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00:00This episode is very much everybody vying for power but also it's very much about that
00:08happening through grief.
00:13Much of episode 5 revolves around how Rhaenys' death is resonating across all of the different
00:18characters and no one as much as it lands with her husband Corlys.
00:24This poor guy over the course of these two seasons has slowly had every human connection
00:28stripped away from him one by one.
00:31He is sitting in the Hall of Nine but it means nothing to him anymore because she's gone
00:35and all of this stuff, who cares?
00:37Steve is an incredible actor.
00:39He has such deep soul to all of his performances.
00:44I had no clue that he was going to have this tear, like this silent tear roll down his
00:49face.
00:50It was incredibly moving to see it.
00:55Our largest dragon has been killed.
00:58Duskendale and Rook's rest are gone.
01:00I think everybody's reeling, I mean Rhaenyra not the least of which and you hear a lot
01:04of this backbiting and bickering going on at the table because everybody is under tremendous
01:09amount of stress.
01:10They don't know how to react but Rhaenyra finds herself at sea.
01:13I mean that was her last great female advisor.
01:18And that's also when Rhaenyra sees this huge power vacuum and knows she's got to do something.
01:24Queen Rhaenyra wishes to name you Hand.
01:27Even the death of my wife does not content her.
01:30She's playing the role of the great politician here.
01:32The next best thing next to having Daemon back is one of the most respected men in Westeros
01:36and that's the Sea Snake.
01:38And she doesn't exploit Rhaenys' death to do it.
01:41She knows that the man is there looking for purpose, probably looking for a bit of vengeance
01:44and she probably takes advantage of that in the moment to try to get him back on side.
01:48The path I walk has never been trod.
01:52What you cannot do, let others do for you.
01:56There is more than one way to fight a war.
02:00I think Mysaria's power increases in Rhaenys' absence because I think Rhaenyra is desperate
02:04in looking for that sympathetic female voice in her life.
02:07Mysaria is offering another way which is I understand the will of the people and we can
02:12manipulate that and play that to your advantage.
02:15An element of what we're watching is propaganda war.
02:18How to win the hearts of the people.
02:20And that's all learning that she receives from Mysaria.
02:22I don't think this is something that Rhaenyra had thought of or considered until Mysaria
02:27brought it to the fore.
02:28And it's a bit of a modern concept, this idea of the quote-unquote power of the people.
02:33I have an errand for the Lady Mysaria.
02:35In real history, smart and sometimes cunning and ruthless, medieval sovereigns did use
02:40people and their will to their advantage.
02:43Behold!
02:44The traitor dragon Maelys!
02:46It is.
02:47Look, they've killed a dragon.
02:50Mark my words, this is a black omen.
02:52I think this is very, this is very cool.
02:55His expectations are so high, his expectations are for people to honor him and push him up
03:00on a pedestal.
03:01If you look like you've won and you carry yourselves like you've won and the public
03:05don't know what's really happened, then that's what everyone's going to believe.
03:08But what happens is so different.
03:10Don't they realize we won the battle?
03:13Strange victory, if it was won.
03:15The calculation that he doesn't make is how it will land on the small folk.
03:19I mean, Maelys is a beloved dragon that probably flew over that city hundreds of times and
03:23is seen as one of these symbols of the unshakeableness, of the invincibility of the Targaryens.
03:28I thought the dragons was gods.
03:30You know, as soon as people can see you can kill dragons, well then anybody can do it.
03:34And does that mean that these people that we've always thought of as being gods, because
03:38of their ability to ride dragons, is actually all a bit of a mirage?
03:44This is, at best, a terrible omen, and at worst, a harbinger of the things to come.
03:53The king.
03:54Ser Criston, what befell him?
03:56His grace fought valiantly.
03:57And Aemond?
03:58What was his part in this?
04:01I could not say.
04:03The dramatic tension that looms over the episode is what is the state of Aegon and did he survive
04:09the end of episode four, and will he survive through the end of this episode?
04:14And I think that's what's kind of looming over all these characters, that big question,
04:18to show the cost of letting your sovereign get on his dragon and ride into battle.
04:23Someone will have to rule in his stead.
04:24It's everything he ever wanted.
04:26With great power comes great responsibility, and he's got to be seen as someone who knows
04:30how to wield it.
04:31I agree, your grace.
04:32It must be Prince Aemond.
04:33I mean, this is a massive power shift all of a sudden at the Green Council.
04:37It's as well as dramatized by the meeting where Aemond takes power in this very kind
04:41of banal way where he just stands up from the foot of the table, takes his ball, moves
04:45over to the king's seat, and puts it down, and sits, and then starts doling out orders
04:48while everybody, including Alicent, especially Alicent, are reeling from the decision.
04:53And you feel the shift in that way, and how different the Red Keep is going to be with
04:57Aemond in charge versus the way it was with Aegon.
05:00Someone cut down the fucking rat catchers.
05:03A term too simple, Lord Bracken.
05:05Renounce the false King Aegon as a usurper, and bend the knee to me, or your house burns.
05:14Daemon approaches life always trying to hammer that square peg into the round hole, and he's
05:19just trying to force his will upon this place.
05:23I love the image of him in his full, like, dragon battle armor sitting on the rock and
05:27not understanding what's happened, and saying...
05:30I did not think they would be so eager to die.
05:33And the Riverlands is just this unwranglable place to him.
05:36He's brought his values, and sort of Targaryen dragon lord values, into a place that is rich
05:41with the old gods and these old ways.
05:43These people just don't respect the dragon lords the way Daemon is hoping or used to.
05:48See, I must begin here with a lesson in etiquette.
05:51On the page, I thought, yeah, this is the right territory.
05:54This is where we should be.
05:55This is where his head's at.
05:57It's how mental his kind of state is.
05:59Is Daemon trying to usurp Rhaenyra?
06:01It's, like, unfair that he wasn't given the crown, that he isn't listened to, that he
06:08doesn't have that power.
06:09We just don't know what he's going to do or ultimately how he's going to turn.
06:14And while I don't think that anybody could ever be asked to believe that he would turn
06:17against Rhaenyra and, like, go to war against her, I think we could all believe that maybe
06:22Daemon would just go and claim the throne for himself and then see what happens.
06:26What would you call the husband of the queen?
06:28Well, the king.
06:29There it is, then.
06:30Consul.
06:32That last bit seems unnecessary, don't you think?