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HBO's House Of The Dragon (no book spoilers)

AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
Is Viserys son married to his own Sister in the traditional Targaryn way? Reanna may also be the most fertile person in Westeros.

I really thought the episode was great. Needed some dragons, but I assume for the finale there will be some dragon riding fights.

The weird thing about watching this show vs watching the LOTR how is I don't care what they do, because I have no preconceived investment in the story or characters. But with LOTR I care, because the characters matter to me.
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
HoodWinked said:
The only thing that's confusing is that Aemond looks way older than everyone else. Sure people grow at different rates but still.
Click to expand...
He does look older, but it’s the scar, eye patch, sharp features, and demeanor. Ewan Mitchel is only 20 years old.
 
PaddyOCanager

PaddyOCanager

Member
This episode was incredible. The show was already good, but I think this was the first episode that reached GoT level. The characters in this show still haven't evolved into the powerhouses we had in GoT - but the potential is there.
 
Nobody_Important

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
voidenberg said:
Vaemond was cowardly murdered for saying the truth. And everybody in that room knew it.

Rhaenyra is a whore and her sons are bastards!
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He was exposed as a selfish asshole. His whole schtick was that he wanted Driftmark stay within the family of the Velaryons. The moment Rhaenys agreed to the marriage of Laena's children to Rhaenyra's that was achieved because even if Luke is not a true Velaryon Laena's children ARE. So their kids would have been just much Velaryon as they would have been of Luke WAS Laenor's son and married someone else.


The seat of Driftmark was secured for House Velaryon with that match. Vaemond would have stopped there if all he wanted was defend the rights of his family and their blood. The guy just wanted the seat for himself and decided to go COMPLETELY off the rails.


I would also argue what Daemon did was less cruel than what Viserys was going to do. Guy felt no pain and didn't see the blow fall. That's better than what most people get in this setting.
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Plus, if Vaemond saw it coming then Daemon would still kill him in one blow, but might not have kept his tongue attached. Landing the one-liner is important!
 
Hugare

Hugare

Member
PaddyOCanager said:
This episode was incredible. The show was already good, but I think this was the first episode that reached GoT level. The characters in this show still haven't evolved into the powerhouses we had in GoT - but the potential is there.
Click to expand...
I think this is much better than just "GoT level". This is peak GoT level.

It's been a while since I've watched GoT to completion, but I remember it taking a good while to reach this level of epicness. Certainly not during the first season.

This show is already at peak GoT with 7 episodes, imo. It's awesome.

voidenberg said:
Vaemond was cowardly murdered for saying the truth. And everybody in that room knew it.

Rhaenyra is a whore and her sons are bastards!
Click to expand...

Even if it's the truth, you shouldnt expect to live after calling the king's daughter a whore

That's some basic stuff.

He went out of control 'cause, as Nobody_Important Nobody_Important mentioned, his chances of rulling Driftmark got axed, so he went full retard
 
struggler_guts

struggler_guts

Member
At the end when Viserys tella Alicent about the song of ice and fire, how do guys think she interpretted it? When she goes "I understand" and walks away, what is she about to do?
 
balls of snow

balls of snow

Member
struggler_guts said:
At the end when Viserys tella Alicent about the song of ice and fire, how do guys think she interpretted it? When she goes "I understand" and walks away, what is she about to do?
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That she thought the king meant her son (Aegon) was to be the prince that was promised and unite the kingdom. Of course, he really meant Rhaenyra to rule. Hence, the civil war that is to come.
Also I recall back to season 7 got, the prince promised can in fact be a princess too. Nice one George.
 
Tams

Tams

Member
HoodWinked said:
The only thing that's confusing is that Aemond looks way older than everyone else. Sure people grow at different rates but still.
Click to expand...

It's really hard to age a cast artificially. Considering how on fire the rest of this is, I think we can forgive them that. Plus, Aemond is now one of the coolest characters, coming from immensely punchable before.
 
Oof85

Oof85

Banned
Nobody_Important said:
He was exposed as a selfish asshole. His whole schtick was that he wanted Driftmark stay within the family of the Velaryons. The moment Rhaenys agreed to the marriage of Laena's children to Rhaenyra's that was achieved because even if Luke is not a true Velaryon Laena's children ARE. So their kids would have been just much Velaryon as they would have been of Luke WAS Laenor's son and married someone else.


The seat of Driftmark was secured for House Velaryon with that match. Vaemond would have stopped there if all he wanted was defend the rights of his family and their blood. The guy just wanted the seat for himself and decided to go COMPLETELY off the rails.


I would also argue what Daemon did was less cruel than what Viserys was going to do. Guy felt no pain and didn't see the blow fall. That's better than what most people get in this setting.
Click to expand...
Nah.

Vaemond saw that House Velaryon was being usurped for the sake of Rhaenyra and her three little lies.

The contemporary equivalent as I saw it presented on another website is:

Long time company, founded four hundred/thousand years ago current ceo's son gets married to a woman who while married to your nephew has three children by someone else.

Not one, not two but three by some random guy.

Said illegitimate children are groomed to takeover the company with current ceo's blessing.

Said woman who usurped your family offers to ensure your nieces get nice stock options and board seats but her b*stards will take control and decide the direction of the company's future.

That is NOT an acceptable proposition for most people with filial pride/backbone/ambitions.
 
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Oof85

Oof85

Banned
EviLore said:
Plus, if Vaemond saw it coming then Daemon would still kill him in one blow, but might not have kept his tongue attached. Landing the one-liner is important!
Click to expand...
Daemon wouldn't have been able to sneak an entire sword into the throne room in an actually accurate scene. Only Kingsguard have that privilege.

They should've had him muted by Viserys and later murdered by Daemon in private, with a quip about how he'd have rather heard him scream but the king has as he wills it.

Would serve to show there's actually rules and rituals in this world but that got thrown out for a cool Daemon moment, even if it makes everything else seem fiercely incompetent and stupid.
 
Tams

Tams

Member
Oof85 said:
Nah.

Vaemond saw that House Velaryon was being usurped for the sake of Rhaenyra and her three little lies.

The contemporary equivalent as I saw it presented on another website is:

Long time company, founded four hundred/thousand years ago current ceo's son gets married to a woman who while married to your nephew has three children by someone else.

Not one, not two but three by some random guy.

Said illegitimate children are groomed to takeover the company with current ceo's blessing.

Said woman who usurped your family offers to ensure your nieces get nice stock options and board seats but her b*stards will take control and decide the direction of the company's future.

That is NOT an acceptable proposition for most people with filial pride/backbone/ambitions.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you need to give some shitty analogy using a company instead of a (royal) family. It works the same way, (well, apart from there not being the whole incest issue of if it's taboo or not with companies) so you've simplified nothing.

As to why few care what has happened to Vaemond? He knew exactly what he was doing. FFS, the camera holds on him for several seconds (something this show only does with intent) as he weighs up his choices. He knew nothing good would happen to him. It was just an honour thing.
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Oof85 said:
Daemon wouldn't have been able to sneak an entire sword into the throne room in an actually accurate scene. Only Kingsguard have that privilege.

They should've had him muted by Viserys and later murdered by Daemon in private, with a quip about how he'd have rather heard him scream but the king has as he wills it.

Would serve to show there's actually rules and rituals in this world but that got thrown out for a cool Daemon moment, even if it makes everything else seem fiercely incompetent and stupid.
Click to expand...
He's a prince, and is married to the heir. Close family royal privilege. It'd only be a problem if Viserys wasn't comfortable with Daemon being armed in his presence, and he clearly wouldn't care. Not a plot hole.
 
Oof85

Oof85

Banned
EviLore said:
He's a prince, and is married to the heir. Close family royal privilege. It'd only be a problem if Viserys wasn't comfortable with Daemon being armed in his presence, and he clearly wouldn't care. Not a plot hole.
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Still, the rules say only the kingsguard is armed in the presence of the king.

And as it was Otto as Hand doing the petitions phase, he definitely wouldn't have allowed Daemon to be armed.

It's a plot hole, but rule of cool is still the rule I guess.

Same thing with the Bracken/Blackwood spat and slay in the earlier episodes. It wouldn't have happened that way in the books.
 
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Tams

Tams

Member
Oof85 said:
Still, the rules say only the kingsguard is armed in the presence of the king.

And as it was Otto as Hand doing the petitions phase, he definitely wouldn't have allowed Daemon to be armed.

It's a plot hole, but rule of cool is still the rule I guess.
Click to expand...

The King wasn't there during the petitions.

Daemon was armed when he helped the King. The King said nothing of it, so clearly it was fine.
 
Oof85

Oof85

Banned
Tams said:
I'm not sure why you need to give some shitty analogy using a company instead of a (royal) family. It works the same way, (well, apart from there not being the whole incest issue of if it's taboo or not with companies) so you've simplified nothing.

As to why few care what has happened to Vaemond? He knew exactly what he was doing. FFS, the camera holds on him for several seconds (something this show only does with intent) as he weighs up his choices. He knew nothing good would happen to him. It was just an honour thing.
Click to expand...
Its not about the royal family for him, it's about House Velaryon. That's his entire point.

His family is being supplanted for the sake of Rhaenyra's rise and it's wrong.

It's like in the books when Stannis had his original Hand killed for trying to make a match with Shireen and Tommen for Storm's End behind his back.

It would've put trueblood Baratheons lineage back into the ancestral seat but it would've been in support of a lie.

Eff that.
 
SlimySnake

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
BaneIsPain said:
GQxI5MM.png

Hats off to the showrunners to turn one of the weakest kings into someone that is very memorable.
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The lighting in this scene is absolutely incredible. The mask reflecting the fire was just perfect. When he stands up and pulls out his dagger .... *chefs kiss*

1665385490019562.jpg


This is one of those times where HDR and OLED really enhance the picture quality. The colors here seem almost muted. The glow from his mask and cloak is pretty much gone. On my OLED, it looked amazing. On my non OLED tv, it looked better than this in HDR, but OLED really helps highlight the detail in his costume.
 
Oof85

Oof85

Banned
Tams said:
The King wasn't there during the petitions.

Daemon was armed when he helped the King. The King said nothing of it, so clearly it was fine.
Click to expand...
A person wouldn't be armed in the petitions portion of court for the exact reason of what happened.

And as there were members of the royal family present(queen+princes idk about princess) they definitely would've made sure people weren't armed aside from the castle guards.

You can accept it but it rings of stupid to me.
 
Tams

Tams

Member
Oof85 said:
Its not about the royal family for him, it's about House Velaryon. That's his entire point.

His family is being supplanted for the sake of Rhaenyra's rise and it's wrong.

It's like in the books when Stannis had his original Hand killed for trying to make a match with Shireen and Tommen for Storm's End behind his back.

It would've put trueblood Baratheons lineage back into the ancestral seat but it would've been in support of a lie.

Eff that.
Click to expand...

Yes, everyone got his fucking point. You're not some genius who along among us understood that. What do you think honour is?!

Doesn't change that he made a stupid choice driven by his ego and greed. Fantastic writing and really spices up the story. But if he were a rational person, he'd have stayed alive/unmutilated to plot to take the seat of Driftmark.
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
He didn't have any options left after Rhaenys and Viserys both backed the bastards, so he chose one last moment of personal gratification by telling the truth in front of court. It makes total sense for the character, who has been consistently outspoken, wearing his plans and motivations on his sleeve and always talking about what he deserves. His ego couldn't bear the outcome.

(Daemon chuckling)
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
EviLore said:
He didn't have any options left after Rhaenys and Viserys both backed the bastards, so he chose one last moment of personal gratification by telling the truth in front of court. It makes total sense for the character, who has been consistently outspoken, wearing his plans and motivations on his sleeve and always talking about what he deserves. His ego couldn't bear the outcome.

(Daemon chuckling)
Click to expand...
If you’re gonna go down, might as well go down screaming the truth at everyone. Probably didn’t think the end would come quite so quickly tho…

I’ve been rewatching the episode and man, this show is so much better than it has any right to be after the end of GoT. Astoundingly good performances across the board.
 
Oof85

Oof85

Banned
EviLore said:
He didn't have any options left after Rhaenys and Viserys both backed the bastards, so he chose one last moment of personal gratification by telling the truth in front of court. It makes total sense for the character, who has been consistently outspoken, wearing his plans and motivations on his sleeve and always talking about what he deserves. His ego couldn't bear the outcome.

(Daemon chuckling)
Click to expand...
Exactly.

His only chance was if Otto and Alicent ruled in his favor. Once Viserys shuffled into the throne room, his chances were nil.

Then it was either be silent and angry forever, or just make it plain that House Velaryon was being sacrificed for Rhaenyra's sake.

He'd already been silent for something like 15 years.
 
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cormack12

cormack12

Gold Member
So, excellent episode.

At the end when he was talking to Alicent.....he thought that was Rhaenrya right? When she asked him about the Dagger as a child?
 
Oof85

Oof85

Banned
Tams said:
Yes, everyone got his fucking point. You're not some genius who along among us understood that. What do you think honour is?!

Doesn't change that he made a stupid choice driven by his ego and greed. Fantastic writing and really spices up the story. But if he were a rational person, he'd have stayed alive/unmutilated to plot to take the seat of Driftmark.
Click to expand...
When did I ever say I alone understood that? Cease your whinging.

He was backed into a corner and had one chance to pull his House's fortunes back to the trueborn line.

He played and lost and then made a declarative farewell speech.

"Three cheers to Princess Rhaenyra and her better and better lies!" Jon Snow
 
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Putonahappyface

Putonahappyface

Member
LTTP.

Both me and my other half are huge fans of Game of Thrones so we were ecstatic to hear about the spin-off series House of the Dragon.

We're both thoroughly enjoying the series so far. The ten year jump in episode six was a bit of a headache for me trying to workout who was who though. Sad to see Paddy Considine's character Viserys killed off. Great acting all round From the cast.

Also those brutal death scenes.

great british baking show GIF by PBS
 
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Werewolf Jones

Werewolf Jones

Member
I had faith from episode 1 and was rewarded. Can only really echo what most have said but when Viserys has someone come to help him and it's revealed to be Daemon... Just amazing.

Aemond is also gonna be a stand out I can tell.
 
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Nobody_Important

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Oof85 said:
Still, the rules say only the kingsguard is armed in the presence of the king.

And as it was Otto as Hand doing the petitions phase, he definitely wouldn't have allowed Daemon to be armed.

It's a plot hole, but rule of cool is still the rule I guess.

Same thing with the Bracken/Blackwood spat and slay in the earlier episodes. It wouldn't have happened that way in the books.
Click to expand...
It's not a plot hole. We watched Rhaenyra and Daemon get a private audience with the king and he had Dark Sister then as well. If you are the kings brother and the royal consort you get privileges above that of the lesser lords and ladies.

Its also lore accurate because Daemon took Dark Sister with him everywhere in the books. It was his most prized possession.
 
Nobody_Important

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
EviLore said:
He didn't have any options left after Rhaenys and Viserys both backed the bastards, so he chose one last moment of personal gratification by telling the truth in front of court. It makes total sense for the character, who has been consistently outspoken, wearing his plans and motivations on his sleeve and always talking about what he deserves. His ego couldn't bear the outcome.

(Daemon chuckling)
Click to expand...
Daemon's little "Say it 🙂" made me literally laugh out loud.

"Say the word motherfucker I dare you. Give me a reason. PLEASE."
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
Oof85 said:
Same thing with the Bracken/Blackwood spat and slay in the earlier episodes. It wouldn't have happened that way in the books.
Click to expand...
But it did...

"When Rhaenyra visited the Trident in 112, the sons of Lord Bracken and Lord Blackwood fought a duel over her, "
 
Elysion

Elysion

Banned
I didn’t like how Rhaenyra’s actions were softened in this episode compared to the book, where it’s her that asks for Vaemond’s head (and then feeds his body to her dragon). And in the book he’s not the only one who gets punished; his sons all get their tongue removed too. But in the show Rhaenyra is just a bystander basically.

Also, at this point I’m wondering why Corlys would remain on Rhaenyra’s side. Being allied with her and Daemon has brought him and his family nothing but grief so far. They’ve taken his son, and now his brother, and want him to accept a boy as his heir that the whole realm knows to be a bastard. What exactly does Corlys get out of this alliance with Rhaenyra and Daemon? That’s not just an issue in the show, but the book as well. I always found Corlys’ loyalty to the Blacks a bit weird; it feels like a plot point that George never fully explained.

And Aegon’s portrayal in this episode is bizarre. Are we supposed to sympathize with him? They’re obviously turning him into another Joffrey (or worse, if the leaks for episode 9 are correct), but then they give us a scene where he’s tearfully complaining about his life. Imagine if Joffrey or Ramsay had a scene like that; no one would’ve taken it seriously lol. I much preferred Aegon’s portrayal in the previous two episodes, where he was just a clueless fratboy. And him being another Joffrey doesn’t really fit with how Alicent has been portrayed so far. Joffrey in GoT was a terrible human being, but we could understand why he was that way, because his mother was just as terrible (as was Robert). But Alicent is not nearly as bad as Cersei, and Viserys isn’t as bad as Robert either, so it’s a bit puzzling why Aegon would turn out this way.
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
Nobody_Important said:
Daemon's little "Say it 🙂" made me literally laugh out loud.

"Say the word motherfucker I dare you. Give me a reason. PLEASE."
Click to expand...
That’s the exact moment I was like alright this is the baddest motherfucker, between him calling out Alicent, taking care of his brother despite their baggage and history, and then just chopping a dude’s head in two…Daemon’s the fuckin man.
 
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