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This podcast episode provides a review of "Hard Salt Beef," episode 102 of "A Night of the Seven Kingdoms."
Liz continues praising its strong adaptation of the novella, and effective character dynamics. The episode highlights the show's use of original scenes, such as flashbacks of Dunk with Ser Arlan, to deepen the narrative.
While the jousting scenes are visually engaging, the decision to hold them at night and feature multiple simultaneous matches is questioned for historical accuracy.
The host also discusses a poll for the fifth season's topic, which currently favors exploring fan theories.
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00:01 --> 00:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Westerosi Primer.
00:06 --> 00:14 [SPEAKER_00]: For full show notes and more about all things Westeros, head to the Westerosiprimer.com.
00:14 --> 00:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Before I start playing the intro music, check out this friend of the show.
01:00 --> 01:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Greetings fellow accolites, welcome to another episode of the Westerosie Primer.
01:05 --> 01:06 [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Liz.
01:06 --> 01:08 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're new to this podcast, welcome.
01:09 --> 01:11 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoy this journey of all things Westeros.
01:12 --> 01:21 [SPEAKER_00]: And in this episode, I'll be talking about episode 102 of a Night of the Seven Kingdoms, titled, Hard Salt Beef.
01:21 --> 01:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Please stay tuned all the way to the end where I will be sharing some important announcements and some important business related to the podcast.
01:31 --> 01:46 [SPEAKER_00]: I will be discussing a little bit about the scenes that were pretty straight on adaptations of the novella and the original scenes written for the TV show and just my general thoughts.
01:46 --> 01:59 [SPEAKER_00]: So overall, I would say that, again, this episode was a very good adaptation of the novella and overall the writing and the acting is very strong.
01:59 --> 02:09 [SPEAKER_00]: I do appreciate the fact that the Targaryens are introduced in this episode and when you do meet them.
02:09 --> 02:30 [SPEAKER_00]: they don't look all the same, which if you've listened to the episodes I did in season 2 of this podcast, why I actually discussed quite a bit about King Dayeron II, aka King Dayeron the Good, who is the King at this time period.
02:30 --> 02:37 [SPEAKER_00]: he married Mariah Martell, which means that the Targaryens are actually half-dornish.
02:38 --> 02:55 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're interested in listening to a little bit more about this particular time period that I'm discussing, you will have to listen to episode 2-15 where I explain quite a bit more about King Dayeron II and his reign as King of Westeros.
02:55 --> 03:14 [SPEAKER_00]: But in any event, I have to say that they did a very good job with the casting mostly because some of the Targaryens do not have the platinum blonde white silvery colored hair that Targaryens are typically known for.
03:14 --> 03:22 [SPEAKER_00]: In particular, we saw how Prince Baylor has very different hair color
03:22 --> 03:43 [SPEAKER_00]: And we even see a younger Targaryen who we don't hear addressed by name on screen, but for those of you who are familiar with the lore, or you had listened to episode 215, you would know that this particular Targaryen is Aryan.
03:43 --> 04:10 [SPEAKER_00]: although I'm not quite certain how his name is pronounced so if his name is pronounced differently in the show, please understand that is partially a difference of pronunciation since not every single character that George created in this saga, our characters he discussed in interviews, so we don't necessarily know the correct pronunciation of some of their names.
04:11 --> 04:39 [SPEAKER_00]: So with that said, I would say that one of the really interesting things that they did with this particular episode is they started it off with more flashbacks of
04:39 --> 05:06 [SPEAKER_00]: So in order to learn more about the man, we would have to do flashbacks, because if you've listened to the episodes I had done earlier in this particular season, you will know that Sir Arlin does come up quite a bit in the novellas, but it is mostly through the recollections
05:06 --> 05:15 [SPEAKER_00]: In the case of a live action adaptation, you can see Sir Arlin literally on screen via the flashbacks.
05:16 --> 05:25 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a really interesting decision they made to not just feature the flashbacks, which of course are logical choices to be made.
05:26 --> 05:31 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's also an interesting decision mostly because
05:31 --> 05:48 [SPEAKER_00]: We can literally watch and follow along with dunks reflections about his time with Sir Arlin, mostly because as the commentary at the end of the episode mentions,
05:48 --> 05:57 [SPEAKER_00]: There is this idea of how sometimes when you think back on things that happened to you years earlier.
05:57 --> 06:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Your interpretation of events may not necessarily be a reflection of reality.
06:05 --> 06:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, you may sometimes end up in a position where you may be rethinking.
06:13 --> 06:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Whether or not your decisions are right or whether the path ahead of you really is the right path for you to be walking on versus a different path.
06:25 --> 06:44 [SPEAKER_00]: and i think this episode really does a very good job of doing that which is something that we don't actually see in the novella because at least via dunks perspective you generally don't see him questioning too much about his decisions in the sense that
06:44 --> 07:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, in the beginning, he had some trepidations, but he ultimately decides that he was already set on the path towards becoming a knight, and that is the path he will stick with, because he genuinely has very few other options left available to him aside from becoming a criminal.
07:06 --> 07:18 [SPEAKER_00]: which is not something he wants to be nor would Sir Arlin want him to be that either and we very much get that in this particular episode.
07:19 --> 07:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Another interesting thing I really thought was enjoyable is you do get these little scenes where you can see how egg and dunks relationship and the dynamic
07:36 --> 07:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It becomes almost a little funny to see how at times egg who is a child seems to be more mature and smarter than dunk who is older than him.
07:51 --> 07:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, logically, it should have been the other way around, but with these two characters, it's not.
07:58 --> 08:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And that is very much the dynamic of the two characters in the novellas, and we are able to see this in the show, which I think is wonderful.
08:08 --> 08:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's a very good sign of the writing team actually understanding the characters and the source material.
08:18 --> 08:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Overall, I would say, again, are very spot on and I think they did a very good job.
08:24 --> 08:34 [SPEAKER_00]: the only thing I question a little bit is the choice of making the joust at night.
08:35 --> 08:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, those of you listening to this podcast, maybe some of you guys are more expert at how
08:46 --> 09:14 [SPEAKER_00]: But I do find it a little hard to believe that they would ever host The Terny events particularly things like the tilts in The evening mostly because it would be freaking dark and In ye old and himes there are no giant Electric spotlights that can be set up all over the place to light up the The Terny grounds
09:14 --> 09:16 [SPEAKER_00]: but that's just my personal opinion.
09:17 --> 09:18 [SPEAKER_00]: But don't get me wrong.
09:18 --> 09:21 [SPEAKER_00]: It does make it visually interesting.
09:22 --> 09:32 [SPEAKER_00]: But again, I question that decision as being a logical choice versus it being a cool stylistic decision.
09:32 --> 09:34 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's my personal nitpick.
09:34 --> 09:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, before I continue with the original scenes just for the TV show, again with the jousting, I will say they did a very good job depicting jousting overall.
09:46 --> 09:53 [SPEAKER_00]: I think the action and excitement was captured very well.
09:53 --> 10:04 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's a little bit different to how it's depicted in the novella, beyond the fact that it's set in the evening, which again, I already explained my view about that.
10:05 --> 10:17 [SPEAKER_00]: It has been a couple months since I read the novella, but I don't recall them doing the jousting as five matches at the same time.
10:17 --> 10:25 [SPEAKER_00]: My recollection is that it was done via one pair of competitors at a time.
10:25 --> 10:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Like your typical attorney would be done, but I don't know.
10:31 --> 10:44 [SPEAKER_00]: My guess would be they probably did it as a more exciting visual dramatic way of depicting this.
10:44 --> 10:52 [SPEAKER_00]: But again, I could be misremembering, I could have forgotten that they actually indicate that's how they did in the novellum.
10:53 --> 11:01 [SPEAKER_00]: I would have to reread the first few dozen pages of the novell again just to remind myself.
11:02 --> 11:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I didn't do a reread before I watched the show, but at any rate.
11:07 --> 11:26 [SPEAKER_00]: I also think it's very good that they included some very important details about the competitors that we see in the tilts mostly because again, to be pretty accurate to how with the world is set up.
11:26 --> 11:49 [SPEAKER_00]: It makes a lot of sense that even without knowing the actual names of the characters or most of the nights that are competing, you do see a lot of detail work in the props and clothes that they're
11:49 --> 12:01 [SPEAKER_00]: The shields you can clearly identify which houses they are, like for example, the night who was biting off the head of a fish.
12:01 --> 12:18 [SPEAKER_00]: When you study his shield, you can clearly see it is the trout of House Tully and the actor portraying him has reddish Auburn hair, which is of course a classic feature of someone
12:18 --> 12:29 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also really enjoyable to see how Egg is really excited to watch the Terny because apparently he's never seen or been to a Terny before.
12:29 --> 12:59 [SPEAKER_00]: I also think it's a really brilliant choice, as well in the turny tilt sequence to have dunk be both really excited, but equally intimidated because he says he wants to participate in the turny, which means he's going to have to go up against high-born well-trained knights
12:59 --> 13:24 [SPEAKER_00]: And as we see earlier during the flashbacks to his time with Sir Arlin, Sir Arlin is clearly not that great of a night, which is also another explanation as to why
13:24 --> 13:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also because he realizes that he is very under-equipped to go up against far superiorly trained knights than him.
13:39 --> 13:54 [SPEAKER_00]: which is why if he has the bad luck of being paired up with the quote unquote wrong competitor, he is going to lose very quickly and he's going to be out of luck because
13:54 --> 14:10 [SPEAKER_00]: he is going to lose his horse and his armor with very little to show for it because as was mentioned a few times in this episode and in the previous episode, if you lose your match,
14:10 --> 14:21 [SPEAKER_00]: sometimes the knight who won your match has the right to take your stuff and ransom your stuff back to you.
14:21 --> 14:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, shivalry states that if you're a good knight, you will very kindly return the
14:36 --> 14:50 [SPEAKER_00]: But realistically, a lot of times, nights will expect money to get your stuff back, because in many cases, the nights participating are nights who could stand to get some more money in their pocket.
14:50 --> 15:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Especially if you happen to be a hedge knight who likely doesn't have that much money to begin with, so you will definitely want to get your hands on as many stags and dragons as you can.
15:04 --> 15:09 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, so those are my thoughts on the scenes that are from the novella.
15:10 --> 15:19 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a really interesting choice they made to include an original scene, which is the tug of war section.
15:19 --> 15:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a really interesting decision that they made to create, a scene like that, to be fair, it does add to the festival fun atmosphere that you can often find in attorneys, both within Westrose and, of course, real life historical attorneys.
15:39 --> 15:43 [SPEAKER_00]: There were a lot of moments of fun to be had.
15:43 --> 15:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Incidentally,
15:44 --> 15:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The panel back in October at New York Comic-Con, Peter and Dexter did mention they had a lot of fun filming that particular scene.
15:52 --> 15:53 [SPEAKER_00]: There was a lot of laughter.
15:53 --> 16:03 [SPEAKER_00]: They had to do multiple takes and it was a lot of fun to be had for the actors themselves as well as the characters as you see on screen.
16:04 --> 16:13 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, so that overall are my general thoughts on this week's episode.
16:24 --> 16:49 [SPEAKER_00]: So, before I close out the episode, I just want to remind those of you who are new to this podcast, but I have set up a newsletter where every week you will get a notification reminding you that
16:49 --> 17:10 [SPEAKER_00]: Also occasionally I will do blog posts and the newsletter will act as a notification so that those of you who are interested may want to check out the latest post or posts that I did on the blog section of the website.
17:09 --> 17:27 [SPEAKER_00]: I also want to remind people that I have a poll running, basically it is a poll where all of you listeners have the opportunity to let me know what would you like me to discuss in season five of the podcast.
17:27 --> 17:44 [SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned in the previous episode, I anticipate that season four of this podcast will basically be my reactions to season three of House of the Dragon when it finally gets released.
17:44 --> 17:56 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have an official release date, but there is a lot of indication that they are aiming
17:56 --> 18:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Last speculation I heard was they are possibly going to start releasing season three in August.
18:07 --> 18:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I will admit if they do actually release season three of the TV show in August that is going to be a serious problem for me.
18:18 --> 18:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Mainly because towards the second half of August I am actually going to be traveling with my family on a
18:26 --> 18:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Big family vacation for a couple of weeks, but if the TV show actually airs while I am on my two week vacation, I will not be releasing episodes.
18:40 --> 18:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, because realistically, I'm not going to be hauling podcast equipment while I'm traveling.
18:47 --> 18:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Once it gets closer to when they actually air the TV show, I will be posting on the blog.
18:56 --> 19:04 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, through the newsletter, what I'm ultimately going to be doing regarding season 4 of the podcast.
19:05 --> 19:05 [SPEAKER_00]: But...
19:05 --> 19:08 [SPEAKER_00]: back to my poll about season five.
19:08 --> 19:16 [SPEAKER_00]: This is basically a poll to let you listeners have a say as to what am I going to talk about for season five.
19:17 --> 19:23 [SPEAKER_00]: I anticipate season five of the podcast will be
19:23 --> 19:43 [SPEAKER_00]: precisely when in 2027 I'm not 100% sure it will lightly depend on what announcements HBO will make regarding a night of the 7 Kingdom season 2 and of course it's going to take time for them to film season 4 of House of the Dragon.
19:44 --> 19:44 [SPEAKER_00]: But
19:44 --> 19:56 [SPEAKER_00]: If the schedule that they did for season three is any indicator, it's very likely that they will start filming season four next year.
19:56 --> 20:09 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's very possible that we won't see season four of House of the Dragon until 2028 at the very earliest, just my speculation.
20:09 --> 20:25 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no indication as to when they're going to film a night of the seven kingdoms, but my guess would be they may want to try starting on that either late this year or possibly also next year as well.
20:25 --> 20:39 [SPEAKER_00]: But considering the shorter length of a night of the seven kingdoms, I would imagine they would still manage to film and release season two of this show a lot sooner than House of the Dragon season four will come out.
20:40 --> 20:42 [SPEAKER_00]: But again, that's just my speculation.
20:43 --> 20:53 [SPEAKER_00]: But regardless, the poll that I'm running for season five, I give all of you listeners who choose to participate in the poll five choices.
20:53 --> 21:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So just for the benefit of those of you new to this podcast, I will briefly read out the five choices, which are, I will do a rewatch and reaction to Game of Thrones season one.
21:07 --> 21:18 [SPEAKER_00]: It would basically be like a fun look back at the original TV show that started a global fandom, especially for those of you who have never read the books.
21:19 --> 21:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Option two is explain more about the various fan theories, book readers, we're talking about that show watchers don't know about.
21:28 --> 21:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Incidentally, this choice is currently the more popular choice to of the three votes are for this one.
21:38 --> 21:47 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you agree with this particular choice, vote for it, if you don't, then pick one of the other four.
21:47 --> 21:50 [SPEAKER_00]: the third option is Westeros to all one.
21:51 --> 22:14 [SPEAKER_00]: So I dubbed the first season of this podcast as Westeros 101 where I give listeners a brief introduction to various regions of Westeros and some interesting facts about notable Westerosie houses from those particular regions, but they were very brief introductions.
22:14 --> 22:15 [SPEAKER_00]: I
22:15 --> 22:23 [SPEAKER_00]: would literally need more than one season to do a deeper dive on those things, but it's a pretty good introduction.
22:23 --> 22:39 [SPEAKER_00]: I say, so if you want me to actually do a dive into some of the things that I briefly mentioned in that particular season,
22:39 --> 22:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
22:40 --> 22:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, choice number four is I do character essays about various game of thrones characters and or their houses.
22:50 --> 23:05 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you happen to select this choice, you will be prompted to answer an additional question where I actually give you a list of different houses.
23:05 --> 23:21 [SPEAKER_00]: rather than specific character primarily because my reasoning is that in some cases, characters that are members of a particular house could potentially be an entire season by themselves.
23:22 --> 23:27 [SPEAKER_00]: So for example, if let's say you do select choice number four.
23:27 --> 23:41 [SPEAKER_00]: If you happen to select how stark as an example, I could easily do a season of me doing an essay on each member of how stark as in I would do an episode on net.
23:41 --> 23:54 [SPEAKER_00]: I would do an episode on Rob, Sansa, Arya, Bran, et cetera, like just with those members alone would make up an episode per character I could get into.
23:54 --> 24:21 [SPEAKER_00]: For a character like Catlin Stark as an example, I would probably exclude her from how Stark only because she is originally from House Tully and House Tully is a much smaller house during the time period of Game of Thrones, so it would make more sense for me to put her in House Tully as an essay.
24:21 --> 24:24 [SPEAKER_00]: And then the fifth option is literally other.
24:25 --> 24:28 [SPEAKER_00]: You can do basically a write-in vote.
24:28 --> 24:34 [SPEAKER_00]: You can suggest a completely different topic that is not one of the other four choices.
24:35 --> 24:41 [SPEAKER_00]: So I highly recommend that more of you guys participate in this.
24:41 --> 24:51 [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you head over to thewesterocprimer.com, I have links to the survey so you can go there.
24:51 --> 24:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, in the show notes, I will also put a link to the survey so that you can let me know.
24:58 --> 25:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, I only have three votes to work with currently.
25:03 --> 25:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Two of the votes are about fan theories.
25:08 --> 25:12 [SPEAKER_00]: I will admit that would be a fun topic to discuss.
25:12 --> 25:20 [SPEAKER_00]: I had to do a little research in the event that this ultimately becomes the actual theme for season five.
25:20 --> 25:27 [SPEAKER_00]: I have started doing some preliminary research of various fan theories I could be discussing.
25:27 --> 25:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, naturally I know quite a few fan theories, but they are mostly the really big fan theories that even I had participated in with other fans online.
25:40 --> 25:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Over the years, there are also a few more obscure fan theories that even I wasn't aware of that would also be really interesting for me to talk about if this is ultimately the choice that all of you guys make.
25:54 --> 26:15 [SPEAKER_00]: So, yes, that is going to be how I end the episode this week, which is to encourage all of you to please sign up to the newsletter so you get notifications and also for all of you listening to please participate in the whole four season five.
26:15 --> 26:27 [SPEAKER_00]: And just so you know, the poll will be running until February 22nd, which is when the final episode of the season of a night of the Southern Kingdoms will air.
26:27 --> 26:34 [SPEAKER_00]: I would also like to remind all of you listeners that if you head over to the Westerrocy primer doc.
26:34 --> 26:46 [SPEAKER_00]: There are comments sections available to those of you who want to share your thoughts, opinions, comments on the episodes of this podcast.
26:47 --> 26:50 [SPEAKER_00]: So you guys can leave me feedback there.
26:50 --> 27:07 [SPEAKER_00]: If you disagree with anything, or you have any fair criticisms about how I'm doing with this podcast, feel free to leave comments there, or you can send an email to host at the WesternROC primer.com.
27:07 --> 27:19 [SPEAKER_00]: So thank you everyone, and tune in next week when we get to episode 3
27:56 --> 27:58 [SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of this episode?
27:59 --> 28:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Check out thewesterocprimer.com and let me know what you think of this episode.
28:04 --> 28:09 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have a friend or two that might like the show, make sure to share.