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This podcast episode provides a comprehensive review of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" episode, "In the Name of the Mother." Liz highlights the episode's strong writing, filming, and acting. In particular, the original flashback scenes detailing young Dunk's life and his first encounter with Ser Arlan is discussed.
The episode effectively blends original content with the novellas' gritty realism. A major plot point discussed is the shocking death of Baelor Targaryen during the chaotic Trial by Seven. This is a tragic event that profoundly impacts Dunk and sets up significant consequences for Maekar, who accidentally caused his brother's death. Liz emphasizes that Maekar's action was not malicious but a frantic attempt to protect Aerion, challenging common viewer assumptions.
The host also provides podcast updates, encouraging listeners to participate in a survey before the February 22nd deadline.
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00:01 --> 00:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Westerosi Primer.
00:06 --> 00:12 [SPEAKER_00]: For full show notes and more, about all things Westeros, head to the Westerosiprimer.com.
00:14 --> 00:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Before I start playing the intro music, check out this friend of the show.
00:46 --> 00:50 [UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
00:59 --> 01:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Greetings fellow accolades.
01:01 --> 01:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to another episode of the Westerosi Primer.
01:03 --> 01:05 [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Liz.
01:05 --> 01:07 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're new to this podcast, welcome.
01:08 --> 01:10 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoy this journey of all things of Westeros.
01:11 --> 01:18 [SPEAKER_00]: And in this episode, I'll be talking about a night of the seven kingdoms episode titled In the Name of the Mother.
01:18 --> 01:35 [SPEAKER_00]: this was the episode that many people were eagerly waiting to see and now you know the big thing that a lot of us who are book readers knew for quite a long time now.
01:35 --> 01:44 [SPEAKER_00]: This was exactly one of the
01:44 --> 01:49 [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, so we have one more episode left until the season is over.
01:49 --> 02:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Incidentally, I wasn't paying that much attention, so I didn't realize this, but apparently they have already started filming season two of the TV show back in December, or at least that was the indication when I looked up the old...
02:05 --> 02:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Hollywood Reporter article where this was discussed, which will be very interesting and it does seem like the show will be on track to release season two at some point next year.
02:17 --> 02:31 [SPEAKER_00]: The question is going to be whether they will try to release season two around this time of year or if they're going to try to wait until maybe in the spring or even in the summer.
02:31 --> 02:32 [SPEAKER_00]: that remains to be seen.
02:32 --> 02:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Personally, I'm hoping it'll be in the spring or the summer just because given how long it takes for house of the dragon to complete their production cycle, it seems to me like it would be really great for HBO if they spread the two shows out so that way those of us who are TV only audiences
02:59 --> 03:15 [SPEAKER_00]: because there was a deficit of content in 2025, because they pushed the release of season one of the show to the beginning of 2022, just so that they will release House of the Dragon season three in the summer of this year.
03:15 --> 03:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, as I record this episode, there has been no announcements as to the release state.
03:21 --> 03:30 [SPEAKER_00]: If they actually do reveal the release state next week with the season finale, I would genuinely be surprised, but we'll have to see.
03:31 --> 03:40 [SPEAKER_00]: In any event, so as a reminder, there are going to be some additional announcements towards the end of the episode.
03:41 --> 03:45 [SPEAKER_00]: So I would be very appreciative if you stick
03:45 --> 03:53 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, onto the whole point of this episode, my general thoughts and reaction to the recent episode.
03:53 --> 04:02 [SPEAKER_00]: So overall, once again, I thought they did a really great job of writing, filming, ding this episode.
04:02 --> 04:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Now compared to the previous episode, I would say that this episode was more along the same lines as the earlier episodes in terms of how much of it was from the novella and how much of it is original content.
04:20 --> 04:28 [SPEAKER_00]: I would say given how long the flashback scenes were, it's roughly half the episode was original content.
04:28 --> 04:35 [SPEAKER_00]: because basically all of those flashback scenes to when Dunk was a kid are original content for the TV show.
04:35 --> 04:46 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I genuinely would wonder if the scenes were written with a lot of input from George, actually.
04:46 --> 05:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Because as far as the three novellas are concerned, which if you didn't listen to the earlier episodes from the season, I heavily discussed what happened in the three novellas, basically in the novellas, there are no real equivalence of flashback scenes at all.
05:04 --> 05:19 [SPEAKER_00]: There are references to things that happen to the characters in the past in particular dunk, but otherwise we genuinely don't know very much about dunks past in the three novellas.
05:19 --> 05:32 [SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to say at this point in time if George had an intention to introduce some more bits of his past in the tales of Duncan egg.
05:32 --> 05:43 [SPEAKER_00]: But I would assume that George did provide a reparker and the writing team some important backstory when they wrote those scenes.
05:43 --> 05:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, it could create potential issues in the later seasons if references don't make sense.
05:50 --> 05:52 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's just my speculation.
05:52 --> 06:09 [SPEAKER_00]: At some point after I finish doing the season of the podcast, I'm going to go back and listen to the official podcast for the TV show because they do include some interviews with casting crew in particular the writing team and of course George himself.
06:09 --> 06:26 [SPEAKER_00]: So I would really be curious to see how much of these extra original scenes written for the show were actually input from George and how much of it was just stuff they created but with his blessing that would actually be a very interesting thing to learn more about.
06:26 --> 06:28 [SPEAKER_00]: But my digress.
06:29 --> 06:30 [SPEAKER_00]: The actual flashback scenes.
06:30 --> 06:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start there.
06:31 --> 06:46 [SPEAKER_00]: I think first of all, they did a really great job with the casting on the kid who plays young dunk, because genuinely he looks enough like Peter Claffey to make it very believable that this is a young version of dunk.
06:46 --> 06:47 [SPEAKER_00]: So that was great.
06:47 --> 07:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Another interesting thing I also appreciate is that you get a very different view of flea bottom, which they have featured in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon to some degree, but just those scenes of flea bottom really give you a very visual look into what flea bottom is like.
07:12 --> 07:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And in case you are not aware, flea bottom is basically the big slum in King's Landing, where literally the poorest of the poor live in just a small section at the bottom of one of the hills.
07:28 --> 07:36 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to say it's at the bottom of the Seniors Hill, or yeah, I think it's at the bottom of the Seniors Hill.
07:36 --> 07:40 [SPEAKER_00]: I would have to double check my notes, but I think that's where it's located,
07:40 --> 08:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless, it's located at the bottom of one of the three hills that makes up King's Landing so that's why it's very interesting, the contrast of people who live at the bottom of the hill versus people who live at the top of the hill who are of course the elites of Westrocy Society in particular the capital.
08:00 --> 08:12 [SPEAKER_00]: And we really got a good look at what Dunk was like when he was a kid, which we did get glimpses in the earlier episodes of those flashbacks.
08:12 --> 08:17 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, this is the first time that we get to see more of Dunk as a kid.
08:17 --> 08:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And we also see how he met Sir Arlin and what ultimately led him to what we first met him in the very first episode.
08:28 --> 08:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Another interesting thing I definitely appreciate about this episode was that they give you the aftermath of the Battle of the Redgrass field.
08:39 --> 08:44 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is a very major event in West Rocy history.
08:44 --> 08:49 [SPEAKER_00]: I discussed this in several episodes at this point in the podcast.
08:49 --> 09:08 [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned it in episode 2015, which is the episode I discussed the life and reign of King Deiron II, who is the current king in Westeros during the time period that the Duncan egg stories take place.
09:08 --> 09:20 [SPEAKER_00]: then I also mentioned it again earlier the season when I discuss the three novellas because redgrass field is something that comes up a lot in these stories.
09:21 --> 09:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, if you're interested in understanding more about what is the deal with this whole redgrass field,
09:28 --> 09:38 [SPEAKER_00]: business, you will have to listen to episode 15 where I do discuss some stuff about it and I don't want to rehash it in this episode.
09:39 --> 09:44 [SPEAKER_00]: I apologize to any listeners who are like, oh, why can't you tell us about it here?
09:44 --> 09:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It's because I already spent time discussing it in an earlier episode and I just don't want to repeat myself to
09:51 --> 10:02 [SPEAKER_00]: too much, but also I don't want to potentially annoy people who have been listening to this podcast for a long time by repeating things a little too much.
10:03 --> 10:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So just head over to those episodes to get more info.
10:07 --> 10:17 [SPEAKER_00]: But of course, be aware that I discuss a lot of things about this particular battle, so there will be spoilers just as a fair warning.
10:18 --> 10:30 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, so I do think it's great that they featured the aftermath of Redgrass Field because again, it heavily impacts a lot of things that happen going forward.
10:30 --> 10:39 [SPEAKER_00]: both within the Duncan Egg stories and also within the historical context of Westeros.
10:40 --> 10:56 [SPEAKER_00]: And I have to mention that because when we get into seasons two and three, Redgrass field is going to come up again, based off of how they chose to adapt a first novella with this first season.
10:56 --> 11:08 [SPEAKER_00]: I have a very strong suspicion that they will include a lot of flashbacks in season 2 that include bits of red grass field.
11:08 --> 11:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if they're actually going to film red grass field because that would be a really big flashback.
11:17 --> 11:42 [SPEAKER_00]: But I get the sneaking suspicion that they will film bits and pieces of red grass field into season two mainly because it is a very important talking point if I can describe it that way It's a very major thing that comes up a lot in season two and it definitely comes up again in season three, but that's all I'm gonna say without spoiling too much more
11:42 --> 11:59 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, if you're really curious, again, head over to the earlier episodes, episode 303 304 and 305, those three episodes cover the second novella and the third novella.
11:59 --> 12:07 [SPEAKER_00]: I had to split the third novella into two parts because there were way too many important things that happened in that particular novella.
12:07 --> 12:13 [SPEAKER_00]: So I felt like the proper way to really discuss that book was to split into two.
12:13 --> 12:25 [SPEAKER_00]: If you are really curious and at this point you frankly don't care about spoilers, you can listen to everything, and more or less know what's going to happen in the next two seasons.
12:26 --> 12:36 [SPEAKER_00]: One other interesting thing I'll say is that it's not very clear in the flashback, so I'll explain it to those of you who are very curious.
12:37 --> 12:45 [SPEAKER_00]: So when Dunk follows Sir Arlin out of King's Landing, and he stops for the night in the woods.
12:45 --> 12:58 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a mound with a helmet on it, and that's the scene where Dunk shows up, and he tries the helmet on his head for a bit before putting it back, and he tests using Sirarlan Sword.
12:59 --> 13:11 [SPEAKER_00]: There is an actual significance to that, which I appreciate because this is a reference to something that comes up in I think in the second novella
13:11 --> 13:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I think it's in the second novella that it gets mentioned, but it's only mentioned the dunk spots and recollections versus like actually shown quote unquote on screen.
13:27 --> 13:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Before dunk becomes Sir Arlin's Squire, Sir Arlin actually participated in the battle of red grass field.
13:37 --> 13:45 [SPEAKER_00]: and he had a squire at the time, and that squire was his nephew, and of course, as we saw in the Flashback clearly, Sir Arlin survived.
13:46 --> 13:52 [SPEAKER_00]: If you notice he had no squire with him, and that's because his nephew died in the battle.
13:52 --> 14:11 [SPEAKER_00]: And that mound with the helmet on it is we are too presumed is his nephew that he buried which gives more of a context as to Sir Arlen's behavior like why is he a drunk in flee bottom and why he behaves the way he does
14:11 --> 14:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Very clearly he's traumatized to some degree, especially right after the battle, in particular, with the death of his own nephew, which gives a little more context to his tough love attitude towards dunk.
14:25 --> 14:33 [SPEAKER_00]: So what would really be interesting to me personally is if in season two we get more flashbacks of the two of them together.
14:33 --> 14:42 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess the way they ended the flash, like it is implied that Sir Arlin became curious enough about dunked to ultimately take him on as a squire.
14:42 --> 14:50 [SPEAKER_00]: So the trial itself, it is perfectly chaotic, exactly the way George writes it in the novella.
14:50 --> 14:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It's completely chaos.
14:52 --> 15:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Guys are going at it, beating each other, charging at each other, slashing, stabbing, screaming, yelling, everything,
15:02 --> 15:12 [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of it was basically what George wrote in the novella and I thought they did a really excellent job and they made it very gritty.
15:12 --> 15:17 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not a romantic stylized battle amongst honorable nights.
15:17 --> 15:31 [SPEAKER_00]: This is basically life and death which is not all that different from life and death battle in a battlefield where you are about to die if you don't kill this other guy first.
15:31 --> 15:46 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's very much reminiscent of the novella itself where Dunk reflects on how Aryan may be able to defeat Sir Dunk in the tall, but he's going to have a hard time going up against Dunk of Fleab autumn.
15:46 --> 15:53 [SPEAKER_00]: who only knows one way to fight, which is, do whatever the hell you need to do to win and survive.
15:53 --> 15:55 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's exactly what he ultimately has to do.
15:55 --> 16:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Any and all training he got from Arlin, since he first followed the guy out of Libanum, had of Kings Landing, is out the window.
16:06 --> 16:07 [SPEAKER_00]: at the end of the day.
16:07 --> 16:22 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about survival and if you have to mud wrestle, tackle, jab somebody in the eyes to win, then that's what you're going to have to do because honor is a paper shield, basically.
16:22 --> 16:46 [SPEAKER_00]: honor, shivalry, all of that stuff that wonderful idealistic stuff is good for stories and good for polite conversation but when push comes to shove you are going to do whatever it takes to get out of your situational life and if you have to do dirty tricks you are going to do dirty tricks and that is just how it's going to be and that's what we saw.
16:46 --> 16:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that was well done, and I imagine the actors must have been completely an utterly exhausted filming all of that.
16:55 --> 17:09 [SPEAKER_00]: But before I close out this section of the episode, I, of course, have to address the biggest shocking thing of the series, which is the death of a lore.
17:09 --> 17:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, I don't know how many of you, those of you who are people who only watch the show, your TV watchers and you don't read the books.
17:20 --> 17:22 [SPEAKER_00]: So I have zero idea.
17:22 --> 17:26 [SPEAKER_00]: How many of you had a gut feeling that Bailor was going to die?
17:26 --> 17:29 [SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea how many of you are genuinely shocked.
17:29 --> 17:31 [SPEAKER_00]: This was not something you saw coming.
17:31 --> 17:56 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, that was a thing that I was shocked about when I read, not just from the novella, but when I was doing all the necessary research to write the season two scripts, I was also shocked when I saw that was how Baylor dies, and even though I knew that is what was going to happen.
17:56 --> 18:18 [SPEAKER_00]: I still felt that emotional paying, that I'm sure a lot of people felt because bail or like a lot of characters in the Westeros universe who are good, honourable, capable people who are the type of people you want to be running things.
18:19 --> 18:21 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of them have a tendency to get killed off.
18:21 --> 18:27 [SPEAKER_00]: and sure that is a decision that George made when he wrote all these stories.
18:27 --> 18:33 [SPEAKER_00]: But to be fair in many respects, that's also how life is, unfortunately.
18:33 --> 18:40 [SPEAKER_00]: You have the worst of the worst who somehow get through life for the longest time before they get caught.
18:40 --> 18:49 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you have the best of the best who die for a whole bunch of reasons that seems very unfair.
18:49 --> 18:52 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't even die as like old people.
18:53 --> 19:00 [SPEAKER_00]: They die young or die before they are able to reach their full potential of what they could do.
19:00 --> 19:06 [SPEAKER_00]: I think one of the many reactions I've seen online since the episode aired.
19:06 --> 19:13 [SPEAKER_00]: I think one of the best comments I've read was to call Baylor the King who never was.
19:13 --> 19:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, he basically was the King who never was.
19:18 --> 19:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Just as Rainy's was the Queen who never was.
19:21 --> 19:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Baylor is the king who never was, because he was set up to become potentially one of the greatest kings of the Targaryen dynasty and his life is cut short.
19:32 --> 19:40 [SPEAKER_00]: And for additional context bear in mind is that most of the characters with the exception of egg were aged up in the show.
19:41 --> 19:47 [SPEAKER_00]: And as I mentioned in an earlier episode, Dunk is meant to be about 1617 years old.
19:47 --> 19:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Arian is also around the same age as Dunk actually, and Baylor in the novella is actually 39.
19:56 --> 20:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Birdie Carvel, I believe, is in his 40s, so he is a few years older than Baylor, but he's not like significantly older than Baylor.
20:06 --> 20:12 [SPEAKER_00]: So you imagine that a 39 year old man, future king dies like that.
20:12 --> 20:40 [SPEAKER_00]: And on paper hearing about somebody who's only 39 dying, like that, is pretty sad to read, but because we're watching an actor portraying the character, it just feels more real somehow that, yeah, this is just straight up tragic and that's probably part of the reason why some of you who have seen the episode probably feel a lot of things about that happening.
20:40 --> 20:50 [SPEAKER_00]: and as you would imagine the next episode which is of course the season finale is going to deal with the aftermath of the trial by seven.
20:51 --> 21:08 [SPEAKER_00]: The other interesting thing to note that I also appreciate is that if you watch the episode very closely, now I have to admit, I had to rewatch bits of this episode again because just to emphasize how completely chaotic the trial by seven
21:08 --> 21:23 [SPEAKER_00]: it's very difficult to be aware of what else was going on because the camera is mostly focused on dunk and Aryan, but you do get glimpses of what else is going on.
21:23 --> 21:33 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you watch carefully, you actually do see the moment that Mekar actually hits Balor with his mace.
21:33 --> 21:37 [SPEAKER_00]: It goes by really quickly and you have to like really pay attention.
21:37 --> 21:43 [SPEAKER_00]: But again, this emphasizes how the camera is filming things through dunk's perspective.
21:44 --> 21:54 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you and dunk, may or may not necessarily have noticed this happening in the background, you would be just as confused as to how and when this could have happened.
21:54 --> 21:55 [SPEAKER_00]: But
21:55 --> 22:22 [SPEAKER_00]: even within the novella it was somewhat implied that make our hit bail or at a point in the battle when bail or an lionel were two v one with make art as you would expect the king's guard cannot attack bail or and at some point in the battle they confronted make art now it wasn't
22:22 --> 22:31 [SPEAKER_00]: like what led up to them confronting him in the show, they choreograph the whole battle, the free for all, which is essentially what this trial by seven is.
22:32 --> 22:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The way they choreographed this free for all is that Maycar could see that Aryan and Dunk are now one on one and he is understandably very worried for Aryan because he may have seen that Dunk took a lot of hits and Dunk is not going
22:52 --> 23:03 [SPEAKER_00]: So he may have been genuinely very worried about what's going to happen around and he's like frantic and that's how in the chaos he ends up hitting his brother.
23:03 --> 23:12 [SPEAKER_00]: And yes, suffisitive say there are a lot of consequences to all of this in the next episode that we will be seeing.
23:12 --> 23:20 [SPEAKER_00]: But things are not going to go very well for Mike R after all of this, which would not be surprising to any of you.
23:20 --> 23:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, again, because some of you may not be book readers or overly familiar with the lore, I have definitely seen a lot of people being all like, oh, my car is probably eager to rise up the order of the inheritance and blah, blah, blah, blah.
23:38 --> 23:47 [SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is that people who have this opinion are basing it off of two things.
23:47 --> 23:59 [SPEAKER_00]: They're basing it off of the fact, make art is very groth and stern and very pissy if we're being honest throughout this season.
23:59 --> 24:13 [SPEAKER_00]: And also potentially some of you are probably basing this opinion on the fact that many occasions through the saga, siblings do not always like each other, especially in the context of the house of the dragon.
24:13 --> 24:25 [SPEAKER_00]: But I would also like to point out that even though Damon and Viserys had their share of problems at the end of the day, they are brothers who actually do love each other.
24:25 --> 24:33 [SPEAKER_00]: even though Damon drives the Sarah's crazy a lot of times, and the Sarah's frustrates Damon a lot.
24:33 --> 24:37 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course we know that Aegon and Amon, especially Amon, hates his brother.
24:37 --> 24:49 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, we're also reminded of that where Aegon clearly can't stand Aryan and honestly hopes that Aryan dies during the tournament on a couple of occasions.
24:49 --> 25:18 [SPEAKER_00]: So that is probably where many people get this idea that make our is probably happy that he is going to level up as it were in the line of succession and that is completely the opposite of how their relationship actually is.
25:18 --> 25:30 [SPEAKER_00]: apparently indicated in an interview that the reaction scenes for Mekar in the final episode was done on two different takes.
25:31 --> 25:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Each take is a different interpretation, a different angle of how Mekar's reaction is to realizing that not only is Baylor dead, but that he is technically the one who killed his brother.
25:46 --> 26:01 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a part of me that hopes it's one particular way versus the other way, but I will hopefully remember to discuss this further when we get to the actual reaction to the final episode next time.
26:01 --> 26:10 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I have to give a shout out to Peter Claffey on his acting throughout the whole episode throughout the whole season, really.
26:10 --> 26:10 [SPEAKER_00]: But
26:10 --> 26:30 [SPEAKER_00]: This episode, and of course the previous episode in particular, are like where he shows off his deepest depths in terms of acting like how really in tune he is with the character and the depths of grief and frustration and anger and all those emotions.
26:30 --> 26:34 [SPEAKER_00]: That can be very difficult for people to dig into.
26:34 --> 26:52 [SPEAKER_00]: But you really felt dunk is feeling so much remorse and guilt that Baylor dies and he survives which is a very excellent adaptation of the novella because that is exactly how dunk feels
26:52 --> 27:09 [SPEAKER_00]: He is shocked, horrified, guilty, full of grief that this man, who was meant to be the next king, who potentially sacrificed his relationship with his family for siding with a humble...
27:09 --> 27:14 [SPEAKER_00]: hedge knight who has no name really and not much of a reputation up to this point.
27:14 --> 27:22 [SPEAKER_00]: This man died for him died instead of him and dunk feels like none of it makes any sense.
27:23 --> 27:34 [SPEAKER_00]: And in some respects it doesn't make sense that the noble future king dies and a common peasant trying to be a knight is the one who survives.
27:34 --> 27:43 [SPEAKER_00]: In some ways it doesn't make sense and in some ways it does make sense, but yeah, we will see the consequences in the next episode.
27:56 --> 28:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So before I close out this episode of the podcast, I have a couple of announcements like I've been doing in the previous episodes.
28:08 --> 28:23 [SPEAKER_00]: So as a reminder, I have been running a survey, poll questionnaire, whatever you want to call it, I have been running this thing where I am asking any and all of you who are listening to this episode and the previous episodes.
28:23 --> 28:31 [SPEAKER_00]: to please vote and let me know what topic you would like me to discuss for a future season of the podcast.
28:31 --> 28:49 [SPEAKER_00]: tentatively I am dubbing this as season five of the podcast at this point I probably will consider just as season five because they anticipate they will be releasing season two of
28:49 --> 28:55 [SPEAKER_00]: I generally don't know the context of whether or not the timing is going to make any sense.
28:56 --> 28:57 [SPEAKER_00]: I will have to see what happens.
28:58 --> 29:02 [SPEAKER_00]: So that is why the next two announcements I want to make are going to be connected.
29:02 --> 29:14 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you have not already participated, which honestly, most of you haven't because as I'm recording, there are now instead of three votes, there are four votes.
29:14 --> 29:18 [SPEAKER_00]: To my
29:18 --> 29:26 [SPEAKER_00]: And interestingly enough, it's for a completely different choice that I did not expect, which is totally cool and totally awesome.
29:27 --> 29:42 [SPEAKER_00]: So now, at this point, we have two votes for me to talk about book related fan theories that TV viewers don't know anything about.
29:42 --> 29:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It's basically requesting me to talk about stuff that I actually discussed back in season two of the podcast and I don't want to rehash.
29:51 --> 29:59 [SPEAKER_00]: But the new vote is interestingly enough, a vote for me to do character essays about different game of thrones characters.
30:00 --> 30:10 [SPEAKER_00]: And the follow-up question for somebody who picks that option is they want me to do a house start season, which...
30:10 --> 30:16 [SPEAKER_00]: could actually be very interesting me doing character essays about Ned, Rob, Sans, et cetera.
30:16 --> 30:22 [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that is the newest, well, the winning vote as of this recording is the fan theories.
30:23 --> 30:25 [SPEAKER_00]: So again, if you are listening,
30:25 --> 30:43 [SPEAKER_00]: I highly suggest that you go participate in this survey because the final day you can vote is going to be on February 22nd, which is of course the same night that the finale episode is going to air.
30:43 --> 31:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Any votes that come in after that date I am just going to ignore because the 23rd I will be recording the reaction to the finale episode so obviously any votes that come in after I'm recording the episode will not be counted.
31:03 --> 31:16 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, what I'm going to do is I'm going to deactivate the link before I start the recording session, just to make sure that nobody else participates in the survey after I do the recording.
31:16 --> 31:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Because at that point, it's not going to count anymore.
31:18 --> 31:24 [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you guys will have just a handful of days left.
31:24 --> 31:25 [SPEAKER_00]: to participate.
31:26 --> 31:32 [SPEAKER_00]: And as I record the final episode of the season, I will announce what the winning vote is.
31:32 --> 31:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the second related thing is I want to remind all of you is that I have a news letter for the podcast.
31:40 --> 31:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, you will not be receiving a bazillion emails from me.
31:45 --> 31:49 [SPEAKER_00]: You will only receive periodic emails.
31:49 --> 31:58 [SPEAKER_00]: They will consist of things like, oh, a reminder that a new episode of this podcast has been released when it does.
31:58 --> 32:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, whenever I post a new entry on the podcast blog, you will get a notification as well that a story got posted.
32:07 --> 32:17 [SPEAKER_00]: The stories I will be posting on the blog will be in mix of opinion pieces, news announcements related to Westeros, things like that.
32:17 --> 32:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, podcast related announcements that are going to happen in between me recording the actual podcast will also get posted on the blog as well.
32:29 --> 32:36 [SPEAKER_00]: And the point of the newsletter is so that you can get these announcements directly into your inbox at your own convenience.
32:37 --> 32:40 [SPEAKER_00]: So you don't have to constantly check the blog or the website.
32:40 --> 32:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I definitely appreciate it if you guys visit the website and read the blog posts, but you don't have to obsessively go there every single day if you don't want to.
32:49 --> 33:01 [SPEAKER_00]: And also, as a reminder on the website, which is thewesterociprimer.com, there are pages dedicated to each episode of the podcast.
33:01 --> 33:06 [SPEAKER_00]: You are perfectly welcome to leave comments, feedback, etc.
33:06 --> 33:10 [SPEAKER_00]: about the episodes that I have recorded.
33:10 --> 33:16 [SPEAKER_00]: you are also more than welcome to send me an email with your questions and comments, etc.
33:16 --> 33:22 [SPEAKER_00]: you can send them to host at thewesterroceprimer.com.
33:22 --> 33:26 [SPEAKER_00]: So that just about covers this latest episode of
33:26 --> 33:48 [SPEAKER_00]: podcast, you can tune in next time when I will do a reaction to the season finale, which is titled The Moro, and also there will be some final thoughts about the season overall, and also some important announcements I will be making.
33:48 --> 33:55 [SPEAKER_00]: So once again, thank you for listening,
34:32 --> 34:33 [SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of this episode?
34:34 --> 34:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Check out thewesterocprimer.com and let me know what you think of this episode.
34:40 --> 34:44 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have a friend or two that might like the show, make sure to share.