HOTD: The Westeros Kickback Season 2 Episode 3

[00:00:00] Welcome back to Recap Kickback where we chop it up about TV, movies and music while being sure to highlight black media any chance we get. But this week we are talking about House of the Dragons here on HOTD, the Westeros Kickback.

[00:00:30] I am Chappelle and I'll be leading you through House of the Dragons Season 2 Episode 3, The Burning Mill. We got a lot to talk about and with me, of course, every week I have with me the master of whispers,

[00:00:41] the whisperer herself, the library is open, Mace Tamari is back for the book corner. Mace Tamari, welcome back. Yeah, I'm so glad to be here every week with you, Chappelle, breaking down the episode. And like I said, we break these down literally right after they're done.

[00:01:00] So, you know, give us some grace. We've been missing some things. But other than that, I am so glad to be giving like our first hand reactions to what we're seeing.

[00:01:10] And I think this was a really good episode and it's leading to like a lot happening in next week. So I can't wait to talk about it with you. You know, I think it's very funny that you say that because I was seeing some of the conversation

[00:01:24] online and people were saying this was a filler episode, but I didn't feel that way. I felt like I was fed. I felt like I really got a lot out of this one. And I definitely have a lot of questions as well.

[00:01:35] So I'll be very excited to get into that with you. But first, I want to thank all the listeners for being here. And keep up with all the rest of our Recap Kickback coverage.

[00:01:42] We cover a lot of different media, but we are taking time to go like down this House of the Dragon, Westeros Road and talk about Westeros for the duration of the season. And then when they bring back more House of the Dragon coverage, hopefully we'll be here

[00:01:55] to talk about that too. So be sure to subscribe to RecapKickback.com, slash subscribe wherever you get your podcast. You can go and subscribe there. You can follow us on social media at Recap Kickback to keep up with all the content we

[00:02:08] have and of course to keep up with the House of the Dragon content. Also, we've been getting some questions. Hey, do you take requests? Is there anything that you would like? Can we give suggestions? What if we want you to talk about certain things? Sure.

[00:02:19] Email us RecapKickback.com at oh, I'm sorry, RecapKickback at gmail.com and I will see the email. You can put it in the comments and the YouTube page. Make sure you go in and click that like button and leave us a comment and say, hey, this

[00:02:33] is what I was thinking because we got a lot of good feedback last week, Mari. Oh yes, yes, we did. Up top, I gotta say my bad y'all. I really thought the twins weren't the twins, Sir Eric and Sir Arik.

[00:02:48] I could have sworn last season that they said that they weren't twins, but you know, even maesters get stuff wrong, especially maesters that are podcasting at 12 at night after drinking all day. You know, just show your girls some grace, you know?

[00:03:03] Yeah, look, the twins, we know obviously they're twins in the book and in the show, but you know, there was a question about whether the actors were actually twins. Listen, they are twins and they are now dead.

[00:03:14] So I don't think we have to dwell on that too much longer, but I am very excited to get to talk about this with you, Mari, directly after the episode. Hell, we stopped watching the BET Awards for this, so you know it's serious. Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:28] Sorry BET, but I have to go with my House of Dragons, as we would say. Yeah, House of the Dragons. As the audience would say. Yeah, look, we team black, but you know, and team black too. So we support both of those things, you know what I'm saying?

[00:03:46] But yeah, we got a lot to talk about. It is up, so I do want to start, let's just kind of go chronologically, I guess a little bit. We'll jump around a bit, but I do want to talk about this big moment at the end, right?

[00:03:58] Like, because I think this is what really just kind of sums up the episode. Raniera and Allison finally meet face to face for the first time in a number of episodes. They haven't seen each other in a while, Mari. Yeah. Has it been years?

[00:04:12] Yeah, like at this point, no, no, no, it hasn't been years. It's been weeks. Remember? Yeah, because they saw each other the night that Viserys died. You know, they had that last supper.

[00:04:24] He dies and we know that it's only been a matter of weeks because this season, every episode is like one day. Yes. Like three days as opposed to seven years. So yeah, Viserys dies and then immediately after we get shenanigans, we get the death of Luke.

[00:04:47] Yeah, then we get followed by the decapitation of the baby, followed by, you know, the shenanigans we have in this episode and all things are leading to war. All sides are leading to war. It's inevitable. All the men in the realm are like, let's fight. We got dragons.

[00:05:02] They got dragons. Yo dragons go up against our dragons. You know, let's see what happens. But the women in the realm are a lot wiser, you know? For one, it just makes a lot of sense to try to protect as many people as you can.

[00:05:15] Nobody wants to see a lot of bloodshed. And so both of the women involved in this are our main women, Alicent and Rhaenyra. They need to talk. They need to talk and Rhaenyra needs a plan to get to Alicent.

[00:05:27] So what she ends up doing is she ends up going undercover and going to see Alicent. Were they at the Great Sept? Is that where it was at? Yeah, the Great Sept. Yeah, very much a callback to season one.

[00:05:41] This is where Alicent be kicking it all the time. We've seen her there a billion times. But this is where these two ladies need to talk. So Rhaenyra disguises herself as a nun, infiltrates the kingdom. A septa, my bad.

[00:05:55] Yeah, she comes in, infiltrates the kingdom or queendom or whoever, you know, depending on who you ask. And when she gets there, Mari, this was interesting because she needs to talk to Alicent. Alicent doesn't see her right there. So immediately she pulls out her knife. Her knife, yeah.

[00:06:11] Why? Yeah, I don't know. Even Rhaenyra was like, dang, I started this off really badly. I messed that up, my bad. That's on me. But yeah, it's a reunion that brings up all the callbacks of season one.

[00:06:28] Like we said, they had so many scenes together in that sept as kids, as girls before they started to drift away, like their friendship started to drift away. And to see them back there, kneeling there, having this discussion, it's really, it should

[00:06:45] tell you if you're watching that it's about to get real. You know what I'm saying? Like this is the last treaty. Like this is the last head attack. Like this is Rhaenyra's Harold and Mari to be like, do we really want to do this?

[00:06:59] Do you want to do this? Do you want your set to roll up on my set? Do we really want this to happen? Because I got shooters. She left her secret service dudes sitting outside with the knife too, like on the low.

[00:07:10] I said, oh yeah, they mean business Mari. So it's very interesting. And I do love the addition of this because it really is showing you, not telling you how reticent that Rhaenyra is to go into battle. And I think even at this point, Alison is like, it's done.

[00:07:34] But let's be real. She was, she was at this same, she, she was at the, she was saying the same things on the small council just earlier that day or yesterday. You know what I'm saying?

[00:07:43] But I think it's kind of like when she's sitting in front of her, she's like, no, you know, let's go. But I, and are we surprised that Rhaenyra is the one who's hesitant because Rhaenyra is

[00:07:55] the one who lost, you know, her blood first, you know what I'm saying? Like Luke's death truly weighs, it weighs on her and you can tell that's why she is so reluctant to send them dragons or to send people out.

[00:08:11] You know, she, she, she, she'd much rather send out armies of people she don't know to die for her cause than the four dragons, five dragons on people, people she knows, you know what I'm saying? And it's kind of selfish. It's selfish.

[00:08:26] And yeah, her, her family members, exactly. Like it's selfish, but it's played for a non-selfish cause. She's, you know, it's played for like, we can stop this war. We can save thousands of lives if we could just come to agreement right here and now,

[00:08:42] you know, but honestly, you know, I think she, she knows, she knows of all people that when, you know, when dragons fight, what do Rhaenys say? You know, when dragons fight, there's no war so bloody. So yeah, I like this. Yeah. This was a good scene.

[00:08:59] I enjoyed it as well because again, Rhaenyra is like, we got to put a stop to this. And I listen like, of course you would say that cause you really ain't got no leg to stand on. You're like, what, what, what are the turns?

[00:09:08] That baby, you ain't got no army, you know, like the tides are turning against you people. You just killed a baby, you know, like low key. I got all the momentum in the world. What are you really going to do?

[00:09:18] And she's like, bro, just tell me how long you've been trying to get my seat at the table. You know what I mean? Like how long was it before my daddy died?

[00:09:26] But when you tried to like really just take over, I would say finally gets to tell her girl, I'm not lying. The man told me it was Aegon was supposed to sit on the throne. And Rhaenyra was like, wait, what was that? Hold on. Pause.

[00:09:38] Aegon, he told you about the song, Eyes of Fire and me, somebody who watched Game of Thrones, who knows how this story ends, starts punching the air because I'm like, and they make it up. They mess it up. This conversation is so frustrating.

[00:09:53] Yeah, what I tell you, acting down both Olivia Cooke here and Emma D'Arcy, I mean, come on, man. The look on Rhaenyra's face as like Alison says he changed his mind. And at first you could just see the emotion. She's like, nah, ho, nah.

[00:10:16] Of course, of course you said that. Yeah, of course you said it. Yeah. Why are you always lying? And then Alison says like, no, like for real, like I believe that he said it. And then you could see it in her face. She's like, oh, you believe this?

[00:10:32] And so she really starts to think like, did he do it? The tears start, like she starts rethinking everything. And then Alison slips up and be like, yeah, the prince that was promised, you know? I don't think it was a slip up.

[00:10:46] I think she thought that was what, my son, the prince that was promised. Yeah, like. Like it's a slip up because now Rhaenyra's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's a different, that's a different Aegon. He was talking about Aegon the Conqueror.

[00:10:59] And then you see Alison be like, the Conqueror? I mean, my son can conquer? You don't know? One day, you don't know? It was just a really good back and forth by these actors.

[00:11:12] Um, mostly just because they said a lot without saying a lot like what their face is. And come on, we were all on our seats. Like, like tell her, like I was screaming, Alison, tell her what he said.

[00:11:27] Yeah, I didn't know if she was going to realize, you know? And then Alison tells her what he says, what, what he said. Rhaenyra realizes, oh, you mistook it. He never took my, my throne away from me. I'm fighting for this.

[00:11:41] And then for Alison to then realize, oh, wait, did I make a mistake? Well, she, she thought about it because she was like, oh, my mama. I swear to God, why would I lie? Why, why, what, what I look like?

[00:11:53] You think I would really come up with something this dumb? Like it just, he told me that's all I could do. Like you think that's what, that's my big play? Like if I wanted the throne, I have several children that I could just be like, you know,

[00:12:03] he been said that, you know, but like to come up at the last minute, it's a harebrained scheme. You don't think better of me? She's like, all right, you got, I'll give you that. But what if you got the wrong A-God? Alison's kind of like, damn.

[00:12:15] I mean, that would be crazy. But I just say it's too late. It's too late. Like, and honestly, she's not wrong. What could Alison really do with this information? Be like, Rhaenyra said it's the wrong guy.

[00:12:28] Okay, let me call A-God and be like, hey, by the way, sorry A-God, the other person who wants the throne said I'm wrong. So I'm gonna just take her word for it. What if, what is she lying? You don't know.

[00:12:41] So Alison can't just be like, damn, you're right. That makes total sense. Bruh, how did I not realize this? Let me just send some ravens off, call everybody off and say I misheard him or I didn't know about the prophecy.

[00:12:54] And then you really have to get into the prophecy at that point. Now, what exactly has happened? Winter is coming and there needs to be a prince on the throne. And who the hell's Arya gonna start? You know what I'm saying?

[00:13:03] So at some point it's going to get convoluted anyway. So I don't know. I love the interactions, but it was such a cool scene because there is no more treaty. Like you said, they've been trying.

[00:13:16] Alison has brought a couple of terms and be like, hey, we can shut this down. Rhaenyra's been ready to do that. But then we've gotten some mistaken deaths. We've got some purposeful deaths. And here they're like, okay, last try. What do you think?

[00:13:27] And Alison's like, baby, what do you want me to do? I'm just supposed to say you said it, so it's cool. And then that's it. I'm just supposed to take everything back. Decapitated babies, that's cool. It's all square now. There's nowhere for them to go.

[00:13:41] Well, Rhaenyra said she was saying we could hope we can come up with something for peace. I don't think they tried. You know what I'm saying? But what's the option? Well, here's the way I look at it because Alison lines it up like this.

[00:13:56] She says, now you know who Aegon is and you know who Aemond is. What am I supposed to do with this information? She's like, what am I supposed to do? When she says, my father is not even on the council. So he ain't got no influence no more.

[00:14:10] Kristen Cole is already on the march and Aemond is crazy as hell. What am I supposed to do? Rhaenyra would just be like, hey, listen to me. The one person who they're clearly trying not to listen to.

[00:14:22] Like they have pretty much pushed Alison all the way out of any influence. And honestly, Team Black is doing the same thing. They're trying to get Rhaenyra out of the way so they can start making moves on war without her.

[00:14:32] These two people, for them to have the most sense and they should have the most influence, arguably don't have as much as you would think they should have at this point. Yeah. No, I agree.

[00:14:45] That's why this scene was just so good because I mean, I think the whole thing is at least Rhaenyra tried. You know what I'm saying? I think she will sleep better knowing that she at least tried. Yeah, for sure.

[00:14:56] I mean, it was a good, it was a valiant effort. And it seemed like, again, like if it was just the two of them and they could just have a sidebar and talk, it would be cool if they could sit down and make the decisions.

[00:15:08] I think these two people could sit across the table from each other. You take these pieces, I take these pieces. We do do do do do. We come up with a plan. But it's above them now. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. The ship has sailed.

[00:15:20] We're just all, I can do nothing about this. I'm glad that you, I heard you out. I'm glad you heard me out. It's no hard feelings, but we at war. Yeah. And I think this is, this isn't out of character for Rhaenyra because think about it.

[00:15:35] She was already contemplating the like peace talks before Luke died. So this shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. And it's very in line with her character. And I love this character development from both her and Alicent, to be quite honest. Yeah, this was fun.

[00:15:53] But I mean, look at how we get here, right? It's really looking like Alicent has gotten completely pushed out of whatever influence she has on team green. Kristen Cole is the new hand of the King and his first day as hand, his first day of hand.

[00:16:09] He showed up late to work. He sweat. Yeah. So play like, oh, I'm nervous. I don't know that the, I'm the Kings guard too. It's a lot of pressure, blah, blah. Yeah. And so they're like, all right, this is war. We're going to war.

[00:16:22] Let's get everybody together and send them off to war because things have been happening outside of the walls that are really starting to get out of control. So we see the Brackens in the Blackwoods are out here fighting for the honors of team black and team green.

[00:16:37] And this family, this is to me, these are the people who I'm in the arguments with on Twitter and on Facebook. You know what I'm saying? Like we have nothing to do with this. Really?

[00:16:46] We just fighting because we like to argue, you know, like they don't, they don't really care who's on the throne. They just hate each other that much. So they're going to come up with a reason to fight because it looked like it didn't

[00:16:56] matter what side they were going to say. Brackens and Blackwoods were never going to go on the same page. Oh, very that, very that. It also, you know, it goes back to season one where during Rhaenyra's progresses, she was being courted by several Lords.

[00:17:10] And one of those Lords was a Lord Blackwood, a little Lord Blackwood. And while he was courting a Bracken was heckling him. And then the little boy. Yeah. Oh yeah. And he stabbed him and he killed the Bracken. Yeah. Like this is, yeah, this is a blood feud.

[00:17:27] This is like, uh, this is Hatfields versus McCoy's. Like this is a feud, like nobody knows how it started. It's just on site. Like this is on site with, with these two families and no matter what every war from

[00:17:43] the test of time, they have always been on the opposite sides. It's almost like one house picks a side and the other one's like, all right, F it. We're going to be on the other side. What y'all about to do? Okay.

[00:17:55] Well, we're doing what else y'all not going to do. Exactly. I think this feud is a parallel to the one we're getting with Team Black and Team Green because nobody can even tell you how this thing started.

[00:18:07] And when we see these conversations throughout this episode about, okay, well, who's right and who's wrong with Team Black and Team Green. And you know, I've been, I've been caping for Team Green for weeks because, and not because I felt like they have some righteous cause, right.

[00:18:19] To me, it's always like, but y'all act like Team Black is without sin. You know what I'm saying? Like they're not, it's not like they're the obvious choice. They're just the choice that you'd rather go with. But we keep looking back at the things that have happened.

[00:18:30] There's been bloodshed on both sides. You know, I think when Allison and Raniera are talking, Allison says, oh yeah, well, you know, it's probably, it probably wouldn't happen if you had killed the baby. And Raniera's like, well, you wouldn't, we wouldn't have killed the baby if you hadn't,

[00:18:44] you know, maybe like killed my son. She's like, well, I didn't sign off on the killing of your son. She's like, well, you ain't stopped it. He's like, well, you ain't stopped him for killing the baby.

[00:18:51] It's like, well, it's like, so there's back and forth on that side. And they're like, who, who was the first blow to this? You know, from Allison's point of view, I heard him change his mind. I'm not doing anything wrong. And you out here moving dirty.

[00:19:02] These kids ain't even got blonde hair. Let's talk about it. And from Raniera's point of view, it's like, you know, that man didn't change his mind. You know what I'm saying? So why are you trying to take my spot?

[00:19:10] There's really like, if you ask everybody, history is going to tell you that nobody knows who threw the first blow. And we see the same thing with the Brackwood, the Brackwoods, the Brackens and the Blackwoods. Yeah, because they too can't figure out who started it.

[00:19:25] They just know that they hate each other. Yeah, I kind of agree with that. Kind of don't only because Luke died. Luke dies first. It was an accident. And honestly, that's not what history will know. A history book is it was not an accident. Like, right.

[00:19:41] And that's, that's my point though. If you ask the other side, they're gonna say they started it. Like, yeah, Luke accidentally died. But maybe had Luke not been bullying Aegon and Aemond or, you know, I guess Aemond, then this would have never happened. Aegon was also bullying Aemond.

[00:19:59] Yes, they were all bullying Aemond. And Aemond finally started to reclaim it. I'm not saying that Aegon is innocent. I'm just saying that the kids were bullying him. He brought it up in the last episode. They were bullying me. I was picking on him.

[00:20:12] Like, I was the big bad wolf that day. I was winning. What do you mean? I'm sorry my dragon lost control. I didn't mean to kill him, you know? And so, you know, it happened.

[00:20:21] But I don't think again, it's like if it was up to me, that would not have happened. You know what I'm saying? Like if people were in charge, were making the decisions, neither one of them would have

[00:20:29] struck the first blow attacking each other's child, I think is what I'm getting at. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But the Blackwoods and the Brackens. The Battle of the Burning Mill here. I liked, I mean, I like how they kind of made it just like a footnote.

[00:20:48] Um, just fine. You know, it was like, oh, we finished squabble and in two seconds later, it's like all these people are dead. Like, it was like- It's a massive, a massive footnote, Mari. Yeah, it was an actual battle, you know?

[00:21:01] It was like the first blood in the book. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say that because they yada yada. It looks like thousands of deaths. Yeah. They did. They yada yada it. And I was like, oh wow. You know what I'm saying?

[00:21:16] But again, this should show you like they're not going to give us these big, a big battle set piece for a battle that was first, which kind of sets the tone, but is not, um, is

[00:21:31] not as consequential because as we see, none of the main characters are actually there for that battle. It is a, it is a small skirmish against minor Lords. And this is what happens when, when countries go to go to war and stuff like that.

[00:21:47] It's like you're declaring for sides. Yes, there's like maybe the main battle, like the main battle between black and greens, but out with amongst the small folks and out in the other lands and the Lee Georges and

[00:21:58] stuff, the other people who have declared for each side, they're also having small skirmishes. So this is like, this is very in line with like historical battles, um, like actual historical battles and, um, with, with what's going on in the book. Like, this is what happens.

[00:22:14] And like you said, it's one of those things where it's like, once war starts, like once you take that, that lid off that jar, you can't stuff everything back in, you know what I'm saying? It, it happens and it breaks off amongst the small folk as well.

[00:22:29] So, um, I loved how that kind of illustrated that, like, and of course, again, with two families who don't think they don't care. They just wanted to, they just wanted a reason. Um, but it, it was, it was definitely like, oh wow. They did. Yeah.

[00:22:48] It was a lot. Like I said, I really was taking notes. Like, okay, what are these people's names? Okay. Who was Aaron? And I was like, nevermind. I don't need to know this. So later on, we, uh, we see that the different councils are meeting.

[00:23:02] Like I was talking about earlier and, uh, they keep bringing up Grover Tully. Mari, what is going on with Grover Tully? And why did they need to reach out to what they call the flaccid old fool?

[00:23:12] Um, I was like, we'd rather not talk about this man's penis like that. Oh God. So Grover Tully, uh, for those of gave a thrown in the note, the Tullys are the Lords of the Riverlands.

[00:23:23] Um, of course, Catlin Tully, uh, belonged to that family before she marries Ned Stark. They are, they're like the, you know, they're like the Lannisters in the Westerlands or the Tyrells in the reach, like, or the Starks in the North there, you know, they're, they're

[00:23:40] wardens of each of each former seven kingdom. So Grover Tully and the Tullys, the Lords of Riverruns, they are the, um, the protectors of the Riverlands. They are the overarching liege Lord of the Riverlands. All the smaller houses are a bannerman to them.

[00:24:00] Um, so they are the family you want to woo onto your side if you want control of the Riverlands because you have to have, you know, two things you have to have, you know, everybody

[00:24:11] wants the Heron Hall as a foothold in the Riverlands because you need somewhere to muster an army. Um, but you also need the support of the high liege Lord of the region in order to get the support of all of the other lesser houses.

[00:24:26] So that's why both sides are like, oh, we will have to deal with this guy eventually. And we don't know what he's going to do. Well, so that's the thing. So of course we see, uh, team greens and we got to get to Grover Tully.

[00:24:39] That's going to be important for us. Uh, but then we see, uh, the opposite side of this. We see team black and, um, Damon is on his way to Heron Hall. We talked about that last episode. Uh, he's made it. Heron Hall is the ghetto.

[00:24:52] It's the hood is ratchet in there. Uh, there's leaky faucets. I mean, it's nasty there. He shows up with his dragon ready to take Heron Hall. It takes all of like 12 seconds to take Heron Hall because they don't put up a fight at all.

[00:25:07] We see immediately, uh, Sir Strong, uh, just completely bending the knee. Yeah. Just bending the knee and saying like, Hey, you got it. What, whatever you want. I don't, we don't really have time for this. Like you pulled up with a, with a dragon. Okay.

[00:25:21] Prince Damon, you know, Raniera, she's, she's in charge. And first of all, that Prince thing is really getting under David's skin. But I mean, they're not wrong. They're not wrong. No. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, I mean, we asked about this.

[00:25:38] Well, you know, talked about a little bit last episode, but Damon, it seems like, you know, from the outside, he's saying, I too am on team black and I want Raniera to be in charge.

[00:25:52] But whenever people try to call him the Prince or the Consort, something like that, like he really doesn't like that. Like I, in my mind, this man thinks he's the King in his mind. Yeah.

[00:26:02] I mean, so, um, how, oh God, I don't like all my British monarchy people. If y'all know it, correct me. But like, so just like how, uh, Prince Philip just died, right? That's, that was Elizabeth's husband name.

[00:26:18] He is referred to as Prince Philip his whole entire life because he was always just the King Consort. And, um, that's what it's been like when there's Queens, unless, unless the Queen decides to crown their Consort as King.

[00:26:36] The difference between the two is that it's a, it's a very big difference because if the Queen, you know, when the Queen is the Queen and there's, and he's only a King Consort her, the, the, the throne passes to their, their, uh, kids, kids. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:57] But say she crowns him as King in his own right. If she dies, he would then still be King. In charge. In charge. And then he could do whatever he wants to, you know what I'm saying?

[00:27:10] So there, there is a big difference between a Prince, a King Consort, a King and all that. But that hasn't happened. She still has not made him King. Exactly. Yeah. They haven't, she hasn't been crowned Queen technically yet. That's the, that's the kind of the thing to me.

[00:27:25] And I'm like, like, why are you so upset about this? Like first she needs to like solidify her, her Queendom in order to then crown you. You know what I'm saying? Like she needs to be recognized.

[00:27:39] Like if, if, if she's not fully recognized by the people, you call it walking around, calling yourself Queen or your King or your grace, it don't matter. It won't matter. You know, she needs to be accepted first.

[00:27:52] And then once she's accepted, if she decides to make you King, then that's where you go. But pouting and whining won't do that. You know? I don't know. Cause you know, when these, when these nobility people start pouting and whining, they just start killing people.

[00:28:04] And so I would be afraid to, you know, poor Simon Strong. He keeps saying like Prince, I'm sorry, your grace, your grace, my bad. Please don't shoot. You know, like don't kill me. You know, and in their conversation, they talk a little bit about another strong family member,

[00:28:22] Laris, who we've seen has been making a ton of moves back at, uh, you know, King's Landing and well, he's been moving a lot of like pieces around when it comes to Alison and A-gon specifically.

[00:28:35] And here we find out that he's not, he's not loved in the Strong household. You know, they, they hate Laris because all of Laris' family members who are also Simon's family members, they just keep dying. They just keep burning up. Why is that happening?

[00:28:48] Why do they keep just melting? The Laris also known as the clubfoot, they call him like nobody in his family loved him. They, they all found him very sneaky, dishonorable. Sir Simon says that he is the uncle of, of, of, um, sir Harwin. Yeah. Yeah. Harwin and Laris.

[00:29:13] And so like, he truly is like all of a sudden my, my nephew and his heir are burned, uh, burned in Harrenhal. And now Laris is, is the Lord of it. Like that's too suspicious, especially when we know how ambitious he is.

[00:29:31] So, uh, sir Simon is like, nah, F that dude. And if that dude is on the green side, you're on my, I'm on your side. And plus there's a dragon here. You know what I'm saying? Right. I mean, whatever you say goes, there's a dragon here.

[00:29:46] To be completely honest, it, I, I, I do feel like if whoever would have arrived there first would have gotten hit with the dragon. Yeah. Whoever shows up with the dragon at the right time gets here at all. Yeah.

[00:29:58] Well, Harrenhal, uh, Damon has plans for her and all he's like, this is where I want to put all the men. I want to get all the swords and we're going to house them in Harrenhal.

[00:30:08] It's going to be like our little bunker, our place where we all, you know, this is where I rally the troops. And, um, so Simon Strong is sitting there like, yeah, I hear you. A couple of problems. Um, one, you probably need to talk to Grover Tully.

[00:30:22] His name comes up again. You need to talk to him. He needs to get his bannermen behind you. Um, they also busy. The bannermen are out fighting. The girls are fighting. The swords are everywhere. Really hard to round people up.

[00:30:34] Tully could probably do it, but he really ain't, he ain't all there. He kind of on his Berseris stuff where he's going to look like you're on the way out. Yeah. Yeah. He, he doesn't have the wits about him and he can't even hold in his, uh, yeah.

[00:30:49] So, um, he shitty and it, isn't it just that, that at a time where you need a firm leadership, there is a senile old man running the Riverlands. So, um, I I'm very interested to see like, will we get to hear from the Tully's, uh, by next week?

[00:31:13] You know? Um, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, like, yeah. So David says, I don't care how old that man is or if he ain't got, when I pull up with this dragon, he gonna see it. You know what I'm saying?

[00:31:28] Like he'll get, we'll figure something out when I show up with the dragon. So he's confident that things are going to work out for him. But Harrenhal does not seem to love Damon while he's there. Um, he is visited by who I can only assume is a witch.

[00:31:42] This lady with some dark hair keeps showing up and yeah. What, what, who was this woman Mario? I knew we needed to wait on that conversation. I mean, I guess let's wait, let's wait because I don't have much. I don't have much. Yeah. Let's let's go back.

[00:32:01] We'll wait on the conversation, but then this dark haired lady shows up and Damon has a vision where he sees a young Rhaenyra. He's like, Oh, Hey girl, what you doing? And she's just, Oh, just casually sewing my, my nephew's head back onto his body.

[00:32:15] You know, the nephew who has his head chopped off. Hey, yep. Just casually doing that team black. Damon's like, Oh shoot. But the witch tells Damon you gonna die here. This is, this is where you would die. You die in this castle.

[00:32:27] And if I'm Damon, I'm looking around like, Oh no, I come from nobility. This is the hood. Let's put your shoes on. Let's find you a home. Like Lego. Yeah. I thought this was, I thought this was very interesting. I thought it was great.

[00:32:45] This is them introducing like magic to the realm again. They don't do this as often as I feel like they should. Cause I think one of the, one of my favorite episodes in, in game of Thrones is when Danny's

[00:32:58] going through the house of the undying and she's getting all of those visions. This is kind of like akin to the, like the curse of Harrenhal. Like Harrenhal is a very dark and dreary place that a lot of people think has like some sort

[00:33:12] of, sort of curse might be like, like basically the gates of hell. Like they, they think it's a very like magic driven place. Just because of its history. It's dark history, should I say? So Damon basically like sleepwalking, like having some like weird sleepwalking dreams

[00:33:33] in it is really cool. Like a really cool manifestation of that. At first I couldn't tell, I couldn't decide if I wanted to call it a dream or a vision and I couldn't tell if this woman was a witch or just a dream. Right.

[00:33:45] But in my mind, I landed on witch because this lady does not kneel. She does not take the knee. And I thought that that was something that was very specific to people who are like, I'm above this.

[00:33:55] You know, like that is, that has nothing to do with me. I'm outside of the realm. Yeah. When he comes in, everybody takes a knee. They see the big dragon, they know what's up. But she kind of walks in like, and okay, so what? Okay.

[00:34:07] You know, it's like, she doesn't seem moved. And I said, okay, I can kind of, I feel like you've got to have a little something in your back pocket if you don't, if you don't bend the knee to a dragon, you know what I'm saying? Exactly. Yeah.

[00:34:18] And you, you guessed right. This is, this is, uh, uh, some might call her a witch queen and I'll talk about her in the, in the spoiler section a little bit more. Gotcha. Okay.

[00:34:28] So, uh, back to another queen, uh, Raynera is she's, she's the one who's been making, I think the most moves in this episode. Obviously she does have that conversation with Alison, but she can't have that conversation

[00:34:40] without getting to Alison and she needs the help of, uh, the white worm. Masaria is back and Mari, I'm shocked because I thought this woman was gone. I thought, okay, we've done her time.

[00:34:51] But then I also, a part of me felt like she did save, you know, Raynera from the whole Eric versus Eric fight. So they owe her a little something, something.

[00:35:01] And to me, it seems like, it seems like she might be on the payroll now as the new mistress of whispers for team black. Yes. Yeah. She is the officially the mistress of whispers. I love this.

[00:35:11] I love this team, the white worm and Raynera, you know, teaming up together to cause some havoc. Uh, yeah, she, she sees what kind of like rainy season. It's very interesting that a lot of women are like touched by what Rainier is doing.

[00:35:25] They all see that Raynera has some actual like virtues when it comes to not wanting to go to war virtues, when it comes to upholding a word that she didn't even give like, um, she actually won their support.

[00:35:41] And this shouldn't be surprising because again, remember she was called the realms delight when she was younger. She, she grew up in chanting and enticing people to join her cause. So it, it, it's very on, on brand that, um, she is like gathering people just basically

[00:35:59] on her charisma alone and her effective leadership. Mm. And, um, right. That's true. I mean, don't get me wrong. Y'all know, again, I'm team green, but I'll give them that it's really hard to argue with these team black folks. It's like, yeah, we killing babies. We don't care.

[00:36:18] You know, we're near a number on y'all. Okay. You got y'all packed up y'all ride or die ride or die. So all right, fine. Whatever. Um, my queen, queen Ray, Ray, right. They gonna stand beside her Lord. They gonna kill the babies and not.

[00:36:31] Um, so we see that the white word, mysterious is if nothing else, I, you, I have an enemy in the, in the high towers. Like I hate them and I will, I will take them down when we see it. That's another thing. That's a good mark.

[00:36:44] A lot of the people that are against them, they're not really team black. They just hate the high towers. They just hate team green. And like, I just can't stand these people. I'm sorry. I'll do whatever it takes to take them out. And so, yeah, honestly, sorry.

[00:36:57] It's cause they're an upstart house. I was really like, really thinking about this in that, um, in there, like during their, their council session, um, with like Kristen Cole and stuff like that. Like they are technically an upstart house.

[00:37:13] The high towers aren't even like the guardians of the reach. They're, they're bannermen to, um, the Tyrells. Like they're not even, uh, you know, one of the main houses. And because Otto works so hard to get himself to like, to be hand, which then put him in a

[00:37:32] position for his daughter to marry the King and become the queen that put her in a position to make heirs Targaryen heirs. Like it, it kept coming to me because the audacity, you see the heraldry around King's landing,

[00:37:49] the green background and the golden dragon, like that should be outrageous to people who see it because the Targaryen banners have stood for, you know, hundreds of years or whatever. I mean, at this point it's only a couple hundred years, but like, um,

[00:38:07] 101 years, whatever this, whatever time period is because Aegon and his sisters took the, took the heraldry once they, they landed that they came up with it because they wanted to blend into, uh, the kingdom, but like to like turn it into something different.

[00:38:26] It's like, but also still be claiming like Targaryens, but then also having to like show that they're the high towers should be like, Oh, how dare you high towers? Like y'all, y'all aren't, y'all weren't this. And now you, you've maneuvered your way to, to stealing queen Rhaenyra's throne.

[00:38:47] You know what I'm saying? Like, and that was just one of the things I was really thinking as I was watching a lot of their, their councils. It's like, they really did this.

[00:38:58] These high towers really managed to get all of the people on this like throne and into this war. It's it's bananas. Yeah. Otto he's not in this episode, but his effects is present. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

[00:39:15] Especially the absence of Otto, you know, the absence of Otto has a, like a really, like a vacuum of leadership on the small council. There's so there's, it's almost chaotic to where Alison's saying, Hey, we're never going to get anything done. If you all can't just stop bickering.

[00:39:29] We have Jason Lannister, I mean, Jason Lannister's brother, what's his name? Um, other Lannister he's on the council throwing like, Oh yeah, throwing out stuff. And we have, of course, Aegon's an idiot. Aemond's on the council being done. Kristen Cole is, you know, Kristen Cole.

[00:39:44] And so it's all in disarray. Um, and the person who was missing, the person who had this all under lock was Otto. But the person who got him out of here was Laerys.

[00:39:54] And we see that Laerys just like Miseria ends up getting him a role on the payroll as the master of whispers for Aegon. Uh, Aegon is like, Laerys, you can come kick it with me.

[00:40:06] I never, my daddy never really wanted a master of whispers, but I kind of like you. So there's more, more maneuvering on the side with house green going on as well. Yeah. Yes. Uh, between everybody disagreeing how they should do the movements this year with like,

[00:40:22] uh, Kristen Cole and Alison going back and forth, like even agree. Yeah. Like lovers curl in front of a whole bunch of people like y'all are ridiculous. Um, but then Laerys being the person who, who has keenly learned how to manipulate the King. I mean, let's be real.

[00:40:43] He's the, he, he seems like the only person who knows how to manipulate the King without the King realizing that he's being manipulated. Everybody else is trying to like heavy handed Alison Otto to a point where Aegon rebels and it's Laerys who has the deaf touch with him.

[00:41:02] Yeah. Um, so what happens here is that of course there, we know that they're moving to go to war and there's some conversation happening about whether or not Aegon should go. Aegon's like, yeah, I should go. What are you talking about? I got a dragon.

[00:41:14] Maybe I should go. Okay. Are you crazy? And they're like, well, we don't think it's the greatest idea for the King to go. And he's like, okay, well I didn't really ask you cause I got a dragon and I'm he like, it's me. Yvonna from Clark.

[00:41:29] You know, like he kind of like, it's me. I got a dragon too. And they all look at him like, sure. Okay, cool. But next time we see him, he is suiting up. He's got his new Kings guard who seems like just a bunch of his homies.

[00:41:43] They just like, yeah. All the people that he was drinking with when, yeah. And they, why would you hire your friends to be your sworn swords that are supposed to like protect you? Like these are the guys that are going to take a dagger for you.

[00:41:59] You think they can't even keep their law of chastity. Yeah. They're not even hiding it. They're not even trying to, you know, at least I used to lie about it and a game of thrones, they would be like, yeah, we went.

[00:42:09] And then we'd see them down at the brothel. They like, Hey God, you want to come with us to the brothel? These people, these people suck. And so he really doesn't have anybody. He doesn't have anybody in his corner who is leading him in the right direction.

[00:42:22] And I think, yeah. And I think in this moment, Larris sees it. It's like, I'm sorry, you said the King is about to go. And do that. That's a bad decision. But instead of going to a God and saying, that's a bad idea. You shouldn't do that.

[00:42:36] He says, man, it's crazy streets talking. And they said that you going out to fly a dragon and that's cool. But yeah, you ain't hearing from me. They said, they said they tricked you into doing that.

[00:42:49] And then they try to get you out so your mama can run it. That'd be crazy. Right? What if you wild, if your mama just secretly wanted to run the, like run the kingdom behind your back while you out flying around on a dragon?

[00:43:01] I mean, that's what I heard. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying that's what they said. You ain't hearing from me. You know, and A-Gon, like he's susceptible to that kind of logic. The idea that, oh, they're trying to get one over on me.

[00:43:14] They want to make me look stupid. Well, luckily you got me. So you're not going to make me look stupid because my mom, that's what she really wants. She really want to be in charge low key. And I'm shutting that down.

[00:43:23] So I'm going to show them I'm not going to go to war. And everybody like, whew, thank God. Literally nobody wants you to go. That was funny. And it's just really funny because like he surrounded those guys are all yes men.

[00:43:38] And again, Laris found the way to maneuver it. And it also shows you the clear difference between A-Gon and Rhaenyra. Like A-Gon's like, yeah, let me go out there. I'll send my dragon, send your dragon, send his dragon, send her dragon.

[00:43:53] And Rhaenyra is trying not to, you know what I'm saying? It's very interesting. And even in the council, you know, Kristen Cole says like, the guaranteed way to see a dragon on the field is to have one yourself. You pull up with a dragon.

[00:44:10] I got no choice but to bring my dragon. You know what I'm saying? You pop the trunk. I gotta pop the trunk. We got a match. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, that is very interesting because it's A-Gon. He's so trigger happy. He's like, we got dragons.

[00:44:25] What are we doing here? But everybody got dragons. They got dragons on the other side. So what are we really about to do? He's like, if it's a dragon off, we gonna see what happens. He ain't scared of little pistol play, I guess.

[00:44:36] But we see the maneuvering starting. Kristen Cole is going to make the move. And he's like, all right, we overruled it, Allison. She don't run nothing. My king A-Gon told me that we about to make a move. We're about to head forward.

[00:44:49] And I'm gonna take my group of people that I trust and we gonna move with some speed because that's the only way that we're gonna win this little maneuvering. Allison's argument is, how about you wait for you get some more men?

[00:45:02] Get some more backing, get some more soldiers on your side and then go out and do this. But Kristen Cole has no patience for her. He's like, what are you talking about? You don't know nothing. So I'm gonna do what I wanna do.

[00:45:12] So Allison employs the help of her brother. I believe it's Gwaine. Gwaine, yeah. I will be referring to him as G-Wane from now on because that's my dog, G-Wane. G-Wane, I didn't know Allison had another brother. Yeah, it's very, right? Like it's like, that's her brother.

[00:45:38] But they're not even the ones in charge of like Old Town because Otto is the second son. That's another thing. Like Otto is a second son. He's not even the first son of this upstart house. Right. And ain't Deyron at... Yeah, Deyron is the third son.

[00:45:57] Allison's third son that we haven't seen. And he's in Old Town. Like I said, he's a cupbearer squire to the Lord of the High Tower. I forget the name of Otto's older brother who's the Lord of High Tower. Was it Ormond? I think it might've been him.

[00:46:19] We've seen him plenty of times. Like, yeah, you saw him plenty of times he's on. Yeah, they're going West. Cole and G-Wane are going West. And Allison's like, I guess she just... They're going North. They're going North. Okay, they're going North.

[00:46:33] And Allison is like, G-Wane, go with them. Make sure Cole don't get out of line. And it seems like things are gonna be okay. But G-Wane has his own ideas. He's like, hey, we're gonna go to an inn. We're gonna get some night sleep. It's gonna be cool.

[00:46:50] Chris and Cole does not like this. He's like, bruh, I'm in charge, low key. Like, I understand you're the Queen's brother, but this is... I got this. I got this. And he proves his worth when he looks up into the distance and sees Bela, I believe,

[00:47:05] flying around on her dragon moon dancer. Cause she's patrolling. She's trying to make sure ain't nothing crazy happening. She's not supposed to engage. Right. But she on a dragon. So all bets are off. Bela runs them down into the forest until they have to scurry away.

[00:47:21] And this proves to G-Wane that you don't know what you're talking about. And that Chris and Cole might be the one that you got to listen to when it comes to this portion of the mission. And he even gives his loyalty to Chris and Cole.

[00:47:31] He's like, all right, all right. You saved us that time. So I guess you can be in charge. This was an interesting scene for me because Chris and Cole, he's in this role as Hand of the King. I don't think that's where he needs to be.

[00:47:44] But I think, you know, the ninth thing he understands, right. He gets battle. Yeah. Yeah. He gets strategic movements and battle that he definitely gets that. So, you know, and that's what A-Gone wants right now in his hand. So that's, that's what he wants.

[00:48:01] That's what he can provide. And that's what they're, they're doing right now. And I think G-Wane, I love it. The actor, Freddie Fox, shout out to him. I love the sassiness. He was like, yeah, look at me to find out. My father's gone. And look at you, adornishment.

[00:48:19] Right. And upstart. For a decade, stay in adornishment. They can't, they ain't adornish. When he, when he, that, that last, that was the last little jab. He's like, oh, I would love to fight alongside adornishment. I was like, oop. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, like, so Kristen, he's annoying.

[00:48:38] He's a hypocrite and he's stupid, but he do know strategic war planning. I'll give that to him. And I loved this, Bela harrying them and finding out their movement. So she can report back. Moon Dancer is such a pretty dragon. Oh my God.

[00:48:54] I'm so glad we got to see her on Moon Dancer. This was a really, really funny scene. I liked it. Yeah. Bela is, you know, doing her job on the dragon because, you know, that's been her post, you know, to fly, fly above, make sure everything is cool.

[00:49:12] On the other end, her sister, Raina has not been given such a privilege. She doesn't have a dragon. And so, uh, Raniera has decided the best job for Raina, who I believe is her stepdaughter is to make sure that Raniera's kids are taken care of.

[00:49:28] So it was like, Hey, your, your duty to me, stepdaughter would be to make sure that my kids are safe. If you could just take care of my children, that'd be great. Thanks. Bye.

[00:49:37] And she sends her to the veil, like to go take care of her twin white babies. Yeah. This was very interesting because I was like, I was hoping you caught more of it because

[00:49:49] I was very confused as to, because first off she said, okay, Joffrey is going to the veil with his dragon. This makes sense. Yes. I understood. This is in line with everything I already know.

[00:49:59] Um, and, but then she was like, and then Viserys and, um, and Aegon, Aegon and Viserys should I say, because Aegon is the older, uh, older than Viserys will follow suit. But then she said, or maybe they should go further somewhere in Pintos.

[00:50:18] And then she asked her to write to the Pintos, the Pintos Magister in order to get safe passage for her two younger kids. So I'm like, so I guess maybe what's happening is she's going to accompany that. They're all going to go to the veil first.

[00:50:32] And I guess from the veil, they'll go to Pintos, but it is, uh, I don't know. That seemed quite confusing to me and there's no reference for it. So, uh, I did like that Reina. I do understand that Reina feels like she's being like set aside.

[00:50:53] You know what I'm saying? But, but I think the fact that they're like our history, our legacy, our future is in your hands with these dragon decks, with these, these kids, like this is also an important job.

[00:51:05] I know you're like mad that you're just a babysitter, but you'd rather be a babysitter than again, a kid who was decapitated in his bed, you know what I'm saying? Because they, they breached the castle walls on both sides. So very interesting to me. Yeah. Bela. Yeah.

[00:51:25] Bela's, uh, she's now her job is to take Joffrey to Jane Erin, right? Uh, like, all right. Yeah. I'm sorry. No, I thought that, yo, I'm sorry. Right. Yeah. Reina's job is to take Joffrey to Jane Erin. Uh, cause Jane Erin wants a dragon. Okay.

[00:51:42] Take Joffrey out there, then head to Pintos, get further. You got the eggs. I think they sent her with four. Was it four eggs that they sent her with? Yep. The eggs that Damon found in season one. Yeah.

[00:51:54] And so they're like, take these eggs and head on out, but make sure you guard them. And so she has to tell her family bye. Bela's kind of sad to see her go, but you're like, you gotta do this.

[00:52:03] Cause if you got to take one for the team and make sure that one, you're not killed in the night, but also these heirs are not killed as well. Um, so Raniera is doing a good job of really getting the people that she loves out of the

[00:52:13] way, uh, so that they don't get hurt in these skirmishes. You, like you said earlier, you called it selfish, but I mean, it is self-interested, their nobility. They're supposed to look out for the bloodline and for the people who are supposed to take charge, you know?

[00:52:25] So they, they really do get them out of the way very quickly. Um, I'm hoping that Raina gets to have a dragon one day, you know, that'd be nice. But right now it looks like she's just the keeper of the eggs and the person who was

[00:52:38] protecting all of her, uh, siblings from, you know, being murdered in war crimes. Right. Yeah. I mean, and honestly, that's all she can do at this point. Right. That's all she can do. She really has.

[00:52:52] I mean, until she gets a dragon or something like that, that makes her useful in war. This is the best that we have for Raina. Um, oh, another thing I wanted to talk about because we haven't really talked about him at all.

[00:53:04] Cause he just popped up out of nowhere. Who the hell is off? Why is off here? And why is he saying like, oh yeah, you know, Damon's got a brother and Vateran's got a brother. And Vateran's got a brother and it's me. It's me. I'm the brother.

[00:53:17] It's me. I'm the other guy. It's, it's me. I'm, I'm a noble blood here. Uh, you know, what are you going to do? I, I, I'm loyal to, to Raynera. I'm loyal to Raynera, but y'all ain't gotta ask me. This man is so charismatic. Everybody loves him.

[00:53:32] He's in the pub just kind of holding court, talking to everybody. Um, but are we supposed to believe this man? He just, just showing up, talking about Avatar Gary and look at me. Don't don't we look alike? We got the same nose.

[00:53:44] Cause it doesn't look like anybody's buying it at first. Yes. This is off the white also known as off the drunkard. He was in last episode. He was the person where I was like, I'm pretty sure I saw a cameo, but I'm going to like,

[00:53:58] I'm going to keep it close to my chest until it was confirmed. Silly me. It was confirmed literally in the house that the dragon built like the day, the next day

[00:54:05] I was like, I knew it was him, but I, you know, didn't want to, um, I didn't want to say anything, but yes, off the white. And he talks about the dragon seeds. Um, he talks about the dragon seeds.

[00:54:17] He talks about the, the mini bastards of, of the Targaryens. And, um, I love this insight into, again, we're seeing a lot from the small folk. We're seeing their thoughts and processes and how they're, um, dealing with these wars, them declaring sides.

[00:54:37] And this, uh, Ulf's introduction here was, was, was perfect and spot on, um, to say the least. Yeah. He does his big grand display talking about how he's a bastard of, but of noble blood and how he's a big deal. And everybody's kind of like, all right, whatever.

[00:54:54] Uh, until Aegon burst through the door with his King's guard because it's a party. I ain't got to fly off the war no more. So we about to turn up. They get drunk. They burst into the brothel. He finds, uh, Aemond laid up with his number one whore.

[00:55:09] It's Dave, uh, you know, and he shames him, right? He just like, Hey, you always with the same chick. What's this about? You like her or something? Y'all go together, get out of here. And, uh, Aemond leaves because he knows he's not in charge.

[00:55:21] Uh, he's also being shamed. Uh, we see a lot of naked Aemond. I'm good on that. Game of Thrones, House of Dragons, Game of Thrones. I'm good on that. I don't need that anymore. Um, so that was probably a smaller portion of the episode.

[00:55:32] Also we see a cool conversation between Alison and Helena. We haven't really touched base with them since the murder of the baby. We saw Helena's kind of her horror and shock during the, uh, the, uh, undertakings and during the procession and all that stuff.

[00:55:47] But here they really have a conversation and Helena just point blank looks at Alison and says, I forgive you. And Alison doesn't respond. But to me, this is Helena saying, I forgive you for bumping uglies while my child was getting married. You know what I'm saying?

[00:56:01] Like you kind of breach security and I don't blame you. Is that what she was forgiving her for? That's what I'm assuming to be quite honest. That's what I'm assuming. Um, yeah, this Helena is not the one I, I'm, I was expecting, you know what I'm saying?

[00:56:18] I thought she would be way more like crushed by, yeah. She, she actually, Mara, now that you say the word crush, she actually sounded indifferent. You know, she was more like, I mean, my son is dead, but all babies got to die. Right. Everybody got to die. Be.

[00:56:36] And I said, she's like, I mean, what I was like, my baby, you know, she said we did a whole procession through the neighborhoods and stuff and I'm crying about my day, baby, but they be having dead babies too. What? I look like crying about my baby.

[00:56:49] I was like, Helena, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about this. Like, it's like, yeah, maybe this is shock. Maybe she still has it. Yeah. So in shock, that's what I'm thinking too. Yeah. Very interesting. Love the actress here.

[00:57:03] I'm yeah, I, I feel so, I feel so bad for her. Oh my God. Like, yeah. Yeah. When she said babies die all the time, I kind of like, oh, okay. You know? Yeah. I think I agree with you. She might really still be in shock. Yeah.

[00:57:19] And it's funny too, because Allison kind of echoes those sentiments. She's like, I mean, I was sad for the baby. Yeah. I love them, but I'm kind of, I was more worried about you. You good. And Helena's like, yeah, I'm chilling. He's like, are you?

[00:57:33] You know, it was a lot for her to go through for us to kind of just like wrap it up this quickly. So I'm hoping that we get more character moments from Helena, because if this is the end of this storyline, the baby got decapitated, Helena's fine.

[00:57:45] I'm not going to be okay with that. Like, you can't just leave us hanging like this. Yeah. No, I don't think maybe it's like a calm before the storm type of thing. Like maybe she's keeping it together right now and then something will trigger her. Yeah.

[00:58:01] The other smaller conversation we see in this episode is Corliss and Raniera talk. I'm sorry, Raneese talk. And Raneese talks about Raniera's council being unruly. She's like, hey, what are they even doing? These people are out of control. Otto's gone. It's a dis, everything's in disarray.

[00:58:16] I'm trying to, I'm really trying to pull the strings here as much as I can. I'm trying to lead this woman to like, because she ain't got nobody in her corner. And she honestly starts talking about, you know, I guess their children and what their

[00:58:29] children would look like when all of this thing pans out. And they talk about Rana possibly being the heir to Driftmark. And Corliss scoffs at that. He's like, what? Rana? She don't know nothing about no boats. And I'm just going to like, okay, so teach it.

[00:58:44] You know what I'm saying? Like, what's the big deal? So this was an interesting conversation. Why did they include this in the episode? Because it didn't seem like it mattered a lot. For, say it again? Right, for Raneese and Corliss, you know, they're talking about, you know, Driftmark

[00:58:57] and what happens and they're talking about how it's either Rana or it's either Joffrey. And I guess this is Raneese trying to make a play for it to be Rana. No, I think what it is, is like, it's trying to put, it's like Raneese and Corliss are

[00:59:14] us, the audience. They're really like, and they're like, oh, thanks, this black council, man. Like we don't get, we don't really get introduced to the black council. But it's made up of, I'm going to just go through this and I promise I'm going to answer your question.

[00:59:33] Bartimus Seltzgarb, Lord Staunton of Rook's Rest, Gorman Massey, Bar Emon and Lord Darklyn. So like, all of these men are just yelling at Raneera, you need to go to war, you need to do this.

[00:59:46] And we don't even know them, let's be quite honest, like we barely know them. And I think the Raneese and Corliss thing here is like, they're the characters that we know. They're the characters that are like, kind of like a, not a backseat, but they're watching

[01:00:00] the proceedings as we are. And I think they're here to put this into perspective. And yeah, and then they, then when she talks about Joffrey and Rayna, you know, it's still the blood thing. You know, she still is, she's always advocated for Rayna to take over Driftmark.

[01:00:21] Rayna was supposed to take over Driftmark with Lucerys, with Lucerys' death. It then falls to Joffrey as the third son of a House of Valerian, but because he's still young, he's six, they can't do that same thing by, you know, marrying them.

[01:00:38] So it's, they have, she's, she's internalizing, she's been watching all of this happening and she's like, war is here. Nobody's prepared. What happens if one of us dies? What happens if anybody dies?

[01:00:53] Like will our house, it's almost like, she's like, will our house be able to survive this? I think that's what she's kind of thinking here because she's like, we need to think about this. Um, who's going to be the heir to our house if shit goes left? Yeah.

[01:01:08] And Corliss is like, stop worrying about that. I'm gonna be fine. I'm good. That's why ain't you happy? I know what I'm good on the boat. I'm good. I can drive. So he helps not at all. Corliss has no help at all.

[01:01:23] Dear God knows what Corliss is actually doing at this time because it looks like Rayna's is doing a lot of work in here. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. A lot of lifting. She's the one like really helping, but technically he's supposed to be like commanding the people

[01:01:38] to choke the gullet and all that, but whatever. Yeah. Don't look like you know him so much. Those are the big storylines. Is there anything else we missed before we get into Maester Mari's book corner?

[01:01:50] Um, no, no, I think, uh, I do like the cameo for the, from the dragons. We get a sea smoke cameo here. Again, um, doesn't have a writer. Yeah. Lay Norris, uh, old dragon who, uh, gets a shout out. He's very restless apparently.

[01:02:10] Um, but no, that's, that's it. That's it. And then we can get into some spoilers. All right. So that's it y'all. That was our episode in a nutshell. It's a long nutshell, but you know, we talked it through, uh, again, these are our media

[01:02:25] reactions right after the episode. So if you see anything we missed and leave it in the comments on our YouTube page and tune in next week, when we come back for season three, episode four of House of the Dragon season two.

[01:02:36] Uh, but if you want to stick around for the book corner, it gets a little spoilery in there just a little bit, give some context for what we might not seen on the show. Then stick around cause we'll do that right after this.

[01:02:48] Uh, but if not, please come back next week, check out our House of the Dragon coverage. And then of course, check out all the rest of the coverage that we have for you in store this month in July. Uh, and check out, of course our June coverage.

[01:03:01] Uh, there was a ton of good things on there. Bryce Isaiah joined us to talk about Holiday Heart. We've talked about movies. We talked about television shows. It's been a great time and we keep that going every week on Recap Kickback. So that's it.

[01:03:12] Um, spoiler section, uh, book club starts now. Mace Tamari, it's the book club. Let's see the library is open. Let's talk. What are we, what do we need to know? And reading is fundamental. And reading is fundamental. What do we need to know about these characters?

[01:03:28] Cause I have to, I need to know more about this witch. Okay. Yes. So, um, that witch, her name is Alice Rivers. She's considered a witch queen and, uh, she is like the bastard daughter of, um, I keep forgetting Sir Harwin's father's name.

[01:03:47] The, uh, the one who was, who served as head of the hand of the King who resigned in like shame because he was like, Oh my, my son may have fathered. Yeah. Yeah. Was it Lionel? Lionel. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:04:01] Um, or possibly like they're, they're actually, you know what, they're actually like not really sure like who she came from because it's like, she's just been here. Who is this creepy lady? But why is she around? Yeah.

[01:04:16] But she, um, does end up like being a character of like some significance throughout the dance. So again, they're just finding really good ways to, um, like to introduce minor care, like minor characters, like when they're minor characters, so that when we see them,

[01:04:41] maybe take a step forward that we won't be like, who is this person? I love that. Like, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm going to keep saying it every week if they keep doing it because like these creators,

[01:04:55] it's like they took everything, like all the things that we said we hated about Game of Thrones and was like, okay, well let's make sure we don't do that. You know what I'm saying?

[01:05:03] Because again, people would pop up in Game of Thrones and you'd be like, who is it? Like who are they? So like, it's just like, I love it. And her introduction here was just creepy. It makes you want to know more.

[01:05:21] And I'm just, I'm very glad they did that here. Yeah. I peeped that she was a witch instantly because I was like, she's a red lady. Yeah. Cause I was like, nah, it was the fact that she just didn't, she was like, nah, I'm good.

[01:05:35] And then she popped up in a dream. I said, okay, she's did it. She did. Well, I don't know what she did, but she did it. Whatever y'all said she did, she guilty. Yes.

[01:05:41] And, and again, that I'm glad you said she reminds you of the red lady, because again, they say that Lionel strong might be her father, but it's disputed. They think that they're in the, in the book, there are so many different descriptions of

[01:05:55] her that they don't know what is real. Like they said, she's been a, she was a natural daughter of Lionel, but she was the nurse made to like all his kids and stuff like that. And so there's conflicting stories on, is she like 60?

[01:06:11] Is she a nice young looking woman? Like they don't know her actual age. And so it's very giving off Melisandre. So. And Melisandre had a necklace that was keeping her young. Now I gotta go watch and look and see this lady got some jewelry on or something like

[01:06:27] that. She knocked like I already, I was like, you wicked, which I already knew that I could, I couldn't trust that lady. So I couldn't wait to ask you about that. She, did she a big, you said she's a minor character.

[01:06:38] Is she a big portion of the book? Like, um, I don't want to give out like too far ahead spoilers, not a big portion of the group, not like a book, but she does, she, she does like interact with one of the main characters. And again, it depends.

[01:06:56] It all depends on how far they're gonna go into the future. I don't know where they're going to stop with the book. So that's another thing. That's why I'm like, I want to give spoilers, but I don't want to give like heavy, heavy

[01:07:09] spoilers, like four or five episodes down the road. I do want to point out, I do wish I said this in the main section for anybody who had to leave. But like, I think that the structure of, of, um, house of the dragons is very, I think

[01:07:26] they're carving out their own path. Right. Because Game of Thrones, we kind of all know that's what like episode, what is it? Episode eight or episode nine. It's episode eight. That's always, yeah. That you know, is going to pop off. Right.

[01:07:38] I feel like, um, house of the dragons is like episode one through three is all set up the first season this season, it's all set up. Then she kicks off in episode four and then you're like off to the races.

[01:07:52] And I feel like that's exactly what we're, we're getting here in this season. Um, if you remember episode four and season one was when Rhaenyra and Damon went out to the brothel. I believe. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[01:08:06] So, um, I say, I say all that to say she, she will become a pair more of one of the, the, um, the main characters. Um, and you know, it's speculated, does she use some of her magic to help some things?

[01:08:23] So she, she, I, I, the casting is really great. Okay. Sounds good. Off the white. So again, we get the introduction of alt here with a cool shot where we're just like following him into this, this, um, this pub and it's just so fun and cheerful.

[01:08:43] And he's talking to these people before a guy walks in. Yeah. He's the life of the party. And then when a guy walked in after talking to all that match shit, as soon as a guy walks in, he said, well, I'm going to the king. Yeah.

[01:08:56] They said, ain't that your nephew right there? Huh? What? Yeah. Off white, uh, basically confirms everything that I've been talking about in the past spoiler sections, the, the dragon seeds again, dragon seeds are the bastards of

[01:09:14] Targaryens and eventually we will get the sewing of the dragon seeds where, um, Jace offers Lordships and lands to anybody who can, um, uh, can, um, I almost said mate with the dragon, the Lord Jesus, uh, who can bond with the dragon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:09:34] Cause just like we saw, we saw sea smoke is restless and you saw how Melisandre, I don't want to call her Melisandre too, the white worm, um, says maybe he's lonely and that's what the dragons, you know, dragons have, who are previously bonded with writers are

[01:09:51] more susceptible, uh, susceptible to bonding with new writers after their, their, their other writers die. So like sea smoke is probably missing bonding with, with another writer. So, um, during the sewing of the dragon seeds, um, a lot of dragon seeds are going to try

[01:10:09] to bond with sea smoke and then a lot of other dragons as well. So I can't wait for that. I I'm, I'm assuming that's going to be like an episode five or six type of thing, maybe seven.

[01:10:20] Well, oh wait, if there's only eight episodes, it has to be like five or six. I'm thinking, um, but we're already coming into episode four. Yeah, exactly. I was like, oh my God, it's just all, it's just all, um, coming, coming to a head, but

[01:10:35] that, I mean, that's about it for anything. Um, book related, I was telling Chappelle, they really did deviate a lot from the book in this episode and I wasn't mad at it. Like that Ray Nira and Alison conversation never happened. Um, yeah, no, it never happened.

[01:10:52] They never happened. Um, it was up in those and it stuck. Yeah. We already fighting. So why are we trying to make again? It even I stand by my point, which is what did you expect that was going to happen?

[01:11:07] You know, like Alison did a hundred percent believe right here. What could she possibly have done at this point? Exactly. And it's kind of like, and this is all in a backdrop of like, Damon has effectively taken her and hall, but nobody knows. You know what I'm saying?

[01:11:22] And again, this is so advanced in the storyline with nobody knowing that, that Damon took Karen hall when in the books, Damon takes her and hall before blood and cheese. And, and that's, and that reminds me, thank you have another thing, the battle of the burning mills.

[01:11:39] So in the show, they're like, ah, there's heavy losses on both sides. It doesn't really, we can't really tell who really won in the book. Like surprisingly though, in the book, it's the winners are, are claimed that the Blackwoods are, are claimed the winners.

[01:11:55] So it's like Rainiera gets early victories and that's why, that's why she gets early victories at the, the battle of the burning mill where the Blackwoods defeat the Brackens. Um, she, they get the early victory in a hair and hall and that they're, they have banners

[01:12:11] amassing at, at hair and hall. And so it's just like, that's what, what spurns a gone into actually, um, getting rid of Sir Otto because for him and to everybody around the realm, Rainiera is winning. Like Rainiera is winning these little skirmishes.

[01:12:30] So it's, it's kind of interesting that in the show she's kind of put on the back foot where in, in the, in the book, she's, she's, she's winning, she's winning small battles. It is small battles, but she's winning at first. So yeah.

[01:12:44] Cause in this episode they made it seem like, okay, did both sides took losses and you see Aegon stupidly at the small council meeting saying, so that's a win we won, right? Like we, we, we killed some people that's war like bro.

[01:12:57] So I'm gonna just count that as a win. But the parallel is on the, on the flip side in the book, it's like, no, you actually lost. And so that's like another added layer that he's like, I don't care. We, yeah, people die, but we still won. Right.

[01:13:09] Whereas it's kind of like, actually, if you really want to dive into it, you kind of lost. But for the sake of this story that we're dealing with in the book, I mean, versus in the, in

[01:13:17] the show, we'll give it to you for this, you know, for this thing. But yeah, it's, it's really cool to me that in his mind, he's like, oh yeah, we're winning the war where it's in the book, they're telling a different story where Rhaenyra is low key.

[01:13:28] Like, you know, winning these smaller battles that are going to set her up for the bigger war when the time comes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and then like, so Bela and Moondancer, Harrison, like Kristen, Colt, that never happened in the books, which again, amazing choice.

[01:13:46] Like I'm, I love that. If you're going to add stuff, I'm fine. I'm fine with it as long as it like, I think adds to the overall story. And I think they've done a very good job of that.

[01:13:59] And then finally, so Rhaena does end up going with Joffrey to the Vale and staying there for like most of the war, but I'm very confused. I realized what the confusing part is, is like Aegon and Viserys are, they do eventually

[01:14:15] get sent to Pintos, but they never go to the Vale before that. You know what I'm saying? So that's all happening, but I realized they don't, they just don't want to introduce another city, a city name and confuse more people because where they go is to Goldtown,

[01:14:32] which is like a port, like she, she escorts them to Goldtown and they split and go separate ways from there. And Aegon and Viserys go from Pintos to there. And then she goes to the Vale from there, but they don't, they don't, you know, I think

[01:14:45] they just don't want to confuse people. So, so that's, that's why that happened. So that's why I was confused again. I only watched it once and I'm also trying to take notes during it. So I was kind of like, I was, I was like, what?

[01:15:00] And then, but then, but then I'm like, okay, no, no, no, it's, it is closer to the book than I thought at first. I was like, are they just making this shit up? And I was like, no. Yeah. Finally.

[01:15:10] So what Bela figures out when she, she talks about Sir Criston Cole is on the march. Did you realize how I'm pretty sure it was a Sir, I said his name on the, from the Black Council. It was Sir Staunton of Rook's Rest.

[01:15:31] Cole and his people, what, what their plan is they're going to march through the crown lands and take the, the, the armies of the people who have already claimed for Raniera. That is, that is Lord Staunton and Rook's Rest.

[01:15:49] That's his place is where they're, where they're kind, they're kind of heading. And, but the council was like, but surely they're going to Heron Hall. So you shouldn't worry. But he's like, I got to go and get my banners together.

[01:16:01] So we're, we're seeing like the Black Council, like people on the Black Council, the reason why they're really like trying to get her to go to war is because their lands are basically, you know, under immediate threat.

[01:16:16] So I thought that was, I thought that was very interesting that we got that little tidbit of Bela getting the information and taking it to the Black Council and the Black Council having to like deal with it immediately.

[01:16:31] But other than that, that's really it for the book corner. I can understand why people might think this is a filler episode and they did add a lot of stuff. So you're assuming it's a filler episode, but again, I think they, they are really

[01:16:46] maneuvering the character development so that when it starts to get going, it's gonna get going. Gotcha. Yeah. I've been enjoying this episode for sure. Like I gotta say, I didn't, I didn't have any issue with it.

[01:17:00] I still think a lot of the like subtle moves are more interesting to me than anything. Like with the councils both being over the women who are in charge and trying to subtly move them out of the way.

[01:17:12] You know, like there was a moment where they tell Reynira like, hey girl, you know, maybe you should go. Just go lay down a little bit. Maybe you should go to, maybe, well, have you thought about going to the, to the venue or something?

[01:17:25] You don't want to, you don't want to go be with the babies and stuff. Like, you know, I mean, cause you're the queen. You don't really need to get your hands dirty with this kind of stuff. Right?

[01:17:32] And she goes, so you trying to, you know, kind of get me about the way so you can just run my, cause that would be treason. And I know, I know you're not saying that right. Like you definitely not trying to, cause we'll kill you.

[01:17:43] We will kill you. They're like, don't let it happen again. You know? And so I liked that. I liked that she's catching it. You know, that they're trying to do that because deep down they don't care what she says. They really want to go to war. They're ready.

[01:17:57] I don't know why. I don't know why they're so ready to go to war, but they are. They're bloodthirsty. Everybody, everybody's ready to fight it out for her honor. It's like, but if she doesn't want you to do it, then are you really doing it for her

[01:18:07] or not? You know, it's like, what are you doing it for? So it was very entertaining episode to me. But again, these are the Lords of the crown lands who have declared for her. So their immediate holdings properties and stuff like that.

[01:18:21] Those are the ones that are immediately threatened. So that's again, that's, that's probably why they're like, yo, we need to get on this. Yeah. And we will see what happens next when we could return next week to talk about season

[01:18:35] three, I'm sorry, season two, episode four of house of the dragon. And so Mari, this has been a great time. Again, we want to thank everybody for listening. Please subscribe, share the podcast, post it in the game of thrones groups and all that good stuff.

[01:18:48] Let people know what we're talking about and give a lot of feedback. So we'll have stuff to talk about every week because this has been a great time. And we're thoroughly enjoying talking about, you know, a little fantasy.

[01:18:57] We like the team green versus team black of it all, but it's still a fun story and a fun world to really dive into every week. So I do appreciate everybody for joining me and Mari on this journey. Mari, what do you have coming up?

[01:19:11] Of course, every week me and Sarah are breaking down a crime scene, like true crime documentaries and stuff. So we are going to be on a break, not this week, but next week. But definitely go check out our latest episode is really good.

[01:19:31] It features Naomi Calhoun and we are talking about deadly influence, social media murders. It's a six part series where each episode is a different like murder that has a social media element to it. Very, very interesting watch. We had a great time talking to Naomi about it.

[01:19:54] So you can go to Rob has website.com slash crime feed in order to subscribe over there. If you're into true crime, like please join us and we're having lots of fun.

[01:20:09] I just last week, I don't know why I signed up for this, but I did the finale for Perfect Match. I talked to Jason and Kirsten about Netflix's Perfect Match, the finale of that show. Why? Oh my God, that show is a hot mess.

[01:20:26] But I had so much fun talking with Jason and Kirsten and that should be over on the Perfect Match in the Perfect Match feed, the Love It for Sight feed. Um, it was a lot of fun. So you can go check that out there.

[01:20:41] And then of course, just here with you every week, Chappelle on the kickback. All right. Thank you, Mari. And yes, and you can find me on Twitter. The at Mari talks too much to like number two. That's where I'm just popping my shit. Yeah.

[01:20:56] And uh, of course, yeah. Keep up with all the stuff I have going on too. I'm still the co-host for the Nothing But Netflix podcast where this week we were joined by Mari's co-host, Sarah Carradine to talk about a little true crime on our podcast.

[01:21:09] So we had a worst roommate ever. And we talked about episode one of season two, where we really dive into the story of what happens when you bring a roommate into your life and they try to kill you.

[01:21:22] So steal your baby, you know, and so check that out. It's an interesting story. We had some very fun takes about it, but we really dove into the true crime of it all on the Nothing But Netflix podcast.

[01:21:32] Make sure you subscribe to that to keep up with all the Netflix content that we're covering over there. Then of course, you can follow me on Twitter at Recap Kickback to keep up with all the stuff we have going on here.

[01:21:44] Like I said, we had Bryce Isaiah on last week to talk about Holiday Heart in honor of Pride Month. It was kind of like our last little goodbye to Pride Month, but also just any excuse to get Brycey to come back. That was a good time.

[01:21:57] In the past, we've talked about The Power of the Dream, the WNBA, social action documentary of the blackening for Juneteenth. You know, we try to keep it fun over there on Recap Kickback on the YouTube page.

[01:22:09] So make sure you go to RecapKickback.com or go to YouTube.com slash at Recap Kickback to subscribe to the YouTube content. You can, of course, follow us on all social media platforms at Recap Kickback and subscribe to the podcast, Recap Kickback, wherever you get your podcasts.

[01:22:25] So, you know, that about wraps that up. As for me and Mari, we will be back next week. We hope you all will be back too. But until then, you ain't got to go home, but you do got to get the hell up out of here.

[01:22:35] We'll talk to you all later. Peace!