"Prince Lucerys fell broken, to be swollow by the waves. With his death, the war of ravens came to an end, and the war of Fire and Blood began. (...) Rhaenyra's heart turned black that day." 🔥🖤
Damn, such brilliant wording...makes me want to read the books. I must admit, it looks like in the show there was nothing left of Luke to "fall." He got swallowed by Vhagar instead and now resides in his tummy.
@@kimberlywilmoth9184 The book "Fire and Blood" is amazing. It's read as if you were reading an history book. It's technically still a novel but each major events are written like @luminaratano3935's comment.
That dragon Daemon was singing to was Vermithor. He’s the third oldest and second largest dragon alive in this time after Vhagar. His only rider so far was King Jaehaerys (the old king in the intro of the first episode). He’s called “The Bronze Fury” and the song Daemon was singing translates to a poem about dragon bonding, meaning Daemon is trying to get Vermithor to bond to a new rider because he would be a tremendous asset
loved seeing this. dragons have been shown to be uncontrollable many many times in asoiaf, to the detriment of innocent people as well as their riders. a big chunk of dany's story is dedicated to drogon's disobedience
@@andrewgautron4404 lots of targs are so convinced that theyre special just because theyre valyrian and soooo many of them have died because of that arrogance it's so poetic honestly. them cementing their rule through violence, specifically with the use of dragons, was kinda already indicative of their failure. generally pacifist grrm would never want to conclude that absolute monarchs with a monopoly on nukes would ever be the best political system lol
I really really felt for Rhaenyra during that birth scene. She’s just found out her father was dead, then she laboured in agony for a day, then she didn’t even get the joy of holding her newborn child. What she got for all that pain and trauma was her only daughter dead in her arms…
Aemond's dragon is Vhagar, the largest in the world at this time. The skull that they show at the Red Keep that Viserys and Rhaenera stood in front of and had their conversation about the prophecy is Balerion, the largest ever in Westeros. The singing was a lullaby that the dragon would've heard as a young dragon. He's now the second largest dragon alive. Rhaenera sent the boys as messengers, which was actually supposed to be a second layer of protection. You don't kill envoys of the enemy, and you don't kill princes. And on top of that, you don't kill kin. An honorable person would respect that and Rhaenera believed it would protect the boys. It's why Lord Boros said 'not in my hall', he didn't want to be responsible for Luke's death. Daemon is NOT a good person, but he has good qualities. They don't always outweigh the bad, but they exist. There is apparently a screen writer that doesn't like him, and keeps trying to only show his bad side so he looks even worse than he is. Example: a scene was cut where he was shown comforting his daughters after their mother died. I think Matt Smith did his best to follow directing and writing and put emotion on his face to attempt to counteract it. Should Daemon have choked Rhaenera that way? Of course not. But Matt's face looked to me as if he was trying to make it seem like Daemon acted impulsively and regretted it immediately, but knew there was no going back. Still doesn't make it ok, but it's not the cold uncaring unregrettful evil that people see sometimes. I see Daemon in Aemond, in fact Aemond's impulsive chase of Luke to scare him is very similar, he realized right away that he screwed up BAD. Difference is he's immature and was riding a nuclear weapon, so his impulsive behavior resulted in death.
I agree with everything you said here. I also believe that Daemon was also frustrated with Rhaenyra because he knew that crowning Aegon was an act of aggression, of war. He understands that and he understands war. I think he’s tired of Rhaenyra trying to honor her dad and try to stay away from war. With that and Rhaenyra prattling on about a prophecy made Daemon snap. He’s certainly a grey character but he’s not all bad. At least that’s what I think.
@@kellifranklin9872 exactly! He's impulsive and volatile, and while he may not be fully insane like the Mad King, he does insane things. But he still loves his family dearly.
According to the logic of the cut scenes, then Rhaenyra is not so good, because she called her only friend Alicent a whore. Daemon has almost no good qualities and he is definitely not a gray character. The gray character must have a good reason to kill an innocent man, in his case his ex-wife, and spit on his children and Rhaenyra, whom he will cheat on with Nettles in the future. The only thing that many people consider him normal for is that he is on the side of the Blacks and that's it. Fans are ready to shout about his kindness simply because he holds Rhaenyra's hand and fucks her.
@@hshshshs1214 lol nobody is good in the GOT world, except maybe for people like Helaena or Hodor. I think they tried to make Rhaenera too good so we'd all cheer more for her. Both the Blacks and the Greens did horrible things in the books, and technically neither side 'won', because this was the beginning of the end for the Targaryens. It's like the battle in the GOT episode Spoils of War, we cheered for Jamie and Bronn, but also for Dany and Tyrion. All 4 had done horrible things, but we didn't want any of them to die because by that time in the show we loved them all at least a little bit. I think as HOTD goes on, we will have similar moments. And it's not because those characters are good, it's because they make a good story.
Totally agree with you and the first commenter here. But the only character I was cheering for in spoils of war was Drogon haha. That's one of my favourite episodes of GoT
Incase you’re wondering how they found out about Luke’s death, in the books the head of arrax (lukes dragon) washed up on the shore of dragonstone and daemon was the one to find it so that’s how they know Luke is dead
Dance of the Dragon starts from here. A lot of people were angry why Daemon threatened Rhaenyra and held her neck, but he's actually Loyal to his family. Daemon is a beast who's brutal and violent, and obviously he has the title of "Most dangerous man in the Westeros." Daemon and Aemon are the targaryiest Targaryens in this show.
Daemon singing to Vermithor and getting him re-accustomed to people is awesome. Awesome dragon, awesome scene. So curious to see the other dragons on Dragonstone. So many different ones, beautiful and terrifying. You may have missed this a few episodes ago, during Laena Velaryon’s funeral, we saw Sunfyre with the others. He’s supposed to be the most beautiful dragon.
Corlys is on board because Rhaenys convinced him but the main convincing point is that Corly’s blood. Didn’t he notice he looked over at the high table at Jace, Luke, Baela, and Rhaena? He sees that they are happy and united together. Corlys has feelings for Jace and Luke because Corlys is a good man and those boys were raised as his grandkids. And Corlys also greatly cares for Baela and Rhaena, also his grandkids. So Corlys sees that his family has stakes with Rhaenyra.
Tbh Corlys like everyone in this universe is only doing it for self interest. He just saw if the blacks wins then Baela and Rhaena both will rule iron throne and driftmark.
@@Tooba-K123 dude did you just relate supporting his kins as his self interest only??? who was he supposed to support then??? It is pretty obvious that Rhaenyra told Rhaenys about Laenor's truth seeing how conveniently Rhaenys supported Luke's claim to Driftmark and eventually Rhaenys told Corlys about that seeing how instantly Corlys was convinced to support the Blacks.
I loved how the first season showed how hard it was for women to produce heirs and the burden they faced with it. I loved first season of HOD and Emma D’carcy acting in this episode was incredible.
The initial idea was to start the series precisely at this point.Because they want to tell the Dance of Dragons, but author George Martin insisted on giving a better context for the public.That's why there were so many time jumps, but now the time jumps are over, now the story they wanted to tell will really begin
Tbh the first two seasons should've been just about the inner struggles of these characters. We could've explore more into Rhaenyra and Laenor's bond with Daemon and Laena, Rhaenyra and Harwin's story, Criston being given more reasons to side with Greens, Aegon the younger and his brother Viserys having more screentime and Haelena's kids.
The best part was that it was an accident. He knows he fucked up and he’s the reason shit hits the fan. Cyclops boi is literally the reason this entire war is about to happen and dollars to donuts Rhaenyra sends his ass to another dimension
We also saw Rhaenyra give birth to Joffrey, her last son with Ser Harwin Strong. You may remember that she was immediately called before the queen after giving birth on that occasion- and left a trail of blood down the hall as she departed.
Something that a lot of people miss is that Daemon choking Rhaenyra means a lot more than him just annoyed at her for not declaring war at the first inkling of any pushback from the Hightowers. Daemon spent most of his life in the shadow of Viserys; second sons are usually overlooked in Westeros, even royalty. Viserys never offered him the position of hand, and never named him heir officially, which was a sore point for him and made him feel like he wasn't good enough for either of those things - it's why there was such a wedge between them for a long time and partially why his relationship with Rhaenyra was complicated. She was everything he wasn't, given heir status, loved by Viserys and doted over by him and forgiven no matter what she did whereas Viserys sent Daemon away on more than one occasion. When she spoke about The Song of Ice and Fire and the Conqueror's Dream, it was in that moment that Daemon realised that Viserys had never even thought about making him heir, and that he never took him seriously enough to share the information even if he would later name Rhaenyra. To him, it's the ultimate confirmation that Viserys loved him, but he didn't see him as capable of taking on that role and continued to spurn him until the day he died. We know that he's pretty easy to anger, and is often unpredictable but him choking Rhaenyra is that lingering resentment that he thought he'd buried bubbling up to the surface and manifesting in physical violence. Daemon isn't right for doing it, but I do think that his reaction is really in line with his character and how he reacts to things. He's a hothead and always will be, no matter how much he tries to pretend he isn't. I think part of the reason why he takes charge with making plans is because even though he supports Rhaenyra as queen and heir and wants her on the throne, he can't help but want just a tiny bit of the power that she has - he can't help it. His entire life he's been desperately trying to gain more power, and subconciously he will always chase it. A lot of people dislike Daemon (and for good reason), but I think that people should make a clearer distinction between good/bad person and good/bad character. I think that Daemon is often an impulsive, power-hungry and violent person but a wonderful character in terms of how he's written. He isn't all bad as a person (though his flaws definitely outweight everything else), and he clearly loves his children and family - but what shines the most is the writing of his character and how nuanced he is. He isn't all bad or all good, and it's impossible to completely hate him based on that. Hats off to the writers, honestly.
So many people completely miss that fact! That’s why Rhanerya says “he never told you did he?” She also knew why he reacted that way! The second son syndrome! Most of the characters in GRRMs world who are always causing some kind of drama are the suffering second sons trying to make their mark.
Otto, Daemon, Vaemond, Larys and Aemond all had this second son syndrome that started the war. Luke (at least in the show) was the only second son who didn't let greed take over his heart and ended up dying. "If I'm the lord of driftmark, it means everyone's dead".
@@Tooba-K123 I find it so interesting that Luke is the only examples of a second son that doesn't fall victim to what every other second son around him does. His comment about him being lord of Driftmark meaning that everyone else is dead was such an empathetic and rare perspective that other character's simply don't have; while everyone else is focused on acquiring power and relentlessly pursuing opportunities to do so, Luke is concerned about losing those he loves and doesn't care about the power he would stand to gain. It's part of why I love Luke so much (and I'd venture that it's part of the reason why most love him so much), and it makes his death all the more devastating because his refusal to conform and be as power-hungry as everyone else is actively punished. Luke could've chosen to break the promise to his mother and partake in fighting if it meant that he could escape with his life and nobody would've blamed him but instead he chose to keep true to his word and evade Aemond through non-violent methods. His death is also a massive representation of the difference's in Rhaenyra and Alicent's parenting styles and the children that they've raised as a result; Aemond chases a young child on his baby dragon to taunt him and attempt to deliberately injure him as punishment for something he did many years ago as an even younger child (who for all intents and purposes thought his life was in danger), whereas Luke attempts to evade him rather than incite violence or fighting and simply wants to go home. Rhaenyra raised her children to be ready to perform their duties and taught them to be empathetic and loving human beings, always insisting that they should be kind to their cousins and other family members no matter what they do, and always treated all of her children equally. Alicent taught her children that their half-sister was their enemy and would kill them given the chance, that they were perpetual victims. She often excused the awful things they did (likely because of this perceived victimhood) and taught them that their extended family were not to be trusted while also treating each of her children very differently and not preparing them for their duties. To me, Luke's death is the ultimate tragedy; a kind, loving, honest and sweet little boy who played by the rules and died in one of the most horrific ways imaginable simply because his uncle wanted to scare him a bit. I completely understand why Rhaenyra is going to do all the things she's going to do in season 2 - grief is a powerful thing.
@@christinestreeter8566 whenever I see a character in either GOT or HOTD and I find out that they have an older sibling my immediate thought is 'they're probably gonna be a problem' and I'm almost always right, the intensity of chaos and suffering they cause just tends to vary from character to character😂
It’s been a lot of fun following you from the beginning of Game of Thrones to here If you’re looking for something very much like GOT but without the dragons, you can’t go wrong with either The Last Kinggdom or Vikings. Thanks for all the work you put in to bring threes reactions to us!
I love how Rhaenys stands in pride looking right at Rhaenera. Like a Proud Mama..Rhaenys seeing a woman wear the crown for the first time, an honored that she was denied.
Dance of dragons has begun. This season was more like a prologue that shows you everything leading up to the start of the civil war. The flashbacks were essential to show how everything leads to civil war. That being said, going forward, we are in the war so expect no more time jumps.
Agreed about Aegon and Laena! Very interesting characters indeed ! Otto is more deserving for S than most of them there tbh, but Viserys indeed deserves a tier of his own S++. He drove most of season 1 conflict by himself so he does need credit for that, amazing acting too. If not for him nothing would have ever happened. Vaemond and the old kingsguard commander McTavish did deserve better though! Great acting from both!
I started reading Fire & Blood a few months ago and I finally reached the part that is being adapted to House of the Dragon (I've been reading really slowly haha) and what is about to come in season 2 is tremendous. I am actually so excited right now. I am currently reading what I think it would be season 3 and there are really interesting things...
@@27agui read somewhere that season 2 episode 3/4 is Rooks Rest. Ive never read the books so I don't know much could be left out if u think that would have been good for a season 2 ending
Congrats, now you're officially caught up! And now you're also going to suffer along with us the one-remaining-year break for season 2, and probably another two or three years for season 3 if my hunch is correct.
Season 2 is set to be released around summer, so definitely not a full year; and the producers and companies backing and funding them have also expressed that they'd like to get season 3 started more quickly than they got started with season 2 as well.
Like with game of thrones you stand out as a reactor by your comments about the music; I like that! Furthermore you have a very independent and nuanced opinion, Thanks for this season and see you in the next!
Book backing: Aemond didn’t just go off after him, one of the daughters of Borros who he didn’t choose was upset and said basically along the lines of “I wouldn’t want a cripple anyway” which led Aemond to go off in anger, he wouldn’t want to kill though as he wouldn’t want to start the war (he’s dutiful and not stupid) but as no one was in the skies, they weren’t sure what happene d
23:20 - that what happens when you sick a battle hardened dragon against a frightened youngster. It's like getting your leashed pit bull to lunge at people and then the leash breaks...
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm about to go crazy waiting on Season 2!! Great reactions, Movie Fusion!!❤🎉 I'm starting to read Fire and Blood but I'm stopping right where Luke and Arrax die.. I don't wanna know what happens in Season 2!! The suspense is REAL!!😅😅😅
Agreed on the eargasms, this soundtrack was so good. I believe the full 'Blood of my Blood' theme was only used twice - in ep 1 when Rhaenyra flies around King's Landing and in this episode.
I wouldn't be hard on Alicent for commanding the death of the White Worm - she literally had people spying her family. Thats an incredible security risk that leaves innocent family members like Helaena or Alicent's grandsons vulnerable.
Your rankings are pretty legit and yeah I agree this season is at least on par with the top seasons of GoT. Very great show and I love how you can feel that it’s going to continue to be great. Great reaction as well, can’t wait for more!
"Over the centuries, House Targaryen has produced both great men and monsters. Prince Daemon was both. In his day there was not a man so admired, so beloved, and so reviled in all Westeros. He was made of light and darkness in equal parts. To some he was a hero, to others the blackest of villains." I think this quote alone explains Daemon ahahahah
Vermithor was Old King Jaehaerys' dragon (the old man at Harrenhal in episode 1.) It's one of the largest dragons, but has been riderless for decades. You're right exactly, size does matter. Dragons never stop growing, provided they're given light, space and exercise. 9/10 of the larger dragon overwhelms the younger.
The green banner was actually a golden dragon, as a reference to Aegon's mount, Sunfyre, considered the most beautiful dragon to ever live and with whom he had probably the most powerful Targaryen-dragon bond ever, minus Daenerys and her children. Season 2 has already fixed that green dragon bullshit I believe lol.
As Aemond's false eyed gleamed at him, the princeling fled the castle and mounted his young dragon arrax. The rain fell in sheets, and great bolts of lightning lit the world bright as day. Arrax was struggling to stay aloft in the gale when a roar shook the very foundations of Storm's End. Aemond rose through the clouds and below him the monstrous Vhagar. Vhagar was five times the size of Arrax and a hardened survivor of a hundred battles. Vhagar caught him above ship breaker bay, Watchers on the castle walls saw distant blast of flame and heard a shriek drown out the thunder. Prince Lucerys fell, broken, to be swallowed by the waves.
7:49 agreed! So disturbing but man. Rhaenyra is such a badass to me - these births have been deleting every other woman in Westeros practically and she had a choice and she chose herself
IMO S1 GOT S1 HOTD S3 GOT S2 GOT S4 GOT S6 GOT S5 GOT S7 GOT S8 GOT Keep in mind im a huge book fan so I am especially biased towards S1 GOT/HOTD because of their loyalty to the books. GOT 1-4 is prime TV though, but the later of those seasons struggle a bit in the logic, plot and character department. Season 4 really fucked up a lot of characters imo
@@bjornerluffyGOT Season 4 is most people's favorite, mine included. I do agree that the 1st 4 are the best, just in a slightly different order. Then, HOTD would be right in the middle, then last 4 GOT, with 6 being the highest. But, 7 is my least favorite, then 8.
@@kimberlywilmoth9184 It is many peoples favorite, and I do not fault them for having it as their favorite. This is why I put the "book reader" bias thing at the start of my comment. Season 4 shines in GREAT fucking moments, Oberyn and The Mountain, Purple Wedding, ETC. The season is filled with such events. My issue with the season is twofold, firstly its the season where I start to struggle to take the world as seriously. Ramsey fighting the 100 best warriors of the Iron Islands naked is basically a preview of season 7/8. There are more such logic/plot breaks in the season, but that is the most ridiculous. The other major issue I have is with characterization, as this is the season that truly butchered Tyrion as a character. Other characters like Cercei, Sansa and Jon also suffered pretty hard, but not nearly as much as Tyrion. Them removing the Tysha reveal to make Shae more important is insane, and is part of them never really wanting to condemn Tyrion or make him morally bad. This is THE reason for why he becomes such a boring mess for the rest of the show. I also think season 6 is shit, its great TV, but as a work of fiction its pretty god damn shit, not much better than Vikings or other similarly unserious shows. Again, it was held up by great cinematic moments and action, and I really really loved it on my first watch. However, very few if any of the major scenes made sense, both in universe and just logically speaking. Dany's whole arc this season is garbage imo, the Winterfell plot is without any real logic behind it and Cercei blowing up the sept is a fantastic TV moment, but it just becomes really stupid when the only consequence is her being suddenly queen.
it only seems like hightower vs targaryen bc the writers wanted you to see it like that and took away from greens' targaryen side in the show to make rhaenyra appear more special. and i hate it. the green kids claimed some of the oldest dragons alive (mind you claiming is a big deal and it's not like getting dragon eggs, the way rhaenyra's children were given), one of the ridden by one of the three conquerers, visenya targaryen, and the other ridden by rhaena, the black bride. i'm talking about vhagar and dreamfyre. aegon and sunfyre have an amazing bond in the book while daeron and tessarion worked so well together and tessarion was a strong dragon. it actually sucks that ppl see them as just hightowers. they are targaryens. and in the war both flew the targaryen banner until they each changed their banners. aegon changed it to a gold dragon to honor his dragon sunfyre.
The writer or should I say author, defied logic, by naming Otto, Hand of the King again, while ignoring the fact that he wrote in, just 3 episodes earlier, where Vaesarys fired Otto for undermining his desire to have Raenyra to be his successor & that Otto was plotting otherwise. Essentially like writing in, the north voting on Geofrey to be the King of the North, after Ned's beheading. It makes no sense to have him rehired from a logical pov, it onl made sense from building a bad guy pov. It's just simply bad writing. George managed to have 5 different Hands in GOT, he didn't need to be around the king anymore to stir up trouble. But then again, perhaps George didn't have any good material to write about Otto, other then him hovering around the throne area in King's Landing.
@@BhBc8f8 Aemond, Aegon and Daeron at the very least if not also Helaena are better Targs than Viserys. Viserys claimed Balerion when he was dying. He literally was bonded to Balerion for less than one year before Balerion died and he never bonded w a dragon again. All that effort from the writers to make them less Targ than they are in the books and they're still perfect examples of Targaryens.
My tier list would be basically the same just with Otto also in S tier, great character and Rhys Ifans steals most of the scenes he's in. Also would change the order within the S tier a little bit. Good reaction.
Notice how Game of Thrones visually told us Daenerys was bad for the choice of 'live or die', but House of The Dragon don't visually tell us how to feel with Daemon's choice of 'live or die'. They let us decide for ourselves.
That moment was just stupid and bad writing the tarllys betrayed there lords and dany gave them a chance of mercy they refused she was 100% right to kill them what other option did she have? That moment was just bad writing and gaslighting . Daemon is so right the kingsguard could easily betray them especially in there moment of weakness making sure there on the blacks side us completely reasonable .
@@thatoneblackdude3333 I agree about Daenerys, that's the point I'm making. With Daemon, they don't tell you to think one way or the other, they just show you what he would do in character, right or wrong.
Are you musician? The way you hear music emotions and all the teams (in your GoT videos too) is amazing!!! `I think Ramin would be so happy that you're hearing everything!!!
Vermithor was Jahaerys' dragon, it's symbolic to have his dragon in team black... It would be as if Jahaerys' was on their side. There's also the fact that he is alot older than Rhaenyra and Daemon's dragons, it also known more war than them.
I believe with a miscarriage the fetus is discarded before it has any chance of survival outside the womb, but Rhaenyra's baby looked developed enough that it might have lived, but it was already dead when it was "born" so you would say it was stillborn.
I read fire and blood, Aemond and Rhaenys are my favourite characters and Aemond is my second favourite Targaryen because my number one Targaryen is jaehaerys
I mostly agree with this list but I think Otto and Rhaenys deserves S tier position, Larys and Lionel deserves A tier position as both were essential characters, Ser Harold Westerling and Vaemond should be on B tier cause they both did well to the little screentime they were given, Rhaena and Haelena should exchange places cause Haelena actually had important role in plot, Joffery and Qarl should be on D tier position cause nothing about them was essential or really remotely great acting.
The sad thing is vhagar is really old and slow and arrax (lukes dragon) isnt that fast but faster than vhagar to be sure so he could easily have escaped for her if it wasnt for the storm. Because arrax is so small the heavy winds made him much slower but vhagar is huge and extremely heavy so the winds changed nothing... also i found it funny you said it cant really be called a civil war because this is often called the targaryen civil war
the twins are Arryk and Erryk, lol. I would actually put the Crab King in D, for a main villain of some episodes he was drastically underdeveloped. And I would put the spoiler girl (aka Helaena) higher, everything she says is so on point, we just don't see it at that moment. Same is with Larys, he's done so much, he's actually not much worse than his almost-namesake from GoT - Varys. I'd say he's the main shit-stirrer in the capital.
The entire purpose of this first season was to set up the upcoming Targaryen Civil War. That is why they had so many significant time jumps. They had to take you through the history of the two sides and dramatize the main events so that the viewer would understand the conflict and the personalities behind it. The show is expected to have three or four seasons. And you shouldn’t have the kind of time jumps that they did in this first season.
I don't think he meant to do it. He was scaring him. He tried to get Vhagar to obey, but Vhagar was pissed that the little dragon fired in his face. Either way though, it's not gonna matter to Rhaenyra.
@@kimberlywilmoth9184I don’t think it objectively matters much either way, Luke wouldn’t have died if Aemond hadn’t chased after him. Even if it was unintentional, Aemond is still fully responsible for creating such a dangerous situation, where his nephew ended up dying
@@spacelia3920 It doesn't matter at all, you're right. Like I said, it ain't gonna matter at all to Rhaenyra...and yes, it would not have happened if he hadn't chased after him. I was just speaking from Aemond's perspective, he didn't mean to kill him, that intent wasn't there.
Rhaenyra's grandmother Alyssa rode Meleys while pregnant with Viserys and Daemon (and quite possibly Aegon) and took both boys out with her while they were babies...it's fine and Lady Arryn is Rhaenyra's first cousin (Aemma was the baby half sister of the Lord of Arryn who only had Jeyne)
It is said in multiple times by the author than a smaller dragon has also an advantage in combat - they are harder to hit obviously and quicker, which means quicker bites, quicker dragon fire and quicker claws - you can see this could be extremely dangerous for the other rider.
The Dragon Daemon was singing to was Vermithor he is a bronze dragon with "great tan wings". only Balerion and Vhagar were larger. At the time of the Dance of the Dragons, Vermithor was almost a hundred years old and the second largest Dragon now that Balerion is gone. Vermithor was a fearsome beast. Accustomed to men and having had a previous rider, by the reign of Aegon II Targaryen Vermithor was tolerant of the presence of people and more accepting of new riders. Vermithor often coiled with Silverwing.
What exactly made Laena, the owner of maybe 7 minutes of show in the "A" tier? Alongside of Otto Hightower, who had probably the 4th most minutes in the entire show? I thought you were not basing your grades on good guys or bad guys in the show, but rather on what makes a great character in the show. Otto, is an excellent villain, despite the poor writing giving him the Hand of the King gig again. Raenys alongside Laena too? Kristen Cole a tier below Laena? Next time, I suggest making your choices & adjusting them, before you present them to us. Or start with the top guys first. If you start, like how you did it, with lower tier actors & give them a favorable level, you're left later on with "A" level, if you don't want to give a certain character "S" level. I can bet you that the ones that I mentioned, got paid 5 times more $ then the actress that played Laena, because they got a lot more minutes & got a much juicier part in the show. If you Google HOTD, Laena is the 20th character mentioned, not by accident.
You mean one of the few female characters in the got universe who kept autonomy over her own body and claimed Vhagar, who fought alongside Aegon the Conqueror? He's damn right she was a great character.
Rhaenyra’s crowning is so emotional I always tear up. Seeing Daemon crown her as well, after he just crowed his brother. Who he he thinks was murdered. It’s all so poetic but so sad.
If you ever want another great fantasy show to watch, I’d totally recommend The Wheel of Time! Season 1 suffered a bit from Covid, but S2 absolutely turned everything completely around and has honestly become imo must watch TV!
Aemond did it on purpose in the books. The show has left a lot of choices (that we know to be choices in the book) as “gray area” in the show, and it actually serves the plot very well. Show Aemond and Aegon are actually relatable, where in the books they were just the villains, there was hardly room to see where they’re coming from. Where I think the show has done a brilliant job of presenting this conflict from both sides, rather than “good guys” and “bad guys”
As a huge fan of all of the books, and having enjoyed the shows, I agree that Hot D is as strong as the best seasons of GoT. It helps tremendously that the writers have the bare skeleton of a COMPLETE story to tell - there's plenty of room for creativity, alongside a strong framework of where things have to get to. I'm trying not to think too hard about season two and am even avoiding re-reading the 'history' books, so that more of the coming show will be a surprise. As it is, I can't help but remember some of the biggest 'beats' in the coming story and CAN'T WAIT!
I have heard some reactors mock Baratheon for not being able to read. .Likely he is simply illiterate, but there could be other factors vs stupidly or laziness. Jaime Lannister was dyslexic but Tywin rode his ass for four hours a day until he learned to read. Another thing this story takes place well before reading glasses. Maybe Baratheon can read large print, but not smaller print due to weaker eyesight. Without my readers I would be "illiterate" as well
"Prince Lucerys fell broken, to be swollow by the waves.
With his death, the war of ravens came to an end, and the war of Fire and Blood began.
(...) Rhaenyra's heart turned black that day." 🔥🖤
Damn, such brilliant wording...makes me want to read the books.
I must admit, it looks like in the show there was nothing left of Luke to "fall." He got swallowed by Vhagar instead and now resides in his tummy.
@@kimberlywilmoth9184 The book "Fire and Blood" is amazing. It's read as if you were reading an history book. It's technically still a novel but each major events are written like @luminaratano3935's comment.
Alicent “So Aemond how was storms end”
Aemond “everyone is gonna have to get cool with a lot of things real fast”
Let’s see if Otto will drop his “You’ve only lost one eye, how can you be so blind?” line in season 2…
@@spacelia3920 I hope they don’t skip the Greens reaction to this because it makes the rest that much worse
@@ProHero86Aegon saying it was a good decision and throwing a party in Aemond’s honor?
@@spacelia3920such a great line!
Storm's end was not seen during GoT, which was a bit frustrating. Nice to have glance at it.
I love the small detail that Rhaenyra stumbles and holds her belly after finding out about the news of Luke’s death 😢
That part killed me! No one ever mentions that part!!
That part always broke up. She was feeling the loss of a child twice so soon.
That dragon Daemon was singing to was Vermithor. He’s the third oldest and second largest dragon alive in this time after Vhagar. His only rider so far was King Jaehaerys (the old king in the intro of the first episode). He’s called “The Bronze Fury” and the song Daemon was singing translates to a poem about dragon bonding, meaning Daemon is trying to get Vermithor to bond to a new rider because he would be a tremendous asset
can’t wait to see him in all his glory next season
Such an underrated dragon
Maybe he'll bond with Rhaena so she'll finally get a dragon herdelf and one to rival Vhagar for that matter
@@WhyneedanAlias Oh, my sweet summer child...
@@WhyneedanAlias that’s exactly what I told my mom haha
I think you might have missed that the dragons were disobeying at the end. Both of them were telling the dragons to stop just before the chomp.
loved seeing this. dragons have been shown to be uncontrollable many many times in asoiaf, to the detriment of innocent people as well as their riders. a big chunk of dany's story is dedicated to drogon's disobedience
There's even a line from Viserys: "The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion."
Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor.
@Rougeification mmhmmmmm. It's easy for them to forget that while they are highly intelligent, and are easy to teach, dragons are still animals.
@@andrewgautron4404 lots of targs are so convinced that theyre special just because theyre valyrian and soooo many of them have died because of that arrogance it's so poetic honestly. them cementing their rule through violence, specifically with the use of dragons, was kinda already indicative of their failure. generally pacifist grrm would never want to conclude that absolute monarchs with a monopoly on nukes would ever be the best political system lol
I really really felt for Rhaenyra during that birth scene. She’s just found out her father was dead, then she laboured in agony for a day, then she didn’t even get the joy of holding her newborn child. What she got for all that pain and trauma was her only daughter dead in her arms…
Aemond's dragon is Vhagar, the largest in the world at this time. The skull that they show at the Red Keep that Viserys and Rhaenera stood in front of and had their conversation about the prophecy is Balerion, the largest ever in Westeros.
The singing was a lullaby that the dragon would've heard as a young dragon. He's now the second largest dragon alive.
Rhaenera sent the boys as messengers, which was actually supposed to be a second layer of protection. You don't kill envoys of the enemy, and you don't kill princes. And on top of that, you don't kill kin. An honorable person would respect that and Rhaenera believed it would protect the boys. It's why Lord Boros said 'not in my hall', he didn't want to be responsible for Luke's death.
Daemon is NOT a good person, but he has good qualities. They don't always outweigh the bad, but they exist. There is apparently a screen writer that doesn't like him, and keeps trying to only show his bad side so he looks even worse than he is. Example: a scene was cut where he was shown comforting his daughters after their mother died. I think Matt Smith did his best to follow directing and writing and put emotion on his face to attempt to counteract it. Should Daemon have choked Rhaenera that way? Of course not. But Matt's face looked to me as if he was trying to make it seem like Daemon acted impulsively and regretted it immediately, but knew there was no going back. Still doesn't make it ok, but it's not the cold uncaring unregrettful evil that people see sometimes. I see Daemon in Aemond, in fact Aemond's impulsive chase of Luke to scare him is very similar, he realized right away that he screwed up BAD. Difference is he's immature and was riding a nuclear weapon, so his impulsive behavior resulted in death.
I agree with everything you said here. I also believe that Daemon was also frustrated with Rhaenyra because he knew that crowning Aegon was an act of aggression, of war. He understands that and he understands war. I think he’s tired of Rhaenyra trying to honor her dad and try to stay away from war. With that and Rhaenyra prattling on about a prophecy made Daemon snap. He’s certainly a grey character but he’s not all bad. At least that’s what I think.
@@kellifranklin9872 exactly! He's impulsive and volatile, and while he may not be fully insane like the Mad King, he does insane things. But he still loves his family dearly.
According to the logic of the cut scenes, then Rhaenyra is not so good, because she called her only friend Alicent a whore. Daemon has almost no good qualities and he is definitely not a gray character. The gray character must have a good reason to kill an innocent man, in his case his ex-wife, and spit on his children and Rhaenyra, whom he will cheat on with Nettles in the future. The only thing that many people consider him normal for is that he is on the side of the Blacks and that's it. Fans are ready to shout about his kindness simply because he holds Rhaenyra's hand and fucks her.
@@hshshshs1214 lol nobody is good in the GOT world, except maybe for people like Helaena or Hodor. I think they tried to make Rhaenera too good so we'd all cheer more for her. Both the Blacks and the Greens did horrible things in the books, and technically neither side 'won', because this was the beginning of the end for the Targaryens. It's like the battle in the GOT episode Spoils of War, we cheered for Jamie and Bronn, but also for Dany and Tyrion. All 4 had done horrible things, but we didn't want any of them to die because by that time in the show we loved them all at least a little bit. I think as HOTD goes on, we will have similar moments. And it's not because those characters are good, it's because they make a good story.
Totally agree with you and the first commenter here. But the only character I was cheering for in spoils of war was Drogon haha. That's one of my favourite episodes of GoT
Incase you’re wondering how they found out about Luke’s death, in the books the head of arrax (lukes dragon) washed up on the shore of dragonstone and daemon was the one to find it so that’s how they know Luke is dead
Amazing episode Emma D'Arcy is incredible as Rhaenyra and the whole casting and production has been spot on.
I can`t wait for season 2 to come out.
Episode 1 is going to be so dark I'm almost scared for it 😂
Same here and I’m a book reader so I know it’s about to get even better
I just keep telling myself that it’s coming in the upcoming summer to gaslighting myself into thinking it’s coming dinner than it actually is
@@thomasluke-wp8ormight have to wait till episode 2 but yeah I can’t say I’m looking forward to it
@@thomasluke-wp8orI'm not ready for either blood & cheese or for Sunfyre and Meleys 😬😬😬
I don’t know if you remember Visery’s words to Rhaenyra: “The idea that we control dragons is an illusion”. This episode proved that.
4:15 Her grandmother, Alyssa Targaryen, would be proud. She rode Melys with 6-day-old Viserys and then with Daemon on the 15th day of birth
Dance of the Dragon starts from here. A lot of people were angry why Daemon threatened Rhaenyra and held her neck, but he's actually Loyal to his family. Daemon is a beast who's brutal and violent, and obviously he has the title of "Most dangerous man in the Westeros." Daemon and Aemon are the targaryiest Targaryens in this show.
Agree...and they are TRUE DRAGONS! 😘
Daemon singing to Vermithor and getting him re-accustomed to people is awesome. Awesome dragon, awesome scene. So curious to see the other dragons on Dragonstone. So many different ones, beautiful and terrifying.
You may have missed this a few episodes ago, during Laena Velaryon’s funeral, we saw Sunfyre with the others. He’s supposed to be the most beautiful dragon.
Corlys is on board because Rhaenys convinced him but the main convincing point is that Corly’s blood. Didn’t he notice he looked over at the high table at Jace, Luke, Baela, and Rhaena? He sees that they are happy and united together. Corlys has feelings for Jace and Luke because Corlys is a good man and those boys were raised as his grandkids. And Corlys also greatly cares for Baela and Rhaena, also his grandkids. So Corlys sees that his family has stakes with Rhaenyra.
corlys is on board because of self-interest, when thats gone he'll shift. he always does.
Tbh Corlys like everyone in this universe is only doing it for self interest. He just saw if the blacks wins then Baela and Rhaena both will rule iron throne and driftmark.
@@Tooba-K123 dude did you just relate supporting his kins as his self interest only???
who was he supposed to support then???
It is pretty obvious that Rhaenyra told Rhaenys about Laenor's truth seeing how conveniently Rhaenys supported Luke's claim to Driftmark and eventually Rhaenys told Corlys about that seeing how instantly Corlys was convinced to support the Blacks.
I loved how the first season showed how hard it was for women to produce heirs and the burden they faced with it. I loved first season of HOD and Emma D’carcy acting in this episode was incredible.
"Then the storm broke, and the dragons danced"
The initial idea was to start the series precisely at this point.Because they want to tell the Dance of Dragons, but author George Martin insisted on giving a better context for the public.That's why there were so many time jumps, but now the time jumps are over, now the story they wanted to tell will really begin
It was absolutely needed, as I cannot fathom the series without this season.
Tbh the first two seasons should've been just about the inner struggles of these characters. We could've explore more into Rhaenyra and Laenor's bond with Daemon and Laena, Rhaenyra and Harwin's story, Criston being given more reasons to side with Greens, Aegon the younger and his brother Viserys having more screentime and Haelena's kids.
The best part was that it was an accident. He knows he fucked up and he’s the reason shit hits the fan. Cyclops boi is literally the reason this entire war is about to happen and dollars to donuts Rhaenyra sends his ass to another dimension
We also saw Rhaenyra give birth to Joffrey, her last son with Ser Harwin Strong. You may remember that she was immediately called before the queen after giving birth on that occasion- and left a trail of blood down the hall as she departed.
our king Aegon II glows with happiness in the photo that you put it on A 😂😂
You channel makes the best tier list even during game of thrones.
I hope they'll do "Starks storyline" justice, especially with hour of the wolf and all
Cregan Stark comes to Kings Landing to chew bubble gum and kick ass and he’s all out of gum!
Something that a lot of people miss is that Daemon choking Rhaenyra means a lot more than him just annoyed at her for not declaring war at the first inkling of any pushback from the Hightowers.
Daemon spent most of his life in the shadow of Viserys; second sons are usually overlooked in Westeros, even royalty. Viserys never offered him the position of hand, and never named him heir officially, which was a sore point for him and made him feel like he wasn't good enough for either of those things - it's why there was such a wedge between them for a long time and partially why his relationship with Rhaenyra was complicated. She was everything he wasn't, given heir status, loved by Viserys and doted over by him and forgiven no matter what she did whereas Viserys sent Daemon away on more than one occasion.
When she spoke about The Song of Ice and Fire and the Conqueror's Dream, it was in that moment that Daemon realised that Viserys had never even thought about making him heir, and that he never took him seriously enough to share the information even if he would later name Rhaenyra. To him, it's the ultimate confirmation that Viserys loved him, but he didn't see him as capable of taking on that role and continued to spurn him until the day he died. We know that he's pretty easy to anger, and is often unpredictable but him choking Rhaenyra is that lingering resentment that he thought he'd buried bubbling up to the surface and manifesting in physical violence.
Daemon isn't right for doing it, but I do think that his reaction is really in line with his character and how he reacts to things. He's a hothead and always will be, no matter how much he tries to pretend he isn't. I think part of the reason why he takes charge with making plans is because even though he supports Rhaenyra as queen and heir and wants her on the throne, he can't help but want just a tiny bit of the power that she has - he can't help it. His entire life he's been desperately trying to gain more power, and subconciously he will always chase it.
A lot of people dislike Daemon (and for good reason), but I think that people should make a clearer distinction between good/bad person and good/bad character. I think that Daemon is often an impulsive, power-hungry and violent person but a wonderful character in terms of how he's written. He isn't all bad as a person (though his flaws definitely outweight everything else), and he clearly loves his children and family - but what shines the most is the writing of his character and how nuanced he is. He isn't all bad or all good, and it's impossible to completely hate him based on that. Hats off to the writers, honestly.
I wanted to bring up the rejected second son stuff in my comment, but I didn't have the words, you said it perfectly!
So many people completely miss that fact! That’s why Rhanerya says “he never told you did he?” She also knew why he reacted that way! The second son syndrome! Most of the characters in GRRMs world who are always causing some kind of drama are the suffering second sons trying to make their mark.
Otto, Daemon, Vaemond, Larys and Aemond all had this second son syndrome that started the war. Luke (at least in the show) was the only second son who didn't let greed take over his heart and ended up dying. "If I'm the lord of driftmark, it means everyone's dead".
@@Tooba-K123 I find it so interesting that Luke is the only examples of a second son that doesn't fall victim to what every other second son around him does. His comment about him being lord of Driftmark meaning that everyone else is dead was such an empathetic and rare perspective that other character's simply don't have; while everyone else is focused on acquiring power and relentlessly pursuing opportunities to do so, Luke is concerned about losing those he loves and doesn't care about the power he would stand to gain.
It's part of why I love Luke so much (and I'd venture that it's part of the reason why most love him so much), and it makes his death all the more devastating because his refusal to conform and be as power-hungry as everyone else is actively punished. Luke could've chosen to break the promise to his mother and partake in fighting if it meant that he could escape with his life and nobody would've blamed him but instead he chose to keep true to his word and evade Aemond through non-violent methods.
His death is also a massive representation of the difference's in Rhaenyra and Alicent's parenting styles and the children that they've raised as a result; Aemond chases a young child on his baby dragon to taunt him and attempt to deliberately injure him as punishment for something he did many years ago as an even younger child (who for all intents and purposes thought his life was in danger), whereas Luke attempts to evade him rather than incite violence or fighting and simply wants to go home. Rhaenyra raised her children to be ready to perform their duties and taught them to be empathetic and loving human beings, always insisting that they should be kind to their cousins and other family members no matter what they do, and always treated all of her children equally. Alicent taught her children that their half-sister was their enemy and would kill them given the chance, that they were perpetual victims. She often excused the awful things they did (likely because of this perceived victimhood) and taught them that their extended family were not to be trusted while also treating each of her children very differently and not preparing them for their duties.
To me, Luke's death is the ultimate tragedy; a kind, loving, honest and sweet little boy who played by the rules and died in one of the most horrific ways imaginable simply because his uncle wanted to scare him a bit. I completely understand why Rhaenyra is going to do all the things she's going to do in season 2 - grief is a powerful thing.
@@christinestreeter8566 whenever I see a character in either GOT or HOTD and I find out that they have an older sibling my immediate thought is 'they're probably gonna be a problem' and I'm almost always right, the intensity of chaos and suffering they cause just tends to vary from character to character😂
The episode we’ve all been waiting to see your reaction to !
"The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion”- King viserys in episode 1
Dragons are nuclear predators the fact that Daemon wants more on their side and most are wild and untame is just terrifying force
It’s been a lot of fun following you from the beginning of Game of Thrones to here
If you’re looking for something very much like GOT but without the dragons, you can’t go wrong with either The Last Kinggdom or Vikings.
Thanks for all the work you put in to bring threes reactions to us!
I love how Rhaenys stands in pride looking right at Rhaenera. Like a Proud Mama..Rhaenys seeing a woman wear the crown for the first time, an honored that she was denied.
Dance of dragons has begun. This season was more like a prologue that shows you everything leading up to the start of the civil war. The flashbacks were essential to show how everything leads to civil war. That being said, going forward, we are in the war so expect no more time jumps.
Agreed about Aegon and Laena! Very interesting characters indeed !
Otto is more deserving for S than most of them there tbh, but Viserys indeed deserves a tier of his own S++. He drove most of season 1 conflict by himself so he does need credit for that, amazing acting too. If not for him nothing would have ever happened.
Vaemond and the old kingsguard commander McTavish did deserve better though! Great acting from both!
Let the Dance of the Dragons begin!
I started reading Fire & Blood a few months ago and I finally reached the part that is being adapted to House of the Dragon (I've been reading really slowly haha) and what is about to come in season 2 is tremendous. I am actually so excited right now. I am currently reading what I think it would be season 3 and there are really interesting things...
I know right?? And the first episode of season 2 is going to be so dark
@@thomasluke-wp8or Exactly... And I'm pretty sure Season 2 Ending is going to be epic, if it finishes where I think is going to
@27agu where do you think it's gonna end? To avoid spoilers just list the page number 😅
@@thomasluke-wp8or I'm reading it on an e-book so I don't have the page but all I will say is that it has to do with Rook's Rest
@@27agui read somewhere that season 2 episode 3/4 is Rooks Rest. Ive never read the books so I don't know much could be left out if u think that would have been good for a season 2 ending
Congrats, now you're officially caught up! And now you're also going to suffer along with us the one-remaining-year break for season 2, and probably another two or three years for season 3 if my hunch is correct.
Season 2 is set to be released around summer, so definitely not a full year; and the producers and companies backing and funding them have also expressed that they'd like to get season 3 started more quickly than they got started with season 2 as well.
Like with game of thrones you stand out as a reactor by your comments about the music; I like that!
Furthermore you have a very independent and nuanced opinion,
Thanks for this season and see you in the next!
Book backing: Aemond didn’t just go off after him, one of the daughters of Borros who he didn’t choose was upset and said basically along the lines of “I wouldn’t want a cripple anyway” which led Aemond to go off in anger, he wouldn’t want to kill though as he wouldn’t want to start the war (he’s dutiful and not stupid) but as no one was in the skies, they weren’t sure what happene d
23:20 - that what happens when you sick a battle hardened dragon against a frightened youngster. It's like getting your leashed pit bull to lunge at people and then the leash breaks...
Rhaenera had the same rage face that Dany had when Masandai was beheaded
Thanks!
"Ear orgasm" im freaking dead. Rhaenyra's face at the end was sooo iconic.
Lol... "I don't expect anything INSANE to happen..."!!!
(...I'm doubling over...laughing... 😅😅🤣🤣🤣)
JUST YOU WAIT!
🤪
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm about to go crazy waiting on Season 2!! Great reactions, Movie Fusion!!❤🎉 I'm starting to read Fire and Blood but I'm stopping right where Luke and Arrax die.. I don't wanna know what happens in Season 2!! The suspense is REAL!!😅😅😅
loved the tire list!
u got amazing taste.
the ending scene is one of the best scenes of TV imo
6:47 “The dead girl had been named Visenya, Princess Rhaenyra announced the next day, when milk of the poppy had blunted the edge of her pain.”
I mean if I lost my dad, TWO of my kids, and had my throne stolen, hell yeah I’d start a war 😭
8:59 All the North Men: "We came to die for the Dragon Queen."
Agreed on the eargasms, this soundtrack was so good. I believe the full 'Blood of my Blood' theme was only used twice - in ep 1 when Rhaenyra flies around King's Landing and in this episode.
Viserys was also my favorite character of season 1! I completely agree with your tier list right now, your S tier is perfect! 👌
I wouldn't be hard on Alicent for commanding the death of the White Worm - she literally had people spying her family. Thats an incredible security risk that leaves innocent family members like Helaena or Alicent's grandsons vulnerable.
Your rankings are pretty legit and yeah I agree this season is at least on par with the top seasons of GoT. Very great show and I love how you can feel that it’s going to continue to be great. Great reaction as well, can’t wait for more!
"Over the centuries, House Targaryen has produced both great men and monsters. Prince Daemon was both. In his day there was not a man so admired, so beloved, and so reviled in all Westeros. He was made of light and darkness in equal parts. To some he was a hero, to others the blackest of villains." I think this quote alone explains Daemon ahahahah
Alicent wanted "Eye for an eye". Rhynaera would want "Son for a son".
Vermithor was Old King Jaehaerys' dragon (the old man at Harrenhal in episode 1.) It's one of the largest dragons, but has been riderless for decades.
You're right exactly, size does matter. Dragons never stop growing, provided they're given light, space and exercise. 9/10 of the larger dragon overwhelms the younger.
The green banner was actually a golden dragon, as a reference to Aegon's mount, Sunfyre, considered the most beautiful dragon to ever live and with whom he had probably the most powerful Targaryen-dragon bond ever, minus Daenerys and her children. Season 2 has already fixed that green dragon bullshit I believe lol.
As Aemond's false eyed gleamed at him, the princeling fled the castle and mounted his young dragon arrax. The rain fell in sheets, and great bolts of lightning lit the world bright as day.
Arrax was struggling to stay aloft in the gale when a roar shook the very foundations of Storm's End. Aemond rose through the clouds and below him the monstrous Vhagar. Vhagar was five times the size of Arrax and a hardened survivor of a hundred battles. Vhagar caught him above ship breaker bay,
Watchers on the castle walls saw distant blast of flame and heard a shriek drown out the thunder. Prince Lucerys fell, broken, to be swallowed by the waves.
7:49 agreed! So disturbing but man. Rhaenyra is such a badass to me - these births have been deleting every other woman in Westeros practically and she had a choice and she chose herself
Not deleting 😂
I’d be interested in seeing you do a tier list or ranking of all game of thrones universe seasons including the first season of hotd
Oh yeah
IMO
S1 GOT
S1 HOTD
S3 GOT
S2 GOT
S4 GOT
S6 GOT
S5 GOT
S7 GOT
S8 GOT
Keep in mind im a huge book fan so I am especially biased towards S1 GOT/HOTD because of their loyalty to the books.
GOT 1-4 is prime TV though, but the later of those seasons struggle a bit in the logic, plot and character department. Season 4 really fucked up a lot of characters imo
@@bjornerluffyGOT Season 4 is most people's favorite, mine included. I do agree that the 1st 4 are the best, just in a slightly different order. Then, HOTD would be right in the middle, then last 4 GOT, with 6 being the highest. But, 7 is my least favorite, then 8.
@@kimberlywilmoth9184 It is many peoples favorite, and I do not fault them for having it as their favorite. This is why I put the "book reader" bias thing at the start of my comment.
Season 4 shines in GREAT fucking moments, Oberyn and The Mountain, Purple Wedding, ETC. The season is filled with such events.
My issue with the season is twofold, firstly its the season where I start to struggle to take the world as seriously. Ramsey fighting the 100 best warriors of the Iron Islands naked is basically a preview of season 7/8. There are more such logic/plot breaks in the season, but that is the most ridiculous.
The other major issue I have is with characterization, as this is the season that truly butchered Tyrion as a character. Other characters like Cercei, Sansa and Jon also suffered pretty hard, but not nearly as much as Tyrion. Them removing the Tysha reveal to make Shae more important is insane, and is part of them never really wanting to condemn Tyrion or make him morally bad.
This is THE reason for why he becomes such a boring mess for the rest of the show.
I also think season 6 is shit, its great TV, but as a work of fiction its pretty god damn shit, not much better than Vikings or other similarly unserious shows. Again, it was held up by great cinematic moments and action, and I really really loved it on my first watch.
However, very few if any of the major scenes made sense, both in universe and just logically speaking. Dany's whole arc this season is garbage imo, the Winterfell plot is without any real logic behind it and Cercei blowing up the sept is a fantastic TV moment, but it just becomes really stupid when the only consequence is her being suddenly queen.
he literally just did
it only seems like hightower vs targaryen bc the writers wanted you to see it like that and took away from greens' targaryen side in the show to make rhaenyra appear more special. and i hate it. the green kids claimed some of the oldest dragons alive (mind you claiming is a big deal and it's not like getting dragon eggs, the way rhaenyra's children were given), one of the ridden by one of the three conquerers, visenya targaryen, and the other ridden by rhaena, the black bride. i'm talking about vhagar and dreamfyre. aegon and sunfyre have an amazing bond in the book while daeron and tessarion worked so well together and tessarion was a strong dragon. it actually sucks that ppl see them as just hightowers. they are targaryens. and in the war both flew the targaryen banner until they each changed their banners. aegon changed it to a gold dragon to honor his dragon sunfyre.
43:00 also how are you on daemon's side?
The writer or should I say author, defied logic, by naming Otto, Hand of the King again, while ignoring the fact that he wrote in, just 3 episodes earlier, where Vaesarys fired Otto for undermining his desire to have Raenyra to be his successor & that Otto was plotting otherwise. Essentially like writing in, the north voting on Geofrey to be the King of the North, after Ned's beheading. It makes no sense to have him rehired from a logical pov, it onl made sense from building a bad guy pov. It's just simply bad writing. George managed to have 5 different Hands in GOT, he didn't need to be around the king anymore to stir up trouble. But then again, perhaps George didn't have any good material to write about Otto, other then him hovering around the throne area in King's Landing.
I mean it makes sense. They were not raised by Viserys, they were raised by Alicent and Otto
@@BhBc8f8 Aemond, Aegon and Daeron at the very least if not also Helaena are better Targs than Viserys. Viserys claimed Balerion when he was dying. He literally was bonded to Balerion for less than one year before Balerion died and he never bonded w a dragon again. All that effort from the writers to make them less Targ than they are in the books and they're still perfect examples of Targaryens.
@@jayhildenbrand7237 Not sure what this has to do with my comments.
My tier list would be basically the same just with Otto also in S tier, great character and Rhys Ifans steals most of the scenes he's in. Also would change the order within the S tier a little bit. Good reaction.
6:47 "She was my only daughter and they killed her, they stole my crown and murdered my daughter, and they shall answer for it." - Rhaenyra Targaryen
*Does absolutely nothing for the entirety of the war*
Notice how Game of Thrones visually told us Daenerys was bad for the choice of 'live or die', but House of The Dragon don't visually tell us how to feel with Daemon's choice of 'live or die'. They let us decide for ourselves.
That moment was just stupid and bad writing the tarllys betrayed there lords and dany gave them a chance of mercy they refused she was 100% right to kill them what other option did she have? That moment was just bad writing and gaslighting .
Daemon is so right the kingsguard could easily betray them especially in there moment of weakness making sure there on the blacks side us completely reasonable .
@@thatoneblackdude3333 I agree about Daenerys, that's the point I'm making. With Daemon, they don't tell you to think one way or the other, they just show you what he would do in character, right or wrong.
@@SashaRickyexactly
@@SashaRicky yeah the show portrayed it as a cruel thing to provide "evidence" when literally every Lord does it.
I can’t wait for season 2! 😁
What a day for poor Rheanyra. In just one day she lost a father, a daughter, a son, and the crown.
Are you musician? The way you hear music emotions and all the teams (in your GoT videos too) is amazing!!! `I think Ramin would be so happy that you're hearing everything!!!
6:47 Visenya was born dead, twisted, malformed, with a hole in her chest where her heart was supposed to be and a dragon's tail with scales.
I’ve been waiting on this day for you to react to this episode 😢😊❤
It's ironic with all of the tension that it was dragons disobeying their riders that shed first blood.
Aemond pushed it to be honest
Aemond started the pursuit
Vermithor was Jahaerys' dragon, it's symbolic to have his dragon in team black... It would be as if Jahaerys' was on their side. There's also the fact that he is alot older than Rhaenyra and Daemon's dragons, it also known more war than them.
Aemonds dragon Vhagar is the largest dragon alive at the time. Vermithor is the second largest, just a bit smaller than her.
I believe with a miscarriage the fetus is discarded before it has any chance of survival outside the womb, but Rhaenyra's baby looked developed enough that it might have lived, but it was already dead when it was "born" so you would say it was stillborn.
I read fire and blood, Aemond and Rhaenys are my favourite characters and Aemond is my second favourite Targaryen because my number one Targaryen is jaehaerys
6:36 had me bawling my eyesssss out
I mostly agree with this list but I think Otto and Rhaenys deserves S tier position, Larys and Lionel deserves A tier position as both were essential characters, Ser Harold Westerling and Vaemond should be on B tier cause they both did well to the little screentime they were given, Rhaena and Haelena should exchange places cause Haelena actually had important role in plot, Joffery and Qarl should be on D tier position cause nothing about them was essential or really remotely great acting.
I agree with your tier list, and Daemon is not a good person. Great reaction see you on next season! All hail Ramin Djawadi, king of the music.
The sad thing is vhagar is really old and slow and arrax (lukes dragon) isnt that fast but faster than vhagar to be sure so he could easily have escaped for her if it wasnt for the storm. Because arrax is so small the heavy winds made him much slower but vhagar is huge and extremely heavy so the winds changed nothing... also i found it funny you said it cant really be called a civil war because this is often called the targaryen civil war
Remember....these people are DRAGONS!; with "HOT TEMPERANCE"...
😉
the twins are Arryk and Erryk, lol. I would actually put the Crab King in D, for a main villain of some episodes he was drastically underdeveloped. And I would put the spoiler girl (aka Helaena) higher, everything she says is so on point, we just don't see it at that moment. Same is with Larys, he's done so much, he's actually not much worse than his almost-namesake from GoT - Varys. I'd say he's the main shit-stirrer in the capital.
Great season! Can't wait!
The entire purpose of this first season was to set up the upcoming Targaryen Civil War. That is why they had so many significant time jumps. They had to take you through the history of the two sides and dramatize the main events so that the viewer would understand the conflict and the personalities behind it. The show is expected to have three or four seasons. And you shouldn’t have the kind of time jumps that they did in this first season.
Aemond with the kinslaying tho. Season 2 is gonna ge so good
I don't think he meant to do it. He was scaring him. He tried to get Vhagar to obey, but Vhagar was pissed that the little dragon fired in his face. Either way though, it's not gonna matter to Rhaenyra.
@@kimberlywilmoth9184I don’t think it objectively matters much either way, Luke wouldn’t have died if Aemond hadn’t chased after him. Even if it was unintentional, Aemond is still fully responsible for creating such a dangerous situation, where his nephew ended up dying
@@spacelia3920 It doesn't matter at all, you're right. Like I said, it ain't gonna matter at all to Rhaenyra...and yes, it would not have happened if he hadn't chased after him.
I was just speaking from Aemond's perspective, he didn't mean to kill him, that intent wasn't there.
“The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion”
8:59 52 houses supported Rhaenyra and 28 houses supported Aegon II.
And she had more dragons and still they fumbled it.
Rhaenyra's grandmother Alyssa rode Meleys while pregnant with Viserys and Daemon (and quite possibly Aegon) and took both boys out with her while they were babies...it's fine
and Lady Arryn is Rhaenyra's first cousin (Aemma was the baby half sister of the Lord of Arryn who only had Jeyne)
It is said in multiple times by the author than a smaller dragon has also an advantage in combat - they are harder to hit obviously and quicker, which means quicker bites, quicker dragon fire and quicker claws - you can see this could be extremely dangerous for the other rider.
Finally someone appreciating Aemond
Luke was so inept that he forgot he had a younger brother available for marriage to negotiate lol
3:35 "that war is not mine to begin."
Hunderds of dead innocent KingsLanding residents: '_'
The Dragon Daemon was singing to was Vermithor he is a bronze dragon with "great tan wings". only Balerion and Vhagar were larger. At the time of the Dance of the Dragons, Vermithor was almost a hundred years old and the second largest Dragon now that Balerion is gone. Vermithor was a fearsome beast. Accustomed to men and having had a previous rider, by the reign of Aegon II Targaryen Vermithor was tolerant of the presence of people and more accepting of new riders. Vermithor often coiled with Silverwing.
Alicent and Aemond in s-tier and Aegon in a-tier. Its like a thousand team black souls screamed in agony at the same time.
What exactly made Laena, the owner of maybe 7 minutes of show in the "A" tier? Alongside of Otto Hightower, who had probably the 4th most minutes in the entire show? I thought you were not basing your grades on good guys or bad guys in the show, but rather on what makes a great character in the show. Otto, is an excellent villain, despite the poor writing giving him the Hand of the King gig again. Raenys alongside Laena too? Kristen Cole a tier below Laena? Next time, I suggest making your choices & adjusting them, before you present them to us. Or start with the top guys first. If you start, like how you did it, with lower tier actors & give them a favorable level, you're left later on with "A" level, if you don't want to give a certain character "S" level. I can bet you that the ones that I mentioned, got paid 5 times more $ then the actress that played Laena, because they got a lot more minutes & got a much juicier part in the show. If you Google HOTD, Laena is the 20th character mentioned, not by accident.
You mean one of the few female characters in the got universe who kept autonomy over her own body and claimed Vhagar, who fought alongside Aegon the Conqueror? He's damn right she was a great character.
Rhaenyra’s crowning is so emotional I always tear up. Seeing Daemon crown her as well, after he just crowed his brother. Who he he thinks was murdered. It’s all so poetic but so sad.
More like boring.
If you ever want another great fantasy show to watch, I’d totally recommend The Wheel of Time! Season 1 suffered a bit from Covid, but S2 absolutely turned everything completely around and has honestly become imo must watch TV!
The dance begins 🔥🩸
Aemond did it on purpose in the books. The show has left a lot of choices (that we know to be choices in the book) as “gray area” in the show, and it actually serves the plot very well. Show Aemond and Aegon are actually relatable, where in the books they were just the villains, there was hardly room to see where they’re coming from. Where I think the show has done a brilliant job of presenting this conflict from both sides, rather than “good guys” and “bad guys”
As a huge fan of all of the books, and having enjoyed the shows, I agree that Hot D is as strong as the best seasons of GoT. It helps tremendously that the writers have the bare skeleton of a COMPLETE story to tell - there's plenty of room for creativity, alongside a strong framework of where things have to get to.
I'm trying not to think too hard about season two and am even avoiding re-reading the 'history' books, so that more of the coming show will be a surprise. As it is, I can't help but remember some of the biggest 'beats' in the coming story and CAN'T WAIT!
Mr. Martin predicts 4 or 5 seasons?
I have heard some reactors mock Baratheon for not being able to read. .Likely he is simply illiterate, but there could be other factors vs stupidly or laziness. Jaime Lannister was dyslexic but Tywin rode his ass for four hours a day until he learned to read. Another thing this story takes place well before reading glasses. Maybe Baratheon can read large print, but not smaller print due to weaker eyesight. Without my readers I would be "illiterate" as well
The actor who plays Aemond was also in The Last Kingdom really great show if you never watched you should
First of all size always matters!My fav season finally ever!She lost two kids....A mother's revenge...You were saying no Civil War?