The Reel Rejects - A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS 1x6 REVIEW – WHAT DOES THIS ENDING MEAN FOR SEASON 2?!

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Starting point is 00:02:26 and you can get T's over there. We're able to support the Chanel if you want to go to the site directly. Wow, oh, wow. Everyone seemed really satisfied. Everyone seemed very, very satisfied with this episode. How did you feel with like the,

Starting point is 00:02:39 You were saying you had mixed feelings about the ending part there? What do you mean? Oh, just in that, I'm not sure... I would love to continue to follow the repercussions of Baylor's death. However, I kind of love keeping our POV to dunk an egg. Oh, I see what you mean. You know, so it was almost jarring because we're so used to Thrones where it's hopping between characters and POVs,

Starting point is 00:03:06 and this has been so hyper-focused. I really Number one, I thought some of the music choices From the start of the episode To the credits Yeah Really wild It didn't take me out of it

Starting point is 00:03:22 I'm sure that some people are gonna be Maybe upset about it Yeah, screw him It's even if you like us And support us and respect different opinions No No I know

Starting point is 00:03:35 I can understand Because it's the first thing time it's been like modern but i mean would you feel about the music choice is there i mean the one up top i thought worked really nice because it isn't it is an it is an anachronism but it's like still jazz like it's still instruments that are kind of accessible it's like a horn it's a drum it's it's it's just the attitude and the swagger and the kind of irony of the moment so i appreciated that and then ending on like a like a 50s duopi song is again another one of those i think that they're appropriately placed and I liked the kind of ironic flavor

Starting point is 00:04:11 they provided and the fact that yeah like those tones if you're gonna go a little more expressive and an anachronistic I think those tones match what this is doing really nicely so it's like you know there's a quaint sort of earnestness to both dunk and egg because of how good-hearted they are in this world that is just not about that yeah yeah yeah that is not oriented there and I feel like those sounds kind of especially the ending cue kind of

Starting point is 00:04:37 speak to that. Yeah. Yeah, it's an interesting mixture. I don't really know what the lyrics of skin and bones is about really. It's a company man. Yeah, I could see, I guess I could pull that thread. Did this episode feel to any of you guys

Starting point is 00:04:56 like they realized some point while making this during this episode that everything else that they had created was a masterpiece. And this episode, and this episode just sort of felt like a pat on the back. Does that make any sense? What do you mean?

Starting point is 00:05:14 In what tone are you saying? I'm saying it in like this episode felt... Like, do they pat their backs too soon? What did you mean? Like, are you saying like not... Are you not satisfied? I'm not... I can't tell what you're actually.

Starting point is 00:05:26 Are you not to detain? Are you not to entertain? Am I? I'm going to have... I didn't... I wasn't... I hate. hate saying it. I don't think

Starting point is 00:05:40 I was satisfied. Oh, really? Okay, so that's hard, that was hard to say. All right, that's a good tease for what we'll talk about then. So, like, let's go with what was satisfying first off. You know, like, I, I personally felt like pretty good about the episode, actually. I mean,

Starting point is 00:05:56 it's not the, it felt a little bit, I don't know if it's because I was, I was becoming aware of where it's supposed to end. I don't know if it felt a little bit padded out, if that makes sense. um like for such a short episode i'm like it probably could have even been like five to ten minutes short in a weird way tight 17 minutes but even then like that's so such a minor fueling that i

Starting point is 00:06:23 have as a theory because i i appreciate it the part that was missing for me as an element was something that i thought could have been done earlier was the fresh out the relationship with the brothers that way would have hit a lot harder even right down at baylor's death and the prior one but I'm glad of the time that we got to spend to help humanize a lot of these moments more and I love like for me personally I really like how they hammered home the disillusionment

Starting point is 00:06:52 and the choice of being like how he chooses to be a knight at the end of the day like he's choosing it you don't get clarification whether or not he actually was knighted or not and at the end of the day it's like the inspiration to do the right thing regardless And then watching how in doing the right thing and a man of honor,

Starting point is 00:07:11 like the beginning of the show, this story starts off with him being very clear cut about here's the here's what a knight must do. And then here's where you guys all have it wrong. And by going through with that sense of morality, it ends up breaking him, you know, because of the loss of someone else who was actually part of that group that he was up against. who decided to side with him on his honor and code, and that cost a man his life. And he's so broken by that. So I love how it brought this gray in there, and it doesn't quite close the whole story of it.

Starting point is 00:07:56 It actually leaves it open for more of an exploration of character and gross. That's why I felt satisfied with it. In terms of our main characters, I felt like really touched by that thought. Did you think Sir Arlen, that scene where he was, talking to him and asking him why he wasn't knighted. Do you think that really happened, or do you think that was a memory, or not a memory, but a dream of sorts or a trying, dunk's reconciliation process in his head?

Starting point is 00:08:22 Great question. I mean, I kind of thought to you, John. Does it? Yeah, I mean, I... It felt a little dreamy. It did, yeah. Yeah, it felt, I think it's part of what's cool about the tone of this show, because it felt within the realm of the quirky reality,

Starting point is 00:08:37 where it's like, I totally believe this guy would like pass out for a second and then come back. And he's like, you know, good guy. He always finishes the story even though like he kind of skips a bunch of stuff and then just says that last line of the story. So like there is a kind of like a lifey messiness to that that I thought was. I don't know. I think it kind of doesn't. I think like the questioning of the legitimacy is still there anyway, you know, whether or not he ultimately does or doesn't.

Starting point is 00:09:06 and it speaks to Duncan's whole journey that none of this has been the traditional knight's tale. All of this has been kind of desperate and kind of cobbled together just moment by moment. And I think it speaks to the larger theme that like, yes, in this world,

Starting point is 00:09:23 you do need to follow the protocols of being knighted, but what is their knight really? And half the guys who have been knighted like in the normal tradition do not uphold the principle. So, yeah, it's more about his longing to be, recognizes what these values truly are.

Starting point is 00:09:39 I saw that that line of a good night always finishes the story as Dunk's reconciliation of why he needs to take on egg. Like the non-nightly thing to do would be to ignore your destiny. Whether or not you deserve to be alive, whether or not your actions have caused all these awful consequences. But my head canon anyway is that that was dunk trying to really rationalize why he was never actually knighted. And I think that's a really interesting undertone for his character where the greatest hope of the realm in the form of Prince Baylor was killed because of him. is that the gods punishing him for lying about his knighthood has to be something that he is is facing in in his you know his own sort of morality i i love a complex later though because i do not think that is in the book yeah no i don't i don't think that's in the book no i don't

Starting point is 00:10:47 don't even know if i don't even think there's like a question about if he was knighted or not yeah yeah and it makes me wonder but i haven't read the follow-ups so maybe, I don't know if they're pulling from like a follow-up and then putting it here. I'm trying to remember, I don't, like, I mean, I'm, I'm sure, especially because George R. Martin's involved in this, to the degree that he is, I can't help but think that this was just a really fun thing for them to play around with. And I kind of hope they never give us an earnest direct answer either way. Yeah, I guess I was hoping to feel more repercussion of what has a occurred. And I get like in sort of the true fashion of the show, it took sort of a light, jovial,

Starting point is 00:11:35 he's now faced with all these different options and sort of, you know, but for me, it sort of took me out of like the intensity of, I mean, ever since the last episode, and I don't remember the last time a TV show made me feel this way, there has not been a day that has gone by that I have not thought about that scene. And like, I feel like there is a, a moment. And granted, this isn't Game of Thrones. So maybe that's on me as a viewer of trying to be like, what are the consequences, the macro consequences of these actions? You know, but I still thought it was beautiful. I thought Sir Arlen riding off at the end and sort of going a separate ways was reminiscent of force ghost, you know, looking over at the celebration at Endor.

Starting point is 00:12:26 you know with a white or white knight it's just I don't know I'm I'm as much as I hope that we see more Sir Arlen I feel like that was also just a great I agree you know I actually now that you say it I see it

Starting point is 00:12:41 I guess it wasn't really on my mind at the time because I wasn't as maybe reflecting as much on the past week about that scene um some other things going on but yeah there's

Starting point is 00:12:55 there's some stuff but that when you say it i'm like that is true you because this by episode structure it was going up and like it starts off light and jovial as you say but then it was getting like slowly progressively more intense and more high stakes and suddenly like the realms or like it's he becomes a lot more political as opposed to just a tourney yeah and And then by the end of it, it's like, all right, well, that's over. Even the funeral pyre. And, like, granted, like, I get it. Like, you're on the road.

Starting point is 00:13:34 I assume there's a certain amount of time you have in order to do the ceremony and all of that. But there's just sort of this, like, fleeting sense of like, oh, well, that's unfortunate. I guess we're just going to move on with their lives. The episode itself does feel more like slight of scale and more like a coda than all the sort of repercussions seem to suggest. it maybe ought to, I guess. Or a threatening stake at hand. Yeah, I was a little surprised that everyone is just, like the energy was very low key.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Even Duncan walking through, like I didn't even feel necessarily their disdain or their emotion or their, like I didn't even feel the consequence for, he talked about the consequence, but I didn't see it or feel it. I do think, like, May Carr's acting this,

Starting point is 00:14:25 episode was by far his best of the whole season. Oh, yeah. Stuff to do. He's the only actual seat before he got to really sick his deed to do as an actor. Otherwise, just sit here and look grouchy. But I think that really played well

Starting point is 00:14:39 into who he is and who he was. And I think they did a really sort of beautiful job of like, oh, wow, the mantle of leadership, the responsibility of your house and now the entire realm is falling on his shoulders. And I think he did a really great job at

Starting point is 00:14:55 capturing the nuance of that. I could not agree with you more, though, Greg, about, like, that is a brotherly dynamic that we really should have had a little bit more time with to let the consequence sink in. Well, especially in the, I think the pushback, which is often the case with pushbacks, is, did you read the book? And I'm like, yeah, I don't know in the book, you don't really get all that shit, totally. But in a medium like this and the way they present perspective and the fact of, like, things they choose to expand on and because you have breaks where, you're, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:25 you have like an episode and then you got to wait a week and stuff it's it there are different mediums that have different effects and you know there's different what you receive a story completely different from reading versus watching a show that it's like the the way the story's being told to you is very different versus reading and yeah so in a medium like this i do feel like it would have made it benefit because there's so much about like the brother and i even talk to people who like that kind of flew over their head that it was the brother because there's a lot of different names to keep up with and stuff and they look different which is also part of their dynamic but it's i mean it's literally the it's the hammer and uh anvil yeah it's literally their nicknames

Starting point is 00:16:08 as as brothers and like that to me is such a i feel like there was an episode missing in our you know that gave a little bit and i'm sure they'll probably explore it more but it's it's harder to appreciate past tense than it is particularly the brutality and honestly I was thinking about that with Baylor and I'm sorry to hate on this at all because I really I still love this episode in the show but like Baylor's

Starting point is 00:16:34 sacrifice and the buildup and all of that like if it were not for his extraordinary acting I don't think the buildup matched the payoff I think the payoff still hit the way that it did because his acting

Starting point is 00:16:50 was supreme he really stood out in the few moments he got that he got but they were and he does make you feel very safe and like oh somebody is sane and knows what they're doing here so like that cuts through a lot of stuff but i can kind of get what you mean i don't know i don't know if i fully agree with that well gregg that's it i'm resigning yeah because i feel like they did a really good job on the scenes where he like was standing because i had so many scenes with him where he was where he was talking to dunk like look man i get it like dude you're totally right but that's not the way it is city board.

Starting point is 00:17:21 So when he showed up, it was like, oh my God, he's subscribing to the belief that he wants to subscribe to you. I guess it was the interpersonal family dynamic between him and Maycar

Starting point is 00:17:32 that I'm really what I, because the only real major scene that we got with him was in the very beginning when Dunk is eavesdropping and comes in. Yeah, yeah. And Maycar is just

Starting point is 00:17:43 like an actual caricature of a person in that episode. You know, so, yeah, there's an interesting contrast between Baylor and Maker that you wish you could have seen in action more. I mean, what was your initial, though, feeling to the wrap-up of this? I mean, it's one of those things where the back of my mind part of me is like, there could be like a little bit of extra seasoning to make this feel like the final episode

Starting point is 00:18:12 of something, but because it is so very much like, we're not even doing the post-credits thing, we're just giving you the title card and immediately going on to the next set of stakes. like I'm not really holding this up to the standard of like this needs to feel like a complete unit, which part of my brain feels like maybe I should. But yeah, I mean, this feels a little more coda than like a big period put on the sentence. But I liked pretty much everything we got here. And I mean, as much as I miss Baylor's presence, it makes all the sense in the world to bask in the absence of that, you know. And it's weird because it's like, I can't disagree with some of the things that you're saying.

Starting point is 00:18:49 and you're like, yeah, we have this pyre that is like a few shots worth of a scene, and we were moving on from that. It feels kind of like we skipped a little bit of the aftermath and went to the part where everyone's packed up and leaving. Whereas, I don't know, it felt like such a

Starting point is 00:19:05 significant thing on the heels of how the last episode ended that you would feel, I don't know, like, the only thing I could imagine missing from this is like a dose of the strong emotion that comes after something like that because of what the implications are. for the realm and for this family and everyone here at this.

Starting point is 00:19:23 I almost would have loved another like half an episode of egg. Because like, I get it. Dunk probably needed to take a nap after all that. Yeah. But to be able to like see that immediate aftermath through the perspective of like a child whose actions has immediately led to these repercussions and going through all of that. That being said, this show has defined itself by, acknowledging that it will never be

Starting point is 00:19:53 in any meaningful way this grandiose epic like Game of Thrones and a hyper-focused character piece that isn't afraid to laugh at itself and acknowledge the tropes of the genre and that's why I'm not like I'm not mad at this finale

Starting point is 00:20:09 because it's very much I think on brand for what they have promised us and established us from the moment that he took a giant turd when the earth when the theme song plays in the first episode. I just,

Starting point is 00:20:22 well, how do you feel about the depiction of Egg's journey in this episode? Like, I think, like, they got to the point where, if you look at the beginning of the episode, like the most simplistic

Starting point is 00:20:32 version of the arc is, I don't want a squire to. We're going to be squiring it up now. Yeah, like, that is the journey. Yeah. That is the simplest version of it. If anything, there was parts of, if there's anything I felt like

Starting point is 00:20:46 was missing more here, despite how great of it, acting, up he was doing here. And anytime he was on screen, there was something interesting going on. It was more of, I missed some of that essence of the Baylor death,

Starting point is 00:20:59 more with Egg than I did with the other stuff. Like, there was so much emphasis on dunks, um, feeling and the guilt and the guilt of all that. Uh, but I do think, him going with a knife is like, yeah,

Starting point is 00:21:11 that was a really powerful scene. But tell me that scene wouldn't have hit 10 times harder. If we had just followed Egg for the past 30 minutes as they're, prepping Baylor's body for the funeral and as he's seeing Makar, you know, quietly reacting and trying to process and heck, write the letter to their dad that he accidentally killed his brother. Yeah. I just, and, and I don't feel like that is an unfair thing to get from Egg's perspective because this is a shadow that is

Starting point is 00:21:43 going to loom over this kid for the rest of his life, you know? Well, and because the shorthand for this is dumb. And because the show has already done a pretty significant perspective shift into like, let's go look at Egg's perspective now. Like I, I think that's actually a really solid call here. I feel like you could have added five, ten minutes onto the episode for that. And then we meet back up with Duncan. Cut to the same jazz cue, you know, even to change the tone up. I almost, yeah, it's like if I could do one thing to the episode, I would just add like a prologue based off of that. I wish there was a bit of a debate that egg was actually participating in yeah you know of i want to go with him yeah like the most

Starting point is 00:22:27 cliche version i'm telling you right now i'm saying like you a much more nuanced a better version of this is him like arguing with his dad about wanting to go you know like he this is the path he wants to choose even though i like i could hear it you know like oh well he egg might not even consider doing that argument i don't think it's within his character to do that he would probably just make the choice himself but there's i feel like there should have been some type of debate on's on display for him on this choice after everything, you know. Like that was, that was the one part of it that was missing because he kind of just does show up. And it all seems like about, well, is Dad going to approve or not?

Starting point is 00:23:01 It's not his decision at all. Yeah. But then he just goes through. At least the argument to be made. Yeah, I agree. Having that off-screen was a lost opportunity. I mean, even sort of Maycar's reaction at the end, especially after literally watching his youngest, almost murder, his eldest, is a, I don't know

Starting point is 00:23:22 something felt a little off on this now granted the amount that it's crazy to think this was only six episodes yeah yeah yeah so but I do wish it was sorry were you gonna say something no it's just 22 episodes I mean thankfully they're giving us like 30 something seasons you know yeah and at the rate that

Starting point is 00:23:41 we're going the wonderful young actor that plays egg is going to answer all of the questions that we wanted out of George R Martin They're never going to get rid of Every clipout Every clip out I've seen is so entertaining This kid knows how winds of winter ends And I think that's great

Starting point is 00:23:59 It's so awesome I would love if it's cool To do a Little spoiler thing at the end That I don't want John to hear Sure That's okay Is this my cue?

Starting point is 00:24:12 Get the fuck Yeah I hate it I'm taking this sword with me I'm staying right here to close to you. It's Satanto. I'll even out the frame. And I'm Michael. That's an 18th century sword

Starting point is 00:24:35 with eyes. We can have Bernies. We can have Bernie's. Is that John Humphrey right there? Summer Hall. Summer Hall. Summer Hall. Spoilers. Probably should have started with that.

Starting point is 00:24:52 Dunk saying the line, mentioning that one day the realm is going to need my foot. uh men may car being like i don't think so is like the craziest um i just love that we're gonna hopefully follow this story till then um do you think it's gonna tie they're gonna do you think they're deviate from the um the like i said i haven't read the next two books i think they i mean honestly what i'm most concerned about is that the sorry the reason i ask that question is they do a lot of stuff to go out of their way to tease stuff for the future.

Starting point is 00:25:29 Yeah. And foreshadow things that they definitely don't do. No, I mean, I don't think... I don't think the other books are nearly as interesting as the hedge. I feel like The Hedge Knight is such a strong story that's grounded. The others are a little bit more like, I'm really curious to see how they're going to adapt it. It doesn't lend itself as concisely. Now, that being said, they're really fun adventures.

Starting point is 00:25:55 I mean, I think the other thing is George R. Martin said he has so many unwritten adventures of Duncan Egg. Obviously, we've got a very long road to go before we get to Summer Hall. But I'm absolutely dying to know, like, I love that Tarth was mentioned

Starting point is 00:26:16 because forever there's been the rumors that Dunk is a descendant or ancestor, rather, of Brianna of Tarth. Oh. And it's interesting because in the books, in the books, the Breanne of Tarth references a shield that has a tree and a shooting star. That's right. I did hear about that.

Starting point is 00:26:37 Yeah. And so I think it's really fun that they sort of, they're a little sprinkle there of, okay, maybe at some point he's going to end up in Tarth and maybe, you know. Do we want to, like, legacy character up him in that way? I think it's one of those things that's better left unconfirmed. but also because I mean ultimately spoilers spoilers for so many spoilers right now

Starting point is 00:27:01 it becomes a member of the the king's guard so he's not able to have children so if he did have an interesting affair at some point you know in tarth and it has never marriage or anything I think you can leave it as a question mark I also just like does he make it out of Summerhall

Starting point is 00:27:18 is like the million dollar question that to the final book doesn't go past not? No. Okay. We don't nobody knows what happens. All we know is the tragedy of Summer Hall. It's so funny. Like my, my memory of lore is all over the place. I think

Starting point is 00:27:34 if I'm remembering correctly, I mean, we get into like the second Blackfire Rebellion and a lot of that. But I need to rewatch Game of Thrones. Yeah. No, I mean, the thing we've not seen Summer Hall in any medium whatsoever other than people talking about how horrifically

Starting point is 00:27:50 sad it was and it was when Ragar was. Yeah, I view it kind of like the um fucking the thing that and or explored uh season two was the death gorm gore oh the gorman massacre yeah yeah yeah that's i mean summer hall it's definitely like one of those like oh this is the moment that sets the the final pieces into play and is the final yeah you know but also like did egg go crazy and decide to kill his family to try to bring back dragons or did something else happen. You know, and like,

Starting point is 00:28:24 I think that's the hardest thing about all of this is like, every time I think about, man, one day this kid is going to burn his whole family alive to try to bring back dragons. You know,

Starting point is 00:28:36 like, what are we supposed to do with that? I mean, the show, that was the thing I'm talking about, though, is that the show seems to go out of its way to allude that that is,

Starting point is 00:28:48 that is who he's going to fully become. He's going to go mad. He's going to be, little bit more like his brother than he wanted. Yeah. With the clairvoyant that shows up what his brother is saying at the very end and then it cut into the dead fish

Starting point is 00:29:01 and everything about that just seemed like they're alluding to he's going to be like fucked up in the end. This sweetheart kid. It's just that's and maybe that's the brilliance of George R. Martin where he makes you remember that like even a tyrannical you know. I mean the other thing too

Starting point is 00:29:17 is he was a good king but all the lords hated him. him because he cared way too much about the small folks. So he spent his entire rain trying to put them down. And like the whole rationale of bringing back the dragons wasn't because he wanted power. It's because he wanted to keep the lords in line so that he could protect the small folk. So. Dineris is the best to me.

Starting point is 00:29:37 Yeah, man, I just hope we get one's a winter so we can find out what really happens to Deneris because I just get physically ill every time I think about it. Or Game of Thrones lasts even longer because we never find out the truth. That's so true. And we fill in the blank. We fill in the blank. All the time. Yeah. Or we just wait for this amazing young actor to tell us the truth because he has all the answers.

Starting point is 00:30:00 So. Let's bring John back here. Yeah, John. John of the Seven Kingdoms. Sir John. John! Hi, Michael. Close us out, John.

Starting point is 00:30:14 I want to go home now. We're all going home. We're all going home. I got places to go. Are we House of Dragoning? Friends, join us next season. Listen up. It's the best Game of Thrones has ever been. Give me more cozy Game of Thrones. Please. Thank you, Greg, for joining me. Thank you, Michael, for bringing your expertise. Guys, we'll see you next time for Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, a live reading of all the books. The next season of this show. How many kingdoms are there going to be next time? Tune in. Ten. All right. Peace. We love you. Stay honorable. Nail that penny.

The Reel Rejects - A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS 1x6 REVIEW – WHAT DOES THIS ENDING MEAN FOR SEASON 2?!

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