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.)

x-posted @Pemba

I don't get why everyone is so stressed about the ickiness of Daemon and Rhaenyra shagging when young Aegon has literally just got engaged to his sister, who is an autistic child.

That doesn't offend me either in the context of the show and real life. Royal families did intermarry and still do to a lesser extent. In the case of ancient Egypt and other societies matches were very close indeed. If you were living at that time you'd think it normal and desirable. The writers can be forgiven for assuming that is general knowledge to most viewers. Daemon and Rhaenyra and Corlys's brother were given lines to try to explain it.

Many modern people think it is okay too. In Britain you can legally marry your cousin. That's probably okay in terms of genetics if it doesn't happen too often. But sadly for some communities and with no fault to most of the individuals and their children, still does.

Blonde, masturbating out of a window Aegon, Alicent's eldest? Engaged to his full sister Helaena?

I thought it was Rhaenyra's eldest son who was betrothed to her? As Rhaenyra had suggested (last episode?) Still incestuous of course but not quite so much lol.

Alicent said she would take Rhaenyra's proposal of a match between their children on board which I took as a hard no in spite of what soppy Viserys thought. I don't think she refused out of concerns for the gene pool though.

But it's true that news of Aegon's engagement to his sister came as another little surprise the writers dropped in without so much as a by-your-leave.

Those are all my objections too. The writer doesn't do the running reviews of the show though. That columnist is still sticking to the line that HOTD is great and ignoring the comments.

Didn't one of Alicent's boys say to the other regarding Helaena 'She is your future queen'?

I thought they were talking about when she is married to Rhaenyra's boy. But you mean then they are assuming Aegon will be king, which is surely treasonous as the king has named Rhaenyra and her off spring and is still insisting on this?

It was the episode before at the end of a meeting. Alicent said she'd take it under advisement and then pointed out that Rhaenyra's breasts were leaking

Didn't one of Alicent's boys say to the other regarding Helaena 'She is your future queen'?

I think he said "She's your betrothed" and the other said why don't you marry her then.

Alicent knows that Rhaenyra’s sons are bastards and since she has been making such a fuss about it, I think that would suggest that she wouldn’t want her daughter to marry them. Alicent’s father poisoned her mind.

True. I also think in that scene she had the upper hand and was enjoying making Rhaenyra squirm hence the breast milk comment.

Thanks for the clarification regarding Laenor's 'death'.

I keep shaking my head at Viserys' willful blindness when it comes to Rhaenarys' children. But I suppose he figures they are still his direct bloodline (for the crown) since they are his heir's children. Who their father is may be sort of irrelevant to him. Other than the threat of them being truly 'outed' rather than just gossiped/hinted about, but since he's an absolute monarch I suppose he figures he can contain any threat.

I'm waiting for Corlys and Rhaenys to start fomenting rebellion since their (well, Corlys') whole plan was to put his bloodline on the Iron Throne via Laenor. I feel sorry for Rhaenys, she seems to just want to forget the past and her lost crown and to live in peace with her children. Do we think they know that Laenor is alive?

As far as Daemon and Rhaenarys, I think they're two peas in a pod. Both are unscrupulous, selfish, and feel they should get what they want regardless of the cost to others. In this case, they want each other but not as much as each wants the Iron Throne. I think they're going to end up tearing each other to pieces over it.

Yeah I agree, if you don’t like the idea of incest in a fictional show then why are you watching ? Lol it’s not as if people don’t know what the Targaryens are famous for

These two latest episodes have been brilliant, I thought. I loved the way they showed how damaged the children are, growing up in such a fucked up family. And I loved the court showdown after the fight, that was basically a big extended family row, and the lining up of Daemon, Rhaenyra and the Velaryons vs the Hightowers.

For all of us who might like it if we could see what was going on there is this. "Tealight for a bet" Brilliant.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/04/like-it-was-lit-with-a-single-tea-light-for-a-bet-house-of-the-dragon-has-a-terrible-problem

I also had the subtitles on for my second viewing because they all bloody mumble. I feel bad about saying this because I don't have a distinguished speaking voice but it's kind of a thing when you're an actor or telling people where the emergency exits are.

I really enjoyed last night’s episode. Can’t say I’m looking forward to another episode of time jumping where I’ve no
idea who anyone is (it’s hard enough as it is in the gloom).

Mind you, coming back to the leaky breast milk takedown betwen Alicent and Rhaenerys I don't think most viewers male or female would have got it. Maybe one of the scriptwriters is a Mumsnetter.

It's not as bad as The Daily Mirror publishing a picture of a black man who was not Kwasi Kwarteng but I don't feel it was wrong of me not to recognise Laenor without his wig.

Why are Alicent etc referred to as “the greens”? When Rhaenyra was talking to Daemon in what I presume was high Valerian, I thought there had been a mistake on the subtitles but I’ve since seen team Alicent referred to as greens.

Because the lighthouse tower in Oldtown ( the Hightower seat) glows green when the banners are called for war.

Ah thank you ! 😊 I hadn’t connected this with the green dress explanation lol bit slow on the uptake here 😃

I actually found this episode less dark and mumbly, so maybe it was just the room I was in. It is hard to watch sometimes.

I really enjoyed the scene with Aemond and the dragon. I loved watching all the dragons flying around in the sky together.

If anyone is a The Last Kingdom fan, Ewan Mitchell will play Aemond next. He played Osferth, Alfred's bastard son the monk, in that. And Phia Saban who played the older Ælfwynn will play Halaena.

I actually like the little throw-away lines that mean a lot. I'm trying to work out what Larys' motives are. Is he in love with Alicent? Did he hate his family? Did he want to be Lord of Harrenhall? Does he really believe that being alone is better? I'm loving his character progression. I liked the moment when Vicerys called Alicent Aemma. Her face! It shows he is starting to mentally decline as well as physically decline.

Lastly, I think it was actually Daemon who killed the guy on the stairs. I was briefly confused by that. There is a lot of criticism (and rightly so) that gay characters tend to get killed off on TV shows.

Totally agree with the 'too dark' comments, I cannot watch it on our TV as it is too hard to figure out what is going on. So i end up watching it on an ipad as I can control the brightness better and can seem to focus on it more. Not sure that was the aim of show producers 🤔

I just watch in an iPad in bed so at least I can mostly see what's going on. I quite enjoyed the latest episode although things are moving very fast to the point I'm not really bothered what happens to any of them as I don't the characters well enough.

In GoT I was already really invested in the Stark kids by half way through series 1.