RobertDeSneero

I see it as a compromise. Elrond will not lie to his king, who seems to know the answer anyways, but he won't break his promise, so he's pleading the Fifth.

I think it's pretty clear that she had no desire to see them killed and was appalled at what Larys did. Now that it's done, it's clear she has few allies and has to accept her flawed options.

Since Cameron's grandparents mentioned Nifheim, I wonder if they are creature of Norse mythology and....not human? Looks like we're going to see a bunch of people converging in the tunnels next episode and hijinks will ensue. Maybe the Crocks will probably find a reason to go there.

I consider Alicent to be the most likable adult who survives to the end of this episode. She's struggling with the cognitive dissonance of believing that honor and decency will win out in the end but living in a world created by GRRM. She's naïve enough to not predict that Larys would kill his own father and brother on her behalf and to be horrified when told that it happened. Rhaenyra sounded like she was being forced by daddy V to make her offer to Alicent. And Alicent is having none of it, although she was polite enough to say it would be considered rather than outright saying no. I don't think Alicent would say no if Jace actually looked like Laenor's kid or if he at least had the Targaryan hair so there was plausible deniability. The incel crowd was up in arms about black Velaryons, but I think the racial casting has made this plot point better. Everything Ser Criston said about Rhaenyra is true. Some think he sounds jealous. I think he sounds like a recovering alcoholic who blames Rhaenyra for the equivalent of inducing him to fall off the wagon, leading him to do regrettable things that he's ashamed of, and now he hates her for ruining his life. My head canon is that everyone (except Laenor) hated Joffrey and are glad to see him dead, so no one is greatly bothered to see his killer still around. Daemon is indecisive. He didn't know what to say or do on the Stepstones until his brother sent word that help was on the way. He didn't quite know what to do with his paralyzed wife until she pointed out his inability to finish. He couldn't make a decision about Laena so she had to take it upon herself to commit suicide by dragon. He is most able to act out of emotion or impulse, without consideration of the consquences.

A thought occurred to me. Are any of the incels complaining about black Velaryons also going to complain that we are not getting the "plump" Rhaenyra from the book? A fat queen would be in keeping with the vision of the book, if we care about the purity of the text. Is there any way to do it in the show?

I'm pretty sure we're supposed to believe that those who don't want her to be heir have some justification in believing she wouldn't be a good queen and it's not simply misogyny. It's no spoiler to the genre-savvy about where this story is going and it feels like they're going to tell a story where both sides have a point. I think she's being portrayed as a principled person who would never do that. She's spent the entire time jump looking over her shoulder and fearing plots and somehow still comes across as a reasonable person.

Updating the material to cater to 21st century socio-political opinions makes the show more watchable for me. In episode 3, Halbrand tries to get a job and holds up some coins while offering to buy a round.

Daemon is the impulsive sort who is not much into planning. Yes, he has schemes, but they are not often well thought out. He probably stormed out of King's Landing when ordered to leave and didn't have a firm idea of what he was going to do in the Vale until he got there. He probably had a lot of thoughts on the way there, some murderous. Maybe he thought that his anger was enough to sustain an erection to produce heirs of his own. Maybe he was going to walk off his anger and Rhea encountered him while he was still at the height of his rage. I think it's better for the show if his motives remained ambiguous rather than telling us whether he went there with the premediated intent to kill.

Given that Dany turning out to be evil was something that was already being speculated about, I don't think it was out of nowhere. To bring it back to the current show, without going into spoilers, I can say that the book is written as a history surveying opposing views from biased sources, so there's a lot of wiggle room for how the show can go and who gets portrayed as more or less sympathetic. I feel like the show could be manipulating us to want to see Rhaenyra as the heroine of this tale--the rightful heir to the throne defending a claim against would-be usurpers is a standard fantasy fiction storyline--and she could end up being that heroine or be cast as a villainess or, this being the GOT universe, could be somewhere in-between, she could be an amoral political force of nature that does both good and bad things. Will the audience feel betrayed if we have another show where a female lead portrayed as being a strong woman with heroic potential ends up being the bad guy who does unforgivable things? Regardless, based on this episode, I lean towards Team Alicent. I see Rhaenyra as someone who has the potential to be just as bad of a ruler as Daemon would be.

Numenor did not turn their backs on the Valar, but rather had turned away from friendship with the elves. The vision of the palantir was a hidden sign that the island was on the wrong path. The tears of the gods were a more visible sign. What Galadriel discovered was two-fold: that the mark of Sauron that the orcs were following was a map that pointed them to the Southlands and that the plan of the ancient enemy Morgoth in the event of his defeat was for Sauron to create a realm of evil there.

Nothing magical about it. He was checking out Ser Criston, noticed the expression on his face (marvelously described as c--t-struck), and noticed who Criston was watching.

Sir Criston seemed like he felt the creepy Knight of Kisses was either trying to blackmail him or hitting on him. Is gay panic defense valid in Westeros? The thing about GOT was it was designed to make the audience root for someone (Daenarys) with the intention of hurting them by having them turn out to be awful in the end. I really do think the point of the books and show was to do that emotional rug-pull and I marvel at the beauty of it. Maybe this show can do the opposite and have characters who start out doing awful things but have you end up rooting for them.

When is the incel army going to attack because yet another beloved white character from the original source material was portrayed by a black actor?

I think V thinks D would be a bad influence on R. He knows D would be as king on his own. He expects D to try to dominate a relationship with R. He doesn't want D anywhere near the throne for the good of the kingdom.

I think her character is being built towards the tension of whether she has the mad queen potential of Daenaerys (just like Daemon is shown to have the mad king potential of Aeris). Is her uneven temperament because of her youth or because she has it within her to go nuts? This being the GOT universe, we know that she's going to have plenty of provocations to go completely crazy if she is inclined to, because the ocean of tragedy pounds wave upon wave on everyone's shore in this world. Is she the heroine of this tale? Will she go overboard and be a complete villain who does the unforgivable in the eyes of the audience? Will she be somewhere in-between where she does some icky things to have detractors but does enough things to have her supporters as well? Will some part of the audience want her to be the heroine and turn on the show if she ends up being quite the opposite?

Remember when Wong wouldn't say no to a tuna melt and had the equivalent of a buck fifty in his pocket? I'm sure Wong grabs whatever freebies he can to take back to the non-materialistic Kamar-Taj. He's probably borrowing someone else's account to binge-stream the Sopranos.

If you look at who her father said she's marrying, it's probably not going to be the hair color that will be the first tip off that her husband might not be the daddy.

I finally figured out why I dislike Daemon: he has this slight sort of Elon Musk look and feel about him and I effing hate that guy. I mean, Daemon is a great character, but I want him to be the bad guy so I can root against him. He's pure id, a hedonist at heart. He's teaching his niece that she has the power to take what she wants and she's so clearly been lusting after Sir Criston based on past episodes. (I thought they were going to do it after killing that boar.). Daemon is teaching Rhaenyra how to be a bad queen and she's not even accepting the useful bits like acknowledging how the common folk think. That tea was just a cold way for Viserys to tell his daughter she's a liar....which she is. I guess Mysaria is the White Worm. Is she working for Otto or just working for whoever pays her or was there a plan to leak information to Otto so that he goes to the king and gets discredited by doing so?

This episode sets up three questions. Who hired the Gambler's old gang? Who set up the cameras? Who killed the Gambler? If I were writing the show, these questions would have different answers. The gang is the obvious first lead to investigate. The suggestion that the Crocks were setting up an audition for Artemis seems reasonable. Maybe they even own the location where the gang was acting so they were robbing from themselves and not committing a real crime. Wrapping that up would perhaps lead to discovery of the cameras and maybe we find out more about skullheaded Mister Bones. And of course, whoever set up the cameras has footage of all the people who visited the Gambler and maybe had arguments with him before he discovers the camera, so those are leads to be investigated. The Shade and Pat are likely candidates. There are two other questions. Why was the Gambler killed? Find out who and you likely find out why. Where is Becky Sharpe? I think that might be related to why and it might not be any of the villains allegedly trying to reform who are behind everything. Or Starman. I guess that's the sixth question. What's the deal with Starman? Maybe he is the real thing brought back to life, not by the staff but by something more nefarious. I'd like for the answer to be magic, to be explored in season 4, because that means we get a season 4. We heard a growl when the Gambler reached for the camera and the trailer was smashed. We're probably going to find out next episode that Grundy's body is gone and he's going to be a suspect, as well. How can Hourman defend Grundy and not be willing to give Shiv and Artemis a chance?

How are these rules applied to spoilers from the Game of Thrones TV show, such as the fate of one character being described in season 3 episode 4?

His problem is that Rhaenyra is so much like her uncle--headstrong, impetuous, and temperamental--that, like Daemon, she is unsuited to be a ruler. If I were the writer, this is the direction I would go in, showing that her cause is just while also showing that she shouldn't be queen, an implicit criticism of monarchic succession. I think Viserys knows this on some level, but he won't admit to naming his daughter his heir being a mistake, unless she does something to provoke him the way Daemon did by joking about the "heir for a day". I fear we are in for a long series about unlikeable people fighting over the throne. Imagine Game of Thrones, but with no Starks to be sympathetic towards. If your most likable claimants are Cersei and Stannis, with every other option worse, who do you root for?

It took three years because Daemon's strategy was "I haz dragons" and the Crabfeeder's strategy was "I can hide in the caves whenever you bring your dragons out". Daemon can handle a problem where brute force gets the job done, but he's unsuited to be king because he is incapable of strategy and nuance.

Dragon showing up as obviously planned this episode is not a lazy plot device. When the dragon shows up, the Crabfeeder's people go hide in the caves. The goal here was to use Daimon to draw them out of the caves far enough and long enough to use the dragon on them. The question was whether Daimon could survive long enough for the dragon to do its thing. Dragons are such an overpowered weapon that the show has to work to create credible threats from people who don't have dragons against people who do have dragons in direct military combat.

I'm going to go the other way and say that I initially thought Laena was older than 14 until she said her mother said she wouldn't have to be bedded until she was 14. I just thought she was short.

I got the sense that they were anti-American leftists who would do things like infiltrate a legitimate peaceful protest group like Black Lives Matter and try to turn them into riots. They were believed to be funded by Russia, which has been known to support disruptive elements in an attempt to cause chaos in American politics. She seems to be what is described as a "tankie", a hardcore pro-Soviet communist of the sort who would find the leftmost edge of the Democratic Party insufficiently radical. (I say this having known a few who fit that description.)