A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: S1/EP3 "The Squire"

We celebrate the 80th episode of the podcast with a tight, lively breakdown of The Squire. Egg trains with Thunder, the first full day of the tournament begins, and a secret is revealed that will shake up the foundation of Ser Duncan the Tall.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the 80th EP of Dancing with Dragons
• 1:13 News from the world of Westeros , and Showrunner Rumors
• 8:13 Review of the 3rd EP of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
• 37:24 Rating for episode 3 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
• 38:36 Groundhog Day
• 38:56 Looking ahead to the next episode

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Welcome back to Dancing with Dragons. I'm your host Tony, here with my co-host Minwa. Our little show is celebrating a milestone. It is our 80th podcast episode. Crazy to think we released our first episode back in May of 2023. For those listening for the first time, welcome and thanks for stopping by. Here, Minwa and I dive deep into all the topics related to the song of Ice and Fire Universe created by Georgia R. Martin. That includes episodic reviews of the show's GOT, HOTD, and of course the newest show set in Westeros, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. At the present, we have done episodic reviews of the first three seasons of Game of Thrones, all the episodes of Hostel the Dragon, and we are currently discussing Dunkin' Egg. In between revisiting shows, we do standalone episodes. For example, we have one on the Mad King, Roberts Rebellion, and one that details Daenerys' book journey in the House of the Undying. Today is a big day. We finally get to talk about Egg, or as he's called, Prince Egg on Targaryen. But before we dive into that, I want to ask my co-host Minois how she's doing, and she has some news bits she wants to share for everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13

Yes. So firstly, I'm doing well. How are you doing, Tony? I'm doing good. Hello everyone. Yeah, sorry, everyone I forgot to agree to. Yeah, so I have some West Rossi news. So recently, when me and Twendy were um messaging and talking about the episode, he said, Did you come across the news to be discussed in the podcast? And I said yes. I brought up something that I thought was extremely shocking to hear. Um so recently it's been reported that Showrunner Ira Parker stated that he pitched HBO to approach Anitha Seven Kingdoms now, like boyhood, been by Richard Link later, where he'd do several seasons with Egg as a kid, and then return every decade or so with new installments following these characters' stories over the course of their lifetime. So that hasn't been confirmed or not, and it seems like it's like most likely not going to happen, but I just feel a bit nervous hearing that because NSF is the only one that really has George's approval through and through so far. It's been like agreed upon supposedly a season per novella. And now he wants to take a different approach. And I know that George like does he says that he has the countless stories he wants to write on Duncan Egg, right? Like he he he has said that he wants to wrap up Windsor Winter and Song of Ice and Five, so that he can write more Duncan Egg not. But at the same time, it freaks me out a little because I felt like we had a plan, didn't we? With the Night of the Seven Kingdoms, it was set. It felt like I would I didn't have to worry with this one. We'll see. And and and and until everything or anything gets confirmed, I I won't panic because House of the Dragon is just something to already worry about and have itself for worrying about the Night of Seven Kingdoms. Let me enjoy what we have so far.

SPEAKER_00: 2:51

Yeah, and to think about ten years or twelve years that puts George at age eighty, eight, eighties, whatever. And that just puts a lot of pressure if you're saying, okay, we need 12 new stories and maybe he has an outline of all twelve, but to him, okay, now we need all this. And oh, by the way, you still need to finish these massive books that you're we've been waiting for forever. So I just I don't know. I it I don't know how to feel about it. I don't know. I mean, I guess we'll have G uh G O T or a Song of Ice and Fire content for the next, you know, twenty years.

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

Yeah. Um, but I mentioned House of the Dragon and future plans and reasons to be worried and stuff. And um, we do have like a quote on the future of House of the Dragons. Obviously, we're gonna get season three hopefully this year. And I believe Ira Parker gave a quote on that as well. Um, when asked about House of the Dragon, he says Ryan is working like any show like this. He's finishing posts on season three and working with the writers on what season four looks like. I don't know where he's landed on the episode count yet. So nothing to be worried about so far.

SPEAKER_00: 3:56

Ira Parker or HBO CEO said that.

SPEAKER_01: 3:59

Sorry, that was the HBO CEO. My notes uh confused me. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00: 4:05

Season four has six episodes. I'm gonna be really worried. I mean, I'm worried already knowing that George has no influence on this on the series anymore. But if there's twelve twelve episodes or ten or okay, I'll feel a little better knowing that they'll get to include what we want to include at the end. And I won't say what it is.

SPEAKER_01: 4:23

HBRCO KT Blues actually also gave a quote on the Seven Kingdoms and kind of hits that they want to release the show annually, like a season per year. He says, yes, they're currently shooting, this will be annual again. It was something that we were trying to. It's not possible for all shows, but it is something that where it's possible creatively to get back to that, and we'd like to try and do that.

SPEAKER_00: 4:45

I think that since the show is smaller scale than the other two, they're just doing six episodes and it's only 30 minutes. You can see that they can probably shoot two, three seasons in one year if they wanted to. Yeah. Um because you don't really have visual effects. I mean, I'm I'm sure there's some, but I'm happy that we'll get this every season. I'm like every season. I'm happy we get it every year. That means next year we'll have season two of a night of the seven kingdoms, no house of the dragon, and then season three of a knight of the seven kingdoms will be 2028. And then I'm just going to think that House of the Dragon will finish in 2028. So we'll have two series to cover in 2028, as we do this year.

SPEAKER_01: 5:28

We have a writer attached to another HBO Westerosi project, which is the project on Queen Nymeria, Warrior Queen Nymeria, and the 10,000 ships story. That writer is Ebony Booth. Ebony Booth is an American playwright and actress. She's written the plays Paris and Primary Trust. Um, I'm not familiar with her work, but I hope it works out well. Seems like an it's it'd be an interesting series to watch come to life on screen. And then Gendy, I hope I'm not mispronouncing this person's name, Gendy Tartakovsky, is reportedly developing an animated Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon prequest series following the nine voyages of Corless Valerian. I think that's something we mentioned uh way back when, where we said we wanted to see either an animated version of this or Aegon's Conquest. Uh and I think that that would be really cool. If that happens, I think it would be an interesting uh like spin-off show for Game of Thrones. Because I do want to see something animated that is in West Roth. I think that's uh like the animation medium would serve George's stories really well. So whether it's Corless or uh Aegon, I'm happy and I want to see it come to life. So I think I I think it would could be really cool. So yeah, if I'm not mistaken, that's the news we have for you today. And we'll really talk about the episode and the big reveal of see of episode three of this episode, which is that egg is bum-bomb bum, a secret Targaryen. So I can't wait to talk about it. I I I don't know if you have anything else you want to say, but I can't wait to just talk about the episode.

SPEAKER_00: 6:58

We wanna talk about the nurse's great great-grandfather.

SPEAKER_01: 7:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 7:03

Okay, let's get into it. The Squire is the third episode of the first season of Night of the Seven Kingdoms. It premiered yesterday, the for uh the first of February, on HBO. It was written by Hiram Martinez, Annie Julia Wyman, and Ara Parker, and directed by Sarah Adina Smith. A quick uh synopsis after Egg attempts to train Dunk's uncooperative horse, Dun teaches his new squire an important skill. As they take in the attorney's first full day of events, Dunk receives a proposition from Ashford Steward that could help secure his future. Uh, so this runtime of the episode was 31 minutes, was the shortest of the series until tomorrow, which will, I think, be episode five or six. Back to Egg, he is the fourth son of a fourth son. So uh brother to Daron, who uh is do we talk about Daron yet or not yet? Or we just leave it.

SPEAKER_01: 7:59

Um, not yet. Let's leave that.

SPEAKER_00: 8:01

So he's brother to Daron, Arian, Maester Amen, and has two sisters, Princesses Dela and Ray. That's how you pronounce her name. Um yeah, so uh what did you think of the episode? First impressions.

SPEAKER_01: 8:17

I thought it was a great episode. It felt really fast, which obviously I mean it is because it's like 33 minutes only, but like honestly, it felt like 15 minutes or something. It just flew by and I really enjoyed it. I I thought it was a good episode. What did you think?

SPEAKER_00: 8:33

I think that once all episodes are out, it's gonna be so nice to go get the reveal and go straight into the next episode. Because you're like, oh yeah, you know, we have to wait uh well actually not a week now, because it's gonna premiere for this Friday because of a Super Bowl, which is good news for us. Um no, I thought it was it's it's leaning into that sweet big brother, little brother dynamic, and it and it lets it breathe because you have scenes where they're just sitting down and just talking about life, and and you're like, hurry up, but no, it it works for the show because you need that. You get comfortable with them, and you have scenes of you know eating sandwiches or dunk teaching A how to sew, which now we know he's a young prince. Young princesses don't get taught to sew. That's for the ladies, you know what I mean? So him, I don't know how to sew. Uh but then you get the episode, it just pulls the rug out from you and you get the reveal. But the moment lands, it it makes the episode work because it's just smaller. Quiet beats with Doug and A just looking out for each other, the little acts of you know loyalty that they have, which makes it's making the show special. And I think now that we get this reveal and how Dunk's reaction is gonna be to learning the truth, it's gonna be interesting going forward.

SPEAKER_01: 10:00

I can't wait until the reaction videos come out for um eggs reveal as as Aegon. I think that'll be really cool to watch. And yeah, it would be a fun episode to um look back on. And I know we're kind of starting at the end here, but I think it's completely fine just because Last of Seven Kingdoms, you know, not as we said before, not much happens, so we can just talk about it freely. We don't need to break down like place by place, which is what's we usually do for House of the Dragon Eagle Thrones. We can just talk about it freely and uh then refer back to like the little moments that made um the episode. But uh just to talk about that reveal uh a bit more. I'm wondering what you thought about how it was kind of constructed from a like directorial way, like just because I felt it to be a bit overly dramatic in a way. I thought it was funny. There was this music playing in the background, and either you get a close up with everyone's reactions and and and um dunk kind of realizing that Egg was a Targaryen all along. Yes, something else of like a televelenovella almost, and it it took away a little bit for me from the like as someone who already knows this, I felt like, oh, this isn't going to land well uh in terms of shock value. But then I like I see people shocked, and you said that your son got shocked when he watched it. So I wonder how it's actually for people who have no idea, just because for me it felt not as it took away from the shock of it from the reveal from the from the intensity, I would say. But I I didn't have a problem with it. I just I wonder how it translates to people that don't know that already.

SPEAKER_00: 11:31

I I think what you're talking about, it's kind of like that bum bum bum, like yeah, people showing, like what? Well, I I think I was you can edit. Yeah, yeah. I I was the I didn't have an issue with that. It kind of threw me off because it you're right, it was kind of the music, the close-ups, the quick shots uh of everybody looking. It it will be interesting to see what people say, but I I don't think it's gonna make anybody go, oh, this this this sucks or whatever. But I want to leave that the crux of that scene. I want to talk about it at the end. Uh, because there's a lot to talk about. And I I wanted to I wanted to play an audio clip because I think this episode had a few moments of just adorableness of Dunkin' Egg just teasing each other or just roasting each other, and then they're having that that talk in the, you know, when they're having like a picnic or whatever. You get some humor in Game of Thrones, but not like this. This is kind of like kids, kids' stuff that makes it that just works.

SPEAKER_03: 12:44

I even drink a pint of milk. Disgusting.

SPEAKER_06: 12:49

It's not disgusting.

SPEAKER_00: 12:52

Well then I won't even. But yeah, I love this little scene of this going back and forth. That's something a brother, little brother to big brother does. And and this little clip is just a now that you know he's a prince, for him to say I want this small life, a small folk life, and just living in a place like Ashford Meadow and tells you what what type of person um Egg is.

SPEAKER_07: 13:14

I think I could be quite happy in a place like this.

SPEAKER_05: 13:17

You're in a place like this.

SPEAKER_07: 13:19

I meant for a while.

SPEAKER_05: 13:20

Oh.

SPEAKER_07: 13:21

After I lead a great campaign for my lord, of course. Of course. I return a war hero, and he gives me a parcel of land for my very own. And the hand of the second most beautiful daughter.

SPEAKER_06: 13:32

Secondmost?

SPEAKER_07: 13:34

You've already married the firstmost. Have you not, sir? I'd keep horses, plant oats and peas, raise cows.

SPEAKER_05: 13:41

And lambs, perhaps.

SPEAKER_07: 13:43

Fuck your lambs.

SPEAKER_05: 13:45

Did you really ride all the way here in the back of some farmer's wagon?

SPEAKER_07: 13:49

I don't want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_05: 13:51

I'll say this for you.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

You're a good worker when you put your mind to it.

SPEAKER_07: 13:55

I think so.

unknown: 13:56

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 13:56

Yeah, I I love that little scene. I think it reveals, again, their their characters and him wanting to live a life of simpleness. I don't know how he turned out to be this way when you have Makar who's not a good person. And then you have a brother who's uh basically a a demon. We don't know about um the first brother, but maybe he had Amon to his sisters that could kind of balance out the craziness of what his family is.

SPEAKER_01: 14:25

Honestly, what I loved about this scene and uh a lot of like the quieter moments that we get with Dunk and Egg, you know, they're like thoughtful, meaningful conversations and uh moments that allow the episode in and of itself to just breathe and allows the story to breathe, but at the same time it all of it, all of it, all of it like serves a purpose which is to uh build the characterization of both Dunk and Egg. It's in the thoughtful like dialogue and every word that they say, acting from both of the actors were phenomenal. It just feels like you know who these people are. You know what I mean? Like you instantly you don't you don't doubt who Duncan Egg are, you don't doubt their personalities, you immediately get a sense of who they are. And I just think that having moments like this that are quiet, slow, and add the characterization and build to it and you know the paces it's just so different from everything else on television nowadays. So I just I really appreciate it. I I don't know how Egg turned out that way, but I mean there's always the good and the bad, right? Like you have Danny and you have Viserys. They grew up together, you know. She could have easily turned out to be Viserys, but she didn't. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 15:39

I kind of pushed a little forward on the episode. Um, the episode does start with Egg having his own little training session with Thunder, Warhorse. I adored that scene, I think it was fantastic. Um it's pure joy seeing Dexter beat Egg. I mean, he leans into the with the playful energy and you can hear it in every moment. That kind of energy he brings makes the whole sequence so fun to watch. And he's halfway through his like heroic montage, and then you have some knight show up whose name is Sir Robin Risling. The introduction is like standoffish because you're like, How do you have this horse? Like, you're too vital to be having a horse this big. And he's like, What happened to your hair? What happened to your eye? Like, quick. Like, who are you? Uh, and again, the show, the show leans into flashbacks to tell you the person's story really quick without having to them explain it to you. Like, okay, what happened to your eye? Boom. Flashback to him jousting and losing an eye, and them just showing the eyeball hanging out, which is you know, G O T G O T S. But it's a it's kind of a uh this is something that's added to the show was not in the book, and I think it's a smart, you know, what is it, expansion of the material. Can I say something corny, Minoir, really quick?

SPEAKER_01: 17:03

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00: 17:04

Uh I felt that this was an eccentric episode.

SPEAKER_01: 17:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 17:13

So we get we get two songs sung in this episode. One in uh Lionel Baratheon's, I guess, tent. They're singing this kind of a I guess we could say a bar song or a pub song. And then we get Egg singing this this song about the hammer and the anvil. And the hammer and the anvil are talking about Prince Baylor and Prince Makar, his dad. Uh, and it's referring to a battle in the red grass fields when for the Black Fire Rebellion. And I just think it's so hilarious the way he sung it.

SPEAKER_01: 17:44

It's it's it it when I looked up the actual lyrics, he like he made it PG, but then because it it has really bad words in it, but he didn't which is which is funny because why would he edit the bad words to himself as he's saying the F-word, he's saying this, he's saying the uh I saw someone say that the reason why he probably said it that way is because he was probably taught by his older brother, probably Darren.

SPEAKER_00: 18:11

Oh, gotcha. He's like he probably doesn't really know the real words.

SPEAKER_01: 18:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:16

Okay, yeah, yeah, gotcha. So right after that little scene in the hill when they're talking about, you know, you know, we want to retire here, whatever, uh, we get uh Plummer, who is the I guess the game coordinator, I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_01: 18:32

Yeah. The games master.

SPEAKER_00: 18:34

Yeah, games master. Uh he gives Dunk an unexpected proposal. Like he wants, at first he's like, he wants Dunk to like lose on purpose, so you could have you know the Ashford son win, but then I had I had to rewind it. So no, no, no, no. He's saying that Ashford's son will take a fall on purpose because they want to bet a lot of money on you. You're such an underdog. You don't people don't know who you are. The odds are gonna favor Ashford's son so heavily that if we bet if they bet so much money on Dunk, they're gonna win a ton. For me, I think this is important to show that this it kind of grounds the show and it makes it lived in. And we're talking, it makes Westeros. I don't know, I'm just babbling here. You could stop me. It makes Westeros just feels more real when characters are dealing with stuff we do. Like they're stressing over money, like the Ashford house. Like they're they're spending so much on the this tournament, it's because of the Ashford's daughter. That there's that's what it's all about. We don't really think about something as finances in Game of Thrones, you know, because we're always hanging out with the kings and the great lords who are just removed from that reality. They don't we get to hear about finances maybe a few times. Remember, you know, uh, Ned's like, we can't be spending money on this freaking tournament. This is ridiculous. We're we're in debt to the Lannisters, and then even Tywin in season three or four is saying we owe this much to the Iron Bank or whatever. That's pretty much the right the only times we get to hear about that. But this is about the the smaller houses who have to figure out a way to plan for this is extravaganza. They had to worry about feeding themselves through winter. Oh, you know what? They're they're thinking about the future. You know what I mean? I don't know if that made any of that made sense.

SPEAKER_01: 20:25

No, no, it did. It did. Don't worry, it definitely did. Um yeah, I think it counts the show, and I think that um I think someone made a comment about this online or or just made a similar observation and tell me to this, but there is a lot of money talk in um seven kingdoms. So I think we you we you mentioned it, I think, in one of our previous episodes. I think the second one. Uh so like the last episode where oh, this is another time where we they talk about the currency on in Westeros. And it just it got me thinking that like because uh Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is um upset amongst you know like a different group of people, it's not the noble houses of Westeros. It's it makes complete sense for this to be uh, I guess, uh to play this much of a crucial role in the storytelling because it could easily be uh every episode major issue, you know, like a presence in every episode. So yeah, it makes sense for it to be a central theme or presence in it in the Seven Kingdoms.

SPEAKER_00: 21:28

And we get to see Dunk's uh reaction to this offer, which any other person's like, oh, okay, I'll get a free win and I don't have to worry about anything. I don't want to have a victory that I did not earn, and but which is very honorable. I think that took Plumber to he was taken aback, like what he's probably dealt with other people, like, oh yeah, of course. Okay, so I have a question. Um, I don't know. I I have a Arian. Does he fight Harding in the Joust in the book? Because the only thing I'm thinking about is that. Harding it uh does not have his leg crushed in the middle of the i he ha he gets hurt towards the end of the book. So I don't know if that's a change here, or maybe he'll recover from his injuries. I guess we'll have to wait and see. My bigger question is You know, before we learned about the reveal, Aegon sees Prince Arian and he goes and they start to joust and he says, yells, kill him. So he's basically saying he wants Sir Humphrey to kill his brother.

SPEAKER_01: 22:33

Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I think in that moment you just see Duncan, what's that? Like wh wh why on earth would this squire that I just picked up, you know, that just tagged along, want you know, Arian Targaryen to die. Why why why? Why is this happening? Because he has no time to process it because it's it's going on, you know, like he needs to he needs to watch. So if you can see him, just look at egg and go, wait, what? Why is this happening?

SPEAKER_00: 23:01

And you can notice the difference in Targaryen'cause you have, you know, what's that famous quote? When Targaryen is born, it's like a coin toss, you get somebody normal or or mad. Uh and and you have that in this episode. You have Prince Baylor who is more like even killed Targaryen, he's he knows how to roll, and then you have this psycho who is deliberately, you know, cheating in front of everybody when killing the horse. I just felt that him saying kill him was so important because now we know that's his brother, and now we know the type of person that Prince Ariane is and the type of person Egg is, and that the polar opposites of human beings.

SPEAKER_01: 23:43

I really like that uh moment between Dunk and Egg after the joust, like the the the the thing that you know went wrong when Egg looked up at Dunk and said it that was no mishap. Because he's genuinely angry in that moment, you know, and so it is like a direct quote and scene from the book, it's not like a show edition. That moment kind of stayed with me a lot. I don't know if it's because of Dexter, the actor that plays um Egg, and you can kind of see him be very emotional in that scene. So I don't know if it's because of that or just because of Egg, but yeah, you mentioned that scene just now, and I just wanted to say that that was uh definitely a scene that stayed with me, and I almost I'm not 100% sure why. I just really like that moment. And then we get a brief scene of like Lionel, but honestly, I I like for me I'm not like I'm kind of over it. I don't know, I'm not really enjoying the Lionel scenes so much. Like I I said he's a good addition to the show, and I I say that because I know the narrative purpose it's serving, but at the same time I feel like he's not my cup of tea. I don't know if you felt differently or the same thing.

SPEAKER_00: 24:44

Well, I was going to I had the same feeling. I go, are we gonna have another song? And he going like okay, he's a party, he's a party animal, we we get it. But luckily it was very short, like it it hands to Duncan Egg and them talking about it. So I I was okay since it was you know it was very brief. Just one thing I'll say is that the guy singing with him is uh Monfred Dundarian, who was the great grandfather of Beric Dundarian. Uh they're singing this song called Alice with Three Fingers, and it's a body song and it's vulgar, and I'm not gonna repeat the the words here, but um uh I just think Egg trying to find the meaning of that song shows how intelligent he is for such a young kid. He's like, but what does that really mean? Do you think there's an Alice? Did they just make that up? Like he wants to know the deeper meaning of it. Is it talking about legacy? Is it fair to be known for for the ages and people sing songs about you and your name is not even used in the song? Like, if I'm if I'm famous for something, don't give me I'm Tony, don't say, oh uh Mark. I'm like, no, use my name, I don't care. What's the saying? I I had to look it up. Songs and stories tend to repeat a myth and not the truth. And it's funny that Egg is trying to decipher if that song is the truth or it's a myth, because he does the same thing with singing that hammer and animal song earlier in the episode. He's singing a song that makes Baylor and his father the heroes of the Redgrass field battle, but the truth is that the hero of that battle was um Brendan Rivers, which is a character we'll talk about in the future. And also I forgot that I think it's before they go into the tent that they run into some random psychic.

SPEAKER_01: 26:35

Was that oh yeah, wait, wait, yeah, wait, wait, but before we get to that point, I just want to make a quick comment and say that I think I I merged two scenes in my head when you said uh I for I didn't realize realize that that conversation between Dunk and Egg happened after uh the Bratians, but you're you're completely right. And I just want to mention that that's another scene that really stayed with me. And I think I mentioned this earlier on where I felt like some show editions really like added to the characterization and underlined the themes. This um conversation between Dunk and Egg is that like it was a perfect edition. I really loved it. Highlights the main theme of Dunk and Egg and Game of Thrones again, which is legacy when we talked about before. Yeah, I just wanted to note that that was another highlight for me in this episode. Fortune tether, the psychic, insane.

SPEAKER_00: 27:23

Dunk gets some great news, he's gonna be rich, richer than a lannister. And he plays it off like, oh cool, that's cool. Yeah, like he doesn't believe in any of that. Like, okay, now do the now do the boy. She hits Egg with this, she tells him, You shall be king and die in hot fire, and worms will feed upon your ashes, and all who know you shall rejoice in you in your dying. I mean, what the F, right? And Dunk just laughs about it, like, ha ha ha. Like, whatever. Like, obviously, this this little orphan boy is not gonna be king, so that's that's ridiculous. But Egg's like, he just saw a ghost.

SPEAKER_01: 27:58

Sorry, Tony, like no disrespect or anything, but when you were recalling the or talking about the psychic, I kind of went further into the scene or like kept thinking about the um the conversation between Dunk and Egg about the the song that was sung in Lionel's um tents and about the house was about a girl and everything. And I think that's egg kind of mentioning, you know, what said about the name, which is like, oh, they they celebrate her, they remember her, but they don't even remember her name. Like that comment is something that I just want to uh it's feels I don't want to make this like you know very serious, but it's that comment is so real about our our our world as well, you know what I mean? Like it feels like a very clever and intelligent and feminist thing to hear from egg, just because it's like women are often forgotten by their names and men can be remembered for doing the bare minimum, so or not even the bare minimum for doing nothing. So I just thought that that was really cool. I just I was reflecting on that for for a minute. So yeah, feminist King Egg, love to hear that. I I King Egg? Oh wait, oh oops.

SPEAKER_00: 29:01

Prince. Prince. We get to uh see one of the Fossoways, Raymond Fossaway, who was the nicer one of the two. We get to meet Stefan in the first episode, uh, which is it's funny enough that he's the squire to his, I think, is it his cousin? Is his cousin? I think so, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 29:19

Yeah, they're their cousins.

SPEAKER_00: 29:20

Uh he invites Dunk for some cider in his tent. The sigil for House Fossaway is an apple, and they're drinking apple cider. I think everything about their house is about apples. Uh uh Ed goes to see Tanto's puppet show and maybe get his um shield that she promised they'll be ready for the night. But out of nowhere, Fossaway goes scorched earth on House Targaryen, and I thought it was kind of funny, so let's listen to him just go off.

SPEAKER_04: 29:49

Both Sir Andro and I are quite equally matched. A local favorite. You mean to play the villain? I heard Arian were in spitting rage at Lord Ashford for giving away his horse.

SPEAKER_06: 29:59

Little comfort that will be to Sir Humphrey. Looked as if he was going to carry the day. Now he's like shattered like a baking dish. My squire thinks Arian meant to kill the horse.

SPEAKER_00: 30:08

I'm gonna pause it there. Do you hear the little chuckle that you from Dunk? He can't even imagine a royal knight doing something so heinous to another knight. That's how good this guy is.

SPEAKER_06: 30:19

Just hard to accept that a knight might be so dishonorable. Let alone a prince. Why is that hard?

SPEAKER_04: 30:27

No, I. They're incestuous aliens, Duncan. Blood magikers and tyrants who've burned our lands, enslaved our people, dragged us into their walls about a motive respect for our history or our customs. Every pale-haired brat that's saddled on us has been madder than the last. God's know how. The only honourable thing a Targaryen can do for this realm is finish on his wife's tits. So I think he meant to kill the fucking horse. Got me carried away there.

SPEAKER_00: 30:53

Yeah, I think Raymond had too much cider. Uh, yeah, he's very saying uh the best thing a Targaryen can do is not procreate with others. Uh you know it's funny because House Fossilway was a very big house back in the day. And now it's been relegated to um something called landed nights, which I had to read about, which is there's still a house, but they're like I I'll put it in football terms and like soccer or football terms. Like, you know, you have the Premier League, and then you have if you don't do well, they you go down to what the championship is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:31

Enough champions, I think. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 31:33

Yeah, yeah. So you kind of get relegated down. That's what the House Foster Way is now. So they kind of have this axe to grind against Targaryens, but it's funny enough that uh House Foster Way was Team Green. Uh they fought for Aegon and they fought for Damon Blackfire. So they thought it was funny. And one more uh little audio clip that I found really funny. He starts talking about all of Prince Makar's kids, and you know, two of them are missing, and we now, you know, now there's Egg was one of them is missing, but he mentions one of our favourite characters uh of the show of Game of Thrones.

SPEAKER_04: 32:11

Arian, he's all smiles and chivalry so long as his father's watching. I saw Prince Maker's chair was empty. He left Ashford this morning to search for the rest of his misbegats. Darren and the youngest. They departed somewhere altogether a few days ago, but never reached Ashford. There's rumors going about the boys are dead. But most like Darren. He's probably just drunk again. Little Wonder Makers be walking around like someone pissed in his one pie. He's probably just worried about his sons. Seven no I. Darren's Aaron's just vain and cruel. The third's so useless, I'm gonna ship him off to a citadel to make a maeston of him.

SPEAKER_00: 32:52

How dare you say Maester Amon is useless, you son of a uh he's about to say Aegon is the fourth and smallest, and then obviously Egg jumps in and says, Hey, Tanzold mean the title. At that moment, Tanzol is, you know, reenacting a story or a legend slash myth of a knight called Florian, and it's it's called Florian the Fool. He's rescuing his love John Quill from a dragon, and that story is or legend is set 10,000 years prior, way before the Targaryens came to Westeros. And so she's not killing a Targaryen dragon, which Prince Arian took it, but he took it as an insult, since he believes himself to be a reincarnation of a dragon. So we have that. I don't think we've talked about that yet, that he actually believes that he's the dragon. Like we always get this Targaryen who's crazy, and so he he's the one that that we have to worry to think to worry about. Um he ends up attacking Tanzo in a brutal way. And I listened to the audio, it is word for word, the same, all the actions that happened on the show is the same thing that I listened to last night. And he kicks the crap out of Ariane. And if it wasn't for four guys holding him back, and that's how strong he is, he could have easily killed the prince. Without those guys, he would have kept punching him and like probably crushed his face. Uh but anyway, your thoughts on that scene prior to the novella, telenovela.

SPEAKER_01: 34:25

Prior to the telenovela part. Um, pretty well done. Uh just as I remember it from the actual novella. Again, I remember last week when I said that I wish we saw a bit more for Tanzella. So I just wish that they kind of give gave us more from her or with her in order for us to, I don't want to say care more, but in order for us to feel as upset or annoyed as Junk did, you know. So that was just my only thing.

SPEAKER_00: 34:52

I do remember it, like I listened to the audiobook, and he does say you knock one of my teeth out, I'm gonna knock all of yours. But I don't remember because they were gonna just do like the American ex put your teeth in the in the curb and just kick your your head in and knock all your teeth out. That's what they were gonna do. This was such an important event to get right. And it uh for me it doesn't disappoint. Actually, let's listen to when when Egg jumps in to save his boy really quick.

SPEAKER_05: 35:21

Good job! You stupid boy! Hold your tongue or they'll hurt you!

SPEAKER_00: 35:27

Right there. I love that. Like, get out of here. I don't I don't want you to get hurt. I'm gonna get hurt. I don't care about me getting hurt. I don't want you to get hurt.

SPEAKER_08: 35:34

No, they won't. If they do, they'll lost it to my father. Let go of him. Wait, Yoko, do as I say.

SPEAKER_04: 35:42

You impudent little rat. What's happened to your hair?

SPEAKER_08: 35:46

I cut it off, brother. I didn't want to look like you.

SPEAKER_00: 35:59

I love the music playing because it just reminded me now. Have you seen the movie Amadeus?

SPEAKER_01: 36:04

Not yet, no.

SPEAKER_00: 36:05

Okay. It's it's in my top ten of all time. Anyway, uh, it reminded me that music of Amadeus, like Mozart. Yeah, so that's the reveal. I mean, that that was pretty funny. The one thing is just kind of like, oh my god, now we have to wait. I I wanted the next episode to start right away. Like, I want to know what happens, but like we mentioned, it's gonna be quick for us. It's in a couple days. Yeah, it's tr it's tense, it's dramatic, and uh, it's faithful. So and it's hitting all the right notes for me.

SPEAKER_01: 36:31

Called it the telenovella. I I think it's a bit overly dramatic. Um, but I think it's fine as long as it's not like for me it was kind of funny, you know, watching watching it play out like that. So I don't mind having that reaction as long as non-book readers still felt some shock, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 36:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I already I already watched a couple reactors. Um they they kind of like one person's like, well, I kind of knew that it was trending him being in a Targaryen, since you know, he he felt a little squeamish when the Targaryen showed up. He knows all this history and lore about the the tournament, he knows all the nights. Like, how do you know all the nights when you're an orphan?

SPEAKER_01: 37:12

If I'm being honest, I read the book already knowing that egg was gonna be a Targaryen. It's not like I was shocked either. Um, but I just hope that it translates well for everybody. For me, I just thought it was fine.

SPEAKER_00: 37:23

Okay, so let's talk about uh our rating for episode three, The Squire. What do you have?

SPEAKER_01: 37:29

I think I'll stick to like an 8.5 or no, let me bump it up to an 8.7. It's the same.

SPEAKER_00: 37:35

Yeah, I have the same because I I'm thinking about I'm thinking about shows like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, who have had incredible episodes. I'm like, this was a really good episode. Was it an incredible one that I'm gonna give it a nine? No. Um, I think we'll get to nine-ish in the next three. That's my prediction. Uh, but right now 8.7, like I mentioned, um, I'm loving how the show is being faithful uh as possible, uh, bringing the spirit of Duncan Neg into the screen, love their scenes together, and I think um it's the best episode of the season so far. So I mean I've done 8.5, 8.6, and 8.7. Let's see uh if the next one is 8.8 or higher.

SPEAKER_01: 38:14

I mean, the episode had to be good because of the reveal, you know, it needed to be a very memorable, good episode that landed, and I think it translated pretty well with everybody. I just looked up the IMDB score as well. And at the moment it's currently at a 9.3 out of 10, which is uh solid and great. And I hope uh the rest of the episodes are as good and we continue to rate it highly.

SPEAKER_00: 38:36

Well, today is the 2nd of February, and it's special, not because it's just Groundhog's Day here in the the US and Canada, but it's my birthday.

SPEAKER_01: 38:45

So Yeah, happy birthday, Tony. I forgot to say this in the intro.

SPEAKER_00: 38:50

I always tell people it's Groundhog's Day is my birthday, and they're here. People in the US know that's February 2nd. So anyway, it's good to record today. Excited that we get the episode early, the the fourth one, on this Friday, and we get to record. Um, I think our our episodes have been coming out on Tuesdays, but next week for episode four, we're gonna release it on Monday the 9th. So what a day early.

SPEAKER_01: 39:19

Yeah, so watch out for that. Episode 4 will be titled 7, and we'll see how everyone reacts to Eggs reveal in the show. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dancing with Dragons. This was actually our 80th episode or of this podcast so far. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at dancing with underscore dragons, and of course, don't forget to download our episodes on your preferred listening platforms and give us a racing interview or a comment as well if you get the chance. Thank you guys so much, really appreciate it.