Hello, and welcome to the Nauticast podcast, the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through a song of ice and fire.

I'm one of your hosts Emmett, also known as Poor Quentin.

And I'm your other host, Manu, also known as Manucleur Bomb.

And welcome to the 183 episode of the Nauticast titled The World Went Mad,

an analysis of a Storm of Swords, Samuel II, in which Sam, the Slayer, basks in the glory of

killing a white walker. That's what this chapter is all about, right? Right? It's all sunshine and rainbows from Sam here on out. Nothing

else will happen to him of note. I am holding you to that promise, Manu. You will be personally

responsible if that is not the case. Our spoiler winning, as always, prepare to be spoiled for all

the published books, the five novels, the three Duncan Egg novellas, histories, interviews,

Winds of Winter sample chapters, as well as

Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the TV shows. Anything and everything. Speaking of the

TV shows, our question this week comes from our patron JJ, who asks, given the success of House

of the Dragon so far, in terms of writing, directing, and acting, how do you think it compares to

Game of Thrones? When all is said and done, if the show continues, how do you think it compares to a Game of Thrones?

When all this is done, if the show continues on its current trajectory, does it have a chance to be better than its predecessor?

What factors do you think have contributed most to its success?

I think a big thing that makes it just a successful show in the first place is that it takes every aspect of its production seriously. Like the visuals, the aesthetic,

the direction, the costuming, the score. And then, of course, the casting, I think most of all,

I think the strength of the original Game of Thrones show was in its cast, most of all,

especially when you had characters who didn't have any interiority because of the point of view structure

or were just kind of minimally on page, you saw those kind of characters flourish, the varices,

the Tywin Lannisters.

...