Girls Gone Canon Cast - House of the Dragon S1E5: We Light the Way
Episode Date: September 20, 2022criston cole fans please do not interact with us on this day, we are mourning our knight of skulls and kisses SPOILERS: ASOIAF, F&B, KOT7K, TWOIAF, ETC Join us at our Patreon: https://www.patreon....com/girlsgonecanon Follow us on Twitter: @GirlsGoneCanon Sound Effects from Pixabay "Night Vigil" & "Big Drumming" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Watch's House of the Dragon.
Season 1, Episode 5, We Light the Way.
I am one of your hosts, Chloe.
And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana.
Welcome to the wedding.
We had an open bar, you know.
An open bar.
Last night.
And also, coincidentally uh it was your wedding
anniversary one of yeah it was kind of i mean we didn't actually get married we just had a reception
this day so it was like the reception bursary i mean when you're has more than one wedding
anniversary too if you think about it yeah and truly poor nira she probably doesn't want to
celebrate this one.
This is a rough wedding.
It was nothing like my wedding, thankfully.
Yeah.
Ish.
No, it really wasn't anything like your wedding.
There was dancing.
And that's, I think, the only commonality.
And lots of food.
That's about it.
And it was more than one day, technically, in some ways.
If you think about it. Yeah.
We went the full seven days.
No, we didn't.
That would have been awesome. No, we didn't. We would we would have been so tired though i don't think i could do
that well before we get into this wonderful episode directed by claire kilner and written
by charmaine de great uh who i think she did a bunch of episodes for the hundred that i've seen
yeah i was trying to figure out where i might know her from. But before we get into all that, of course, we must warn you of our spoiler policy,
which is all of the works of George R.R. Martin.
All of them.
They will be spoken about.
They will be spoiled.
Yes, we will talk about all things from the main five books if it seems apt.
I mean, we might run out of time.
And fire and blood.
Yeah, and especially fire and blood.
We will spoil fire and blood. and especially fire and blood we will spoil
fire and blood we will spoil what happens in the dance we will spoil sons of the dragon we will
spoil the princess and the queen which is basically more expanded in fire and blood we will talk about
duncan egg we will not talk about duncan egg but we could we might that's not true we might talk
that's true we could talk about duncan we're gonna talk about we will probably talk about the
world of vice and fire and we will and the rogue prince we probably talk about the world of Vice and Fire. And the Rogue Prince.
We will talk about the Rogue Prince.
Maybe. Technically.
So everything is fair game.
We have not read the leaks.
Yeah.
And realistically we can't be trusted is the problem.
We just. We can't.
We're bitch ass bitches.
We'll spoil it on accident.
You can tell because it turns out we were pretty
wrong about the opening of this episode i was like oh shit oh shit he killed her but um we'll
get into that in a second so that's the spoiler policy um but speaking of the main five books
yeah we are covering weekly outside of our weekly house of the dragon episodes every tuesday
we are covering bran stark's point of view chapters.
We go through a Song of Ice and Fire point of view chapter by point of view chapter,
and we have landed upon Bran.
We're having a great time.
We just covered that very trippy Bran's fall chapter, which was fun.
I'm excited to get a little deeper, getting into Clash even.
That's when Bran's plot starts getting spicier and spicier.
Those are your favorites.
Yeah, I mean.
They actually are her favorites.
Yeah, we get a ton of lore.
You know, we love lore.
So yeah, those come out every Friday for the public.
Something else that's happening on Fridays is our live hot D discussions hosted by Maddie.
happening on Fridays is our live hot D discussions hosted by Maddie. Yeah, our friend Maddie is doing every Friday. A great job, actually, first of all, like applaud that hands of the queen, you know,
she is out there holding together hosting discussions, everybody talking about the mess
that are these episodes, which we love every Friday 2m eliana time for patrons in the thunder tier and above and if you
join the thunder tier patron or above over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon you'll get
access to our discord where there are events like this and many other events like brunch
which we just held last weekend a monthly brunch happy hour it's a blast uh you also get a free
physical gift every year we have some ideas kicking around for this year's it's a blast uh you also get a free physical gift every year we have some ideas
kicking around for this year's it's getting messy getting exciting and i mean not just that but
it's like a discord life membership where we're not kicking you out probably not we're here for
the lulz you know i mean you can you could fuck up big time yeah i mean you could be damon targaryen
yeah and we'd probably let you back in every time just walk
on up to the day and i'd be like chloe what the fuck are you doing what is this ah another thing
you'll get over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon especially if you are in the stranger tier
and above five dollar tier and above is bonus episodes every month we talk about something else different you know last month we started a
new patreon episode series called mothers of the dragon or affectionately milfs of the dragon yes
this month will be part two this will be part two part one which we did last month covered
visenya rainies and not not the rainies that you're watching in this show visenya, Rhaenys, and not the Rhaenys that you're watching in this show.
Visenya and the wife of Aegon, Rhaenys, and also Rhaena.
I'm like, that really clarifies it.
Oh yeah, the wife of Aegon.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, anyway.
And so this one, part two, will only be focused on one of the mothers of the dragon.
Just because, I mean, she was mother to a lot of kids. Yeah, we're going to talk about good queen Alysanne. part two will only be focused on one of the mothers of the dragon just because i mean she's
mother to a lot of kids yeah we're gonna talk about good queen aliceanne the queen not my cat
who is also a queen named aliceanne we can talk about your cat she might come up a little bit too
she might we'll talk about aliceanne and her children as well some of the the dragons that
come from her as well um unfortunately, this is going to be what,
like an 80 part series because there's a lot of mothers to get to and we need Fire and Blood
Part 2 for that. Yeah. I mean, honestly, we're going to hit a roadblock in this and there is
more out there to discuss. Yeah. I don't think we're going to really do it based on what we
have in the world of Ice and Fire just because I think it
would be enriched by
having Fire and Blood Volume 2.
And if you are a patron
in that tier, Stranger tier or above,
you do have access to the Maiden Vault
at least. We do discuss the Maiden Vault
at length. That's one of my favorite.
It's one of my favorite eras.
I was going to say one of my favorite Patreon episodes
that we did. Yeah.
There's so much we had to take from the world of ice and fire and you know from what barry little is in the main series so it's a favorite of mine it's a passion piece yeah
well with that let's talk about this let's talk about the House of the Dragon, season one, episode five, We Light the Way.
Yeah.
And that's the house words, right?
House Hightower.
Yeah.
I actually really like that as a through line that we pop off, you know, at the front of
the episode after a few scenes, we'll get into the goodbye with Otto Hightower.
But even though he's very
absent in this episode he is still very much over it and his words are haunting alicent absolutely
you can see that she is thinking of those words yeah he really he really just puts a lot on her
and is like this is your fault and i'm like no otto i think it's your fault but we'll get there
first let's talk about different things that different bad things that men have done in the veil so we meet rea royce
and her first only and last scene in house of the dragon rea turns down her cousin's offer to go
riding and actually ends up running into her husband yeah and he is doing as many have pointed
out he's doing a
reenactment of the dark permit meme oh my god i am not the one who made that observation um some
other genius on the internet did but it's true it's true it's been one of my favorite memes this
this show has some great memes right now but that has been one of my favorites. Yeah. He comes in looking, I mean, it's something that's some weird ass energy.
Yeah.
Well,
house of the dragon gave us Royces real Royces in our face.
That was exciting.
Uh,
Damon spooks the horse,
pushes it to fall on Raya after she taunts him.
Damon doesn't say anything,
you know,
until Raya kind of prompts him and she says,
I knew you couldn't finish so he goes
back with a rock which is fitting because in the book it's reported she dies cracks her skull on a
rock so this gives a nice little twist to how that rock came yeah it absolutely did and you know uh
we were wrong damon does in fact do bad things uh though when i said oh my god he really killed her clue
he's like i didn't see anything i don't know i didn't see well also also it's kind of funny i
mean absolutely it's his fault i have no idea how he actually pulled this off because i'm like
as my partner like pointed out he was like how is he strong how is he strong enough to push over this horse well it's not even that he pushes it over so much as that like he spooks it so apparently
he speaks to horses or maybe like they smell dragon scent on him that must be it like obviously
something happened right i mean obviously he intentionally spooked the horse especially
because you know rio was about to attack him because he was giving off
i'm about to attack you in some way energy it was it was bad times well also i you know we were
discussing this on the couch like no wonder he's going after like as discussed in the previous
episode the director said i mean this is abuse right uh. A bit. Damon and his niece.
He looks very cool compared to his niece, but that's why he's going for all these younger women.
Rhea Royce is like, what the fuck are you doing?
You're not a serious person.
And calls him on his bullshit because she's been around the block and knows bullshit when she sees it.
Yeah.
I thought it interesting they never consummated their marriage.
Yeah.
Is what she implies there right
and because she wasn't blonde she's not blonde and his cousin or niece or sibling um I mean
realistically any he'll take any there's something sad that like Alysanne made this match right and
Rhea is supposed to be this very bold fierce young woman so you'd think that Damon would
like that and as we kind of chatted in the previous episodes it's a power play like she
very much is sure of herself if there's one thing we know about Rhea Royce's character from her only
scene yeah she's very sure of herself until he starts advancing towards her obviously yeah and
until he spooks her horse and she can see what's about to happen
to her it is awful it is terrible so but that is interesting that as you point out they didn't
consummate their marriage so they don't do their duty right because that is a running thing
throughout this episode of doing your duty within a marriage and it's funny because he told raniera
in the last you know last episode yeah just do yourenyra in the last, you know, last episode,
yeah, just do your duty, then get out of there.
You know, that's what I did, and look at me.
And it's like, no, you're actually a big, giant coward.
Yeah, you didn't do your duty.
And you didn't do anything wrong in this scene because I didn't see it.
I'm just kidding.
Oh my gosh.
I know he killed her.
I knew he killed her already.
Let's be real.
I kind of wish that her cousin had gone with her,
but I wonder if he would just be like, I'll just kill him too. But I don't think he can spook two knew he killed her already. Let's be real. I kind of wish that her cousin had gone with her, but I wonder if he would just be like,
I'll just kill him too, but I don't think he can spook
two horses at the same time. Like, he
what was he doing? He was just like,
I'm wearing a cloak.
And I'm like, what are you doing? Well,
goodbye, Rhea. We hardly knew
you. We won't know anything about you.
Honestly, part of me does think they were like,
we have to include the Royces.
Because you could have cut this out.
I guess so, they could have.
But also, maybe they'll do something with...
Because we do get the mention of Lady Jane.
And Lady Jane Arryn does play a significant role, especially in the dance and as an ally to the Blacks.
So, I mean, i think that maybe they
included this as a setup maybe this will come back somehow and haunt like their alliance because i
mean when she dies the veil splits up into huge war maybe that's what would have happened when
raniera someday dies if she you know actually the throne. Maybe what we see with those different factions of men rising up
and tearing the veil apart between Joffrey
Arryn and Arnold
Arryn. So she has an Arnold Arryn
cousin, right? And he
and his descendants are disinherited from
the Arryn line of succession by her last
testament. Interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah, and she does become one of
Aegon III's regents,
so that is also interesting.
And when she dies, so she names her distant cousin Joffrey Arryn as her heir,
but then the conflict between Eldric Arryn and Isambard Arryn rises up,
and Corwin Corbray rules that her will and testament must prevail.
There's definitely something Rhaenyra-esque of just, like,
that's the echo of the wars, you know, over the succession. There's definitely something Rhaenyra-esque of just like that's the echo of
the wars, you know, over the succession.
That's interesting. And we might
see something like that pass in the main series.
Who knows? Yeah.
Well, we're on a boat.
Oh my god.
We had a review recently that really liked
that we referenced on a boat.
Really? What was that?
I don't know. They said something about't know they said something about they just said
something about how they loved it it was a good review i really liked that so we're on a boat
viserys gets seasickness while his new hand lionel strong or old hand i guess he's been
hand for a minute right like a month a week i don't know a mid mid-length of time hand. A very, okay, a short amount of time.
He has been hand for a short amount of time.
And he kind of helps him wipe up.
He hands him a little rag to wipe his face with.
Lionel's duties in this episode have totally increased.
You can tell.
He's the opposite of Otto, though, because he does everything quietly
and seems to observe, seems to act much more quietly, makes his
decisions and makes his actions very small, but they're very meaningful.
Like, Otto did everything with a manner of decor or a layer of sarcasm about them, right?
Like, he's never subtle, ever.
Where Lionel, I mean, even at the wedding later, Lionel, like, gives him a head nod to his son.
He goes, Harwin, get in there and go do this shit without even saying it.
It was such a great, silent, just nod.
And Harwin said, all right, they act as a unit.
They act as a family.
He has his house sorted out.
Where Otto, you know, very, even from the conversation he's about to have with Alicent, they're very differing.
They're very much clashing in their beliefs right now in King's Landing,
where the Strongs are somewhat one unit.
Larius, I don't know.
Keep an eye on that guy.
Who knows?
Yeah.
He doesn't even know.
I don't know.
And it is, yeah, interesting that, as you said, right,
Lionel is very subtle and he does seem very unassuming, right?
He seems like someone that you can trust, and he seems very down-to-earth, unlike Otto, who, yeah, he'd blow smoke up your ass, but he was also so pompous.
Yeah, he just had a punchable face.
Yeah, whereas Lionel, I don't know, he just has a trustable face, which may be wrong.
And a weir, you know? Yeah has a trustable face which may or may be wrong and a weir you know yeah i trust
him i mean as you said right he's always watching we see it in the previous episodes and then this
one but also i just love his facial expressions when he's watching he's like what the fuck
he's like i can't believe people are doing this in front of me but when he offers the handkerchief
to viserys like it's not he isn't asked to do it you know no one says get the king the handkerchief to Viserys, like, it's not, he isn't asked to do it.
You know, no one says, get the king his handkerchief, and he does it.
He just produces it very small, very subtly.
He comes over and hands it to him, tries to take care of business.
Where Otto would have made a whole display of it, like, oh, this is terrible, my king.
Oh, God, this is so horrible.
You're dying in front of us.
How could this happen?
Yeah.
Like, you don't need to commentate everything, yeah Lionel lets him save face and this episode does kind of I think show us a
little bit about the contrast even though Lionel is so even though Lionel is so efficient
Viserys did have a close friendship with Otto, right?
And Lionel and Viserys don't have that kind of emotional connection.
And I think it's because Lionel actually did tell the hard truths to Viserys,
as we've seen in previous episodes, unlike, you know, Otto Brownnoser.
Yeah, Otto has a very honeyed tongue when it comes to the things he told Viserys.
Like, everything had that extra shade of depth to it.
Oh, well, this is why, my king, we must do things this way,
because of you and your health and the way the kingdom is.
Where Lionel's very quiet and they don't have a relationship at all.
That's interesting.
Yeah, they have a working relationship, but they don't have a close personal one.
And I think that makes some of the things like literally the personal affairs of Viserys' illness difficult later on.
Yeah.
The task between them.
That's true.
Anyway, Rhaenyra and Kristen are also hanging out on this boat and we're going to Driftmark.
I'm so hyped to go to Driftmark.
But before we get there we have
to say goodbye to otto i'm hyped for that too oh it's my favorite have a nice trip
see you next fall literally probably yeah probably alicent bids her father farewell
she doesn't want him to leave and he says well it's your fault kid because you are believing
raniera and not me believe men alic Alicent, is what Otto is saying.
You should believe men.
Yeah, but also Otto is wrong, right?
It has nothing to do...
Literally, Alicent's beliefs didn't factor into this in the least
because we know Viserys doesn't believe Rhaenyra,
which is why he sends the tea, right?
He's like...
Teenagers, you know? And I get it get it as a teenage girl i too lied to my
parents a lot and the series was right to doubt that so otto was wrong otto was wrong that the
series didn't believe reneara and it's just only one of the many things that otto was wrong about
because i don't care i'm an otto hater I mean, if there's one thing we can all agree on, fuck Otto Hightower.
He just, well, this especially
shows, too, he's like, not
if you don't
want to get fired
and you're blaming it on your teenage daughter
who, like, you only recently
forced into this job
in the last handful of years.
I don't know. How are you
supposed to blame her for losing your job?
Like that wasn't her job.
Also she has done more for this kingdom than Otto.
Right?
Like she was the one who advised Viserys.
Like you gotta put a fucking stop to this war.
Right?
Whereas Viserys would have let it keep going.
Just because he wanted to create that rift between Daemon and
Viserys which was not in the benefit of the kingdom frankly Viserys wedding Alicent was not
in the benefit of the kingdom right like none of this was good and Alicent did everything her dad
asked and that's the other unfair part like you can obviously see he's emotionally abusive to her
yes I mean he's putting
this on her and saying dad lost his big corporate job because you did this wrong and because your
friend fucked up and good luck with her and that's a good point she says to him like you're wrong and
you need to stop pushing aegon as heir and he says he has to because the realm won't accept her
they have to crown aegon when Viserys dies,
and Rhaenyra would kill all of Alicent's children to secure her claim.
Again, planting these seeds, these seeds of doubt,
and like, it's cruel the way he's putting it on her.
At the same time, it's not like she shouldn't know there's a risk.
But even the way, I don't know, in this scene,
she still says she still is defiant even to this
moment in the series so far she says to him like no you had if you hadn't pushed this none of this
would have happened none of this would need to happen it reminds me of ned and robert arguing
in a game of thrones over killing daenerys right in the small council um it's one of those you know you're killing the
crime before it's even been committed so it doesn't exist yet chicken versus the egg like
yeah if we get rid of her now this problem now we won't have a problem down the road but like also
he is literally creating that conflict at the very front of this episode he did this yeah otto i watched minority report oh my god
and the point was that was bad that was bad for society and it's funny because it's a show that
is about a family driven by this divine prophecy right and what we see otto doing is actually
creating what becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Because like you said, right, he's planting all these ideas in Allison's head.
Frankly, the Rhaenyra that we know and that we have seen portrayed in the show, in her actions,
I do think like she would not kill Allison's children.
And I do think that is part of the significance of why we were shown her refusing to kill the White Heart.
Because it's not just like that the White Heart chose that she was the rightful heir and chose her.
But had she brought it back, that is, again, a way to secure and prove her queenship.
In the same way that getting rid of any competition is a way to
secure your queenship right but she doesn't kill the white heart just as she would not kill allison's
children without provocation and based on what we see in fire and blood it doesn't seem like she
really she really did even when like i mean who knows what happens with helena but she doesn't
kill helena that's a really great point and it's sad because in that moment you could see a future
where it could work out you know where she could raise her children along alongside raniera's they
could have a weird big funny shaped family and it could all work. Yeah. I'm a much modern family.
Exactly.
Well, yeah.
And then, like, but as you said, right, Otto puts it all on her,
and now Allison is suddenly even more alone, right?
Like, she was alone before and had to deal with her father's stresses,
but at least there was someone there.
And that makes it, like, this weird toxic codependent thing.
Yes.
there was someone there and that that makes it like this weird toxic codependent thing but only she wasn't the only high tower there at court and now he's saying you can't trust
rainiera you can't trust obviously she can't trust her husband he's incompetent so i would
have liked some of this conversation to have been peppered in the last episode or so a little more yeah um things
are fast and that's okay like i can deal with it and i think the time jumps are supposed to make
you understand this has been going on for a while for all parties involved in all sides but i would
have liked a little more of this and a little more of the pressuring on her it's fine i like the way
it all turns out and the way her arc in this episode plays out it was
actually very interesting i was like very interested in how it was unfolding but i would
like more maybe i just want more maybe i'm greedy well i think i think that's a valid like criticism
and it's something that we've brought up in previous episodes right like we would just like
one more scene of establishment before we get to like the sudden like payoff and whatever
this episode i think has a lot of that not in a horrible way just there's a lot you know
laner and joffrey set up that's immediately yeah destroyed and then like lana is getting
to be in the plot but for example this is what the only episode fully with lana at this age with this actress yeah
and then she's a new actress next episode yeah exactly which is it's fine whatever they wanted
to show it age up but it's very interesting how they aged this along yeah yeah i mean i just would
have liked understand why they didn't time constraints whatever but it just would have been great to
see a little more of the valerians and and as you said right like here with uh the difficulties
between alice and her father we've seen quite a few but yeah anyway speaking of the valerians
we did it friends we are at driftmark finally and i have been waiting for this moment for all my god my whole life it was so beautiful yeah all my life man fuck's sake it was it was the best
year it was beautiful yes it's everything i don't know i i think i still want to see spice town
we're gonna see spice town i think we have to yeah i think we're gonna because i think ryan condell will give us that but yeah he gave us runestone that's true he did the veil um and i will say that i i don't know i wanted to
call it this little detail there's that little lamp in the carriage on their awkward ride over
i just like the little lamp oh i like the cup holder you like the lamp yeah adorable adorable
it doesn't seem like a great ride right
like viserys is visibly in pain renear is also visibly in pain because she has to go deal with
this uh corliss in a major power move does not greet viserys he makes viserys and renear come
on in through all of his riches into his beautiful castle. Really makes him come in and work for it.
Joffrey and Laena are out there in the yard fighting, which is very sweet.
Laena welcomes them to High Tide and Corlys is waiting them in the hall.
I thought there was a lot of, you know, like Oberyn with Tyrion, right?
When Oberyn arrives and he's nowhere to be found.
Or Robb receiving Tyrion, even.
There's just something
interesting in the power play that putting yourself that way knowing the king is coming
to ask something of me and i will not grovel for him but at the same time we'll see later he does
still get to his knee you know and gives him his due yeah yeah the oberon does greet tyrian
in the books sure i just mean more over the idea of, like, Oberyn
comes instead of... Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oberyn coming instead of Doran.
And the insult, you know, of not greeting
someone with the royal person that was
invited. Absolutely. Though, I guess
then we find out, like, damn, Doran was in a lot
of pain. That would have actually been really difficult
for him. But it also, speaking of
those parallels, is you were
talking about Rob receiving Tyrion, but it's speaking of those parallels is you were talking about rob receiving tyrian
but it's done to rob also by the phrase yeah by the phrase yeah oh and that's for a marriage a
marriage yeah oh that's a great call it's for a marriage i like that well okay so we get to the
godswood oh my god this is being a messy bitch this is the messiest scene in the fucking history of Game of Thrones.
It is.
He is spilling the tea literally.
And he discusses that the flowers here, like the Braavosi flowers, they are unnatural for this area.
And I'm like, that's just a fucking hibiscus.
I mean.
Turn that into a flavor.
I loved it, though, because you thought it too, right?
It made me think about Braavos in the main series and the lemon tree.
I actually didn't. You didn't? No, that's interesting, though. So it's the too, right? It made me think about Braavos in the main series and the lemon tree. I actually didn't think of that.
You didn't?
No, that's interesting, though.
So it's the opposite, right?
Like he has a flower from Braavos that, against all odds, should not be thriving in King's Landing.
And here it is thriving.
And it's the opposite, that a lemon thriving in Braavos probably shouldn't be thriving.
But yet there it is.
Yeah, so it shows that it can happen.
Yeah, absolutely. thriving but yet there it is yeah so it shows that it can happen yeah absolutely absolutely
and you know part of it is of course about alicent as a flower in the court and people
being like didn't think it could bloom here but it did like it's pretty obvious yeah i think
um and she does bloom at the end of the episode and um i kind of wonder if there's also a little
bit of shade of like oh isn't it unnatural for
a woman to be inheriting as well as uh you know her using the abortion tea the moon tea
and I will say also I said this in our discord I don't know as you were saying about needing
more scenes this is one that I think needed also another scene and i think our patrons also discussed that because we haven't seen laurie's and allison ever really talk before or even have
any sort of interactions besides them being in the same area during that women's court
ish scene during the hunt and i don't know she just like after just one interaction believes
him what he and what he's saying because personally for me if someone did that and was just coming in here
you know I'd be like get the fuck
out of here stop telling lies about my bestie
I will argue like
he does ask to sit down
and maybe that's why like
at the woman's court he does ask to sit down
and like sit and listen
to them though he doesn't say anything so maybe
she took that in high esteem
yeah but i i
think i just needed one more scene of them like even in the same room and then interacting in
some manner you know um and i think it was also really interesting that alice knows what the t
implies whereas rainiera had no such clue that these sorts of things that birth control
existed at all and so that points to allison actually having had like some sort of sex education
and is it something that she learned from otto because he thought it would be practical for her
to know is it like something that she learned from other noble women is it something that she learned from other noble women? Is it something that she knows because she is childbearing age?
Though, of course, men would not really want her to know about it necessarily.
And I also find it interesting that Rhaenyra was never taught this at all.
I mean, I guess also her duty is to bear heirs.
But it's just very interesting that Alicent is the one who knows what it is.
Yeah, and it does seem that she doesn't immediately condemn her still, right?
Like, she continues on her investigation for the truth,
though she's starting to obviously form a certain opinion.
She's obviously like, all right, I need to put this investigation to rest soon.
I think that Larry's definitely intrigued her with this,
and it's interesting to think that, I mean, she was
supposed to, her father was planning her seduction of the king, it seems, for years,
like before she was even seductible, seductivable. I mean, we can see that he was planning for her
to be there, right? Like, and as you said, right, to catch the eye of someone, especially the king
there, considering we know in Fire and Blood that she she was and that doesn't work for the ages here but she was
reading fucking bedtime stories to jahir is she thinks she jumps to the conclusions it's the right
conclusion right based on it being from maester mellows but kind of overlooks that it was sent by Viserys, so...
Yeah, again, that's sad, because she doesn't know that...
This is all based on miscommunications, this entire fight.
This entire episode went full soap opera.
It's so good.
I'm here for it, but I'm saying they went full soap opera with the way they do the miscommunication thing.
So are the days of our lives
back in corley's hall lena is taking renear at a breakfast which i loved i was excited to see them
have a moment together i hope they do get some friendship in the next episodes yeah before you
know she croaks damn it george same. Viserys coughs.
He also does it while Corlys
is bent beneath him. Viserys, I don't
think does it on purpose, but damn, it was
rude. He coughs kind of
all over Corlys. In this economy?
Well, literally in this
economy, I'm like, oh my god, mask
off, Viserys, god. God, Jesus.
Rhaenys enters
with a very excited cousin it was very actually
sweet and authentic and it was really sad when they go to have a hug and he pulls back you know
because of everything happening with his skin with his leprosy and his lack of fingers losing
his fingers to this disease um she's worried for him yeah she is worried for
him and like he doesn't want her to feel or see the monster that he feels he's becoming
she's all hale and healthy and imagine if i mean that is our queen but imagine also if that was
our queen and yeah oh i i also liked her outfit that she's got like these pants on. Yeah, it almost seemed like it was her dragon riding garb or something, right?
Like what she wears on the day off when she's about to go ride Maileys around.
Yeah, or even, I don't know, she just seemed like comfy loungy clothes.
I was into it.
Agree.
Interesting, too, that the first time we see her in her domain,
she's relaxed and in these more natural colors and her hair is still great and crazy but
uh the rest of her stuff is like very relaxed and laid back like you can tell they feel powerful
and they feel proud in their domain and confident right of the proposal to come and she feels very
cheery about it because i'm sure as we talk about a little in the episode, they kind of mention, you know, as they work out the negotiations of the marriage between them, too,
that she's getting some of her due in some ways.
Late, but, you know, better late than never.
Yeah, I mean, their family was snubbed twice.
Kind of rude. Can't do it a third time.
Especially very personally by Viserys, right?
So, I mean, it makes sense that they were just a little rude.
Like, the most you can do is, like, grovel a little bit, Viserys.
Which he does, to an extent.
Also, Lionel, again, he's here.
Corlys congratulates Lionel on his promotion.
And then, speaking of news, surprise, Daemon's wife is dead now, Viserys.
Viserys didn't know because he's on a ship.
Yeah. Daemon is
now single. Interesting.
Interesting. And I actually thought it
was really interesting that
both Rhaenys
and Corlys were like well yeah
don't you know? So now there's a
matter of inheritance to be settled for
Runestone, huh? Yeah, that's true.
They actually were like very hungry, when they said it.
Like, you could see a little hunger in their eyes.
And I think that, I think there's definitely great setup for Lena and Daemon
that's been happening for episodes.
Like, the Corlys and Daemon alliance.
And now, obviously, this episode, they dance together.
And, you know, Corlys and Rhaenys are like, so about Runestone.
And it just, like, is in passing.
It doesn't get lingered on.
Especially because Viserys is like, well, let's not talk about all that.
Let's talk about this.
I want Laenor and Rhaenyra to get married.
The heir, regardless of gender, very important, regardless of gender, will inherit.
And Corlys is like
um but I would like them to be
Valyrians you know
since masculinity is a thing
right now for me in these marriages
my name
yeah it's legacy
and Viserys is like okay yeah sure
until the firstborn ascends the throne
regardless
yeah regardless of gender
whoever takes the throne right then. Yeah, regardless of gender.
Whoever takes the throne, right?
Then they'll become Targaryen.
Which, I mean, honestly, that makes sense.
And that also speaks to what... That speaks to some of the world-building people have discussed regarding naming conventions before.
And also how often the queen consort does not take the name of the king.
Yeah.
She's not born into it.
Yeah.
So, you know, they play a little coy. They hold back. There's a pause. And then they take the name of the king yeah she's not born into it yeah so you know they they play a
little coy they hold back there's a pause and then they take the deal they're like this is an equitable
what was it something an equitable yeah engagement or negotiation yeah yeah and i'm like yeah it was
this is a really good deal but i mean you made a great point last night to me because i was like
y'all aren't gonna go into any money and you're like they don't need money look at this fucking castle it's
gorgeous like they don't need money what they want is what money can't buy yeah they want prestige
and they want the connections that come with the crown in order to control the rest of you know
the economy and how that money would flow i mean it is a deal, and now that I say that, I also want to pause because
Rhaenyra is not a sure deal.
They'll talk about it later, but
Laena to the king would have been
a better deal. Yeah, absolutely.
No offense, Rhaenyra. I think
you're worthwhile. It's just
a lot of society
doesn't. Yeah, and we'll
talk about that in a second. First,
Rhaenyra and Laenor, they're going to talk about their marriage too at Driftmark.
And this was everything that I kind of wanted it to be.
Yeah.
Lavender wedding negotiations, right?
They both talk about how they will do their duty and then wet their very different appetites on the side.
And Rhaenyra implies, obviously, that she knows knows laner has very different tastes than raniera
and she herself not so much into that she has other manly pursuits going on out there she's like
call me agan the first because i'm out here conquering these men yeah in some ways their
tastes are i guess this is a common metaphor based on the way johri asks later the roast duck and
goose it's the way people talk about it in passing.
But yeah, I don't know.
I'm glad that she knows.
I've always wanted it to be that she knows
and that they have this agreement
and that they are friends, right?
They come to this in this like peaceful way together.
And I don't know how that'll go.
It'll probably be somewhat peaceful.
I mean, it's not like her fault
that Kristen fucking wilded out.
Yeah.
Corlys and Rhaenies discuss the marriage as well on their own once viserys is taking a nap before the ship comes back rainies calls this a pretty dangerous move and corlees refuses to acknowledge
his son's gay but rainies doesn't forget and she's like you're really ignoring who he is
doesn't forget and she's like you're really ignoring who he is yeah we are putting him actively in danger she basically tells him and god they did more on confronting i don't know
some of these themes of homophobia right in in westeros and their society and what they're doing
by putting their son married to the throne i mean this comes this comes true, right? Like she says, you're putting him in danger. And right after this, his companion dies, gets murdered at this wedding. Corley's ignoring
it, pretending it's not real. It's interesting commentary. I'm glad that they put this into
season one of this show already. I'm glad they're starting to work some things in. It's not perfect.
The source material is definitely not perfect when it comes to that. I do think they're
at least improving a bit on it. Yeah, but I mean, it goes to show, right, being of a marginalized
identity is being in a vulnerable position, right? And they're also talking about the extension of
the risk when it comes to Rhaenyra, right? Because Rhaenys points out knives will come out because she knows how fragile women's inheritance is
from being passed over
before. And that's
why, again, Rhaenyra's not
a sure bet. And
it's interesting that they think Laenor's at risk
because it's to crown him as to
kill him. But that
Laenor would have been safer
because that is the
way of things.
People accept a king taking a much younger wife,
even though it endangers her in terms of the birthing bed.
God.
And it's just a bummer because we know none of this works out for Lena.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, he is endangered, right?
And not in the way that people would think.
It was Kristen Cole.
Who's supposed to be a knight, sworn to protect the weak and the innocent.
Yep.
And he's out here not doing any of that.
We'll get to Kristen Cole's hate crimes soon.
Literally, though.
Yeah.
We'll get to Kristen Cole's hate crimes soon.
Literally, though.
Yeah.
Lainer and Joffrey share a very last tender moment at Driftmark together before they take off to King's Landing.
It is a sweet, tender moment.
Yeah.
Them wrestling around in the grass.
Just sweet and tender and sad.
Over too soon.
Yeah.
I mean, it looks like they had a wonderful healthy relationship they were best friends and that's what i that's how my relationship works you know and well that
well that's how a healthy relationship looks right you're best friends with your partner and
and then joffrey like seems like a great He brings light to Laenor, right?
He's clearly the more jovial side,
and I like that he cracks the joke of,
was I the duck or the goose?
Which is, again, why I think this is clearly a common saying in Westeros.
Yeah.
Joffrey tries to cheer him up.
He's like, this is a great arrangement for all of us.
And he says, you'll need a sworn protector.
And then he pieces together that raniera
has her own paramour very smart because she obviously does um and that paramour is about
to be in the business of misery wait that's the wrong paramour i mean he is yes yes yes
it is misery business's taken like a clock. Yeah.
It is misery business.
Things are taken like a clock.
So, of course, and Joffrey takes it great, right?
Like, he is overjoyed.
He's enthused.
He's like, this is the best we could hope for for our relationship, Laenor.
And then we have a very opposite scene because Rhaenyra's paramour is not taking this so well.
Yeah, on the boat from Driftmark,
Kristen Cole makes his greatest move yet.
Rhaenyra, run away with me.
I love you. We can be poured together.
XOXO. Heart emojis.
I just want to say that my boyfriend
when we were watching this was like, what the fuck?
What is this? How does that thinking
even work? And then when we were rewatching
to prepare for this recording because he overheard, he's like, this dude's such a loser.
Oh my god, it is so frustrating. Because the whole time I was like, no, don't do this. Because
this is actually what we kind of knew was coming. In reality. In fact, I expected this sooner,
that he comes to her and is like, run away with me and give up all of this, right? Like,
you said you wanted to choose your future, so let me choose it for you. We can get rid of the whole
crown problem. We can go be poor and essos or go to a shy or this or that. And she's like, cute,
but no. Like, the whole goal is that, like, I'm the heir. I get everything I wish for, which that's what it makes it so sad this episode because
she negotiates with Lainer and she's like, I can have my cake.
I can eat it too.
I can have everything that a man can have.
Honestly, I want that for her.
Yeah, I want it for anyone.
Yeah, no, I want it for everyone.
Everyone's just fucking it up, though.
But like, absolutely.
Yeah, he's like, I don't know, leave leave it all behind you said you wanted to choose your future so here you can do this thing and
it'll be free to make your own choices and i'm like with what money anyway free to do what she
doesn't get her trust for at least two more years krist. Literally. Also, she explains, you know,
how many, like, get super mad when
she, like, chooses, right?
And this ties back to what we were saying last episode,
right? And why I've always been like,
in some capacity, she must have
rejected Kristen. I don't know, I didn't know
how it played out exactly in Fire and Blood,
because it was wishy-washy. That was
the point.
But it always made sense to me that she rejected him
in some way because as we discussed last episode men get violent when rejected and it's uh because
they think they own you and here it's a little different but anyway she explains that she's a
crown and it's her duty and that they can still bang and he'd still be he'd be her sworn protector and right there and he's very offended about this
throws his oath of chastity in her face and that he's like it's the only thing i had to my name and
i swore my cloak and he's like i thought if we were married i might be able to restore it what
how does that even work i'm sorry i thought that if we got married, you could restore my good name and, you know,
wipe my sins and take my cloak from me.
What?
I'm like, so you wanted, I just don't understand.
So you forsake all of the oaths then and somehow getting married fixes that?
You can't marry her and get your Kingsguard status off without her being the queen.
What? You think she's going to beg to Viserys to just forgive her like Daemon's done so many times?
Yeah.
And, like, there was no logic in this entire process for him.
This is, like, himbos everywhere are embarrassed right now.
Aerys Oakheart in the future.
He's not even a sperm in someone's womb yet, but Aerys Oakheart in the future. He's not even a sperm in someone's
womb yet, but Ares Oakheart in the future
is shuddering. Ares was
not this dumb. He was dumb, but not
this dumb. Absolutely not.
Oh my god. I'm so glad
they made him stupid, because I
was starting to be like, what's gonna happen with
Kristen Cole? Because I thought I wouldn't like this
stupid fucker, and they made him stupid.
Thank god. Thank the gods. All of them all of them no old because he's so stupid i just sat here shaking my head this
whole episode stupid reyniero tries to explain you know like i am the crown and she's got a duty
and that the iron throne is bigger than everyone in warborn and starts to talk about aegon uniting
the seven kingdoms when kristin storms off because I guess he doesn't have emotional maturity either
as well as being dumb.
He doesn't see the big picture.
He's so annoying.
You know, I want to be sympathetic to him
because as we discussed like last episode,
there is a complexity with it
in regards to her position as a princess, right?
And the power that it would hold over like the Kingsguard,
but he did
consent and somehow it's it's understandable that he wants her to take some i guess responsibility
for this but at the same time i do think he could have chosen not to he like definitely could have
said no and like i do think he did have enough power in a position to do so
like i'm not i don't think he was coerced and i i understand that he's panicking obviously and he
continues to panic the rest of the episode um but it just is so stupid to me of him like that he really thought i think that it's very human and it's realistic and it is terrifying to me that it is realistic
because again like of what happens and how he just tries to ruin her life over having sex once you know i know that like his oaths are broken but it's also like
why is she responsible i in my opinion for that too i i guess we can we can talk about that
i will say like i think that unlike how it is portrayed in fire and blood, Rhaenyra did take this proposal seriously. And we see she
did not laugh in his face
at this proposal.
She is, I think, a little bit tempted
by the idea of going to
Essos. It's romantic, it's adventure,
and that is what
Rhaenyra wants on one level.
And it's what she told
Emma, her mother,
that she wanted. She wanted to be a knight she
wants to be free and to go to essos and like be part of you know do whatever but she wouldn't be
free if she did it with him exactly and i think that's another thing right it wouldn't be free
she would be he's like yeah we would be nameless we could do whatever he wanted and there's an
aspect of aria that you can like kind of see in that idea of
freedom but also he's taking her away from people she loves from her home and isolating her and i
think for me that screams red flags also that isolation and abuse it's he's not doing it yet
but it could become that that's important because in k in Kristen asking her to go and be nameless,
what rights does she have as a nameless woman
in Essos or anywhere else?
What only rights she have would be,
just like the beginning of the episode with Damon,
what her husband's rights says.
Exactly.
She has no power over the rest of her life
if that's what she chooses.
Yep. She'd have to hope that he'd her life if that's what she chooses. Yep.
She'd have to hope that he'd be a good guy.
And you know what?
From the way he reacts to all this, she won this bet.
I mean, I don't know if you deserve to marry me and take me to Essos at this point, Kristen
Cole.
You're not acting very husbandly right now.
No, he's not.
Well, he's not a supportive king, okay?
Yeah.
He's really, well, for a number of reasons, but.
It is not Kristen Cole season on this podcast is what we're saying.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I do not.
Kristen Cole anti.
Yeah, I'm a Kristen Cole anti.
Now, with that same token, we're going to talk a little bit about how I'm like, but yeah, have sex with Allison because you know you're gonna.
You guys have to have makeup sex together.
About how sad you are about your lives.
Yeah, they're gonna both pretend the other is Rhaenyra.
Exactly.
It's perfect for them.
I mean, I really do hope she can have an orgasm.
It's the weirdest rebound, you know?
It's like dark version of Korra and Isai.
Oh my god.
But not like that at all.
Anyway, so of course Rhaenyra
wants to keep her societal power
and the
freedom she has here as heir
and all the prestige that comes with that.
But I do think that there is an aspect of duty
that is driving it as well
because she talks about it. She talks
about the duty and the Iron Throne being bigger and she
especially by bringing up Aegon, uniting the Seven Kingdoms,
I think that speaks to her thinking of the prophecy
and this huge thing her father has put on her.
She's choosing.
I know he says, you didn't choose this.
But she did in a way because marriage is like a horrifying thing
for a lot of women in Westeros to have to
choose. I mean, look at Rhea. Yeah. Look who she married and what happened to her. So she's hedging
her bets in the best way she can that she'll be safe. She has a great situation. And I mean,
it's funny because it is very Jamie Cersei in the way of like Kristen, you know, feeling some sort
of ownership over Rhaenyra you know
and that probably comes from their intimate time together but he feels some sort of ownership to
her when a queen is supposed to be for her people yeah and she has to choose that over him I mean
she knows she has to but absolutely a queen is for her. And there's also the hilarious line that I do think is intentional.
She's like, I will live a life of infamy, right?
Well, I would choose a life of infamy over, I don't know, selling bushels of oranges,
which is funny because she does become infamous.
I was like, why did you choose that word?
Why did you choose that word of all the other words you could have chosen, Raymira?
But I know why. Yep writing the writing yeah and i mean i guess i i guess i
should feel a little bad for kristen cole like what choices are left to him but also i'm like
he does a bad job at his literal job later on and we will discuss this in a second
allison watches the series return there's this moment where he falls coming out of the carriage and she flinches.
She physically flinches.
And I don't know, maybe she's thinking about how that's her protection.
Damn.
Oh.
That's it.
You know, the moment he falls, she feels like she'll fall too.
Yeah.
The maesters are called and Melos says says he needs leeches book canon book canon
yeah and um i appreciate that i think she wore viserys's favorite dress just for his return
oh yeah with the army thingies yeah she's into that dress but she wears that same dress too
again we go full soap opera in this episode alic learns the truth from Kristen Cole. Yeah, this
was...
What an idiot.
What a fucking imbecile.
If you thought Kristen Cole was stupid
before now, like me,
boy, are you gonna think he's
even stupider after now.
Allison straight up, she didn't
even, she didn't even
say it was him and he just opened
his mouth like that yeah and that's why i'm saying full soap opera right like with the
miscommunications and stuff and i mean it's also like allison just loves to bury the lead with
this questioning i get it she's like emotional she's young she's nervous this is a really weird
thing to ask like yo did you fuck or not did you fuck yo do you know like if my best friend's uncle
fucked her it's a weird thing to ask yeah understandably but uh she doesn't usually
come out with it right when she's asking people like that's what she did with rainier and the
godswood and she's like did you do it and she's like what the fuck are you talking about define
it yeah she's also but in that situation there were a million things it could have been.
And to be fair, Rhaenyra uses that define it to her advantage.
Yeah, unlike Kristen Cole, who...
Just outs it.
Just fucking...
And it is an awkward thing to have to ask.
And by asking it, it is treason.
She's like her uncle. True. It's treason. asking it, it is treason. She's a fucking uncle.
True.
It's treason.
What she's doing is treason.
She's asking Kristen.
So it's interesting that he's immediately pleading for her to spare him with whatever power that she can have as a queen.
Because he's like, I'm fucked because I fucked a queen.
And she, the queen, is like, I'm fucked because I'm trying to fuck the queen.
Or I'm trying to fuck the queen's life up a little bit to get some answers.
It's a little both. She doesn't know. She's confused.
Column A, column B, you know.
Young lesbians.
You know, young lesbians.
It's such a giant
miscommunication that outs
this whole entire thing.
And, oh, what juicy
tea that brings to
Alicent. And now she has to go spend the whole evening sewing a new dress.
Yeah.
She's like, this is the perfect time to premiere my brand new dress I've been working on for months.
That's actually what she did.
She's like, it's not a wedding.
It is Fashion Week.
It actually, I think it is Fashion Week right now.
Here's step mommy.
Yep. Yep. And speaking of Fashion Week, I do want to give a shout out. fashion week it actually i think is fashion week right now here's step mommy yeah yeah
um and speaking of fashion week i do want to give a shout out this person's probably like having a
great time right now to over in ironwood um oh yeah over in ironwood rocks over from reddit
yeah who sent us an email with their wonderful like in-depth analysis of, um, I think right now it's still just focused on
Allison's outfits on season one and looking at them from a historical perspective, but I'm sure
that they had a field day with this episode. Uh, so also, I don't know, I don't know if this is
published yet anywhere, Oberyn. If it is, send us a link, we'll make sure to share it. But it was
great. Some really great costume analysis, and I know we'll make sure to share it but it was great some really great costume analysis and
i know we'll talk a little bit more about the costume analysis when we get to the wedding
but before we get to the wedding first you know we gotta we gotta work ourselves we gotta rally
up for it the maesters and lionel are tending to viserys or while is there and he wants to give
viserys potions and poultices but me Melos only believes in leeches, which is, again,
literally book canon. There is a sub note about how Orwyle really thought maybe potions and
poultices could be better. And also Rhaenyra's maester also thought that, that more about the
potions and we probably should have done it. Yeah, Melos only believed in leeches and that
could have been part of the downfall that Melos was behind on his medical knowledge.
Yeah.
Go get your license reinstated or whatever.
I don't know how the fucking medical-
Retest.
Yeah.
You have to get those renewed or something, right?
Absolutely.
Lionel, this is the scene, right, where you see they're just not that close. As Lionel gives Viserys the milk of the poppy.
And then Viserys asks Lionel if he'll be remembered as a good king.
He feels he wasn't challenged.
He's literally being challenged.
He's been challenged a lot because he didn't have a war.
And now he feels his place in the history is his fleeting epony.
Yeah, there are some really great references this episode, right?
Like there's a reference to the crucible in this
speech oh yeah and of course the crucible the play especially obviously is an allegory comparing
salem witch trials to mccarthyism uh showing the similarity during the red scare the hunt for
communists and spies in the u.s similar to a witch hunt taking place in salem so i think that's
interesting because there's a little bit of a witch hunt
for Rhaenyra's hymen going on.
And who took it?
Who took Rhaenyra's hymen?
And also Viserys is slowly not trusting everyone else, right?
And earlier on, Rhaenys said that Viserys has gotten himself into a tempest,
right, into a dark storm to go
full Shakespearean. They're really bringing
in some great references this season.
That's interesting. I'm going to keep the crucible
in mind as the series progresses
because I wonder if we'll see more of that
how it all goes
with the series.
And I don't know. I just can't
take the series seriously. He's all like,
pardon me, wishes that I had been tested,
and again,
I'm like,
Bitch.
You were tested so many times,
and you literally failed each time.
I,
you failed every single time,
and.
He's really sad,
though.
It's,
uh,
reminiscent,
a lot of people said this is very reminiscent of Robert,
right,
giving his failed king speech to Ned.
Yeah.
This is definitely not the peak of the series.
It is the downfall of the series.
We are, we've reached his climax
as an old man. Yeah, but maybe
if he had, like, passed any of his tests,
it wouldn't be his peak.
Or, like, it wouldn't be,
you know, so sad for him.
I mean, Rhaenyra and
the succession is one of the biggest ones.
And he's gonna fail it.
Should've just kept his dick to himself.
Yeah.
I will say, at least he did remind everyone at this wedding that she's gonna be queen.
I was like, one point for you.
I was so giddy when Maelys and Seasmoke were swooping across the screen.
Maelys especially, because Maile's was so red.
So red.
Oh my god, so beautiful and wonderful and red.
Yeah.
Instead of terrible.
I get it.
Yes, indeed.
I loved this as a show of power that they arrive on their dragons right to the wedding
ceremony.
First of all, they're Valyrians and they're Valyrians with dragons.
So if you're going to marry a Targaryen, you kind of have to show up on a dragon.
Yeah.
But at that same token, it makes me think about Viserys being confined to a carriage, right?
That he no longer is a dragon rider, and he really couldn't be going everywhere because of his health.
So he's arriving by boat and carriage.
Rhaenyra, in turn, also does that.
She has not ridden Syrax since what?
Episode two?
That's such a great point.
So she's being held back by Viserys in more than one way,
but she hasn't even been riding her dragon that we've seen in a while.
You know, it's not unlike the end when she doesn't ride her dragon.
She keeps her dragon chained up in the dragon pit.
Yeah, absolutely. like the end when she doesn't ride her dragon she keeps her dragon chained up in the dragon pit yeah absolutely so we haven't really seen i think reynira in full bloom yet peak reynira is coming with i think aged up reynira with emma de arcy
peak reynira i cannot wait the drama absolutely uh i am sad to say goodbye to these actors.
But I think this is good.
I'm hoping this is going to be a great launch pad for their careers.
It sounds like they're trying to be smart about it.
So I am going to miss them.
But I'm looking forward to the rest of how things play out. Especially as we start with the kick things off with a little ballroom blitz at the Lavender Wedding.
It is a Lavender Wedding.
And it is a ballroom blitz. It is. Literally, it's ballroom blitz at the Lavender Wedding. Thank you. It is a Lavender Wedding. And it is a ballroom blitz.
It is.
Literally, it's ballroom blitz.
I was like, oh, God.
It's not great.
And the quick ceremony, the shotgun ceremony in the dead of night.
So sad.
Jason Lannister can go shave his back now.
I hate him.
He's literally the worst.
Like, oh, my God.
I'm sure Mysterious is like, I can't believe I ever
considered this guy as he, like,
he really thinks
that he was still, like, a great catch.
Just the fact that he had to go to the oldest
joke in the book for Alicent, like,
ugh, still getting ready. Though, again,
to that same token, she was.
She was. She was, but
she did it on purpose.
Yeah, she needed a dramatic entrance.
And poor Gerald Royce, because he's here trying to cause drama, right?
And he's like, I'm here for a very important reason, because Rhea Royce died, and I'm here for Runestone.
And everyone's like, that's great, but not now.
Yeah, yeah.
Rhaenyra actually gets cut off trying to be courteous to him, right?
The speech, the Valyrians come in, and the the great speech and all this stuff is about to go down.
But Geralt Royce gets cut off.
Rhaenyra is saying to him, you know, like, oh, my lord, we will provide whatever aid for Runestone that you...
And she gets cut off.
She doesn't even get to be good at doing her courtesy for the first time unprompted.
Yeah, it would have been really interesting because then I guess it would have
cut off Daemon too.
Whatever happens there. That was what was interesting
to me too, that like, specifically
Daemon obviously is the cause
for what happened at Runestone and she doesn't
know that yet. She wasn't there
when that was discussed or brought up there
with Viserys, Corlys,
and Rhaenys necessarily.
But she's out here like,
what aid can we give you, Lord Royce?
And Lord Royce is like,
yeah, fuck your uncle.
And she's like,
oh, you want me to fuck my uncle?
She's like, let's do it.
Let's do it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, I also want to call out,
I've seen people asking, why doesn't Criston Cole have his helmet on? And I just want to call out I've seen people asking why doesn't
Kristen Cole have his helmet on and I just want
people to know it's not that deep it's just
filming slash movie magic
like yeah he probably would have had his helmet on
but he's important
you gotta keep that helmet off
for him you gotta show that baby face
while you can well his emotions
are so important to what
happens in the rest of this
wedding and fucking ruining it that like i'm sure they actually tried the scene with the helmet on
maybe they didn't and it just doesn't work because you do need his emotions to be evident and to drive
what's going on the only reason he's not wearing a helmet is so we can see it on camera i love
otherwise uh the costuming is glorious right when? When the Valyrians show up,
the Valyrians look super opulent in the black and gold.
It's funny because later that will become Aegon's colors for his flag
to reflect Sunfire, the black and gold.
But for here, they just want to show opulence.
They want to show that they look very grand, very rich,
able to be wed to the royal house.
And I also love R love raniera's dress i like some of the little gold chain work on the shoulders off of the collar because in a way that
also showed that she's chained into her dress into her wedding dress uh her braids were very
excessive very ridiculous but i really loved the rubies in her hair it reminded me of some of what
cersei does with rubies in the main series,
or like her mourning gown that looks like Rhaegar's armor.
Oh, that's funny.
Yeah, that's a really great, great comparison.
And now that you've called it the chains in her hair, right?
Most of the time that we see Rhaenyra's hair, it's usually much looser.
So you're really seeing how this is a performance.
Binding her.
For her, yeah.
Her hair has bound her
the ropes of her hair weighing her down absolutely there's one i mean there's one real big show
stealing outfit that comes in and it is not damons no damons is fine he's wearing the same outfit
from last episode it's whatever he could have washed it he could have literally worn anything
he's like i'm not wearing a suit it's like he rolled up in jeans. Yeah, he rolled up in jeans. That's how much disrespect he had in his outfit when he came in. He really did, though. He was like, I'm bringing nothing but disrespect to this wedding and shenanigans.
Yeah.
to wear the gown is interesting. Like we talked about, I think maybe I could have liked a little more time of Alicent becoming more Alicent. I think it's been such a good gradual change,
but for some reason here and showing how isolated she feels at the Capitol and seeing her uncle,
seeing her uncle and seeing his wife and hearing, you know, oh, the Hightowers are still on your
side and we support you, even though your father's now gone i would have liked to see maybe
just a little more ostracizing at court right of her feeling alone i don't want her to suffer but
i would have just liked to feel that part more however great choice for the dress uh me and my
husband were talking he kind of thinks it's immersion breaking because it breaks the greens
and the blacks like it should have happened at the one dinner where they but i think it works out fine because alicent is embracing who she is and not trying to fit in
with the red tart she was wearing like off-color red targaryen dresses and they were just slightly
different and the fashion wasn't even fitting to any of the targaryen women we've seen on the
screen so far so she was like trying so hard to force herself to thrive and fit in, not unlike that red flower blooming in the godswood.
And I mean, that isolation she's feeling, even the color doesn't look great on her.
She's going all in on herself in this emerald, this color that is her, is her house, is her emotions right now.
And it really just does like fit her undertones and everything.
It looks great on her
and i mean i think she's gonna just keep wearing green dresses from here on out so it doesn't
matter if we start and introduce here based on what we've uh seen of the trailers i assume she
just keeps wearing green yes that's what we've seen really into that and it's kind of funny
right because as you're saying about jason lannister making fun of her um saying you know oh all these women they're going to be like late to fighting battles in the
war and i'm like allison is the earliest one here to this battle like this is that as as larry's
points up right what color does the high tower beacon change to when calling the banners for war
yeah and harman's like green and i actually like that
exchange between the two of them because i think it's interesting based on what we see we're
talking about how they're a cohesive house they have banter you know larry's and harwin for them
to have that like moment but it could it could have just been exposition that was convenient i
don't know and then it also shows that like if Harwin's answering this so well and with
that tone, I guess, I don't know, he's not a himbo. He seems like he might actually be pretty smart.
Yeah, he seems really smart. He's actually always there at opportune moments and chooses,
not unlike his brother, Larry's, chooses like what things to stop what things to do what things to keep at
like he comes across for near on the streets he could use that he could go
report it to the king he could have been getting money for reporting that but he
didn't he chose to put that one under his belt till later and even here right
here's belt yeah you know what else he has under that
belt yeah you know what else he has under that belt okay leave me alone i love him a lot but he knows when to choose his battles with raniera he keeps tabs on her for his papa you know he's
watching her he dances with her and steps aside for damon yeah doesn't even pick a fight he says
of course my prince of course of course and also. And also he's like, he's confident.
He's confident.
He doesn't, he's not threatened in like his desirability.
He doesn't have to go out here and like prove anything.
Don't worry.
The girls know.
They'll come for Harwin.
We all know.
Everyone's like already making up, like putting Harwin on a pedestal.
And you know, I love it.
I don't think we've seen some of these aspects of him yet in the show.
But I will say people say that he eats out.
And that's so true.
I know it's true.
Probably.
I mean, wouldn't surprise me.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Absolutely.
It's not that I know it.
Also during the dance, as you're discussing,
there's this interesting little banter that I'm sure everyone like caught,
those puns about dancing not being that different
from combat from Laenor and Rhaenyra.
And I'm like, oh, just like the dance civil war.
But also, I mean, this is not the only time
that the series likens dancing and combat to one another.
It happens a lot in the main five books,
which is the basis of my essay of about sansa and dancing
metaphors within her storyline oh please read it yeah that was a good essay i read that one
thank you i know you did i've read all your essays i'm still waiting for some of yours
okay bitch
uh everyone is eye-fucking Rhaenyra, right?
Jealously, sadly, lustily.
I actually really love the shots of, like,
Criston Cole in one corner,
Alicent in another,
Daemon in another corner.
All of them just eye-fucking Rhaenyra.
Except for her own fiancé in Joffrey.
Amazing. Totally amazing.
Great.
Other things that are amazing speaking
of eyes are you were talking about when gerald royce comes up to damon and uh it goes bad he
goes jacoose right and i just love lionel strong's right here he's like his eyes every time some sort
of commotion it always happens like right in front of him he's just like side eyes and he's like oh this is really happening right in front of me right now
every time everything happens and he's just quiet every time which is interesting he's getting so
much info but also i just love his facial expressions like signing like what the fuck
this is happening right now right in front of me how interesting but also like oh my god
i love that damon doesn't take
any precaution like immediately he's like interesting allegation that you just put against
me you know my my brother's the king and will kill you for that though like you know that i
will get justice for your slander and your house um total dick total dick but he also says something
along the lines of my lady's wife death means that I,
her husband, gets what she was due.
And I wonder if there's
a little implication there for his character
and Rhaenyra. Oh.
You know, with the implication that if she
dies, I take what's hers.
Yeah. I do think
that is, uh, that is
intimated in fire and blood,
but we'll see, because I know a lot of people have been seeing chemistry between Damon and Rhaenyra.
And I think that's what's hard.
It's hard to tell what's real and what's not.
Perception.
Yeah.
That's a big part of the series, too.
I mean, I don't know.
I feel like it will fall somewhere in the middle.
Yeah, I agree.
Not unlike the Kristen Cole thing.
You know what I mean?
It fell in the middle, though.
It really did.
It does.
Yeah, absolutely.
She instigated the sex in what they saw in this, and then he instigated the crybabying.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then we'll talk a little bit about Allison's instigating, too, in a second.
I also, speaking of facial expressions, though, it's not just Lionel's.
I do want to shout out Viserys's.
As he looks at him, he's like, why the fuck is this happening this entire wedding the whole wedding for him was
just him looking around going what the fuck like when did my family devolve into this like
watching damon and her basically not fuck but like want to fuck on the dance floor
watching gerald come over and accuse dam Damon of murder that he totally maybe did
we don't know I mean it wasn't on a screen I can't tell you if he murdered his wife or not but
yeah I mean people make fun of me for watching reality tv but it is literally just like this
it is exactly it is exactly like this in terms of drama it's not different poor Viserys watching
him eat yeah that was really rough because he has no dexterity or mobility in his hands now that he's losing fingers and skin.
And, you know, he's sloughing off of his own body, basically off his skeleton.
It's pretty horrible.
Watching him eat and trying to cut that food, though, was really hard.
It was sad.
Yeah.
And I think it just kind of gets sadder.
Yeah.
I mean, the trailer for next week, I was like, oh, damn, it's over.
Yeah.
It's over.
I feel bad for him, but, you know, it's, they've done this great job of doing this with a lot of the characters.
You feel bad for them, but you're also like, this is kind of your fault.
Yeah.
I literally fluctuate between those feelings about Mysterious like 10 times a day.
10 times a day.
I know.
I know. I know.
And I just, I think Paddy haunted him.
He's just killing it.
Joffrey telling Kristen, or hinting to Kristen, that they are going to share beds at different
hours, not with one another.
It wasn't his best move.
He was a little too trusting.
He was too trusting.
I don't read this scene as black no i
didn't think it was blackmail i i read it as yeah like you said trusting i think john free was trying
to bond with a fellow co-worker who's in the same position as him like that's literally i think what
it was i think you maybe needed to feel it out a little over a few weeks. Maybe, maybe not here.
But either way, I mean, he doesn't fucking deserve to be hate-crined.
Like, that was horrible.
Yeah, that was terrible. That death was awful.
Oh, my God.
Me and you on the couch, both times watching it, his sobs.
Oh, Lainer's sobs and just the-
The wail.
The wail.
Oh, and then the shaky voice during the ceremony.
And backing up before the death for a second.
Back to the sexy for a second before we go back to death.
Because what is talking about death without talking about sex?
In Dothraki culture, it seems like, yeah, you have to, right?
This goes hand in hand, if you know what I mean.
Daemon and Rhaenyra making each other jealous all night.
Very kinky, right? But earlier, what you said about
Otto with the self-fulfilling
this prophecy that he made up
about Rhaenyra and her children
and Alicent's children
and Viserys' worries about Daemon
and everyone worrying about Daemon
kind of feels a lot like that too.
Obviously, they're standing there
and they're like,
oh yeah, I dare you to take me to wife at
dragon stone oh yeah i dare you to fuck me i dare you to dirty fuck me then i bet you won't bet you
won't that's really what that scene was yeah uh and beautiful in valyrian also viscerys's worries
about damon betting his daughter and then like alicent worried about damon fucking raniera and
everyone's so worried about damon fucking raniera and everyone's so worried about damon
fucking raniera did they realize that they made it happen that's kind of true like you guys did
this they weren't gonna fuck i mean we were really so far so good yeah but everyone was so i don't
know involved in their own stuff and if viserys had like, been a better brother. Or father. Both.
This could have been avoided.
I really do think so.
If Viserys was just another person in general.
Someone who had never been tested, perhaps.
I also love in that exchange, though, her throwing back the marriage as a political arrangement in this phase.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it felt so good.
So good.
That she was just like, I thought it was a political arrangement. And he's like, I just killed my wife. What do I
know? Funny how on the dais, he's like, to Gerald, he's like, how dare you say this thing about me?
And then he gets on the floor with Lena. And he's like, yeah, fuck my wife. I didn't care about that
broad. Yeah, but he didn't fuck his wife exactly exactly he did not during the actual ballroom
blitz it's it's a ballroom blitz and i must say the music is banging through this whole thing i
love literally uh literally that first song when she dances with laner is really sweet and beautiful
and her theme is actually mixed in with some strings which it seems to be maybe part of
laner's theme or something of the valerians yeah i really liked
that after the dancing though when everything breaks out after obviously kristen cole goes on
a rampage harwin actually gets veneer to safety which felt very sansa and sandor a la game of
thrones in some ways with the the riot that breaks out i i love that Harwin did carry her to safety.
Strong boy that he is.
That was sweet.
That was a good touch for... She'll remember that.
And they danced during the wedding
and they seem to have good rapport.
So these are all things that are going to prime us
for them having three babies together next episode.
Yeah.
Like, I don't know.
This might be something that I'm reading that isn't fair,
but you talked about how Lionel just like tipped his head and Harwin did it,
right?
Like he was obedient in doing what needed to be done.
And I don't know,
I'm like projecting this idea of him at like Louisa from Encanto as like the,
the eldest child and like carrying all this weight now to,
you know,
the surface,
the song surface pressure.
Also during that, that huge brawl,
I like that there does seem to be care in a friendship between Rhaenyra and Laenor
because she calls out for him.
There, I think, is a friendship.
So here's the part where I think Chris and Cole really failed his job as a Kingsguard.
Which part?
All of it?
All of it, yes, as you're right.
A, they ruined the wedding.
He ruined the fucking wedding.
He hate-crimed
Joffrey Lawmouth. Bullshit.
Literally, the job is called Kingsguard,
right? And during this
kerfuffle, he strikes
Laenor. That's the
king consort, or future king consort.
And I feel like that in and of itself should have prompted the other Kingsguard to step in on Kristen. Also, I mean, this whole
brawl endangers Rhaenyra as well. You see her knocked around on the ground. She gets hurt. She
gets slammed. Harwin saves her. The city watch, the head of the gold clothes. She's got a type.
Every single thing he does is in violation of the literal only part of the gold clothes. She's got a type. Every single thing he does
is in violation of the literal
only part of the oath that matters.
Like, a lot of people don't give a shit
if you fuck, okay?
The point is you protect the king,
you protect the royal family,
you protect the queen.
He endangers the heir, he strikes the future king.
His crimes only ramp up, too.
Yeah, but I'm just like, this is a literal failure
of the job. The only thing
that matters. And, like, I don't know.
You know Alicent is using her
one hall pass to free him later, I guess.
Like, I hope we see that or we get
some sort of hint that Alicent
is his savior in this because it seems
she's going to be. I don't know either.
Like, how did he not
get let go?
Exactly. That's why I don't't understand how does he not let go when again he does the thing that is completely
again in violation of being a king's guard he is a king's endangerment anyway um then you of course
have the scene you do have that hate crime scene right where he's taking his anger out on joffrey longmouth and it's just so it's just so unfair right and joffrey did nothing to him
literally he was just trying to be friends he was literally just trying to be friends i think he
would have been like oh let's like you know take shifts or whatever and the way that it's filmed
and the emotion with which he i guess pummels Joffrey is perhaps, it's likely meant to be compared to and contrasted Rhaenyra killing the boar.
But they are, they're shot similarly.
They have a similar feel, but they're different, right?
Because Rhaenyra killing the boar, I mean, that's not a person, right?
And the boar did attack her.
It was soft defense.
Joffrey Longout now that you said did
nothing against kristen cole um he was a person and and i maybe some people will see the boar as
comparable but i'm not a vegetarian and i love pulled pork so yeah it's very different i would
not eat kristen cole i would not i talk about cannibalism a lot but i would not yeah that's
oh no i'm talking about christina that makes sense the. Yeah, that's one meal I don't want. Oh, no, I'm talking about
Christine, although that makes sense. The actual boar
is Joffrey. I don't see it as Joffrey,
obviously. The one thing I will say,
this is not in defense of Kristen Cole,
those words will never come out of my mouth.
I wonder
if he immediately saw it as a way of
killing the rumor. Literally.
Because Joffrey
speaks to him and obviously knows
he's fucking raniera and if he immediately saw that as a threat saw joffrey lawnmouth as a threat
and saw this as securing the rumor so now only allison knew because i mean it's gonna get out
eventually you know or not who knows but that knows, but that's an interesting point.
That's just an angle I was thinking about it, of the why.
Like, why did he commit this crime?
Oh, he murdered this guy, probably because this guy knows that he's fucking.
Yeah, I think it's a combination of, I don't even think he knew in his head that he didn't want it to come out, because as you said,
himbos everywhere are embarrassed. This is not a
smart man. This man's fucking dumb.
I mean, we retracted his himbo card.
No, literally, because himbos have
to be good.
That is actually part of the job description.
Absolutely. It's that he
just represents it existing
at all. He pummels Joffrey for
being a manifestation, I guess,
of the rumor, not trying to quell it, but just him trying to-
Erase it?
Yes.
Undo it.
Exactly, exactly.
It's been done, buddy. I mean, you already did it. You already soiled your fucking cloak,
and that fast. It only took you a couple years.
Yeah, and it's remarkable that- I'm sorry, we're coming back to it, right? He's so concerned about his own honor, but not what could happen. I mean, Tarin,
you're in her prospects, I guess. It doesn't connect that this is happening because they
slept together, that this marriage is happening because of that. Yeah, the marriage itself,
so the ceremony is moved up, right, due to all of this. And the marriage is put kind of right after Joffrey's death.
You don't see it up close, the ceremony first, but you hear the music.
It's sad.
It swells.
There's a voiceover that is conducting the marriage and the ceremony.
It's, of course, in the middle of the night, avoiding the drama.
You don't see it right away.
So to me, it almost sounds like it should be a funeral,
right? If you close your eyes and you hear them speaking, you imagine you're going to a funeral
for Joffrey, you know, is where Laenor probably should have been. I mean, that's what he should
have been doing is putting his partner to rest, but yet he's here doing his duty and both he and
Rhaenyra are shaken up. They have tears in their eyes.
It's really awful because he's forced to bear this and marry Rhaenyra, whose very wedding negotiations earlier kind of promised him safety in a way, right? Like, I am the queen to be.
I can keep you safe. I should be the second most powerful person in our world right now.
But she couldn't keep him safe. Her side of the negotiation was
not equal to the side that he was giving up, right? Like in this, she obviously mentions to
him that she does not like the taste of goose because it's too greasy for her. She finds pussy
too greasy. So I guess no canon gay Rhaenyra in story that's all right i don't know her and lana
and damon could have had threesomes we just don't know that side of what she had to give up fucking
sir christian cole right like that's not equal to what laner has to hide yeah and the lengths
and what he risks in this marriage and treating it the way that she's treating it right it's just like this
is just you know we have to do business and then at night we get to fuck off and fuck uh she's the
queen she's supposed to protect him right denera says it in a clash of kings to jorah about how
she was alone for so long and that visera should have protected her but instead he scared her
and hurt her and he shouldn't have done that she says he wasn protected her but instead he scared her and hurt her and
he shouldn't have done that she says he wasn't just my brother he was my king why do gods make
kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves and you see it in her
eyes you see that pain you see that she feels guilt she knows that she didn't fulfill her side
of their negotiation and their contract
and then you tell me that it took two whole kids until he was allowed to have a joffrey fuck you
yeah well apparently that was corley's yeah well fuck corley's fuck you corley's yeah and he's uh
yeah i guess he's a wife guy but uh apparently i mean he's just not supportive of his son right
like that's a that's a great call out that like because firing blood tells us that he couldn't name his children after joffrey because of corley's and because
people might know people might know and that sucks that like sucks like everything that like
there's a discussion around episode two of like the way elena is being sold into this and duty
and corley's does it also to Laenor, right?
I think you can see kind of why
they had him read Tywin's lines.
Tywin does ask the
same things of Jaime and
this is what he forces Tyrion to do, right?
Like, in Wedding Sansa.
Cersei! Yeah, and Cersei,
absolutely, and Cersei, but that's also
kind of, as you said,
it's also kind of like with Laena, and
Rhaenyra doesn't protect him, she uses Laenor
as her own shield instead.
Yeah. I think that,
I mean, I hope that, especially
in this time jump for the next episode, I hope
that stands out. I hope that
she has learned from that.
That Rhaenyra has taken that to heart.
That part of the duty. And I think
they do.
It really feels like their little weird polycool can come together,
even briefly, until Laenor dies.
Yeah, I hope so.
And I think that's a great point.
Does this really drive home the stakes that are here?
They don't get to feast and enjoy.
And that makes sense, right? How can they have a celebration when this man that their son loved died?
Right.
And I think, I kind of wonder if they rushed the wedding not just because of that.
A, to secure the alliance.
B, I wonder what if Corlys and Rhaenys were afraid that Laenor would back out in his grief and pushed him into it.
That's something.
And not even just that, but I also wonder, I imagine dispelling rumors would have been
very important in that moment, too.
Yeah, that's true.
Great point.
Great point.
At the wedding, they were, like, nuzzling each other, which I'm all for, but Westeros
is not all for.
And the part where he also, you know, wails and dies and cradles his body.
Yeah, it's important
that he's seen marrying and going through the marriage at this time and they can't draw it out
i mean it's a nice thing to him but they don't draw it out because how could he go through seven
fucking days knowing that the only reason he was going with this marriage was that the man that he
loved would get to be his all the time yeah how could he go on for seven days smiling at people
fucking tourneys and jousts i can't i can't imagine how could you do that i mean it's horrible
it's so sad your only reason to fucking be alive in this world that persecutes you at every turn
it's just yeah it it is tragic right they they talk about how this season and this arc of the dance is a tragedy.
And there's so many small tragedies that make it up and that build up to it.
And this is one of them.
He thought he was going to have everything he wanted.
Yeah.
When the sun is set, no candle can replace it.
Except for Carl Corey.
And that would be your downfall.
No candle can replace it.
Except for that one.
Except for the next candle.
I mean, like. And that candle kills you, buddy.
Oh, fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck, okay.
Last thing regarding the shotgun wedding.
A different type of shotgun at your head.
Yeah, exactly.
Earlier when they're negotiating their marriage,
Ring Nero promises Laenor that each of us dines as we see fit.
And then we have this shot of after the wedding has cleared,
when they're doing the small intimate ceremony now.
And it's of the ravaged meal, right?
It's of the bones that have been picked apart, the food, the leftovers.
Nothing's there that they can dine on.
It's all just scraps fit only for crows.
You have, like, the weird feathery thing hanging over it all.
A feast for crows and the corpses of it.
I didn't think about that with the feather centerpiece.
That's a good call.
Yeah.
It literally is very feast for crow-y because, you know,
they're giving us an adaptation of that finally.
They are, they are.
Yeah, and that's what this feast is now.
It's been, it's just the carnage, right?
The pulpy meat of everything.
Like, what?
I do think it's intentional.
I do too, but don't remind me.
It was so sad.
And of course it does end right on that pool of blood.
And I don't know.
I pay a lot of attention.
I think that the food is very significant in this series i also think the food being half eaten showing like everyone had
to go they were like well this sucked this wedding got kind of fucked up we gotta go that's great
yeah but also the metaphors well to talk about metaphors alongside this i actually really like
how this is staged so alongside this horrible fucking forced ceremony
late at night kristen is attempting suicide in the godswood with his sword you know dying a true
soldier's death going to commit seppuku in the godswood in front of the gods all the gods are
seeing it but he's stopped by alicent i'd like to read a quote from a poet actually right now.
She was fearless and crazier than him.
She was his queen and God help anyone who dared to disrespect his queen.
Oh my God.
What?
Oh my God.
I mean, it feels fitting.
The fact that she comes upon him, she stops him from doing this.
Yeah.
she comes upon him she stops him from doing this yeah and that's she saved his life in his eyes and she's going to probably save his life legally in other people's eyes i'd imagine yeah considering
that he broke the one big rule that mattered of the king's garden and yeah i think you're right
and so he feels like he owes her like she somehow i guess restores his
honor he has to have some mommy issues yeah probably right i mean who doesn't well he's
fighting against the dornish um yeah as a and his mother's dornish like obviously he's got that
self-conflict um but i don't know kristin You give your, people give themselves honor, you know?
Someone else can't do that for you externally.
And I don't think he understands that.
Like, Rhaenyra can't give him his honor.
Alicent can't give him his honor.
Honor is something that you make for yourself, okay?
Just like Ned Stark.
He looked dishonorable in front of everyone, like he went against his king.
But he did the honorable thing, right?
Somehow that line was the honorable thing to protect his family and to protect john
i mean honor is a horse honor is also a horse absolutely also you know there's something to
discuss here i know we've talked about regarding allison's now going like full tails against Rhaenyra because what? Rhaenyra lied to her about having sex.
If Rhaenyra can lie to her about the things that she once felt they were close enough to not lie about.
Which now there's a lot of power play going on.
Of course, she's married to Viserys.
Things are weird.
They don't have the same relationship.
How earlier there's a very obvious disconnect when she calls her stepdaughter you're no longer raniera princess
that's a great point step daughter that's her taking what power she can to wield for herself
and what defense she can but if raniera is willing to lie about those things to her i would say
it would deepen the doubts sown
by her father. I understand
why Rhaenyra doesn't trust her.
Because I see it
in my opinion, the first person, maybe
it's not a lie, but it is.
You don't go around not telling someone
yo, I've been meeting up with your dad every night.
Yeah, that is. I think that was
the first shot. Don't call
my dad. Yeah. Don't call my dad. Yeah.
Don't call my dad.
I have no intention of calling your dad.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
I just don't think that trust is living in that relationship anymore.
I can understand why she did not think that Alicent deserved her trust when Alicent, you know, showed that her loyalties, they don't lie with Raymira in their friendship.
They lie elsewhere.
And she's only proving that more, right?
Like, and this is exactly right.
The patriarchy tearing, as you've discussed,
tearing these two girls apart.
Also because Allison was like, got really weird about it.
She got super weird about Rainiera having sex.
And it is that internalized misogyny
that Rainiera gets to have everything but I mean she
will like there's no if ands or buts we will see if Alicent and Kristen don't have sex in this show
on screen I will be mighty surprised because the way that this is being painted to me is just like
she's gonna have no one Viserys is falling apart as we see in the trailer
she has no one and nothing not even her ladies really like her that much yeah yeah i don't know
a lot of it is just auto tearing these girls apart and also viserys because maybe you shouldn't have
married your daughter's best friend this weirdwood's getting a lot of play this is season yeah this is
actually this is the polycule and it is the worst one.
I'd like a better polycule moving forward as we move forward in this season.
I mean, she's the queen with nothing.
She has no power and she's the queen and she fucking, you know, gave up her life to do so.
To have this title with barely any power below it.
And yet she's sitting here watching Rhaenyra in her eyes,
fuck it all away.
Yeah.
And the thing is she could have,
I mean,
Cersei did it.
Oh,
they did have her read Cersei's lines.
Yeah.
I mean,
that's what she's doing.
You know,
she's,
that's why I think she really will sleep with Kristen because,
yes,
because she's going to see like,
well,
Rhaenyra doesn't have to play by the rules
why should i anymore my sons should be king i should have sex i should make fuck fuck yeah and
in her jealousy of wanting the things that reynera has by continuing to prop up egan as heir she
continues to solidify that no one no woman will have that, including herself.
It's just like in Veep, the Amy and Selina fight, right?
Like Amy telling her, now we will have no more female presidents because you ruined it, Rhaenyra.
Oh my god.
Well, they do have that kind of friendship.
They do. It is very Amy and Selina.
Yeah, actually, literally, though. The that kind of friendship. They do. It is very Amy and Selena. Yeah. Actually, literally, though.
The incompetence is staggering.
Oh, my God.
The incompetence is staggering, though, in the rulers in this show.
It only gets even more staggering.
The episode ends and then we have a trailer.
That is not at the end of this episode.
And he had to go find separately because HBO did not tag it on.
It was really weird.
I'm like, you've done it right for four episodes and suddenly you didn't have that behind the scenes and the trailer.
I'm hurt.
Right after the episode.
I'd like to speak to HBO personally.
They can call me.
They can call me.
I'll leave my phone number for you below.
Uh, the trailer is a blast.
Uh, it's the age up,
right? So goodbye, Millie. Goodbye, Emily.
You were amazing.
Oh my god. You were amazing. They were amazing
at playing Rhaenyra and Alicent
and making us feel something or care
about these little relationships that weren't really
built up. I really appreciated
it and I think it enriched the show for the better.
But I'm also really
looking forward to Olivia Cooke and Emma Darcy.
Yes.
That's going to be as much as I love the nuance and the depth that has been brought to Allison's character and to Rhaenyra and Allison's friendship and to Viserys's character.
I'm really ready for the fighting to start.
Yeah.
I'm sitting here with popcorn like, when are the girls going to fight? I'm ready. I'm ready for the fighting to start yeah i'm sitting here with popcorn like
when are the girls gonna fight i'm ready i'm ready for the pettiness i want dragons snapping across
the screen at one another you know like they say in fire and blood would happen when one of the
parties would show up that the dragons could feel the energy and they'd be like roaring hissing at
one another i'm ready for the drama yeah and it seems like there's going to be a lot of dragons
next episode based on the trailer.
But also in regards to the
fighting and the petty.
Interestingly, you know, Allison's going to be in the
small council room. So
that'll be fun.
That clip is interesting because Rhaenyra
you can already see Rhaenyra and Allison's
pettiness back and forth, the snipping.
Rhaenyra correcting something sheent's pettiness back and forth the snipping Rhaenyra correcting something she
says and being like my queen
well
they're both in the council
um it's
gloves are gonna come off
yeah absolutely
dresses are gonna come on
wear your finest black and green
yeah she's gonna keep wearing her green and we
do see Alicent become more of a player and active.
Yeah, she seems to really, I mean, that's the thing is,
she's taking that active role for herself.
She's stepping in because she doesn't, I mean,
she also has watched Rhaenyra be sidelined these last few years.
That's true, yeah.
She doesn't want that for herself.
And she's isolated, right?
Now she's unsafe, and it makes sense, right? She's trying to hedge her bets
and create her own safety. And, you know, Rhaenyra would be wise to do the same,
especially after the warning that came this wedding that
this is not safe. This is not enough of an alliance.
And we do see Laenor in the trailer spot, right? We see
Laenor with the babies and her.
It looks like they're in front of a castle of sorts.
I'm guessing King's Landing or maybe somewhere else.
I'm excited to see a little more Laenor.
We get Laena, a new actress for Laena, a third actress, the third head of the dragon.
And actually the third, one of the three heads of the dragon.
Literally.
Yeah, literally.
She and Daemon.
I'm excited to see what goes on with that wedding of theirs.
And Pentos.
It looks like we might see.
Yeah, Pentos.
I think we see it in the trailer very briefly.
Interesting.
And we'll see Vhagar, of course.
She's nice and beautiful and old.
Excited.
And big.
She's real big.
Real big girl.
And Harwin.
We see Harwin and Kristen going at it.
And Harwin decking Kristen, which I personally can't wait for.
I'm happy for him.
And also Lionel gets a haircut.
Lionel does get a haircut.
He's looking kind of like a little fuzzy baby bird.
And I love it.
Yeah, he's older.
He's older.
Viserys. God bless. Wow. Yeah, he's older. He's older. Viserys,
god bless. Also, hair is different too.
He is, yeah,
he's not got a lot of it on top of his head anymore. It's part gone
and the leprosy is really
making its way through him and he is
not great and he doesn't look great.
He looks bad.
Things look bad
for Viserys. Things look bad for Viserys
things look bad for him
Aegon too
he has a lot of hair
Ty Tennant, David Tennant's kid
wild, that's insane
the Doctor Who universe is clashing
again twice
his wig is insane
and I will say if you watch some of the earlier
trailers you might remember you see
Alicent telling someone couldn't figure out who it is, that, you know, they need to rule the Iron Throne, that she'll kill them and their siblings, if not.
And I'm pretty sure that's Aegon.
It's curly, blonde, long hair that you can see in the shot.
And that's it.
And now I'm like, oh, it must be Aegon.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess she just, like, takes everything that her dad said and decides it's all true about Rhaenyra
just because of the one thing being true.
I really don't think Rhaenyra was gonna kill
those kids until, you know...
But you know what? Fuck them kids.
Absolutely. I think, well, I think she
should've killed them. Oh my god.
Kill Agen too. Sorry. God!
Kill Aemond. What?
Jesus. Don't kill children.
Uh.
Lots in the trailer. I slowed it down, watched
it a couple times, and I feasted
gloriously, and I'll tell
you what, I cannot wait another six days.
Yeah, every single time this happens, I'm like,
holy shit, I have to wait so long.
I'm like so excited on Sunday.
I'm so excited after the episode happens
and then it sinks in that I'm like
oh I have to wait
and so
you will have to wait too dear listeners
another week to hear from us
until next week's episode which I think is
the princess and the queen
well also that's not true because
we are much more generous
they don't have to wait a week for
to hear us again you can tune in also to
our coverage of the main book series.
Yeah, we'll be covering Bran in
A Game of Thrones for the next few weeks
and we'll move on to A Clash of Kings afterwards.
We would love to have you come
listen in. And of course
we would love to hear from you.
Yeah, if you have any thoughts, you
can hit us up on social media
at twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon.
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As always,
I have been one of your hosts,
Chloe.
And I have been another one of your hosts,
Eliana.
We'll be back next week.
Dragon noises.
Yeah, after seven days of
feasting and celebrating.
I don't know.
I gotta work on it. We gotta practice our dragon
noises. Maybe next week. Maybe next week.
Goodbye. Bye.