This episode is a reaction to House of the Dragon “Rhaenyra Triumphant.” She discusses the various plot points setting up future events and continued conflict with the Greens and within her own support base. There are many implications to events that happened. From juggling needs ot the poor and maintaining support from nobles, Rhaenyra is struggling now she's back in King's Landing. What exactly are the Hightowers scheming next? It's clear the war isn't really over.
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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 --> 00:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Before I start playing the intro music, check out this friend of the show.
00:47 --> 00:50 [UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
01:01 --> 01:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Greetings fellow accolades.
01:02 --> 01:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to another episode of the Westerosie Primer.
01:05 --> 01:05 [SPEAKER_00]: My name's Liz.
01:06 --> 01:08 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're new to this podcast, welcome.
01:08 --> 01:11 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoy this journey of all things Westeros.
01:12 --> 01:20 [SPEAKER_00]: And in this episode, I'll be talking about the House of the Dragon episode titled Renera Triumphant.
01:20 --> 01:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, everyone, as I record this episode, it is July 4th weekend.
01:25 --> 01:31 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been pretty exciting and busy around the country.
01:31 --> 01:36 [SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully there won't be any fireworks still going off.
01:37 --> 01:46 [SPEAKER_00]: As I'm recording this episode, even if it does, hopefully, nobody will be able to hear it in the background at the very least, but that's all I can hope for.
01:47 --> 01:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me get on to a couple of bits of housekeeping before I get into this week's reaction.
01:55 --> 02:04 [SPEAKER_00]: So I would like to remind all listeners, check out the podcast website, the Western Rocee Primer.com, where you can sign up to the newsletter.
02:05 --> 02:10 [SPEAKER_00]: find out more information about the podcast, listen to previous episodes.
02:11 --> 02:22 [SPEAKER_00]: I also want to give a shout out to several thousands of people who decided to give episodes of this podcast a listen in the last few days.
02:23 --> 02:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully you will be sticking around to listening to other episodes past and future.
02:30 --> 02:33 [SPEAKER_00]: So with that said, let me get into this week's reaction.
02:34 --> 02:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Overall this week's episode was a bit on the slower side in the sense that things were happening, but nothing super exciting was actually happening on like the first episode, but this just fits with the general consensus that a lot of fandom have.
02:53 --> 03:07 [SPEAKER_00]: about how the first two episodes were likely intended to be part of the second season, but due to the writer strike that happened a couple of years back that ended up changing things.
03:08 --> 03:20 [SPEAKER_00]: So now we have a season that's going to feel like it's got some strange emotional rollercoaster beats type of thing.
03:21 --> 03:35 [SPEAKER_00]: But I will say that there are some things that happen in the episode, which I liked and I didn't like, there is definitely plenty of setup for the future conflicts that we shall be seeing over the course of the season.
03:36 --> 03:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The episode starts off with Damon confronting Ormond High Tower and basically expecting them to surrender, which on paper they appear to do so.
03:53 --> 03:57 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course naturally they would demand day-run be given to them.
03:58 --> 04:22 [SPEAKER_00]: which based off of indications from episode one, the kid that we see was not Deiron, which I have to tell you right now what still feels really bizarre to me, because it is very clearly stated in the source material that Deiron definitely looks like a Targaryen, which is something I had actually discussed in the previous episode.
04:23 --> 04:43 [SPEAKER_00]: It's creating an interesting choice of conflict, which is the idea that they sent a fake deraille as a hostage while having the real one with them, which truthfully is a goofy idea if I'm being honest with you, it completely doesn't make any logical sense.
04:44 --> 05:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Because dragons are very closely bonded to their writers, and it doesn't make sense how it's possible that they would hypothetically separate to saryon from the real day-run.
05:00 --> 05:03 [SPEAKER_00]: It's all very strange, and it doesn't make any logical sense.
05:04 --> 05:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Because allegedly they have day-run sent back to King's Landing and yet apparently the dragon didn't come with him to King's Landing as well.
05:16 --> 05:27 [SPEAKER_00]: It's fairly inconsistent with what I'm aware of how it's supposed to work between writer and dragon, which is one of those details that I am not a big fan of, personally.
05:27 --> 05:51 [SPEAKER_00]: This is actually something that I brought up in earlier episodes of this podcast where it just was very strange to me how allegedly lean or dies and yet the dragon just decided to go with a different rider despite the fact that lean or never actually dies in
05:58 --> 05:58 [SPEAKER_00]: work.
05:59 --> 06:02 [SPEAKER_00]: So this is one of those detailed things I'm not a big fan of.
06:03 --> 06:08 [SPEAKER_00]: This episode is entirely centered on Reneera.
06:09 --> 06:20 [SPEAKER_00]: You're getting a majority of events from Reneera's perspective because as the title suggests, this is a Reneera episode, Reneera triumphant.
06:20 --> 06:36 [SPEAKER_00]: over the course of the episode, we are supposed to see Reneera finally on the throne, the queen of Westeros, and yet things are not going as smoothly as she would like it to be.
06:36 --> 06:46 [SPEAKER_00]: You go in thinking one thing, but then once you get into the position that you wanted, things don't always turn out the way that you would expect they would.
06:47 --> 06:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Reneera is forced into a position where she has to constantly be pulled in multiple directions.
06:54 --> 07:06 [SPEAKER_00]: She gets very conflicting advice and she's just struggling right now and you can very clearly see it throughout the episode.
07:06 --> 07:09 [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be very rough going for her no doubt.
07:09 --> 07:13 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is something that is going to come up over and over again throughout the season.
07:14 --> 07:38 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most important things that comes up is the fact that she does not have access to the full treasury, which is a major problem because anybody who's ever worked for an organization or the government, local or federal or state or whatever, will tell you that you cannot do things without money.
07:39 --> 07:42 [SPEAKER_00]: She will not be able to do much of anything without
07:44 --> 08:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Conveniently enough, the greens decide to split up the treasuries, so in one respect, the greens managed to foil Reneera by depriving her of access to money, which is going to create a whole lot of problems down the line, because at some point people need money.
08:01 --> 08:06 [SPEAKER_00]: People need to be paid for things done, and you need money to get things done.
08:07 --> 08:31 [SPEAKER_00]: She manages to temporarily leave the situation with the common folk by distributing food, but that's only going to be a short-term measure because, again, money is going to eventually come up because money is the fuel that makes a whole bunch of things in a society run.
08:32 --> 08:46 [SPEAKER_00]: But I am not going to get into an economics lecture on this podcast, just know that this is a thing that if the right team actually did a good job with the scripts for this season, then it is something that will come up again later.
08:47 --> 08:52 [SPEAKER_00]: There's another interesting thing we also get is about her coronation.
08:53 --> 09:11 [SPEAKER_00]: This is something that may sound very superficial and it does get mentioned in the episode as potentially it looking superficial but to be fair to her, coronations are important in a feudal monarchy type society.
09:12 --> 09:20 [SPEAKER_00]: You have to have the appropriate ceremonies where the kingdom, the people acknowledge that this person,
09:21 --> 09:29 [SPEAKER_00]: being crowned is their ruler and there are certain protocols and rituals that have to be done.
09:30 --> 09:37 [SPEAKER_00]: It's very interesting that she is very concerned about legitimacy because the whole conflict
09:38 --> 09:41 [SPEAKER_00]: has been about legitimacy in many respects.
09:42 --> 09:53 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about whether or not as a female, she actually has the legitimate claim to the throne over her younger half-brother.
09:54 --> 09:56 [SPEAKER_00]: That's one aspect of legitimacy.
09:57 --> 10:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Another aspect of legitimacy is of course the fact that her three older boys,
10:07 --> 10:10 [SPEAKER_00]: our bastards, they are not his children.
10:11 --> 10:22 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's a question of whether these three boys should even be acknowledged as princes and do they actually have a right to the throne.
10:23 --> 10:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Because this whole issue is not just some morality clause as it were.
10:32 --> 10:37 [SPEAKER_00]: This is very much a serious matter from a legal perspective.
10:38 --> 10:43 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is also not something that is strictly within the bounds of the Ice and Fire universe.
10:43 --> 10:49 [SPEAKER_00]: It is actually something that historically in our own world was an issue because
10:50 --> 11:06 [SPEAKER_00]: for the longest time, inheritance laws are defined by whether or not airs to in a state, whether it's real estate, money, other assets.
11:07 --> 11:22 [SPEAKER_00]: they are legally acknowledged as being legitimate airs because the belief is that when you die, all of your stuff should go to people who share DNA with you.
11:23 --> 11:47 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, because DNA testing is a thing that's only come up in recent decades, there is no other way other than to do the traditional understanding that when you have children, you have children within the bounds of marriage and it becomes a very serious issue whether
11:53 --> 12:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Because generally speaking, there is very little question as to who the mom is, but there can be questions of who the father is, especially when the child in question does not have any obvious features from the dad or in some cases even the mom.
12:14 --> 12:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, this becomes an issue that comes up yet again when Coralist wants to have Alan and Adam legitimized and acknowledged as his sons, because at this point, Coralist is only direct.
12:31 --> 12:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Descendants are his two Targaryen granddaughters, Bala and Raina, the next relatives which you don't see very clearly in the show are some of his brothers kids and some cousins.
12:47 --> 12:59 [SPEAKER_00]: He would prefer to have people who are directly descended from him as the airs to what's left of high tide, hull, etc.
13:00 --> 13:11 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, under normal circumstances, Reniro would love to grant his request and is not an unreasonable request.
13:11 --> 13:13 [SPEAKER_00]: But as she points out,
13:14 --> 13:19 [SPEAKER_00]: She's very concerned about how her legitimizing Adam and Alan will look.
13:20 --> 13:33 [SPEAKER_00]: She's viewing it from the perspective of her elevating bastard children into becoming legitimate, which she is concerned will bring up the issue about her only Valarian,
13:38 --> 13:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Jafri's legitimacy will undoubtedly come up again, or at least that's what she believes.
13:44 --> 13:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Whether that is true, we will never fully know, but as of right now, Jafri is now the oldest of the surviving boys who are, of course, Jafri, Aegon and the Serus.
13:58 --> 14:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Aegon and the Serus are both Damon's kids, which we briefly saw in the first season and a little bit
14:06 --> 14:26 [SPEAKER_00]: I would be very curious to see further on what the implications are of this new conflict she has with coreless now because to be fair to him, he's really sacrificed a lot in order to put her on the throne.
14:27 --> 14:28 [SPEAKER_00]: His wife died.
14:29 --> 14:38 [SPEAKER_00]: both of his children are dead or in the case of lane or allegedly dead, but we know in canon in the books, his son is definitely dead.
14:39 --> 14:52 [SPEAKER_00]: And now he has no legally recognized air, and he's asking her what is objectively speaking, the least she could do for him.
14:53 --> 15:18 [SPEAKER_00]: it really is the least she could do for him is to legitimize his two biological sons because he really has sacrificed a lot even a lot of his fleet got destroyed in the gullet so he's really lost a lot of everything and he's still prepared to continue supporting her and doing what he can for her and yet now she's refusing to do
15:23 --> 15:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Are there going to be consequences to what she has done?
15:28 --> 15:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there are, but of course I'm not going to spoil that because I'm sure many of you don't want to be spoiled and Technically I did already discuss this back in the second season of this podcast, so if you are interested, you can go back there to check it out.
15:57 --> 15:59 [SPEAKER_00]: but onto my next point.
15:59 --> 16:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So what she also does is she arranges for all of you and Adam to be knighted.
16:08 --> 16:13 [SPEAKER_00]: This is something that did get brought up in the behind the scenes interviews at the end of the episode.
16:13 --> 16:14 [SPEAKER_00]: But
16:14 --> 16:29 [SPEAKER_00]: It does make sense that three commoners being able to ride and claim dragons does put a spotlight on the concept of Targaryen exceptionalism.
16:30 --> 16:36 [SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't come up as much in the show, but this is something that comes up many times throughout the books.
16:37 --> 17:00 [SPEAKER_00]: which is the concept of how the Targaryens as being the only dragon riding family left in the world, basically, are not normal people, which when you hear me say that, it sounds goofy and a little bit of like, well, duh, they're not normal people.
17:01 --> 17:20 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's a important concept that was codified because this is to allow the Targaryens to claim a lot of legitimacy and power in West Rose.
17:21 --> 17:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Because in many ways, everything they've done since the moment Egon and his sister showed up to take over everything.
17:31 --> 17:45 [SPEAKER_00]: They have done so many things that is completely different and foreign from what is considered traditional and normal in Westeros.
17:46 --> 18:11 [SPEAKER_00]: They are the only ones who openly practice incest and ultimately, the faith of the seven opt to look the other way over the issue, despite the fact that for a couple of decades, they were very much against incest and regularly preach against it.
18:12 --> 18:31 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's very interesting that throughout the episode, there are a couple of choices that they made, which is very clever use of sound cues to help tell the story, also one other motif.
18:32 --> 18:51 [SPEAKER_00]: One choice is that, occasionally we get a slight humming in the background in some of the scenes, it gives you the impression through Reneira's perspective that she is really mentally struggling with
18:53 --> 19:19 [SPEAKER_00]: resolving so many administrative problems happening right after taking over and she's trying to solve so many problems address a lot of logistical and administrative things that is what is needed to run a whole freaking continent.
19:19 --> 19:29 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a struggle where she has to manage the capital city, which is literally right outside of the right keep.
19:30 --> 19:34 [SPEAKER_00]: She has to deal with all sorts of problems that
19:35 --> 19:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Aegon and his small council were also trying to deal with, and at least in the show, she's doing it with just herself and only three other people giving her advice.
19:50 --> 20:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And some of the advice they're giving her is pulling her in all sorts of different directions and she doesn't really have enough advice which is why it's really interesting towards the end of the episode she ends up speaking with Allison and they have this really frank conversation about the nature of being a ruler.
20:18 --> 20:29 [SPEAKER_00]: and Alice and herself had to admit that being a ruler means that you're going to make decisions that not everyone will be happy with.
20:30 --> 20:39 [SPEAKER_00]: You will always get some degree of blame for things not going right or going the way people want them.
20:39 --> 20:41 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to make very hard decisions that
20:47 --> 21:02 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet you have to because you are put in a position where you have to balance way too many things happening at the same time too many priorities keep showing up on your desk.
21:03 --> 21:18 [SPEAKER_00]: And at some point you're going to have to make decisions about what makes the most sense in terms of this has to be addressed and what needs to be put off and what is just never going to get covered.
21:19 --> 21:32 [SPEAKER_00]: In that way, I think it's being realistic as to how people in actual government have to do things, how even the bosses of companies have to do things.
21:33 --> 21:34 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't get me wrong.
21:34 --> 21:35 [SPEAKER_00]: There is plenty of
21:43 --> 21:56 [SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, I can also acknowledge that it is true that you are going to be put in a position where you have to make choices that will never get you 100% approval ratings.
21:57 --> 22:08 [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing I also thought was interesting was they kept featuring rats running around, which also is something that got carried over from the previous season when we did see how
22:13 --> 22:18 [SPEAKER_00]: as a punishment for his son, J. Harris being murdered.
22:18 --> 22:29 [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing of note, of course, is when they mention tumble tin, which I already knew was a very bad sign because, of course,
22:37 --> 22:48 [SPEAKER_00]: But, yeah, this leads up to the revelation at the end of the episode that the hide-hours decided to invade and take over Tumbledin.
22:49 --> 22:57 [SPEAKER_00]: And as we also see in the episode preview, Tumbledin is going to be a very big deal in the next episode.
22:58 --> 23:11 [SPEAKER_00]: I will be curious to see whether or not we will be getting a battle in the next episode, or if it's going to get put off to the next episode after that.
23:11 --> 23:22 [SPEAKER_00]: But what I think is also interesting is that we do see in the preview that we will catch up with what happened to Amund at Heron Hall.
23:23 --> 23:31 [SPEAKER_00]: and we see that Kristen Cole and some of his men show up to hair and haul to look for aim and does well.
23:32 --> 23:36 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, those are the main talking points I have for this week's episode.
23:36 --> 23:49 [SPEAKER_00]: So once again, please go to thewesteroceprimer.com to find out more about the show, find out more about previous episodes, and you can also sign up to the newsletter.
23:50 --> 23:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening and tune into the next episode of this podcast, Valar Morgulis.
24:35 --> 24:37 [SPEAKER_00]: What did you think of this episode?
24:38 --> 24:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Check out thewesterocprimer.com and let me know what you think of this episode.
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