Burning Questions
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Here come my lads, my comely boys, and split your sacks ashore. For you'll be sailing many days before you get some more. So grease the mast and send it up, betwixt the wind and water. Hoist me lads and hoist again, salute the captain's daughter. Do you think that Thailand registered the Loar called him Tyrod? Might be the best we are at this.

Lord Tyrod. Can we call him that next season, please? Yeah, that's right. Lord Tyrod Taylor. Welcome to the official Game of Thrones podcast, House of the Dragon. I'm Jason Concepcion. And I am Greta Johnson. And today, I am so excited about this episode because we are getting to answer your questions. We ask all of y'all to call into our Dragon Hotline and you delivered. And we have a few very special guests who are going to help us

get the most official and accurate information for your questions, including from the person who I think we both consider as the official voice of the dragons themselves. Yes, you were talking about Paula Fairfield. We're hearing from some other great folks as well. And of course, as always, this is your spoiler warning. So, you know, make sure you're all caught up and then come back to us.

For every one of our Sioux Falls, a hundred of them, we fight for our queen! Okay, Greta, we got a number of questions from listeners from all around the globe at our hotline number and through social media. And it has been a delight to sift through these. So let's jump right in with a question from...

that has piqued our curiosity as well. Yes, we've gotten a bunch of questions asking about the new opening credits sequence, which we talked a bit about on the podcast but haven't gone super deep on. As y'all remember, I'm sure season one's credits took kind of like a genealogy approach. And this season we have a tapestry and we actually got Ryan Condal back on the line to tell us what his thinking was behind the change. ♪

Season one was so much about ancestry and these bloodlines coming down from Aegon the Conqueror and who is in the pure bloodline and who is on the sort of the fringe and Viserys' family bifurcating in two. But now once you get to this story, we wanted to figure out ways to...

continue to evolve that credit sequence. And we realized the story now is really more about being a living history than it is about a family tree. And the family tree story sort of ended at the end of season one. So it felt like the right place to go because if you see season one as a prologue or as a chapter one or as a prequel story, now that we're caught up in the immediate present,

It felt right to just hit the restart button. And I was always fascinated with this idea of this story being a living history that the characters themselves are aware they're living through. And that's part of how we're in communication with fire and blood. And, you know, Rhaenyra says to Alison in that great final sequence, history is going to paint you as a villain.

a cold queen grasping for power. And the characters are somewhat aware that they're playing in this history. And of course, we've read the history and we know that this is so significant. So how do you dramatize that? And I've always been, as a fan of medieval history and a fan of medieval art, I've always been obsessed with tapestry as a storytelling process. It's so visual and it's so cool. And to see the history being stitched into the fabric as we go really, really inspired me. So we met with a couple of title sequence companies, animating companies.

And this great company called You & Company came back with this wonderful pitch that essentially is what you see. And of course we shaped the story and the beats that you're seeing in it. But I just thought it was brilliant. And weaving the, having the blood continue from the sequence in season one into it. And it's almost being written in blood. And I just, I love it all. And it gives you this great foundation for something that evolves over the course of the rest of the story of the show. Yeah, and it does continue to evolve as we see different panels added and

at the beginning of each episode. Are there any of those moments of those panels from history that stand out to you that you'd like to highlight? I mean, I love the stuff that we haven't seen on camera.

When you see the things that have been dramatized, like the first image that I think you see that was dramatized is that first image from the pilot episode, Jay Harrison hosting the Great Council. And that's, I think, the first time people see it, they're like, oh, I saw that thing in the show. But all the stuff that happens before that is the history that has not yet been dramatized or televised. And that's the stuff that really got me because it starts with this very mystical, magical world of old Valyria and what's happening...

actually going on there and then the doom being portrayed and then Aegon bending the knees of the kings of the disunited at that time six kingdoms, Maegor on the throne. Knowing this history so well, I just loved seeing all that stuff because it makes you feel like it's real for the first time. These events happened in this world and all these characters are aware of it.

And of course, I love updating it because it's exciting when suddenly change is coming into a new episode and you're like, oh, what's...

How are the historians recording this event into the history and how is it different or similar to the thing that I just saw on television the week before or two weeks before? Yeah, they are different with every episode, right? It changed. I think we had four iterations this season. So the idea is when a seismic historic event happens, the tapestry tends to capture it and update it. What I love about it the most is the fact that we're literally seeing it happen. You know, we're seeing the stitches moving. We're seeing it being created. I think...

to your point about the living history, it would be one thing if we just saw sort of a static tapestry. I think that could still be a really interesting storytelling device. But the fact that we are seeing it come to life as it is happening is just so fucking cool. Yeah. Yeah. And it dovetails in with what this show and series is, which is the dramatization of the most important event, at least in the history of the Targaryen dynasty.

Man, I love how enthusiastic Ryan is. Like, just what a great nerd, you know? I completely agree. And it's, you know, the thing I love about that answer and the new intro is, you know, for me, that's that kind of feeling of a living, breathing world whose history you can trace seemingly almost like year by year.

um from the beginning of recorded history nearly um is just so cool like that to me is george's you know main accomplishment is the creation of a world that just feels so detailed and and granular and lived in um it's wonderful and it's really cool and i just absolutely am

I love the new intro. Yeah, same. And it's such a cool reference to the real-life Bayou Tapestry, which we talked about, which is apparently a record of William the Conqueror's invasion of England from France in 1066. Yep.

The real life version is such a cool thing to look at and parse. And I love that they brought that to the show. Yeah, just nerds on nerds. So good. Nerds on nerds on nerds. Okay, so should we listen to a voicemail? We got a handful of them, which is exciting. This one is from Tyler.

Hello, Jason and Greta. This is Tyler from New Jersey. Here's my question for you guys. Given all the players that we've seen from season two, who would you guys select personally as your general counsel?

What do you think, Jason? I want you to go first and then I'll steal your answer. For my counsel? Gosh. Do they have to be currently alive in the show? That is my first question because Rainey's for sure is on any counsel. I don't know how she set the rules up. Let's do currently alive in the show. Okay, that's fair. Set the ground rules. That's fair. And I think that that's a disappointing...

A decision for both of us, but I think it's good to have some boundaries on it. It is reasonable. Let's see. Well, I'm going to say, first of all, I am going to not have any...

Targaryen or Targaryen adjacent folks on my small council. Because... I think we should just narrow it down. I simply can't... Just weed out the duds and then go from there. Right. If I am sitting in the big chair, I can't have those folks around. No. None. None. Because I just don't trust what they're up to. Yes. So let's see. I'm going to go with...

I'm going to put Corlys' hand. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, that's good. I am going to have... This is going to be tough to not go all blacks, but I'm going to do, let's say, Misaria for Whispers. Perfect. It's important. Yeah. For Master of Ships...

What about this? Watch this. Yeah. Alan of Hull, if he'd be amenable to it. Wow, that's a hell of a promotion for our guy, Alan. I mean, let's just see it. Let's see how it goes. What if you had, like, Alice into his hand and then you could have Corliss be master of ships?

Maybe I'll do Alicent as like master of laws. She would be good to have around. I think she's like a good, she's got a strong moral sense. And I think, you know, a kinder, gentler justice system in the realm I think might be good. And I think it might be a good way to keep her in the mix. I like that very much. And then master of coin. Yeah, who's coin?

Do you have a Lannister do that just because Lannisters are so... I guess he just said they're rich, right? He said it's like, what other... I guess the other route to go is maybe you bring Otto into it, like the Hightowers are very rich, or what if I go...

outside the tent and see if there's anybody like I can go into the private sector and see if someone from the Iron Bank wants to come over and join the public sector for a little while. I mean, that might be controversial, but you could give it a shot. Well, we'll see what happens. And then I think that's it. So what about you? I like all of those. I think those are great answers. I really am just thrilled by the idea of getting Alice Rivers in there somehow. Even though it makes absolutely no sense. That's so funny.

don't know like could you have a master of drugs or something yeah like master of master of uh master psychedelics third eye yeah yeah chakra chakra master yeah

Well, the other thing I think we should point out is to just highlight the people we have not chosen for this council and the fact that we have not discussed Daemon and the fact that it seems like both of us are pretty well agreed on that one, too. Okay. So, yeah, who would you pick first? And then we can talk about why we both seem to be keeping Targaryens out of our cabinet. Oh, my God. I mean, I definitely would have chosen Rhaenys' hand. I know we decided that's not allowed. Yeah, me too.

And I, you know, I would love like a Bela eventually maybe. I could actually see Jace. I could see choosing Jace for that because I think it would be really good experience for him. And I think he's still arguably more qualified than Kristen Cole anyway. Sure. And then Corliss could be Master of Ships, which I do think makes sense. We could give Alan a little more time to warm up to the whole, you know. Yeah.

But yeah, I think Lannister's coin makes a lot of sense. So you could go Otto Hightower. I think, you know, then we're really blending the sides, which is confusing for my brain. Well, I think we've got to knit this realm back together. That's the whole thing, right? Thank you, Tyler, for giving us this opportunity to fix everything. Ryan, I hope you're listening. So why are you anti-Targaryen in your cabinet?

Because they're all too volatile. And, you know, blame generational trauma, blame that, you know, the nature-nurture conversation we've had a number of times. But, you know, sexual predators, war crimes. Like, I just, you know. Making a strong case. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Let's look at it. So who would be the Targaryen that you would be most likely to accept as a member of your cabinet currently living? So let's say that's Rhaenyra, Daemon, Aegon, Aegon, little kids. We don't need the little kids. Of those, who would you select? And Helena, sorry. I would choose Helena probably. She could be Master of Prophecy.

I know it's not real, but... I know we just invent... We're the rulers. We just, like, invent a, you know... Yeah, I mean, we talked about that a little bit with that scene in the last episode. Like, you'd think... And I get that Image didn't like the news he got from Helena in that scene. But, you know, if I were picking up on the fact that someone who lived in my house could, like, extremely tell the future, I would be like, okay, I need you by my side all the time. I completely agree. Yeah.

Here's another voicemail. Hey, this is Alicia from North Carolina. I have truly loved hearing your episode summaries at the start of each podcast. And one of my favorite parts was Aegon being coined the Crispy King, but he looks a little less crispy since he started to heal. So my question is, will he get a new nickname? I mean, Runaway Royal, Missing Monarch, what should we call him? How about Aegon the Convalescent? Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. And of course, none of these sobriquets would be uttered in the King's presence ever. Oh, a thousand percent. Yeah. But should he and gods be good, he will. Survive into old age.

The long-lived ruler of Westeros. What do you think they would call him? For instance, you know, the infamous worst king in Targaryen history, Maegor, is called Maegor the Cruel. And then Targaryen is called the Conciliator for bringing the realm together. What do you think? Obviously, egg on the crispies out. It would not go in the official rules. So what do you think the official nickname would be?

Well, what was it for those 10 seconds? Magnanimous, right? Yeah, the egg on the magnanimous. Maybe he'll go back to magnanimous. I like it. Maybe he'll change his ways and make some good choices and be generous in spirit. Egg on the victorious, risen from the ashes. Egg on the peacemaker. Egg on the rebuilder. Egg on the realm's delight. I like that a lot for him. Shall we go to another voicemail?

Yes. Hey, my name is Laura. I am from Madison, Mississippi. And my question is, has anyone thought about where Lenore Valerian is? The last we saw of him, he was taking off on a boat and we have not heard anything.

of his death or anything like that. So I'm wondering if he is ever going to come back into play. What do you think, Greta? I think he's on the beach. I think he's living the dream. I think he's drinking pina coladas. If I were him, I wouldn't come back. I think he never comes back. I agree with you. I think he's, you know, did he get sent on his way with a full purse? I wonder. I think that Essos in general is...

often a place where disaffected Westerosi exiles end up, you know, living by their wits as like sellswords or pirates as we've seen or what have you. So I would imagine that he is, in addition to living his best life, he's probably making a living as some sort of either a pirate or a mercenary of some sort. A man, a sword for hire. He is working. Yeah.

In more than one way. You know what I mean? When you said the thing about the full purse, I had to keep it to myself. But yeah, I think he's having a great time. Yeah. It hadn't even occurred to me that he might come back. It's wild to think about. I wonder if that would ever happen. If I was him, I would never come back. No, it seems you got to stay out of that. You got to dedicate yourself to team not come back. Do not come back. Yeah, I agree with that completely. Let's go to Rachel. Rachel.

Hi, Jason and Greta. My name is Rachel. My question is about the figure we see in the background of the godswood before Damon's vision in episode eight. Are there any spoiler-free insights that you can share with us? Yeah, that was really cool. So that is a green man. Oh, yes. One of the green men.

The first sentient inhabitants of the continent of Westeros were the Children of the Forest, basically like these magical fairies who worship the godswood trees, the weirwood trees.

And then the men came, the first men, of which many families in the north are descended from. And there was like this very, very long war between the two. And the green men was eventually created as kind of like a military wing of the Children of the Forest and then eventually to guard the trees on the Isle of Faces in the middle of the God's Eye Lake, which you can see from the

parapets of Harrenhal. So thought to be legendary up until this time, they're children in the forest and they wear these little horned helmets, as we saw. And clearly they're around, which is very exciting.

Okay, we got a question on Twitter about dragon's blood. This was from Michael. They were like, it seems like when the blood spilled on the battle below, this would have been in episode four, that it had an acid effect on the men fighting and wanted to know if that's true and what happened there. No, it's just really hot. The inside of a dragon is extremely hot. Do we know?

Do we know for like exactly what dragon body temp is? It's got to be way hotter than 96. It's got to be insane hot. Yeah. I mean, they're breathing fire. So yeah, it's just hot, hot blood. Yeah, just like absolutely scalding, could burst into flame level hot blood. Amazing. Amazing.

Okay, now let's hear from Dr. Charles Ferris. He is the medieval historian who consulted on House of the Dragon, and we really loved talking to him before Season 2 started, so we sent him this question to answer. As a medieval historian consultant, what scenes from Season 2 were you most excited for viewers to see? Well, you can imagine it's really hard to choose a favorite, but...

If I have to, I would say probably the spectacular but also terrifying scene that was the siege of Rook's Rest.

Believe it or not, this was the very first scene I read. And I remember speaking to the director and talking to them about sieges and what they look like, what they might have felt like, what they were like from inside a castle, from outside a castle, what people would have been doing. And we had like a wonderful chat. And I remember one of the things we discussed quite excitingly was also about wood and how important it is to get hold of lots and lots of wood for making things.

ladders and siege engines and battering rams and all the things that you might need to siege a castle. It was really exciting when I finally saw the scene and one of the first things I heard literally as the scene started was the thud thud thud of trees being cut down.

And I thought, wow, that's amazing. Like that might actually have been my impact on this scene. So that was super, super exciting and humbling, really. That's awesome. I love the wood thing so much. It's perfect. I would never have thought of that. Next, let's play a voicemail from Noelle.

Hey, Jason and Greta. This is Noelle from Richmond, Virginia. My question is around my favorite character, Princess Rainey. How do you think the trajectory of the war would go if she didn't have her untimely heroic death? And as a bonus question, if you could bond to a dragon, what would you name it? And what would the dragon look like? Thanks. Love the pod. Rainey's was so...

Mm-hmm.

And I could see Rhaenys shifting those tides a little bit is kind of my first thought. What do you think? I agree with that. I think I could see... Well, it depends if she survived and got away and she comes back. Okay, so then I think that one...

They'd probably pump the brakes on the dragon seed plan just a little bit. Yeah, I think so. I think so too. I think if you had her as someone to train your dragon force, not just the dragon seeds that you have coming up. Oh my god. But Jace and Bela, like that would be huge and could have the potential to swing the war like all on its own. So I think it's just an immeasurable loss. It's a huge loss. Yeah.

It is interesting to think through. I mean, no one has really talked about the idea of, like, dragon battle tactics. It really is just sort of like there's an on switch and off switch of all we're getting, you know? They gave, you know, I feel like they're giving Hua, like, a little card with, like, four Valerian words on it, and they're just like, go ahead. Look out there. Yeah. This one is Dracarys' flames. Thank you for your service. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of room for growth with that. Totally. That's really funny. What would you name a dragon? Oh, God. I would name it after... So my dog is named Donna. I would name my dragon Daenerys. Oh, that's really good. What would you name yours? We've been brainstorming dog names in our household. And our two top ones these days are science and beefcakes.

And I think those would both make really good dragon. That's really cool. I think science, especially in that medieval world, would be pretty fun. And I'd want a gray dragon. I'd want like a gray blue dragon, something that you couldn't really see if I was flying high enough. I don't want like a... That's smart. Caraxes or, you know, like a really red dragon or like Sunfire is too, like stands out.

Too much contrast with the sky. I want to be kind of low profile. That is wise. Yeah. Flying up in the sky. Camo dragon? Yeah, that'd be great. Digital camo dragon. Perfect. Good. Okay, I got a question on Instagram. It was, who do you guys think is worse, Aegon or Alicent? I think Alicent. I mean... Is the question I got. I feel like I need a lot more context. Worse in... Worse how?

I agree, especially because, as discussed on the sexual assault scale... Yeah. I mean, you have your answer there, I think. Right. And to which I would add that, you know, of course, both these characters are entering into a cycle of trauma and toxicity, right?

That said, Alicent was introduced to that extremely young and as a woman has very little societal agency anyway. And I think it's Aegon easily. Yes, I completely agree. I think I can see why it partly gets complicated because Alicent's complicity contributed to Aegon's terribleness. However...

Aegon is his own person and made a number of very terrible decisions over the course of these two seasons. And it's definitely worse. How does Viserys get off the hook? Where was he when Aegon was doing a million bad things and being a piece of shit and being terrible? Ooh!

I understand the guy's skin was falling off and he was addled, you know, the various. He was addled. But like, you know, he was either way too soft on his kids or not involved. And in fairness to Allison, she was dealing with these things at a really young age. And it would have been nice if we would have got some rulings from the king with regards to his wayward progeny.

I appreciate you saying that because I think I do. I am much harsher on Alicent as a parent than I am on Viserys, and that's not fair. And you are correct. Let's go to another voicemail, this one from Aiden.

Hey, my name is Aiden, and I just wanted to ask, what do you think is up with Darren and his future in the show? We talked about that a little bit. Like, I'm curious where his allegiance lies in terms of being a ward. Obviously, Alicent is really interested in seeing how he turned out because he was not, did not have the, we'll call it benefit of being in King's Landing. Yeah.

But, I mean, we saw this a little bit in Game of Thrones, I think, about Theon Greyjoy, right? In terms of, like, your identity inherently is complicated when you are sort of, like, given away, right?

And obviously this context is a little different because he's still with his own family, but that's still, I think, going to be pretty interesting to see how that piece plays out. Yeah, I think that I would expect Darren to be hardcore green, having legitimately grown up in Old Town and

In the Hightower Castle, I think he is going to be very, very firmly agreeing, and by which I mean maybe more closely aligned with...

the ambitions of House Hightower than Aegon and Aemond, who certainly seem to be embracing their Targaryen lineage and not necessarily rejecting the Hightower side, but certainly projecting themselves as the true inheritors of the Targaryen line. Will Daeron do the same thing? I'm not sure, but I would expect him to be

An unshakable green. Yeah, that is interesting. I wonder if he'll be... Maybe he'll be more Team Allison, even. I think he might be, like, enraged if he finds out what Allison's been up to. As I think his siblings would as well, except for Helena, maybe. But I think that he... It's like, you gotta do what you gotta do, Mom. I think there's a significant chance he would be... He doesn't even know her, you know what I mean? Like, I think that he among them all might be...

the first to say let's execute her if he were to find out about it because he really has no relationship with her whatsoever. Dun dun dun Dun dun dun We also sent a question to Paula Fairfield. She is the sound designer for House of the Dragon and we asked her what Silverwing sounds like when she finds Ulf and how Paula created the sounds for Vermithor when Rhaenyra starts her insane dragon lottery. ♪

One of the few things Ryan said to me about this scene was that when Rhaenyra and Vermithor connect and she calms him, originally the thought was that they would breathe together. So I kind of spitballed the idea that Vermithor actually kind of sings to her because their connection is

is such that he recognizes her as the ultimate queen. I mean, that's in my mind. And so if you listen, it's subtle, but it's in there both when Vermithor and Rhaenyra connect. And then again, when Vermithor decides that he's his boy, you will hear a kind of humming coming from Vermithor. Come on!

I used some variations on Whale's song for that moment, and then again when Vermithor claims Hugh. So that's Vermithor. Silverwing, Ryan said she's a proper British lady. So I kind of imagined her, you know, sipping tea, taking care of her eggs, and, you know, the kind of ideas that she wasn't super vocal about.

not kind of wild and crazy like some of the other dragons. Although when she sees Ulf, she kind of has a little moment of, I think a little gleeful moment as, you know, making a connection with a human, it seemed to me. So yeah, and I imagined her vocalizing with proper Queen's English. So I don't know. Yeah.

I love Paula so much. That's delightful. Great answers. That's perfect. Let's see. We have another voicemail. This one's from Jess.

Hi, my name is Jess. I'm super curious about the acknowledgement of magic. Obviously, this is a fantasy series. There's dragons, there's static visions, all of this, but no one really seems to actually acknowledge magic. And I think Game of Thrones overall seemed to really...

avoid it for the most part where Hoth the dragon seems to be leaning into it more. I mean, obviously I hope we see more of Alice and whatever wacky, weird witchy ways she shows up. But yeah, I think it's, it'd be nice to see more magic. I'm wondering how conscious everybody is of that. Yeah. Wacky, weird, witchy ways is perfect. Thank you for that. You know, when we had Ryan on, he talked a bit about how, um,

In the books, George has linked magic to dragons. And then by the time you get to the Game of Thrones storyline, dragons disappeared. And so magic was at its lowest ebb. So I think, you know, functionally, there's just a lot more magic sloshing around right now. It's out there in the world. You know, there's a lot of juice there.

The magical juice is kind of running around. And there's going to be less of that by the time you get to the Game of Thrones storyline after the disappearance of the dragons. That makes a lot of sense and is super interesting. And I will say I have also really enjoyed seeing more of it. I like that there's still some question around it, though. Like, I think Helena is such a great example of that. Or even Viserys passing along the prophecy, right? Like, there is...

There are still these seeds of doubt that I think make for really interesting storytelling, even when there is a world with dragons still. Yeah, I completely agree. I like that there are really no magical experts. Like, even Helena, or seemingly Alice, who has some experience with this kind of energy...

It's also clear that they embrace the mystery of it. You know, they don't... These things are happening, but they don't know what they are. They don't know how to explain it. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I like that aspect of it. I also love that because it is so rare by the time you get to Game of Thrones that a lot of the things that happened or displays of magic that are written down as part of the historical record are basically thought of as legendary, as fantasy by the time you get to Game of Thrones, which is, I think, how...

If magic existed and then disappeared, exactly how we would respond to it in real life. That never happened. Right, right. That's just a fantasy. That's really cool. We received a DM from a listener who has a question for you, Greta. Since you haven't read the books, Greta, do you have any predictions for what's going to happen in season three? Ooh, a lot of people are going to die. I think that's probably... A lot of people. Right? Right.

What I will say beyond that is that I think one thing I have really enjoyed about watching this show and getting to be on this podcast is that I'm along for the ride since I haven't read the book.

And I really love that about it. So I actually, I haven't made any huge predictions because I have no idea. And that's actually really exciting, if that makes sense. I feel the excitement even as a book reader, knowing, despite the fact that I guess in the broadest of terms, I quote unquote know what's going to happen. This is, this show has had a lot of surprises. Like there's a

It's a ton of surprises. It's really cool. As someone who does read a lot of books and has, you know, done, like, reported stories about, like, the art of adapting books onto the screen, it's really interesting to learn about how unique this adaptation really is. And we've talked about, like, the fact that the source material really allows for it, but it's so cool, Jason, to, like, talk to you about what...

what is and isn't in the books and have you just be so jazzed about the way that they're portraying all this different stuff. Yeah, it's fun. Next up, a listener from Instagram has asked, what's your favorite moment from the podcast this season? The podcast! I mean, speaking of it being fun...

The whole thing. It's difficult for me to pick a moment because they're all so fun. I mean, getting to hang out with you, Jason. I always love all the interviews we get to do. Yeah, for me, this is a conversation we have had off mic with our producers. But, you know, actors are so freaking charming. And...

All of the people that we have spoken to have been wonderful. But I think, like, talking to some of the cast, because, I mean, Fabian Frankel is one where I'm just like, wow, are we just, is he going to ask us to hang out? I know. I do kind of feel like we're just all friends. Yes, yes. Yeah.

Or even, you know, Eve Best, the late princess, I was like, wow, is she going to invite us to country house? I'm just vibing right now. Are you kidding me? Well, I will say the dragon seeds were especially fun for that reason. It was just like, oh yeah, no, we're buds. I mean, they should just have their own thing. Yes. Tom was just like,

put the battery in his back and let him go. He was running his own show parallel to ours. And then anytime we talk to Ryan, it's fun because you just get a window into what an amazing undertaking this entire thing is. Yeah. I have said this before. I think one thing I've always loved about Game of Thrones and now House of the Dragon too is that

Because these are such, like, it's a revered franchise. And every single person who works on a show like this is at the top of their game. And the fact that they have literal swordsmiths working, I just think is so cool. And so then even when we talk to, like, the production designers or, you know, like, everyone just brings so much insight and insight.

and wisdom into the jobs that they're doing that it's such a joy to get to talk to anybody who works on a show like this. I feel the same way. But also I hear you about the cast and yes, we should definitely get drinks with Fabian sometime. Um,

So this was just a delight. It was really fun to hear from so many of you. We really appreciate all of you chiming in. And there were so many great questions that you all called in with and there were just like too many for us to actually be able to answer in one podcast episode. But we did want to say thanks to all of you for calling in because you are just the best.

Hi, my name is Mina Krupp.

I am team black. Love you guys. Team green. Just kidding. Team black. This is Sarah calling from Warnoak. Thank you so much. Shout out to the whole cast. I am definitely waiting for season three and I love, love, love you guys.

And that is all for today's episode. We'll be back in two weeks for our final episode of this podcast season. Yes. And in the meantime, of course, you can rewatch every single episode of House of the Dragon on Max. And if you like what you are hearing on this podcast, we would super appreciate it if you would leave a rating and review on your podcast player of choice.

Of course, you can find us on the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon social media handles. And you can find me at Greta M. Johnson on X and Instagram. You can find me at NETW3RK. The official Game of Thrones podcast, House of the Dragon, is produced by HBO in collaboration with Pineapple Street Studios. This podcast is hosted by Greta Johnson.

And Jason Concepcion. Our executive producers for Pineapple Street are Gabrielle Lewis, Jay-Ann Berry, and Barry Finkel. Our lead engineer is Hannes Brown, and Hannes also mixed this episode. Pineapple's head of sound and engineering is Raj Makija, and Pineapple's senior audio engineers are Marina Pais and Pedro Alfira. Our editor is Darby Maloney, with fact-checking by Melissa Akikos-Slaughter.

Our producers are Ben Goldberg, Elliot Adler, Melissa Akiko Slaughter, and myself. Special thanks to Michael Gluckstad, Allison Cohen, Kenya Reyes, Zavon Slater, and Aaron Kelly from the Max Podcast team. We will be back in two weeks, a fortnight, with a special episode that looks out at the wider world of Game of Thrones. You guys are great, and I can't wait. Well, maybe I can wait till 2026. So I'll hear you guys all in 2026.