HOTD: The Westeros Kickback Season 2 Episode 2

[00:00:00] What's up fam and welcome back to Hot D, the Westeros Kickback here on RecapKickback.com. That's right, I'm your host ShaPeal, here to recap the craziness from Season 2, Episode 2 of House of the Dragon titled, Rhaenyra the Cruel.

[00:00:32] And with me to get into the wildness in Westeros this week, straight from the Citadel Library, it is Maester of Receipts, Maester Mari. Mari, what's up? I'm glad, I mean, the season feels like it's in full swing. I'm glad to be here with you.

[00:00:49] Episode 2, I don't think there's a point, at least for me, it's like setting up some big stuff. So I'm very happy to be here to talk about it with you. Yes, I'm very happy to be back to talk about this with you as well.

[00:01:00] We got a lot of great feedback from the first two episodes we've done, from our preview podcast of House of the Dragon and then our premiere podcast. We've been getting a lot of good feedback.

[00:01:10] So thank you all for listening, for leaving such cool comments, for responding on the Twitter page, the TikTok, the Instagram, the Facebook group. Remember you can follow us on all social media platforms at Recap Kickback.

[00:01:23] Also you can join our YouTube community, youtube.com slash at Recap Kickback to leave your comments. If you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and leave us a like, thumbs up on that little button right there.

[00:01:32] Hit the subscribe button and let us know that you're watching and that you're supporting because this has been so much fun. And I love all the interaction we've been getting, but I want to get into some of this mess very quickly.

[00:01:43] So straight out the gate, Mari, last episode, we talked about some of the differences between the book and what the show was giving us for season one, episode, I mean, season two, episode one, when it came to, you know, I guess some deviations in the storyline that

[00:01:59] we talked about in the book corner. Did you see a lot of pushback about that online before we started talking about season two, episode two? I did see a lot of discourse about the blood and cheese, like how they, how they changed

[00:02:12] blood and cheese and how some people didn't like it. I feel like if you didn't watch the books, it wasn't that bad to you. I saw people comparing it to like Sophie's Choice. I was like, oh, that's not good.

[00:02:28] But I think there was some pushback because I knew there was going to be only because if you've read the book, like I said last week, it's a very big monumental moment that basically kicks off the dance.

[00:02:43] And plus we had been waiting for it for a year and a half because we like if you read the book, you knew exactly what was going to open the season up. You knew there was no other other way they could open the season up.

[00:02:55] So I just think when you have the bar that high and the expectation that high that it's it'll be, it would be hard no matter what to you know, exceed it or meet it. And unfortunately I think how they handled it didn't meet or exceeded.

[00:03:12] However, I do think here in episode two, they definitely redeemed themselves when it comes to the aftermath of Blood and Cheese. So. Okay. And I'll be happy to get into that. Obviously, if you're listening to this for the first time, what are you doing?

[00:03:25] Go back and listen to our previous episode because what we like to do here is we'd like to talk about the show. But then at the end of every episode, we're going to leave a little spoilery section available

[00:03:36] just to talk about some of the differences in the book. So we're not going to spoil the whole storyline, but Mari is a book expert. And so we're going to go in and we're going to talk about things that might deviate, might

[00:03:46] change, might make the story look a little bit different if you're only watching the show versus if you read the books. And so we'll save that for the end as well. But Mari, speaking of aftermath, the baby is dead and now we're having to have a funeral

[00:04:01] to make people mad at Raniera for signing off on this. This was, this was, this was yikes. I don't like this. Yes. So this is where I mean, where they kind of redeem themselves, because like I said, how

[00:04:15] it deviated so much from the quote unquote historical text of the book. I like that they come back and they're like, well, you know, they'll believe whatever we tell them. So let's make the story even worse.

[00:04:27] And so now that kind of puts you back in line with the books, because like I said, that scene unfolds like even worse in the books than it did on screen. So now you have the greens coming back and like being like, well, let's just make the

[00:04:42] story that of what happened even worse, make her look even worse. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. And so that's how historically you get a story in the book that's different from what we see in what's canon.

[00:04:54] Because remember the show is technically the canon in a sense. So I did like that. Sir Otto's like, never waste a crisis, like they said on the after show, using the baby's death to further their cause. It is horrendous, but it makes sense tactically in war.

[00:05:21] It was a very, very good strategic play. And it's one that will bear fruit for them for the rest of the Dance of the Dragons. So not the best. Not great. Not great. Yeah, look, it is nasty. It is.

[00:05:37] But on the one hand, it's like, what else do you expect them to do? This baby was decapitated. And on the other hand, it's like, are you suggesting that they come in and be like, it's all good. It's just a baby. You know, like this is an atrocity.

[00:05:50] You know what I'm saying? Like something happened that even Rhaenyra herself is sitting at home like, what? I didn't even do that. And so it behooves Otto and Alicent and Team Green to say, all right, we're going to push this narrative because we're still at war.

[00:06:05] If we weren't at war before, we're definitely at war now. You know, there's been a lot of cold war going on for the last two seasons. The first season was Viserys just doing everything he could to keep everybody from fighting.

[00:06:18] I always remember this scene of him yelling at his whole family. He's like, stop it. You're tearing me apart. You're doing it for your grandfather, your grandson. I was like, Viserys, stand up.

[00:06:29] But he was trying so hard to keep these people from being at each other's throats, for lack of a better term. And here we are, the baby gets his head chopped off, you know, throat slit, head decapitated. And now we have, you know, full blown war.

[00:06:43] Aegon is not going to be listening to any reason at this point. His child was murdered in front of his wife slash sister, who is now going to be completely just devastated by this moving forward.

[00:06:58] And it is such a nasty move that anybody who is on the team green side or anybody who has put their loyalty toward, you know, Aegon and the crown in that way, they're obviously going to look at Rhaenyra's side as being the bad guys.

[00:07:13] This is this is an awful thing to do. There's no there's really no world where any of this makes sense. But from Rhaenyra's standpoint, she's like, I didn't do this. I would never do this for people to think I would do this is wild.

[00:07:27] Would it be crazy if somebody actually thought this came from my camp? Nobody in my camp would sign off on this. Right, Damon? Damon, what do you think, Damon? And Damon sitting there with a I eat ass face. Oh, God. And Raini's clock in immediately.

[00:07:46] She looked him right in the eye. She like this, Damon, you know, you killed that baby. Stop. That was funny that just that those looks was hilarious between those actors. You would have thought they caught a candid moment or something with them. It was very hilarious. It's true.

[00:08:05] But Mara, the show made a very interesting choice last week to not show Damon give the explicit word that it's happening. Right. Like he said, go some for a son. They say, what if we can't get a gun? And he's just like, oh, no.

[00:08:22] And then we cut away. So in this moment, Ranira is like, hey, you did this. I know you did this. I don't trust you. Just admit that you did this. And I was like, what me? What are you talking about? Yeah, I do everything for you.

[00:08:34] Are you crazy? That wasn't me. I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy. I do everything for you. Are you crazy? It was a mistake. You know, so is this Damon's way of actually admitting fault?

[00:08:44] Because I feel like if you I feel like if you die hard team black, you still looking at this like, well, maybe he didn't actually say the words per se.

[00:08:51] But I feel like he said, oh, no, he said they they purposely did this to keep it very gray. And even team black, I think we all like we're not delusional in, you know, the his his in what he's capable of. He that he's the reason he's here.

[00:09:10] We know what the reason is. But like, it's just like in last season with the whole air for a day thing when they they cut away from if he actually said that about about the series losing his son. You know, I'm saying, but we know he said it.

[00:09:26] So but there was never confirmation again. So it's kind of like it's to keep that character morally gray and to actually put it on the onus of the the watcher to think of it.

[00:09:38] To me, I'm like, I think he I think he's got a son for a son. And I still think that he I mean, the showrunners say that I don't that it wasn't the intention of them to kill of it wasn't the intention of.

[00:09:53] Damon, you know, to kill the the kid that it was literally blood and cheese fumbled their way into it was like an accident, basically. So I mean, that's what I'm gonna go with.

[00:10:09] But it was it was very it was very funny when when he he got caught at first and then it leads to them having like having it out like that. I thought that was really, really good. Yeah, the acting, the acting was really good, I think.

[00:10:27] And on all sides, really? Yeah, because you you have right now, I think really struggling with this idea that, yes, this is her uncle. But he's always been like, OK, let's let's let's separate that actually being her blood relative, because that's really hard for me to do.

[00:10:43] But we have to separate that and just say looking at it from her standpoint as a young girl, she's always wanted to tame this dragon. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's always been like he's the bad boy. You know, he's walking around like, oh, he's so tough.

[00:10:55] Like you could never like look at him. He's like everybody just when Damon walks in the room, the whole room stops. And she's been attracted to that. You can tell, you know, as a child, she all up in her uncle face and vice versa. Really real creep stuff.

[00:11:08] But you know, for her to even have to admit it in this moment, like, you know what? I was wrong my whole life. I've been trying to really try to reel you in. I thought it was a challenge. I thought it was kind of flirty.

[00:11:18] It was kind of cool. But now I'm seeing you for what you are. And I don't think you really care about my claim to the throne at this point. Do you? Do you think you're the king? Because you're like the king by marriage. You're the king in law.

[00:11:30] You're not really. I'm in charge, right? Exactly. And I thought that was such an interesting conversation to have because at some point I have to start asking, well, is Reyniera going to go against Damon and vice versa?

[00:11:42] Because Damon, if he really wants to be king, he could challenge Reyniera, I think at this point for the throne. I mean, at this point, everybody's claim to the throne is in question. So I hadn't even thought about that layer of the conversation, Mari. Yeah.

[00:11:58] And it's kind of funny because Matt Smith is here again playing another king consort with no power. Shout out to the crown fans. Yeah. Like this moment was so good. Like between them, this argument between them, it was almost like a Shakespearean play, like the blocking.

[00:12:18] I like the director of this episode, that woman, Claire, I forget her last name. But like she did a great job with a lot of scenes that were scenes for breathing. You know what I'm saying? These aren't the war epics.

[00:12:33] You know, these aren't the battle of the bastards and stuff. These are scenes that you have to make interesting when it's really just dialogue focus. And she did an amazing job with that scene because it was a lot of like walking, blocking, walking, blocking.

[00:12:48] You know what I'm saying? Like very like it was a it was a dance within itself. Like it was almost like they were circling and dancing with each other as well. And I really, really liked that.

[00:12:58] And it definitely goes with the books because in the books we know like it's like Rhaenyra and Damon do quarrel around this time. And the books are like, we don't know why, you know?

[00:13:10] And so it's kind of interesting that we've seen for this episode, the last last week episode that it's been some enmity like brewing amongst the two of them because they have different views on how they want to approach this war.

[00:13:25] And it's just like with the greens, you know, it's so parallel that both camps are having opposing views on how to handle the war. And but it's just an added layer that these two are married. They're related. They have so much history.

[00:13:44] He himself was supposed to inherit the throne at one point and it was taken from him, you know, and his claim only comes through her as of right now. So it's so layered and nuanced. And basically watching Rhaenyra like everything that everybody said for the past season in

[00:14:06] an episode come back to her like her real like almost realizing it in like motion was very it was so good. The acting was just brilliant. And I loved that she was appalled that it like it could have been them.

[00:14:27] You know, I'm saying like, at first I was like, again, like I said in the books that we it it is the same. It's the same thing. They were it was blood for blood. And even then I was like, yeah, get them because we like Luke died first.

[00:14:41] Y'all like, yeah, as much as they're hyping up this like, oh, they beheaded a baby. Y'all kill little Luke first. Luke was only like 12 when y'all killed him. So, you know, but I do like that. Like Rhaenyra seems sensible without seeing weak.

[00:15:01] You know, I'm saying like at first when we talked about last week, I was like, I don't know if I like this because they're just trying to keep Rhaenyra sympathetic. But the way they handle this is not just about sympathy is about like it's like, again,

[00:15:14] tactical thought and logics like she's like, why would you do this? This is hurting our cause. I would never do this on top of why would I want a six year old killed? Right. Yeah, I like I liked on on Twitter.

[00:15:28] Somebody said her only line last week was I want a man Targaryen. One job. One job. And this is why male insta shop, insta cart shoppers are never going to beat the allegation. Look, you said you wanted detergent. OK, yeah, it's a tie.

[00:15:49] But this other stuff work too. Damn, do you want your clothes clean or not? I understand. I see it both ways. And also, Shots Fired, don't yell at me like that. So here's my favorite part of this entire interaction is when she actually asked him,

[00:16:02] like, do you accept me as your queen or do you cling to what you think you lost? And he's like kind of looking at her like, hold on, pause, because I think in a way he realized that she sees him. She sees exactly what this is.

[00:16:15] It's always been Damon just kind of flaunting the idea that it should have been me. I was the stronger brother. Viserys knew it. He even hits her with them. What you think it was your virtue that you that he valued so much?

[00:16:25] I was like, I didn't call it out on the purity again, you know, but that is true. It really comes down to him feeling like he's always had a claim for this, that he's had to support his brother.

[00:16:38] And now by proxy, having to like because of the transfer of power has to support his queen who is his niece, who he really doesn't respect either when it comes down to leading this whole thing. He would he would like to be in charge.

[00:16:51] He has never been ruled by anybody else in his mind. Reynice talks about a little bit with Corlys like, hey, Damon gone Damon every time. You know, the best thing we can do is really just stick around and support Rhaenyra because Damon is gone Damon.

[00:17:06] And it was interesting to me because there was also another moment where he walks past Bela, who I forgot he had a black daughter. Sorry, it's been a while. Why are you talking? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:17:17] I was like, why is he talking about get away from her, get a job. And so he tells her like when moon when morning comes, take moon dancer. They tell her like to watch over the King's Landing. I was like, OK, we're getting Bela involved again.

[00:17:31] But I don't want to see more of these more bloodshed of all these children when Damon is the one out here walling. That too. But also, Jace said that he was good. He wanted to do that job. Mm hmm. He told him no.

[00:17:45] But she sends Bela and the little girl. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Well, look, look. Well, you know what it is? This is my child. My child is Jace. OK, he looked just like me with his blonde hair.

[00:17:56] I mean, whatever, you know, but Bela, you you do your mama's child. OK, and so you go out here and do the moon dancing, you know, whatever. I'm going to make sure Jace stay at home. I guess technically Jace is next in line like he's the heir. Right.

[00:18:15] Yeah. Yeah. So I guess it makes more sense for her to keep Jace aside. But she did just throw her stepdaughter to the to the wall. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, technically, again, it's not a war mission or anything. It's just a reconnaissance. Reconnaissance. Yeah. Surveillance.

[00:18:33] She just wants her to fly around like very high. Make sure to see if there's going to be any repercussions from King's Landing, like to see if they send something or something. OK, so Damon is flying off to Heron Hall. Yes.

[00:18:47] Damon is flying off to Heron Hall because like they established last week, Heron Hall is the foothold, the toehold to keeping the Riverlands. So both sides have correctly identified that that is the seat that they that they should

[00:19:03] be going after in order to control the Riverlands, which are right there, right before the crown lands before King's Landing. So it's now his mission. They aren't talking. And now like Damon's about to do what he does best. And that's war.

[00:19:18] Yeah, we saw that in season one where Damon was on the outs with Viserys and with the crown. And then Damon just ran off and killed the crab guy. Right. And when he killed the crab guy. Yeah. I'm not even gonna lie to you.

[00:19:32] When he did it, he won me over too. You know, I was watching it like, yeah, Damon, you you out of line. You tripping. You really got to go. He goes. He comes back with the crab guys defeated. And he did it on his own.

[00:19:45] You know, I'm saying like we watched him go out there pretty much one versus a billion and really take it, take on everybody and come out on top. To me, I was like, well, Damon's that guy. You got to let Damon, Damon.

[00:19:56] And yeah, I feel like this is what he has to do next to kind of get himself back into everybody's good graces, because we even see Rhaenys talking about it with Corlys. And she's saying, yeah, he'll probably bring us Harrenhal and all things will be forgiven over there.

[00:20:11] And I was thinking, OK. But my question about Rhaenys and Corlys is that, you know, they're under the impression like they're obviously team black. But are they under the impression that that Laenor just like was murdered and and Rhaenyra and and Damon have nothing to do with it?

[00:20:34] Because I remember in season one, they were saying that they hoped people thought they had something to do with it so they wouldn't challenge them. Right. Like they would look really scary if they could. So that just didn't land for Rhaenys and Corlys.

[00:20:45] Well, Rhaenys and Corlys, they said Rhaenyra and Damon said to their enemies, they hope that it would seem like they did it to Rhaenys and Corlys. They also had an inkling that it might be might have been them.

[00:21:01] I officially, you know, even in the show, I believe it was his lover, Sir Karl, because, you know, before that little messenger boy who brought them all there, Sir Karl and Laenor fighting. So they know who did it. They know who killed him.

[00:21:21] It's but were they behind it? Right. And Rhaenys and Corlys, you know, they have their suspicions. But at this point, they've chosen their lot because they, you know, they don't get along with the Hightowers.

[00:21:40] Damon's kids will like inherit their seat, or supposed to inherit their seat and stuff like that. So like their family's prominence is tied to Damon and Rhaenyra. So they can't really do much else about it anyways. Yes.

[00:21:58] So my question is now if Rhaenys and Damon are on different like different ends of this argument for who has the crown and maybe Damon does make a play for it. Does that now leave Corlys and Rhaenys in the middle to now having to side between the

[00:22:13] two of them? I mean, probably that would be the guess. And another thing, Rhaenyra won Rhaenys to her side last season when she showed astute understanding of like going to war and stuff like that.

[00:22:29] I think what gets lost here is like Rhaenyra again was bred to take that throne. So she like she is the tactical mind. She is the supposed to be the princely mind. Unfortunately, she just has the you know, her husband, her hand or whatever is one of

[00:22:52] the like worst people ever, but a very accomplished fighter. So it's kind of like it gets lost that she was technically raised to be a great leader and ruler under her father. So I think Rhaenys sees that and that's what she values as well.

[00:23:12] And why they're with her. And I think there's probably some respect for Viserys there as well. You know, Viserys did choose Rhaenys. You know, the only opposing argument to Viserys choosing Rhaenys is that Alicent is the only

[00:23:25] one in the world who heard Viserys, you know, say it was Aegon. You know, and so because of that, she's like, you just want me to believe your word when I heard him with my own mouth? So yeah, I mean, with my own ears. Yeah.

[00:23:37] So it's like I understand where she's coming from. I want to come back to Corlys a little bit later on and you probably know why. But let's talk about team green a little bit. So yeah, the baby is dead.

[00:23:50] And we have to do something with this chaos because there is an event, it is a tragedy and Otto Hightower says, all right, let's lean into it. You know, instead of trying to, you know, figure out who's wrong and right.

[00:24:03] Let's just assume it was Rhaenyra in the first place because we're already at war and it probably was her or somebody from her camp. Let's just be honest. And so let's just use that momentum to turn public opinion against her because there are

[00:24:16] so many people who still are confused about where their loyalty lies. Like you said, there were so many people who the bannermen that have gone and they pledged their fealty to this one side. Is it okay? We're Rhaenyra out of the strength of Viserys said so.

[00:24:30] And so we've gone with the crown, but Viserys is gone. A lot of those people are gone. And now we have to pick our loyalty to potentially either stay with Rhaenyra or if there's a more attractive side, go with that.

[00:24:42] And so this is Otto's master stroke to get everybody to kind of turn their back on Rhaenyra. Is that what's going on? Yeah. And you also got to realize like nobody likes war. We're like, yeah, you have to go to war.

[00:24:54] Like you're spending more money than you're making money. You're losing your bannermen, your, your soldiers, all of that. So I'm like, oh, the side previous, oh, the side, you get that raven where it's like, oh, we finna go to war. Who are you finna fight for?

[00:25:11] You know, you're going to take a, you might take a minute to respond to that. You might just be like, oh, let me just, you know, see what it's looking like outside. And that's why it's like so undecided. And this is what Sir Otto sees.

[00:25:28] And he says, this is how we get them to our side by being like, do you want to be aligned with a cruel baby killer or not? Right. And cruel baby killer. I mean, it's, it's spicy, but I mean, if from the outside looking in, it's very true.

[00:25:41] I mean, Rhaenyra is also aligned with Damon and Rhaenyra for all intents and purposes knows that Damon did this. She does. She does. He says it was a mistake, but she knows where this came from.

[00:25:51] And it's not like she goes and throws him under the bus immediately and sends a raven like, hey, it was Damon y'all my bad. We, you know, we don't want no smoke. Like no, she riding for her house as well.

[00:26:01] So she, she's not a baby killer, but you know, she complicit in a way, you know? So it's a, it's a decent argument, but it's still nasty. They have the entire funeral with the decapitated baby and they marched the baby through the

[00:26:15] town so everybody can see the funeral possession and they can see the softened souls. They want to see Helena. They want to see Alison because they're the ones who are grieving the most, but you got to keep a guy far away because he's crazy. Yeah. And poor Helena.

[00:26:28] Like she doesn't want to do this. She doesn't want to do this. And just like last week when I, when I said like, Alison was like, what you saw when you get Helena's like, I don't give a shit. I don't care. I do not care.

[00:26:41] Like my baby is dead. I really just want to sit in this room, but y'all got me out here parading around. And again, a lot of people who said that her character like is very like autistic coded.

[00:26:55] Like I think this, this episode here like really does kind of feel that way too. Cause you could definitely tell she was getting like overstimulated by like everything that was going on around her. Yeah. Um, and I just felt so bad for her.

[00:27:09] And then, and then the, the procession getting stuck in the mud and the baby's body was jiggling around. I thought the baby was head was finna roll off bar out of the screen. I did too. I thought it was gonna hit the road.

[00:27:18] I thought we were gonna hit the road. I said, Oh, not in the mud. I just, okay. So although I'm happy, we didn't see that game of Thrones. What are y'all doing? The old game of Thrones that I know would have done it.

[00:27:28] I would have had the baby here rolling on the ground. That's all I'm saying. No. Yeah. Uh, Helena's definitely given like that Luna love, good vibes of like, yeah, a little spacey. Um, but yeah, this is a, this is a cheap trick.

[00:27:44] It really is to, to, to exploit the grief of this mother and grandmother, uh, of this baby, you know, for political game. But again, there's not much else that I can be doing right now.

[00:27:56] I mean, there is either that or just allow themselves to get picked off by Raniera and whoever assassins she sends in. Uh, and so speaking of assassins, we see that Agon is talking to, um, his number one killer on his side, Kristen Cole.

[00:28:12] And uh, this is, you know, that mean when I say two, two dumb bitches telling you exactly that's them. Exactly. Get into it. Yes, exactly. I need them far apart. I need these two far apart from each other. They're not helping him.

[00:28:26] Agon is driven by his own insanity because the boy ain't all there. And Kristen Cole is so loyal to the crown or to his position that he's like, I don't care who whoever's in charge is in charge of me and I'm gonna do whatever it takes.

[00:28:29] And if that means telling your grandpa to shut up, that's what I'm gonna do. Um, so, um, so I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna

[00:28:31] be like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm just gonna be

[00:28:33] like, I'm just gonna be like, I'm trying to get to your phone, but nobody's answering season one. Mm-hmm. Since Rendeaver took that man purity like that. Ain't that something? So ever since then he's been having a hard time bouncing back. You know what's funny though?

[00:29:04] In this episode, it seemed like Allison really cared about this scene. Kristen Cole really cared about this scene, but everybody else was like, girl move on. Like get a life. This is not about you. We don't care.

[00:29:16] She's like, ain't we cursed? The gods are mad at us. They're like, we had war. Shut up. We don't care. We talked about why the show would even include the Allison and Kristen Cole situation because it's not exactly

[00:29:31] painted as that in the book. And I'm starting to think that it is so that we can really get into the guilt of it all, right? Because in this episode, we see Kristen Cole really trying to find

[00:29:41] anywhere else to displace this guilt. He goes up to Eric or Eric and says, I'm going to call him Eric because I don't know which one is Eric. And so he goes to Eric and he's like, Eric, where was you at when all this was

[00:29:56] going down? Because had you been at your post keeping it... And Eric says, wait a minute. The king requested me. Where were you at? And Kristen Cole's like, oh, okay. You want to make this about me? So I'm not on trial here, okay? A bad.

[00:30:13] A bad. I was asleep. He's like, I bet you were. And so, so yeah. So Kristen Cole tells Eric, you need to make up for your downfall. Like your downfall here. Selling your cloak. Yeah. You're wearing your cloak got a little mud on it. Do you know?

[00:30:29] Do you understand the purity of that cloak? Do you know why it's white? Because it's pure. Pure is the driven snow. Okay. I said, all right, Kristen Cole, you're laying it on a little thick now.

[00:30:40] Now, again, look at the hypocrisy. I'll give him that. Y'all ate that one little thing. He got a little mud on his cloak. He said, you got a little mud on your cloak. Might want to clean that up unless you just, you know, think

[00:30:54] you're too good to keep the purity of the crown. You know, you took an oath. And Eric like, all right, you tripping, but cool. He said, bet. And also to make up for all of this stuff that you've done wrong, I need you to go

[00:31:07] kill Rainera. Let's just go ahead and cut to the chase. They tried to kill Agon. They missed, they killed the baby. You go kill Rainera. And I'm like, this is dumb. This is a bad, a bad plan. It was kind of a cool plan. He said,

[00:31:20] you got a twin brother who turned his back on us. What if you pretended to be the twin brother? And then you went in and like sister, sister style, you know, snuck in that girl has my face. Yeah. Twin twist, kill them and then dip out,

[00:31:38] you know, ain't that kind of cool. And I know Eric was like, yeah, it is a genius move. Right. That's a smart move. Cause this is the old days. There ain't no way they really, how would they know? I couldn't tell while they was fighting.

[00:31:50] I was like, Oh, I still call them Eric. And I spelled Eric E R I C in my notes. I don't even try to differentiate which one is which.

[00:31:59] So this is the plan. He says, go in and go kill the queen. And we'll see you when you get back by and basically just sends him off for this. Um, and I mean, he goes on the mission. It seems like

[00:32:13] to me a very foolish mission, uh, especially once, uh, I don't hide tower finds out all about it. Because I'd always like you did what I'm sorry. We, we are trying to make things happen on this

[00:32:26] side and you doing super stuff, like sending a twin to go infiltrate the other twin. Like it's very cartoonish. It's very like, yeah, I mean, it is goofy. This seems like a sitcom, uh, you know, one dumb break in plot line for another dumb break in plotline.

[00:32:43] Exactly. Oh, the other thing that, uh, Kristen Cole and Agon did was, um, they found out because blood just completely folds like a, like, like a towel. He said, uh, interest.

[00:32:56] Yeah. Damon made me do it. Damon made me do it. Damon's Damon said we had to kill the, uh, the baby and he was going to pay us. And I don't even really know the other dude's name who was

[00:33:07] involved. All I know is he was a rat chase, a rat catcher and, um, yeah, that's all I got. And so Agon and Kristen Cole decided let's just kill all the rat catches. How about that? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:19] This was, this was, this was a lot. I was like, dang, is that what those things in medieval times are for? Just to hang people, just to hang people. I just thought yeah. Banners or something. Yeah.

[00:33:33] There was so many, they would just swing it. I was like, oh my. And like the people seeing it and people crying because they love one is, is hung because of one dude. And then when they

[00:33:47] confirmed that they got the one dude, I was like, oh nice. Cause we don't, you know? Yeah. In the books, you don't know what happens to them, but you do know that they get hung like that. So it's

[00:33:56] like, so that was kind of cool. But I was like, dang, there's like 20 of them dudes and only to get the one, like, yeah. That's messed up. Agon said, okay, so we kill innocent, like 20

[00:34:09] innocent people, but we did get the one bad guy. So let's think about, you know. Agon, the progenitor to the American justice system. He's like, we did get somebody. Let's think about

[00:34:19] the positive. Okay. This sends Otto off the deep end. Otto is not happy. He has now stopped talking to this man like he is the king and started talking to him like he is his fool ass grandson.

[00:34:31] He's like, what is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? Y'all are idiots. Both of y'all are dumb. This is stupid. We have gone and we have made ourselves martyrs to where the community is

[00:34:42] behind us. The baby is dead and they are supporting us. They say Raniera is so cruel. Why would you go and do an equally cruel thing or a more cruel thing, depending on how you look at it. And now

[00:34:52] we're losing all of that. Why did we just parade your dead child through the street, son? Are you stupid? He's kind of like, yeah, you stupid. Are you dumb? He called that man trifling. I was like,

[00:35:03] dang, you know, that's a coded, he said trifling. I said, yep. Good for nothing. Just sorry. Okay. This is bad. And Otto's reaction is going to ultimately get Otto fired. Mari, we talked about

[00:35:18] this in last episode. Laris was the one who kind of laid the foundation for this going to Agon and being like, ain't it crazy that your dad's hand and your hand are the same? It's the

[00:35:28] same hand. Ain't that crazy? And you kind of questioned the motivation about this. So do you think it is just for pure chaotic game? Probably that. And probably because he still

[00:35:40] wants to, like, you don't have to be the hand to have the King's ear. So I think he just wanted more, more purchase with the King, which is why when we saw with the whole blood thing, because

[00:35:53] the King said he wanted to go and Laris was going to let him. And then Otto was like, no, you don't need to go. Then Laris goes to torture him. And he's like, oh, but here's the King.

[00:36:03] And so the King got to beat the crap out of blood. So Laris is doing what he can to get close to Agon. Now, does he need to be the hand? No, maybe he just wants like more control to do

[00:36:16] more chaos and he can't do that with Otto. Keep stopping them. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, it, it, it, the motive not necessarily has to be him wanting that chain of office. It could

[00:36:29] just again, being one step closer to the King. Yeah. And it's. Yeah. Well, and it doesn't hurt to have Otto out of the way, you know, like, cause cause what happens here is that Agon fires Otto

[00:36:43] and then he hires Kristen Cole. Kristen Cole don't know nothing about running no kingdom. He doesn't, it's not, that's not as bad. He is like, yeah, he is a, what do you call him? A

[00:36:53] steel fist. But that's what he is. My new hand is a steel fist. Right. And that's what he is. He, he is a, a, like a extension of the crown sword. You know, like whatever, like if you,

[00:37:04] if you got getting out of line, he gonna slap you around and make sure you get back in line. But as far as like tactics and strategy, this is not who we're going to be looking toward. And so

[00:37:13] Laris can probably cat's paw his way into this role, right? Where he's like, I'm not actually the hand. So I won't get blamed for none of this because there is an actual hand. But in the

[00:37:22] meantime, I did do this cool thing where I caught the killer. I caught the rat catcher. So I helped him do that. I helped him get blood as well, you know? So he's probably looking at Laris in very

[00:37:33] high esteem. Laris has already worked his way into high esteem with Alison because she was showing them feed pics and chat rooms for him. So he's making some moves. I just haven't figured

[00:37:42] out, you know, like to what end, right? Is it just for the, yeah. Is it just to be adjacent to the crown or does he want something a little bit bigger? Yeah. I mean, it could be something

[00:37:52] as simple as just having power, but it does say something that it's going to take two men to basically replace Otto Hightower because yeah, Chris and Cole has good war instincts, but like you said, diplomacy, you know, politics, not his thing, clearly. And so that's where Laris could

[00:38:13] really step in. And this was, I really liked the scene. It's exact juxtaposition of like Rhaenyra and Daemon fighting, watching Aegon and Otto fight. It's so good because it just shows,

[00:38:26] it just shows like both sides are not solid and cohesive. And like we're about to go to war and both sides are like in flux. It's such a, it's such good storytelling. Yeah. Well, the power

[00:38:43] dynamics are fun to watch too, because the king is like the grandson to this man who he's yelling at. So this man, he's yelling at his grandfather has years of experience is the hand

[00:38:54] of the king, has been the hand before. Basically you got this man with all these experiences, all the credentials, but you technically outrank him. And so he's your grandpa, but you really can't be talking wild to you like that because Chris and Cole will put your grandpa away.

[00:39:08] And he would do it without a second thought. You know, we know that we know that as much as Kristen Cole might be loyal to Alison or Otto or Aegon, if y'all say jump, he gonna jump.

[00:39:20] Especially when it comes to killing somebody, we've seen him kill people for less. And so there were a couple of times where I thought, Otto don't get beside yourself, you know, cause you can end

[00:39:28] up a victim here. But Otto says he's about to leave. He tell Alison, you know what, honestly, y'all got it. I'm finna go because I'm not the hand no more. I kind of been

[00:39:41] disrespected by my grandson. I'm about to go to old town where Alison has another child who we've not met. Daron. Shout out to Daron. Yeah. So Daron Targaryen, how have we not met Daron Targaryen

[00:40:01] Mario? Is that a spoiler? Cause no it's not a spoiler. Daron is their third, is the third child of her and Viserys. With all the time jumps, he was just like born in the middle of one of those

[00:40:14] time jumps. And then he was sent to old town when he was really young to be like, to study there and to be like a squire to I think, Hightower's, it's his nephew that runs, runs Hightower,

[00:40:30] old town now. So yeah. So it's like, he was, he was sent to be like a ward and a squire to, to their family seat when he was younger. So it's just, it's very much like this in the books.

[00:40:42] Like Daron is nowhere to be found. And then like, he just comes out of nowhere. Yeah. And, and a lot of fans were kind of questioning if he was going to be a part of it or if they were

[00:40:55] going to retcon him like, like Maylore, like we were talking about how Maylore wasn't there for blood and cheese. And they, I, the showrunner, I'm pretty sure the showrunner confirmed that Maylore is not in this world. So I mean, I guess I could tell people in the book,

[00:41:17] the spoiler section, why I think they did that, but they're, they're, they're taking away one of, of, of Aegon's sons. But I'm glad that we are, we will be getting Daron in the future.

[00:41:31] Well, he was mentioned here, but Allison does redirect Otto and said, no, don't go to old town, go to Highgarden to win the Tyrells over. In the meantime, Aegon will calm down once this whole baby

[00:41:42] thing has worn off. And then that's another time where Allison says, but dad, you gotta know, I've been sending, and he's like, girl, I don't care. I don't, I don't want to hear it. I don't,

[00:41:53] I don't want to know. Honestly, I don't want to know. And so I will see more of that to come. I'm sure Kristen Cole, like we said, we sent him, we sent Eric to go fight, well, to go infiltrate

[00:42:06] the, the team black side. But as he's going to do that, he's, he crossed paths with Myseria. Now this is so funny to me because the white worm has, she has earned her freedom. You know,

[00:42:21] she was the one who gave the information to Damon that he used to go and pop off the blood and cheese of it all. But she's being questioned by Raynera. And at first it really looks like

[00:42:33] Raynera is about done with her. Like I'm not you, you were your trader. You did this. This is your fault. You've been selling secrets. She kind of got her on the ropes until she realizes who

[00:42:44] Myseria is. She's kind of like, oh yeah, you know that, that Damon, he be leaving us behind, you know how he do when he go on his work trips and she's the other woman. She's the first other

[00:42:57] woman. Right? Right. I mean, yes. Right. I mean, how many other women's were there, but yeah, she was, she was the one on the bridge in like the second episode of the first season that Raynera

[00:43:08] herself had to come and take the egg away from them and all of that and solve the problem. And so it was, it was really interesting seeing Raynera finally recognize her in this situation

[00:43:20] and then really trying to decide what to do about her, you know? Yeah. Yeah. She was gonna, she helped her get across. She wanted to help her get across the narrow sea here. So like Raynera coming around, like at first you're thinking like, well, Raynera seem mad. What's

[00:43:40] she finna do? But then she, but then she comes around and like, no, I will honor the word of my house. You know, I will, you know, I'm scared because I don't want you to betray me, but you

[00:43:54] know, you can go in. And I thought Myseria did a great job of explaining. Cause like I said last week, like the high towers took everything away from her. They used her for her information.

[00:44:04] And then they tried to kill her. They tried to burn down her house. They tried to kill her. And like she said, like, um, they, she's like, everybody just uses me up. And then, and then

[00:44:19] it's sad, you know, she, it's sad. She said I could have just stayed a whore. So yeah. And I'd say that she might be the MVP of this episode to me, Mari, because,

[00:44:30] um, while she's heading down to Pintos, uh, Eric is walking her down to the boat as Eric is coming up and she's the one who spots the other twin. She's like, Hey, wait a minute. Hold on.

[00:44:42] There's something, something's going down. And so while we see Eric infiltrating, you know, to go murder Rhaenyra, Myseria, I'm assuming tells the other Eric what's going down. And he

[00:44:54] ends up up there as well. And they ended up having a fight to the death. It's very clear that these two men are going to have to kill each other. They're twins is a very sad story, but there are

[00:45:03] two different sides of this argument. You know, one is loyal to team black, one is loyal to team green and one has been sent to kill the queen. And so it's the other one's job to make sure that

[00:45:11] doesn't happen. Ultimately they both end up, uh, I think Eric wins. So Eric kills himself and falls at the feet of Rhaenyra who is completely in shock by all of this. But I'd argue that Myseria is the

[00:45:23] one who was able to save Rhaenyra in this moment. Yep. Yeah. And the fact that she actually cared to save her is very interesting as well, since they just had kind of like that, that tete a tete

[00:45:35] and she could have just minding her business. She would have been like, Oh, let me get to Pintos. Yeah. Um, but I, I did get that feeling too, that it like she had a hand in helping.

[00:45:49] Um, and that scene was so good, um, between Eric and Eric, Eric, I, I try to pronounce the second, the one with the a, like how you would pronounce Aaron. So yeah, A, A, A, Eric, Eric and Eric. It's still Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron,

[00:46:15] so at first I'm like, right. Rhaenyra, why are you here? Cause in the book, she's not there. Um, but she just like, she's like in the corner and I was like, Oh, they have to do this one at

[00:46:26] first because we don't know which one of them is which. Yeah. And the fact that though, that's not twins is, is crazy to me. That's just two separate actors that, yeah, they said in the first season

[00:46:38] that it's just two separate actors that look like similar and that they're fighting and you can't, you kind of need her there. Cause you know, the twin that's lunging for her is the one that's,

[00:46:50] you know, that's how you know which one to root for. Yeah. Right. And then, but by the time they've gone to their third twist around and then she's by the door with, uh, Sir Marbrandt is like, uh,

[00:47:02] which one I want to help, but I can't because I don't know. I don't know. Um, but this, this, this fight was, it was very Epic. You could feel like the sadness and the love between the two of

[00:47:16] them. Um, and when Eric, uh, kills Eric and I'm like, which one, one, and then you're like, well, does it matter? Because they both dead now. Right. Because, but at first I was going to be

[00:47:32] like, okay, so which one, one. Yeah. And then I was like, but now y'all got to kill him just to be safe. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. How would you know if that's the right one? How does

[00:47:44] he prove it? Yeah. And so, but the fact that he fell on his own sword was like, that was so sad and it was, yeah, this sucks. Uh, you know, these brothers on this show really get, they'd be doing

[00:47:57] a number to each other as siblings on this show. It's really bad because, um, we didn't, we haven't talked about another sibling in this. Uh, we haven't talked about Eamon as all Eamon has dodged

[00:48:07] all of this considering he was the target of all of this. Um, you know, like he was, you were supposed to bring me Eamon. Uh, you brought me the other baby, like the baby. That's not what I asked

[00:48:17] for, but okay. You know? And so we find Eamon in the brothel kicking it with Madam Sylvie and just kind of like, I don't know, in a fetal position, he's like having like a, a real like cuddle moment.

[00:48:30] You know, um, we learned, yeah, yeah. He looked like, I saw a meme of him looking like Lord Voldemort, kind of like the shriveled up Voldemort. And I was like, I see it. Um, but I think that it

[00:48:41] reminds me of when we learn in Game of Thrones that sometimes people just be at the brothels for companionship, right? It's not always about sex. Sometimes they're just looking for someone to

[00:48:49] hold them. Uh, we saw the Unsullied be at the brothels and they ain't got no business there. You know what I'm saying? Um, but sometimes they just like for people to just like be there for

[00:48:58] them. And Eamon does open up a little bit and talk about how I kind of feel guilty about the whole cousin thing. I ain't mean to kill Luke. You know? Like they used to pick on me. So I was picking on

[00:49:08] him because I have a bigger dragon than him. Like for me, it made sense. Um, but now look at us. I didn't, I didn't, you know, I didn't done this and um, nobody cares again. Uh, Eamon is like,

[00:49:18] yeah, the damage is done, but it is interesting that we aren't going to see like a more human side of Eamon who we haven't really seen that part of before. Yeah. Yeah. I, I like that he

[00:49:30] showed some remorse again. We love when these characters have dual, like dual, more than one personality trait and stuff like that. And, and full fledged characters. Um, I did like the quote and I cannot remember that quote, I think is in one of the game of Thrones books.

[00:49:46] Um, I don't think it's in this one per se, but, um, when she says when princes are angered, um, others normally pay the price. And I want to say that, that, that that's in this book

[00:50:01] somewhere, but it was, it was so telling and it was true because it's what we saw all this episode, you know what I'm saying? Like between Eric and Ark having to kill each other, you know,

[00:50:14] because they both have a sore duty to separate, to separate monarchs and rulers. Yeah. So like, you know, everybody else being affected by this, except for the people who, you know, are mad at each other. It's it's, it was good. Yeah. Um, the small folks suffer when princes

[00:50:31] lose their temper, you know? And, uh, and that's, and then you say princes, but you can call it Kings, Queens, whoever, you know, these people up top that are playing the game of Thrones,

[00:50:41] they're using everybody below them as pawns and it's the pawns that have to do the most. And they're there to get picked on a little bit. Um, we see another, we do see a pawn that I want to talk

[00:50:50] about a little bit as well, uh, who I flagged last episode. Uh, but I didn't know why I would have to see them again. This man Hugh is back. Um, Hugh was the one who was petitioning the crown

[00:51:02] and said, Aegon, I get that you want us to do like weapon building for you, but I need some money. And Aegon was like, I got you. I don't know how to tell her like we don't, we don't got you. We do

[00:51:13] not have him. We are not giving him any money. He's like, I know I got him. Like we gonna pay him up front so he can make weapons. Duh. And this episode, we get more of Hugh, but I'm not

[00:51:21] quite sure why Mario, he has a sick child. What is happening with this man? Uh, I would have to tell you in the spoiler section. Okay. So put a pin in that. My last question, I think we might

[00:51:32] have to go to the spoiler section is we meet Adam, the whole Adam of the whole as well. Oh, the, the whole, the whole brothers and the whole brother. That's not their last names. Okay. So

[00:51:50] Alan and Adam of Paul. Okay. They're there. We've met, we met Alan last week. Him and Corliss seemed to have some type of, you know, like a interaction where we learned that, uh, Alan is the one who

[00:52:04] pulled her, uh, Corliss from the water. He saved him. And in this episode, Adam, his twin question yeah. His twin is like, yeah, Corliss owes you. He owes us. And that reminds me of something else

[00:52:21] that you pointed out in the book corner. And I couldn't tell if the book was alluding to that. Uh, I mean, the show was alluding to that and we just haven't gotten there yet, but I'd be dying

[00:52:28] to talk about that once we get to the book stuff. Yep. It's exactly that it's, it's all illusion. I love how they're setting up future stuff, stuff that might not even come to fruition in this season

[00:52:42] they're setting up. So it's like, it's, they're doing a very good job of making sure that you have some recognition of some of these minor characters before they step into bigger roles so that you're

[00:52:57] not confused. Allah again, game of Thrones. You're like, wait, who is this person? Yeah. They're doing a great job. Okay. So Mari, is there anything else we need to talk about in this episode

[00:53:09] before we get to Mesa Mars book corner? Uh, no. The only thing is we forgot to talk about, they changed the opening, um, to like the historical tapestries. I really liked the new opening. Um,

[00:53:22] yeah, because it's much more clear if you know the book, you know, the events that they're talking about, it's there, the tapestries depict different events in the Targaryen like history. So Aegon's conquest, Aegon and Visenya burning Harrenhal, Maegor the cruel dying on his throne.

[00:53:40] It's like major events before, um, the dance and all of that before this time period. Um, and then it ends with like, with, um, Aegon on his throne, Rhaenyra on her throne, the team black

[00:53:55] versus team red. It has the hand, like it tells you who their hands are. It even if like this week, I don't know. I couldn't tell if this was the same last week, but also has houses around

[00:54:05] that, which I'm assuming is telling us where everybody's aligned. So I really liked this opening. I liked the opening last season as well, but the opening last season was so complicated because there was literally a visualized version of their bloodline using the old Valyria model.

[00:54:22] And once they got past Jahaerys' bloodline, I was like, this is so, I don't know what's going on here. It's like, it's like a three, it was like a 3d family tree that was very hard to, um, keep up

[00:54:35] with. Like I had to watch several like video breakdowns in YouTube of like, oh, this one, this, this was for this person. This was for that person. Um, so I think these tapestries just spell

[00:54:45] it out again, tell it to me like I'm five. It's fine. I like this. Yeah. So I want to talk about the opening maybe next time when we do the, uh, when we do the book corner, because I think I

[00:54:57] saw a Twitter thread or something like that, that breaks it down. And I got a bunch of questions about that because I personally love the original Game of Thrones opening. I never missed it. I never

[00:55:06] skipped it one time because it, cause it showed you everywhere you needed to know on the map is like you understood everything. And then I got, I understood the idea of last season's opening with

[00:55:15] the bloodline. I just didn't understand it because I don't know these people. Um, and it is last thing they kept growing too, but just couldn't tell. I didn't know. Yeah. And so,

[00:55:25] so this seems a lot, a lot better. And so I do want to talk about it next time, but Mario, if that's all for today's episode. Yeah, this was, this was fun. Like you said, back to our

[00:55:35] old Game of Thrones stuff overall, you think we're on the right track? Oh yeah. Overall, this is good. I, I was afraid that, um, I had told James before that sounds like this might be a filler episode,

[00:55:45] you know, um, because people are so used to what, what thrones and house dragon, like big set pieces, big like battles, big things happening. Um, and this is not, it's essentially a filler episode,

[00:56:00] but it's, it's not a filler. It's like, it's setting you up for what's going to come next. So it doesn't feel like wasted time, which we, we got a lot, um, in Game of Thrones proper,

[00:56:10] um, like in those early seasons. Um, but I, I really felt that they used their, all of their time wisely in this episode to set things up because it's going to kick off in the next episode,

[00:56:22] especially in episode four and stuff like that. So, yeah, no, this is fun. I'm enjoying it again. I'm still, I'm still looking at people who are firmly team black kind of out the corner, like

[00:56:33] outside of my eye and not because look, not because I'm so, so rooted in being team green. It's just that y'all don't see nothing wrong with what's going on over there. Like it's like very

[00:56:43] much like we, we hate Kristen. Call it. That's who you hate. I'm not crazy either. I see it, but still Damon had a baby's head chopped off and ain't nobody saying nothing. That's all I'm

[00:56:56] saying. Where did, where's the outrage y'all like, but Kristen called it. Alison is still having sex. By the way, they're still having sex. We didn't, we kind of glossed over that, but they,

[00:57:04] they still out here getting, getting it in. Mark, is it okay now that they're doing the do now that he's no longer a knight and he is now the hand of the King? No, he's still, uh,

[00:57:14] he's still, uh, his vows are forever. So he's just a, um, a Lord commander hand. He, I, there's, there's only an elite few where that were also the Lord commander of the,

[00:57:28] of the Kings guard and the hand. Like he's one of like an elite few, but he's given me flowers. He still has his vows. So let's, his vows were to Raniera. She not even the queen. So let's,

[00:57:40] let's scratch all that. Kristen call. I didn't nothing wrong, Alison. I see you still getting yours. I see you girl. Um, but yeah, that's it for the episode. Uh, we are about to get into

[00:57:49] the spoiler section. So if you are averse to that kind of thing, if you don't want to hear about the books, the nerdy stuff, but, um, I haven't told you it's a treat, so stick around. But if,

[00:57:59] if this is your last moment, we'll catch you here next week for more hot D the re uh, the West Rose kickback here on recap kickback. You can check out all the other content we have coming

[00:58:09] your way as well. We recently covered, um, the power of the, uh, power of the dream documentary with, uh, uh, Geneva and Tracy from who all going to be there podcast. Like, uh, the,

[00:58:21] who are going to be there podcast. They came in and talked about women's basketball as a WNBA doctor series. We talked about that. I'm having Bryce Isaiah on soon to wrap up pride month. So

[00:58:30] we can talk about a movie review. We're going to talk about holiday heart y'all. And so check that out here on recap kickback. Um, but we got a ton of content coming your way. So, uh, check us

[00:58:39] out on hot D the West Rose kickback next week, or just subscribe to this podcast and keep up with all the rest of the stuff we have going on. Uh, but now is your time to tap out as Mari and I are

[00:58:47] about to go into the book club right now. So everybody welcome to Maester Mari's book corner. Mari this episode, it was fun, but what are we, what are we back on in line with the books or last week's episode, they had to add, they deviated even more.

[00:59:09] No, this episode was actually very true to the books that as this is going to be very short. Um, I bet it will only right. The only thing that, uh, like Damon at this point in the books has

[00:59:23] already like started his siege on here and all before the son with the son thing. So that's a little bit out of order, but I understood why they did it in this order. And I kind of liked this,

[00:59:34] um, the, so, so sir, Eric and sir, Eric's, uh, Epic battle was one where it wasn't like, it wasn't seen by as many people. So it had several accounts. So one account was that they both

[00:59:50] fought and fought and fought until they basically, uh, died of exhaustion in each other's arms. Like, yeah. Like from so many cuts and wounds in each other's arms and they died together. The second account was from mushroom. He said that, uh, sir, Eric right there is Eric, um,

[01:00:14] kills sir. Arik, but because Arik, um, slices him across the belly, sir, Eric dies four days later. So it's, they kind of combine the two in a sense they, they fought to the death. Eric does end up

[01:00:35] taking his brother's life, but he's so consumed with the guilt that he, he, uh, commits a coup and opens his own gut up. And it, I liked it. I really liked it a lot. Um, James thought that he,

[01:00:48] he would have wanted them to kill each other, but honestly, I liked, I like this. I prefer this to the mountain and the hound, you know, when they're their final battle and then falling off into the burnery for the fire inferno, I, you know, because that was pure

[01:01:05] hatred there. So it was just kind of like every other fight you kind of seeing. And I said, exactly. This adds some, some layers to it for sure. Loyalty to the crown was to each other as

[01:01:15] a bloodline, but then, you know, their duties and, you know, not wanting to be murdered. Right. Exactly. Yeah. You think there will be some other options. I mean, there definitely are, but not, not in this timeframe, you know, like, uh, they're not, no one does that. You know,

[01:01:31] you don't go against your honor. You'd rather murder your family than do that. Um, but let's talk about some spoilery stuff. I got to talk about my holes, my family over here. Okay. Adam and Alan, the holes. Yeah. Um, these are corelesses Kings? Question mark. Um,

[01:01:52] question, question. Right. Cause like I said in the books, it, it truly like they are upheld as being possibly sir lane or like possibly from like when sir lane or, um, was younger, they tried to, you know, screw the, the gay out of him because the holes are,

[01:02:15] are, uh, they're born from like, like a well-known, uh, she was called the mouse of holes. She's just, she's not, uh, like a prostitute per se. She's just very well known around the,

[01:02:28] the, the docs of the whole. Yeah. And, um, and people, people are saying that they're lane ors, um, they're lane ors mostly because I don't know if you saw sir Alan when sir Alan was on the beach.

[01:02:46] He, um, he saw the dragon, that dragon, see smoke. That's lane ors dragon. Okay. Um, and, uh, sorry, it wasn't Alan on the beach. It was Adam on the beach. God, man, Adam on the beach. Yes.

[01:02:59] With the dreads, Adam with the dreads and the locks crab fission. He sees, see smoke overhead, which was lane or his dragon. Um, is he smoke just chilling? Yeah. He has no right. Like he

[01:03:12] has no writer. So, um, uh, we'll find out later. It has to be later this season, I'm assuming, but like there's six dragons chilling on Dragonstone. Three of them have been written

[01:03:23] before three of them have are unwritten. And so at one point, Jace makes a call to action to find writers for those dragons. Yeah. I talked about a little bit last week. It's called the, the,

[01:03:36] the sowing of the dragon seeds because, um, what the show I don't think really talks about is on Dragonstone. There's a whole, there's a whole like city and village and all of that on Dragonstone.

[01:03:48] Um, like that, you know, paid tie to their Lords and all that, you know, they're small folk that they command. Um, and of course the dragons like to hoe around. So there's probably a lot

[01:04:03] of dragon bastards running around, uh, uh, Dragonstone. So Jace, um, call says if anybody can, if y'all can tame these dragons and fight for us, we'll give you Lord's ships and stuff like that.

[01:04:18] Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So, so Adam and Alan will play a role in that. Um, but again, it's like there it's disputed. Are they Lanor's kids or are they Corliss' kids? Um, a lot of people suspect

[01:04:39] they're Corliss' kids. Right. For obvious reasons, you know, like, you know, but yeah, but you know, he doesn't want to claim them. He'd rather it for him. It's better for him to claim them through

[01:04:50] Lanor than himself because Lanius is right there. Right. And if Lanor got some kids, then you got some more heirs. You know what I'm talking about? You know, you got like more bloodline if you can claim these children as, as your, your, your grandchild basically,

[01:05:07] you know, where you got to deal with the smoke if you try to claim them yourself. Cause remember Corliss, like Corliss said in the history books, it's not blood that lives on.

[01:05:16] It's name. It's the name. Yeah. Um, so yeah. Um, and, and that's the, the, so another dragon seeds, all of that, that's where, um, uh, Hugh, Hugh, the hammer comes in. I'm wondering if we

[01:05:32] got a sneak peek of another dragon seed, but I don't want to say it until, if, until it's like confirmed, if it's confirmed. Um, but, um, well, I was gonna say, okay, well, can we talk about

[01:05:46] Hugh a little bit? Because I liked that the show is subtly introducing them to us, but I cannot figure out if we're supposed to care about Hugh yet, you know? Cause it's like the first time we get them, it's Agon's incompetence. Agon's like, yeah, whatever.

[01:06:00] We'll give you some money. Uh, and then this time we get now, like Hugh has a family. Um, they're about to go off to, they're about to go to war essentially. So Hugh knows like,

[01:06:10] I need this money so I can like, we're down bad, but we're going to get the money from the King. And they haven't given us any reason to care about Hugh except for the fact that he's popped

[01:06:19] up twice. So I know this is going to be somebody in the, you call him the hammer. Is it just because he's a blacksmith? Yeah. That's his, uh, yeah, that's his, his name, his nickname. Cause they called Gendry the hammer too, Mario. And it wasn't because of that.

[01:06:31] Um, I'm just going to pretend like you didn't say that. Uh, so yeah, so I think what they're, they're doing with Hugh is showing us what the small folk are going through, especially in

[01:06:45] planning. He's talking about how they are all being severely, um, like it, it, they're severely being affected by that. The, the, uh, gullet, the choking of the gullet, they're losing money. They're losing food. Like it, it's, it's a way to introduce him as a character,

[01:07:07] show what the small folk are going through. And I think will serve as motivation for some of his actions later down the road. Gotcha. Anything else from the book that, uh, we need to highlight

[01:07:19] in this episode? Um, I'm sorry. I'm looking at my notes. Honestly, like this was really good. It was very true to the book. All, all of this really, really was Sir Otto losing his, his, um,

[01:07:35] his office, um, him giving it to Christian Cole. I was, I loved hearing that line, that the line, my new hand is a steel fist. Um, it was very good in the book. So they, they did, they did a great

[01:07:46] job and that, and that's why I was, I was saying like going into this episode, I was like, oh, there's going to be filler. They basically adapted what, um, when I, I listened to the

[01:07:55] audio book. So they adapted like five minutes of like the book or the audio book into like a whole episode here and they really filled it out and made it feel worth it. Right. I enjoyed this.

[01:08:10] It made me, it did make me want to go and start to read, like, you know, knowing that there's like some deviances in the, in the, in the plot, make me want to go and read the book. But at the same

[01:08:19] time, I much rather you just explain it to me. Like I'm fine. So here we go. Um, I do appreciate them showing Bela as well, like kind of, uh, acknowledging. I liked that they acknowledged

[01:08:29] that like everybody's aware that, uh, her uncle is not Jason's father. You know what I'm saying? But he was still, you know, he's still the father that stepped up. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And, and, and he was still a good dad to them and they,

[01:08:45] they had both, uh, their, their, sir Harwin and, uh, Serena in their lives for a good portion of it. I did like that Bela and Jace here, like they're, they're betrothed. So getting a little

[01:08:58] bit between the two of them was, was great. Um, that, that's something they made up for the, for the show there. They're really trying to get the kids into more stuff, which I love about, especially they're trying to get Bela and Raina more involved early again. So that's,

[01:09:14] that's really good. I like this again. It's it's scenes, it's scenes of, uh, descent on each side and their scenes of humanity on each side. And so that's why, and it, and that just what's

[01:09:31] perpetuates this team green and team black of it all. I feel really bad though. It's like the two women that are at the forefront of all of this are really just dealing with the incompetence

[01:09:39] of all the people around them. Right? Like all the mistakes, all the people around them, all of the men around them are just pushing them into war and they're trying their best to like,

[01:09:48] to navigate it. Obviously they, they, they make some attacks on their own ends as well, both sides, but it does feel like, you know, if they just give him free reign, then this would be fine.

[01:09:58] You know, uh, we probably would have seen some type of, um, like some treatise or something like that before, uh, before Lucas killed. Even after Lucas killed you, you really feel like, okay, maybe they could come back for this, but then the baby's decapitated. And now when the

[01:10:13] baby's decapitated, you see Reneira like, I wouldn't have even done that. What are you talking about? You know? Um, so it's been, it's very interesting watching it through this lens. Um, just knowing that, you know, a lot of this stuff could be avoided. Like some,

[01:10:25] a lot of this stuff didn't have to happen. And it's just a comedy of errors is going to ultimately lead, lead all these people to their end. Exactly. It's a tragedy to say the least actually. Yeah.

[01:10:38] Yeah. But it's fun to watch. Um, Mari, um, I think that's it for this week's episode. Anything else we need to talk about? Nope. Nope. Uh, I'm just telling everybody like buckle up. These next two episodes,

[01:10:51] I think are going to be really good. And then I have no idea what they're going to do for the last four episodes. So I read somewhere online that someone said something about, uh,

[01:11:00] like one of the episodes, episode four, episode five is going to be like battle of the bastards style. Like, uh, man, I was like, Oh yeah. And so, uh, you said, is that episode four,

[01:11:10] episode five, four, four, four weeks away from a big old event. Yeah. And, uh, I guess we'll be here to talk about it for sure. Uh, Mari and Tilden, tell everybody what you got going on

[01:11:23] and what you're working on. Um, over on crime scene, me and Sarah Carradine, uh, we reviewed true crime documentaries and docuseries. You can go to, um, rob has a website.com slash crime feed

[01:11:35] in order to subscribe there. Just subscribe to the crime scene podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Uh, this week we have a doozy of an episode. We were joined by my good friend, Matt

[01:11:46] Scott, um, to talk about, oh yeah. Him to talk about the documentary. Tell them that you love me. It's a very, uh, I don't even know the word for that documentary. Oh, I see that one on Netflix.

[01:12:02] Yeah. That's crazy. I didn't even watch it because I was like, I don't like it. Wild. Yes. It is all of that. So we had the conversation that we had, we just,

[01:12:13] it was so unhinged because we were like, how do we even talk about this? Right. So definitely go and check that out. That drops on Tuesday. Um, that's going to be, it's good. It's a good episode.

[01:12:25] Listen to us. Don't don't watch it. Oh, I can't wait to listen to y'all. Cause I definitely ain't gonna watch that. Yeah. And, and, oh, and then follow me on Twitter at Mari talks too much

[01:12:36] to like the number two where I'll be, you know, reposting all of the house of the dragon stuff. Yes. And, uh, as far as I got going on, you know, of course, if you're here on recap,

[01:12:46] kickback, you know, what's up. Um, like I said, Bryce, Isaiah is going to come join me, uh, this week to talk about how they heart in, uh, in honor of pride month. That's a movie that

[01:12:55] means a light to a light to Bricey. And so we haven't priced it back by popular demand, I might add. Uh, and so there'll be that. And I think there's a P valley docu series coming up soon

[01:13:05] that Bryson and I are going to talk about. Yeah. It's hosted by the actor. You and me. Yes. Yeah. Whenever you're ready to have us, you know, we, we, we are down to have more Mari content all the

[01:13:17] time. Um, we'll read some of the good feedback we've been getting on the next podcast as well. Um, but like I said, last week we had the WNBA power of the dream documentary and it was a Tracy

[01:13:29] from a, who all going to be there and, uh, Geneva, uh, to come on. And they, they talked about that documentary with me. It was great. And so, yeah, just keep tuning in every week for more recap,

[01:13:40] kickback content of course, subscribe to the podcast, support the podcast. However you can shout out to the people over there are the, was it good though? Podcast Jason at jazz. They,

[01:13:51] they, you know, we're having a lot of fun on Twitter with some of these house of the dragon ward, but that's another good podcast. I have to highlight every time I get a chance because those

[01:13:59] are good people over there. Check them out as well. And then of course you can follow me on all social media platforms at recap kickback. So, um, for Mari and for myself, you ain't got to go

[01:14:08] home, but you got to get the hell up out of here until next week, when we talked to you about house of dragons season two, episode three until next time. Peace.