I love your GOT reactions with rest of the girls but enjoying HOTD reactions with Mesel as well! He brings a different insight and humor to the reactions! Great job guys!

The Dark haired woman is Alys Rivers a Strong bastard and a witch. According to the actress she's 400yrs old and has powers like foresight

The server girl who got smacked looked a lot like the maidservant that got graped by Aegon. Poor girl can't catch a break anywhere she goes.

Considering Otto was plotting for years to get Aegon on the throne it’s surprising he didn’t do anything to prepare his grandson to actually rule. He just stuck an unprepared young man (who at first didn’t want to be king) on the throne. Otto bears responsibility for how bad a king Aegon is.

Without saying much, the Velaryons have appeared in the books, by the time of ACoK they're supporters of Stannis, and they're still around in AFFC

Hodor wasn't a Hodor. The actor in an interview explained that he had a choice of around 3 prosthetics and he of course picked the largest offered.😂

Small note, that sept they went to was not the sept of Baelor. Baelor would not exist until years after this takes place. He was born in 144 AC (after conquest) whereas the dance takes place from 129-131 ac.

The opening tapestry is like the Bayeux tapestry which depicts William the Conquer’s invasion of England in 1066. I have seen it and the first time I saw the opening this season it brought it back to my mind.

Maybe Rhaena will bring Joffrey and his dragon Tyraxes to the Eyrie to have him grow up there and will travel to the prince in Pentos afterwards with Rhaenyra's 2 youngest kids, the 4 eggs and Stormcloud.

House Bracken and Blackwood have been at each other’s throats for centuries! In season 1, a Blackwood Boy killed a Bracken Young Man in episode 3 (I think) when Rheanyra was hearing possible suitors to marry Blackwood and Bracken are Riverlands House’s yes :)

I've heard from different videos that talked about the intro that it was actually based on the Bayeux Tapestry (its moreso an embroidery but they call it a tapestry). But yeah, great reactions as always.

Bracken and blackwood have the two largest armies in the riverlands, this beginning battle was probably just a skirmish to them.

WOO! got a shoutout! Thanks for sharing this experience with us Stefani and Mesel, it's fascinating to me. With your clear knowledge of the main series of books, familiarity with GoT, you come to Hot D with far more info than just tv viewers. That you *haven't* read Fire and Blood is clear (not all hard-core fans wear tinfoil hats, but there are beats in the books we're very familiar with) so give yourselves a pat on the back for keeping as much straight as you are. The bloke in the pub who claims to be related to the Targaryens did a pretty good job of explaining his connection (believable or not). He's saying that he's the bastard son of Baelon, the Old King Jaehaerys' (who called the great council) second oldest son, making him (Ulf) the bastard half brother to Viserys II and Daemon, cousin to Rhaenys (who is the eldest child of the oldest son of Jaehaerys - Aemon - who died earlier than his father), and uncle to Rhaenyra. The youngsters ARE going to the Vale, you're right. While there, Rhaena is to write to the Prince of Pentos, and discover if she and the two youngest boys (one has a hatchling dragon) would be welcome on the other continent, leaving the youngest of HARWIN's boys, Joffrey, in the Vale with his young dragon. That leaves the four dragon eggs. Show runner Ryan Condal has confirmed that three of them are the ones that eventually get gifted to Danaerys in the 'main' story, while the fourth has a place in the story to come. The battle we saw the aftermath from (the Battle of the Burning Mill) is between *legendary* enemies the Blackwoods and Brackens, a feud so ancient, no-one is really sure what started it. An echo certainly of what gets said between Rhaenyra and Alicent in the Sept - it's too late to stop it now. Too many other events have happened to fuel the enmity that even if a deciding cause could be determined and the wrong righted, everyone would continue the fight. Seeing as it's already a novel, one more paragraph... MANY viewers are confused about what the problem was with Rhaerya being named heir. it's 100% the fact she's a girl. Once Viserys had sired a son, all of Westerosi tradition (and European in our own world too) says that Aegon should be next. A war was inevitable when Viserys insisted that he'd chosen Rhaenyra and wasn't changing his mind. It would have kicked off *even if* Aegon and all the Hightower/Green side supported her. The ruling Lords of Westeros will have forced the issue. We see it in real world history. Some of the people crowned in the past have been put there by armies they didn't raise, by people they didn't agree with, to situations they had no idea how to manage. Phew. Looking forward to next week, scritches for Odin 😊

Mandatory cheers. :) Hope you enjoyed that ep. EDIT after watching : Dragonstone and Driftmark are relatively close, so it's easy to imagine a restless Seasmoke just flying around the entire region.

people really forgetting Aegon also has a claim to the throne. Both Rhaenyra and Aegon have the claim, hence the war of dragons happened. This is not due to a misunderstanding. Alicent holds no power here.

Point of order: the Great Sept in King's Landing isn't the Sept Of Baelor, which hasn't been built yet. Baelor was a very religious king who reigned some 25 years after the events in HOTD.

Aegon the Conqueror was never a prince. Alicent's confusion makes sense. The problem is there is no reason to keep Aegon's dream a secret.

Hi there! I’m Welsh and an art teacher - tbh the tapestry looks very Anglo Saxon style to me - look up the Bayeux Tapestry. It also seems to have some Celtic motifs thrown in there. So yeah it’s giving very Medieval British. Also the feud between Brackons and the Blackwoods was shown in season 1. Remember when Rhaenyra had all the suitors lining up for her? And the little kid sliced up the guy who was talking shit? Nice bit of foreshadowing for The Battle of The Burning Mill there.

Love the Game of Thrones reactions with Lindsay and Ashley but I'm really enjoying finally seeing Stefani(and now Mesel) react to and discuss a show like this. I agree about House of the Dragon being more tense and not as humorous as GoT, and ultimately the reason why as much as I like this show, it does make me miss GoT. For example, the fight with the twins in the last episode would've been much more tragic for me if I thought they were funny and knew a little more about them. HotD has good characters, but I wish I was more attached to them. I'm still enjoying it though. Funny that Mesel said the intro animation gives him Japanese vibes because when I first saw it, it reminded me of the intro to the show Shogun which takes place in Japan. Shogun is definitely a show you need to watch btw if you haven't already.

20:00 Those men in Rhaenyra's council are minor lords around KL and Dragonstone. They are crownland lords that Cole is on his way attacking, to grab their troops to move to Harrenhal.

The name of that guy who said is a Targaryen Bastard is Ulf the White. He'll play an important role later.

30:18 Who is? Lol, except Hodor. 😂🍆 36:34 Most commoners don't really know what the royal family look like at any given time because they're only seen by the masses at certain times and Raenyra hasn't been out in public in King's Landing outside the Red Keep for quite awhile!

Hope this isn't a spoiler. The Velaryons still exist in the Game of Thrones timeline; they're just not as powerful and important (Targaryen relation) anymore. IIRC in the books the Velaryons fight for their liege lord Stannis at the Battle of the Blackwater, and a Velaryon bastard, Aurane Waters, also sits on Cersei's council until he makes off with her ships.

I really liked this episode. Be prepared for episode 4. Emotional battle rollercoaster.

Another great reaction, guys. Curious to know if Mesel has seen The Boys. If he hasn't, perhaps a future The Boys reactions with all 4 of you? 🔥

It will be interesting to see Lady Arryn’s response to getting 2 baby dragons (and no established dragon riders) to defend the Vale. Probably not what she had in mind when she made the deal.

Mike Rowe is the host of Dirty Jobs.

Fun fact! The 4 eggs Rheanyra sends away, 3 of them (The Red, Yellow and Green) become Dany’s dragon later in Game of Thrones! It was confirmed by the showrunner/director

What a scarred and stubborn husband.

Aemond’s dragon eggs 😳

The into is intended to mimic the real-world Beyeux tapestry. Producers and directs have confirmed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry They kept the art style but instead of making it essentially a cloth scroll that was super long, they turned it into a banner. But yeah. That's 100% what they're intending to echo.

29:48 Aegon telling Aemond the "WOOF WOOF WOOF" joke was dark as night...that I spat out my drink ROFLMAO 🤣

3 of the 4 eggs you see in the episode are the 3 eggs Daenerys will have in Penthos. This is what the director said in an interview.

Alys Rivers!

Facts, Harrenhal is built by making much of its mortar with the blood of its workers, in bread slavery, natural that can project Radiances like that.♥❄&🔥´♬ 🖤🔥&🩸 Buenas Tarde Guapos, Rhaenyra failed to say: If you don't believe me, Alicent, let your son bring that Dagger closer to the Fire, although the Green Queen already knows her mistake Me encanta Rhaenys, menuda Reina sabia

Hodor had fake one though, idk what is HBO doing.

At the beginning you guys were reviewing the last episode and you said Sir Cristen wouldn’t be a good hand bc he would do anything Aegon (the king) wants and it reminded me of something on the GOT, I can’t remember right now exactly who said it (I think maybe Sir Davos or Tyrion?) but they said a good hand is there to give the king advice & keep his worst impulses at check. Miss that show. This one is good but Just not hitting me quite the same yet. P.S. why is Harrenhal (spelling lol) already damaged? For some reason I was thinking it happened by Aegon the conqueror? I thought we learned in GOT that he did it? But I guess I thought he was the current Aegon lol, I’m a little confused haha. Thanks all!

Have to disagree about the comedy. The funny bits of HotD have made me laugh out loud; something GoT never accomplished. Velaryons and Hightowers WERE in Game of Thrones, you just didnt see or hear much from them because the writers were hacks.

Rhaenyra sneaking in is really bad writing-wise. Too dangerous, too late and Alicent could have had her captured and it would have stopped the war. (Also the showrunners wrote the Blacks to be the heroes of the story while the Greens are the villains -except Alicent- so they're disingenuous now when they promote it as a story of two equal factions. A fairer way would have been to balance it more instead of whitewashing the blacks more than the Greens or keep them both as dark)...