Happy Christmas Eve Eve, lovelies!
If you’ve been following the blog for the last 8 months (I know! I can’t believe it’s been that long either!), you will almost certainly have noticed a long-ongoing series tracking the rise and fall of the royal Targaryens. Called “The Three Heads of the Dragon: Kings, Pretenders and the Ladies of Fire”, the series grew from a simple idea – to write political analyses of all the kings of House Targaryen – into the blog’s very first multi-author series, a comprehensive look at united Westeros’ first royal dynasty from its conquest origins to its fiery end. SomethingLikeaLawyer started us off back in April with Aegon the Conqueror, and just last week Militant_Penguin closed with Aerion Brightflame, the Dragon Who Burned. We’ve written about heroes and monsters, brilliant leaders and hopeless fools, beloved queens and reviled tyrants; the Targaryen coin of genius and madness has been flipped both ways throughout these many colorful essays.
So, in continuation of our Christmas Week festivities, we present to your our latest podcast episode, The Three Heads of the Dragon Recap. In Episode 11, we delve into the politics and personalities of the dragonkings, the ladies who shaped and influenced the dynasty, and the pretenders who sought that most glorious of Westerosi royal prizes, the Iron Throne. BryndenBFish, who did not join in writing pieces for the series, played moderator, providing a number of thought-provoking questions about the characters and events explored throughout this series. From the brilliance of the Conqueror to the caprices of the Unworthy, the Great Councils to the Dance of the Dragons, the greatest Targaryen moment to the moment the dynasty was doomed, we cover the whole nearly three century span of Targaryen rule. We also rank the Targaryen kings as well, from greatest to least (each of our lists shares a few placements in common; points if you guess them beforehand!). It’s a great way to close out a truly massive essay series (in a truly massive way; this is a three hour-and-change podcast, kids).
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Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire 
The Dance of Dragons conversation was great, in my opinion I side with the greens, mainly because of the strongly implied Strong bastards and Rhaenyra’s awful decision making. Hamish’s thoughts about Daeron Blackfyre’s decision to rebel are very insightful, and I fully agree. In response to your final question, I feel that Daemon Blackfyre I’s original rebellion was the climax of the slow Targaryen fall, with Rhaenyra’s bastards being the inciting incident and the War of the Ninepenny kings being the push that leads to a more united Westeros, with obviously Lyanna’s abduction as the guillotine that cut the head off of the dragon. Also, I think it would be really cool to go more in depth (Maybe an entire separate episode?) about Summerhall, Daenerys’ hatching pyre, Dragonseeds, dragon eggs, Silverwing’s fabled egg stash, and pretty much the entire future of dragons. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Bloodraven!
Still siding with the Blacks based on competence comparison and the fact that whatever Rhaneyra did she was also still the chosen successor in the end, and the greens certainly weren’t motivated by lawful duty and were plotting to usurp her position well before her children were born.
When does anything George has written ever say they were plotting to usurp her before her children were born? There was unrest at her being named heir, for sure, but never any actual plans to rebel.
First, thanks for doing this in audio and thanks to all of you for your recent audio additions, and thanks for making this one so long.
My comment is that while asoiaf and d&e are collectively my favorite work of fiction and I can re-read them endlessly, the world book and the two non-d&e novellas leave me cold due to their non-PoV historical style. But that’s also why I love this site so much. You guys are taking the raw information from those books and turning it into something that’s more entertaining to listen to. So keep it up!
p.s. Any chance the recalcitrant Mr. Penguin could be convinced to create audio versions??
Is there a way to download these?
All good, I figured it out.
Right click the page and choose “View page source”
Then do a text search for “.mp3”
Right click and save the link.