@@ideozublake8036 That's not true at all. He flies with Rhaenyra to King's Landing to take the capital once Criston and Aemond leave. He also leaves Harrenhal to siege Stone Hedge while the Bracken's were fighting at the Battle of the Burning Mill. All of this is before his battle with Aemond.
The best moment in this episode was Larys being like “omg what an honour it would be to serve as your Hand”, and Aemond slapping him down like “no you idiot, I just want you to send a raven to my grandfather, do you think you can handle that?”
I felt bad for Larys. He didn't deserve such a burn. Not from a cuck that couldn't even laugh off getting caught in a brothel with his first ever hooker.
Idk if Larys knew he would say that and he’s acting like a fool so he gets underestimated, or if he actually thought he could play Aemond like that…it’s hard to tell sometimes
It's really strange isn't it. There are some minor things that could have been better, but I love this series. I planned to watch the first episode sarcastically two years ago because I was completely convinced they'd f*ck it up like they did GOT but it's amazing. The acting, the cinematography, the dialogue: it's all top notch. I still think the whole Viserys throne room walk scene from Season One is the best acted and directed scene in the whole series (including GOT). Every actor in HOTD is absolutely top notch, and luckily they are getting the right dialogue to shine.
Ya he was easily the most entertaining character for me. I would’ve forgave the writers if they deviated from the book and forwent aegon’s injuries (or at least delayed them) since the actor was so good. He was like a likeable Joffrey lmao. Still pretty evil tho
@@GamerGuy-nd4ixyou nailed it. He’s horrible but the most fun to watch. I’m watching HOD like Succession. There are no real good guys to root for, so just enjoy the dramadramadrama.
@@ryankelly7070 You know, that's a good point. He is certainly not a good person, but he's also no Joffrey. His gut instinct was to just give people what they want, although his decisions revealed his ignorance of the big picture. He is very, very cruel to Aemond though. I think season 2 is bad, but you guys just convinced me to appreciate Aegon more.
@@sabershikik9351 it’s actually exactly the quality of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. That season seemed bad, compared to the first seasons of GoT, but had all the serie been built with the logic of season 8, we wouldnt have found it so terrible. Well thats why HBO decided to take all the thing we hated in S8 and put it since the start of HoD, so we couldnt complain about how much better things were before
I personally think it kinda is. But not for the kiss scene. Tho I do think Mysaria x Rhaenyra scene is as useless as Alicole. But the real concern is how they're messing up dragon lore.
I would drop ascene in mind why this is very close to that level. When the queen Rhaenyra goes to kings landing after they assassinated the granddaughter of Alicent. (They should be on very high alert, but looks like no... ) Imagine the same in GOT .... You already feel how stupid this is, not even talking about how fast everyone travels... Rhaenyra her son, Alicent lost her granddaughter and they talk like that...?! AND if Alicent captures Rhaenyra in that moment, they probably win the war and very peacefully... That scene... Just fucked with my mind... This is not even bad, they could have talked, but the whole way they made it happen is just leaves a lot to be desired...
@@TheForkOnTheLeftist and people wonder why the writers are being made fun of, hey let’s throw a song in that only true fans will recognize,……..but sir that song is made 187 years from now. Ehhhhhhh who cares RED WEDDING NOSTALGIA
I think the scenes with the greens are always fun to watch. Anything involving the council, Alicent, Aemond, Cole, etc. is usually good. The scenes with the blacks are where the show feels like it’s dragging, I think that’s because the only big characters on the black side now are Rhaenyra and Daemon and they aren’t really doing anything. Rhanerya’s small council feels very underdeveloped to me, none of them are very interesting.
@@donovan4222 This is why I like the greens more. Not because I support Aegon as the rightful heir, I as a viewer couldn't care less, but because they bring the drama.
Him and Otto have both been missing the last two episodes and it’s really starting to show how much those two carried this show and the pacing. Never a dull moment with either of those characters around.
So we started the episode where kings landing was mildly upset. The idea of dragonseeds was still a theory. Daemon was stuck at harrenhall, aemond was just a stand in. Now were at a point thwere we have a new dragon rider, kingslanding is basically in full rebellion, daemon effecivly has full control of the riverlands, with the lannister army marching on them, aemond is effectively the full king of westeros. Rhaenyras got a new full advisor I dont really get how thats "slow" for the oldschool game of thrones
There is a bit more: The hightowers seem to be missing and likely being stalled in The Reach. We learn there is a wild dragon in the Vale. We see Larys starting to plot against Aemond after pushing his luck. Alicent is fired(though her power was already almost nothing). We learn about Daeron second-hand. We get confirmation of Corlys having bastards and both get into an important position(well, seemingly). We see Aemond's despoticism. We see Daemon starting to crack
Its actually kind of ridicullous how people ONLY care about action. All this buildup is what enhances the action. If we just got action set pieces then we wouldnt care about these characters.
I think a lot of people havnt even interpreted the Daemon visions correctly, like this last episode was the MOST growth we have ever seen from him, Daemon finally learns he should have been there for his brother when he needed him, Daemon comes out of that vision and for the first time in his life he is able to ASK for help
Yes!!! Finally someone noticed. It seems to me that as soon as people see Daemon in another hallucination scene they tune out and get annoyed instead of actually paying attention to what happens. I haven't read the book, but I feel like Daemon underwent a hugely important development over the last episodes that will influence his behaviour going forward..
Yes! This episode was Daemon choosing family over pride & finally being able to face his biggest regrets in that conflict. All of his visions were building to facing Viserys.
fucking yes. it's like actual genuine growth is happening for the first time for the biggest characters in this series and people are too obsessed with "but where's my plot development guys why does daemon keep sitting at the fort" LIKE PAY ATTENTION PLEASE BRO
ngl, i missed this subtle growth too, until i watched a bunch of reaction vids. youtube creators are doing a great service helping us normies catch stuff. i never disliked the daemon trips and found them very intriguing, especially when larys straight up acknowledges this was part of his plot to "drive daemon crazy". which also means that it is backfiring, since daemon is apparently growing emotionally from this, plus he's apparently getting a nice little alliance with alys. bottom line: don't be too taken in by ADHD takes on social media!
Yes! I was like 😲😲😲 when he actually hugged Visarys. That's just so amazing in terms of character growth for Daemon. And people go like "these dreams don't do anything"... What??
They are deeper, flawed, compelling, INTERESTING. On the other side, we have Daemon (I still like his Harrenhal scenes) and the Sea Snake, but yeah definitely the "good guys" label doesn't work in their favor.
The blacks are just portrayed as good guys so they're boring and bland characters. Whereas the Greens have flaws, it's backfired on the showrunners as the wanted everyone to hate the greens.
Probably because rhaenyras arc this season is basically as boring as daemons lol, but I still love the show, just think some aspects could be better. I don't mind slow scenes but with good dialogue, which is why I enjoy the greens more as of now. Aegon, Aemond, and Alicent specifically. Otto and Larys have been good too
I think the new episode is good, definitely better than episode 5. I just have 2 problems: Rhaenyra isn't grey in the show, she's way too honorable and pacifistic, and season 2 has only 8 episodes, so I always feel frustrated when a plotline has no development
Well in the book she's also portrayed as an absolute vilain because yknow, maesters wrote it? Plus the point isn't so much the will to be pacifist, as to cling that one mission her father gave her, if anything she's way too much life Viserys, to a fault.
If Rhaenyra is the baby jesus how will Daemon's character arc conclude? If she doesnt do a certain thing how does he do that epic thing? I have a feeling that bit will suck compared to the book. Good episode though. @@abynighteater5670
@@vishwajeetpanwar3271whether it has or not, I kind of just took this as Seasmoke’s personality. Kind of like how Sunfyre is characterized to just adore Aegon, maybe Seasmoke is a more just sociable dragon and is missing his bond
Short answer: no, not really. Long answer: I think the only part of the sapphic kiss scene that made me uncomfortable was the fact that it immediately followed a conversation about parental abuse, but it was more of a “I don’t know if this is 100% healthy for them in this situation” kind of discomfort. Then again, most of the characters in House of the Dragon are messed up in all sorts of ways, so the kiss scene was not super out of left field for me. It CERTAINLY doesn’t make the episode worse
When Rae went to hug miss worm it felt nice and warm then they started kissing I slammed the table and was like what? Liked the episode more than the last one overall but since it was at the end it left a sour taste and made me cancell MAX.
people are just homophobes....we live in these times right now , those stupid people ofcourse dont realize that Rhaenyra has lowkey something with Laena in the books and they already cut that out...why not mysaria then? But I guess thats " woke s*it " :D:D:D they also dont realize that ASOIAF world is full of gay characters and George is a liberal himself :D I just feel like if you dont like then you are watching the worng show and its not meant for you then probably...Im just saying that because all the critisism that I have seen has been " oooh some woke sh*it again" , " go woke go broke I stoip watching now" , " women kissing ewwww"
Too many people are trying to defend slow pace with “character development”. Game of thrones seasons 1-3 were mostly dialogue and yet people remember them fondly because the plot was always moving forward. A friend complained about the episode and said nothing actually happened and honestly he’s not wrong. There was set up but the plot didn’t move forward. Everyone ended in the same position as they started the episode which wouldn’t be a problem if ep 5 was not also set up. Literally not a single main characters position has h changed from the start of ep 5 to the end of ep 6.
Thank you. People prefer to put down legitimate complaints over having to critically assess a passable show, because there's too much rubbish out there at the moment.
@4:55 Addam sees Seasmoke in episode 2. Maybe Seasmoke was already checking him out. The failed bonding with Darklyn could've triggered him to go seek out that dude he saw on the beach. He even flies overhead first and sorta turns his head like "there you are!".
I think that having read Fire and Blood adds considerable appreciation for the “slow” episodes because we know what’s coming and how crazy it will be. Even when it’s slow, the tension is so high.
I think it also has the opposite effect for some people as they read the book, rmember all the major battles and stuff talked about in the books, spend weeks talking about these major battles/events, get bored waiting for them, the battle happens then either it matches their understanding of the book where they complain that it was predictable or they do things different where they then complain about changing the source material
@@zenmonk5403again it’s because they can’t afford any more episodes. It really sucks the episodes cost so much to produce. It would’ve been great if they had 10. Hopefully they’ll get a bigger budget for next season so we can have the big battles as well as a full 10 episodes
To me the pace isnt necessarily the problem. Its the writing and the way the characters change for no real reason. Aemond has become comically evil and Rhyneara has become saint like. Season 1 and the start of season 2 were much better in my opinion. The seasmoke dragon finding a random bastard valryon was dumb and im gonna hate when the girl in the vale rides one. And i dont hate the kiss because its a gay kiss. I could care less. I hate the kiss because it was forced, made no sense and they have no chemistry whatsoever.
The kiss scene shouldn't be even there, but it doesn't matter. The true problem is, that it's the season of helpless people: literally nobody knows what to do and everyone just keep walking in circles: Daemon, Rhaenyra, team Aegon...
I mean, Team Green seems to pretty much advance a war, while team Black is between rock and a hard place. I have many problems with Daemon, but I see how many people would feel helpless - sure Alicent and Rhaenyra are maybe played as too good, showing their weakness. Especially as Rhaenyra is pretty much as weak as a ruler as her father - Viserys. Alicent though feels really strange for me, but I'm curious where it will go.
Exactly right. Everything feels like they're stalling for something but it seems like it's for nothing. The tension and climax beats are all bad this season. Also part of this season has way more retcons which irritates a lot of people including me.
@@babyblue3717 George R.R. Martin didn't write it, showrunners didn't want that, the audience didn't asked for that, Emma D'Arcy just improvized. And they shouldn't allow it, because romantic relation building between Rhaenyra and Mysaria wasn't exactly showed through the season, thus it look forced now.
Nah, the true problem is a show that already decided to shoehorn black people into a super-white super-blond Targaryen empire is now trying to go even blacker, which is why Baela (who is WHITE in the books) is somehow 100% black despite having a half-white mom and 100% white dad (which is not how genetics work), then writing in two extremely dark-skinned bastard kids of Corlys (who is WHITE in the books), then having one of them be hunted down and bonded to a dragon that had just incinerated that stupid white guy who obviously wasn't good enough. So now we have two black dragon riders with increasingly prominent roles, and at least two more potential/probable black dragon riders on deck. Again, in an empire that was 100% white in the books. I can already see where this is going. House Black (in more ways than one) against House Green is clearly being set up as more than just a fight for the throne. There's just no getting away from the Woke Era at this point. It has corrupted EVERYTHING. Gotta hit that POC quota, right guys? Even shows about Vikings have black actors replacing white historical figures now.
Rhaenyra knowing Leanor was still alive unless proper confirmation given to her he was dead and risking Ser Steffons life with seasmoke of all dragons has to be a plot hole
I mean, would you really consider it a plot hole? I don't see why Rhaenyra would think about Seasmoke and him being stil Laenor. Laenor isn't here quite a long time, didn't ride Seasmoke, so why would you guess they still have bond? I would just think that they lost their connection at this point and that we can find another rider to bond with Seasmoke as he is useless without a rider. Ser Steffon was also a long shot and desperate move, hoping he will have strong blood to tame a dragon for himself. I would guess that Rhaenyra could have flew herself to see Seasmoke to check if maybe it isn't just Laenor who is back as the rider is unknown. I doubt she will first thing that someone just tamed it.
@@ozyrysozi6186she is a targeryan, this is the kind of simple stuff they would know about. But the show kinda forgot about the life long lasting bound between dragon and rider, this is why changes to the source material should not be done unless the writters have a clear idea of what they are doing and not just making up things as they go
@@ikram-258 Sure there are few problems, but - I'm not sure that Targaryens understood dragonriding that much at this point and general in history, sure they knew their blood allowed them to tame dragons and some of Targaryens even knew how to hatch dragons. Second - I mean, bond between Seasmoke and Laenor could be lifelong. Laenor could be dead before Ser Steffon tried or could died after Steffon try. In series we don't know if Laenor is still alive. That's why I point out that maybe Rhaenyra flew to most probably see Seasmoke and his rider - becouse she is surprised and want to see a rider, but also part of her might be curious if Laenor is back. And last thing - they are aware that a dragon can reject a rider or you need skill to tame a dragon - Rhaena situation - she has strong dragorider blood (from Daemon and Laena - who was daughter of Rhaenys) and yet she was also rejected and nearly killed. Steffon was huge gambit and they were aware of it, but they can't know if that won't work as they don't understand that dragon-rider bond that much (if they knew, they would know that Steffon probably has too thin blood, which can be a lie and he was not suited for Seasmoke, Laenor could be still alive. Maybe Steffon could tame for example younger dragon and groom it).
i despised that shot, the director really thought he was doing something there lol. i am also struggling to take aemond so seriously, im not entirely sold on his cool swagger. but maybe thats exactly the point of his character and the actor has been told to play it so
@@nurrr2041Aemond is a one eyed teenager who has a fucking sapphire to replace the eye he lost and is mewing all the time, how is that not the description of an anime villain
Did people forget what Game of Thrones is like, there were sequences of episodes where nothing but talking happened, the only seasons with non stop action was the last two, and we all saw what happened
It’s how it was done. This isn’t on the level of the early episodes. I’m not big on the battle scenes I like the small council meetings in GOT. This show just feels different and boring especially the dream shit with daemon. The show feels forced also with putting in ideology of the writers n diversity for the sake of it even when it makes zero sense. Like making the velaryons black was just stupid. It instantly takes me out of the show when they r on the screen. I see actors not characters
@@TheSands83 The "Dream shit with Daemon" is what was missing in the GoT, the magical elements George kept writing over and over about dreams, prophecy and nightmares and a reason why GoT was subpar to the books. Anyone hating it clearly should just stop watching because this is what A song of Ice and Fire was meant to be from the very beginning.
@@TheSands83 boo hoo, womp womp, black people exist my guy, watch out they might show up during your grocery shopping, god you people are so pathetic, seriously your problem with the show is, "there's black people in it, me dont likey" piss off racist pos
God im so sick of this "durrrr you just forgotttt" Everybody who is watching HOTD watched GOT before it, the difference is that the dialogue in early GOT was S tier, engaging, dramatic and fun while HOTD Season 2 has endless droning, repeating scenes and meandering plot, WE CAN ENJOY SLOW SEASONS but NOT poorly written ones with mediocre dialogue and pushing a women good men bad agenda. I support the Black and I used to support Rhaeneyra as queen but she's become so milquetoast that i've wrapped around to loving Aegon Purely because he isn't a cardboard cutout.
@@christianbroadbent7489 Rose-colored glasses. Early GoT has some scenes that drag for too long. Just people seem to conveniently forget about them. There are going to be more scenes of Theon waking up to being tortured by Ramsey, or Jon Snow looking confused in the north with a blue filter or Daenerys roaming around with a yellow tint filter than Daemon having visions but people conveniently kinda forget about those. There is no way this season is slow, it is going too fast compared to the books. Daemon spent almost 1 whole year in Harrenhal and without the visions it would just be Daemon having supper for the 100th time waiting for the Riverlands to gather. Also not sure if we are seeing the same series because women are def bad and Rhaenyra is the worst demostrating all the reasons why she shouldn't be queen.
I'm all in on Aemond winning the war and being king after the frequent developments in House "Black," a name which seems to be less and less about the queen with each episode. But I'm 100% sure they won't have the Greens winning, given the demographics of both sides and the fact that this show is being made in the 2020s. I've seen this pattern before..
2:24 the shadow being on the side of his face with the eyepatch is just chef's kiss. really adds to your idea of the eyepatch symbolizing his colder side. this show is so beautifully shot
I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Aegon. He didn't want to be king in the first place but was forced to accept it by his family. He doesn't have the necessary knowledge and skills to be a ruler and he knows it all too well. From his point of view, he is a victim. Never loved by his parents and almost killed by his brother, he has an inferiority complex that ultimately led to him making rash decisions. The interaction between him and Larys reminded me of the conversation between Tyrion and Oberyn Martell (when Oberyn tells him that he'll fight for Tyrion). In my opinion, it's one of the best scenes in the entire series.
Really hate the trope of a character disclosing sexual abuse/trauma and following it up with “anyways we should kiss!” Does not fit either of them or their relationship whatsoever
but its realistic... I mean I know I have been in a situation like this where I am opening myself more and person is basically comforting me with a kiss or a hug
@@HK-gm8pe just because you have an abnormal reaction to something does not make it realistic. A hug is understandable, but a make out session? Yeah nah
the only good in this so far is the gorgeous stages they have produced, digital fx for dragons and locations, the music (in season 1, season 2 has been tame audibly) and costume and makeup. there are some great actors in this series, doing there best with a bang average script and school standard directing. i guess thats a lot of good, about 60%
I dont think anyone wanted to see Daemon hallucinating in harrenhal this whole season. They wanted to see him raising an army for Rhaenyra, which we've only seen glimpses of.
Like you pointed out, the greens in general seem to get the most nuance in terms of their writing. If I remember correctly the kiss between rhaenyra and Mysaria was actually improvised during the shoot. So I think the audience feeling that the scene was kind of out of left field makes more sense with that context. The writers and director should have had the back bone to say "we love improv however the breadcrumbs for this type of relationship hasn't recieved the necessary development. We'll maybe consider developing it properly next season." And just cut the scene after the hug.
I really like what Daemon pointed out to Lord Strong. In almost every scene where Daemon comes out of some trance or hallucination, Lord Strong is ALWAYS there behind him to wake him. It's almost like he's spying on Daemon.
Yeah at first I thought they Aly Rivers was a hallucination because no one seemed to acknowledge her and she just pops up, but idk what’s real and not real at that place.
Even when this show is at its weakest is still a Dothraki sea of difference between when Got was at its weakest and anyone saying this episode was bad because of the kiss at the end just grow up
tbh I think that's supercuts making it a bigger deal. I've been seeing reviews all over and no one really cares that much they just say it came out of nowhere
@@TheForkOnTheLeftist Tbh for me it just felt inappropriate after what Mysaria just talked about. If they had done it at a later scene it would have made more sense and felt more natural.
@@unc54 pretty sure it's manipulative. They had been connecting over being used by daemon and not being accepted. And personally, I think she used that story to manipulate Rhaenyra emotions. Basically like they had been through the same thing and were connected. Now let me put my tin foil hat back on lol
@@unc54 i didnt even think about that, i saw it more that mysaria was opening about traumatic stuff to the only person how has ever shown her respect and treated her like as an equal, which lead to her wanting closoure and then more. I liked the kiss and hoping that they keep that relationship alive. But yea as supercuts said, having the kiss later (maybe next episode) would have been much better, cuz then we would have gotten more scenes with Rhaenyra and mysaria being more comfortable with eachother.
@@TheForkOnTheLeftist i'm glad u said this! when u rewatch the scene, i even noticed this the first time, there's this rlly odd music playing that makes you almost feel uncomfortable, and definitely not the type of music you would hear if they wanted to play up this mysaria and rhaenyra relationship. it definitely seems to me that mysaria is manipulating rhaenyra, and i'm rlly curious to see how they will play it out in the next two episodes
No it's not. I will admit the last two episodes were a bit of a let-down for me after the first 4, but the show is still very good, much better than most other stuff we see in Hollywood right now. I also love how Daemon sleeping with his mom barely was brought up as bad in the fandom, and if it was, then it was mostly as a joke, but rhaenyra kissing another woman pushes the show too far. I'm not even really a fan of the two of them being romantic, but come on, it feels like half of the people I see talking about this show online are 12 year olds whose peak fiction experience was seeing portals open in Avengers Endgame.
100000% like the level of vitriol is so telling because even if you think it was under developed the attitude towards that is so different simply because they are women. Like if nothing changed in this story but we made mysaria a man, i think people would argue it was rushed, but not the ALL DESTORYING EVIL AGENDAAAAAAAA Seriously look up low reviews of this Ep and take a shot every time the word AGENDA is mentioned and youll end up more fucked than tyrion
can anyone explain to me why Daemon doesn't just kill Alys Rivers when it's pretty obvious that 1) he is sick and tired of these dreams, 2) she is somehow involved in it. So WHY each and every time he sees her in reality they just have a nice chat and he even asks for her help but never tries or at least threatens to kill her? I love Matt Smith so much and Daemon as a character and it's sooo frustrating to see his "development" in this season and it seems he won't even have Nettles around
We know she got in his head at some point so it may explain his lenient nature towards her, its not farfetched to say she's made him more docile when in her presence because lets be real NO ONE else is getting away with the shit she says to Daemon. I personally don't think Alys is even physically at Harrenhall.
I would question why he didn't planned a way to kill the sick lord. Like he was literally able to send assassins to kill the "king" brother into the red keep. How hard that is compared to kill a sick lord...?
@@HasanAbist That's not the same as actively looking for an assassin. That's literally just "wait I magically solve it for you" boring. Especially after so many episodes of doing nothing. Cause the same could have been done by him day one.
My 2 major issues are: 1) Individual weird scenes such as the kiss in this episode, the dragon scene in S1 episode 9, Criston Cole murdering that guy on the council without cause or consequence, etc.. Strange writing inconsistencies that do harm to the lore, world-building and the suspension of disbelief in the viewer. And 2) the general writing on the Black's side which seems to be relatively one-sidedly portraying them as the good guys, and intent on rounding off their edges. Rhaenys, Rhaenyra as well as Mysaria needed to be challenged much, much more as characters. Rhaenys didn't face up to her crimes in King's Landing at all. And Mysaria may be a good character in concept, but the execution is lacking. She gained Rhaenyra's favor way too quickly, and her apparent romance with Rhaenyra has not been setup in the slightest. The entire Blacks plotline this season feels stalled and rushed at the same time. That said, it's VERY far from "atrocious" claims I see getting thrown around. The rest of the series is still largely great, and even the Greens which have the worst writing are still above average imo. Troubling signs though, to be sure.
The frustrating part is the fact that they're doing a great job with the Greens (although I'll admit I do get tired of Alicent being their punching bag) shows that they can write good storylines for the Blacks. They're just not doing it because they want to make them so clearly the good guys (aside from Daemon and while his plot isn't the best it still is much better than Rhaenyra's) that it's instead made them so boring.
Fully agree, you can add the way they dealt with Laenor not being murdered like in the books but allowed to flee just because they didn't want to make team black do anything evil, even tho it brought some inconsistencies with Seasmoke as mentioned in the video
@@Stackmenace I'm not sure how much of an inconsistency that is, really. Is it 100% a fact that a dragon cannot bond with 2 people, or that a bond cannot be broken by anything other than death? Leanor has both consciously abandoned Seasmoke and even changed continents, both things that are unprecedented in Targaryen history, so personally I can accept that something like this can break the bond. However, they probably should have included a line or conversation regarding this to avoid this confusion, I can agree to that. As for the murder, they did still murder an innocent stranger or servant for this plot to work, so it is still quite ruthless, if you ask me. Personally, her murdering Laenor wouldn't necessarily be outside of her character, but to me it would have felt like a pretty big jump for her characterization. I didn't mind Leanor surviving, though I have to add that whether or not I like this decision would change based on the intentions of the writers. If they simply liked the story direction for creative reasons, I'm all for it, as long as they can make it work in the plot and the script. If it was for ideological (say woke) reasons, I view that as a corrupting influence on the story.
I don't mind when the showrunners change important plots from the book..but most of the time they make no sense..the war just started and only the sea route has a blockade..there is no way King's Landing is starving..plus they know the blacks are to blame from the blockade, but they rebel for a couple of cabbages..this isn't the siege on Storm's End..they have almost all the roads and rivers for shipping food
Maybe the absence of land food can be that the reach & riverlands are all in turmoil, and that the Westerlands & Stormlands are being slow in their support? But yeah they could have done more to explain the food shortage.
Well they do have food it’s just not enough to go around. That makes sense, assuming they get half their food from the sea route or something, or even 25%, just cutting that away would cause people to go hungry very quickly.
Uhm transporting food to several 100s of thousends of people via medival roads and carriges while the riverlands and reach have imploded? Kings Landing is starving in s2 of GoT without their even being a sea blockade just from the war
Its not a matter of it being believable of not, its a matter of every event (however small, this wasn't small though) matters and has consequences (sometimes very dire) for the story. The series is all about foreshadowing. This was a huge break from the (hi-)story we knew about Rheanyra... so the explanation that it is a spontaneous moment from the actor is unacceptable to leave in the episode. Should have put it in the blooper real or something but not left it in the episode.
12:55 You can see on IMDB that out of the 7K people that gave the episode a 1/10, 3.5K of the votes are from people from Saudi-Arabia. The episode really got review-bombed because of that scene with Rhaenyra and Mysaria😂
That just leaves me wondering if Saudi Arabia watched S1 because you had two dudes kissing in multiple episodes and none of those episodes really suffered on IMDb (in fact one of them is one of the highest in the show).
@@unc54 That's an interesting point indeed. Surprisingly, S1EP5, the episode you are referring to, received an overall rating of 9.2 out of 10 in Saudi Arabia. So, I don't really understand why S2EP6 has been received so poorly there.
But in game of thrones and HOTD S1 there was no "Review bombing" even though there were gay and bisexual scenes! Their ratings were still fairly high! So the problem here is not the lesbianism but rather bad writing and forced scenes.
Tbh I think that was on purpose, I think she’s believing that if she stays in rhaenyra’s side, it would be more likely for her to survive, maybe even become more powerful. She knows that vulnerability fosters trust and I feel like that’s exactly what she wants from rhaenyra.
I think it made sense, Rhaenyra once asked about Mysaria’s past and she refused to answer. Now that she is comfortable with Rhaenyra she decides to be vulnerable with her and share her story.
I really like this idea and hope it’s what is actually happening, it would be great to see play out. But in the episode it came across more like the writers shoehorning in some backstory rather than a calculated move by the character.
@niallgaffney2475 In this episode: - Aemond takes control of the green council, make Cristen go to take over Harrenhal from Daemon. Fired his mother from the council and tasked Tyland to make alliance with the Triarchy and make Larys to go get Otto and threatened Aegon about what happened - Rhaenyra and Jace trying to find more dragonriders - Rhaenyra and Mysaria spread rumours and sent "gifts" to the smallfolk inciting a riot - Daemon asked Alys for help. - Larys tried to make himself hand, failed, then pivot to Aegon's side - Aegon pretends he doesn't remember and asked Larys for help. - Corlys promoted his bastard son - Rhaenyra flew off to face whoever claimed Seasmoke Everyone is making calculated moves... I don't know why you don't see any of it.
I totally agree with all of that, I’m only saying that in this one case with Mysaria it felt like a clunky backstory moment rather than a legitimate character decision.
It was kind of mid and now seeing the most recent episode they could have really cut a lot of scenes and merged the episodes. Feels like they are stalling for the big set pieces and it is getting a bit annoying. Really irritating that they keep talking about bringing peace when they killed each others heirs and not blood and fire.
Totally agree. This episode was much better than the last. It is largely set-up and character building so the question remains as to the pay off. This episode will ultimately be judged on whether and to what extent it pays off in the final two episodes, but in that case, if they don't pop-off it will diminish the season. But it seems like some big things are about to come. We'll see.
They threw rotten fish at her and called her “the fish queen” because all they have to eat is fish. Thats established when Baelon goes to the pub and the only meal they have is fish.
The main problem is Daemon and Rhaeneyra's characters have been castrated this season condemned mostly to inactivity and while the first season was a prequel and build-up to a conflict we don't really have a conflict besides Rook's rest we just have a stalemate. The writing and plot is suffering a bit are there new writers from season 1?
was curious myself and went to check lol this one was written by eileen shim who is responsible for the lord of the tides last season. one of the standouts from s1 imo. don't recognize the names from 203 or 205 though.
@@ilostmyiphone1128there’s a difference between the show taking it’s time and the show being extremely repetitive. The harenhall and dragonstone scenes have followed the same patterns for the last 2-3 episodes now
I don't agree with the dreams being redundant they are really good scenes to explains Daemon's true feelings clearly, it shows that he truly regrets that he wasn't with his brother.
I feel like people who are complaining the smallfolk scenes in the show are filler have not been watching the show. The show itself has pointed out several times that the opinion of the smallfolk matter, it was even a thing GoT focused on a few times. The focus on the smallfolk is integral to the plot and its development even if it might not be as obvious at first glance. (Also knowing what it leads to only hammers in how important it is, even though I can't and won't expect everyone to have read FIre and Blood or looked up the lore before, I still think there's enough context in the show itself so far to support the importance of the smallfolk)
These people are the ones that saw Cercei climb to power unchallenged and accepted it 100% without questioning. Meanwhile George RR Martin has been always hinting up how the Smallfolk can turn the tide.
These people are also the ones who complaint about how the show didn't care about the smallfolk in episode 9; then complain when the show made an entire episode focused and titled "The smallfolk". 🤨😐😑
I have a lot of issues with season 2, but almost all of them are with the Rhaenyra/Dragonstone storyline. The other two storylines (Harrenhal and the Greens) are great. But with the blacks, it feels like the characters we know aren't doing very interesting stuff, they don't develop for several episodes. Rhaenyra has been indecisive and complaining about her council for the entire season now. Mysaria is boring , all she does is tell her backstory and tell the audience what an awesome person Rhaenyra is, she feels like a self-insert for the writers. Corlys barely seems to still be a character at this point. Rhaenys was smug and off-putting in all her episodes. Only Jace has been a moderately interesting character. The Rhaenyra/Mysaria relationship feels poorly written entirely, I really don't understand why these characters are suddenly so worshipful of each other. What has convinced Mysaria that Rhaenyra is a wise and gentle queen? What has convinced Rhaenyra that Mysaria is a good person who has her best interests at heart? It just is unearned in every respect. The kiss isn't even that jarring, it's the mere fact that they're so close in the first place. It's not the first time this happened, as Rhaenyra and Rhaenys were also besties all of a sudden at the beginning of the season, even though Rhaenys supposedly blamed Rhaenyra for what happened to Laenor. The writers seem to just have forgotten that completely and figured that since both characters were women, and they liked both characters, therefore the characters should be best friends. But they did nothing to develop any friendship, it's just there. The difference in quality is biggest when comparing the council scenes. The green council scenes are fantastic, because they consist of well-developed, interesting and complex characters squaring off against each other. Every time the dynamics are different, and you can never predict what happens. The black council scenes on the other hand feel all the same. The main characters (Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, Corlys, Jace and Baela) almost always agree with each other and the rare times they don't, it usually takes less than ten seconds for them to get on the same page. So there's no tension there, all the discussion that exists is between this collection of main characters, and a bunch of generic "lords" who all seem to have the same personality and the same motivation: "I like war and don't like women." And they always end the same, with the lords in the council looking down in abashed silence after a main character defeats them in debate with a snappy oneliner (even though objectively speaking, the lords make very valid points, they're just depicted as arrogant and unsympathetic to push the viewer into siding with Rhaenyra and the other main characters). It's really boring right now, the writing for the blacks is sub-par.
I agree 100%. I think the Team Black bias the show runners clearly have (i.e. in showing how the Green council debate and disagree, while the they key Blacks in their Council just agree with one another instantly and rehashing sexism) ends up making the Blacks stale. I literally end up skipping the Blacks scenes to the Greens' cuz shit is actually progressing on their end. I love their complexity and the tension and underlying dynamics between Aegon, Aemond and the Green Councillors against each other. Rhaenyra whines about sexism and the councillors not respecting her when she doesn't realise she has not really done anything to earn their respect. She disappears to meet Alicent for weeks, thus hurting her standing before her allies, and offers no tangible martial solutions. Well obviously they won't listen to you, and she complains but does nothing about it, so how am I supposed to be excited about her character? Also, Mysaria's actress' delivery of her lines this season is so...wooden. I legit cringed because I thought this is so bad.
@@hmm_1228 It feels like nobody on the council of the blacks is allowed to be an actual character, because if they are characters, they will be flawed and they will call out each others' flaws. And Rhaenyra, Rhaenys and Mysaria won't be morally perfect girlbosses anymore.
@@frankvandorp2059 I don't understand making them girlbosses with no flaws. Because GoT had Cersei, Olenna, Margaery and Daenerys. They all had their motivations and did awful things to further their cause, and we all loved them because they had layers. Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, Mysaria? Zilch. Just cardboard.
@@hmm_1228 "I don't understand making them girlbosses with no flaws." I guess because Game of Thrones started in the before time, and more than half of the show had already been written by George over a decade earlier.
My theory is SeaSmoke felt/knew Laenor was turning his back on his whole identity and wasn't calling out for his help in any way, which is why the dragon never felt compelled to join him in exile, but was still magically bonded to his life force and knew when he passed offscreen.
Glad someone else sees it! Laenor clearly didn't WANT to be found... Addam on the other hand, BADLY wants to live the life of a royal/dragonrider/etc, and had even said as much shortly before SeaSmoke came to him. 🙂
@@hira791 It doesn't need to be alluded to if you have a brain. They have already established that the dragons and their riders have a mental bond, so to speak. We saw it in Rhaenyra's failed birth and they spoke of it another time too but I can't recall. It makes total sense, Laenor sailed away, and Seasmoke could sense/feel that Laenor didn't want him to come. It's not really that hard to understand.
Obligatory gay sex scene is worthless. Does nothing for the story. Way too much of this going on now. Is it really important to know that these women are potentially bi? What does this have to do with anything?
Let's make something clear, people are not mad because there are gay characters, people are mad because that kiss was not in the script it was emma d'arcy that suggested they should just kiss which means they have no plan for this relationship to go further so it was just a filler moment meanwhile they could've showed us addam taking his first flight on seasmoke like aemond did on vhagar in season 1, finding seasmoke a rider was one of the main plot points in the episode so why off screen the most pivotal moment and replace it with a filler moment.
I do think rhaenyra relationship with the white worm is forced both on how much trust rhaenyra has with her and the romantic angle but I'm more mad about the the seasmoke problem that they are just refusing to address, having leanor die off screen just feels really unsatisfying and his fake death in season 1 clearly only exists to keep rhaenyras hands clean and they can whitewash her to be the good guy, either kill leanor outright to dirty rhaenyra hands a little to balance the greens and blacks or have him come back in disguise from his dad and you could have some juicy drama there, especially with how addam and seasmoke will meet their end, this also means rhaenyra knowingly sent the kingsgaurd to his death with seasmoke cuz she had no reason to think laenor is dead, other then that is a good episode overall
I wasn't aware of the low rating until I saw this video. Personally I loved the episode. There are so many actors that fit their role so well, and I love watching them. Like Alicent's brother. I hope we get to see more of him, but I fear he will die as soon as combat starts.
Honestly I think one of the contributing factors is that this season was hyped (honestly more so from book readers than the actual creators) as being the actual war when it increasing looks more like it'll be something that probably really gets going in the final episode and into next season. Also, I think if this season was 10 episodes people would be much more forgiving of the slower pace. It's definitely not perfect and I do think the writing in season 1 was definitely better, but I'm still really enjoying it and still think it's closer to S1 - 4 of GoT than seasons 7 & 8.
The sesson has 8 episodes so you shouldn't be spending this much time in build up, seriously daemon has been hallucinating for 5 episodes when you could've made it in 1 or two episodes. The build up has been filled with random moment and so many times the characters are just starting in the distance or at each other without saying much which exposed the bad writing. Instead of daemon having a weird dream with his mom which he can't even remember they could've showed his father baelom the brave and let them have a father som talk that could've been interesting or just stick to the book and give daemon his canon events Removing characters like maelor targaryen son of aegon which creates plot holes. Ignoring George R.R Martin rules about dragons and having sheepstealer at the vale.
I definitely saw the Rhaenyra-Mysaria romance coming, I think it makes total sense (especially given their shared history with Daemon) and the general sexual fluidity of the Targaryen's and Westeros culture. Also given the pressure on Rhaenyra and Daemon's absence.
Larys has more chemistry with Aegon's foot than Rhaenyra has with Mysaria. I've seen quite a few comments saying that "you're blind if you didn't see the kiss coming". I've asked for examples of the supposed build-up and what I get is "the looks they've shared" and "the way Rhaenyra circled Mysaria in episode". This is House of the Dragon. There's a tense look between characters in just about every scene. Otto and Daemon have shared "looks". Are we gonna see them making out too? Probably not. As for the circling, getting up in someone's personal space and circling is an intimidation tactic. She was, after all, a prisoner being interrogated. Beyond that, there was nothing affectionate or romantic between them.
Kiss did feel out of place. They opened their hearts to each other and finally felt understood and that hug was so powerful. Literally just should’ve separated it into two scenes. Also it was a great episode with some very powerful scenes and yet everyone is just talking about the kiss 🤦🏻♀️
Without the pacing the showrunners are using for this season, people would complain about not getting enough character development. I had a small problem with only getting to know Harwin and Leana for one episode before their death in the same episode. Many characters will die in this story, so I would rather get to know them so that their deaths mean something, and leaves an impact on not only the story but also the viewers. Also, there are A LOT of characters, and only one hour each week for us to be reacquainted with them. I love how the showrunners are allowing space for them.
I agree, to me, there are so many political changes in this season (at least on Team Green) that the "slow" pacing is needed. They needed to set up Aegon's reign and how it differed from Viserys'. Then they needed to set up Aegon's downfall and Aemond's "rise" to ambition. I feel like people don't realize that we got 3 Hands and 2 Kings and 1 dead Heir in ONE season for TG lol. Of course, it means the Blacks being "slowed down" because well... no one is working to overthrow Rhaenyra. But I feel like the writers handled well what to do with her and Daemon. I'd say maybe Jacaerys would've deserved to spend more time at Winterfell and Rhaenys deserved more moments, but otherwise 🤷♀ at least Daemon and Rhaenyra have a storyline, whereas in the book it's just "oh well Rhaenyra is grieving Lucerys and Daemon is waiting for his army". I feel like s3 will be very much reversed in that sense, with more happening on Team Black's side, and the Greens "suffering" from it. We have 40 things happening for the Greens, and 3 for the Blacks. But at the same time, we need the 40 from the Greens, so the Blacks have to go through it.
I would agree. It does feel like that sticking to the 10 episode per season format of GoT did hurt S1 in a way, if it was 11 or 12 and we had a few more episodes getting to know Laena more, and getting to see Harwin and Rhaenyra's relationship blossoming, it would have been perfect. While I am happy with S2 so far, once it's done we'll see whether or not 8 episodes was the right choice for this one.
But there has hardly been any character development. Rhaynera is still just as clueless as when the season started. Daemon having flashbacks about shit we already know about the whole season, tells us nothing other than the best actor in the show is effectively being sidelined. The only secondary character that’s even compelling is the foot guy.
@@austinward9 Only one of Daemon's visions was a flashback and it is a twist on events thats different to how it really happened. All of the rest are showing Daemon's real psyche behind his Rogue Prince persona
That's not how dragon lore works. Dragon and rider are supposed to bond for life. While their rider's alive, no one else may mount that dragon. Joffrey Velaryon tried to ride Syrax and was shook off mid air and killed for it.
I rlly have to disagree with that kiss coming out of nowhere. With Rhaenyra and alicent seeming interested in each other in Season 1, but especially the last few episodes felt like that was bound to happen, with like the last few scenes actually making it quite obvious. And I honestly find it fitting with them getting closer the last few episodes but especially the facts that They can bond over Daemon being a bad partner. And like u cant Even blame the writers, they Said it was unscripted, so idk let them explore their characters
@@Thor12233 They`re adapting perhaps 20 pages of a fictional history book so I would cut them some slack... I don't know what exactly people expected to have them turn against the show so quickly
The season has a fixed budget. If it's 8 episodes instead of 10, they can spend more money on each episode. Or they can just sa ve money because there are fewer episodes. Whatever the case, it's because of money, not fewer ideas, imo.
Daemon has been at Harrenhall for way too long at this point, there's really no arguing that, and I don't care how much people want to pretend Rhaenyra and Myseria kissing was natural, it absolutely was not. They really should have followed the blueprint that George provided. What we're getting is worse than Fire and Blood.
The problem is, people mistake entertainment for well-written plot; everyone is so easy to please. I don't understand how anyone can say, story wise, that the show is good. It isn't the worst ever, and I personally wouldn't say it's bad, but it just lacks so many things. The ideas are on point but then what comes out is disappointing. Things that shouldn't be omitted are and things that definitely should be aren't, say: 1) Daemon at Harrenhal with his hallucinations should've been 2 episodes tops. Show him talking to the lords of the Riverlands, or simply don't give him much screen time. In the end, in the books he didn't do much. 2) I absolutely adore Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra but the character is so bland. She is allowed to be a tiny bit vindictive. 3) A scene with Daeron at Old Town (or wherever he is, I forgot) and Otto would've been awesome. 4) The kiss 😬 while watching the scene when they hugged, I thought to myself "Kiss!" but then they actually did it and it bothers me for 2 things: Mysaria just told a story about sexual abuse and I doubt anyone would like to be kissed after that. And don't say it was a comforting kiss; it clearly was a hot kiss lol. Now, if they had hugged and in another episode they had kissed, I'm all for it, which is my second problem with this scene. They should've developed the relationship much slower, not make them like each other in like 2 episodes. This is a show that is AMAZING behind the scenes and I love the cast but why can't they do a job with the script?! So far, it's a mid series.
8:44 - 8:52 I’m pretty sure that it was confirmed that the writers didn’t plan on the kiss. It was supposed to just be a hug in the original script, but Emma D’arcy suggested kissing Mysaria’s actor and the director and the actress were both okay with it
I’m pretty sure Emma D’Arcy said that it was mentioned in the script that Mysaria and Rhaenyra “shared breath”, which does imply a kiss down the road, so I think the writers planned for a relationship between mysaria and rhaenyra
Sara Hess in a recent podcast said the kiss was scripted but the hug wasn't. And Sonoya was told by Ryan even before season one shooting that there gon be a romance between Rhaenyra and Mysaria
Absolutely not. Modern TV shows have professional intimacy coordinators (Miriam Lucia in case of HotD) who make sure nothing like this happens, that even the scenes that might have a hint of intimacy are made perfectly according to the script and that all the actors are in on what's going to happen.
@@Karasuno86Yeah, you might be right about that. The article I read said that Mysaria’s actress told the interviewer that it was the kiss but I looked at another article and it said that the hug was unscripted. It’s kind of hard to tell which is true since people are giving conflicting answers on it
The show is fine but the kiss was entirely unnecessary. At least with laenor, it played a role in the development of various relationships and by extension, the story. This is just there cause the actress is queer update: nvm. laenor being gay doesn't make sense either as were supposed to be his illegitamate children. the targaryen blood is necessarsy for . now it doesnt make any sense
no body is asking for action btw. this comment is everywhere "did you guys forget that game of thrones wasn't all action it was all plots and talking, why do you want dragon fights every episode" im so tired of hearing this shit comment. nobody is asking for action, we are asking for actual development. interesting plotting, witty plans, not the shit we are getting rn fillers and Rhynaera doing nothing but useless things for 5 episodes and Allicent struggling with lack of power and Daemon tripping. its just boring simply that. nothing worth watching and not worth the wait. this season is simply a flop.
@@madratter7031 It's not framed as a character flaw, the writers and show are clearly depicting Rhaenyra as being in the right when she isn't. Everyone glazes her like she's the most amazing person on the planet. The show is TELLING us to like her instead of making us like her. Lazy writing.
I am trying really hard to like her, but every time we see her she says something along the lines of :“ I did not start this war” or “ my brother sits my throne” I can’t anymore. She roasts her small council for not having experience in battle or at war yet sends away Daemon, and gets mad at everyone telling her they need Daemon. Idk they really feel like different characters this season.
@@calnaughtonsjesus What makes it worse is the fact that she was given proper respect and was looked to as a leader in the beginning of the season by her council after finding her sons body. Instead of being the leader she needs to be she just mumbles “Aemond” and walks away like Joe Biden lol
I don't care about a character being gay I have a problem with there being nothing to even hint at them having some form of chemistry. It was more like they we're becoming friends and bam now they're kissing. Honesty I'd feel the same way if it was one of her council members. It truly feels as if it was chuckled in out of nowhere it pulls you out of the episode. I think if they'd showed them getting closer and built some chemistry between the characters it would of felt more natural. I have no issues with the similar back stories because as a child SA surviver that didn't have support I can understand how that makes a person self reliant hyper aware and a drive to change things for those who are vulnerable.
It comes out of nowhere, yes. However, it shows lonely people with power can just throw themselves at the first person they build a connection with, especially Rhaenyra who seems genuinely lost this season.
I mean, the show may not have done a good job of foreshadowing this until now. But you take Rhaenyra, who sees everyone around her as disrespectful opportunists, using her as an excuse to further their own ends just like everyone except her parents - and suddenly she meets Mysaria, who she can empathize with, who is also a woman with a life of being used, who accepts her unconditionally and supports her for who she is instead of driving yet another agenda - hell yes they'll develop a strong bond. Plus Mysaria has been with Rhaenyra for a decent amount of time now. Not years, perhaps, but no one seemed to complain when young Rhaenyra all of a sudden developed sexual desires for her literal uncle whom she had, at best, admiration for. Sudden sexual attraction is hardly a problem in this series, but to target the one occasion when it was homosexual seems rather tiringly intolerant.
It's build up and slower then ep 4. Game of thrones did a big battle/event in ep 9 with ep 10 being aftermath and build up for the next season. People just don't have patience anymore
Because of homophobics. They dont want to see gay relations but instead they want more incest. which is weird cuz I feel like it is already full of incest.
It was just another bad move in the long list of desperate moves this season for her Stalling on a real solution to the her war problem. Im more upset damon was outside the door about to fly away when that witch stopped him again😅
I have no problems with girls kissing, it's hot, my problem is that exactly nothing has happened for 3 episodes and their is way too much build up. I like good build up and I like it when it leads to a payoff, but the whole first season was build up and I was expecting this season to pop off similar to how in the sec9nd seas9n of thrones, Rob stark is making developments in his war. Exactly 0 developments have happened for a while and it's frustrating.
She literally became friends with Mysaria a week or 2 at most and makes her a closest confider of hers. Out of ALLLLLL the other people she can trust like her son or Baela she chooses a clearly untrustworthy woman that even a blind man can see can't be trusted as her closest friend. And being closer with her is just asking for heartbreak and failure, I REALLY wanna support her but she's making it so hard for me ngl 😭
@@masonhirovanaa2281 exactly. The fact that she is confirmed to be bi is not crazy. In the books, there were rumors about her and Laena getting freaky with each other together with Daemon. It isn't unsurprising at all that they went that route. But how Rhaenyra x Mysaria unfolded is as annoying as Alicole. Mysaria is literally a stranger and can't be trusted. It all seems way too fanfic-like and makes Rhaenyra really dumb without good reason. How does it even serve the plot?
I have to disagree. It's made pretty clear that Mysaria is the only person who emotionally supports Rhaenyra since the death of Rhaenys. They have previously bonded over Daemon's abuse, and Mysaria's story of childhood trauma made Rhaenyra want to comfort her.
As someone who never really got into GOT but is loving the HotD story so far- I'd say its only flaw is that fans are too loud and disrespectful about parts of the story none of us fully understand yet and that just ruins it for everyone. Like bro shut up let em cook??
The problem is that Rhaenyra and Mysaria is that the actors came out and said they did it because they felt like it. They improved it. It came out of left field
I swear so many people just have TikTok brains now. If an episode doesnt have at least 2 scenes of dragons fighting each other, they call it boring and filler. Those kinds of people should just rewatch Seasons 7 and 8 of GoT and dont watch HotD.
It's just repetitive. Rhenerya's council complains she's a woman then she does nothing, Daemon has an acid trip, and then they talk about a war without showing any of the consequences going on in the riverlands.
@@compositeur8455 No, it's not repetitive. It's hammering a point for those too slow to get it mainly the new generation and Tiktok addicts with short attention span and ADD brains. -Rhaenyra is a BAD queen -Daemon is experiencing the power of the Old Gods, that was missing in GoT -WAR TAKES TIME, ARMIES NEED TO GATHER AND MOVE LONG ASS DISTANCES. -The Riverlands will get what they deserve for joining with the Blacks The whole Dance lasts 3 years, the war of the 5 kings lasts 3 years, Robert's rebellion lasts 2 years. Please tell me you havn't read the book without telling me you havn't read the book.
@@Amantducafe Its hammering in NOTHING - The Writers have an obsession with white washing Rhaenyra, the focus of dragonstone is not to show how bad she is but to show how bad the men around her are, that its not only their fault because they love war so much but also they giv eher bad advice on fighting the war, the writers clearly put the blame on the war on Alicent and the greens and the poor performance on the men on her council and Daemon. Slapping a dude for shittalking her to her face is not le evil but shown as a good carthic moment for the girlpower enjoyers. -Daemon's story is trapped in a time bubble where nothing is happening, every scene is the same, starting with Daemon getting shittalked and ending with him and Simon Strong while Rivers looks spooky in the background. It isn't even scary anymore, the first scene of him wandering around the rotten keep was amazing but its just Daemon watching season 1 again at this point while riverlanders talk shit and get away with it because Daemon lost his balls. -Warfare in early AGOT was non-existant, every battle was offscreen and yet it was still 10x as engaging as what's happening right now how do you explain that? because people who complain are not ADD brained or f*king Tik Tok addicts but not content to eat every last drop of slop crammed into their bowl and can tell when whats infront of them is dogwater.
Your over simplifying the matter. People have legitimate criticism of this season. It has nothing to do with the lack of action. But weak plot points and weak/average dialogue.
food doesn't just come from the sea, westeros is big enough to feed king's landing and it's unrealistic that all food comes from sea. I really don't think king's landing imports all it's food from essos. This plot point is really contrived.
I disagree, if you know how supply chains work, if Kings landing gets 50% or even 25% of their food from the sea, then that would cause huge shortages pretty quickly if you cut that away. There is also the possibility that tools needed to process food come from Essos.
Well, the royals (and their dragons) are taking the majority share of the food and livestock on the shipments that come from pro green places like the Reach, Westerlands or the Storm lands, and the nobles and people of means in KL have been said this episode to have bought out the rest, leaving scraps for the small folk in a city of a million. Secondly, winter is coming, they have been saying this since Cregan and Jace were at the wall in episode 1. And winter in Westeros affects everyone heavily, not just the North. So shipments are scaled down in order to build up their stores for the coming winter.
The fans and youtubers shit on Benioff and Weiss now while praising HotD, which has many of the same signs of terrible writing and stupidity that were present in S5-7 and culminated in S8 of GoT. We seem to have a hard time holding writers and showrunners accountable for their shitty decisions so long as “cool scenes” exist, until the total shitshow begins. What’s funny is HotD is deteriorating at a much faster pace than GoT from a writing standpoint but mostly gushing praise or crickets is to be heard from the fans and online reviewers. This IP deserves better…and fans don’t learn.
Seasmoke something happened to Laenor and he never make it to land. That would explain why the dragon is roaming around the sea, because his ride is underwater.
Mysaria: I have a scar, I cannot bear children Rhaenyra: Let's fuck The kiss was improvised. The script didn't say anything about this, the characters felt this in the moment and did it.
You simply do not screw your chief of staff. The kiss does not work. The R + M hard left turn is a mistake and will only bring unnecessary complications down the road, aside from being completely out of sync with R's character. It was obvious trauma-bonding and it passes up a way more substantive opportunity which is genuine female friendship. It also presents political problems. The power imbalance calls into question whether M is even in a real position to give consent, or withdraw it at a later time without repercussions, and bodes poorly for R's judgment of M's real motives down the road.
@@worldadventuretraveltbh you Just described why this kiss was a great decision from the writers, a Lot of complications and Drama is exactly what you want from a Show Like this
@@JMQA1 I would have prolly left it out tbh but it’s not a big deal, I don’t think it will develop into anything since the kiss was improvised. I actually like it more as a quick accident type thing that happened under stress than the start of a real relationship.
It's a big decision to improvise something like that. I don't think it was improvised. The actors and directors and editors cannot be that dumb. I don't feel Rhaenyra kissing a girl is that odd or out of place. But why Mysaria? Why then? It seemed a little odd and I don't know what this leads to. The only way this makes sense is if Mysaria actually betrays Rhaenyra at some point, which she has very little incentive to do. Also, Rhaenyra is not gay. She could be bisexual, a lot of people should be considering how many Homosexual people are in these stories. But, even if she were gay, I don't see why Mysaria would attract her. She can sympathize with her pain. But she's nothing like her, and isn't even in the same place mentally.
I find this season in general to be very underwhelming so far. I see a lot of fans just blame the audience when the show gets criticism which is unfortunate because there really are some major writing issues in my opinion. I always see something along the lines of “oh it doesnt have a big dragon battle every episode thats why people dont like it” or “go watch marvel you have no attention span” which is just pathetic lol. The characters in particular I really am not invested and interested in like I was in S1 and it is making the show almost unbearable to watch for me. I seriously just couldn’t give a damn about any of the characters in the show rn. Daemon, Viserys, Rhaenyra were all among some of my favorites in S1 but in S2 Daemon’s storyline has been a big lowlight of the series, Viserys is obviously gone now, and Rhaenyra and Team Black as a whole has been a snooze fest and a frustrating watch with not much going on. While I can acknowledge that there are still some good written characters like some of the people on Team Green…there really isn’t a single character in the show right now that I care about or are interested in. It also doesn’t help that the show frames Rhaenyra as this perfect princess who can do no wrong and they obviously want you rooting for her. Another thing for me is just the amount of repetitive scenes it feels like. It’s like Im watching the same scenes over and over every episode it almost feels like filler. I think the reason for that is the lackluster dialogue and dynamics. In a show like this where the dialogue plays such a big part and drives the story…it really needs to be top notch and intriguing but it just isn’t imo. Theres other issues too imo but those are a couple main ones.
I think a show like HOTD benefits from being watched in only a few sittings. I watched season 1 right after it finished so even the slower episodes had details that paid off by the end. I feel that when you wait for a week for an episode, and nothing major happens, so you have to wait another week, you feel let down. But if you can just watch the next episode right away it changes how each episode is paced. Its like watching a movie in quarters and waiting a week between each part.
this episode was great. rhaenyra and mysaria having a thing did not seem shocking to me at all; anyone with two eyes can see the homoerotic vibes alicent and her had in season 1. like, if people are still shocked at people being bisexual in 2024, they should just touch grass honestly
I've seen quite a few comments saying that "you're blind if you didn't see the kiss coming". . I've asked for examples of the supposed build-up and what I get is "the looks they've shared" and "the way Rhaenyra circled Mysaria in episode 2 (at least I think it was 2)". This is House of the Dragon. There's a tense look between characters in just about every scene. Otto and Daemon have shared "looks". Are we gonna see them making out too? Probably not. As for the circling, getting up in someone's personal space and circling is an intimidation tactic. She was, after all, a prisoner being interrogated. Beyond that, there was been nothing affectionate or romantic between them.
Daemon just tripping on shrooms in a hotel the entire season
at least the show is giving him something to do. in the books, he’s literally chilling there for a year till his battle with Aemon.
@@ideozublake8036 That's not true at all. He flies with Rhaenyra to King's Landing to take the capital once Criston and Aemond leave. He also leaves Harrenhal to siege Stone Hedge while the Bracken's were fighting at the Battle of the Burning Mill. All of this is before his battle with Aemond.
@@pobiakc4 I'm thinking he will ditch Harrenhal and fly to Kings Landing with Rhaenyra in the finale.
Simon & Alys are great additions!
AND that has NOTHING to do with screenwriters messing-up again!!! 🤣
The best moment in this episode was Larys being like “omg what an honour it would be to serve as your Hand”, and Aemond slapping him down like “no you idiot, I just want you to send a raven to my grandfather, do you think you can handle that?”
I felt bad for Larys. He didn't deserve such a burn. Not from a cuck that couldn't even laugh off getting caught in a brothel with his first ever hooker.
"You toad" 😂
For me it was Alys telling Daemon to PARK IT and then Grover was announced dead lol. Daemon learned that even dragons need help sometimes.
@@Dknight2818 lmao i laughed so hard when he said that. His delivery of the line really makes it.
Idk if Larys knew he would say that and he’s acting like a fool so he gets underestimated, or if he actually thought he could play Aemond like that…it’s hard to tell sometimes
I keep watching these episodes and being like "oh wow that was great, i love this show" and then days later finding out online everyone hates it
Fr tik tok is ruining public perception of shows like this one it’s sad
Because it’s slow and not at all worth the wait
It's really strange isn't it. There are some minor things that could have been better, but I love this series. I planned to watch the first episode sarcastically two years ago because I was completely convinced they'd f*ck it up like they did GOT but it's amazing. The acting, the cinematography, the dialogue: it's all top notch. I still think the whole Viserys throne room walk scene from Season One is the best acted and directed scene in the whole series (including GOT). Every actor in HOTD is absolutely top notch, and luckily they are getting the right dialogue to shine.
literally. this was one of my favorite episodes this season.. the GoT fanbase sucks.
I think people still have PTSD after how GOT ended, so they're extra sensitive to any less-than-stellar writing.
I feel the show is really missing Aegon’s energy, Tom Glynn-Carney was so much fun to watch..
Ya he was easily the most entertaining character for me. I would’ve forgave the writers if they deviated from the book and forwent aegon’s injuries (or at least delayed them) since the actor was so good. He was like a likeable Joffrey lmao. Still pretty evil tho
@@GamerGuy-nd4ixyou nailed it. He’s horrible but the most fun to watch. I’m watching HOD like Succession. There are no real good guys to root for, so just enjoy the dramadramadrama.
@@GamerGuy-nd4ix idk if would say he's evil, just immature. He wanted to help out common folk before Otto told him not to
@@ryankelly7070 You know, that's a good point. He is certainly not a good person, but he's also no Joffrey. His gut instinct was to just give people what they want, although his decisions revealed his ignorance of the big picture. He is very, very cruel to Aemond though.
I think season 2 is bad, but you guys just convinced me to appreciate Aegon more.
@@ryankelly7070 Raping is pretty evil.
'Not as bad as GOT S8' is a low bar.
Yes but it’s actually recognisably better not just ‘not as bad’
@@sabershikik9351HotD season 2 isn't better 🤣
We have the same plotholes here...
@@sabershikik9351 it’s actually exactly the quality of Season 8 of Game of Thrones.
That season seemed bad, compared to the first seasons of GoT, but had all the serie been built with the logic of season 8, we wouldnt have found it so terrible.
Well thats why HBO decided to take all the thing we hated in S8 and put it since the start of HoD, so we couldnt complain about how much better things were before
I personally think it kinda is. But not for the kiss scene. Tho I do think Mysaria x Rhaenyra scene is as useless as Alicole. But the real concern is how they're messing up dragon lore.
I would drop ascene in mind why this is very close to that level. When the queen Rhaenyra goes to kings landing after they assassinated the granddaughter of Alicent. (They should be on very high alert, but looks like no... ) Imagine the same in GOT .... You already feel how stupid this is, not even talking about how fast everyone travels... Rhaenyra her son, Alicent lost her granddaughter and they talk like that...?! AND if Alicent captures Rhaenyra in that moment, they probably win the war and very peacefully... That scene... Just fucked with my mind... This is not even bad, they could have talked, but the whole way they made it happen is just leaves a lot to be desired...
Showing the lannister army with the rains of castamere melody is the fanservice im watching for
That was cool, even though the song doesn't technically exist yet in universe.
A true fan isn’t serviced by a song that shouldn’t be first played for almost 200 years
@@Trashpanda887y lol right? tywin isn't even a spec of dust in the cosmos yet
@@TheForkOnTheLeftist and people wonder why the writers are being made fun of, hey let’s throw a song in that only true fans will recognize,……..but sir that song is made 187 years from now. Ehhhhhhh who cares RED WEDDING NOSTALGIA
@@Trashpanda887y They didnt sing it tho?
I feel the show is really missing Aegon’s energy, Tom Glynn-Carney was so much fun to watch.
I think the scenes with the greens are always fun to watch. Anything involving the council, Alicent, Aemond, Cole, etc. is usually good.
The scenes with the blacks are where the show feels like it’s dragging, I think that’s because the only big characters on the black side now are Rhaenyra and Daemon and they aren’t really doing anything. Rhanerya’s small council feels very underdeveloped to me, none of them are very interesting.
I love him
@@donovan4222 This is why I like the greens more. Not because I support Aegon as the rightful heir, I as a viewer couldn't care less, but because they bring the drama.
@@rexibhazoboa7097 They definitely should of given us some more notable characters on rhanerya’s council, Mysaria is the only one who does anything
Him and Otto have both been missing the last two episodes and it’s really starting to show how much those two carried this show and the pacing. Never a dull moment with either of those characters around.
So we started the episode where kings landing was mildly upset. The idea of dragonseeds was still a theory. Daemon was stuck at harrenhall, aemond was just a stand in.
Now were at a point thwere we have a new dragon rider, kingslanding is basically in full rebellion, daemon effecivly has full control of the riverlands, with the lannister army marching on them, aemond is effectively the full king of westeros. Rhaenyras got a new full advisor
I dont really get how thats "slow" for the oldschool game of thrones
Mysaria was already Rhaenyra's advisor, otherwise correct
@@marken816he is talking about lord corlys
There is a bit more:
The hightowers seem to be missing and likely being stalled in The Reach. We learn there is a wild dragon in the Vale. We see Larys starting to plot against Aemond after pushing his luck. Alicent is fired(though her power was already almost nothing). We learn about Daeron second-hand. We get confirmation of Corlys having bastards and both get into an important position(well, seemingly). We see Aemond's despoticism. We see Daemon starting to crack
Its actually kind of ridicullous how people ONLY care about action. All this buildup is what enhances the action. If we just got action set pieces then we wouldnt care about these characters.
@@phobics9498lmao there is so much going on but because people arent fighting then people dont like it
I think a lot of people havnt even interpreted the Daemon visions correctly, like this last episode was the MOST growth we have ever seen from him, Daemon finally learns he should have been there for his brother when he needed him, Daemon comes out of that vision and for the first time in his life he is able to ASK for help
Yes!!! Finally someone noticed. It seems to me that as soon as people see Daemon in another hallucination scene they tune out and get annoyed instead of actually paying attention to what happens.
I haven't read the book, but I feel like Daemon underwent a hugely important development over the last episodes that will influence his behaviour going forward..
Yes! This episode was Daemon choosing family over pride & finally being able to face his biggest regrets in that conflict. All of his visions were building to facing Viserys.
fucking yes. it's like actual genuine growth is happening for the first time for the biggest characters in this series and people are too obsessed with "but where's my plot development guys why does daemon keep sitting at the fort" LIKE PAY ATTENTION PLEASE BRO
ngl, i missed this subtle growth too, until i watched a bunch of reaction vids. youtube creators are doing a great service helping us normies catch stuff.
i never disliked the daemon trips and found them very intriguing, especially when larys straight up acknowledges this was part of his plot to "drive daemon crazy". which also means that it is backfiring, since daemon is apparently growing emotionally from this, plus he's apparently getting a nice little alliance with alys.
bottom line: don't be too taken in by ADHD takes on social media!
Yes! I was like 😲😲😲 when he actually hugged Visarys. That's just so amazing in terms of character growth for Daemon. And people go like "these dreams don't do anything"... What??
Somehow the scene quality and depth of Greens feels way better than Blacks side.
Because they are actual characters.
They are deeper, flawed, compelling, INTERESTING. On the other side, we have Daemon (I still like his Harrenhal scenes) and the Sea Snake, but yeah definitely the "good guys" label doesn't work in their favor.
The blacks are just portrayed as good guys so they're boring and bland characters.
Whereas the Greens have flaws, it's backfired on the showrunners as the wanted everyone to hate the greens.
Probably because rhaenyras arc this season is basically as boring as daemons lol, but I still love the show, just think some aspects could be better. I don't mind slow scenes but with good dialogue, which is why I enjoy the greens more as of now. Aegon, Aemond, and Alicent specifically. Otto and Larys have been good too
I think the new episode is good, definitely better than episode 5.
I just have 2 problems: Rhaenyra isn't grey in the show, she's way too honorable and pacifistic, and season 2 has only 8 episodes, so I always feel frustrated when a plotline has no development
Well in the book she's also portrayed as an absolute vilain because yknow, maesters wrote it?
Plus the point isn't so much the will to be pacifist, as to cling that one mission her father gave her, if anything she's way too much life Viserys, to a fault.
Wouldnt that make her a better character if she was a little more grey ?@@abynighteater5670
I’m betting that Mysaria will die at the end of this season, setting off Rhaenyra
she literally just sacrificed one of her people to the dragon, slapped another and cheated on her husband, so no, not honorable and pacifistic.
If Rhaenyra is the baby jesus how will Daemon's character arc conclude? If she doesnt do a certain thing how does he do that epic thing? I have a feeling that bit will suck compared to the book. Good episode though. @@abynighteater5670
Unless Seasmoke is restlessness because he found Laenor dead, which is why he went to find a new dragon rider.
I think that’s implied
has any dragon done that before? Look for a Rider?
@@vishwajeetpanwar3271whether it has or not, I kind of just took this as Seasmoke’s personality. Kind of like how Sunfyre is characterized to just adore Aegon, maybe Seasmoke is a more just sociable dragon and is missing his bond
Is laenor dead or just faked his death?
Laenor most likely died offscreen at some point alot of time has passed
Short answer: no, not really.
Long answer: I think the only part of the sapphic kiss scene that made me uncomfortable was the fact that it immediately followed a conversation about parental abuse, but it was more of a “I don’t know if this is 100% healthy for them in this situation” kind of discomfort. Then again, most of the characters in House of the Dragon are messed up in all sorts of ways, so the kiss scene was not super out of left field for me. It CERTAINLY doesn’t make the episode worse
Apparently the kiss wasn't scripted. It did feel a bit out of place..
When Rae went to hug miss worm it felt nice and warm then they started kissing I slammed the table and was like what? Liked the episode more than the last one overall but since it was at the end it left a sour taste and made me cancell MAX.
people are just homophobes....we live in these times right now , those stupid people ofcourse dont realize that Rhaenyra has lowkey something with Laena in the books and they already cut that out...why not mysaria then? But I guess thats " woke s*it " :D:D:D they also dont realize that ASOIAF world is full of gay characters and George is a liberal himself :D I just feel like if you dont like then you are watching the worng show and its not meant for you then probably...Im just saying that because all the critisism that I have seen has been " oooh some woke sh*it again" , " go woke go broke I stoip watching now" , " women kissing ewwww"
Yeah, but then again these are Targaryens so the threshold for "healthy sexual relationship" is a little twisted.
@@joelthomson8697 source?
Rhaenyra: *Acts like an incompetent lunatic this entire season*
Rhaenyras council: *Treats her like an incompetent lunatic*
Rhaenyra: 😮
Not like the council itself any better... They are like NPCs. I don't even know anyone names, while in GOT you kinda know them.
Too many people are trying to defend slow pace with “character development”. Game of thrones seasons 1-3 were mostly dialogue and yet people remember them fondly because the plot was always moving forward.
A friend complained about the episode and said nothing actually happened and honestly he’s not wrong. There was set up but the plot didn’t move forward. Everyone ended in the same position as they started the episode which wouldn’t be a problem if ep 5 was not also set up. Literally not a single main characters position has h changed from the start of ep 5 to the end of ep 6.
Thank you. People prefer to put down legitimate complaints over having to critically assess a passable show, because there's too much rubbish out there at the moment.
@4:55 Addam sees Seasmoke in episode 2. Maybe Seasmoke was already checking him out. The failed bonding with Darklyn could've triggered him to go seek out that dude he saw on the beach. He even flies overhead first and sorta turns his head like "there you are!".
Yes! He knew where to find Addam not because of a "magical bond", but because he literally has seen him at the beach before lol
@@micaelemagalhaes9274Seasmoke is a stalker confirmed😂
@@OzanaDivine He is not the stepdad but the dad who stepped up
When I saw the first potential rider was a white man I thought "ah shit he gon' die"
@@likeabigboiii6324 lmao same
The pace of this season is foreshadowing the pace of the season 3 production 😭🙏
😭😭😭
We’re going to be waiting forever
They haven’t even started shooting season 3 😂😂😂
@@FlexSZN23 are you serious?
@@dr.dork7560well it’s confirmed we’re getting s3 in two years time which to me just sucks, at least we’re getting dunk and egg next year
I think that having read Fire and Blood adds considerable appreciation for the “slow” episodes because we know what’s coming and how crazy it will be. Even when it’s slow, the tension is so high.
I think it also has the opposite effect for some people as they read the book, rmember all the major battles and stuff talked about in the books, spend weeks talking about these major battles/events, get bored waiting for them, the battle happens then either it matches their understanding of the book where they complain that it was predictable or they do things different where they then complain about changing the source material
I would love the slow pace if it wasn't a season with measly 8 episodes.
@@zenmonk5403again it’s because they can’t afford any more episodes. It really sucks the episodes cost so much to produce. It would’ve been great if they had 10. Hopefully they’ll get a bigger budget for next season so we can have the big battles as well as a full 10 episodes
having read Fire and Blood takes me out of the series because of how poorly it's handled..
To me the pace isnt necessarily the problem. Its the writing and the way the characters change for no real reason. Aemond has become comically evil and Rhyneara has become saint like. Season 1 and the start of season 2 were much better in my opinion. The seasmoke dragon finding a random bastard valryon was dumb and im gonna hate when the girl in the vale rides one. And i dont hate the kiss because its a gay kiss. I could care less. I hate the kiss because it was forced, made no sense and they have no chemistry whatsoever.
The kiss scene shouldn't be even there, but it doesn't matter. The true problem is, that it's the season of helpless people: literally nobody knows what to do and everyone just keep walking in circles: Daemon, Rhaenyra, team Aegon...
I mean, Team Green seems to pretty much advance a war, while team Black is between rock and a hard place. I have many problems with Daemon, but I see how many people would feel helpless - sure Alicent and Rhaenyra are maybe played as too good, showing their weakness. Especially as Rhaenyra is pretty much as weak as a ruler as her father - Viserys. Alicent though feels really strange for me, but I'm curious where it will go.
Exactly right. Everything feels like they're stalling for something but it seems like it's for nothing. The tension and climax beats are all bad this season. Also part of this season has way more retcons which irritates a lot of people including me.
why shouldn't it be there?
@@babyblue3717 George R.R. Martin didn't write it, showrunners didn't want that, the audience didn't asked for that, Emma D'Arcy just improvized. And they shouldn't allow it, because romantic relation building between Rhaenyra and Mysaria wasn't exactly showed through the season, thus it look forced now.
Nah, the true problem is a show that already decided to shoehorn black people into a super-white super-blond Targaryen empire is now trying to go even blacker, which is why Baela (who is WHITE in the books) is somehow 100% black despite having a half-white mom and 100% white dad (which is not how genetics work), then writing in two extremely dark-skinned bastard kids of Corlys (who is WHITE in the books), then having one of them be hunted down and bonded to a dragon that had just incinerated that stupid white guy who obviously wasn't good enough.
So now we have two black dragon riders with increasingly prominent roles, and at least two more potential/probable black dragon riders on deck. Again, in an empire that was 100% white in the books. I can already see where this is going. House Black (in more ways than one) against House Green is clearly being set up as more than just a fight for the throne.
There's just no getting away from the Woke Era at this point. It has corrupted EVERYTHING. Gotta hit that POC quota, right guys? Even shows about Vikings have black actors replacing white historical figures now.
Rhaenyra knowing Leanor was still alive unless proper confirmation given to her he was dead and risking Ser Steffons life with seasmoke of all dragons has to be a plot hole
omg so true actually, this is what happens when you cut important stuff (make someone dead/alive), I wonder what plot holes will cutting Nettles cause
Well, making terrible decisions is on-character for Rhaenyra so I don't really see a plot hole.
I mean, would you really consider it a plot hole? I don't see why Rhaenyra would think about Seasmoke and him being stil Laenor. Laenor isn't here quite a long time, didn't ride Seasmoke, so why would you guess they still have bond? I would just think that they lost their connection at this point and that we can find another rider to bond with Seasmoke as he is useless without a rider.
Ser Steffon was also a long shot and desperate move, hoping he will have strong blood to tame a dragon for himself. I would guess that Rhaenyra could have flew herself to see Seasmoke to check if maybe it isn't just Laenor who is back as the rider is unknown. I doubt she will first thing that someone just tamed it.
@@ozyrysozi6186she is a targeryan, this is the kind of simple stuff they would know about. But the show kinda forgot about the life long lasting bound between dragon and rider, this is why changes to the source material should not be done unless the writters have a clear idea of what they are doing and not just making up things as they go
@@ikram-258 Sure there are few problems, but - I'm not sure that Targaryens understood dragonriding that much at this point and general in history, sure they knew their blood allowed them to tame dragons and some of Targaryens even knew how to hatch dragons.
Second - I mean, bond between Seasmoke and Laenor could be lifelong. Laenor could be dead before Ser Steffon tried or could died after Steffon try. In series we don't know if Laenor is still alive. That's why I point out that maybe Rhaenyra flew to most probably see Seasmoke and his rider - becouse she is surprised and want to see a rider, but also part of her might be curious if Laenor is back.
And last thing - they are aware that a dragon can reject a rider or you need skill to tame a dragon - Rhaena situation - she has strong dragorider blood (from Daemon and Laena - who was daughter of Rhaenys) and yet she was also rejected and nearly killed. Steffon was huge gambit and they were aware of it, but they can't know if that won't work as they don't understand that dragon-rider bond that much (if they knew, they would know that Steffon probably has too thin blood, which can be a lie and he was not suited for Seasmoke, Laenor could be still alive. Maybe Steffon could tame for example younger dragon and groom it).
That shot of Aemond crunching up Jason Lannister's letter was so cool. Also Seasmoke is the ultimate troll.
That's a meme right there.
Not the letter crushing but hissing "He dares to summen me" felt a bit anime-ish, and silly.
i despised that shot, the director really thought he was doing something there lol.
i am also struggling to take aemond so seriously, im not entirely sold on his cool swagger. but maybe thats exactly the point of his character and the actor has been told to play it so
yall are so bitter it's sad
@@nurrr2041Aemond is a one eyed teenager who has a fucking sapphire to replace the eye he lost and is mewing all the time, how is that not the description of an anime villain
Did people forget what Game of Thrones is like, there were sequences of episodes where nothing but talking happened, the only seasons with non stop action was the last two, and we all saw what happened
It’s how it was done. This isn’t on the level of the early episodes. I’m not big on the battle scenes I like the small council meetings in GOT. This show just feels different and boring especially the dream shit with daemon. The show feels forced also with putting in ideology of the writers n diversity for the sake of it even when it makes zero sense. Like making the velaryons black was just stupid. It instantly takes me out of the show when they r on the screen. I see actors not characters
@@TheSands83 The "Dream shit with Daemon" is what was missing in the GoT, the magical elements George kept writing over and over about dreams, prophecy and nightmares and a reason why GoT was subpar to the books. Anyone hating it clearly should just stop watching because this is what A song of Ice and Fire was meant to be from the very beginning.
@@TheSands83 boo hoo, womp womp, black people exist my guy, watch out they might show up during your grocery shopping, god you people are so pathetic, seriously your problem with the show is, "there's black people in it, me dont likey" piss off racist pos
God im so sick of this "durrrr you just forgotttt" Everybody who is watching HOTD watched GOT before it, the difference is that the dialogue in early GOT was S tier, engaging, dramatic and fun while HOTD Season 2 has endless droning, repeating scenes and meandering plot, WE CAN ENJOY SLOW SEASONS but NOT poorly written ones with mediocre dialogue and pushing a women good men bad agenda. I support the Black and I used to support Rhaeneyra as queen but she's become so milquetoast that i've wrapped around to loving Aegon Purely because he isn't a cardboard cutout.
@@christianbroadbent7489 Rose-colored glasses. Early GoT has some scenes that drag for too long. Just people seem to conveniently forget about them.
There are going to be more scenes of Theon waking up to being tortured by Ramsey, or Jon Snow looking confused in the north with a blue filter or Daenerys roaming around with a yellow tint filter than Daemon having visions but people conveniently kinda forget about those.
There is no way this season is slow, it is going too fast compared to the books. Daemon spent almost 1 whole year in Harrenhal and without the visions it would just be Daemon having supper for the 100th time waiting for the Riverlands to gather. Also not sure if we are seeing the same series because women are def bad and Rhaenyra is the worst demostrating all the reasons why she shouldn't be queen.
Aemomd was a scene stealer in this episode
Aemond was a scene stealer in this show
The two actor were amazing
I'm all in on Aemond winning the war and being king after the frequent developments in House "Black," a name which seems to be less and less about the queen with each episode. But I'm 100% sure they won't have the Greens winning, given the demographics of both sides and the fact that this show is being made in the 2020s. I've seen this pattern before..
When isn't he?
The greens are the best of the season
2:24 the shadow being on the side of his face with the eyepatch is just chef's kiss. really adds to your idea of the eyepatch symbolizing his colder side. this show is so beautifully shot
I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Aegon. He didn't want to be king in the first place but was forced to accept it by his family. He doesn't have the necessary knowledge and skills to be a ruler and he knows it all too well.
From his point of view, he is a victim. Never loved by his parents and almost killed by his brother, he has an inferiority complex that ultimately led to him making rash decisions.
The interaction between him and Larys reminded me of the conversation between Tyrion and Oberyn Martell (when Oberyn tells him that he'll fight for Tyrion). In my opinion, it's one of the best scenes in the entire series.
Except with Larys you can’t be sure if his intentions really are good
He’s basically a frat boy king
I agree.. I like Aegon more than I thought I would.
In the book he had some flaws but was not the way the show portrayed him.
Well, he did rape someone
Really hate the trope of a character disclosing sexual abuse/trauma and following it up with “anyways we should kiss!”
Does not fit either of them or their relationship whatsoever
Facts
but its realistic... I mean I know I have been in a situation like this where I am opening myself more and person is basically comforting me with a kiss or a hug
@@HK-gm8pe just because you have an abnormal reaction to something does not make it realistic. A hug is understandable, but a make out session? Yeah nah
@@fataliecatalie899 yeah cause targaryens have normal sexual proclivities
@@sarven101 being a Targaryen isn’t even part of it- not to mention it was something the actresses just threw in last second
People ignore 95% of good quality to to complain bout the 5% they find mediocre
the only good in this so far is the gorgeous stages they have produced, digital fx for dragons and locations, the music (in season 1, season 2 has been tame audibly) and costume and makeup. there are some great actors in this series, doing there best with a bang average script and school standard directing. i guess thats a lot of good, about 60%
When you go to a movie, and you come out of it do you talk about the good things or the bad things?
@@hawks7111it depends If I liked it or not
@@freyasworn2600 If you consider the script of this show average, please recommend me some TV shows of the past two years that you consider great.
@@tankmh4468na i complain that a show depicting a war has less battle and combat then season 1 GoT had
I dont think anyone wanted to see Daemon hallucinating in harrenhal this whole season. They wanted to see him raising an army for Rhaenyra, which we've only seen glimpses of.
Like you pointed out, the greens in general seem to get the most nuance in terms of their writing. If I remember correctly the kiss between rhaenyra and Mysaria was actually improvised during the shoot. So I think the audience feeling that the scene was kind of out of left field makes more sense with that context. The writers and director should have had the back bone to say "we love improv however the breadcrumbs for this type of relationship hasn't recieved the necessary development. We'll maybe consider developing it properly next season." And just cut the scene after the hug.
I really like what Daemon pointed out to Lord Strong. In almost every scene where Daemon comes out of some trance or hallucination, Lord Strong is ALWAYS there behind him to wake him. It's almost like he's spying on Daemon.
Ser Simon is not Lord Strong, Larys is.
@ayoa1173 I thought Daemon renounced Larys and appointed Simon as Lord.
Oh well.
Yeah at first I thought they Aly Rivers was a hallucination because no one seemed to acknowledge her and she just pops up, but idk what’s real and not real at that place.
@@donovan4222yeah it was weird when simon mentioned alys...i dont even trust that lol
@@donovan4222I think she's real because she went to river run to ply her healing, according to Simon.
Although maybe Simon isn't real either 🤔
Even when this show is at its weakest is still a Dothraki sea of difference between when Got was at its weakest and anyone saying this episode was bad because of the kiss at the end just grow up
tbh I think that's supercuts making it a bigger deal. I've been seeing reviews all over and no one really cares that much they just say it came out of nowhere
@@TheForkOnTheLeftist Tbh for me it just felt inappropriate after what Mysaria just talked about. If they had done it at a later scene it would have made more sense and felt more natural.
@@unc54 pretty sure it's manipulative. They had been connecting over being used by daemon and not being accepted. And personally, I think she used that story to manipulate Rhaenyra emotions. Basically like they had been through the same thing and were connected. Now let me put my tin foil hat back on lol
@@unc54 i didnt even think about that, i saw it more that mysaria was opening about traumatic stuff to the only person how has ever shown her respect and treated her like as an equal, which lead to her wanting closoure and then more. I liked the kiss and hoping that they keep that relationship alive. But yea as supercuts said, having the kiss later (maybe next episode) would have been much better, cuz then we would have gotten more scenes with Rhaenyra and mysaria being more comfortable with eachother.
@@TheForkOnTheLeftist i'm glad u said this! when u rewatch the scene, i even noticed this the first time, there's this rlly odd music playing that makes you almost feel uncomfortable, and definitely not the type of music you would hear if they wanted to play up this mysaria and rhaenyra relationship. it definitely seems to me that mysaria is manipulating rhaenyra, and i'm rlly curious to see how they will play it out in the next two episodes
No it's not. I will admit the last two episodes were a bit of a let-down for me after the first 4, but the show is still very good, much better than most other stuff we see in Hollywood right now.
I also love how Daemon sleeping with his mom barely was brought up as bad in the fandom, and if it was, then it was mostly as a joke, but rhaenyra kissing another woman pushes the show too far. I'm not even really a fan of the two of them being romantic, but come on, it feels like half of the people I see talking about this show online are 12 year olds whose peak fiction experience was seeing portals open in Avengers Endgame.
100000% like the level of vitriol is so telling because even if you think it was under developed the attitude towards that is so different simply because they are women. Like if nothing changed in this story but we made mysaria a man, i think people would argue it was rushed, but not the ALL DESTORYING EVIL AGENDAAAAAAAA
Seriously look up low reviews of this Ep and take a shot every time the word AGENDA is mentioned and youll end up more fucked than tyrion
1. She was bi in the books. 2. THAT was too far???? Of all the violence and kink on GOT and HOTD? Stop it!!
Im saying man. It genuinely seems like the media literacy of people today is horrible. They dont appreciate anything that isnt sword clashing.
@@donovan6206people call it woke simply because it was gay they dont even think past that. Its really frustrating.
@@TheBadasssnoopythey’re agreeing with you
can anyone explain to me why Daemon doesn't just kill Alys Rivers when it's pretty obvious that 1) he is sick and tired of these dreams, 2) she is somehow involved in it. So WHY each and every time he sees her in reality they just have a nice chat and he even asks for her help but never tries or at least threatens to kill her?
I love Matt Smith so much and Daemon as a character and it's sooo frustrating to see his "development" in this season and it seems he won't even have Nettles around
May I be free for even one hour of the constant refrain of Nettles, Nettles, Nettles?
We know she got in his head at some point so it may explain his lenient nature towards her, its not farfetched to say she's made him more docile when in her presence because lets be real NO ONE else is getting away with the shit she says to Daemon. I personally don't think Alys is even physically at Harrenhall.
I would question why he didn't planned a way to kill the sick lord. Like he was literally able to send assassins to kill the "king" brother into the red keep. How hard that is compared to kill a sick lord...?
@@AtakenSmith Didn't Daemon asked Alys for help and she told him to wait 3 days and then bam... he's gone for good
@@HasanAbist That's not the same as actively looking for an assassin. That's literally just "wait I magically solve it for you" boring. Especially after so many episodes of doing nothing. Cause the same could have been done by him day one.
Bro how fried are peoples attention spams? I thought this episode was incredibly packed with really good drama and progression.
My 2 major issues are:
1) Individual weird scenes such as the kiss in this episode, the dragon scene in S1 episode 9, Criston Cole murdering that guy on the council without cause or consequence, etc..
Strange writing inconsistencies that do harm to the lore, world-building and the suspension of disbelief in the viewer.
And 2) the general writing on the Black's side which seems to be relatively one-sidedly portraying them as the good guys, and intent on rounding off their edges. Rhaenys, Rhaenyra as well as Mysaria needed to be challenged much, much more as characters. Rhaenys didn't face up to her crimes in King's Landing at all. And Mysaria may be a good character in concept, but the execution is lacking. She gained Rhaenyra's favor way too quickly, and her apparent romance with Rhaenyra has not been setup in the slightest.
The entire Blacks plotline this season feels stalled and rushed at the same time. That said, it's VERY far from "atrocious" claims I see getting thrown around. The rest of the series is still largely great, and even the Greens which have the worst writing are still above average imo. Troubling signs though, to be sure.
The frustrating part is the fact that they're doing a great job with the Greens (although I'll admit I do get tired of Alicent being their punching bag) shows that they can write good storylines for the Blacks. They're just not doing it because they want to make them so clearly the good guys (aside from Daemon and while his plot isn't the best it still is much better than Rhaenyra's) that it's instead made them so boring.
Fully agree, you can add the way they dealt with Laenor not being murdered like in the books but allowed to flee just because they didn't want to make team black do anything evil, even tho it brought some inconsistencies with Seasmoke as mentioned in the video
@Saffronzwodderthey don’t pay attention
@Saffronzwodder That is true, I should have phrased it more clearly; it had little consequence for Criston directly.
@@Stackmenace I'm not sure how much of an inconsistency that is, really. Is it 100% a fact that a dragon cannot bond with 2 people, or that a bond cannot be broken by anything other than death? Leanor has both consciously abandoned Seasmoke and even changed continents, both things that are unprecedented in Targaryen history, so personally I can accept that something like this can break the bond. However, they probably should have included a line or conversation regarding this to avoid this confusion, I can agree to that.
As for the murder, they did still murder an innocent stranger or servant for this plot to work, so it is still quite ruthless, if you ask me. Personally, her murdering Laenor wouldn't necessarily be outside of her character, but to me it would have felt like a pretty big jump for her characterization. I didn't mind Leanor surviving, though I have to add that whether or not I like this decision would change based on the intentions of the writers. If they simply liked the story direction for creative reasons, I'm all for it, as long as they can make it work in the plot and the script. If it was for ideological (say woke) reasons, I view that as a corrupting influence on the story.
I don't mind when the showrunners change important plots from the book..but most of the time they make no sense..the war just started and only the sea route has a blockade..there is no way King's Landing is starving..plus they know the blacks are to blame from the blockade, but they rebel for a couple of cabbages..this isn't the siege on Storm's End..they have almost all the roads and rivers for shipping food
Maybe the absence of land food can be that the reach & riverlands are all in turmoil, and that the Westerlands & Stormlands are being slow in their support? But yeah they could have done more to explain the food shortage.
@@jacklu1611 The blockade is the same in the books, no?
Well they do have food it’s just not enough to go around. That makes sense, assuming they get half their food from the sea route or something, or even 25%, just cutting that away would cause people to go hungry very quickly.
You should mind, it is where all the problems come from.
Uhm transporting food to several 100s of thousends of people via medival roads and carriges while the riverlands and reach have imploded? Kings Landing is starving in s2 of GoT without their even being a sea blockade just from the war
The writing and characters have been so entertaining for me its hard to feel disappointed so far. Great show!
Oh just wait til the finale.
Its not a matter of it being believable of not, its a matter of every event (however small, this wasn't small though) matters and has consequences (sometimes very dire) for the story. The series is all about foreshadowing.
This was a huge break from the (hi-)story we knew about Rheanyra... so the explanation that it is a spontaneous moment from the actor is unacceptable to leave in the episode.
Should have put it in the blooper real or something but not left it in the episode.
12:55 You can see on IMDB that out of the 7K people that gave the episode a 1/10, 3.5K of the votes are from people from Saudi-Arabia. The episode really got review-bombed because of that scene with Rhaenyra and Mysaria😂
good eye for statistic, thank for the info
Great point
That just leaves me wondering if Saudi Arabia watched S1 because you had two dudes kissing in multiple episodes and none of those episodes really suffered on IMDb (in fact one of them is one of the highest in the show).
@@unc54 That's an interesting point indeed. Surprisingly, S1EP5, the episode you are referring to, received an overall rating of 9.2 out of 10 in Saudi Arabia. So, I don't really understand why S2EP6 has been received so poorly there.
But in game of thrones and HOTD S1 there was no "Review bombing" even though there were gay and bisexual scenes! Their ratings were still fairly high! So the problem here is not the lesbianism but rather bad writing and forced scenes.
The only issue with the Mysaria scene is the very unnatural “and now I will tell you my backstory” moment.
Tbh I think that was on purpose, I think she’s believing that if she stays in rhaenyra’s side, it would be more likely for her to survive, maybe even become more powerful. She knows that vulnerability fosters trust and I feel like that’s exactly what she wants from rhaenyra.
I think it made sense, Rhaenyra once asked about Mysaria’s past and she refused to answer. Now that she is comfortable with Rhaenyra she decides to be vulnerable with her and share her story.
I really like this idea and hope it’s what is actually happening, it would be great to see play out. But in the episode it came across more like the writers shoehorning in some backstory rather than a calculated move by the character.
@niallgaffney2475 In this episode:
- Aemond takes control of the green council, make Cristen go to take over Harrenhal from Daemon. Fired his mother from the council and tasked Tyland to make alliance with the Triarchy and make Larys to go get Otto and threatened Aegon about what happened
- Rhaenyra and Jace trying to find more dragonriders
- Rhaenyra and Mysaria spread rumours and sent "gifts" to the smallfolk inciting a riot
- Daemon asked Alys for help.
- Larys tried to make himself hand, failed, then pivot to Aegon's side
- Aegon pretends he doesn't remember and asked Larys for help.
- Corlys promoted his bastard son
- Rhaenyra flew off to face whoever claimed Seasmoke
Everyone is making calculated moves... I don't know why you don't see any of it.
I totally agree with all of that, I’m only saying that in this one case with Mysaria it felt like a clunky backstory moment rather than a legitimate character decision.
Everything with the greens is a delight to watch, but I find the characters on the black side increasingly boring
The counsel especially testing there. In GOT every character was important in the counsel. Sooner or later. Here they feel like NPCs...
why are people hating on the episode? i thought it was pretty solid
very few people are hating, most people would agree that it was solid
Because the anti-woke crowd get their fragile little feefees hurt when two ladies kiss.
It was kind of mid and now seeing the most recent episode they could have really cut a lot of scenes and merged the episodes. Feels like they are stalling for the big set pieces and it is getting a bit annoying. Really irritating that they keep talking about bringing peace when they killed each others heirs and not blood and fire.
Totally agree. This episode was much better than the last. It is largely set-up and character building so the question remains as to the pay off. This episode will ultimately be judged on whether and to what extent it pays off in the final two episodes, but in that case, if they don't pop-off it will diminish the season. But it seems like some big things are about to come. We'll see.
The smallfolk: “we’re starving, there’s no food to eat, let’s go throw food at the queens to let them know we’re pissed off” lol
That's after they got food from Rhaenyra though.
They threw fish at her. Probably already gone foul.
They did say all they have to eat is fish because... Well, it's a coastal city. You can't really blockade fish in the bay
They threw rotten fish at her and called her “the fish queen” because all they have to eat is fish. Thats established when Baelon goes to the pub and the only meal they have is fish.
@@ASummersetproduction can’t really blockade the 3/4 of the city that isn’t facing water either, but somehow did lol
The main problem is Daemon and Rhaeneyra's characters have been castrated this season condemned mostly to inactivity and while the first season was a prequel and build-up to a conflict we don't really have a conflict besides Rook's rest we just have a stalemate. The writing and plot is suffering a bit are there new writers from season 1?
You guys hate when the show takes its time and scream from action and activity … just let it happen naturally and the payoff will be worth it.
was curious myself and went to check lol this one was written by eileen shim who is responsible for the lord of the tides last season. one of the standouts from s1 imo. don't recognize the names from 203 or 205 though.
I'm pretty sure they do even less in the books
@@ilostmyiphone1128there’s a difference between the show taking it’s time and the show being extremely repetitive. The harenhall and dragonstone scenes have followed the same patterns for the last 2-3 episodes now
@@ilostmyiphone1128 Bro loves to watch nothing happening
For the book readers, guy that got his hand chopped off in the thumbnail, is that going to be the shepherd?
That would be pretty cool
I legit gasped when I saw that scene.
Yes for sure, great subtle foreshadowing
That would be a really good way of introducing him earlier honestly-
The context is perfect too and he does look the part so I assume so really.
@@matejwho Would have been better if he lost his hand when Rhaenys crashed through the dragonpit. I wonder if the show will ever acknowledge that.
*People are forgetting that it isnt the slow pace that's the problem, it's the lack of intriguing dialogue!*
I don't agree with the dreams being redundant they are really good scenes to explains Daemon's true feelings clearly, it shows that he truly regrets that he wasn't with his brother.
I feel like people who are complaining the smallfolk scenes in the show are filler have not been watching the show. The show itself has pointed out several times that the opinion of the smallfolk matter, it was even a thing GoT focused on a few times. The focus on the smallfolk is integral to the plot and its development even if it might not be as obvious at first glance.
(Also knowing what it leads to only hammers in how important it is, even though I can't and won't expect everyone to have read FIre and Blood or looked up the lore before, I still think there's enough context in the show itself so far to support the importance of the smallfolk)
“Hammers in” 🤠🤠😉
These people are the ones that saw Cercei climb to power unchallenged and accepted it 100% without questioning. Meanwhile George RR Martin has been always hinting up how the Smallfolk can turn the tide.
These people are also the ones who complaint about how the show didn't care about the smallfolk in episode 9; then complain when the show made an entire episode focused and titled "The smallfolk". 🤨😐😑
I have a lot of issues with season 2, but almost all of them are with the Rhaenyra/Dragonstone storyline. The other two storylines (Harrenhal and the Greens) are great.
But with the blacks, it feels like the characters we know aren't doing very interesting stuff, they don't develop for several episodes.
Rhaenyra has been indecisive and complaining about her council for the entire season now. Mysaria is boring , all she does is tell her backstory and tell the audience what an awesome person Rhaenyra is, she feels like a self-insert for the writers. Corlys barely seems to still be a character at this point. Rhaenys was smug and off-putting in all her episodes. Only Jace has been a moderately interesting character.
The Rhaenyra/Mysaria relationship feels poorly written entirely, I really don't understand why these characters are suddenly so worshipful of each other. What has convinced Mysaria that Rhaenyra is a wise and gentle queen? What has convinced Rhaenyra that Mysaria is a good person who has her best interests at heart? It just is unearned in every respect. The kiss isn't even that jarring, it's the mere fact that they're so close in the first place. It's not the first time this happened, as Rhaenyra and Rhaenys were also besties all of a sudden at the beginning of the season, even though Rhaenys supposedly blamed Rhaenyra for what happened to Laenor. The writers seem to just have forgotten that completely and figured that since both characters were women, and they liked both characters, therefore the characters should be best friends. But they did nothing to develop any friendship, it's just there.
The difference in quality is biggest when comparing the council scenes. The green council scenes are fantastic, because they consist of well-developed, interesting and complex characters squaring off against each other. Every time the dynamics are different, and you can never predict what happens.
The black council scenes on the other hand feel all the same. The main characters (Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, Corlys, Jace and Baela) almost always agree with each other and the rare times they don't, it usually takes less than ten seconds for them to get on the same page.
So there's no tension there, all the discussion that exists is between this collection of main characters, and a bunch of generic "lords" who all seem to have the same personality and the same motivation: "I like war and don't like women." And they always end the same, with the lords in the council looking down in abashed silence after a main character defeats them in debate with a snappy oneliner (even though objectively speaking, the lords make very valid points, they're just depicted as arrogant and unsympathetic to push the viewer into siding with Rhaenyra and the other main characters). It's really boring right now, the writing for the blacks is sub-par.
I agree 100%. I think the Team Black bias the show runners clearly have (i.e. in showing how the Green council debate and disagree, while the they key Blacks in their Council just agree with one another instantly and rehashing sexism) ends up making the Blacks stale. I literally end up skipping the Blacks scenes to the Greens' cuz shit is actually progressing on their end. I love their complexity and the tension and underlying dynamics between Aegon, Aemond and the Green Councillors against each other. Rhaenyra whines about sexism and the councillors not respecting her when she doesn't realise she has not really done anything to earn their respect. She disappears to meet Alicent for weeks, thus hurting her standing before her allies, and offers no tangible martial solutions. Well obviously they won't listen to you, and she complains but does nothing about it, so how am I supposed to be excited about her character?
Also, Mysaria's actress' delivery of her lines this season is so...wooden. I legit cringed because I thought this is so bad.
@@hmm_1228 It feels like nobody on the council of the blacks is allowed to be an actual character, because if they are characters, they will be flawed and they will call out each others' flaws. And Rhaenyra, Rhaenys and Mysaria won't be morally perfect girlbosses anymore.
@@frankvandorp2059 I don't understand making them girlbosses with no flaws. Because GoT had Cersei, Olenna, Margaery and Daenerys. They all had their motivations and did awful things to further their cause, and we all loved them because they had layers. Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, Mysaria? Zilch. Just cardboard.
@@hmm_1228 "I don't understand making them girlbosses with no flaws." I guess because Game of Thrones started in the before time, and more than half of the show had already been written by George over a decade earlier.
My theory is SeaSmoke felt/knew Laenor was turning his back on his whole identity and wasn't calling out for his help in any way, which is why the dragon never felt compelled to join him in exile, but was still magically bonded to his life force and knew when he passed offscreen.
Glad someone else sees it! Laenor clearly didn't WANT to be found... Addam on the other hand, BADLY wants to live the life of a royal/dragonrider/etc, and had even said as much shortly before SeaSmoke came to him. 🙂
It was just let’s have a dragon burn n refuse a white guy n escape to find a black guy😂 so stupid
That doesn't change the fact that for this to be a good narrative, this plot point should have been shown or at least alluded to onscreen.
@@hira791 a week after leaving westeros he drove seasmoke out to the woods and drove away after throwing rocks at him 😢
@@hira791 It doesn't need to be alluded to if you have a brain. They have already established that the dragons and their riders have a mental bond, so to speak. We saw it in Rhaenyra's failed birth and they spoke of it another time too but I can't recall. It makes total sense, Laenor sailed away, and Seasmoke could sense/feel that Laenor didn't want him to come. It's not really that hard to understand.
Everything the Blacks do during this season has been absolutely incompetent at best. How was Rhaenyra supposed to be a ruler again?
Obligatory gay sex scene is worthless. Does nothing for the story. Way too much of this going on now. Is it really important to know that these women are potentially bi? What does this have to do with anything?
the mysaria moment is out of left field because it was not in the script. it was improvised by the actors.
If that's true, then it will probably be a one-time occurrence and not affect the rest of the narrative.
@@_Azagoth_ "they're fucking"
@@kiralawliet5612hopefully, we’ve see what happens when good series deviate too much from the books…..
It definitely came out of nowhere. How do you know it was improvised?
@@MobbJacket88 Watch the interviews. The show runner and actors talk about it.
Let's make something clear, people are not mad because there are gay characters, people are mad because that kiss was not in the script it was emma d'arcy that suggested they should just kiss which means they have no plan for this relationship to go further so it was just a filler moment meanwhile they could've showed us addam taking his first flight on seasmoke like aemond did on vhagar in season 1, finding seasmoke a rider was one of the main plot points in the episode so why off screen the most pivotal moment and replace it with a filler moment.
I do think rhaenyra relationship with the white worm is forced both on how much trust rhaenyra has with her and the romantic angle but I'm more mad about the the seasmoke problem that they are just refusing to address, having leanor die off screen just feels really unsatisfying and his fake death in season 1 clearly only exists to keep rhaenyras hands clean and they can whitewash her to be the good guy, either kill leanor outright to dirty rhaenyra hands a little to balance the greens and blacks or have him come back in disguise from his dad and you could have some juicy drama there, especially with how addam and seasmoke will meet their end, this also means rhaenyra knowingly sent the kingsgaurd to his death with seasmoke cuz she had no reason to think laenor is dead, other then that is a good episode overall
Exactly! My thoughts as well.
@@hira791 nice to see someone who shares my sentiment
Mysaria and Daemons scenes have ruined the season for me
I wasn't aware of the low rating until I saw this video. Personally I loved the episode. There are so many actors that fit their role so well, and I love watching them. Like Alicent's brother. I hope we get to see more of him, but I fear he will die as soon as combat starts.
Honestly I think one of the contributing factors is that this season was hyped (honestly more so from book readers than the actual creators) as being the actual war when it increasing looks more like it'll be something that probably really gets going in the final episode and into next season. Also, I think if this season was 10 episodes people would be much more forgiving of the slower pace. It's definitely not perfect and I do think the writing in season 1 was definitely better, but I'm still really enjoying it and still think it's closer to S1 - 4 of GoT than seasons 7 & 8.
The sesson has 8 episodes so you shouldn't be spending this much time in build up, seriously daemon has been hallucinating for 5 episodes when you could've made it in 1 or two episodes.
The build up has been filled with random moment and so many times the characters are just starting in the distance or at each other without saying much which exposed the bad writing.
Instead of daemon having a weird dream with his mom which he can't even remember they could've showed his father baelom the brave and let them have a father som talk that could've been interesting or just stick to the book and give daemon his canon events
Removing characters like maelor targaryen son of aegon which creates plot holes.
Ignoring George R.R Martin rules about dragons and having sheepstealer at the vale.
People are so cruel. I've watched several videos on Episode 6 and no RIP for the poor Dragon Tamer. As usual, there's no love for the help.
I definitely saw the Rhaenyra-Mysaria romance coming, I think it makes total sense (especially given their shared history with Daemon) and the general sexual fluidity of the Targaryen's and Westeros culture. Also given the pressure on Rhaenyra and Daemon's absence.
Larys has more chemistry with Aegon's foot than Rhaenyra has with Mysaria. I've seen quite a few comments saying that "you're blind if you didn't see the kiss coming". I've asked for examples of the supposed build-up and what I get is "the looks they've shared" and "the way Rhaenyra circled Mysaria in episode". This is House of the Dragon. There's a tense look between characters in just about every scene. Otto and Daemon have shared "looks". Are we gonna see them making out too? Probably not. As for the circling, getting up in someone's personal space and circling is an intimidation tactic. She was, after all, a prisoner being interrogated. Beyond that, there was nothing affectionate or romantic between them.
Man people will complain about anything now
Kiss did feel out of place. They opened their hearts to each other and finally felt understood and that hug was so powerful. Literally just should’ve separated it into two scenes. Also it was a great episode with some very powerful scenes and yet everyone is just talking about the kiss 🤦🏻♀️
Thats actually a great fix
If they let it settle and made them increasingly more intimate later on it would have been far less jarring
Totally agree
Not to mention Rhynera is bi in the books, she is said to be "very close" to Laena and daemon
Without the pacing the showrunners are using for this season, people would complain about not getting enough character development. I had a small problem with only getting to know Harwin and Leana for one episode before their death in the same episode. Many characters will die in this story, so I would rather get to know them so that their deaths mean something, and leaves an impact on not only the story but also the viewers. Also, there are A LOT of characters, and only one hour each week for us to be reacquainted with them. I love how the showrunners are allowing space for them.
I agree, to me, there are so many political changes in this season (at least on Team Green) that the "slow" pacing is needed. They needed to set up Aegon's reign and how it differed from Viserys'. Then they needed to set up Aegon's downfall and Aemond's "rise" to ambition. I feel like people don't realize that we got 3 Hands and 2 Kings and 1 dead Heir in ONE season for TG lol. Of course, it means the Blacks being "slowed down" because well... no one is working to overthrow Rhaenyra. But I feel like the writers handled well what to do with her and Daemon. I'd say maybe Jacaerys would've deserved to spend more time at Winterfell and Rhaenys deserved more moments, but otherwise 🤷♀ at least Daemon and Rhaenyra have a storyline, whereas in the book it's just "oh well Rhaenyra is grieving Lucerys and Daemon is waiting for his army". I feel like s3 will be very much reversed in that sense, with more happening on Team Black's side, and the Greens "suffering" from it. We have 40 things happening for the Greens, and 3 for the Blacks. But at the same time, we need the 40 from the Greens, so the Blacks have to go through it.
Totally agree. theses people are the same people who whine about the time skips in season 1.
I would agree. It does feel like that sticking to the 10 episode per season format of GoT did hurt S1 in a way, if it was 11 or 12 and we had a few more episodes getting to know Laena more, and getting to see Harwin and Rhaenyra's relationship blossoming, it would have been perfect.
While I am happy with S2 so far, once it's done we'll see whether or not 8 episodes was the right choice for this one.
But there has hardly been any character development. Rhaynera is still just as clueless as when the season started. Daemon having flashbacks about shit we already know about the whole season, tells us nothing other than the best actor in the show is effectively being sidelined. The only secondary character that’s even compelling is the foot guy.
@@austinward9 Only one of Daemon's visions was a flashback and it is a twist on events thats different to how it really happened. All of the rest are showing Daemon's real psyche behind his Rogue Prince persona
Maybe Seasmoke doesnt want to find Leanor. He abandoned Seasmoke and maybe he understands that
That's not how dragon lore works. Dragon and rider are supposed to bond for life. While their rider's alive, no one else may mount that dragon. Joffrey Velaryon tried to ride Syrax and was shook off mid air and killed for it.
I rlly have to disagree with that kiss coming out of nowhere. With Rhaenyra and alicent seeming interested in each other in Season 1, but especially the last few episodes felt like that was bound to happen, with like the last few scenes actually making it quite obvious. And I honestly find it fitting with them getting closer the last few episodes but especially the facts that They can bond over Daemon being a bad partner. And like u cant Even blame the writers, they Said it was unscripted, so idk let them explore their characters
8 episodes? Wtf why
I thought there were 10 😭😭
@@allandm SAME AAAAAAAAAAAA
They probably ran out of ideas. To be fair they are already kinda stretching some of this episodes.
@@Thor12233 They`re adapting perhaps 20 pages of a fictional history book so I would cut them some slack... I don't know what exactly people expected to have them turn against the show so quickly
The season has a fixed budget. If it's 8 episodes instead of 10, they can spend more money on each episode.
Or they can just sa ve money because there are fewer episodes. Whatever the case, it's because of money, not fewer ideas, imo.
Harrenhall, “You can check out any time you like but… you can’t ever leave…”
Daemon has been at Harrenhall for way too long at this point, there's really no arguing that, and I don't care how much people want to pretend Rhaenyra and Myseria kissing was natural, it absolutely was not.
They really should have followed the blueprint that George provided. What we're getting is worse than Fire and Blood.
No. It's not deserved. Seriously people need to get a grip
The problem is, people mistake entertainment for well-written plot; everyone is so easy to please. I don't understand how anyone can say, story wise, that the show is good. It isn't the worst ever, and I personally wouldn't say it's bad, but it just lacks so many things. The ideas are on point but then what comes out is disappointing.
Things that shouldn't be omitted are and things that definitely should be aren't, say:
1) Daemon at Harrenhal with his hallucinations should've been 2 episodes tops. Show him talking to the lords of the Riverlands, or simply don't give him much screen time. In the end, in the books he didn't do much.
2) I absolutely adore Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra but the character is so bland. She is allowed to be a tiny bit vindictive.
3) A scene with Daeron at Old Town (or wherever he is, I forgot) and Otto would've been awesome.
4) The kiss 😬 while watching the scene when they hugged, I thought to myself "Kiss!" but then they actually did it and it bothers me for 2 things: Mysaria just told a story about sexual abuse and I doubt anyone would like to be kissed after that. And don't say it was a comforting kiss; it clearly was a hot kiss lol. Now, if they had hugged and in another episode they had kissed, I'm all for it, which is my second problem with this scene. They should've developed the relationship much slower, not make them like each other in like 2 episodes.
This is a show that is AMAZING behind the scenes and I love the cast but why can't they do a job with the script?! So far, it's a mid series.
8:44 - 8:52 I’m pretty sure that it was confirmed that the writers didn’t plan on the kiss. It was supposed to just be a hug in the original script, but Emma D’arcy suggested kissing Mysaria’s actor and the director and the actress were both okay with it
I’m pretty sure Emma D’Arcy said that it was mentioned in the script that Mysaria and Rhaenyra “shared breath”, which does imply a kiss down the road, so I think the writers planned for a relationship between mysaria and rhaenyra
Sara Hess in a recent podcast said the kiss was scripted but the hug wasn't. And Sonoya was told by Ryan even before season one shooting that there gon be a romance between Rhaenyra and Mysaria
Absolutely not. Modern TV shows have professional intimacy coordinators (Miriam Lucia in case of HotD) who make sure nothing like this happens, that even the scenes that might have a hint of intimacy are made perfectly according to the script and that all the actors are in on what's going to happen.
@@Karasuno86Yeah, you might be right about that. The article I read said that Mysaria’s actress told the interviewer that it was the kiss but I looked at another article and it said that the hug was unscripted. It’s kind of hard to tell which is true since people are giving conflicting answers on it
The show is fine but the kiss was entirely unnecessary. At least with laenor, it played a role in the development of various relationships and by extension, the story. This is just there cause the actress is queer
update: nvm. laenor being gay doesn't make sense either as were supposed to be his illegitamate children. the targaryen blood is necessarsy for . now it doesnt make any sense
no body is asking for action btw. this comment is everywhere "did you guys forget that game of thrones wasn't all action it was all plots and talking, why do you want dragon fights every episode" im so tired of hearing this shit comment. nobody is asking for action, we are asking for actual development. interesting plotting, witty plans, not the shit we are getting rn fillers and Rhynaera doing nothing but useless things for 5 episodes and Allicent struggling with lack of power and Daemon tripping. its just boring simply that. nothing worth watching and not worth the wait. this season is simply a flop.
We can all agree that the make out scene was kinda out of left field… but all in all the show is the best thing on TV by FAR!! HOTD > GoT. Hands down!
“Ee-won Michell” is insane 😂😂😂
Rhaenyra is insufferable.
“I’m incompetent and have no achievements, Why doesn’t anyone fear me?🤷🏾♂️”
fr
Character flaws waaaah 😨😨😨😨
@@madratter7031 It's not framed as a character flaw, the writers and show are clearly depicting Rhaenyra as being in the right when she isn't. Everyone glazes her like she's the most amazing person on the planet. The show is TELLING us to like her instead of making us like her. Lazy writing.
I am trying really hard to like her, but every time we see her she says something along the lines of :“ I did not start this war” or “ my brother sits my throne”
I can’t anymore. She roasts her small council for not having experience in battle or at war yet sends away Daemon, and gets mad at everyone telling her they need Daemon.
Idk they really feel like different characters this season.
@@calnaughtonsjesus What makes it worse is the fact that she was given proper respect and was looked to as a leader in the beginning of the season by her council after finding her sons body. Instead of being the leader she needs to be she just mumbles “Aemond” and walks away like Joe Biden lol
I don't care about a character being gay I have a problem with there being nothing to even hint at them having some form of chemistry.
It was more like they we're becoming friends and bam now they're kissing.
Honesty I'd feel the same way if it was one of her council members.
It truly feels as if it was chuckled in out of nowhere it pulls you out of the episode.
I think if they'd showed them getting closer and built some chemistry between the characters it would of felt more natural.
I have no issues with the similar back stories because as a child SA surviver that didn't have support I can understand how that makes a person self reliant hyper aware and a drive to change things for those who are vulnerable.
It comes out of nowhere, yes. However, it shows lonely people with power can just throw themselves at the first person they build a connection with, especially Rhaenyra who seems genuinely lost this season.
I mean, the show may not have done a good job of foreshadowing this until now. But you take Rhaenyra, who sees everyone around her as disrespectful opportunists, using her as an excuse to further their own ends just like everyone except her parents - and suddenly she meets Mysaria, who she can empathize with, who is also a woman with a life of being used, who accepts her unconditionally and supports her for who she is instead of driving yet another agenda - hell yes they'll develop a strong bond. Plus Mysaria has been with Rhaenyra for a decent amount of time now. Not years, perhaps, but no one seemed to complain when young Rhaenyra all of a sudden developed sexual desires for her literal uncle whom she had, at best, admiration for. Sudden sexual attraction is hardly a problem in this series, but to target the one occasion when it was homosexual seems rather tiringly intolerant.
Funny, I didn't notice any drop in quality and yet this episode is rated far lower than the rest on Imdb. Why? What upset people?
Dunno, I actually liked this episode
It's build up and slower then ep 4.
Game of thrones did a big battle/event in ep 9 with ep 10 being aftermath and build up for the next season.
People just don't have patience anymore
This episode was on par with episodes 3 and 5. It got review bombed becase of the kiss scene.
Because of homophobics. They dont want to see gay relations but instead they want more incest. which is weird cuz I feel like it is already full of incest.
It was just another bad move in the long list of desperate moves this season for her Stalling on a real solution to the her war problem. Im more upset damon was outside the door about to fly away when that witch stopped him again😅
I have no problems with girls kissing, it's hot, my problem is that exactly nothing has happened for 3 episodes and their is way too much build up. I like good build up and I like it when it leads to a payoff, but the whole first season was build up and I was expecting this season to pop off similar to how in the sec9nd seas9n of thrones, Rob stark is making developments in his war. Exactly 0 developments have happened for a while and it's frustrating.
People don't realize how truly lonely Rhaenyra is.
People don't realize how lonely she can truly be if she can't stop with her whining.
@@happilyevernever4289 I think you're projecting.
She literally became friends with Mysaria a week or 2 at most and makes her a closest confider of hers. Out of ALLLLLL the other people she can trust like her son or Baela she chooses a clearly untrustworthy woman that even a blind man can see can't be trusted as her closest friend. And being closer with her is just asking for heartbreak and failure, I REALLY wanna support her but she's making it so hard for me ngl 😭
@@mariebourgot4949 nope many people have that opinion and yes she is whining.
@@masonhirovanaa2281 exactly. The fact that she is confirmed to be bi is not crazy. In the books, there were rumors about her and Laena getting freaky with each other together with Daemon. It isn't unsurprising at all that they went that route. But how Rhaenyra x Mysaria unfolded is as annoying as Alicole. Mysaria is literally a stranger and can't be trusted. It all seems way too fanfic-like and makes Rhaenyra really dumb without good reason. How does it even serve the plot?
My theory about the Dragon Bound idea is that Seasmoke felt that Laenor wanted to run away, so he stayed behind for him
The overhaul episode is good. But why have them kiss, it came out of nowhere.
Woke leftist hollywood bullshit. Everyone’s gay now in 2024 apparently
I have to disagree. It's made pretty clear that Mysaria is the only person who emotionally supports Rhaenyra since the death of Rhaenys. They have previously bonded over Daemon's abuse, and Mysaria's story of childhood trauma made Rhaenyra want to comfort her.
@@kiralawliet5612no it literally came out of nowhere the script had them hugging, the lesbian actress herself ad libbed the kiss. SHOCKING I know.
It was boring
@@Trashpanda887yis that a true thing or did you just make it up to be vitriolic??? i wonder which it could be🤔
As someone who never really got into GOT but is loving the HotD story so far- I'd say its only flaw is that fans are too loud and disrespectful about parts of the story none of us fully understand yet and that just ruins it for everyone. Like bro shut up let em cook??
The problem is that Rhaenyra and Mysaria is that the actors came out and said they did it because they felt like it. They improved it. It came out of left field
Why can't two people care and respect each other without being sexual.
?
It's sick
Jews
I swear so many people just have TikTok brains now. If an episode doesnt have at least 2 scenes of dragons fighting each other, they call it boring and filler. Those kinds of people should just rewatch Seasons 7 and 8 of GoT and dont watch HotD.
It's just repetitive. Rhenerya's council complains she's a woman then she does nothing, Daemon has an acid trip, and then they talk about a war without showing any of the consequences going on in the riverlands.
@@compositeur8455 No, it's not repetitive. It's hammering a point for those too slow to get it mainly the new generation and Tiktok addicts with short attention span and ADD brains.
-Rhaenyra is a BAD queen
-Daemon is experiencing the power of the Old Gods, that was missing in GoT
-WAR TAKES TIME, ARMIES NEED TO GATHER AND MOVE LONG ASS DISTANCES.
-The Riverlands will get what they deserve for joining with the Blacks
The whole Dance lasts 3 years, the war of the 5 kings lasts 3 years, Robert's rebellion lasts 2 years. Please tell me you havn't read the book without telling me you havn't read the book.
@@Amantducafe
Its hammering in NOTHING
- The Writers have an obsession with white washing Rhaenyra, the focus of dragonstone is not to show how bad she is but to show how bad the men around her are, that its not only their fault because they love war so much but also they giv eher bad advice on fighting the war, the writers clearly put the blame on the war on Alicent and the greens and the poor performance on the men on her council and Daemon. Slapping a dude for shittalking her to her face is not le evil but shown as a good carthic moment for the girlpower enjoyers.
-Daemon's story is trapped in a time bubble where nothing is happening, every scene is the same, starting with Daemon getting shittalked and ending with him and Simon Strong while Rivers looks spooky in the background. It isn't even scary anymore, the first scene of him wandering around the rotten keep was amazing but its just Daemon watching season 1 again at this point while riverlanders talk shit and get away with it because Daemon lost his balls.
-Warfare in early AGOT was non-existant, every battle was offscreen and yet it was still 10x as engaging as what's happening right now how do you explain that? because people who complain are not ADD brained or f*king Tik Tok addicts but not content to eat every last drop of slop crammed into their bowl and can tell when whats infront of them is dogwater.
@@compositeur8455 +1
Your over simplifying the matter. People have legitimate criticism of this season. It has nothing to do with the lack of action. But weak plot points and weak/average dialogue.
food doesn't just come from the sea, westeros is big enough to feed king's landing and it's unrealistic that all food comes from sea. I really don't think king's landing imports all it's food from essos. This plot point is really contrived.
I disagree, if you know how supply chains work, if Kings landing gets 50% or even 25% of their food from the sea, then that would cause huge shortages pretty quickly if you cut that away. There is also the possibility that tools needed to process food come from Essos.
Well, the royals (and their dragons) are taking the majority share of the food and livestock on the shipments that come from pro green places like the Reach, Westerlands or the Storm lands, and the nobles and people of means in KL have been said this episode to have bought out the rest, leaving scraps for the small folk in a city of a million. Secondly, winter is coming, they have been saying this since Cregan and Jace were at the wall in episode 1. And winter in Westeros affects everyone heavily, not just the North. So shipments are scaled down in order to build up their stores for the coming winter.
Kings Landing is starving in s2 of GoT to
@@donovan4222 Margaery fed KL on her own when she wanted, bigger population at that time.
I think it's pretty realistic, Aemond doesn't give a sh*t about smallfolk, so he let's them starve.
The fans and youtubers shit on Benioff and Weiss now while praising HotD, which has many of the same signs of terrible writing and stupidity that were present in S5-7 and culminated in S8 of GoT. We seem to have a hard time holding writers and showrunners accountable for their shitty decisions so long as “cool scenes” exist, until the total shitshow begins. What’s funny is HotD is deteriorating at a much faster pace than GoT from a writing standpoint but mostly gushing praise or crickets is to be heard from the fans and online reviewers. This IP deserves better…and fans don’t learn.
Seasmoke something happened to Laenor and he never make it to land. That would explain why the dragon is roaming around the sea, because his ride is underwater.
Good job doing the writers’ work for them in your head 😂
Mysaria: I have a scar, I cannot bear children
Rhaenyra: Let's fuck
The kiss was improvised. The script didn't say anything about this, the characters felt this in the moment and did it.
You simply do not screw your chief of staff. The kiss does not work. The R + M hard left turn is a mistake and will only bring unnecessary complications down the road, aside from being completely out of sync with R's character. It was obvious trauma-bonding and it passes up a way more substantive opportunity which is genuine female friendship. It also presents political problems. The power imbalance calls into question whether M is even in a real position to give consent, or withdraw it at a later time without repercussions, and bodes poorly for R's judgment of M's real motives down the road.
@@worldadventuretraveltbh you Just described why this kiss was a great decision from the writers, a Lot of complications and Drama is exactly what you want from a Show Like this
@@JMQA1 I would have prolly left it out tbh but it’s not a big deal, I don’t think it will develop into anything since the kiss was improvised. I actually like it more as a quick accident type thing that happened under stress than the start of a real relationship.
It's a big decision to improvise something like that. I don't think it was improvised. The actors and directors and editors cannot be that dumb.
I don't feel Rhaenyra kissing a girl is that odd or out of place. But why Mysaria? Why then? It seemed a little odd and I don't know what this leads to. The only way this makes sense is if Mysaria actually betrays Rhaenyra at some point, which she has very little incentive to do.
Also, Rhaenyra is not gay. She could be bisexual, a lot of people should be considering how many Homosexual people are in these stories. But, even if she were gay, I don't see why Mysaria would attract her. She can sympathize with her pain. But she's nothing like her, and isn't even in the same place mentally.
Another scene where someone gets it on IMEDIATELY after taking about/going through trauma
I find this season in general to be very underwhelming so far. I see a lot of fans just blame the audience when the show gets criticism which is unfortunate because there really are some major writing issues in my opinion. I always see something along the lines of “oh it doesnt have a big dragon battle every episode thats why people dont like it” or “go watch marvel you have no attention span” which is just pathetic lol.
The characters in particular I really am not invested and interested in like I was in S1 and it is making the show almost unbearable to watch for me. I seriously just couldn’t give a damn about any of the characters in the show rn. Daemon, Viserys, Rhaenyra were all among some of my favorites in S1 but in S2 Daemon’s storyline has been a big lowlight of the series, Viserys is obviously gone now, and Rhaenyra and Team Black as a whole has been a snooze fest and a frustrating watch with not much going on. While I can acknowledge that there are still some good written characters like some of the people on Team Green…there really isn’t a single character in the show right now that I care about or are interested in. It also doesn’t help that the show frames Rhaenyra as this perfect princess who can do no wrong and they obviously want you rooting for her.
Another thing for me is just the amount of repetitive scenes it feels like. It’s like Im watching the same scenes over and over every episode it almost feels like filler. I think the reason for that is the lackluster dialogue and dynamics. In a show like this where the dialogue plays such a big part and drives the story…it really needs to be top notch and intriguing but it just isn’t imo.
Theres other issues too imo but those are a couple main ones.
I think a show like HOTD benefits from being watched in only a few sittings. I watched season 1 right after it finished so even the slower episodes had details that paid off by the end. I feel that when you wait for a week for an episode, and nothing major happens, so you have to wait another week, you feel let down. But if you can just watch the next episode right away it changes how each episode is paced. Its like watching a movie in quarters and waiting a week between each part.
this episode was great. rhaenyra and mysaria having a thing did not seem shocking to me at all; anyone with two eyes can see the homoerotic vibes alicent and her had in season 1. like, if people are still shocked at people being bisexual in 2024, they should just touch grass honestly
I've seen quite a few comments saying that "you're blind if you didn't see the kiss coming".
. I've asked for examples
of the supposed build-up and what I get is "the looks they've shared" and "the way Rhaenyra circled Mysaria in episode 2 (at least I think it was 2)". This is House of the Dragon. There's a tense look between characters in just about every scene. Otto and Daemon have shared "looks". Are we gonna see them making out too? Probably not. As for the circling, getting up in someone's personal space and circling is an intimidation tactic. She was, after all, a prisoner being interrogated. Beyond that, there was
been nothing affectionate or romantic between them.