you know, what's going on right now in the story, all the way back to Aegon's conquest.

They originally did not start out as a very powerful house. Even though Margaery's the Queen right now,

it's really the Queen of Thorns that everyone points to when they think of House Tyrell.

The show has just made some changes to the way that they're portrayed in the books.

They're still heavily featured in the books just in slightly different ways.

It's just that when they cast like really big actors who are amazing, they want to feature them more.

So, like Diana Rigg gets a bunch of scenes that she didn't get in the books.

If it's not clear, she's Margaery's grandmother. She's Mace Tyrell's mother, who is Margaery's father.

Just a reminder, too, a new round of the giveaway starts now.

All you have to do to enter is be a subscriber and leave a comment on this video. It's just a $20 Amazon gift card.

Of all the great houses in Westeros, though, you know, just in terms of sheer assets,

not necessarily raw monetary wealth, the Tyrells are the most powerful.

The Lannisters do have their gold mines, which are are now running dry or have run dry,

but the Tyrells, they control the most fertile land. The Starks historically controlled the North,

which is like a larger geographical area, but the land the Tyrells control is much more valuable.

It's the place where most of the Seven Kingdoms' grain comes from - the stuff that they don't import from Essos.

That's why during season five the Queen of Thorns threatened Cersei to cut her off,

saying, you know, "We're not going to ship you any grain anymore." She was essentially telling Cersei

that she is going to starve out the crown, but mostly Kings Landing, but the crown really.

She can make good on that threat too, because the Tyrells command the largest army,

and they have a fleet of ships, you know, from the Redwyne; that's the house she comes from.

They have a fleet that's supposed to be just as big as the crown's fleet, so they have a ton of ships and a ton of soldiers.

If they wanted to, they could actually make war with the crown

and make pretty quick work of them, assuming that the other great houses don't rally behind the crown.

So if it's not apparent from what's been happening on the show, the Tyrells are legit powerful,

and considering that the Lannisters' gold is drying up, they're going to be the wealthiest family in Westeros really fast.

Right now, they're still the second most wealthy behind the Lannisters.

Their house motto is "Growing Stronger", and they have very literally done that for their entire house history,

but they weren't originally part of the First Men. Like, they didn't start out as Kings of the Reach.

The Tyrells do trace their lineage back to House Gardener, although it's only through marriage.

Technically, they come from an Andal.

But the Reach was originally ruled by House Gardener, started by Garth the Gardener,

who was son of the mythical High King of the First Men, Garth Greenhand.

He, along with like Lann the Clever, Bran the Builder... were like like the mythical Kings of the First Men, back during the Age of Heroes.

The dates are a little fuzzy, like history isn't recorded perfectly when it goes that far back,

so you assume that they lived together but it's possible that some of them overlapped.

So, like, Lann the Clever - supposed to be alive at the same time that Bran the Builder was,

but, you know, maybe they were, maybe they weren't.

Just for context, though, assuming that they were all alive at the same time, that was about 8000 years ago,

because Bran the Builder started building the wall about 8000 years ago.

Geroge RR Martin has since clarified that they were actual people, so they live normal lifespans.

In the years after the Long Night, as the wall was being built, Garth Greenhand started House Gardener and started ruling over the Reach.

House Tyrell didn't become a thing till right around the time of the Andal invasion.

That period of time lasted for longer than Aegon's conquest.

Like, Aegon's conquest was about a two year period; the Andal invasion was much longer,

so about three Gardener Kings came and went while that was going on.

At the conclusion of that, the Gardener King of the time raised an Andal knight named Alester Tyrell

to his service, and that became the beginning of House Tyrell.

It's one of the many examples of a great house being born out of conflict.

House Baratheon was another famous one; that started after Aegon's conquest.

After he became King, he raised Orys Baratheon and named him Lord of the Stormlands.

Lesson learned: if you wind up on the winning side of a major conflict in Westeros, you will make out pretty good.

That actually reminds me of that Tyrion quote that he said to Joffrey before the Purple Wedding,

"Kings are dropping like flies."

So when the Tyrells started out, they were just one of the many small houses

that were bound to house Gardener, that is, part of that the Lord of the house held a political office.

They were named High Stewards of Highgarden. The Gardeners ended up loving them so much over the years

that they made the office hereditary, but originally it started out as a political thing.

So, in the years after the forming of House Tyrell, they slowly rose to become, like,

the greatest of the lesser houses in the Reach. There was even a time later when a Tyrell

became Regent of the Reach when a new Gardener king inherited the throne at a really young age.

It's kind of like what happens with Tommen Baratheon in the books.

That's kind of an issue that the show has sidestepped because they aged Tommen way up,

because they wanted this like sexy stuff going on with Margaery.

In the books, Tommen is still like this really little kid that just likes

eating sweets and chasing his cat around - chasing Ser Pounce around the castle.

It's actually really funny because the small council still needs like the royal seal of approval on some things,

they let him stamp documents with his royal seal and it's like a game.

Like, picture a little kid playing with Legos, with jam all over his face -

that's what book Tommen is like, just like the soul of innocence.

So, for thousands of years, House Tyrell just kinda existed

as this satellite house of House Gardener, all the way until Aegon's conquest.

What ended up happening during that conflict is that when Aegon marched on the Reach,

House Gardener had combined forces with the Lannisters.

But because Aegon had like a fraction of their number, what he did is

is he had his dragons set the entire battlefield on fire and all the Gardeners, like literally the Gardener King,

all of his family, all of his heirs were killed - the entire bloodline wiped out.

In the aftermath, when Aegon marched his army down to Highgarden, the Tyrells bent the knee,

so they were raised up to Lords of the Reach. Their technical title became Lord Paramount of the Mander.

That's just the title given to the Lords of the Reach, although technically

they're also called the Wardens of the South, just like the Starks became Wardens of the North.

The Reach itself is like one of the biggest, most interesting places in Westeros

that we haven't seen on the show yet, but by all accounts they're filming locations

for that in season six. Most of that will probably end up being in Oldtown, though.

A lot of that area in and around the Reach is featured heavily in the Dunk and Egg series, though,

so if you want to read stories that take place in that area, just read Dunk and Egg.

Just thinking about the future of the series, because the Tyrells really hate the Lannisters right now,

it's possible that if Daenerys were ever to march on Westeros, the Tyrells would rally to her banner.

And remember what I said: the Tyrells are capable of marshaling the largest army,

so if you were going to try and take Westeros, you would really want the Tyrells on your side.

I think the real question, though, is like: Will the Tyrells engage in open conflict

with the crown before that happens - before Daenerys decides to march on Westeros?

There's still like so many questions.

I just feel like even if they do skip a lot of the side stories - a lot of the side plots -

That they still need like a full season for the War for the Dawn,

and like another season to address Daenerys going to Westeros. Like two different seasons just for those big stories,

and as of right now she hasn't given any indication that she's ready to do that;

she barely has control of Slavers Bay. So, here's my big question for you guys:

Do you think Daenerys is going to march on Westeros and try to take the Iron Throne,

then deal with the War for the Dawn and the white walkers? Or do you think it's going to

happen the other way? Like, do you think that she's going to see the army of white walkers

is a threat - like someone will tell her about it, and she'll be like, "I'll have to deal with this first,

before I deal with the Iron Throne." So she'll ride in like, you know, Stannis did at the end of season four.

Like, she'll just ride into battle against the white walkers, and then

the other great houses will say, "Okay, well, she's not an invader; she's trying to help us, so we'll help her out."

I feel like in that scenario, the great houses would be much quicker to march into battle

with Daenerys against the white walkers, seeing her as more of a savior than an invader,

Then in like the aftermath of whatever, you know, final conflict they have with the white walkers,

she can decide what she's going to do with the rest of the Seven Kingdoms.

Really, I think the scenario that's more likely is that the white walkers will cull a lot of Westeros

before Daenerys marches on them, so Westeros as we know it right now

will be somewhat shattered by the time Daenerys marches in. So whoever ends up walking away

from that conflict will be tasked with rebuilding Westeros, not so much conquering it.

So, just a quick reminder, Comic-Con is coming up in about 10 days or so; I'll probably do a preview video

sometime next week or the week after that'll just explain what kind of Game of Thrones stuff

I'll be doing during that week. Some of you guys have been asking about a meetup -

there will be a meetup, I just I don't know which day it's going to be on, or what time it's going to be at.

I just have to see the full Comic-Con schedule before I know when I'm gonna have some free time.

I've been going to Comic-Con since about 2006, but for the past like three or four years,

I've been going for work, so it's like it's a little bit different.

This year, it seems like it's going to be a little bit more laid-back than last year just because

so many film companies aren't going, so it might be a little bit more chill

I'm actually really excited about that. You've never seen so many people standing in so many different lines.

That's really what Comic-Con is: a lot of standing in line with like a short amount of time

actually seeing the thing that you're standing in line for.

A lot of you guys have been asking me about Arthur Dayne, so I think my next bonus video is going to be about him.

so I might post that later this week; I don't know if I'll wait till Sunday to do that.

I am doing a Q&A tomorrow, though. So, just in case you guys haven't seen it, I started doing videos

for the Walking Dead season six: you can click here to get some some behind-the-scenes footage

and find out what's going on with the first episode of that, and you can click here to

learn about what's going on with the Game of Thrones season six cast.

Thank you so much for watching everybody, let's High Five and I'll see you guys tonight!