Chris Ryan

We're going to the original text.

I just thought tonally what it did was it provided a thesis statement for the show.

So it's just like, this is the height of knightly values and we're going to get deep into the throne stuff, but we're not taking ourselves so seriously that we can't make fun of some of this stuff.

I think Game of Thrones, the original series, probably offset

They like subverted expectations with character deaths or with characters having sex with each other that perhaps shouldn't have or things that were related.

Yeah, perhaps.

Well, they were endgame.

Spoiler.

They basically like offset like your expectations.

They like subvert your expectations that way.

This one, it seems like maybe there's going to be more offsetting subversion by tone.

And I love that.

So you talked a little bit about the books, Jo.

Yeah.

This is a different kind of Game of Thrones series to recap and to talk about, I think, because...

We're maybe not going to have as many data points, perhaps not as many mysteries to solve or to tease out.

There are some, but we'll get to that.

But this is a little bit more of an appreciation for the depth and the kind of tapestry that gets woven, I think, rather than like...

oh, God, we have to decipher a dream that's been had or something like that, at least in this first episode.

So tell me a little bit about these books.