The Watch - Ep. 48: The 'Suicide Squad' Soundtrack, the Swift-Hiddleston Romance, and a 'Game of Thrones' Q&A

Episode Date: June 17, 2016

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald return with a re-up to discuss the 'Suicide Squad' soundtrack (5:00), the future of the Bond franchise (14:00), and the return of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' They wrap things up by answering 'Game of Thrones' fan questions (20:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 have an editor at the ringer.com and joining me in the After the Thrones studio. It's Andy Greenwald. Chris, if there's one thing I like to do best, it's sit in this chair, in this Cripp-like room,

and talk to you through microphones. From the Septive podcast, Andy and I come to you. We're going to do a little bit of a re-up today, probably about 20, 25 minutes. Sure. And let's just get, let's just, we're going to do some Game of Thrones questions we solicited for questions on Twitter. But what I want to do, it's a great app, by the way. Twitter?

Great app. It's dynamite. It's Twitter. Mm-hmm. Whisper. Yeah. Friendster. Peach.

Peach. Yeah. Then what's that. You know what's underrated? Stocks. Stocks. The app on the phone. Yeah.

Because you want to check how things are doing stock wise. I mean, if you're, let me just say this. If you're interested in stocks, that's your app. Yeah. Did you see the dude? who caught Steph Curry's mouthpiece yesterday, his mouthguard, his mouthpiece. Yeah, no. His mouthguard, he, like, immediately made, like, a vine of himself and his stretch limo being, like,

if I was going to sell that mouthguard, I'd sell it on Stock X. Really? Yeah. Like, he had, like, a whole, like, app that he was going to sell it on. That's terrific. Yeah. We should get an app. Yeah, I know.

Okay. Did I just ruin the future? Are we getting an app? No, I don't know. I mean, let's play in and out. Yeah, we've done this in a long time. and we want to talk a little bit about some pop culture doings and comings and happenings. That's what we do best.

There's a lot of probably more relevant stuff happening. Is there? But I feel like this Suicide Squad soundtrack is way in our, it's really in our Venn diagram. It's in the middle. You and I grew up in the age of movie soundtrack as the event. It was a big deal. Godzilla with Jimmy Page and Puffy. Yeah, but also like, I mean, just stop right there.

And also, like, the movie soundtrack was the way well-managed bands leveraged the off-album cycle. Yeah. Because you could just stay on your MTV that way. Remember when you two did Touch Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me on the Batman soundtrack? You know, and like, that was a big deal. So they stayed present. But album soundtracks, they're not what they once were. No, that's actually, it's interesting.

I think that album soundtracks may be, it's a lot of soundtrack that you cared about. Um, I mean, I think some of the best ones are, for me, because I'm a very old, decrepit man, tend to be soundtracks made by, put together by filmmakers who really care about the film. So, like, a West Anderson movie, they will, like, compile a bunch of really aesthetically similar and pleasing tracks that you may not remember. Yes, the, they string them together in a lovely... Brazilian covers of dear boy songs from Life Aquatic, et cetera. Exactly. I will say that it is still a thing for the youth. Because remember when the Twilight movies were happening? Uh-huh.

I know you remember. I do. Yeah, of course. You've always been Team Werewolf. I've seen all of them. They had Alex Potavas, the music supervisor, like, basically curate some hot bands to be on these soundtrack. Yeah, like Death Cab.

Death Cab was on it. Paramore. Paramore was on it. A more youth-driven thing to make it seem like an event. So one of the great soundtracks in our lifetime was by far the Judgment Night soundtrack. We have to talk about this because I feel like it's a little bit lost in the, is it the anales of It's the annals, and it's one of the great used CDs ever. Yeah, that's a really good point.

The thing about the Judgment Night soundtrack is this is a very, very, very, very, very forgettable film. That's pretty good. Is it? Yeah, Dennis Leary. I forgot. I mean, I literally thought it was that forgettable. Who else is in Dennis? Who else is in this movie?

I want to say there was a Van Peebles involved in it, but that could just be. Amelho Estevez, Kubrick, Coobig Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven and Steven Dorff. So that's pretty much Godfather, too. right there. Can I just say that that would be a much more interesting cast in 2016 than it was in 1996? And it's a group of friends on the run from a gang of drug dealers, parentheses,

led by Dennis Leary, after they witness a murder. And it also stars Well, while you search I and D.B. I could have swore Ice T was in this movie. Let me say, he was on the soundtrack. Because the thing about the soundtrack that was so felt very revolutionary was that they were like,

guess what, America. You don't Know your rap and your rock, we're going to combine them like a McDilT in your ears. This is 1993 this came out. It was 93, August 96. So it was even more ahead of its time because as we've talked about- Pre-age Limp biscuit and corn and all those guys. But also just like we both came of age in time when we were like, we like Biggie and pavement and people who like pavement were like, why would you do that?

So some of the best songs from here obviously Fallen Teenage Fan Club and De La Sol. That was the best one. One of like the best songs in the 90s. just a great combination. There were a couple other ones that made less sense. Was Sonic Youth in Cypress Hill? Sonic Youth in Cypress Hill doing I Love You, Mary Jane. Dinosaur Jr. and Dela-Fonke Homoa-Sapian.

I have to go back to that one. Helmet and House of Pain. That's just too easy. I can never not see a helmet. There's an episode of Law and Order where a guy's like, oh, and then he ate his roommate's face, and then they go to the guy's house, and it's like a big helmet poster in there.

Wasn't the whole thing with Helmet? I remember that we were supposed to, like them because in the press materials it was like main dude in helmet whose name I'm blanking on right now page Hamilton page Hamilton they were like he has a PhD yeah and I was like cool he just all the dope scales but I was in an age where I was like I didn't know that people with PhDs could be assholes I was like oh he must be like contributing a lot to the world you don't know if he's an asshole I don't know but I'm saying like in the same way that I didn't know people with PhDs could be assholes I didn't know that people with PhDs could

also make shitty metal music right I like helmet what yeah I liked a couple of What was a helmet song? What was a helmet song? They were all like, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d-dun-d. Right, so you like a riff? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I didn't like, I mean, I couldn't tell you the worldview.

I'm just saying, it was very academic, apparently. What I'm, we're saying all this is prelude to the fact that they dropped this press release today about the Suicide Squad soundtrack as if they invented fire. And it's like, guess what? Prometheus Estevez invented fire 23 years ago. That's right. Because this soundtrack is essentially trying to do the same thing and act like it's, It's exciting and new. So they've got a couple of songs here.

They got Lil Wayne, Wiskulifa, and Imagine Dragons with Logic Tidalasine and ex-ambassadors. That's fine. A song called Sucker for Pain. I don't want to hear that. They've got Action Bronson and Dan Auerbach, which is kind of like every action broadson and Dan Auerbach. I like both of those people, but I can't imagine it's going to be that difference. Just randomly in the track listing here, Fortunate Sun by Creedons Clearwater's Revival and Slipping into Darkness by War. there's also a collaboration between Skrillix and Rick Ross called Pink Purple Lamborghini.

Well, Skrillex is producing Frey Saprocky too, so that's not as exciting. So you seem really excited about this. I'm not excited. So you're out. I'm out, and I should have said that at the beginning. But in general, we know, I mean, I feel like they're trying pretty hard with Suicide Squad. The thirst is real. You're trying to make us care about this.

I think they know that they see the path to victory and they want it. Because I feel like people want this movie to be good. people like Will Smith, people like Ben Affleck, people like Joel Kinnaman. People like Margot Robbie in a half shirt, apparently. Yes. With a baseball background. That's the most enthusiasm we're going to get on this. Yeah, no, I don't mean that.

I was going to... And Jai Courtney's in it? Yeah, America doesn't want that. And so I think that they're excited about this movie. I'm out on this soundtrack. Yeah. I'm in on soundtracks, though. In on the return of soundtracks.

If this is the Paul Revere of soundtracks, let it be. Nice. Okay. I think it's a good point, though. We talk about event albums. People need their albums to be events. Oh, this is a way to do it. Make your album a soundtrack to something.

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about the other big news in pop culture this week. Big news. Taylor Swift got a new boyfriend. Yeah. The night manager. Let me just be clear. First of all, I hope he asked her to call him that.

I hope that every night she tucks herself in in her mansion in Newport. He appears silently, respectfully. They've only been in London. They just got a, there were some pictures of her getting on her private plane yesterday. What I'm saying is I want him to slip up to her bedside and say, Good evening, madam, is there anything I can manage for you? Yes. Or is there just like, would you like a cup of camoblee tea?

Or perhaps, I don't know where I'm going with that. Look. The hammer of Asgard? That's not what I mean. Loki's staff. Is that what we're going with it? Jesus. What I'm saying is, you know, it's been a good year for Tom Hiddleston in,

sort of blousey linen shirts. I think that's basically what the night manager was about. I think that dating an American pop star in summertime gives him a lot of opportunities to wear those shirts. But in general, I am not, this might be a bombshell. I'm not Ringer personality, Juliet Lidman. We are different on a number of levels. And I generally don't get that upset when things are phony

in the tabloids. this is pretty phony. I can see this is going to happen this way. This relationship, he gets Bond. They shoot Bond. Taylor does the song for the titles. Bond promo cycle, Hiddleston and Swift promoting it. Two months later after that, it put Peter's out.

I think that's a great take. And it's like the Sun headline will be like no longer his money penny. Oh, that's good. Yeah. But there's two years of that then, because he hasn't even been announced. Wasn't you with Calvin Harris for that long? Yeah. I don't even know.

I feel like she was going to see him at like pure Miami electronic festivals for a long, the ultra. I'd like to think that she was. I want to say this about our other. We talked about the Bond stuff. Hiddleston's getting Bond. I agree with you. I agree with Ladbrokes.

I agree with all the, the, what do they call them? The Swifts? The Toffs. I don't know what they call people. The Touts. That's what they call them in the betting world. Because we haven't talked about this, but on an airplane, Chris, recently. I watched a James Bond film called Spector.

Had you seen Skyfall? Yeah. And you liked Skyfall. Yeah. Skyfall was good. I mean, Skyfall was the most, it was the most that that could have been in the sense that these, Sam Mendys, Daniel Craig Bond movies. It was the most Mendez that could have been. But it was, but these movies have basically been about Christopher Nolanizing Bond, like basically making it darker, making it all of a connected story, making it about some pain in his past. And Skyfall seemed to do that in a way that was entertaining and felt a little bit Bondy. Spectra was such a fucking disaster. It was such an awful movie in a way that I was, that really stunned me. How's Leah Sidu? I can't believe I haven't seen this. Oh my God, she's great. She's great. She's fine. I mean, but she doesn't

have anything to do. How's been Wishaw? Wishaw is great. Like, the cast is good. So what's bad about it? It is preposterously slow and about nothing. Like, essentially, they have to once again, gin up this idea that there's something in his past that's making these things happen. But we don't really care about his past because he's just an implacable killing machine. There's nothing interesting about him. But the plot of the movie involves him breaking into a place to see Christoph Waltz. He then leaves that place.

He finds someone else, the dude who's been in all the movies, who we used to talk about, like the character that has sort of linked these Daniel Craig movies. The actor, I'm forgetting. Oh, yeah. That dude. That dude's like, go find. find Le Mera Kane. He's like, I need to find Leibérycan. Lees Cedew's like, don't come follow me. Okay, follow me. They go find Le Marekane. And they're like, the only thing we can do now is go to the bad guy's headquarters.

They go there. It is a parody of a Bond movie. It's not about anything. So you're out on Spector. That wasn't the question. The question was, so why is Hiddleston getting it? Because this was the nadir of that kind of darkness. Yeah, we talked about this. This is like they need to be happy bond. They need to bring happy bond. But I didn't know how badly they needed, because I didn't see how bad it had gotten. And I think if you bring, like, Smirky Hiddleston in a blousey shirt, just free-pouring... You're like bones on Star Trek where you're like, I'm not a doctor. Wait, that's not really what you're like at all.

I'm not like that at all, but he's free-pouring Boodle's gin, which is down his gullet. I think that would be a better movie. Okay, I still don't know if you're in or out on Taylor Swift and Tom Hidlinson being together. That's the question. You're out. I'm in. I want her to find real love. That's what I hope they have it. Do you think they have it? I have no idea, but I'm willing to give anybody a chance. Are you? In or out, this new Ricky Jervais movie, just based on the trailer, there's a Ricky Jervais film? It's like a Netflix full-length film, yes.

Yeah, about basically reviving the character of David Brent from the office. Were you a big office head? Huge. Original office? The British office with Ricky Jervais. I mean, the first season is perfect. Second season is close to it.

The special wraps it up. And that's what, I mean, it wasn't as good as this series but this is called Life on the Road and the office spin off so it's not a sequel i mean the thing about the office that was good the british office is that it was self-contained and it was done and it you know there wasn't much more to do the show that was good was that it ended i feel the way about a lot of shows you know and the thing that was smart about the american office and we've talked about this before i think is that the way they pivoted to make it less of a cul-de-sac you know they made it more about the larger office crew they made um steve korel's character not as just

monstrously toxic yeah um the more time you spend with the character of David Brent, the more of a cartoon he becomes. So while this trailer has some definite LOLs in it, I'm just kind of not into him vamping because it's one of those things where David Brent's need to look and mug it for the camera and get the joke has uncomfortably morphed into the way Ricky Jervais presents himself in public or when he's hosting the Golden Globes, and I'm sort of out on that. I think that there is a huge work of cultural archaeology to be done

on the time period when the office came out. and other stuff around that time period. I was even thinking about this with Kerb coming back, about how that's going to play now. Because I just feel like even the mechanics and the beats of comedy and what people find funny and what people expect from comedy are different now.

I think that's a very valid point. I think what separates Kerb from that, so it was announced, Larry David announced he's going to make a ninth season after a hiatus of five years, six years. I think the thing that helps that is that he really wouldn't be doing it unless he had an idea that he thought was funny.

And it's the same thing that we're going to see with Louis C.K., who's taking an unknown break from making Louis, because the engine that fuels these shows is just specifically the creativity of one person. And I don't think he feels the need to please anyone except himself in this case. So I agree with you. The curb will feel like a time capsule

because it does not have a lot of the elements that make comedy, I don't know, essential. I mean, Matt Sites had a smart piece of the cover story of New York Magazine this week about how, sitcoms, the comedy, TV comedy has become the much more adventurous and malleable form as opposed to the drama. And I agree with that across the board. But one of the things

despite all that, this doesn't, something like Kirby enthusiasm, which is at its best, is probably the purely funniest show on television. That's all it needs to be. Yeah. So we are out on the David Bread thing, but you're in on early 2000s awkwardness comedy. I'm in on Curb coming back. Okay. I am... Yeah, of course. I miss it. Yeah. We're going to take a quick break

for our sponsors and then we'll be right back with some Game of Thrones questions. 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 to head to luke crate.com slash watch and enter promo code watch to save $3 on any new subscription. The Luke Crate is more than just a subscription service. 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 guarantee $40 or more in value in every crate, and sometimes it's a lot more.

Every month there's a different theme, and all the 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 more. And pop culture is a brave new world of societies in flux that don't always work out for the best. So June's theme will be exploring some of the ways that 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. Some of the things that can go wrong with dystopia. Some things work out. They've got a figure, cool collectibles, and of course a dystopor-rific monthly tea. Remember, you only have until the 19th at 9 p.m. Pacific to subscribe and receive that month's crate. And that's when the cut-up happens.

So that's it. That's over when that happens. So go to lukecrate.com now slash watch and enter the code watch to save $3 on your new subscription today. We are also brought to you by Audible. Do you love books, but find that you never have time to read them? Do you? I fly on planes a lot, so I actually get to read some books.

But imagine listening to them. Well, with Audible.com, they have the perfect solution. You get audiobooks and listen to those books you've been meaning to read while on the go. At the gym during your commute in the air, audible.com provides over 250,000 titles from the leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Their app is free and works on iPhones, iPad, Android, and Windows phone. And you can also download and listen on your Kindle Fire.

and over 500 MP3 players. And unlike streaming or rental services, with Audible, you own your books. So you can access your books anytime, anywhere, right from your smartphone. Audible.com has the great listen guarantee. If you don't like what you're listening to, you don't like the book you've chosen,

no worries. You can exchange any book that you aren't happy with for another title anytime, no question to ask. Hey, Andy, do you have an Audible.com favorite? I'm going to throw a name out there. A guy I rarely talk about. A great crime writer called Timothy Halenon, who has a terrific series of,

of Bangkok, set in Bangkok, the great city of Bangkok, great sense of place, great protagonist, a travel writer named Pope Rafferty. I think they're up to seven books.

They are terrific reads, but I would imagine they are terrific listens too. That's the thing. It's seven books. I don't know if the time to do that, but I could listen to them. That's what I'm saying.

Audible.com. And just for listeners of Audible. Audible's offering, sorry, and just for listeners of the watch, audible.com is offering a free 30-day trial membership. You just go to audible.com slash watch today

to start your free trial today. And again, show your support for the watch and get a free 30-day trial membership, audible.com slash watch. Okay, we're back. We asked Twitter, the great Twitter in the sky. It's a great app. To hit us up with some Game of Thrones questions.

We're here on the After the Throne set recording this. Andy, I will just throw this one out there. This is from Seb Baird. And if you had to watch a series focused on one game of Thrones location and or character instead of all of them, which would it be? I thought this is a great question. That is a good question.

You know, my knee-jerk answer to that question, what location would I want to watch a show? I would say, here's the thing. Gut Reaction is Dorn, but we actually have Matthew Good and Matthew Rees's wine show coming up, which literally is a show set in Dorn. So I think that disqualifies it. You know, I wouldn't mind a kind of, OK,

I wouldn't mind a kind of cops and robbers procedural, kind of like the wire meets the Marseille crime novels, John Claude Izzo set in the ports of Bravo's, like in the couscous markets. Like, basically the characters that Aria keep impersonating. Do they call it the cuss-coos markets, or do you just keep calling it, that? Here's what they call it, a market, and then I see a cuss-cusery. But I thought cuss-cous is just, like, in a package.

Like, do you really did a market? Do you need to be like, look at my finest cuss-ccus? Come down from the ivory tower for a second. Okay, there are places in the world where it isn't sold in bags and boxes in your local Costco. Yeah. Wherever you buy, where do you buy your cuss-coose, Chris? I don't even think I'd buy cuss-coos. Right, well, that's your first mistake.

My point is, in these beautiful markets, there are these urns full of individually toasted grains. It's not grains, cuss-coos is noodles, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah. And they're pouring them from one jar to the other. And every so often, a young oyster shucker runs through, bleeding from the stomach, kicks it over. And the merchant says, my God, this is my family's cuss-coos. Let's tell his story. enough with the Starks

If I had to answer this I would say I would like a Sopranos built around Taiwan and Lannister Interesting So I would want to go from a few years Kind of like as Taiwan is watching Robert's Rebellion Happen to the end of the Mad King and Robert Robert's Rebellion

Through the things that have to happen Through the things that are happening on Game of Thrones To his end And the way that he I would love to see the way Jamie and Circe and Tyrion look through his eyes. He has enormous disappointments? And also just see his behavior

and his parentage form them into what they are. The soprano's reference is really good because even though we rarely get Tywin's perspective on everything, the sense... We no longer will. We no longer will. But this idea that his children are disappointments

and that the world is kind of going into madness and people aren't honorable anymore, that there is a very nice comparison to be made between Tony Sopranos' whole thing, which is that he inherited this thing right when it was done. He came in at the worst possible time. And you can imagine Tywin, who basically being born for a different era, just 50, 60, 1,000 years before, in his mind when things were better. And, you know, basically no one needed to make Westrose great again because Westrose was already great.

That's a pretty good idea. I like that. I mean, you know my real answer would be just someone who is seafaring. I'm not even going to say Salazar's name except I did. But you could, it would be too... Ventures of Davos and Sado would be good, though. That's what I'm saying. It would be too expensive, but the idea of people exploring the world map and spending more time in these places would be satisfying. So the next question comes from Drake LaRoche, and I love your Twitter handle, Drake Laroche.

That's the dude who had the kid and his son came to the White Sox. Oh, that's Adam Laroch's son's right? Yeah, yeah, Drake. Adam Laroch is kind of the real world Ashley Schaefer. He was like, he brought him to work with him, and he's like, and the manager, general manager, can he, Williams is like there are grown men changing around here and spitting tobacco and Adam Lerich literally was like let the boy watch. Drake asks if Padrick and Braun went to a concert, who would they go see?

Can I answer this first? Please, because I got nothing. The hard rock stylings of the Australian band Jet famous for Are You Gonna Be My Girl, which was used quite a lot in sort of Guy Ritchie knockoff films throughout the 2000s. I could see them just really being into just having it on a night out with the lads. You're totally right. Warm logger. Maybe you get in a fight.

Maybe you go home with somebody who knows. Maybe everything happens, you know. They would definitely go to like a festival made up of late period creation records. Yeah. Ocean color scene. Ocean color scene, three colors red. Yeah. Like these bands that actually have, I can't think of any songs by them, but they would

definitely have a lot of logger. They would have a good time. And they'd forget about it all in the morning. This is a really important question. And so this is something that's been, I think, you know, we're all thinking about this right after the game six last night. Patrick Weiland wants to know, how do I watch Game 7 and Game of Thrones? It's interesting. We've gotten a ton of questions about that.

You know all the stuff I was saying about that great app Twitter? You've got to turn that off, my man. This is not that hard, actually. Yeah. You can watch the game. Yeah. And then you can watch Game of Thrones. My guess is...

Or you can watch Game of Thrones, tape the game, then watch the game. This is not a situation like what happened last year when people were, maybe they were time-shifting the last episode of The Jinks. Yeah. Like, New York Times is not going to send out a push alert about what happens in the Battle of the Bastards. Like, you can choose to not know. Are we sure about that? I'm fairly certain. Because my thing is that neither show, the score of the game is not going to show up during Game of Thrones.

No. John Snow is not going to be like, LeBron! And I don't think. Mike Breen will do it either about Battle of the Bastards. It would be amazing if Mike Breen was secretly watching the show, like on his phone. Are you kidding me? Bang! And it's just like nothing's happening. You're like, what are you talking about?

I think, I mean, if it were me, I would watch the game with social media off. I know that's not as fun, but you kind of have to do it. Maybe go watch it with some friends, but in a controlled environment. But have them also have social media. You can't have the guy in the room who's looking at Twitter, like, do you guys want to know what happened? Yeah, you can't do that. But you watch the game first, and then you immediately watch Game of Thrones.

And the reason I say this is because, are you like to, watching time-shifted sports always, I can't do it. I get itchie. I can't do it. I get twitchy, I get itchy. I mean, you get fast forward to the commercials, but it loses an enormous amount of the excitement. Patrick, don't be twitchy and itchy.

Don't be itchy and twitchy, my man. Watch the game. So another question from Enrique Seboia. He wants to know, where do you think brand is going and are we going to find out before the end of the season? I mean, is this too on the nose? I feel like he's going to Winterfell. I mean, I think one of the themes of the season, I think the second episode, the one that brought John back, was called home. Yeah. And there does seem to be this return to this place that had been...

All of the Stark children seem to want to go there. Everybody's going home. And I also think it signifies a pretty significant shift of power away from Kings Landing in the South to Winterfell, which has always been in the way the characters have thought about their world. That was a very northern, it was basically nowhere, it was the top of the world. But as we've learned, thanks to John's and Brand's adventuring, the world goes on quite a bit further north. And to many people, Winterfell is kind of central. It's kind of the Harrisburg or the continent if you don't think about the wall. Well, I think that the fact that he's with Benjian probably lends a lot of credence to the idea of Benjian had to take him somewhere, it would be to Winterfell.

Yeah. But I don't know how much long, you know, like, what is Benjamin? It's almost like, can you imagine Benjian not being out in the cold woods? You know, so where's, maybe, maybe Benjian just saves them. And then once, if he goes past Benjin, like, who's telling Brand what to do? Maybe he can only take him so far. Maybe he can only take him as far as the wall, which means he's taking him to Castle Black. Right. And then someone has to help him get down the rest of the way. Dolores Ed. Back in the mix. I want Ed back. I think my bigger question about Brand is, like, who's going to feed his sudden addiction to the hot rabbit blood? Because like, I feel like that kind of got yada yotted in that scene because there were all the, you know, he was having those

incredible visions. And oh my gosh, this guy is Benjyn Stark. We have. I haven't seen him since season one. But he reveals he's Benjand Stark right after he's like, drink this. And the way he said what he offered to drink was a mug that he had just filled by squeezing a rabbit. He run out a rabbit like a hot towel. Look, I'm not averse to it. People eat blood in the world.

They're blood cakes, blood sausage. That's cool. And not on some Twilight shit. But it's kind of a bold move to be like, guess what? I'm your uncle, drink this. Would you do it? I would not. What if you were like, I mean, he was cold.

He was hungry. Where do you think he's going? I mean, I don't know. I think he's probably going back to Winterfell. I think all the Starks are eventually are at least trying to get back to Winterfell. The other interesting thing about this question, just to consider and to pivot going forward to Game of Thrones

is basically how do you play the brain? Game of Thrones? It's a TV show. Yeah. Can I say my favorite part every weekend after the Thrones, Chris, is when you say, we're here to talk about Game of Thrones. One week, maybe next week for the now. We're here to talk about the 2001 Philadelphia 76ers.

Andy, I'm happier here. Listen, Game of Thrones is great, but what do you think about the preakness? What if you did that? No, I think that Brand is a very, very, very delicate character and a very delicate card to play. Because if he has become the Three-Ead Raven, even if he's not ready to be the Three-Ead Raven, he can see all time past, present, and future.

you bring in that kind of magic, I mean, it might not even be magic, but you bring that into these scenarios that have been more or less reality-based, like down in King's Landing. It could upset the Apple Card. Like as soon as he shows up and says what he has to say, there's very little dithering as to whether or not the threat from the North is real. So a lot of the other stuff, I think, has to get headed off before you round the corner and just start facing that. Yeah, the only other thing I would put out there is that I really liked what Arasib

when she was like, I want to go as far west as you can. So the idea that maybe, I would have Fran just tapped out? I'm pieced out. We're six years into saying, I hope that character pieces out. But that was a very, we didn't touch on that so much, but that was a very interesting line, which was like, I wonder what is West of Westrose, because usually they don't throw away comments like that.

West of Westro's a great Steinbeck novel. Next question. We got one more. This one's from Scuba Gooding Jr., aka Boss Gobbler. and he wants to know if you could swap two characters' storylines, who would they be?

This is a little bit of like a, you know, I think we could hit scuba up here and ask a follow-up, but I was thinking about this. And I think I would like Jamie and Tyrion to flip. I know that they can't because of a variety of reasons.

But I was thinking about my, I never am more happy than when Jamie's on the road. When Jamie's out in the world, Jamie's meeting lots of new people, doing lots of new stuff. And Tyrion's being... Like when he was in Dorn last year. Yeah.

And Tyrion's seen a million faces, and he's rocked them all. And I would love for Jamie to get that opportunity. He was really kind of like, he was in sort of shackles for a season there. Then he was back in Kings Landing, but he was pretty much just standing around with a metal hand. Taking L's every which way, goes to Dorn, takes an L. See him in River Run, seeing him rock it? I would love it if Jamie had just been like, Sersey, it's been great, it's been real, I'm out. Good luck to you, good luck to all your, in your future endeavors.

I'm going to go just to see the world. It's interesting to think about... It's not a straight one-for-one swap. I like that, though. Yeah. But if you think about a character like Theon, who was very good at doing one thing, and they took the thing that he used to do that one thing away from him.

It's been so long that I always forget that about Theon. Really? I forget that Theon was like the swordsman. You lead with that, I feel like. You know, I think that narratively something sort of comparable was done to Jamie, that he was the most skilled swordsman. in the land and he lost his hand. But he's adjusted to that so quickly, or it hasn't come up so much, that it doesn't seem

as powerful an arranger. And it hasn't seemed to have affected him in the same way. Now, maybe that's pointing towards, and we talked about this on After the Thrones last week, maybe that's pointing towards his potentially unhappy ending because he hasn't really changed or adapted. But I would like to see, I mean, if he had gotten like Tyrion cut in the face and scarred, Would that have changed who he was? If he was no longer beautiful?

Yeah, if he was no longer looked like the leader that people wanted to be. Yeah, because Edna was last week because you were a beautiful man, basically. Yeah. Would you want to change anybody's storylines, swap storylines of anybody? I'm trying to think about who that could be, because as we've gotten further and further into the show, characters' storylines are so specifically pointed towards them. I mean, like I keep thinking, I would like to have seen the hound allied with a different team from the beginning. Sure.

But his storyline, again, so much of it comes down to the fact that he's just enormous and threatening to people. So you couldn't actually ever have switched the Hound in Davos. But if someone like the Hound had been following Stannis and going after Joffrey instead of breaking away from Joffrey, like how would his crisis of confidence have played out? All right. Well, that's all the questions we have. And that's all the time we have for the re-up. I think we'll be back on Monday.

We're going to talk a little bit about the show The Detour along with Game of Thrones. So I think if anybody is at home this weekend and looking for stuff to watch before Sunday nights battle royale. Check on an episode or two of The Detour. Yeah, TBS. We were both surprisingly thrilled by this. We'll talk a little bit about that on Monday. Until then, thanks for joining us. Great job, Pransky.