AshleyN

Pfft, it's already been done lol

Rhaenyra had been sitting on the Small Council for years at that point, and had been attending meetings for years prior to that as Viserys' cupbearer. She was also Princess of Dragonstone, which aside from being a title used to denote the heir, if I'm not mistaken also made her ruler there the way that Starks ruled Winterfell or the Tullys ruled Riverrun. I'm not sure who, among Team Rhaenyra at least, would have more experience than her at that point? But again, I think this is one of the spots where the show's need to barrel through plot really hurt it. We don't know how Viserys came to that decision. Did he even consider anyone other than Otto? Did he just not have the energy to argue when Alicent brought it up? Did Rhaenyra push back at all (especially since she was the one who got him to fire Otto in the first place)? Maybe she felt like she was already on thin ice with the whole paternity drama and didn't want to rock the boat more? We're basically just left to guess, which kind of sucks given how major the consequences of that decision were.

One thing I found kind of interesting in this episode was the contrast between the ending, with Luke and Aemond struggling to control their dragons, with the scene where Daemon threatens the kingsguard, which was not the first time they've shown Daemon and Caraxes almost seeming to share one mind. Throw in the scene with him singing to Vermithor, and the one with him personally spelunking for dragon's eggs and they seem to be showing him to have the strongest connection to the dragons in general. Given that they seem to be setting him and Aemond up to be more or less the chief badasses of their respective factions, I wonder if that will play a part in any future confrontation - Aemond/Vhagar have the size advantage, but Daemon and Caraxes have the stronger bond. Or maybe they just wanted that cool shot of the two of them together in the foreground and background.🤷‍♀️ Agreed. Of all of the mistakes Viserys made in the series, I think this is easily the biggest. The whole reason that he fired Otto in the first place was because he knew he wanted to supplant Rhaenyra as heir so why bring him back and give him another opportunity to do just that? Honestly, he should have just named Rhaenyra herself Hand IMO. Not only would it have given the Hightowers less opportunity to take control in King's Landing, it would have given Rhaenyra more experience in the day-to-day running of the kingdom and, given that part of the Hand's job is to rule in the King's stead, it would have been a chance for people to get used to being governed by a woman. It also would have made HER, as both the named heir and the Hand, the natural person to become the de facto regent once Viserys got too sick to rule. Yeah, I find the dynamic between Daemon and Rhaenyra pretty fascinating, and I think they do genuinely love each other, but their relationship has always been weird and twisted even by Targaryan stardards. I can't imagine it will end in anything but tragedy. Re: the wedding - at the time I took that as her just calling his bluff, but yeah, as time goes on I'm leaning toward her actually meaning it lol. Then there was the scene in the brothel where, while he definitely had other motivations too, I think Daemon expected her to be shocked and freaked out, only to get freaked out himself when it turned out she was totally into it. Daemon is nuts, but they've always shown Rhaenyra to have his number and see through him better than anyone else, probably because she can be just as nuts herself, at least when it comes to him. One thing that's been kind of bugging me with all this talk about "the realm" not accepting Rhaenyra, is that without the complicity of Alicent and her kids, there really isn't anything "the realm" could do about it. This isn't like Robert's Rebellion, where you just pick the guy with the closest ties to the royal family to be the figurehead of the rebellion you were launching anyway - the presence of dragons make the politics here completely different. You need dragons, and dragonriders, to mount any real challenge, otherwise the only thing any rebellious Lord would likely get for their efforts would be a King Harren Special that I'm sure Daemon would be only too happy to dish out. And given that last episode showed that Aegon, despite being raised by his mother to think of himself as the future king, had no desire for the role whatsoever and would most likely never have made a play for the throne on his own, the claim that war was inevitable seems a bit more dubious.

The Targ family tree ones are killing me, especially "Daemon is his own nephew-in-law" lol. Here's someone actually trying to map it out:

Just finished up on this season and while generally quite liked it, I'm really hoping that next season can slow down the plot a bit and focus more on the characters. As it was, I found it hard to really care much about anyone outside of the central Targ trio of Rhaenyra/Daemon/Viserys*. I especially hope that we're done with the time jumps, because while I get why they did them, I do think they cost us a lot of really interesting character work. In particular, I really hate that we didn't get to see anyone's reaction to Daemon and Rhaenyra's elopement, especially the Hightower's (given that Daemon is much more formidable potential opponent than Laenor) and Viserys (given his love/hate relationship with Daemon, his love/frustration relationship with Rhaenyra, and his reaction the last time Daemon tried to marry her). *Except for Ser Criston I guess, but that's more about me desperately wanting him to get eaten by a dragon. I also hope, assuming the time jumps are gone, that we can get to spend more time with characters outside of the main ones. One of Game of Thrones' biggest strengths was it's fantastic cast of supporting and side characters, which this show is really lacking right now.* I really hope they find their own Davos/Hound/Bronn/Brienne/etc., not only because it makes for a richer world, but also to lighten the mood amongst this cast of otherwise ultra-serious characters. *One of the more jarring points of the season for me was the whole storyline with Harwin Strong in episode 6. Here's this guy that our protagonist apparently cared about enough to risk it all having a decade-long affair and 3 very obviously illegitimate children with, and who's murder should have been a big deal. Only it barely resonated because we'd only had like 3 scenes with him in the whole show. Also, regarding all the talk about Rhaenyra not doing anything to secure the throne for herself, that ties in with what was probably my single biggest issue with this season, which is the writer's apparent determination to portray her and Alicent as innocent bystanders while the men plunge the realm into war. I don't know if they were trying to make them more sympathetic, or to say something about gender, but I think making them so passive ended up being a huge detriment to both of their characters, and mostly just served to make them look incompetent.

Just catching up on this show and my main thought after watching this episode was that Alicent would be a much more interesting character if they just let her be a villain. Or at least more villainous than she is now. As it is, it feels like they're trying so hard to make her sympathetic that the end result is that she just comes across as weak-willed, wishy-washy, and frankly, pretty stupid. And it's particularly baffling given that it seemed like her whole character arc up until this episode seemed to be laying the groundwork for her heel turn in a way that would make it, if not entirely justifiable, at least understandable, only to back off in the end. We know (from her conversation with Aegon in episode 6) that she's been straight up telling him for years that he's the future king, and her other kids just assume the same. Except it turns out, she's never given any thought to how to actually MAKE him king? She's also supposedly motivated by the thought that Rhaenyra being crowned would make her own sons to dangerous to be left alive, yet is shocked, SHOCKED, at the suggestion that the reverse is also true? I could understand if they had written this as her maybe having some regret or apprehension now that the time has come to go from planning to acting, but having her be so oblivious here feels like Sansa Stark Season 1 levels of political naivete, which just doesn't make any sense for a woman who's been Queen for what, 20 years at this point? I also really wish that Olivia Cooke had played her reaction to that last scene with Viserys' with at least a little ambiguity. Because a scenario where she hears what she wants to hear, and grabs ahold of any excuse to justify her actions (especially since Alicent is a character who is guided largely by her own sense of moral righteousness) makes a lot more sense than one where she apparently 100% sincerely believes that the man who has spent literally decades refusing to budge from his decision to make Rhaenyra heir despite a mountain of pressure to do so, and in his very last day on earth put himself through hell (and probably caused his own death) dragging his decrepit ass to the throne just to back her up one last time, changed his mind at the last minute based on nothing more than some doped-up incoherent ramblings. Again, it doesn't make her sympathetic, it just makes her look dumb. This is a really good point that I feel like people tend to overlook when they fall into the trap of listing off the pros and cons and individual actions of which characters are "better" than others*. It's also what makes it frustrating to me that these writers seem to have decided that the best way to make audiences sympathize with their two female leads is to make them passive bystanders to the machinations of men around them. Even with Rhaenyra, who I think generally is the more compelling character, the biggest criticism of her character (which I agree with) is that, despite the fact that she knows there are people who don't want her on the throne, she seemingly never took any action to secure her own succession. *Tbh, it takes me back to the unbearable Arya/Sansa stan battles, and all the discourse around why Arya was so much more popular (at least in the early seasons). I always felt like while they're was undoubtedly some sexism involved, people really underestimated how much of the difference in reception came from the fact that Arya, especially early on, was a far more active character than Sansa, which is generally going to make for a more engaging character.

Hmm, if that's the case, and the rumour is true that the positive test came from December instead of during these Games, maybe that's where the argument is coming from that she (and Russia) might not be stripped of this medal or that she would still be allowed to compete in the individual event? Since it says that there's no minimum period of ineligibility? But yeah, based on that wording, I can see why there's apparently a lot of legal wrangling going on behind the scenes. Either way, I would hope that whatever investigation WADA does would be looking closely at her coaches and trainers, since it seems almost certain they would have had to be involved, and most likely were the ones pushing it.

I had the same question actually, and after some quick Googling the answer seems to be that they have a specific way of paddling that allows them to stay straight while paddling on just one side.

Wow Damian Warner! All the decathletes and heptathletes celebrating together at the end was awesome.

Canada even comes 4th in 4th place finishes!

It actually seems fitting that the first post-Bolt Olympic 100m was kind of wild and unpredictable. This is the first time in a long time that gold has been up for grabs and everyone knows it, which I imagine leads to both a little extra motivation AND a little more pressure. Something similar happened in women's tennis when Serena Williams was no longer able to dominate the majors the way she had previously, and I wouldn't be surprised if you see it in the men's game when the Big 3 finally move on. De Grasse looked to have a rough start (I think he was dead last at one point) so kudos to him for pulling it together enough on the back half to win another medal and set a new PB!

Peaty's dominance in the breaststroke is such a weapon in the medley relays. Biggest reason they won the mixed medley, and almost enough to help Britain topple the US dynasty in the mens.

I tuned out for a few minutes there - is CBC having technical problems or something? Why are Scott Russell and Brittany MacLean calling the swimming from the studio?

I feel like it was Beijing? I also seem to remember talk about the pool itself being fast too, and combination led to what seemed to be a nonstop parade of world records at those Olympics.

Ha, I was actually talking about this race in particular! From what I had read beforehand the Americans and Kiwis were supposed to battle for the gold, while the Canadians were thought to be more in the mix for bronze.