Corey Ryan Forrester’s Rants and Such!

THIS IS WHAT WE PLAY FOR!!!!!

Y’all, it has been a helluva ride! In my personal opinion this has been the best season of HOTD so far. Characters evolved both for the good and for the bad, and lord almighty was their ever death and destruction!

Whether you were a green or a black or just Ulfin’ it up with a beer on the sidelines, House of The Dragons Season 3 had a little something for everyone. I had an absolute BLAST recording this series with my best friend/sister Lady Kirby Askew this year, and it pains me so much that with production schedules being what they are on multi-million dollar shows, it’s likely that we wont be doing it again for several more years.

I hope that you too have enjoyed watching/listening to our recaps as much as we’ve enjoyed making them. You know I’m passionate about something when I don’t mind taking notes (if any of my high school teachers are reading this, i’m sorry!) We’ve had people comment and say that either a.) they started watching the show just so they could watch our recaps or b.) they DON’T EVEN WATCH LITTLE HOUSE OF THE DRAGON but still watch our recaps! I cannot tell you how much that means to both of us… really makes us feel loved!

Here we go one last time, and what a hell of a send off they gave us!

Please feel free to discuss the finale in the comments and maybe give us your thoughts on where you think season 4 is headed!

Oh, also… maybe tell Lady Kirby what her ass needs to do on Tik Tok to entertain y’all 😂

Enjoy

More later

Corey

Y’all, did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you? A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

Don’t like recurring payments but still wanna support? I take one time donations, PBS style, of any amount big or small on PayPal at [email protected]

And on Venmo @ButterCreamCorey

QR codes for both are below! Thank you for your support!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

We are nearing the end of season 3 of House Of The Dragon and the writers and co have laid the groundwork for a potential banger of a finale!

Watch (or listen) as Lady Kirby and Professor CHO lay out what went down in the next to last episode!

Y’all, did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you? A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Hey guys! Some real deep philosophizing for you today! I ranted for 30 minutes about clothes and I have no regrets! I hope y’all have a lovely Friday.

Y’all, did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you? A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Hey, y’all! New silly idea I had to help keep me on track in my quest to read more good stuff! Today I’m reading a poem from one of Ireland’s (and the world’s) greatest poets. I hope you enjoy, and have a great day doing whatever you’re doing!

More later

Corey

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Hey folks! I don’t know if i’m technically allowed to do this on account of we are on a podcasting network BUT I got done editing early for a change, and f**k it, I do most of the work around here so here it is 😂

This week me and Trae (Drew is fine, he just doesnt have any power.. like.. electricity) talk about a wide range of topics, including but not limited to those mentioned in the extremely lengthy title!

Hope you all enjoy, and look out for a new diary tomorrow and much more this week here on the ole Substack! See y’all in the chat!

More later

Corey

Y’all, did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you? A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Today I talk about a really good new meal my wife and I made last night, Nathan Evan Fox’s new record that I’m really enjoying, growing up having the idea that you must be tortured to be an artist beaten into my brain, my recent bouts with depression, how the internet makes it worse, and how the world sucks.

How are y’all doing?

Love ya!

More later

Corey

Y’all, did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you? A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Saturday night, Substackers of Corey Ryan Forrester’s Substack! (bit long, who cares!) How are ya? This week’s episode of Little House Of The Dragon is actually coming to ya on time, how bout that! And oh what a banger of an episode it was! The HBO one with Dragons in it that is, though Lady Kirby and I sure did have a blast talking about it!

We sure hope you enjoy our recap as much as you enjoyed the episode, and hope you are loving this season so far! let us know in the comments if you have any theories or takes and what not, we’d love to share them on air! or of course you can always email us at [email protected]

Oh, and at the request of Lady Kirby, if you have a Tik Tok, please follow her at kirbyaskew523

Love y’all!

More later

Y’all, did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you? A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

Don’t like recurring payments but still wanna support? I take one time donations, PBS style, of any amount big or small on PayPal at [email protected]

And on Venmo @ButterCreamCorey

QR codes for both are below! Thank you for your support!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Hey all! Many of you have read this, but I don’t think I did an audio or video version! (Voice just coming back full and strong!)

I hope you enjoy it.

More later

Corey

Y’all did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you! A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

Don’t like recurring payments but still wanna support? I take one time donations, PBS style, of any amount big or small on PayPal at [email protected]

And on Venmo @ButterCreamCorey

QR codes for both are below! Thank you for your support!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Hey all! We had technical difficulties (and by technical difficulties I mean problems with our children 😂) last week, so this week we are giving you a MEGASODE of Little House of The Dragon!

We start out with an apology to you all for failing you, which turned into a fun little 20 min segment. Then after that you get to hear (key word there is “hear” as we did not record video) the Instant Reaction we recorded for episode 4 but had to cut short due to our sweet Laura James’ eyes hurting her😭

After that, we do our normal deepdive of episode 4 which is followed immediately by episode 5!

Because I upload the same video here as I do on Youtube, at the very end is a promo for my Substack… me reading Chapter 3 of Here We Rest… most of you have already heard it, but if you havent, hey hey! two birds, one stone!

Lady Kirby and I had a BLAST hanging out all day and podcasting and it shows cause we get in the weeds quite a bit lol (in a way that will entertain you, I have no doubt!)

Details for the episode are below… love y’all and have a great rest of your weekend!

Y’all did you know that while you can always listen /watch what I do for free, if I could double my paid subscribers by this time next year, I could justify being a stay at home dad who does nothing but writes and podcasts for you! A long time dream of mine! Help me make it come true if you have the extra coin and my work brings value to your life!

Don’t like recurring payments but still wanna support? I take one time donations, PBS style, of any amount big or small on PayPal at [email protected]

And on Venmo @ButterCreamCorey

QR codes for both are below! Thank you for your support!

Episode Breakdown From Our Podcast Friends at Riverside!:

Key Topics:

Detailed breakdown of episode four, “Tumbleton,” including major story developments and character interactions

Exploration of Westerosi constitutional concepts, notably the “Westerosi Constitution” and its implications on monarchy and governance

Damon and Rhaenyra’s daring plans, including the secret attack on the gold cloaks and the chaos in King’s Landing

The political machinations of Ormond Hightower and his manipulations within the realm

Helena’s prophetic dreams and her influence over the plot

Humorous interjections on celebrity sightings in New York, Hollywood, and fictional Disney universe scenarios (e.g., Mickey Mouse Labor Strike)

Behind-the-scenes commentary on filming, acting, and challenges of note-taking and podcasting logistics

Timestamps:

(00:00) Episode intro and episode title - “Unbowed and Unbent”

(02:14) Recap of the episode’s opening scenes, including Kristen Cole leading the greens

(08:19) Damon’s confrontation with the gold cloaks and the painted message “A feast for traitors”

(12:55) Queen Rhaenyra’s political strategy and her interactions with Alison

(22:24) Damon’s chaos in King’s Landing, including the slaughter of gold cloaks

(25:34) Helena’s prophetic dreams and her influence on Amon

(33:21) We discuss the “Westerosi Constitution,” its rules, and its significance

(44:46) The brewing conflict between the Green and Black factions, including Ormond’s ruthless decisions

(55:09) The journey of Tumbleton, passing through Westeros’ travel logic

(65:55) Character dynamics, especially Ormond’s rising as a villain

(73:23) The humorous and creative deep dives into fictional Disney dystopias and celebrity sightings

Resources:

House of the Dragon Official HBO Site

George R. R. Martin on Westerosi Governance

Fandom’s Westerosi Constitution Details (Fandom.com or The App)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe

Hey, y’all! My Voice still isnt where i’d like it to be, but this is LONG overdue, so enjoy!

Speaking of long over due, im putting the finishing touches on part 4…. weve just been real busy with all our other jobs and children unfortunatley cause lord this story has stuck in my head!

for a reminder, here’s the print version!

The phone went dead, and the silence almost blew my eardrums out. I’m tripping. I have to be. I’ve always heard that acid flashbacks were a real thing, and if that’s true, I’m long overdue. Time has always fascinated me. I’m not an educated man, but I know everything there is to know about Einstein’s theory of relativity. Well, maybe not everything, but certainly more than most people who learned about it while geeked out, thumbing through old textbooks from the thrift store. Relative to them, I’m a genius.

When I’m low on money, I go to the thrift store or the used bookstore. It’s the only place nowadays where a man can walk in with $20 and feel like he’s the king of somewhere. Somewhere shitty, but somewhere nonetheless. You can get a copy of everything Marcus Aurelius ever said and a Harvard textbook on physics, two for a dollar. You don’t even have to like anything but a good deal to make that purchase. And considering most folks who shop at Chickaluki’s book store and their cultural appetites, I don’t live in fear of anything I like ever being sold out.

Normal human logic states that we experience time linearly. It doesn’t go backwards, and it doesn’t go side to side. As country musician Tracy Lawrence said, “Time Marches On.” I might be talking out of my ass, so don’t fact-check me, but time is relative to speed. I think that means in some galaxies, theoretically, you could spend a month on one planet and it would be like 55 years back at home. You wouldn’t have aged a day, but that puppy you bought the day before you flew out, unfortunately, will not greet you when you arrive home.

This is also how time moves when you are overcome with the sudden feeling that shape-shifting aliens live among us and one of them is your former father-in-law. Time was both standing still and rushing forwards and backwards at speeds I couldn’t comprehend. I was standing up but could not feel my legs. I was holding a phone but could not feel my arm. My mouth was open, but it had nothing to say, which really pissed my brain off because there was so much it wanted to.

Found out quick that you do not need the fear of death for your entire life to flash before your eyes. I saw it all. My first T-ball game. The Challenger exploding. My little brother hiding behind the water heater, covered in my mother’s blood from the time my dad lost a bet and split her forehead open with his class ring. I saw Sheila walking down the aisle wearing that strapless white dress and looking like she was so proud to know me, perhaps the last time she ever gave me that look. I saw her daddy’s pontoon boat on the first day he took me fishing. I tried jerking what was most likely an old, used tire that somebody had thrown in the lake so hard, reeling it in, that the lure snapped loose and slingshotted toward us like David to our Goliath. It got hooked in Sheriff Stevens’ hand. Blood was everywhere, but he just laughed because he was a tough man, and because he loved his daughter and his daughter loved me. He still has that scar, but it’s no longer something I smile about.

I’m going crazy is what it is! Every single man in my family, even on back before the Civil War, ended up as a crazy, tin-foil-hat-wearing son of a b***h, and now my time has come. I’m not a flat-earther or anything like my Uncle Gordon, but I was hip to all that mass government surveillance way before the f****n Patriot Act. And we’re talking way before 9/11. During this time we didn’t have internet. Well, regular folks didn’t at least. I’m sure the high rollers like Billy Ray Cyrus and Phil Donahue had them some Internet. I bet Morton Downey Jr. was one of the first people to send a racist email. The closest thing we had to anything that connected us all on the go was Randall Daughtery’s Motorola Bag Phone that I had just used to have the strangest conversation on Earth.

As far as conspiracy theories go, I certainly don’t believe in them all, hell, I’d say I don’t believe in most. But any conspiracy where you can follow the money in a straight line to a potential motive, I’ll at least entertain. Chemtrails don’t make sense to me. The flat-earth s**t is so f****n’ stupid, I’m forced to assume that the people who believe in it are all just performance artists pulling our leg. If the Earth truly were flat, why would it behoove the government to hide that fact? You have to follow the money for something to make sense, but who’s the one standing to lose money if the Earth is flat, Big Globe? I’m pretty sure people in the globe business have their portfolios quite diversified.

Sorry if I seem like I’m sidetracking, but that’s what it’s like in my fucked-up brain. I’m shocked I’ve stayed on topic this long in the story. It’s a lot to try and make sense of, and I’ve always been someone who gets to Scotland by way of China.

Randall must’ve thought me crazy just standing there all slack-jawed staring into space, but processing this was like doing a goddamn decathlon in my head. I desperately wanted not to believe my first instinct. I was running through every possibility at light speed. I mean, hell, Doppelgängers are a thing. S**t, I get mistaken for people all the time. Usually someone’s dipshit cousin or their brother-in-law that ain’t worth a damn. I’ve got resting piece-of-s**t-face. I reckon. I’ve always figured there are only so many shapes of heads and ears and whatnot that the good Lord made. You’ve got your A-models on down to a Z or so. Everything in neat little slide-out boxes in whatever celestial warehouse they use to manufacture us. Every now and again, two people who ain’t even related are fitted with enough similar parts from the stock and, as can be expected, they favor one another. Simple as.

All that is true, yet against all logic, I just knew that wasn’t the case here. That was Sheriff Stevens, dead and stinkin’, in that water, and I’d wager my life on it. Not that my life would be worth anything to a soul bookie, if such exists.

Randall called my name once more. I looked up at him and made eye contact to show that, however reluctant I may be, I was ready to talk. “Something on your mind, Sonny Boy?” he said. I blinked for the first time in a few minutes because my eyes were dry from staring at the sun like a 3rd grader. “Nope. Not a thing,” I replied. “I’m going to The Meat and 3, you want anything?”

Randall looked confused and he had every reason to be. Though Big Jeff’s Pork & Puddin’ (The restaurant is simply named The Pork and Puddin’ but everyone adds the ‘Big Jeff’s’ cause it’s more fun to say and because, surprisingly, Big Jeff owns it) had been my favorite restaurant for years, it was also where Sheila worked. She’d worked there since she was 16, and even now that she’s a teacher she still works a few night shifts a week and the entirety of summer break, which we were in at the time. It’s where I fell in love with her. It’s where I tried Rhubarb pie despite thinking I’d hate it. Because the way she said ‘Rhubarb’ was poetry. It’s where I’d eat every day for lunch even when I didn’t really have ‘goin out’ money. Cause even if I could only afford a grilled cheese and a sweet tea, I at least knew I could catch a glimpse of her. Much like that old lady with Christ, I could be satisfied just touching the hem of her garment. I finally knew I had a shot with her when she slipped a banana pudding in a bag to me. Free of charge. She told me to keep mum by placing her finger over lips more beautiful than anything Hollywood has ever put out. I have never loved anyone else since and I never will.

So yes, it would be painful to go there since the separation, but I had to see. I had to see Sheriff Stevens and…

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coreyryanforrester.substack.com/subscribe