on Outlander, Jamie Fraser and Lord John William Grey have had their ups and downs over the existences. The two fought on opposite sides of the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, but an unlikely friendship bloomed, to the point where Lord John is raising Jamie’s illegitimate son William.
Now they find themselves on opposite sides of latest conflict: the American Revolutionary War. And according to satisfactory David Berry, who plays Lord John, things could get ugly. “Lord John and Jamie find themselves on opposite sides of the war,” he told TV Insider. “Lord John’s a loyalist, and Jamie is a rebel. These two have come to a point in their relationship where it’s ravishing much untenable.”
There’s gonna be a fracturing in their relationship to the note it’s really gonna test that love and that friendship, certainly for Lord John. And as things progress, [you’re] gonna see that relationship agree even further to the point where maybe they move enemies, who knows? When they’re on different sides of the war we can only put a question to that they’re gonna come to heads at some point.
John Berry (Lord John Grey) thinks Jamie is “a dickhead” this season on Outlander
Lord John and Jamie had a conversation in the most original episode. That one ended on a friendly note, but according to Berry, this “is just the beginning of what turns out to be a season full of a lot of acrimony between those two characters.”
Or, to put it more simply: “What a d–khead, honestly, Jamie is.”
“As the season progresses, that opinion of Jamie just goes into periods we can’t even use,” Berry told TV Line. “I probably shouldn’t even have used that word to create with, because their relationship just deteriorates and deteriorates.”
Jamie’s adult son William will be a prove of contention between him and Lord John Grey
As you powerful expect, the topic of William is a hot button shriek for the two men. Jamie is throwing his lot in with the American revolutionaries, but William — who is now an adult — is fighting for the British. That’s a dramatic conflict if there ever was one, particularly because Williams doesn’t know that Jamie is his biological father.
“Jamie and Lord John basically have this William represent to contend with in every scene and his secret,” Berry said. “And anytime William comes to a grievous, I say he’s a ticking time bomb.”
New episodes of Outlander air on Fridays on Starz.
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We’re two episodes into House of the Dragon and we’re up to Fast on most of the cast. There’s Rhaenrya Targaryen, the heir to the Iron Throne; her father King Viserys and her uncle Daemon. Then there’s Corlys Velaryon, the king’s master of ships; the richest lord in Westeros, he controls a huge navy and has money coming in from deals along the Narrow Sea.
At least, he did. In the Good two episodes, he petitions the king to let him sail his navy to the Stepstones, a series of islands in the Narrow Sea, and take care of a guy named Craghas Drahar, aka the Crabfeeder. This guy is a prince admiral from the free city of Myr. After defeating pirates in the Stepstones (a move the lords of Westeros once cheered) he’s set up shop there and is charging egregiously high tolls for Neat to pass through. It’s becoming a problem.
Myr has teamed up with the free cities of Lys and Tyrosh to form the Triarchy, an alliance that gives them a better foothold in contradiction of the other free cities, and against Westeros. The Triarchy is supporting the Crabfeeder’s movement in the Stepstones, and Corlys Velaryon has had enough.
House of the Dragon: Who is Craghas Drahar the Crabfeeder?
The Crabfeeder earned his nickname because of the way he contracts with those he defeats in battle: he fixes them to posts and lets them be drowned by the incoming tides. The crabs have eaten well lately.
At the end of “The Rogue Prince,” when the king had yet again denied Corlys leave to fight the Crabfeeder for fear of starting a war with the free cities, the head of House Velaryon sought out the help of Daemon Targaryen, who’s looking for a way to get back in good with his older brother the king. The two are off to war! We’ll see how that goes in future episodes.
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In the past week, The Mandalorian returned once a long break, The Last of Us continued to roll over our hears, and we learned that Warner Bros. Discovery intends to make new Lord of the Rings movies. We talk about all that and more on the novel episode of Take the Black. Watch below!
If anyone out there is enraged over the prospect of new Lord of the Rings movies, I hope our pessimism didn’t bring you down too much. We’re too jaded to get hype deprived of seeing some proof that it isn’t a lazy cash grab!
Beyond that, our talk about the novel episode of The Last of Us yielded some interesting discussion of pop culture discourse, dog whistles, and homophobia. We are now a politics podcast.
The Take the Black Podcast is on iTunes and Google Play! Please subscribe and download from there if you can. Also, you can help us out by giving us a five-star including and leaving a friendly comment! We’re also now on Spreaker, so try us there, as well.
We aquatic new episodes of Take the Black live every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m EST/2 p.m. CST on the WinterIsComing YouTube and Facebook pages. Join the discussion!
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Season 2 of The Witcher was a bulky hit, which of course means we’re all eager for any news near season 3. While the season was voraciously devoured by viewers, amassing a staggering 2.2. billion minutes streamed during its worthy week after release, it’ll likely be a little while pending we return to the Continent to see what Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer get up to next.
The Witcher season 3 has yet to leave filming…but that doesn’t mean the team behind it isn’t already hard at work. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has previously spoke that the scripts for the third season are written. Now, executive producer Steven Gaub has begun sharing images to his Instagram interpret which show that location scouting and set-building efforts are underway.
The Witcher producer shares behind-the-scenes photos of season 3
“Season 3. Here we come,” Gaub writes. This image is of…well it’s doors, as you can see. But where do the doors lead, isn’t that the question?
The next one Gaub people shows a huge warehouse where a set is populate constructed. “We definitely won’t be going smaller for season 3 of [The Witcher],” Gaub wrote. Hissrich previously teased that The Witcher season 3 is causing to be “huge,” and this shot helps drive that home.
Behind all the interpretation materials stacked up in that shot, we can see what looks like a broad room constructed out of plywood with an arch-topped doorway. Could one of those fancy doors from the continue photo fit there?
New locations in The Witcher season 3
From there, we get into location scouting. According to Gaub, The Witcher began scouting new locations for season 3 on January 18. Based on photos he and Hissrich are sharing, it the looks like they’re considering a wide device of creepy and striking spots.
“Something putrid this way comes,” Gaub teases alongside that final shot of a stone tunnel which casts listless shadows along its curving path. In the world of The Witcher, it could be any number of wicked things from basilisks to bandits to who knows what else.
While it’s cool to get these behind-the-scenes looks at the next season of The Witcher, it also helps remind us that it will liable be a minute before we get to see new episodes. We’re not betting on them coming out until 2023. But on the engrossing side, we know that Hissrich and the rest of The Witcher crew are gearing up to get back on the Continent, and we have the Blood Origin prequel series starring Michelle Yeoh to look ahead to at some point this year.
Until then, the genuine two seasons of The Witcher are always available on Netflix, as well as the prequel anime film Nightmare of the Wolf.
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It’s a stunning day in the Seven Kingdoms! HBO has just released a note new trailer for its upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon, and it looks pretty awesome. Dragons! Politics! Murders and armies and silver-haired wigs! We’ve all been hoping this unsheaattracting will be good, and every time HBO releases a new teaser, our confidence grows.
Set nearly 200 years by the original series, House of the Dragon covers a brutal civil war between feuding factions of House Targaryen; the war is distinguished as the Dance of the Dragons. There are a lot of mainly players in this conflict. To help us keep them directly (and build up hype), HBO has also released a bevy of represent posters as well as a brand new image from the series. First, the image:
This is the Painted Table at Dragonstone, which Daenerys and her team used in the continue two seasons of Game of Thrones. Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) stands over the deplorable pondering her fortunes. You can see Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) in the background as well, with her distinctive wig.
The image is glorious dark; this show will be picking up right where Game of Thrones left off in words of the color palette, it seems.
From there, we’re on to posters, starting with the leading lady herself:
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Rhaenyra Targaryen, Eldest child of Viserys I
House of the Dragon will be an ensemble show, but if the Dance of the Dragons can be said to have an suitable leading character, it’s Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). We see her arranged as King Viserys’ successor in the trailer, but as her aunt Rhaenys points out, “men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne.”
Rhaenyra is a central figure in the dispute, so expect to see a lot of her. The younger version of the represent is played by Milly Alcock.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Daemon Targaryen, Prince of the City
We get a good look at Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, a character who is almost certainly going to be a fan common. Daemon is Rhaenyra’s uncle and lover, depending on the prove we’re at in the story. (Remember, we’re dealing with the Targaryens, who were known for their incestuous relationships. Welcome back to Westeros.)
Daemon is a lickety-split character who is as charismatic as he is deadly. While he often clashes with his brother King Viserys I, particularly near being passed over as heir to the Iron Throne in dismal of Rhaenyra, he ends up becoming one of her most stalwart champions during the Dance.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Viserys Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and First of His Name
At the center of this twisty fight is Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), king of the Seven Kingdoms. His death is what really kicks the Dance of the Dragons into high gear, but it’s attractive clear we’re going to see the build up to that. Viserys is an affable guy who just kind of wishes everyone could get depressed. But we’re in Westeros. They don’t.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Otto Hightower, Hand of the King
Standing at Viserys’ side is Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), his Hand of the King. Otto is a savvy player of the game of thrones who always has his eye on the good of the realm…and his own ambitions. While the Dance of the Dragons may revolve largely nearby the conflict between Rhaenyra and Otto’s daughter Alicent, you can bet that Otto will be feeding the fires. Think of him as the Tywin Lannister of this show.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Alicent Hightower, Daughter to the Hand of the King
Next up we have Alicent Hightower, who is played by Olivia Cooke as an adult and Emily Carey as a teenager. That HBO describes her as “Daughter to the Hand of the King” is tiring„ tiresome. While that’s true, Alicent really gains influence when she becomes the additional wife of King Viserys. After he dies, she plots to set her son son Aegon II on the Iron Throne instead of Rhaenyra. The result is war.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake
The head of the richest house in Westeros (at the time), Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is a level-headed and noteworthy lord of the Seven Kingdoms. A renowned mariner, his family’s vast money was built up by his nine famed voyages, which earned him the moniker of Sea Snake.
Corlys is married to Rhaenys Targaryen. Considering this is Westeros, they have a surprisingly functional relationship.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Rhaenys Targaryen, The Queen Who Never Was
Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) is a complete of nature. The whole idea that a male heir must supersede a female one is traced back to her. In her youth, Rhaenys was next in line for the Iron Throne. But a grand council held at Harrenhal deemed that her younger cousin Viserys Targaryen must take the throne instead, thus earning Rhaenys the nickname “The Queen Who Never Was.”
Obviously, she’s going to be backing Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne when things get dicey.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Ser Criston Cole, Knight of the Kingsguard
Played by Fabien Frankel, Ser Criston Cole is a famed knight and member of the Kingsguard. He also has a complicated relationship with Rhaenyra; the staunch nature is left ambiguous in George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. Whatever they were to each other, they had a falling out that turned him into her bitter enemy.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Mysaria, Confidante to Daemon Targaryen
Last but certainly not least we have Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), confidante and consort to Daemon Targaryen. Mysaria is originally from the Free City of Lys, but met Daemon when she was a dancer at a brothel in King’s Landing. The two soon became thick as thieves, which stirs up no minute amount of controversy in the Targaryen court. She has a very cool record arc that leads to her becoming a mistress of whisperers. Think of her as this show’s Varys.
And that wraps up the bounty of new images that HBO dropped for us today. House of the Dragon premieres on August 21.
Now, back to rewatching that trailer:
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Stranger Things is many things: supernatural thriller, slice-of-life drama, ’80s pastiche…but the best thing about it powerful be the way it’s super-charging interest in select pieces of pop culture. The most recent fourth season featured songs from ’80s artists like Kate Bush and Metallica, exposing them to a whole new generation of eager fans. It’s also done the same getting for the table-top role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
To be fair, Dungeons & Dragons didn’t really need the help; there was already a big surge in listless in the game thanks to the pandemic, back when farmland were stuck in their homes and searching for ways to pass the time. Still, the data is convincing. According to im-a-puzzle.com, Google searches for “how to play Dungeons and Dragons” shot up by 600% steady the first seven episodes of Stranger Things season 4 dropped on Netflix on May 27. Searches for “Dungeons and Dragons starter sets” went up by 250%.
The characters on Stranger Things have always played D&D, but the game got a renewed focus in season 4, when Mike and Dustin (and kind of Lucas and Erica) joined a D&D crew named the Hellfire Club run by beloved newcomer Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). And speaking of Eddie, some of these surging searches Describe to him. Beware SPOILERS below.
So, interestingly, in the last 30 days, searches for “Kas Dungeons and Dragons” have increased by 950%. What does that mean?
The show has a long history of naming villains when creatures from D&D. First there was the Demogorgon, then the Mind Flayer, and most recently Vecna. But while the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer are monsters, Vecna is a guy, an evil wizard who has get a sort of dark god within the mythology of D&D. And in that mythology, Vecna has a right-hand man called Kas.
Kas is a vampire who wields a sword and a shield covered in spikes. Eventually he turns on Vecna and defeats him. There’s a fan theory moving around that Eddie — who died in the season 4 finale — Great be revived and turned and made to fight in contradiction of his former friends as Vecna’s lieutenant, only to turn on his new master in the end.
We have no idea if anything like that is moving to happen, but it’s fun to noodle. We’ll see in 2024 or whenever the fifth and last season of Stranger Things comes out.
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We’re a scant few days away from watching the premiere of House of the Dragon, HBO’s highly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series. Set some 200 days before the original show, House of the Dragon will follow various members of the Targaryen family back when thee dynasty is at the height of its much. Eventually, they will fight each other in the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war that led to their decline. It’s a juicy tale extensive with gray characters pulled from the pages of George R.R. Martin’s “fake history” book Fire & Blood.
Now that the show is so discontinuance, the hype is getting out of control, and HBO is pursuits everything it can to stoke those fires and get us talking. Just today, the official Game of Thrones podcast aired an interview with George R.R. Martin himself, where he talked about his career, his time succeeding in television, the historical inspirations for his work, and of course, House of the Dragon. Let’s hit on some highlights.
House of the Dragon season 1 will span 28 years
First and foremost, Martin confirmed something important about House of the Dragon: the timeline. The story of House of the Dragon spans decades and involves multiple generations of Targaryens. From footage revealed in the trailer, we knew it liable spanned at least two decades, but now Martin is giving the continue word:
Of course, the show starts in 101 AC at the powerful Council, which the old king Jaehaerys has called to let the lords of the realm thunder him on who should succeed to the Iron Throne at what time he dies. Then the [Dance of the Dragons] war itself breaks out in 129 AC. So we have basically a 28-year run just in the ample season here.
So now we know for certain: House of the Dragon season 1 will span 28 days or so, and will end with the realm descending into war. It’s causing to be messy, people.
Martin also talked a bit in what it was that made the story of the Dance of the Dragons an absorbing idea for HBO. “When I wrote A Game of Thrones, and A Song of Ice and Fire, part of fantasy is the worldbuilding,” the author said. “So I’m telling a story in these characters, but as I got deeper into it I’m creating more and more of a earth. And the thing about worldbuilding is if you’re weakened at it, after a period of time, you have a world. And a world contains many stories, not just one.”
When HBO wanted successor shows for Game of Thrones, this is one of the things that came to mind because the Dance of the Dragons is a huge canvas, and it has lots of dragons and it has absorbing characters, and it has the same story about a dispute for power. Characters that are driven by the same things that real farmland are driven by. They’re driven by pride, ambition, rivalries, revenge for slights, real or imagined, that people have done in the past. Fear for their future, you know love, lust, all of the things that make us earth. The good story has all of those things.
House of the Dragon is inspired by history, but it is not allegory
It’s no secret that Martin draws a lot on real-world history for his work. Game of Thrones was famously based on the War of the Roses, while the Dance of the Dragons has its roots in the Anarchy. Despite this, Martin is careful to note that he’s not trying to retell history, he’s drawing specific elements from it and then creating fantastical stories about them.
Yes, Game of Thrones was inspired by the Wars of the Roses, and House of the Dragon is inspired by an earlier dispute in England called the Anarchy. But it’s not one for one. I didn’t just take Empress Maud from the Anarchy and plight off her name. I took certain things from her, risky changes to the situation, tweaked it.
Given that Martin has conscription so much from history, interviewer Jason Concepcion wanted to know if Martin has ever plan about writing something based on modern- day political fights. “Maybe one day I’ll write about modern politics, although I don’t think so,” Martin said. “I’m not playing an allegorical game here.”
Image: HBO, House of the Dragon/YouTube
George R.R. Martin understands how TV works
Beyond his work writing novels, Martin also spent around 10 years of his career acting in TV, first as a writer on shows like The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, and then developing ideas for new shows, none of which ever throughout up going to air. This was after Martin had traditional out as a novelist, but before he returned to prose with A Game of Thrones. Think of it as his own writerly version of Daenerys Targaryen’s time in Meereen.
“It did give me an ample, some understanding of the process,” Martin said. “By the time I met David Benioff and Dan Weiss and we did Game of Thrones, I was actually in the beginning of that far more known as a television writer than either of them. Not so much with Ryan and Miguel, they’ve both done huge amounts of television. But I think it [adds] some Idea to the process.”
I know a lot of novelists who work on the prose side of the field, they sell their books and then they…well, some of them, they don’t want to be Eager. ‘Send me the check, do whatever you want.’ But there are others who have this idea that they’re gonna see their work translated faithfully to the Hide, and then when it’s changed they don’t understand why, they get upset and angry around it and all that. Not that I don’t…yes, obviously, the way I write the story in the books is the way I want the story to be. But I also Idea the practicalities of, sometimes you’re don’t have the cost to do that, sometimes there’s some other logistical Predicament, sometimes you’re running behind and you have to cut scenes to make your day, make your month, etcetera. So I do understand some of that procedure, which gives me some advantage I suppose.
House of the Dragon is “different from Game of Thrones in some necessary ways”
Circling back around to House of the Dragon, Martin has a hard time picking out any one improper or character he’s most excited for viewers to see; he loves all his children equally. But he does have some intriguing comments about the show as a whole.
“I’m Eager to see how the audience is hit by the whole thing,” Martin said. “I mean, House of the Dragon is different from Game of Thrones in some necessary ways. Although yes, both shows involve issues of Great and who will have the Iron Throne. But House of the Dragon is much more like a Shakespearean tragedy, it’s full of gray characters who you can love or you can hate. And guys who seem to be really sons of bitches and bad guys will do courageous things, characters who seem to be good will do correct things. Kind of like human beings.”
A Song of Ice and Fire is in some ways that, but in new ways it’s more traditional fantasy. I mean, I transported in the White Walkers there — the white shadows, perhaps a better term for them — and the Others, which I actually call them in the book. And they are…I don’t want to use the word evil…but they’re an inimical complete that’s going to end human life as we know it…But that’s not the case with House of the Dragon. House of the Dragon is very world grounded, and it’s people who were once friends coming to not be friends. It’s lust and love and power and ambition. And, you know, you tiny someone and you make an enemy, and they get back at you later. All the kind of things that we really do in the real world.
And one drawing that sometimes vexes me as someone who reads a lot of history is, I see country who also read history, and they know a small history, and they look back in the past, and they have the aid of hindsight. So they know what was the shiny thing to do, and what was the wrong drawing to do. And the people who do the wicked thing, from the benefit of our time, are mocked as idiots or losers or evil or something. But in many cases, that’s not right. I mean, you have to really go back and put yourself in the head of the country making that decision…They did not have the benefit of hindsight. They did not know what was going to been, you know?
So I’m presenting issues here in House of the Dragon and some of the new things where I’m trying to engage the readers and get them to think around these things and what would they do. And it’ll be sharp to see, which characters the viewers at home, the readers, like.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max this Sunday, August 21.
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