HOTD: The Westeros Kickback Season 2 Episode 4

[00:00:00] What's up fam? Welcome back to another rendition of HOTD, The Westeros Kickback, our official House of the Dragon Recap Podcast here on Recap Kickback. I'm your host, Chappelle, and with me again to talk about an electric episode of House of the Dragon, my favorite episode so far.

[00:00:36] It's the Mistress of Whispers and the Keeper of Receipts, Maester Mari. Maester Mari, we got a lot to talk about today. Yeah, we do. How are you feeling? How are you feeling? Sorrows, sorrows, prayers. Yeah, thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers.

[00:00:51] Pour one out for one of the GOATs. We'll get to that shortly. And of course, remember, thank y'all so much for being here and tuning in to weekly coverage of House of the Dragon. It's been a fun ride.

[00:01:02] We've got a lot of exciting episodes to talk about that we've been talking about. So I want to thank everybody for tuning in. Also, if you are new here to Recap Kickback, we talk about a bunch of other stuff as well.

[00:01:12] We just dropped our Black Barbie documentary review with LaTonya Starks and Gia Worthy. That should be up in your podcast feed or on the YouTube channel as well. We got supercell coverage coming as well to talk about with the Was It Good Though podcast, Jazz and Jason.

[00:01:31] It was a fun time recording and that should be up on your podcast feeds this Thursday. And then we got a lot more coverage coming your way. So stay tuned and make sure you subscribe to Recap Kickback wherever you get your podcasts

[00:01:41] or make sure you subscribe and click like here on this YouTube channel to keep up with all the stuff we have coming your way and to make sure that you don't miss out of any of this House of the Dragon coverage.

[00:01:53] And remember, if you are new here, we do have Mace Tamari's Book Corner at the end of every podcast where we're going to talk about the episode that we just saw. But then afterwards, Mace Tamari is going to give us a little insight into how things

[00:02:07] may be different or similar in the book and maybe where the story has deviated just a bit. And from what I can tell, Mari, you got a lot of stuff to add to the Book Corner this week. It's just a lot of nuance to add, should we say.

[00:02:21] The show is still very good at being really on brand with the books and not deviating like another show Game of Thrones. So it's just nuances and little story choices that they are choosing that are different. So I'll go over that in the spoiler section. Yeah.

[00:02:42] And we've been getting a lot of positive feedback about the podcast and about the Book Corner specifically. And so if you have feedback, please know that you can send that to us. You can leave it in the comments.

[00:02:51] You can comment on whatever podcatcher of your choice, or you can email it to us at recapkickback at gmail dot com. And we will be happy to read your feedback here on the podcast.

[00:03:01] But we don't have any feedback to read today because we have to get into the nitty gritty of it all. First things first, our big story of the night. Pour one out. It seems like we've lost some major players here in the Dance of the Dragons.

[00:03:17] Where do we start? Rhaenys, Aegon, you know, Malys. You know what's happening, Mari? We got bloodshed this episode. Yeah, rip to Rhaenys, the queen that never was. And never will be. Never will be. I know your fave.

[00:03:35] At the moment of the first episode, you're like, she's my favorite. I hope she's here for as long as possible. I was like, sweet, sweet summer child. All you can do is hope.

[00:03:47] Yeah, especially since I knew that the date and the time of her when her passing would be, I was like, oh, that's that's so unfortunate. And the House of the Dragons creator still ain't shit because in the book, she was born

[00:04:03] on this in the seventh moon on the seventh day in 74 AC, which when translated would be this month in this day. So this would be her birthday that she is. July 7th. Lord, Lord, take me now. The creators ain't shit.

[00:04:21] I have several issues with what you just said. But man, I do love me some Rhaenys. I mean, you know, I said in the past, I basically lean team green, Mari. And as far as being team green, though, we lost Aegon.

[00:04:39] And that's not the worst thing in the world. I kind of think this was a win for team green today. What do you think? But did we lose Aegon? Did? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, we did it.

[00:04:51] We look like we see his body and he was charred. If nothing else, he's he's burned. So maybe we just have a guy who can no longer perform his duties. But he took a direct hit and he took it from a man. You saw this coming.

[00:05:07] Yeah, but I mean, like, he can't keep getting away with this. Like how does it like just just killing everybody? This man has no qualms. Yeah, this was like this. The Battle of Rook's Rest is like this is the kicking off point. This is like the seminal battle.

[00:05:28] This is where it's like, OK, things are getting real. And I mean, we've been saying it for the past three weeks. It's like, oh, it's almost war. Oh, it's almost war. It's almost war. And it's just like now it's like, OK, war is here, y'all.

[00:05:40] This is what y'all wanted. Are y'all satisfied? Because that was a lot of bloodshed. And I feel like some people are kind of like... Yeah, it's like you thought you wanted war until you saw what war does.

[00:05:52] You know, there's a reason why Viserys was so peaceful, you know, because you think about war is like this abstract thing where you send off these faceless army people, these red shirts go off to war.

[00:06:04] They fight, you fight, they fight and then you get to go back home and just celebrate once your side wins. But in reality, these people that go to war have faces and families and friends and people and loved ones.

[00:06:15] And, you know, you don't get to pick and choose who dies in war. And in this war, it seems like one of our biggest or our first biggest casualties is going to be Rhaenys, who did sign up for this. She volunteered for this role. She really, really did.

[00:06:32] And it was so badass to see her and Melis, the Red Queen here. I mean, oh, this is the first this is like technically the first time where we've seen dragons fight proper. You know, I'm saying not a not a chase, but a fight scene.

[00:06:47] And it was I think I would say it was everything that we wanted. You could see the use of claws and and and sharp, you know, your your fights and stuff and then the flames. And, you know, like it just it just was so good.

[00:07:04] Like if this is where the money is going, like this is where it needs to be going. This was just amazing. Yeah. And I mean, it it brought a scene to life that I like I said, I've read like what feels like a hundred times at this point.

[00:07:18] And it did it like such good justice that it surpassed what I thought this this would be. I loved how again, this is the second season of House of the Dragon, but it's like the technically the tenth season in the Game of Thrones world.

[00:07:35] And when you're getting all of these different battles, you have to make them stand out from the last big battle. You don't plan. So looks rest here being like on the coastline, but surrounded in the forest, but also just being really small.

[00:07:51] It made it feel like a like this is a battle. I think you will remember like this will go down in history with like the Battle of the Bastards or the Battle of the Blackwater

[00:08:00] because it's very I think I think the look of it was just so good and very. It stood out a lot. And then, of course, the heroics of Rhaenys and Milly's, because I mean, she she had she could she could have left like twice at least.

[00:08:17] You know, I think she was like she she could have left, but she she valiantly went to her death. And I want to ask you, do you think she was just like that? You know, I think she she had a clear she had a clear path.

[00:08:32] Like she was literally like like on her way. And this is after Sunfire went down. The Sunfire went down. Her and Vhagar had already like did the tussle. Yeah, did the tussle. And she got up and she was like going. And then but she she turned around.

[00:08:49] She said, attack Millys and turned around like. Honestly, I'm wondering if she was just over it, you know, like. Yeah, I mean, we know these people care a lot about their honor. There's no honor in showing up and being like, oh, God, and then running away.

[00:09:04] Don't get me wrong. Strategically, that's probably the move. Get out of there. But I mean, there's probably a safe argument to say that if Vhagar chased after her, she probably wouldn't have got far anyway. You know, I don't know how fast these dragons are in comparison,

[00:09:16] but we know Vhagar is bigger. He's bigger, but he's not fat. Yeah. Oh, yeah. OK, cool. So, yeah, so she probably could outrun him. That's a good point. But she said she chose to stay to fight. And Aemon wouldn't cede like the upper hand by flying into Dragonstone.

[00:09:31] So if she wanted to get away, she would have gotten away. But then it's also like, well, what would she have said? Like, yeah, I might have been hurt. I am pretty sure I killed most of their army.

[00:09:43] Right. I knocked out a few of them and I came home, you know, which honestly is the grand scheme of things. It's better than dying. You know, it really is. But no, she volunteered for this. You signed up for this, you know, so you can't say

[00:09:56] I'm going to be the one to go out there. Let me do it. I got you, because she honestly wasn't even given the directive to go. You know, we saw her volunteer herself. Rhaenyra does not respond to her saying, you know,

[00:10:07] I'll just take my lease and go handle it. Rhaenyra, I don't know if her silence is like a silent acknowledgement of go do what you got to do or if Rhaenys just kind of rolls her eyes like fine. Damn, I'll do it myself, you know.

[00:10:19] So you can't take that action, fly out there and then come back. Yeah, remember when you had said like and I said I was going to go change the plans, really don't want to do that no more.

[00:10:30] So I feel like once you get on the dragon, you have to see it through. And honestly, this just feels like she was outmaneuvered. Don't don't get me wrong. She had it. She had the upper hand. But this really is like a they call them the kingmaker.

[00:10:43] But this really is the shining moment for Kristen Cole. You know, this strategically really caught Rhaenyra's group off guard. They sent the dragon thinking, OK, we're going to knock out some of these red shirts, some of these soldiers.

[00:10:56] You know, we were the first ones to deploy our dragon. So we don't get the upper hand and only to find out that Vhagar is hiding in the woods and ready for this type of fight because Vhagar might not be as fast as Maelis, but it's bigger.

[00:11:09] And, you know, at this point, we have been like, you know, like a standoff. You have this your dragon versus my dragon. We'll see who comes out on top. And unfortunately for Rhaenys, it is the other side. Aemond does make short work of her, but not not until

[00:11:25] we see the interference from Aegon. So what did you think about this whole situation, like how this the strategy session played out with Kristen Cole's big plan to kind of ambush whatever dragon they send their way?

[00:11:39] Because you had to know that they were planning this the whole time. Yeah, exactly. I thought, you know, I thought it was a good plan. Aegon throwing the spanner in the works is kind of like, dang. Like he throws the spanner on the works.

[00:11:53] But if you really think about it, if he wasn't there, would they have won? You know what I'm saying? Because again, Maelis did manage to get away from Vhagar on a few occasions. It was just that last one that she couldn't.

[00:12:04] If she didn't have to deal with Sunfire first, maybe she could have dealt a blow to the armies and everything and get away like swift enough because having a big dragon is great. Having a big dragon that's been bloody to war is great.

[00:12:18] But there is something to be said about speed. You know I'm saying? Yeah, about speed and effective leadership. And I think Rhaenys showed that the problem is it just ended up being a two on one fight here. You know what I'm saying?

[00:12:35] And they didn't even realize it was going to be a two on one fight. You know, what did they? I have a question about Aegon. I started off by saying we potentially lost Aegon. We have not seen his dead body.

[00:12:47] We saw what looked like it could have been his dead body. But, you know, we don't know. We actually we really didn't see Rhaenys' dead body, but I don't know if she survives that fall from heaven and lands and still makes it.

[00:12:57] But Aegon, there might be some ambiguity to whether or not he's alive or not right now. But was this by design? Because Aegon shows up, but not without priding from Aemond. I mean, I think maybe Aemond's words might have been the thing

[00:13:15] that actually got the ball rolling on Aegon making this big move. I don't I don't think so. I will talk about the deviations in the book corner right now. So that's why I'm trying to keep it here to what we watch.

[00:13:28] But from what we watched, no, I truly think that Ser Cristen, Cole and Aemond were it was just going to be them. They did set the trap knowing that a dragon would come. Ser Cristen sent them out in the daytime knowing a dragon would come.

[00:13:44] That was his plan. But his plan was for Vhagar to take on whoever came. Now, Aegon, I think the reason why Aegon leaves is not because of anything that Aemond said. It's what Alison says when she tells him to do nothing. Like basically you're useless.

[00:14:02] We did this not because we believe that you're the king, really. It's we we want the power and we're doing it in your name. You don't need to be the one doing it. So I think that moment that she basically tells him everything

[00:14:17] that he just does not want to hear, he knocks over that flag and he's like, I'll show them, I'll show them all. And I just love this sharp contrast between him and Rhaenyra, because like you said, Rhaenyra was like, I'm bad. I'm about to go, too.

[00:14:33] But Rhaenys and all her council, just like what Aegon and all his council said, you cannot go out there. You cannot fall. If you fall, then, you know, all is lost. And Rhaenys had the better dragon. She's better prepared and she knows deep down she's expendable.

[00:14:51] So she took the one for the team, as you would strategically do. Just technically kind of how Aemond is taking one for the team, even though it feels like he's more he's not really taking one for the team because he's better, you know.

[00:15:05] But Aegon let those inner thoughts and all the drinking get to him. And he went out there trying to be a hero. And it cost him dearly. And it shows you exactly what everybody's been warning against. Like if you're the figurehead, if you're the the the person

[00:15:24] everybody is supposed to be fighting for, you have to kind of stay contained. You have to stay alive, but also be a symbol. If I'm at that battle and I see him get his butt whooped like that

[00:15:39] and I happen to survive because I don't even know how many of them people survive that. Right. You go you go into the small folk like, yo, this dude, Aegon, he sucks. You know, like it's not just like you possibly losing your life.

[00:15:53] It's you doing something stupid that makes people lose faith in you. I love what Aegon just did. Yeah, we saw a little bit about that. Well, we saw a little about that in Game of Thrones.

[00:16:05] I think was it was it Joffrey who went to war and then coward and they had to like cover it up like, hey, well, he was the king was busy. You know, the king couldn't be there, blah, blah, blah.

[00:16:15] When I think it was Tyrion who actually ended up on the battlefield, you know, really showing that like, OK, yeah, that we're really into like the crown is behind this fight and we are fighting alongside you. And it just makes a different statement when you're successful.

[00:16:28] If you're not successful, then, you know, the results may vary. But let me push back against what you said. All right. So here's here's how I read the episode when I was watching it. I watched it happen. Amen goes to the in front of the small council.

[00:16:42] Aegon is there and they're all strategizing without Aegon. Aegon is like trying to chime in and Amen is just sending him left and right. Hey, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know. We're not doing that.

[00:16:55] He's like, why can't we have Harrenhal? Bro, nobody cares about Harrenhal. We're moving on. And so Aegon is realizing that everybody is making strategic moves around him and not taking him into consideration at all. They don't care what he thinks.

[00:17:07] He is he is a feckless leader, to say the least. And I think that Amen knows his brother. I think Amen knows his brother the same way. Laris knows Aegon. And they know that if you tell Aegon to do something,

[00:17:20] he's going to do the opposite of whatever you say. We saw this last week when Laris goes and says, hey, you know, they keep saying that you're trying to run off the battle. Wouldn't it be crazy if they want you to do that?

[00:17:29] And he's like, you're right. I won't do that. You're right. Got you. So in this episode, Amen not only just undermines his brother, but in front of the small council, he talks to him in High Valyrian

[00:17:39] and just says, since you're so damn smart, you come up with a plan, because if not, I'm going to just keep being in charge of this. And Aegon, his incompetent ass, he can barely even speak High Valyrian to say something back.

[00:17:51] He struggles through that moment and he is completely neutered. And I think by doing this, Amen is just pushing him and pushing him and pushing him to do something reckless and wild so that Amen can do exactly what we saw happen. Because when Aegon shows up,

[00:18:07] Amen has a chance to come out and basically break up the fight between Aegon and Rhaenys while they're fighting on their dragons. He's coming at him and he burns Aegon. It doesn't even look like he hit Rhaenys at all.

[00:18:22] And then I start to wonder, did you do that on purpose? Because life would be a lot better for Amen if Aegon is not in the picture. Just last week, Aegon is bullying him in the brothel, got him walking out

[00:18:34] all noodle outside the whorehouse and all that good stuff. He's picked on him before in the past. But on the battlefield, these strategy conversations and the political side of the Game of Thrones, Amen is superior. And by taking Aegon out, he can really step into Aegon's role

[00:18:51] if that happens. So when I watched the episode, the whole time I was thinking, dang, what if Amen did that on purpose? Wouldn't that be crazy? But I do hear what you're saying about how it's probably not the case.

[00:19:02] But I can't let it go because it worked out so perfectly. You know, the one person standing between Amen and the crown is now pretty much, I mean, like pretty much dead as far as this minute, you know, talking about the show.

[00:19:16] And the next person up in line, if Amen is gone, I mean, Aegon is gone, is probably Amen. So I just think if it didn't happen on purpose, crazy coincidence that it did. I yeah, no, I think everything that happened on the battlefield was definitely on purpose.

[00:19:32] And and he was definitely stunning him. I don't know if he was doing it intentionally to get him to come out there. But no, I agree. Amen is Amen. I think Amen is doing this because he's still mad about, like you said,

[00:19:44] the brothel you were you were making fun of me at the brothel. Well, I'm going to make fun of you here in front of this council and show you that I would be the better team.

[00:19:54] But I don't think he was expecting them because when he was on Vagar hiding and he said, you know, he looked up and he saw him, he said, idiot. He didn't. He was like, dang it. I don't think he was expecting him.

[00:20:03] But from that moment on, everything was strategic because he told Vagar to fall back because he really wanted to protect Aegon. The moment he saw him, he would have got a double teamed. They would have jumped. Yeah, yeah.

[00:20:18] But he let he let Aegon go into that fray first. He was like, just to see what happens. So he definitely because when he came, remember, Aegon was like, oh, thank God, because he's getting up.

[00:20:36] He thought he was about to have some backup and instead he got burnt. And again, I think this is such a big win for team green. Not only you do have, you know, Reynese, who we know is formidable. She's a good leader.

[00:20:50] She is the hand to Reynere, which I mean, they don't know that. But, you know, she is the probably like the wisest advisor to Reynere, the one who Reynere, who she holds her opinion the highest. So you lose Reynese, you lose Malice

[00:21:04] and you get your idiot king out of the way. The guy who's making all the dumb decisions. I think that if you're if you're allotent, you're probably really broken up about the loss of your son. But she don't even like him like that. So I don't know.

[00:21:17] I feel like I feel like, you know, there were losses on both sides. But Aegon being out the way is it can only help team green. Yeah, no, I agree. I think in the book, this is this is like a decisive victory for team green.

[00:21:31] That's why I'm kind of like I think I talked about it last week. That's that's why it's kind of weird how they they changed a little bit of the tone of the first three episodes, because what it should have been was team black racking up wins like this.

[00:21:45] Like we'll talk about Damon and the Heron Hall stuff like they are dragging it like they are dragging because. Yeah, I'll get I'll talk about that part in the book club section. But like it should have been like Reynere racking up wins.

[00:22:00] The burning mill in the book went down as a victory for the blacks. It's she you know, she's already had a host by now. Like it was very interesting that they're putting them in this like really, really underdog kind of position to me at this at this point

[00:22:16] when their losses when their losses are definitely about to start racking up. So very interesting, very interesting, to say the least. But I love that. I love that battle was so good. It was very good. It was very good.

[00:22:30] And I and I do appreciate the storytellers maybe putting the blacks in a in a position where they can be the underdogs, because I think it makes it more readable. It's like the greens are already less readable than the blacks are.

[00:22:40] It's just a fact. And that's why everybody is like, oh, I can't believe you're a team green, whatever, you know, whatever. But I think that I think that, yeah, the logical like like a choice

[00:22:49] because of the way the story is told, it makes you want to root for Reynere. And if Reynere is in here just mopping people up left and right, it makes this a little bit anticlimactic because we do know.

[00:22:58] I mean, if you if you've seen Game of Thrones, you do know how this is. Right. And so this is just showing us how it gets there. And so I think, you know, adding a little bit more suspense

[00:23:07] into some of these battles that could have been a little bit more one sided on the other side and giving some wins to the green. It does make for a better viewing pleasure. It makes it a little bit more exciting TV as well for me.

[00:23:18] I think it's definitely interesting because if you think about Daenerys's storyline, she was like. Yeah, I guess she did rack up a lot of losses before she started winning. Yeah. Losing a game and then winning.

[00:23:35] Then she started winning and then they did some wild stuff with her at the end. Yeah, it's just yeah, it is just very interesting to me. But I did did really, really like also Kristen Cole. So you just get knocked out halfway through the battle.

[00:23:49] We just that's a that's a hallmark in Game of Thrones. We've seen that before you wake up and it's like, damn, the battle over. What happened? You know, what happened? Who hit me? Let's get up. Let's go. Yeah, the person burns to ash. Like what is happening?

[00:24:03] Now that was wild, you know? Oh, shoot. You did my bad. Damn. I must be lucky. I must be the lucky one. I didn't get burnt. Yeah. Big episode for Kristen Cole. But also you said this is great for Kristen Cole.

[00:24:16] I mean, yes, but also no, because we said what would have happened if Rhaenys turned around and came back to her council? That's yeah, nobody really likes Aegon. But like, oh, y'all, my bad. Like the king is kind of like Chris.

[00:24:32] Right. In a way, sir, you have one job. It's a big job, but you have one job and it's to protect the king. So, yeah. But I feel like it's a mixed bag because it's you're right. It's a king that nobody likes.

[00:24:45] So it's like if he's gone, we cry and we move on. But, you know, I don't think Alicent is going to take it like that either. You know what I'm saying? She don't like him that much, but that's still her son. You know, she's like your white knight.

[00:24:59] Like literally. Yeah. You have one job. Since we brought up Alicent, interesting episode for her, for sure. You know, we see that the potential loss of her son and, you know, Rhaenys as well, which is basically a family member, too.

[00:25:17] Like this is going to be a tough one. She talks about some of the grief that she's had in these last few episodes or, you know, over the past few weeks with the loss of her grandchild and various other losses, honestly.

[00:25:30] And now she sits here in front of Laris, having recently drank the plan B tea, Mari. The moon tea. Yeah. What you drinking that for, Alicent? What's been going on? Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, I don't know. But look, she probably wants to keep that under wraps.

[00:25:57] But she invites into her room the master of whispers on team green. It's Laris and Laris is going to peak the plan B tea. He sees the little the little teacup and he knows exactly what's up. It's a full circle moment.

[00:26:14] Because remember when they were introduced to each other, it was because he was like, Alicent, I heard there was a tea delivered to right nearest the room. Messy queen that he is. So it's the tea for the same person. Oh, that's horrible.

[00:26:35] Kristen Cole, the man with the man with a thousand plan B teas. Oh, God. So it's a circle. And yes, and he knows. And I love how she's just like, dog, my uterus hurts right now. Well, I don't have it in my face.

[00:26:53] Yeah. Yeah. Could you leave me alone? And he really is just in there just kind of displaying his superiority. Like the fact that he knows it, he's doing his whole like, like I know something about you. And she's like, bro, leave me alone.

[00:27:08] Just could you get the hell out of here? Because he's saying you look a little different lately. What's been going on? You something about you has changed. And she's like, I don't know. Half my family's dead. We're at war. You know, you know, my son sucks.

[00:27:22] He's he's out here killing people, hanging, hanging rat catchers. I don't know, Laris. What do you think it could be? And there is kind of looking at the tea like, oh, could be something. So, yeah, not great. Not great for Elvis.

[00:27:34] Supporters to like because he's like, oh, do you now doubt what Sarah said? And she's like, it don't matter. Hers don't matter. It's exactly what you said last week. It's her supporters are going to believe what they believe. Aeon supporters are going to believe what he believes.

[00:27:53] So the war is going to get fought. Lots of people are going to die. Somebody is going to send a threat like that. It is what it is. It is. But that's the show we signed up for. You know, I've been seeing a lot of discussion online.

[00:28:07] Alison, this is all your fault because you misheard what Viserys said. You know, he didn't want your son on the throne, all of that stuff. Let me tell you something. That war was going to happen regardless.

[00:28:20] It didn't matter what Alison saying that to Otto did not strike off the war. I don't have already been planning. They said when I got to the small council, he said send the Ravens. He didn't say which Ravens he didn't say. OK, right. A raven to do this.

[00:28:34] He said deploy the measures we have been taking. Alison was shocked, shocked. Round the people up. This is what we've been practicing. What did we rehearse? Why do we rehearse? You know, it was it wasn't about Alison's revelation at all. Honestly, this is Viserys' fault.

[00:28:53] Viserys named Rhaenyra the new queen. And that was always going to be divisive. Had he just like what? He abdicate? Is that what the word is? The throne? Had he just given it to her while he was still alive? People probably would have still observed his leadership.

[00:29:10] He's still there, you know, but because he stayed on to his very dying breath, that people were able to maneuver the people that were that were pledging fealty to Rhaenyra were dying off. You know, he really stayed and overstayed his welcome too long before put this into action.

[00:29:31] That and he let the people who he knew would be like the main detractors. Opposition. Yeah. Run his kingdom while he was like, while he was in that position. He knew that it would be like Otto and Alison and their family

[00:29:48] would be the ones that would be the main opposition to Rhaenyra's reign. And yet kept them in positions of power until you got like. And kept giving them babies. You know, you gave them other heirs as well. This is your fault.

[00:30:03] Like, you know, say what you want about Alison, Otto, Rhaenyra. But yes, the man, the man was out here while it and he let this happen. Now, don't get me wrong. Now that it's happened, like Alison said, there's nothing you can do.

[00:30:17] Alison making some grand announcement that, you know what? I got Viserys' uh, I got his dream wrong, y'all. It was the wrong Aegon. Ain't nobody finna retreat. The Blackwoods and the Brackens are already killed each other. Daemon's already taken Harrenhal.

[00:30:30] The moves have already been made and these supporters are going to support whoever they want to support. You know, they've been planning on this for a very long time. So not the best episode for Alison. I'm sure she'll have to deal with a lot more moving forward

[00:30:43] now that Aegon is potentially, you know, down, down and out. And with the loss of Rhaenys, I'm assuming she just made a big enemy in Corlys as well, Mari. How do you think Corlys is going to take this now that his

[00:30:57] his queen has fallen, his princess has fallen? Corlys is not going to take this well. He's not going to. And and I think they've been doing a good job of just showing how much love the two of them have for each other, because if you notice every episode,

[00:31:12] we get making some sort of love scene between the two of them. Just last week, we got Rhaenys talking about how she was afraid that one of them wouldn't make it because it is war. Corlys is about to be.

[00:31:26] Yeah, I mean, we even got and I should I guess I should have saw this coming because we got the scene where Rhaenys goes to visit Corlys at work. So she goes down to the shipyard to see her man and she comes across Alan. And what's his name?

[00:31:42] Alan the something. Alan of Hull. Alan of Hull. She comes and finds Alan of Hull. And when she finds him, she's looking at that man. Is there like. You got your daddy's nose. She could see Corlys all over the place. You look exactly alike.

[00:32:03] He stood right next to him. I was like, damn, does that seem to talk to actual son? This AI is crazy, you know, but she sees Corlys all over that boy's face and she starts to realize, oh, you're the bastard. You are his other kid.

[00:32:20] And it's a shame that you haven't been here with your family. Like she immediately tells Corlys like, why are we keeping the bastard away? We should be embracing him. So the opposite of what Catlin Stark would do. Yeah, I mean, but that's basically what she said.

[00:32:33] She like he should have grown up around us. And instead of yeah, instead of shutting him off. And look at this. He's even pulled you from the from the sea and saved your life. Yeah. So I should have known something was up because dang, you know,

[00:32:50] when she's not even tripping about the boat, the side, baby. You know, I was like, dang, you know, she a real one. She is. She she she knows. She knows this. And she's like, I can't. Yeah. Yeah, it was a big hits to Corlys.

[00:33:05] Big hits to Raineys again. Pour one out for Raineys. And I think he like he's old enough that I think it's like it was a before time baby. Yeah. Oh, oh, like before them. OK. Oh, OK. That's even that's even more.

[00:33:20] Yeah, yeah. That's even better because, you know, at that point, she's like, I would have been a good stepmama. What you mean? You know, like, yeah. So, yeah, tough one. And I'd love to see if Alan of the whole decides to avenge his stepmama.

[00:33:35] Did I get it right? A-H-U-L-L of whole. Alan of whole. Yeah. Fine. Alan of whole. I wonder if he's going to try to if he's now going to be more empowered, since this was basically his stepmama. And don't forget, Adam's still out there, too.

[00:33:51] Yeah. And he's got a twin. Dang, she never even met the twin. That is the twin. Yeah, yeah. She didn't meet them. Yeah. She didn't meet the other one, you know? So that's tough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about Damon, because Damon didn't do nothing in this episode.

[00:34:07] He was just there and herring haul in the hood, chilling, getting tormented by the witch who who is just there as well, tormented Damon. You know, we got a lot of like dream sequences and like premonitions and stuff like that from Damon,

[00:34:24] because he's in herring haul and herring haul is haunted. And also raggedy. You know, we see it. We see Larris talking about how Larris is like, bro, they took herring haul from my family. Big deal.

[00:34:34] You know, I control all the money and it's ghetto over there so they can have it. And Damon being at herring haul is the distraction that the Greens need to make this plan work, because Damon is so tied up

[00:34:48] in this place that nobody cares about and dealing with this witch. So the witch's name is Alice. Yeah. Alice Rivers. Yeah. So he peeps that Alice Rivers, her name is Rivers. So she a bastard, too. Yeah, he peeps. He peeps that she's a bastard.

[00:35:03] But he also very quickly picks up on she's not like everybody else. She's a she's a witch. And she is basically they're giving him things to sip on. I'm not quite sure what her point is, but we do get a lot of

[00:35:17] of insight into maybe what Damon is thinking with some of the visions that he's had having. Was she a really big part of Damon's story in the book? Um, no, but they didn't meet like this. This is like I said, she's not a big part of Damon's story,

[00:35:35] but she is a part of somebody else's. So what do you think about this scene? I thought this was good. It was literally just to give you the history of herring haul. That's what this scene was for. And to give you the to explain what what's going on.

[00:35:50] Like she's like she's like herring haul. It's built different. It was blood was basically in the mortars because like from the moment that black herring started making it, he like enslaved the people in the river, riverlands to make it. And they were dying while building it.

[00:36:08] So they say there's like blood in the mortar. And then, like she said, they cut down all these weirwood trees, which we know from Game of Thrones are very sacred. And he basically like said, F the old gods when while he's building this monstrosity

[00:36:23] and using those weirwood trees as like timber, timbers for herring haul. Or just like she said, your bed is a weirwood tree. How's that? How do you sleep in that? I'm like, oh, that's a setup. Yeah. Yeah. Put them in a haunted bed.

[00:36:38] Exactly. A haunted bed because we're wood trees. We saw it all in Game of Thrones. And it's without it within the books, like we're wood trees can imbue like magical powers to people in a sense of like being able to see and being able to green see.

[00:36:53] Like if you like lay your head up against a weirwood tree, it might imbue a dream upon you. You know what I'm saying? To like warn you or whatever. So like it, she was just here to tell you why herring haul is so haunted

[00:37:08] and explain why he's having these dreams when he himself is not a dreamer. Like per se, it's the place doing it to him. And basically it was just letting all his intrusive thoughts. It was just like letting out all of his intrusive thoughts.

[00:37:21] He just able to play out all of all the thoughts that are just running around in his head. And it's annoying. I'm like you're over here sleep dream half waking while shit is going down. Like, sir, get it together. Yeah, I I'm optimistic because I know Damon.

[00:37:39] I know Damon. OK, we met Damon in season one. We know how Damon get down when he wakes up finally from this, when he finally gets away from his haunted mansion. He he go. He gonna be on a rampage, you know, so I'm very much waiting for that.

[00:37:52] But while in the haunted mansion, some of these visions, one of the ones he has is basically a dream where he's talking to young Raynera and she is saying, oh, you know, how do you feel now that I'm on the throne?

[00:38:05] And, you know, you have to face the fact that my my dad loved me more than he loved you. And that's why he didn't pick you to be the king. And people are asking him, so are you going to, you know, make a play for the crown?

[00:38:16] Like, is this your big are you ready to make your move? Do you want to take this from Raynera? You I mean, you're going to let this little girl that you basically raised and married, but just basically raised just be in charge of you.

[00:38:27] That'd be wild. I can't believe you're going to do that. And if this is one of his intrusive thoughts, in my mind, this is something we should really be concerned about. You know, is Damon actually going to make a play for the throne

[00:38:38] or is he some type of devoted husband to Raynera? I'd wager, no, he's not that devoted to her. But I think that this scene really sets up that he could he could be thinking of other options, Mari. Again, I think they're dragging it because Damon loves power.

[00:38:58] And we've said it before. He loves power, but he more than likely he loves his family more than he loves power. You know what I'm saying? But he also has an ego. He also doesn't like to be ruled. You know what I'm saying?

[00:39:12] So it's just that it's just that war within him of like not wanting to be ruled by Raynera, wanting to have power, not really like wanting to hurt her. Because, I mean, if you really wanted it to be easy, you know what I'm saying?

[00:39:30] And I think that's where we're at. It's these sides within him that are warring. You know what I'm saying? And I don't I truly don't think even even if I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't believe that he would be.

[00:39:44] Like, well, you can't start a war within a war. Yeah, just he's not that stupid. Gotcha. In Heron Hall, we see that he does get to finally talk to a representative from the Tullys, but it's not Lord Tully. It's his grandson. And this Oscar Tully, he shows up.

[00:40:06] He's like, hey, you know, you were looking for somebody to talk to. I got you out. Yeah, I'll let you know what my grandpa is thinking. They talk. And Damon has no patience for Oscar Tully. He's saying your grandpa is incapacitated.

[00:40:17] He can't talk. He's on the way out. Why don't you just kill him? Kill him right now. Smother him with a pillow so you can get your inheritance and then y'all can come fight for me, because right now you're wasting all my time.

[00:40:27] This was wild to me because you just showed up and you making some like some crazy demands. And then, yeah, his next move after that is like, all right, well, since this kid can't help me, go get the Blackwoods. You know, they love me.

[00:40:44] They pledge fealty to Ray Ray. Get them. We're going to battle with them. Mari, I thought in last episode the Blackwoods really didn't make it. It didn't look like there's a lot of Blackwoods left to fight for Damon. Am I tripping?

[00:41:00] We'll see how many is left, but they did lose a lot at the battle of Burning Mill. Yeah. And he don't know. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. He doesn't know. He hasn't sent any ravens out. That is that is a stupid thing.

[00:41:13] Like now your enemies know your movements before your your party does, which is just like very stupid of Damon. But yeah. So and it's smart because like. OK, I can't talk to the big dog because. He's very infirmed. You're 14 and you're saying you can't do anything.

[00:41:37] So everybody's right. Your vassals are just doing whatever they want to. So I'm going to grab the ones that I've declared for me and I'm going to have them march and you're not going to do anything about it. So bye bye.

[00:41:50] And in one of his his days is from drinking whatever the witch gave him. He basically wakes up at the table in the mid conversation with a representative from the Blackwoods. It's Willem. That's the little kid that was.

[00:42:04] That's the little kid that was fighting for Raniera's honor in the halls. Yeah, that was wild. I didn't know that little boy grew up so fast, but I recognize the name Willem Blackwood. Yeah. Who I'm assuming is in charge. He's the head. I mean, I guess so now.

[00:42:24] Like you said, after all the people died, they did because they did say that what was his name? Samuel Blackwood died at the Birding Mill and he was the Lord Lord of Blackwood. So I guess Willem is now at this point. It was nice to see him back.

[00:42:44] And it makes sense because like it was it was that was from episode four of episode four last season when he had killed the Bracken and it was like 16 plus years ago. Yeah. Anything else from the episode that we need to talk about

[00:43:03] before we get into the book spoilers or the book corner? Um, like where the fuck was Raniera, dog? Dog. She still I mean, I guess it was taking her a while to get back from going to visit Allison. Like she's walking because it took two weeks.

[00:43:24] Yeah. I mean, one of the hallmarks of of Team Black is that their leadership is missing. You know, Damon is kicking it at Heron Hall, just chilling, literally just chilling. And Raniera then went on a mission to go talk to Allison

[00:43:38] while everybody else is trying to take control of what the next moves will be. Jace, Zayla, they're useless. They just have their people are trying so hard to. Oh, I love them. I love them together. Yeah. But they're trying so hard to maintain control.

[00:43:56] And I don't know who Sir Alfred is, but he got to go. You know, these mouthy council people, they got to go because they can't get nothing done with this void of leadership. Raniera was gone way too long.

[00:44:07] And, you know, I understood why she went to go, you know, talk to Allison. But again, the war started a long time ago. This you just left your post with nobody in charge, but your kid, who you haven't even really trained up to be in this position.

[00:44:23] Jace isn't ready for this. Right. I think he was handling himself, but it was just so weird to me because they said, oh, Sir Kristen marched a fortnight ago, two weeks. He had already taken Rosby, Stoke Worth, and he's in the middle of taking

[00:44:37] or we saw him take Duskendale, which ripped to the battle of Duskendale. I mean, it didn't it wasn't that big, but whatever. And like. She's still not back. I'm good because it felt like it all happened at the same time, you know?

[00:44:55] Unless I thought he wrote out around the same time that Raniera. It felt like they left around the same time. Yeah, that is correct. Yeah. So I don't know. That was that annoyed the hell out of me. But yeah, Jason Bela here.

[00:45:10] Bela is giving some really good information there. They're playing in her face, but it is really good to know the movements of your enemy. Like what? Why are we acting like that is not good information? Yeah. Sir Alfred said, well, if you know all that,

[00:45:26] why you ain't just burn them with your dragon? And she's like, OK, well, why don't you do it with your dragon? Oh, wait, I forgot. You ain't got one. Shut up. You know, they got your degree and you know every damn thing, you know.

[00:45:40] Yeah. These people are taking control. And it honestly, it's really like that on both sides. You know, both sides, the people who are in charge are not really wielding that much control. It's the council and their closest allies and the hands of masters

[00:45:57] and mistresses of whispers that are really pulling all the strings right now. While there is this big void in leadership, I think the women that should be in charge, Alison and Raniera, have been pushed to the wayside in their, you know, try and their peace treaty talks.

[00:46:13] And everybody is just making whatever moves they think is best. It's working out a little bit for the greens, but not much more than it is for the blacks like it. There's like these battles are big battles,

[00:46:24] but there are so many losses and casualties on both sides that, you know, proper leadership would definitely be helpful in these times. You know, I know Hightower is nowhere to be found. Damon and Alison are far, far away from the conversations that are happening happening at the council.

[00:46:41] And, you know, and that's why when Corliss walked up in there, everybody was like, they all sat up like, oh, yeah, somebody with some clout, you know, somebody who may mean something. Yeah, this was a fun episode. But yeah, it's really like it was exciting.

[00:46:57] The big fight scene at the end with the dragons was amazing. There were definitely moments where, you know, you really couldn't tell like, OK, is she going to make it out? Is she not going to make it out? Is Aegon going to make it out?

[00:47:08] I thought Kristen Cole might have been dead for a second when he got when he, you know, bumped his head. So a lot was going on. But overall, I thought this was one of my favorite episodes of the series so far.

[00:47:20] Yeah, I mean, honestly, it was an amazing episode. I'm very interested to see where the like the next episode goes, like what they're going to do there. So, yeah, this is going to be it's going to be fun. What is what is Corliss's other daughter? I'm sorry. Granddaughters.

[00:47:40] Where did she go? Reyna. They sent them Reyna. Yeah. Where did she go? Her. She they sent her Joffrey and then Aegon the Younger and Viserys. So Joffrey Valeria, the third son from Lenore. And her two sons with Daemon and Viserys,

[00:48:02] they sent her to the Vale with them. To gotcha. To her aunt lady, Jane Arryn. So so that Lady Arryn would send an army and to protect. Yes. Yeah. And to protect the dragons. Yeah. She took the dragon eggs.

[00:48:19] And I've seen online this week that those are the same dragon eggs that Daenerys ends up having in Game of Thrones. Yeah, apparently for the in the TV canon, the director from last week, Miss Patel, she confirmed that those are Daenerys's dragons.

[00:48:34] I think in the book it doesn't work out like that. That's not how dragons kicked in on eggs for a very long time. Yeah. Yeah. And in the book, it's not Syrax is because that those are those are eggs from Syrax Rhaenyra's dragon.

[00:48:52] But in the in the books, the dragons from Daenerys's dragons, I think, are from Dreamfire. So and it's a whole other thing. Like they were stolen by a paramour of a princess and she took them across the Narrow Sea and sold them to a Pentoshi prince.

[00:49:16] And that would make sense how they ended up. How we saw it. Yeah, exactly. All right. Anything else? No, let's get to the book corner. Let's get to the book corner. If you want to tap out now, feel free to go.

[00:49:32] Make sure you come back next week for more House of the Dragon coverage and tune in to other recap kickback content here on this network. Recap kickback dot com. Make sure you go to our YouTube page, YouTube dot com slash at recap kickback.

[00:49:44] But if you want to stay for the book corner, now is your time. Get seated because Mari is going to fill us in on what's been going on in the history books, you know, so we'll catch you all next time unless you want to stick around

[00:49:59] for the book corner, which starts now. Mari. In the show, in the show, Alison was going through the history books at one point. And I remember thinking at that moment that I don't know if she's looking for maybe like validation for what Rhaenyra just told her,

[00:50:16] you know, about, you know, about the dream or if she's literally just reading the history books because you like, how are we going to get out of this? Like how? How? What are we going to do with this? Yeah. Now what are we going to do?

[00:50:28] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so so I thought I thought about you when I saw that scene because I was like, OK, Mari reading the book, like, what are we going to do now? Yeah. Yeah. No, I think you're right. That's a that's a great point.

[00:50:40] I think she's trying to find what Rhaenyra was saying about the Prince of Promise and all of that. But like like we overhear her telling Jace, it's passed that it's passed down verbally from the queen or the king to their their their heir.

[00:50:59] And I love that scene of the hearing Rhaenyra tell the song of ice and fire, the prophecy of the Prince of Promise over the montage of like both sides getting ready for battle as her and Jace are sitting in their own library

[00:51:16] in front of the skull of Meraxes. Rhaenys, the original Rhaenys Targaryens, dead dragon was actually a really like beautiful and touching scene. And again, those who don't study history are like doomed to repeat it.

[00:51:34] So I thought that it was it was very interesting that she's telling her history and Alison is trying to find what she's talking about in her books. Yeah. So when it comes to this episode, give us some context. Well, let's start with this.

[00:51:49] You've already said that the green team, they are victorious in the books, but it didn't quite go down like this. No, it was a little bit more ambiguous about Aemon's true goal. And you had it right.

[00:52:05] Like in the books, it was a trap and it was a two on one trap. Like, oh, yeah, it was an ambush. Aegon and Aemon were there with Sunfire and Vhagar and Cole knew it. Cole also had like scorpions to try and take out Rhaenys.

[00:52:22] So they were they were very much expecting somebody. I think they were hoping it was going to be Rhaenyra. Yeah. Yeah. And it almost was. Yeah. Yeah, it almost was. And like. In the in the book, when we asked me, is Coilas going to be mad?

[00:52:39] Coilas is pissed in the book because he's like yelling, it should have been you like in the book. My bad, G. But she flies she flies directly into into this trap. But in the book, what happens is when her and Sunfire are tussling, like it's the same thing.

[00:53:03] Her and Sunfire are tussling. Maelys is like like debowing Sunfire. And then Vhagar just falls on top of both of them. Like he comes from the sky and just kind of just lands on like body drops both of them as they're tussling.

[00:53:19] So and then they all and there's like fire and and and tussling. And they all land at the same time. And that's when like Rhaenys dies. She's burnt. She's burnt to a crisp. They're like, oh, she's still Maelys is dead. She's still like attached to her.

[00:53:37] She's burnt to a crisp. And then Sunfire and Aegon are very badly wounded. Sunfire's wing is torn. His belly is clawed open. Aegon is burnt on half of his body. The other like everything below his his like his he's crushed from like the hips down. But he's alive.

[00:54:02] Yeah, he is alive. About as alive as his raggedy grandpa was. He about to be on that Viserys, that Viserys regimen. Milk of the poppy every night just to make it. Exactly. Mario, it was a good old fashioned slobber knocker. You know, it was a fight.

[00:54:20] So so they did. I think they did a great job of like because like in the book, that's basically it's like they tussling. The Vhagar said, stop all this nonsense and just lands on. Vhagar gets up and like, oh, OK, cool.

[00:54:31] While the two of them are just like, oh my God. So yeah. And and they and then even in the book, there is a one line mention where they're like, no one knows if Aemond intentionally meant to hurt Aegon. But once the dust cleared and the smoke settled,

[00:54:51] Aegon and Sunfyre were badly, badly hurt. And Rhaenys and Melis were dead, basically. So it's more ambiguous in the book if if Aemond was really trying to get him. They made it very plain to see here that he was. Yeah, he went straight at him.

[00:55:11] He's the one straight at him. And even when that part when Cristen Cole is like running and looking for Aegon and he sees Aemond standing over him and he's like, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Right. Are you about to?

[00:55:22] You're not going to. You're trying to kill the king. Like right now. Like in front of me, in front of my salad. Yeah. Right in front of my salad. And Aemond's like, nah, nah, G, he can stay. Look at him. Yeah, what did he do now?

[00:55:39] Yeah. So yeah, it's just it's just much more ambiguous in the books. They they do say that like Rhaenys, as she's coming over the hill and she's like coming to participate, she sees both the dragons. And in the book, they're like, nobody knows why she didn't turn back.

[00:55:57] But you're right. Like they're like, she probably could have turned back, but she didn't. She faced it head on like a brave warrior and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So why do you think that is? Um, again, she's just she's just a badass. She really is.

[00:56:13] And again, her dragons wasn't anything to sniff at, but that her dragon, it was the oldest dragon on their side. So that is a problem that they lost their oldest dragon. I have a theory. Is there any world where Rhaenys feels responsible for the war?

[00:56:31] You know, they they threw up in her face last week where they said, you could have stopped this. Why you just didn't burn them when you had the chance? And we didn't have to be like this. And she kind of like, all right, whatever.

[00:56:40] Get out of my face. It's none of my business. But is there any world where she thought, OK, you kind of right. I could have put a stop to this a long time ago. Let me try to do my due diligence to knock this out.

[00:56:49] You know, let me make up for that. That lack of action she did the first time. Yeah, I think she really just she's been warning us all like all season. She's like, we do not want to go to war with dragons.

[00:57:05] Like this is not going to be good if we start warring between the dragons. Like the shit is not going to be good. And then it's gotten to it just got to a point where she's like, well, fuck. We're here. Let's go. Let's ride. Let's do it.

[00:57:19] And like she said, Melly's is is the only dragon that amongst them has been like battle tested and all of that. So she she she had belonged to a princess before that and had had fought in different, I think, donors wars, I want to say. But yeah, so.

[00:57:44] Dang, that's tough. I mean, I'm still I'm still kind of I mean, we just watched episode I was just like, I know. Yeah, but but I mean, she went out like a G and I love that

[00:57:55] she kind of got that moment to take a gun and some fire out like by herself. I mean, again, even did mostly. Yeah, yeah, mostly he did flame them because, you know, that's why it's like like dragons are technically like they're like fireproof.

[00:58:10] So it's like if you're throwing fireballs, you're hitting the person. It's for. Yeah, it's not, you know. So like, yeah, it was so cool. And her the her and she got some swings in on Vagar, too. Yeah, she got him a couple of times.

[00:58:29] I was like, hit him again. You know, for me. And so so and like you said in the books, Rooks Rest was this was like a victory. This was seen as a victory for the Greens, even though like a gun is due.

[00:58:43] Like, yeah, and it'll be interesting because like some fire in the book, some are so injured, like they can't even get some fire back to King's Landing because, yeah, he can't she can't support herself like on our wing.

[00:58:58] So she just like stays around the battlefield for a while, just eating like eating the dead people and and and surviving like that for a minute. Yeah, yeah. Mm. That's tough, man. If it wasn't right, I'd probably be in here celebrating as as a you know,

[00:59:18] I've been trying to figure out my real stance on whether I'm team green or team black because team green, I mean, a guy just sucks. He just does. And I really can't get behind him that much. But I do like Allison.

[00:59:26] I do. Y'all can never make me hate her. She does nothing wrong. So for me, I'm like, maybe I'm just team Allison. I don't know. At this point, it's kind of like like now that the war has started,

[00:59:36] it's like there's no there's no it's no point of being team green, team black. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because like it's like you declare your allegiance, but now we're at war. So some shit's about to go down. So like as a viewer, we are not participating.

[00:59:51] Just just be ready. But again, both sides are going to do some egregious things. So it's just kind of like. Yeah, you know, and again, we know how this ends. There are no winners. There are no winners.

[01:00:07] We there might be a winner this portion of House of the Dragon. But there we seen Game of Thrones. We know what happens. We know what happens to the Targaryens. We are very aware of what happened to them. So, you know, pick a side right now.

[01:00:22] Right now, Marty, it's war. It's war. And nobody wins when the family feud. That was either Jesus or or Jay-Z. One of them said that. Yeah. Anything else from the books that we need to recognize from this episode?

[01:00:38] Yeah, so it's very interesting what they're doing with house Tully. I don't know. So I don't know if they're doing this because they're like, this is kind of embarrassing. But George R. R. Martin, like for some reason, he decided to name

[01:00:53] a whole house after different characters from Sesame Street as like a joke. Yeah. So so Grover Tully, who is the current lord. My mouth wide open. Oscar as well. Dr. Grouch. I'm going to walk out. Yes. Well, but even more like they have Oscar here

[01:01:13] who is in the books, but, you know, in a different capacity because I don't know if they did an amalgam of the two characters, but the the name of the character who's taking over as Grover is incapacitated. It's actually Elmo Tully.

[01:01:30] Oh, Elmo Tully is supposed to be is supposed to be in charge right now. And that is Oscar's father. So when Oscar was like, oh, my father died or whatever, I'm like, I'm I'm like confused because I'm like, no, Elmo died.

[01:01:49] Elmo was a part of the dance with the dragons. So Elmo was the one who even even though Grover Grover pledged to Rainera when he was Helen Healthy, but he also voted against like women ruling or something like that. So when the dance breaks out, Grover is infirmed,

[01:02:07] but he wants to support a gun, a gun. And Elmo, who is his who is his grandson at this point and who is a man running the Riverlands is like, no, you're going to support Rainera. And he eventually supports Rainera.

[01:02:27] And then Oscar, his son is his second son, because his first son's name is Kermit Tully. Yes, exactly. I think the show is just like, this is stupid. We are not about to like commit to this whole Sesame Street as gets sued by Sesame Street, you know?

[01:02:46] So Grover and Oscar are like kind of like you can get away with those. But Elmo and Kermit, I think Tim, like those must be like yeah, the trademark. Well, look, when Big Bird, the dragon shows up, give me a call because that's all I'm waiting on.

[01:03:06] George R. Martin, you will pay for what you've done. You will pay. You will pay. One day you go get yours. Speaking of you go get yours. I like those words from from was it Lord Declan? What was his name? Darkling. Darkling.

[01:03:22] Yeah, he's about to get his head chopped off because he will not bend the knee. And he's like, Kristen Cole, you're a wild boy. You're going to get yours one day. And Kristen Cole's like, sure. But in the meantime, I'm going to chop your head off.

[01:03:35] And, you know, they're really trigger happy here on House of the Dragon. Like you, you say you don't like somebody. You say you don't trust somebody's what their bloodline or, you know, you don't you don't you don't understand maybe where their kids came from.

[01:03:53] You call somebody a bastard. You can get your head chopped off. We even saw a point where I think A-Gon even told Alice, hey, you watch your mouth, watch your mouth. And she's like, what you going to do? What you're going to do?

[01:04:03] Right. Because they've gotten to the point where if you question anything too much, you can die. And so we saw that. And we also saw that the reason why they went after was it Rook's Rest was because Stanton is on he's on the council with with Rhaenyra.

[01:04:23] So he's not there to protect Rook's Rest. So we see a lot of Rhaenyra's like council people or the people who are close advisors. They're all getting feeling the effects of this war very quickly. Corlys loses Rhaenys. Yeah. Stanton loses Rook's Rest. Oh, yeah. Her son, Darklyn, his

[01:04:42] his son is on her council as well, I think. His son accompanied her to King Landing. He got back to the news that his dad died. Hmm. I don't know. Yeah. Being team black just sounds a little ghetto to me. That's all I'm saying.

[01:04:57] That's why I told you all of her lords are from the crown lands. And that's exactly where where they were marching on last week. So it's smart. Like they're like they're making her closest advisors like second guess her. Yeah.

[01:05:13] But I do want to say the biggest departure from everything right now is like I've been saying for weeks, Damon had captured and secured Harrenhal before blood and cheese. So him just wandering around, lollygagging, having stupid dreams right now is so annoying because, again, it's

[01:05:32] they're like they're making it sound like team black is down now because a lot of the a lot of the early battles and early skirmishes and early victories come from Damon taking over Harrenhal, gathering a large host.

[01:05:45] They add by this point they have a huge host gathered at Harrenhal. Mm hmm. That is nobody there. But that is like scaring the river, like the river lands and trying to help out. Like it's very annoying.

[01:06:02] It's annoying as a book reader or annoying as somebody who's like, hey, get your head in the game. You need to get in the fight because he is just chilling. Both. Exactly. It's like he's the whole point. And she like she begged him to marry her

[01:06:16] and back in season one because he was like the strong hand that she needed. Like when it came to fighting and they're out here fighting without him. Like so it's annoying in both senses of like reading the book and in the show.

[01:06:29] It's like, sir, we don't have time for these little daydreams. Like you don't have time for you playing around with this wood switch. Like we need to like. And then why would you eat anything from her? Like you would write these, but you drank that weird drop

[01:06:45] and now you're like hallucinating, Lena, and you're in the middle of a meeting. But you don't forgot how you got there. Big chilling, big chilling. And I think the show I think the show is doing the thing where,

[01:06:57] you know, if you have a main character or a storyline, you're trying to really prop up as like the hero storyline, which I'm assuming is Raniera. I think that you you can't you have to have her down and out at some points

[01:07:09] so that her ascension to the big victories will be better toward the end of the season, because we are about halfway through the season at this point, Mari. Yeah, we're at the middle of the middle of the way.

[01:07:19] So I can imagine that the tide is going to start to turn so we can get, you know, some big climactic moments on the other side. But you had to really, you know, cut them off at the legs

[01:07:30] a little bit early on so that it's not just the Damon show. I think that we got we're about to get the Damon show, but we got to they going to make us wait for it a little bit, you know,

[01:07:39] take away for a while before he shows up and does what Damon does best. I totally agree. I really agree on that. So like these next few episodes are going to be interesting because I like the pacing of the first four.

[01:07:58] Was I think it was good, but again, like every episode is not it cannot be like three days, you know, like and that's what it's been. And so these last four episodes, they have a lot to kind of put in here

[01:08:12] and they're going to have to weave their way from like the battle to battle, like small skirmish, small skirmish. So it's going to be very, very interesting. I can't wait. And yeah, we'll be sad. Mara, is there anything else from the book? Oh, no, that's that's about it.

[01:08:32] RIP to a real one. RIP to a real one. Pour one out. Pour some mead out for Big Neese. You know, I miss her already. Yeah, at May-lease. You know, you know, she was ride or die. She did both in the end. And it's OK.

[01:08:47] You know, we do move because, you know, it's war. This is war. And it's a very exciting war, to say the least. So thank you all for checking out our most recent recap. This was so much fun. We got a lot more recaps coming on the horizon.

[01:09:02] But in the meantime, Mari, what you got going on? You can find me over on Crime Scene, True Crime Podcast with Sarah Carradine. We are taking a break this week. So but you can still catch up next. Next time we will be joined by Mr.

[01:09:18] Chappelle here to cover the man with a thousand kids. Oh, boy. And I have some opinions about him. So you definitely need to tune in because I'm already ready to talk mess about this dude because what you freaky frog, this nasty thing.

[01:09:36] So you can go to RobHouseWebsite.com slash crime feed in order to subscribe there or just type in Crime Scene. That's crime S E E N wherever you get your podcast. Um, that's it. I'm also on Twitter at MariTalksTooMuch.

[01:09:52] That's two like the number two, you know, tweeting about all sorts of things over there. Hopefully you checked out our BET Awards coverage last week. We had a lot of fun over here on the Recap Kickback.

[01:10:04] I left Westeros for a hot little minute to talk about the BET Awards. We had so much fun. So I hope you're subscribed to Recap Kickback at RecapKickback.com slash subscribe. So, yeah, that's it. No, Mari, this has been great.

[01:10:23] Yeah. Again, BET Awards reactions were posted on our YouTube page and in your podcast feeds. The Black Barbie documentary on Netflix. We reviewed that. It was me, LaTanya and Gia. We have Supercell on Netflix, the number two show on Netflix right now. We're covering that.

[01:10:41] It should be on your podcast feeds this week, but only if you're subscribed. So make sure you go to RecapKickback.com slash subscribe to keep up with all that content and more. I think we'll be talking about the Olympics soon. It's coming up.

[01:10:52] And, you know, we got a lot of people that I want to highlight and talk about in the Olympics. So there'll be a lot of coverage about that coming your way, too. If you are subscribed to the podcast, you can even join our Facebook group.

[01:11:03] RecapKickback.com slash Facebook will take you to our Facebook group. It's private. Get in there. You'll get all the updates. You know, we're starting a little a little Recap Kickback community. And I want you to be a part of it.

[01:11:15] Come join Mari and I for conversations that we got a lot more stuff to come. But you can follow me on all social media platforms at Recap Kickback to keep up with all of that and more for Mari and for myself.

[01:11:29] It's been a crazy one on House of the Dragon, but you ain't got to go home. You just can't stay here. We will catch you all next week. Until then, peace.