#hotd review

[walled-flwr]

People ask if Viserys is "blind" and can't he see that Rhaenyra has birthed bastards who will inherit the Iron Throne...

But... Viserys is anything BUT blind to Rhaenyra's actions. He sees clearly and I have to say that it doesn't matter to him.

Rhaenyra is the child of his first, great love, Aemma. She is the Blood of The Dragon, and he views her as his true successor because of that.

Viserys couldn't give 2 fucks if a pink stag is the father of her children. All that matters to Viserys is that Rhaenyra's blood continues the line.

Whether she is 14 or 40, Rhaenyra will always be his Princess.

Hashtag: Girl Dad!!!

[mesillusionssousecstasy]

HOTD 1x04: Review

Confirmation by Mama’s Geeky :

- The most scandalous episode. 

- A lots of nudity.

- A lots of sex scenes.

- A lots of Daemon Targaryen. 

- Focus on Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen. 

Here the video, go check out : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j_htB-fdO4&ab_channel=Mama%27sGeeky

[adancingdragon]

After everyone was saying how they disliked Daemon after this episode, let me just say that I don't.

Yes, he should not have choked Rhaenyra. Yes, he should have been there when she was giving birth / when she was suffering. (and it's not as if he's completely cold-hearted - we see him weeping for Visenya (why don't they share their grief? that is a bit off to me.) and avenging Lucerys.) But I think in his own way, he was supporting her as he felt he could.

Daemon is not only sixteen years older than Rhaenyra but has had more experience with war, dealing with potential allies and dragons - and the game of thrones. By stepping into that role of "I will defend your claim as queen" immediately, it seems like he has found his spot. Like, that is his role. He also has a different outlook on war vs. peace as becomes evident when he compares Rhaenyra to Viserys. Yes, she is her father's daughter, wanting to unite the realm in peace with the memory of the song of ice and fire in her mind. Viserys and her also question the allegiance of dragons; Daemon goes and wakes them to rally them to their cause. They are very different players in this game, but I think they complement each other in it.

And when it comes down to it - crowning Rhaenyra, standing by her side, holding her hand when telling her about Lucerys, Daemon is there. So, yeah, he's not perfect (but we always knew that - no one can tell me they are surprised he's not perfect after he literally killed his first wife), but he's a great character. And with Rhaenyra to balance him out, they're a really good match. I so wish they'd rule for a long and happy time.

[reignof-fyre]

I have so many thoughts and feelings about season 1 of HotD so I'm gonna share my unwanted opinion right now.

Overall, i did like the season. The first few episodes were brilliant and they introduced the characters well, giving them well-rounded personalities and arcs and ambitions. I, however, didn't like how they made Rhaenyra and Alicent besties. In the books, Rhaenyra is only 9 when Alicent marries Viserys and Alicent rarely tries to befriend or get closer to Rhaenyra because of her (and her fathers) ambition to see Aegon II on the throne one day, even if Rhaenyra was named heir.

Because of the direction they took Alicent, she loses some, if not most, of her agency. In Fire & Blood Alicent's ambitions are her own. She wants her son on the throne, she wants to be known as the First Lady of the Realm, as a Queen in her own right. She isn't an anxiety riddled teen dancing to her fathers tune the whole way through. Show!Alicent just seems...bland and pretty unsympathetic tbh. I do understand why they went with Rhaenyra and Alicent being friends, and tried to make her a "victim" of the patriarchy (otto) that becomes a patriarchal enforcer herself later in life (wanting aegon on the throne etc) but it kind of fell flat.

Rhaenyra also lost some of her agency to me after the second or third episode. She's named heir and given this position of power but still treated like a little girl by the men around her. She doesn't take her newfound power by the horns and demand the respect a male heir would get, and I understand that's a major part of the story, the patriarchy continuing their belief that women are inferior despite their position in the world, but to me Rhaenyra seems like the type of woman to demand respect, but she just...doesn't. She had every opportunity to shore up her succession and place as heir, but it never happened. (This also occurs in the books, and its frustrating). I also get pissed off how everyone is like "omg her sons are bastards" like so WHAT? Laenor accepted Jace, Luke, and Joffrey as his sons. Corlys and Rhaenys accepted those boys as their grandson's. Viserys accepted them as his grandson's. Their claim to the throne passes from RHAENYRA not their father. I get that "bastardry" is considered this huge tabboo, but honestly it's not that big of a deal? They've proven their Valyrian heritage by claiming dragons. Rhaenys in the books has black hair, she's related to the Baratheons, hell Rhaenyra's maternal grandfather is an Arryn, who had brown hair. I know it's Westeros and recessive genes aren't a thing but...honestly. what choice did Rhaenyra honestly have when it came to having children? She couldn't force Laenor into having sex with her if he wasn't interested. She isn't that type of person. She was honestly stuck between a rock and a hard place. Even if she slept with some Lysenne male whore with the valyrian look or Daemon to get "valyrian" children they wouldn't look like Laenor, who's black in the show, and it'd be the same thing. So why shouldn't she have fucked Harwin, a man she actually liked?

Viserys was pretty on brand the whole season, and I did end up loving him beyond reason even though he's a shit king and even worse father.

Daemon swiftly became my favourite character for a plethora of reasons. It became clear that Daemon doesn't truly want the throne or the title of King, as he's bored to tears with politicking and he'd resort to cutting off heads, and it seems that Daemon is self-aware enough to realise this, and his one true ambition is to protect his brother, his king, and his family. Evident in how he defends himself in the throne room before he's exiled. He wants nothing more than to protect his brother, and he sees Otto's ambitions and schemes for what they are, and how Viserys is taken advantage of by the council. I liken Daemon to a rebellious kid who acts out for attention, because it's the only time he'll get attention, even if it's not necessarily good attention. He's desperate for approval, desperate for his family's love, and he will do anything - even monstrous things - to ensure he succeeds in defending his kin. He's not a good person, not by a long shot, but he's fundamentally the type of man whose a born protector and defender. He will bear the negative connotations and vitriol against his name if it means those he loves (and is unable to show it because he thinks showing emotions makes one weak, e.g Viserys) are safe and protected. He doesn't chase Rhaenyra for the power she'd bring him by being her king Consort, but because he genuinely likes her. If all he wanted was power, he'd have gone through with his plan in the brothel (his true plan was revenge against Viserys for his exile, as stated by the showrunners and writers, not to force a marrage), but he couldn't. He refused to debase her, even if word reached Otto and Viserys and he was once more exiled. He wouldn't have raised an army to support Viserys' claim at the council, nor would he have defended Rhaenyra and her sons by killing Vaemond. He wouldnt have looked so utterly devastated by Laena's death. The showrunners have really tried to make us hate daemon by cutting scenes where he shows his softer side (hugging Baela and Rhaena, mourning Viserys and Visenya on the beach) but Matt Smith is so brilliant that we see his softer side in subtle moments: when he comforts Rhaenyra at Aemma's pyre, when he refuses to cut Laena open to save his son, when he stammers upon seeing viserys' condition, how he snaps at Alicent about Viserys' health, when he strokes baby Viserys' head, how he strokes Rhaenyra's belly, when he helps Viserys onto the throne and places his crown back on his head, his expression when rhaenys tells he and rhaenyra that viserys is dead. When he's the first to kneel to rhaenyra and proclaim her his queen. I just love this nuanced, emotionally repressed, angry little bean so much.

Otto, a second son like Daemon, however, is Daemon's antitheses. He doesn't grasp for power for anyone but himself. He wants his daughter to be queen no matter how she feels about it because it brings him power and prestige. He wants his grandson to be king not to protect the realm, but because it will bring him power. He doesn't care that show!aegon is a drunken rapist. To Otto, Aegon's the perfect puppet king to further his own power. He knows war will follow no matter who is crowned, but war is okay if it's to keep aegon on the throne, and not rhaenyra. He suggested her as heir to get rid of Daemon because he knows Daemon is a terrible advisary to have. He never intended to let Rhaenyra be queen; she was his place holder to get rid of Daemon. He knows Rhaenyra and Daemon are uncontrollable as puppet rulers, and that's what Otto desires. Jaehaerys was too ill to be a king when Otto was named Hand, Viserys was a weak king and easy to manipulate, and so will Aegon be...for a time.

Otto and Daemon are two sides of the same coin to me, personally. Otto wants power for himself by any means necessary, and Daemon wants to protect his family's power by any means necessary.

All in all, the show is fine and entertaining. The characters are magnificent, the actors do a brilliant job bringing them to life, but it lacks the air of personal ambition that game of thrones does. In GOT, everyone wants something and is willing to kill for it. In HotD everyone is puppet-like and going through the motions of what's laid out before them. Like, yeah, Otto is ambitious but it doesn't really scream "game of thrones" ambition that we saw in agot. I know the moral of hotd is how men a stupid and the patriarchy is an insidious thing that, in medieval time, will treat women like shit...but in agot we have female characters like catelyn, cersei, brienne, daenerys, yara, olenna tyrell, and maegaery who have this sort of viciousness to them and ambition to actually force the men of the patriarchy to listen to them.

I love the women of hotd - except alicent - and I hope to see that vicious ambition and strength from them in season 2, because it was lacking in s1. I reckon we will, because the war will be all-out in s2. I'm looking forward to it.

[thequeenwechoose]

My Favourite Episodes of House of the Dragon Season 1

(After a bit of time and some rewatches i wanted to do my personal ranking of the episodes there will be critic don't like dont read also daemon is my favourite character of course it influenced the ranking)

1. 7 Driftmark

I love the pacing in this episode it is so quiet and calming until the moment it escalates. In terms of music it's also the best episode for me so many great music pieces. The tension in the dagger scene is so high and the dialouge is so good. It's the episode after that you know there is no peace possible.

Favourite scenes are the wedding and the beach scene with daemon and rhaenyra. They are finally together and it's just beautiful.

2. 8 Lord of the Tides

Very close to episodes 7 and a good follow up to it. Sad about the time jump because i would have liked to see more of daemons and rhaenyras life on dragonstone. But seeing theese two together with their family is just beautiful. A big contrast to alicents family who all seem to dislike each other (except aemond who cares about his sister)

Favourite scene is viserys entrance in the throne room and daemon helping him up the stairs. Makes me cry everytime i watch it. Oh and the beheading is just purely daemon at his best.

3. 4 King of the Narrow Sea

Another rather calm episode who solved a part of the story that the book does not really answer. Daemons and rhaenyras choices in this episode set up the course for the rest of the season. It also shows that they have a cemistry that can't be denied. It highlights the diffrence between alicent who is dutiful and misserable but endures it because she believes it is the only way and rhaenyra who breaks the boundaries at any choice she is given.

Favorite scenes daemons and rhaenyras talk in the garden and daemons and viserys confrontation in the throneroom.

4. 3 Second of his Name

Only so high up because i love every scene in the stepstones. The beginning with daemon and caraxes (dragon attack hell yeah). And the ending scene with daemons suiccide mission. The soundtrack in this scene is the best in the show so far it's just haunting in the beginning and turns in the best battle soundtrack i heard since lord of the rings. The bells in the end are so beautiful. And i just love action scenes.

5. 1 Heirs of the Dragon

I love the pilot and i still think it's one of the most important episodes. Because you get introduced into the time and world which is quiet diffrent from thrones. Every character is introduced very good.

Favourite scene: The Tourney (without the birthing scene of course) the best tourney scene on tv jet.

6. 10 The Black Queen

I don't think it's the worst episode but it could be so much better if it would not feel so rushed. A lot of important things happen and all the deleted scenes would have added far more depth to it (I dont talk just about daemons cut scenes, there was one with baela and rhaenys and rhaenyra and jace.)

Favorite scene is rhaenyras coronation and daemon singing to vermithor.

7. 5 We light the way

My main issue is the dead of rhea royce. Not that i dont think that daemon would have done it but it happened earlier in the book and even in westeros there are accidents that are just that. But i guess that would have been too boring. I also did not need to see it rhaenys telling viserys would have been enough (We have all imagination.) Confirming it later in daemons conversation with her uncle would have been better for me. I mean rhea and daemon dont even have a real conversation. The wedding is a grand affair and the soundtrack and costumes are stunning. The other issue is christon murdering joffrey and getting away with it. How can that be? The driftmark set design is very beautiful. I like corlys and rhaenys relationship.

Favorite scene is daemons entrance at the wedding and his and rhaenyras scene on the dancefloor.

8. 2 The Rouge Prince

A good episode but thats it for me. Dagonstone gets introduced which is my favourite location. I like that they did not go for the mysaria miscarriage storyline. The burner is of course that viserys marrys alicent.

9. 6 The Princess and the Queen

One of the worst for me. Rhaenyra has to show the baby after giving birth. Her kids get attacked by alicents on christons order(why is he still alive?). Who is allowed training rhaenyras kids even if he hates her now(because she rejected him?). Laenas and harwins characters are completly butchered. And daemon is depressive in pentos and is not allowed to hug his kids. Oh and Rhaenyra is not on dragonstone in the first place as she should be because itvis the tradition for targaryen heirs. They set up rhaenyra in the first episodes as a girl who is afraid of childbirth and didn't want to have that many kids in the first place and that completly backfires here because there is no explanation why she has three. (Except of course that the children play a huge part in the book later.)

10. 9 The green Council

This episode was just so boring to me. It should not be because it is a key episode with the greens ursurping the throne. The whole storyline of finding aegon is so unneccesarry. An rhaenys comming through the floor is a nice moment at first but the consequences of her action are so grave. She could have ended things here but that's not how the story goes and that makes the whole scene stupid. Aegons character has no agenda at all the made him a raper and worse. Was it so hard to give him a bit from his book counterpart? He at least wanted the crown after being convinced. And giving alicent an excuse for all this because she interpreted viserys last words wrong? She is a bitch in that part of the book let her be one. And last bot not least the food scene that was just disgusting.

As resume i enjoed the show very much which i did not expect in the first place. But i can say that the first half of the season was better written than the second half. As someone who is over 25 years old and has seen a lot of tv shows and movies it worries me what the writers of some tv shows today are thinking. I myself want to see a good book adaptation who is open for changes if they make sense and are true to the book. I don't want to see the themes of the current time in a fantasy tv show. Tv shows are an escape from reality not a mirror of it.

[mytly4]

After the crapfest that was Game of Thrones seasons 5–8, I initially had no intention of watching House of the Dragon. I took no interest in all the hype leading up to its release and had only the vaguest idea about the casting and other such behind-the-scenes stuff, and that too, I learnt only passively, i.e. because I followed people on tumblr who posted about such stuff. But once the show started airing, I found myself flooded with a whole bunch of discussions, gifs, and metas on social media, and most of what I saw seemed overwhelmingly positive. So I decided to check it out … and was pleasantly surprised. Like, really surprised! It’s not just ‘not bad’, it’s actually good!!

HotD is one of those extremely rare beasts: a book-to-screen adaptation that actually improves on the source material! Ok, so some of that is because the source material is sort of lacking. One of GRRM’s main strengths as a writer in ASOIAF is his command over the limited-third-person-POV style that allows him to get into the heads of such a vastly different range of characters. But the story of the Dance of the Dragons (in all its iterations, i.e. in The Princess and the Queen + The Rogue Prince, The World of Ice and Fire, and Fire and Blood) is not in this style. It’s in the pseudo-historical style, written by biased masters writing centuries after the fact – a style that does no favours to the characters (even when the fictional authors try to paint certain characters in a good light). So it was really great to see HotD giving considerable depth to characters like Alicent, Rhaenyra, Viserys I, etc. who are mainly two-dimensional in the source, despite being some of the main characters. It’s also nice to see relationships being given more depth, such as Rhaenyra and Alicent starting off as friends and then slowly becoming enemies as their personal lives and political alliances pull them apart. Changes such as this – or another of my favourites, the depth given to Rhaenyra and Laenor’s relationship and the much better ending Laenor gets – are excellent examples of how a screen adaptation can improve the source material enormously with just a few tweaks.

Apart from the improvements to the source material, it’s great to see just how much better this show is even than GoT seasons 1–4*, in terms of visual worldbuilding. Sure, some of this is undeniably because HotD is working with a much larger budget than at least the first couple of seasons of GoT (i.e. before it became a media juggernaut). But a lot of it is just because the people working on HotD – from writers and directors to set and costume designers – seem to be much more interested in portraying how the people and places in a medievalesque court would look and how the people would spend their time. The beautifully embroidered clothes, the rich brocades (in a variety of colours! – something that GoT somehow never managed to depict), the gorgeous wall paintings and tapestries, the unusual objects in Corlys Velaryon’s hall… visually, this show is a delight. (The lighting still leaves a lot to be desired, though… *sigh*.) People actually do ordinary, daily stuff, like read in their bedroom (or in the godswood), hang out with their kids, indulge in their own hobbies, entertain guests, dance at a party, and so on. It’s such simple stuff, but it makes the characters seem like actual human beings, who have lives beyond what we see of them onscreen.

*(I refuse to consider GoT seasons 5–8 as serious attempts at making a TV show. The last season, in particular, was literally just a naked attempt at raking in as much money as possible while getting away with as little work as possible on the part of the showrunners/writers. Even the people with actual talent, i.e. the actors, the set and costume designers, etc. were just phoning it in by that point.)

Of course, all of this praise doesn’t mean that HotD is above criticism. In one way, it seems to have doubled down on GoT’s flaws, with every episode so far showing people being injured and/or killed in horribly gruesome ways (IMO, Vaemond Velaryon and Joffrey Lonmouth’s deaths are tied for the prize of ‘most horrifying onscreen death ever’). At least GoT managed to space out its gore a bit. And unfortunately, HotD is going to only get worse, once the actual war starts.

Then there are the deaths in childbirth, GRRM’s favourite misogynistic trope, dialled up to eleven, with Aemma Arryn’s horrifying C-section in the first episode, to Laena Velaryon’s death by dragonfire during childbirth (something that I wouldn’t have even thought possible). I get that these deaths were necessary plotwise, but couldn’t they have been done less viscerally? While Aemma’s death in childbirth makes sense in terms of the overarching themes of the show, there was no reason for Laena to die in childbirth. Why not change her death to something else entirely? If she needed a ‘dragon rider’s death’, why not have her die fighting on dragonback?

Oh well, despite these issues, I am cautiously optimistic about this show. It’s excellent so far in terms of characterization and visual storytelling, and the casting seems to be pretty good. I assume by now (i.e. season 1, episode 8) we’ve met all the actors who’ll be playing the final version of the main characters (except presumably Aegon III and Viserys II – they seem to be too young so far to play any role, so presumably they, or at least Aegon III, will be played by older kids later on).

A few random thoughts:

I guess Daeron the Daring has been left out of the show? I’m not particularly bothered – there are already a lot of characters, and he’s the most expendable one from among the younger generation.

How many seasons is this show going to be anyway? I assume around 3–4 seasons, going by the speed of the narrative so far. But that depends on what endpoint they choose. I guess the Hour of the Wolf is the most logical endpoint, though it’s possible they may stretch out the story (or change the order of the events) all the way till the end of Aegon III’s regency, or at least till Alicent’s death.

Ramin Djawadi’s music is always a delight, but I do wish the theme song had been changed at least slightly, instead of being the exact same as GoT’s theme song. It’s not the same show – why use the same theme song?

[flowerandblood]

me: will you watch with me HOTD trailer tomorrow?

my husband: maybe

me: do you remember anything from the first season?

my husband: that there was some rotting king who got married to that lady, who's also quite a wretch, there was some family of black people who floated on the sea, bedsides I remember that there was a woman who's grown old now, the blonde one, and that some boy flew off his dragon and got fucking eaten and now there's going to be a big family drama

me: *explodes with hysterical laughter*

i'll get you his reviews of the second season episodes, i promise

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Ok, so, this is probably ridiculous, and I can't believe I have a House of the Dragon theory before it even airs (I can barely believe I have a HOTD theory at all), but...

Since the release of The Princess and the Queen in 2013, and through everything published about the Dance of the Dragons since then (TRP, TWOIAF, F&B), it's known that Daemon and Aemond Targaryen have a lot of parallels. Besides the most obvious point of their names (just move the D, lol), they're both hotheaded, vengeful, kinslayers, brutal and ruthless, excellent swordsmen, more martial and physically active than their kingly older brother who they were nevertheless devoted to... culminating in their final showdown in the Battle Over the Gods Eye, the aging older model vs the would-be "new hotness". Though a major difference is that fandom tends to treat Aemond as far more of a pretentious wannabe, a bad Xerox copy with his marysueish sapphire eye and ooh so hardcore dialogue, generally disliked while Daemon is beloved (or at least opinions are far more split), the Darkstar to his Oberyn.

As for HOTD -- though we have yet to see how normie fandom and newbies will react to these two characters once they both start doing their thing, one thing I've noticed from the trailers is that most new people just cannot tell them apart. I have a friend (with no interest in ASOIAF but who's seen the ads multiple times during his shows) who thought Aemond was Matt Smith in an eyepatch. And Matt and Ewan Mitchell do look remarkably and surprisingly alike.

That same flat square jaw from the front but cut cheekbones from the side, similar noses and lips, even when in costume the same lack of eyebrows for goodness sake... Well, maybe this is just highly similar Targaryen wigs and makeup, maybe it's just good casting, following the evident show-Targaryen family look. Maybe the showrunners just chose a young actor who looks a bit like Matt Smith and costumed him similarly as a way to hammer home the parallels between the characters. But. What if this casting and costuming means something... more?

We know that one of the in-world text sources of the Dance is the scurrilous Testimony of Mushroom, which claimed that Alicent was no virgin when married, having previously slept with Viserys and even senile King Jaehaerys (which I most thoroughly doubt, that's just Mushroom's typical slander). We know that Otto Hightower detested Daemon, all the sources concurring, if no reason given except perhaps "Lord Flea Bottom"'s known behavior. We know that per interviews etc, in the show Daemon is said to have a complex relationship with his brother Viserys, loving yet jealous. We know that, well, HBO is HBO, as bad as Mushroom, and loves to add sexy scandalous scenes for water-cooler and social media buzz, even if they're claiming it won't be so bad and blatant as GOT with HOTD. So... what if, in the show, there's some kind of... incident, between Daemon and Alicent, a seduction or maybe, um, not the greatest level of consent, and then a little bit of time and Alicent tells Viserys she's pregnant again? Perhaps there won't be anything overt, nothing ever said, just implied via nasty looks and snatches of dialogue... but what if? There's no Maury Povich or DNA testing in Westeros...

Mind you, a big flaw in this theory is that in the books, Daemon was absent from court from late 105 to 111 AC, either on Dragonstone or in the Stepstones, and Aemond was born in 110 AC. But we already know that HOTD's adaptation is playing a bit with timelines, making Alicent and Rhaenyra about the same age whereas Alicent was 9 years older in the books. We don't yet know how they might tweak the ages of their children -- though from the trailers and behind-the-scenes videos, Aemond seems to be far closer to the ages of Jacaerys and Lucerys (in the Vhagar incident scenes they all look 10-12-ish, rather than 10, 6, and 5, and the actors are 12, 13, and 8). And imagine-- the parallels (not just between Daemon and Aemond, but Alicent and Rhaenyra), the greek tragedy levels of irony... it would be amazing.

So. I suppose we'll see. This could be completely crack, based on nothing more than the somewhat similar appearances of actors cast as uncle and nephew. But if it does go down that way, if show-Daemon has a son he could never ever acknowledge... don't say I didn't warn you.

[bohemian-nights]

Welp if it’s one thing that happened in 2022 that shocked me, it’s HOTD making me find Matt Smith hot 💁🏽‍♀️

[eschercaine]

Just putting this out there...

See that, Ryan and Sara??

So much for them being a “fan of the books.” They’ve completely strayed from the source material.

House of the Dragon is their fanfic based on Fire and Blood with tags, “pro team green,” “anti Daemon Targaryen,” and “anti team black,” included in it.

[mejcinta]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON: FLAWED BUT FASCINATING.

I really enjoyed this review. It basically highlights the 'tell-don't-show' problem with HotD comapared to GoT which suffered less from it by showing, more than just telling.

@very-straight-blog I think you'll love this one.

[walled-flwr]

Ser Laenor Velaryon is a real man and deserves more love

Laenor is Rhaenyra's faithful second, her best friend and wants to protect their little family.

Also, him being the gentlest and sweetest father to Princes Jace & Luke, being besotted with baby Joff was the main spark of joy for me in this episode...

And hats off to the way he was civil to Harwin, the unofficial donor of the Velaryon family

[mesillusionssousecstasy]

HOTD 1x10: First Review

Honestly, I did not expect such differences from Fire and Blood in this episode, like they were afraid to make Rhaenyra another Daenerys (mad queen) or what?

Let’s start. 

I really like the opening with Luke, knowing what would happened to him at the end. 

I truly share Daemon’s belief that Viserys was poisoned by the Hightower. 

Is it me of Syrax could understand Rhaenyra’s pain through childbirth? Like the child was connected to Syrax? However, I was quite astonished that the baby didn’t have dragon features like in Fire and Blood. Also, they haven’t even mention her name, right? No Visenya at all. 

I liked the parallels between Rhaenyra and Daemon’s mournings.

It was such a pleasure to see Ser Erryk Cargyll, but I thought he would have make a better entrance, and not like this alone, coming out of nowhere. 

Of course, I love the way Daemon crowned Rhaenyra and he was his true and utterly self here. 

I almost didn’t recognize Rhaenyra in this episode (of course with her comportment), but also her face, she looked so young, almost like Young Rhaenyra / Milly. 

Aegon’s table is amazing, even more with the candles. So much better than the one from GOT. A true piece of art. 

Can someone explain to me what happened to Syrax, she hasn’t grown during 20 years, even worse she seemed smaller. 

Daemon was excellent in front of Otto. Matt Smith’s performance was amazing again. I will never hate Daemon. 

Apparently Seasmoke is drifting on Driftmark, WTF. 

It was nice to see Corlys Velaryon even if he was so contradictory (but he wasn’t alone in this episode).

Rhaenyra was way too soft. They changed her too much. Is she or is she not a dragon?! But at least we could notice the differences of education between Rhaenyra and Alicent regarding their children. 

Poor Luke, I almost cry when I saw his last interaction with his mother. 

Daemon can touch another dragon who isn’t Caraxes? Like this, just by singing to him in High Valyrian? What else has he discovered in Pentos? 

Storm’s end court is so empty and dark! We didn’t get any interaction with Lord Borros Baratheon’s daughters such a shame. There were four of them and none could talk, really? And why every one is afraid of Lord Borros? At least, he is smart enough to put a stop of Aemond’s fighting 

The heartbreaking moment of the episode was Luke’s death and the down play of Aemond. Why making the Greens so innocent and careless instead of what they truly are ruthless, murders and usurpers!? Why? There is nothing to justify this writing. Aemond is a murder and now a kinslayer. He has dropped the first blood, and he is the immediate responsable of the following murders. 

At least, this time the CGI were on point. The way Arrax fly above the clouds was amazing. 

And yes, the final scene was the climax of Rhaenyra and Daemon’s relationship. Now their fire burn together and they will be capable of anything (foreshadowing of episode 7). So sad that we didn’t get the needed sex scene just after, but it’s coming... from me. But did you notice that they played their music when they were holding hands until the end. 

ps: Ser Harrold Westerling is currently MIA, if you have seen him, please report to the authorities of Westeros. Or maybe episode 9 was his noble exit?

[adancingdragon]

Rhaenyra is the Queen.

Rhaenyra has grown up feeling like her father would rather have a son than her. Then he chose her as heir and this made her the target for a lot of people. But she stood up to it, she found her way. She became a loving mother of five / seven within all the family constellations you can imagine. She supports her children from the start, unlike her father. Rhaenyra helps Jace study, steadies Luke when he is afraid, calls Baela and Rhaena with her to the war table, introduces her youngest to Viserys most proudly. The love and support she gives them is endless.

Rhaenyra is a peaceful queen. She seeks to reassure herself of her allies, but without causing any fights. She does not want to fight with dragons as it would put her realm and people to ashes. She is the calming presence, like Rhaenys says, in a room full of men eager to go to war. And Rhaenys and Corlys respect her for it. (Do love the moment when he declares for her!) Without Lucerys dying, who knows what would have happened. She would have sought peace.

Rhaenyra is also such a strong woman! She stands her ground in a room full of men, she is the queen and she commands that. Dealing with Daemon is perhaps the most difficult because she has looked up to him all her life, and now she stands above him. Dealing with that is difficult, but here again, Rhaenyra stops him when he wants to simply kill Otto. She asks everyone to leave to talk some sense to him, to deal with it privately. She even defends him when he seeks out Vermithor after their fight. So might we add she is a loving, perhaps too forgiving wife? I do think she is. She deserved more love and support from Daemon during Visenya's birth, and no violence at his hands, that is true. But they do make a good team - with her being more considering and peaceful, him being more daring; her believing in prophecies, him being more of a realpolitik guy - and I think they do know that and count on each other.

In the words of Ser Erryk: I swear to ward the queen.

(they deserve more than a PS but Emma D'Arcy They bring this Rhaenyra to life!)

[baconkath]

my take on HOTD E8

 we get to see Rhaenyra x Daemon as the power couple we deserved

Rhaenys blaming Rhaenyra for Laenor’s death while we know he’s living his best life with his hotass boyfriend

daddy Daemon choosing dragon egg for their baby

my fav Daemon is criminal Daemon  

the sluttiest thing a man can do is cutting off the head of the man who called his step sons bastards

Viserys meeting babe Aegon III aka future king and Viserys Jr

defend me and my children

Viserys stole the show

what an entrance

man could barely breathe, much less walk and he did it bc he loves Rhaenyra above all, above himself even

Daemon loving and supporting his brother

that dinner made me recall awkward Christmas dinners

it’s cute to see that Luke and Jace actually get along with Baela and Rhaena

Aemond is a hot little shit, sue me 

but again

if Alicent had just agreed to bethrothing Jace and Heleana, so much blood would have been spared

boy, the tragedy of having so many people with the same name

and the golden end

m y  l o v e

[dragon-queensguard]

I know I’ve complained about the pacing, and the speed running of the timeline leading up to the dance, but I think so far this is the episode that’s suffered the most for it. There’s just hardly any depth to any of the relationships featured in this episode, and it’s purely because there’s been absolutely no time to explore any of them. We get these rapid fire quick snippets, but there’s so much being thrown at us in an hour that it’s hard to stick. The episode’s saving grace on the matter is that the actors are really good at what they’re doing, but you need the talent of the actors AND good writing and development to make something actually work.