HOTD: The Westeros Kickback Previews Season 2

[00:00:00] Rob here, getting you ready for a special presentation of our brand new Scripted TV podcast RHAP. We know Scripted TV is back here on RHAP and all week long we are dropping our first week of Scripted TV podcasting here on RHAP. So hope you enjoy this special presentation

[00:00:22] and make sure you're subscribed to get everything we're doing on Scripted TV at rhap.com. Welcome back to Recap Kickback. I am your host Chappelle and this is a very special

[00:00:53] preview podcast for the upcoming season of House of the Dragon on HBO and Max. I am your host again Chappelle and I will be here joining you all for this conversation about a show that

[00:01:08] I would say people are very excited to hear us talk about but they're excited to also go on this journey in Westeros. So we're calling this Hot D, the Westeros Kickback and with me to talk

[00:01:23] about this world of Game of Thrones, of House of the Dragons, my co-host who has been gone for a while but she's back. It's Mari Forth. Mari, welcome back. I'm glad to be back and from this point

[00:01:38] forward you can address me as a Maester Mari Forth because I'm here with the receipts to talk about season two of House of the Dragons. I am so excited if anybody knows anything about me.

[00:01:54] Game of Thrones is my zhuzh, it's my bag. House of the Dragons is just like right up my alley. I am so excited to get into all of this with you Chappelle, to get into this new season, to hopefully

[00:02:07] expose some people who might not be watching it to this show through our commentary and to hear us talk about this show through our eyes and our perspective. So I am so excited. Yes, this is going

[00:02:20] to be so much fun. Mari is a Game of Thrones expert. She likes the books, she likes the show and I am here in the fantasy world. Basically this is not my area of expertise at all. I liked

[00:02:34] Game of Thrones until I didn't like Game of Thrones and then you know shoot me if you're mad about it but sometimes you know at the end, the end was mid at best. I will say that but House of the

[00:02:43] Dragons season one delivered. It delivered and because of that I think that it's only appropriate that we use our expert Mari to her full advantage, Maester Mari with the receipts and we're going to

[00:02:55] talk about season two of House of the Dragons as it premieres next week but we got to get everybody caught up on what we plan on doing here on Recap Kickback and what we do normally. So we talk about

[00:03:06] media, we talk about music, television, movies or whatever else comes to mind that we think would be fun. A lot of times we center Black conversations, Black artists, Black authors, actors, art you know

[00:03:20] whatever. We like to make sure that we make space for underrepresented community basically the Black folks so if you're watching this on YouTube you'll see that Mari is team Black y'all and I'm team

[00:03:30] Blackity Black okay because we're gonna make sure we put on for our people so if you never if you've never been here before welcome. We talking about them dragons and them thrones y'all

[00:03:40] hashtag them dragons, hashtag them thrones. Mari how did you get into what this whole world because again I know you like the fantasy stuff. I know you're a vampire girly. You like you like your

[00:03:53] stuff but how did this speak to you to make you want to talk about it here on Recap Kickback? So it's so funny it's because like my husband James who was my boyfriend at the time was like

[00:04:04] oh this show Game of Thrones it's about to come on HBO I think we should watch it and I'm like I don't know about that. Like I was just like eh I don't know like Lord of the Rings never really

[00:04:16] did it for me like you know so I was kind of like I guess and then we watched it and I was like oh snap and Game of Thrones from episode one just really pulls you in like if you're here we're

[00:04:32] assuming that you've watched Game of Thrones so full Game of Thrones spoilers full season one House of the Dragons spoilers but the fact that they in episode one tossing Bran out the window

[00:04:42] I mean how can you like not like come back and figure out what's going on and then it was just so funny because it just our whole friend group just got was just swept by Game of Thrones fever

[00:04:55] just like a lot of people were back in 2011 I believe it was and we just happened to be like hey everybody come over to our apartment we're gonna watch episode nine of season one of Game

[00:05:07] of Thrones which again we had so many people in our house and we're just watching like oh this is great and Ned Stark's head comes off so it's like Game of Thrones it really truly is like

[00:05:21] been a cultural phenomenon and once season one ended I was like okay now I gotta go and read the books. I read the first book like I was like okay I'm just gonna read the first book I'm gonna

[00:05:34] not go any further I read the first book I was like oh my god okay I'll read the second book and I ended up reading all books I'm pretty sure by the end of the first season all the current

[00:05:46] five books were out so or the or the fifth book was just coming out and I told myself I wasn't gonna read them all and I read them all and I've at this point I've read the the books at least

[00:05:58] about three to four times each for the House of the Dragon book I've read that book at least three times as well not including reading all of the short stories that um pertain to the House of

[00:06:12] Dragon I've read those several times as well so uh I'm the type of person who if I'm bored I will go back and read the Game of Thrones books so it's it's a world that I did not necessarily think I

[00:06:26] was gonna be into and then the moment it hit my veins I was like give me more and I'm still like I still uh would threaten George R.R. Martin like if I yeah why haven't you read book six yet

[00:06:40] what's what's going on it's only been 13 years and uh Mr. George R.R. Martin act like he can't freaking put out a book oh anyways we're not gonna get we're gonna get into that later but oh we're

[00:06:53] definitely gonna talk about him yeah yeah yeah I I truly do I I love I love this world in this series and I'm so glad we get to talk about it and we'll do it in a way that we will break down everything

[00:07:07] that we've seen in the show and then I might add we'll add a little bit of some light book spoilers and stuff at the end as well so for those who are who have also read the books and stuff like that

[00:07:19] and who are interested in that so it's gonna be a fun time y'all I'm so excited yeah I definitely want to approach this for the casual viewer like myself and then the diehard viewer like Mari who

[00:07:32] you know who is going to take us to the maesters book club at the end of every uh at the end of every podcast yeah we're gonna have a good time as far as I'm concerned yeah everybody was talking

[00:07:41] about Game of Thrones so I had to go see what all the fuss was about but I am not a fantasy guy I don't care about the um I don't care about them rings I don't care about them hobbits you know

[00:07:52] I got into I got into them them Hogwarts for a little bit yeah but but that lady she's awful and I refuse to support anything else she's got going on so as far as I'm concerned this is my new

[00:08:06] fantasy uh you know content yeah yeah exactly and so I watched Game of Thrones uh I think I was a little late obviously coming to the party I probably showed up around season four or something like

[00:08:18] that and so yeah so I was like okay cool so I went and binged like everybody else and then I was just in time but then like I said I only really in real time watch like two-ish good seasons of television

[00:08:32] with everybody else before it completely went off the rails and I was like y'all this is not the show y'all promise this is not the prince that was from this is this is not what I was told I was coming

[00:08:44] here for you know they had to start making shit up because uh because somebody wouldn't finish some books right exactly so I got to about season six before I started saying hey this isn't good I don't

[00:08:59] like this and um yeah and then again I was fighting for my life because the throners the people out here who love them dragons dem thrones y'all are relentless okay y'all hey don't talk about my show

[00:09:12] but I'm sorry Mario after the finale of season eight nobody could deny that we had lost the plot to me Mario the storyline had run stale okay because we didn't have no books to go off of

[00:09:26] so and it's so funny because even the stuff that they did have the books for they completely changed so it's like it's it's really really jarring for me as a book reader who knows like some of the unfinished storylines going into book six that were completely taking

[00:09:43] taken out of the show it makes me think like okay uh if they seriously did stick to the rubric that George R.R. Martin gave them which I really hope they don't I really hope he completely changed

[00:09:56] the ending because that ending was ass it was a two-pack of ass um so like it it makes me think like so are these characters that I'm getting invested in that are in the book that aren't in

[00:10:06] the show are they just not gonna you know do anything you know it's so it's so it's very interesting and I don't blame you if I think if I would have watched it like you did I don't think

[00:10:18] I would have been as invested as well because I think most of that magic from Game of Thrones comes with watching with people every week from the beginning like I said like our friend group

[00:10:29] was was enraptured with it season one season two season three uh some of the best television ever season four was the gut punch uh season where niggas started dying and yeah and so I I can't

[00:10:46] imagine coming in season four like seeing like some really good show like seeing some really good tv binging one one through three because people I don't know if people realize like when you binge

[00:10:57] something and then you try and go to a weekly format it's very hard it's very tough yeah and then once you're going to a weekly format where the the um quality drops off dramatically I am

[00:11:12] not surprised that that was your your journey your journey look I'll go ahead and say it it season five is it season five finale I think when we lose Jon Snow when he dies isn't that what

[00:11:24] that is um yeah I think so and I was like dang this is I was like more seasons after that didn't right and I was like this is cool like you know Jon Snow gone I wasn't a big Jon Snow guy so I was

[00:11:36] like cool bet let's move on we come back and see yeah you know you know me so we come back in season six and a couple episodes people like oh yeah Jon Snow's back baby I'm like okay let's see what we

[00:11:47] do with this and at no point do I enjoy this show at that point like I complete interest in the show from the moment that happens and it's not because Jon Snow comes back but it's like the quality

[00:12:01] difference was noticeable at like it just starts to decline you know I'm saying like and I think it started off strong and I think by season seven I was like uh this ain't good no more and I think

[00:12:10] again because I was such a late adopter of the show like I most people I talked to will say like season eight was bad they definitely would just say season eight was bad a lot of people don't

[00:12:21] acknowledge that season seven was bad and I was beating the drum by myself people like we should have we should have invited you here you who let you in are you saying is I'm like y'all there are

[00:12:32] so many storylines that are just left untouched where I was just like what about what about this and what about things people like shut up you don't let us have nice things and so I pushed through

[00:12:43] I wait until everybody sees the finale of season eight with me because of course I again I beat in the drum all the stuff you think that's going to happen in season eight

[00:12:51] there's just not enough episodes for it to happen y'all let's be realistic I don't know Game of Thrones but I know television I know we got seven episodes left and y'all don't got that kind of

[00:13:00] time and so so we all you know basically mourn the loss of the show the way that it ends some people are like it's fine blah blah this ain't this ain't the podcast for you because we're gonna

[00:13:11] definitely tell you it's not fine but when when House of the Dragon is announced Mari I had so much trepidation about even starting it because I was like man y'all I've been literally burned by

[00:13:22] this show you know no no no pun intended but I've been burned before by Game of Thrones why should I watch House of the Dragon but I think it was people like you Mari who were saying no this is

[00:13:31] going to be based on the episode yeah it will be better and honestly Mari I think it bleated yeah yeah exactly like I got one I got one of my friends who never watched a single minute

[00:13:43] of Game of Thrones to watch um a House of the Dragon and so like I think a lot of us came into this a lot of us book readers like no guys no first off there's dragons from the moment it

[00:13:57] touches down like from dragons them they're dragons right then and there and if they know that they're about to uh film a whole dragon civil war then they have to put money behind it you know I'm

[00:14:08] saying like and so first off so more dragons second off it's it's definitely a clearer um I I personally think it's a clearer storyline because one of the great things about the Game

[00:14:21] of Thrones books are you get so many perspectives uh from different people and different sides of the conflict because there's the war of the five kings there's so many conflicts going on in the

[00:14:31] books and people have even said this as a downside there's so many characters that you just can't keep up with you know and the show actually suffers because of that because like I said they

[00:14:41] they either take some characters out or they had to restructure characters because it's just so much House of the Dragons is so more linearly focused that I think it'll appeal to a lot of a lot more

[00:14:54] people and it's just way easier to follow because it truly is two sides you know I'm saying it's not this house this house this house this house I mean it is house warfare but these houses are picking

[00:15:06] a side it's team black versus team green suit up let's go you know what I'm saying so so uh a much linear plot line and then finally like I said it's done like the it's done the book is out like we

[00:15:20] know how this conflict itself is done even though fire and blood uh the book fire and blood is a part one of a two-part history of the Targaryens and he doesn't he hasn't done the second part

[00:15:30] the conflict itself the the um the uh dragon civil war the war of the dragons or whatever the dance of the dragons is contained and finished within part one so we know how it ends uh so

[00:15:44] thank god you know they don't have to make sure yeah and and it'll actually for them it'll probably they'll probably have a harder time trying to figure out where to stop you know what I'm saying

[00:15:55] because because it this is history there is an end to the war but then it's also like what about reconstruction what about rebuilding like how far do they go through that so it's very it's it's

[00:16:07] going to be very interesting the story in itself in the book is really good and then okay one more point the and the book itself is written like a history book where even the the maester who writes

[00:16:20] it is like this is history as told as as from a point of view but we don't know everything so it's almost like a outline of what could happen and then the show almost is kind of like fills in

[00:16:36] the canon and we saw that in season one and we'll I'm pretty sure we'll talk about that that plot point but so they've done a really good job in season one of not only just following the book

[00:16:46] and and the storyline but also making you feel like they put a little bit of meat on the bones in some places where the book it might have been a one-line sentence and then they they expounded it

[00:16:57] uh for it on a whole scene or maybe a whole episode so I love that yeah I have so many questions already and we haven't talked about nothing yet Mario first thing first I want to stop down

[00:17:10] on this African American s you keep putting on the title of this show House of the Dragon House of the Dragons y'all are lucky I'm putting the the in there it's normally

[00:17:19] House of Dragons around here. House of Dragons around here. Look I was like I was like do I call her out about the S or no because um now look again this is where you came you came to recap

[00:17:32] kickback for the Westeros kickback so if this is them dragons sometimes the thrones sometimes house of the dragons house of the dragons house of dragons this is the this is the content you're

[00:17:42] gonna get here we have Mario has read the book I've seen the show we know what the title is but we're gonna call it what we want to call it because we can't deal with it yeah yeah no Mario

[00:17:51] when you talk about the way the book is structured in season one I think it was very jarring to me a purely like television watcher that from episode to episode there were so many time jumps you know

[00:18:02] it's like episode one episode two it's probably like in the same timeline if I remember and then there's a big time job where it's like oh wait there are children here okay we've had some kids

[00:18:12] they're like boom okay well we have another kid on the way bigger time yeah and a bigger time then all of a sudden we had grown folks and I was like wait wait a minute these aren't even the

[00:18:22] actresses and actors that I remember anymore um so the book is structured like that as well it's not like a through line of every year but it's like it kind of takes you to different eras of

[00:18:33] it is it's exactly structured like that because like um it's and and that's how it how it is the book stops down on really significant events but then there's like especially during uh Viserys's

[00:18:46] reign because he it's a reign of peace so you get significant events then quote-unquote peace where nothing happens for years and then another significant event so um the significant event

[00:18:59] of his wife dying um him marrying Alicent and then jump two three years and he has he now Aegon is born you know I'm saying like so or or Aegon's mature so it it really is like that and I want to

[00:19:13] say that the show did I think the show did a really good job of portraying that now again a portion of your audience is going to be confused especially if you went into it not knowing because

[00:19:24] people like me knew that like there was going to be a time jump in the middle of it I knew that they were going to switch out the actors and actresses so if you didn't know that I could

[00:19:34] definitely see how jarring that could be but honestly people just like pay attention because the show does a good job of of at least somebody being like oh it's been 10 years oh it's been

[00:19:45] they they do a really good job of trying to keep you in the timeline um but honestly you won't have to worry about that for season two or anything going forward because uh once the

[00:19:56] conflict kicks off the dance of the dragons everything that goes down is within a two-year period so like okay we go from covering what I think is um at least 15 plus years close to 20

[00:20:10] years yeah close to 20 probably yeah to uh every everything's gonna kick off in two years we're about to get three seasons within like a two-year period depending on when they decide to stop so

[00:20:22] yeah I can see how that could be confusing for people but honestly that's how it is and that's what you would want because you don't we don't need a meander of about like when nothing's

[00:20:34] happening it's kind of like it's kind of like the first how the first four seasons of um Game of Thrones it took people forever to walk from this part of the island to the other and then in season

[00:20:49] seven and eight niggas was just like time jumping back in stone I'm here I'm here I'm here look I was looking for a time jump when it was Aria versus the waifu and that girl the aria number two was

[00:21:02] just beating the hell out of Aria for a whole year and then Aria dropped out of ninja school and only used that technique that she learned one time like again that's where I want to skip

[00:21:12] ahead you know saying like let's yada yada Aria getting her ass beat how about that like we've seen it a couple times let's let's just pretend we know this goes on for a few months nah we were in

[00:21:21] every second of those ass beatings now all of a sudden by season seven boom boom boom boom boom you're just everywhere and so yeah it was a little jarring uh coming into season one of house of the

[00:21:31] dragon but I do appreciate like you said they do you know if you're paying attention they do stop down and make sure you know that there's been a shift in the timeline a little bit um the other

[00:21:42] thing that I notice is that if you're not paying attention some of these names Mari whoa man I I felt like I felt like uh Webby on on the breakfast club like Charlotte McGee what's up Charlotte

[00:21:52] we've got some that Angela McGee yeah that's how I feel because why do we have a a guy an amen and ain't it a amen a Damon and an Eric and an Eric and a Jason you know like another a guy yep and

[00:22:04] another a guy and then Joffrey but we got a Joffrey in game of thrones but we got we got all the same names out right niece queen what yes niece you know we got all that in the same show

[00:22:18] and it is hard to keep up with some of these names is it easier for you because you read the books or is it just kind of like you have to kind of remember the ones that matter the most um I think

[00:22:30] it's easy because they fleshed out these characters pretty well I believe um now this season coming up the children are going to be more involved so that's going to be hard I understand

[00:22:42] how that's going to be harder but I think if they they stick with season like they didn't see the one everybody will have their own um their own characteristics and you'll be able to like keep up

[00:22:52] and it's like I can't talk like my whole like whole half of my family has their names are all Jameses so it's just like that's how it is you know in family they just you know they they make

[00:23:04] names for the same people who are the people and their grandfathers and their grandmammies and stuff like that so that that's you know that's how it goes um I would definitely I

[00:23:13] would definitely say that season one uh they did a good job I think one of the the smartest um the smartest things they did in trying to delineate the characters was making the Valerians

[00:23:29] black okay stick with me because I know a lot of people you know we know some people were mad because oh boo shut up stop whining black people can be in fantasy too it's called fantasy guess

[00:23:42] what we exist get over it because let me tell you if the Valerians are still in the books they're saying they have pale hair uh uh violet eyes just like the Targaryens they they both are houses from

[00:23:55] old Valyria so they have those markings if they did not make these Valerians black we would definitely not be able to tell who is who because you would have had more white people with blonde

[00:24:07] hair running around correct and we would have all had to try and figure them out so I so let's say thank you to whoever thought of putting black people with platinum blonde wigs even though those

[00:24:20] raggedy wigs let's hope season two they got a higher wig budget you know the money go up in season two on most of our shows bar you know the wigs be different I'm looking at you housewives

[00:24:30] right so like so I think that was smart and I think it was smart for again people who are like you know I don't want to call a portion of the audience not very bright but I think it definitely

[00:24:41] helps when we get to the portion of like Rhaenyra's kids are not the kids of uh Ser Laenor because they're white that I mean like let's be real that baby don't look like him that baby does not look

[00:24:54] like exactly and and not to mention just like the black hair and you know the dark eyes when if they're a Valyrian and a Targaryen they should come out with the the light hair the pale eyes and

[00:25:06] stuff like that but I thought it was genius I think it I think it was so genius and then on top of that the actors are just amazing Cor Corliss Valerian who plays who will play a pivotal role

[00:25:18] in this season and in the the dance of the dragon it it's gonna be great so um I think they did a good job of trying to make it easier for us to delineate all the different characters yeah I mean when you

[00:25:29] put it like that yeah this is something that of course I'm looking for somebody to explain to me like I'm a five-year-old in episode one because I'm too busy arguing online with people like why

[00:25:37] are there black people in Westeros I'm like boo shut up shut up and so I'm doing that so much that I can't even focus on the fact that like oh yeah um these people are from a very different

[00:25:48] portion of the world right because they have the same hair so at first I was like they had black Targaryens that's so cool and I was like oh wait Valerian bet I now I get it you know I'm

[00:25:57] saying uh and so for again for me this is not my realm so I'm not used to random different countries and you know different people popping up that look similar and stuff so very much give me the

[00:26:08] the separation and let me know that that's who they are and that's why they look different and I think that's so I think that's so cool like you said I think it's genius um because I'm partial

[00:26:17] to my look we be rooting for everybody black okay like we call it what it is so I'm partial to my Valerians anyway I'm like yes king yes yeah already so I was very excited to see a little

[00:26:27] representation in this show it didn't hurt nobody and it actually enhances the show um Mari you've mentioned a few of the characters but I do think we have to talk about the main ones we have to get

[00:26:38] really outlined you know for the people who are new here maybe you're just jumping in or trying to figure out our style or recap maybe just like to digest as much house of dragons game of thrones

[00:26:47] content as possible or maybe you were just looking for some black folks to talk about it well guess what is what we're about to do so um we have basically a dragon civil war coming the dance of

[00:26:57] the dragon and um we have our competing sides we have team black and team green now Mari I know you are team black yeah so why don't you go ahead and give me the rundown like you know I guess what

[00:27:12] team black is and how we got to this point for their point of view in house of the dragon yeah so if you watch season one uh we start with uh king Viserys king well they do a really good job

[00:27:25] in that flashback of talking about the great council where they they convene a great council to pick between Viserys and king and queen Rhaenys who is Rhaenys yeah who is the the wife

[00:27:37] of Corlys Velaryon in the great council they try to decide uh who should who should get the um the crown passed to them because uh uh king Jaehaerys had no more direct heirs so Viserys

[00:27:53] was like his it was like his like grandson through his daughter or something like that and then uh but Rhaenys was like I don't I don't even know but she has yeah his niece yeah like he

[00:28:08] had she actually technically had a stronger claim than Viserys she was closer in blood but the great council voted for Viserys to get the crown because you know penises and all of that because yeah

[00:28:22] because he was a man and Viserys is um ever since this moment he's ruling Westeros and he basically just wants peace that is his great fault and his his great strength and his great fault he just wants

[00:28:36] peace and because of that he knows he needs to secure his line of succession unfortunately he only has a daughter which is queen Rhaenyra I mean princess sorry princess Rhaenyra and um even though

[00:28:49] he's still trying to produce a male heir we know because of the prince that was promised uh prophecy that's why he's so he's so invested in having a male heir unfortunately his his uh wife queen Aema

[00:29:03] dies and childbirth yeah that's a strong word dies during childbirth is a strong way of putting this man murdered his wife to have a male heir I mean because he took his body apart not only

[00:29:17] physically at the end but prior to that Marys I think they said that that woman had at least nine or ten failed pregnancies stillbirth like her body yeah yeah and she had she had she had

[00:29:30] lots of failed pregnancies because again the blood is very close even though she is of the veil she's an errand of the veil she also I think they shared a grand sire yeah so the blood is

[00:29:43] close so you know the the babies aren't they don't yeah you know exactly and and so yeah she she dies in childbirth after they they do a emergency c-section and he had a male heir yeah he had a

[00:30:02] male heir but the baby dies as well so at this point Viserys just wants to secure the line of succession he doesn't want his brother uh prince Daemon here who is who will be an integral part

[00:30:15] um he doesn't want prince Daemon to be his heir he I mean he kind of does but his council doesn't and so and because Daemon does some stupid shit like he sucks he's the worst now mind you

[00:30:28] for several episodes Mari I was like I don't like this Daemon guy they're right he doesn't need to but the stuff he pulled out with the crab man I said all right let him cook you know

[00:30:37] what I'm saying you know you have to you have to bend the knee a little bit after he pulls some cool stuff like that out of his head I was like all right Daemon I see you boy

[00:30:45] god of that guy you know Daemon is such a great character because he's such a he's such a morally gray character um because he does some stupid stupid shit but he does do it in service of his

[00:30:57] family it's all about just being wanting to be of service to his family uh but he's also like a dick so it's very funny um and he's one of those characters that as it goes on you're just always

[00:31:13] going to be like either rooting for him or rooting against him if you want some more if you don't mind spoilers and you want um a book of a short story about Daemon and what he goes through

[00:31:26] during the dance of the dragons you can check out the rogue prince it's a short story that uh George R.R. Martin uh printed a while ago but it talks about all of his endeavors leading up to the

[00:31:38] dance of the dragons but uh because of because Daemon is just so unpredictable Viserys sees fit to um claim that Rhaenyra claim Rhaenyra as his heir so he claims princess Rhaenyra as his heir

[00:31:54] he has the whole kingdom come and swear fealty to her while she's she's only 15 at this time and everybody in the realm say they accept it while he's here okay two problems right

[00:32:07] he goes on to stay on the throne for another 20 years or so right um something to that effect and then he does he decides to marry Rhaenyra's best friend queen uh who becomes queen Alicent

[00:32:21] um and this is the the major major um focus and feud throughout season one because Alicent you know through no fault of her own really put up to to to it by her her father lord uh Otto

[00:32:37] Hightower um she becomes the queen she does produce male heirs for uh Viserys and it puts Viserys in a not great position because now he has male heirs but he had already said that Rhaenyra

[00:32:52] was his heir and because he doesn't want to make the choice because he because he flip-flops and because of the misogyny of it all um Rhaenyra once he dies it's a civil war because Rhaenyra even

[00:33:08] though Rhaenyra is the proclaimed heir some people think they want to follow the rule of progeny progeny which is because he has male heirs plus like I said it's been 15 20 plus years since those

[00:33:19] people swore fealty so a lot of those houses the people who swore fealty are not ahead of those houses anymore those men have died those great men have died so their sons their brothers their

[00:33:28] nieces their nephews who never swore that fealty don't feel like they um have to um have to abide by it on top of the Hightowers being a very influential family who can you know do you want to go up

[00:33:43] against the Hightowers or not so that all leads to where we're at where we're it's a civil war because uh princess Rhaenyra who has now said she is queen Rhaenyra um her throne she feels like was

[00:33:57] usurped and this she's the team black uh by Aegon who is Viserys and Alicent's um oldest son he is he is proclaimed king and um has a coronation at the dragon's pit in front of the town folk

[00:34:14] and he's in King's Landing he has all the trappings of the kingdom he has the sword he has the crown he has the people he has the seat he has the throne so it's it's and that's

[00:34:24] team green so that's the major conflict here it's a lot of names maybe we can find like a chart or something uh for next when we break down some visuals or something like that yeah like a family

[00:34:38] tree yeah because because i love hearing about team black right because i think that it is a very compelling story like you said it's it's really the patriarchy and misogyny that's keeping this woman from having the role that essentially her cousin should have had right that Rhaenys

[00:34:52] should have had and so this is yeah so this is Viserys's chance to right that wrong and at first i don't think he cares it's not it's none of his business that's not tradition that's not the rule

[00:35:00] of the land but then the the insistence by his only daughter right to like dad like you this is my right you don't have another heir you murdered my mom trying to get one it's just me i'm right here

[00:35:14] you i can do this and he does feel a certain level of loyalty to his daughter like hey i'm not gonna just throw you to the wolves you know but one thing i was saying about Viserys is that his ass he's

[00:35:24] so peaceful that he can't do shit Viserys ass doesn't do anything in season one but waffle the entire time he tries to please both sides the entire time he tries to give a little bit

[00:35:34] to Alicent in the high towers he tried to give a little bit to uh Rhaenyra but he never makes any concrete decisions to the point where in one of the pivotal moments in the season we have uh some

[00:35:47] question about who he even has selected as the the heir here because we've seen him uh announced that Rhaenyra will obviously be here but then we do get a scene of him talking to Alicent uh about

[00:35:59] the song of ice and fire and all this other stuff and where he he thinks it's one person he's talking to but maybe he's talking to somebody else maybe he meant Aegon maybe he said Aemon maybe he said

[00:36:08] that who knows but he's so he waffles so much that by the end of this people are mistakenly believing that yeah he said it was me or maybe he said it was you but i think i would like to believe he said

[00:36:18] it was me so that so now we're in charge and all that to say i got a good hate into Viserys in season one but i never i never disliked Rhaenyra and i never like i always understood where she

[00:36:32] was coming from when it came to her claim for the throne but Mari i think i'm team green i think i'm team green i'm look i'm always team blackety black but i do think there's something very

[00:36:44] telling about the story that Alicent has throughout season one where her dad does tell him like hey go make nice with the king see what happens he's looking for he needs a wife

[00:36:55] he needs some you might be able to get you might be able to give him some sons that'd be cool and so she goes in there she's a little girl obviously there's a lot going on in the game of thrones house

[00:37:03] of dragon uh community yeah we don't even gotta say it's unacceptable stop sleeping with kids stop sleeping with your cousins stop sleeping with your niece stop sleeping with your daughters don't marry your son to your daughter don't marry a two-year-old to a grown woman that these are

[00:37:13] things that we don't have to explain right but Alicent does go in there she eventually wins the admiration of the king to where he does decide to marry her put some babies in her gets a bunch of

[00:37:25] sons honestly um and there is the point where from Alicent's point of view i did everything correctly i did everything the way i was supposed to do it i yet the king chose me the king and

[00:37:36] i'll get i have my kids they're they're blonde because they actually are his kids you know like we that's what he he brought us blonde children you know because they're targaryens it makes sense

[00:37:48] so yeah why wouldn't i be the person who you look to as you know this these are the heirs right like i am the queen thus my kids are next in line and she looks at that also while seeing the counterpoint

[00:38:02] that Rhaenyra is out here doing some things that are unseemly of someone of nobility such as you know um going to brothels with their uncle uh potentially losing their uh i don't know the

[00:38:17] purity to their uncle but also instead backdooring and losing their purity to a knight um you know or who swore chastity yeah swore chastity uh and then also you know lying about it to the one person

[00:38:31] who's really vouching for them which is Alison you know and so when i look at it through that point of view it's really hard for me not to be team green because i'm thinking yeah i mean there's

[00:38:42] some shisty stuff going on on both sides but i i think honestly maria i have if i had to pinpoint the moment i thought i was team green it's when Alison finds out about uh Rhaenyra lying about

[00:38:55] her purity we see uh Sir Kristen Cole going in and just folding like a damn lawn chair oh my god like a wet towel just like just fold it over Alison basically asks like hey you heard the

[00:39:08] rumors about uh Rhaenyra and her uncle wouldn't it be crazy if she was out here having sex or something before marriage that'd be crazy right like nobody would want to marry her and he's like

[00:39:16] it's me i did it i slept with her it was crazy she came on to me but lord i did it too and i didn't you know what just i should just kill myself she's like wait hold on pause

[00:39:27] before you do that what oh yeah don't don't slow down and she makes this grand entrance during the announcement of uh Rhaenyra and um Lenore's wedding and so she comes in and she's she's late

[00:39:46] first of all which is already kind of tacky because ma'am what are you doing but you know of course her weak-ass husband Viserys is like you know sometimes people be late to these kind

[00:39:54] of things it's fine she shows up in the middle of his speech and and to this point Alison ain't really gave you no clue that she has this kind of edge to her right like she's kind of being a

[00:40:06] little passive throughout but she opens the door and you just see her standing in the doorway with this long ass green dress and people like oh oh it's game time because prior to this we've been

[00:40:19] seeing all these people who are loyal to uh Viserys and the house Targaryen and saying okay yeah guilty here you go you you chose Rhaenyra it's treason for us to push back against it too

[00:40:29] much so we just gotta go with it but then you see Alethea walk in and she is now declaring war essentially by wearing this green dress saying nah i think my house actually has claim to it

[00:40:40] and from that moment on i think that's where i was like let's get the party going let's see more of this so i'm kind of leaning team green now Mari so let me so okay so this is where team black

[00:40:55] versus team green comes from so when when Alison makes that grand gesture in a green dress and she sits next to Viserys in the books that's where it goes because uh but they of course they change it

[00:41:06] in show because it's supposed to be a wedding Rhaenyra is wearing white but in the book she's wearing her her blacks of her house and so this is where we get when you she sits next to um

[00:41:16] Viserys it's team green versus team black i said from that moment on the uh the the kingdom is divided even though silently like it's like this is where the cold war starts right this is where

[00:41:27] the yeah yeah and we get our team green and our team black so it all comes down to Alison being a hater like she doesn't make it i understand she has a lot in life that she did not want

[00:41:40] and i think the the actress who was in the the younger actress in season one did a phenomenal job of so good yeah portraying this like seeing her like absent-mindedly patting the back of her

[00:41:52] children like she she was all about duty she's all about she did what she was supposed to do like you said and honestly you're right because it's for nothing right she marries a king she

[00:42:04] bears him all these children but her children aren't don't inherit the throne like right then why am i here what was the meaning of all of this and what was the reason and i can see why

[00:42:17] her as a mother want to protect her kids and and Otto kind of uses that against her like okay if Rhaenyra comes to the throne you better hope that she um protects doesn't murder your children yeah

[00:42:30] and any mother you you know is gonna do what's best for their children and i get that from her point of view and from a sympathetic point of view and i understand why you would want to root for

[00:42:42] them however come but her uh son Aegon the the oldest the one who would actually inherit the throne is a horrendous piece of shit yeah he sucks he's the worst not only is he uh he wouldn't be a

[00:42:57] bad ruler he says several times he doesn't even want to be a king uh but he's a drunkard he's a rapist he rapes all the servant women around him and he he's just a horrendous person who's not fit

[00:43:12] for the throne so even though you're even alison barely likes him to be quite honest she hates him she's like you're no son of mine damn it stop acting like this stop being weird right so like

[00:43:27] even though i feel bad for alison i don't want her her son on the throne because he can't rule anything but that's the whole thing if he's on the throne he wouldn't be ruling it right it'd be

[00:43:37] alison it'd be otto it would be the high towers you know it would be their ilk it wouldn't be him as opposed to rainiera who spent her whole life um being groomed for uh the crown and who you know

[00:43:52] up until certain like at least in the whole first season who we feel like has at least made um great uh choices when it comes to ruling like we saw how she was able to get that that dragon's egg

[00:44:05] from daemon um and and quell tensions between daemon and viscera so many times you know i'm saying she she has shown a good capacity lead uh you know uh one of the major points uh releasing

[00:44:18] layner from their wedding vows without actually killing him it's great great moment so we see that she can be or at least from the audience's point of view we feel like she could be a great queen

[00:44:28] so it's why like a lot of people do declare for for team black because a lot of people can also feel um can also resonate with something that was yours being taken away from you just because of

[00:44:40] your gender you know i'm saying so i i agree team green team green is it's really funny right because a lot of people don't like them because they just seem so shiesty you know so shiesty and then we didn't talk about yeah it's exactly like

[00:45:01] showing feet in the chat room right but like it's yeah i i it's so funny because it there's that is the great thing about this dance of the dragon all of the characters and and honestly

[00:45:15] even though i want to slap him up beside his face george rr martin has a does a great job of really writing morally great characters there's there's hardly ever any clear-cut bad guys or good

[00:45:27] guys you know hardly ever but um there are some and i think that's why i will tell everybody um during the course of the dance of the dragons you will go you will probably go back and forth

[00:45:41] between team black and team green yeah there are definitely moments where like i said i'm leaning team green but it's really hard because her her kids suck so all yeah and then all of

[00:45:53] my nearest kids are like really nice right and also yeah rainier's kids are great and also renier is kind of like she's lined up with my people like she like rainis likes her so i'm like

[00:46:02] i'm going wherever my niece is going that's my girl yeah yes every time and so so yes the the stage is set but there is one conflict that i do want to highlight that kind of i really

[00:46:16] puts a cap on the season on season one it's these damn children it is the kids it is amen agon agon and all these other and all these other little mofos because

[00:46:28] here's where i start to shift away from green when when allison's child goes in and he steals that black woman's dragon you know i was really like you know what honestly you know that really

[00:46:45] got me because i think the dragon's name is begar yeah the biggest dragon they have right it's the biggest one the oldest one and his robot is black queen the valera like everything is right

[00:47:00] and i'm like bet rain is here this is this is perfect now oh what was it is it lana lana lana's here right oh yeah so lana so lana was um corliss and renisa's daughter and she the fact that i'm

[00:47:16] sorry the fact that we didn't get her taming veigar in the first season kind of sucks but once her and damon uh mary we see her riding veigar the oldest living dragon yeah and she

[00:47:28] dies in childbirth which is um a a a through line here um in the show and because yeah well well technically for them yeah they they have you know

[00:47:44] their guys are further away than some other ones um but yeah so uh she she died so veigar is now riderless and you know season one kind of made it seem like uh i think it was uh it was a bella

[00:48:00] um she has two kids yeah bella and reina uh i want to i believe are her her two kids bella is dragonless oh god the book people might come for me but anyways she thought that she was gonna

[00:48:16] get veigar but dragons aren't inherited through hereditary they they have you have to you know step to them you have to make a connection and amand uh the second son of alice and vicarious

[00:48:31] makes the play for veigar and wins and wins and that's why i said i got a good hate into him because i was like wait a minute hold on that was that little black girl's dragon okay that was her

[00:48:42] her mama dragon you know like you didn't give her a chance to go shoot her a shot i really was like all right cool i might be team black again well you know again blackety black um but we get some

[00:48:52] conflict there uh he loses an eye in the conflict uh thus we see alice really shift at that point and i think that's the moment where the protective mama bear alice jumps out and we see not only is

[00:49:06] she protecting her kids but also she's a mega hater so she's kind of looking at everybody like renera cannot keep getting away with this she just can't get away with this right she can't

[00:49:17] you know how is she gonna be queen her kids doing wild stuff they can't chop my my kids eye out bro we ain't even gonna get one of her kids eyes and i'm like allison you really think that's

[00:49:27] gonna fix anything bro chill but in that we see what ultimately is going to be such a big deal is that now allison's side has a huge dragon as a gigantic dragon that he's gone and basically just

[00:49:44] stolen out of that right from underneath the other side so we get this big moment where um where i mean my whole heart stops what we see these kids are going back and forth there's

[00:49:58] some bullying going on it's a tip attack we look like looks like one of allison's kids is about to kill you know it gets it gets hot here and veigar attacks and when veigar attacks this he murders

[00:50:14] he murders uh renera's uh son right her second son lucerys yeah murders lucerys and the dragon and i think from here there's no going back there's no compromising or anything because

[00:50:29] your kid killed my kid and there will never be a way we can even the score here and now we have dances dragons coming soon and we have dragons on both sides um marie i remember watching that

[00:50:40] scene and my mouth just being on the floor because i was like yeah oh this is what we about to do because this is for the civil war right now yes this is this is what really kicks everything off

[00:50:50] i mean even you know at this point they have quote unquote usurped her throne and even rainiera is sitting here still trying to think like you know she's she's considering taking the the deal that

[00:51:04] sir auto gives her you know she really did seem like she was considering she wasn't in a rush to go to war you know what i'm saying um but this is this is the the moment that there's there's just no

[00:51:17] going back and how that how they did this with the fight in the sky and then rey rey uh renera receiving the news and her turning around and that being like the final shot of the whole season i

[00:51:29] mean i was like oh this is going to this about to get spicy um but the but that that it also goes to show you that these writers do not control these dragons you know right um because uh even

[00:51:44] though amon is on vagar and uh lucerice is on uh teraxys or arax one of the two i these dragon names like we said well come back and we'll get them in the in the episodics but like yeah they

[00:51:58] they're they're flying and all of a sudden the dragons kind of go into business for themselves you know um i'm pretty sure it's like teraxys we'll see traxys like throws flame at vagar when

[00:52:11] um lucerice doesn't command him to so vagar gets pissed off and vagar is like okay yo so this is what we finna do and amon can't control vagar yeah and they're they're both they're both on

[00:52:23] their their dragons trying to control their dragons and they they can't their dragons can't be controlled and vagar chomps them chomps them up spits them out and now it's on now it is it is on and

[00:52:35] this is where we will i mean i don't know like i don't want to get into spoilers i'll wait for you i'll wait for you yeah but this is this is where yeah this is where the dance kicks off

[00:52:48] this is where we're gonna open the season all i'm gonna say is happy father's day it's gonna be a blood so yeah yes and uh i'm so excited to get to that bloodbath

[00:53:01] yeah the things that you gotta remember about house of dragon and game of thrones that anybody can get it you know if you haven't read the book you can be shocked by what happens next the main

[00:53:11] character can go um we really get away from that at the end of game of thrones just saying but you know at the beginning anybody can get it things happen people die uh moves are being made it's all

[00:53:25] underhanded nobody has a moral high ground on anybody in this show i mean it just it just is what it is it's tit for tat it's it's politics it's war and you know people will die in the in

[00:53:37] the main in the meantime and um honestly we're here we're set we are set for that we are here for that because this is season two and i'm very excited to see where we go so for the book readers

[00:53:48] of course we're gonna have um we're gonna have marie really kind of outlining some of the things at the end of all of our podcasts where marie comes in and all right here's how it went down

[00:53:58] in the book here's some differences we're gonna compare contrast those things and you're gonna lace us up on what we've been missing right right exactly like uh we won't we won't go to spoiler

[00:54:08] too far in the future or anything like that we'll just fill in some gaps if there are some gaps we don't know if there are some gaps uh from the episode that uh the book might shed some light

[00:54:19] knowing a little bit from what the book uh sheds some light on then we'll do that you know but if if if it's pretty true to form maybe maybe we won't need to but uh yeah don't so don't worry

[00:54:31] so if if you're not at voice adverse if you're if you're really adverse to spoilers and you're like i don't want to know what's going to happen i'm telling you now i'm not going to just outright

[00:54:41] be like well this happens you know uh unless something like crazy like unless they they kill a character when they're not supposed to die you know yeah we'll let you know yeah we'll

[00:54:52] let you know yeah it's just it'll just be a section to give give you a little bit uh more insight if you wanna if you want to know what a book reader would be thinking at that time

[00:55:01] watching that episode yeah and uh it looks like we are greenlit for eight episodes upcoming so this will last uh through uh june all the way through august and so uh join us here recap

[00:55:15] kickback for the westeros kickback that's right hot d the rest of us kick back up until august we'll be talking about this show weekly um make sure you subscribe to the podcast that's recap

[00:55:26] kickback you can go to recap kickback.com to subscribe um or you can subscribe on our youtube page preferably do both honestly um because we're gonna have a good time we have a facebook group

[00:55:37] as well facebook.com slash recap kickback and we're on all social media platforms at recap kickback so you can hit us on tiktok uh instagram twitter all the things in order to be a part of

[00:55:50] our recap kickback community because we took a vote we went to the polls we put our twitter poll we put our instagram poll and a facebook poll and the overwhelming response was that you wanted

[00:56:01] house of the dragon coverage and you wanted it covered by us and so we're gonna bring that to you all season uh in the meantime marie is there anything else we need to touch on before we go

[00:56:14] no no nothing else uh i can't wait to get into this we'll see y'all in a week and i like it's gonna be on like come back listen to us talk about this show it's gonna be amazing yes come

[00:56:28] back and then also check out some of our other coverage we have on recap kickback uh this podcast started this year but we have not missed a beat we're very happy to have our our very own marie

[00:56:39] back with us to cover one of the shows that i know she's been dying to talk about but we've also talked about other shows as well uh we recently talked about actor age on netflix we

[00:56:51] covered abbot elementary and summer house martha's vineyard on a episodic basis uh we've covered the black twitter documentary challengers the movie you name it we cover it here on recap kickback

[00:57:03] or we'll be at a point in the direction of somebody who can cover it but uh yeah join the community and be a part we'd love to have you here and make sure you leave in the comments whatever thoughts you're

[00:57:11] thinking because we'll address it on the podcast you can also email us at recap kickback at gmail.com uh but for maria and for myself listen it's gonna be a fun time whether you're team black team green

[00:57:24] or team blackety black we'll be here to discuss this amazing show and uh hopefully a lot more coming your way uh in the near future until then and until next time peace my chest with it on life i wanna hold my breath i'ma get in my goddamn self