Aerys II

I've got my takes.

Who's a very low-ranked one? Either Aegon IV or Aerys II.

uh fair

aries the second was very funny though so maybe he's got yeah

The last two hands met terrible fates.

And Tyrion's like, why don't you just say the last four if you mean to frighten me? And we get a little exposition on Aerys' last hands, a Tyrion history session.

Yeah, so this is absolutely, like, framed this way just for the exposition because, like, I just disbelieve that Littlefinger would not know this because he's kind of the sort of insufferable person who would know this, I think.

Yeah.

And it let Jaime become commander of the Kingsguard.

He has a seat on the council and lets Joffrey throw a bone to his dog.

Tyrion argues with her that Barristan was Robert's Kingsguard, one of the only survivors of Aerys's Kingsguard, a legend in the small folk's eyes like Serwyn of the Mirror Shield and Aemon the Dragon Knight.

What are the people going to think if they see him riding for Stannis or Robb Stark? And Serwyn's like, uh, I hadn't considered that.

But yeah, we've got stuff to talk about today.

It's a little bit of a quieter week in Westeros, but we do have a few things to go over relevant to especially the Mad King play and the Night of the Seven Kingdoms.

House of the Dragon, they're not really doing much right now.

They're kind of gearing up for production that's slated to start pre-production in presumably October is what the word on the street is.

And then they start filming early in 2027.

So it's going to be a minute probably before we have real news for House of the Dragon.

But fortunately, Westeros, as the intro to this show hinted, hinted it wasn't really a hint it was a joke a bad joke even uh it's an ever-expanding multi-headed beast so we've still got plenty to talk about um so i guess let's let's kick things off with what's new in westeros with uh the mad king the the game of thrones the mad king the play um it ended its run in stratford-upon-avon it's done so if you didn't see it Which, Mark, you didn't see it, right? No, not at all.

Neither of us went to the UK in the past three months.

I've been out and about seeing friends mainly, friends from different parts of my life, and particularly some of my dearest Poetry Exchange friends and companions.

I went to see Michael, Michael Schaefer, in The Mad King.

That is George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones The Mad King, to give it its full title, at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Michael played the Mad King, Ares II Targaryen himself, and was sitting on the Iron Throne for much of the performance.

It was completely spectacular, sort of a jaw-dropping bit of theatre craft and an amazing performance by Michael and just a fantastic ensemble piece as well.

It's a real achievement to have created this, you know, to have brought that world to life on the stage for the first time.

And I do hear that Game of Thrones The Mad King is going to be travelling to London next year.

It's a bit like in the titles of the Game of Thrones show where the sort of sphere flies across the map and now it's kind of lifting up from Stratford-upon-Avon and flying down southeast to Greenwich, I believe, next year.

No, I...

Well, the thing about me is that, I mean, I haven't mentioned the Mad King's name on stage in about eight years.

Well, I know that.

Uh, because-