A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms 1x02 Full Reaction!
Added 2026-01-26 21:40:35 +0000 UTC
Comments
That’s good, going with the Dirk Diggler comparison. Haven’t seen any other reactions yet. What you say about the two A’s letting you watch nude people of any gender and age without getting grossed out, there is something that sounds nice about that, not going to lie. Wasn’t necessarily grossed out myself. Sort of laughed more than anything, going, “Oh, Jesus! Ok, we’re seeing that.” Second the comment about next week and more bodily fluids, so long as we get to channel Sterling Hayden when discussing it. The Targaryen name confusion is tiring. Made a meme of that back with House of the Messy of Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa saying, “They’re all named “Aegon”. What’s the matter with the Targaryens? They can only think of one name.” On top of having on the brain Paul Sorvino saying, “And this is Petey, no, Pauly. I get confused myself.” when you try to keep straight all the similar Targaryen names. Noticed that about Baelor having the brunette hair. A man is presently very invested in Maekar for Sam Spruell. Even without knowing specifics, you don’t get that fantastic of an actor for a small part. I have at least one reference planned for Finn Bennett, save that guy for later. He looks like he’ll be fun as Aerion in that love to hate sort of way. I got to refamiliarize myself with Calvin and Hobbes, though point noted about Gwin. Dunk and Egg are doing a great job of endearing themselves to the audience, and the impact is already apparent. Shame that the party will crash and burn when they get shut out of the Oscars because Avenue Q suddenly had their own film adaptation. And then, wait, what? There is no Avenue Q film adaptation? Wicked just got shut out without that? Oh. Even better then. (Yes, I’m going to be a mite insufferable about that for a while.) It is nice that it seems like everyone’s loving Lyonel. Liking him well enough so far, and he clearly paid attention to when Mi-nyeo gushed about Il-nam’s strategy, and said, “Write that down.” Though I missed the show in the initial broadcast, the complaints about the Long Night are legendary. Finally saw the show on blu-ray. ...Seemed like you could see stuff all right. Then again, I had also just gotten a new tv around the same time, so who knows? Thankfully, you can see everything fine here. They do kick it up a notch at the end, and it does increase excitement and interest as to how it’s going to play out. Figured Jess was going to clock what she clocked about Egg. Feels like they’re playing coy to those who don’t know whilst giving clues to think upon it, and getting those who do know excited. Like with Palpatine being Darth Sidious how the marketing and promotional material kept saying they were not the same character, making me say, “Fine, you want to act like they’re two separate characters, I can play that game too.” Should be fun how Jess and other reactors keep at it with the logical thought progression.
Thomas Corp
2026-01-27 00:04:54 +0000 UTCI didn't recognize Sam Spruell's name, and going down his Wikipedia page I didn't notice anything that would warrant much excitement, but then suddenly hit Munch and thought "There it is." And Aemon talked a bit about his family in slightly spoilery ways, so just something to keep in mind if you're ever thinking of going back to those scenes before the season ends. On the Best Actor viewing I just got to a movie I'd never heard of before, Watch on the Rhine, which really floored me. Paul Lukas very much deserved his win and should have had a way bigger career; I only knew him before as Bhaer in the 1933 Little Women. Especially coming right after Yankee Doodle Dandy, whose "inspiration" just comes in the form of generic patriotism (still a pretty great movie, though), this character is one of the most underappreciated heroes in movie history, saying some incredibly gutsy things in a time while World War 2 was still going on and a sizable percentage of America was actively rooting for the Nazis before the discovery of the Holocaust permanently turned most people against them, and I found myself tearing up a few times at just how specific the dialogue was willing to get about what right-minded people should be doing, which can be applied without much change to so many other times in history since. Definitely one that deserves way more attention than it gets these days.
Ryan
2026-01-26 23:41:17 +0000 UTCFrom the opening scene, it's nice to see Dirk Diggler is still getting work at this age. And after watching several reactions, I'm feeling pretty good about how my particular combination of the two A's lets me watch nude people of any gender and age without getting grossed out. It's like a superpower. And in combination with last week's early scene, I can't wait to see what kind of precious bodily fluid the next one starts with. The Targaryens arrive, which means it's time for some of that same name confusion that every reactor to this franchise loves so much. So to be as clear as possible, the current king is Daeron (and the second of that name to be king, the first coming shortly after the Dance of Dragons), which is also the name of one of his missing grandsons. And the Baelor we see here isn't Baelor the Blessed, whose statue Arya was clinging to during her father's execution, who was the son of Daeron the First. And in addition to the missing sons, Maekar is also the father of Aemon, so you can already see what a good thing it was for him to get away from that influence so soon. And just for one more wrinkle, unlike House of the Dragon giving Rhaenys the same Targaryen blonde hair despite having a Baratheon parent (and never mind the parent show made such an important plot point of how that bit of genetics works), this one decided to risk audience confusion by giving Baelor the dark hair of his Dornish mother. I'm also digging Aerion, with Finn Bennett having a very Matt Smith vibe with a bit of some other HOTD actors thrown in. I'm also keeping my eye on Gwin Ashford, who clearly went to the Susie Derkins school of flirting. Dunk and Egg continue to be the beating heart of your enjoyment to no one's surprise, and it's already clear how big an impact they'll have on each other's lives, like a comet pulled from orbit when it passes a sun. I had some doubts on how much Lyonel would endear himself to you here as opposed to last time, but apparently it worked out okay. And pretty gratifying to see his side win after putting Dunk as the anchor was the only bit of Il-nam's advice that anyone followed. As to your further thoughts on Egg, I of course know exactly what the answer is and won't be saying it, so I'll just point out that you can rest easy that you're following a logical thought progression, as a lot of other newbie reactors are having the same speculation. I sighed a bit upon seeing the actual joust was happening at night, but it ended up being pretty easy to follow as they clearly didn't want a repeat of having to lecture us that literally every single one of the millions of complainers must just have had the color on their TV set wrong, and somehow not noticed it on a single other thing until now (no, I'm never letting that go). This especially works out well in letting us see how well Ser Hardying recovers after being unhorsed; quite impressive after his descendant's story was cut completely from Game of Thrones. No surprise the ending comes out of nowhere to wallop you as hard as Agent Albert revealing his pacifism. After all the fun had, we're reminded of the real stakes of this story, even if they're just personal ones to Dunk. And knowing the whole time that he'll be known to future generations as the template for everything a knight should be, and so impressive that even Joffrey respects him, helps it all go down very easy as we look forward to exactly how he'll get there from here.
Ryan
2026-01-26 23:14:42 +0000 UTCStart by expressing sympathy for the storm. Nice to hear that snow-wise, it’s just your garden variety Tuesday where you are. Storms and bad weather here as well, though the cold is the greater concern. And like you describe, it is pretty standard stuff for this time of year in Illinois. Just hope you’re staying safe and warm. Now to the rather short and sweet episode this week. Loving the more lighthearted tone. And we continue to focus on the buildup to the tourney. It’s having, not an exact copy, but shades of Iron Will in this thus far. Underrated Disney film by the way. I know Ryan mentioned it, saying it holds up well. I rewatched it a few months ago, and it does. The fresher memory has it on the brain, and there’s aspects of it that feel similar to stuff here. Figured about right as to what your reaction would be to the opening of this episode. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Answering the question of what is this show doing to your Monday mornings: ...Yeah, I got nothing. Very nice words you said about how Dunk speaks of his father figure. Love how he and Egg are still getting the good banter in. We both had the reaction to Egg having colorful language, making me ask, “You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Similarly, sweet words you had to say about Dunk being far more morally good than this franchise’s usual collection of characters. Not entirely sure if I can confirm or deny anything about Dunk’s personality as it pertains to how he is in the source material. Don’t really know either way. See you had the good response of seeing Lyonel again. I’d have yelled at him for abandoning the tug-of-war, but he is an amusing character. Plenty of good laughs in this one. We shared the one laugh over the guy having the “get the fuck out of the way” line. And we are now introduced to some of the Targaryen royalty of the era. In this case, Bertie Carvel as Baelor, and Sam Spruell as Maekar. The latter I had heard of the casting in advance and I grew very excited. Assessment of Maekar upon his introduction: I like him already. Sam continues to do very good work. You say that you’re getting attached to the horses, and I’m in the process of getting attached to Maekar. I don’t know yet if he’s my favorite of the show, but I like him. I feel his pain of being the younger brother and by extension, the baby of the family. Held the latter title for fifteen years as a matter of fact. The brotherly energy between him and Baelor, that likewise feels familiar. Baelor seems well liked by the kingdom and the fandom both. He vouches for Dunk, and he’s now in the tourney. We have similar responses to the puppeteer lady and the kindly blacksmith. Gets ya seeing Dunk sell the horse. He gets the good wake up call when he sees what the other knights can do. You agreed with Egg about the bit with the fish being disgusting. That was my assessment as well. Speaking of Egg, we have the speculation time. Knowing how sharp you are, Jess, it was inevitable you would spot certain scenes such as how you observed Egg’s reaction when the Targaryens arrived, and you asked if that was something. Well, Egg did seem more than just a little antsy when the Targaryens arrived, and the kid feels like he doesn’t rattle easily. Likewise, you too asked how Egg would know about the one family, and he gave a vague answer. Didn’t give too much thought to how how he had the reaction to the bug in his drink since, as you say, that’d bother anybody, yet you do make the good point that he had the more specific reaction. All this leads you to ask if he is a Targaryen. It is certainly a plausible theory that would happen to suit the facts. Those that know one way or another, hopefully they will keep their mouths shut on youtube. For now, it’s rather fun playing the speculation game with you, and just very fun to share this show with you, Jess. Thank you for the fun reaction.
Thomas Corp
2026-01-26 22:45:36 +0000 UTC
