Oh no, Laenor is 100% killed in the book, in a public place with numerous witnesses no less.
No, that was part of the plan from the start. Look at how Daemon set it all up. He was there to kill someone nearby so that Laenor and his BF could throw his body into the fireplace to use as a double. No other reason for Daemon to be present that night or to assassinate that random person. Rhaenyra's scene with Daemon when she goes over the plan is talking about the optics of what will play out -- that people will assume they were involved, that it will strike terror into their enemies. Not about the deed actually being committed.
The way it looks is that someone comes in and mercs some poor rando guard. Qarl then meets with Laenor with a rando Velaryon servant in tow just to be a witness to them arguing. Witness runs off, then presumably Qarl and Laenor drag over the dead guard, put Laenors instantly recognizable and unique Air Jordan boots on his feet, and toss him into the fire. Qarl and Laenor split up, Laenor shaves his head and meets Qarl at the rowboat and heads off to a ship to go to Essos with a pouch of gold.
No. It was planned to give that perception.
Oh right. I was wondering why Damon killed that random dude on the stairs.
The only good thing about this show. I've had no emotion towards any of the other characters.
Daemon feels like a character from the original Game of Thrones series.
This show feels like a modern soft fantasy soap opera with Game of Thrones title attached to it.
I think the Queen was a 100% right about Rhenrys just doing as she pleases with no fear of consequences. WTF did she think was going to happen when she had no one but THREE kids who didnt look biracial?
My only complaint about how the show depicts Daemon is that he is just stirring up/enjoying chaos, he has no master plan. He has far more cunning attributed him in the book (which, admittedly, is mostly speculation).
Same. Even if currently Otto is Littlefinger and Larys is Varys.
Alicent has been doing what daddy Otto asked of her for her entire life, including seducing King Leprosy and becoming his heir factory. When you push an agreeable person to do what they don't want to do, they may comply but it produces resentment. That resentment reached the boiling point this episode. Rather than punishing her, Otto actually gains respect for Alicent for standing up for her own agency.
Agree with all of it but this show will FOREVER be an example of how casting can CRIPPLE a storyline. Even knowing the bastard plot was a thing, they went ahead and double downed on the Velaryons and then even cast Daemons girls are quite dark skinned. Those girls should have been way more pale (though still darker than Daemon) just so that the contrast of Luc and Jace next to Baela and Rhaena wasn't so damned ludicrous. It's a disservice to Viserys for over looking it, Rhaenyra for thinking she could do it THREE TIMES, and Corlys/Rhaenys for even remotely accepting these bastards as legit heirs.
Another goof to me, is that Princess Rhaenys Targaryen had black hair in the books. And this kind of puts a dent into GoT when Ned Stark read that passage about Baratheon children always having dark hair, no matter mother or father when figuring out Robert had no true heirs.
The story does establish that it's obvious to everyone, but that Viserys is willfully blind to it. I agree that it's a little absurd at times, especially the scene this episode with Corlys and Rhaenys are discussing it since Corlys acts as if Rhaenyra's kids are Laenor's blood and Rhaenys has to correct him. It stretches suspension of disbelief given the casting choices.
He feels right in that universe. The rest of the characters feel hollow, pushed, and their dialog was written by writers that have to much influence with contemporary media.
I kinda got the impression that Viserys is just letting her do whatever she wants as long as it makes her happy.
I also think Rhaenyra was rebelling with the big F-U to Alicent, because what young girl wouldn't be pissed off that her best friend started fucking her dad. Especially one who had a family spying on her and running to the King about it.
Huh I thought it was the hair that gave it away. The green Queen was checking if the baby had silver/white hair in ep 6. She even said plain haired children or something to that effect.
Yup, the fact they they were former besties until Alicent hopped into bed with Rhaenyra's dad really amplifies the smoldering undercurrents between them. The people arguing that all this setup with the younger actresses should've been skipped over are way off the mark I think. We have concrete, understandable motivations for all the players, and history to look back on already. Great foundation for the impending fireworks.
The hair gives it away, since the Targaryen bloodline is considered "weak" when it comes to traits like the hair when mixed with other non Targaryen/Valyrian blood. Only caries over when it's purely with Targaryen/Valyrian.
I think hes just a nice guy. Everyone wants nice guys to be king in these shows but this is basically a cautionary tale of what happens when you have a king who cant make the hard choices you needed to make in those days. I think Jon Snow and Ned Stark wouldve been similar to Viserys. Jon less so but this guy is just trying to keep his wife AND daughter happy and thats never going to happen when two women have made up their minds and turned each other into monsters.
He understands that fully, which is why he threatens the use of such accusations. He knows the truth will tear the houses apart far beyond the "in the know" chambers.
The thing that doesn’t make sense about this is Alicent’s children all look like Targs even though she’s a Hightower? I thought maybe an explanation would be the Targaryen was the father, but then there’s Daemon’s girls…
I think it's the show taking liberties to not confuse the audience who doesn't know much of the lore.
I saw a joke about this episode needing NVG to see what was going on and thought “oh come on you got a shitty TV or something,” but no the beach scenes were actually way too dark
Yeah, I almost thought something happened to my TVs HDR, then the TV menu popped up blinding bright and I was like, nope, it’s the show lol
Yeah if you have been watching any of the behind the scenes episodes that HBO has put out on YouTube you will notice a trend that the vast majority of the "night" scenes are actually shot during the day and then artificially darkened after the fact. They even said in other interviews that they scale up the lighting based on the number of torches, candles, chandeliers, etc etc that are present in order to give a more realistic lighting to the sets. So it feels like they intentionally made it dark as all hell in order to compensate for the fact that there are no torches or anything around and they are only going off of the light of the Moon.
that'll probably be why. usually game modes are ridiculously bright.
If you crank up the brightness you can see that there are like twelve other couples fucking on that beach. HBO sexy time is BACK baby!
I think the casting is great.
Apparently this director did the GoT long night episode that was really dark too.
TBH, this is my biggest pet peeve with the way people watch premiere tv shows like GoT. These are basically movies and people treat them like reality tv shows watching them in bars, on laptops and with lights on. i watched the night king episode in a dark room and had no problem following the action. it looked stunning in fact.
And people hated it then too.
Yea, probably going for the oppress and dread. Anyways The long night episode was worst for me.
It was supposed to be noticed by the hair (and eyes) but they don’t do the purple eye thing. Since Targaryen and Valyrian create “pure blood” with the silver hair and purple eyes.
