Baylor, a pause so brief that it was almost perfunctory.

It's the description in the text. So good. And then, you know, and then he goes up to, Valar. Yes. And I just want to say that, like, there's been so much taken directly out of the book. But this illustration here, I don't know if folks can see it, is, like, exactly how Valar looks outside of his tent. It's like, they just, like, copied it directly, which is really fun.

It was great. Like, not every single. There's another one that I wanted to show just so that, like, people can see, like, what the relative sizes are supposed to be. This is Dunk and Egg and Tanzel. He's just sort of like, she's Tanzell too tall. And Dunk is like two feet taller than she is. And then Egg is like a little footnote in this drawing here. But like this is, yeah, Gary Gianni's illustration.

There's the graphic novel, but this is just like the illustrated edition of, you know. Anyway, there are many moments that seem like taken directly out of the graphic novel, but this is one that I'm just sort of like, oh, they just copied this. And this is in the trailer even where we were like, I've seen this image before of Alar. Which is interesting because, as we've noted, but now can talk about more fully because we have this moment, Aryan is rendered differently. Yes. We do get this sick dragon helm, so the dragon iconography is present there. But do you want to read this passage to the description of him at this stretch in the tourney?

And a dragon forward of a visual imagery? Aryan fashion influencer that he is. Yes. Bore a three-headed dragon on his shield, but it was rendered in colors much more vivid than Belarus. One head was orange, one yellow, one red, and the flames they breathe. had the sheen of gold leaf. His surcoat was swirl of smoke and fire woven together, and his blackened helm was surmounted by a crest of red enamel flames.

So they got, like, the tip of the helm very well. The helm is awesome. What I love in the behind the scenes is they were talking about how they, like, tried it with various dragon faces, and they're like, actually the scariest thing is a human face. So they did a cast, actually, a Finn Bennett's face and used that to, like, model the, like, skull, Lord of Bones-almost-esque sort of, like, front here. The sharp cheekbones and the jaw line.

But then, yeah, the red enamel tips crest is there, for sure. Great shit here. He rides toward the Champions Town toward Valar and the image that Joja showed. Briefly toys with him. Cousin. Not to worry, I won't embarrass you today. Now, again, Aryan Bright Flame is the king's grandson, Maycar's second eldest son. We'll talk more about the family tree later when we go through where egg sits in the line of succession at this moment in time.

This is an insane thing. challenging him actively would be insane, but even fucking with him, like, I could embarrass you if I wanted to is nuts. It's very like Amon Targaryen embarrassing his brother at the small council by speaking high Valerian. But that at least is in private. Ish. I mean, there are a lot of people in that small council. People are the room, yeah. This is out in public in plain view of the masses.

Like, there's this fascinating contradiction I play with Ariane across this episode where he's really torn between like I am. embarrassed by my family and the state that our proud dynasty finds itself in. And I want to boost the Targ Q score by reminding everybody of how fierce and formidable we are, I am. But he's doing that by embarrassing them and opening them up to inciting rebellion and fomenting dissent. Yes. Certainly with what he does with Compreharting. Mocking his cousin second in line to the throne right now is like, not good for the family.

Mocking his cousin who has dark hair and he's like, you don't have to take this Targaryen seriously. Take me seriously. I got the platinum hair. I'm the dragon. Exactly. So when you think about Targaryians and you think about my uncle sitting up there, fidgeting with his rings, with his dark, dornish hair, and don't take him seriously. When you think about next in line here, this guy sitting like an illustration outside of his pen, one little patch of blonde.

I'm the Targaryian here, you know? Like that makes sense to me. Oh, for sure. He's not thinking big picture. No, exactly. And Baylor is like, Jesus, fuck. crying, this kid. This is like one of the reasons that...

I can't stand this kid. It is... I love the hair thing. We obviously talked about for Baylor, specifically how, for some people, that's like a welcoming,

more relatable aspect of him as a royal figure. But for others, they're like, why should I take you seriously as closer to a God than a man? The fact that Aryan inside of the family

aligns with that thinking and that view, like holding Baylor and Vilar and others with that, without the signature, shiny silver locks is like a diminishment. It's a great little touch.

You know, we made the Vassaris comp. There are plenty of maniacal targs and maniacal non-targs in Thrones history that you could compare Aryan to. Vesaris from season one of Game of Thrones, one of the most delicious comps,

unquestionably, ate it, of course, as we've mentioned by the fact that Harry Lloyd is the narrator of the audiobook, so you get to actually hear him reading Aryan's quotes and specifically then getting to hear of Vassaris, who so memorably in season one of Thrones referred to himself as the dragon, you don't want to leave the dragon, etc. Say the time you face the dragon line. Really, really, really, really fun part of listening to the audiobook, Danny, would she say Vassaris? He was no dragon fire cannot kill a dragon. Jora Vassaris is less than the shadow of a snake.

Well, what would they say about Arian? I think we know. Egg shots kill him as the joust begins. And Dunk is like, what? He's right there. Doesn't know at first who Egg is saying this about. Now, Arian is a monster. We are about to see that very clearly in multiple ways in this episode.

It's clear why Egg hates him. We will, of course, hear more about their relationship. I still think it is chilling to hear Egg say, kill him about his own brother. Not sure if you know this. No man is as a curse as the kinslayer. But if Humphrey Harding does it, did he really, did he really kinslay? It doesn't say. Outs the kinsling.

No man is as cursed as someone who roots for kingsling. That's a great point. As eggs legal representative, I have to say, innocent of all charges. in the eyes of this podcast and the eyes of gods and men. Second charge, what happens here? What does Arian do? Goes right for the neck. Why did C.R. think this was okay?

It's a question for his therapist. This is terrible. You explained in prior pods, terrible things happen at Ternies, but there is a code. There's a code. There's ways in which, like, we get a flash of Sir Andrew in this episode, sort of charging down a Stokeworth

kind of before he's ready. Shout out Lollas. But those are still within the bounds of what we do here. Or we talked about how, like, Leo Longthorn, like, went well out of his way so it was not to trample someone else inside of the five-on-five Attorney Jouse that we saw. And so the fact that Arian, like, even Dunk can tell the lances dip too low. He's going straight for the neck. Yes.

is hideous. Yes, and things happen in tourneys that then people can debate. Well, what was the intention? There's no question here. Right. This is not a mishap, as egg will say to dunk. You know, I mentioned this on Sunday, but like Loras, Tyrell and the tourney and the hands tourney and thrones riding out with a mare who's in heat to like spark a certain reaction

from the mountains. The horse, obviously a terrible thing happens to a horse in that sequence as well because the mountain is a monster, tough one. there is a violation, like a befalment of the exercise from Aryan here that is, to your point, so naked, right? He's not trying to hide it. That's part of the point to remind everybody that he can do what he wants because he is the dragon. It looks pleased his punch. Yeah.

When Humph goes down, his horse is screaming, he's screaming. But then the small folks start to riot and throw rocks it. his head, and this is very nostalgic for Game of Thrones viewers in a number of different ways. How can we not think of season two, cow pie to Jaff's face, legendary moment, but even more recently, the riot in House of the Dragon. And both of those examples, starving cities, wartime, blockades, what is getting through, what do people need, why are they blaming the royals? we've talked a lot about the Blackfire Rebellion 13 years ago.

This is, relatively speaking, peacetime in Westeros, relatively speaking. But Targaryians in their flop era. But Targaryens in their flop era. It's wild stuff. Like, the Kingsguard should not have to ride out to protect the prince from the throngs. But Aryan incited this on purpose. All right, so let's talk about the No Dragons thing. We've talked about this all season.

Because if they threw a rock at Aryan and he could jump on his dragon And burn them all alive. Burn them all, burn them all. They just wouldn't do that. It's not a thing that they would do. But they can hear because he doesn't have a dragon. It's why Raymond feels like he can say what he says after three Fossoway Siders is someone on Twitter. Did you see that thing on Twitter?

He was in his cups. Someone posted me. I promise I won't get political. me after three Fossowisiders. He's like, they're incestuous aliens. That's great stuff. But yeah, I mean, everyone feels freer, but not entirely free. I mean, but this is the problem.

Baylor's like, we're on a tour of kindness and comfort and we're just, you know, we're shaking hands and we're kissing babies and we're just being just like really, really cool here in the reach. We're cool, we're vibing with people. They said that thing about him fucking a sheep. We all laughed. It was funny. Everything. We're cool.

It's fine. And then Arian shows up and does this shit and everything's not okay. And we have to bring the stormtroopers out and the riot police have to show up. You know, the Ashford men are like running towards the tourney field as Dunkin' Egg are walking away. Yeah, Aryan is cruel, but also a moron. Like, this is an incredibly stupid thing to do. I think that when the rock hits him in the head, the cut to Baylor and the look on his face and that undeniable truth.

Okay, they wouldn't do this, so we have dragons, we're in this vulnerable position, but also this question that we track across Thrones, something we ask now about the Targaryans, but it's not the only time we've asked that about a family. Like, what does it mean if you're no longer a house to be feared, right? This is something that Taiwan voices very memorably to Jamie in season one. If another house can seize one of our own and hold him captive with impunity,

we are no longer a house to be feared, then, as is often the case with Taiwan, this becomes a speech about legacy, right? your mother's dead before long, I'll be dead, and you and your brother and your sister and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us rotting underground. It's the family name that lives on. It's all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honor, but family. Do you understand? Aryan needed that speech. And this is true. I mean, when Tywin dies, the Lanister position is greatly undermined. Right. Right. It's like you don't want to find out what happens when you're

no longer a house to be feared. And Aryan made sure that they started to find out. We, you know, we hear Viseras and Hot D. Sadra Reneera, like everyone says Targaryans are closed. to gods than men, but they say that because of our dragons. Without them, we're just like everyone else. So that's really present here. When we get to Raymond's treasonous speech to dunk, the Blackfire Rebellion is also clearly part of what is fueling that as is the dance. There's other stuff I've some other stuff to talk about there. Yeah, for sure. That is, that is fuel what he says there. But the dragon thing is just undeniable right here. And then the reaction from the crowd is part of what will fuel Ariens response to the puppet show. This is all connected really deliciously.

across this episode. It's interesting because, like, I feel like, you know, Joffrey's a great comp because, yeah, there are ways in which Joffrey and Aryan are very different. Arian's reaction to what Dunk does is this, like, curiosity. And Finn Bennett talked about that in the behind the scenes, stuff like that, which is, you know, Joffrey would have stamped his foot and thrown a temper tantrum. He also wouldn't have been the one breaking the fingers himself in the first place. You know what I mean?

That's not his way. Right. Unless he's fired. I was going to say, unless he's got across the cross. And someone's tied up literally. But I don't think he could have, like, held. In the bed chamber. I think Tenzel could have beat the shit out of Joffrey, is what I'm saying.

Yes, you're right. He's much more inclined to be like, I'll give him a red smile when he's not going to be anywhere in the position to do that. But he would have stamped his foot and said, I'm the king. Like, how fucking dare you? You know what I mean? And, like, Aaron's like, huh. You know, so, but there are ways in which they're the same in terms of this like blinkered

privilege of just sort of like, I'm going to do this thing. And everyone's going to be so impressed with me, the leader. They are going to bow down and be so excited that the Targaryens are here to kill horses. You know, like it's just, it's madness, but it's blinkered privilege, too. Also, so the way that Egg reacts here, like, egg is devastated because he's a horse girl. And also, like, he knows firsthand Aryan's cruelty, which we'll learn a bit more about. But they just sort of, like, they run away. He's so upset.

Here comes my guy, Wart again. This is like in a sword in the stone, Wart is so excited by the idea of attorney that he, like, Merlin makes two knights fight so that Wart can like sort of experience what this is. And it's violent and it's horrible and it's not at all what he likes. And so he says, oh, dear, exclaimed the Wart. Feeling ashamed that his blood, feeling ashamed that his bloodthorseliness had been responsible for making these two nights jowse before him, do you think they will kill each other? So like this idea of just sort of like, we've seen A go like, yeah, the attorney. rules. This is so fun. I love this. Like, I'm having the best time, like, the way that Dexter just said, like, yes, so many different times and so many different scenarios to be like, this is horrifying. Now, obviously, that is very specifically pegged to Arian, but it's also like a reality check moment for him. For sure. You know, Dunk is constantly bumping up against his reality checks. And this is just a real, like, egg seeing the world for what it is a bit more clearly that he did that morning, you know?

When he's like, heartbreak feels good at a place like that. Well, it's interesting, too, given, like, his love for the puppet shows, you know, what is theater and then what horror potentially lurks on the stage around the field. This is where he voices that Aryan meant to do it. And Dunk is like, he knows it. He knows it's true, but he can't accept it. The passage in the book is, it had looked that way to him as well. But it was hard to accept that any night could be so uncivorous, least of all, one who was blood

of the dragon, which Dunk will, in essence, voice to Raymond later. It's time to reflect because it's been a lot to take in. Jousing's done for the day. Party tent time, sip and cider, reflecting, and listening to a shirtless and crowned Lionel and co. Sing about Dear Sweet Alice. Boy, we thought the lyrics earlier on the episode were suggestive. Do you have a favorite bar from this one?

Really tough call. What's the line about like paying for the pinky? Yeah, that's a great one. Oh, Alice with three fingers never had a lot. She gave me all. She had to give two more than what was sought. Yeah. And then before, so that's the chorus.

Oh, two more than what I bought. Before that we get the, I once keep her silver feeling down and lawn. I tried to buy a pinky, but I got the whole arm bone. I tried to buy a pinky but got the whole arm bone. That's, that's one. The whole arm bone, as it were. Born bereft of thumb is also just This is a great song again

Dan Romer call us I want to talk to you about all of the lyrics that you've put together for this show I am curious if like what the prompt was for this like give us a body tavern song or give us specifically a song about a woman

who doesn't have all her fingers right before Tencel is about to get her fingers broken You know what I mean? Like, is it like that direct of a connection that we're trying to make here? But like, you know, Tenzel, you know, no matter what, this is a horrible thing for Tanzell. They broke, Aaron broke all the puppets. Her uncle was on the ground, you know. Is he going to be okay?

We don't know. She broke her fingers. Like, health care is not great in Westroa, you know, like, you know, all the, like, things are really bad. It's even worse in the book, I would say, because of that quote you read about her needing the fingers to make the dragon slither and snap or whatever else she needs to use her fingers for per your purvy mind. But like, but like him breaking her fingers is breaking her life, the way that he shattered Humphrey's leg. A little bit of a Jamie. I like, I was that hand. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Jamie always. And that, but, you know, Alice herself makes do with what

she has. Boy does she. Boy does she egg, you know. He's, um, he's in like, I'm in the dorm room it's freshman year. I hit the bog once. I opened the philosophy textbook once. And I've got a lot of thoughts about how the lyrics of this song connect to honor and hope. That's the headspace. I honestly loved it. I loved it too. I was thinking about Joffrey putting the bolts into poor Ross because like the way in which a Joffrey thinks about a woman who is a sex worker, I mean, Roz, there were other reasons why she found herself there. But like, the way in which we're which we've heard people in general and perhaps royal specifically talk about, you know, women who make money with their bodies. And the way that A is talking about the honor of Alice here.

And this just speaks to, again, like, what's so important about Egg's journey inside of this story is like seeing the world from a different point of you. Yes. And saying, you know, here's this, you know, girl who was so good, so prodigiously talented at what she did that they wrote songs about her. And he's like, here's what this thing she does, sticking the whole arm bone up someone's ass. Is this not the act of a dog in spirit? I mean, yes, rip the bong once, for sure.

But, like, he's, yeah, he's finding dignity in positions in the world that all other royals that we've met have just looked down upon. Absolutely. There is an embrace of all sorts of circumstances. and lives and choices. I agree completely. I think that actually is genuinely really low. There's like a version of this scene that goes so poorly,

but they really manage to like do a thing that we could mock but make it work. I know. So of a piece with the tales growing, the telling a tall tale that became legend like through line of the show as well. You know, this idea of like what's in a name, what's in the identity that you forge? How do people remember you? Why? Like what do they remember you for?

Does it matter if there's a lesson inside of it that we can heed? It's like all connected. There's high comedy, but it's all connected to these kind of like core questions and the thesis of the show. I love that. I have one last, I think this is, yeah, I think this is my last T.H. A quote to read. But Merlin's talking about the best thing for being sad, Merlin says in the book, is to learn something. And it's a long quote, but he says, there's only one thing for it then to learn.

learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distressed, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn. And this is like, egg is just out here in the world and dunk, and leading dunk by the hand to say like, dunk's like, I don't know. I think Alice is just a nice name to write a song about, which is like probably partially

true. And then he also says one might wish for more, which is, of course, perfect dunk. But egg just being like, okay, and, like, let's continue this thought process. Like, you know, like, we've seen Dunk before just sort of like say a thing and that's the end of the thought. And eggs like, and, you know, and so here's egg being like, and what else can we think about this particular story, this lesson that we're learning here? Giving more than what is asked applies to both of them. But really, this is such a great episode for that idea for egg. Because again, he like doesn't need to be making these choices or doing these things.

and of course that's always He has written a dissertation on a body, a rave tent song. The whole armbone as it will. Come on House of R, Egg. Please, Egg, you have a standing invitation. Prince Agon Targaryen. Alice has a way in for Egg to be like,

could I live a different life than the one that they told me I had to? Just the show is great. Speaking of thoughts about the future. We're wandering through the market town. This is a big show invention moment. This is plunk in the game. Cats ball dagger on the On the table.

Some of it is, you know, speaking of plunking things on the table, some of it's right from the page, like, you know, the sausages. A lot of sausage talk in the page. And they have real like Arlen-Cock-sized sausages in their hands here. My mom used to call them Walking Vorsts. Like when you walk around like a German market, a German Chris's market and you get a sausage and just walking around with it. Wonderful. Sausages have come up quite a bit on the industry pods. Did you ever think you'd be podcasting this much about sausages?

Sausages on the pit as well, I got to say. That's a great time for sausage on television. This is where before the fortune teller wanders and third a path, this is where Donk is briefly talking about his father and this idea like, okay, I was bringing stuff for the bowl of brown. This idea that he could have seen his own father hanged and not known it. Yeah. Didn't even know who he was.

Asag, do you know who your father was? Mom, no, not really. as unknowable as Mallory Rubin as unknowable as Joanna Robinson they walk past Plummer looking at Dunk and he's like, eh?

You're ready to get me your answer and Dunk is not he walks by but as you noted later he will say to Raymond you know Andrew and I and they matched and then they pass this fortune teller

who stops them and offers to share their fortunes here's what she says to Dunk you shall know great success to be richer than Alanis And Dunk's like, thanks. Now do the boy. Do the boy. And she says to egg, you shall be king and die in a hot fire and worms shall feed upon your ashes. And all of no, you shall rejoice in your dying. And Egg is like, bro, what? Oh, look at it. And Dunk is cracking up. And he's like, this is my little avatar, the last Airbender Squire. And Egg is like, well, I'm a fucking Targaryen. So it's not. It's not possible that this could happen. Oh, man. There is a lot to say about this.

We talked about this with CR on Talk to Thrones. To me, the most interesting part about this, and in general in George's work, because he is obsessed with prophecy, is just like tracking how a character responds to hearing something like this. What does it do to you two here? For A. specifically, right? Because if Don't Cures, you should no great success and be richer than Alainster. Okay. That's something I think about. you shall be king and die in a hot fire,

and worms shall feed upon your ashes, and all you know who know you shall rejoice in your dying. How is that not hanging over? You would think about it. Every choice you make going forward. Which again, given that it's a show invention and not in the book, this is something that, you know, this is something that the cat's paw dagger does for House the Dragon

where it's like every single decision made by these Targaryens, some of these Targaryians who know the prophecy, is informed by this thing. Yes. So what egg does going forward? word. How much is he thinking about trying to avoid and then self-fulfill in one way or another this prophecy from this woman? We just, we've talked for years about maybe doing a prophecy tropes course one of these days and then we are like we can't because it would have to be like

a year of work. It could never be one episode. Could do like two hours on the ghost of high heart. That's the thing. It's like just inside of throne stories, we could do a multi-part, multi-week, multi-month series. So this is not going to be exhaust. But like, think of, and we've all talked about this many times over many pots over the years, the way that Circe is shaped by what Maggie the frog says to her, right? We talked in Hot D about like, how will demon respond to hearing Alice say you will die in this place? You just mentioned the Cats Paw Blade. That's a really fun one because when we talk about prophecies in the Thrones world, obviously like there's a fortune teller or a Woods Witch or someone issues a prophecy. There is a is the adjacent related, like, dragon dreams or green dreams. There are all sorts of versions of, like, something that comes into your life. We're going to probably talk more about, we're going to talk more about dragon dreams in future weeks. But Agon's dream, The Song of Ice and Fire in Hot D, is, like, a really fun one because for

the conqueror, it's a dream and for everyone else then it's a prophecy. Like, that's a really fun one. Then obviously that's now just something on our minds all the time when we think about the targs and the choices that they've made, and that's something we've been. enjoying tracking across Hot D, but like the Sarah is saying to Renera, when he is sharing this and explaining this in season one, the last of the Valerian pyromancers hid his song in the steel. From my blood comes the prince that was promised and his will be the song of ice and fire. A responsibility I have handed to you, the burden of this knowledge, it is larger than the throne, the king. It is larger than you and your desires.

You hear something like this, it is the most important thing. Like, how could it not be, right? How could it not take a grip and a hold on your consciousness? The Prince that was promised has been just incorporated into that show canon, but obviously in Thrones, the Prince that was promised in the Song of Miseria fire attacks. That's something we talk about a lot. The Zora High. Stalian amounts to the world.

We had our quoth prophecies. We had the house in the undying. There are myriad examples that we could run through of like, what does someone see or here? Yeah. And then what do they think about it? But and also what I will say, and I have had like pretty much no notes about the added dialogue that they put in this show. There is no doubt to me

that George had to sign off on this, right? Because this is such like a seismic thing to put in the plot here that there's like no way Ira just like went off script and dropped a prophecy in here, big old prophecy. So George signs off on this, right?

These prophecies are not on the same caliber as we usually get. They're usually like fun little like picture puzzles for us. Like the ghost of the high heart of high art says, I dreamt I saw a shadow with a burning heart Butchering a golden stag

Right? Melisanda's shadow baby I dreamt of a man without a face Waiting on a bridge that Swaden swung On his shoulder perch a drone crow With seaweed hanging from his wings That's I am the storm brother right I dreamt of a roaring river And a woman that was a fish, Atolli

Dead she drifted with red tears on her cheeks But when her eyes had opened Oh I woke from Tara's Lady Stoneheart right Yes You know like she does a red wedding I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from her fangs at the purple wedding.

You know, so, like, there's just these really fun little puzzles that, like, in many cases, the reader doesn't know what the hell they're talking about until it happens. This happens with, like, what DeNaris sees in the house, the end dying. They're, like, fun puzzles for us to, like, try to figure out. But ornaments, salt smoke. Is he a half?

Perhaps my favorite example of that. Yeah, and then, like, every character who comes across something like that looking to apply it, themselves or just somebody else in their lives. This is just a little bit more straightforward. Though I will say, worms shall feed upon your ashes is, worms is the one sort of like food for, you know, Prince Hell, food for worms, like Shakespeare, sure. But like, you know, worms in the dragon sense, W-Y-R-M-S. Like, you know, what's going on with that. So, you know, I just, I like my prophecies a bit more. Sure, of course. Riddly. A bit more like cryptic crosswordy, you know, that.

we got here. Yeah, definitely. I think Egg probably would have preferred that as well, you know? For sure. Ghost of High Heart, I just want to say. Legend. A character who shows up in a Song of Ice and Fire. Yep.

But also, like, was around in this time. So there have been some people saying, like, is this the ghost of high heart? Doesn't really match the description. Does not, certainly does not match the description. She's supposed to be, you know, quite a bit smaller. She came to court with Jenny Oldstones, a stunt to the description. thing grotesque to look upon. This is just a lady. So, you know, this is just a actually a pleasant-looking lady. So I, you know, I don't know that this is the ghost of high heart,

but the ghost of high-heart is a character who interacts with eggs story. So great character. So let me think about it. Do you think in the writer's room of every throne's spinoff and every throne's story, there's just like, you guys were talking about this on industry, you know, what is tender have in the office? You think they have in the writer's room? You think they have in the writer's room, the Vissaris quote to Allison from season one. What is the power of a dragon against the power of prophecy? You think that's just hanging up above everybody in neon? In neon. What color? Bright pink. I'm really enjoying, by the way, that they're dressing Henry Muck in like, targ colors. I love this stealthy industry pod we're having right now. I'm caught up finally.

It's very good. What a season of television. Holy shit. Episode four took a couple years off of my life. That was harrowing. But really great. Raven. Don the Byers, baby. Man. Raymond, he's here to serve some cider and spill some tarc tea.

Spots them, invites dunk over. Dunk's like, oh, I really wanted to go get my shield from Tenzel. This is a bad time for this invite, my guy. It's so funny because he's like, I want to get my shield. Part of it is also like, I'm still embarrassed by the goose egg thing. That was sort of my interpretation. Like, he's like, oh, thank you. The ciders sound good, but I kind of want to go see Tenzel.

If I do, how will I? But it'll be so embarrassing because I did that goose egg thing in front of her. She hasn't forgotten. It was hours ago. Great stuff. Egg's like, don't worry. I like the puppet show, so I'll go watch the puppet show, and then I'll get your shield. I also thought it was, so like, both in the book and the show is clear that Egg is worried that Raymond Fossaway will recognize him, which informed us a little bit about us Fossaway.

Like, have they been to court? You know, have they been to Summer Hall? like, you know, egg is wary of all nobles, but I just thought it was interesting that Raymond Fosaway is someone that he was like nervous about. I do think we've talked about this before, but I do think this is an area where something is a little lost page to screen. Oh, purple eyes. Yeah. Well, just the fact that like it is like, like, egg is unmistakably a Targaryen even with the shaved head and Dunk is like a real doofist for missing it. Like egg does not think anyone else who looked at his purple eyes would be. It's so tall. And he's so nice. He's like, I got to, anyone would be able to do you have purple eyes? Oh, are you a Targary? Yeah. And Dunk is just like, my dude.

How'd you like the bacon this morning? His eyes are kind of like a blueish, like a dark blueish kind of color. Oh, Dunk. Raymond takes him to his tent. He's a home brewer. I want to try the Fossil-A cider. Me too. I love a cider.

I love a cider. I think cider can get kind of sickly. Very, very dry. Very, very dry. I like a sweet cider. Very cold. Yeah. Because if it gets warm, it's over, honestly, I think.

Mm-hmm. Like a frosty dry cider. That sounds great. Yeah. I do like a sweet cider. Okay. But I'm not surprised that you don't. Based on your wine takes from Ryan and your port slander.

Good first, Tremeanor. Did you not? Did you have port together at Comic Con? No. I didn't import with you. You didn't order port at the team dinner? No. I got a port.

You got a port. You had a martini? I got several martinis. I got several martinis. I think I got a coffee. I usually have coffee with the dessert, not poor. Oh, man. Great stuff. Raymond brings up Aryan and his rage over having to give his horse to Humphrey.

And then this is where they talk about eggs' belief that Aryan acted intentionally. And Raymond's like, yeah, no shit, dude. Here's what Raymond says. They're incestuous aliens, Duncan. Blood magicers and tyrants who've burned our lands, enslaved our people, dragged us into their wars without a moat. of respect for our history or our customs. Every pale-haired brat they've saddled on us has been madder than the last.

Would you say when a Targaryen is born the gods flip a coin, Joe? Would you say that? He then finishes. Not on someone's tits. Not on someone's tits, but by talking about finishing on the tits and then saying Stefan thought him that,

which I thought was fucking hysterical. I think it's like dangerous words, Joe. Very dangerous words. I think it's, I was thinking about like House Fossoi itself and like what, what, like, however much he, as you often are, how much he learned from Stefan, like, what is the Fossaway beef specifically with House Targaryen? I mean, everyone is thrown rocks at, at Aaron, you know, but like, so House Fossaway, you know, age of heroes house, like, yes, been around for a long time. Yes. Was very, very rich, so rich that like a,

an advantageous marriage with House Fossoway enrich the Tyrells, who are like, mega rich, right? You know, so like a long-storied house of the reach, field of fire. Field of fire, when Aegon's conquest happened, just torched the shit out of the reach, right? And so if the Fossoway's resentment goes back to Agan's conquest, it's been sitting around a while. Also, we may or may not, I don't know if they're going to go there, meet a Fossaway in House of the Dragon, one of the House of the Dragon, season three or season four. they were definitely involved in the dance of dragons and definitely like some shit went down there. So like, you know, take your pick of your, you know, and then to your point, Blackfire Rebellion more recently,

we don't have anything of record about House Fossoway's involvement in that. But like House Fossoway somewhere between the dance and now lost their lord status. Yeah. So they are fallen from grace. So they were one of the richest houses in the realm, longstanding, and now they are opposed. horror house with a chip on their shoulder. And like, I'm with them. Like, fuck the Targaryans, honestly. Like, you don't get to conquer a land just because you have WMD's. Like, that's how I feel. But also they have perhaps a personal reason as to why Raymond might three Fossowisiders Deep be spitting these hard facts, you know?

Three Fossowisiders, Steve. I hope that one sticks around. That's a great one. Yeah. Would you rather be three Fossilisdus D.E. cider's deep or the whole arm bone deep? To me it sounds like they're probably linked if the evening's gone right. One follows the other. Exactly. Certainly. What Raymond says here is, I think, spicier than maybe everyone is prepared for, given the

pod coding that we talked about earlier in the season, and certainly spicier than what he says in the book. Don't look so anxious, Sir Duncan. There's none here but us. There's no secrets there. and is a bad piece of work. Thank the gods that he is well down in the order of succession.

Do I think it's really weird that Raymond didn't say he's a bad apple? I mean, yeah, I do, actually, given the sheer heft of the apple puns that he and Stefan rip off all the time. The incest thing that he mentions here is interesting because, like, obviously that is... Guys, they're barely incestuous right now.

Yeah, this is a good thing. kind of weird time to... There's like hardly incestrian. Very incest light period in targ history, certainly relatively speaking. In terms of the past and the future, honestly. From fire and blood, the fictional history text on which House of the Dragon is based. The idea of Targaryan exceptionalism. All this, the exceptionalist affirmed.

But with this caveat, the Targaryens were different. Their roots were not in Andalos, but in Valeria of old were different were different laws and traditions held sway. A man had only to look at them to know that they were not like other men. Dunk, you paying attention. Their eyes, their hair, their very bearing, all proclaimed their differences, and they flew dragons. They alone, of all the men in the world, had been given the power to tame those fearsome beasts once the doom had come to Valeria. So, incest, the Targaryans got away with incest, basically carved out an incest loophole in Westeros because they wrote dragons. So this is all connected.

The fact that they don't have dragons, it opens up. And there were plenty of people before when they did have dragons who were like, you shouldn't be able to fuck your sister. This is not cool. So my hot take. It's not a good idea. Just don't fuck your sister. Right.

But their whole excuse was we can't fin out the bloodline. Right. out the bloodline because maybe it'll dilute our ability to connect with these dragons. Right. And so now they have no dragons, so they open the door to saying, like, stop fucking your relatives.

Like, stop doing all these things that you've gotten away with that are like a, and certainly on the faith of the seven front, like an affront to the faith and followers of the faith. But Darren the second, the current king, married to Martel. Baylor is married to a Dondarian. Aries, a penrose maker, a Dane.

So this is a period of focus on sharing up alliances, specifically in a certain region because Dorn is in the fold now. So Dorn, angry houses in the Dornish marches, the nearby stormlands. This is about political alliances and strengthening bonds so that they can maintain a hold on power through a more traditional means because they don't have dragons. So you have all that, but then you have the dance, obviously, a civil war inside the family, heavily fueled by ancestral practices. Blackfire Rebellion is very connected to incest.

And so this idea that Raymond or anybody only 13 years a decade and a half later will be like these incestuous aliens does make sense, even though this is an incest light period, because... I got to say, I'm pretty sure the Blackfire Rebellion just comes down to, I want to fuck my sister. No, I want to fuck my sister. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. You can't fuck your sister. I want to fuck my sister. Darren the Second's parents were related. Damon Blackfire's parents were related. Egan the 4th is both of their fathers, Egan the Unworthy.

Naris and Dana, their respective mothers. And Damon was in love with his half-sister, DeNaris. That's basically the big rumor for what the war was actually about. Like, yeah, sure, he gave him the sword, but also incest. Also, I just don't, I don't think you, like, half, who cares at that point if you put a half in front of it or not? It's still your sister. Didn't sway Raymond. That's for sure.

So yeah, these are wild things to say, but one more way of very effectively showing us the fragile ground that the Targ stand on right now. Yep. Arian is one of the Tarc standing on that fragile ground, and so he's like, I'm going to break some fingers. We cut the egg, hood up watching the puppet show. It is once again Sirwin of the Mirror Shield, which makes sense to show us something that's now familiar to us, but is really an interesting choice for what Arian is witnessing. For the obvious reason, the dragon is about to get stabbed.

Correct. the dragon I'd never lose. But this is an age of heroes tale, as we've mentioned before. The Targaryians are not involved in this at all. It's not actually about the Targaryens, but that tells us something about Aryan. Ariens like, is this fucking play about us? The dragon as a symbol of himself to him, in his mind. Seek therapy.

And the Targaryens, he could really benefit from more than a few sessions. It's not about you at all. I also love that. I loved that Tenzel, you know, is a performer as well as a puppeteer. We see her more as a performer than anything else. Yeah. But I love that, you know, she's playing Sirwin, which is not the same as Sir Irwin, but she's dressed as a knight, right?

Yeah, right. And so when Dunk walks in and sees her being mutilated here, it's like the image, the pristine image of knighthood is being desecrated. On both sides. You know, by Aryan. I love that. fucking flame. The bright prince,

it's not as brightest idea, that's for sure. The fact to that this legend, this story, it's basically like a dragon being outsmarted, a dragon being outclass,

a dragon being tricked. So that, if you think you're a dragon and you're watching everybody cheer in the idea of a dragon being outsmarted, outplay outlast,

outwit. Outwitted. Outwitted is that. The old survivor, like Jeff Probst is just there providing commentary. It's like... And it's just Mike White pretending to be drunk, making it all the way to the final tribal. The Mike White quotes in the trailers and commercials for season 50 are... My hype could not be higher.

Have you seen some of the behind the scenes interviews? I've seen a couple. I've seen a couple of them on Instagram. He's like, he's given real McLeodvitt energy. I mean... It's tough, but... And then he called Savannah Mini Parvety, and I was just sort of like, he's got the numbers. because everyone else is like, they're a mystery.

We don't know who they are. Mike White's like, let me read the film. I didn't have to see season 49 to be able to explain this perfectly. Guess what? I write White Lotus. I know an archetype when I see one. Casting news all very exciting for season four of Lotus. Can't wait.

Can't wait to be back in the White Lotus universe with you and hopefully also in France covering the show in person. This is my new mission. By the way. Okay, so we're going to Oxford. I was going to say, on the Oxford-Oxnard front, then prepping for Buffy, I was like, oh, yeah, that's a joke in Buffy with that. Do you think Sean's a real Buffyhead? Maybe.

I mean, it's entirely possible. Did you see one of our listeners let us know that A, the Eagle and the Child has been closed for a bit? And then also, who owes it now? Awful. Terrible. Did you Google who owns it now? I did. I saw the Instagram comments and then I Googled it.

I was like, oh, no. Very bad. Oh, no. That was upsetting. So do you think we can outbid Larry Ells? I mean, Larry Elson already owns it, but like, can we give Larry Ellison enough money that we own the Eagle and the Child? And we open sort of like House of Reeds inside of the Eagle and the Child. I mean, that is very appealing.

I don't think that he is one of the people on the list of, like, folks we could outbid. Yeah. Not for all the Euros in Sweden. We need plumber to approach our with a little offer on the side. Oh, my God. We cut away from Aryan witnessing what he witnesses in the crowd. He's got his hand on his sword. He's held the crowd has parted his pal, this hush falls over the room just because of his presence.

We caught back to Raymond and Dunk. They're laughing. So there's this kind of like incongruous tone. They're still talking about Arian like, yeah, he wouldn't have done this. If his dad hadn't been there, oh, I noticed that Maker's chair was empty. Where was he? Oh, he's off looking for his missing kids. In show and book alike, we get this great and the youngest.

And then in person, right before we get the actual reveal. Hang out in, you've got three tent options. Get to watch a puppet show, no violence, but like any puppet, anything that Tanzell and Company are putting on. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Lionel Barathean's rave tent. Of course.

A one-on-one sit down in the Fossoa tent. As many Fosway siters as you couldn't enjoy. I'm putting, with respect to Raymond Fossi had character, I really like. That's last for me. Even though I love a quiet evening, yeah, I show Raymond is giving me anxiety, actually. Oh, a little bit. I like him a lot. I think he's wonderful.

He's very sweet. But if I were in that universe and I found myself in that tent, I'd be like, shut your mouth. Like, you're making me nervous. Who might hear this? What might happen? Scary. Scary stuff from Raymond in that scene. Also, the accent's really thick.

So if I had had three-siders, I don't know how active of a participant I would be in that conversation. Now, I don't get out much. This is really kind of more aspirational thinking because sitting one-on-one with Raymond is more like my everyday life. I don't have a lot of like I'm in Lionel's rave tent experiences in my life. I don't get out much. So that is exciting to think about because it would be a new experience. I would say like I'm at Ashford Meadow. I'm on vacation. I'm out in the world. I'm out in the field. Let me live a little. So I would want to talk myself into hanging out with Lionel. Those pastries look great. the turkey leg looks great. And I liked the quiet story time after with him. Puppet show also wonderful because I like learning about history, you know?

So that's fun. That's like a podcast in that universe, you know? That would be great. Just going to a podcast live show. I love that. So I'm going, Lionel. How could you pass on hang? Lionel is just clearly the best hang in the show.

I kind of disagree. Lionel, Night 1. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Night three or whatever this is, the vibes are slightly off in the Barathean tent, I have to say. I would have been honored to witness the Alice. I don't think it sounds good in there. I think things are tough. You know, Tug of War seemed great. Sir Manfred's getting way too much air time in that tent. Like, you know, a friend of Sir Manfred is not a friend of mine. Okay. So for me, it's puppet, number one, because I love the theater.

Yeah. I wouldn't call it a live podcast. I would say it's the theater. So I'd love to go to the theater. So I'd love to go to the theater. Ben Raymond. Raymond. He's just like sitting there burping and dunk's face. No, it sounds like really fun. I do love a cider though. And then the Barathean Rafton on day three.

This is shocking stuff from you. What a twist. You love the laughing storm. Yeah, night one. What about the last night? You go back at the end before you leave Ashford? That guy is not awake on the last night of the party. Oh, great stuff.

In the book, we get some, some, you know, You know, and the show, we get some, like, family tree details that are about to be relevant. So most like Darren, he's probably just drunk again. Seven o' why, Darren's Asa'an. Ariens just feign and cruel. The third's so useless, they were going to ship him off to the citadel to make him a maister. And the youngest. We get a very similar version in the book.

This is the poor maker, poor said Dunk Starved, the king's son quote that we've read before. The king's fourth son, said Raymond, not quite as bold as Prince Baylor, nor as clever. Prince Arias nor his gentlest, Prince Regal, and now he must suffer seeing his own sons overshadowed by his brothers. Darren is Asa Sart. Ariane is made and cruel. The third song was so unpromising they gave him to the citadel

to make a maister of him and the youngest. So we're getting some like, who are all these characters before we learn that Egg is a part of their family tree? In the book, when Egg bursts in and says, Aryan's hurting her, the puppet girl, and Dunk springs to action, Raymond issues a warning in the book. And I've always really liked this. Dunk made to follow, but Raymond caught his arm.

Sir Duncan, Aryan, he said, a prince of the blood. Be careful. It was good counsel he knew. The old man would have said the same, but he could not listen. Like, connects to what we've been talking about all pod, just that Dunk is going to do something different, his own thing. Yeah. But also just the warning, like that anyone would know, don't do this thing.

I want to shout out my guy Raymond, who goes to get his shitty cousin. but also the men-at-arms. Like, he goes, like, yeah. He shows up at the end, but he's not alone. Like, he wasn't just like, let me meander to the tent behind him. He was busy getting help. Yes. You know.

But not playing get help. Not the Thorlokey get help. Right. And not the Sam Ramey film, Send Help. I haven't seen it. I did. Did you like it? Sean liked it.

I like Dylan O'Brien and Rachel McAdams a lot. I don't know that I loved the movie, but Dylan O'Brien, absolute king. You're crushing. You're crushing the tape here in L.A. at the theater every night because you can't be in Raymond's tent. I'm a film lover. Speaking of cinema, you know, on the behind the scenes, they showed a couple, like, cool camera tricks that they did to, like, bring us into the tent in the first place to zoom up onto Tencel, getting her finger snapped by Arian. But also the reverse Dolly Zoom that they do on Dunk, which is just like a classic cool cinema. a trick to just sort of like show sort of reality bending for someone or emotions overwhelming someone. And this is like Duncan just seeing red. The sounds, the soundscape kind of helps reinforce that as well. The quote that Sarah, the director used, was the beast inside him

is awoken. Right? So like, you know, you don't want to wake the dragon. You don't want to wake whatever's inside of Duncan because it's taller. Would you say there's a beast in every man and it when you put a sword in its hand? One might. His sword and dagger were forgotten, the passage goes, along with everything the old man had ever taught him. This is feral. This is instinct.

This is something core inside of it. I mean, like, let's hope that Dunk would protect anyone, but this is why it was very important to show how, like, heart-eyed he was, just, like, gone on Danzel. Yes. The first. We only had two episodes to lay that track. care. And here we are. He wanted to lay that track. This is what our listener, Sarah said,

speaking of laying track. Sarah wrote, when Doug punched and then threw that little son of a bitch around like a rag, I was very, very much into it. I felt elated and borderline turned on. Do I need to see professional help? Geez, who is Sarah, us talking about Giles on the Buffy Pots? I was going to say, I was, I almost didn't include this and I was like, we keep talking about this this way about Giles. So, fair enough. This is It's an overpowering show From Dunk, right?

He might have kicked him to death Right then and there But the princeling's men Swarmed over him He is not having trouble Getting the best of Arian Bright Flame That's clear Arrian

lifts himself up Spits out some blood And then Carlos, let's hear what he says Why did you throw your life away for this hole? She's scarcely worth him It's a traitor The Dragon Lord never lose This was like Chris's favorite TV moment in a decade, basically.

The way that Finn Bennett says, why did you throw your life away for this war? Right. Really impactful. And Finn talked about this, about how he and the director Sarah decided that this was like the scariest response that Arian could have, like, way scary than a tantrum. Is this sort of like calm confusion. I kind of like the way that it's his confusion. His puzzlement around dunk mirrors, dunks puzzlement around Ari. And like all this other like sort of example.

He's like, it's not supposed to be this way. The world's not supposed to be this way. Right. And this is what Aryan feels. He's like, it's not supposed to be like this. What are you doing? She's a horse. She's not.

She's a puppeteer. But if she were, I mean, whatever. Right. So like. Everybody is challenging a notion of convention. Right. But just sort of like, what are you? Right.

You know? And then my instinct is to break you. Yes. I break everything else. I'm going to like, let's stage top, stomp your teeth out. Yeah, you lose one of my teeth. Well, we'll start by taking out all of your teeth. for an eye.

It's... That's always gone fine in Throne's. It's a loose tooth for all of your teeth. I love this passage in the text because Arian doesn't recognize. Like, he thinks Dunk looks familiar, but it takes him a moment to place him and dunk's like, you mistook me for a stable boy, so they have this brief exchange. But it builds toward the same, in essence, the same, she's scarcely worth in a trade. The drag-not never lose.

Why did you throw your life away for this horror? But the passage ends with this. This is always like, I just think this is such a bar from George. he's mad, thought dunk, but he is still a prince's son, and he means to kill me. He might have prayed then if he had known a prayer all the way through. I don't know the words. Doesn't know the words. But there was no time.

There was hardly even time to be afraid. I think there is something so core and true there about how quickly everything can change, how quickly everything can change. So let's talk about both sides of this, the Aryan side of it, which we've already hit mostly, worried about the Targ's fading position, fueled by the crowd response. The red confetti coming out of the dragon, and he's like, how dare you? Absolutely not. He won't abide it. The dunk side of it, though.

Let's talk about that a little bit more. Reckless, mad. But it's honorable. It's right. This is our hero for a reason. All men are fools and all men are knights. Defending the weak and protecting the innocence. Like, yeah, he's got a crush, but this.

This is at its core what Dunk believes a night. What makes a night a night? This. It is having, being the only, everyone else is standing around watching this happen in that tent. And Dunk walks in. Does the sound cloud his ears? Is he seeing red? Does the beast rise within?

Sure. But also the other thing that rises within is a sense of moral clarity. Like, I have lived my life to understand that a hedge knight is the truth. as the truest kind of night dunk, as Arlen taught him. Also, like, you know, there's been some debate about Agon's choice to go get dunk here because it's sort of like, couldn't he have just said, like, stop brother himself in that moment? Did he need to get dunk involved or whatever? Right.

But I just love the idea, you know, in the book he explains, like, he couldn't have run to the castle. It was too far. You know what I mean? So he could get to dunk. But, like, he knew that Dunk would do the right thing. He's hurting her, the puppet girl, and that's it. And Dunk's- He doesn't doubt that dunk will do it.

going to do this where we've seen, you know, whereas Raymond Fossoy's like, hold on, dude. Yeah. Let's calm down. Stefan Fossoe is certainly not going to get involved. Manfred Dardarian's not going to get involved. Would Linal Barathe be involved? Maybe if the whim suits him, you know what I mean? Would any of these other knights get involved in this?

And it's just sort of like, who's the truest fucking knight here at the tourney? It's so fun to think back to the dunk as our listener called him. Tung-the-hunk. Art salt beef. It's fun to think back to the closing note of Hartzal Beef of the second episode and Dunk's declaration on the morrow. We will show them what his hand has wrought. Now, he's talking about jousting, but this is really showing them what Arlen's hand has wrought. Because that idea from Arlen, other knights serve the lords who keep them or from whom they hold their lands, but we serve where we will for men whose causes we believe in.

Every night's worth to protect the weak and innocent, but we keep the vow best, I think. This idea that the hedge night, there are all of these things that feel like an indictment or a limit or a weakness. Wear it like armor, you can do the thing that you know is true and good and just. Not everybody else can do that, and they certainly don't choose to do that. So this is just such a crucial key moment, not only in Dunk's story, obviously and in the flow of the season, but to show us who Dunk is and for Dunk is and for Dunk to prove to himself who he is. And it not only did it not require thought, there was no time for thought. There wasn't even time to be afraid. Right.

This is just who he is at his core. Yeah. Who is egg at his core? It's time to find out. Ariens men have dunk pinned to the stage and egg enters and he's like, stop. Dunk is terrified for him. You're going to get hurt. Don't do that.

Don't do that. Don't sit on my horse. You'll get hurt. God. Don't do that, you'll get hurt. Fucking wait and yorkle. They're just following orders. You know me. Great stuff. Egg, little princeling.

And let's hear, Carlos, the exchange that transpires between Egan Targaryen and his brother, Arian. You impudent little Raj. What's happened to your air? I cut it off, brother. I didn't want to look like you. Cut to this face, cut to that face, cut to that face. It is. It really is. And then it kind of picks up. That's great. It's so good.

We've kind of already talked about anything else you want to say before we get into the family tree a little bit more about just like the mid-novela and mid-season placement of this reveal. I think we've probably covered that. The king is. Darren the second. His first son is. Baylor. Brakespeare. Baylor's sons are.

Valar and Mataris. Baylor's brothers are. Aries. Rayagal, who also has a son. Aylor. And then back to the brons. brothers, Makar. So Makar is the fourth son of the current king, but he's not even like, he's not even,

it's Baylor, then his sons. Yes, and then the other brothers. And then Makar's sons are. Darren, Aryan, Mr. Amon, and Egg. And of course, we're just listing the bros because it's Westeros. Because, tough one. Who cares? Says Tolkien or Martin, who the women are in this world.

So at this moment, I would like to cry in Renera. Four son of the four? On the foresson, 11th in line. Not near the throne at this moment in the canon. That is where we find. Egg. It's just a thrill to be able to talk about the fact that he's Mastor Amon's brother. This is where Egg got the name Egg.

Sweet Dunk is like his head does kind of look like an egg. But actually it's his brother, Master Amon's nickname for him. It's short for Egg on. My brother, Amon called me Egg. He's off at the Citadel now learning to be a master. That's one that looks so great. all of the moments with Mastor Amon in the text and the show where he is talking about eggs, some of which have some spoilers around them, so we'll proceed with caution or avoid,

and then some of which are just completely fair game and fine to talk about. The John Amin's season one, book one, love is the death of duty scene that we reference as frequently as any other moment in any canon we cover. Famous moments, scenes from Game of Thrones as far as we're concerned. Huge fat spoiler. He does mention Mekar in that. I would say watch the whole scene if you don't care about it. Spoilers for family tree stuff, but he says, what is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms or a brother's smile? Now, obviously, he's talking to John about Rob and everything happening at that point for the Starks.

Egg is on his mind here. It's so apparent and it's just lovely. And then when Gillian Sam are with Mr. Eman and sweet little Sam is there, and he's like, there he is. That laugh. Egg laughed like that. one of the first things I remember. Then there are some spoilers. And then Mr. Amon says, he was a jolly fellow.

You want to remind us what Amon says on his deathbed? Egg, I dreamed I was old. Devastating. Oh, my God. I'm like getting, I'm getting sad right now. I'm going to cry. In the text to Dance with Dragons, he says, Mr. Amon says to John, Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved.

Another very famous part of the story, which we'll talk about the spoiler section. Yeah, that full passage in the spoiler section. It's just a wonderful tie to be able to more overtly discuss across the pods between these key figures. So, you know, Egg reveals himself here. He's not in massive amounts of danger, right? Because he's a prince. So he's not in, like, actual danger. He's going to be fine.

He's a prince. but his adventure is over. That's the thing in Paris. So that's why we keep hitting like the runny yoke of the sandwich or the I could be quite happy in a place like this. Like these are all the things that he put. He's just like... But on the line to save dunk.

Just light it on fire because this adventure for me is over. This life that I thought I could maybe carve for myself is over. And then for dunk. Oh my God, his face, Joe. The betrayal here of just sort of like... I'm not only in the trouble for what I've just done, but now I'm in so much trouble for having any dealings with this Targaryen prince, this Aegon. Like, if I'm not going to hang for this, I'm going to hang for that.

And he did that to me. He knowingly put me in danger by putting himself with me. And I don't think Egg thought of it that way at all. No, of course not. But, like, those are the realities that Duncan has to consider here. And so, you know, and just sort of like, you've been lying the whole time about who you were. Yes. And I believed you.

I believed you. I'm so dumb. I'm like, you know. That's the thing that like, because he's been talking all season about what a fool he is. Too dumb to buy a car. That's me, man, you know? You can do fine with your car purchases. That moment with Sweetfoot in episode two where he's like where Dung says, is there any measure of a fool?

I failed to me. Right. But like, Arlen gave him all this advice about who to trust. And he's like thinking about that when he's looking at the sex. and all the sort of stuff like that. And he's just sort of like, he trusted this boy. And uh-oh, it's an incestuous alien prince in disguise. And like, Egg rushes in to protect him.

But like, how far is that protection? Like, how far is Egg going to put himself on the line for dunk? And what will matter more to to dunk himself that Egg revealed himself and blew up his own spot to make sure that Dunk was okay? or that he forged this fiction in the first place. It's complicated. Great, great, great. And to the episode, really Lance, I think that book lovers loved it. And if you had no idea this was coming, you loved it.

And that's just, like you said at the beginning, love this. I think it was done perfectly. It really was great. I loved it. Book spoilers. Bye. If you don't want to hear this, Carlos is about to scare the bejesus sentence. Please leave.

after this alarming sound from Carlos. Perhaps he's already played the alarming sound. Looks like he's typing something right now. Is he firing it? Is he like Steve Harrington at the squawk? You know? Chicken sound here. Okay.

Have you left? Are you gone? We're going to talk book spoilers. You really don't... Seriously, you don't want to hear this. If you don't want to hear it, if you do, great, welcome. You're not heard of him. You will.

Egg on the unlikely. Prince. Egon King. Agon. King Agon, the unlikely Targaryen. Okay, so after let's take people behind the scenes for a second. After Talk to Sorwans, we were like, we really hope that just in the inside the episode, they're just like, and he'll be

king one day. That did not happen. It's really tough. Did not happen. I feel like I really hinted very heavily at it. And I didn't stop me from talk. I kept calling it the sword in the stone, though, so I wouldn't call it the ones of future king. But like, I didn't notice that. I kept talking about

deliberate choice, because like, it's so important to talk about the Anyway, a royal in disguise. Yes. A king in disguise, although he doesn't know he's going to be king. I think that I think I could be quite happy in a place like this. I found almost unbearably sad knowing the future that awaits it on the one hand. He will continue to be in a place like this.

There are adventures of the Dunkin Egg, the Jess Dunkin' Egg continue. But the future for Egg on the Fifth, Egg on the Unleggly is so bleak. I feel like, so you've amassed a bunch of great, like, roll device and fire quotes, and we can read them. But, like, knowing that George had to have signed off on this prophecy is devastating, right? Because you shall be king. Okay. Egg on the unlikely.

Yeah. Not easily named king. Great counsel. You know, there's a huge succession issue. But, like, a lot of Targaryians have to die before he gets there. But they do. Yeah. And he does.

Okay. So he becomes the king. Yes. And has a very contentious rule. But, like, the point is... Incredibly so, yeah. Because of his time here, up until this episode, I had like, though there's information in a world of ice and fire, which you can read those ghosts, we can talk about in a second, about like the ways in which the people are like, we're not sure about him. I was like, great reformer king, which is like the whole thing about King Arthur, right?

The fiction of King Arthur is that he was this great reformer king. And T.H. White has this idea of like the reason why he's this great reformer king and why Camelot and Summerhall are these like sort of great platonic ideals of royalty. is because he spent time among the people and he learned to care for the people. And so Agron is his reformer and he's like, I went on the road with Dunk for years and years and years and years. And I know what it means. Yeah, I lived among the small folk. To have a mean whip stitch. You know what I mean?

Like all this sort of stuff like that. I think about Alice with three fingers. I think about all the sort of stuff like that. This made him unpopular with the lords. Oh, yeah. You know. But this idea of a dying at hot fire, he will-sur-hall. die at Summerhall.

259 AC. And worm shall feed... He's going to be thinking about that for decades. I know. And worms shall feed upon your ashes. So he knew that. He knew he would die in a fire. And he pursued this anyway.

Worms shall feed upon your ashes. Right. Like, is that he's going to die in food for worms? Is that the dragons that will come eventually from, you know, your line or your death or whatever? Yeah. And all who know you shall rejoice in your... You're dying. That's the dagger.

That is crazy. And like there's a couple possible explanations here. Like is it that, I saw a lot of people being basically like, egg was so badly burned that like even the people who love him were like, ah, at last he's dead. Because he's relieved from his suffering, right? Very badly burned. Like, then he's dead, right? So like, what a relief, what a rejoice. Or.

Yeah. Because you have to think about A-Man. Amon, Maister Amon, who's like, his whole life is like egg? Yeah. But like, who did egg become? And does he become so possessed? Yeah, by the pursuit of dragons. By the pursuit of dragons that he, like, goes beyond, oh, that guy's too much of a man of the people to this guy is a mad king, not quite burn them all.

Right. But like, I will go to any lengths to hatch dragons again, to take the Targaryans out of their flop era, to make sure that the reforms that I have in mind are backed up. by the ancestral might and power of the Targaryans and to like, and disprove that fucking prophecy that all who know me shall rejoice in my dying. They won't if I bring the dragons back. Like how much of this is, you know, the self-fulfilling kind of just sort of like, I heard that I was going to be really unpopular and die in a fire. So I need dragons or else that's going to happen to me, you know?

And that brings it about. And that's what brings it about. Summer Hall. Yeah. I thought this is like the all who know you shall rejoice in your daughter. dying part felt very like connected to things we understand about the challenges of eggs reign and like broken alliances and lost friendships and also even people close to him being like don't do this thing but also it did feel like a leveling up of the all shall rejoice yeah that felt

that felt all of his I mean I know his kids were like fuck you dad I do what I want I marry who I want but like they're excited that he's dead well some of them are dead too but you know what I mean Yeah, Prince Duncan is, he's a little crispy guy there. This idea of being inspelled by a prophecy at a young age, I think is fascinating. Yeah. I mean, Egg is so young here. He's like nine years old, right? So to hear this thing, at any point in your life would leave an impression, certainly.

But like, these are the coming of age most formative years. And at a moment in Egg's life where he is so actively thinking about who am I and who do I want to be. What choices do I want to make? What life do I want to live? Like, what a ripe and raw time to hear this thing. The, on the incest front, like, the idea that, you know, the incest returns with eggs kids. I mean, he's like, the black ones. Incest and Robert Young shall return for Avengers Dooms Day.

Summer Hall Dooms Day. You know, the Lost Alliance is the broken promises because of his kids' marital choices. And they're like, well, you married for love. so I'm going to do whatever I want. He's like, I didn't think I was going to be like in this position when I did that. The Force Sun. Yeah. But you guys are in a different spot.

We've already talked about Duncan and Jenny and in a prior book spoiler section. Lionel and the broken betrothal and the eventual. Little Barathean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Showdown between The Laughing Storm and Dong. So if we get to that season and we get. But did you see what Ira said? About the ages. Yeah.

I mean. He said about. taking time off. I don't think HBO will let him do that. And I also, like, is HBO going to exist? Casey's out there giving deadline interviews like every year. Every year we're making the show. So those things feeling conflict with each other.

I know, but basically, Ira Parker was saying he wants to make the TV version of boyhood, where he's just going to, like, track the age of the actors as they grow. I mean, I think that they can get Dexter as egg to a Blackwood. wedding. That can definitely happen. 259 A.C. Summerhall when we're in 209 AC, they just have to really radically move things off. And then you just, I think you create problems because Ragar has to be born there. And then the timeline for Establish Show Cannon just doesn't make sense. They can only move Summer Hall so far when RIGAR is born there. I agree with you. I like the idea of, I mean, I love Boyhood. No, it's a great idea. And it's a great idea. And it's

It's also like probably something that George is like, yes, let's do that the same way that George is like. Yeah, George is like, I have more time to write my novell. And also George is like, every, we should do every final, like, episode of Game of Thrones should be a movie in the theater. You know, like George's is a lot of grand ideas. I mean, it's a fun thing to think about. I don't know if it's possible. I love this World of Ice and Fire quote about eggs kids. His grace had failed to account for the willfulness of his own blood.

How perfect. Right? How perfect. He's like, I don't like incest. A couple of his kids are going to marry each other. Without his blessing. Yeah, exactly. His, you know, Aigon is more than half a peasant. This is like a recurring refrain in his section of World and Ice and Fire. This like thing that certain members of the realm hold against him, right, in the Great Council and beyond. Though beloved by the small folk, King Egon made many enemies amongst the Lord of the realms whose powers he wished to curtail. As you noted, this reformer king, like, of course that's unpopular. And so the thing that like Dunk, he believes is. or your guy Young Griff from earlier in the pod, this is like virtuous.

I have a exposure to, I have lived among the people I am ruling. And so I will create a realm that is a better place for them. And then all of the rich bros in their castles are like, actually we don't like you now. Like all of that tracks perfectly with the characters and also just the flow of history. But this pursuit of dragons and that like to the all,

the all part in this prophecy, like, World of Ice and Fire. Egan the Fifth was oft hurt to say that had he only dragons as the first EGon had, he could have remade the realm of new with peace and prosperity

and justice for all. Now, we love EG, but any, I could just remake it, I could remake it anew if I just had more power and a weapon of mass destruction is very frequently something that we associate

with a villain. And we don't think of EGon as a villain, but this is a, They're laying track here for something really dark that is pretty compelling to think about getting to see, but very tragic. It's so interesting because watching to bring industry back, I've been thinking a lot about the way in which they bungled DeNaris's arc when I'm thinking of someone like Yasmin on industry, which is just sort of like, Yasmin didn't start, if you're not watching industry, it doesn't really matter. But the point is they're really nailing this arc of this character with believable trauma that lead her to make incredible. increasingly hard for, hard to root for decisions. You know what I mean?

And when we meet her in season one, she's making bad decisions, but it's easier to like root for her. You know, it's just like an incremental, intentional movement of a character along an arc where DeNaris felt like, hear the bells. I'm just going to torch all of my character development or whatever the case may be. And so like if we have this to track for with Aegon, there's a potential here for something. I mean, it's the tragedy at Summer Hall. Yes.

And the tragedy of Summer Hall is all these people die, but also like the tragedy is like losing his way. We love being the architect of this tragic event. I'm excited. I really hope we get this. I mean, we love a tragic fall and especially one that is rooted in an initial good intention. The idea of a life of honor and virtue and seeking to actually give a shit about somebody else's circumstance and perspective leading to this outcome is so delicious in just the next

couple seasons, based on Sworn Sword and Mystery Night novella canon, I mean, we're not going to have to wait long. We get quotes of mystery night of egg, you know, because of course the egg at White Walls, the literal dragon egg at White Walls and John the Fiddler or Damon the second. We get like passages where Egg is talking about Darren's dreams. So that's, we're going to be rationing this up in just the next couple

seasons and starting to lay the track for this up. What becomes an obsession, Egon the Fifth, this is also from World of Ice and Fire, had come to dream of dragons flying once more above the seven kingdoms of Westeros. There are other passages that they don't have here, but where it spells out that he's like, sending people to a shy. You know, he is hunting for these things. In this, he was not unlike his predecessors who brought septance to prey over the last eggs, mages to work spells over them, and maesters to pour over them.

The friends and counselors sought to dissuade him. the friends and counselors sought to dissuade him. So that was what really caught my eye of, like, how many of the people who loved him most from are closest and were like, don't do this thing. Can you imagine a scene where Duncan's like, don't do this thing?

Yeah, and I feel like Mystery Night with the Egg as a prize is going to be a really rich text to start introducing some of these ideas early. King Egan grew ever more convinced that only with dragons would he ever wield sufficient power to make the changes he wished to make in the realm and force them proud and stubborn lords of seven. in kingdoms to accept his decrees. So where does a tip? Where does a tip tip from nobility of

intention into you will heed me? Like, oh my God, I'm excited for this, but it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to watch. I really can't wait for this, though. Can I have this camera? Ted Saranda. Ted Saranda. I know you recently, I think, like, testified in front of a committee, Judiciary Committee, whatever, that you would honor a 45-day theatrical window should you take over Warner Brothers and have charge with our films?

And I'm sure Sean and Amanda, for whom the studio is home, rejoiced. I would like you to also swear that you will give us 13 seasons of Dunkin Egg of the Nine of the Seven Kingdoms

and then we get to go to Summer Hall because I would be so devastated if we get all of this and then we don't get to go to Summer Hall. Which like George has been, so thank you so much, George has been like so He's guarded a lot of the summer hall information

Because he really wanted to be the one to write it And like that's not going to happen George It's sad that this is happening again But we do need this, we need this canon I mean Raygard is going to be born there We deserve this Okay on the dunk side Can I tell you?

Yeah, what did you make of this? One of my favorite theories that comes from We Shall No Great Success and Be Richer than Alanister Friend of the Pod Hit me. History of Westeroses Ashaya. Lady Rohan Weber,

who we will meet next season. I can't wait. Yeah. Who dung that spider. Canonically fucks. He grabs her brain and they kiss. Definitely.

Okay. Yeah. They are, uh, there is sexually drawn to each other. I think he wants to kiss Tandelle. I think he... Oh, yeah.

He's dreaming of her tits. Has sex with Lady Rohan's. A lot of lust between those two. Who does she marry? Gerald Linister. What happens in two? A lot of marriages for her. 230 AC, she disappears.

Mysteriously. Does she run off with Dunk? In the words of Ashea, does he cuck a Lanister? And in that way, he is richer than Alinister. I love it. It would be great. That's a great theory. But also like, you know, Tarth, like, you know, our lands bequeath to him.

Is he richer than Alanister, literally? Is he richer than Alanister in friends, in honor, in glory. and whatever. Prophases can be tricksy. But I love the idea. I mean, just the phrase he's going to cuck a lanister was really funny. So I enjoyed it. Great stuff. I love it. I can't wait to see Dunk have sex in future seasons. I really think it's going to happen in season two. It would be wonderful. It would be thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. I just can't wait for this casting to be announced. The grabbing of her braid is like a really important moment in literary history. Very powerful. On the aim and egg front, let's hit the whole kill the boy exchange. This is from

the text. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the wall. It takes a man to rule an egg on, not an egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born. And then he's saying to John, you are half the age that egg was and your own burden is a crueler one, I fear. You will have a little joy of your command, but I think I think you have to strengthen you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, John Snow. Winter is almost upon us. the boy and let the man be born. Kill the boy, one of the most famous John Thrones moments. This direct tie to egg and this...

The Mad King, Egon to be born. Suppressed this innocence and this joy and this wonder and this jolly fellow because this other thing is necessary and then where does that lead? Sad. This was harrowing, really harrowing to see this like puzzle start to all stitch together. What else? on the match fixing at Whitewall's front and Mystery Night, one of my favorite passages from that third novella is

Fireball Sun, Glendon Flowers, who does not accept the offer, right, to fix the match. They need John the Fiddler, Damon, to win so that he can get this egg. That is Gorman Peek's plot. Elsewhere, Dunk is exposed to the idea that Lord Uther was like, someone paid me to try to kill you. Like, there's all sorts of nefarious shit happening. He basically is like, come on the road with me and you can just be my patsy.

you can lose every joust, and it'll take everyone so long to figure out what we're up to. We'll make a killing, right? This is like a big part of the third novella. But Glendon Flower specifically, saying, my father died for his. I would have been his man and gladly, I would have fought for him, killed for him, died for him, but I could not lose for him. It's so good. It's such a banger and such an incredible moment where a dunk is like, yeah, there's something,

there's a shared currency between us of like why we do what we do. So I love that. Robin Riesling, Rysling. Okay, so here are the six that we'll ride with Duncan, right? Robin, who we now have some information about. Yes. That Robin Risening is like so infested by the spirit of the warrior that he's like, to all then, you know what I mean?

Like he's like, let's just do it, right? Okay. Lionel Barathean loves a fight. It's not going to miss this. Raymond Fosway, incestuous aliens. I'll ride with you. Right. Okay.

Nightme now. Baylor. We get it. Where's the, where's the character developed? Humphreys got a bone to pick, a shattered leg bone to pick. You know, Humphrey Harding has a shattered leg bone to pick, right? Bees. I got bees.

It's just because he's my brother-in-law. We deserve a scene. I know. With Humphrey Beesbury. Yeah, that would have been helpful. This is bullshit. For sure. You were robbed.

Okay. You were robbed. You were. On the seven theory. Yeah. This person. posited that Dunk himself is the personification of the stranger who brings death. Yeah.

Any other like spoilery sort of assignments you wanted to make? I think just in general the presence of the stranger because of the, you know, Baylor's death and this like... Yeah, but was it Dunk who brought death here? Well, he certainly thinks so, right? Darren thinks so. And yeah, of course, the dream that we got from Darren and the next stretch of story. But then in the end of this novella, like this conversation that Dunk is. and Maker will have Nika or Nika is like,

people are always going to say I did this thing. They're always going to say it. And Dung's like, I carried the blame too, and Maker's like, correct. Like he doesn't try to talk him out of it. He's like, yeah, they'll always say it about you too, you know. And this idea that plagues Dunk of like my foot, you know, what was his foot worth? Could it have been worth of Prince's life?

Prince's life, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Duncan, Duncan is the stranger in this seven. makeup here. It's fun, fun theory. Great show. Hobbes and Dragas at Gmail.com. If you have other thoughts about that, about the 7th theory or anything else. I'm excited for episode four. Or how we get Ted Saranus to promise us 13 seasons and a movie, and a summer hall movie. I mean, to be fair, all 13 seasons are basically going to be movies.

And a movie. So a 14th season. We did it. We're halfway through, a night of the Seven Kingdom Season 1. Sad, don't want it to end. It's just the movie's just called Summer Hall. That would be great. That would be great. Except it's going to be Game of Thrones Presents A Night of the Seven Kingdom and Colton Summer Hall. The tragedy at Summer Hall. A Night of the Seven Kingdom story.

A Night of the Seven Kingdom story. Coming this winter. Summer Hall. Spring is coming. Spring is coming this winter this winter at Summer Hall. I can see it all on a poster. Think of the popcorn bucket. All right. It's just somebody smoldering corpse that you're eating popcorn out of? What about the dragon helm?

That would be a great popcorn. Oh, Aryan's Dragon Hel? That would be great. Yeah, but we're in season 13 at this point. I know, but he's not at some point. But it just didn't mean me. If we're doing 13 seasons. We will be aged crones our very self.

We will be. At some point, though, if we're doing 13 seasons, I mean, we're getting the great council. Egg is going to be selected. We, I mean, sure, Arian's going to be shipped off to lease. But at some point, we're going to get this fucker drinking wildfire and dying.

It's going to be great. So that's exciting. Yeah. I can't wait for that. All right. Thank you. Thank you to War. Thank you to Alice. Thank you to Alice. And her entire arm bone. As a 12th. Thank you to the hammer and the anvil. And all the Vaney Doorsmen that were involved. Real team effort today. Thank you to our crew. Carlos Chiroboga, as always. Here with us early. For hours and hours and hours. At the crack of dawn. Origener Ramigipa Powell.

Joe Me a Denner, and as always. And thank you to Sarah Reddy once again for helping us out today. Join us again on Friday or whenever. Whenever you watch the next episode over the weekend, Talk to Thrones will be waiting for you in your feeds and on the Ringervverse YouTube channel after episode four. And then we will be back with our episode for Deep dive next Tuesday evening. As per yous.

It's been Wednesday two out of the first three weeks. But in theory, my fault both times. In theory, as per yush. Until then, goodbye.