'House of the Dragon' Season 2, Episode 5 Deep Dive. Plus: Steve Toussaint! | House of R 

Best line this episode was Hugh’s wife, “with those empty promises you can feed the mouths of ghosts.” That is such a GRRM line it goes so hard

Almost 4 hours! Never change, House of R!

You keep teasing us with getting closer and closer to 4 hours, give me my 4+ hours of content! (lol RIP to the editors)

That Steve Toussaint interview was, to quote one Mallory Rubin, iconic

Thank you for the rebuttals to the “filler episode” and other arguments I keep seeing online. It’s so annoying lol

I am SO glad we didn't cut away to the quote screen for the Targ Mother's Day celebration, Jo's face was priceless!

What cracks me up is Viserys saying Alyssa liked him less because he was no great warrior. Bro was a 7 yo toddler when she died 😭😭😭 he’s just a babyyyy. What warrior.

Jace, Baela and Mysaria were all great in this episode! Let’s goooo!!! So excited for the rest of the season!

Steve, would it be possible to add chapters or timestamps for the different discussion points?

I hate the whole we didn’t see it thing. We aren’t gonna see everything, what would seeing Rhaena fail to claim a dragon really add

On the Aemond and Alicent relationship prior to Luke's death, I remember Alicent basically telling Aegon to 'not bully him in public', but otherwise turning a blind eye (pun unintended) to the bullying. Aegon led the bullying and Alicent didn't stop him. She only intervened when it escalated too far, and her confronting Rheanyra over it was more about her own long held grudges than anything to do with Aemond. Aemond is observant and is probably aware of this.

Just because Jace and Baela are betrothed doesn't mean they're in love. It's a political marriage that they're not unhappy with. They seem to like and enjoy each other, but that doesn't mean they're in love. Plus, I would assume they wouldn't consider this a good time to risk getting pregnant. I'm just saying. Doesn't bother me one bit that they're not all over each other.

Great episode as always and awesome interview with the SeaSnake. 4 hours well spent!

love seeing your beautiful faces and studio! yay video pods. been waiting for this deep dive ♥

Always looking forward to this

So far enjoying this one they still have great banter but the giggling seemed less over the top compared to previous weeks. But are still there to make all their incredible smarts easier to ingest. Great work ladies !don’t know if you-read mine or others feedback but the balance was great this week. Top notch, queens!

Yes the gaseous fly-covered dragon head meat is definitely turned😂 hugh is starving

Fabien Frankel is soo underrated. Incredible actor!

Guessing they were not podcasting when GoT first was on, but that line “ I looked for you on the Trident” is one I loved the first time I heard it. Have not read the GoT books so not sure if that is lifted from there, but just delivered so coolly

Male characters overtly saying "You're a woman" rang more true to me than having the characters be more subtle in their chauvinism especially in this world. The subtlety is written only to soothe the sensibilities of a modern audience. Give me the fantasy of fire breathing dragons, but don't sugar coat any real world comps.

the longer the episode the better you guys crush this every time

Watching Joanna shake her head, “no,” as Mal nods, “yes,” while listening to Alyssa Targ…. 😂😂😂

How does Ryan Condal not consult you two? I love the show, I really like the season so far but have the same issues you have. I swear if he hired you two as consultants then all the little nitpicks we have would be addressed. Offer your services for season 3!!!

Jace said "Okay Mom, you know me, I love women's rights and wrongs and I adore you queen...but maybe NOT Visenya? like Jayson Lannister WILL try to cancel you and Baela WILL be upset with me and I just stopped pouting :( " I know Vermax cannot shut the 7 hells up about his semester abroad and now calls and grumbles in a Northern accent while Moondancer sighs in exasperation like "Yeah okay we know it's FYR and BLUUD and it was soooo cold but you've learned you have inner strength and appreciate the dragonmont you call home or whatever. WE GET IT!" Prayers for Father Steve, s3 press run he's gonna be so miserable without Mother Eve :(

My Queens!

playing college football 25 while listening love to hear if you enjoy the game

You two are fantastic. Your analysis can make what didn’t feel like a great episode; interesting. How you analyze each scene is perfect. Couple thoughts: I’d love a 4 hour analysis of each season 8 episode of GOT. Show just how awful it ended. Mallory…..love your work. Girl put that hair up 😂😂😂. Thank you!

“when u give your word, you give everything” LFG STEVE

Not yet on Spotify gang rise up

Could you please put up a version of the s2e6 deep dive, even if it's audio only?

Just to point out Freud has not been debunked by the psych community. A lot of ppl claim that because they don’t like the insights he made. His theories are very prescient imo

Love your pod so much! Thank you! I am a writer and producer by profession and love the show. That said, the writing inconsistencies make me wish they didn't have so many different "pens on the page" and folks who are steeped more in lore details so the characters would be in harmony for example Rhaeyns in the end of Season 1, the mismatched eyes, ect. I think too may different voices who are not deep in the lore is tough.

2:57:00 this is not inconsistent, bringing it back up, just like the council has brought up the same issues, or keeping the dragons feed is a recurring problem. Here Rhaenyra does not react like it is a new idea, she mentions riders, something Daemon did not offer a solution to.

BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!

So excited for the Oakenfist

Miladies...😊

I too liked the peeling scene...I kept imagining Darth Aegon ngl

But who is this "nameless" emailer at 2:36 and why won't Jason Concepcion just be a guest appearance for a day...? Maybe the finale? My dream trio!!!

Smore of a Son is crazy talk😂

Im so happy they give Cole more nuance... We need goods villains!

3:09:00 is where they FINALLY get to the interview. (For an episode they said was "slow" they sure had a lot to say. Gotta be honest, by the time we get to Daemon's mom, I had to start skimming. I already heard most of their thoughts on the Talk the Thrones podcast anyway.)

❤it wouldn't ,couldn't hurt right,ask for everything because it's WAR,COULDN'T HURT ?😊

At the end

Such a good episode

❤hopefully the lost girl will find sheepstealer and joins the war....❤

❤❤by feeding her starving people too she won her people ❤❤

What about the drogon looking dragon creeping out the dragon mount in the look ahead?

I don’t understand how they can worry about ‘the blood being thin’ when her boys are from the Strong blood line??

2:44:14 such a great call Jo

Why were they playing Baratheon Theme when Aegon was being brought up to the keep? That son has been set up as The Baratheon song since Got S1E1

I just saw you on Mina Kimes show... yesterday? Hello!

Rooks Rest is not on the tapestry yet because 1. It takes time to figure out the narrative and 2. Those nimble little fingers can only stitch so fast…

Am I the only one that thought the midnight riverlands meeting was a dream? I’m getting shutter island vibes in Harenhall and believe everything is happening in Daemons head

❤I think lord Corey's has 2young illegitimate treasures to unlock...❤😊❤

I have to agree, the episode was a little lacking. Although piece-moving/world building episodes are usually my favorites, if we compare it to peak GOT, the conversations are a little paint-by-numbers and im craving a little more. Sometimes it feels like the writers forget the true fans of this world are a lot smarter than they think we are.

Steve was so funny and nice

It took me 3 days but I finished it. 😅

35:06 I think Helaena is referring to what Aemond did to Luke and how it resulted in her son's death and ultimately Aegons condition. "Was it all worth it?" I don't think she is refering to what Aemond did to Aegon because its way to early to tell if it was. Helaena has visions but she's not the three eyed raven and i dont think she would reference a vision in that way.

With regard to Meleys, I would say that Balerion was Maegor's dragon and did many a horrible thing during his reign and noone called for that dragon to be put down afterwards so maybe the smallfolk just didn't blame the dragon so much as its rider, if they even recognised what dragon it was that killed so many of the smallfolk at the dragonpit. The Daemon characterisation feels very much intentional to me and I quite enjoy it because there's no place for him or the audience to hide, as no amount of charm can help you escape the terrible things Daemon does and in this case they don't even work out to his advantage, which should be a moment of reflection for him. It feels like the character is on a learning curve as he's storms out of the house in a huff, is now crashing somewhere else and refuses to message his wife...out of pride. Alys Rivers seems to me to be less of a tempering presence (in spite of making the point about the impact of his actions on the smallfolk) and more of a corrupting presence, pittig him against his wife twice by appealing to his pride and some of his deepest, darkest thoughts. Given who she meets later on, I can see this being her attempt to get a powerful dragonrider to claim the power of the king for a purpose that might or might not be his own...it remains to be seen whether Daemon manages to overcome this or falls prey to her sorcery.

My body and kind is ready xP Let's fucking go!

It really confuses me when people still think Targs are fire proof like even after S1 of HOTD Daemon has multiple burns on his neck/back from fighting in the Stepstones?? Like, why does no one notice this lol

🤘🏽❤thankyou ❤🤟🏾😋🌺🌻🌹💐🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲⚔️

About the "Is Alys real?" question: she puts a bandage on his hand, and when he has the scene with Simon Strong that bandage is still there. In fact, the bandage is still there when Simon drags him out of bed in the hour of the wolf to face the disgruntled riverlords.

I know its a running joke that the deep dives go long. But two 4 hour episodes in a row is ridiculous.

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R+L = J t-shirt rules, kinda shocking that this hasnt been confirmed in the books yet

BOOK SPOILER QUESTION . . . . Does anyone know why they keep saying the fish feed will be this season? In the book the fish feed doesn’t take place until after the fall of kings landing. it would make more sense for the battle of the red fork to be this season, since they’ve already teased that Jason Lannister’s army is approaching and if there’s a battle where they could insert daemon, it would probably be that one.

Imagine how long this would be if they loved the episode

1:37:09 Please never change.

starts 5:20 gang

YAY I LOVE YALL

Why does she keep saying “comp”. What is comp?

Guys just say the pod comes out on Wednesday instead of Tuesdays. I'll feel a lot better. Thanks

I feel like this episode is when you start a chapter in a book but get sleepy 2/3rds of the way through the chapter and decide to stop. The individual parts I think were good, just incomplete. I think it's why the overt nature of the themes really stands out. These in-between episodes are where GoT really shined and I think it's done rather inelegantly in HotD.

ngl, while on one hand i agree that having meleys pop up and murder hundreds of small folk was pretty damn awful, on the other hand i appreciated the parallels to eren transforming in marley to begin his attack on them

The true character assassination of Meleys is the two of you (& everyone else) brandishing her as a murderer who “stomped 100s, if not thousands of people” which is simply just not true. Maybe a few people fell over, but no one died. If so it would’ve been addressed. Otto even says “a dragon escaped from the pit the people see it as a bad omen.” So *if* people did die, considering the dragons are gods to them then it would only be on them that it happened- not Rhaenys & definitely not Meleys. It is their sins that caused this as Kings Landing has been a cesspool for centuries now we see. This just proves once again that the Great Queen Daenerys Targaryen was right in her decision to burn it all down! The propaganda against team black and Auntie Rhaenys is *strong* here and not appreciated, esp for those who so call themselves ally of the Blacks. Tisk tisk. PS- it wasn’t a strange thing for Condal to say bcuz it’s totally true! Literally everyone mourned for the legendary pair that was the Red Queen & the Queen Who Never Was 💪🏾

❤❤❤my two beautiful queens❤❤🍯🍯🌼🌼🌹🌹🌺🌺💐💐👑👑😋😋

I think we should acknowledge that Absolute Monarchy is dominant ideology in GoT universe. So small folk are not important,only kings and royalty. Only reason we are worried about small folk is because there is element of Liberterianism and Communism inside, so freedom and little people have some value. But this was not true in 14th century England,which creates this universe. Only Absolute Monarchy was dominant then. This is in context of why action of Mayles in season 1 coronation might not be so bad.

Normal stuff. OMG.

Honestly, I think Corlys’ reaction was kinda underwhelming. Personally, I wish they’d let him rage, unleash his emotions, maybe ruin some of the stuff from his voyages. I get what the writers wanted to show, but still… Love Steve tho! Wish you could get Eve to do the interview ❤️

Dude the crow sound effect has gone too far.

3:20:00 I assumed that Alyn and Addam are older than Corly's children by marriage. Am I wrong? I figured they were kids he had with a woman he was in love with, but then he had the opportunity to marry a Targaryen princess, and of course he jumped on it because of his core belief that history remembers names. My thought was he put aside his lover, married Rhaenys, and discovered she had that independent spark he admires so much, so they fell in love. And he just never mentioned his illegitimate children because it's basically understood that most Lords have at least one bastard on their lands, so the Ladies just turn a blind eye and don't bring it up. And for the Ladies who don't/can't turn a blind eye, it can be a sore spot, so the men just never mention it. I figured the reason why Rhaenys wasn't hateful towards the idea of Corlys having had "natural" sons was because they were born (or at least conceived) before she married him, whereas with Catelyn Stark, the issue was that she had married Ned and already had one kid by him when he comes home with another woman's child, so she is pissed at the perceived infidelity (not to mention the fact that Ned never seemed all that sorry about it -- he couldn't really be sorry since this wasn't _really_ his kid --and seemed to expect her to brush it off). But all this in my head is predicated on the fact that younger brother Addam is at least a year older than Laenor. I haven't read the book; are we told differently? Did Corlys really cheat on Rhaenys?

👑 King In A Box! 😂😂😂❤

For the alg!

The Daemon will turn against Rhaenyra shit in harrenhal is really dragging the show back. I like the visions of his guit from Rhaenyra and leana but the other ones are a waste of time. We know he isnt going to actually betray Rahenyra.

Showrunners and writers need to stop worrying about people babygirlifying and daddy-ing their villains and grey characters. There is absolutely no way to create a character so evil that no one will joke online about wanting to be murdered by them. They do it with Hannibal Lecter, they do it with depictions of real life serial killers, they do it with the literal devil. One must commit atrocities to be babygirl, it is known. These writers and producers don't understand internet culture and humor and they are so uncomfortable with women and queer men's sexualities that they back themselves into goofy writing decisions. It's just as silly to me as the writers and producers who get so uncomfortable with people shipping their same sex characters that they turn deep, die-for-you friendships into acquaintances who barely care if the other lives or dies, undermining all of the character and relationship building that they had previously done. Or even the writers who try so hard to stay ahead of internet theorists that they change their plans and pull big twists that have no basis in pre-existing character traits or motivations, or break the logic of the established world, just to surprise everyone. In all of these cases it's a knee-jerk reaction to fans going off script from their pre-conceived ideas about how their work is supposed to be received, and it never leads to better writing.

1:47:53 ...and that Crispy Cole too!

❤all is good because daemon bend þhe knee...❤

I need to know more about Mallorys husband. I LOVEEEE Mal... I need to know what freak married her (In the best way possible)

😊

The Corlys scenes are a massive letdown, because of the refusal to show his grief. Rhaenys was his reason for being, so one lone tear is not enough. I get that they want Corlys to be the strong silent type, but this massively reduces Baella's impact in their scene later in the episode.

Not a great episode. Real TV people will admit it just like me.

At a certain point the sex jokes just become grating!

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