Cristofle

A cool episode for dragon fans, since we got a good look at Syrax, Seasmoke, Vermithor, Silverwing, and Vhagar all in one episode. Although Vermithor burning and eating a bunch of people was hard to watch :/ I was thinking one by one may have resulted in a lot less bloodshed, BUT, it may have also compelled them all to run for their lives the first time Vermithor burned someone alive. Also, the shot of Emma/Rhaenyra turning around with Vermithor behind her was epic. Interesting to see a bit of dragon personality emerge, as Vermithor (who is brutal and vicious) favored the man brave enough to stand there and yell in his face, while Silverwing took the pathetic-looking dude on the ground under her wing in a more maternal and cute way, heh. NGL, it perhaps was not the smartest idea, but I LOLed so hard at Ulf's "LOOK AT ME NOW BITCHES" victory ride over KL. Daemon has been shown to at least be capable of being pragmatic before, so it was nice to see a little of that emerge through the ego acid trip he's been on, grudgingly respecting lil Oscar Tully's move to verbally throw him under the bus because it was more effective than lavishing him with praise. Like others, I think Jace had a decent point in a sense, BUT, allowing his insecurity to display as bratty elitism wasn't the best look he's ever worn. And I don't know what he thinks Rhaenyra should do in this particular situation. They need more dragons to have a chance of being successful against Vhagar. Does he really expect her to get wiped out just to protect him from being seen as a bastard easily replaced by another bastard? And the end of the episode proved her point - Aemond furiously chased after Silverwing, but when he realized he'd be facing not just Silverwing, but also Vermithor, Syrax, and Seasmoke, he turned around immediately. Also, a good way to show how ultimately ineffective Aemond is as a leader - he's so unlikable and so bad at gaining allies that he ended up missing crucial information until it was too late, that Rhaenyra was finding riders for the riderless dragons. He did have the sense the Good Lord gave him not to face a whole bunch of dragons at once, though. LOL. Tom was WAY too effective in the scene where Aegon tries to get walk. ACCCK. I could barely watch. So now Alicent is going to wander through the woods? ...Okay.

I knew it was coming as a book reader - didn't make it any easier to watch :( RIP, Rhaenys, you went out like a badass. Also really interesting scene with her and Alyn - confirming she knows and likely HAS known who Alyn is (and presumably his brother as well). Eve did a fabulous job throughout the episode. Westerosi travel continues to be WTF. Took Rhaenyra 2.5 seconds to get TO Kings Landing, but apparently took 84 years to get back. Daemon's dreams are very interesting, especially as someone who has never really seemed to believe in things like prophecies and curses. Poor Ser Simon, though. LOL. Dealing with Daemon is handful enough, let alone delusional Daemon. Criston is T-H-E W-O-R-S-T. "Whore of Dragonstone." Every week, every second he's onscreen, I just want him to die. Aemond was definitely going to, erm, put Aegon out of his misery, heh. Not mad about it - Aegon is someone at least who has earned Aemond's wrath. NFTG Alicent is more interesting than hyper-religious Alicent.

It was really nice to see Milly! I had no idea, completely unspoiled about that. I was thinking "How is Daemon running into another Targaryen in Harrenhal?" until she turned around. I'm sure it says something about Daemon's psyche that Rhaenyra is so young in his mind, heh. As ever, Matt is the best - great little moment from him without saying a word. Rhaenyra is an idiot, WTF. I did kind of laugh when she was like "...I didn't start this well" when it FINALLY seemed to hit her what a bad idea this was. But then, Alicent was an idiot for assuming Viserys saying "Aegon" at the moment of death in a drug-induced stupor meant he had changed his mind. Man, I wanted Baela to set Criston on fire. THE WORST. Ewan did a good job when Aegon was humiliating Aemond, but the way Aemond responded was pretty typical of him. It's clear his biggest bully was not Jace or Luke, but Aegon, and he always takes that aggravation out on someone else. He hasn't learned better since he was a kid being cruel to a little girl who just lost her mother and had nothing to do with the kid prank - this time he took it out on a woman who we have only seen be kind to him.

The absolute WORST, I am still pissed off. I am reaching wanting him to die on Joffrey and Ramsey levels.

I thought going into this show that it would be Otto I hate the most, but no, it's definitely Cole. The absolute epitome of failing up and blaming everyone else for his fuck-ups, and he got the twins killed over an absolutely moronic fucking idea, all to hide that it was HIS fault Helaena was not sufficiently protected. I'm just waiting for him to die at this point. And the last scene with Alicent made me uncomfortable. That said, while Otto was correct in his assessment of Aegon, this is pretty much entirely his fault, lol. He was so determined to get his blood on the throne, and as it turns out, his blood is a petulant little monster who is terrible at pretty much everything he does. I saw him get that in the moment, that everything he's done has led to the absolute worst option being on the throne. Oof. Daemon. I don't know exactly what he said to Blood and Cheese, but this is still certainly much more his fault than he's acknowledging. And he often can read other peoples' weaknesses well, but he can't read his own accurately. Viserys didn't fear that Daemon was better than him - as Rhaenyra said, he didn't trust him. Thank God the little boy's body didn't fall out of the casket, that was freaking me out the entire scene :/ I felt terrible for Helaena, being put on display like that. Nice scene between Jace and Baela. Two people who actually seem to like each other. LOL. Parts of this episode were really hard for my mom (who has not read the book) to understand, especially newer characters. And she probably should have rewatched S1 before S2, lol - for the more casual viewers, I think two years really is too long, and it's not doing them any favors.

Also, Rhaenyra didn't order Daemon to kill Vaemond, he did it on his own (granted, Vaemond must have known he was essentially committing suicide, but still). I get some of them, but it's happening a LOT, that characters are not making some of their most wretched book decisions and instead are basically stumbling into these situations. I mostly want to understand how the fuck (show)Cole still has a JOB, lol. First he kills a nobleman in the middle of a wedding, just hauls off and beats him to death. Then he falls down on the job when he had the night's watch the same night the kids get into a brawl and Aemond loses an eye. And now it seems likely the guards were super sparse the night the king's heir is murdered is because he sent them away so he could get some action.

I think Daemon may make Aemond more personal going forward, but I'm not sure he put that much value in killing Aemond himself in this episode. I think he would have been perfectly fine with Blood and Cheese killing him and explicitly told them to do it, only seeming to give alternate instructions if they couldn't find Aemond. I don't think Daemon currently thinks much about Aemond himself, only Vhagar.

I agree that Emma and Tom Glynn Carney were the standouts this episode. Emma for delivering so much when they literally only spoke one line. And for all the fuss of Aemond being like a mini Daemon, I'd say Tom comes much closer than Ewan having the kind of charisma that Matt Smith does. Still hate Aegon though, he's a serial rapist, fuck him. I will never root for Team Green as long as he is on the throne. YAY STARKS! As a member of Team Stark Forever. We need some Starks in this pit of vipers. I liked Cregan, and enjoyed that he had Ice. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but the Helaena actress did a lot with what she was given - I especially felt for her when she was whispering "Please, please, please" as she rushed out of the room. And honestly, how does Criston keep his position with his never-ending string of epic fuck-ups. How is he going to explain how few guards were on that floor, presumably so he could fuck Alicent in peace? It'll be interesting to see how Daemon and Aemond separately react. It's unclear if this was what Daemon intended to happen and his reaction will be telling on that front, especially privately. Aemond thus far has shown no indication of regretting what happened with Luke, at least in this episode, he more seems annoyed whenever someone brings it up (I don't know if that's an actor limitation or purposeful), but he started the chain reaction that resulted in his nephew and heir to the throne getting beheaded. He's not directly responsible, the men should have waited to find him and NOT KILLED AN INNOCENT CHILD, but Aemond SHOULD still have some regrets.

That's the most common age I've seen, but I've also seen 20 (no way, lol) and 29. I think the actor is fairly private, hence some facts being unclear.

I don't think so. I don't think the intention of Daemon is to be a 100% villain - the writers and the actor have consistently said that he does love his family, just not necessarily in a healthy way that allows for good relationships, lol. I don't think this spec has any basis in the show thus far.

That's a consistent aspect to Daemon. He doesn't seem to give a damn about anything "mystical" - he (correctly) dismissed outright the notion that Harwin and Lyonel were killed by a curse, as opposed to murdered by a real live person. And here, he doesn't care about prophecies. He cares about what is actually happening in the moment. I respect that, actually. I don't respect his reaction to Rhaenyra, but I could respect him saying "Fuck prophecies, if we don't act now, Otto will kill all of us, including the kids."

While I don't think Daemon would have consented to remain nonviolent (although now I'm guessing he won't have to - I think the death of Luke has completely changed the game where Rhaenyra is concerned and I doubt she'll still be arguing restraint at the beginning of next season), I honestly haven't gotten the impression he's trying to take the throne from Rhaenyra or Jace. That just hasn't really shown in his actions. He wasn't angry because he felt so entitled to the throne now - he was angry because he realized his brother had never trusted him and never would have left him the heir no matter what he did or didn't do. Daemon loved Viserys in his own weird, Daemon-like way, so this felt like a more personal betrayal to him and he snapped. Which is not GOOD, lol, as I've said before - Daemon is not a heroic figure. But he is somewhat complicated, and for the time being I think he intends to help Rhaenyra take the throne, not take it for himself. I just think he believes that violence is the only way that it should be done, and he likely had no intention of relying primarily on diplomacy.

I think the idea is that they were basically being bred and born smaller. I mean, who knows exactly, they're dragons, lol, but that was the gist of it, that it didn't really matter where they went once hatched - they were just getting smaller, based on the general treatment of them and attempt to contain and control them. There are a lot of fan theories - maybe the maesters were doing something to them, maybe the dragons require a certain kind of special blood to get bigger, etc. But they were definitely getting smaller and smaller. Arrax was very small compared to Syrax when Rhaenyra was Luke's age.

Yep. As Dany said in the OG show, the dragonpit was the beginning of the end, because the dragons kept getting smaller. Syrax is smaller than Caraxes, Arrax is smaller than Syrax.

Well, it is degrees, and Aemond is now significantly worse off in terms of degrees. No one would be an amazing ruler, but Rhaenyra spent most of the episode tamping down her shock and her grief and her rage to try and hold the realm together while Aemond, as it was mentioned above, could not restrain himself long enough to just wait for anything but this absolutely terrible opportunity. Despite the fact that he was written in the previous episode to be studious and observant and more "together" than Aegon. He feels he's more worthy of the throne than Aegon. But his carelessness and inability to see that this was not the time to settle an old score with Luke highlights that he's arguably more catastrophically careless than his brother is. I don't think Rhaenyra would necessarily be a good ruler, to be clear. She's spent too many episodes seeming unable to prepare herself to rule. Even her response to Viserys' death showed how ill-prepared she was - it's devastating to lose your last parent, particularly given that she and Viserys genuinely loved each other, but he was clearly extremely close to death the last time she saw him and the Greens have been preparing to steal the throne from under her for years - this shouldn't have been THAT much of a shock. Daemon was pissed off and irrational about Viserys' death, but clearly had thought through what he would do if the Greens pulled a stunt like this. That Rhaenyra apparently did not is...yikes. But again, it's degrees. This will likely change with the death of her son, but she's currently looking several degrees less awful than either of her half-brothers. Right now, the options for the Greens in terms of who sits the throne are several degrees worse than the options for the Blacks, in terms of who wouldn't gut the realm for their own satisfaction.