Episode 1: The Heirs of the Dragon

Hello everybody, and welcome to Game of Bros. Another Game of Thrones podcast. I am your host, the host of the Culture Cast, Chris Stashe, and I am joined by my good friend. And I do say my good friend because I have known him since I was in third grade. If you have listened to the Culture Cast before, you have heard him over there.

But if you haven't, he's my good friend from across the pond. Ladies and gentlemen, you're sharp, you're Austin. Yeah, we've known each other about as long as the Targarians have reigned two hundred years. And ladies and gentlemen, we were thinking about doing an episode of another show, and you Share sent me a snapchat of Game of Thrones House of the Dragon, and I was like, hey, I actually happened to be watching the show as well, because I told myself I wasn't going to and we'll get to that when we get to it. But then I was like, hey, you know what, let's do a Game of Thrones podcast because people like to talk about things that are topical, and you know what, we don't really do enough.

We don't really talk about new stuff enough, though you and I do. Specifically, you and I do. Over at the Culture Cast, we talk about newer movies, so this kind of fits into the topicality wheelhouse. But yeah, we're gonna be talking a little bit about House of the Dragon, and we're gonna be talking about the first episode. But before we talk about the first episode, I feel like you share because this is a Game of Thrones podcast, because you and I have never talked about Game of Thrones on a podcast before.

I'm going to turn the floor over to you and tell our audience a little bit about why Game of Thrones? Why are we watching House of Dragons and Game of Thrones in general? I think the more important question and the thing our audience is going to miss out because the don't have video, is that you're basically in full tart area and regalia with your hair right now. Oh my god, yeah for real, And this is real man, This is no this is no Matt Smith wig. I may I may have to get a wig like a Game of Throne.

I've never read the books. A mixture of laziness and also I'm partially illiterate, but the show, I absolutely loved it. Yes, does it kind of fall off in the last season or so? Sure? But I think as a whole, if you if you take all of Game of Thus, even the worst Game of Thrones is what like a six point five seven show, like you consider the acting, the production values and stuff like that, Like the it's sloppy writing, but it doesn't change the fact that we have eight seasons of overall one of probably the best shows HBO has ever produced.

Um. But the ending of the show, Sopranos would like to have a word with you, sir said, I said, one of it. I know, I know, I'm with Of all the things that I've said so far, I agree with you, and I agree with that and times be grudgingly. And it was a cultural zeitgeist unlike any other show on HBO, like it had I think it had the I think House the Dragon had the most leadership any episodes's ever had on HBO. The first episode did like no, no, the reach of Game of Thrones, like Sopranos and stuff is sick.

But like you didn't have ten million people watching it, right, But the also expectations at the time were different. This show wouldn't exist, This show wouldn't exist without the Sopranos period. No, it wouldn't. I mean, don't we. I don't think the influence of the Sopranos can ever be overlooked when we're talking about shows on HBO that are doing what this show does, which is creating a genuinely compelling narrative from a source material that is Look, I read the first book, and the first book is very good and book you mean no, no, the first Game of Thrones book, I have read it.

I did listen to the audiobook and it's a long book, but you know what, it's a good book and it's well written, and George R. Martin is a good writer. So yeah, the first what is it five seasons of Game of Thrones, I think I would contend or kind of where the show is really hitting all the marks. But man, the last three seasons I think just almost undo all of the good will that the show built. I don't think almost undo.

I think a lot of people myself included at the time, and I think it's less than now. And my hope is that this show kind of turns it around. But I think for a lot of people, myself included, Game of Thrones really like they really undid all the good will that they had built in those first five seasons in those last three and the way that the show ended did feel like they were rushing. They were running, like you know they there's a video of those people chasing the cheese wheel down the hill. That's what Bennie offen Weiss remind me of two people at the front of the pack of the cheese wheel, the cheese wheel chasers, trying to get it.

Because like in subsequent years now with what is it three years of remo from Game of Thrones, Yeah, Benny off and Weiss have done nothing period. They lost all of the jobs that they had, their Confederacy existing in now show did not get made, and I'm glad it didn't because given how this show ended, I'm not sure their hearts. If their hearts weren't in that, that could have been a pr nightmare for HBO. As opposed to just as opposed to just oh, Game of Thrones sucked, But like that doesn't affect anything, Like if you make a show about the Civil War, the Confederacy winning and the Union losing, Like I'm sorry, but like the times then and the times now, I don't think support a show like that being written by people who are not committed to it.

And again, I can't blame people for not believing Benny Off and Weiss would be committed to anything given the way that they treated. Like you said, the hottest property that HBO had, Yeah, that's the problem. I mean, you said it yourself. Game of Thrones is one of the hottest properties that HBO has, and it's one of the hottest brands, at least it was when the show was on, or it shit the bed well based on the viewership the first episode, it's still the hottest problem, right, But that's the thing. In spite of that, somehow, Yeah, you can't tell me that the people at HBO aren't surprised by that, because you know what, if they aren't saying they're surprised by it, then they're lying.

They're lying, and they probably expected to be big. It was even I was like not super super excited about it. Ten million people is a lot of people, I know. And then I watched it, and then I was like, after like the first five minutes, I was like just put in my veins, like I'm all in, Like I was all in. I was all in?

Is we I told myself I wasn't going to watch it because of the way Game of Thrones ended because Game of Thrones took the characters that I loved killed them before we got to the climax, which is fine. I don't care, but you killed them in stupid, unbelievably dumb ways. And I'm not saying the way they died is dumb. I'm saying the way the characters acted was against the way the character had acted up until that point. Little Finger varis, those are the two characters that like they did them the dirtiest of the side characters.

I mean, we could talk about John Snow until we're all blue in the face, but like, I think anybody would agree that John snow stories conclusion is bad, Like it's it's you know, they're show right, they've talked about it, but I didn't think that they hadn't idea okay, and you know what, fine, but you know what, I also don't care, Like I don't, I don't care because it doesn't change the way the show ended, do you know what I mean? Like, but they can't. But they can't under they can't undo the way the show ended. If they undo the way the show ended, then they should have never ended it that way to begin with. And that's my problem.

It's this whole it's I know, but it's the whole director's cut of movies thing. It's like, Okay, well, we're gonna because like a sequel season to a show like the fifth whenever, the ninth season of Dexter, eighth season of Dexter is them trying to undo all the mistakes that they've made. The fact that it's taken us five minutes to mention Dexter it should almost fell like it should have been mentioned in the first two minutes because I think Game of Thrones and you know what, you're okay in that regard, like you watch the first four seasons and you're probably good. It's because at the time when Dexter ended, that was the worst show ending. I mean, before Game of Thrones came out, Dexter was the show that ended so poorly.

The fans were like, oh, what have you done? Game of Thrones became like the one A, one B of that conversation. So Dexter had new Blood come out. It has problems. I haven't watched it, but I've I know how it ends.

I've heard how it ends. I think everybody at this point knows how it ends. Given the shows never coming back, you don't have to be a fucking genius to guess how it ends. But Game of Thrones is doing something different. They're doing a prequel show instead.

So good because like they're doing a prequel show with characters that don't have anything to do with the original show. I don't want to see a John Snow show because the way they left John Snow if they change that, like, okay, but you can't change how bad Game of Thrones ended, no matter how good the next, any show past the end of Game of Thrones, no matter how good it is, will always just be trying to undo the mess that Benny Off and Wiss left for everybody else. I mean Ryan Conlin, the guy who created this show, or Ryan Condall, the guy who created this show, is essentially has the hardest job of anybody right now, trying to undo the last three years of Benny Off and Wiss going. Yeah, like we're trying to do a Star Wars movie now, so who cares about Game of Thrones?

So yeah. And also Georgie R. Martin, I think, you know, because he doesn't really like writing anymore, so I think he's actually quite involved in the production of this show. George R. Martin serial non writer.

Yeah, No, I mean he's it's he's literally the co creator with Ryan Condall. So I think that's and I hope that George R. Martin stays in a larger capacity with this show because George R. Martin has Look, this is his universe. Wouldn't you want to?

I mean, if I'm the guy who created the show and they want the franchise, if they want my opinion, and they're willing to listen, like I'm willing to sit at the table and talk, wouldn't you like? Why why wouldn't But like when Benny Off and Weise were essentially telling George R. Martin to, like, you know, piss off Pally like that, to me, it's like and then, you know, if the show had been good then I don't think anybody would have said anything about it. But the fact that the show ended up kind of petering out as hard as it did, everybody then kind of just goes, why did you do that? Then?

So you know what I mean, It's like, why why were you ignoring him if you weren't going to do something at least halfway decent comparatively to what the first four or five seasons that show were so yeah, but enough talk about the first Game of Thrones show. Let's talk about the show you're here to listen to us, talk about Let's talk about a little show called House of the Dragon. So House of the Dragon is based on Fire and Blood, well parts of that novel, and it is set two hundred years before the events A Game of Thrones and two hundred before the events A Game of Thrones, and one hundred and seventy two years before Denis is born. And it's essentially the beginning of the end of the House of Targarian.

I mean, that's the way it's being built. It's the it's it's the dance of the Dragon's story from the book. So again, if you're listening to this show because you are looking for people that are knowledgeable about the books, we are not. We're going to be watching the show and enjoying and appreciating and analyzing the show as two people who have watched the original show and read some of the original book series. But we're not.

If you're expecting us to know every Targarian subject and this, that and something else, that's not going to happen. We're gonna be talking about the show as it's presented to us, and if we do any background talk, you know, we might get into it just because, but don't expect us to talk about every connection to everybody, because it's the thing about this it's like it's this is an expansive universe already. Just you'll be lucky if I know the main characters properly. Well, I mean realistically, you know, there's going to be a time jump in this show, and we're not there yet. Yeah, and semi spoilers is that, I mean, like I don't know, but there's clearly a time jump.

Yeah, there's clearly going to be a time jump. Everybody knows that. They've already kind of said as much. So but yeah, this show takes place two hundred years before the original show, so there are no characters from the original show, which I think also helps in my mind with helping to deprogram the problems of the previous show. Yeah, in the context of like we're so many generations removed, where like everything that happens to the novel for us, right, we know it's the Mad King is essentially the breakdown between him and the current game of the Old Game.

Of Thrones show, but like he's like one hundred fifty years removed. Yeah, like we're not even an we're not even there yet, Like we're not even to that guy yet. So yeah, like it's it's really nice to see a show in the Game of Thrones universe that says like, Okay, so the Targarians are important, right, they can't get around that. But you don't have to make de Naire is the important part of the Targarians. You can just talk about the Targarians as a family as opposed to like Denart like like Star Wars.

Star Wars is so focused on the Skywalkers and it's like there's there's only like so many of them. With the Targarians, it's like go back two hundred years and you've got all these people you can talk about. And it's actually interesting because we're seeing this with Lord of the Rings and Star Wars in the High Republic. If they're all doing these like prequels that are set pretty fright right, like not like the Star Wars prequels like just right for but like so far move Lord of the Rings stuff is set thousands of years ahead. Yeah.

Yeah, it's basically when sarn is still alive, right, And Lord of the Rings the book takes place over like eight or nine months, like you know, Game of Thrones takes place over a couple of years. Like Game. Lord of the Rings is like one blip on a massive timeline of that world, like George rr. Martin hasn't gone there yet with this universe like Similillian and stuff. And we're doing a Lord of the Rings show called the Podcast of Power about that show.

So it's gonna be kind of weird to see this show in that show because I kept joking when I was seeing the trailer for the Rings of Power show, it just looks like Game of the Rings. Yeah about it. I mean again, like it was. I think inevitably it was always going to be compared to that now because Game of Thrones has kind of supplanted Lord of the Rings as the high fantasy of pop culture. Like I think from like oh one to like I would say, frankly, oh one until whatever Game of the originals.

Yeah, like essentially almost like essentially almost a solid decade of Lord of the Rings being the influential piece of high fantasy, and now it's Game of Thrones, and everything that you see comes from that and now Lord of the Rings is being influenced by Game of Thrones, so it's like it's all come full circle. Should we get into the first episode? Yeah, so let's talk about the first episode, The Airs of the Dragon. It's directed by Miguel Spatchnik. If that name sounds familiar, that's because he directed fair amount episodes of the original show.

It is written by Ryan Condall, the creator of the show. It aired August twenty first, twenty twenty two, and yeah, ten million people watched it. And what is his first episode about? Well, his first episode if you can imagine what the title, like, The Errors of the Dragon is all about, who is taking over that Iron throne after King Jaharas Targarian dies and who takes over for him? And uh, but Saris Patty Constantine baby, I am a fucking fan of his ever since the World's End, ever since the World's End, ever since Hot Fuzz you and your monkey.

I mean, he's amazing. He was also in Um that was that that weird? Yeah? Alex Decider, did you watch that one? It was like, I think it's loosely based like a Stephen key And is that the Jason Bate Is that the Jason Bateman Show.

Yeah, yeah, it ends kind of weekly, but he plays like he is an interesting uh he's like a strip club owner. Huh yeah, yeah, he's He's a good actor. I mean, actually I would argue the acting of this the House of Dragons I think a little bit more established in Game of Thrones was going in I mean, ARLDS dance. But like pretty much every major actor on here's like has a pretty substantial resid right, which is which i'm you know, I'm makes sense they have more money for it. Yeah, well, I mean and again you also, you know, when they were casting the original show, Game of Thrones was just some book.

Now it's like everybody wants to be part of Game of Thrones because it's a paycheck that you would not want to turn down if somebody offered it to you, Like, you're guaranteed a season, and you know, probably more than that. Based on now what we've seen with the popularity of the show, I think as long as HBO keeps it up there, they're they're they're probably okay. So yeah, I mean, unlike a lot of the streaming shows like this is you know, you're almost pencil it in for at least three seasons. Yeah, it's not a sure thing. It's but it is a sure thing, Like yeah, I mean, there's there's no way this isn't getting at least a few seasons.

I mean, I doubt it's gonna be eight seasons, but I could see them doing like, you know, a couple and then maybe do some other Game of Thrones property or something like right like two to three seasons to tell the story and then move on to something else. Yeah, and it and it gives the writers, I think a little bit more flexibility. They don't feel like they have to jam everything into like a lot of the streaming shows that you get nowadays, like they don't know if it'll be canceled after like one season or whatever. So I feel like it's going to give the story opportunity to breathe. And I think we're kind of seeing that because we know there's a time skip ticket place, but it's like they're kind of taking their time to get there.

I was expecting it, Like in the first episode. I mean, there is a time jump in the first episode. It's about like nine years, but it's like it's like a cold we get a cold open. Really, it's yeah, yeah, it's if this is a book, it's the prologue, you know, exactly. But we know that there's going to be a time jump with the you know, Prince Rinera's character getting older and Lady Allison getting older, because we know that there are actors who play the adult versions of them while Millie Alcock and Emily carry are playing the teenage versions of them, right, and so we know that's coming.

But again not the first episode. But yeah, like just right out of the gate, I think that's like the first thing to talk about before we even talk about the plot, is everybody in this show is fantastic, even again, like Millie Alcock and Emily Carey, like I have not seen them in much of anything else, but like, holy cow, like the casting of younger actors in this show, say what you will about like later seasons of Game of Thrones, every single one of those child actors from that show that end up becoming adult actors exquisitely cast. Yeah, Millie, Millie Alcock, I think other than Matt Smith, who's like worth the price of admission because I don't know he's he's he's in a different show, Like he's in a different show.

Entirely like it's wild. It's wild, Like like Matt Smith, you just cook, you just cook with like the most noxious stove of all time. And he's just he's on one. He's one. He's the reason you watch the show.

But like everyone is, everyone is bringing their a game, but he is. He is as nasty as the doctor and Doctor Who is as is benevolent and nice, like he is like the personification of I know, which is funny because like he as nasty as his character is in this show. He's that nice as the Doctor. It's like funny to see him just as like unrepentant piece of shit. Well.

I like how they were just like yo, you kind of were the most interesting part of Morbius, just kinda bring that weird energy. I mean, throw on a platinum wig and rides and dragons and he was like yes please, And I was like yes please, can I have some more? See, you should be watching Doctor Who because if you like Matt Smith, he's an amazing actor dude, and Game of and like Game of Thrones is great and all, but him on Doctor Who is he's amazing. I mean I went we went to Comic Con to meet Matt Smith because of how much we loved him as Doctor Who, and that was where we stopped watching the show. I mean, we stopped with Peter Capaldi, but that's a different story.

But Matt Smith and David Tennant are people's favorite doctors and Doctor Who because they're such charismatic actors. And now we've seen with David Tennant obviously, and Matt Smith now with moreby I mean again Matt Smith. I kind of didn't know what to think because I had only always associated him as the Doctor. But then morb Is where he is one hundred percent the best part of that movie. And then so far it's like him and Patty Considine are just like budding heads in the best way, and I'm one on board.

Yeah, he's he's a very interesting character. So it's like, obviously, the we learned that Patty Constantine Sarah's gets the crone, he does get the chrome baby, and he impregnates his wife, uh Emma, but obviously it's scheme of thrones, so they gotta spell it weird as fuck. So it's like, amat why a lot of whys and ends in this show? And yes, yeah, and then she gets pregnant. She's gonna have an air because right now, damon is the air you can't have a female Apparently it's not it's not, is it you can't or it's just like no, buddy will I didn't get the sense, and again, not a Game of Thrones laurologist here, maybe that is answered, but it seemed more of like they're not going to listen to you if your queen.

Well, it's not like it was illegal like or whatever, but it's historically never been right right, frowned upon, not not within the the usual operating procedure type thing. My interpretation, I guess it could. Again, it's funny because obviously you know, we get like we we like, we know why, we get, we know what we're doing those like and that's again, like I think my issue, and the only issue I really have with this show is like we know where this is going, and that kind of sucks, so like I have to remove I almost wish I had never watched the original show. Like a friend of them. I was talking with a friend of mine before we started recording, and I was like, oh, I'm gonna be recording, you know, first episode of our Game of Thrones podcast, and he was like, oh, should I be watching that, I'm not caught up.

I was like, you could watch this show with no previous knowledge of Game of Thrones, and like if it might seem weird and like kind of hard to pick up maybe the names and like the world and stuff, but I feel like you could enjoy it. And I feel like all the people watching this show are not Game of Thrones zaccolytes, and I think frankly, you might enjoy enjoy this show more if you had not seen the original show because of like, well, you know what they say about a woman, a woman queen, like a woman in power, and it's like, yeah, I do, because that's where this show ended up going, Like you can't regret that from the narrative. It is actually interesting thing like Game of Thrones, like having a woman female leader like wasn't an issue at all, Like that wasn't because it's obviously something happens in the two hundred years right between where like it normal life.

It's like, a man, it really sucks where this is going. No, yeah, where they're like like we cannot have a woman as are a leader the queen who never was or whatever her name was, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, so there is a. There is a female character, Rayness, who is married to uh the the the Sea Lord Valarious the Sea Snake, which is a cool name, cool name, but oh my god, on these wigs bad and like it's great that we have diversity. The wigs do not look good on the actors at all, Like they look so bad and is talking about are the dreadlock wigs on Steve Juisson and Eve Best And they're horrible, Like I know they're trying to get everyone's kind of like it's unclear if he has Targarian blood, but I mean his wife does.

Therefore, like a kid does um and all Targarians have to have blonde hair. That's kind of like the thing. It doesn't matter if a mix, it's like the dominant gene. So I guess I admit them they you know, commit to the bit. But man, it's distractingly bad.

We'll talk about on the next episode because I feel like it matches. I feel like, look, we could have called this game of wigs, like this show's wigs wig game is weird, and it's it's weird, it's distracting. I think is the big is also quite bad well, and I you know, when you when you. When they're shooting him face on, like looking straight on at the camera, it looks pretty good. But then when he turns like to a forty five degree angle, it's like, yeah, wait a second, like is this the same actor in the same wig, Because the moment he turns his head, it's like, all of a sudden, I can see the lines where the wig is, and the wig does like makes his head look just like that much stranger.

But you know what, Matt Smith doesn't look terrible in a wig. He doesn't look It works for him, and it works for Milly Alcock as well, almost like she kind of has like just a very interesting face. Like, yes, she's an interesting looking actress. Yeah, for sure, she looks old. She looks like an adult.

She looks like not like a real person. I don't know if that makes sense, Like she looks like a fairy kind of she has. She has a way fish quality to her that you know what. She she shares that with. She shares that with Maizie Williams.

Mazie Williams kind Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's but you know what though, But but here's the thing. Milly Alcock, like when she serious is up where she does in this episode, like when she goes like, here's the thing. She's twenty two, right, so she's ten years younger than us. So she's an What's funny is she's supposed to be a teenager too. Yeah, but she but she is one of these actors who she's younger than us.

But then she looks even younger than she looks. And for this show, it works, yeah, and and and in this show it works one hundred percent because you have an adult actor playing a teenager but bringing the gravitas of an adult actor to that role. And that's a rare quality to have, because again, not everybody can look like Milialcock twenty two looking sixteen. You know, Zach Effron was like in his early twenties in in high school musical, and he looked like an adult. Zach is actually fifty three right now, but Jared Letto's fifty and he looks like he's thirty five, you know.

I mean, But but the the casting that I really want to mention, and an actor that I am I've always been a fan of from his days in Little Nikki, Rice Iphens I am such a fan of Rice Iphens Soude. You mean the Lizard or u Nigel Gruff from their replacements the best football movie ever made. The placement is amazing. Who's Nigel play? He plays the kicker.

He's wiry. No in uh oh he played he plays her auto high tower. Oh yeah, he doesn't look like it though, No, no, he looks. They definitely like rough him up. But like that kind of goes to the point of like Dave obviously invested in like a good cast like Recei Fens is like a great, great actor like Patty Constein's pretty Big Matt Smith.

Um, I mean that right there, there's your I mean those three actors alone and the semi exployer. The actress is gonna play adult. Um. Allison Olivia Cook is actually quite prolific, Like she was in Bates Mattel. She's been in like um Met Earl and The Dying Girl.

Um, she was. She was in everyone's everyone's favorite Steven Spielberg film, Ready Player one. Yes, she was the girl with the she was the girl with the port wine mark right yeah. And she was in not the but she was in that Slow Horses show with Gary Oldman that just came out. So so she's she's quite prolific, prolific, and I'm just like, I'm assuming going to have a huge role.

He wouldn't even mention the Lord the direct Lord of the Rings collect connection with Graham McTavish, who plays Dwallin in the Yes, one of the few Hobbit characters that's like one of the few dwarfs in the Hobbit movies who's actually given more of a character than just like being fat or smoking a pipe. Yes, And am I crazy? Or is Graham McTavish also in The Witcher? Yes, he is in the Witcher. He is in the Witcher.

Um, yeah, I haven't seen the Witch. It's not bad anyway, he's crushed it with the fancy stuff. And he was also a Preacher, so he's been like doing a lot of these like well, I mean, hey, he isn't Lord of the Rings. I mean, I mean, look, say what you all about those Hobbit movies. But those first two Hobbit movies are not bad, They're charming.

That third one is not great. I mean, Martino Martin Freeman is almost the best casting choice of all six Lord of the Rings movies. He's perfect, is Bilbo. The acting isn't really it's just I just I mean, it's the CG, it's the CGI, it's the CGI. Too long, they're too long.

Well, it's a fucking three hundred page book turned into six hours of movies. You tell me who needed that? It's like eight hours of movies, right, and like they're like almost three hours of peek. Well that's well, yeah, the like the the un the unedited, or the like the director's cut, because there's director's cuts of those movies too. Yeah.

Yeah, there's a nine year time jump we have. The queen's wife is pregnant with his soon to be hopefully son, and while all of this is going on, they're holding a jousting tournament for the baby's birth. It's a little it's not I don't think it is for the baby's birth, but they but there's a moment towards the end of the episode where they kind of cut back and forth between those two things. No, No, they did say. It's because he says he says he's not sure if the baby's gonna be born, because he's like, what if the baby doesn't, isn't He's like, no, I haven't, I know it will be.

So it's like in honor of a new potential air. But but they don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet if he gets generally supposed to be after the baby is born, or if you know it's a boy, because that would make it an air. But he's like, I know it will be. I know the birth will take place, and then you get one of the most gruesome birth seeds. Yeah, you know.

So I have mixed feelings about that. And it's not like you upset me or it triggered me, or it made it like it's it. The cesarean section is brutal appropriate list so it's it's interesting. So I listened to the interview with the director after or the director of the writer. It doesn't matter.

After he was like, they actually, so, Vissara's basically has a has a choice. The wife is gonna die regard Emma's going to die no matter what happens, whether or not the baby doesn't make it. They didn't make that clear that it's it's not very clear, but that's what they said. So because okay, because that feels like that feels like retro. That feels like rehet conning because they made it definitely, but they definitely, I know, but they definitely made it feel like she was not gonna die.

It's like the decision was whether or not, Yeah, the sacrifice the wife for the baby. Yeah, I will say it's not I struggle because that is a that is a choice worth having a character ruminate on, especially in this kind of high fantasy. Do you need an air thing because like that's you know, that's that's a that's aye. Yeah, Like the Royal baby bloodline stuff is really like what they're tapping into hard. The baby was like flipped in her and it was esscially gonna they both die on the way out or they see section it and she dies, and that was the option he was given.

And so like, I mean, obviously it is the no brainer, but like it's brutal how it's done, and he kind of like sits with her as she basically is tore it apart um. And I think the thing they're trying to show us is like the issaras right, or sarassaras he's supposed to be like a gentler king, like he in his time, there hasn't really much war. He doesn't really even want to be the king. Is kind of the vibe I get he just kind of wants to hang out with, you know, and because it's like this, you have this duty to have a child, like that's kind of all he is. He and his wife are.

They're just like vessels for the next king. And it's it's just like your purpose is just to procreate more to rule. But it's it's it's kind of bizarre people talk about like a wartime king or like a king in the time of peace, Like he is a king in the time of peace, and his father, nine years earlier insured said peace, you know, because that's the open that's the opening. Well that's the opening. I guess it's his grandfather.

His grandfather ensures peace for the nine you know, nine years, and then we know where this is going because this is the initial schism happens towards the end of the episode where Matt Smith Damon Targarian decides to shit all over a dead child. He's making a dead baby, you like, let's let's lyde. So because he has the baby, it's a son, it's going to be an air that the child dies soon afterwards, even as his Emma, his wife and then um, Therefore, Damon is the actual proper air because he's the first of the male relative, because even though you could have a queen, the way succession works, it goes towards the male relative. So therefore his daughter is not. But we learned quickly he is very, very unstable as we see him and the gold gold Cloaks just basically slaughter a bunch of people.

It's Uncliff, they're actually criminals or oh, I don't know, I don't think they were, you're a murder. That's a great scene, by the way, that you have Matt Smith and his gold Cloaks, very similar to the first episode of Game of Thrones where the Gold Cloaks as the Gold Cloaks in that episode, it's it's whoever they're go Remember they're going to like the Brothels in Kid's Landing and they're looking for Bathians Air. And in the first season of the show they have that similar scene and this kind of invoked that where Damon Targarian is rounding up these people on the street and just metering out punishment like a like a street judge, jury and executioner. You know, you're a thief, cut his hand off, you're a murderer, you know.

It's like and at the end of it, it's is grizzly seen where this like cart of body parts and bodies is just being pushed through the street. Yeah, it's it's pretty gnarly stuff for this show. I probably it's like the biggest like quote unquote action scene of the first two episodes. I don't know, get jousting, there's the whole there's this, I mean the joust I don't know. Like when I saw the jousting scene, I was like, We've done this before, Like, why are we doing this again?

It didn't do much like that. It doesn't do it anything for me at this point we've seen it like three or four times in the run of the original show. As it was that Tristan or Kristen character better turn into something because I don't. That's the only thing really I got out of it. Well, it's to introduce Kristin Cole, who's a Dornish night and yeah, he will show up in the second episode in a little bit more of an important role.

But it seemed, yeah, you know, as much as I enjoyed this first episode, I feel like you could take the whole jousting thing out or shorten it because it just it kind of drugged the episode down and kind of grounded to a halt because again, like we've seen in the first season of the show, there was the jousting tournament there at win, it was in Winter Film. It's been, there have been and then and I know in the second season of the show it opens with like a you know with the Joffrey's birthday thing in the comment and all that. So we've seen this a couple of times now where they are setting it at these jousting tournaments. It was that you remember the hound kills the guy while jousting or the mountain kills the guy while jousting in the first season.

That's what this reminded me of. Yeah, but that was better, Like that was actually good because we had never seen it before and we're meeting all these characters like here it's we aren't meeting characters here, but like it maybe maybe don't go to that well one more time. Yeah, And then not to say it's like a poorly written scene or it doesn't succeed in what it's doing, which is giving us backgrounds for characters kind of in an easier digestible way rather than really grinding well, but also like, you know, we get to learn more about the other characters through their dialogue in the scene, and we don't have to have nothing happening and just people sitting around a table. There's jousting kind of being used as set dressing to kind of distract us while people are talking.

Also a bit unclear, you know what the rules of engagement are. Sometimes you die, sometimes you don't. It's just how you feel in like, well, yeah, the jousting tournament essentially breaks down at the end where people just start murdering one another, but not always it's like arbitrary. Yeah, this is just like they go like, oh, you know, is this how we want to have the new heir's birthday remembered with all this bloodshed? And it's like, well, I mean it's a pretty ominous omen for where the show ends up, where what story this show is telling.

This is a rather ominous omen wouldn't you say? Yeah? And it's also interesting, like you said about the jousting and the scene with Damon, like they're clearly spending like money on some of the big sets, like we're getting a lot of dragons. That looks good, but it's also like, especially an episode two, I don't know more a lot of like just in rooms. So I'm like almost wondering if they're like kind of allocating the budget a bit more.

I wondered that myself. It does seem like like a much closer show when it's yeah, like when the big set pieces aren't on screen, it's really like just a bunch of people in the room talking, which is cool. Like I'm okay with that because if they're good at writing dialogue. That was one of like the high intrigue political stuff, and the original show was stuff I was on board with. It went away later in the show pretty hardcore, but those first four seasons were full of like political machinations and backstabbing and all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, I mean it's very like Game of Throats. I guess what I'm saying is it's, uh, maybe because we have like such a tighter cast so far, it feels like that like, oh my god, we don't we don't really know any normal people. Like in the original Game of Throats you kind of knew like how the people felt about like the king and like what the sort of normal people were like. Right now, like we kind of really have only seen from the kings and the high lords and ladies of this world are the only people we've been following so far, Like we don't like to do It's like, you know, wonder it is his approval rankings to see above Biden? Is he a little Biden?

Like this is Sarah's like, well, I was looking for the mid terms. We don't get any of that, so we can tell he seems a little bit ineffectual, like to his small counsel. But honestly, I have no idea what the perception is outside of that, And I don't know if that's intentional. I don't know if they're going to expand on that. It's just that is a difference from the original Game of Thrones.

Is that was clear immediately, like that was a pretty large world and there's a lot going on, and we were seeing all the different parts of that within the first couple episodes. We haven't yet. It's not a criticism per se, but I do think it did add a little the life to the world that they're building out. So I would like to see a bit more of that well. And the first I mean, if you remember the first episode of the first show, that first episode of the first show takes place like almost entirely a winter Fell, right, because the King comes to Winterfell, but you know Lady and you know the and the can and you know the yeah Jamie and all that.

So like that episode's rather tight and small like this one is. But yeah, then like you said, episode two and three and four and five, it's like it opens up the world like essentially like the floodgates open almost immediately, but because all the characters are sent out into the world. Yeah, but even that, like Winterfell, you're starting as like from subjects of the King, right, so like you're kind of seeing like the story, the story comes to Winterfell, and they use that as the launching point for everyone else to leave because like most of the characters in the first the first iteration of this show never like all get back together until like towards the end of the show. Yeah yeah, yeah, right, And like I don't want this show to be that because we already saw that.

I want this to be a smaller show with a more centralized cast. I don't need to know what's happening. And I think that's what the Lord of the Ring Show is going to do. I think it's gonna be like Game of Thrones, it's gonna have like pockets of characters all over the place, and the trailer I think has already made that clear. But this, I hope is what you're talking about, where it's like, let's build let's build an ornate, rich world, but in a smaller capacity.

We don't need to have eight million people all over the world all over the map of the of the of the land of Game of Thrones, Like we need a couple like maybe even just like here and somewhere else, but even that might be too much. And uh yeah, and we're not following Matt Smith when he's not on screen. We're following the people at King's Landing. Yeah, I mean pretty much exclusively with like with like a little bit of oceanic views in season two, right, uh yeah. And so like, Matt Smith's probably the most interesting character because he has this like there is like a simmering of family loyalty, and you see it more in episode two, Like, but he is incredibly power hungry and unstable and everyone sees that and him being the heir's just like not a tenable situation, which is kind of leads to the core conflict of the show, which is the king's wife dies, his air dies, he nominates his daughter as Air, which in her Game of Thrones show and the old Game of thron show would be an issue, but it is because of like as we said, they've never had a woman rule, at least under the Targarians.

And that then makes Damon no longer the air. And he kind of just huffs and puffs and you know, takes his candy and leaves. But he's very dangerous. He has a dragon, he has like several thousand very loyal soldiers, and I think that's going to be at least seems to be like the Crux, like his sort of basically fuck you to the king and disrespect and making him seem weak. Well see, I mean this the the opening conflict of this show is ray Nara being the Air when Damon should have been the Air.

Because Damon went to a brothel said air for a day, got back to the king. The King said did you say this? He said, yeah, I said it, and that was enough. I mean, that was enough. And you know what I mean, is it petty?

Yes, but when your child just died and your wife just died, understandable reasoning, right, But I mean, in the scope of this universe, it's petty. But we've seen that in this show, and I appreciate that because it's it paints these characters as people less like perfect, you know what I mean. Like also in the context of the show, like everyone except the King is since you're protecting day, King is protecting Dame because everyone's like he's basically just untethered, like right right, the king is. The King goes to bad for Damon all the time, and they're finally like after his son dies, they're like, you need to make na your This was the crystallizing Yeah, this was the crystallizing moment for him, Like all right, the all bets are off.

Yeah, And and then the other interesting relationship. So are Allison and Ranera lovers? Like I've seen some stuff online where people are like, oh, it's totally a gay relationship, like they were. I mean, I don't know, let me put it this way. They never showed it.

So if people are if people are saying it's there, it's merely just because two female characters can't be close on screen without being lovers. Well, I mean they're like cuddling, they're going away together. And also that's why I think it makes like the Conflict India episode two more because otherwise I don't really that big of a deal because but sure, I would put it this way, they're not it's it's not explicit, but they're they're leaning pretty heavily towards it, which like cowards just like no, they have like just say it, like there's nothing wrong with it, Like what's wrong with the character being gay? Why do they have to be what as someone who's gay? Like I appreciate the whole secret gay thing because that's been a trope since forever, Like a character who's not gay outwardly, I mean Stranger Things did it it?

Chapter two? Did it? Like it's been every There's been plenty of pieces of media where a character's coded coded gay but not gay. I mean, go Dumbledore's gay. That that one will never make sense to me because that is a book thing, not a movie thing, because it's not in the movies at all.

But don't they do in the in the Fantastic pieces, Not that I've seen the Fantastic don't have any idea because I refused to watch those movies past the first one. But what cracks me up is like unless they say it like it's just conjecture. So yeah, maybe she's being written that way, but like that's how I interpreted Watch. Like I was two women have a sharing a very close relationship, and it's not like they were like hiding it from people. No, I feel like they were pretty open about it, but it wasn't explicitly stated.

But I think this is a universe where a female a female king, or a queen is a problem. You think of a queen who is also a lesbian is not going to be a bigger problem. Like yeah, like like honest, I have no idea. The only thing I bring this up is because Mobile gets them thinking of episode two, because that's because there's a whole other potential conflict coming up, and because after Emma dies Auto High Tower, the kid of the king is telling basically telling his daughter to like go hang out with Pimps's daughter out say for what it is, Yeah, and is weird the king the King's wife died, go keep him company. It's way way because Auto does generally seem to have the king's like best interest at hart, but we don't know much about him.

No, we've never spent any we don't so so I'm making assumptions, but and he sends her there, and like at the time, Vicarious is just like clearly just wants a kmanship. But he's not like nothing romantic, like he's very much just like hanging out. He's like, Okay, here's some of the talk too, while I make my giant le legos. Basically, So that was interesting. It was a bit unclear where they were going with that because of like I was like, isn't she with rain Era?

Like, well, and that's the thing. I mean, I think we both know where it's going. I mean, and again, yeah, we've seen the second episode, so it's more or less confirmed. But I will say as a as an episode on the whole, as an opening episode for the first post first series of Game of Thrones, stuff we've done as the first episode of a show that has to at times introduce new characters that we've never seen, get us invested in a story that we know some of us know about but some of us don't, and also try to give fans of the show who feel betrayed a reason to watch this show. I think it more or less succeeds because yeah, ten million people watch, but at the end of it.

How did those ten million people feel because you know, again, you had ten million people watch because there are probably people that are like, I'm gonna fucking hate watch this show because it's gonna be shit, you know what I mean. Like there are people that are like the angry fandom people. We all know somebody like that who's like, I'm gonna angry watch this. I'm gonna hate watch it. And like, for me, I probably three years ago, that's where I would have been with this show, but I was genuinely curious, like and I also love Patty Considine, so it was kind of a no brainer for me and Reese Evans.

But again, Patty Considine, you know, he's going to be essentially the lead for at least half of the first season of this show, So I was on board. But I think for me as as as a again more of a fan of Game of Thrones than I would say most people, but still consider myself a casual Game of Thrones fan compared to the people who really live and breathe the lore and the mythology and this extended universe of the books. I mean it's extended as in there's a lot more of it, but it's you. They're not sharing the same space. These are two different things.

Like the show lives in the continuity of the previous show, not the books, is what I mean, right, So as something that's removed from the books but inspired by the books. I think for me, it kind of checks all three boxes. What about you? Yeah, No, I mean I was all like I said, with the first five minutes, it's like, fuck, I'm all in right, it's hard not to me. Like the acting is great, the world buildings interesting.

You don't know exactly where they're going, but you want which is good, Like I'm okay with that. Yeah, yeah. And then the thing that like I think differentiates this a bit is it also seems quite focused on exposition, like this is how it used to be. These are like the rules of engagement, and it's like very much like that's maybe George R. Barton going saying like, hey, here's this because he's so involved in this show, like hey, here's the rules of how this works.

And there's a lot of like explanation of why things are done in a certain way and what the history is. And there's some references to Old Valeria and the Doom, which actually sounds quite interesting. They're setting a greely solid framework and groundwork for a show, and look, I think we would agree og Game of Thrones did too, so like it. It's a like you've said, this is a huge positive in my mind. The way the show opens, the way the show starts, I think is massively positive for what I think we're gonna get moving forward with this show.

I hope at least, and I think Ryan Condall, given what we've seen with Benny Off and Weise and how that ended up, I hope Ryan Condall takes a lot of notes from what they did and how to avoid that, because that feels rather easy to avoid. Stay committed to this show while you're working on it, and don't write it off until it's done. That's the one, honestly, That's what it seems like with Benny Off and Weisse. It seems like the Game of Thrones playset got old and they went onto their Star Wars play set, but we're all still playing with Game of Thrones. You were not even there with Star Wars yet, and they just gave up.

And it's too bad because again, that first season, those first couple of seaons, a Game of Thrones man there was nothing better on TV at the time. No, I mean, it's just it was unbelievable, Like they can do it anyway. They have they have, they have done it. Yeah, it's and that's the thing, Like, that's why I'm optimistic because I didn't know if those two ding Dongs were going to be involved with this show, and I'm glad they're not. I was really hoping to God that I wouldn't see their names anywhere, and guess what, they're not.

You know, the original plan for the spinoff was actually based on the original Long Night and I had, um, what's your name? Who's the lady from King Kong? Uh name? Oh? Naomi Watts?

Nammy Watts was gonna was right? That show got canceled. They filmed the pilot um, and I guess Hbos thought it was maybe two different because obviously Hals the Dragons is not that similar to Game of Thrones. I know that's the first five your first five minutes comment is pretty on the nose. Yeah yeah, uh, and you know we'll never see that one.

But never say in this day and age, ever say it ever. I mean, maybe they decide to go back to that. But my point is, like HBO decided to be a bit conservative and like saying, like, Okay, we know the reception to the end of the Game of Thrones was a little frosty. Let's kind of take it back to basics, but like focus on the things we know people like. The one thing is we still don't there's not really a lot of humor in the first couple episodes.

Not that Game of Toron was a funny show, but you had I don't know, like a Tyrian type charac Peter Danklige was the one bring in the funny and as well as um what was the guy his partner Braun Braun. So there isn't that. That's not to say there isn't that yet. But Damon is like is kind of the wild card, Like he's a superhero villain man. Like he's so he's written, he's written very garishly with a very exquisite flourish, Like he is the kind of character that I get invested in the show for because it's just like it's a it's a weirdo performance, but like the kind of performance that this show needs to really set itself apart.

And there is just like I said I mentioned earlier, like a sne of us who are like, he's not. I mean, he is pretty much evil in the context of he's a kind of dude's kind of he's not necessarily written flatly evil, like there's some there is like a weird sense of loyalty to his house. He loves Raynia. Then they can interact. They can interact with one another amicably, which is which There are characters in the original show who could never interact with one another amicably and are in this same position that these two were in.

And he'll basically do everything but attack his brother like like so so he has a lie, but he's so he's he's not like I guess what I'm saying is he's not jof free Una, right, which is which is good. I didn't need that in this show. Yeah, Like he's kind of like adjacent to a Joffree, but he's a bit more maybe because he's an older character, Like he's not as mindless. Yeah, he's also kind of sarcy ish, Yeah, kind of has always worrying about himself and nobody else. But again, loyalty to the family.

Yeah, yeah, no, I I you know, I you know, I really like Matt. I you know, I'm glad more people are getting to see Matt Smith because, like I know, he's a huge doctor I mean doctor who is a huge thing. But like there are people that still have never seen Matt Smith and a lot of stuff as much as like the fan of Doctor who have Yeah, I would say, like, while every actor does a pretty good job, Matt Smith is probably at least the first episode the one like that's gonna like pop. People be like whoa, Like yeah, this guy is like stand out, Yeah, it's it's his his. He definitely walks away with this first episode.

And you know, again, it's not like there aren't great performances. There are great performances across the board, and great actors across the board, you know, great, but bad wigs like just the like the wit man like look lovely. Put it this way, and this is an audio medium, not a visual medium. You shar mentioned the whole I look like a Targarian thing because I have long blonde hair. But I'm not blonde.

I am a natural brown headed human being. You shar knows this. We grew up together. The blonde hair is a relatively new thing. I feel like this is just me talking, like I know that going blonde is like the hardest thing to do if you have dark hair, But it also looks really bad when it looks really fake, and it looks really fake, like in a way that like you would not expect a show on HBO to look.

The last time I saw something this bad in a major production of something was Joss Whedon's Justice League, opening with Henry Cavill's totally real musta because yeah, speaking of things on HBO, Yeah, yeah, yeah, It's like, how did this get Like how did somebody look at the dailies and go, yeah, this is fine? Or was it just like this is the best we can do? Rat rasta dreadlock. Wigs have not come very far in the last forty years, is what we're being told. Chorless is uh, what's what's his daughter's name?

M Leah? Yeah, from the next episode. Yeah, it's yeah, we we we we start, we start really Yeah. So the next time we bring you an episode, you will be hearing us talk about the second sex. What we talk about.

Are we doing one wonder? No, We're just we're just we'll just work. We'll stop this and recording up um. On the next episode of Game of Bros. We're gonna be talking about the second episode of House of Dragon.

It's called The Rogue Prince. And what do you think it's about? Maybe the character that we spent the last forty five minutes talking about and gushing about. Who knows until then, Yeshar, is there anywhere that people can find you on social media? Are you still hiding out?

Uh? Yeah, I mean I have like a Twitter I don't use. So if you find him on Twitter and you message him, good for good for you Internet detectives. I mean it's like I think, uh, as for me U C stashu dot com, cstac hiw dot com. That's my link tree.

Go there for all the things that I work on, this show, planning of shows over over at c stashu dot com. We have a podcast network that we're working on that we'll have all of these shows on underneath that banner, so it'll be a little bit easier to find in the coming months. But as for right now, see stash dot com is my link tree for the things that I work on, including this show. As for this show, just just you know, go on any podcatcher and look for Game of Bros. And you'll find us.

Rate and review on iTunes. That's all you really need to do. Social media and stuff. We may make one, we may not. If people want to interact with us, cool if not, Hey, we're just doing this for fun because we're watching the show anyways, So US as always for both me and you, shar Well, we'll catch up on the next episode.

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