Episode 5: We Light the Way

Hello everyone, and welcome to Game of Bros. Another Game of Thrones podcast. So it's say stinking of the airways, but this show is actually good, so there might not be stinks like dragon shit on this episode of the show. I am still your one of your hosts, christas you, joined as always by my good friend from across the Narrow Sea. You can find me at the stepstones.

You can find me fucking my family members. No, God, not that. We'll let the show do all that because none of us in the real world need to be doing it. We're talking about the fifth episode of HBO's latest iteration of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon. That episode is titled We Light the Way.

It's directed by Claire Kilner, once again, written by Charmagne dig Gratte. I think that's how you pronounced their name, and it aired September eighteenth, twenty twenty two. This episode is what what is this episode about. We've got a little bit of a murder, as we tend to do in Game of Thrones. We have a wedding sort of we'll get to it.

I think the preview for the episode made it seemed more interesting than it maybe actually was going to be I don't know, but yeah, it's a Game of Thrones wedding folks. So as we know, as we mentioned before in our previous episode, we all know how wrestling weddings go. Weddings and Game of Thrones are not that different. So Yeshar, tell me a little bit about we light the way. So this episode is basically at the aftermath of the Damon and Rainiera bang Sesh almost bang Sesh, and it's about, you know, the consequence of that, which is her marrying lean Or.

So we started lean Or who apparently apparently lean Or is uh gay Noor. Yeah, I mean, look, we've seen this with Game of Thrones before. I think it's handled a little bit better here. Yeah, I mean it's it's a marriage of convenience. They're both like, you do whatever you want, right, and it kind of gets our parents off our backs.

And they're not saying Rainierro is gay. They're really just saying Rainierro just wants to funk whoever the hell she wants exactly, and she actually so there's a interesting scene early in the episode with Kristen where he's uh, she basically proposes to him. You know, we can keep our arrangement going, uh, you know, len Or is just arm candy and christ is like a man of honor. And he does not like that. And well, he's already mad at himself for for dating his oath, Yeah, for defiling his own oath of you know, don't do what you're you know, you take a vow of chastity.

Yeah, And he tries to convince her to basically run away with him, and Brainier basically laughs at his face. How is that much better? Like I don't understand, Like, oh, well, you know, uh, we we fucked in private, in secret, nobody knows, but let's run off and get married. It's like, bro, like that's a problem. I think in his mind he's like, well, if it's real, you know, at least I have that to like, you know, say, it's like a real relationship I'm doing this for rather than that's her horror if you will.

Yeah, And then I guess yeah. I mean I overall, I enjoyed the episode. It's the last thing we get the previous times, the tenure time jump after the next episode, the wedding, I think plays with our expectations a bit, and I think the creators talked about that in the After the Thrones episode, Like, we generally anticipate these weddings to be quite brutal, and this one is brutal and has a death, but it's it's more of a sad like, it's a sad engagement rather than a devastating one. Yeah. I think it's a good way of putting it.

Leonor has his own kind of version of Kristen in the context of lover Night. Geoffrey great name name of Jeoffrey quite popular in this universe. Yes, unbeknownst to those of us that don't read that don't read the source material, and so you know the basically the probably back half of the episode primarily deals with the wedding, I mean the later half of it. Like that, the wedding is half of the episode. Yeah, I would say it's probably one of the better episodes so far off the season.

Other than there is no instance in the wedding where Christen just like loses his mind when Geoffrey insinuates he oh sorry, we skipped. One important thing is the Queen questions Kristen about the night that rant. I hate this storytelling. I hate this this you're talking about one thing. I think you're talking about something else, and so I'm going to admit the thing that youth that I think you're talking about when you're actually talking about that is such us Like that doesn't happen in real life.

I mean, it doesn't happen like this. Yeah, and all of this comes from Rainiera taking that tea at the end of the last episode, and Allison finds out about the tea, and the tea is a I guess, an abortive tea, and so Allison knows again, Allison knows that that's you know, that's what it is, because it's the grand Master bringing it. That's that's I guess That's a little bit of logic leap that I'm okay making. But yeah, the whole Kristen Cole admits being with Rainiera when she's when Allison's asking her. It's like, it's the laziest It's one of the lazier storytelling tropes.

I know that that might be a controversial opinion, but like yourself, as someone who watches a fair amount of movies in TV, I've seen it before and it's it's not like I'm beating up on Game of Thrones. It's lazy anytime anyone does it, like in Game of Thrones or in Dexter, or in other Game of Thrones or wherever else you might find it, because again it's a convenient storytelling trope to get two pieces of information out almost simultaneously, and it relies on Laris basically somehow he's seen everything. He saw the guy going with the tea and knew what the tea was and knew about the whole thing. Um his character, I know what they're trying. They're basically trying to make him.

Well, he's more like Little Finger with ambition, but maybe little Varisi and sort of his Mcca. He's the master of whispers. I mean, that's what Varius's job was originally in the Small Council. It's I mean, we'll talk about him more and the next, but I have a proper job. We don't see him at the Small Council, like what he just hangs around the hand I think he has.

I think he'll have a job eventually. Yeah, but like the access he seems to have is weird. So like I feel like that's quite lazy, convenient. Well, his dad is the hand of the king, so that's yeah, that just allows him to I guess to hang around um so he and then so Alison really betrayed by this because it's like she feels like her friends lied to her face. And when she finds out that she's also been with Kristin, she's just basically like, here is dead to be basically like, nothing about her is genuine and I can't trust her, which means, you know, her father goes off and tells her she never asked her about being with Kristen.

She asked about being with Damon, and it's like she does swears, she does swear she's a virgin, though I don't understand why that matters so much in this universe. I mean, I understand why it matters, but like idealistic, well, and I well, and I think her that comes from her father obviously. I mean her father's a little idealistic as well. I mean, you get that great scene into getting in the episode that I think kind of informs a lot of where the show is going, where he's like, look, she's your friend now, but it ain't gonna matter in ten years, because it doesn't matter if she's your friend now. In ten years, she will have your life in her hands.

Period. Hard stop, no, questions asked, and if she starts having kids, then you're double fucked, your triple fucked. And that's and that is the thing about this show and this iteration of the show that I do appreciate is that the show is willing to this time around just say like, here is what's happening, and like, here is everything that's happening almost given to you. I mean it's a little bit expository, I would say, I think you would probably agree, But at the same time, like, I appreciate that the show is just like this is going to be the big sticking point for the next couple episodes, if not the rest of the show. Is this idea that like friends and family, like it's a it's a slippery slow right.

They always say, don't work with your friends because they'll take advantage of you. Don't work with your family because similar things might happen. And then you get the what happens when you have relationships with these people? And yeah, I mean Auto High Tower is right, and we're seeing I mean, we're seeing what happens. You know.

Allison really puts that into Actus later in the episode where she's trying to yeah, figure out I mean she's gonna she is going to replace the king at some point, essentially, is what the show is telling us, and the show and the show is making it very clear in this episode that Patty Considine's character is on the way out in a big way. Yeah, he's not long for this world. Although the previous two shows he does make the time job. I don't know how much long he's gonna la last after that, but right, but again, but again, we know he's not living to like ninety. Right.

It's made very clear in this episode that there is a power shift coming. And yeah, we knew that there was going to be something with the ten year time jump between this episode and the next episode, but I was not expecting to see the Allison character become kind of this queen in her own right all of a sudden. I mean, you have her coming into the throne room during the wedding at the end, and she's wearing green and they're talking about like what does green mean? You know, and green means that, you know, they stand with her, the people in old Town. You know, when old Town's beacons are green, that means that old Town is, you know, And I think it works.

I don't think they needed to say it in the episode, like to further punch at home. Does that make sense? I think a little subtlety goes a long way. I don't tells Harwin, Yeah, like that's what it means. It was a bit it made sense, But I was like, I feel like she wears green all the time anyway, So for me, I don't know if I was being ignorant or I just haven't paying attention.

But I think it's impactful. I think well. And I think also the fact that you have a character straight up just saying it in the same it undercuts any emotional like value that that has, because again, it's important if you're a fan of the show and you're a fan of the source material and you know that, But like, do you need do you need to say to us like that's who that is, that's why that's it. I don't. I'm of the mindset that, yeah, I'm of the mindset that sometimes with stuff like this, a little bit less is more, because yeah, you know, the imagery of her dress, obviously in the color, is something that's important for the progression of the character throughout the story.

But I don't think you have to have a character in the scene saying, do you understand why it's green? It's like, you don't have to club us over the head that hard. And then Damon shows back up after us like the exile that the king threw him in after the event blows the doors right open, baby, And at the beginning the episode actually opens with him going back to see his wife. I'm quick to actually kill her, but I think he does. He picks up a rock and he walks over towards her.

But in regards to did he kill her, kill her? He startled the horse or the horse got spooked startled? Yeah, he actually was going to leave her, and she's talking shit to him on the way out, because he goes up there and like he very barely does anything to the horse actually in the horse freaks out. That seems kind of shot oddly, I thought. I mean, I think it's shot.

I think it's shot the way that it's shot, because again, I think it is to give us the audience a question of doubt in our mind, is it because again, like Damon, I think is the Damon so far as obviously I think the most interesting character on the show, namely for a number of reasons. A Matt Smith giving it his all, be typecasting Matt Smith against typecast with Damon. I mean, he's such a lovable guy, Matt Smith, that you're you're playing against his typecast of like a lovable hero, and then you want people to root for him, and you're not going to root for a guy who murders his wife like that. So you got to give the audience a little bit of doubt. And I think it's smart though, because you could view it as him giving her an ounce of mercy, right, because like what happens in this world if your neck is broke, I don't I don't want to be that guy.

But in this universe, in the world of Game of Thrones where Brand is in a wheelchair, but that's like a new thing, Like what's going to happen to her? Yeah? I mean, and she was a loose end because it's clear he wants to move on, and that he moves on and he kind of actually starts courting Lena, who is much older now because I think it's like three or four years. I mean I think she's an adult now. No, yeah, for for Wester Rosie standards and they make eyes and you know, she seems taken by Damon warrior mentality, his wily ways.

Yeah, and you know she's only like a loose cousin to him, so that's pretty good for Targarian Umic Targarians is love banging each other, so yeah, and the dinner like seeing them a curse. So Damon shows up, the king kind of just allows him because he's like, let's have peace at the wedding, and and Allison comes in, and then you do feel this sense uneas you're like, what's going to happen? Something weird is going to happen. And Joffrey indicates to m Lenore and also to christ and directly he knows. He can just tell by his body language that Raina and Rania and Uh and Kristen have have been together, but he's not really saying it in the bad way.

So like, I hate that, Like the like the characters pace, it's it's a it's reaching. It's like I see him over there acting a certain way, so I automatically assume that's what's going on. It's like I I mean fine again. In the world of storytelling, sure, because the story's got to move along and you don't want to spend an entire season ned starking it up, but at the same time, like, there, I feel like there's got to be better ways to do it. There does, but it's fine.

I was like, whatever, I just thought it. And then the thing that was a little bizarre to me was the react Christon's reaction to all this, because he's basically saying like, hey, you watch your person's back, I'll watch my person's back. We'll watch our other partner's backs. Because that was high interpret He's like, hey, these people are reporting to us. We both kind of know what's up.

Like, I didn't find it like particularly threatening, I think, but maybe Kristen was feeling self conscious because he was willing to actually like leave the King's Guard. He was willing to even like go to the wall or he even die when he confessed to Al but she showed him mercy. And then I guess this other person doing it, plus he feels a little less than and then it just erupts where you just see someone getting the shit beat out of them, and it's Joffrey getting his face literally caved in like a mountain style like Kristen, and christ even pushes christ even pushes Lane or away, which is a no go. And the weirdest thing is that there's no consequence. He just it's weird what you can kind of understand what triggered him, but like it still doesn't really make sense that, especially from what we had seen of him so far, that this was what he would do, this is who he would do it too.

And like also it just kind of gets like YadA YadA, and the main consequences. They just speed up the wedding and just do it right after, and the King's bleeding and passed out and it's just a sad state of affairs. They're not having this huge wedding. They wander but he's just like, I just want to get this done. This is a shit show.

Yeah, I feel like, okay, I feel like the wedding portion of this episode existed to advertise the wedding portion in the previous episode. They made it look like something was going to happen, and then something does happen. But like, subverting our expectations is one thing, and I'm not complaining about my expectations being subverted. I think my issue is more with lazy writing and lazy storytelling and giving us a character who, like you've mentioned, yeah, he kind of has a moment of emotional kind of weakness with Rainiera and having sex with her. I mean, again, per what he has said, his character's job is is not doing that.

He's supposed to protect her, he's supposed to keep an oath of celibacy. YadA, YadA YadA, Like you said, YadA YadA, everything away and then they they YadA YadA all of that out. They're just like it does. But none of this matters. Why why would he go ape shit in front of everyone like that unless he knew he could do it, which I guess he could, but then he at the end of the episode he's going to kill himself, so he knows he can't.

It's it's look again, the last episode kind of had it. This episode has it a lot more. This show is really leaning on just get us there, just get us there, like just go just get us there, And like that was my concern. We've been talking about it almost since the beginning of this show, and I'm going to bring in another show now. I keep bringing this show in on that show.

But the Lord of the Ring show, which is really copying from Game of Thrones' first season with the way it's setting up its story. I'm sure you're right, right, yeah, you don't try to kind of pull that together, right, right. They've expanded the net in the first couple episodes, and now they're finally drawing the net back in and kind of but it took them six five episodes to get to the point where the net has been expanded, and now they're drawing it in. This show for the last five episodes has been pinballing, pinballing everywhere because a it's a show that has time, has had like five time jumps in as many episodes of four time jumps. I think from the original prologue to where we're at now is like what fifteen sixteen years or something like that.

I mean, we'll say five or six years. We haven't had an opportunity to get invested in any of these characters, at least not in a substantive way. And now the show is effectively saying, oh, hey, you know all the characters the way they were before, being prepared to see them differently next episode because there are the same characters, but they're not going to be They're being played by all different actors, at least the younger characters as they are now. So I feel like with Sir Kristin Cole, you know, all of that out of the way, the writing with that scene, and the writing and the wedding scene. It's the writing and the wedding scene almost felt like we don't know what to do here because we need to figure out a way to get this.

We need to figure out a way to get them marry quickly. And yeah, like why would Kristin Cole not just say yeah, that's great, okay, I'll make what Like, I just like I don't understand form of like toxic masculinity in a way that really hasn't It's they're doing too much tell and not show, right. They say show don't tell on TV normally, I mean they say show don't tell in most visual mediums. Yeah, and we see it, but it's like, yeah, just I hate you. Why did he kill him?

And it just doesn't feel it like what he said to him does not feel like it would warrant that reaction. Yeah, and like Christen Cole is a man of his morals quote unquote, he had a momentary laugh with Rayniera, but outside of that, like, yeah, so far's he's presenting himself in a way that everybody around him is surprised when he does this too. Yeah, and at the end of true point, he was about to kill himself and Alison stops him. Clearly she's vouching for him and has plans for him or something like that. And I think she does it because it's it's her fault, right, her fault, and she also kind of I think the fact that he came lean to her like that's that is actually an honesty is important to her and so she's like, Okay, this is a person I can trust, and this is a person that like is physically capable, and like, this is a person that could be on my side at a court where now I have no one because my dad is gone.

And he was really the only person who thought that Visaras doesn't care about her, but she knows that if it comes between her and Rainia, Visarahs will almost always choose Rainira, right, So yeah, you know, I'm maybe Sir Kristin Cole perceived the words as a threat. I don't know. I don't. I think it's accumulation. I don't think it was even instance, but it just wasn't portrayed well, I know, because all of a sudden, all of a sudden, this fighting starts and it's like what like for what what purpose?

Like and they're like what's going on? And I don't know. It felt like they were trying to be like, oh, something crazy is going to happen, but then it like it doesn't. Like Kristin Cole just beats the shit out of this poor guy and that's it. Like that, I don't know what, like what else happens in that scene, but that's it, Like that's it.

Like nothing of substance happens like Rainia in the preview for last episode. In the last episode's preview for this one, it showed like Rainia like on the ground and we were like, oh my god, like what's happening? Nothing, like really nothing. I think it was just like a means to an end to show a Vissara's can't get anything done the way he wants it to go. Everything goes poorly all the time.

They have a very like pathetic wedding with like Leonore still crying about his lover and like Vissara's bleeding out, but he just wants to get the job done. And I guess this serves to fracture the relation between Kristen and Rainierra and then like a line Kristen with Allison. But I wonder if there was maybe a more elegant way to do that. They already planted the seeds of them being intimate with one another, Like why they had to kind of drag Lenoor into the story kicking and screaming with his lover is just I don't know, I don't I understand the point and I understand the purpose, and we both know it's Game of Thrones. It's a brutal universe where nothing is you know, nothing is what it seems from a fantasy standpoint.

Instead of dragons being cool, dragons are terrifying, instead of you know, it's it's the Game of Thrones thing where they're subverting what you expect from this kind of story. But I don't need every scene to have, you know, a person getting their fucking face smashed in just because you want to show someone getting their face smashed in. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm not saying like they're you know, I'm not you know, poo pooing violence. But this show is just like it's really leaning hard on how brutal this season is, and like it's leaning.

It's kind of leaning on like how brutal and unforgiving the world is. But what Jeoffrey said to Kristin Cole is just it's not enough to warrant this. And I, like you said, I feel like the writers really could have maybe sat down with this part of the script and gone over it one or two more times, just to maybe make what Jeoffrey says to Kristin Cole a little bit more threatening, because again, I didn't perceive it that way. You didn't perceive it that way, but he did. And it's like I appreciate if he does, but like the audience should also feel the same as the character, because again we haven't.

We haven't had a reason up until this point to really not like his character or sympathize with his character, or at least be entertained by his character. And now it's like this he's yeah, And like it was a disorienting scene for everyone there, and it's all people, disorienting for the viewer, Like I was like, I don't know why this is, Like I was so confused and I just felt like I was missing something. I was watching that and I'm like, this is obviously very important it's the editing. It's very poorly edited. It's just they have them talking and then all of a sudden, it's, oh my god, people are fighting.

It's like, whoa, you can't. You can't jump like that with what we just saw. It's got to be more than that. And it's not just me, and it's not just you, Like I know that we I know that the editing for this episode is not great. And I have gone online and looked at other people talking about this episode and it's similar.

It's just like, I mean, it was fine and all, but like they could have done it in a more Game of Thrones way and a little less ham fisted. I mean that's it's pretty ham fisted. But I do enjoy still all the performances, and it's like, even though there's things like this that annoy me, I'm still like liking the show and I definitely want to see what happens next. It's like there's never a part where I'm like, oh, I'm out, that's like no, it's like there's room for improvement. I think some of the writings a bit if the but we know, like this is it.

Like I think from this point on, it's it's the big leagues, and I'm starting to think that, like maybe because obviously I think I don't know the next half of the season are all future seasons. It's just going to round this sort of who it has the right to the throne. I think this is just like saying, Okay, we at least now understand enough about like Allison and Ramierra and Desarra's say, like what's driving these people so when they're attention, we have a little bit of context rather than starting us there. I think I don't really think it's about the specific details of like Kristen beating up the sky, Like I don't think that's going to be super consequential ten years later, but I think it might be consequential the context of positioning him where he is, right that makes sense, I completely I mean, I completely agree.

That's and that is my biggest complaint. You know, as we bring this first, it's weird. A lot of times with shows you don't have this kind of like delineation mark that we have with this one, which is this is the end of the this is almost the end of the season zero of this show is kind of what it feels like. I mean, this whole first five episodes have been kind of a prologue to the real story being told. Yeah, and I don't think it's been very successful in a lot of ways.

I think there have been moments of success, but I don't think that this I don't think that this storytelling technique really works this way. And I don't think it really worked in Hannibal either when they did it. Because ten episodes is not a lot, right, five episodes is even less, and you're expecting sand for Hannibal slander, but continue. I like the third season of Hannibal, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's the best season of the show any more than you would. The first four or five episodes of that season are quite bizarre.

Yeah, they sure are, aren't they? And then the rest, then the back five are pretty good the Red Dragon. But that's my point. Maybe the next five episodes of this show are going to be fucking amazing. Maybe, But here's the problem.

I would have preferred you give me ten episodes of that as opposed to five episodes of this. You know, that's my point. Hannibal kind of did the same thing. It's like, well, we're gonna we want to do two things we want to give you, you know, like I don't know those those Instagram famous drinks that have like half and half, like half of one thing and half to like, yeah, maybe I just want one or the other. I don't need both.

And here it's like you're you're sacrificing something back end storytelling for front end storytelling. You're saying, and I haven't seen a show do it that works yet, to be perfectly honest with you, where they have this hard marcation line of this is the first ten years and this is the ten years later. It's like, I'm that Hannibal season didn't work that well. This season's not working that well for me either. I'm I don't know, are flashbacks any better?

I guess that's the question, Like is it, I don't know, like flashbacks, I don't know. Probably not. We'd be complaining about that. I think there's like there do it either way? Yeah?

Is there a way to do it? Is there a way to do it where you don't have a literal five episodes and then you jump type thing? Is there a way to do that without it being just like a flashback nightmare? I maybe not. Maybe I just swallow the fucking swallow it and just do ten episodes of this story, like I'm sorry, or do you condense it't doing in less episodes where you just hit the main things.

I don't know, I think I think really the point is just to understand like the relationship aspects, sure all the players going into the main conflict, because I don't, like I said, I don't think a lot of these little small things are gonna matter. I don't think Damon's really suffering any consequences for the death of his wife. I don't think no, like Visaris is ineffectual behavior is going to really be that impactful in the context stuff. He's still probably he's still going to be the king once the time skip is done, and like you know, it's just really just trying to prep us for why these people aren't getting along or why they are where they are, rather than putting us. This is like the show Dot Tell.

They're trying to show us, not just tell us. I get that because they could just start this season in the future and then like we can either do bashbacks or just exhibition kind of understand why they don't like each other. But at least we'd be getting to the story. Yeah, but I think the consequence is we still don't we still don't know that the full crux of the main conflict. We'd like have an idea about it.

And it does feel like we're just kind of jumping to get there, like um um, Harmon's brother, not Laris, Lionel, No, not no, Harwin's brother, the cripple guy. Laris is Laris. Okay, yeah, so like it's just like even Laris, he's just like getting us there. Yeah, well that's so that's my point, Like this show has not given us a moment to breathe. It has been like pinballing everywhere it has been.

It knows where it has to get. By episode six, it has to get to they're all grown up now and they have real adult problems. Like that's where the show has to get. And so they were like, five episodes is enough right to tell this story? And we have gone everywhere in five episodes.

It's insanity how fucking fast this show has. But we've seen the crab Feeder. The crab Feeder was like three episode. It's what it feels like. I feel like the same show.

You know, It's yeah, I don't know again, I'm not complaining about that. I think my real complaint with this show is, I maybe when the show is said and done, eight episodes or eight seasons from now, or whatever the fuck this show's final run is, I don't care if you have this five season, this five episode thing here at the beginning of the season, you know, like it just hasn't done anything the question. Yeah, it actually like with the way you're describing, Oh, Damon's not gonna for any of this, and that's like, yeah, he's not, is he? Like no, he's sure, isn't is he? And like that that seems like a waste.

Like what seems like a waste to me is that you're showing us all this stuff that has no consequence. All that mattered was we need to understand who Damon, Rainiera, Allison, and Vasari's kind of are. That's it, like lean Or Lena everybody else, Like they're still going to be adults by the time we get to the sixth episode. Were right, I barely know any of the characters in this show, frankly, because again, they've been trying to set everything up so hard so quickly that they I bet they feel like they've given us a lot with Rainiera, and that's probably the character they have given us the most with, but in comparison to like other characters in shows where they are the main character ostensibly quote unquote, I don't feel like we've been given enough of I feel like with Rayniero, we've been given enough.

But I also feel like we're gonna like she can't be the final character of this story, right, and that they're also making that very clear. Also, Yeah, and I think some of the some of the future episodes, like I think some of the be the creators said, it's really about like not just these main characters that we know now, but a lot of the characters are gonna be introduced in the future, and I think we probably get in that in future episodes. But even Rainier has had like some things happen rapidly showing like she's not She's introduced to us almost like a ned stark Ish substitute or let's say John Snow maybe is a bit more realistic, but like by this time, we're like, is she even Are we really even rooting for her?

Well? And that's my point, it's like that who am I rooting for the character that they the characters that they've introduced, they have essentially said, like, get ready to not recognize them when we time jump, and they've already put that into motion with Rainier's character, where it's like, who who is this character now? When when she's talking to David she's like, you know, marry me, Like, is she just saying that to get his goat? Ye? If she's serious, And like, if she's serious, which is the way I interpreted it, then she's a terrible human being and she is a terrible character and we should not be rooting for her.

And I don't know if she if she was like trolling or I don't know what her deal was. Again, but again that's my point, like they have we have gone from Rainiera being a character that the two of us were like, Yeah, this is an interest finally an interesting female Game of Thrones character too, Like what like she's she's she's sort of like a proto Damon kind of yeah, pretty violent, pretty much. But again it's it's made very clear to us as the audience that she is, just like the rest of the Tartarians, mentally unstable and unable to cope with reality the way it is with the world that they live in and they're going to create their own reality because they have dragons. And they keep saying as much like over and over and over, we have dragons, were you know, Vassara says, you know, we're going to rule for one hundred you know, the next generation of Targarians.

It's like for a hundred more years. And it's like, because you have dragons, we got nukes. Yeah, pretty much, like that's yeah, I mean right, like that's what dragons are in this year. Yeah, yeah, they're nukes. Yeah, they are.

They are the force by which every other force is measured, because there is nothing of equal level two dragons, at least where I'm at. And I think you're with me, like we're generally enjoying the ride, but there's it's still hard, like the sow what for me, I'm struggling a bit, and I'm hoping that this rush to the time skip pays off emotionally if not plot wise. And I still like, like I was super engaged when I watched the episode. I just once it was done, I was like, there's a few things that just didn't sit right with me. That's that was my experience.

I know, I completely agree, you know, again, it's weird because the first season of the original show did not have time jumps. It was told chronologically rather linear. You know, we had Denis introduced ostensibly the way you could have introduced Rainiera and told her story in reverse. I mean, they talk about Denis, and they tell her story not through flashbacks but through dialogue and through characters talking about things. And yeah, we don't see you know, we see I think stuff.

I don't even think it's the first season where we see the mad Kig. I maybe it is, Yeah, I think it is first or second. Yeah, but but I don't know. The things that I wanted from this show, I feel like I have gotten somewhat. But I also feel like the reason that this show is doing what it's doing is because of what the original show did.

And this show is trying to say, Okay, well, we can't just tell another chronological story, so let's do some time jumps. Let's do some It's not even what is it creative? What is it like? It's just it feels a little contrived, is what it feels. It feels a little I don't know, it's not great.

It's creative in the context that it's like we're helping you to much with these characters, who, like two of the biggest ones and a few of the others, like supplement ones, will not be in the rest of the adoration of this show, like they will be as characters, but factors that we write, and they're doing a lot of the emotional half, and that is a bit different. So I guess we could say, like, that's a creative risk. It's a creative risk. It really is. You know, I don't know how successful it is.

Again, I think time. I think time will ultimately tell. I think, you know, when the when the season is over, will probably be a better indicator of how well they quote stuck the landing unquote. Yeah, But I think for me, it's an interesting experiment that I wonder if other shows will ever implement, because again now kind of having seen it twice with this and Hannibal, and you know, I don't watch all the TV in the world, So dear listener, if there are other shows that do this, please let us know how successful they are. But as of right now, I would actually say Hannibal has been more successful than the show has using that time job.

So I'm cuberpunk twenty seventy seven Subberpunk Drunners, the anime actually does that. We're between episodes five and six. There's actually a significant time jump that caught me a little off guard and took me like an episode or two to get into. But it does work, but it catches you a little off guard. I mean, we knew it was coming with this show.

I just I don't think either one of us expected there to be time jumps before that. Before the time yeah, yeah, and there was like one or two and sometimes you see that in the show, but it was like every episode, there's a decent chunk of time pass literally every episode. I don't think we've been I don't think we have seen an episode of this show that hasn't jumped. I mean, if you if you just go look at the if you go look at these synopsises, it's like six months after, four months after, three years after, it's like Jesus Christ, I know you're not changing the actors, but like, big things keep happening and maybe they're not important. Clearly they're not, but I don't know.

I'm maybe's episode six, seven, eight, nine, and ten will quell the issues that I've had, But yeah, yeah, first five episodes have been kind of all over the place, not in like a not trending in a bad direction, but definitely trending, trending still positive, but definitely just like some weird missteps like the crab Feeder. Like I think this episode in a lot of ways, almost entirely is a pretty big misstep. You know. I think giving the wedding as much time as they did was a mistake. I think they could have spent less time on it.

And yeah, I mean I know that they were trying to like bait us into figuring out where the conflict was going to come from in the wedding, but it ends up coming from Kristen Cole, who they essentially destroy his character to make that happen. So yeah, onto episode six and a jump forward, right, I do hear in the books he's not a particularly nice guy, so right, well, maybe that maybe they're making him nice was like a just at the beginning, was like a decision that the creators did that was less less honest to the character than are there any Are there any characters in Game of Thrones that are nice? Are they? Yeah? Are they really?

Though? Ned John's dude, ned Is They're all they're all upstanding, they're all have they're respectable, but I don't know how good they are. They're better than others are, but ned Starks, ned Starks still internalized the secret of John Snow for his entire life and never told anybody. Well, that was for his own protection, and you know, for his own protection and his own protection alone, and no one else's for John's protection. But it's also for ned Stark's protection.

Well, no, because if that camp in the hand of the king, if if his bastard is the Targarrian heir to the throne. Bro I don't know, like you know, Game, I think we all have a very difficult history with Game of Thrones, be it from the last season or the feelings towards the book, towards the show. I mean, Game of Thrones is a show that people will always have kind of not differing opinions on, but very strong opinions on. And far be it for me to think that this show is going to be any different. So onward to episode six, which is the final time jump of this season quote unquote, maybe it might not be the final it's the one that we've been talking about since we first started talking about this show.

I mean, are there gonna be other but this will be there. There will be more time jumps that is not there. There may be another time jump this season, but that would probably be with a different set of characters. You know, we know, we know that the King and the Queen's son is played by two three different actors, a infant, a child slash teenager, and an adult and an adult. So this season even so, there is one more but this is quote biggest one unquote.

Yeah see you in ten years, everybody. Yeah, So until then, until we talk about the Princess and the Queen, Yeshar, Are you still hiding out from people on the internet? Yes, uh yes, I am, uh great. Still I'm not responding to congress Is subpoenas. As for me, I'm not responding to their subpoenas either.

But if you wanted to find out more about the things that I talk about c STATSU dot com, c s t A, c HIW dot com, that's my link tree. Go there for all the things that I work on, which are various and verid as for this show, Game of Bros. Dot Com, Game of Bros on all podcatchers. That's where you can find us the only Game of Thrones podcast called Game of Bros. And yeah, we'll, we'll, We'll catch you on the next episode.