Author: openjargon

Jude Law was already a major star with two Oscar nominations under his belt when he played Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin in Joe Wright's 2012 film "Anna Karenina."

Alicia Vikander, on the other hand, was near the beginning of her career — and four years away from her Oscar win for "The Danish Girl" — when she had her breakout role playing the supporting character Kitty in the same movie.

Over a decade later, the two have reunited for "Firebrand," director Karim Aïnouz's film about King Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr.

The movie spotlights the lesser-explored Parr, whose story hasn't been told, and retold, the way the Tudor royal's other wives have (read: Anne Boleyn). Giving a revisionist history of their relationship (and Henry's death), "Firebrand" places Parr's accomplishments within a more modern feminist context. For instance, she's considered the first Englishwoman to print an original work under her own name in English.

"Karim has done a really great job of looking at the past in a way that makes it feel incredibly relevant on so many levels — the abusive relationship, the power and strength, the wit of this woman, and the appalling behavior of this man in power," Law told Business Insider.

For Vikander, it was a no-brainer to sign onto the project when she learned Law was involved, telling BI she "had this instant feeling" she had to do it.

And even though Law went to great lengths to capture the truly "appalling" nature of the king, who manhandles Katherine and others throughout the film, the two had a surprising amount of fun making it.

In a joint interview, the two discuss what it was like making "Firebrand," from working with Law's decaying-body perfume to the movie's unexpectedly "hilarious" sex scenes.

Jude, I read you worked with someone to get that decaying-body smell just right. What were the ingredients that went into creating that kind of stench?

Jude: I have no idea. I just know it was repulsive. But it sort of summed up the state he was in, I think, emotionally and spiritually and physically at that time: decaying and disgusting.

Alicia, what was that like for you, being up close and personal with that smell?

Jude: She got used to it.

Alicia: I didn't really, it was that bad! I'd never really had that kind of incense on set before, but I work…a lot with music. I always keep my AirPods close and have them in between takes.

With music it's the same kind of thing as with smell. It kind of just instantly emotionally takes you somewhere…Joe Wright actually did that on "Anna Karenina" too. He used to play music, like techno, over the scenes in take just to give us a vibe.

Jude: And the animals on set obviously brought their own odor.

Was this the first time either of you have used smell to get into a character, to get into a mindset?

Jude: I use it quite a lot because, as Alicia said, it's a really good way of… You've got to step into these characters every day. And so sometimes if you can do something that just is, not really a shortcut, but it's about really finding a place. It's a ritual, and it can just put you in a certain frame of mind or mood. It can help or it certainly helps me.

There are a lot of frankly kind of gross sex scenes that really drive home just the unbalanced, fraught nature of Henry and Katherine's relationship. Henry had previously beheaded two of his wives and was, at this point in his life, a little unstable, to put it lightly. How was it filming those intimate scenes?

Jude: I mean, there's always a certain awkwardness, but it's also hilarious, I mean, as I'm remembering it. There's something hilarious about when you're playing someone who's in that kind of physical shape and who is also wielding so much power. There were certain moments where you can't help but be slightly embarrassed.

Alicia: But that's also the interesting part because they're people. You realize that even this man with this power, he will still have it creep up on him in those extremely intimate moments that she was there for. She knows that she sees him in this position and she needs to show him that that doesn't take away from his image and it doesn't ruin it.

Jude: It ultimately gives her the upper hand. They were key moments, really, looking back to understanding Katherine's patience and her ability to navigate this relationship to her benefit and ultimately to her advantage.

Did you guys have an intimacy coordinator on set for those sequences?

Alicia: I've had it since the world changed.

Jude: Caught up.

Alicia: I've now had it on every film I've done.

Jude: Me too, and they've only gotten better and better. She was particularly good on this one, I remember because it didn't just apply to sex scenes. I made this decision early on that I really wanted Henry to manhandle people, men and women and the animals, and treat them all the same — as if he owned them and could touch them and prod them and poke them, investigate them.

So I had to make sure everybody who came within range of me knew that that was what was going to happen. And if they didn't want that to happen, they had to be very clear about it. Once that's dealt with, you are able to perform; you're able to lose yourself in a moment.

Alicia: And I notice, above anything, it is a way to get the directors to actually talk about it. In the room, the first thing they do is go, "OK, Mr. or Ms. Director, what do you want? Can you explain it in detail?" And that's when they're like, "Oh…" And that's been sometimes the issue before — that they just kind of let you figure it out, which is not cool.

Now, I can't believe we didn't always have it because it's so weird, so strange.

Alicia, you mentioned that intimacy coordinators would've helped earlier in your career. Was there ever an instance for either of you in an intimate scene earlier in your career where, looking back at it, you're like, "Oh, that one in particular really could have benefited from an intimacy coordinator"?"

Alicia: Yes, I definitely had that in the beginning of my career. I had an incident when I was on set, and I don't blame one particular person — everyone was super professional. But it's that thing when you're on a film shoot, and there's not much time, and there's a lot of shots that need to be done in a day and everyone's trying to figure out their stuff. And I was left without anything on, just a little piece of fabric square, and sat on that floor for about 10 hours, two days in a row with not anything on.

I was like, I'm very professional. I'm doing my job. Everyone's very professional with me but it's like — this is strange, and it kind of just creeped up on me. And it was not until the second day when I was in the car on the way back and it kind of, then I physically, I had a reaction to it.

Jude: Because you dealt with it and suppressed it and obviously something like that comes up eventually.

How old were you when that happened?

Alicia: My early 20s.

You two worked together before, in 2012's "Anna Karenina," which was near the beginning of your career as an international star, Alicia. What was it like for you to reunite a decade later on "Firebrand"? Did each of you understand how the other had changed as an actor during that time?

Jude: I'd obviously followed her work and seen the majority of it… I think you share a potential, share the promise of the potential of something.

And it was pretty clear to me very, very early on that we were both invested in this and in Karim and excited by it, and we had a very, very quick rapport and a sense of trust, and that just grew and grew and was also fun.

We've mentioned this a few times, but it sounds odd, perhaps perverse to some, but when you are delving into this kind of dark material, it helps to also kind of relish it. And there's got to be a sense of humor, weirdly, to survive it, I think, and to feel safe.

I've said this so many times, but I was just so bowled over by how brave and just up for the challenge Alicia was. It always felt every day like, OK, we've gone this far, how much further can we go? And I don't just mean in the physical way, I mean emotionally and in truth.

And for a lot of it, a two-hander, it felt that the two of us were trying to navigate this relationship at the core, and it always felt like we could do more or let's keep looking and simplifying. And that's a wonderful experience to have as an actor.

Alicia: When I worked with Jude on "Anna Karenina," I just remember him being so, kind of, considerate and open and he really took the time for someone like me — who did my first job — to make me feel safe and welcomed and dare to even step onto the stage in front of these people. That was a huge part of why I wanted to do this project because I knew that Jude was attached.

I think we just said hi a few times over the years, and I know your work and I had this instant feeling. I could feel, with the amount of preparation for this role and what you were going to achieve doing Henry, that I just wanted to, kind of, come in and be a part of it and collaborate with you. It was really something that really drew me to this.

And like you said, we did have a lot of fun along the way.

Having followed one another's careers between "Anna Karenina" and "Firebrand," do each of you have a favorite role of the other's?

Alicia: I did shoot him a text just like two weeks ago because I was on Netflix — as you do, when you put babies to bed in the evening — and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" came up first thing on the screen. And I rewatched it and I [was] just like, "Wow, you're so good in it."

Jude: It was a lovely text to get!

I'm so bad at choosing favorites. I mean the physicality and just the evolution in "Ex Machina" is absolutely amazing, but "The Danish Girl" also has this really grounded open heart, which is something you do so well. It's like a really human quality there, but it's sort of effortless. …I mean, I found that film heartbreakingly moving, and you are the sort of heartbeat of it.

And then I recently just saw "Irma Vep" as well, which is insane and brilliant. It's so bloody funny. It's one of those things where I watched it just sort of thinking, "Was this made for me?" Because it's so quirky and also a bit of my life.

Jude, in another interview, you have one line that's getting quite a lot of pickup. You joked about wishing you didn't try to play against your looks when you were younger now that you're, as you called yourself, "saggy and balding." Were there any roles you were offered in your younger days when you were trying to play against your looks that you turned down because you didn't want to just do handsome guy stuff?

Jude: In my 20s, people were trying to steer me toward more sort of…romantic comedies and play the good-looking boyfriend, or the lover — and it just wasn't to my taste.

I really wanted to try to mine drama and so I think I just gave myself a hard time mentally. Like, "OK, how can I steer this away from him being attractive or how can I steer this character away from being seen as good-looking or attractive?"

And I just remember putting so much time there into it and I look back when I was 25, and I'm like, "God, you were really cute. You were really pretty. Just enjoy it, mate." Because now it's like, "OK, how can I make myself look young again?"

But that's just also one of those lessons I guess you learn after time. The memory we all probably have…in [our] 20s, where you think, "Oh, I won't go out tonight because I look really tired, or "Oh, I better not go to that place because I've got nothing to wear." You look back and go, "Go out! Go and enjoy yourself. You're 23, you'll be fine."

Jude, two of your older kids are following in your footsteps now, is that right?

Jude: Yeah, well, certainly my son. My eldest son [Raff] is working hard. He's just done another film with Glen Powell, actually, in South Africa.

I'm immensely proud. I just have great respect for anyone who is in the arts or puts themselves out there. There's such a vulnerability to it, and it requires such passion and self-motivation and belief and bravery.

It's also jolly nice to be able to really share my enthusiasm and now experience, I suppose, in a way with him on the same level. It's a really beautiful thing, actually.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

"Firebrand" is now in theaters.

• My partner and I started a non-alcoholic drink brand called (parentheses) together.
• At first, we were worried about working together, and didn't want to 'mix business with pleasure.'
• But our relationship had a strong foundation, and it has only gotten stronger.

Almost all business books will tell you not to mix business with pleasure. We're in a place as a society where folks can decide which axioms make sense for our own lives and which just didn't age well. To me, hearing "Don't start a business with your partner" sounds as outdated as "Choose a company with a good pension, and you're set for life." While pensions are a relic in the private sector, US Census data shows that 10% of American businesses are owned by couples. My husband and I are in that 10% — and we're stronger than ever.

Countless couples, friends, and family members run successful businesses together. Complications are bound to arise from all interpersonal relationship dynamics, so why not start a business with someone who knows you inside and out? Someone who understands your tendency to bite off more than you can chew or knows which activities help you relax or possess the skills and knowledge that are so complementary to yours that you decided to make them your person until death do you part. For all the aforementioned reasons, starting a business with my husband has actually strengthened our relationship.

We tried not to work together, but realized it was a great fit

Nick and I actively tried not to work together because we obviously both knew that mixing business with pleasure could be risky. But hey, starting a business is one of the riskiest adventures anyway. Go hard or go home, right? We built such a strong foundation as a couple that the possibility of anything, especially work, breaking down our bond felt overwhelming. Then we asked ourselves an important question: Who else could sell this extremely niche seaweed vinegar non-alcoholic drink we created but us? That realization gave us the courage to start a business together.

We started a non-alcoholic drink brand called (parentheses) that was born out of our own personal recovery journeys. Nick and I met in an AA meeting when we both had a few years of sobriety under our belts. Those years before we met (and after!) were filled with peer support and mental health support, unpacking why we each relied on alcohol so heavily in the past.

In addition to my personal experience, I spent years researching, studying, and interviewing people about how their relationship patterns intersect with their alcohol use while writing a book. Nick and I, like many of my subjects, dealt with the emotional upheaval and required boundary-setting that often comes from changing one's relationship with alcohol. After going through emotional hell and back, creating a marketing plan together or debating over bottle sizes just isn't that big of a deal.

Communication is key

Individually, we've learned healthy coping skills — many of which can be distilled into one word: communication. Learning how to communicate before we met each other makes us a strong couple; identifying and accommodating our individual communication styles makes us excellent business partners.

Clear communication only works when you trust the person you're communicating with. How clear can your communication be without honesty? Nick and I learned that admitting that we needed to reevaluate our relationships with booze requires a great deal of honesty with ourselves and others — a virtue we bring into the ethos of our business. That humility also taught us an even more valuable lesson: It's OK to ask for help.

We ask for help all the time, both as a couple and as business partners. Whether asking for assistance with a project or getting advice from people more established in our industry, we don't feel "weak" for knowing we can't do it all. We know which skills we each have, which skills the other has, and which skills we need to outsource or learn.

Having self-awareness about what we each bring to the table helps us work more efficiently (and happily!). Being stubborn just doesn't work. Trust us; we've tried. We often joke that Nick would rather be covered in vinegar-mother slime while making our drink, and I'd much rather make a TikTok of him covered in said slime.

The arduous work we do in our personal recovery programs teaches us to focus on what we can control. We bring this mindful life approach to running a small business, too. We can control producing our small-batch, artisanal product and creating intentional marketing plans, so that's where the bulk of our energy goes.

We can't control that we're an indie brand swimming in a sea of VC-backed brands. We also can't control who likes or dislikes our drink. There will always be drink brands with more capital and stores that don't want to sell our product. The trick to staying (relatively) sane when working with your spouse or romantic partner is finding the nuggets of controllability when life happens on life's terms. Those nuggets also lead to forming a stronger bond as a couple.

The most important aspect of running a business with a spouse or partner is knowing when to clock out to make time for life's other pleasures. There are evenings when we both feel defeated after a day filled with low sales or getting lost in bureaucratic red tape with the Department of Agriculture that makes us want to scratch our eyes out.

But we have each other, a beautiful home, and fur babies who remind us that being silly can alleviate much of life's stressors. We have our healthy, learned coping skills. And we have a nice drink to sip, reminding us why we decided to sell this thing in the first place. Running a business, especially with your partner, is one day at a time, too.

• Donald Trump says he's decided his vice presidential pick but hasn't revealed the name.
• Trump hinted the chosen running mate will attend Thursday's debate against Biden.
• Trump said he plans to announce his pick around the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15.

Donald Trump says he's already decided who his running mate will be but that nobody else knows who it is.

At a stop along the campaign trail in Philadelphia on Saturday, NBC News asked Trump if he knows yet who he'll pick as his vice presidential candidate.

"In my mind, yeah," the former president answered.

He said that his pick will be at the presidential debate against incumbent Joe Biden on Thursday. "They'll be there," he told NBC. "I think we have a lot of people coming."

But not even the VP knows yet they've been chosen in Trump.

Trump was asked if his pick knows they've been selected, and Trump responded, "No, nobody knows," according to Fox News.

Trump has been considering four top contenders for the nomination: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Burgum and Vance have recently emerged as finalists from that list, sources told NBC News last week. Sources told the outlet that Rubio is also still a possibility, but the issue with Rubio is that either he or Trump would likely need to establish residency outside of Florida as both candidates hailing from the same state could pose a problem if the election is a close call.

Though the mystery running mate is expected to be present at the debate, their selection will most likely not be publicly announced at or ahead of the debate, according to Trump.

Trump told NBC News he plans to make the VP announcement "right around the convention," where he is expected to receive his party's formal nomination. The Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee on July 15 and runs until July 18.

"Maybe a little before, but could be at the convention," Trump said. "But we'll have some great people."

• Netflix added a new line about its "keeper test" in an updated version of its culture memo.
• The test is when a manager asks themselves if they would fight to keep an employee. If the answer is no, they're fired.
• Netflix's culture deck is famous in the corporate world for its directness in stating company values.

Netflix overhauled its famous culture memo — and that means a new line added about its "keeper test" used by managers to determine if they should fire an employee.

The keeper test was previously defined as when a manager asks "If a team member was leaving for a similar role at another company, would the manager try to keep them?"

If the answer was "No," the employee was given generous severance and cut so that a stronger replacement could be found.

Netflix has long been known to operate its business like a sports team, not a family, and the keeper test is part of that culture. This also means tenures can be brief as the company seeks out top talent and is quick to cut underperformers.

The keeper test has since evolved to, "If X wanted to leave, would I fight to keep them?" Or, "Knowing everything I know today, would I hire X again?" If the answer is no, the memo says it's fairer for everyone to part ways.

So, the same idea just worded a bit differently — but it also now includes a disclaimer.

"In the abstract, the keeper test can sound scary," Netflix says in the latest version of its culture memo. "In reality, we encourage everyone to speak to their managers about what's going well and what's not on a regular basis. This helps avoid surprises."

In the abstract, the keeper test can sound scary. In reality, we encourage everyone to speak to their managers about what's going well and what's not on a regular basis. This helps avoid surprises. Managers also evaluate team members on their whole record, rather than focusing on the mistakes or bets that didn't pay off. On the Dream Team, you need people who challenge the status quo and try new things. So we stick with employees through short-term bumps.

Netflix's keeper test was first introduced in an over 100-page memo published in 2009. Netflix used to encourage managers to do the test once per quarter, founder and former CEO Reed Hastings said. He reportedly used it to fire his product chief and longtime friend after 18 years.

The memo, which was originally regarded as fairly blunt for a public corporate document, has had several revisions since it was first released and is now only five pages.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said in an interview with The Verge's "Decoder" podcast that the memo is shorter because the company got "better at articulating" its practices.

In the interview published Monday, Peters said that the original memo may have also incorrectly communicated that Netflix "was a harsh and maybe cutthroat place," which he said it isn't. In the three versions after, Peters said the company may have swung too far on the other side of the pendulum and went too soft.

The co-CEO said that in the versions that followed the original, employees also misinterpreted the company's statement on "freedom and responsibility" — which essentially said Netflix employees were trusted to act in the company's best interest and weren't micro-managed — and acted in ways that weren't in line with its collective corporate goals. It has since deleted that section and its new section, "People Over Process," includes a statement about hiring "unusually responsible people who thrive on this openness and freedom."

The new memo also says "Not all opinions are created equal" and that, as the company has grown, it's no longer possible for everyone to weigh in on every decision.

The latest memo was made publicly available on June 24 and went through eight months of vetting and 1,500 comments from employees, according to a report from The New York Times.

You can read the newest version of Netflix's culture memo here.

• Ukraine and Russia are in an arms race to produce more drones to fuel their war efforts.
• One senior Ukrainian official described this as a kind of "cat-and-mouse game."
• "We do our best to be five steps ahead," Mykhailo Fedorov told Business Insider.

Away from the front lines in Ukraine, an unprecedented arms race is underway.

Kyiv and Moscow have both sought to significantly ramp up production of unmanned systems as each side looks to out-produce their enemy and score a numerical advantage. But it's not just numbers. One senior Ukrainian official said technology is making a difference on the battlefield and is constantly going through evolutions.

"For the first time in human history, the tech war has moved at such a pace," Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, said in translated remarks shared with Business Insider. He added "it's more like a cat-and-mouse game now, with one side advancing over the other."

Drones of all kinds have been invaluable in this war, with both sides using them to regularly to complete a variety of battlefield tasks, including carrying out attacks, conducting surveillance, monitoring enemy troop movements, laying mines, dropping bombs, delivering supplies, and evacuating casualties.

Both Ukraine and Russia have prioritized unmanned systems as a cheap but effective way to keep pace with the ever-evolving nature of this grinding conflict.

Russia has dramatically ramped up drone production, including its first-person-view drones, and trained thousands of operators, putting pressure on the Ukrainians to keep up.

"In terms of drone production, we see that Russia produces rather quickly," explained Fedorov, who has been at the forefront of Ukraine's war-time efforts to strengthen domestic innovation and procure unmanned systems.

"But at the same time, we do our best to be five steps ahead," he added.

Ukrainian officials said in December that Kyiv plans to produce one million first-person-view, or FPV, drones by the end of this year. These relatively cheap systems have had a tremendous impact, but building that many would be a monumental effort that would require the country to boost its already-elevated production levels. Ukraine also aims to produce thousands of other systems.

FPV drones, specifically, have emerged as an ever-present threat on the modern battlefield. Both Ukraine and Russia have relied on these systems, oftentimes nothing more than a small quadcopter drone loaded up with explosives, as a cheap way to deliver precision strikes on enemy personnel, positions, and armor.

In February, Fedorov said Ukraine will reach its FPV production goals by the end of the year. Some officials have said that Kyiv may actually eclipse these figures because the country is capable of producing 150,000 drones a month.

Even though Ukraine has its eyes set on 1 million FPV drones, Fedorov told BI that Kyiv still plans on producing other unmanned systems like exploding naval drones and long-range attack drones.

"Different missions require different drones," he said.

Naval drones and long-range attack drones, in particular, have emerged as innovative — and successful — solutions for Ukraine in areas where Kyiv had been lacking earlier in the war due to its essentially nonexistent navy and a shortage of missiles.

Ukraine doesn't have any warships of its own, but it has leaned on two types of naval drones to damage Russia's Black Sea Fleet, effectively forcing Moscow to relocate its vulnerable assets away from its long-held headquarters in the occupied Crimean peninsula. Initially, these naval drones were just packed with explosives, but now they also feature rocket launchers and heat-seeking missiles.

Long-range attack drones, meanwhile, emerged as a way for Ukraine to skirt restrictions on using Western weapons and conduct strikes deep inside Russian territory. Using domestically produced unmanned aircraft, Kyiv has gone after strategic military and energy facilities hundreds of miles from the front lines.

"You can track the successes of Ukraine's long-range program by the surprising news coming from Russia," Fedorov said.

• Someone finally mentioned Daeron Targaryen "House of the Dragon."
• Daeron is Alicent and Viserys' youngest son, sent as a ward to Oldtown — the seat of House Hightower.
• We won't see Daeron this season, but here's what role he plays in "Fire and Blood."

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "House of the Dragon" season two, episode two and for the book "Fire and Blood."

On this week's "House of the Dragon," Alicent and Otto Hightower finally remember that there's one more Targaryen/Hightower child floating around in Westeros.

That kid is Daeron, the youngest of Alicent and Viserys' four children and their third son. In both "Fire and Blood" and "House of the Dragon," Daeron was sent off as a ward to Oldtown, the seat of House Hightower. Now that Aegon II has removed Otto as his Hand (for those who are keeping score at home, this is the second time that's happened), Otto suggests going back to Oldtown to mentor Daeron. Alicent sends him instead to Highgarden, to bring House Tyrell in line.

Hearing about Daeron is a bit abrupt, given that we never saw him in season one. And you shouldn't expect to see him in season two: Showrunner Ryan Condal told Variety that Daeron hadn't yet been cast, and that at this point in the show, the character hadn't yet had his first dragon ride.

"He will come to the narrative and have a role to play, just as he does in the book — we're just not there yet in the storytelling," Condal said.

However, if you're curious about what may be to come, here's what happens to Daeron in "Fire and Blood." That doesn't necessarily mean these events will unfold in the same manner on "House of the Dragon," which has tweaked things (and even made some big changes) in the past.

But if you're concerned about major spoilers for either, it's best not to read ahead.

Daeron is Alicent and Viserys' youngest child

In "Fire and Blood," Alicent gives birth to Daeron around the same time Rhaenyra gives birth to her first child, Jacaerys. While "House of the Dragon" doesn't exactly follow the "Fire and Blood" timelines, Condal said that by season one, episode eight, all of the older Targaryen children are around the 17 to 21 age range. It's probably safe to assume that Daeron is, at minimum, in his late teens on the show.

In the book, Daeron is also bonded to Tessarion, who's described in the book as a "lovely blue she-dragon." Daeron, George R. R. Martin writes in "Fire and Blood," the most charming and well-liked of Alicent's sons, and was sent to serve as a cupbearer and squire to Lord Ormund Hightower in Oldtown at age 12.

Daeron's positioning in Oldtown came into play during the war, after Otto Hightower asked Ormund to quell several rebelling lords in the Reach. When Ormund was overwhelmed at the Battle of the Honeywine, Daeron saved him by entering the battle on Tessarion. After the battle, Ormund named Daeron a knight, bestowing upon him the title "Ser Daeron the Daring."

Daeron continued fighting with Lord Hightower in the Reach, eventually advancing on King's Landing after Rhaenyra claimed it during the war.

Daeron's fate was tied to the town of Tumbleton

During the war, the town of Tumbleton was one of the last strongholds between Ormund Hightower's march and King's Landing. Two of Rhaenyra's dragon riders, Hugh Hammer and Ulf White (bonded to Vermithor and Silverwing, respectively) were sent to defend it. However, after Daeron and Tessarion arrived, Hugh and Ulf switched sides and razed the town.

After the conquest, soldiers continued to menace the people of Tumbletown, though two historical accounts in "Fire and Blood" claim that Daeron attempted to stop the pillaging. The forces languished in the city rather than marching on King's Landing, and Hugh and Ulf began to make demands — in Hugh's case, to become a king himself.

Offput by Hugh and Ulf's ambition, lords serving under Prince Daeron conspired to kill them, and Daeron co-signed the plan. But before they could carry it out, Addam Velaryon (previously Addam of Hull) attacked the city on his dragon Seasmoke, eager to reclaim it and prove his loyalty to Rhaenyra's cause.

Addam's attack kicked off the Second Battle of Tumbleton while Daeron was still sleeping in his tent. Though the historical records referenced in "Fire and Blood" don't agree with the manner of his death, he was killed at some point during the subsequent battle.

Tessarion, Seasmoke, and eventually Vermithor fought, and all three dragons died as a result. Addam Velaryon also died during the battle.