The Watch - Ep. 46: 'Game of Thrones' Listener Questions

Episode Date: June 8, 2016

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald answer listener questions about 'Game of Thrones.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Watch is brought to you by the new HBO series, Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons. The new show will feature conversations with compelling guests from the world of pop culture, sports, entertainment, the arts, and technology. Any given Wednesday with Bill Simmons will include field segments and Simmons's signature commentary on current events. Make sure to watch Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons premiering Wednesday, June 22nd, at 10 p.m. on HBO.

We're also brought to you by the new website, Theringer.com, Presented by Miller Light, go now and check out the latest in pop culture, sports, and tech at the ringer.com. I need sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan and I'm an editor for The Ringer.com and joining me on the other line. He's got 50-yard line seats for Clegan Bowl. It's Andy Greenwald.

Hey, buddy. Good to talk to you. What's up, man? The re-up. We're re-upping. We're re-upping to talk about Game of Thrones because if there's one. thing you and I don't do enough of, it's talking about Game of Thrones. Beats the Americans. What's going on, man? So one thing that's happened, we're going to get, we're going to do some

previewing of this week's episode. This week's episode is called No One. We took some questions this week, right? Yeah, we'll preview via your Twitter questions, which were decidedly, decidedly polite. Thank you, everybody. I think. It's not like where your voice got gentle. You know what else has been very polite has been the IRL response for the most part to our TV show. And I have to say, I just wanted to tell you a quick anecdote about today. Like, in general, it's been a very New York experience where I've been walking in places in Brooklyn or on the subway, and people in a very New York way are like, hey, you do that thing. The Thrones thing. And I immediately flinch because I assume they're going to say.

This guy's on the Johnny Carson show. Exactly. Exactly. I assume three dudes named Cheech are going to reenact the best scene from Annie Hall. But I also assume they're going to be like, you do that, huh? And I'm going to be like, yes. And they'll be like, that sucks. But they haven't said that.

They've all been very nice. but today I want to just get your take on one thing that happened to me today before you get into the preview today I love giving takes on things that happened to you this is the acidic burn of your sub-tweeting me while we're recording a podcast today's Wednesday rainy day in New York City was in Manhattan popped into a sandwich shop shop A to get a to get a sandwich to sustain myself and it was one of those places where there's only stand-up seating it was raining out stand-up seating is an oxymoron it was standing up around tiny tables There was one dude crammed at this table. I was like, excuse me, brother, brother Klegain.

Could I just squeeze in here? Did you say it like Desmond from Lost? We were like, brother, can I sit down there? Yes. I'll see you in the next pastrami, brother. And so I was like squeezed in there. And then I was like, this is, you know, what I love, about New York.

This is what I'll miss. Like another dude, like, squeeze into this tiny table. Now, I unwrap my sandwich. And this is sort of a vanguard sandwich place. It's called number seven sub. And you don't know what you're getting. Like, you really, the descriptions have no barrier. what sandwich you're getting. So I unwrapped the sandwich that I thought was just going to be like

a standard hoagie, basically. But it was a hot mess, man. It was hot. It was melty. It was messy. I don't want to get too carried away here, but this is that you order food that you don't know what's coming. Well, you just list the ingredients. And I kind of, I did in a hurry because I was in a hurry, man about town. And the point being, it was one of those things we were like, there's no good end to this, but you just got to dive in and complete the task. And I kind of thought there was a gentleman's agreement that when we were eating messy food standing up and public, like we just leave each other alone a little bit. So just as I'm attempting to sort of like scoop something that might be avocado, but again,

I didn't read the directions of the sandwich very clearly into my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my mom, style. The dude next to me and a crisp button up is like, hey, I really like your HBO show, which was super nice, but did he think you were mark duplas? Yes. Yes. How did you know? How did you know?

He thought I was Dwayne the Rock Johnson and he was a big fan of ballers. So I really appreciate it. I think it's pretty clear. That's who we thought I was. Do you think that we need to like, is there an accepted code not to speak to people when they are being like visibly disgusting in public or is that just in my head? No, I think it's nice. You should enjoy it while last. You don't what I mean? Believe me, I'm not counting on this lasting much longer. In fact, this was a fluke. I don't want to sound unfgrateful. I really just want to know where you stand vis-a-vis talking to people when they're eating things while covered in shame and avocado.

Talk to me when I have cake in my mouth, man. I don't care. Come have a seat, Baba Ginoche. Let's talk about it. Like, let's eat whatever you want to do. I got cake in my mouth. I got avocado on my face. I got, you know, seracha hands.

Whatever you need to talk about. Let's chat it out. Is this, first of all, I completely support this. And I hope everyone in California who goes to the same cake stores that you go to. all the same Jewish weddings. Invite me to your Jewish wedding. This is quite a media avail you're putting out there. And I really appreciate that.

You know what I mean? But I just don't know if I can go down that road with you, you know? Like I, but I wonder if this is, and then we're moving on, I promise. But I wonder if this is one of those coastal divides that we're going to bridge just by proximity. Because in the same way where you were like, I listened to James Blake because. it's so warm here. I need to feel chilliness in my soul again. Maybe here in New York City, we're just on top of each other. And so I kind of wanted the avocado. You want the privacy. In mozzarella, I wanted that to be a shield between me and the world. But you crave human contact.

For your last few months in New York, I do think that you should start playing up. Like, even after Thrones is over and nobody cares, just go into restaurants and be like, Are you looking at me eating? Don't look at me while I'm eating. I think, I think, I think, I might. Can I just quick follow-up before we move on? Yeah. Would you say that living in Los Angeles that you just want people to crash into you just to like have an experience? Is that, are people afraid to merge on the freeways out there? Yeah.

Is it all true? People are afraid to merge on the freeway, Brett. Also, by the way, no one eats cake there. Cake has gluten. Let's move on. Andy, we want to talk about the upcoming episode, episode eight of Game of Thrones. And to do that, we asked our buddies Twitter.com. and the followers that we have, or don't even have followers. I mean, like, they could just be people saw it. And we asked them for questions about the upcoming episode,

about the season in general. So let's just jump right into it. Sure. I'm looking at the thread that from when I solicited for questions, and I'm going to throw out this first one, and I'm actually going to answer it first. Oh, okay. Okay.

So you just sit shotgun here. Clayton Newman wants to know, after Ian McShane, what popular HBO actor or actress would you like to see Crush One G-O-T episode and then die And I'm going to go with Ben Ben Wait

We do too much work together Because that was the joke I just had I just had that joke in my back pocket I was gonna go full Dream on for you Replacing Little Finger as the brothel master And then Little Finger

Comes back for his spot and kills him What do you think? I think it would be amazing If Brian Benben Ben was the head of the brothel But then every time they cut to a scene of him he just like cut back to a memory of when he used to watch live theater about brothels when he was a child.

I think that would be terrific. By the way, fun fact, do you know Brian Benman is married to Hollywood goddess Madeline Stowe? Yeah, I definitely know that. Like that is definitely one of the top five things that I know and respect to him. I like that question. I thought that you were going in a different direction because one of the questions that I really liked that came in via the Twitter, and maybe you have it in front of you who it came from, was which, it was basically like, Which talented British actor is still on the bench would you like to call and have them come on the show?

And I feel like it's pretty slim pickings at this point. You know, like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are busy. Everyone else has either been on the show or is dead or is secretly not British. You know, I'd love to see Kingsley, but I feel like that's not going to happen. How would you feel about Terrence Stamp just rolling up on the show? Love it. Love where your mind is going with this. What if he was on the show and he was playing his character from the Limey?

Just inexplicably in Westeros. Just tossing dudes down the Hollywood Hills, that would be great. Dude, just tossing dudes down the hills and the Riverlands. I would love that. The next question comes from your boy, Chad, at Rev DJ-esque ESQ. And he wants to know, aren't we running out of time for Sam to learn the Maestor's ways that's a long training to cover in two more seasons? I think it's a great question. I think that, you know, I don't know too much about the Citadel. I believe it's set up much like Trump University in that you get what you pay. So I feel like he could definitely do the sped up course as long as he's willing to like basically sell his family's Valerian Steel Blade. I'm sure that he will become a successful maister and real estate mogul just just through the course.

No, it's a great question. Sam's been attending the University of the streets for a minute, though. that's a really good point I think this goes one of two ways I think either it becomes clear that he doesn't need to know that much more like as you're alluding like he actually knows quite a bit and can be helpful in that way or at the other option

I don't even really know I mean they have been doing some stuff with time as we commented on After the Thrones last week like the trip that Yara and Fion took across the entire world definitely seems like it would have taken longer than an episode And I think in his column this week, our man, Jason Concepcion, ballparks that as like a journey of a couple months that they basically yada yada.

So will they do that to Sam at the Citadel? Because otherwise, I don't know how long. Can he really even get like a two-year community college Citadel degree? I know. Do you get an associate degree there? Or was that like a continuing ed situation? I don't know. It's good question.

He's definitely not getting a bachelor's. Okay. So the next question comes from never holding the door. is the Iron Bank going to come after Davos for Stannis's debt or are they over it? Very topical conversation top, you know, debt forgiveness very much in the news these days. Well, can I amend my previous answer and say that Terrence Stamp as the debt collector, the iron debt collector, would be an amazing character. Yes.

This is one of those things where, this is one of those things where I think that's not going to be mentioned. But that is the sort of thing, and Jason and Mallory can tell us whether this is true or not. That seems ripe for book exploration, but with relatively little real estate left on air, I can't imagine we're going to go down deeper into the banking rabbit hole, unless someone was shorting Stannis's army, you know, like Brad Pitt somewhere in the Riverlands. I don't think we're coming back to that. I just don't see where there's room. What do you think?

I think that, you know, this is one of those plot lines that when we, I remember a couple of seasons ago, and as we've talked about this show for years, the Iron Bank of Bravo's was weirdly something you and I were fascinated by. Yeah. And it feels like something in next season or, you know, whenever, we're going to definitely see a previously on Game of Thrones and it'll be the Iron Bank, you know,

and it'll have something like, you know, DeNaris will need money, John will, somebody will need money, and that will come into play. But I don't think that there will be a major plot line where all of a sudden like an army paid for by Bravo's is coming to collect money. And certainly not from Stannis.

I think one of the things that we've always really enjoyed about the show is its ability to go macro and micro in the same story in the sense that there can be like an existential threat of an army of the dead marching on the world of the living. But there's also the more quotidian concerns of how are people going to eat? What do they believe in? How are they going to pay for stuff? It's just that as we get closer to the show's endgame and as the plot literally is speeding up, the macro is taking over. I mean, we are getting to the point where dragons are going to have to fly away. the army that is going to have to be reckoned with. So I just don't know how we're, I don't know if there's room for another issue of Rob report

or whatever to deal with it. This season we've seen a lot of people, uh, they'll get two or three episodes and then they're on the bench for three or four episodes, right? We haven't seen Bran since Hodor. We haven't seen him since Benjian. Yeah. We haven't seen, well, we haven't seen Brant since Benjian and we haven't seen Melasandra in a minute. I don't even know what she's doing.

But we haven't seen the Knights King in a minute. And somebody asked, Scott Dickey asked, how does everyone know the Knights King name? He's never said it out loud to anyone. So do you think that in the intervening episodes, the Night King is just putting out, just getting the propaganda out there, getting the word out?

I think. Or do you think his name is Lloyd, and this is just something that's caught fire virally? Like, do you think he's selling his own nickname? You know what I mean? Like, is he been calling himself that in the third person? Use the hashtag, Night King, when talking about me.

It's like, have you been paying attention to the fact that, you know, one of our great heroes in baseball idols, Ryan Howard is winding down his career and not the greatest fashion, but he's trying to do some of the bottom of grace. Yeah, winding down is one way to put it. Okay. I'm just trying to be polite here, but he's been replaced by the oldest looking 20-something I've ever seen in my life, Tommy Joseph. And Ryan Howard got his name in the news last week, not for losing his job or for striking out, which he did both of those things last week. But he was like, yeah, Tommy, we're calling him the scorpion. And you could even feel in the article that Tommy Joseph's like, nah. We're not really doing that, man.

Like, that's cool that you want to call me that, but that's literally not cool, if anyone calls me that. So I think you've got to be careful with nicknames. I was wondering this too. I don't know how this happened, considering we've never heard him speak. Only three people even believe he's a thing and, like, raised his arms. This is something that we should bring to Jason and Mallory, because I believe in the books, there is a legend of the Knights King, plural. that is a thing that people talk about

in the same way they talked about the children of the forest is sort of a mythological thing. This dude is the knight king, and I have no idea why people know he exists. Okay, before we get on to our next question, let's just take a quick break for our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Luke Crate. Luke Crate is a monthly subscription box service

for Epic Geek and Gamer items and Pop Culture Gear. For less than $20 a month, you can get four to eight items that include licensed gear, apparel, collectibles, unique, one-of-a-kind items, and more. make sure you head to loot crate.com slash watch and enter code watch to save $3 on any new subscription.

Luke crate is more than just a subscription service, though. It's an entire community of fans that share their experience and interact with each other around the unboxing of each month's crate. And they've guaranteed $40 in value in every crate. Sometimes it's a lot more. Every month there's a different theme and all items are curated around that theme. Previous crates have included items from franchises like Star Wars, Marvel,

the Walking Dead, the Legend of Zelda, and many more. Pop culture is full of Brave New Worlds, and societies in flux that don't always turn around for the best. June's theme will be exploring some of the ways things can go wrong with dystopia, featuring classics, Robocop, Terminator 2 Judgment Day, and The Matrix, and new faves like Bioshock Infinite and Fallout 4. You'll get a figure, cool collectibles, and of course the dystoporific monthly t-shirt. Remember, you only have until the 19th at 9 p.m. Pacific to subscribe and receive that month's

crate. And when the cutoff happens, that's it. It's over. So go to lootcrate.com slash watch and enter promo code watch to save $3.5. on your new subscription today. Thanks to our other sponsor today, Indochino. Chris, do you know that made-to-measure suits are now affordable and available to the masses?

Did you know that? I do know that. It's so exciting. I went to the Indochino showroom in Manhattan in a very kind, very ectomorphic male model named Moses. He hooked me up. So basically you go into this place

and you look at different fabrics, you look at different suit cuts and shirts and ties, and you can basically personalize it to whatever kind of style you want. It's very fun. They were very gentle. They did not mock me when I did not understand the difference between lapels or understand why one might want two vents in the back instead of one vent. You know that, though, right?

Are you a big vent guy? I'm a huge vent guy. I like to just have my suit be all vents, but go ahead. You know, one of the options, Moses was wearing three pockets. And I was like, should I have three pockets? And the best thing about Moses is he was basically like, you should not have three pockets. I can do this, but you can't. But they have many options.

It was very cool. I was in and out of there pretty quickly, and now I'm getting emails saying my suit is being made. I'm going to wear it some time when we record a podcast, but since we do it remotely, you won't know what time that is. There's a money-back guarantee. You can customize everything from the buttons to the inside of the suit jacket. You can get a monogram. Would you get a monogram? Uh, maybe. There are 14 unique measurements to go into making a suit and fits you perfectly, and you can't go wrong with the well-crafted 100% marino wool suit.

Also check out their made-to-measured shirts and men's accessories. There's a money-back guarantee. Today, our listeners get any premium suit for just $399.99. That is 50% off at Indochino.com when you enter watch at checkout. That's nuts. Plus, shipping is free, so there's no reason not to try your first custom-made suit with a deal this good, and a suit classic from their premium collection will look good, feel good, and last.

That's Indochino.com promo code watch for any premium suit for just $39 in free shipping. Indochino, your look, your way. And if you get a purple stitching around your lapel button, you will get our respect. I feel like I can say that. Okay, Andy, this is a good one. What is your Game of Thrones starting five and could they win Golden Rio? Now, I'm assuming this is for basketball because I was starting five, but I would allow you to expand this to any other sport if you wanted to.

Wow, any, thank you. Any sport, I could just, perhaps I could feel the starting 11 because pulling five names out of the top of my head on a live podcast. So in basketball, who would you pick for a starting five? Yeah, we'll do a snake draft. Who's your number one pick for best athlete on Thrones? Well, I think the number one pick is the hound, because you always choose size. You know, you can teach skills, but you can't teach length, right? Isn't that what your man, Jay Billis always says?

So you got to go for the dude who's like 6-8 and can literally dunk people to death. Right, and he can play stretch four because my first pick would be 1-1. You're going even big. You are, we're assembling the Sixers here. Tall teams win titles. Vince Staples taught me that, man. Also, you know, everybody's been, everybody's been talking, you know, I think that that's like, I, you know, we're talking about the Hound here.

Do you, you know, would you put Sandor next? Would you go huge? Or would you, would you want a little bit of like speed and quickness off? No, shame bell. Hound is Sandor. And I only feel comfortable shame belling you because I definitely got that wrong when we were right. So would you pick his brother, though, his reanimated brother.

No, because I think you still have to be able to move. This isn't the league. This isn't like the, this isn't the 90s. You know what I mean? Like, you need to be able to be nimble. You need a big man who can pass. That's why I like the way you're thinking. We are basically Sam Hinkying this team because we are choosing, in one one, you're choosing a foreign born player who is freakishly tall, whose language skills are questionable and who most people have only, basically the equivalent have only seen on tape.

Like they don't even believe he's real. He's only been posting up against chairs north of the wall. So I think that's smart. I think the hound doesn't like to share the ball, but I think he's nimble. He has some injury concerns, but he's worth the gamble. But after that, I think he got to get more playmakers. Yeah, I know you got to go. I think, so for my back court, I think I'd go Bronn Brienne.

Whoa, this is still sizable. Breon is huge. I mean, compared to some of the short stacks on this show, yeah, but like Sophie Turner's taller than Kit Harrington. It's hard to get an accurate measurement. That's a good point. You know who I'd want running the point, though? Who?

This is a little bit of left field. I'm going with the waif. Ooh. The waif is, she's, because the wave is quick. She's spiky. I like her attitude, you know what I mean? Like she doesn't talk a lot, but she sort of commands respect. I feel like she could really run a team.

So my next question comes from Jeff Hebert or Hebert, Sandwiches 1123, good Twitter name. Do you feel the siege on Winterfell, which we assume is coming, sets up the redemption for Littlefinger, followed by his death? I think that there could be a third option there, which is yet another betrayal. Yeah, I think that's the, I like the way you're thinking here. I mean, I think we all believe that at the end of last week's episode,

Sanzo's writing to Littlefinger, which suggests that he's going to play a role in the upcoming battle to reclaim Winterfell. But yeah, I think that characters don't get, unless the show is totally its own thing and really is completely deviating from the books, in general, in this universe, characters don't get giant redemption moments before they die.

They usually just die. So I think that Littlefinger has a role to play, a bigger role to play, even if we can't quite understand what it is yet. I want to ask you from Ryan Godovin, if you could each have a Blackfish-esque battle-neutral name and spirit animal on your chest, what would they be?

Do you have an answer for this? I think I would be, um, this is, it's not animated. I think I would go with, uh, I would be the everything bagel. Wow. Yeah. What? You got to tell me why? I don't know.

I can't think of anything else. You just think it's delicious? Yeah, they're delicious. I think it would make a good sigil. Um, I think I could be like the, I think I would be like the crystal goblet, like a wine glass. Yeah, that's good. I like to drink wine, and I'm extremely fragile physically.

Do you think people would fear me? I think definitely the Sommelier that you'd be known throughout the Riverlands. It's the Samaier. I mean, speaking of nicknames, there was that scene, right, with Jamie and Blackfish, where he's like, last week where they call each other by their nicknames. And there was a little bit of, there's a part of me that I was like, these guys. guys have waited their whole life for this. Like it reminds me who play Warhammer and like all day, they're like, hey Jerry, hey Bob, and they get down to the basement and they're like, how are you, Dwarf Killer 6,000? That's why I thought like, I feel like though looking at the, at the moat was really

like an actor's choice because they're like, how often do you get to act in your a moat? I know. How often do you get to a moat in front of a moat? Is that what you were going for? Yeah, seriously. Let's do one more question here, Andy, because it's too perfect to end on. This is from Brimack 1. Will Davos again call upon the sex pirate for help in the war to come? Whoa. That question is just for me, isn't it? Yeah.

I mean, the question is, what kind of help could he provide? Because at this point, Saladar San is the dude who you call who's basically like, we're going to go to Montreal for your bachelor party, you know? Like, that dude isn't helpful in a fight or probably at your wedding. but he's really, really helpful if you want someone to be super into going to Montreal for a bachelor party. You know what I mean? So if Davos wants like a quick R&R, if he wants like a Yara-like, a Moose-Bush before he has to just get back in it, then that's your dude. But despite all my hopes and dreams, I do not really believe we're going to see that dude again, at least before like the happy ending when they all high-five and it frees frames and the credit frame.

And the return of the Jedi dance party that they have at the end of Game of Thrones. With the children of the forest playing the role of the Ewox? Absolutely. Just all singing jub-jub and throwing fire grenades. All right, man. That's all the time we have for this week. Andy, thanks for doing the re-up. And we'll be back on Monday talking Thrones and everything else.

You can watch after the Thrones on HBO now, or, you know, HBO and HBO and maybe it's broadcast on the side of the moon. We just don't know. Chris, what am I going to watch on the plane tomorrow? God, I hope they change the movies for my sake. God. Hope so too. Fingers crossed for that, buddy. Talk to soon. Good job, Britsky.