‘House of the Dragon' Season 3 Trailer Deep Dive

Hello, welcome back to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. That's Mallory Rubin. Are we wearing the same clothing we were in our previous episode? Yep. Don't worry about it. We're here live from our brand new, beautiful, Beesbury-inspired set to talk to you about House of the Dragon Season 3 teaser trailer, which we're going to do in depth after this. All right, Mallory. Yeah. Night of the Seven Kingdoms has wrapped up. I know, I'm despondent. We did our last deep dive. That's right. We did our last talk of Thrones. Yeah. But are we done talking about Night of the Seven Kingdoms? I mean, never. Really? Never. Because we're doing this Hot D trailer breakdown today. Yes. Thank you, everyone, for your patience. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. You've never said more convincing in your life. But next week, we're going to be doing a mailbag episode. That's right. Love a seasonal mailbag. Love a bag. You can ask about anything. Ask us about Wonder Man. Percy. Mallory read Will of the Many. I did. So you can ask her about a book. That's right. It was great. You can ask us about any old thing you like and also Night of the Seven Kingdoms. What are you at? Hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. We love to hear from you. Send us your emails, please. Spoiler warning today. Yeah. Yeah. Majority, we're going to go through sort of beat by beat, second by second of this teaser trailer. This minute and a half. Yeah. Really just like a little over a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Will that stop us now? Nope. we're gonna go through that in a spoiler free way yes and then we're gonna do it all again but faster this time yes with some book context uh spoilers at the end we'll have some book context as we go but indeed basically if you've not read fire and blood um you will not be spoiled on any major events correct probably we promise okay that's right mallory how can folks keep track of every House of the Dragon frame of a trailer, every Night of the Seven Kingdoms deep dive, every Project Hail Mary second that we have coming up in our future. Thanks for asking. Here's what I would recommend. Follow the pod. Follow House of R on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch full video episodes of the House of R. You can see this beautiful new studio. I wonder how many people are like, you guys were wearing those outfits as observed. Is it just because your studio is so amazing that you've decided to live there? I mean, I feel like we could sleep on this couch. It could be that. It could be that we finished the deep dive 34 minutes ago. Either one is possible. Follow along. You can also subscribe to the Ringerverse YouTube channel, where you can also see full video episodes of The House Far, Midnight Boys, Pew Pew. While you're at it, follow the Ringerverse on the social media platform of your choosing, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, whatever the case may be. You can get updates, you can get memes, you can get video breakouts from the pods, and then send us, like we already said, send us your emails, because the inbox is always open. We'd love to hear from you for the mailbag, but just in general. I thought of another thing they can email us about. What is it? The Mando and Grogu trailer. Mando Grogu. Yep. Mallory's not had a platform to really speak on that at length. So, listen. Some members of Spider Noir. Spider Noir. Yeah. Yeah. What else? What else has come out recently? Bone Temple. Bone Temple. I haven't seen it yet. Nope. Don't email us about that. We were supposed to see it together, and then we didn't. I think it's streaming now. Maybe I'll watch it this weekend ahead in the mail. Your Buffy thoughts as we continue to journey through Buffy. Send us that. We're not too far away from Shadow Lord, you know, Mal, Animated Mal, your husband, back in our lives soon. Email us about whatever you fucking want to email us about. Whatever's on your mind, we'd love to hear from you. We can't wait for your thoughts on Dunk, Egg, Baylor. House of the Dragon. Yeah, exactly. All of it. All right. Any of it. Orioles spring training thoughts. How are you enjoying the polar bear Pete Alonzo in orange? I'm thrilled. Survivor 50 questions. Send us some survivor questions. That would be fun. Traitors questions. I have... I'm just full of traitors. Here's my question for you. I've not seen a second of traitors. Should I start from the beginning? No. Okay. Just the current season or wait till the next one and just enjoy that in real time? You have time in your maniacal way to catch up before this season ends. I think there's like, actually just maybe one more episode. But I think you can do it. Okay. I can see it through Instagram. So you know about Rob Roush. Oh, I'm very familiar. I'm very familiar. My thoughts have zigged and zagged on that particular character. Alright, so. But you know that Boston Rob co-hosts the official podcast for it? I do. Okay. Yeah. Alright. I know that Colton was on this season. It was a lot. Yeah. What else? Michael Anyway, that concludes Trader's section of the trailer podcast. ThomasandDragons.gmail.com if you have anything. I have a lot of Mora thoughts. You send me a Mora prompt, I'll give you a Mora answer. Okay. For most of this outline that I put together for our deep dive into a minute of footage today, I have used quotes from the new trailer, but I could not resist using one quote from last season's trailer because it is a house of our favorites. So, to all then, the opening snapshot. All right. So before we get into the trailer, let's talk about dates, posters, taglines, and maybe some of our top line thoughts, some casting. Great. So June, we don't know what day in June, but June is when we've got a brand new studio. I'm looking for housing in L.A., so I'll be here. Maybe I'll live here. It's nice here. just like pull one of our cloaks over my and I'll just curl up here and sleep on this couch what are you guys charging for rent okay plenty of space two years later beautiful water cool but it's just June yes okay June what do you think prediction mid-June late June you think it's mid-June yeah I just think they don't take it so it doesn't interfere with something else we have to do how many days do I have left to rewatch, reread, and also, yeah, deal with some travel in early June. I think they tend to go for the middle of the month or late in the month. That's all. But who could say? We also got a poster. We sure did. And a tagline. From Fire Comes Darkness is the tagline. Yeah. It's a little too Democracy Dies in Darkness for me. But it's no spring is coming this winter. That was great. Remember that? But from Fire Comes Darkness. Yeah. It's good. We've got Rhaenyra. We sure do. She seems to be on the Iron Throne. Yep. That's all we can say about that. Viserys' crown, you know, it's the Jaehaerys' crown. It looks great. Yeah. The trappings of her office. I would say there are a number of embers here of fire. There's both fire and darkness. Yeah. And there's some blood, too. I was going to say, fire and blood. You know, we got to glimpse Rhaenyra on the throne in Daemon's weirwood tree vision in the season two finale. so we've seen similar imagery induced by Alice with ten fingers that's right that's how you know we're transitioning to a new throne show we've moved from Alice with three fingers to Alice with ten fingers and lots of where would be hallucinogenics great to be back so this new teaser dropped despite not being like a full trailer and our theory is that they dropped this while and I the Seven Kingdoms was still airing just to keep the thrones momentum going so just be like hey guys are you enjoying this time yeah don't worry you can come back to westeros in june don't forget about us we are the dragon show we're much more expensive we have a lot of dragons do you think this was a good decision on the one hand you're capitalizing on the thrones fandom being very like buzzy and active on the other hand buzzy buzz buzz on the other hand uh a lot of like the night of the seven kingdoms discourse this season was this is really great and fun. I'm not sure I miss Hot D. Not from necessarily either participant of this podcast, but some folks out in the world. You always make fun of me, but I like to look at how many views these trailers have on YouTube. Yeah, you do. I'm a little worried. How many? Four million is not a lot for a Thrones trailer. Okay. That said, it is just a teaser trailer. That's only one of the places people can watch it. I don't know that Hot D, since the very first teaser for season one, has necessarily been like a trailer driven everybody's like let's fucking ride show it's more in real time once the show actually starts that it feels like people are opting in so hopefully that will happen with week one i have a lot of empathy right now for ryan condall you know george put him in the crosshairs and um there's so much we had some notes about the second season but there's so much we love about house of the dragon yeah for sure i'd also say that like I made it a joke every week but like Dunkin' Egg is a story of like a lot of guys and this is a very female driven show and so like I don't want this show to feel this show which is like the bigger show with all the dragons to feel like yeah this the step sister to you know the big hit or something like that so I'm not saying that's why but it's just sort of like it's so cool to be in this world where like for sure Alicent and Rhaenyra and Bela and all of these characters are complicated. And also Masari is here, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm like frantically counting the lines that women are speaking in a Night of the Seven Kingdom. Gwyn got one finale line. I'm really waiting for this show for a number of reasons. That's a reason. Also, we got some info about new cast members, right? So on Talk to Thrones, we mentioned this trailer briefly with Chris. And we mentioned that James Norton gets a very prominent shot in this trailer. James Norton, who is playing Orman Hightower. But James Norton, who's been like kicking around Happy Valley, Grand Chester. You know, he's just he's just been like a real mainstay of British television. Not a huge hit in the U.S. yet, but he's great. And so I'm really excited he's here. Anyone else on the new on the cast list that you're particularly excited about? I though unlike Chris I am not a member of Team Green I am very excited for James Norton as Norman Hightower Grey Valerian Sword Vigilance wonderful stuff can't wait to see that so certainly thrilled even though I don't have quite as much of a familiarity with his filmography as you and Chris do I'm excited to be with him I tell you briefly that Grantchester is what my friends used to call hot ficker solves crime It's wonderful. So he was the titular hot, hot vicar who solved crime. I don't really need to know anything else. Something to think about. I am very excited that Tommy Flanagan is here playing Roddy the Ruin. This is a thrill. That's my number one. Yeah, he is wonderful. And this is a cool character. I'm excited to just broadly have the Winter Wolves here. We got to glimpse them at the end of season two, obviously on the heels of Jace heading up to meet with Greg and Stark at the beginning of the season, episode two. the Winter Wolves marching at the crossing was one of the many, you're gonna get a lot of action soon, montage shots at the kind of like season three trailer that ended season two. And so we had an early Winter Wolves glimpse, but Roddy's a cool character who's going to be in the thick of a lot of meaningful action. And I'm excited about that. Just having a connection to the North is always really fun. Rodney the Gruen is like up there with Baylor Breakspear as like a very cool Game of Thrones character name. Tommy Flanagan, Sons of Anarchy, Gladiator, an ill-advised season of Westworld. Tommy Flanagan always delivers. He's got such an incredible face and for like a grizzled Northman who is capable of fucking some shit But yeah, Thomas Flanagan, perfect. Dan Fogler, fascinating choice, honestly. Yeah, Manderly. And then Tom Cullen, who I love from the movie Weekend and stuff like that is also here. Yes. So Luther, that's exciting. Yeah, Luther. Lord Commander of the City Watch, that's a fun one. Also, we got Black Alley Blackwood. That's right. We're just saying names that maybe don't mean a lot to you guys if you're not readers. Darren the Daring is feeling thrilling. Darren the Daring, we have some questions about the casting on that we don't know the full answer to that so um but darren's dragon is here so surely darren can't be too far yes i will say just in general fire and blood fictional history competing narrators as we've mentioned many times part of the fun of the adaptation is what is the like at least show version of the true story of what happened uh was mushroom right etc usually there are so i would say especially at this stretch the stretch of story that will be adapted in season three so many characters and i think it is a necessity of adaptation to distill and winnow that down oh they will be condensing no question and so it's fun to see sort of like no surprise that roddy the ruin is going to be here as one of the figures in the winter wolves who we will actually get to like meaningfully incorporate into the story but it's cool to see all right here's a name of a performer next to a name of the character this is one of the people who like made the cut basically that's just a fun part of the black alley journey to be at very important to me um there are so many characters there are so many battles battles are thick we are dancing with dragons in a meaningful way the vibe of this trailer is very much we heard you were mad about no battles so here are all the battles yes it's a lot of it's either shots of dragons people looking up probably at dragons or people fighting in a battle there's very little people in room talking some yeah allison's doing some talking but like mostly it's it's a lot of battles and will they to your point about characters i don't think they can even do all the battles that are in this stretch of the book i think we'll see some like condensing of some of the action around the globe here yeah i think that there's a version of season three where we have a battle or a what is this season's equivalent of we cut to Aemon on Vhagar and he has burned sharp point like probably some of it will go that way but even even with a few choices like that I don't think we'll go more than two episodes at any point this season without like a major I don't think it's possible yeah it's just not possible so this is just like a really important time in the story we're telling here. And we think it's four seasons total, right? Four seasons, and it sounds like it'll be eight this season and next season. So that's not that many remaining episodes. But this is the time in the dance when, you know, we're not doing like cute little cargo bowls anymore, right? We're doing... You never miss a chance to shit on those two. Big battles. Yes. we both had quite a few notes on the season two finale as many house of the dragon viewers and even house of the dragon fans and enthusiasts did think undeniably as we discussed a lot at that point in time the decision to end the season with the promise of more but not actually giving us the convergence of the forces marching toward each other in the riverlands a battle that we know is coming um and we'll be i think there's one battle we will like use a name for because it has been so actively discussed by the show team and the press as we go through the non-spoiler section the rest will be a little bit more judicious with how we frame things until we get to the spoiler section um gullet was the one that was talked about the most openly it's like this just got moved because the season got shortened it was supposed to end season two it didn't people were very pissed and one of the things that we talked about in real time with chris on talk to thrones in the deep dive was season three sets up to be bangers only like there's just so much action and material coming? Depending on your definition of banger. Depending on your exact, that's what I was going to say next, because like, battles only. The action should be riveting. Is there then enough room? And I think that generally House of the Dragon has actually threaded this needle pretty well, and many of the bold and really strong adaptive opportunities, but then also choices and executions, is giving us moments between characters that we never would have known to expect because the history books didn't chronicle them. So Alicent and Rania are always going to find a way to talk to each other. Exactly. And we'll always be surprised by it. So I think that as long as those moments where the history that we have with the characters and they have with each other remains very centrally incorporated, if we're getting major battles every, I don't know, hour and a half, two and a half hours, my hopes are very high for the season. The teaser trailer, I think, looks cool. I'm expecting that the first full trailer, like when we get two and a half, three minutes of action, is I would expect it to be like really an injection of enthusiasm and hype heading into the season, which I would expect to be very good. I will say, bummer of all bummers, that like you could not read an article, even like just a headline, embedded link, two paragraphs reminding you basically what the show is about, without the George R. R. Martin, Ryan Condal's being mentioned. And it's just, it's inextricable right now from how people are talking about the state of the show, as is the response to the end of season two. So I think there's, like, stuff to work through here to win the fan base back. But I think that the story is positioned to bring people back in with a quickness. I think something that's, like, really squeezing my puzzle brain is trying to reconcile what we know from the source text with the various adaptive changes. like fairly significant adaptive changes that Condal and his writing team have made. So I'm like, well, how is this character going to be here when they decide to put him or her over here? Yeah. So that's just like, you know, then we'll all find out together. What a joy. Or if a character isn't in the story at all, how will another character do a thing that maybe was influenced by something that happened to that character? Not sure if you've heard. It's on George's mind. Let's look at some footage and talk about it. Let's do it. All right. An absolute power within your grasp. The trailer breakdown. All right. Can we have, please, this first nine second, I guess, Cliff? Where were you? Yep. That's how we're breaking down this trailer. Second by second. All right. So, Allison walks into the throne room to find Aemon on the throne. Yep. A beam of light through the window casts him in shadow, and he asks her, where were you? Right. This is one million percent a callback to season one, episode one, when young Rhaenyra, played by Supergirl herself, Milyarcock, walked into the throne to find Aemon's doppelganger, Daemon, on the throne. Neither Aemon nor Daemon, younger brothers both, were actually king. No. though aemon is a hell of a lot closer than daemon protector of the realm ever was regent uh and now and allison who is walking into this moment does not yet know this but we the viewer do a god's gone agon is peaced out with laris a gun be gone be gone which it's been hours that we've been recording. Oh my god. So, yeah, I think that the, that, that series opening note, as you're, as you're observing, undeniable. There are so many moments where characters have walked toward each other in this room and so many great Viserys Daemon ones, in particular, and Rhaenyra Daemon ones. But I think that Aemon's Daemon, No question, the comp is inescapable there. You know, the like, we've sat our butt on the throne even though we are not the king. Yes. This is what we've decided to do. Yes. Look how beautiful our long blonde hair looks. No question. And like, who is sitting there and why? What power are they trying to project or remind people that they're in possession of or pretend that they're in possession of? Always a deliberate choice. You could take a meeting anywhere. If you're taking it on the Iron Throne, you're trying to say something. And Eamond, not the best mood when we left him, right? He, where were you? Like, he doesn't know what we know. is he suspicious of the particulars we'll find out is he just like on edge in general because alicent and amon had that finale exchange like would you not have us prevail not like this there is a rift between them obviously everything that happened between amon and agon was immensely consequential and amon has also lost helena so he is feeling as isolated and alone as he ever has and when amon one eye feels isolated and alone bad shit happens well i think what also important is for Alicent who was like hey I should have some power in all of this And was overlooked for Eamon, essentially. Right. And this is the world that she helped create. This is the patriarchy that she pushed forward into the world. And then she became the victim of. If victim is the word you want to use. Eamon's got Blackfire. his father's sword, his brother's sword, and he's sitting on the throne. And there's this line we love to talk about when we talk about who has legitimate power. Quote, Aegon Targaryen sits the Iron Throne. Not anymore. He wears the Conqueror's crown, wields the Conqueror's sword, has the Conqueror's name. He is anointed by a septum of the faith before the eyes of thousands. Every symbol of legitimacy belongs to him. So Aemon doesn't have the full package here, But he's got some important trappings of legitimacy here as he, in non-king fashion, sits his butt on the throne. Rhaenyra's got a crown. Like, Rhaenyra's got some things going for her. But, like, I just, like, the very clear in the frame Blackfyre moment that we get here is so important. The warring symbols of the two crowns has been such a great choice in this story, in this Targaryen civil war. the might of the conqueror, the connection to the OG king versus what does Jaehaerys, the old king, the conciliator signify? Viserys reminding people, he chose me. You're the ones who fucked it up, but this is what he wanted. Aemond, in some ways, has always had the strongest symbol of not legitimacy, but strength and might. Dagar. Dagar. Yeah. so now the biggest baddest bitch yeah you already have vegar everyone quakes in terror and then you get to hold that sword in your hands and you get to sit on that throne location location location baby rhaenyra can make exactly daemon has dark sister rhaenyra has the other crown they don't have the iron throne and a lot of the end of last season was spent talking about how many days until we can get there so we open with the person who's there now and that is deliberate. Allison, we should say, she's still wearing the blue silk dress she wore in the finale to visit Rhaenyra. Her color of choice is like girl before she went full green, so she's not repping team green here and she looks like caught out and afraid in the face of Eamon's interrogation on the throne. Surprised to see Eamon there. Surprised to be interrogated. Olivia Cooke is giving a real like oh shit face in this moment. Do I have some questions about Allison wearing the same dress when she can't just hop on a dragon to get to Dragonstone and back. It should have taken her a minute to make this trip. Do you think she's wearing that blue gown the whole time? It's entirely possible. The hygiene in Westeros is appalling. And it always has been. Here's a reminder of the deal that Alicent and Rhaenyra made. It was a very long, very well-acted scene between these two actresses. But here's what Alicent says. Aemon will soon fly to join Cole in the Riverlands. When he's gone, Helena as queen will be the crown's authority. If you come then to King's Landing, I will see to it that our guards throw down their arms. We will open the gates. We will shed no blood. You will enter as a conqueror. Already you have the stronger hand. Once you take the throne, this senseless war must end. And Rhaenyra's like, almost. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to need to let me kill your kid. But I got to have Aegon. and Alicent nodded her assent okay she's sacrificing Aegon yeah to Rhaenyra in order to end this uh this war and as we'll hear her say later in the trailer she's doing some basic dragon math and she knows that Rhaenyra has amassed a lot and mostly at this point Alicent remember last season like had her like sort of like big bathtub sort of like suicide watch uh moment I'll never forget big bathtub and bigger bathtub never but helena seems to be her focus now yes and that was part of the the bargaining with renera was like i just want to go and i just want to take her in the wilderness i want to wander the wilderness renera's like good for you i guess um uh great but she's like okay in order to do that you have to let me kill your son and allison's like okay problem yeah as we hear aemon say a bit later in the trailer aegin's not here So Alicent's deal is a bit fucked. It's null and void. Yeah. Rhaenyra doesn't know that. Let's watch this next clip. Alicent came to Dragonstone. She will open the gates of the Red Keep and surrender to me. You cannot trust her. All right. So Rhaenyra's small council is here. Our guy Jace. His hair looks stunning. Immaculate. Sir Laurent Marbrandt is here. Lord Keltigar. Yep. Sure. Everyone's favorite character. Maceir Gerardus is here. And then Masaria walks into frame and they're at the painted table at Dragonstone. And Rhaenyra seems to be directing her words here mostly to Masaria. Yeah. Lamentably, we don't get to hear Masaria's return to do a season three accent check. We'll have to wait. I can only hope it has grown even more powerful in our absence. We see Alison walking in the bright sunshine, walking into the Red Keep with Sir Rickard Thorne or the Kingsguard behind her and a guard nodding to her and green banners everywhere. So this is just like, before she walked into the throne room, this is her coming back from the trip because she's still wearing that blue dress. Clothes up on her face. And then Jace says in slightly hushed tones, but still too loud for a room full of small council members, side meetings, people, side meetings. He says, you cannot trust her. Do you think he means Alison or does he mean Missaria, who is in the room awkward. What do you think? Either would be totally plausible to me. I think that while I think it is definitely possible, even likely that he's talking about Massaria, given the very consistent drumbeat of jealousy that Jace experiences and the persistent lament across the last season that she did not pick him either to bring it to her confidence in a given moment or, hey, I'm going to fly to Harrenhal. Adam, come with. Jace is like, what the fuck, dude, right? This is an important aspect of their relationship in season two. It made the moments where they actively worked and planned together for something like the sewing very powerful, but in part as a contrast. So, Masaria is someone that Jace is jealous of. I think that's clear. However, if this is about Alicent and if every single other person in that room also tells Rhaenyra that she can't trust Alicent Hightower, I would say not only would that not surprise me, I would expect the characters to respond this way because it is a crazy thing that she is going to them and saying. I'd be shocked if they didn't. Yeah. But also, this is just a classic Rhaenyra small council meeting where every single person in the room is like, I don't think so. Bunch of bros being like, I know that I remained loyal and said I would love to see you as queen, but I'd like to mansplain to you for a few minutes about why you're wrong and dumb. It's the way the team Black operates. But Masaria had been sort of orchestrating a bit of this Alice and Rhaenyra, you know, conversation. So she, out of everyone in the room, might be the only one who says this plan has merit. Which is just guaranteed then to make the other guys who are standing there even more dug in in the face of that budding alliance. I think he's talking about Masaria. Yeah. That would be my guess. Rhaenyra, if her expectation is that going to the small council here and saying, Alyson swung by, we talked, she's going to let me kill Aegon, she's going to open the gates, everything's fine. Pinky promised. If she expects that to go over smoothly, it's a blunder. For sure. You know what Rhaenyra likes to do sometimes? Blunder. A blunder! Alright. In this sequence, we saw Daemon, who is not a dragonstone at the moment, so this looks like a shot from a different scene entirely spliced in here, right? Yeah. Looks back over his shoulder. There are men in armor behind him, which I will come back to in the spoiler section. The trust her of Jace's line is played over Damon's face here. And we know that these two have had a lot of issues with trust over the season. So that doesn't seem accidental, even though he's talking about either Allison or Massaria, this moment of you cannot trust. Yes. The fact that we see Damon's face does not feel accidental. No question. one of the as we've chronicled at length over many hours of podcasts over two seasons of television one of the big areas of fascination for us has been Daemon and the adaptive choices with Daemon there's a lot of canonical text material around Daemon but there have been a lot of moments where we're like oh is that what he was thinking or is that what he was doing we've learned a lot where Daemon and Rhaenyra left things when Rhaenyra was compelled remember our guy Simon just sent a little raven you might want to come and check on Daemon he's raised his own army he's raised his own army come check in he's raised his own army he's not sleeping we're a little worried uh he keeps putting his hand and like bloody where was that Rhaenyra going in this very tense moment and then Daemon who has seen this vision who has been on the not only receiving end of this journey of evolution at Harrenhal across the season but this like you're the whole like you're the not the player right is this forever now daemon's big great you know oh we fight for our queen moments and getting everybody to kneel and to bend the knee and beautiful moments that we loved and that were very touching you know even rhaenyra in real time was like don't leave me again and daemon had the perfect reply like i've tried you know i've tried and i can't will things be smooth that's not really their relationship but damon does seem to have a newfound sense of who he is and who he wants to be he's put some of the viserys didn't love me as much as he loved you baggage to rest i will say that a that a bit of a bummer about season as much as i actually like loved the haunted harrenhall stuff and the vision stuff and Alice Rivers and all of that stuff. I actually really, really loved that. Separating Rhaenyra and Damon, even though it's textual, for so much of the season was tough. And all of their scenes together were electric. So there is a promo photo going around from the new season where they have very elaborately braided hair and they're touching foreheads. So listen, we'd love to see these two cut each other's lips open, smear blood on each other and just be weird and sexual. We believe in romance. So what can we say? Can we see this next very brief section, please? OK, that's it. It's Bela on Moondancer. Moondancer screeches, breathes fire over the site of a naval battle. This is the Battle of the Gullet. This is the only battle we're going to name. Yes. Battle of the Gullet. So every naval battle sequence of which you see much in this trailer is the Battle of the Gullet. Other stuff happens on ships in the story, but what we have in this trailer is very, this is a very Gullet forward trailer. Yeah, it's, it's Gullet-tacious. Simply Gullet-tisable. It is. It really is. Shout out Moondancer for being the first dragon in this new trailer. We're going to do a thing every time we see a dragon, we're just going to look at that dragon again. Will you show me that dragon? Wonderful. Moondancer, what do you want to say? Thrilled. Thrilled to see Moondancer. Thrilled to see dragons. I love dragons. Love House of the Dragon. Doesn't seem like Ryan Condell got your note in time to sub out all of the CGI dragons for puppets. Wonder if you can reach out again ahead of season four. Also didn't do like a cool David Bowie like, let's dance like musical cue for Moondancer. No, that's what The Ringerverse Instagram is for. Okay, great. Jomie takes a note. That's what The Ringerverse Instagram is for. Yeah, this is exciting. Gullet is something that people have been talking about for two years for a reason. It is a very anticipated moment in the story. And I don't think this is a spoiler to say because, again, the show team, Condal, and interviews dating back to the season two finale, all in the offseason, the run-up to making this season. The fact that it was so openly discussed that this was supposed to be the end of season two is probably going to kick off. It's clear that it's going to be early in season three. We're not going to be waiting long. Yeah. Whether or not it's the first episode or the second, we're not sure. This is like the conversation we had about blood and cheese in season two. Right. Yeah. They were talking about a lot. They were teasing it a lot. And we were like, are we going to get in the first episode? Second episode? How long do we wait for this? Anything else you want to say about those few seconds of footage? No, we'll be coming back to Gulloden in some other shots. So we can hit it there. Will, let's see this next section, please. The king has abdicated the throne. A new dawn is coming. Hell yeah. A new line of unsullied kings. Fuck yeah. Now we're cooking with gas. In the opener here, we're hearing Aemond, who's speaking over this section, right? And as he says, the king has abdicated the throne, probably giving Alicent some bad news, some news she did not want to hear. We see my best friend, Larys. Yep. Do you want to point out Preston behind you. Preston the rat. With us always. You know, Preston made the journey to not only a new studio, but a completely different part of Los Angeles. In, we learned, Carlos's backpack. New Jansport that you bought him. New Jansport from the Buffy bus. It's all connected here at the House of R. Preston the rat, Laris's rat being smuggled in the Buffy Jansport backpack over here. That's a real House of R, baby. That's a real House of R sentence. House of R, baby. All right. So Aemon's saying the king's abdicated throne. We see Larys and Aegon making their way through some spring woods. Spring is coming this summer. The last time we saw them, they were in a wagon. Why are they now on foot? I don't know. Seems like a couple of folks who would have some trouble navigating the woods. But Aegon Targaryen, welcome to the murder cloak gang. yeah i mean boy uh he's in rough shape you know here he looks okay we get a very close here's a here's a quote from from yes the season two finale when laris is like hey come with me yeah why don't you leave a beautiful beautiful scene actually like a genuinely beautiful scene but also contains this line my caucus destroyed did they tell you that Yeah, burst into flames like a sausage on the spit. Yeah. Talked about how he couldn't piss without it chirping down his leg. He was really going through it. Laris was like, I'm trying to game plan, man. Trying to get out of this alive. He also said, you know, Laris, I've tucked some gold away for a rainy day. That's right. Yeah. Let's go to Braavos, the Bank of Braavos, everyone's favorite place. And Aegon said, you want to take me to Essos to live with the goat fuckers. Great scene. You guys, House of the Dragons is a great show. I'm really excited for season three. I can't wait. Truly can't wait. Yeah, so there's some stuff that we'll talk about in the spoiler section, certainly. But like a reminder that a reason that Aegon went with Larys is not just Larys' sort of bid for connection of like, I know what it's like to have trouble getting through the world. But also Aemon was like, I'm gonna kill you. Pressed a murder ball into your mangled chest. Small ball. And yeah, the specific Aemond, Aegon, fear and tension, but also more broadly, this like pitch of patience, let them all kill each other and then come back. There was a wisdom born of Laris' experience that coupled with the authenticity of their armor bond that we got to watch over the back half of season two post-Rook's Rest that led to this friendship that we really enjoyed. Yeah, so we're not Team Green, unlike fucking Chris. But this is a relationship that I am really eager to be back with. It will outshine the Hound and Arya. Forget Bran and Pod. it's all about Larys and Aegon on the road. I think we know it's all about Kristen Cole and Gawain Hightower. How dare you? We'll get to them. Why are they not in the wagon? You know, I assume it's as simple as like at some point they're off the road and they're on foot because that's the secret path they have to take and a wagon doesn't fit. But maybe it's also the shit has gone wrong. Maybe they've been attacked. Someone has betrayed someone. Maybe the road was blocked. Maybe they were found out and they had to hide any number of things. Maybe Aegon tried to take a piss and dribbled down his leg and they're like, you can't do that in the wagon. in Westeros you definitely can people are pissing everywhere in Westeros 29 seconds in we get a battle map and an armored hand is placing a dragon among what looks like I don't know some windmills perhaps I feel like this is maybe the Riverlands just because that's where I know windmills are Aemon doesn't wear armor so this is probably Daemon Daemon's mailed fist and there appear to be lion heads on the map so Lannister forces would be my guess. Remember when we got to see actual real lions? I do. Remember how much time in season two we spent talking about where Jason Lannister and his forces were? And then we got season lions and we were like, this shit is about to be fucking electric. And then it just ended with that same army. It just didn't matter. Marching. And they're like, there's Harrenhal in the distance! There it is! And in two years, we'll be there. So Lannister forces are marching. Yeah. But Damon's doing some dragon math. So, that's right. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Okay. 30 seconds in. Tessarian, the blue queen. I'm thrilled. This is Darren's dragon with a princely saddle on it, but no shot of Tessarian's rider, Darren. But let's see that dragon. A new dawn is coming. It's dragon number two, Tessarian. You love Tessarian. This is just a great dragon. Cobalt and bronze. Gorgeous. Tessarian, the blue queen, is a beautiful dragon. And even just seeing the quick fly above at the end of season two was, I mean, that was one of the moments it happens, not infrequently on Talk of Thrones, but where Chris is like, it does seem like you're talking for like 97 days in a row about something we saw for 0.3 seconds. This was one of those things we had spent all season and the show was winking and leaning into finally alluding to and mentioning Darren. Darren's absence. Who's Darren for folks at home? Darren is Alicent and Viserys's other child, third son, fourth kid. So this is Aegon and Aemon and Helena's younger brother. He's a prince. Like, this is a character who matters. And as you can see here from Tessarium, a dragon rider. And we hammer the dragon math all the time because it is very important in a dragon war to know who the dragon riders are. and where they are. So it's not just that we see Tessarian here. All the green tents behind this is the Hightower army. Yeah, so we have... There are like, it's like a pen of sorts around Tessarian and there's a dragon keeper right behind her as well. Always got some notes for the Targs when they keep their dragons penned up. But... In a field? Anywhere. Fucking anywhere. No, but like, what purpose is that serving? Great question. Great question. Can she not just go... It's a great question. And so, you know, we just lovingly and gently, but also sincerely kind of mocked the persistent. This is where the Lannister forces are marching from. We had a version of that all season as well with Ormond Hightower's Hightower troops. Right. And they're on the march as well. We got to glimpse them at the end of last season. We get some cool shots of Ormond Hightower here. So Darren was off to Ward in Old Town. Right. That's why he's not back at the Red Keep, back in King's Landing. He's grown up away from his family, which is like not the worst thing, as we just talked about on another podcast that we did. Allison, you're a fine mom. Everything's been going really well with your kids. So Darren being here matters, Tessarian being here matters, but also the fact that this Hightower force, Ormond Hightower's marching force, has a dragon here on the road on a different part of the map. We're heading from Old Town. We're heading from the Reach. We're in a different part of the world that the team agreeing now has a dragon in. That's a big deal. Right. And so I think it's no coincidence that that is juxtaposed with that shot of Daemon putting a dragon on the map, right? We're doing, we're constantly doing dragon math. Rhaenyra has bulked up her numbers. Yes. They were, Team Black was on the back foot because Vhagar is so formidable. Aemond has Vhagar, quite scary. But Rhaenyra's like, what if we bump the numbers? Yeah, let's do a sewing. Let's do a sewing of the seats. And the other thing on the dragon math front that we should just refresh people on from the very end of season two is that Aemon made a ill-advised and very hostile and aggressive push with Helena to get on Dreamfire. So even Aemon who is as I don need fucking anyone but Vhagar as anyone has done the So and you can see in this great shot of Ormond Hightower in this next stretch here that a big force behind him He has a huge army. So 31 seconds in, a new dawn is coming and heavily armed soldiers pound their spears, I guess, into the ground in unison. Just to show, I think, like. Pairing that with Unsullied, classic thrones. How, very nice. How coordinated they are. And then a new line of Unsullied kings. So here's James Norton as Ormond Hightower, head of House Hightower. He's Otto's nephew. Can't wait to find out what the fuck is going on with Otto. Yeah. Just in his little weird pen. Speaking of a pen. We have a lot of questions. Who has him? Why? We don't know. His armor with the Hightower sigil emblazoned on it looks incredibly sick. Really good. Looks really, really good. Huge army. Yeah. To your point, at the beginning of season two, Otto was doing Team Green Alliance math on the whiteboard and he said we think we have storm's end thanks to aemon jason lannister is amassing forces in the west and the golden tooth so that's the lines right lord ormond is marshalling forces from old town so that was a season ago so alazant is just gallivanting back and forth from dragonstone but ormond has been slowly marching up the continent yeah with a horse and roll down and then it is master of ships to dalton gray joy the red kraken yeah that'll be fine what could go wrong okay so even though the the new line of unsullied kings plays over ormond aemon is talking i believe about either trying to marry helena and create some pure none of this high tower blood nonsense targaryen heirs or at least throwing some shade at the strong boys yeah eugenics incest this guy can just like what can't he do he loves a three strong boys toast he loves it. Yeah. He loves it. 36 seconds in, Aemon on Vhagar lights some shit up at Harrenhal. Let's see that dragon! Here's the thing. Every now and then it's as simple as that dragon looks sick. That's it. Fucking Vhagar. Awesome. Look at the size of that flame. Holy hell. Daemon has been at Harrenhal all of season two. Yes. Vhagar is at Harrenhal. Are we going to see Eamon and Daemon interact? Right. And Eamon yell at each other from Dragonback. Fuck you! No, fuck you! We're going to get to Chris and Cole soon, but Eamon sent Chris Cole and that army off to march toward Harrenhal. That force is heading toward the Riverlands, much to Chris Cole's shugrin. Right. This is what Allison said. Eamon's going to leave in a couple days, So go join Kristen Cole at Harrenhal. And that's when I'm just going to open the gates and you just walk on in. And then Eamon went to Elaine and was like, fly with me to Harrenhal. And she was like, bugs. Let me tell you a few things about your future that you're not going to want to hear. But also bugs. But also bugs. Yeah. All right. Let's see this next section. You are the queen of dragons. You have an absolute power within your grasp. absolute power within your grasp. I have no notes. Damon Targaryen, welcome to the trailer. Rhaenyra staring into the fire, sparks flying. She looks very unhappy. Yeah, one thing I'll say is that everybody in the first trailer for season three of House of the Dragons seems like they're in a great mood and experiencing a lot of joy in their lives. People seem like they're getting along. Yeah. And things seem like they're going well. They saw Night of the Seven Kingdoms and they're like... People love this charm and this hope and dancing these egg breakfast sandwiches. Yeah, there's a place for like a very dour, severe tale, but maybe it's not Westeros. No? Oh, is that not the vibe? Okay. All right. The camera pans out on Damon Cladden, his armor, as we hear him say in voiceover, you are the queen of dragons. And then a bloody, homeless Damon shoves Dark Sister into, we can't see, the ground, a body. I'm going to say a body. Just because. Why not? Could be the ground. Probably a body. Probably a body. It's probably not great to shove your ancestral sword into the ground for no reason. Adam got me Dark Sister as a gift. It's fucking awesome. I'm planning some pretty cool Instagram content for the summer. Stay tuned. Can you give us a tease? Give me one idea you have cooking. Let's see. I'll pledge to you right now that anything Damon does with Dark Sister I'll do. at home. I'll find a way. At home? Or like here in the studio? I once brought my... Like right here. This should be your dark sister's age. Yeah, there's maybe too many wires. I did once, back in the day, in Grantland days, I brought, say also, I have Longclaw, also a gift from my very wonderful husband. And I brought it in to the Grantland offices one day. Before we started this podcast, not before we started our first podcast in the day, but before we started this podcast, just some friends hanging out and you me arjuna carlos and there was some discussion of how just anytime i move my arms there's a lot of cracking of the joints i wouldn't say that lugging long claw to the office was like the greatest stroke of genius i've ever had it's fucking heavy so i don't know if i'll be bringing dark sister and that said dark sister is lighter it is but it's very sharp it's very sharp maybe you just come over we'll make some content at home you have a hero sword you have like an actually sharp sword sword like they're they're sharper than you think they would be the sharpest one of of the weapons that we have in our uh ever-growing armory the cat's paw dagger is like you could you could hurt somebody delightful um in addition to all of the trailer footage we see we get of damon at war we there was a promo photo that's right that went out of a blood spatter damon and oscar tully and a bunch of riverlanders stay tuned so raniere went to harrenhal she and damon had her moment at the end of last season but raniere flew home and damon has not yet. He is here. That is clear. He is in the Riverlands. At least to begin the season. Alan of Hull. Yes. Stares over the side of his ship. The Queen Who Never Was is what the ship is now called. Great renaming from Corliss there. We love a rebranding. Just riddled with arrows as the sea battle rages around. There are so many arrows here. Again, are there going to be ships in the show outside of the gullet? Yeah. there are there are a number of fleets and also just a lot of boat stuff people sneaking around in boats it happens all the time in house of the dragon across two seasons however boat sex wow some very memorable boat sex across game of thrones so yeah uh the number of arrows here the armor this is war this is gullet it has to be let's just refresh people on we've talked a little bit about the forces that have promised to end up in the riverlands near harren hill or are actively there or on the march well we had a version of that at the end of the season two with our naval forces the renaming from sea snake to the queen who never was my glory to her glory uh this was part of the valerian fleet heading back out to sea a lot of season two was oriented around this blockade the festering resentment among the people of king's landing who were starving who was being blamed for it for it versus who was enacting it and what would they do to break it so you have the blockade through season two we have the valerian fleet heading into the water and i'm not sure if everybody collectively has repressed this no they remember or remembers it but four scenes in the season two finale four i think four um three four were devoted to tylen lannister going to recruit the triarchy that is a thing that happened the triarchy also chris ryan's favorite that's right Yeah, Sharknado and the Triarchy have entered the chat. And so that is a force that is sailing. So Tylan wants to break the blockade with the Triarchy forces that he has come and mud wrestled for. And sang. There was some singing. Singing. Some talk about fucking my wives. Some coin. That's right. And some mud wrestling. The mud wrestling looked fun. I think the mud wrestling looked fun. So, gullet, the Velaryon forces, Triarchy, coming on the come up. All right. And the gullet is, of course, if anyone's like, where is this? Remind me. We've got King's Landing. We have Dragonstone and Driftmark. We have Blackwater Bay. We have the gullet. Like, these things are close together. Now we're oriented. Now we remember where everybody is heading. Will they meet? We'll find out. Should the teaser just have been a map showing, like, labels? Yeah, but you have to use your arm. we'll use your arm for it so the river lands around me okay anyway close up on corley's faces damon says the thing about absolute power sick armor yeah this is just fucking great the armor is so good and then perhaps most importantly at all the 47 second mark uh christopher ryan swoons as a city greasy chris and cole looking rather worse for the wear stares up at the sky from, as the camera counts above him, a dragon footprint in the mud. This has to be Vhagar, given the size. I really don't think there's another option. Let's refresh on Chris Cole's state of mind when we left him. He was talking a lot about Morning Mist and honor and sniffing in plain sight of Gawain Hightower, her brother, and their entire army. the handkerchief. You forgot about Lemon on the sword. Lemon polishing the sword and saying, and I'm paraphrasing, it would be a blessing to just die, wouldn't it? The PTSD for Kristen Cole in the wake of Rook's Rest, this reminder to stare plainly in the face of how insignificant and small men can feel in the face of Dragon War, that is where we left him and where he still is as his commander, as his regent, has sent him back out on the march. How devastated were you that you did not get any Gawain Hightower in this? I don't want to say that I'm infuriated in a way I can't recover from, because I do know that we're getting another trailer. But if Gawain is not in that next trailer, I will revolt. I will revolt. 49 seconds in, we get Damon on Caraxi somewhere nice and green. Let's see that dragon! That was the shortest one yet. My fave. That's great. Caraxes rules. Long boy. I love the, I always love the way that. The blood worm. It's my best. And his little sweet little feet. Yes, his sweet little feet. Yeah, he's got his little. He's like the sweet foot. Of this show. What do you think Caraxes thinks of green apples? Caraxes, Caraxes could fuck up some green apples. Prefers pigs. It's canon. Well, the problem is I don't think dragons ever eat like uncooked apples. Right? I mean, I guess if they ate a person who was holding an apple. Maybe. They've probably accidentally ingested some apples at some point. Several Hightower men draw their swords in a defensive position around the throne. They sure do. Who are they defending it against? And it is very strange to me that it is Hightower men and not the King's Guard. More to come in the spoiler section. All right. Indeed. What else can we say? Let's go to the next section, please. Soon or late. Renee will send her new dragons here. It would be the end. All right. So more Gullet stuff. Alan shouting a command aboard the ship as the battle explodes around them. And then 51 seconds in, it's only the bloody Starks. Winter Wolves. The Winter Wolves are here. They're yelling and running up a hill and doing general war stuff. Here's what Cregan Stark said to Jace. Yes. In season two, episode one. So we've been waiting an entire season. Maybe this is the problem, a problem in season two, which is they like seeded all this stuff right at the beginning of the season orman hightower is marching up like first half of hot day season two was amazing yeah and episode seven was awesome i still think if episode eight had been episode eight of a nine or ten episode season we would no i agree very differently no i agree i'm just saying like yeah the promise early the winter wolf stuff and like all of the promo and entertainment weekly and whatever was like the starks are here the starks are here and they were here for like yeah a scene yeah a cool sequence It's a really, really cool sequence. But okay. Yeah, you're right. Even like Jace mid-season heading to the twins. It's sprinkled throughout and then we're just like, all right, we'll check in in June of 2026. It's a long time. To wait, it is. Okay, Cregan Stark says, I have a thousand gray beards who have already seen too many winters. They are well honed. Jace says, so they're old. Cregan says, I can ready them to march at once. And Jace says, if your gray beards can fight, the queen will have them. And Cregan says, they will fight hard. Like no otherness. Just incredible. And as you mentioned, we saw them marching across the twins in the season two finale. And now we've got, though he's not in that shot. Right. Tommy Flanagan, Roddy the Ruin. Sensational. I am thrilled. So the twins were in the Riverlands, right? So that's where the Starks are. Okay. In the same battle as the Starks? Possibly. Unclear, but unlikely. Very unlikely. We see Aegon viciously stabbing a man on the ground. Aegon's penis might have popped like a sausage on a fire, but he's got some fight left in him. Oh my God. Good job. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 52 seconds, another battle on a beach. Yeah, and it does look, I mean, it's definitely hard to tell, but it does look like Aegon is in a sandy, I mean, it could just be dirt, but it's kind of like a sandy. You think Aegon's near the beach? Ground here. Maybe it's just a patch of dirt. Okay. But it could be sand. And we cut right to the sand. I think that could be sand. I do. Okay. I do. Battle on the beach. 53 seconds. Another battle. A bunch of horses and fire. You think they can get away with doing beach battle stuff in Hathi without bringing back crab feeder? I would revive from the dead. I would like to know who talks about the crab feeder more than you. Nobody. I mean, literally no one. Yeah. Literally no one ever remembers. No one in his army. Yeah. None of his kin. No one he infected with grayscale. No one. 54 seconds in. Damon inside full battle armor. definitely looks to me like he's fighting the team green guards we saw at the 50 second mark in the throne room that's what that looks like to me i would say that it is a setting that looks familiar yeah okay that's yeah that seems to be a room we know 55 seconds in allison who i believe is still in blue a darker blue velvet dress that she's also wearing in the promo photos that hbo tweeted out is seemingly trying to convince aemon that surrender is the way to go. She mentions the quote, new dragons, as in the dragon seeds, but we do not see Ulf, Hugh, Raina, etc. or the people Adam, who claim dragons. Right? Remember when we cut to Raina looking for Sheepstealer I believe also four times in the finale. There were some mistakes were made. Sheepy looked great when we finally saw. That was wonderful. Sheepsealer looked amazing. And then at the minute, Mark Allison says it would be the end as we get a shot of Rhaenyra looking up. A lot of looking up in this teaser. There's a lot of looking up. You know, it is a show about dragons and people flying them. So makes sense. Let's see the next section. I got it! That's the one that gave me a chill. the armored that that's the stretch oh the stretch when everything goes really fast okay jace dracarys so jace is dragon vermax join the battle of the gullet that corliss and alan and bala are engaged in and just we get a classic dracarys let's see is this our last one this our final dragon wonderful stuff who else is here we're gonna preserve the surprise that until they show more in other trailers but we have as you just noted seen undeniably certain participants in this this is it's this was when i was like let's go like that's the shot for me too june now i like tweeted it and i was just like well here we go yeah i mean this is this is the stuff this is the uh ranira this section is great because the score the pounding the drums and the score go along with, though not perfectly synced to, and I really like the way it's syncopated, to Rhaenyra pounding on a door. Hey, you. What? A little SAT word of the day. Syncopated? That was wonderful. Did I use it correctly? I have no idea, but I loved it. Copper turns turquoise when you oxidize it. That's a callback to Rhaenyra. It's oxidized. There we go. Just bear in mind that I looked that up and learned it before you guys wrote me emails about it. Okay. Anyway. Rhaenyra's pounding a door. The Valerian glyph's on the wall. This is her room. Yeah. So someone has locked Queen Rhaenyra in her room. Sure seems that way. And she does not seem happy about it. No. Nor would I be. Chris and Cole, muddied and sullied and far, far cry from his crisp white cloak. Yep. Chokes a man to death. Things are getting desperate out there. Crispy Cole. I can't wait to talk about this more. Okay. Rhaenyra bangs on the door some more. At a minute six, Aegon wearing a cloak looks, guess where? Up! Yeah. And astonished. And he's, his body is still healing. That is my takeaway from that glimpse. His body is macked and his body is healing. Sheesh. Corlys looks over his shoulder, aggravated and alarmed on the boat. So this is gullet stuff. Rhaenyra bangs on the door again some more. Yep. Someone, maybe Alan, or just maybe a random Velaryon person goes overboard. Unclear to me. Allison looks horrified at a minute, nine seconds. The gaping mouth and the glove over her hands. Great stuff. See you in the spoiler section. A minute 10, Damon covered in soot and blood, his favorite is screaming in the heat of battle. Yep. A minute 11, an armored someone in a narrow space swings a sword down as dragon fire erupts behind him. I would say that also looks like a familiar location. Oh, really? Yeah. I had a different suspicion. Interesting. Talk about it in the spoiler section. Great. And then let's see the last section here in the non-spoiler section. This is the moment you become queen. And everyone looks like things are going well. Rhaenyra for them. Tear-streaked. Sooty. Resolved. Wearing some sick armor. Looks amazing. We will be. We will be returning to that expression. in the spoiler section, which we're about to get to. For a teaser, I thought that it achieved what it needed to achieve, which is setting the mood. That's what a teaser is meant to do. Battle sad, battle sad, battle look up sad, sad, fire, spark, blood, soot, blood, dragon, dragon, dragon. Exactly that. Just so. And also, like, everybody is still fighting with each other across the team lines and inside of them. And that is the other crucial thing to always remember about Hot D, is that nobody is getting along whether or not they're supposed to. spoilers this is the moment you become queen let's go to the book spoiler section all right this is where we can say way more yeah okay just leave if you don't want to hear this because we're gonna talk about everything that happens everything that happens every did you leave we're gonna start here we start with the poster we're gonna go back to the poster here's a passage from fire and blood this is one of my favorites in the entire do you want to read it no no please you can read it i'm just thrilled that we're like getting to talk about this now and as her lord husband prince damon escorted her from the hall cuts were seen upon her grace's legs and the palm of her left hand, wrote Eustace. Drops of blood fell to the floor as she went past, and wise men looked at one another, although none dared speak the truth aloud. The Iron Throne had spurned her, and her days upon it would be fused. This is Rhaenyra and Daemon have taken King's Landing. Yes. She sits upon the Iron Throne, the seat of power that was promised to her, and it cuts her. And this is an ill omen as discussed in Fire and Blood many times. And so this poster that we see of her on the throne with blood on the sword is the throne has cut Rhaenyra. And even though she got the throne, her days there are numbered. Yes. I love this. The fact that in Fire and Blood it's presented is like, she wouldn't wait. She couldn't wait. At last they're here. King's Landing is theirs. King's Landing falls. This is one of the things I'm most excited to see. there's a lot I'm excited for this season. This is one of the things I'm most excited to see, actually, because of the Eamon part of it, like being so severely outmaneuvered, leaving King's Landing defenseless. Eamon goes to Harrenhal, and Daemon's like, psych, I went to King's Landing. Exactly, and we're going to talk about this in a minute, but we believe that Daemon has been incorporated into the fish feed plot. That seems very clear, which makes sense. It is a real improvement and is a great choice, and it seems since he was just amassing this army for so long at the end of season two and then stayed like that's where we would be heading but the fact that he'll participate in fish feed and then still bounce amund will fly out to meet him to find that he is gone have a moment if things play out in the show according to the text of like boasting he was too afraid to face me right and then learning that king landing fell also the way that that influences in the future the way that we near and everyone will will think about who do you have to leave behind how many dragons have to be here etc which ends up being obviously hugely consequential I'm really excited about all of that. One of the things that we freaked out about and a lot of book readers freaked out about when we first got to watch House of the Dragon back in season one was the cut to Viserys' finger from the throne. Because all of the stuff in Fire and Blood with Maegor the Cruel and the rejection of the throne and the omens chasing back to like you know blade through the neck etc so to see the way that this like um if i if i uh if memory serves and i'm quoting the show team correctly magical leprosy that like inflicted visera so his body parts started to just fall off of him began with that the blade to the finger for this for renera to for this to be the poster yeah like it's just and i think it's a really fun signal to people like to to book readers to Balnowers, right? Here's Rhaenyra on the throne, but here's the blood, and that signals that her reign will be short and cursed. Yeah, it's a perfect choice. It's a great wink to the readers. And if you're a viewer, I could see how you'd be like, wait, this feels like just actually a massive spoiler. But I think it's a great way to sort of point to the fact that there's a long road ahead. There's a long road ahead. So yeah, just fantastic. Okay. So then at the 22nd mark, in the vein of this whole Taking King's Landing section, Yeah. Damon looks back over his shoulder. There are men in armor behind him. I think this is Damon in the throne room. And I think those men could possibly be the gold cloaks who have helped him get into the city. The gold cloaks who are loyal to Damon. Right. Because they're wearing they're wearing city guard armor, but no gold cloaks. So, like, do they take them off to be like, you know. Sir Luther laughed. Damon gave us these cloaks, he said, and they're gold no matter how you turn them. Then he drove his sword through Sir Gwaine's belly and ordered the city gates open to the men pouring off the sea snake ships. Gwaine's not here. I don't think he's going to be there. So he'll die another way, I guess. Fish feed? Plenty of opportunities. I assume he'll die at Butcher's Ball with Kristen. Are they going to do both Butcher's Ball and fish feed? I think Butcher's Ball is a must. I think that Kristen has been propped up as a character who deserves a really iconic death. But what if they do the fish feed and Damon's there and Kristen's there and Gwaine's there and it's just like the fish feed is the butcher's ball. It's just like all one battle. I'll be curious to see how. Like Kristen will get an iconic death. Yeah, for sure. So the thing I was alluding to earlier about, and there will be some battles that maybe are just compressed to like a mention or we see the wreckage, but we don't actually. Honeywine is an example to me. I don't think we're going to get necessarily a full proper Honeywine battle in part because we don't know those characters yet. But I do think that, like, that will be a part of how we come to acclimate with Ormond and Darren and Tessarion. I think that the post-fish feed—Kristen's march after fish feed through the wreckage, in part that Amon is spreading in his fit of rage, burning the riverlands, attacking house after house, but also that the river lords, the way that they, like, burn the path that he's about to head down so that there's no food for his army, and then those like fish feed corpses and the like fake out feast. I feel like it's some of the most visually evocative stuff in the story. So my hope is that that will be there toward the end, like an episode six, maybe episode seven sequence, Butcher's Ball. And I think too that like Winter Wolves, obviously they'll be at fish feed, but I think we'll get, we'll get the surviving portion of the Winter Wolves, including Roddy at Butcher's Ball. I think we'll get it. Okay. 25 second mark, Bela on Moondancer at the Gullet. This is a huge update that Bela on Moondancer at the Gullet. From Fire and Blood, the battle in the Gullet raged into the night north and south of the Dragonstone and remains amongst the bloodiest sea battles in all of history. But Bela being here to see Jace and Corlys perhaps seeing Bela there, there's that reaction shot of him looking up and him looking horrified, which could either be him seeing what happens to Jace. Jace dies at the battle of the Gullet. But that's a low thing. So what is he looking up at? And for me, I thought maybe it's seeing Bela there, thinking she shouldn't be there. There's all this back and forth about whether or not Bela should be out there. Right. It could be that. It could be even just the shock of seeing all of the Dragonriders arrive. You called early in season two Bela being at Gullet as a likely change. and I don't know still if like this will be in place of the nettles sheep stealer or reina sheep stealer like it would be I think kind of surprised maybe reina could still show up in time but that would be like a little surprising perhaps corlis is just looking up and is like five dragons are here we're gonna be okay and then you know one of the great lines in the book is it is written that when the sea snake was congratulated as victory the old man said if this be victory I pray I never win another. So to look and think our salvation is here and then have like the loss that awaits, I think would be really cool. 26 to 36 second mark, bowing her fire and blood, bowing her head in defeat, Queen Alison to surrender the keys to the castle and order her knights and men at arms to lay down their swords. The city is yours, princess. She is reported to have said, but you will not hold it long. The rats play when the cat is gone, but my son, Eamon will return with fire and blood. They're always talking about the fire. I think so this, this section where Alison is forced to give Rhaenyra like the keys of the city. I wonder if it will play out very differently given like the conversation we got this season and stuff like that. Yeah. I'm curious. Is that going to be theater? Right. For like people who are watching. Yes. You know, that seems likely. Um, anything you want to say about Tessarion in a, well, I guess just on this, this Aegon front or were we going to hit that Aegon and Lyris later? Cause we see them here. So I guess like, you know, we could just quickly hit the, in the spoiler section. Uh, or you do, you have the, you have Sunfire so we can hit it when we get to the Aegon looking up later. Um, and what we think they might be up to. Tessarion, you know, again, this would be like Honeywine. I think just in general, the fact that Darren comes in onto Tessarion, swings Honeywine. It's such a big moment for team black of like, we don't, we're not as solidly positioned as we think. And then the way that Tessarion is able to basically like fly out ahead and clear and blaze this path. Yeah. I'm curious to see if, if we're witnessing a lot of that or just sort of hearing about it, but we have to get enough of a sense of the high tower army, Ormond's forces and Tessarion and Darren before Tumbleton, there has to be at least enough like firsthand witnessing of who this force is before like the swinging of the two betrayers right all right uh when daemon shoves dark sister into probably a body um this like because this looks like early dawn this is why people think daemon will be at the fish feed right because the bloodiest land battle the dance the dragons began the next day with the rising of the sun in the annals of the citadel is known as the battle by the lakeshore but to those men who lived to tell of it it was always the fish feed so we were we We were concerned about the fish feed because we were like, who the fuck cares about all these various characters are going to be at the fish feed? So I think you think they're going to do the butcher's ball. I just think that if you can get Damon and Kristen and Gwaine and the Stark forces all at the fish feed, this will feel like... And that shot, the promo shot that we talked about earlier of Damon and Oscar Tully covered in blood and looking like horrified. This other quote, the Lannister host was shattered and slaughtered. But who cares? And at such cost that young Ben Blackwood, the boy lord of Raventree, wept when he saw the heaps of the dead. So like, are they making Oscar Tully stand in for bloody Ben? I definitely could see Kristen and Gawain being a part of the fish feed. Without dying there. Yeah. And then still preserving the even more beleaguered, defeated. The fact that that army is in tatters and hungry and their men start to defect. I feel like actually that would be great because the more beaten down and worn down Kristen is by the time he gets to like, what if uh you know me against the three of you and like oh my peace banner and can we just talk you know you've got to build up toward i'll have no songs about how brave you died kingmaker declared longlaith there's tens of thousands dead on your account he was speaking to a corpse like that feels to me is if tumbleton is the finale which i think it will be that feels like a great episode seven moment is there any way they move tumbleton before the taking of king's landing and the taking of king's landing is the finale so i was thinking about like reneer on the throne is the end of the season. I thought that was really possible until the poster. And now I'm like, because even just I'm saying a lot at the end of season two, a few days, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. Just the fact that Daemon is here still, I mean, you can fly pretty fast on a dragon, but Gullet has to play out. I think ultimately it will go if it's Rhaenyra at the end taking King's Landing, I don't think she's there for long enough. I think she needs to be there by mid-season. So that we have enough time to, you know, have like the taxes and the resentment. The Realms to Light becomes a person that we hate and like build toward the Shepherd and the storming of the pit. And like second Tumbleton, obviously elsewhere, there's so much they have to do. So there's a lot they have to do still. To your point about compression. Could they do a time jump if we end with Rhaenyra on the throne at the end of this season and then we time jump and like shit has really progressed in King's Landing under Rhaenyra's reign? Maybe. I think... My prediction, I'll reassess this after we get more trailer footage, but I'm thinking Gullet at the beginning, a mention of Honeywine, Fish Feed. If Gullet's episode one, maybe Fish Feed's episode two. I think Rhaenyra takes King's Landing in episode four, mid-season. Then Butcher's Ball, if it happens, like episode seven. Tumbleton feels like the right end point of the season to me because it's the shock of the betrayal of like, you thought you had the edge because of the sowing of the seeds. this astonishingly bold gambit to swell the dragon math in your favor. And then they switched like Hugh and Ulf, Hugh and Ulf. And they lay the track for that for, I mean, the way that Ulf is in general, but then Hugh's family is at Templeton. Right. So that feels like it would be a good, you know, you have the high of taking King's Landing mid season and then it's like, Oh fuck. And we're swinging back down. I'm inclined to think taking, I'm going to, I'm going to take the other side and say King's Landing is where we end. Taking of King's Landing is where we end. As you know, years ago, that was my prediction for how season two would end. So now I just think ending season three there is too late. But I think it depends. We don't know where they're going to end this story full stop. That's true. Are they going into like the Regency? So yeah, it's true. I don't know that they're going to do that. I think they might just be like, once Rhaenyra is off the board, is this even like a story you want to tell anymore? Even after she has the throne, it's like, we've got everything with Helena. as you noted, the Alicent change and the richness that that can unlock on the storytelling front there. We've got God's Eye with Daemon and Aemond. We have second Tumbleton, you know, Adam going in. I mean, God's Eye is definitely... Shepard's storming in the pit, Aegon versus Rhaenyra, Dragon's Stone. There's so much left to do still after she takes the throne. So much. But that could be like a chock-full final season. Yeah. And then it's over. Yeah. It would be weird for her to wait to go to King's Landing, though. Like, especially after... She's locked in her room by someone. who knows who you think it's jace i definitely think jace locks her in the room so that she can't go to the gullet and he dies and then he dies yeah tough one tough one jace and his dragon vermax in the battle of the gullet that is the shot of the trailer chills um i when i tweeted it out someone responded like uh in dunks voice uh he's too low he's aiming too low but yeah that low fly into the gullet like they knew what they were doing when they put that in the trailer no question um so you think we get gulet in episode one i do i could see episode two but i think that they're i actually i don't think that creators should make shows or movies out of a position of fear of an angry fan base i think that's how you get really shitty star wars movies but i actually i do think that they're like people are will not abide even one episode where nothing happens other than conversations i just i feel like gullet is an episode one thing but who knows Vormax was swooping through the fleet. One of its prongs found purchase between two scales and was driven deep by the dragon's own considerable speed. The sailor had coiled his end of the chain about the mast and the weight of the ship and the power of Vormax's wings tore a long, jagged gash in the dragon's belly. Elipses. The prince was struck once. So Vormax goes down. Yes. The prince was struck once and then again, more and more Mirren brought crossbows to bear. finally one quarrel took him through the neck and jace was swallowed by the sea so the shot we get of rhaenyra looking up five different times in the trailer but one time very tear-streaked and upset and in the armor is like yeah i mean that makes sense to me if like if like the jace news that has to be the jace yes right yeah in the armor then king's landing like if she's in her armor, I feel like. Yeah, it's like, let's go. Yeah, and I'm jumping ahead now to the last shot in the quote in the outline, but broken by the loss of one son, Lucerys, Rhaenyra Targaryen seemed to find new strength after the loss of a second. Jace's death hardened her, burning away her fears, leaving only her anger and her hatred. Still possessed of more dragons than her half-brother, her grace now resolved to use them no matter the cost. She would rain down fire and death upon Aegon and all those who supported him, she told the Black Council, and either tear him from the Iron Throne or die in the attempt. Occurring to me in real time, Fishfeed could be first. Fishfeed could be the first battle. And then that gets Daemon in position to move a little faster. And then gullet. It's not impossible that they could reorder things that way. Okay. Aegon wearing a cloak looking up astonished. Sunfire lives, slimy with mud, twisting amongst the bones of countless sheep. Sunfire writhed and coiled like a serpent, his tail lashing, sending blasts of golden flame at his attackers as he struggled. Sunfire was gone. Like ellipses. Ellipses, sunfire was gone. nor were their tracks as surely as there would have had uh would have been had the dragon dragged himself away sunfire the golden had taken wing again it seemed but to where no living man could say so this idea that agon like agon lares find themselves near rook's rest on their journey and then sunfire emerges and kills all the you know all the people who are there or agon's like oh shit my dragon's alive right because and we were very puzzled throughout season two by everyone talking about sunfire being dead instead of just like injured and waiting because then you have the like pursuit of sunfire and sunfire then escapes because i'm like is egg on on that beach i think the fact that they're trying egg on and laris are trying to get to bravos bravos they're trying to get across the rc if this is like if this beach skirmish are they basically going into the teeth of like Gullet's spillover here trying to get out into the water. Now Sunfire can't fly in plain sight of any of that. Nobody else can see Sunfire because Sunfire being alive has to be preserved as a surprise. This is why I like them at Rook's Rest. But that's just the, I mean, yeah, I guess. It's possible that they could just go there and see him there. And then like this is one of the, I'm interested to see, it's such a thrill in the text when you like kind of realize that sunfire is okay a gun's okay they're together they're waiting and the horror that unfolds on dragonstone as a result of it is just like really all-time stuff that's obviously not how it's going to go right show we're going to know every step along the way only larys himself knew that the king stripped of his finery and clad and salt-stained fisherman's cloak had been concealed among a load of codfish on a fishing skiff in the care of a bastard knight with kin on dragonstone So, like, maybe they see Sunfire elsewhere, but Aegon getting into a boat and hiding and making his way to a cove, I think we'll get some of that. Definitely got to be some water stuff. Beach laying. Okay. I'm going to zoom through the rest of this. Alicent looking horrified. Yeah. Could be a number of things. Otto Hightower, beheaded. Yeah. Gwaine, obviously we don't think Gwaine is dying at King's Landing. We think Gwaine is dying elsewhere, so probably not that. Helena, falling. Yeah. falling when do you think that's gonna be like back at end of season three it depends when the king's landing thing happened it's really hard to know i wonder if i wonder if they'll push that back um this is this is the one where we might disagree right uh minute 11 this is when the armored someone in a narrow space swings a sword down as dragon fire erupts behind him i think this is tumbleton you think this is fun flea bottom uh i thought yeah just the stonework kind of looks I at first thought it was Flea Bottom, but like, Cyrax and Caraxes don't torch King's Landing, really. No, no, and it falls in a day. But, and that, the shot of the Hightower men guarding the throne is certainly the taking of King's Landing. But Tumbleton, that prosperous market town, was reduced to ash and embers. thousands burned and as many died by drowning as they tried to swim the river someone later said that they were the fortunate ones for no mercy was shown the survivors yeah so like tumulton just being like all of that dragon fire down in the streets of some place yeah i think it's possible also that that could be basically any of like if they have aemond at some point just on a path of carnage burning like various riverland houses it could be could be that but yeah the fact that there's like a fully armored soldier make tumulton would it would be it would be cool to have gotten a Tumbleton shot in here, given that how important it is. Should be a massive part of the end of this season. Alright, and then last but not least, the Daemon line, this is the moment you become queen. Is this about her taking King's Landing or about her ascending the throne? I think taking King's Landing. I think so. Yeah. That feels right. Taking King's Landing. I mean, it's going to be great to see them just up in the air together. Praxis and Zarek over King's Landing. It's going to be emotional. is going to be great. Really going to be great. Anything else you want to say? I mean, like, we're kind of playing like, we're shuffling the plots around because we don't know what order they're going to do it in. And like, I don't think we should be too concerned about exactly how things are laid out in the book. This is something we learned to let go of in season two, but they're going to want to space these battles out a bit. You know, so maybe it's every other episode or something like that. Maybe we condense some things. yeah um you know is when is tumbleton happening in in the timeline it's hard it's hard to say i don't know and that's kind of exciting because as much as we know there's a lot we don't know yeah i mean i i agree any number of sequences here could work i mean the most important thing is that the characters get to the place that you need them to be we need to understand by the time tumbleton happens why exactly or what state hugh hammers in when he justifies that to himself how is he going to get to a point or is he going to get to a point is this one of the things that the histories have mischaracterized by second tumble tim of saying like fuck darren i should be king you know and that's obviously season four stuff but right what level of the if they can do it on that level i mean it's it's interesting to me that hugh and ulf are not in this i mean they have so many characters in this show yeah it's i think it's smart to just give us like a lot of rhaenyra daemon allison aemon aegon and then like yeah release the wolf the white cut for the second trailer maybe um but yeah i'm excited i think we'll get a pretty robust meaty second trailer possibly a third and uh i look forward to talking about it with you then my darling what a joy to be back in westeros with you and have not a moment away to go right from a night of the seven kingdoms finale into breaking down this trailer thrill of a lifetime truly a treat um all right i can't wait to find out who's been holding Otto Hightower, and I hope we get more than one scene with him before his head is chopped off. And most of all, you're concerned about the triarchy. Okay, hobbitsanddragons.gmail.com if you have any questions about this trailer. Anything you think we missed, any detail where you're like, actually, I spotted a sigil or something like that. We love a will, actually. And we will see you next week for the mailbag. Thanks to, who helped us here today, Mallory Rubin? Who didn't? Yeah, let's call out the people who couldn't be bothered. No. Thank you to CT for riding with us for hours today. Hours. Working on the deep dive for Night of the Seven Kingdoms and then right into this trailer breakdown. Thank you to Jon Jones for editing this podcast while Carlos is in real time editing the deep dive. Everybody's jumping in to help us today. As always, thank you to Carlos. Thank you to Arjuna Ramgapal. Thank you to Jomia Deneron. Our small council, you know, they're killing it. We'll see you soon. Bye! Oh, shit.