Inverse - 🐉 More dragons incoming

Monday

August 29 2022

Greetings from Westeros, where dragons are plentiful and the crabs are eating people now, apparently. As HBO’s House of the Dragon soldiers on, the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons is coming into focus — or is it?

Episode 2 sets a major conflict in motion, but it might not be the endgame you think. Elsewhere, King Viserys is busy submerging his rotting pinky in maggots, and the most powerful dragon in the realm seems to be missing in action. But don’t worry, we’re sure he’ll turn up eventually.

In other fantasy news, Amazon’s The Rings of Power premieres this week, and we’ll have some exciting stories to share with you over the next few days. Stay tuned!

And now, Inverse Daily.

What's New

HBO

Dragons

House of the Dragon Season 2 renewal solves our biggest Season 1 problem

In case there was ever any doubt, HBO officially renewed House of the Dragon for Season 2 on Friday, August 26. The first spinoff of the massively successful Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon was all-but guaranteed a long run. Of course, its record-breaking premiere didn’t hurt either.

But having seen where the series is headed (read our review here), the fact that House of the Dragon will get a Season 2 is also a bit of a relief based on one potentially controversial moment coming later in Season 1.

(Very light spoilers ahead, but you probably already know what we’re talking about.)

Inverse Interview

Television

Andor introduces a terrifying new type of Star Wars villain

Star Wars has always been a story of heroes vs. villains. Good vs. evil. The movies rest comfortably in the “space opera” genre, existing as modern-day myths. But with Andor, Star Wars is moving into a new genre altogether: the spy thriller. In spy stories, the lines of good and evil are never as firm as what insignia you wear on your uniform. Loyalties shift from left to right at a moment’s notice.

Because of that, Andor posed a unique challenge. How do you create a world within Star Wars that has room for defectors? The solution Andor found is by introducing a unique element to that galaxy far away: a bureaucratic, capitalistic sector that couldn’t care less about the Force.

Learn more

Heat Wave

Science

Billions of people may face “unprecedented” and deadly heat within 78 years

Some hundreds of millions of people have experienced unprecedented and dangerously scorching heat waves this summer, spanning the globe from China to the Midwest.

But new research suggests these currently rare, dangerous heat waves will become an annual occurrence in at least one major American city and a daily reality for billions of people living in the tropics. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

“These results are significant because they suggest that, in the likeliest scenario, billions of people could be exposed every year to levels of heat stress that are basically unprecedented in the current climate,” Lucas Vargas Zeppetello, lead author of the study, tells Inverse.

THE LAST SUPPER

Ancient History

Ancient burials reveal how ordinary Romans fed their dead for the afterlife

1,700 years ago, a child in Roman-occupied Spain perished in infancy. Buried in a simple wooden coffin, the child went to the grave with customary offerings of meat to sustain it to the afterlife — a grave was not a grave unless there was a sacrifice to the goddess Ceres, according to some legislators.

By killing an animal and offering meat to the gods and to the deceased’s family — and placing it in the grave — the mourners symbolically closed the door on the space between the living and the dead. Some accounts suggest the sacrifice had to be a pig. But others, like the Roman poet Ovid, suggest otherwise. In one treatise, Ovid explains: “Good Ceres is content with little, if that little be but pure.” In this child’s case, Ceres was to be contented with an animal very few people will ever eat — a fox.

This strange discovery is just one among a trove of new details on ancient Roman life and death found at the necropolis Vila de Madrid, which today lies in the heart of the city of Barcelona. In a new study published last week in PLOS One, a trio of researchers reveal details of who the people interred there are, what they ate before they died, and how their loved ones consecrated their graves with food... and, mysteriously, why some were left with nothing to sustain their journey to the afterlife.

Learn more

Inflation

Gaming

PlayStation 5 price hike inflicts Berserk status on Final Fantasy fans

Purchasing a PlayStation 5 is no easy task. Launching amid a global pandemic created problems for the latest Sony console with an international chip shortage and various supply chain issues. Nearly two years later, the PS5 still regularly sells out of its low stock.

All of this is getting worse with an incoming price hike in various markets as announced on the PlayStation blog. But in Sony’s home country of Japan, one group, in particular, is taking the latest news harder than others: Final Fantasy fans.

Here's why

Meanwhile...

'House of the Dragon' Episode 2 sparks a Targaryen civil war

Craghas Crabfeeder: 'House of the Dragon' Episode 2's terrifying villain explained

Remote space observatory captures a rare atmospheric phenomenon in action

Climate scientists propose two outlandish ways to cool the Arctic

Today in history: Netflix was founded by American entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29, 1997.

Song of the day: "ｐｌａｙｓｔａｔｉｏｎ　ａｎｄ　ｌｏｆｉ"

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