As the war continues in its early stages, new players enter
the game. Many join as subordinates but
wield power through those above them in the hierarchical
structure. Whether it's Lord Jason
Lannister throwing his weight around and expecting Amon to
escort his army, or Mazaria getting close to Rainiera, Laris
getting his hooks into Aegon, Alice seeing Damon finally
breakdown and ask for help. The episode is full of examples.
Amon himself is supposed to be a subordinate of his brother, the
King, but not really. Isn't like that's not how it's
playing out, right? He's kind of sees himself as an
independent ruler, but has ruled himself by powerful emotions
that regularly breakthrough his stoic persona.
Allison softens as power slips through her fingers while
Rainier hardens in an attempt to shore up her own, but she's
deeply concerned that she can't win the war.
She's finding new dragon riders and it's could be a challenge
and a risk, but the reality of losing another of her most
trusted leaves her alone and vulnerable.
She rages about Damon, but if she had any idea what kind of
strange and unexplainable issues he's dealing with as well, the
fact that his dreams might have hit a turning point, a
culmination. We might say, well she might
feel a little differently. Or she might be like, well get
back over here then we need you, but she might not.
We'll see on on top of that, we have dreams, Dragons, owls,
fish, a dog, ships of the food stuffed variety and ships of the
relation variety. All that more on this episode of
History of Westeros podcast. Hello and welcome back
everybody. Did I miss something?
Sean? Is there a lion?
Oh my God, I missed the lion. You know tigers are bears, but.
I did forget to put the lions. It's like the first thing I have
in the notes is that this guy brought lions.
Anyway, good catch, good catch. So welcome back everybody.
It's another review spoiler free today, as Monday's always are,
always make sure to catch our breakdowns of every episode.
If you're catching this live, the breakdown's not out yet, but
if you're catching it a little later, it might be.
It's more of a synopsis of everything where we kind of say
it all succinctly and as efficiently as possible.
Really helps you get everything straight.
Before we go into this deeper dive material here, every
Wednesday we meet for a different type of episode.
This Wednesday it'll be Sean with our special guest Kim
Renfro talking about some cool stuff, topics we're still
working on in the background. We'll keep it a little secret
for now. And Saturdays, of course, we
have our preview episodes filled with spoilers and casting stuff
and stuff from the books, but never leaks.
Most recently, we had Emmett Booth last week where we talked
about character arcs all the way through what we expect in the
long run, and that was really fun.
And of course, on Fridays we do game streams over at
twitch.tv/history of Westeros. That's really fun.
We just started a new campaign playing as Renly Baratheon, Lord
of Storms End, as a 7 year old just after Robert Trebillian.
And let me tell you, Renly is a fun character to play.
We went ahead and married Marjorie early rather than
waiting for all that stuff to happen later.
We just went ahead and did it like when he was 10 years old,
got them betrothed. So got that kicked off early.
If you're going to be in New York or live in New York around
the August 3rd time frame, well, August 3rd is when we're going
to be at City Winery doing a live podcast to prepare you for
Episode 8, the finale of this season.
Come join us if you're going to be there or can make it because
it be a lot of fun to hang out in person, drink some wine, talk
about House of the Dragon and Ashea.
Give them a link. Go to bit dot LY how live NYC or
you can just go to the History of Westeros website and click on
the link in the sidebar. Also on the sidebar, you find
lots of other ways to support the show and interact with us
and find our other episodes, bonus content, all that good
stuff. Website has all that.
If you have questions for us, send them to
westeroshistory@gmail.com or if you're watching live, go ahead
and put them in the chat box and we may talk about it right here
during the episode. Let's start as we usually do,
our initial thoughts. Favorite performances?
Sean, what do you think? Good episode, Strong episode
medium. What do you think?
Strong for sure. I feel like I don't I didn't
come away with as many like hot takes, some rearing to talk
about. There's some episodes, but I
don't want that to be negative because I've said this a billion
times that I I am more interested in the how of things
than the what of things, right? I don't care as much about what
the resolution or how it ends is.
It's how we get there and these interactions, these these
nuances and emotional moments. There's been a motif the past
couple episodes of heavy breathing from Allison's.
I appreciate that. You know, this is maybe a little
nuanced to get into just as an intro thing, but I want to point
out there's a watching it the episode a couple times.
I think that they're, I think Allison is trying to connect
with Kristen. I don't know if it's an
emotional thing or concern for Aegon or what it is, but I
didn't notice it at first. But watching it again a couple
times, I saw that and I and I liked it.
That's in there and it took me a couple watches to pick up on it,
you know? Same.
Yeah, I didn't catch that the first time either.
Who do you think? Which performances really stood
out to you? It's hard to say.
I, I, I'm there was, I don't think there was a featured
character or a a particularly outstanding performance this
time, which again, is not a knocking anyone.
It's just that everyone's doing well and it's an ensemble cast
and I couldn't ask for more that not being able to decide who's
best is a good problem. Yeah, it's not because everybody
sucked, it's because everybody was awesome.
So yeah, I hear that. What about you, Ishaya?
You know, I think prior to this episode, my favorite of the
season was episode 4, the red dragon and the gold.
Surprising for me because it was a battle episode.
I think now my favorite of the season is this one.
I really had nothing that I disliked in the episode and just
a whole lot of things that I absolutely loved, things that I
couldn't believe they actually went there.
And yeah, I'm talking about Rainier and Mazaria.
I'd myself and lots of fans had thought that that they could go
that direction since honestly since Fire and Blood, but I
think most of us had always thought it would only ever be
subtext at best. And so that was very surprising
to me, pleasantly surprising in a lot of ways.
But I also just really loved the stuff with Adam and Alan.
I loved the sea smoke stuff. My favorite performance might be
sea smoke. Like sea smoke just captured my
heart with like the bounding and wanting, just wanting to bond
with with Adam and I. I just found it really good in
general. I liked, but I I think if I had
to choose my favorite performance, I'm giving it to
Emma Darcy. But I actually didn't vote for
Emma Darcy that regularly in the previous episodes like other
people did. So that's maybe my first time
voting for them. But I just really liked their
pivot to like the rage in their eyes at Bartima Seltegar to the
like, you know, connection that they had with Mazaria.
I felt that it was a good range of acting.
Well said. Yeah, this one has a lot of
interesting, subtle themes I think that I really like.
There's the the Rainier and Allison going in opposite
directions, Damon and Eamon kind of going in opposite directions,
but still maintaining a lot of parallels between them.
There's a lot of this people being resigned, like Gwain and
Cole are kind of resigned to their fate.
A lot of folks that just are kind of going along with it.
They just, they have no control, no agency, despite how powerful
they are. This is the Dragons just kind of
just dominate so much that like entire strategic decisions are
based on where the Dragons might happen to show up.
Like the entire movement of an army is based on things like
that. And it just really shows just
how everything is about the Dragons now.
Yes, yes, of course. Yeah, you're right.
And just the way he dominates the council is really just whoa.
And but I also appreciate how much this episode got into
bringing some fan theories to life.
And some of them are fan theories that aren't just like
wish fulfillment. Like some people might think
that about Rainier and Missouri, but it's not like a Shaya said
that theory has existed since 2018.
That this this because it's it's hinted at in the books.
It's not spelled out because the maesters aren't going to write
explicit gay stuff in the book. Like and they wouldn't know
about this anyway. Two people kissing.
They stopped kissing when someone opened the door.
How would they know, right? Like it couldn't be in there
unless it was explicit. And why would it be explicit?
Right? So but the other one is, is the
Darklin having Targaryen heritage?
That's been a theory in the in the fandom since like prior to A
Feast for Crows existing, let alone the first TV show.
So that was cool to see that. I know some people think maybe
it wasn't the the specific choices they made with that lore
might have been a little strange, but just the idea, the
way they settled that I loved it.
It was hot to see that, yeah. Hot to see that I also struggled
to pick a favorite performer when we did our weekly Facebook
poll. I I seriously picked 7 different
people because we do multiple choice.
So. So I'm reconsidering that and
I'm going to say my favorite acting in one scene was Matthew
Needham as Laurie's trying to get heart to his heart to heart
with Egon, which was so brilliantly ambitious and and
ruthless, but also real, you know, like those were real
emotions he was channeling into his ambition and.
He played it so subtly as he. Used so subtly.
Yeah, he was crying and just like those he was channeling,
like I said, proud channeling things that really happened to
him and but using it for his ambition and making himself
putting himself in a mentor slash leadership position over
the king. And it's just, it was just
really well done. So the Rooks rest sequence was
added to the intro and some black blood replaced the red
blood on the the tapestry there at the end, which is pretty
cool. It's meant to be dragon blood.
I'll repeat that. We have a full short scripted
episode being prepared. It's mostly done already.
We just are waiting for the final.
It's a couple episodes because we know there's going to be even
more changes. So we want to capture all the
changes and describe them all and then release that all at
once. The episode starts with a golden
tooth, which we will as well. Yeah, lions.
I mean this is really hilarious and and fitting with this
character. We've seen Lord Jason before.
He was already haughty and he's as rich as he is haughty.
We get the a variation on the reigns of Castamere theme and
we've been seeing this shot since the first trailer.
So we didn't know what it was. We didn't know where it was.
Makes sense that it was. It's not an off the beaten path
castle, but it isn't one of the main ones either.
We, we have seen the Golden tooth plenty of times.
Not seen, but talked about it plenty of times.
It's pretty important in the War of 5 Kings.
It's, it's a portal to the West. It's the seat of house Leopard.
And this is a castle that Rob got around because of Greywind
sniffing out a great a goat track, which I'm sure warging
had nothing to do with that whatsoever.
And this is really relevant, too, because if you look at the
Mapchet, he's got it on screen, the stretch of land between
River Run and the Golden Tooth where Jason is afraid to March
without protection. Even though he presents it as
arrogantly and haughtily, He's not wrong.
This is the same stretch of land that Jamie is afraid of the
Brother Without Banners and the Blackfish springing Ed Muir and
Jane Westerling. So he sends, you know, he's
like, OK, I'm going to send a hundred men.
Double it, double it again. He double s it to twice to 400
and he's still worried. And we all have these theories
that have been around for quite a while that it's not going to
be enough. So it makes sense.
This is the same stretch of land that is it is dangerous.
You you fear an attack, whether it's the brotherhood of out
banners and the Blackfish or one or the other or Caraxes.
This is a a stretch of land that's wide open.
It doesn't have a lot of tree cover.
It's just fields and rivers. So it it makes sense, but also
of importance here, this is a Northern army is headed down and
they have free passage at the Twins now thanks to Jace's
alliance building, coalition building.
And the West isn't aware of that.
They might not do anything about it even if they were, but it
doesn't come up in their conversations.
Why would it? They don't know.
Just like there's a couple things the Blacks aren't aware
of that they're not accounting for in their strategic
calculations, as we'll see later.
So how about the audacity of this guy, right?
The Lord Leffer, just like, stares at him afterwards.
Like what the hell? Two quick points, one that
Northern army it's only a couple thousand soldiers.
Yes, but veterans, experienced veterans is kind of the the vibe
there. But still this Lannister army is
near 10,000. Yes, about 8000.
Yeah, so there might be like a little hiccup in the travel, but
the Northern army is not going to defeat these Lannisters.
Well, if they have river Lords, river Landers with them too.
Right. Yeah, if other armies.
Themselves are right, Dragon. Shows up, Yeah, it could be.
It could be a conflict at least Yeah, but connected to that,
this 10,000 ish size army that Jason Lannister showing up with,
it's not just haughty or arrogant, it's it's borderline
stupid or even a pretense to think that the golden tooth is
going to feed all these. Even if they had that much extra
food they literally there's not enough kitchens and cooks like
it's. Like if he's.
Legitimately counting on the golden tooth to feed this army.
It is a massive failure. It is a massive failure.
I'm assuming he's just kind of laying down the wall and
asserting himself, but he has his own food in his own.
He's mostly talking about his officers, Probably not like
every single. It's like the Red Wedding, like
he everybody got food, but only the only the Lord sat inside,
you know? Regardless, the Red Wedding was
planned. They knew they needed to have
food and cooks ready to go. That's a good point.
I'm so rooting for Jason Lannister to just get eaten by a
lion because it's awful to bring these lions.
I'm also kind of rooting for a lion to get eaten by a dragon.
I don't, I don't know, I'm just expecting something to happen
with these lions. And I also want to point out his
armor here. I think it's kind of funny to me
that he has like kind of ABS on his armor, like rivets.
And he has like really extra big shoulders, which I think fits
with this character, like the bravado of like this Lannister
man. And anyways, I I appreciate
Jason Lannister all the more for that.
We compare him to Thailand Lannister, who we see often who
is not nearly as abrasive. Yeah, this is go figure.
The one with control over Casterly Rock, who was born
first is the haughty one, and the the one who didn't get all
that. The richest castle in the whole
continent is a little more humble.
Over to King's Landing, where this shot pivots.
Amond is very angry and he sort of repeats the same line
Borosparathian repeats or says when Rainier expects him to be
an ally and he says you know what am IA dog to be whipped to
heal, you know called to heal. That's what Amon says like am
IAA dog to be called to heal It's and he's it's the same
thing reacting to a message and this kind of sets Amon off.
It's kind of unclear how he would have behaved in the
council with without this provocation, but we have
multiple council scenes and he's pretty authoritative, to put it
mildly. Domineering doesn't really
listen very much. He does deign to debate the
Harrenhal issue a little bit with Kristen Cole, but everyone
else, he pretty much just ignores their concerns, talks
over his mother, and then of course fires her later, kind of
rudely. But so unlike Damon, Aegon and
Raniera, who are being LED around a bit to varying degrees
by Alice Rivers, Laura Strong in Missouri, especially in this
episode, Eamond is just aggressively against anyone
influencing him to the point that he's not even listening or
taking advice. And that blinds him to how his
own emotions are ruling him. He's like, well, bro, you're not
exactly some calm, serene example of a, a, a wise ruler
here. You know, you're just kind of
mad and and vindictive. And your mother says the refers
to the indignities of your youth being on avenged.
And it's kind of like, yeah, that's it's probably what's
going on here, at least to a certain degree.
Yeah, I think this is probably the least I've ever liked
Damond. I think this is where, like, you
know, in a recent episode, we were talking about how he seems
like he's composed and less emotional than Damon, but likely
under the surface, he's just ready to explode.
And I kind of felt like he would keep it to himself and just do
it privately. So it was like a really honestly
off putting to see him not keep his cool in front of people that
he really needs to to not look this bad in front of.
Like these guys are important in the realm still.
Like you don't really want to look awful to them.
Yeah, you don't, you don't want to just like get into a pride
spat with the Lord of Casterly Rock, 'cause that that's a very
proud man, as we saw there, like you, just little bit of grease
on these wheels here, you know, maybe find some common ground
rather than you're telling me what to do.
I'll tell you what to do. You know, that's, that's, that's
not, it's not going to work, you know, even if you're right.
I want to maybe try to give him a little bit of credit.
I I wonder how much what he did in this council meeting he might
have had plotted out beforehand and how much worse it could have
been. Because what ends up happening
is he sent away everyone that disagreed with him.
Yeah, Christy Cole put up a little argument about Herren
Hall or, or. No, not even about Herrenhall.
He tried to agree with Allison. He's like, you know what, you go
to Herrenhalt, take the soldiers, go to Hernholt.
He might have had that plan anyway.
He might have had that planned anyway.
But he got to make it look like you're disagreeing with me,
you're out of here. And he did the same thing with
Tyler Lannister. He didn't necessarily know that
Jason Lannister was going to make this demand of him, but he
might have been planning to send him to the Trierarchy anyway.
He was worried about the blockade.
So he gets to make it look like you disagree with me, you're out
of here. And I do think there's some
pride and emotion and ambition mixed up in all this, but he
didn't just straight up embarrass him or fire them.
He sent him off on legitimate missions but also I'd.
Say he did still, I'd say he still embarrassed them.
Like he he, they disagreed with him and he said, OK, so we all
agree, you know what I mean? Like.
I guess he embarrassed them, maybe in the context of this
council, but on the outside they didn't get fired like Otto
Woody. Allison did, but yeah.
Right. Yeah.
Allison did. You're right, Allison did.
Allison did get fired, yeah, but but I I see your point somewhat
anyway. So the Heron Hall plan is he he
wants to do a pincer move, have the West attack from the West
and him attack from the east, which that's a reason.
Plan nothing wrong with that, however, I mean on the surface,
but there are some problems with it.
One is Cole says they're low on men.
It's unclear how what they're going into like Eamon says well,
if you give them more time it's definitely going to get worse.
That's true. But then there's no but it might
already be too late. And that's what Cole is worried
about. And Eamon just kind of steam
rolls that argument too, saying, well, I'll fight my ankle if
he's afraid to face me, which we know he's not afraid to face
him, But but Eamon thinks he is because of the blood and cheese
thing. He's like, oh, he was afraid to
face me because he's so he wants to assassinate me.
But we know that like one of the first things this season was
Damon trying to get Rey nice to go with him to go straight up
and attack Vegar. Like, let's just go do that
right now. So yeah, he's not afraid.
I wonder, by the way, because I think this is potential, at
least a failure of intelligence. If they had scouts out there
keeping track of Rivlin armies or politicking, do they know
that Grover Tolle is sick? They do.
They said that before, but yeah. Yeah, but.
And Laris might even know this stuff, but he may be scared to
say it because he doesn't want to get an Amon's bad side.
Like Amon's authoritativeness might be keeping him from
getting key information. True.
Maybe Lawrence could still just tell Kristen Cole I suppose in
private. Maybe he will or won't.
That doesn't seem like it, but I I feel like there's some
battlefield intelligence they should have that they don't for
whatever reason. And they should also know that
if Damon does already have them on his side, then the River
Lords will unite against a an invader, even if they won't
necessarily. It's hard to get them maybe to
fight for you, but they'll unite against an invader like the West
invading them. They're not just going to take
that, you know, it doesn't matter who's leading them.
They will fight back. It's as Alice Rivers says.
They'll they, they would, they, they would rather die than yield
an inch to each other. It's even worse to an invader,
right? They would rather die twice than
yield a millimeter. I don't know, something like
that. If Jason Lannister showed up
with the 10,000 troops and said hey, my troops are going to
enjoy your hospitality, I don't think they would get the
hospitality. Yeah, they would get a different
form of hospitality. They they the hospital tality.
So the blockade. Yeah.
He you you brought up that he wants an alliance with the
Triarchy. And it's a it's a good point
that he came to the meeting prepared for this already.
I mean, yeah, it's not something he probably thought of on a whim
during the meeting. It's it's a good point.
But there's warnings, Allison, Kristen, Cole and Viserys's
memory, which Allison brings up all warn against allying with
the Triarchy. And yeah, the, the way he's just
like, looms over them too, the way he, like, stands behind them
and leans on their seats. He's just trying to physically
intimidate them. This is like, yeah, it's not
tyrannical, but it it's in that vein where he's just trying to
get his decisions through, not by consensus, not through logic,
but by because I said so. And that's obviously a red flag
for a leader. He did sum up with I see we're
all in agreement. Yeah, clearly we're not all in
agreement. They were not, in fact, in
agreement. And he's angry the Commons
aren't blaming Ranira. You know, like, why aren't they
blaming Ranira? She's the one with the blockade,
which is a fairpoint, but it's just not how things work.
He's the Lord of the city. He's the Lord protector.
It's his job to feed them, no matter what factors are making
that difficult. That's that's also fair.
Laris and Allison kind of try to point this out, but he doesn't
really want to hear that either, you know, and, and Ray Lares is
trying to tell him like, look, the common, you know, the, the
enemy within is more insidious. He says that and and he doesn't
want to hear that. He just doesn't want to hear.
And that's when the the auto conversation comes up, which
we'll come back to in a minute. Couple other things that that
are relevant to the blockade Now, it stops people getting in
by sea. Why can't they bring it in by
land? Well, there's actually a fairly
straightforward explanation for that.
The veil aside, with the Blacks, they're not sending food.
The North is sided with the Blacks.
They're not sending food. The Riverlands is undeclared,
kind of in chaos. They have no direct incentive to
help, right? Why would they?
Just out of the goodness of their hearts?
What? No food is coming from the
Reach. But as we're told by Orwell, the
Reach is now fighting itself. The Beesberries have risen up
against their Lords, the High towers, because of the death of
Lord Lyman Beesbury. That happened in episode 9.
Kristen Cole killed the old man, right?
Hive rise up. This is yeah.
Go bees. So you can understand why
they're fighting against the high towers, even though they're
their Liege Lords like. Well, you, you killed our Lord.
Of course we're mad at you. So that's going to slow any food
shipments coming from the reach. And there's there's turmoil
elsewhere in the river, in the in the reach, the crown lands.
They're already sending food. That's been established.
It's just not enough, right. And it's they've been tacked
heavily related. The high tower and Lannister
fleets will be a while because they're on the other side of the
continent and it's a big continent and crossing around
Dorne is is dangerous and and difficult.
So they have to wait. So they have no choice on that
front. So that's part of why Amon just
decides to move with the Trierarchy because they'll be
quicker maybe. And there's also talk of the Red
Kraken, which gives us a throwback to A Song of Ice and
Fire slash HB OS Game of Thrones, which is Iron Rod
suggests Allison marry the Red Kraken, which is a call back to
Bailon Greyjoy as a suggested husband for Cersei and.
Can I also say that this is actually a deleted scene from
season one In the script for season one we have up, there's a
scene where Otto, and I think maybe even Iron War 2, but
definitely Otto, suggest that they marry Allison to Dalton
Greyjoy. But they cut it and obviously
they were like, no, we still want to include that suggestion.
Let's just put it in Season 2. Just by the way, Sean, we don't
know if they've changed his age, but the book version of the red
crack in Dalton Greyjoy is like 20 or 21 years old.
So like a nice, a young Lord Greyjoy.
Like, yeah, like, you want to marry that guy?
Like, I don't think so. Like he'd have to be a real
unique, different kind of Greyjoy to.
Oh, Lord Greyjoy is really that much better.
But yeah, I know you're right. Like Baylon's not wasn't good.
Yeah. So yeah.
And of course, the year on Cersei stuff was in the show as
well. And so there's, there's, I've
seen how that that stuff goes. There is one thing that was
ignored by pretty much everyone, but this is Eamon's idea here.
Well you know what? It just occurred to me as I was
going to say this maybe less of a problem than it was the fleet.
The blockade is backed up with the dragon Rainey's has been
patrolling the fleet. Reigns is gone.
Now, I don't know if that was part of Amon's calculation here
and there could be, you know, maybe Jace or someone else could
also be patrolling with the dragon to support the fleet.
But I wonder if we'll get a sea battle with Dragons involved.
Seems like a good role for a sea smoke to take up.
His name is Sea Smoke. Yeah.
And with the Valerian fleet and everything, yeah, it does seem
like a sea battle, like the whole war without a sea battle.
Is that really with all this talk of all these fleets, like,
right, That does seem kind of likely there'll be at least one
sea battle, if not more. And you got Greyjoy's coming
into the four perhaps. So, yeah.
Now, one, what's funny, I want to point out a little funny, a
little bit of humor they had here.
When when she says out of the question to marrying Dalton
Greyjoy, he says, alas, that same line is repeated by Reyna
when when Lady Jane is like it's the dragon.
This dragon that's come to the veil is is formidable, large,
formidable and wild. And Reyna goes alas.
So it's like the same. They're like that marriage isn't
happening. Oh, this one maybe is, though
not not the Greyjoy one, the the dragon one.
So Allison just fired and this is Eamon has regained his
composure by the time this scene happens.
He's like mother, you know, let's talk.
I'm going to be really crappy to you and tell you wouldn't you
rather have domestic pursuits? It's like, oof, damn, that is
cold. That's your mom, bro.
Wow. And you know, she's like calls
him arrogant, refers to his childhood and dignities.
It's kind of like snipping back and forth at each other a little
bit there. But I think she's got more truth
behind her there. Think she thought that's what
would be effective at getting through to him in that moment.
She's not good at this. No, she's just not good at it.
Because I think if she had used some honey in her words, I think
she might have actually like, gotten him back a little bit.
Yeah, she was very harsh and her own pride was very damaged here.
And if she's been losing power and that's just she's fighting
that and it's hard to hard to hard to tolerate.
But. But there is that moment with
the hand on which puts her hand on his face and it lingers for a
minute. He pulls her hand away, but not
right away. It lingers for a minute.
Like I do want this, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm your son, but I'm
Prince Amon, you know? But that's.
The one move she has? Yeah, the the hand of the face,
yeah. That's the thing Otto has did to
her when she was young. We have all these scenes of Otto
doing that and we see her doing it to Aegon, Helena and Aymond
all. Yeah, it's the it's the I'm your
mother. Listen to your mother.
You need. You need other moves.
Mira does it too, by the way. Well, Ramira also just hugs her
children though. Right, right, right.
But I a couple things to say here.
One is it, I swear there was another scene that was just like
this where I just don't remember who it was, but one person put
their hand up to someones cheek and then that person pulled the
hand away and I went through, I skimmed through like six or
eight episodes like trying to find that scene and I found
multiple out of 456 examples of someone putting their hand onto
someone's cheek, but it never got pulled away like that.
So I still think it exists and I haven't found it yet, but.
Well, folks, if you noticed it multiple times, if you know what
Sean's talking about, let us know.
Yeah, that, that, yes. Please if someone else remembers
that moment or finally. Oh, there's a really good joke
from dumb That move is called the Hand of the Queen.
Very, very good. Good one.
That is what it's called, yes. I, I do want to say though, even
though I think Allison, I don't know, failed here, if you will,
she didn't fail as hard as she did with with Aegon when she
told her to do nothing. But I do think she was being
sincere in that moment when she looked at him and put her hand
on his cheek and said, you know, have you still not gotten over
how you were bullied when you were a kid?
And I, you know, I don't think it was necessarily the way to
convince him, but I do think she was being sincere.
Yes, and I do think she's probably not wrong.
That's a big part of it, that he is still acting out some of his
childhood. And I also don't know if there's
it was a right play. I don't know if there was a
thing she could have said on there.
Yeah, that's true. Other than maybe have kept quiet
in counsel. You know, like the the way she
might be able to stay there is to be a lickspiddle.
Like ironically enough that they.
Even though he doesn't want lickspiddles, it seems like he
also doesn't tolerate disagreements.
So like, what are you supposed to?
Where's the middle ground there? Like I don't want anyone just
agreeing with me, but I don't want anyone disagreeing with me
either. I wanted to point out that I
think the council at one point had eight people.
I think that when Aegon was king, yeah, he brought Damon in
or sorry, brought Amon in. Yeah, easy mistake to make,
yeah. Yeah, he had Lars and Allison
was still sitting there. Yeah, and.
Kristen Cole. Kristen Cole is the Hand Iron
Rod in and Lannister eight? Yeah.
And I think now they're down to four.
I think it's been cut in half. And maybe even more like does
does Eamon just maybe kicked lorries out too?
Sort of. It's not clear if exactly he's
kicked him out or just he certainly doesn't want much to
do with him. I mean, he, he gave it, he made
it his responsibility to get Otto to.
Get Otto, which is like, that's not the job of a counselor, but.
And like, what does that entail? Like if they can't, they can't
get a hold of Otto. Does lorries have to leave?
I I don't know. Yeah, no one else complained to
Otto. So what's Lars?
Maybe Lars does it, but maybe once Otto's there, would Otto be
an ally to Lars or not? I don't know.
No. Remember, they've already had
their issues. Remember Otto kind of challenged
Lars about his some of his stuff.
And Lars, remember, sucked up and he was like, hey, why not
just make me like make use of me, you know?
And Lara's like, well, OK, actually maybe I can, but I
don't know about you. It might be similarly similarly
tenuous as Laris and Aymond is now, where he accepts his value
but he doesn't like it. Because they were never on the
council at the same time. Like Otto was fired and then
Laris pointed almost immediately afterwards.
But let's talk about Laris, because the second council
session is where some of this stuff happens.
Laris raises. And this is now Aymond is
already handling things a little differently.
He's already starting to like sit the council seat a little
bit like Aegon was. He's holding the ball and
playing with it. It's just it's like he's toying
with it like it's his to play with and do what he wants,
similar to how it was with Aegon.
Even though they're so very different, it's going to their
head in a similar way the way the powers is influencing them.
Solaris brings up the issue of Hand.
He is being a bit of a lickspittle.
He did say that the Prince speaks wisely.
You know, he was trying to suck up to him.
Let's be clear here. But he wasn't going too far.
He wasn't like overt with it. He wasn't too much, but Eamon
just very sensitive to this and is like you toad.
You know, he's like like you thought I wanted you as my hand.
Are you kid? Like you're so stupid, you know,
and the looks being shot around the table.
As you said, there's a lot of looks being sent around this
whole episode. There's a lot of like knowing
looks. Look at iron rods kind of
smirking here after he. Loves this.
He loved at first he, he didn't love it at first because he, he
was, he fell for it too. He's like, oh, you're being
named Hand. He did not like that.
But then the pushback and he's like, he's like snickering, you
know? I thought that the look he, when
he turned for Loris to Amon, he was like, get out of here.
I, I didn't think that Iron Rod was buying it.
I think I, I, I, in fact, I, I almost dislike this moment
because I feel like Loris is overstepping more than he should
have. I I feel like it was not as
shrewd as Loris has been in general.
Maybe not, maybe not, but it certainly was definitive that
Lauris has realized, okay, I have no room to grow in this
regime, there is no place for me here.
So he immediately goes back to the other today, Aegon, he's
like, well, I'm gonna have to make this work.
Is that first thing, isn't? Can I say we were giving a lot
of shout outs to the Lauris Aegon scene for his acting
there, but Matthew Needham also just very good acting here and
like the subtleties of like him, like trying to control his like
please reaction, like, Oh, wow, I did it like I've I've I've
climbed to the peak. I got the hand position.
I did it. And then Amens, you know,
delivery, even Mitchell delivery of your toe, like as if as if he
could ever be hand, you know, and then the like steely kind of
determination in Laurice's face there as he's like you made an
enemy today. Like I don't think like there's
any world after this where Laurice is, is like I will ally
with Amond like he Amond is. He's on the list now.
He's on the list. That's the look I got from this.
Yeah, I totally, totally agree. That's the face of a man who has
been embarrassed like this before, and anytime it happens,
he has things he can do to that person.
He's good at this sort of thing at at getting back.
And this is exactly what he tells Aegon.
You know, he's like, they'll underestimate you.
Case in point, Eamon just underestimated him to his face.
Like, no, you could really make use of this guy.
This guy has skills. Yeah, sure.
Because he's limping. You're going to call it like,
what? Because he's a little bit
sucking up to you like that, that you're going to throw the
whole spymaster out because of that?
Spymasters are supposed to do that sort of thing.
Make use of him. Definitely don't make an enemy
of him. That's crazy more while not on
not quite as on top of the diplomacy as he usually is
right. We saw him not answer Allison
about the succession thing and then not answer about will he
live? You know the king.
He just had some smart like dodging of questions here.
He just rushes in is like the king might be is doing better.
He might come and aim and just like, yeah, that's great news.
I don't know how Orwell Orwell wasn't thinking about how how
much how attached to power Amond is and how much he thinks he's
better than his brother and how like that was not the most
politic way to bring it up. I think Orwell realizes after he
walks in later and amond with Aegon.
I think now he would be more delicate and realize the tension
there and somehow he didn't. Yeah, he was just maybe just
honestly just a little excited about and wasn't thinking about
the the ramifications. By the way, what do you guys
think? I think that pretty clearly
there is a threat involved. When Eamon went to Aegon, what
do you remember? I I think he was threatening.
Let's talk about that in a SEC. I got the three visits with
Aegon is our next topic. And Allison, Aymond and
Laurie's. Yeah, let's let's hold on to the
question for a. Second, want to mention Orwell
when we get to that. Too cool.
So Allison's the first one who visits Aegon.
And this is it's almost like despite the rudeness of what
Aamon said and how he fired her, she really has kind of
immediately turned more to domestic pursuits.
Not that that's it's not a bad thing.
It's just like she no longer has the dichotomy.
She's no longer has to be at war with herself over whether to be
a queen or a mother, a war that usually the queen has won out.
Now she's just a mother, which isn't a small thing, but she's
no longer having those dueling roles.
She's like, yeah, like I now I can finally say I'm sorry to my
son and comfort him. Even though he's asleep and
doesn't know it. It's still a step towards doing
that when he's awake. And maybe it's it's better late
than never. It is very, very late, but it's
still better late than never, you know, And it's not just her.
Again, is, is this a generational trauma playing out?
Like she wasn't comforted when her mother died properly.
Her mother probably wasn't like this is just goes back and forth
back and, you know, back and back and back to the Hightower
family and a lot of these really powerful nobles that have issues
with intimacy and and showing concern and care in public and
things like that. What it's worth, I don't think
you need to go to medieval wealthy people for this problem.
You're right, you're right, you're totally right.
But it has been an ongoing theme with this, with this family in
particular and and other noble families, but a particular
problem with with the the Greens, I think.
So it's it's interesting to see what what kind of character is
she going to? This is the beginning of maybe a
new arc for her like it is for a lot of characters.
Rainier is entering a new phase where she's trying to be scarier
and more intimidating, which is kind of dark but interesting.
Allison is doing kind of the opposite where she's like, well,
I don't have as much power. Like I literally can't affect
the war the way I used to. There's going to be less blood
on my hands, less responsibilities.
So this it's just a change and it's going to be interesting to
see where she goes from here. And other characters are also
having kind of similar resets or new arcs given changes in their
in their story and character. You know exactly where she goes
from here. The Sept.
The. Sept if she goes to the Sept
that's true. She goes to the Sept one of her
usual places. She loves to go to church every
once in a while. So here's the one with aim and
Sean. That's the next one.
It's a very aggressive conversation.
He's he's just again, he's looming over him like that
proximity thing. He's a close talker and but he's
he's hurting him on purpose. Like he's pushing on him a
little bit. He knows it's going to hurt and
he's doing it anyway. And so your question was, does
does he know that? Does Aegon know what's going on,
or does Aegon know that Aegon knows what's going on?
Like what? How many know how many back?
How many levels of this is there?
I agree. I do think Aegon knows that, and
that's part of why he's being so aggressive.
He's like, you don't remember, do you?
Do you do remember what happened?
It's like bullying. Like, you're going to say the
thing I want you to say. You're going to keep quiet about
this, aren't you? Yeah.
He gives in the party line. Like you went after Melee's and
it was stupid. You're right, He's like that.
That's what happened. That's how you got hurt.
Yeah. And that part is true, but but
you leave it there. Yeah, yeah.
But but I think furthermore that when he was leaving, Amon was
threatening or while he's like the King's going to need a long
recovery. Oh, yeah, Make sure it's a long
recovery. Yeah, yes.
However well you think he's doing, don't tell people that.
Don't you know you keep him in this bed, incapacitated.
I'm in charge now. I think that was what was
implied when he talked to Orwell.
It's a very good take, I like that.
When the next time you come into council talking about how good
he is, don't. Don't.
Yeah, don't. Don't give them that hope.
Can we talk about the orb I really like?
I have a lot of thoughts on why he left that orb with him.
I think it's so interesting. I don't feel that Amon would
take the time to to get a new council orb made.
So my my my take on it is that he's saying the time of tedious
council meetings over and over is done.
And like it's such a stripped down crew he could just do walk
and talks like The West Wing you know?
But like regardless my point being like I I don't imagine
Eamon having his own orb made. If he did, I'd want it to look
like his blue eye under his eye patch.
Oh great. Idea If he did it seems kind of
silly and superfluous for him to do that.
But I I it it almost seems dumb for him to leave Aegon with like
this reminder of his his kingship.
It seems like 2 villainy like this is your monologue type
thing. Like this is what gives him the
strength to like work his way back up to become the king as he
is this like totem now that he can hold on to.
And that's what I took from it. It seems really dumb, frankly,
of, of Amond and vindictive. And yeah, I, I don't know.
I expect this. I expect this orb to come up
again. It's the arrogance.
I think that's a big part of it. He's got so much, he's dripping
with arrogance and self confident, unearned
self-confidence. And I, I do think this is a
symbolic of how he's going to rule from now on.
I think I like Sean's idea of maybe, or your idea of maybe
dissolving the council as a, as, as a potentially what's
happening here. But also it's just that he's not
ruling in his brother's name anymore.
He's ruling. It's like I, I, I was your
Regent, but I'm just going to do it my way.
He's still carrying and he's carrying black fire.
He's carrying the sword of Aegon the Conqueror, which I don't
think I pointed that out last week, but he, he's very, you
know, he's got it on him here when he walks out of the room.
He's got it with him at council. So he's just, that's his symbol
of rule. It's like this is Aegon's
symbol, Aegon the 1st and. I really like that idea, Aziz,
that this is him saying no, I'm not ruling in your name at all.
This is that's what this is mostly symbolic of, and I like
that a lot. Cool, I had a similar thought
about the orb. I didn't even notice the orb the
first time. I thought I was just pushing
into him, but then I realized they were always handing that
orb off to him, and maybe that was an excuse to push into him.
Oh, I'm giving him the orb. Oh, sorry, did I hurt you?
Like, maybe there's a little bit of that, but maybe also it's at
least publicly acknowledgement. Like, fine, my brother's still
alive. He's still the king.
Here, take the orb. What are you going to do with
him? I got the freaking sword.
He's ruling by Marshall means, not diplomatic.
We certainly have seen lots of suggestions of that.
The way he looms over people, the way he threatens them,
though. Yeah, it's just this is his,
this is his vibe so far. This is how power has gone to
his head so far. Obviously, it doesn't
necessarily mean it'll continue this way, but so far, that's it.
So Laris is the third visitor to Aegon.
He mentions his father blaming Alice for his twisted foot.
He doesn't say Alice by name, which is a member of our
household. Using sorcery on my foot.
Did you catch that, Sean? Was that?
Did you think of Alice when you heard that?
I wondered, I, I, I couldn't decide if it was him blaming
them or just a rumor that was out there.
How much he believed it, I'm not sure.
I'm not. We'll talk about this in the
context of Alice a little later. Let's stick with the scene for
now. So Orwell and Larry's both
confirmed that, yeah, your, your mobility is gone.
Like, your leg is, is definitely not going to heal all the way.
And it's just such great acting from both of them.
I mean, Matthew Needham takes the lead here, but Aegon's just
like, and his just how sad and broken he is and how much Laurie
breaks him down so much. And he's like, I need, I need
help. I help help.
You know, they told him he can't walk again or whatever, his
mobility can't run again. You can tell Aegon isn't himself
yet because his real first question should be.
But is it obliterated down there?
Like can I bang? Like that would be like, I was
thinking of Dennis and and Always Sunny when he's in the
hospital bed and he's like, you know, we'll lie.
We'll lie consummate again. I'm afraid it's been
obliterated. So yeah, it's just so good.
But don't lose sight of how manipulative this is.
Did a gun really need to hear all that right then, right at
this moment? Like right as he's woken up in
massive pain, drugged up, there's no natural urgency to
tell him what kind of man he's going to be going forward.
It doesn't have to be right this moment.
But But Larius is manipulating him now.
The part about Eamon being a threat to him, there is urgency
to that part, so that's fair. Like bringing that up.
Like, I think, you know, your brother doesn't necessarily want
you around anymore. And he's like, yeah, we're
pretty sure he does know that. And of course you know that,
too. He also doesn't want you around
anymore. So he's trying to make it about
Aegon. But he's like, actually, he
wants to get rid of me, too. I need you as much as you need
me, but he doesn't say that. He's like, you need me and I
need you, but I'm not going to tell you that.
Yeah. I wonder further how much this
has entered Allison's mind. She went to visit him.
I wonder if she's worried about what Amon might do.
Has that gone? Yeah, that's a great point.
She's. Certainly worried about her
position and power. She's worried about a lot of
things, right? I think there is at least a part
of her is legitimately worried about war and people dying and
other well-being of the land and stuff like that.
But I think she's definitely more worried about her family
and but I wonder if it's occurred to her 'cause she seems
suspicious that Amon had done something when he came back from
the battle and he had Aegon's knife kind of looking at him
suspiciously. I wonder if that is still in
her. That suspicion is still in her.
Solaris really digs his hooks in there and is like you need me.
I'm like you, but I've been this way longer so I can teach you
the ways of using your mind and how to handle being laughed at
or not taken seriously, how to you know, you're, you'll be
underestimated and that will be your, your strength and all
that. And it's just tears him down and
builds him back up. I like how he starts off with a
compliment. He's like, you're already a
legend. You know, you survived dragon
fire and then he goes in with the but you'll never run again
and this and that. And it's really just, it's, it's
just a master class in psychology, like dark, ruthless
psychology, breaking them down, building them back up.
It's it's a tale of personal tragedy.
He tells his story to win sympathy and then talks about
how he's gained strength from all that.
And you can too, if you follow my steps, you know, follow my
lead. It's a strong parallel to
Mazaria and Ranira, with also some parallels to Allison Damon.
Now, Missouri Rainier is a little more complicated because
there's genuine attraction and obviously throwing a physical
relationship into the mix can complicate things in ways that
this is does not have that level of complication.
However, this is more about personal ambition.
This is more about survival. Where the Mazaria Rainier stuff
to talk about separately and has a few different dynamics, but
there's a lot in common here, of course, between the two.
Anything more to add there or shall we move on?
We got a few super chats here it looks like.
I had one quick note, just that shot when Allison went to visit
or Aegon rather. Yeah, there was a moment when
she left, left the room. She was on that balcony.
That was one of the most beautiful shots of the whole
show. I just want to point out that
that framing. Elizabeth Ashcraft says thank
you guys for always keeping it. Leo or Leo real?
Probably real, but we're also keeping.
It Leo like royal, like loyal, but yeah, it might be real.
Either way, we'll take it either way, she says.
Best podcast ever. Yeah, she loves it.
That's catching on. Bogsy says.
No, he was just delivering egg on his favorite fidget toy.
Oh, that's why the ball is his favorite.
Yeah, he does love to play with it.
We talked about that. He's like, you know what,
brother? You should have your toy.
You shouldn't be here in bed without your toy or fidget
spinner. Yeah, he's being nice.
He's being a good brother. Yeah.
That's it. Yeah.
Books of Merce says question for Sean primarily, but everyone, of
course. Is there a dragon we've seen in
season one or season 2 that you're eager to see more of?
Look forward to these every Monday.
Well, thank you, Books of Merce. We'll keep them coming.
And continue to be as insightful as we possibly can and to pay as
much attention as we possibly can.
Yeah, Sean, what do you think? What's what's your response
here? Maelee's.
You had to go there, didn't you? Yeah, I guess Moon Dancer for me
cuz Moon Dancer is not in the books as much cuz they they aged
up Moon Dancer a little bit. So her role starts sooner in the
in the show. So she looks cool.
We love the David Bowie design. I may have stolen the she's
answer there by saying Moon Dancer.
Yeah, you did steal my answer. My favorites when I want to see
more of his Moon dancer. But I also will say I I still
would like to see Helena's dragon, Dream fire and Daron's
dragon. You know, Tassarian eventually
did well and sea smoke really got high in my estimation this
episode. But my favorite is Moon Dancer
and I want more Moon Dancer. OK, moving on to the departure
of the host from the Greens, Cole and Gwaine getting ready to
depart. The scene is filled with sad
music. It does not give a vibe of
things are going well. The army just has this we got to
go do follow the commands. This is we're facing all these
risks. We're who knows what's going to
happen. It doesn't look good.
Allison looks at Kristen Cole, she he's looking back at her.
That's like they don't quite know what to say.
He she doesn't want to approach, but she kind of does.
And she starts to approach and Gwen calls her over and he's
like, she kind of looks at him and looks at Cole and kind of
looks back and. And then Gwen looks at Cole and
realizes what's happening. And there's a lot of looks.
It's very well done. People that want to say things,
but they're afraid don't know how to start the conversation.
You know, there's a little bit of pride, a little bit of hurt,
a little bit of urgency that isn't resolved because, yeah,
like, he leaves and they say nothing to each other.
Will they see each other anytime?
So I'm not, this isn't some prediction is anytime an army
leaves on campaign, they may not come back.
And that's her perspective, right?
Allison's like, I may never see this either of these men ever
again. I want to say, by the way, that
when they were leaving that council meeting and Allison and
Kristen started to talk, they turned to each other and started
to talk. And Amen was like mother a word.
So they got distracted and pulls them away.
And then again, it seemed like she was going out there to talk
to Kristen but got distracted by talking to Gwen.
Not that you didn't want to talk to him, but it seemed like she
especially because, as you point out, they keep looking back.
I think the scene closed with them.
Look at each other again. She even gives him a little bit
of a nod. And I think that's at least
partly, probably some concern, some emotion, love, maybe even,
you know, But I also wonder on some level, again, maybe I'm
putting too much into this, but if she's worried about Aegon and
Kristen Cole is on the Kingsguard, I wonder if she
wanted to say, hey, don't let Amon do something to my son.
You know, what have you done, what have you, what checks and
balances have you put in place for a while campaign?
Like, how are you going to still be a Lord Commander while you're
on the field? Yeah, so man, Gwaine is just
Freddie Fox is acting is fantastic here.
He just projects the he's ejected despondent.
I have no choice guy here just yeah, she's like, I'll pray to
the warrior for you. And he's like, yeah, thanks, I
guess, you know, like, appreciate it.
You know, fine. Shout out to hair and makeup
because a lot of that is honestly just the.
He looks haggard. Yeah, they, they, they, they
messed up his hair. He's not perfectly quaffed right
here. And I, I think that that goes a
long way. And you even when you look
around it like the the men heading out, some of them have
like bandages on their heads, like they're going off to war
and they're hurt. They haven't healed from the
previous campaign. It's happening so quickly.
Yeah, you're right. You're right.
Then that's that's that's meaningful.
That's that's an important detail to consider when we're
thinking Kristen was like, I lost.
He said that in the council meetings, we lost a lot of men.
As you know, we're depleted. So he's also marching with
injured men. You.
Just wanted to point out you know who he reminds me of is
Alfie Allen who played Theme. Oh yeah, OK.
I can see that a little bit. Also kind of resigned to what he
had become or what, what he's faced with.
In some ways. It starts off like kind of cocky
and it's changed dramatically by what he sees and what's what
happened for him. Yeah.
Like, you know, he, he's seen the Dragons.
He's as traumatized as Kristen Cole is and is like, we're
basically helpless here. Like the Dragons are going to do
what they do and we may or may not survive like.
It's. Going to have very little to do
with our actions and just a lot to do with just randomness and
things that are completely out of our control.
And that's not what people with who were born into powerful
families with all this agency aren't used to having no control
over their lives. So it's really, really well
done, really well expressed here.
And they also talk about their childhoods a little bit.
They talk about like the duty of children and how they were
separated. And she was the favorite and
raised at court. And he's like, yeah, but I was
raised at Old Town because I was the heir.
Like, it wasn't your fault that you were raised at court and it
wasn't my fault that I was raised in Old Town.
And she says, you know, maybe court made my kids what they
are, but maybe it was me. She blames herself a bit again,
thinking about she's in the full mother role.
She's no longer thinking about herself.
Queen. She's not really that.
She has the title still, but not the power.
And Gwen is nice. He's like, yeah, maybe don't be
too hard on yourself. Like the Red Keep.
It's a bad place to raise children.
You can't put put that on on yourself.
Look at how it look. It isn't just your kids that
turned out this way. The people who were raised the
Red Keep. It's, it is a lot, a lot of
parallels to the conversation Rainier has with Mazari later,
where Rainier is talking about her child.
Now, Damon was the one that could do what he wanted and they
both had aspects of each other's personality that they were
jealous of. And as Cole finally rides off,
the music really kicks in and it's extra sad.
And, and Olivia Cook's acting is is particularly strong as as her
expression says a lot. Now Deron is discussed in the
scene as well. That's an interesting character
that you have yet to meet Sean, but obviously the way they're
talking about him and his characteristics, it's got to be
kind of important. Can I talk about this for a
moment? OK, so Daron, I, I found it to
be really interesting the way they characterized him as a lute
player, a musician. So I went and looked and to see
if anyone had predicted that in the fandom.
And I did find a tweet and some Tumblr posts, some fanfics where
people wrote Daron as a lute player.
So shout out to some of those people for accurately predicting
that. But what I want to refer to is
the fact that we get a scene where we learn that Daron is a
musician. OK.
And then the next scene, I'm going to go here to the next
scene is Helena saying they this one stopped singing.
Strange. I think she's predicting
something to do with Daron. And I'm not saying that to do
any book spoilers because Helena's prophecies are totally
new, but that's my call because of the placement of the scene
being exactly right after the Deron drop.
That that's just my theory. I want to throw it out there.
Yeah, I like that. I thought about this a lot too,
what she meant by that. Then I, I, I consider that
because I did remember like, oh, they just talked about that Luke
guy. But then I thought about other
ways it might apply. One was Aegon singing a lot of
times means like telling the cops what the bad guys are doing
right and Amon just told Aegon, you don't remember anything
right. I think that might have been
part of what? Here's what I want to bring up
to you guys. Aren't her statements usually
prophetic and not past based? Yes, that's my take.
Is that a lot of the alternative options people have given me
already happened. A Sunfire an Aegon has already
happened. Why would she say that about
something in the past? Yeah, that's a good.
That's a very good point. It's usually prophetic, not not
looking back, not not usually, I think.
Oh, I can't think of a single example of looking back.
This also wouldn't be looking back very far 2 minutes or so.
But it is looking back. It is, but but it, well, I'm
saying it might be. It's something that's not
necessarily a vision of the future, but a vision is
something she's not aware of. Even if it's concurrent, if you
will. She might still have visions of
other things going around here. Maybe similar to how like Alice
was able to project the sounds of the suffering to to Damon.
That wasn't like a prophetic vision, but it was something
going on somewhere else that she could detect and even transmit
to someone else. Not that Alice and Helena have
the same ability. It's in the same realm maybe,
but maybe. So moving on to the bar scene, I
loved this scene. This is also helps set up the
riot that Helena gets caught in. So we have two puns on the band
on the group Panic at the Disco. We have Propaganda at the Bar
and Riot at the Sept. So the first one, propaganda at
the bar, Sylvie comes in and speaks to Deanna, who's in on
it. Of course, we know that because
Elinda went to visit her at the end of episode 5 and they talk
loudly about the lavish feasts and dancing happening at the Red
Keep to celebrate the new Prince region.
Can you imagine that? If that was really happening,
the feasting and amond feasting and dancing, It's like that is
hard to picture in part because and that's it's, it's a complete
lie, but it works there storytelling loudly.
And they're sitting near this guy who is a talker.
They know ulf is a guy who loves to talk and has a lot of
friends. And so it's a pretty good guy to
tell the story in front of someone that's going to go and
tell lots of other people. And he's clearly the mark here.
You know what I mean? Mark in the terms of like when
you're conning someone because the camera focuses on him while
Sylvie and Deanna are talking so you can see his reactions and
his and his face tells a lot. He his reactions vary quite a
bit. He shows a range of disgust with
the food, upset with the discussion of the of the
feasting, lovingly hearing the sounds of food and being like,
oh, I would love to be eating that right now.
It's, it's it's pure George R Martin, those food descriptions.
I love that little nod to the books there, their reaction to
the menu. A lot of different people going,
oh, that sounds so good, like they're looking at their food
and all the, the fish they have to eat.
And yeah, it works so well. It's very well done, both the
scene and the plot, the plan and that from there, it's pretty
easy to plant the seed, right? You've got ulf basically says
what they want to hear, like what they're building up to.
They would have said it themselves if he didn't say it.
Probably. He's like, Vasaris never let the
city starve. And he loved to party, but he
didn't, you know, he wouldn't let people go.
So he was able to do both. He was able to party and kept
keep people fed. Why can't these folk, Why can't
these rulers do that? Sure is a shame.
The air he chose isn't sitting the throne.
Just saying, you know, just saying like, you know, So it
it's great. I love the scene.
They lead him on perfectly. He takes the bait.
It's the the groundwork is there because, yeah, they really are
starving. This.
These greens really aren't doing a very good job here.
But the blacks make it worse and exploit it.
So, yeah. What did you think, Sean?
Here's the thing I thought was interesting.
Sylvie seems to be propagating this in cahoots with Diana and
cahoots with Missari, right? But she seemed to be a confidant
of sorts to Amond, and so now she seems to be actively working
against him. So how much of that is Amon was
just paying her? She didn't care about him, or
maybe she even is. Actively mad at him now, she
tried to say, look you angry Princess, make the poor people
suffer. And now all of a sudden he's in
charge and to close the gates and the poor people suffering,
she may actively want to be teaching him a lesson.
He was rude. I agree.
She was rude to or he was rude to her, Yeah.
Yeah, he walked off. I don't think they've seen each
other again since that time he walked off naked.
And yeah, and since then he has exactly your right, Sean.
He's ascended to power and things are worse.
So yeah, I mean, she might be lying when she says he's
throwing parties and dancing and all that, but she's not wrong in
that. He's not helping the small folk,
you know. Yeah, and the Royals may not be
sitting around having a party of a feast, but they're also not
eating thin fish soup for that. They're eating well, for sure.
And them and all the soldiers and guards and dragon tamers and
all the everyone in the castle. And probably even if you took
all their food and gave it to the other scores of thousands of
people in the city, they would hardly notice how much extra
food it was. But the idea of it is still
something that Amon didn't. Everyone in Ivory Towers is
unaware. Like Amon even asked when when
he was told, hey, the people are upset.
He's like, so. Yeah, like.
I said, well, they don't have enough food.
All right, Well, maybe we'll do something about the blockade
anyway. Yeah.
That'll take, it'll take weeks, but you know, it'll happen
eventually. Like, yeah, they need to eat now
though. Like we got put off eating for
very long. So yeah, you, like you said,
there's the this this escalates a little more.
We see we have a transition where we see Cat is outside
trying to get food and there's nothing left.
And then Alf is is standing pretty nearby and the sheep go
by the Hightower guards, the Targaryen guards with the sheep.
And he's like, oh, meet for the Dragons, but none for us.
So the the complaints are getting louder, getting bolder
with their complaining. And then we have this other
random guy on the beach that gets a food shipment and then
looks up and there's like, oh, look at all those other boats
with food. It's a really cool moment where
I think a lot of us, especially book readers, thought this was
going to be sea smoke. And Adam, you know, because of
the way they built that up before.
And that did happen later in the episode.
So it was like, oh, we were right.
It was just this wasn't the moment.
It's a different beach scene. So the way it started, it was
like, oh, is this going to be sea smoke?
Nope. That was the food arriving,
which is not a book plot. So that was that was pretty
neat. I did think that it might be
some kind of commando raid or something.
Oh yeah, he got the line earlier when Massaria told told Renira
that the the the gift is on the way.
Yeah, I think just how she. Awarded it.
Wait, what gift and. I can think of like the gift of
the faceless man is like, wait, the gift.
What gift are we talking about here?
Yeah. It is worth noting, by the way,
this isn't just boats with food on it, it's both with Targaryen
flags with food or with the Black Faction flags on it.
So. Yeah, it does.
Adding to the to like if the food had just shown up everyone
would have been happy, but now everyone is happy and
attributing it to Rainiera. They're attributing it to
Rainiera and they have the stuff to take around to, to, you know,
taunt the, the Hightower Targaryens.
But you know, I'm going to say I love this plot, this
implementation, the I just everything about this concept
about Mazaria suggesting this to Rainiera because it just jives
with her actually wanting to help the small folk, all while
she's getting back at the high towers.
It's just a brilliant plan all around.
Like I, I, I, I love it because it helps the small folk.
Like everyone's starving there. Like I'm just happy to see them
get food, to be honest. So like.
And they're the name of this episode.
So it's it's important that they're featured quite a bit,
you know, like just random dudes like this.
This guy doesn't even have a name, but, you know, he plays
his role and yeah, it's pretty cool, yeah.
Even if Massari is a sneaky weasel just trying to take
advantage of Ranira so that she can feed the poor people and
keep landing. OK, you go Massari.
The one thing that bothers me here though, is that they keep
it a secret from Jace and it's frankly not that secret of a
like. It's like again think that you
can tell your son and heir and even like.
That was just to hide it from the audience to make a secret,
but still. But I agree with you there.
It was, you're right, I should give him credit for that, but I
I'm just like, I wouldn't be bothered if I was Jace too.
I I will say it, it kind of bothers me in conjunction with
what also seemed to be hid in front of council was this
attempt to find another dragon rider.
It's it multiple times Ranirez seems to have made decisions
without letting the council know about it.
Wait, wait. I don't know if I follow you on
that one, because everybody the council did like some of the
council knew, like Corley's clearly knew about it.
And he's like bring forth. He's the one who says bring
forth, bring him forth. But I don't know that they
didn't know. I think Bartimus was just
objecting publicly. I think he already knew, but he
might not have. But definitely, definitely the.
Season they knew cries. It seemed to me like they
didn't. Know they might not have, but
the Seasnake definitely knew because he's the one who told
Stephen Duckling to. Come in, he's the hand, he was
first one in there for the meeting and it makes a little
more sense for him to know, but. So I'm not sure that the others
didn't know. I think maybe Bartimus maybe did
or maybe didn't. Anyway, look, we're not to that
point. Let's, let's hold, let's
slightly, let's back up. We're not there yet.
Slight side note, one other thing that bothered me about
this our boy Hugh, he went down a notch in my book.
I was a little disappointed. He.
Just stole that food, didn't he? Food like.
Yeah, like, but we know he had money to buy food, right?
His wife was standing in line to buy food or just wasn't food to
buy. So now here's all these people I
used. To put yourself in his shoes,
Sean, how can you blame? Him myself in his shoes.
This guy just got punched. I'm putting my shoes to the guy
that went and got food. That guy probably went and
punched someone else and took it, you know what I mean?
Like that guy might have punched someone to get that bag.
That's how desperate it is. I just think it speaks to the
sheer desperation and that even the the most half decent people
will turn to just punching someone in the face because they
need to feed their starving, dying, sick daughter.
I, I do see the sympathy there, but I also see Sean's point,
like I think there's a lot of people who would not have stolen
food from somebody else. And just, that's a fair thing to
reduce the guy a notch. But we all, and we also don't
know that he's a good person in the 1st place.
We've seen him take care of his daughter, but like villains take
care of their family, you know, like this, We don't know, we
don't have a great sense of this guy's character.
I think he's not a villain. He's not initially a good guy
either, but he's a person that's caught in the midst of an awful
situation though, that's for sure.
So the ride at the Sept, Helena and Allison are basically at the
Sept when the food shipments start.
Bad luck on their part. And we see the poor choices of
Aegon come back to haunt his family.
Because sure, some of this is just the bad rulership of Amon,
but some of it started before that.
We have this Queen of fishes. What a great shot of Shea has
here of the fish hitting her right in the face.
The queen of fishes. And we're from the behind the
scenes. We're told that a former
professional cricket player was assigned the job of hitting her
with the fish. And Olivia Cook said.
My head snapped back. That guy throws really hard.
So yeah, the crowd is unruly, but they aren't attacking.
They're just mad. It's when they pull their swords
out and escalate, which that's what I mean when I say these,
the, the poorly hired Kingsguard, the drinking's guard
are the ones that screwed this up.
You got the veteran Kingsguard, Sir Ricard Thorne, played by
Vincent Regan, who was in Troy and 300, pretty major role in
both of those. He also quotes The Expanse.
He's like, watch your flanks and your blind spots or something
like that, which is the doors and corners from The Expanse.
I love that. Can we say how how this also
speaks to their incompetence because they should have just
stayed in the damn Sept. They might should have stayed in
the Sep. That's you're not wrong.
Yeah, yeah. But.
Again, one door. One competent person in the
group, we don't really know Richard Thorne.
We don't know how. Also, are the Commons really
gonna mob the Sep, the God, like the House of the gods?
They might think twice about that.
So you're you make a couple of good points there.
But but they didn't think of that.
Apparently that wasn't they didn't consider that option.
Maybe they didn't. Maybe there is a reason why they
didn't think it was so safe. The commander of on the the old
guy, the oldest commander here, he's not the Lord Commander, but
the guy that was in charge tells them, you know, don't pull your
swords out. Keep your sword sheathed.
Allison says the same thing. Don't cut that guy's arm off
because if you start chopping arms off, they're going to get
more violent. And there's only like 12 of us
and thousands of them. It's it's a classic spot where
panic can make you escalate the situation, but you really,
really, really must not. You really have to.
Yes, they're mad, but you have to do everything you can to keep
them from getting any matter. And the drinking's guard does
exactly what they're not supposed to do.
And one of them is killed. One of them goes down, doesn't
get back up. Almost certainly that guy is
dead. That was Leon Estermont.
And if you had a higher quality Kingsguard, he would have kept
his head and, and known better. You know, they've, they've been
outside with Royals before. They've been taught.
These guys have been at on the in the job for a couple of
weeks, haven't been trained, aren't good at, aren't talented
in the first place. Yeah, undeserved promotion gets
you killed. And by the way, not even if the
whether that guy got killed or not, some other who got his arm
chopped off and I guess maybe survives, but probably dies,
right? If he doesn't bleed to death
there, he's can't work anymore. He's got any medical attention
in a town that's starving, right?
That guy's dead right? And he's probably not the other
one is probably several people that got trampled Anyone those
nights like even just getting smashed in the face with a
gauntlet when there's no food in the city, there's no medicine.
You're start. You know what I mean?
Like these guys are just wrecking balls in the midst of
these people who are starving and never mind the the morale,
the implication that the the, the, the, the, the MAR to the
the prestige of the Kingsguard that comes from this afterwards
that on and on. This is terrible in a million
different. Ways, Yeah.
It's a big call back to the riots in King's Landing during A
Clash of Kings and Season 2 of Game of Thrones.
Starvation. Possible incitement, Vivaris,
where we have definite incitement by Mazaria.
Joffrey was mad that something was thrown at him, and he
ordered Sandor to kill the people that did it.
He sent the Hound after the crowd and that's what got them
to explode as Tyrion accused Joffrey of later once they got
to safety. And in that exact same scenario,
exactly 1 Kingsguard was killed with his head bashed in just
like this one was. And it's Preston Greenfield
instead of a guy from Greenstone, which is where Leon
Estermont would be from. Their sigil is a turtle and
their castle is Greenstone. So now the major difference here
is that in that in this scenario, the food is arriving
rather than, you know, the there is no food and they're demanding
it like bread, give us bread, king bread, you know all that.
So but there there's more of chaos as the food is, there's no
distribution system for this, this food shipments.
They're just every man for themselves.
Wait, that's part of the plot. I just want to say that's part
of the idea, which is why Mazaria is not just like, oh,
what a good person. She's helping the small folk.
It's like, no, she knows there's going to be like some violence
here. Some people might be killed over
this food. The chaos that she's sending
out, she could have sent it in a way that wouldn't lead to chaos.
Theoretically, you know what I mean, But that wouldn't service
her goals. Yeah.
So there is a definitely a little darkness to this.
Maybe instead of cussing, there's a silver lining.
I mean, there's a a dark lining, Valyrian steel lining.
I don't. Know Allison gets a little bit
of a a cut here, maybe from falling, maybe from like the
spikes, maybe from people we don't actually see when she gets
starts bleeding, but it's in the same spot where at where
Rainiera gets slashed. Yeah, that's a nice.
Yeah, it's a. Nice parallel.
It is a nice parallel. Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's the same arm too.
Yeah, it was her left arm, I think in both cases.
Now friends, if you are listening to this episode and
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things like bonus episodes, which we have built up many over
the years, and fun things like your own name, your own cool
Westerosi sounding name. Like Lady Lajara Dajo who sends
a super shot and says arriving late to the party with the
flagon of mulled wine and chocolate babka.
If you know, you know. Hell yeah.
Right on. How you doing Lady Lajara Dajo?
Also a super chat from Mick Floyd who says, remember last
week when we spoke of Eamon's cool demeanor?
The more power he gets, the more petulant he gets.
The way he spoke to certain people, I was surprised.
Great show guys. Thank you, Mick.
I agree. Yeah, it's a it's a recurring
theme of Game of Thrones and real life.
Power goes to people's heads, it changes them, right?
I was a little surprised too. We talked about it, we knew it
was a possibility, but I was still kind of hoping that Amon
would keep it together on the public facing side and that we
would he would fall apart privately, would be competent
and, and not emotional like Damon.
But you know, I mean, you can be emotional and competent.
I, I misspoke, but he let people see into his facade.
There is more what I meant. Fairpoint yeah, I, I see.
Yeah, you would think you would want to keep that under wrap
because he has for so long. So the fact that it burst forth
is meaningful. And I say real quick, as a
patron, another cool thing that you get is access to our notes,
right? Oh, that's true.
That's true. I think that's super awesome and
valuable. We do have a lot of notes.
Yeah. And I want to point out another
cool name. I always love Gregor the Toasty
of the Bread Fort I. Get to say shout out that one,
one of our longest standing great names.
Gonna be at the New York City City Winery event I noted.
So you know, you can meet the man, the myth, the legend.
You could, yeah, that's right. You could meet the actual
Gregor, the Toasty Lord of the Bread Fort in person.
He may very well be wearing his Gregor the Toasty shirt made by
San Rixian. So Bogsy says the a goons strike
again. Yeah.
That's the Joe Magician's name for them.
I love it. A goons drinking's guard.
A lot of great names have come out for these guys.
Larry Moen and Curly. I don't know, Leon MO and Red
Ned. They don't actually have the the
initials. Almost a match up, but not even
if you use Shemp, it still doesn't work.
But Stannis Baratheon. Whoa, Stannis Baratheon is
attending our stream. Impressive.
He's also a second son. He's big into characters like
Damon and and Eamon, 'cause he gets them, you know, he's like,
yeah, I get it. I got to be in second born.
Stannis says. I don't know if you already
discussed Valerian dragon riding ability, but what do we make of
the fact that Aegon the 1st and his sisters were all half
Valerian? Yeah, it's it's important.
And it's very important historically because it helped
them avoid some of the problems that the Faith has with
Targaryens in their incestuous ways.
So technically, Aegon and his sisters were not quite as
incestuous, even though they were incestuous with each other.
So. It's kind of also why, even
though we don't actually know explicitly when a Targaryen
married in to the Valerians, we have to assume that it has
happened and that thus Correlis has sent down some dragon seed
blood to Adam and Allen. But we don't actually explicitly
know that those Valerians have a Targaryen ancestor.
I just think like, of course, like, I mean, as you, as this
person points out, Valena Valerian married in.
And we know that Damon Valerian, the first master of ships, who
was killed in the Battle of Gull Town when they were trying to
take the veil before Visenya came in and just destroyed all
the ships that killed Damon. He was married to someone.
We don't know who it was, but his his wife might have been, is
actually a candidate for this invented Targaryen Princess that
they put in this episode. But yeah, there's a lot of holes
in the early Valerian Targaryen family trees.
And I don't mean holes like George screwed up.
I just mean unknowns. Like, they're not, it's not
filled out because it just isn't, you know, for in
particular, there's almost no women on the Targaryen pre royal
family tree, which is of course impossible.
And if it isn't, and if it's somehow just randomly there were
very few women, then that means there were lots of brides from
other houses that aren't accounted for either.
So yeah, there's definitely more mystery there, but usually we
can get at the answer. So I think we're actually going
to talk about that separately at some point.
I think I'm setting aside some time after the season to talk
about all these, the impact of dragon lore, the Targaryen
family tree, maybe a little of the Valerian family tree as
well. Some some suggestions, some
changes, just things of that nature.
Haven't come up with a title for that yet, but that's the vibe of
that episode whenever it comes out.
Something we'll do not long after the season.
Let's talk about the veil. Joffrey and Reyna have a little
conversation. Reyna's being a mom sort of
saying, look, we got to do our part, you know, I know we're not
happy to be here, but our roles are important, even if they feel
small. Yeah.
So it's like it's it's more older sister than mom vibe.
But that's basically what she is.
She is older sister, basically. And Joffrey says he misses his
mother. And yeah, it's, it's a little
little heart sick, a little sad. But then they come across this
huge scorched area with burned sheep.
And it's a little bit like the burned mill where they zoom out
slowly and you see just how big this scorched area is.
And it's like, whoa, that is pretty big.
And we cut to the Princess and the tower vibes where Reyna is
sitting there in her dress that's all flowing around her
like a rose, like a bud of a flower and holding a dragon
figurine. And she talks to Lady Jane and
says, my lady, you misled me. I love the way she brings this
up. And she's like, I did what?
Like there is a large dragon in in the veil.
She's like, yeah, large, formidable, but wild.
Alas. You know, what's your reaction
to a dragon being in the Veil? This isn't expected, is it?
No, it makes me I'm sort of assuming this is a different
dragon than all the other Dragons that have been
referenced. I I don't know how far the
Dragons range. The veil seems pretty far from
from Dragonstone and it's I don't know if those other
Dragons that had riders that don't, if those would still be
called wild. I did suppose that she that
Raina was going to ride sea smoke.
I felt I've seen remember there was a scene where we saw sea
smoke flying around. I think Massaria said that, you
know, he seems lonely. And then they cut to Raina, and
that made me think. Oh, she's going to ride Sea
Smoke? And now it seems like Adam's
going to ride some sea smoke so. But maybe Rayna is going to ride
a dragon, just not sea smoke. Maybe whatever dragon this is.
Yeah, because all of a sudden she's not here.
There's only one I don't. Know Oh yeah, there could be
more. If it's possible there's more
than one or how where Lady Jane or whoever would be of that or
they would have been to it, I'm not sure but.
Yeah, good takes. Good takes.
So yeah, she is told that Prince Reggio, who she's already lived
with in season one when Damon and Lena lived there, are going
to receive them on a ship called The Gay Abandoned.
That's the same name of the ship in the books with six good men.
Why wasn't it 20 good men? Come on, she said, I'll send six
good men. I was like, come on, you could
have just said 20. I'm just kidding.
But yeah. So it seems like the vibe is
that Rayner was is ready to leave, but now maybe not so
much. She's like, maybe I don't want
to leave now. We also get a shot of Aegon and
Viserys and the hatchling Storm cloud.
Little hatchling there, little little baby dragon.
That was nice. Let's head over to Dragonstone.
You're not wrong, Sean. The Veil isn't close to
Dragonstone, but it's not super far either.
The Veil is large and the Erie is sort of in the southern
portion. It's like the maybe it's like 30
to 40% of the way into the Veil. So it's not that far.
There's we do have examples of Dragons ranging farther, let's
put it that way. That said, this is not a book
plot. So but we do have Dragons
ranging farther in the book. So in different cases, not
necessarily even this timeline, but you know, in throughout the
history of Dragons. So Dragonstone we have the black
council. Coralie stands alone at the
table at first a symbol of how he feels.
He's alone now. His wife is gone.
He's lost a lot of his family really.
Obviously Rain E is the one that hurt him the most and is the
most recent by far. His son and daughter both died
quite a while ago. Obviously that's not going to
fade. He's going to miss his children
forever. But as we'll discuss shortly,
his family is bigger than it first seemed.
He has two more sons that he hasn't had a relationship with,
or much of one, but that seems to be changing and we'll come
back to that shortly. Rainier orders the retaking of
Rook's Rest by Lord Mouton. Lord Moot was one of the four
Lords who led the charge in calling out Damon to his face in
episode 5. So this is a little interesting
that guy is following Rainier's orders but not Damon's because
he followed her order here. I guess maybe maybe he isn't
going to reject the order because Rainier isn't says he's
following my order. She says I ordered him to do
this. There's no evidence that
actually happened or he's obeying it.
Still, it's a little interesting to see that this one Lord is
part of is like a little bit of a connecting tissue to both
Damon and Rainiera. Now Maiden Pool is on the coast,
it's closer to the Crown lands than it is to most of the
Riverlands, even though it's considered part of the
Riverlands. So she could very well, or
rather Lord Mouton could very well fear the blockade coming to
affect him as well. It wouldn't be much for them to
send a couple of warships over in Blockade Maiden Pool.
It would only take like two or three warships and that maybe
only one to shut them down entirely.
So he's got reason to make sure to do what Rainier wants.
Whereas the other River Lords, Rainier can't easily threaten
them. Damon can, but they're united
against him. So they're presenting a united
front there. So it's it's a little different.
The scenario there. The Lord Carly's calls for
Stephen Darkland about the plan to find new dragon riders and
he's doesn't know what's going on.
He's like, I don't know why you're asking me all these
questions, you know, like, well, your your family.
You don't have any more. Like, what what is this to do
with me? You know?
And then she tells him and he's like, oh, he's all for it.
He's he is humbled and honored by it.
But he's like, yes, he doesn't hesitate.
He's like, yeah, I want to ride a dragon, you know, that's,
that's great. That's awesome.
This is a brave man given something that he would have
never even like, literally never have dreamt of other than like,
knowing that it's a fantasy. But this doesn't seem like the
kind of guy who's prone to fantasy.
Kingsguard Knights don't really have that type of personality.
Generally. They're a little more
straightforward in one of the times.
I don't know about y'all, but I didn't expect, well, I mean,
well, Sean didn't know necessarily to expect this
period, I guess. But as book readers, we knew
that this was going to happen. I didn't expect to be so like
sick to my stomach over over this, this man who is kind of
sacrificing himself for something that is hopeless
really. And then also I was, I was both
laughing and sick to my stomach because it was such a comical
idea. Like you just look at this and
like the very idea like this is this is you shouldn't even be
trying this. This is hopeless.
You know what I mean? I, I thought it was really well
executed by the writers, directors, whatever the framing
of all of it to just kind of add this level of of sad, sad humor
to it. Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
I thought there was a chance it might work out, especially the
way sea smoke, you know, lowered seemed, seemed to be
cooperating. Yeah, let's go get a good little
fake out there. Yeah, I and it seemed to be
something they were setting up. It seems right now it seems like
the blacks are almost hopeless to win this war and to keep the
show interesting and have another season.
Something got to balance it out. All right if they get a couple
more Dragons out of all right, this I you know I I legit
thought this might happen here, but I I also thought maybe it
happened and we just didn't see it on screen, but I hope they
prepped him a little bit. Did they give him any kind of
coaching on like this is where you grab the sound.
I don't think they. Prepped him enough because they
should have. They would have given him and
told him when he burns you kill yourself.
They clearly didn't prepare him. Enough.
I don't know if that's the kind of advice they would want to
give, but I think he clearly was prepared somewhat because he
knew some of the Valyrian commands.
He said Doheras sea smoke, so there was clearly some prepping
there. I just don't think they would
have needed to show us that. Princess Ariana Targaryen has
mentioned. This is one we'll talk about in
more detail later. Not a book character, but
there's been a theory since the early days of westeros.org, way
before the World of Ice and Fire or Fire and Blood or HB OS Game
of Thrones of course, that the Dark Ones and Targaryens had a
common ancestor. Because in the book Stephen
Darkland is the first one to try.
Also now. But why would they try a guy
that doesn't have Targaryen blood as their first writer in
the book? It's the same scenario here they
specifically said let's find people with Targaryen blood and
see if they can ride Dragons. So the book was also implying,
not even implying, just telling us indirectly that Stephen
Darkland has Targaryen blood somewhere in his history.
But there's no one in the Targaryen family tree you can
assign this to. So they had to invent a
character because the book does not give us an option, even
though the book is pretty explicit to Stephen Darkland
pretty much had to have Targaryen blood.
Not only that, this has been, like I said, it's been a theory
for so long that the Targaryens and Darklands had a connection
even prior to fire and blood, like I said.
So I was very pleased that they used old like A Song of Ice and
Fire fandom lore, like almost it's almost folklore that that
this theory existed and they they managed to squeeze it in
here because it makes sense to so that that was really good.
Yeah, some people didn't like some parts of it.
Like as he said, we'll talk about it later.
I think really it works fine except for the Princess aspect,
which is kind of tricky. But even there I can I can
choose to say that for me my explanation is just Rainiera is
just like to her, all Targaryens are princesses.
Yeah, she may be mistaking the fact that this, if this person
was born before the Conquest, they wouldn't be a Princess.
But Rainiera might not be thinking that way.
She's like, I just calls them Princess as a as an honorific.
The the book, the scroll she read may not have referred to
Princess Ariana Targaryen. She may have just seen Ariana
Targaryen and just assume she's a Princess because in her mind,
all Targaryens were princesses that were women.
But but it's not true because pre Conquest they wouldn't have
been. Yeah.
So that's for my sake. Like what?
I'm choosing to reliable narrator, Yeah.
Like is that you can go with whatever explanation you want,
but I don't think that it's a like a huge flaw or anything
like some people have maybe criticized it.
I think it's it's solid. I think it's solid.
Yeah, so again, the book does not give an explanation for why
first F on was first. So the show is kind of left
like, well, we got to make something up here.
So I I'm totally cool with that. But like I but like I say, I
said, we'll, we'll get into more detail with that because it's a
big discussion about how this could affect the family tree.
And there's other good theories, but we don't get bogged down on
one great one grandmother's grandmother that was made-up for
the scene. This this leads us to more of
the rule by fear concept. Now, this is part of why Sir
Stefan was first also, not just because of his blood, but
because she he's an existing person that she knows she can
trust. You're just going to give a
nuclear bomber, a nuclear bomb plane or a nuclear delivery
system to some random? Well, you might, but there's an
obviously bad reasons to do that.
So of course, the Lord Commander for Kingsguard would have been
interesting to have a dragon rider as your Lord Commander,
your Kingsguard. But that was the point.
Someone that has been in the trenches with her, the guy that
snuck into King's Landing with her, this guy has been loyal,
loyal, loyal for a long time. So like, if anyone's going to
stay loyal after being giving this power, it's him.
I mean, that's the reason. That's the thinking anyway.
Obviously, who knows what really would have happened if he had
survived. But, yeah, so Lord Seltegar
objected to the plan initially. And then he kind of rubs it in
Ranier's face afterwards. Like, I kind of, I told you, you
know, I told you it was predictable.
And she slaps him. So he rubs it in her face.
She rubs it in his face, you know, and and she says, I it is
my fault. I think that you've forgotten to
fear me. And this is a big vibe for her
this episode. Like, people just do not take
her seriously enough. She's sick of it.
And like, yeah, you would not have followed Damon saying these
kind of things. You probably wouldn't have
followed. You definitely wouldn't have
followed Amon saying these things.
That guy seems kind of scary to do that.
I think it's just makeup that makes her look so like, upset
here. Do you think like Emma Darcy,
they like had a solid session where they just like actually
cried for a while because it looks so good?
They're mad. Yeah, right.
Yeah. I don't know.
That's a good point. I didn't think of think of
makeup as adding to this, but. It's definitely makeup, but I
also wonder somehow if if they just took a minute and just like
let themselves get really worked up and red faced and then cried
a little and I don't know, 'cause like the, the way their
eyes look here, it's just, it's so good and it's, it's just,
it's, it's so effective. Yeah, yeah.
Like Bartimus was like, he shrank, you know?
He's like, whoa, I didn't see that coming.
We've seen Mira BI don't know. In my opinion, a a champion
actor throughout, you know, I I've pick them as my favorite
multiple times for an episode so I can give it all to acting and
no makeup, but not that I don't think makeup could be involved,
but I think an actor could do it.
Yep, Yep, I agree. So either way, fantastic moment.
Real quick too, you alluded to it a little bit, but this that
that moment of, you know, it's my fault.
You're not afraid of me. And later on, she picks up that
sword, but she puts it back down.
And even when Missara kind of compliments her even, but she's
like, she's like she's conflicted about that direction
that she's going. I agree and the way look what
she has on the screen now this is a really clever framing.
You can't see where the sword is pointed.
Like it's like, as if it's pointed at the unseen enemy.
Like she's, she doesn't know who she's fighting against.
She's like there's, she's got enemies everywhere, but she
can't necessarily identify who they all are.
It didn't occur to me until just now, but it's almost maybe a
theme or motif of this episode is identity.
A lot of different characters have made big transitions in
what their roles and responsibilities, expectations,
or whatever are. Amon has been moved up to more
definitively King Aegon has been removed, Allison removed more of
motherly role. She seems to be shifting gears
into the same sort of Marshall leader that Aymond is making
himself into. Yeah, I could probably go on
with it more if I think about it, but.
You're right, it's all over. I'm glad you made me think of it
soon. Yeah, Lares as well, Mazaria as
well. Yeah, a lot of people, their
roles are changing. You're totally right.
Stefan Darklin. Yes, Yeah, right.
Rainier says the symbols of authority are not jewels and
gowns, but the shield and the sword.
It's a great line, but it's also kind of ominous.
Like, well, yeah. Rainier is is deciding here.
We're watching her transition to someone that is going to use a
little more fear and maybe violence, maybe a lot more to
establish her, her authority because it's not working.
People keep disobeying her and going behind her back and
talking back to her and speaking to her in ways that you would
not normally speak to someone that you have a lot of respect
for. And who knows whether how that
will go. But Missouri is part of enabling
that because Missouri is someone that can give her more tools to
be more authoritative and more scary and more someone that you
should fear. Plus, you know, gaining a lover
in the process. But we're not quite there yet.
Yeah. So Rainier is going the other
way of Allison being more queen and less mother.
We're trying to become more powerful rather than losing
power as well. Referring to what you said,
Sean, the, the sword becomes her.
That's more of a sign of Azari's influence too, telling her, yes,
the sword becomes you wielding the sword symbolically using
violence, using fear becomes you, you know, just you need to
do this. And she's basically a connection
to the dark side powers that can be used for good but can easily
corrupt you. You know, it's, it's, it's a,
there's a fine line between using violence for good and
using it for, well, not good. But especially in a fight for
survival, which she's in, she's already doing things she
wouldn't do, like putting people on Dragons that maybe don't
belong on Dragons, just widening her ethical range of what's
allowable. And now, so you combine those
two things like, well, give me more tools to inflict more
damage on my enemies and I'm going to fight for survival.
I'm going to have to use those things that she didn't have
before. You know, it is a good choice of
words. They've done this a couple other
times. Like it comes to mind when when
Kristen Cole was angry about what had happened with blood and
Cheese and it kind of took it out on Ark ark and and sent him
on his mission. And Ark's like, are you mad?
And he meant mad like insane, but he was mad like angry.
She's saying the sword becomes you.
She could have said the sword suits you, but she said becomes
you because it means you become the sword.
Like you're becoming a weapon of violence, an instrument of
violence. Like it's not not that it just
looks good on you, but you are going to become dangerous.
Yes, yes, well said. So if we focus on those two
specifically, it's quite a development.
They're budding relationship here.
As a Shaya said at the beginning, it's not spelled out
directly in the books, but it's been, it was definitely
suggested a number of ways and a lot of people picked up on that
and we're we're hoping for it or predicted possibility.
Definitely a lot of people were surprised by it, but a lot of
people just didn't catch that. But they'll, they are currently
being pointed to that evidence and a lot of people are out
there going, Oh yeah, this was a little bit set up in the books,
wasn't it? Yeah, exactly.
I think a lot of people were like, I don't know what you're
talking about in Fire and Blood, but I think if you looked at the
fandom, it's like there are posts, there are lots and lots
of posts of people theorizing this.
Just because you weren't keyed into it doesn't mean that there
isn't a strong implication. Both.
I mean, and that's true for other characters with Rainiera
as well. There was also a strong
implication of Rainiera and Lena Valerian in the book, which they
didn't adapt in the show. Right.
And whether it was true in Canon, in the book, who who
knows, honestly. But regardless, the idea of a
queer Rainiera has long existed and even in the show we've seen
like one, her dynamic with Allison, which is obviously like
the cornerstone of the show is that that intimate relationship
that the two of them have that went awry. 1 And two, we see so
much of Rainier grappling with gender even in this episode,
saying if she'd been born a man, if she'd been Damon, things like
with her when she went out and pretended to be a boy, she was
so tickled by being thought of as a boy.
She definitely plays a bit with with gender and is a Cersei type
where so there's there's lots of readings where people see
Rainier as very queer. Absolutely.
George just did not do that by accident.
No chance whatsoever. This is a major parallel to Lars
Nagon as well, as I've mentioned a few times.
And Damon and Alice will discuss a person with spy capabilities.
Master Whispers in two cases. Alice isn't quite that, but she
has a lot of those skills that are somewhat manipulating the
person above them, but also just building a relationship with
them. It's not full blown
manipulation. There's it's it's a range of
possibilities and and different things happening all at once.
It's not super straightforward, but the parallelism.
Is a maester of Whispers. Maester of Whispers Hey, I like
it so. Missouri has respect for
Rainiera and and attraction as well.
But she also has ambitious or ambitions and has debts of her
own to pay. She said very clearly to Rainier
that she wants to get the Hightowers back and well, will
Rainier as goals as Queen and Mazari as goals at getting
revenge in the Hightowers, They, those may not always align.
We'll see. Maybe they will because that is
a fairly common goal. Damon is a thing they have in
common as well in a similar way. They've both had experience with
him in a relationship. They've experienced similar
mistreatment from him. So Mazari is very uniquely
positioned to commiserate with Rainier in that regard.
Like there's nobody else that she could talk to about.
Like, who else do I know that's had a relationship with Damon?
She's the only 1. So it's a very unique role that
she can talk to about a person they've both been in a
relationship with. That's just, there's no one else
that's even close to that. So in addition to the
attraction, power dynamics, loneliness that Rainier is
feeling, her husband's not around, you know, and the fear,
she says I'm afraid of losing my afraid I can't win this war, I'm
afraid I can't win, etcetera. There's also a bit of an F you
to Damon here of them hooking up.
Like, screw you, Damon. So there's that.
What would he do if he knew his wife and former partner hooked
up? I honestly have no idea.
I'm not saying he would be mad. I'm not saying he would be
happy. He had no idea, really.
Especially now, because as we'll discuss shortly, Damon has hit a
major turning point in his dream slash character growth arc.
He might react to it differently now than he would have a few
episodes ago, but who knows when he'll actually find out if he'll
find out. I speak to something we we
touched on recently, which was when Sean brought up the idea of
the duck versus goose comment, you know, and queer and whether
that referenced queerness, you know, in the context of Damon.
Well, there was a scene in season one that was cut and you
see it in some shots or little glimpses of it.
If anyone really wants the source, you can message me and
get it. But regardless, there was scenes
of Damon kind of being very touchy and flirty and having
like a guy on his lap like when they were in Pentos.
So like I, I, I think as Allison said, you Targaryens have queer
customs and I don't think they maybe are quite as hung up on
the sexual. I don't, I don't think they have
quite as many sexual hang ups as the Faith.
The seven Hightowers for example.
Yeah, what happens in Pentos stays in Pentos.
I did forget about that scene. Yeah, they were definitely
showing Damon, bisexual Damon there.
But you know, we didn't. It wasn't.
Mine. It does make me think there
might have been more than just randomness of the duck goose
offering there. Maybe it could have been chicken
or beef or something else. They chose duck and goose.
That's true. So Mazario, like Laurie's, tells
a personal story about her upbringing.
Hers is more similar to Varis's upbringing than Laris's.
But the point's the same. The parallels are powerful and
prominent. It's it's impressive that you
rise from that after sexual abuse and your parents abusing
you. And that's where the sexual
abuse came from. Her father, she says that's
where the scar came from. Rainier had asked about that
before, but she didn't answer before because the trust wasn't
there. This answering the question
somewhat out of nowhere. Here is a sign Razor is telling
Rainier. And now I trust you enough to
tell you this. And she's, but she's also
asking, do you trust me in the same way?
And the answer isn't stated, but the answer is apparent.
And it's yes, I do trust you. They do trust each other.
That's why this moment of intimacy happens.
Can I? Speak to this.
Something I've seen a really common complaint from people is
why would these two people hook up after sharing something so
dark, so traumatic? Sexual trauma isn't that weird.
It's not weird. No, it's not weird.
I think it happens in straight relationships even, but I also
think it's more of a trope within queer relationships that
people, women share their sexual trauma, often a trauma that a
man did to them and then they connect in an intimate way.
And I think it's it's, it's speaking to a really.
True thing that happens, not just a trope on TV, but in
reality. And again, this happens in
straight relationships too. If you haven't experienced it,
that doesn't mean that this was like, oh, look at these male
writers writing these women hooking up.
No, I think this was very well executed and I don't think it
was sexualized. This wasn't like sex position to
me. This was just like a moment of
connection. Yes, there's power dynamics,
there's loneliness, there's fear.
There's they have a lot in common that that other people
couldn't possibly understand. Yeah, it's a lot.
And Rainier, just like I said at the beginning, Rainier has just
got through talking about how she doesn't think she can win
the war and who tells her who pumps her back up and says, yes,
you can gives her some ideas, some thoughts.
Mazaria, she's like, she's being supportive in ways that nobody
else is. She's kind of starved for like
you can do it type vibes, which isn't something that you should
necessarily need, but she gets it from no one like her
husband's not there like propping her up behind the
scenes. No one like her son isn't doing
that. No one is being as like her
cheerleader on her side, like, like rooting for her in her
chambers or whatever, you know? Not only is no one pumping her
up, people are actively tearing her down.
You can't do this thing. You don't know what you're
talking about. We we got our own plans,
etcetera. Mazar is the one person not
doubting her right now, not just expressing all these doubts
about her leadership. Like, no, I know you can do it.
I trust you still. One person's like I not only do
I think you can do it, I explicitly trust you to do it.
This is why I'm telling you my life story, and I know why I'm
volunteering to work with you. I she explicitly trusts her
period. Maybe right.
They're they're both being very vulnerable with each other
telling you. But she asked her forever ago
about that scar and she's answering a question now sort of
in response to Renera being vulnerable herself.
So there's a lot going on here and I I can see why some people
might think it's weird, but I also think that it makes sense
if that, if that makes sense. Absolutely.
So there's a parallel conversation here to what Gwen
and Allison talk about, which is about their upbringing and who
was favored. It's more the like gender
dynamics of families, these powerful families that have very
defined roles for the young women and the young men.
Like Gwen was raised in Old Town because he's the heir and
Allison was raised at at the Red Keep because she was being
groomed to to rule and be a queen and that's where her
father wanted her. So that's similar conversation
with Rainier has with Missouri about how Damon was given the
sword and Damon was free to do what he wanted.
And she wants to be feared like he is like he is feared and she
wants that. And but they both had things
they were jealous about the other.
Like Damon wanted to be the heir and wanted to be the the trusted
confidant of of Viserys. And so they both had things they
were jealous of the other and this is part of their marriage
dynamic things that they haven't perhaps spoken to that maybe
they need to have some conversation, some therapy
sessions regarding, you know, something like that, that they
can bring it out into the open. But it's also just back to this
theme of Rainier wanting to take up the mantle of authority and
realizing that's going to have to be through fear.
And like she's using Damon as an example there, which maybe not
the best example, but he, I mean, it's not untrue that
people are afraid of him, but there's other ways to wield
authority and fear that don't have to be quite so Damon like.
You know, a little bit of a tangent, but sometimes you fear
someone because I mean, especially like in a fantastic
or military environment, they might kill you or beat you up or
stab you, or they might fire you from your job, or they might be
mean. They might just get angry and be
mean or embarrass you, but sometimes you might fear that
someone is disappointed in you or ashamed of you for making a
mistake or bad decision. And maybe there's pros and cons
to all those, but I would definitely I, I, I appreciate
the person that I'm quote, UN quote afraid of because I don't
want to disappoint them way more than a person I'm afraid of
because they'll be mean to me or assault me.
I don't think those are the good leaders.
You know, I agree. I agree.
The Ranira Mazaria moment where Mazaria says sea smoke is lonely
can be interpreted a little bit differently now.
We we already wondered if maybe it was a hint that Lenore had
died and that Ranira hadn't thought about that, because she
kind of starts when she hears that she's like, lonely.
Eh, and I kind of brought up at the time that I thought that it
was speaking to Ranira being lonely.
And I think even more I, I believe that it had that double
meaning that was sorry, I was gauging.
She's the lonely dragon. Yeah, I think you're totally
right. Yeah, that was that was a good
catch for sure. So the actual moment of the kiss
uses some familiar techniques for TV and movie that I
appreciate here. First, there's no music at all,
which increases the uncomfortable silence vibe that
a lot of times is what leads to a a first kiss.
And it's like, well, OK. It also sets up the interruption
like the knock on the door, whatever is more startle when
it's silent. Well, by then the music has
started, though there. The music starts when they start
kissing. Yeah.
So they hug and it lingers. It's like the three or five
second rule. If a hug goes more than three
seconds on screen, it's gonna transition to a kiss.
It's like, especially when there's no music.
Here's the interesting thing is that this wasn't originally
scripted as a kiss. It's always been in the
intention that this could would progress to being romantic when
it happened. This is where people are getting
confused. They keep seeing headlines
unscripted kiss and they're like the actor's out of this.
No no no Sonoya Mizuno when when when auditioning like when she
when getting after she got the part was told that Rainier and
Mazaria might have a romance. So like this has been in the
works since pre season one, but originally the scene was just
going to be them breathing heavily and having like an
intense subtextual moment. Who knows when it would have
actually jumped to romantic explicitly, but it was that they
said this is the moment. I just want to clear that up for
people because I think this headline has kind of confused
people because they keep saying unscripted.
Somewhat unscripted. Planned, but unscripted.
It wasn't scripted for this moment, but it was planned to
happen and probably more than once.
This was just the first one. So while this is apparel of
Dolaris, it's obviously more complicated and in some ways
messier. As I said before this, it's not
straight about ambition. It's not as about as much about
survival. There is some genuine like
attraction here and and maybe it could Burge into more like it
could be turned. I don't know if it would go as
far as them loving each other, but it probably won't just stop
here either. So both of these characters,
Aegon and Rainier, I have like, I, like I alluded to earlier, it
has some Star Wars vibes. They're being seduced by
elements of the dark side. You've got people that are
important to them that that can provide a powerful service, a
useful role and be either take up the role of mentor, you know,
or lover or somewhere in between.
And there's all this fear, loss, pain and suffering, which is
guiding a lot of these decisions, which, you know, and
there's actual seduction to some extent here as well.
And of course, power is at the root of all of this.
So it's also Mazaria who gets Rainiera to confirm that she
shouldn't give up on the idea of finding new dragon Raiders.
I think it was easy to miss this.
She's like, I should never have, why would I?
Why did I do this? Why did I think that Sea Smoke
would suffer a darkland to ride him, you know?
And then, well, that attitude would have already shifted when
she sees Adam on sea smoke potentially.
But Mazar is like no, it was a good idea regardless.
Regardless of the result, it was a good idea.
You know, Jayce said the same thing, for what it's worth.
True. It's important.
This a very good point. That's true.
Jayce did say that. So Right.
But but it's too Mazaria that Rainier says.
OK, yeah, I'll, I'll keep looking.
I'll go back and look for some more.
But yeah, this is when Rainier says something kind of naive.
She says who would possibly want to try riding a dragon after
finding out what happened to Sir Stefan?
Yo, lots of people. Have you seen how many people
out there will risk their life just for views on TikTok?
I mean, come on, this is way more benefit than that.
I mean, even in her world, after soldiers go to battle one time,
they should never want, no, none of them should want to go to
battle again after what they see, but they keep going again.
Maybe they'll have much choice. I guess most of the soldiers are
kind of forced into it, but. Yeah, Mazaria doesn't correct
her here. I don't think she needs.
So she's like, she'll she'll learn she's wrong on her own
about that one. Once a bunch of people show up,
like, I'll take the dragon and then she'll realize.
Yeah. Sora Blue three says I'm an hour
and a half behind in the live, but I just wanted to make sure
to give you all your due. Thanks as always for a decade of
quality content. Well, thank you, Sora Blue.
If you've been listening to us for a decade, that's awesome.
We have been around that long. If some of you don't know,
actually 12 years would be a more accurate number.
But we are still just as obsessed with The Song of Ice
and Fire as we were back then, so we will keep it coming.
Appreciate that. Sora Blue 3 Sea smoke Speaking
of a bluish, more Gray dragon. But there's some blue in there.
What a great scene. Dark, intense and haunting and
beautiful. The Cave looks amazing.
There's sunlight and arches and dragon keepers and the deep cave
with uncertain depth below that sea smoke emerges from the
dragon keepers sing the same song Damon sang to Vermithor
last season. Remember, it's called With Three
Heads. Watching the House That Dragons
Built Behind the Scenes program is very illuminating here.
There's a lot that goes on into making scenes where people get
lit on fire, and there's a lot more than just that.
You know, that's another example of singing here.
I wonder if Helena is comment about this one.
Stop Singing might have been talking about Stephen Darkland.
No, one of the dragon keepers was killed and that one was
singing. Stefan wasn't.
Oh man, that's that's a little thing that it could be.
Sure, huh, It still happened. After that was after, yeah.
Oh, really? You sure?
Elaine is comet was positive. Dragon thing you might be right,
but you're positive for that OK well let's keep moving you can
you can bring it back up later positive you're positive OK I
probably. It was after.
So I mean whether that was said, you know when it's placed, but I
still would point to it being about, I don't think past
things, but. No, you're right.
You're right. I thought it was before.
It's not. If it's not, then then never
mind it. It still could be.
But it I do agree with you that it's much more likely that she's
talking about something that hasn't happened.
Yet, OK, I want to point out the quick tangent that it could be
both or multiple things. In fact, I feel like there's
been a few times where that beast beneath the board things
could potentially be coming back into play, right?
Like the the rats and the rat catchers.
Rainies busting out from the dragon pit.
But those were all after though that still but.
Still showing how it could have applied to multiple things.
Sure, but Aegon in the board in that box too is another
potential burnt beast, you know. So then we hear he's flown away
as in addition to burning Stephon Darkland, he leaves,
flies off, and then later he appears over Spice Town with a
rider. So we know where that we know
what happens there, but we haven't talked about it just
yet. Driftmark is where that happens.
Spice Town is a city on. Well, it's a town on the island
of Driftmark. Allen is promoted to 1st mate.
Like Jon Snow. He is a bastard who doesn't want
it, but it's an order. Our shaving head cannon
confirmed. Shaved head cannon.
Yeah. Shaving off that thing in the
behind the scenes stuff. They say that he does that every
day, like like a like a ritual to keep himself from being like
his father or something like that.
It's just every day he rejects the father.
It rejected him. Kind of sad, but you got it.
But I get it. You know, I don't mean sad, like
pathetic. I mean, like, that would suck,
you know, to live your life with your father kind of being right
there but not treating you like a son.
He tells his brother Adam that, you know, Yeah.
Yeah. It's going to be great to be the
first mate. Not, you know, we'll be fighting
lions and krakens. And that might be true
eventually. But here's where they don't know
about the Triarchy plan. The Greens are going to send the
Triarchy at them, assuming that works, assuming they can get an
alliance there. So the Greens aren't aware that
the Northern army's on its way to the Riverlands, and the
Blacks don't know that the Greens have reached out to the
Triarchy. Who have quite a lot of prior
history with the Valerians and Damon Targaryen.
So they are very much an enemy of those two.
Now Adam is out on the beach by himself later.
It's we've seen him there before.
And so see smoke first circled around him in episode 3.
I believe that was. So now there's more urgency.
The Dragon's like coming at him, you know, it's if the dragon
knows they're trying to find him a new rider and he's like, I'm
making the choice myself. I choose my rider, you know, not
y'all. So it's it's not random.
Adam is the half brother of Sea Smoke's previous rider, Lanor.
That is. A notable difference though is
that Lanor had a Targaryen mother and Adam didn't.
Now that doesn't mean she maybe doesn't have some blurring blood
in her veins maybe. But at this point in the show we
haven't even been introduced to who his mother is and we may not
get that we do get in the book. It's also not really stated what
her heritage is, so that's interesting, but you can see the
connection. Brother of a previous writer.
You know, that seems meaningful. You smell like my last writer.
Simple enough, right? Yeah.
Whatever senses the dragon has, maybe there's a little mental
thing going on as well. And in the behind the scenes, as
well as in the house the Dragons built, we learned that Clinton
Liberty, that's the actor playing Adam.
He's in fantastic shape, which he ran up that hill, you know,
to get into the forest. He apparently ran up that hill
like a dozen times filming this. And every time he was just ready
to go again because he's in such good shape.
And he did his own stunts. He fell down.
He tripped over that tree and fell down that rock face.
But most importantly is his acting, though, right?
The way his face shifted from just fear and just complete like
I'm going to die to wait. Are we having a moment?
All right, yes, you are having a moment.
That was really good. It was it was not maybe not
quite as good as Cersei's facial shift when she's seeing happy to
have Miss Marcella come back and then realizes that it's a
funeral boat. That's the most epic change of
face I've ever seen. And this isn't nearly as like
trauma traumatic or as heavy, but it's up there.
This is one of the best facial transitions in Game of Thrones
TV history. It was interesting they said
that they doubled the length of the scene.
Like I think they just thought it was so good in execution.
So they doubled the amount of dragon scenes, which I'm so glad
they did because sea smoke really did just melt my heart.
You know, I, I mean, I have to say, I can't help but think
about like all of the Dragon's body count, as it were.
Like there's certain Dragons that have killed a lot of people
and some Dragons that have maybe killed no one, right?
Like Mellie's had long already killed people and like Sea Smoke
killed a bunch of people at the step stones.
So anyways, I was a little biased against Sea Smoke, but he
was just such a sweet good boy here.
I really it was warmed to him. He Choo Choo choosed Adam.
He does have dog vibes here. Like, no, we're playing.
Oh. I've seen more people say that
it's cat play time. OK, it is a little more like
cat. Kavita Dr. Kavita Mudan Finn,
who in our last episode we had with her said that she was
assigning different dogs to the Dragons, weighed in and said the
other Dragons are dogs. Sea Smoke's a cat.
OK, all right. Yeah, OK.
Temperamental. Like seemed to be obeying and
then suddenly reared back up suddenly and like, turned on
them suddenly. Yeah, that's cat vibes.
I hadn't put a particular thought into it, but my default
thought was also dog, but I I I'm prefer more cats so.
Yeah, she likes the way that that the bounds in the jumping.
Anyways, I like the idea that not all the Dragons are dog
coated because she'd been like assigning some to golden
retriever and etcetera. You could check out our curses
episode. I think that's where she talks
about that a little bit. Yeah, she does.
That's a great episode, Doctor. Kavita Mudan Finn.
Always such a great guest. So, Sean, if your dad is
ignoring you, you're you're you're a bastard.
And your dad ignores you, doesn't talk to you, just
pretend you don't exist. You want him to notice you?
Can you imagine a better way, dragon?
I mean, Dad's going to notice me now.
Yeah. Look at me now.
Dad, you can ignore me now. What's up?
Yeah, I don't think so. This is this is going to get him
noticed by a lot of people. First of all, Rainier, who flies
off to confront him, not knowing who it is.
That's going to create some awkward conversations.
First of all, Jason, her counsel might be upset that she again,
flew off without talking into anybody.
Basically, not the the best thing to do.
But she's going to come back probably successful.
You know, like it might be. Maybe it'll be like Jace, hey, I
I did a bad thing, but I succeeded.
I got House Fray on her side. So you'll forgive me, right?
You know, maybe that'll work out here too.
But in the short term, she's worried it's the greens.
She's like, oh, crap, the greens got sea smoke.
How the heck did that happen? Now, there is certainly a chance
Adam would want to fight for the Greens, but given the the daddy
issues here and the his brother is on the black side, he's not
going to switch against his brother, most likely.
So, yeah, he won the dragon lottery and a lot of people are
going to take notice. But imagine this, like, Sean,
Can you imagine Rainier? Let's see.
Rainier confronts him somehow. They they talk, right?
Who are you? Like, Oh, I'm.
I'm the Sea Snake's son. Like, I was married to the Sea
Snake's son. He didn't have a brother.
Dude, stop lying. Like, no, really.
He's like, I didn't say my last name was Valerian, did I?
Like, I'm telling the truth here.
I really am the Sea Snake's son. I did wonder a little bit what
she would do if she came upon him.
I I also, some of me is thinking a little bit of the logistics,
like there's a lot of world out there.
What are the chances she's going to find them?
But then I thought, well, they, if they're both in this, there
aren't that many Dragons in the sky and you can see pretty far
when you're up in the sky looking around.
So, but say she chases them down.
I I don't like at at what point do you decide it's an enemy or
not or a friend or like, how do you initiate contact?
How do you I'm? I'm wondering too.
Because neither of them will necessarily know that the other
is friendly, and the Dragons themselves might make their own
decisions. So I'm I'm assuming it's going
to go well, but I'm you're wary. It's dubious.
I'm wary. Thank.
You There's been a lot of misunderstandings in this show.
Oh yeah, that's very true. Again, so I'm not leading you on
here. The the this this scene is also
not how it happened in the books.
So we don't have that to draw. And I'm not like hiding
something I know to to avoid spoilers.
I don't know. Bogsy sends the Super chat says
why are you running Sea smoke was giggling like I'm just
trying to play. Yeah.
Eric Thompson sends the Super chat 4/20.
What are you? What are you suggesting?
Eric Thompson, are you you clearly favored the greens.
But the Super chat says I choose you.
Adam Chew. Yes indeed.
Let's talk about the Riverlands. Let's talk Damon dreaming
Harrenhal and an A cameo we were clamoring for.
No sign of Sir Alfred still by the way.
I don't really have anything to say about that.
He's just not there yet. Or or will he ever arrive?
I assume he will but haven't seen him yet.
So Harrenhal we get a Viserys throne room dream.
Yay. So it starts off with a a slight
bit of levity where Damon's like, you can't still be mad
about this. But that's not what's happening.
No, you're still guilty about this.
You still feel bad about this. That's why it's happening.
It's your dream. That's not how Tron you're not
feeling his. Yeah, he's not actually there.
This is in your head, bro. And, and and the intensity he
feels, the guilt he feels is is displayed by the fact that he
knows what's going to happen. He's These are words that were
already spoken to him. It's being replayed, but he
still says don't. He's like, he doesn't want to
hear the moment Viserys exiles him.
It was, he was genuinely impacted by this dismissal in
ways that have nothing to do with ambition.
And it didn't show in his face when we saw the scene.
It was personal. Remember he, he's like, you
never made me Hand, you know, it's kind of a ridiculous thing
to say, but it shows where his head's at.
He's like, I'm your brother. I've always been on your side.
You're not backing me the way I back you like he's he's off, but
that's where he but he is hurt, you know, and he acted out.
He feels guilty that he wasn't there for his brother and he
wants to get away from it. He wants to get away from it.
He's like, Get Me Out of here. Open the door.
It's the opposite of odor. Open the door, you know, let me
out. But the scene extends beyond
this, right? Like he's he can't get out.
And we see Viserys take the crown off and start to sob, like
if this is what happened in the first scene that that that
Viserys had to pump himself up, kick his brother out and talk to
him like that. And afterwards he was broken by
it. He's like, I really, that was so
painful, sending my brother away.
I really didn't want to do that, but I had to because he's such a
jerk. He betrayed me so badly.
He's putting his ambition before the family and all this other
stuff. Though keep in mind, Vizaris
didn't actually do that. That's what Damon believes.
That's what Damon wants. Vizaris did man.
It's it's a you're right, you're right.
And it, it's, it's, it's, it's reasonable that he would have
done that and that but that leads Damon towards like, I
really did screw up. If that's what really happened,
if, if Vizaris felt bad about kicking me out, it just goes to
show that he really did feel betrayed, you know?
So Damon finally gets out. Like the door opens and we
transition to the High Hall of Harrenhal, the High Hall of
Harrenhal, the big dining room where we've had several scenes.
Damon kind of breaks. He gets a little weird with
Simon. Simon gets a little weird back
at him with the shushing. Like that was like, that was a
little strange. I loved that.
I don't know what like, I just think that's so interesting that
Simon would do that. I don't know if it speaks to his
knowledge of the supernatural stuff, experience with other
people, having weird trippy visions and hair and a.
Lot of lost sleep in this castle.
He's a patriarch and had kids and has had to shush his kid.
It was just a really interesting choice.
I'm like, I'm honestly like, so curious about how that came
about. Like is it in the script?
Was that a choice on the day? I I like, I don't know, loved
it. Love Sir.
I love Simon Russell beer. He's been phenomenal.
I I had a similar thought O'Shea that he was this sort of spell
that Damon is going through. He's not the first one at
Harrenhal to do this and it's Simon.
Maybe was even taught by Alice how to manage this.
You'll see this, you'll see that they'll they'll start to go
crazy because they don't have enough sleep.
And you'll this is how you can handle it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a playbook.
We did. Incidentally, hear a specific
confirm that he's aware of her. She's not a pure figment of
Damon's imagination. That was not take away any of
the mystique or mysticism that might otherwise be surrounding
her, but Simon is definitely aware of her.
That was a. Difficult theory for us to
respond to because we're like, no, she's definitely real, but
we didn't want to like foil people's theory early, you know,
like, no, it's because it was kind of presented like that.
I could see why people thought that, but.
I was willing to die on that hill because I know I can
separate myself and know how I would perceive things without my
book knowledge and I never would before.
A theory of of of just disappearing.
What wasn't disappearing? It was a figment that she was.
Well, yeah, like like if she wanted to observe people, she
would simply be her owl skin change self like that.
That was my take on it is like I think we had our clue all along
for how she was being sneaky or observing people and it's the
her owl and the weirwood. Yes, definitely.
So he decided I love the don't look at me.
Like he's so embarrassed. You know, he's on the floor
asking for help, like weird, you know, like this is not kingly.
You know, this is not royal. And he and remember, he's going
to later, like Alice is like, oh, asking for help.
He had he's his counsel, but then he actually does ask her
for help. And then in this scene, he asked
for help too. He's kind of like coming out of
a a dream, but still he was asking for help.
Real quick, I got to say I, I the theme, continues Adam.
New identity, Damon. New identity, Amon's new
identity, Allison, new identity. Yeah, they're all it's, it's
there's milestones. There's there's, yeah, there's
milestones in a lot of people's character arcs here that that
shows a shift. It's sometimes it's like a it's
like a maybe a little curve veering off for some character,
some way, some characters. It's dramatic like 180 like it
is for Adam and maybe Damon here, because this is a big
turning point for him. He he doesn't want to admit
what's really going on. He decides he's been poisoned or
something, Blames the swamp air. He's so dumb for that.
He's like, I've been poisoned. Who's probably you drinking this
concoction from? Alice Rivers?
What are you on about? Why do not even mention this?
This is so weird. Because I mean, yeah, I don't
understand that either, why he doesn't pin it on her.
But I guess he she's been helping him.
So he just doesn't think it's her.
But she very, very much corrals him here.
He's like she so she she brings up the supernatural explanations
to force him to realize it's in his own mind because he's like,
no, it can't be that that's drivel.
He's like, well, then what is it?
If it's not supernatural, then it's in you, then it's you.
So she gets him to kind of realize this without saying it.
It's awesome. Like he just, he corners him and
he's like, well, if it she cuts that off, like no, like if it's
not supernatural, then it's your own psychology.
It's really in you. It's great, so.
And then she gets at him with another thing he doesn't want to
hear, Alice. She says those who don't crave
the crown are the ones who most deserve it.
Like the brother you keep dreaming of.
He didn't. He didn't crave it, and the air
he chose didn't. And he's like, don't lecture me.
But she's just doesn't stop. She's like, it's a burden, not a
prize to be won, you know? Yeah, I I was going to say that
was maybe my favorite line of the show.
I I thought of you when she said.
That a burden to hold, yeah. Yeah.
And then we get that mirrored, of course, with like so many
conversations with Laurie's outright saying the word burden.
Like it's just, yeah, it's a it's a common theme throughout
this episode. So he asked for counsel
regarding the Riverlands, or the River Lords rather.
In the Riverlands, same thing. And she describes them as mud.
They won't give an inch. They'd rather die than give an
inch to each other. I love that because the last
house to be king in the Riverlands was house mud with
2DS. Nice.
So. So yeah, she mocks him gently,
like, oh, the Damon, the great Damon Tucker, are you asking for
help? He's like no counsel.
But then, yeah, a few minutes later, he actually does say I
need help, Alice. And when he's asked for counsel,
she closes her eyes. It's hard to see because it's in
the corner of the screen. And they look, she's looking up
there in that one shot. Her eyes are closed here.
And I think she's skin changing here.
She's in her. She's in her owl because it
shows up a minute later. And if you listen carefully,
there's like a screech, I think, before that.
And he's like, look, if that's how it is, there's nothing I can
do. And she's like, nothing you can
do. Yes, wait three days and then
the winds will change. So it's very subtle because she
basically starts doing what he wants as soon as he admits he
needs help. It's like the moment he finally
breaks, the moment he finally asks for help and Harrenhal
cracks him, that's when they start working with him.
They're like, OK, you've turned. You've finally gotten to the
point we've been driving you towards.
Now we'll do the things you want now that we have you in hand a
little bit, now that you see our value, now that you respect us,
now that you, whatever else. But they've put him in his
place, so to speak, and he kind of gets it without saying that
out loud. I want to point out that she
said do nothing for three days. Yeah, which is a lot better than
Allison telling Aegon do nothing, period, Period.
Yeah. Yeah, he actually listens.
Doesn't do anything. That's a lot more manageable to
to do that. Yeah, exactly.
Did you all notice that when the owl landed on her arm, it was
finishing off a snack? Like it was eating like it had
just caught a mouse? And I've like, I think that's
symbolic, like, because she goes into this speech about how you
and me are just pieces on the board.
We are not the players here. She's referring, I guess, to the
old gods because who's bigger than like Rainier is not that
much bigger than Damon. And you know, like I don't think
she's talking about humans here. I don't she's talking about
humanity at all. She's talking about old powers
and the old gods and things beyond their.
Understanding about the Song of Ice and Fire.
Yeah, yeah. So.
Do you think Alice was like yummy?
Yummy, tasty snack. Can I say also notable, someone
pointed out in our discord that they use two different owls for
the still shot versus the the episode the the moving shot.
I'll put them both on screen so you can see, but one is just
like a darker owl. One is a bar, an owl, and
apparently the other is not actually a bar, an owl.
So there was the one and then when I pull it up here, look,
here's the other. It's way different.
It's significantly different. Oh yeah, it's face is white
there. Yeah, it's, it's, it's way
different. So that that's just I'm sure one
was easier to film with. Trained owls I don't.
Know that was kind of interesting to me.
So of course, the bigger parallel here is Amond as Amon's
anger on the rise. Damon is coming through the
other side of his. She tells him he's blinded by
anger, and it seems to kind of fall off here a bit.
So just like Allison is softening, his Rainier is
hardening, Damon is kind of softening a bit as well.
So while he's waiting those three days is when he has the
second dream of Patty. And it's way different than all
his other dreams. Way different.
Viserys is weeping over Emma's body, something that we never
saw but probably happened. Something like it.
Damon imagines it as if he was there.
So This is why it's such a huge turning point.
Because every other dream, he was denying it.
He was fighting back. He was arguing with his dream
beings. He was cutting right here, his
head off. He was whatever, just denying
it, fighting back. This time, he embraces it.
He's like, yeah, I should have been there for you.
I'm here now. You know, it's like, kind of
like Allison, Little, little late, but better late than
never. And he's genuinely ashamed of
what he did. And he's coming to terms with
that. Like, he can't apologize to his
brother. His brother's long dead, but
he's at least admitting that he screwed up, that he should have,
that he was disloyal. He wasn't a good brother and he
was selfish. He like, yeah, he didn't.
The air for a day thing didn't go down quite like Viscera said
it wasn't as bad, but. And he said he must grieve.
We must all grieve in our own way.
That was kind of an excuse. It's a weak excuse.
Your way is completely independent from your brother,
who badly needs you. This is a man who was whipped up
an army for his brother at the Great Council, like ready to
fight for his brother's rights. But you can't comfort him when
his wife dies and when his son dies.
Like, come on, bro. It's pretty straightforward when
you put it like that. So when he emerges from this
dream, it's again, by the way, Simon Strong waking him up
again. It's almost always Simon.
Like 90% of the time, Simon is the one bringing him out of his
dream, which is curious, but more on that some other time.
So while this is happening, his dream turns.
And then while this is happening, Alice Gosson murders
Lord Grover, finishes him off, plies her trade, you know, like,
let me take a shot at it. Oh, he dies.
Oh, what a bummer. So it's like they got him to
confront his fears, his past, his his anxieties, his guilt.
Once he did it. Now they're working with him.
Why, though? This is the part that's not as
clear, but it seems like his personality shift coincides with
them, like doing what he wants and making it easier for him to
maybe get the Riverlands on his side, which is a very, which is
very different from the Alice Rivers who was concerned about
common folk. But is she really that concerned
about common folk if she's saying the powers that are none
of us can understand that are bigger than all of us are
actually at work here. Well, that might be more what's
going on. It's like Mazari, she's willing
to see a few common folk die if it feeds the rest of them.
You know, maybe that's the angle, but it's not as
straightforward. We we have to consider Alice
isn't, isn't, isn't all she says she is, right?
She's got some goals here too, that she's only kind of alluded
to. So if we bring in Laurice into
this, remember we talked about how his birth was may be
associated with Alice Rivers's presence.
That really changes our our view of how old she is, doesn't it?
Like we already don't know. They already chose an actress
who's it's kind of hard to tell how old she is, right?
Like you already said it yourself, Sean, Like you could
see her being 40. You could see her being 20.
Larry's murdered his family 10 years ago.
He was an adult when Aegon was two.
Remember his first appearance was in the hunt episode, the
white stag episode. He's not a young man.
So he was born like 40 years ago, maybe 35.
She was already old enough to be accused of sorcery on the child
at that. So yeah, she's older than she
looks. It was a little bit of maybe
not, maybe not as extreme as Melisandre, but that's a
character you might think of. Even if she was only 15 at that
time and Loris is only 35, that would put her at 50.
So. But she might have been 25 that
time and Loris might be 45 now. And yeah.
So when she says older things than you or I older than living
memory, it's hard for me to not think of like that means the old
gods, right? That's that's who you're
championing here or talking about.
So did y'all catch this? I want your opinion on both,
your opinion on this. When Simon delivers the news,
he's like, oh, yeah, Grover Tully died.
He's like, well, what? What was the manner of his
passing? He's like, oh, well, you know,
he was old. You know, he was.
But also Alice went there. It's like he first said, oh, he
was old. He's like, yeah, but Alice went
and tried to. She's a renowned healer and
tried to ply her craft, but yeah, it didn't work.
And now he's dead. Was, was Simon smirking a little
bit when he said this? He had this like, man, this guy,
You're right. I should say this guy's such a
good actor cuz like, I, I think he was, but I can't tell.
And I'm like, that was just intentional.
I think like, oh man, I love this guy.
I took note of that that look also, but couldn't quite decide
where where I kind of landed was.
What look should he have? I think almost any look he has,
we might read suspicion into I I even wondered things like maybe
Alice didn't actually kill him. Maybe she just knew that he was
going to die. And by going there to quote UN
quote help, it makes Damon feel like she's helping him.
But maybe she had a vision of his death.
Anyway, if she did go there to help like they really these the
tolleys would have had to trust her.
And if there's already rumors of her being a witch, I don't know.
There's some pieces of it that make me wonder how it exactly
played out And and I can't help but wonder a little bit if maybe
Simon is not even being honest. Maybe Alice didn't go there and
he's just telling that to Damon. Maybe that would help explain
the little look that he gave. Or maybe he knows exactly what
she did. Maybe she went there with
intent. They talked about it.
Yeah. I don't.
I don't know. There's a question too about why
they would let Alice do that and then trust her and not be
suspicious as well. It does seem like it might, I
just seems a little dangerous on her part.
Here's why I'm OK with it, because if they super, super
trusted her, they would have called her in much sooner.
This is a this is more of a last resort thing.
Like the dude's dying like this. May as well let Alice River.
Maybe we don't trust her, but like it really can't be any
worse. Like he's dying, you know he
can't talk. And it's the type of thing we've
talked before, like one sentence that happens about something off
screen could be a whole TV show. There could be a whole season
about the the inner politics of of the totally household, right?
There could be 3 or 4 Lords that also wish he would die so they
can move on with the war. And three or four people who
were aghast at that idea. And one person that knows Alice
isn't trustworthy, but the other people don't know it.
You can imagine how that the drama that might have played out
around that because that's the thing.
Even if for some reason they did trust her and let her work on
him, then he dies, do they? Why don't they arrest her?
Why don't they become suspicious?
They let her just leave I. Well, because why would they
have brought her into the 1st place if they didn't?
Like they clearly trusted her if they brought her in.
So I don't. I don't know.
You can't really have it both. Or thought it was the last
resort. Or, well, thankful so they
wouldn't. They wouldn't.
Arrest her. If they were willing to take a
lot like that's just, there's just no grounds for that.
I think they wouldn't have. Invited who they is, there might
be different factions. Well, the day is is Lord Tully,
the young boy who we've seen isn't, isn't the like most
aggressive. He's a soft kind of, I mean, not
saying he's not capable of things, but he he's he's nice.
He seems nice and not like a like the type to just arrest
someone on the on the spot. He may have also gained Alice
and or Simon's trust while he was at Harrenhal.
Yeah, that's he may have worked on him a little bit some.
Spell of hers. She may have been able to
manipulate him. Very true.
There's a lot of possibilities here that that fit that we
can't, we just aren't Privy to. So maybe this opens up a way for
Damon to get the River Lords after all.
Certainly the fact that there he only has to convince one person
now, then all these people could make his job easier.
That doesn't mean it's going to work.
But he doesn't show any immediate satisfaction at that.
He just puts his head back down and weeps because he's still
feeling the guilt that he just woke up from that dream where he
had his turning point. Like that just happened.
That's how I feel after a nap, too.
You know, You just wake up and you're like, oh, I'm just
compobulated and I just got to cry.
Yeah. And of course, as we've said,
Grover Tully maybe kind of reminds him of Asaris.
I think like an old man that people aren't that's that's in
charge that people aren't listening to anymore.
And maybe maybe helped helped him along to his death, like
because Damon believes the Greens did that.
So that I think factors in here. So he's finally admitted to
himself that he wronged his brother.
So this, this all is just washing over him right now.
He's gained something huge at Harrenhal.
He may not realize it yet. He might think he may think this
is all making him weaker. But this is the kind of
character growth we saw from Jamie in the same area.
His, his, his character growth started at Harrenhal.
And some of some of the worst, worst moments were at Harrenhal
too, in and around Harrenhal. We'll say not at not initially
all within the walls of it. His hand got cut off near it.
His where would tree dream was near it, but also his white
cloak was given to him at Tournament of Harrenhal and all
that stuff. So there's a lot of, he's got a
lot of association with Harrenhal, but and his dream,
his dream that he had at the Weirwood stomp is very similar
to the type of dreams Damon's having here.
And again, Jamie didn't have a redemption arc.
He had a change to his character that was somewhat redemptive.
He wasn't redeemed entirely. And then he backslid again later
in the show and we'll see about the books.
So all the stuff that could be on the table for Damon, it's not
necessarily redemption, but it is redemptive.
It's positive and it definitely represents real change to the
character. What he'll do with it, well,
we'll see. But he's grown.
We'll see. What I got to say, Jamie, is,
you know, growing or redeeming or whatever from a higher point
than Damon in the 1st place. Like the person that, as far as
I know, the one person that Jamie killed was a murderous
king. He tried to kill Bran.
He killed his own. Wife, he tried to kill Bran,
don't forget that. OK, you can count Bran.
You can count. Bran.
I think. And he killed all of Ned's men
for just because because Catelyn locked up Tyrion.
That was remember he jumped him in the streets and was going to
kill Ned until the other guy interfered.
Yeah, so young Jamie is pretty crappy.
Or before before his. Yeah, there's some.
You go back farther before his POV and there's a there's a
quite a few things he does that are kind of shady.
Of course, killing Harry's is not one of them though, but
that's part of what makes. Them so interesting Damon
committed incest. Oh wait, I.
Do have that in common. Yeah, of course the Targaryens
were. That's not a negative.
That's not like a crime to people when they do it.
Jamie and Cersei knew they were doing something wrong.
They weren't married. That's a King's Guard oath.
That's a cheating on the king. Now there's it's still very
more. Age appropriate.
Yeah, it is more age appropriate.
Yeah, that's true. That's just none of it's
appropriate really, But it does make for great stories, great
storytelling and a lot of fun discussions.
That does mean the end of our episode.
We have reached the conclusion of our season, our episode 2
season, Season 2, episode 6 analysis rather.
And so someone says Alice gives the mouse to the owl.
Is that Oh, really? I didn't see that.
OK, that's a good catch. She hands it to the owl.
Yes, that. When the owl lands on her arm,
she pulls a mouse, ready to go for.
It if there's a. Treat I don't know so I I didn't
verify that, but multiple people in the chat said it so I'm going
to go ahead and then believe them.
Story checks out. Probably I.
Wonder if that might even be a real world thing.
That's how they get the owl to land.
They have to have. The treat Here's your snack.
Yeah, like real world is in in the action.
True because it's not true. It wouldn't have to be true for
Alice, who skipped. Changing her owl.
But yeah. Either way, but AL's got to eat
still, so you know, either way it's I love to go.
Owl's got to. Eat owl's got to eat.
Owl is rivers. Owl is rivers.
Yeah, Owl is Rivers. Yeah, it works so many ways.
Next time we have Ken Renfro with Sean, we'll.
So we'll be just taking a no spoilers approach with the next
episode on Wednesday and we'll be back with predictions and
previews and spoilers on Saturday.
So also we hope to see you there.
Thanks to Bran the Builder for his awesome intro that we love
so much. It's it's pure fire and blood.
And thanks to Michael Klarfeld for the awesome map that you see
behind me. There are so many more maps
Michael has available for sale on his website.
Go to KLARADO x.de that's claradox.de to get yourself one
or more of those awesome maps. You can do it.
You sure can. And on behalf of Ashea and Sean,
did you have a last comment, Sean, or was that just your
wave? That's a a last minute question.
What's your shirt? Oh my shirt.
I'm wearing the oh Long live the King Viserys shirt with his mask
and his crown and this this shirt hit the hit the stores
right after the walk after Paddy's great walking to the
throne for his last. I will sit the throne today.
Otto, I am confused. Why are we hearing petitions on
a settled matter? Yeah, yes.
It was so good to see Patty again.
So of course that's why I'm wearing the shirt today.
I likely won't have another chance to wear it with anything
with it being relevant. It it could still be fun to just
to wear 'cause it's, it's a fine shirt.
But yeah. And you have what going on there
looks like a get a get down shirt, the get down.
Shaolin fantastic from the get down.
A ladykilling romantic. And it sounds like Daron
Targaryen is another ladykilling romantic musical type guy, so
I'm picturing Daron. Fantastic, right?
Now, Daron, fantastic. That's that's fantastic.
OK, folks, we'll see you next time for more.
And you know what to do that. Until then, Valar reread us.