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Kanye West’s current crusade to try and talk his way through wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt isn’t getting any better. The hole the rapper has dug for himself — in light of a half-baked promise that he “absolutely” plans to run for president again a few weeks ago — is getting bigger, and he doesn’t seem to care who he leaves behind in his path. Now Van Lathan, ex-TMZ staffer and now host of the The Ringer’s Higher Learning podcast, has accused West of saying far more hurtful and outlandish things in his infamous 2018 TMZ office rant — yes, worse than saying 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice,” if that’s even possible.

In the episode, Lathan accuses Kanye of saying anti-Semitic things that go far beyond his latest Twitter rant about “Going to death con 3 on Jewish people.” Lathan said that he’s already “heard him say stuff like that before…I knew that that was in him because when came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview.” The 2018 video of Kanye West on TMZ shows Lathan calling out West for his views on slavery being “a choice.” Lathan can be seen standing up and scolding Kanye, saying, “I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought…I’m unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that’s not real. You gotta be responsible.”

Lathan now says in the podcast episode that there was more to Kanye’s rant than just what was captured on the tape in 2018. “What I say after that — if I can remember, it’s been a long time — was, ’12 million people actually died because of Nazism and Hitler and all of that stuff,’ and then I move on to talk about what he said about slavery,” Lathan said. “The reason they took it out is because it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis, which he said when he was at TMZ He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect.”

It’s getting tiresome saying that things “keep getting worse,” for Kanye. But somehow here we are again.

In August, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay $45 million to families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School gun massacre, after years of him spreading bizarre lies about it, including that it was a “false flag.” If that didn’t seem like it was enough, then you could take comfort that it wasn’t the only lawsuit Jones facing about the same matter. Indeed, on Wednesday, some two months later, Jones has been forced to pay quite considerably more than that. But instead of devastated, he was…elated?

As caught by Raw Story, Jones aired the reading of the verdict from a Connecticut jury on his show Infowars. There were many charges, and each one came with a hefty price tag. The total was $965 million — nearly a billion dollars, all for spreading misinformation that damaged the lives of grieving parents and family members, all while making him all the wealthier.

Jones let viewers see his live reaction to each penalty, but instead of burying his face in his palms, or maybe even coming to grips with the consequences of his actions, he did the opposite. After each penalty, he let out a mock-cheer. He pumped his fists. He screamed “YEAH!”

This led to some surreal incongruities. For instance, it’s a bit troubling that after the words “emotional distress damages, past and future: $30 million,” he let rip one of his “YEAAHHHH”s.

Jones has called the Sandy Hook-related trials against him a “kangaroo court,” even mocking the judge at the trial in Texas over the summer. For this latest, much more severe verdict, he bemoaned, “This must be what Hell’s like, they just read out the damages. Even though you don’t got the money.”

He plans to appeal the verdict, but he also suggested on his show that he’s not paying anyway. “‘Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?’” He also warned that being sued into kingdom come won’t stop him from spreading conspiracy theories. “They want to scare us away from questioning Uvalde or Parkland,” he said, adding, “We’re not going away. We’re not going to stop.”

Meanwhile, there’s a third trial en route later this year, also to be held in Texas, which may end with him owing even more than over a billion dollars. Perhaps he’ll be a bit less faux-jubilant then.

(Via Raw Story)

Florence And The Machine are on the tail end of their tour in support of the band’s latest album, Dance Fever. Meanwhile, actor Nick Kroll has been promoting the new season of his animated series Big Mouth, not to mention his role alongside Harry Styles in Olivia Wilde’s much-hyped movie, Don’t Worry Darling. So waddaya know? Both Kroll and Florence and the Machine singer Florence Welch found themselves chatting it up with James Corden on last night’s episode of The Late Late Show.

At one point, Corden turns to Kroll, who admits he’s a “a big fan” of Florence And The Machine, before embarking on a “weird story” about his err….fandom. Kroll explained that during lockdown, he was about to start shooting scenes for Mel Brooks’ new History Of The World, Part 2, TV series and Kroll’s wife suggested he take a dance class with her in order to get pumped up for the shoot. Turns out this was no ordinary dance class, and was in fact taught by Florence And The Machine’s music video choreographer, Ryan Heffington.

“It was me, two other guys and 45 women,” Kroll said about the class. Heffington taught them the dance that Welch and company do on Florence And The Machine’s video for “King” (which Welch performed later on Corden,) and upon hearing this, Corden suggestively asked Kroll, “Do you remember any of these moves?” Right on queue, Kroll got up from the couch and as “King” began to play overhead, he demonstrated the dance for Welch, who was visibly impressed at Kroll’s smooth — and quite frankly, hilarious — moves. “That was it! That was amazing!” the singer said.

Watch Nick Kroll perform the “King” dance for Florence Welch above. And watch Florence And The Machine play the song later on on Corden below.

Over the weekend, some comments made by T.J. Miller about Ryan Reynolds went viral. The actor went on The Adam Carolla Show and claimed that his old Deadpool colleague was “horrifically mean” to him — in character, mind you, not as a person, although it seemed real enough to him to have left him spooked. Miller claimed he would never work with Reynolds again, which prompted some people to wonder if that was an even an option, given that he’s been persona non grata in Hollywood for some years now. Anyway, turns out it was all a misunderstanding and the two are cool now.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Miller went on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton & Sam Roberts, where he provided an update on Reynolds-gate. “It was a misunderstanding,” Miller revealed. “So I emailed him back, and now it’s fine.”

Miller says Reynolds reached out to him after his comments went viral. “It was very cool for him to say, ‘Hey, you know, I just heard on the show that you were upset about this.’ And I kind of said, ‘You know, I’m not,’ and then we sort of just hashed it out really quickly,” Miller explained.

That being said, Miller is upset with the media for not also reporting on some of the “complimentary” things he also said about Reynolds. But he went a little further than that.

“I didn’t think I had said anything that was that negative,” the actor said, days after accusing Reynolds of being mean to him, which we now know he wasn’t. But at least it’s all settled now. “I feel bad that it was picked up and that it was misconstrued. But no, it was the next day — he and I talked, and it’s fine.”

During the Carolla appearance, Miller told a story about how Reynolds seemed to be embarrassing him in front of the crew while shooting a Deadpool scene. “As the character, he was horrifically mean to me as if I’m Weasel. So he was like, ‘You know what’s great about you, Weasel? You’re not the star, but you do just enough exposition so that it’s funny, and then we can leave and get back to the real movie.’” Miller also claimed the comments also freaked out the crew. He then called him “kind of an insecure dude.” But anyway, they’re cool now so this is all water under the bridge and we can move on with our lives.

Miller’s ascending star fell around 2017, when he was accused of sexual assault. The following year he made headlines for calling in a fake bomb threat on an Amtrak train. Anyway.

(Via THR)

Sometimes people do some really, really cool things and they just have to be shared. Musician Jacob Collier has been keeping a secret from his fans but is unveiling the surprise October 12. Over the past year, Collier has been performing around America and asking his fans to send in a clip of them singing one word. No one knew why there were being asked to sing a single word, but they had the QR code and dropped Collier the videos anyway. The results are amazing! Collier got more than 10,000 people to submit recordings of themselves, which he added to recordings made on his concert tour, and the result is a giant base of Collier fans joining together to sing “Can’t Help Falling in Love” a cappella.

During the most recent leg of his Djesse world tour, the five-time Grammy winner would come back on stage for his encore and direct the audience in multipart harmonies. Also, at some point during the night in each city, Collier would have the audience sing one single word from Elvis Presley’s hit single and instruct them to record themselves. This is how so many people from multiple cities and states joined a super-secret a cappella choir that they had no idea they were a part of. The plan worked and it’s brilliant.

The video is equally as cool to watch. At the bottom of the screen you see Collier conducting the “choir” and at the top of the screen you see hundreds of faces in squares singing parts of the song. The group of people switch out with each city that pops onto the screen, focusing on the person singing into the camera.

When asked about his secret project, Collier said, “To bring 100,000 voices together in harmony has been a dream of mine for so long! What began as an experiment evolved into a fully-fledged extravaganza – to record every word in a different city and piece them all together, using encore-based audience choir videos as the harmonic backdrop. The wild thing to me is that it sounds like the same group of people singing the whole song – one big choir. I will treasure this video for the rest of my life.”

If you’re ready to be wowed, check out the video below.

Black Friday was traditionally celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving. But about a decade ago, competition forced major retailers to get a jump on the big day by having blockbuster sales a day earlier on Thanksgiving.

Once the Black Friday cut-off was breached, people feared the holiday season would start earlier and earlier. However, there’s been a change over the past few years with some big-box stores announcing they’ll be closed on Thanksgiving, allowing their employees to spend time with their families.

The most recent announcement was by Kohl’s, a Wisconsin-based company with just under 100,000 employees and more than 1,100 stores in 49 states.

“Last year, Kohl’s served millions of customers both in store and online throughout Black Friday week, and we look forward to delivering that same incredible experience to our customers again this year,” the company said in a statement. “Customers looking to shop Kohl’s on Thanksgiving Day will be able to shop on Kohls.com and in the Kohl’s App.”

u201cKohl’s announced it would be closed on Thanksgiving Day. LINK: https://t.co/xZUTlRYmePu201d

— WSMV 4 Nashville (@WSMV 4 Nashville)
1665590412

This will be the third year in a row that Kohl’s locations are closed on Thanksgiving. The first closure came in 2020, due to the pandemic, as many stores closed on Thanksgiving 2020 to give their employees who were classified as essential workers a much-needed break. It also reduced the chances of there being a COVID-19 outbreak from the crowds.

Now, it seems that closing stores on Thanksgiving has become an unintended positive outcome of the pandemic, much like working from home or ordering food online for contactless pick-up.

Target has been the most full-throated in its embrace of taking Turkey Day off. Last year, its CEO Brian Cornell announced that it would be closed on Thanksgiving for the foreseeable future.

“Today, I’m making it official: we’re going to keep our stores closed on future Thanksgivings too,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said in a note to employees reported by People. “What started as a temporary measure driven by the pandemic is now our new standard — one that recognizes our ability to deliver on our guests’ holiday wishes both within and well beyond store hours.

“You don’t have to wonder whether this is the last Thanksgiving you’ll spend with family and friends for a while, because Thanksgiving store hours are one thing we won’t ‘get back to’ when the pandemic finally subsides,” he added.

u201cKohlu2019s stores will be closed on Thanksgiving >> https://t.co/v20mcOBAeuu201d

— KOLDNews (@KOLDNews)
1665518650

The number of big-box stores that will be closed on Thanksgiving 2022 is pretty impressive. Walmart, Lowe’s, Best Buy, JCPenney, Costco and GameStop will all be closed on the holiday.

Thanksgiving is all about appreciating what you have. Having a massive sale for hordes of shoppers feels like the exact opposite. It’s cool that big-box retailers are realizing the importance of the holiday and giving retail workers a break before the consumer frenzy on Black Friday.

The store closures also put a nice buffer between Christmas and the rest of the holiday calendar, which prevents people from celebrating the holiday progressively earlier. Everyone loves the holiday season but when the holidays never end, they lose their magic.

Utah probably doesn’t come to most people’s minds when they think of places that are champions of marriage equality. Especially in Utah County, where Provo is located, which has the highest concentration of Latter-day Saints (72%) of any place in the U.S.

Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, can be excommunicated from the church for acting on LGBTQ feelings and have put large amounts of money into campaigns to make same-sex marriage illegal.

However, two loopholes in Utah County law reported by The Guardian have allowed same-sex couples from across the globe to marry in the state. First, Utah does not have residency or citizenship requirements for marriage licenses. Second, Utah County allows for international marriages online.

u201cSame-sex marriages arenu2019t recognized in China. But for some Chinese couples, a Utah marriage certificate could make a big difference. https://t.co/XJxVFSaKDtu201d

— The Wall Street Journal (@The Wall Street Journal)
1665499507

The county rolled out online marriages via Zoom during the pandemic, which made it easy for people overseas to get married. All they have to do is fill out some paperwork, pay $100 and hire a licensed officiant. The paperwork is “to verify who they are,” radio host and licensed marriage officiant in Utah Michael Foley told The Guardian, “to make sure they’re of age, that it’s not part of some kind of scam, that it’s not some kind of human trafficking.”

When word of this loophole spread on Chinese LGBTQ websites, same-sex couples from all over the country began virtually flocking to Utah to get hitched. Rest of World reports that more than 200 same-sex couples from China have tied the knot through the county’s digital licensing system since 2021.

In China, same-sex marriages are illegal and marriages conducted overseas aren’t recognized but couples are happy to have their relationships recognized by a legal authority somewhere in the world.

u201cLGBTQ+ couples in China use loophole to marry on Zoom, inu00a0Utah https://t.co/BLzotdk5wFu201d

— abdil (@abdil)
1665385409

However, the Utah provisions are beneficial to residents of the Chinese city of Hong Kong, which has a little more autonomy given its designation as a Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong residents who get married in other parts of the world can apply for dependent visas for their partners. These couples are also allowed to file their taxes as married in Hong Kong.

Even though same-sex Chinese couples aren’t married in the state where they live, having their relationships legally recognized in Utah has strengthened them. It’s a strange situation when couples can escape the tyranny of the state in a place where religious fundamentalism can be just as repressive.

“Even without legal status in China for now, many gay couples … have told me that marriage has made their relationships feel more secure,” Zhijun Hu wrote in ChinaFile. “And, as one friend told me when he and his husband go to a place where marriage equality is the law of the land, their marriage means that they ‘will be treated like a family and not like strangers.’”

Newlyweds Liu Yangming and Zhu Guangyu believe that their marriage ceremony and Utah license have helped to solidify their relationship. “It made our love stronger,” Liu told Rest of World. “My husband was talking more about our responsibilities. Before, we thought we might break up someday, but now we can’t just break up.”

Foley loves being able to help people from around the world realize their dream of being married, even if it means he has to get up at odd hours of the night to accommodate his Chinese customers.

“It just makes me happy,” Foley said. “That’s the stuff that makes me get up at three o’clock in the morning to do it.”

Being a comedian (unfortunately) means having to deal with a heckler or two. It’s essentially a required skill set of the craft, right there along with delivering zinger call-backs and tongue-in-cheek observations about society. Some stand-up performers have practically made a career out of their clever on-the-spot comebacks to jabs from audience members.

Of course, insults are the least worrying thing to be hurled at a performer. It’s mind-boggling to think that literally throwing solid objects at a person would be deemed OK in someone’s mind, but clearly it’s a sad fact of life. And it’s no secret that comedians aren’t the only ones to deal with this—singers are also often on the receiving end of this truly inappropriate behavior.

While it isn’t fair to have to engage with this less-than-stellar display of humanity, when someone expertly reclaims control of an unexpected situation, it makes for a great story.

During her recent Saturday night set at Vinnie’s Comedy Club in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, comedian Ariel Elias had a response to a heckler that was so badass, she became an instant online legend. It’s pretty much a masterclass on how to turn unfounded hatred into delicious comic gold.

The now viral video clip shows Elias doing her best to thwart a heckler’s political leaning jeers. Just as it seems like maybe, just maybe, the show can move on, a beer can sails through the air and smashes up against the wall behind her.

Without missing a beat, Elias picks up the wayward can, and begins to chug it.

Like. A. Boss.

Here’s the clip pic.twitter.com/soeG3dixP4

— Ariel Elias (@Ariel_Comedy) October 9, 2022

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Elias and fellow performer Gianmarco Soresi shared that there was a foreboding sense about the crowd that night. “I was like, ‘I hope they get thrown out during your set instead of mine,’” Soresi joked. “Sure enough, it was worse than either of us could have possibly imagined.”

The hecklers might have run rampant that night, but Elias was on her A-game and able to act fast.

“At first I was in shock. Did that really just happen?” she told BuzzFeed. “And then I saw the beer can and I was like, ‘I mean, I have to drink this. Like, there’s nothing else I can do with this. This is the only way to recover. I have to drink it’…So I drank it!”

Her split-second decision got not only love from the crowd, but once the clip went viral she even got the attention from stand-up celebrities. Beloved names in comedy like Patton Oswalt, Whitney Cummings, Jim Gaffigan and Jimmy Kimmel (that’s right, two Jims!) showed their support online.

Ariel wasn’t even doing political material. The drunk heckler was craving what every MAGAt craves — grievance and revenge. And they’ll alter the reality before their eyes to get it. “You SOUND like you voted for Biden.” https://t.co/rDCF9Cmoc1

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 9, 2022

For all y’all who want to make fun of comics for saying we didn’t sign up to be physically attacked and put on a pedestal, take a peekie poo. @Ariel_Comedy you’re a class act. https://t.co/dJSahKnJDL

— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) October 9, 2022

Umm…SO MANY things to say about this but the big take away is that @ariel_Comedy is super funny and total class. https://t.co/twi2CBKr5K

— Jim Gaffigan (@JimGaffigan) October 9, 2022

five stars for this flawless performance @Ariel_Comedy https://t.co/gPmNlmX9d5

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) October 9, 2022

As for Elias, the situation left her sense of humor even stronger than before.

“This experience has really taught me to trust my gut, and to fill that gut with beer,” she quipped on Twitter, adding that “I’d really appreciate it if anyone could please just let my teachers know that chugging a beer has in fact been great for my career.”

It sucks that she had to deal with that, but at least Elias is getting some well-deserved positive attention for her hilarious take on “the show must go on.”

UK rap star Stormzy has announced the title and release date of his third studio album. Clocking in at 12 tracks, This Is What I Mean is due November 25 on Def Jam/Interscope. Stormzy wrote the album during a trip to Osea Island, an island near Essex, England that is only accessible for a few hours a day by car, as the rest of the time, it’s cut off by the tide.

Stormzy’s previous albums, 2017 debut Gang Signs & Prayers and 2019 follow-up Heavy Is the Head, were both critically acclaimed and earned him recognition stateside as one of the most recognizable grime artists here, even as he rose to the top of the charts at home. In the meantime, Stormzy was granted an honorary doctorate from Exeter, met legendary voice actor Nancy Cartwright (aka the voice of Bart Simpson), and even got a chance to try his hand at some football commentary.

But now, he’s back to doing what he does best. In a statement about the album, he said, “When you hear about music camps, they always sound intense and somber. People saying, “We need to make an album.” “We need to make some hit records.” But this felt beautifully free. We’re all musicians, but we weren’t always doing music. Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the byproduct to that was very beautiful music. Because when you marry that ethos with world-class musicians and the best producers, writers, and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.”

You can check out the full tracklist below. This Is What I Mean is out on 11/25. Pre-save it here.

1. “Fire + Water”
2. “This Is What I Mean”
3. “FireBabe”
4. “Please”
5. “Need You”
6. “Hide & Seek”
7. “My Presidents Are Black”
8. “Sampha’s Plea”
9. “Holy Spirit”
10. “Bad Blood”
11. “I Got My Smile Back”
12. “Give It to the Water”

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

The dust is finally settling after House of the Dragon aired its latest episode, but the dance is just beginning.

Episode eight, “The Lord of the Tides,” captured the unique essence of author George RR Martin’s fantasy verse, blending political gamesmanship, familial drama, and a bloody beheading to raise the stakes heading into HOTD’s remaining season one run. But it also re-scripted a major character’s death from Martin’s source material that could make the eventual Civil War in Westeros all the more tragic.

To recap, a short time jump (only six years) sees the power dynamics (and the décor) of the Red Keep visibly altered when the show’s most recent episode opens. While Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen have been blissfully fortified on Dragonstone, collecting dragon eggs and perfecting the “blended family life,” the Hightowers have been hard at work, positioning themselves and their offspring close to the throne. Or, more accurately, occupying the throne themselves. With Viserys now confined to his deathbed, Alicent and Otto rule in his stead, sowing discord and division amongst House Targaryen’s allies. Their handiwork culminates in a tense petition set in the throne room that ends with some light beheading and a Last Supper of sorts for Viserys and his progenies.

The fading monarch begs for rifts to be mended and his offspring to reunite and for a time, it seems that might happen — until Viserys uses his dying breaths to undo all of his good efforts by reciting the warnings of Aegon’s Dream to his wife, who misunderstands his poppy-addled version of the prophecy and resolves to place her son on the throne.

Cue up the jokes about Jon Snow once again ruining things, this time before he’s even born.

By necessity, HOTD was always going to have ties to Game of Thrones. We’re covering the legacy of House Targaryen, one that’s defined by dreams as much as dragons, by unfathomable power, and by baffling prophecies. That tension between which supernatural ability — dragon riding or dreaming — hurts or helps the Targaryen line the most has been a focal point for this show, but the emphasis on the “Song Of Ice And Fire” felt a bit forced at the beginning of the season.

Why were we revisiting a foretelling that proved false in the end, at least on-screen (Martin hasn’t finished his book series but it’s likely his ending won’t match what showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss cooked up)? The Prince Who Was Promised was meant to be a Targaryen descendant who united the realms and defeated the Night King. Plenty of GoT fans predicted Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen would live up to that title, but in the show’s final season, it was Arya Stark (neither a dragon nor a descendent of one) who wielded Aegon’s dagger against the leader of the White Walkers.

Martin may want to retcon that on-screen storyline since he hasn’t answered the central mystery of the prophecy in his books as of yet, but for TV purposes, it felt like the identity of this mythical being was pretty much put to bed. Why unearth Aegon’s dream time and time again?

Episode eight answered that question by taking a similar approach to GoT’s treatment of Martin’s central plot point. Like Weiss and Benioff, showrunner Ryan Condal toyed with the prophecy. Still, instead of rendering it useless altogether, HOTD took a cleverer approach, using what Viserys viewed as House Targaryen’s greatest weapon to destroy its legacy.

From the beginning, Viserys treated Aegon’s Dream with an almost-reverence, even comparing his own “visions” to that of his forebearer. Once he named Rhaenyra his heir, he shared the prophecy with her, putting a heavy burden on her shoulders and, possibly, preventing himself from ever naming his son Aegon as heir. (After all, only the Targaryen ruler is to know the meaning behind the dream.) As Rhaenyra seeks her father’s help in shoring up her claim, she questions if he truly believes the prophecy because, in naming her heir, he ended up dividing the realm (and his own family). So when, on his death bed, Alicent visits him in the middle of the night, he thinks she’s his daughter, affirming the prediction to be true and his support of her. What Alicent hears though is something entirely different, believing the Aegon Viserys is referring to is their son, not Aegon the Conqueror.

“The prince… to unite the realm against the cold and the dark. It is you,” Viserys tells her. “You are the one. You must do this. You must do this.”

Now Alicent is on her way to becoming a religious fanatic, so she’s all too easily convinced that her interpretation of Viserys’ dying wish is the right one, despite having silenced a victim of her son’s sexual abuse earlier in the episode. But the idea that House Targaryen was so close to reconciling before Viserys’ obsession with dreams once again harmed his family is pitifully ironic, especially since his death differs greatly in the book.

In Martin’s writing, Viserys dies peacefully while napping in the Red Keep. He does not share the meaning of Aegon’s Dream with Alicent, and Rhaenyra has not been in King’s Landing for some time. Alicent, power-hungry and hoping her son will rule, doesn’t inform Rhaenyra of the king’s death, locking his corpse in his room, forbidding the servants from entering, and keeping his demise a secret until she — along with Otto Hightower and Ser Criston Cole — can murder any Targaryen sympathizers before crowning Aegon king in a section of the book known as the Green Council. Her actions are much more malicious, and Rhaenyra’s absence from court is much more important. In changing things, the show softens Alicent, complicating her motives and calling into question whether she’s a player or a pawn in this game for the throne. Likewise, by having Rhaenyra make plans to quickly return to court on dragon back once her family is home, episode eight’s ending calls into question exactly how Alicent and Otto will have time to install Aegon as king without Rhaenyra immediately challenging the move.

Obviously, at some point, The Greens will be successful in usurping the throne, but by rewriting Viserys’ death, the show has made the catalyst for this conflict much more interesting. In stripping Alicent from a bit of the greed and animosity that fueled her power grab in the books, and in having these two women — who are bound so closely to each other — diverge so fundamentally in their perception of Viserys’ wishes, the show is setting up a heart-rending struggle, showing us what we could’ve had before asking us to choose sides in a now clearly unwinnable war.

HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.