HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

[houseofthedragon]

Extended trainer here:

I am so excited for this!!! Anyone else???!!!

HOTD will be premiering on the 21st Aug (22nd Aug for U.K.)

It's a brilliant twist but you do have to not think too carefully about the mechanics of it and how quickly they could feasibly have made the switch.

Oh, I completely missed that they were in on it. I think I'm going to have to rewatch them all again. I always miss so much!

I think there are 10 episodes in total, so 3 to go!

I'm wondering how much longer King Viserys will last.

Apparently there will be another time jump before the next episode. The adults will remain the same but the children will be more grown up. Can't wait!

Could someone please explain the twist at the end as I didn't notice anything. Assumed that it showed the man that Daemon paid to kill Laenor escaping to Essos? I must be really unobservant!

Can someone just say please? It is not a spoiler now as the episode has been aired.

Yes, he was escaping with Laenor who had shaved his head.

So, I think the twist is that Laenor is still alive.

I may be completely wrong though!

Thanks! Well I am glad poor old Laenor has survived. To go and be his true self with his gay lover over the sea? Well Rhaenyra did tell Daemon she loved him (Laenor). Bit rough on the guy sacrificed in his place! And his poor parents.

And if word ever gets out then I suppose Rhaenyra and Daemon's marriage would be null and void as their society does not accept divorce.

Agree about spoilers not being spoilers after it's aired. (We could never dicuss it if we can't write them!)

But just in case,

START OF SPOILER

@Pemba , the man Daemon pays to kill Laenor "with witnesses" is Qarl.

I guess, as we watch, we are at first supposed to believe that Qarl is comfortable with killing his King Consort lover for some gold. The assume then the unknown man on the stairs is killed by Qarl just to prevent him raising the alarm. Then enter Laenor, with one other. Qarl starts a fight with Laenor and has a witness in place.

I was a bit ' uh oh, Qarl is in trouble as the witness ran off, and was full sure that when he got into the rowing boat he was doomed. Didn't recognise the Laenor with his head shaved at all. (Mind you, I also didn't recognise Qarl when Daemon was plotting with him. Dawned on me afterwards!) I image Qarl and Laenor changed the Stair-killed Man into Laenor's clothes, shaved Laenor's hair and burnt it with Stair-killed Man. We can only presume Laenor was in on the plan!!!

END OF SPOILER

Listen to Cast of Kings podcast last week. Apparently a lot of people utterly hate the time jumps and has stopped watching last week because of the big time jump. Including the male podcast host - except he has to keep watching due to doing the podcast. There's also a female podcast host who doesn't mind the time jumps- she's great but don't think I'll listen to this week's episode as he was so just negative about it. Prefer podcasts about TV shows the host actually likes.

No rat this week?

I think the rats are a Red Keep thing and this was all set at Driftmark (including the wedding at the end? Although that makes no sense. I know Daemon's not a big fan of propriety but having the wedding immediately, at your ex-DPIL's castle, would be weird).

The wedding must have been at Dragonstone, Rhaenyra's seat.

Aegon the Conqueror had two wives. So polygamy from the Targaryens was at one point accepted. Or at least in the books people do not dare to grumble. I know Aegon was male, double standards.

Oh yes, having the wedding at Dragonstone makes much more sense. I knew it wasn't Kings Landing, which is where all the rats are (or maybe just one very publicity hungry one).

The time jumps are driving me mad. Especially because it really messes up the pacing.

We spent so long at the funeral, watching everyone giving each other sneaky side glances. Yet, we then jump through plotting to marry, bribing Qarl, him 'killing' Leanor, then escaping with Laenor all in little jumps. If the characters were fleshed out properly, that last little sequence of events could happily have stretched it's legs over a few episodes. It's like the writers don't trust their skill at being able to hold attention if they slow the pace down and let you get to know everyone a bit better.

Ditto whats-his-face that was really Rhaenyra's baby-daddy. We met him, barely knew anything about him other than what we are told directly through words, then he died. What a waste of great potential: seeing who he was that had so attracted this women who had decided she would take her own pleasure, that she seemed to have stayed loyal to him for years. What it's like to watch your own children grow up calling someone else Dad. What grief Rhaenyra might have felt when he died and how that might have changed her outlook. Maybe she felt finally free? Maybe she felt sorrow? Maybe she felt suddenly vulnerable that someone close to her could be killed?

We'll never know beyond the most superficial nods.

And while I am having a moan: if you are going to make everyone in a family look the same (e.g. Targaryens), you really DO need to give the space for us to get to know them better. So that we can differentiate between them when they do something vaguely interesting.

The children's fight at the end being an example. I more oo less cottoned on that it was not the eldest of Alicent's sons that got hurt. But I have no idea which of Rhaenyra's did it.

I am still watching and bitching! Things I still don't like:

I didn't like Milly Alcock and I don't like Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra. Maybe I am just impossible to please. Emma looks very miserable all the time, not a spark of animation. Not very taken by any of the actors really, except Olivia Cooke, who I think is marvellous.

How dark it is. I find the show impossible to watch during the day on catchup.Have to watch it at night and even then I am in the dark!

All the incestuous stuff creeps me out and reminds me why the Targaryens are my least fave house. More about other houses would be good. Yearning for a nice uncomplicated Stark who is not bedding his sister.

Things I do like: I think the scene where Aemond steals Vhagar could have been very good if I could actually see it.

Still craving for some humour; don't think we will get it.

yes, it's all blonde confusion, isn't it? The son who hurt Aemond ( Alicent's second son) was Rhaenyra's second, Lucerys. Or Luke. All the fighting scenes are very confusing, as are all the children who look alike. The wigs are terrible too. Corlys is a handsome man but looks like a mop that has been used too many times.

Corlys is a handsome man but looks like a mop that has been used too many times.

😂😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

@AnImaginaryCat thanks so much for your explanation. I feel pretty stupid! But in my defence it was late at night when I watched, it had been a hard day for me, and many of the scenes in this show are SO BLOODY DARK. ( visually, but yeah content too..)

Please, don't feel stupid @Pemba It is pretty confusing if you haven't read the book.

Loved the twist at the end. And the children - their intertwining stories are becoming magnificent! But the whole episode was so visually dark that lots of plot points must have been missed by large sections of the audience.

The slow pace of this show really requires some mental discipline - it’s only enjoyable once one has acclimatised to that.

GottaGetOutofDairy

I think you have nailed it. The biggest problem is we haven't got to know the characters in enough depth to care about them or even to be able to tell one from the other in some cases. The deaths are all very unmoving because of this, as ate theoments of peril and passion.

I also cannot understand when they used up so much of the first few episodes on the crabfeeder? It was all pointless and that time could have been put to much better use.

I am enjoying it, there are some good parts, but I find I am trying to convince myself that it is not actually rather poor overall. I am very sad about this.

"ate theoments of peril and passion" should be "as are the moments..."

I agree that the crabfeeder digression was a bit incongruous. I guess that the reason they showed it to us was to provide a moment of action, which has been otherwise lacking: this is a show about war after all. And it served to show that Daemon isn't just a scheming younger brother who hangs around in brothels, he's not just a tourney knight; he's a legitimate badass and a lethal opponent.

Why would Laenor first assure Rhaenyra that he is going to be a better husband and father, then agree to leave the 3 boys to lead a life in hiding? Makes no sense.

Yeah, I don't care about any of the characters. Rhaenyra or Daemon could die tomorrow and I wouldn't care. Because they haven't sketched out their characters Find it a bit odd that a couple of episodes ago Rhaenyra was saying to her mother that she wouldn't just be a walking womb, but now it seems all she does is give birth and pine for various men. ( I get it's ten years later, but still). Very boring.

I just came across this article, which seems to sum up some of the problems nicely (for me): www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/sep/15/house-of-the-dragon-game-of-thrones

Presumably Laenor has the full plan explained to him, and hence knows that Rhaenyra and the boys will have Daemon to look after them in his place.

That makes the misdirection scene where Daemon puts on the Hoodie of Dark Deeds and meets Qarl in public completely superfluous and unnecessarily risky of course. Rhaenyra could just have told Laenor in private what the plan was and Laenor could have explained it to Qarl in private. I guess it might have been intended to be seen: Daemon did talk about the benefits of having his enemies not know what he was capable of.

I agree that the sons Rhaenyra had by Ser Harwin (?) might be in danger if she has further children by Daemon. He would naturally want them to inherit and they would have more Targaryon blood. I don't think she knows what she is doing.

Urgh at her calling him 'uncle' after they'd slept together!

Rhaenyra's sons are not going to be safe with Daemon as step dad, are they? Particularly as he has overcome the problem with his winkle and has had children.

I understand that she might see marriage to him as the best bet to strengthen her own claim to the throne. I can understand her thinking she'll marry him for now and then get rid of him somehow but I'm only guessing. There is no indication of that and none that she fears him as a threat to her children which surely she would. The sex and marriage scenes were shown as a love match and she appears to think she is his equal in scheming against the others. That would make sense if she was a dupe but we're encouraged to see her as a strong woman in hard circumstances.

It's always been clear Daemon wants the throne for himself. She must suspect he murdered his wife, dumped the girlfriend and didn't care much for his second wife or daughters. She was there when he sniggered at Corlys's brother speechifying about the importance of bloodlines which I took to be openly calling into question the parentage of her sons and her own integrity.

I was another one who didn't get the twist until I read a review. I watched it twice too. I put it down to the fact I didn't recognise Laenor without his wig. We probably won't see any more of him which makes me feel cheated because I've only just learned his name.