absnow54

I swear, in one of the early previews, Otto Hightower (or someone similar to him) argued that while Rhaenyra had been named heir, that was before the king had three legitimate sons, but that scene hasn't happened yet on the show. It's weird that they haven't mentioned or shown him, if they plan to include him. He should have at least been in episode 6, after the big time jump, when they were all in the Red Keep.

I think Aegon is fine, but Aemond definitely seems to be pushing 30, while the Velaryon boys still look like teenagers.

To add to the list of naming grievances. Lucerys and Viserys on paper look very different, yet seem to be pronounced the same. Also, if someone told me that Aemond was played by Matt Smith wearing an eyepatch, I would believe them without question. I wish the actor were also named Matt, so we could call him Matt Aemond.

They had a same-sex kiss at the end of Rise of Skywalker between one of the pilots and a medic, but it was a blink and you miss it moment.

I liked this episode better than last week, but it doesn't feel like there was much, if any progression. They probably could have combined episode 4 and 5 into a single 1 hour episode without losing much. I also miss the flashbacks to flesh out Cassian's past as we get to know present Cassian better. I did enjoy Cassian's arc this episode, but it still felt like a rehash of him integrating with the rebels last week. On the Mon Mothma front, not only does she have a suspicious husband, but she has a rebellious daughter who hates her. At least she has a fabulous kitchen. I'm confused though. Did the dinner party happen or not?

I actually see it the other way around. I think Daemon has always been in love with Rhaenyra, and even Laena pointed out in the last episode that he had never fully committed to their marriage, because he was in love with someone else. What isn't clear to me is whether Rhaenyra actually loves him. She's clearly attracted to him, but I think her intentions are more rooted in securing the crown by any means necessary, and I think she's most interested in his willingness to do the dirty work for her.

I think it's an important distinction that they're making on purpose. With Laenor, he can easily be viewed as a consort to the Queen, but Daemon had the strongest claim to the throne before the Green Targs were born. She is distinguishing him as her Prince Consort, so that it's clear that he's not a co-ruler (ala William and Mary.)

I think it's less about family duty, and more about getting in on the action. The Laenor we've been presented with wants to leave boring court life so he can fight in the Stepstones. And he never seemed more alive than when he was riding Seasmoke during Daemon's fake surrender. So it feels like the opportunity for a good battle mixed with his loyalty to Rhaenyra could potentially draw him back to Westeros.

Yes, I feel like Laenor's end was their way of subverting the "bury your gays" trope, a criticism they're trying to avoid, but given what's to come, it's hard to remove Laenor from the narrative completely, without him dying off screen. The character we've been presented with doesn't seem to be the type who would shrug and say "not my problem" at his mother and "sons" dying for Rhaenyra's cause.

Yeah, Rhaenyra is pretty spoiled and has basically gotten everything she's ever wanted, but so far, her "bucking" against the system has mostly been against misogynistic ideas. Like a man can legitimize his bastards, so who cares who fathered Rhaenyra's children so long as she declares them her heir. I did sympathize with Alicent this episode, even though she was pretty batshit in her actions. Viserys obviously doesn't give a shit about her and their children, he seemed really put off by having to defend Aemond, when he was so obviously Team Cousin Squad. Side note, I know we're in the wrong century, but for a moment, I thought the mysterious man in the cape that had boarded the rowboat was Gendry, hired to whisk Qarl away, since he's such an experienced rower.

I wonder if they'll drop the Addam character, and have Laenor return on Seasmoke to take his place in the story.

His granddaughters are already Targaryen by name, because they are Daemon's daughters. Rhaenyra mentioned that Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, and in episode 2, Daemon declared he was going to take multiple wives, but Viserys wouldn't have it, so I wonder what the legalities of it are. It seemed like Rhaneyra's reasoning was that Leanor could live, and they could still legally marry, but they knew multiple husbands were frowned upon, so they're keeping the two husbands thing a secret.

Rhaenyra also grew like 8 inches, she was nearly the same height as him. They should have put Milly in heels.

To be fair, wasn't it implied in the book that Daemon was responsible for Harwin Strong's death? So his kill count was already evened out before we got to Laenor. I am curious to see if Laenor comes back for the Dance. He seems to thrive in battle, and was itching to get back into the action last episode. He also seemed remiss for not protecting his sons in this episode, so I have a hard time believing he could sit the war out. Speaking of which, I couldn't have cared less about the Velaryon boys in the book, but Jace has really grown on me.

This is what bothers me about all the Hightower kids looking 100% Targaryen. Rhaenyra's kids look all Strong, and Daemon's kids look all Velaryon. Yet, Alicent, with no Targaryen blood that we're aware of, only has silver blond babies.

And on top of that, Aemond was a guest in their family home. It's not like Vhagar was chilling in the Dragon Pit. There was no urgency for Rhaena to claim Vhagar, because Vhagar followed them to Driftmark. What Aemond did was not honorable, but I've been watching this series long enough to know that doesn't matter in the long run. Leana and Leanor are half Targaryen. Their mother Rhaenys is Daemon's cousin, so it's not unheard of for the Velayreon genes to strongly dominate. Honestly, I'm disappointed in Daemon for not catching onto Aemond's intentions right away and spoiling his dragon poaching. Perhaps he has a fondness for second sons succeeding. Or, he was just distracted by other... things.

I hate these night vision episodes. It wasn’t as bad as the darkest night, but still, will someone light some damn candles?

I think they only got “no contest” pleas out of robberies with security footage, and by the time they negotiated the plea deal for the guy who stole Paris Hilton’s safe, their case had been compromised by the officer who decided to consult for the movie.

He needs to stop getting steady work! There's no way he'd show up for more than a cameo, he just doesn't seem invested in this franchise at all, like most of the other child actors who were involved. Even Kenan, who has had equivalent (or possibly greater) success, shows up to some of the reunions!

I think this was the meat of it. His peer group was being aged up, and Bechtel no longer could pass as a contemporary. They chem tested him with Eden McCoy a few times before the recast, and he came off as an annoying little brother. They tried to hold onto Brooke Rae Silzer's Emma for as long as possible too, but her acting never quite grew with the role. I'm still shocked he hasn't jumped ship yet. He's quite talented. I'm surprised the CW/FreeForm/Netflix didn't poach him during pilot season.

From the show timelines I've seen, he's supposed to be 13 or 14. Episode 3 was his 2nd name day, and since then 11 years + some months have passed. The actor playing him is 20 though.

I'm too old to be watching this, and completely fueled by nostalgia. I was surprised that they didn't cut Emilio Estevez completely from the recap. They seemed to be editing around him, and then he was featured prominently in the last 20 seconds, so maybe they haven't burned that bridge entirely. It was fun to see the bash brothers together again, even though Aaron Lohr seemed to be confused as to why he was there. Elden Hensen is obviously maintaining good relations with Disney in hopes of getting the Daredevil call. Otherwise, it was fine. Did they mention what happened to Lauren and Logan? Although, it keeps within the Mighty Ducks tradition of players disappearing and never being spoken of again. I still miss you Jesse Hall!

I'm excited for all of these between PT/OT explorations, because I always liked the contrast of the aesthetic. The OT was very lived in, which made sense for a rebellion that was working with what it had, while the PT was so sleek and modern (with a lot of digital garbage added in so that TOO much was going on.) It was fun to see Coruscant with luxury speeders and Mon Mothma's crazy expensive apartment. I can't believe this show has made it 4 episodes without going to a desert planet! This must be a new record for the franchise! I feel like the pacing is off. I don't know, I didn't get any sense of suspense at the ending, it just felt like they had a chart for how long each episode should be, and hacked off at the scene closest to that mark. There were 4 or 5 story threads in this episode and they all felt incomplete. We had Andor meeting a whole new set of characters (I panicked when they ran through the introductions, and everybody's names were just random sounds. HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO REMEMBER THAT?), you have the Imperial officer who is starting to pull the thread of a coordinated effort, you have Syril getting fired and going home, you have Luthen's double life, and then you have Mon Mothma's unfortunate dinner party. I'd rather they focus on fewer storylines at a time, so that I could get the full plot in one episode, instead of spreading 5 over 3 episodes that are released 3 weeks apart. It worked for the first batch of episodes because you could watch them all back to back. Keep Andor as the A-plot each week and then weave in a B and maybe C plot. Otherwise, I might just wait every 3 weeks, so that I can watch a cohesive 2.5 hour story block.

I think Haelana has a dragon too. They made it seem like Aemond was the only one who didn't have one. It's odd that they haven't leaned into the power of dragons though. The Targaryen's have power because they have dragons. No one challenges their position because of it. Yet, Viserys has spent his entire reign without a dragon.

Not to say he wasn't still a bland love interest, but he was great in Obvious Child. I've been rooting for him since he was in that bland Joanna Garcia sitcom, and was really worried about his career when he did a Netflix Christmas movie a few years ago.